Miss Quinn

129 ~ The Hog's Head

"Alright, stand with your dominant foot slightly forward."

Emma was with Draco in the Arena, wearing usual training clothes. Draco had taken off the outer layers of his uniform and was wearing a T-shirt and his uniform pants. The shirt was fine to train in, but the pants would be difficult. They weren't exactly flexible.

"Put your hands in front of your face."

Draco had been following her instructions loyally thus far, which revealed to Emma just how serious he was about wanting to learn how to fight. She'd had her doubts, thinking that maybe it was all just a big joke and he would mess around the whole time, but it wasn't. He'd stretched like she'd told him to, he'd loosened up when she said he was too tense, he'd even done the breathing exercises. Emma had to admit she was impressed.

"Like this?" Draco said, lifting his hands into fists and holding them between his face and her.

Emma shifted them so that his arms weren't touching. "You need to be more relaxed. You don't want to feel tense, you want to be comfortable. Loose."

Draco rolled out his shoulders again and lifted his fists once more into the positions Emma had placed them before. He was certainly trying. But she could still see the tenseness in his shoulders and arms. She wasn't sure if he was nervous or on edge, but he wasn't relaxed.

Emma sighed. "Okay, punch me."

Draco's eyes widened, and his arms dropped slightly. "Just like that?"

"Don't tell me you can't punch a girl," Emma said, spreading her arms as if to say 'come at me'.

Draco fixed his stance. "I can punch a girl. I just didn't think we'd start with that."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Just punch me, Draco."

She watched his body move as if in slow motion. He seemed to be winding up for it, like a pitcher in cricket. Emma watched his foot shift forward, his arm draw back slightly, and then push towards her. And then she grabbed his fist in her hands and pulled it towards her, twisting his arm as she did so and pining it behind his back.

"Shit!" he exclaimed. Emma let go and stepped to the side.

"First rule of fighting: Always watch your opponent. Don't focus so much on what you're doing. You have to know what each of their movements mean and how to counteract to them. Had you been holding a knife, it would be between your shoulder blades right now."

"Merlin," Draco said, rubbing his shoulder. "Couldn't you have taught me how to defend myself first?"

Emma smirked. "If I had, you would have thought it was pointless. But now you see why it's necessary."

"Yeah, yeah. What's next?"

"Duck."

"Wha --"

Emma whipped her knives out of their sheaths and threw them with perfect accuracy at the target on the wall directly above Draco's head. He dropped into a crouch at the last second, though they wouldn't have hit him anyway.

"Are you trying to kill me?" he asked, standing back up.

Emma shrugged. "You wanted this."

"I didn't ask to be impaled."

"Second rule of fighting: Stay loose. If I had been aiming for your heart, you'd be dead. You need to be aware of your surroundings."

Draco groaned. It was the first act of defiance she'd seen from him, but it made her smile. It was more like Draco to be defiant.