It was finally next Saturday, the day when I would start the real duelling with Dumbledore. I had already had all the time in last few days to practice a stance for this. Hence was my palpable excitement about it making me pace left and right at the clearing waiting for Dumbledore to come. Previously on the last Sunday he had told me to come here directly at by 10'o clock in the morning. He had also given me some instructions on how to breath while doing a strenuous activity like duelling, I have been practicing it too daily for half an hour at night for the past few days. For now I am able to do it all the time with a bit of mental efforts, I have hopes of being able to do it all the time with just instincts alone, not needed to spend my mind on it.
I hadn't question him about how it would be helpful in any way because I knew to trust his wisdom and am capable to see its benefits myself. While doing it there is a automatic calmness in my mind helping me focus better, notice Little details better and it also helped me keeping track of minute things like the passing of time, which is essential for us to keep track if we are stalling for something like reinforcement or to just blocking someone's path. It could be valuable to be able to do so, it would allow me to not get to emotionally invested in any fight if I set myself a time limit for it helping me decide when to retreat if the fight gets too dangerous.
Thinking all this I shifted my focus to start the breathing patterns to stop myself from getting agitated from the excitement and waiting. Just as I fell in the rhythmic breathing exercise I heard a crack behind me. Turning around I saw that it was Professor Dumbledore. He saw me too and nodded as if appreciating the fact that I was already present and he would not have to wait for me or just to appreciate my dedication to all this. "Good morning Marcus. I see you are on time, early even, good keep this dedication up and you would be catching dark wizards like an auror in no time." He said a bit jokingly towards the end of it.
"Good morning Professor Dumbledore, and yes I too see my self catching some dark wizards in future." I returned with a totally straight face before breaking out giggling to his somewhat awkward expression due to him thinking I didn't get his joke. "Rest assured professor I won't go after any of them myself, but if they do come to me, well I hope I can best them with your training." I assured him.
"Well let's make you competent enough for your words to become true in the future." He said back with a small smile. "Now today we will do a exercise dependent on what one wood expect from a dark wizard, for your information they won't bother with any manners like telling you that they are about to attack so this should be the first thing we should built up defence against. Have no doubt I a not teaching you something as fancy as duelling I am going to teach you how to survive when a wizard is after your life." He said with a look of seriousness as I nodded along with what he was saying fully understanding all what he was talking about.
"Now for this task I will be getting disillusioned with the charm and moving around casting spells at you one at a time audibly for today, a first few with a decent enough pace according to your level then going progressively faster and faster for half an hour. Normally I would start with helping you learn how to dodge but seeing as you are capable of casting a strong enough shield we should first get done with this. It will help you build-up reaction speed to cast spells of your own." I agree with him, "Yes professor." And he casts a disillusionment charm on him self going invisible.
I took control of my breathing pattern and fixed it in the way he told me to earlier after a few moments the first spell came along with his position which was given away by his audible chant, I turned around just in time to put up a silent shield charm and the spell bounced of it in a random direction by the time I had done all this there was another spell coming at me from a bit left. To counter it I just adjusted the shield a bit and it bounced of again. After the third spell this time from the right side there was a slight decrease in his voice as he sent another spell at me from my back, it wouldn't even be noticeable if I wouldn't be doing the breathing thing, I would have to ask want it is called. There was a bit decrease in the time it took him to cast another spell as well.
This decrease progressively went up as well after every three spells and in just 15 minutes there were about two spells coming at me every 5 seconds and the casting by him was almost inaudible but I didn't have any trouble with it because of my practice previously of dodging in the ROR the only thing I lacked in was adjusting my aim for the shield which almost caused it to not get hit at just the right angle to deflect but instead be absorbed which causes the shield to weaken over time. After the fifteen minute mark the spells were outright silent with each one getting a bit stronger than the last, but I weathered it all, even when towards the end it was two spells in a second, it helped that they still came from almost same direction.
By the end of it I was panting like someone who has run a marathon. From the corner of my eyes I saw him coming out of his disillusionment with a impressed face, clearly not expecting me to last this long even if this was no where near a normal professors level it was still better than most 7th years from what I know. "Well done Marcus with just this you won't have any trouble if some seven years decided to ambush you. But don't let this get to your head, while impressive for someone of your age this was not nearly enough to survive if your opponent was a adult dark wizard as the spells they would use would be heavy and fast enough to not give you enough time to adjust your shield." He said confirming my speculations.
"Now this is it for today's exercise I will see you again tomorrow, and before you ask yes we will do this same exercise for the whole summer or at least till then when it becomes a instinctual reaction for any spell coming for you after which we will move on to a different exercise of my design based off whatever I find the most important for you to learn." He said with a bit of sternness leaving no room for argument then in a lighter tone he continued, "Now that we are done with our training for today let's bid each other fare well. Oh and by the way excellent work at mastering the breathing technique it's not something every one can do in a stressed situation but keep practicing as it is something which will advance into something more complex which I'll teach you later." Before he could leave I called out to him asking what it was called, "Oh it is called nothing special as it is just a normal exercise for something much bigger, now I must be off. See you tomorrow Marcus." And with a crack he was off to wherever he was in the hurry of going. Leaving me to go back to the village myself by walking just as I came here today.
For the rest of the day nothing much happened but the weather was indeed on a bit better end of the normal Scottish weather spectrum. So I just relaxed for the day milling about here and there sightseeing in general thinking about how much progress I will make for the upcoming summer in being able to stand my ground against any wizard much less a black one. With these musings my third Saturday came to an end too.