The light in her dark

33. Misery be damned

-Hermione's perspective, a few days later-

Bellatrix and I stand directly opposite of each other as we both rest in fighting stances, neither of us moving, awaiting the other's command.

"Am I supposed to make the first move?" I ask, confused.

"I'm simply waiting to see how much patience you truly have."

"And what help is that?"

"Well in fights, other than the upcoming war, you do not want to be the first to attack. Contrary to popular belief, it will not get you the upper hand and will simply get you in more trouble. During my time at Hogwarts, I could often get out of detentions by saying my opponent had hit me first and I was simply defending myself."

"Ah." I mutter, my arms and legs aching from standing in the same place for quite a while.

"We have also gone over how if you can help it, you want to tire your opponent out first, correct?"

"I believe so, yes."

"Good, that is also a component as to why you need to know patience."

"I think it's more learning how to stand in place rather than patience, my legs are going numb." I mutter, earning a chuckle from the other woman.

"Yes, it tends to be like that, but in the heat of the fight you tend to forget about any soreness."

"That's good to know then."

"Most often during these periods you will either be silent with your partner, or they will be attempting to make you hit them first, if they're smart enough. If your opponent does such a thing it is best to tune them out since, in my experience, they tend to go for emotional aggression while they can't go to physical aggression."

"Makes sense." I nod. "I do have a question though."

"Shoot."

"If this isn't a skill necessary in the final battle, why are we practicing it?"

"It most likely will be used, but not the same way as we are practicing; You probably won't be standing with your victim for more than a couple of seconds, but timing is still important. You need to know when you can hit them, when they are available to fight, etc. No matter if you have a specific target in mind or not, you have to be able to understand timing. You have to know when you can attack someone." She pauses, thinking over her next sentence. "Let's say during the fight you will be going after Weasley and you find him in battle with another death eater, in this case you have two options, attack him while he's distracted, or wait for him to face you, and either way you need to time yourself correctly, if you don't, you could either risk getting hit with a spell, or hitting the death eater he is fighting, which you absolutely do not want to do if you'd like to survive in the death eater ranks."

I take in her words, suddenly extremely thankful she's teaching me fighting so in depth. "Ok, thank you."

"Of course, love. How are you doing? Feel any need to attack yet?"

"I am getting restless, but I don't think I necessarily need to attack just yet."

The smile Bellatrix gives me warms my heart. "Good, you're doing fairly better than I expected you to."

"Thank you?" I question, laughing softly.

Bellatrix simply continues to smile at me. "I do have to ask you a question though."

"Shoot." I say, repeating her response from earlier.

"The last time we fought your friends, how did you feel?"