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Chapter 34



Tell me what you see







"Everyone has their slingshot with them?"



"Yes," chorused the class, holding them up, grinning at her.



"This might have been a mistake," she muttered as she put three boxes on the table.



"And we've all been practicing." Dean Thomas twirled his slingshot around his finger.



"Right, Dean. Then you can be first. Come here." Anna crooked her finger at him.



As Dean sauntered up, she addressed the rest of the class, "I'll tell you right now, I lifted this from the Slytherins Dueling Society; hook, line and dragon." Turning, she conjured up the targeting board the Slytherins had devised for their spell practice. "TA-DA!"



"Whoa!" "That's wicked!" "Bloody Hell!" "The Slytherins thought of that?" "Cool!" "Blimey!"



"Yes, they did, and it's a good targeting board, you have to admit. Now, I have three kinds of ammo for you all to carry with you: hard, soft and wax. The hard are for serious attacks. Knocking things over, breaking things, hitting objects or people with the intent of doing harm; hitting HARD/. You better be in a lot of trouble to use one of these babies, because they /will cause damage...and injuries. Understood?"



The class nodded, suddenly silent. Anna spun around and fired off a shot at a hanging lantern at the other end of the Room of Requirement. It shattered, exploding into a million pieces, raining down to the floor.



" 'Reparo'."



The shards of glass and metal reversed themselves and re-assembled, and the lantern hung there, as if nothing had happened. The black rubber ball came rolling back to stop at the tip of Anna's boot.



"They've been charmed to return to you," she explained as she bent over and picked it up, showing it to the students. "Not with the same velocity that you launch them, obviously, but you'll not run out of ammo, let's put it that way."



"Cool," said Dean as he grabbed a few from the box. "Can I try?"



"Go ahead, and then I'll explain about the other two. Everyone will have a go, so be ready."



X # X # X



After half an hour, the students were seated again and the smoke was dispersing around the vicinity of the targeting board.



"Ok, ammo type two: soft, bouncy, good for a bit of noise in the dark, making sounds like someone walking, if bounced at the right speed, that sort of thing. This will be the hardest to learn to use properly. Speed is the controlling factor, not strength. Decoying is what this is all about. Watch. No, correction; close your eyes and listen. Think of what it sounds like."



The class sat stone still, straining their ears.



Bop...bop...bop...bop...bop...bop.



Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.



Duddudduddudduddudduddudduddudduddudduddudduddud.



Bang...bangbang...bang...bang...bangbang...bang.



"Well?" Anna was sitting on the table facing them as they opened their eyes. "Tell me what you heard."



Hermione's hand shot up.



"Yes, Hermione?"



"The first one sounded like someone's footsteps, maybe going down some stairs, just walking."



"Yes, that speed is especially good for letting the ball roll down a flight of stairs. Anyone get number two?"



Neville held up his hand.



"Ok, Neville, what did you think it was?"



"Someone sneaking around, tip-toeing."



"Good. A bit quicker, but lighter."



"I know the third one," Ron said, as he raised his hand.



"Ok, Ron."



"Sounded like my old rat Scabbers ,when he ran across a tile or stone floor. His nails clicking on the floor."



"Good. A small animal running. And the last?"



"Sounded like something or someone struggling inside a box."



"Correct. Fire one into a closet and close the door. It'll go for five minutes or until you open the door, whichever comes first. Let me show you how to achieve the different speeds and the arch of your shot to space the bounces."



X # X # X



Ok! As you can tell, this will take a LOT of practice. You will find your own rhythms and ways of shooting and bouncing and ricocheting as you go along.



"Now, the third kind of ammo: wax. Great for a variety of little things: stopping something from flapping in the breeze, making noise, when you need quiet. Window shutters and such. Jamming open a window or door. Holding something temporarily. But we'll get to that later. It's the first two I'm concerned with now. I'm having ammo belts made for each of you and they should be here within the week. Along with another piece of equipment I'm really excited about. Fred and George Weasley are helping with the manufacturing and will hand deliver them to us. Again, hopefully before next week.



"What is it?" "Come on, Anna, tell us." "Fred and George? Heaven help us!" "Tell us, please?"



"No, you'll just have to wait and see. Come on; let's get back to the classroom, time's nearly up for today."



X # X # X



"But, Professor, that's way beyond N.E.W.T.s level," Hermione remarked. "Are we allowed to do that advanced a charm?"



"Of course, if it's deemed necessary," Professor Flitwick assured her. "Besides which, this charm is not hard to learn to do at all. It's just not routinely taught, because of the possible misuse. It is taught only in Auror training, Miss Granger, point in fact. Imagine if even /one /of the Weasley twins had known this charm. It would have been chaos."



The entire class dissolved in laughter at the very thought.



"Well," he continued, after restoring order, "let's see how quickly you can learn the incantation. Usually you don't perform the Disillusionment Charm on yourself, but have someone disillusion you, so they can watch and be sure it was wholly successful. We'll work in pairs, then.



"But/, I would remind all of you, you /MUST keep the fact that you can do this charm in the strictest confidence, a TOTAL secret. If anyone who is not in the D.A., and I'm limiting this knowledge to the original D.A. members only, mind, finds out you can do this charm, then it's no use to us at all. Understood?"



The students were suddenly solemn. They nodded, as the seriousness of his words sank in.



"Yes, Profess Flitwick, we understand." Pavarti Patil answered for all of them. "We'll keep it in the D.A. We promise."



"Splendid!" Flitwick smiled at them. "Now, where was I...Ah, yes, the incantation."



X # X # X



"Ready?"



"Anytime you are, Anna."



"Right. Ok, gang, open your eyes and tell me what you see."



"Well, just you, Anna," answered Seamus, tilting his head. "But I could have sworn I heard..."



"Fred," Ron finished the thought for him, "or George. Where are you two?"



"Ah, that's the topic for the day, isn't it?" Anna smiled



Just then, Fred and George whipped off the invisibility capes they were wearing.



"Ta Da!"



The students came forward to greet their former school mates. Anna shooed them back to their seats after a few minutes of bedlam. She faced the group with a fairly serious look on her face.



"Now, if you think keeping it a secret about the Disillusionment Charm is important, wait until we show you /these/."



Anna, Fred and George each held up a pair of sunglasses.



"What the...Anna, you're putting us on," Seamus laughed.



"No, you're putting these on. Come here, Mister Finnigan."



Grinning, Seamus walked forward. Anna took a pair of glasses out of a box on her desk and held them out to him.



"Ok, Seamus, put them on and tell me what you see."



"The classroom; shaded, darker." He shrugged.



"Now, tap the right corner of the frame with you index finger."



"Whoa! What's this? Everything is glowing, kind of funny." He took them off and inspected them.



"I think you'll understand if I do this. Fred, would you mind disappearing for a bit." Anne took her wand and closed the shutters on the windows and extinguished all of the lamps and candles in the room. It was very dark, but enough ambient light was available for everyone to see her, George and Seamus standing in the front of the room. Fred had put his Invisibility cape back on.



"Now try them, and tell us if you can see everyone and everything."



"Wow. Yeah, but it's all green and grey. And I can't see Fred anywhere." Seamus turned slowly around, checking the entire classroom.



"These are night vision sunglasses. An oxymoron, I know, but that's what they are. Ok, now tap the left corner, Seamus," instructed Anna.



"Oh, wow! I can see everyone, but they are all rainbow colors. And there's Fred," added Seamus, pointing to the other side of the room."



"Heat sensor. You'll be able to spot someone from a lot further away. Night vision is ok, but not always reliable, especially is someone is hiding from you. With the heat sensor, you can distinguish a person's shape, even if they are using an Invisibility cape and are Disillusioned."



"We've combined modern Muggle technology with Magical control, all in a stylish package." George announced, as he pulled more sunglasses out of the box.



"Can we try?"



"Yes, everybody can come get a pair."



There was a mad rush to Anna's desk and soon all of the students were wearing their new shades; looking around, laughing and checking out how everything looked with each of the different settings and how they looked, themselves, in the mirror on the wall.



"Now," Anna called over the chatter, "I want you to line up and come forward to Fred, George or myself. We will permanently bond you with your sunglasses. That means only you will be able to make your glasses work in surveillance mode. To anyone else who puts them on, they're just a regular pair of sunglasses."



"How cool is that?' "Wicked!" "Oh, good idea, that." "Excellent!"



X # X # X



"Now," said Anna, facing the class, after they had gone back to their seats. "Do you see the method to my madness?"



They looked puzzled.



"Ok, here's the whole thing in a nut shell. You can now walk around, visually undetected, but able to see anyone and anything around you. No matter where you are, or what time of day or night it is, or whether there's any light or it's pitch black. Just don't trip over anything or knock anything over. That's our next lesson, learning to be quiet. 'Stealth and concealment, 101'."



The class sat there, open mouthed, as her words sank in. Then smiles started to spread across their faces.



"Oh, oh, Anna," said Fred.



"We know that look," added George.



"We've had it on our own faces..."



"too many times."



'The wheels are turning..."



"and that's not good."



"Right. Ok people, here's the deal. No-one does the Disillusionment charm outside of Flitwick's classroom until you are given permission. The sunglasses you are to keep out of sight for the time being. Nobody wears sunglasses around here until springtime, when the weather gets hotter, so keep them safe, somewhere, until needed. It that understood? Just as you keep your slingshots out of sight"



Their faces had fallen a little bit, but the class knew she was right. They had to hide this from everybody. They nodded.



"Ok, Anna, we get the point, and we agree. But it is fun, too," Harry said, donning his shades and looking over top of the lens at her.



"I agree, Harry, that these are fun," replied Fred, putting on a pair of the sunglasses. "Now, if George and I could only figure out a charm to make these glasses see through clothes."



"/FRED/!"



"/What/?"