Chapter 20: Naive
With the immediate financial issues solved and Snape toiling away at the potion that Gaude had asked for, he decided to get started on in-depth studies of ancient Runes. It seemed that Linda was quite knowledgeable on the topic and even seemed to know quite a bit about wards. As such, Gaude decided to learn from her as much as possible. Even if he did get a Hogwarts invite, he would study the subjects that he wouldn't be able to get a good tutor for, meaning that most likely, he might just be able to spend his school years taking a relaxing break from building a shadow government to steer the world onto a better path than his previous one.
Yet, there was still half an hour before the closing time, so Gaude decided to get a Daily Prophet and see if his nightly activities had made news in the wrong part of town – he had already read a few Muggle papers and found out that there was no mention of it.
Yet, the most notable headline was: 'Wizard believes wholeheartedly that he-who-shall-not-be-named has been defeated!
Yesterday afternoon, a wizard whose name shall not be mentioned for the protection of his person, arrived at the Ministry of magic, claiming to be an Auror. When he was questioned, he revealed that he was hired during the crisis that followed the fall of you-know-who in an all-out duel with the Leader of the Light on the London Bridge. He claims that the battle had devastated the surroundings to such a degree that temporary hires had been put to work to suppress the spreading of knowledge about magic in the Muggle community and track down the remaining Death Eaters.
The wizard has been admitted by St. Mungo's mental ward and is being cared for by professional mind healers.'
Gaude felt that something was a bit off about that wizard. He faintly remembered a few theories about such cases from his former world, and as such, he wanted to get his hands on that man – who knows, he might just discover something more about how this world works.
Once Gaude was done reading a few more articles that seemed somewhat interesting, he checked his watch once more. As the time was just right, Gaude entered the potions shop. Linda, having noticed Gaude standing outside, had already turned the door sign and was waiting for him.
"Hello, little Gaude, are you here for the next lesson?", she asked with a smile as warm as the late spring sun. She figured that Gaude had mostly gotten the newspaper for the moving pictures and gotten lost studying them as children often do. She didn't suspect once that he would have the attention span to actually read through multiple articles.
"Yeah, let's go!", Gaude said enthusiastically, with a seemingly innocent smile of his own. Their reasons to be smiling at each other were different in some respects, and the same in others, as they were both intending to make good use of each other while the exact manner of it was different.
Once again, they started with Linda showing Gaude various Rune Clusters and Gaude trying to copy them as well as apply them into a practical Rune Scheme. It seemed that Linda was quite intent in teaching Gaude how to create restrictive wards in the most part.
That didn't mean she didn't teach him the rune clusters necessary for defensive wards and alarm wards, of course, but there weren't any utility applications included in what she taught him, meaning that Gaude might just have to find another mentor if he wanted to study artificing in-depth.
However, everything that Linda taught Gaude, he somehow managed to naturally absorb the knowledge and make it his own. Whether she was just that good a teacher or his fledgling Occlumency skills that suitable for learning, Gaude wasn't sure.
Once Gaude had finished his second rune scheme for the day, resulting in a silencing array, Linda spoke: "You are such a good student, I have no doubt that your grandpa will be very proud of you, I am proud of you!"
"Yeah, I know!", Gaude responded, hoping to sound like a kid that's gotten a bit of a big head after his success.
"Do you know what would make both of us grown-ups even prouder of you?", Linda then asked.
"No, will you tell me?", Gaude replied with a question.
"Your grandpa and I would be very proud if you learned dueling.", Linda said with the sweetest smile she could manage, causing Gaude to feel a bit giddy despite himself.
"Okay, will you teach me?", Gaude asked. He wasn't sure about Linda's motives, but he knew that being self-taught in the art of dueling and learning from someone that had some experience in the area would be two different things. She might not be a world-class duelist, but Gaude had no doubt that she was better than himself, and if he managed to get in some sparring matches with her, he would no doubt develop faster than sparring against his elves that were only at the beginning of their training.
"Of course, I will, you're my favorite student! I think you would be too tired after the next rune scheme, so how about we get started right now?", Linda said, conveniently forgetting that Gaude was her only student.
"Alright, let's do it!", Gaude shouted out, quickly getting to his feet from a seated position.
"There's one other thing I have to ask you to do first.", Linda said with a serious expression.
"What is that?"
"You can't tell anyone that I'm teaching you dueling before you get really good at it, that way it will be a big surprise to your grandpa and you'll make him really happy, okay?"
"Okay!", Gaude shouted, while looking away, knowing full well that his facial expression might not be appropriate to the situation.
On the first day, Linda used a cushioning charm on a large portion of the floor and taught Gaude how to land from different positions and different heights to avoid harming his body in the process.
In the evening, Gaude sent a few disguised elves to St. Mungo's to look for that wizard, yet they soon informed him that the man had died due to being violently allergic to the Alihotsy-flavored fudge given to him by another patient. The man's body was supposedly already Vanished, as was the Ministry's directive. It wasn't specified if that directive was for that particular man's body or the general rule for any unclaimed corpses.
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It was the same on the second day, Gaude studied Ancient Runes until his magic reserves were nearly depleted and then he practiced landing once again. This pattern repeated each day for a week. In that time, Gaude managed to perfectly memorize five unique rune clusters and their most common uses.
Linda had reduced the power of the cushioning charm during each of the sessions until finally, she didn't apply it at all. Gaude had barely noticed a change at first, but on the last two days he realized that the ground had gotten quite a bit harder, yet he didn't complain, it seemed that they were starting to inch closer to the real thing.
A few days later.
Linda had a solemn face on as she spoke: "I think now that you've learned to not hurt yourself while landing, it's about time we get started with the real thing. Now, I will be starting with very weak stinging hexes so that you can get used to the feeling. I'll go slow at first, so try to predict where the attack will end up and avoid it. We can stop whenever you want to."
"Okay!", Gaude said enthusiastically. It looked like he was going to 'learn to dance', as some old mafia tropes would put it.
It turned out that Gaude was right – each time he was too slow, he was hit with a spell either on his leg or his back. Each time he started moving too early, he was hit on his arm, chest or stomach. While the delay between the spells was quite long, giving him enough time to rest and recover, he wasn't able to predict the trajectory at all. Even for the timing, he had to rely on Linda's chant, and she was only chanting to let Gaude know that he should expect a spell to be cast.
Gaude hissed quietly each time a hex hit him, but that was the only reaction she gave. He didn't complain, he didn't ask for a break, he just kept going, hoping that he would see some kind of a pattern, something that would let him predict an incoming attack with some manner of consistency. Yet, it never seemed to happen.
After an hour of dodging, Gaude was down on the floor, panting – regardless of getting plenty of time to recover between the strikes, his stamina was completely depleted, not to mention his body was covered with welts that made him want to get back up on his feet, but he just lacked the strength to do so. Now, Gaude had prided himself in having an abnormally well-developed body for his age, but suddenly, he had been faced with a reality check: he still had a very long way to go.
"I can't move anymore.", Gaude said in a weak voice.
"That's alright, you did very well!", Linda replied. "I've never seen anyone last so long on the first day.", she continued. Naturally, the only example was herself. She hadn't gone past ten minutes, it was only so much punishment a child could take, she had believed. Until now, that was. Linda didn't even want to think about the reason why Gaude was able to take that much punishment without any prior training.
"Come here and take off your shirt so I can fix you up, that way you'll be good as new when you go back home, wouldn't want your grandpa finding out and ruining the surprise, would we?", Linda spoke while rummaging through her handbag. She took out a bruise removal salve, something that was made by Gaude's Potioneers in the first place.
Gaude took off his shirt and revealed a body that looked like he had been whipped a few hundred times at least, except there were no open wounds. In other words, he looked like no five-year-old should look, his actual age notwithstanding.
Linda felt a jolt of regret squeezing her heart, but an instant later, she remembered how she and her former master had been humiliated and her master even killed in cold blood over a difference of opinions. She squeezed out some of the salve and started carefully applying it on Gaude's body.
As the pain left him, Gaude felt that being massaged by Linda's gentle hands was actually quite comfortable, and as such, he slowly fell asleep.
Once Linda was sure that all the welts on Gaude's body had melted down and any discoloration disappeared, she redressed the sleeping boy and spoke in a soft voice: "Berkel, please be so kind and return young master Gaude to his bedroom. He seems to have tired himself out more than usual today."
The next day, the practice of Ancient Runes ended a bit too soon in Gaude's opinion. He wasn't a masochist, he had a natural aversion to pain like any other child of his age.
"You have to look at my hand and wand, not the spell.", Linda instructed. Gaude tried following her advice, but he just didn't seem to have the eye for it. He was unable to tell when the spell would hit him and when it would just barely miss from the position of her wand alone.
Yet, once again, Gaude had been tired out. However, he had come prepared – he had Snape personally brew him a potion to recover stamina and one that would heal the injuries he would likely suffer from the inside. In addition, he had asked Snape brew a liquefied protein solution so that if his muscles needed rapid recovery, it would be possible, yet it turned out that designing a completely new potion from scratch wasn't something to be done overnight.
"Let's go again.", Gaude said, feeling the invigoration draught do its thing.
Naturally, Gaude could've used the throwing stars he liked to manipulate through telekinesis to deflect the spells, but he had decided to keep them a secret. Besides, the point of the current exercise was to improve his abilities, not to rely on something he had already mastered to a decent extent.
Each day, the delay between the spells became shorter, until Linda decided to stop chanting before casting the spell. After that, the delay remained the same, but Gaude was hit by a lot more hexes, sometimes even those that had been completely obvious just a day earlier.
Once again, Gaude increased his concentration on her wand, looking out for the slightest movement, and occasionally falling for a feint. However, Gaude did learn something from it – he memorized the exact wand movement of a stinging hex from the receiving end. That way, he was finally able to see through most feints, or that's what he told himself.
Three days later, Gaude still wasn't a whole lot better at dodging stinging hexes. He had consumed yet another dose of Invigoration Draught and a few other potions to get rid of his aches and pains. The moment Gaude was about to get up, Linda already pointed her wand at him, performing a few quick movements.
There was a flash of white light from her wand and Gaude rolled to the side, just a moment too late as he felt a pain as if he had been stung by a hive of bees permeate his left shoulder. It was quite obvious that Linda had increased the strength of the spells for the second round. It was as if she was trying to see how far she could push him.
He didn't let that small sting distract him as stopping would've meant getting hit by a lot more spells until he gave up, and Gaude wasn't the kind that would give up so easily. Instead, as his roll came to an end, he was already on all fours and bolted to his right, expecting another spell to be on the way.
"Very good, at least you're not just reacting anymore. There might be hope for you yet.", Linda commented, seeing Gaude's action, yet instead of giving him a break, she fired off two more spells in rapid succession towards the place Gaude would reach a fraction of a second later.
Gaude was seriously considering learning the Supersensory Charm, it had to be able to give him an edge in this training, right? Although, would be taking the easy way out, even just knowing how to cast it on himself would create a massive temptation and Gaude wasn't willing to allow it.
Another hour passed like that, until finally Linda spoke: "That's enough for today. You've already improved by leaps and bounds. Now, I know you're taking a potion to fix most of the damage, but it seems that it can't get rid of everything. Come here and let me take care of the rest."
As had become the norm, Gaude was once again lulled to sleep by Linda's gentle attention. She could be quite motherly if she wanted, yet, during the training sessions, she was completely merciless, as if there were two different people cohabiting inside her body.
The truth was, each time Gaude dodged a certain percentage of attacks, Linda had decreased the gap between the spells she cast, by the end of this training, a small dent had appeared in her magic reserves. Linda was extremely happy with that – she had truly stumbled upon an excellent seed. With proper nurturing from her, he would definitely become a force to be reckoned with.
Weekly Power Status
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