I Was Younger Then

A Good Coach

"Up and at em, kid!"

The much too loud voice pulled Penny from the pleasantness of her dream, scaring away something Penny felt sure she wanted to hang onto and replacing it with a blaring light that made her eyes water.

"What's going on?" Penny said, groggily, squinting up at her godfather.

"It's time to start the day," he answered, pulling an oversized hoodie over her head.

"The sun hasn't even risen!" Penny complained, looking at the window. She liked to leave the hangings open so could watch the moon as she faded to sleep, and currently, the world outside was pitch black.

"The day waits for no one," Sirius said, shoving a large cup into her hand when she'd managed to extract her arms from the hoodie.

"What is this?" Penny said, giving the brown-tinged beverage a disgusted look.

"Breakfast."

"Is that a raw egg?"

"You need the protein, now drink!" Sirius said, pushing the beverage to her lips and tilting the glass, forcing Penny to open her mouth and drink the contents or end up with them all over herself and the bed.

She nearly spewed a few times when the slimy texture of the egg met her tongue, but she managed to get it all down wishing very much she hadn't. Eyeing the inside of the cup to be sure she'd finished it, Sirius then took her by the wrist and dragged her down the stairs. While stumbling after him down the several flights of stairs, she realized he was dressed as though ready to go for a jog, wearing a grey sweatsuit and a pair of very expensive looking joggers.

Sirius only stopped when they arrived in his dark, jungle-like backyard. Penny had spent little time here, mostly because Mrs.Weasley had warned her of things lurking in the unkempt garden, Ron swearing he'd seen a dugbog living in the small pond at the far end of the magically enlarged yard. Though Grimmauld Place was set in a busy urban neighborhood, its yard felt very out of place, reminding Penny of the Burrow, which was set in the countryside on a large plot of land. It was apparent to Penny that the jungle used to be a very pretty garden that had been neglected. Perhaps the Black's had held garden parties with other pure-bloods while they'd been alive. Now, it looked better to be avoided, except Penny noticed, squinting in the darkness, something akin to an obstacle course had recently taken up residence.

"We'll warm up first, so we'll do ten laps, 50 push-ups, 100 sit-ups and then repeat 5 times," Sirius said, cracking his neck before he pulled his hood over his head.

"It's like 5 o'clock in the morning, Sirius, are you insane?" Penny said through chattering teeth, staring dumbstruck at her godfather, willing him to be pranking her.

"I've got you for four weeks at most, we aren't wasting a minute of it, kid. Just looking at you, it's evident I've got my work cut out for me," Sirius said, giving her a very critical once over.

"Cut out for what? What are you on about?"

"Use that brain your dad gave you. We're at war! I'm not going to let you sleep pretending we aren't when you can bet the other side is preparing. You have a bad habit of attracting bad luck, but a little training can be the difference between being helpless and getting out of a bad situation."

"I have a wand, Sirius, I don't see the point--"

"The point!" Sirius said, grabbing Penny gruffly by the upper arm. Then he used his foot and hit her in the back of the shins and drove her to the cold, wet grass.

Caught completely off guard, Penny landed hard, the breath knocked out of her and Sirius pinning her hands above her head before she'd even registered what happened.