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He began stumping in front of Harry and his friends, his eyes still affixed upon them as he passed each one. "Death Eaters are deadly serious, and they depend upon ruthlessness and brute force to instill fear in their enemies, and possess the power and the will to use their knowledge for the support of their master. In short, they will kill—and have killed—without a second thought. And killing is not even the worst of their crimes. You are all targets, either by circumstance, your family's political and social beliefs, or by the simple matter of your birth.
"I am here to try to give you the basics in learning how to defend yourselves, not only with the use of curses and hexes, but also in employing various stratagems, learning to outthink your opponents, and above all, knowing when to fight and when to retreat. The last might be the most important thing you will learn. You must never be too proud to admit you are overmatched—living to fight another day must always be your goal in any engagement, as dying in an untenable situation will not help anyone."
Moody was now walking behind them, but the trainees kept their eyes forward. Moody's manner, his words and way of instructing them reminded Harry of certain old war movies he had chanced to see glimpses of in his uncle's house. Vernon had considered himself to be somewhat of a connoisseur of such films and had watched them frequently.
"Now, I do not have the time to teach you everything," Moody continued. "In two weeks you will return to Hogwarts, where I will not be a professor this year. Regardless, as I have other tasks which require my attention, I would not be available to hold your hands. I will try to give you some measure of my experience so that when you leave here, you will be better prepared.
He completed the circle and stopped in front of them, facing the students once more, his face as impassive as when he had entered the room.
"Ground rules! I expect each of you to obey my commands immediately and with no question. I also expect that each of you will give your best effort—if you do not, there is no point in your being here. Finally, I expect you all to practice constant vigilance—there is no way of knowing if someone is a Death Eater unless you are able to check their arm. And the friend you think you know may not even be that, as there are other ways for an enemy to get close to you. Simple Polyjuice potion can be used against you, not to mention the Imperius curse which will turn your friends into your enemies. Practicing watchfulness, and spotting things which are not as they appear, may save your life one day."
He scanned them once again, before his eye alighted on Harry. "Mr. Potter!" he boomed, startling Harry to stand up straighter. "I believe you have seen the Unforgivable Curses in action. What is the best defense against an Unforgivable?"
Harry considered the question for a moment. "I would say it is best not to be caught in the curse's path."
A smile, almost like a grimace, came over Moody's face. "A very good defense indeed. Listen to Mr. Potter's answer—no shield will work against the Unforgivable Curses, and you had better not be there when one is cast at you.
"Other than that, the only way to defend against them is the use of the summoning charm to intercept the beam—which can be a tricky piece of timing, I can tell you—or the use of battle transfiguration for the same purpose. We will cover both of these defenses, and although I do not expect any of you to master them for some time, I do expect you to give your best effort and learn the basics, which you will then practice.
"We will also be covering the art of dueling and you will learn some of the basic concepts which duelists will use to get a leg up on their opponents. However, you must remember that while dueling is a very important foundation upon which to build, it will not get you through a life and death struggle in a true combat situation. The art of dueling has a set of rules by which each duelist must abide—of course, a true fight does not have any rules, nor could you expect a Death Eater to abide by any such rules if they did exist.
"A fight with a Death Eater will generally be short and dirty, with each of you using every trick you can think of to get the better of the other. Clear your thoughts of long drawn out struggles between two titans which fill literature, as they have no place in the real world. I will teach you how to duel first and then I will teach you how to fight. There are some tricks you can learn which will help you to gain the upper hand, and I'm certain that some of the other adults will have some valuable things to teach you in addition. Learn everything you can—you never know when a piece of insignificant knowledge will save your life."
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