That afternoon, Harry had his four 'students' working through more of converting their own combat spell repertoires into something that was coming close to what he needed of them.
However, after half of the 'class time' expired he had them all stop.
"You've all done well, so far," he said. "You're actually managing to learn how to do it much, much faster than I did. However, fair's fair, that's because I was actually inventing what I needed as I went."
He said it in a way that wasn't self-serving, just honest.
"Now I'm going to use the remainder of our time today to teach you that it wasn't just using single-syllable incantations and reducing... if not eradicating... gestures completely," he explained. "There was one other thing I did that I didn't even realise I'd done for weeks. Speeding your body up." He then launched into how he literally infused his body with intent-based magic. He wanted... needed... to be faster and used intent-based magic to make him so.
"It requires a lot of practice. It requires you to accept you know it works, a determination to do it, your intent to accomplish it and your will to make it happen.
"You all know how to apparate. This is very close to that. Think about it; deliberation is intent, determination is will and destination is result. And, when you do that... just as you apparate... you feel your whole body infuse with your magic.
"That infusing your whole body with magic is the first step of using magic to be physically faster; to be mentally more aware; to think faster. "So, the first thing I want you all to do is think about apparating... but don't. It's how I figured it out."
"What do you mean?" asked Remus.
Just then Dobby popped in and said, "Master Harry not be being nearly popping when Master Harry speeds up. Master Harry be using wizard version of elf magic."
Surprised, Harry looked to the elf and was about to ask what he meant, when Dobby beat him to it. "Master Harry be using elf time... di-lay-shun... magic."
"Di-lay-shun? Time di-lation... time dilation?" muttered Harry, before he looked to Dobby and asked, "I use time dilationmagic? That is, I slow time down around me so, within the... time dilation field... I speed up?"
"Yes! Master Harry!" the excited elf practically clapped back, as it bounced around a little in happiness. Harry thought about it for a little while before he muttered, "Hunh! That... actually... makes better sense."
Thinking about it further, he turned to the other four and explained, "I was in a battle with a patrol of Jaffa warriors. They had me pinned.
"So, I was thinking about apparating away and preparing myself to do that while I continued to fight them. I had deliberation and determination in my soul as I continued to battle. I had wanted to set things up so that, as soon as I saw I wasn't going to be able to dodge or shield against one of their staff weapons, I could instantly apparate out before it hit me.
"You need to understand two important points here: One, I had already come to think of Hadrian as my planet, my home, and I was damned if I was going to let someone deny it of me; and two, if they started winning battles I knew that they would know that I could be beaten, which would make kicking them off again that much harder.
"So, I never ran when I could win. I gave them as few opportunities to drive me off as I could. I fought until I was in a no-win situation or had fought my way out.
"It was while infusing my body with magic... what I thought of as ready to apparate out... that I noticed things seemed to slow down. Their blaster weapon bolts slowed, the speed they moved slowed, everything slowed; or, at least that's what it looked like. It took me a little while after that to realise it wasn't them slowing down, it was me speeding up."
With a snort of self-amusement, he said, "After that... it was no longer a matter of if I was going to win, it had become a matter of how long it was going to take me."
He hadn't noticed a satisfied Dobby had popped away again. When he saw they understood, Harry said, "To make this easier to learn as you aren't in the life and death situation I was in, we'll start with you just holding your magic ready as if to apparate... but not apparate. Magic is a muscle and it needs to be exercised.
"We'll start with that and then move on to accomplishing small tasks, such as juggling a single small ball from one hand to another, while you're concentrating on holding apparation... sorry, time dilation magic.
"Ready to try?"
The four grins back were answer enough.
The next morning Harry was providing individual help to his four 'students' as he'd basically taught them what they needed to learn and that it would come to each of them in different ways and at different speeds.
"So," said Sirius, during a break when it was just him and Luna. "It's really only two things you're doing differently. You've trained yourself to use single syllable incantations for each of the charms and curses; and you're using this new form of elf/wizarding time dilation magic."
"It's more than that," Harry gently chided. "I often use magic in different ways than what people expect."
"An example?" asked his godfather.
"Harry gave a nod and said, "For instance, I use apparation to explore my environment from a position thousands of feet in the air.
"With the exception of what I came to realise were the polar areas of Hadrian, almost the entirety of the rest of the planet was either arid desert or very large lakes that were pretty much land-locked seas.
"Unlike Earth, the surface of Hadrian was about forty percent water and sixty percent land. Earth is thirty percent land made up of large continents and islands and seventy percent water - oceans, seas and rivers. Hadrian was one giant... continent with a few islands in those land-locked seas.
"Because it was so arid I developed a way to explore to find things by apparating straight up about five thousand feet. Then, as I began to fall, I would use my arms as fins to turn myself in the air. I'd slowly turn completely around and have a very good look at everything while I continued to fall, then pick a spot on land and apparate directly there. Then I'd start the whole cycle again.
"You'd be surprised how much land you can cover doing that."
Sirius was looking at him in shocked awe combined with apprehension before he finally blurted, "Yuh- You... actually didthat?"
"Well... yes," replied Harry, confused by his godfather's reaction. "I.. thought you were joking!" exclaimed Sirius.
"Nope," he replied. "As I said, you'd be surprised how well it works.
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