A Young Wizard's Journey - The Lost Tomb

Battle Strategy

Between exam prep, helping Draco "fix" the cabinet away from prying eyes, the Quidditch final and his own training, it was a miracle Y/N managed to find time to do literally anything else.

Luckily, training and exam preparation helped fill in his time with his friends, as they were all perfectly willing to put down their books to sling some spells at each other. And Hermione was always keen to pick the books back up again once they'd done.

Harry also made mention during one of their sessions to wanting to try a new spell that he'd learnt from the Half Blood Prince's potion book which had been labelled, "for enemies."

'Try it on one of the training dummies then,' said Y/N, pointing his wand and causing one of them to come wheeling out. 'If you try that one a person for the first time and it kills or tortures them, you'll feel terrible.'

'No I won't-'

'Yes, you will Harry, I know you. It took Bellatrix killing Sirius for you to even consider an unforgiveable. And even then, I beat you to it. You aren't someone who's prepared to hurt or kill, you won't stoop to their level. So, use it on the dummy.'

Harry turned and waved his wand.

'Sectumsempra!'

The wood was sliced apart. All along the surface, cuts and gashes ripped into the wood, splinters went flying in all directions. None of them were deep enough to sever anything, but they all seemed focused and Y/N realised where.

Weak points, areas where nerves are particularly prominent or that drain blood the fastest.

Harry stood there, his mouth open.

'And this, is why we practice on dummies first. What if you'd have used that on someone? This spell was made maliciously, no question.'

'I... I can't believe it... I always thought the Prince was a decent guy. How could he make something like this?'

'Harry, all you knew about the Prince was that they were a dab hand at potions. We don't even know if it was a he. Probably was but still. Don't know their name, how old they are, they could easily be a Death Eater, they just happened to be very good at potions.'

'Yeah okay, you've got me there.'

Luckily, Harry's pre-occupation between Quidditch, the news of the Horcruxes and his sudden realisation that the Prince wasn't what he'd always believed seem to have pushed Malfoy out of his mind for a while, which worked for Y/N.

Every few days he took Eternus over to the room and entered where he met up with Malfoy, the two of them working on the cabinet. Or Malfoy working on it.

Y/N could already tell how to fix it, and truthfully had already laid the foundation to allow himself to do so. Whilst the spells had been bent out of place, the original incantation still rang through. One quick peak back into the creation of them was all he'd needed.

This had however, also granted Y/N insight into those Death Eaters who would be assaulting the castle, and into Malfoy himself.

The incoming combatants would be the Carrow siblings, Greyback, Corban Yaxley, Thorfinn Rowle, a man called Gibbon, Daughtery, and Maria.

Daughtery was due to prove herself. If she managed to win in the battle, she would replace Lucius as a Dominator following his defeat at the Ministry.

Maria was being sent with the sole purpose to duel and distract Y/N. She was to battle no one else, just beeline it for Y/N on the pre-tense of looking for him and then keep him busy.

'I don't think... he, thinks she can win though,' said Draco. 'Everything hints to just keeping you busy. He reckons you're going to beat her.'

'It's difficult to say to be honest,' Y/N replied. 'I'm pretty sure I could, if she wasn't my mother. Do you know where Snow is?'