InsaneJournal

RP: Defense Training
Characters: Lily, Rune (NPC), Relic (Not even my NPC)
Time/Date: Afternoon, October 20, 2023
Location: Basement of Crescent Books
Warnings/Rating: None
Summary: Lily begins  her defense training
Status: Complete



Lily had told them about her adventure. Her near miss with the flower of death and doom that had looked so pretty and innocent on the table. They’d both expressed their concern, coupling it with further cautions to be careful. She, of course, already knew to be careful. She simply had to broaden her scope of what ‘careful’ entailed. It had escalated up to not touching things on the kitchen table if she hadn’t put them there herself. 

She really hated the sense of violation that she felt over the whole thing. She was supposed to be safe in Severus’ house (though he had added some wards, so theoretically, this wouldn’t happen again), and here she couldn’t even touch things that came by owl, because they  might be from her, or have been tainted by her. 

The thing that absolutely killed her was that it wasn’t even about her. It was about Severus; she was just a convenient target. His weak spot, such as it was.

Granted, it might be a little about her. She’d disembodied the Dark Lord once (inadvertently, but she had all the same), and her son has ultimately been responsible for his death. His supposed final death, until he’d come back. 

When she thought about that, Lily just felt amazingly tired. Granted, this time he was young, in school, and would be watched, but … still. He was here. He had people on the outside. He had her stalker, for all that. Though on the upswing, it might be enough to distract Bellatrix away from them, at least for a little bit. 

After her shift, Rune had hopped up and said they should get started on training. Lily had no real protest to this. Lily Luna was undergoing additional training as well, and she wondered if her granddaughter  had any idea how truly nasty this could get. Lily herself knew, and still nearly hadn’t been cautious enough. She might well have died, if not for Jeremy’s intervention, and she still felt bad about calling him names when all he’d been doing was trying to protect her. 

Shaking out of her thoughts, Lily followed Rune down to the cellar. Relic followed as well, though he stopped and leaned in the doorway, arms crossing over his chest as he watched the pair of them. 

Rune grinned before he winked to his brother. Nodding to Lily, he slipped out his wand and immediately cast a disarming spell toward her. Lily yelped and scowled as she chased after her wand. “You didn’t call ready,” she protested as she picked up her wand from where it had fallen. 

“You think Bellatrix is going to call ready?” Rune said as his brows arched slightly. 

Lily thought to protest that this was different, this was practice, but he had his point. She had to be more aware, had to know what was going on around her, and had to be able to react much more quickly than she was. It might not be war yet, but it had strong potential to become war. 

Emerald eyes hardened as she nodded, and attacked. He deflected it with a shield and sent a spell back at her. For the next forty-five minutes, the pair of them fought. The spells were kept light; nothing worse than bruising or disarming, but the idea was behind it. Shields, reaction time, reflexes. Ducking, twisting, dodging, always moving, always blocking, attacking when the chance was there. 

By the end of it, Lily was panting and sweating, but she was pleased to see that Rune was a little out of breath as well, not to mention sporting a few bruises in visible places. 

“It’s a start,” Rune said with a soft smile. “You might actually survive this time around,” he teased her lightly as he slipped his wand away. She was good; he had to admit that. A bit rusty, he could see that, but the base was there, solidly built. They just had to brush the rust off of her, get her back into fighting form, and she’d be fine. He was sure of it.