From the Shadows we Rise (only for Order Members)

Neville strode out onto the small clearing deep in the forbidden forest, his eyes scanning the area which they had been using as a training field since returning back to Hogwarts. The castle was not safe any longer and neither were the grounds immediately situated nearby, so they had snuck out into the forest and searched for the perfect place. The clearing with a river close-by seemed perfect and so they had decided to secure it for them. Therefore, Neville immediately started to set wards around the area which would prevent anyone who was not invited from entering and even noticing it.

Luna had arrived with the Gryffindor and helped him with the wards. It was good that they kept training for there would come the time when another battle would occur and then they had to be prepared. She was happy to see some of the younger students joining them as well and she explained slowly to Violet how she had to move her wand to erect a strong shield around the field they stood on. “Very good, now incant “Repello inimicum” and wave your wand like this.” She demonstrated the movement and then waited for the Slytherin to imitate her action.

“Alright … “ Violet bit her lip in concentration as she tried to copy Luna’s movements as well as possible and though the felt some magic rush through her wand, the glow it emitted was not of the same colour as the Ravenclaw’s had been, so she had to try again twice till she finally managed to set the ward correctly. That’s why she loved the training sessions so much. They didn’t just learn to duel, but also the little things like how to secure their camp or how to heal the wounded; things they would need to survive.

Sithon was standing on a large rock, overseeing the area to make sure no enemy was approaching while the others were setting wards to hide their activities. He didn’t really care for the whole training stuff, but his princess thought of it as very important and he could hardly let her go alone. Although the forest seemed to be safer than the castle, at the moment, it still held many dangers that could mean the end of anyone stupid enough to come unprepared. When he noticed someone approaching, Sithon jumped off the rock, rolled over the ground back into a stand and rushed through the woods to circle the person, leaping at them from behind to tackle them to the ground.

Nymphadora left detention, another  cut open and bleeding across her forhead. Cursing she made sure she was alone and began walking down to the meeting spot as she mopped up the blood on her face with a tissue. Entering the clearing she offered Neville and the others a lopsided grin "Wotcher"

Tatsu was running quickly along the hidden path towards their meeting point, having forgotten the time over hexing some of the Death Eaters in her house. They deserved nothing less and she would be damned if she just let them rule their school, their home, without a fight! Just as she was about to enter the clearing, something crashed into her and she fell to the ground with a groan. Feeling someone on top of her, Tatsu immediately reacted and slammed her knee into the offender’s stomach before rolling away from under him. She jumped back to her feet, her wand in hand and was ready to curse whoever had attacked her when she recognized the boy. “Boah, SITHON!” she roared, kicking out at him in anger.

Mio neared the clearing with Ian by his side, pulling out his wand as he heard a commotion not far from him, ready to jump into a fight if he had to. If they had been discovered by the Carrows or their little death eater servants, then they were in deep shit and would probably suffer greatly for trying to defy the Dark Lord’s orders. He shot his friend a glance and with a nod, he switched into his animagi form, silently moving through the forest till he reached the edge of the clearing where he had heard the noises. Mio leapt at the boy on the ground, pinning him into the mud with his large paws.

Ian was walking next to Mio on their way to the next training session when suddenly his friend stopped and turned his head as if he had heard something. Ian did the same and concentrated on his senses till he also heard a soft noise from somewhere close. His heart started speeding up at the thought of someone having found them out and he looked over to Mio. Sharing a knowing glance, they both turned into their animagus forms and ran towards the noise. He too, jumped towards the boy on the ground whom he recognized as a fellow order member. With a growl, he snapped his yaws at him before turning back into his human form. “Sithon, really! You can't attack our own people! What if someone is closeby and heard you two?" he sternly admonished the younger boy.

“Ups … “ Sithon quickly rolled away from her kick and grinned up at the Slytherin. “Forgive me, dear Tigress. I did not mean to anger you.” He gave back slyly, his green eyes sparkling mischievously. When a large leopard tackled him to the ground, he groaned as the air left his lungs with a whoosh.  He struggled underneath the large cat while a slim fox was growling at his face. At last, Mio let up and transfigured back, so Sithon could get up again, lowering his head at Ian and the other two. "I should have checked first.” He mumbled making Mio snort.

“Yes that would be a good idea.” He muttered before placing his hand on the younger boy’s shoulder to push him towards the clearing. “Hey guys!” he called out in greeting, noticing with a grin that Neville, Luna and Tonks were already present along with his sister. “Is Rachel coming as well, Vio?” he asked her as he got closer.

"Idiot!" Tatsu hissed and kicked at Sithon once more, but Ian quickly put his arms around her waist and lifted her up, carrying her towards the others that were already waiting on the clearing. "Hello, sorry for the fuss, but Sithon can't keep it together." she muttered when he placed her down again. When Sithon walked by, Tatsu quickly slapped him over the back of his head before walking over to Violet who just shook her head, chuckling at her friend. "I don't know ... haven't talked to her, yet." she replied to her brother with a frown. She and Rachel had been growing a bit distant lately and it worried her.

Neville had been watching Violet and Luna work for a while till Sithon started chasing off somewhere. With a frown, he followed the other Gryffindor with his eyes, placing his hand over the pocket that held his wand in case they were being attacked. After a few shouts, one of which he recognized to be Tatsu as she was the only one to roar like that when enraged, Neville just chuckled and shrugged it off. He smiled warmly at the new arrivals and nodded in greeting. “Hey Tonks! Hey Tatsu! Hey guys! Good of you to join us. Though next time, please be a bit quiet when you come here, alright? I think your shout was heard till Hogwarts, Tatsu.” He commented, glancing at Sithon and the Slytherin girl, though his expression was still easy-going. Neville did know how dangerous it was to practice out here and they couldn’t risk exposure.

Hermione jogged down the forest path dressed in yoga pants and a tank top her hair tied up tight. Checking her watch she saw the time and changed direction heading towards the path. Pulling her wand from her waist band she shot sparks calling attention to herself after slipping into the clearing. "Break it up, I heard you halfway to hogwarts, you dont want to kill usndo you?" the gryffindor ordered "lets get together and run drills. Now." She nodded to neville with a smile.

Tatsu rolled her eyes at Neville and when another Gryffindor joined them, she sarkastically saluted the girl. "Yes, Ma'am. As you say, ma'am." she drawled and smirked at her. "No harm was done, right, so chill, girl." Tatsu pulled out her wand and strolled in the middle of the field to where Neville had put up a dummy. "Defense or Attack first, Granger? What do you suggest? After all you have got more experience fighting these assholes than most of us." she raised her brow at the Gryffindor in challenge.

Hermione grinned rising to the challenge "Defense" she said lunging forward she sent a disarming spell at the girl, the nonverbal spell flying out.

She had been in the Hospital Wing for just over a week, and swore that she was already starting to go insane. The healer had already told her it would be at least another two weeks before she was allowed to leave. So, of course, Astoria had slipped out while the healer was in the office, grabbed her wand and pulled a cloak around herself. Her arm was in a sling, the bones still regrowing, and it was wrapped in special gauze. But she wanted to get out for a while, and also wanted to practice using her left arm for magic as it had been her dominant arm that was destroyed.

She was running a little later than usual, and when she finally slipped out into the clearing, she saw Hermione nonverbally throw out a disarming spell at one of the other Slytherins. "Did I miss much?" she asked nobody in particular, offering a small smile as she waited to see what they were going to be doing.

Lavender had decided that until he action actually started she would stay a short distance from her friends and allies. So, she'd seated herself on the ground toward the edge of the clearing, watching but not saying anything. The group was a mix of different houses and people and she wondered how many of them had ever expected to have ended up where they were. Even she hadn't thought of things ending up this way when she started her first year. When Hermione explained what they would be doing, she stood and moved closer to the group, pulling out her wand so that she was ready to begin.

Tatsus let out a bark of laughter when her challenge was accepted and quickly pointed her wand at the approaching spell. “Protego!” she called out, repelling the spell, then she jumped forward, rolling over the ground before coming back into a stand, her wand pointed at Hermione. “Stupefy!” she incanted, sending the red light flying towards the Gryffindor.

Seeing Astoria arrive as well, Ian quickly ran over to her side, smiling slightly at her. “Just the usual bantering between Sithon and Tatsu.” He told her with a wink before frowning a little at the Slytherin. He had been trying to get her up earlier so they could go to the practice together but had found her nowhere. “Everything alright with you?” he asked quietly, so the others would not overhear them.

Neville was happy to see so many other students join them, willing to spend their free time training hard for what was to come; the more, the better were their chances against Voldemort and his army of Death Eaters. He smiled back at Hermione and shook his head at Tatsu's offensive behaviour, but when the girls started dueling, he motioned for the other students to start as well. He turned towards Mio and cast a strong disarming charm as well. “You know the rules, people! Disarming, stunning and protection charms, and the odd little jinxes. Nothing harmful, we need all our strengths against Voldemort’s people.” He called out, his voice easily carrying across the clearing.

“Focus on taking down your opponent as quickly as possible, but make sure that they stay down otherwise, you won’t work efficiently in a battle.” Luna added, her soft voice a sharp contrast to Neville’s strong baritone, but still quite audible to everyone. “Stupefy!” she called out, pointing her wand at Lavender before sending a nonverbal “Incarcerous” at the Gryffindor as well.

“Ah, of course,” Astoria said, lightly rolling her eyes, “one would think we weren’t all on the same side sometimes.” She avoided his question for a moment, focusing more intently on the duel that had broken out. She knew, though, that no matter how skilled she’d become at covering up minor injuries, there was little one could do about hiding something that wasn’t even there to begin with. Allowing her cloak to fall to the side to show the gauzed stump where her right arm had been, she smirked and said, “just a little run in with some Slytherin’s. Nothing to worry about. The healer is overreacting, really. Two more bloody weeks in there, she thinks. I want to learn how to use my left side just as good.”

Ian snorted and nodded in agreement. "You quite right. Place them in the same room for a second and they are at each other's throats, place them against a group of Death Eaters, though, they'll work as the best team possible." he commented in a lighthearted voice, though he had noticed her evading his question. Just as he was about to probe her once more, the Slytherin revealed her maimed shoulder and Ian couldn't help but gasp and take a step back in shock. His beautiful Slytherin had been crippled! Fury rushed through him and his eyes narrowed in barely suppressed anger. Whoever did this to her would pay. "Who did this?" he cut through her ramblings, barely paying attention to what she said.

Lavender had been listening to Neville, and had she not been ready for it, she’d have been hit with the first spell cast from Luna’s wand. But she stepped to the side, and threw up a shield for the second, silent spell. It was a good technique, distract them with one and surprise them with another. “Hey Luna!” she called with a grin, before flicking her wand, “Colloshoo” She took a few diagonal steps toward the Ravenclaw, a silent Expelliarmus leaving her wand as she did so. They didn’t want to hurt each other, but they all knew that they couldn’t go easy when they were training. They’d be useless when it came to the real thing if she did.

Astoria grinned and said, “that they will. All of us will.” She watched as a few other duels started as well, and she pulled her wand from the pocket of her cloak, holding it a little unsteadily in her left hand which made it obvious that she wasn’t used to it. Glancing back at him, Astoria smiled again and brushed her the knuckles that were around her wand against his arm. “It’s alright,” she said softly, avoiding yet another question, “it’ll grow back. It’s just going to take a couple more weeks. They said it may never work quite the same again, so that’s why I snuck of out here. Aside from the fact that it starts to feel like the Hospital Wing itself is killing you after a while. Don't worry about it, yeah? I'll be able to fight again in no time.”

"Hello, Lavender, I hope you don't mind having me as a partner." Luna smiled warmly at the other girl, happy to see her evade both of her spells, but did not wait to be hit with one either, so she raised her wand in one smooth motion and cast a Protego to block the spell. Then she pointed her wand at a boulder behind Lavender and cast "Bombarda!" causing it to erupt and spit debris everywhere. Luna was still protected by her shield, but hopefully, Lavender would be distracted by it.