Harry Potter: Don't touch

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The ground floor was clear. As the snake had surmised - if it could surmise, of course - Mad-Eye was on the second. Potter had to admit that if he was ever going to catch Moody off guard, it was definitely not going to be in this century. Harry had done everything perfectly, he had put on his invisibility cloak, he was breathing very quietly, not a single step creaked beneath his feet, and he was scrutinising every metre of the first floor. Somehow, however, Mad-Eye still attacked first. Harry caught a glimpse of the red flash and put up a magical shield to absorb the blow. Blocking the spell, Harry went on the attack, directing his spells at Moody's approximate location:

- Expelliarmus, Excuro! Petrificus Totalus! Tarantallegra!

- Hush, Potter, it was enough just to ward off the spell.

All spells were blocked with a single swing of Mad-Eye's wand, the second one removing his invisibility.

- But I did it, didn't I? I won, didn't I? - Harry asked hopefully.

- Well, you didn't win, but you did. But how did you know I'd be here tonight?

- Well... - If Harry told about the snakes now, he wouldn't be able to use that advantage to find Moody next time. - I just assumed...

- Yeah, and I came up the stairs in an invisibility cloak with a magic shield in front of me, and I didn't even leave a trace this time. Tell me about it!

- All right," Potter gave up quickly. - I sent the snake into the house to check for intruders.

- You can talk to snakes?

- Yes.

Harry felt that the secret he planned to take with him to his grave was already known by too many people.

- 'Basilisk, I take it you were the one who discovered-' Moody said.

It wasn't a question. This information meant something to him, except Potter didn't realise what.

- Potter, now listen to me carefully, this is important. Have you had any memory loss recently? Have you been drinking any special potions? Didn't do any strange things?

- No, nothing like that.

- Have you? Anything at all? No one told you about any of the things you did that you don't remember doing?

- That's right! I remember everything perfectly! Except for the potions thing... Professor Snape gave me a truth serum the other day. Could that have had an effect?

- Snape? Severus Snape, your potions teacher, gave you a truth serum?

- Yes, that's right. I was thinking it might be a good idea to stock up on some anti-poisoning amulets or a personal flask... You seem to be using it, so it's safe.

- I'll talk to him. I promise you he won't want to do it again. No, it couldn't have had an effect. Anyway, if anything like that happens, go straight to Dumbledore. The flask idea is excellent. I suggested it, but I'm glad you realised it was necessary. It's not a simple one, I've put a lot of protective spells on mine that are tailored to the wearer, I can make you one if you want. Amulets, if you find any, you can throw them away, they're useless, they're very easy to fool. To avoid being poisoned by food, you can either watch how it's made or take it from a common plate, but the latter is bad when everyone is going to be poisoned at once. Which way seems preferable to you?

Potter was saved from having to answer this question somehow by a loud rumble from below. Mad-Eye immediately raised his wand and went downstairs.

- It's Tonks," Harry tried to reassure him. - She was standing outside with me, only I went in first.

- What if it's not Nymphadora? What makes you think it's her.

- Well... It sounded like a coat rack had fallen on someone, and that sounds a lot like her, and besides, if someone had entered the house with evil intentions, they wouldn't have been there to reveal their location.

- What if the Death Eaters thought the same thing? Deciding to drop the hanger on purpose so everyone would think they were Tonks. You should always check first and only then relax! Or better yet, don't relax at all!

Harry sighed and headed off to follow Moody, who was quietly making his way up the corridor.

* * *

Throughout January, Hogwarts had been undergoing regular surveys and inspections. It had already been officially announced that the school was not closing, and that Minerva McGonagall would be the interim headmistress. Dumbledore had managed to come to an agreement with the Greengrasses and they had not made any claims against the school, they had taken their second daughter Astoria and moved her to Beauxbaton.

However, the Basilisk was never found, several groups of Aurors searched the school using a variety of search spells, but they never found anything. Harry didn't understand the Ministry's decision. He didn't understand why Hogwarts hadn't been closed, how people could be allowed into a huge castle where a basilisk, which had already killed one student, was prowling around. This question was answered to him by Tonks, who because of her profession was in the know:

- Your favourite professor Lockhart claimed he killed the basilisk, and Fudge happens to be a big fan of his books and believed his words despite the lack of evidence. So because of that... Well, you get my point. I haven't told my parents about the validity of Lockhart's words or they won't let you go to school, but if you're not sure about your knowledge of the snake language and can't hear the basilisk beforehand or want to stay for some other reason, then just tell me, okay?

Hogwarts was where Harry wanted to go, even despite the basilisk prowling about. He didn't believe Lockhart's words, no matter how much of a genius the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor was, after any battle there should be some traces left behind, well, or at least something. Potter was beginning to understand little by little why Dumbledore rated Gilderoy's abilities so low. It was possible, but only possible, that he was lying a little bit about his achievements, no, he had definitely done something, but, judging by his stories, he was a genius in all areas, and Harry didn't notice it.

The winter holidays lasted a month and a half, and in Potter's opinion, they ended very quickly. During that time, Harry had been having a very good time with Tonks - they had gone to the same underground magical dueling club together that they had been to about a year ago. Nymphadora's profession meant finding just such underground venues and bringing all the attendees and organisers to justice. But Tonks didn't give a damn about the duties of her profession: she had won four duels out of five and had somehow, by force, persuaded Potter not to try her hand at magical combat. Periodically, Nymphadora tried to annoy Harry by jokingly mocking him.

- Are you seriously still keeping a gift pen in your pocket? No, it's cool that you're so impressed with my gift, it's nice and all... But they're on sale for a couple of Knuts on every corner now, with all sorts of gags. And this obsession of yours is scary... Listen, did you ever get dropped as a kid? А! - Tonks looked at the scar and laughed. - Yeah, right...

Sometimes she tried to make fun of Moody. And Harry watched in horror, thinking about how quickly he would launch a stun spell at Nymphadora. But Mad-Eye was strangely tolerant of Tonks and didn't react in any way to the teasing. After a few such moments, Potter looked at Nymphadora with more respect - he would have been afraid to stick his head in the lion's mouth and mock him at the same time. But Tonks spent most of her free time at work, as forty-five days off were only for Hogwarts students, not Aurors.

But the most pleasant thing that had happened during the holidays was the change that had happened to Mad-Eye. He was impressed by Potter's desire to get his own flask and avoid possible poisoning, and he also remembered that Harry had been successfully deflecting his incredibly "unexpected" attacks lately. Anyway, Moody decided that it was safe to stop teaching Harry to fear his own shadow, and he took on more serious training. The new programme was incredibly useful and educational, and consisted of several items.

1) Mental tests.

These tests basically consisted of answering Moody's questions correctly. Correct answers were not easy to give, as Mad-Eye picked on every little thing.

- So, look. Situation: you return home to your wife and children, but as you approach your house, you notice that there is a black mark hanging over it. What's your action?

Harry answered incorrectly. The correct answer was not "covertly search the house for living relatives, putting on an invisibility cloak and protecting yourself with all available defence spells", but "burn your house to the ground with hellfire, as there is no living family there, but Death Eaters may well be there". However, Moody had also considered the option of summoning the entire Auror unit.

Or this:

- Tonks has announced that she will now serve You-Know-Who, and suggests you join her? Would you accept?

Remembering the question about the house, Harry assumed that in that case he should "burn Tonks herself to hell", but it turned out that he had to agree, learn as much as possible about the structure of the Dark Lord's organisation and only then attack Nymphadora, and Mad-Eye did not consider the option of "burning to hell" - Death Eaters should be taken alive if possible.

2) Psychological Tests.

Moody was destroying Harry's room and insulting him and his relatives with some pretty harsh words.

Potter's goal was to smile and abstract his emotions.

Here Harry did one hundred per cent, considering his childhood, destroying a room and insults is far from the worst thing that could happen to him. It's a good thing Moody didn't know about his phobias, or then he would have made some sort of torch man who set Potter on fire when shaking hands.3) Learning the proper use of spells.

- Everything you conjure is bullshit. You're the one who's just randomly throwing spells, which is not how you should do it. Look closely at the movements of the wand, - Moody raised his wand, waved it: up, down and forward. - Confundo!

A red flash shattered against the wall.

- And now look, - Moody repeated the same wand movements, but this time the forward movement was longer, - Conjunctivitus! Do you understand the logic?

- I guess so," Potter said, though he didn't really get the point.

The wand movements are almost identical, so what?

- You don't understand shit," Moody was not fooled. - For practically one movement of the wand you can launch two spells at once, and in fact there are many such examples, the problem is only in the pronunciation, if you verbally use spells, you just do not have time to say everything, but with non-verbal use... Anyway, look.

Moody made a big swing of his wand, and six multi-coloured beams hit the wall at once, one of which shattered the wall.

- Reparo! Do you get it now? Practise with Confundos and Conjunctivitus. Come on, try it!

4) Transfiguration.

- If you can turn nothing into a snake, you can turn a snake into a sword, come on!

5) Cunning. Really, this was more like sneakiness.

- No one is ever going to play fair, which means you need to break the rules faster than your opponent. If you want to spell someone, don't warn them about it, attack non-verbally while they're talking or you're responding. True, you'll need to learn non-verbal spells first, but regular verbal will do for now. You're playing Quidditch in the catcher's position, the position where it's easiest to break the rules. See an opposing Seeker flying towards the snitch, but no bludgers nearby? Take your bat and hit him in the head hard so he doesn't wake up, you'll get a penalty, but it will definitely be worth it.

6) Shields. The theory so far.

- There are about fifty types of different defence spells, but most of them are bullshit, and some of them are too rarely used. You only need to learn five defence spells for now. Pay close attention to the words.

7) Stunts.

- Sometimes you can win by using different tricks, like... WOT! - Moody's voice suddenly became so loud that Harry was stunned for a moment and released his wand, which Mad-Eye instantly took advantage of.

- Stupefy!

Harry lost consciousness.

- Enerwaite! It was a non-verbal powerful Sonorus, no one ever puts protection against sound, so your opponents will be taken by surprise by a sudden incredibly loud scream in the middle of a battle. They won't drop their wand like you did, but if you use a non-verbal stunner immediately after the shout, the chances of victory are very high.If it wasn't for the muffling spell, that scream would have deafened even Andromeda, who is currently sleeping on the ground floor.

* * *

It wasn't to say that Moody had completely stopped being paranoid - all sorts of mishaps happened, but they were rare. On the twenty-seventh of January, Harry sent the Elemental to Justin with a little birthday greeting. And on the twenty-eighth, the owl returned, carrying an envelope. But Potter was never able to find out its contents; Mad-Eye had stunned the owl on its flight, and the envelope had fallen somewhere in the middle of the pond. It turned out that Moody had decided that the owl was a Death Eaters in disguise. He said he always checked letters for dark curses, but one day a letter was brought in by an almost identical snow-white owl that actually turned out to be an animagus, a Death Eaters in disguise, who had also managed to get away.

In the end, Potter decided that he valued the Elemental more than his constant correspondence with Justin and Zhou, and so he would not send any more letters as long as Mad-Eye was around.

Near the end of January, Moody gave Potter a special flask. Harry decided to try it out at his next meal, which caused a small conflict with Ted and Andromeda. Ted raged the most - he had accepted the fact that Nymphadora had become an Auror and, thanks to Moody, always had a wand nearby, but twelve-year-old Harry Potter, who drank from his flask because he was afraid of poisoning, was the last straw for him. He had a rather loud argument first with Mad-Eye and then also with Tonks, who sided with her teacher. Then Andromeda got involved in the conflict, and the atmosphere in the house seriously deteriorated from that day on. No one took the flask away from Harry, but he didn't use it in the house anymore.

Potter had a wonderful holiday and on the first of February he even felt a little sad to return to Hogwarts.