Times, and places were quickly arranged. Hot snacks were consumed, and The Leaky Cauldron was left behind. Leo had the concept of Floo travel explained. There was a grand fireplace in the entry hall at Purbeck Square. Leo noted it was there and that it was much bigger than was needed even in the bad old days before central heating. Floo travel explained it. Floo travellers would arrive just inside the front door and had to wait there before they were let into the rest of the house.
Harry took Leo through the process of getting Daphne a permit to use the 15 Purbeck Square secure floo connection. Then he pulled rank and got the permit processed straight away.
Daphne arrived in the entry hall at 4 the next afternoon. John’s mirror-phone gave an alarm and a message, and he hurried to the entry hall. “Ah! Miss Greengrass, Lord Pimlico is waiting for you in the library. This way, please.”
Daphne paused, “Wait a minute, who is Lord Pimlico? I was supposed to meet Leo Blake here.”
John gave a small smile. “That’s right, Mister Leo Blake is Viscount Pimlico and Baron Purbeck.”
Daphne paused for another second, “Oh! Yes, that’s right. Hmm! He doesn’t think he is though. OK, I’m ready now.”
Daphne’s training for Leo didn’t come out of any textbook. At first, she got him to read out passages from ‘Hogwarts, A History’ while she tried to disrupt him with questions and comments sent to him by Legilimency. At the start, Leo couldn’t get more a few words out without being distracted. Daphne just kept on telling Leo to read the passage while the distractions by Legilimency flowed on. After twenty minutes Leo could finish whole sentences, then after ten minutes more he could sense when he was being pushed by Legilimency, then nudged, then touched.
At 5 o’clock, Daphne called a halt. “That’s enough. You are the quickest learner I have ever seen.”
“I have to go now. Work to do. People to see. Tomorrow is Friday, I will be available at 3 in the afternoon if that is OK, m’lord.” Daphne half smirked.
“Now! you are going to get me annoyed if you call me that again. I’m Leo.” Leo did look slightly stern.
“Well! If I had done to most wizards what I did to you today, they would be trying to hex me right now. Legilimency brings out bad reactions when it is so obvious. You, Leo, are far too forgiving.”
Harry arrived at 10 the next morning. He had with him the smallest person Leo had seen in his life. “Leo, meet Professor Flitwick; he is the recently retired charms professor at Hogwarts. He will give you the best training there is on how to use your wand. I will leave you in his care today. By the way, you are invited to the Weasley’s for lunch on Sunday. I will be here on Sunday morning at 8 and we can ride down to Devon together. I have got Sirius’ old Triumph.” Harry then flooed away. That was weird.
At last, the promise of a day out he could understand, a long ride on his motorcycle and Harry seemed to be willing to spend the day with him when he didn’t have to. Then he remembered Ron Weasley and Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. At least the ride there and back will be not so strange.
Professor Flitwick was studying Leo intently. “Leo, Harry told me that there is a safe place for us to practice down in the cellars here. If you have your wand we can go down there and start work.”
Leo called John, “Is there a place in the cellars where we can practice?”
“Oh, you mean the target range. Yes, Mary and I use it for target practice most days.”
Leo stared at John, “Target practice! With what?”
John placed his right hand on the watch band on his left wrist. An automatic pistol came out of the band and expanded to full size in Johns right hand. “With this! A Glock 17.”
“Oh my!” Professor Flitwick exclaimed, obviously delighted with this deadly surprise. “I did some of the charm work on those bands, but this is the first time I’ve seen the finished article. Very impressive, and it works for you even though you’re not a wizard, wonderful.”
John smiled a small, slightly sinister smile. “There is an MP5 in my belt buckle as well. The Ministry only agreed to us working in your protection team if we had some means of defending ourselves. The weapons and the ammunition are charmed to keep working against blocking spells, and they are also charmed to only work for the real owner. If anyone else picks up my weapon, the safety will lock on and can’t be released. We can thank Professor Flitwick for that.”
Leo was once again stunned. The casual mention of military and law enforcement experience had more meaning than was obvious at the time. He allowed himself to be led down to a sub-basement which served a dual role, shooting and spell casting practice.
Leo’s lessons with the wand were no-where near as tough as Occlumency with Daphne, but he still felt worn out by lunch. Professor Flitwick gave Leo full marks for his first lesson. “If you keep going like this you will finish all the Hogwarts lessons in less than a year. I will be back on Monday at 9 am.”
Somewhere in the last 24 hours Leo’s mirror-phone had been set up. It even had the SIM in it from his old phone. His mirror-phone sounded its conventional ring tone. Leo had not heard it before, he answered it. The call was from his account manager at his old muggle bank. Leo didn’t know he had an account manager but apparently, he did now. The transfer from the Pimlico Family Trust had arrived at his bank. It would still be 3 business days before the funds were available for Leo to use. The banker wanted to know how long the money would be in his account. Leo innocently replied that he had no plans to spend a lot of money and there would be monthly transfers of similar amounts. The banker launched into a spiel about financial advice and insurance. Leo waited for the flood to subside and then finally thought of what to say. “I am getting advice on all of those matters from Kenworthy, Le Blanc and Gomes and that is the way it will stay for the foreseeable future. Thank-you very much, goodbye.”
Daphne arrived at 3 pm. Leo wasn’t looking forward to this session. Daphne sat in one of the leather chairs in front of the fireplace. “Please, Leo sit down. Today I want to tell you about how I learned Occlumency and Legilimency. My father and mother were both skilled practitioners. They could block almost any intrusion without effort. They were almost silent when investigating any unwary subject. They were both Slytherins, like me. This means, in case you don’t know, that they were shrewd, cunning, and ambitious. They also loved my sister Astoria and me, very much. This is why they taught us both to be the best Occlumens we could be. They also taught us Legilimency, so that we could be better Occlumens. This was always going to help us in our professional and business lives, of course.”
“My father and mother both inherited wealth, my family is in the ‘Sacred 28’. That is a list of pure-blood families. These families never allowed any hint of muggle blood to enter the family. This is rubbish, of course. If it were not for hushed up muggle marriages every pure-blood family would have died out ages ago. It’s basic genetics, you would have heard that in your science classes, right?”
“Yes, I remember something like that. Every animal breeder has to be careful to avoid a small gene pool.” Leo thought about how to work the shallow end of the gene pool into a reply. He saved it for later.
The rest of the afternoon was spent talking about family, school days at Hogwarts, what wizards did for entertainment, and holidays. Leo finally asked when the lesson was going to start.
“Oh! This is the lesson; I’ve been lulling you into carelessness with my natural charm. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Haaa!” The shrill laughter carried on until Daphne finally subsided into guffaws and giggles.
“I was the Slytherin Ice Queen. Nobody ever caught me off my guard. I had cutting, witheringly scornful put downs for every occasion. Occlumency and Legilimency gave me the edge I needed to keep every Slytherin wary of me. I could hex any of them while they were still trying to remember the spell they wanted to use on me. I was not charming, in the slightest.”
Daphne took a few deep breaths, “I have been touching your mind all through the afternoon, your defences are getting stronger. This is how a wizard will try to penetrate your thoughts. They will try to put you off your guard. You have, so far, been able to stop me getting in easily without really thinking about what you are doing. This is good, but you will have to do better. If you ever get invited to a party where there are wizards like my cousins, there will be trouble. You need a lot more practice before you can face them.”
Leo needed a draft of essence for the revival of the weary. “Do wizards have Friday Happy Hour?”
“What’s that?” Daphne looked surprised.
“Well! A pub or bar somewhere that has cut prices for one hour on Friday afternoon. But I keep forgetting that I don’t have to worry about prices. Let me try again, would you like to go to a nice place for few drinks?”
Daphne really was surprised by this. “Sorry Leo, I have to work. I’ve got to finish my column for The Daily Prophet. Some other time, maybe.”
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