After the seriousness of the short discussion on Harry using the Unforgivables, Sirius and Remus were having fun trying to think of appropriate one-syllable incantations for other spells.
"What about Apparation, pup?" asked Sirius. "Surely you took a great risk teaching yourself that."
Harry nodded and explained, "I actually had an accidental magic event around apparation when I was seven at the local primary school in Little Whinging. I remembered what that felt like. "Then, during the Tournament, at Hogwarts I once sat in on that Professor Tofty bloke from the Ministry teaching the seventh years how to apparate. I was under my invisibility cloak, at the time.
I thought about everything he said, put it together with what I remembered of the feeling and, in my mind, used the incantation, 'Be There!' with that twist on the word 'There'.
"Even then I didn't try until the first time I came up against the first scouting patrol of Jaffa, led by their Goa'uld master. They had me encircled and one was about to fire his blasting staff at me.
"I looked at the nearest Hill, the one I sat upon the top of on my first night, and just... did it, with the thought I need to 'Be There!'
"It worked. And I've never even come close to splinching."
"Wow!" said Tonks. "That's impressive." Remus asked, "Just... 'Be There?'"
"Yes," he nodded. "But with, as Tofty said, first using deliberation and destination in my mind on the 'Be' and determination to be there on the 'There!' as I twisted... It works."
Once Harry was ready, he had the four of them troop down to the duelling room.
There, he started with Luna first on how to switch from using the incantations they were taught to using the one-syllable incantation method he'd 'invented'. He understood she already had greater trust in him than the others, including Sirius.
Standing at the opposite end from her he loosely held his wand in his hand, "So that everyone gets comfortable with this... and, more importantly, you develop an acceptance in your heart that this is possible... we'll start with something easy and non-dangerous. We'll start with my old favourite, the Expelliarmus Charm.
"Firstly, Luna, I want you to use that charm against me with the supposedly proper wand gestures and incantation. I need you to have a fresh memory of how the magic feels as you successfully cast the charm." He then hesitated to ensure she understood and then said, "Go for it."
With a nod, Luna developed a concentrated expression and cast, "Expelliarmus!"
Harry's wand was immediately yanked out of his hand and flew off to the side a little, not quite back at her.
"Good!" he said, wandlessly and silently summoning it back to his hand. "Again!"
Again she successfully cast and again his wand went flying out of his hand. "Excellent!" And wandlessly summoned it back again.
"Now, while only thinking of the incantation, 'Expelliarmus', verbally give the incantation, 'Yank'. Remember the feel of your magic for that charm. And keep the same wand gestures, for now."
She gave a single nod, thought hard and slowly incanted, "Yank!"
Harry was surprised when it worked first time for her. His wand was yanked out his hand and went flying.
She happily grinned at him.
"Bravo!" he laughed. "Now, we're going to take our time and slowly stop thinking Expelliarmus; and eventually only think 'Yank'."
"Try again!"
Utterly surprising him, though he was having trouble not saying so, he congratulated her when she got it done after the seventh or eighth attempt.
"Alright!" he called. "The rest of you have been paying attention, I hope. Step in here. It'll be Sirius against Luna and Tonks against Remus. This way, I know your intent is in no waygoing to allow you to harm your opponent. As such, your magic will not accidentally do that."
Once he had the four inside the warded area with him, facing off against each other as he said, he again instructed on how to do it. This time it was mainly to Sirius and Tonks.
Then he helped Remus, who he knew would have the most difficulty; as his mind was like Hermione's and would rebel against wanting to go against 'known facts'. He did, but unlike Hermione would, he got past it quicker.
By the end of the first session he had them practically at silent and point-casting. However, other than Luna, the other three still needed to quietly mutter the incantation. At least it was the one-syllable new one, though.
Once it was getting on to dinner time, he called a halt and said, "Same time tomorrow, folks. No rest for the wicked, I'm afraid."
Relaxing with a sigh, Remus looked to Harry, smirked and said, "You make a very good teacher, Harry."
"Bloody brilliant!" declared Sirius.
Harry smiled back at Remus and said, "I used the same method you used when you taught us the Riddickulus Charm against the boggart, remember?"
"Yes, but I was only teaching one at a time for that," he replied. "You were teaching all four of us together and spotting problems developing... and countering them... before they became an issue." "Yeah, but I only have four students," Harry returned. "You had twenty!"
Remus just smiled, clearly not willing to argue the point.
"Alright!" called Harry. "A final pearl of wisdom for you all for today. Two, actually.
"First, you now all know that it is intent that drives your focus to shape what you want to occur; and it is your will that empowers it to happen."
He gave that a moment then said, "The next pearl is, pretty much, from a muggle movie. It's 'Do or do not. There is no try.'
"For you, that means you either commit to doing something or be prepared to not do something. You will not... Try. Try is a pre-excuse for failure. When you say, 'I will try' you are silently adding to that in your mind, 'but I expect to fail'. "As such, the word 'Try' is banned from your vocabularies when applied to yourselves while being taught this way to use magic. Got me?"
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