Despite my fears that he would carry on with the forbitten curses, he started with the classical defensive ones we already learned. Disarming, all kinds of immobilisation, fire and explosion spells. The brutality increased with each spell and the dummy looked increasingly battered. So far, however, it was nothing unusual. He called out a spell and I performed it. After a good 3/4 of an hour, he finally stopped and let me take a break. Exhausted, I sat down on the next desk and Barty mirrored me. 'Well done. Your skills are excellent. Do you know what these spells have in common?' he asked me. I furrowed my eyebrows thoughtfully. 'That we learn them here at Hogwarts? That they are offensive and defensive spells that are often used in duels?' I guessed into the blue.

He shook his head with a chuckle. 'Not quite what I'm getting at. No... These spells are vastly underestimated. Any spell is only as good as the person using it, both in its power and its intention. What is Expulso or Confringo used for, for example?'

I stared at him, irritated. 'To make something explode.' As soon as I said it, I realised what he was getting at and the colour drained from my face.

His smirk grew. 'Bingo. You seem to have realised it already. The spells may be legal, but they are by no means harmless. I would even say that they are more cruel when directed at another person. So it all depends on how creative you get with the spells. And let me tell you one thing - in the heat of the battle, anything is possible, nobody pays attention to where they're aiming.'

I mechanically nodded. Being told these facts straight to my face felt like a punch in the gut. I had experienced the heat of battle between life and death first hand, but now to think about how even the most harmless spell could be weaponised was something else entirely. Taking a deep breath, I raised my eyes again with determination. I had chosen to fight, so I couldn't shy away from the consequences. Nothing had changed. Just because I was gaining experience didn't mean I had to torture or kill someone with it. At the moment it was all just theory for self-defence.

Switching off the part of my brain that wanted to make me feel guilty for even thinking about such cruel things, I stood up again. Drawing my wand, I returned to my position in front of the dummy. 'Understood. Anything can be used as a weapon with a little creativity. Can we move on to the spells that are actually considered lethal?'

My enthusiasm actually coaxed a real laugh out of him. "That's the enthusiasm I want to see! We continue with a fun one that's not very well known. Keep it I secret." With this he showed me how to perform a spell called sectumsempra. It slashed the dummy all over with differently deep cuts. Wincing I studied the damage. If that would have been a living creature it would be in immense pain and slowly bleeding out. It wasn't one of the forbitten ones, but it seemed on par with the cruciatus curse. Trying it myself a few times varying the strength to test the different results, I tried to keep the conversation flowing. We took turns repairing and attacking the dummy and he looked as if he had a lot of fun letting of some steam. But with everything we were doing I didn't get much more information out of him. Neither about himself nor about that last spell. The only interesting point he gave me was that it was a new invented spell that only a few people knew of. That caught my interest even more. If that spell was new then it was entirely possible for me to create my own. I just had to play my cards right and then maybe one day I would be able to make them work, maybe even write my own publication. I just had to get through this first.

After concluding the lesson I waved cheekily goodbye and ran quickly into my room, snatching my notebook before sneaking off into the astronomy tower. As it was the highest tower and normally only restricted use for Astronomy lessons it was the best place in the castle to stay unnoticed. In addition it had a gorgeous few over Hogwarts and the sky. Sitting down near on of the outer columns, I finally had my peace to write everything down that happened today. By now the notebook was a mix of research and diary and it worked wonders to sort my thoughts. Scribbling down my lesson with Barty, I collected a list of the spells we practiced. Letting my thoughts drift off I sketched the effects of each spell next to them, before adding some other ideas. They ranged from small to large impact of power to infusing an object with an spell. I drew most of my inspiration from the classical charmed objects, but the workings of cursed and other magic infused items were intriguing as well. Most of the charmed objects were used for mundane tasks or fun, but they had a lot of potential. Muggles didn't have magic but they always found other creative alternatives to make up with it, however horrible they could be. What if I took inspiration from them and wouldn't fight with my wand but other things? Musing about these theories I came to the conclusion that I needed more input on these topics if I wanted this to work. I had to be clever to get out of everything unscratched. 

Leaving the tower my mind drifted back to Barty. What would happen when they found out I had known that whole time and kind of assisted him? Would Dumbledore let it slide or would he want to eradicate me from the picture? I did in fact knew to much and I was sure that he didn't trust me further than he could throw me. With this old man it could go either way...