The Rise And Fall Of The Stag And The Doe

Look How Far we Have Come

"Thanks for doing this Rick." Marlene reached up and hugged her brother.

Her brother rolled his eyes at his sister darkly. "You know occasionally I like to be a good guy."

"Yes but you had to say 'occasionally," She teased before releasing him and giving Lily a supportive look. "I'll come back and walk with you to lunch all right."

Lily smiled, "Thanks Mar. You don't have to you know."

"Oh I know," Marlene hugged Lily and then whispered in her ear slightly threateningly, "But you didn't tell me for a week that anything happened so you aren't leaving my sight Ms. Lily."

Sighing, Lily smiled at her. "Okay! Okay!"

"Now," Marlene smiled, with an evil glint in her eyes backing out of the Transfiguration classroom. "I will be outside. Let me know if you need me."

"We won't. Bye Mar." Rick pushed her out of the room before looking at Lily. "Okay Lily, are you limbered up?"

Lily laughed under her breath while she finger combed her hair and put it up in a high ponytail. "Yep."

Rick had taught her a few things in the past week.

1) She was supposed use the hand she wrote with. Make a fist with her thumb on the outside not tucked inside.

-The first time she tried this, her thumb was on the inside and she broke her thumb.

2) Don't aim for the face. It doesn't stop the attacker and they can usually just duck away from the hit.

3) Always keep wrist straight to avoid breaking it.

-On the second day she forgot and sprained her wrist.

4) When punching isn't available knees and elbows are very sharp and are good short range weapons.

5) If your upper body wasn't able to do anything, kick the attackers shin harder.

In the past week she had spent two hours every day with Rick and she was actually learning a lot. Of course she had gotten injured a lot in the process, but unlike with Marlene she wasn't afraid to hurt Rick. He was a grown adult male and fully licensed Auror if anyone could take pain it was him. Lily had felt incredibly guilty when once she nailed him in the balls and he needed a half hour break, but mostly she was getting through it and slowly getting better. She wasn't a heavy weight champion or anything and there was never going to be a time where she could like fight off four guys at once, but she would be able to fight back, and to Lily that was more important that winning.

Sweat glistened on the back of her neck as she got into a fighting stance, they'd been at it for over an hour and she was starting to get tired, but not as tired as she used to get when she started. All of the desks were lining the edges the room, and on the floor were gym mats Rick had brought with him so they wouldn't do any serious damage.

Rick McKinnon glanced down at her evenly, his blonde eyebrows furrowed together while he concentrated. "Okay now remember there is no way for anyone to completely protect themselves. You just have think of what the other person might do and counter act it."

"Okay." Lily nodded jilting her chin out determinedly.

"And when you go to punch or kick me in remember spring into it with your feet and torso." He told her quietly as they circled around each other, never taking their eyes off one another. She attacked and managed to get him once or twice before he got her in a hold. His legs were too far apart for her to kick his shins and he had her arms locked down.

"Now when its like this," He told her in a strained voice as she struggled underneath him. "And you can't kick, or elbow me, you wait until they lower their face near yours, you hang your head so they will lower theirs as low as possible and then you buck your head back as hard as possible. DON'T do that to me." He mentioned releasing her and letting out heavy breath while dropping down onto one of the desks. "If you did, I might have permanent damage…I think that's enough for today. After Wednesday I'm going to be going on assignment in India. So after that you're on your own kid."