Harry Potter and the Heir of Slytherin

"First point goes to Katrina," Master Wei said, rather unnecessarily in Harry's opinion. He was well aware of the hit he had taken. The man did not need to rub it in.

Katrina moved back, allowing Harry to get back on his feet. She gave him a grin when he turned to face her.

"Not bad, Harry," she praised him as she bowed to him. "You've improved a lot in the two years I've been gone. I'm impressed."

Harry returned the bow, and couldn't help but smile a bit at the praise. Aside from Master Wei, Katrina was the only person he actually respected that came to this place. Out of all the other members who practiced here, she was the only one aside from himself who actually took their training seriously. She might even be more serious about it than him, given that she had actually participated in tournaments while he had not.

"Thank you," Harry said. "I've been practicing a lot so that the next time you visited I would be able to match you."

"Well, I don't know about match," Katrina grinned. "But you've definitely improved."

"His improvement was only from the previous year," Master Wei informed her. "Harry has not improved at all this year."

"That's because I'm going to a boarding school and there is no one there who can spar with me," Harry informed the much older male. It was an excuse, he knew, but he felt it was a justifiable one. A person could only improve so much through shadow sparring and practicing forms. "No one there actually knows any martial arts, and it's not like I can just go up to some random person and ask them to fight me."

"Hmph," Master Wei grunted. "The sounds of excuses mean nothing to me."

Harry sighed at the man's words. Knowing that no matter what he said nothing would change his Master's opinion, the young boy turned his attention back to an obviously amused Katrina.

"I didn't expect you to know Jui juitsu," the invitation for an explanation was there, and Katrina grinned at his words.

"I only know a bit," she told him. "I picked it up during the tournament. One of the people I fought was a master at Jui juitsu, and I felt there would be an advantage in learning how to throw people who weighed more than I did around like a rag doll, so I asked him to teach me."

"Ah."

Harry nodded his head at her explanation before moving back towards his original place on the mat. He turned back to look at Katrina, already in position again, and raised an eyebrow.

"So..." he began, letting the adrenaline he felt still running through his body pick up once more at the anticipation of continuing with another round. "Ready for round two?"

XoX

The spar between Katrina and Harry lasted a little over an hour before they decided to call it quits. Harry was pleased to discover that while Katrina had improved quite a bit since the last time he had seen her, Harry had improved more. The gap between their abilities, while still noticeable, was considerably smaller than it had been since the last time they sparred, which was evident when Harry managed to score several points by landing a few decisive blows on her during this session.

After taking a shower in the small shower stalls attached to the locker room, Harry changed back into his new blue jeans and his white undershirt with a red button up collared shirt combination.

He gave a quick goodbye to Master Wei, who told him that he expected Harry to come in at least every other day so he could actually improve (something which got Harry to almost roll his eyes as he knew the Master was talking about how he had not improved during the school year), and Katrina, who had given him a big hug that nearly cracked his back and told him they would spar some more later. He then left the Dao and began his walk towards Lisa's House.

The weather outside was very warm. It was the beginning of summer so it was not as hot as it could be, but Harry expected that to change within a few weeks or so.

Walking to Lisa's house from Master Wei's Dao only took somewhere around fifteen minutes. Harry soon found himself standing in front of the front door and pressing the doorbell.

The ring from his actions echoed inside of the house and was easily heard by Harry, who stood back and waited for someone to answer the door. The sound of rushing footsteps told him immediately who that would be.

It came as no small surprise to see Lisa on the other side of the door after it opened. The now twelve year old girl was all dressed and looked ready to leave. She was wearing a long sleeveless yellow shirt that stopped at about mid thigh and a pair of blue jeans. Around her wrists was a silver bracelet with several charms that he had gotten her for her recent twelve birthday. Her outfit was finished by a pair of multi-strapped sandals that wrapped around her ankle, near the arches of her feet, and her toes.