A/N: My friend and very talented writer (who has written on PK), Lynney, wrote the dueling scene, with some additions from moi. She thought it'd be fun to write a dueling scene so I jokingly told her to go for it…and she did. So, if the writing seems a bit different (and better!) it's because she wrote 80% of it! Enjoy!
------
Dueling Houses
Janet cursed Peeves up one side and down the other after she heard Marissa explain why she left Hogsmeade early and how they ending up being in the Room of Requirement…with Peeves interrupting what could have been a seriously nice snog for Brian and Marissa.
It was late on Sunday night and they were the only two up, talking quietly on Marissa's bed with the curtains closed and a silencio spell cast so they wouldn't wake up the other three girls. Plus, she didn't want everyone to hear about Amy Parkinson.
"You should have seen my dad though. I guess living with him and growing up in his house has made me immune to him in some ways…," Marissa lounged against the back of her bed and looked over at Janet who was looking thoughtful.
"He has an air of authority here and many students are either afraid of him, or respect him from afar. A few girls even have crushes on him."
"Ew?" Marissa shuddered and Janet gave a soft laugh.
"Well, he is good looking and has that hard to get to know aura about him…kind of like you do."
"What? It's not hard to get to know me!"
"Yes, actually it is. You don't gossip much, you're very smart and I think just the fact that your father works here make people hesitant around you," Janet said blatantly as she brushed her shoulder length blond hair while keeping her eyes fixed on Marissa.
"Yeah, well…right now my life is messed up with all this Parkinson/Nott/strange father thing/Brian stuff that I have no room for gossip or being girly with some of the other fourth years," Marissa said grumpily. "Plus, I would never have a crush on a teacher!" Marissa said adamantly.
Janet rested her brush on her knee and looked at her friend. "Not even Harry Potter, like many of the older girls at Hogwarts?"
"What?" Marissa looked startled and almost repulsed by the thought. "No way! I've known him all my life…and his son is more my age than he is!"
"I know, I know," Janet said in a placating voice then patted her friend's arm, calming her down a bit. "Look, I'm going to bed…hang in there okay?" Janet pushed aside the curtain and hopped down. Marissa said a soft goodnight and curled up under her covers, falling asleep quicker than she thought she'd be able to.
The next morning Marissa caught sight of the whole of Ravenclaw standing in front of the notice boards.
"Look, it's the posting of the clubs for next year," Calvin said pointing to a long roll of parchment stuck up in the middle. She could hear the students talking excitedly about the clubs ranging from Chess to Exploding Snap to Dueling.
That piqued her interest. She had missed the sign-ups last year for the clubs. The Muggle Chemistry Club had caught her interest back in third year, but being busy with Quidditch and studies she had forgotten to attend the meeting.
"Dueling? Did someone say DUELING?" Marissa asked fighting her way to the front.
"Yeah! Scott Wood started it this year without a sponsor. But, McGonagall said he had to find a sponsor to continue, so I guess he did. Are you going to check it out, see if you want to join next year?" Calvin asked, glaring at a first year who stepped on his toes.
'Dueling Club: 2:00 in the afternoon~~Empty Classroom #7 on the 3rd floor. Fourth years to six years only,' were the instructions and Marissa nodded.
"I think I might have to check that out," she pushed her way back out of the crowd and stumbled after Calvin and Janet. Janet decided to try and make the interest meeting for the Drama Club while Calvin was excited about the Chocolate Frog Trading Card club, headed by Professor Flitwick.
"How can you stand not laughing at him? It's hilarious when he starts jumping up and down when he gets excited about something…it's like he's a kangaroo or something!" Janet said already giggling and she began bouncing up and down in circles around her two friends.
Calvin looked a bit embarrassed as numerous students cast strange looks in their direction while Marissa was laughed hysterically. Wiping her eyes on the back of her robe, trying to contain her giggles, she caught sight of Brian's dark head mingling among the students near the dining hall. Her friend caught the look on Marissa's face and proceeded to pulled Calvin into the dining hall as she figured out who Marissa was looking at.
Fidgeting with the clasp on her robe (but still watching him) Brian turned from whomever he was talking to and caught her eye, she smiled then looked down, making a move to enter the dining hall when she heard him call her name. She stopped and stepped back, letting a few Slytherin's go by on their way to the table. Seeing the green robes reminded her of Amy and she glanced towards the last table in the hall, seeing her sitting there talking to a fellow first year.
"Hey," Brian came up next to her, shifting his bag on his shoulder. "Feeling better?"
Marissa nodded.
"I saw the clubs for next year are up," she said moving further away from the door. Brian followed her, and
then leaned against the wall.
"Yeah. I'm going to check one out later. You?"
"Yep, dueling I think."
"Really? Me too. Never would have thought of you as a dueler, though," he cocked his head as if trying to envision her doing just that.
"Stop! I could kick your arse many times over," Marissa said with more authority than she felt and he laughed, causing Marissa to smile.
"I need to go eat, then get a move on to class. See you this afternoon I suppose?"
"Sure. I'll see you there," Brian answered and they made their way into breakfast.
-----------------
Scott Wood climbed up on the large raised platform with its mural of the phases of the moon that dominated the room and raised his hands for quiet. The noise level dropped considerably, with new arrivals scooting quietly to the back of the gathered group.
"Welcome to the Hogwarts Dueling Club," he said, with a wide, engaging grin. "Today you're here to get a sample of what this club is like. This preview is open for the current fourth years so they can see if they would like to learn a bit about this…art."
The noise level rose again as people got excited and a group of new students congregated at the door.
Marissa glanced around the room from her spot near the door and saw Brian over to her right. He caught sight of her and mouthed "come on" so she worked her way through the crowd and soon found herself pressed up against him. There must have been fifty students in the room which could comfortably hold thirty, including desks.
"He just started," Brian said quietly and she nodded, fully aware of his elbow pressing into her diaphragm but she stayed still enjoying the closeness that could've been accidental, or not.
Scott waited until someone shouted for everyone to shut up, then he continued.
"Although it doesn't often get its due, Wizard dueling is a sport every bit as challenging and physically demanding as Quidditch - and without all that namby pamby protective padding may I add. But then dueling is a sport of the mind, aye? You have to be in the right place at the right time and with the right spell as well. Right place, wrong spell and you lose."
There was a murmur of assent among the older students and Marissa could see Brian nodding his head slightly in agreement. Someone stepped on her toe as they moved forward and she jerked her foot back, pressing her back against the wall.
"Right spell, miss your cast and you'll lose just the same. Dueling hones the intensity of your spell casting, that's why it's only open to students fifth year and above. You need to be able to control the speed, aim and intent of your spells on the fly. That's what this club is for - well, that and we've trained up a fair number of Hogwarts Champions to put the Durmstrangs in their place over the past year."
A flush of laughter and a cheer or two broke out amongst the listening students. Marissa noticed Brian watching Wood raptly, eyes intent, drinking in every word.
"It's traditional for the next sponsoring Professor to give us a demonstration, so you new ones get a chance to see a bit of what a real duel looks like."
Scott lowered his voice to a whisper and said with a wink, "It gives you a chance to sneak out before we try you
out, if it's not for you."
Straightening back up he continued.
"Lucky for you that our Sponsor for next year is Professor Malfoy." Scott's eyes flicked to Brian and Marissa then back to the crowd gathered around him.
"Not only did the good Professor have a hand in taking down no less than thirty Death Eaters in the fight against Voldemort, but he took formal dueling lessons in his youth with the one and only Artemis VanKampen, so he can help us with form as well as function in our dueling. Professor?"
Marissa turned and saw her father make his way through the assembled students from where he had been lounging unnoticed against the back wall of the classroom and vault lightly onto the platform beside Scott.
'Why am I not surprised?' she thought. 'And how like him not to mention it.' If he had seen her in the crowd or noticed her now from the front of the platform, he gave no outward sign.
He removed his long black teaching robes in a single fluid movement and let them drop off the side of the platform; Marissa watched in amusement as a starry-eyed fifth year hastily stooped and collected them and set them carefully on a stool. The comment that Janet had said the previous night made her more aware of how the female population viewed him. She could see some of them staring at him in awe and some just looking scared.
"The first All England Wizard duel," her father began, his blue-grey eyes scanning the assembled throng, "dates back to 1430. It was won by a witch as a matter of fact, so before you young wizards think taking on the witches will be easy, remember: this is an ancient and honorable sport that favors the most judicious use of magic, not brute force."
He indicated for Scott to meet him in the center full moon of the platform.
"True duelists," he told them gravely, "observe and honor their opponents first." The two bowed to each other, then spun sharply on their heels back to back.
"They count their paces while planning their opening ploy," he continued, and he and Wood each counted out five paces away from the starting point. "Assume the starting pose - there are several acceptable variations, you must experiment to see which favors your individual balance and wand work, for example left handed wizards often use the Hovering Crane opener, while…."
"…While wizards in their right mind just get on with it, blast away and duck right quick, because if there's a Death Eater in front of you, there's more than likely another couple behind," came a quietly amused voice from behind the crowd.
Marissa saw a flash of something she had never seen before light in her father's eyes; a blend of irritation … and a just a trace of something she had seen at Hogsmeade…dislike. Seeing her father's eyes narrow, she spun around in the direction of the voice, as did every other head in the room. She knew her father hated to be interrupted when he was teaching and she wondered what he was going to do now.
Professor Potter had obviously been walking past the classroom and stopped to observe.
He stood just inside the door frame, his attention fixed not on Brian, whom he had probably come to watch, but on her Dad. His expression too was one she didn't recognize from any class or family get together; it was fierce, and more than just a little haunted.
"Professor Potter," her father acknowledged. "You always did manage to turn any confrontation into a…brawl, didn't you?" A small smile tugged at the corner of Draco's lips as he remembered his years at Hogwarts with "The Boy Who Lived". "We're teaching the art of dueling here, Professor, not Knockturn Alley scuffling."
Marissa expected Harry to laugh, or brush it off; shake his head and walk away the way he had on countless occasions throughout her life. She'd never actually seen them argue about anything; they just didn't seem to… get on. She glanced over at Brian, but his eyes too had turned towards his father.
"Why not teach them both, then," she heard him say, "and show them the difference. One is a pretty archaic tradition, the other will actually keep them alive long enough to pass it on."
'Holy crap! It's like they are dueling with their words,' Marissa thought suddenly. She felt a trickle of sweat roll down her back and she wasn't sure if she was hot because of the number of students or the impending duel she knew was going to happen.
Draco Malfoy's icy eyes caught fire, which meant his words got slower and cooler, his actions more careful.
"Why are you so interested in what I teach here? You declined to be the sponsor."
Marissa saw Harry's eyes stray toward Brian; her Dad's eyes were already there and Marissa felt Brian shift next to her, his hand brushed the back of hers then stayed there.
"Suddenly," said Harry, not naming or singling out his son; probably, she thought, to save him embarrassment. "I find I care."
"Then by all means, Professor Potter," drawled her father in a voice Marissa knew boded no good, "join me, won't you."
If she were Harry, she'd head to the nearest tree, climb it, and not come down 'til after supper. Or she would have, once.
"Why Professor Malfoy," Harry said in a low voice. "I'd be delighted."
He moved through the silent students toward the platform; they stepped away quickly, clearing him a path. Marissa managed to move closer Brian, although still somewhat behind him and felt him take her hand. She could sense he was a nervous as she was, wondering what all this was about and what would come of this…duel.
Harry made his way cautiously onto the platform, his eyes wary. Scott Wood squeaked, quickly turned it into a face-saving cough, and hopped down.
"Have your wand on you, Potter?" her father asked.
Suddenly Harry seemed to be relaxing, more at ease.
"Constant Vigilance," he replied with a grin.
He extended his wand arm with a quick flex, and his wand appeared suddenly in his hand.
"Shall we? Can you still bow to just anyone, oh Boy Who Lived?"
"But of course, Professor."
The two bowed then turned back to back.
"Tell me, Malfoy, what comes after four? Because you couldn't count that high in the old days," Harry said suddenly. Marissa couldn't tell if he was hiding a smile behind his lips or if he was concentrating on the task at hand.
"Five, Potter. I turned early to save your face. Didn't think you'd make it past three," Draco forced through careful lips. "Now count."
Five careful steps were counted out in the silence. The surrounding students unconsciously stepped back from the platform five steps as well, caught up in the two about to duel.
Fifty students stepping back five steps made for one sardine can of students. Marissa could feel the girl on her left pressing into her arm and she could feel Brian's body pressing her further back into the wall; their hands lost from view in the sea of bodies.
"Scared Potter?" Malfoy asked a slight smile at his lips and Marissa couldn't tell if it was genuine or not.
Harry narrowed his eyes, flashing back to his second year when they were last up here at the request of Professors Snape and Lockhart.
"You wish," was Harry's response as Draco turned to Scott.
"Mr. Wood? If you would count for us? On 'one' we will turn. 'Two', raise our wands to combative position. And on 'three', fire off our opening spells. Ready?"
Scott Wood gave a slight nod.
"Begin." Draco ordered.
"One," quavered Wood.
They turned, facing off.
'Idiots,' thought Marissa. 'Overgrown children. Mum will kill him when she hears about….'
"Two," Both wands raised. Draco raised his counter arm high as well and stood tall, graceful as a dancer. Harry seemed to close in on himself, limbs tucked and poised for flight.
Brian gripped Marissa's hand tightly and she got the sense he was holding it more for support than anything else. She reached around with her left hand and grabbed his arm. No one noticed for they were all packed against the wall and all eyes were up on the two Professors.
'…this. She really will. And I bet Hermione doesn't let Harry go off like this, either. What do they think they're doing?'
"Er…three?"
"Serpensortia!" Draco cast, and the students gasped as a snake reared it's head on the platform. Harry stood up straight and rolled his eyes, his wand by his side.
"For Merlin's sake, Draco, shake it up a little. No one's going to be scared I'm a parselmouth anymore."
'Go home, big guy. Nothing to see. Shoo,' he hissed.
Draco's wand never flicked; Marissa would swear his lips never moved. Suddenly the creature Harry was casually shooing away wasn't quite the same anymore. She'd never seen anything like it. It was eight feet long and had gray, shiny armor, something like a cross between a giant scorpion with an enormous stinger curled over its back and the fire crab she had seen at Hagrid's.
"Well, shite," said Harry, and proved how fast he could still move when faced with a blast ended skrewt. The hem of his robes and the knees of his muggle jeans beneath still smoked. He cast a redactor curse to blow the creature on to its heavily armored back and an Impedimenta on its single undefended spot - the armor-less underbelly. He looked up and met Draco's eye, breathing a bit harder but smiling.
"Fourth year, in the maze. Same old, same old. But nice trick, Malfoy. I myself still go for the old faithful spells like …."
Marissa gasped as her father was suddenly upside down, hanging from midair, apparently by one heel.
He crossed his legs and sighed, appearing bored as well, though his eyes narrowed when several wandless attempts at a finite incantatem failed to release him. Marissa had never seen her father's face so… pink.
"Now you guys," Harry said, turning to the surrounding students, "wizard duels are composed of two basic components: the cast spell, and the part Professor Malfoy just totally muffed, the defense against it. The defense might be as simple as ducking it, or as complex as choosing a repelling shield that will not only deflect the spell, but send it back against the castor or other enemies. Do pick one or the other. Remember, protego is your friend," and he nodded his head towards Draco.
Draco was on his feet, casting again. Harry's casually swished protego held, but he needed to regroup and he seemed to know it. The spells began to fly in earnest then.
Marissa glanced up at Brian's face in the crowd and their gazes held. He was the only other one to see just how wrong this really was, how out of character and strange. What were they doing? What could it mean? The other students were excited and fearful by turns; cheering , groaning, calling out encouragements or suggesting spells at first then falling silent as the intensity of the battle subtly deepened.
The spells weren't so nice now; the stinging charms and twitchy ear hexes gave way to… wow.
Her dad just loosed a real bruiser on Brain's dad. And Brian's dad looked… pissed.
Marissa watched as Brian's eyes followed his father through a quick series of spells, each one countered by her own father. A quick turn, dodging a spell at the end of the platform, brought Harry eye to eye across the room with his son.
He froze. Realization struck him around the same time Marissa's father's spell did and he was thrown forward off the edge. He managed to twist in midair and get his feet beneath him as he fell, but still landed heavily on his knees.
The students drew back even further if possible as one, and Marissa felt her own feet go out from under her as her stillness was carried along sideways by a tide of black robes. Almost as a reflex Brian turned from his father's fall and caught her; she felt him grab first her robes and then her arm, steadying and righting her. She clutched at his hand, never so glad that she was not alone as her world spun and settled on its new axis.
Her dad would really have hurt Harry. He was capable. He thought about it. He clearly had chosen not to, but it was a near thing.
And Harry? He too had come close to letting his magic turn lethal, and if all they were taught was true, there was considerable stuff there to control. Take out Dark Lords kind of stuff. His eyes when he had become aware again of Brian watching had been deeply saddened, remorseful.
He wasn't supposed to do that, damn it! And her father! What the hell was he thinking? They weren't supposed to get angry at each other like that. They were, if not extended family, friends.
Or so she thought.
Harry struggled to his feet, his eyes downcast.
"Professor Malfoy was right about the bow, being tradition. Voldemort tried to make me bow to him my fourth year when he got his body back and thought we should duel. He said the niceties should be observed. 'Bow to death, Harry,' he said. Well, that was the only nicety observed in that duel. It wasn't fair, and it wasn't noble or exciting or pretty. It was bloody awful. There was a boy there who didn't even get a chance to fight. 'Kill the spare' they said, and he was gone. Cedric Diggory. Gone. Forget about noble and ancient traditions and dueling and please just learn from the past. There's no glory in battling each other. Don't let us go down that path again." And with that being said, Marissa noticed Harry's eyes flicker to Malfoy who gave him the slightest of nods that only his daughter seemed to have noticed.
Harry's thoughts might have been said to the room at large, but Marissa was being held up by the one for whom it was intended, and she felt the full force of the magical energy attached to those words radiate through ever cell in her body. Where it touched the skin of Brian's hands and arm around her, the feeling flared to burning and she knew that he was registering his father's message.
If Brian was angry, she couldn't tell for he was completely still and his eyes were the only things that moved. They flicked from Harry, who had turned, nodded to Draco and headed out the door. Then they were on her father who had jumped down lightly and retrieved his robe from the stool, and still not glancing in Marissa's direction he nodded at Scott who had climbed back up onto the platform, looking just as stunned as the other forty nine students and he left the room, his robes draped over his arm.
The room let out a collective breath and the volume went from zero to ten in the amount of time it took for Marissa to let out the breath she didn't realize she had been holding.
She wasn't sure what Scott had said because she was starting to feel anger bubble up inside her, mainly for the way they acted up there. The volume changed as students started trickling out so she figured that they were excused.
Without releasing her hand, Brian pulled her towards the door, pushing his way past students and pulling her so fast she had to run to keep up, her hand held firmly in his and he led her through the throng of students milling about, past the stairs for the Ravenclaw tower and towards the Gryffindor tower.
Then he turned suddenly and headed up the back way to the Room of Requirement, and like the previous two times a door appeared and they entered into the same room as last time.
Turning to her after he let go of her hand, which she began rubbing to try and get the feeling back, he started pacing then stopped and stared at her.
She could see clouds of anger pass over his features. His brown eyes were flashing and his mouth was pressed in a thin line.
"What the hell were they trying to prove?" he demanded and Marissa shook her head, still reeling from the last fifteen minutes spent watching their fathers.
"Well, one way or another we're finding out. I don't care if I have to accidentally fall into every memory in that damn pensive dad has. They acted like a couple of gits up there…and they are thirty four years old for Merlin's sake!"
He continued pacing and Marissa watched him, slightly amused at seeing him so angry.
"I think they must have done something like that before, since your dad recognized the serpensortia curse, and from the way they made fun of each other for counting. Remember in second year when we were taught the proper way to duel? Maybe it was their second year and they dueled each other…way back when."
Brian stopped pacing, looked at her as if seeing her for the first time.
"That's it; that makes so much sense! More than likely they DID duel. Now, I see why you're in Ravenclaw," he said more to himself than as a compliment to her so she remained quiet.
The ball of stress in her belly had subsided to a dull ache and she slowly walked over to the sofa and sat down trying to make sense of what she had just witnessed.
"Aren't you angry?" he asked now sitting on the arm of the sofa, not being able to read her thoughts. She had that neutral look on her face.
"I am; I'm just trying to figure out a way that I can approach dad about this without going off, and I'm not coming up with anything."
"You and me both," Brian fumed then threw up his hands as if giving up and simultaneously making an exasperated noise before uttering a four letter word she had never heard him say before.
"We are both really pissed off right now, and if you're like me a bit embarrassed by what just transpired, so maybe we should just sit and vent, or go for a walk or something…or if you need to go be by yourself…," Marissa offered, pushing herself off the sofa and for the first time she noticed a table with snacks on it, so she helped herself to a pumpkin pastie. She grabbed one for Brian and handed it to him, and they both returned to the sofa, eating and lost in their own thoughts.
Brian made no move to get up, so she sat with him waiting until he gave an indication of what he wanted to do; how they could make sense of this crazy afternoon.
"I think," Brian said after a few moments, "We need to floo home and talk to our fathers."
He sounded much calmer and Marissa sucked her finger, tasting the last bit of pumpkin then took a sip of water that had appeared next to her.
"Well, that'll catch them off guard, which is probably what we need so they don't have time to think of excuses as to why they acted that way."
"So, should we go do it after dinner?" Brian asked turning towards her.
"If you don't think we will get in trouble with McGonagall…I would really like to get into my father's head…," Marissa met his brown eyes and could see he was still angry. "Sure, let's go after dinner."
'What the hell? We'd get into more trouble with McGonagall if she found out they dueled like that than for us flooing home,' she thought to herself.
"Good. Then we can get together sometime tomorrow and exchange stories."
"I have Quidditch practice after classes tomorrow and a study group after dinner, so it might have to be between classes or on Wednesday," Marissa told him.
(Her study group wasn't really a study group at all. Secretly, unbeknownst to everyone but her parents she was gearing up to take her fifth year exams…even though she was fourth year. She had received O's on every piece of homework and assignment and was convinced she could pass her fourth and fifth year exams and go straight into her sixth year, with Brian, this upcoming September.)
Brian nodded and stood up; Marissa followed suit.
"Ok…good luck and we'll catch up later then?" they walked together towards the door and Marissa nodded.
"I can't wait to see what our mothers say," Marissa mused and placed her glass on the table then reached for the door knob.
Before she could touch it, Brian grabbed her arm and spun her around. She caught a brief glimpse of his mouth and the next thing she knew it was on hers. A hard, quick kiss that made her reel back into the door and stare up at him. Her mind was still on placing the glass on the table, but her body was definitely in the moment of the kiss.
"What…what was that for?" Marissa blinked and stood up straighter, forcing herself to grab the handle and wrench the door open as she stayed facing him.
"Good luck," he gave her a small smile and she shook her head in confusion and held the door open for him. Together they walked out and the door disappeared silently behind them.