Search:

SIYE Time:10:37 on 28th March 2024
SIYE Login: no


Paintball Wizard
By cackling stump

- Text Size +

Category: Alternate Universe
Characters:All
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Romance, Tragedy
Warnings: Death
Story is Complete
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 319
Summary: The life of a typical American teenager (okay, maybe not so typical) is shaken by tragedy. Then he discovers a new world awaiting him, filled with new people, new struggles, and, perhaps, new love.
Hitcount: Story Total: 256017; Chapter Total: 4978
Awards: View Trophy Room






ChapterPrinter
StoryPrinter


Excitable Boy

The next week, Remus and Tonks had made arrangements again for Harry and Ginny to leave the castle. “First,” said Remus with a smile, “we are going to the Ministry so you can take your Apparation tests.”

Harry returned Remus’ smile, but he could feel Ginny’s sadness through their Bond. He turned, grabbed her hand, and asked, “What’s wrong, Ginny?”

Her face down, she replied, “I’m only sixteen. You can’t get your Apparation license until you’re seventeen.”

Remus continued to smile. “It’s a good thing, then, that the Headmaster pulled a few strings. You have Ginny literally jumped for joy and hugged Remus. “Thank you! Thank you!”

Remus chuckled. “It’s not me you should be thanking; it’s Dumbledore.”

Ginny released Remus, a little embarrassed. “I will make sure to thank him next time I see him.”

The quartet used the Floo in Professor McGonagall’s office to travel to the Ministry. When they arrived in the Atrium, Ginny was brushing the soot off of herself when she looked up and saw a familiar face. “Daddy!” She ran over to him and gave him a hug. “What are you doing here?” she asked. “It’s Saturday; you normally don’t work on the weekends.”

“Professor Dumbledore asked me to meet you here,” he said with a smile on his face. “While he did arrange for you to take your Apparation test today, the Department insisted that you have parental permission. So, I have to sign some papers before you take the test.”

Ginny hugged him again. “I’m so glad you did. I know I just saw you a few weeks ago when Harry was in the hospital wing, but I was asleep most of that.” A mischievous grin came on her face as she slapped her father’s arm. “As a matter of fact, Harry’s spent more time with you this term than I have.”

“How about if after you take you test, I treat all of you to lunch at the Leaky Cauldron?” he asked as he put his arm around his daughter.

“That would be wonderful,” replied Ginny immediately, but then her smile disappeared. She turned back to Remus and Tonks, asking, “Is that okay? Do we have time? I don’t know what you have planned after this.”

Tonks replied, “We have plenty of time. Lunch sounds great, especially if someone else is paying,” she said with a wink.

“That’s decided, then,” said Ginny, putting her arm through her father’s. “Let’s get this over with,” she said leading him toward the lifts.

Harry and Ginny had no difficulties with the Apparation test, and soon they both had their licenses. They enjoyed an early lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, where Ginny was able to catch her father up on the events at Hogwarts, including more detail about the attack at Hogsmeade. Arthur blanched when she told him about fighting Voldemort, and again when he learned of Harry’s severely fractured arm. “You really need to do a better job of avoiding injury, Harry. I will not have my son-in-law constantly worrying my daughter,” he teased.

“I will try, Arthur, but trouble just seems to find me,” Harry said with a shrug.

When Ginny was done with the summary, Remus said, “I thought you two would like to know that Sirius is living in his old family home at Grimmauld Place in London.”

Harry and Ginny both gasped and looked back and forth between Remus and Mr Weasley. “But, Remus …” said Harry.

Remus chuckled. “Arthur already knows all about it. Both he and Molly have been visiting Sirius and helping him get his house in order. Your mum has taken on the task of fattening him up after all those years in Azkaban. I don’t think I have ever seen Sirius so full! Dumbledore has placed a Fidelis Charm over the house, so that only he and the re-established Order of the Phoenix can enter, so he should be safe there.”

“That’s good to know, Remus,” said Harry. “Thanks for the update. Make sure to say hello to him from us, but warn him not to eat too much of Molly’s cooking. I wouldn’t want the vet to have to put Padfoot on a diet,” he said with a chuckle. “Believe me, I know the risk with all of the food she insisted I eat when I was there over Christmas,” he continued, eliciting a laugh from all those at the table.

After lunch, Arthur bid them all farewell, promising to hug Molly for Ginny, and used the Floo to travel to the Burrow. The other four Apparated to a glen that was surrounded by trees as far as the eye could see.

“So, what are we doing here?” asked Ginny.

“We thought that you needed to practice controlling your combined magic more. As you know, some spells vary in their intensity, depending on how much power you put behind it. Expulso is one example, and one of the easiest to see the difference in strength because of its destructive force. It also is one you are adept at, as we saw the hole in the alley in Hogsmeade that you created when you were battling the Death Eaters. We thought that this forest would be a perfect place to practice, because it is going to be destroyed soon anyway. We learned that the Muggles are planning on cutting down all these trees to create a subdivision of homes in the next few weeks, so, if a few trees are turned into match sticks, which will only help them.

“Now, I want you to hold hands and concentrate on your magic as each of you cast the spell towards those trees. Try to notice how it feels as the spell leaves your wand.”

Ginny and Harry did as instructed, each exploding several trees in the process.

“Good. Now, try to hold back some, putting less effort into the spell.”

As they practiced, Ginny gradually developed a feel for controlling the strength of the spell. At the lowest strength she would just chop a piece out of the trunk. But Harry was still struggling.

“Remus, could I try it wandlessly? Sometimes, doing magic without my wand seems more natural.”

“Sure. Ginny obviously has a lot more experience with using a wand than you do; maybe you will be able to sense your magic more easily without your wand.”

Harry did this and found that he could control things much better without his wand. He was able to dial down the strength of the spell to just cause a small branch to snap. He then tried again with his wand and, after getting the feel for his magic wandlessly, he was able to control things better with his wand.

“Good, Harry. It is good that you can now do this with your wand; Dumbledore would like to keep your wandless abilities as secret as possible, even though Malfoy should know about them and may have passed that information on to Voldemort.”

“Can I try it wandlessly, too?” asked Ginny. “I’ve never tried to do magic without my wand, but if Harry can do it, maybe I can too.”

“Great idea, Ginny,” said Tonks. “Wandless magic can generally only be done by strong witches and wizards, and, with your combined magic, you certainly qualify.”

Ginny tried several times, but just became frustrated at her inability to do wandless magic. Harry could sense this through their Bond (although it was obvious to Remus and Tonks too), and tried to send soothing emotions to her. “Ginny, let’s try something. I am going to wandlessly Summon that branch over there. Then, I am going to try to send everything I felt and thought through our Bond.” When Harry did this, Ginny could feel exactly what he was doing, and, when she tried, she was able to Summon a branch toward her wandlessly as well.

“I did it!” she exclaimed as she hugged Harry.

“I knew you could. Now, concentrate on doing the same thing with Expulso.” After a little more work, Ginny started becoming almost as proficient at wandless magic as Harry. They continued to practice until Ginny’s stomach gave a noisy growl. “Excuse me,” she said with a blush.

Remus looked down at his watch. “Bugger, it’s later than I thought. I guess it’s time for dinner. Dumbledore said I could take you two out tonight as long as I had you back before eight. Any thoughts on where to go?”

“How about that Chinese place in Soho you like so much?” suggested Tonks.

Harry laughed at Tonks’ comment, but everyone else just stared at him. When he recovered, he asked, “Remus, you gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein?” with a chuckle. The other three just looked at him with confused looks, before he explained, “It’s a Muggle thing.” Reverting the subject back, he said, “Chinese sounds great to me.”

“I’ve never had Chinese food before, but I’m willing to try,” said Ginny.

The two couples Apparated to the Leaky Cauldron and then ventured out into Muggle London. As they were leaving, Ginny grabbed Tonks by the arm and said, “Tonks, your hair!” which was her favourite bright pink.

“Don’t worry, Ginny, where we’re going, my hair will fit right in.” They hailed a cab to take them to the restaurant, and Ginny, who had never spent much time in Muggle London, had her eyes glued out the window, looking at all the sights. After they stepped out of the cab and were walking to the restaurant, they passed a tall man in his early twenties who had bright blue Mohawk and multiple facial piercings, including what looked like a large safety pin going through his nose. Tonks nudged Ginny, grinned, and whispered, “See, I told you I wouldn’t look strange here.”

“Does that hurt? What happens when he gets a cold?” asked Ginny, causing Tonks to laugh out loud.

“I’m sure it wasn’t comfortable going in, but I would guess he gets used to it. And it’s not permanent, just like earrings. He could take it out when he is sick.”

Inside the restaurant, Ginny continued to take everything in and tried not to stare at the differently dressed and coifed patrons. They ordered entirely too much food and ate family style so Ginny could try a variety of dishes. Harry tried to teach Ginny how to use chopsticks, but after several pieces of baby corn ended up on the floor and one ended up in the hair of a woman at the next table, she gave up and went back to using a fork. She enjoyed most of what she tried, but especially liked the spicier dishes, because they were so different from what she was used to.

“If you like spicy, I’ll have to take you to a Thai restaurant sometime,” said Harry. “Thai food is similar to Chinese in that a lot of it is stir-fried with meat, vegetables, and noodles or rice, but the flavours are different. One of my parents’ favourite restaurants was a Thai place near our home. If we can convince your parents to let me take you to America this summer, we can try it.”

After dinner, they returned to the Leaky Cauldron via cab. Just as they were about to go in the pub, Harry noticed that right next door was a record store. “Wait, you three, I’m going in here for a moment. Why don’t you go into the Cauldron and get a drink while you wait.” A few minutes later, Harry joined them in the pub, carrying a small bag and a smirk on his face.

“What’s up, Harry?” asked Tonks.

“Let’s go back to Hogwarts and I can show you.”

They used the Floo in the pub to travel to McGonagall’s office. As soon as they arrived, Harry pulled himself off the floor, thinking Drat! Still don’t have the hang of that yet. He told them to meet him in the Room of Requirement as he ran back to his dorm. When he returned, he was carrying his Walkman inside its case and the bag he had brought from London, with a smirk on his face. “What is so funny, Harry?” asked Tonks.

“You’ll see in a moment,” as he opened the jewel case he had bought at the record store and placed the disc in his player and let them listen to track 4 of Warren Zevon’s Excitable Boy, enjoying the laughs when they listened to the lyrics closely.

**********

March 15, 1998

Dear Aaron,

Congratulations on your baseball scholarship to Bowling Green! I am envious of your chance to continue to play baseball after high school. I would love to get out to a batting cage to swing at some balls, but I haven’t found one here in Britain, surprise, surprise.

In actuality, Harry had asked the Room of Requirement to make a batting cage a few times as a change to his usual fitness routine.

I know I told you in my last letter that I would probably stay here for at least one more year, but I wasn’t expecting such a great opportunity! One of my professors was so impressed with my seventh year project on electromagnetic shielding that he showed my rough draft to a university friend of his and they have offered me a position next year as a student/researcher at the British Ministry University. The position starts right after graduation here, so it looks like I won’t even be home for the summer. I hope to be able to get a little time off so I can visit. It’s a great opportunity, and it keeps me nearer to Ginny.

This opportunity had come about due to Professor Flitwick. After Brook and Hermione met with him in the fall concerning his theory about electromagnetic waves and magic, Brook had indeed shared his ideas in a paper that was submitted to the Department of Mysteries. The Unspeakables were impressed, and after his success with shielding his Walkman which confirmed his theories, asked Harry to work for them investigating these possibilities. They had arranged for him to study physics at Oxford part-time while working for the Department of Mysteries part-time as well. He wasn’t sure how professional Quidditch would fit with this, but Madam Hooch thought he might be able to do all three.

I hope the baseball season goes well; I know I will miss not being out on the diamond with you. Give me updates!

Brook

***********

Harry had been working with Neville for a few weeks and was puzzled. He struggled with spells more than the other seventh years, but, according to him, that had always been true. He had related one morning after a training session that his family had been concerned that he was a Squib until he was dropped out of a window and he bounced when he hit the ground. Neville told it with a chuckle, but Harry could tell that his family’s apprehensions still dogged him. While he had difficulty with spells, he took to physical training, especially the martial arts that Harry had learned from Tonks, very quickly and learned without trouble. Then one morning, Neville accidentally did some wandless magic and surprised both of them. “I’ve always assumed I wasn’t a strong enough wizard to do wandless magic, so I’ve never tried,” he said sheepishly. After that, the two worked on wandless magic, and found that Neville had a real knack for it.

One day, they were doing a combined magic and Muggle fighting duel and their wands both fell out of their hands when Neville tackled Harry from behind. They scrambled for their wands, Neville winning the race, and he was able to bind Harry. After he released Harry, Harry noted, “Nev, you have my wand and I have yours.”

“Oh, I do, don’t I. Here,” he said, handing Harry his wand. “I’m surprised it worked for me at all.”

This caused Harry to think, remembering Ollivander’s comments about finding the right wand, and he looked at Neville’s wand closer. He noticed that it seemed smoother than most wands, but had more scars and nicks as well. “What is your wand made of, Neville?”

“It’s acacia with unicorn tail. It was my dad’s and served him well until the end,” he said proudly.

That explains it, Harry thought. “Why didn’t you get your own wand before you came to Hogwarts?”

“Grandmum would always act funny when I suggested it. I think that my using his wand is sort of honouring him in her mind. Anytime I brought it up, she said that his wand was good enough for him and it’s good enough for me.”

“What would happen if you accidentally snapped your wand? Or even better, if I did?”

“What do you mean?”

“Neville, you had almost as good results when you used my wand instead of yours. And you are actually better at wandless magic than with a wand. I think that means that your wand is not matched to you. If your wand was snapped, then you’d have to get a new one, one that is attuned to your magic, and I think you would find magic so much easier. We’ve a Hogsmeade weekend coming up. You could purchase a new wand at Ollivander’s branch there.”

Neville paused a moment while he thought about what Harry said. “I don’t know if I could do that. I know my dad’s still alive, but this wand connects us. I couldn’t break it on purpose.”

“How about you just tell your Grandmum that I broke your wand while we were duelling, but keep it hidden in your trunk? Do you think that would work? Make sure you blame it all on me; I wouldn’t want you to have to take the heat for this.”

“I think you’re on to something, Harry. I think I may have to send an owl to my Grandmum a few days before our Hogsmeade trip and tell her I had an ‘accident’,” he said with a mischievous grin.

**********

A few days later, Ron and Harry were revising in the common room by themselves. Most of the rest of the house was still in class, including Ginny, and Hermione was with Professor Babbling translating The Bright Arts. While Harry was reading his Charms text, Ron was perusing the paintball book that Harry had given him for Christmas. Remus and Ron had been using some of the team strategies during DA meetings, and they were confident that it would give them an upper hand in any battles with Death Eaters, as most wizards were only trained to fight one-on-one duels. As he was reading, Ron was making notes on some parchment and occasionally would make a noise suggesting he liked some strategy he had found.

At one point, Ron looked up from his book. “Harry, I know you gave me this book for the strategies, not to teach me about paintball, but can you tell me more about the basics? Like what do paintball guns and the paintballs look like?”

Harry jumped up from his chair. “I can do better than that; I have both in my trunk. Let’s go up to our dorm and I can show you.”

They walked up the stairs and Harry dug into the bottom of his trunk, pulling out a small black case and a cylinder of brightly coloured balls. “I doubted that I would get a chance to use these, but I thought I would bring them anyway.” He set the case on his bed and opened it, revealing his paintball gun. “This is the gun. You put the paintballs up here in this container called the hopper. Then you just aim it, pull the trigger, and the paintball is shot out the front.” He pointed the gun at the door and then pulled the trigger. Unfortunately, Neville opened the door at that moment and the paintball hit him right in the chest.

“Ouch; what was that?” asked Neville as he rubbed his sternum.

Harry felt his face heat. “Sorry, Neville. I was just demonstrating to Ron the use of a paintball gun.”

“Well, that answers one of my questions. I wondered if it hurt the person who was hit,” said Ron.

“I guess it stings a little; I was more surprised at being assaulted as I came into the room,” said Neville, rubbing his chest some more.

“They can leave some pretty good welts, but most of the time you are just a little sore when you get hit,” explained Harry. As Neville came over, Harry muttered Scourgify as he waved his hand at Neville to clean up the paint.

“What is in the paintball? Is it really paint?” asked Ron as he rolled one in his hand.

“No, it isn’t real paint. Basically the shell is made of gelatine that breaks upon contact. The paint is actually a water soluble dye, sometimes with soap in it. It washes out easily with water in most cases, although it can stain really light coloured fabrics, like white.”

“Can I try shooting it?” asked Ron.

“Sure, just don’t aim it at anyone at first, because you could hurt someone’s eyes if you hit them in the face. For that reason, we always wear a mask when competing.”

Ron took the gun and aimed it at the curtains surrounding Dean’s bed and fired. The paintball hit the fabric and exploded, leaving a red splatter. “Wow, that’s wicked!” he said with a wide grin. He then handed the gun to Neville so he could try it.

“Why all the sudden interest, Ron?” asked Harry.

“Well, I was thinking as I was reading, and started wondering if these could be used as a weapon against the Death Eaters.”

“Well, it hurts a little, but I doubt that would slow them down much,” replied Harry.

“But what if, instead of paint, the balls were filled with a potion, say like a sleeping draught?” asked Ron.

Harry thought for a few seconds, following where Ron was going. “Ron, that’s an interesting idea.”

“But don’t you have to swallow most potions for them to work?” asked Neville.

Ron rubbed his chin. “True, but I know some people who could help us alter the potions to be effective upon contact.”

“Who?” asked Harry.

A grin reappeared on Ron’s face. “The twins. Even though they didn’t get good marks in Potions class, primarily due to the fact that they hated Snape, they are amazing with potions. Many of their products are based in potions. I’m sure if we showed them what we are thinking, they could come up with all sorts of options.”

“That sounds like it could work,” said Harry. “Wait, what about shield charms? Wouldn’t it be easy to just conjure a shield to block them?”

Neville answered this one. “Actually, Protego wouldn’t have any effect on them because it only blocks spells or magically charmed objects. Nonmagical objects fly right through the spell. That’s why a shield is no help against Muggle weapons, like firelegs.” Harry suppressed a chuckle at Neville’s mistake. “Here let me show you. Shoot me while I conjure a shield.”

Harry took the gun and aimed it at Neville’s leg after he had conjured a shield. As he predicted, the paint ball flew right through it without any problem. “I think you’re onto something, Ron. Do you think the twins are in their shop now? We could sneak out through the passage to Honeydukes and visit them this afternoon. We don’t have any classes for the rest of the day.”

“One of them most likely is. They normally alternate between their two shops. If not, we can just use their Floo and contact them.”

“Are coming with us, Neville?” asked Harry.

“No, I think I’ll stay here. I have that Defence essay to finish.”

“Alright,” said Harry. “See you later.”

Ron and Harry used the Invisibility Cloak to walk to the statue of Gunhilda on the third floor. Making sure that no one was around, Ron whispered, “Dissendium,” which opened the hidden passageway behind her hunched back. They then slid down to a dirt tunnel and walked through the twisting path to Honeydukes. Staying under the Cloak, they slipped out of the sweet shop and walked to Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. They found that George was indeed in the Hogsmeade branch, and he had Fred come up from Diagon Alley at Ron’s request. When they heard Ron’s idea, a twinkle appeared in their eyes and a mischievous grin grew on their faces.

“What do you think, Forge? Can we make work?”

“I think we can, Gred. Never would have guessed it, but our ickle Ronniekins might just have had his first brilliant idea.”

“Well, he was due for one.”

“Maybe he’s received some brains from Hermione during their snogging sessions.”

Harry lost his battle with his laughter and a small snort escaped his tightly closed mouth at this thought.

“And think of all the possibilities,” one of the twins continued. “Sleeping draughts.”

“Babbling potion so they couldn’t say their spells correctly.”

“Laughter potions that would have the same effect.”

“Rapid hair growing potions to block their view.”

“Dizzying draughts.”

“Numbing potions that would cause them to lose all feeling.”

They continued for several minutes without stopping, obviously overjoyed to be working on something and Harry felt like he had taken a dizzying draught just trying to follow their conversation. After leaving the twins to let them get to work on their new project, Harry and Ron slipped back to Hogwarts under the Invisibility Cloak.

When they returned to the common room, they discovered that Hermione had returned from Professor Babbling’s office and was on a sofa reading her Potions text, unaware of anyone else in the room. Ron plopped down next to her, surprising her out of her concentration. “Hey, love. How was your afternoon?” Ron asked as he kissed her on the cheek and put his arm around her shoulders.

“Frustrating,” she replied with a furrowed brow. “There was a section on Soul Bonds that discussed specific spells that only bonded couples could perform, but we couldn’t translate enough of it to make any sense. I thought I would come back and revise something easier,” lifting her Potions text.

“That’s easier?” asked Ron.

“Much. All it takes is memorization. No actual thinking. Where have you two been?”

“We snuck out to Hogsmeade to visit the twins,” replied Ron with a grin.

Hermione frowned. “What practical joke item could possibly be worth the points I should take and the detention that I should give the two of you for breaking the rules?”

“Hold off on punishments until you hear why we went. We didn’t go there to buy anything. We went because your boyfriend had a brilliant idea that we wanted to share with them,” said Harry.

Hermione raised her eyebrow sceptically. “I’ll be the judge of that.”

At that moment Ginny walked through the portrait and sat down in Harry’s lap and put an arm around his shoulders before pecking him on the cheek. “Did I hear correctly that my thick brother actually had a good idea?”

“Not good, but brilliant!” said Harry. “He came up with the idea of putting potions into paintballs to use as weapons against Death Eaters.”

Hermione’s face showed the concentration it always did when she was considering a new concept. “Hmmm. If you could make potions that would have effect on touching the skin, that could be very effective. Perhaps, sleeping or dizzying draughts,” she murmured under her breath, but loud enough for the other three to hear her. “And they wouldn’t necessarily be blocked by normal shields, like most spells and hexes would.” After another few seconds, her face changed from one of concentration to joy. “Ron, that is brilliant!” She grabbed Ron into a hug and started kissing him.

“While they are busy,” Ginny said, turning to Harry, “can you explain that to me? I know you’ve talked about paintball before and we’ve been using strategies from that book in DA, but I’ve never really understood it.”

Harry explained paintballs and paintball guns to Ginny, wishing he had another gun to demonstrate, but he had left his with the twins. Ginny was also impressed. “I guess my brother isn’t as thick as we thought.”

“Maybe Hermione is rubbing off on him. But he always has been good with strategy. Look at the way he plays Wizard chess.”

“True,” replied Ginny. “Perhaps we should leave them alone. Care to take a walk with me?” she said as she stood up, grabbing his hand. “There was a broom cupboard on the sixth floor I’ve been wanting to try out,” she said with a grin.

“I think I could be convinced to do a little exploring,” he replied as they walked through the portrait hole.

A/N: There is some controversy over whether shield spells could protect from non-magical projectiles or not. Both my beta Arnel and I could not find any definitive example in canon where a shield did block something non-magical, so I chose to assume they would not, since otherwise, this plot idea wouldn’t work.

Reviews 319
ChapterPrinter
StoryPrinter




../back
‘! Go To Top ‘!

Sink Into Your Eyes is hosted by Grey Media Internet Services. HARRY POTTER, characters, names and related characters are trademarks of Warner Bros. TM & © 2001-2006. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions on this site are those made by the owners. All stories(fanfiction) are owned by the author and are subject to copyright law under transformative use. Authors on this site take no compensation for their works. This site © 2003-2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Special thanks to: Aredhel, Kaz, Michelle, and Jeco for all the hard work on SIYE 1.0 and to Marta for the wonderful artwork.
Featured Artwork © 2003-2006 by Yethro.
Design and code © 2006 by SteveD3(AdminQ)
Additional coding © 2008 by melkior and Bear