Chapter 31
They barely escaped without being singed by Ron's uncontrollable fire spewing hands. Lucky for them the dragon was not disturbed by the din. The spell he was under was stronger than anything they could have done in that cave. Harry had to talk Ron through and calm him down.
"Ah. Harry. What the bloody hell is going on?" Ron was panicking as usual while the others were trying to take cover if they didn't want to get burnt. The grand elusa made her escape by once again being a tiny spider and left the teens to their own devices. She chuckled as she walked away.
"Ron, calm down!" Harry shouted. "You need to calm down and focus!"
"Okay," he whined. After he'd calmed down enough to let the flames diminish into a small ball of fire on his palms, he smiled at the lot of them peeking out of wherever they were hiding in. Ron looked so proud of himself none of them had the heart to tell him what a git he was. He was so pleased with his new powers they didn't think he'd listen to them anyway.
Ron strutted around like a peacock with a half grin half smirk on his face when they returned to Hogwarts. The grin was wiped off by a stern looking Professor McGonagall as soon as they entered the door. She'd been waiting for them to return for over an hour and her patience wore thin. She ushered them inside an empty classroom and then proceeded to vent her frustrations.
"Glad you know the way home!" she told them sarcastically. "I hope you've been practicing your dueling skills while you were out on your little field trip."
The seven looked a bit surprised at her statement and her abruptness. They thought she was aware that the practice sessions were only covers for their trips to Fincayra, but it seemed as if they were missing something somewhere.
"Sorry?" Ron spoke up.
"I'm saying that even if you were out doing something else, something a bit more important mind you, you still needed to actually practice your dueling skills. You are aware that there will be a dueling match between the three groups?"
They all stood with their mouths open. They thought they were actually exempted from actually participating in the dueling match.
"Oh, please!" McGonagall breathed. "How do you think it would look if you all performed badly in the dueling match in three days? All of us will be a disgrace to Gryffindor, no offense Draco."
"None taken," Draco answered slightly amused. He'd never witnessed McGonagall flustered over anything before except maybe during Quidditch matches.
"Well, be that as it may, since I am supposedly your trainer for the dueling club, I expect all of you, you too Draco, to be in your top form in two days."
They were also aware of the competitiveness between Snape and McGonagall, but they didn't feel it necessary to voice that. They all mumbled yes professor and she left them to their own devices.
At the night of the duel, after only a few hours of practice, the seven headed out to the great hall to face the other teams. There would be a elimination process where each person were matched between another person in another team, the loser of the match will be matched with the other team as a second chance, then the winners between the two matches will meet to duel. Since it was a team effort, the final point would be tallied up at the end of the match. No one would be going against any of their team members, a rule that was added because of Harry's participation. They couldn't remove him completely, so they'd let the others compete with him, knowing some of them would want to wipe him out. Despite the rules, Snape, Remus, McGonagall and Dumbledore told the seven to be on their guard. They could never be too careful especially since they are aware that Voldemort had been able to possess bodies before, including Harry. They wouldn't put it passed him.
Pansy, Justin, Susan and Dean were proving to be worthy opponents. Pansy actually beat Lavender. It could be because she was a little distracted after Ron solved the sixth song. She knew the pressure was all on her to find the last of the seven songs and it frightened her that she might fail not only her friends, but the whole world.
She'd told Ron about her concerns and Ron was trying his best to allay her fears. He told her that he was confident she would solve the song before any confrontation with Voldemort would ever take place. Then he'd held her tight to comfort her.
Susan actually defeated Neville, which was no small feat. It had been a long match, but somehow Susan caught him by surprise and disarmed him. Neville berated himself, but Harry and Hermione were immediately at his side to comfort him and to praise him for a job well done.
Neville didn't feel as if he did a very good job, but the others were telling him how well he did. He'd defeated 3 opponents before Susan and that was better than what he'd have done before all the training. He smiled a bit, but still didn't feel well about himself. He knew he could have done better, but for some reason his concentration was thrown off by something he couldn't quite pin down.
Harry was a bit surprised at how well their peers were performing. Though he was picking up some strange vibes from them, he was mostly concerned about how his friends were performing. He, Draco, Hermione and Ginny were the only one left in his team. Ron pretty much gave up after Lavender was eliminated, but he knew that Ron would have easily overcome Justin if he really had his heart into it.
It was Draco against Dean, Susan against Ginny, Pansy against Hermione and Harry against Justin.
Draco and Dean were up first. Draco needed to keep up the pretense of the Gryffindor and Slytherin rivalry so he did his best to talk down on Ginny. The other Gryffindor were cheering Dean on, but inside Ginny was praying for Draco to win.
Because they were limited to wand skills, Draco tried his best to avoid doing much of his acrobatic/gymnastic skills. His reflexes worked well to his advantage. Dean flicked his wand at Draco, but was easily blocked. Before Draco could give out his hex, Dean was in the process of yet another spell. Draco ducked and rolled. He immediately stood and directed the disarming spell towards Dean. He knew those around him were expecting him to be a poor sport without any honor, but he proved them wrong. He disarmed Dean without resorting to blatant unsportmanship conduct. He won fair and square and that was what stunned them most, those who didn't know him well anyway.
Pansy was amazed how well Draco was playing by the rules. She was almost ashamed of him because he was still representing Slytherins even if he was in the Gryffindor team - that's what she referred to Harry and the gang since they were all mostly in Gryffindor.
When it was her turn she vowed to also win, but not necessarily fairly though she'd been doing her best with the others. They were easy to overcome. But somehow she knew that Hermione was a force to be reckoned with, even if she was a mudblood. Deep inside Pansy knew that her intelligence accounted for much of her abilities, so she decided to win on the physical aspect. She bided her time. She felt invincible, like some kind of force was within her.
Susan and Ginny were up next. Pansy didn't care at that point who'd win, but she did notice Ginny eyeing Draco while he was dueling. She didn't like that one bit. Draco was promised to her by Lucius Malfoy and her father. It didn't matter that Draco was not interested in her, she knew for a fact that despite his protests he will be hers. So she stared at Ginny and hoped something tragic would happen to her.
Susan was first to let out a spell, Ginny countered the spell just before it reached her. She received a point for that. Ginny then let out a spell and was smoothly avoided by Susan. Susan then let out a spell and grazed Ginny in the left arm. Her arm immediately became numb and useless, but she still had her other arm.
The spell was strong however, and she felt the numbness spreading down her leg and up to her head. It left the left side of her body paralyzed. She caught a smug look from Susan, but that didn't deter her from hitting Susan with the disarming spell. She won the match because Susan was careless enough to let her guard down thinking she'd succeeded when she'd only won half the battle.
Although disappointed, Susan accepted the defeat with a smile. She and Ginny were friends and although her teammates were eyeing her skeptically, she just brushed them off with a shrug. She knew she tried her best and knew what defeated her was her overconfidence in the inability of her opponent to retaliate.
When Pansy and Hermione stood up to take their places, Pansy's eyes were blazing with fury. She took pride in her team and didn't want to lose, especially not to a mere mudblood. She sneered at Hermione and egged her on.
Hermione merely ignored her comments and prepared for the duel. She knew that her unborn children would protect her from any real harm, but she didn't want to use their powers as an advantage.
They placed their backs against each other and walked 10 paces before they turned around to duel. Pansy, however, turned around at the 9 and a half count and struck out a spell that was meant to really harm another. It wasn't the simple spells that only left a person incapacitated for a short time. The curse was almost as bad as the unforgivable curse, but it was legal however advanced it may be.
It took all of Harry's restraint to hold back trying to help Hermione. He was confident that Hermione could handle Pansy with her eyes closed, if Pansy played fair. That was the problem. She wasn't playing fair and everyone gasped as the spell bounced off Hermione. Harry breathed a sigh of relief.
Snape, McGonagall and Lupin gave Pansy a warning about her use of the curse, but she simply smiled while hiding her awe at the way the curse just bounced off Hermione. The persistence mounted as they squared off again.
Hermione drew out a spell, but Pansy easily sidestepped the spell and smirked to taunt Hermione as if to say, is that all you've got. Hermione didn't let it get to her. She was just biding her time.
Pansy threw out another curse and Hermione blocked it easily since she was prepared. They kept going back and forth for almost five minutes to Pansy's growing ire. She was running out of powerful curses to use. She wanted to show the mudblood that she, as a pureblood, was more superior, but nothing she did was working. She was losing her focus, letting her hate blind her logic.
Hermione on the other hand was patiently waiting to strike out at the right moment to disarm her opponent. She found an entry when Pansy looked as if she was going to throw a tantrum. Hermione sent out the disarming spell and caught Pansy by surprise.
She started complaining that Hermione had cheated and they needed a re-match, but no one was listening to her. No one was backing her up. She left the great hall in a huff. She didn't even want to see if her team would win the next round, she just didn't care. She felt humiliated beaten by the mudblood. She flashed an angry warning towards Hermione that was easily read by everyone in the room.
No one bothered to run after her.
When Justin and Harry stood up to take the floor, a silence came over the room. They watched both duel and they thought they were equally matched, except of course for Harry's friends who knew Harry could probably take Justin out with his eyes closed if he wanted. They knew that Harry hadn't been allowed to use all his abilities except for the obvious skills that were taught at Hogwarts, none of the seven were, but no one knew that except for themselves and the staff.
As soon as Justin faced Harry after 10 paces, his face contorted into an evil grin. Harry had felt his scar hurting throughout the dueling challenges, but had kept it at bay throughout the night. Now as he stood in front of Justin, the pain seemed to have hit him ten folds. He staggered a bit, but recovered quickly.
"What is it Potter? Can't handle a bit of challenge," Justin taunted except the sound of the voice coming out of Justin was foreign, was not Justin at all. Harry looked at Snape and he nodded.
Harry looked at Hermione, Ron, Lavender, Ginny, Draco and Neville and they all nodded in acceptance. They all readied their wands under their cloaks as did Lupin and McGonagall with a slight signal from Snape. Their first priority was to protect the other students; they knew Harry and the others had to take care of the rest.
"Oh, I can handle a challenge when one is worthy of a challenge," Harry answered calmly as he banked the pain he'd been feeling.
"Well, then. Shall we begin? I assume you're ready to fight me."
"I've been ready," answered Harry knowing full well it was no longer Justin he was talking to, but Voldemort. He saw the flash of red eyes come and go and he was feeling his presence all night. He knew he made sure they would be the last two people standing when the time came just as he knew that he had to keep from harming Justin.
While they were talking, the staff urged the other students out of the great hall slowly and quietly and the six formed a circle around Harry and Voldemort. Voldemort didn't seem to care that they were leaving nor did he care that the other teens surrounded him. He cared more that Harry didn't escape. Besides, he'd been watching them duel all night and there was nothing special about their skills except perhaps the mudblood. She seemed to have blocked Pansy's initial curse without muttering a word. That intrigued him, but he'd deal with her and the others around him later after he'd killed Harry Potter.
A/N: Thank you for your reviews. They're very encouraging and flattering. It keeps me going knowing that you actually enjoy this fic. Please send me challenges if you have any to give. Thanks again.
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