July 2094
Orion Smith was remarkable, just finishing his Sixth year at Hogwarts school of magical arts, he already had a light beard coming along, he was six foot one, with short curly brown hair, cloudy eyes and a broad build, all these things plus the climbing status of his family made him a magnet for girls of all ages. however non of these things made him remarkable, what did however was his record, his duelling record and what a record it was.
From the moment he was able to pick up a wand Orion had a natural ability, an ability which had led him to be the star of his duelling classes and winner of a great many competitions.
He just knew how to work a duel, when to step out of the way, when the right spell was needed and he had since he was a child, he excelled in the dark arts, though he was terrible at charms.
he'd been disregarded as a fluke when he won the Hogwarts annual duelling championship in his third year, a prodigy when he repeated the feat in his fourth, when he did it again in his fifth Orion was approached by the last man he expected (or wanted) to see, Draco Malfoy, The casseur, the dark lords right hand man, everybody knew the story, disgraced by the actions of his father, Draco Malfoy had in the middle of the final battle turned his own father in to the dark lord as a traitor and led the dark lord straight to The-Boy-Who-Died, he worked his way back up through the ranks on his own merit to get where he was today, the face of the empire, Draco's word was law unless the dark lord directly interfered, his name was feared much like Voldemorts own.
Lord Malfoy had offered him a job and a place in the inner circle claiming the cause needed more like him, good fighters and loyal men, saying Orion reminded him of himself in his early days, reminding him there was still are war on, this was the offer of a life time, one so good he couldn't refuse, but it was everything he didn't want.
In years to come people close to him would be asked about his life and what he was like as a teenager, accounts differed as they often do with time, age, nostalgia clouded people's memory, they all agreed, he never ever spoke about that day to them, his friends from Hogwarts pin-pointed that as the moment that changed him and shaped him up to be what he became.
This story however is not about Orion, not yet anyway, this story starts with the girl who beat him, Three years after he first won the title of Hogwarts champion it was taken away.
Let me explain a little about the competition first
July 1st of every school year the school duelling championship begins, an event taken very seriously by the school populace, the head boy had always been champion at least once, the championship was a tradition going back over 50 years, going back to 2040. Rumour has it, it began as a way of keeping the lower families and the renati inline, if that true it's a plan that backfired dramatically as it turns out the average Macmillan or Smith was as cable of fighting as any Malfoy or Nott.
The championship worked like this, each year the people who entered themselves fought their own year in two sections, boys and girls.
The winner from the boys went on to fight the winner from the girls and so on, then the first year champion would fight the second year champion and the third year champion would fight the winner from that duel and so on, right up until the seventh year champion. Interestingly in fifty four years of the competition there has only been three female winners.
On July 16th 2094 that changed, as the victor from the year before Orion did not compete in the inter year competition, he fought the final winner, and if like the year before (and the year before that) he won he would be re-crowned.
He didn't bother watching this year, not until the final seven anyway, he watched unsurprised as burly first year Markus Bulstrode destroyed a slight female second year ,a renati he believes, the first year was quickly defeated by a tall third year girl from a lower family
From his position he could not see the fourth year contestant only their back, but it was another girl, she was small and slender for her age, held herself with all the poise of a high class family, her hair was almost white pulled back into a high ponytail it still reached her waist, the hand which held her wand, which bent in the middle much like a talon, was mocha in colour, he couldn't stop himself smirking viciously when she strode forward confidently as if she'd already won.
As always he turned to make his predictions to his best friend, Regulus Crouch - "My money is on the third year, I reckon blonde will put up a good fight but I've seen her type arrogant before the fight and making excuses afterwards, she'll be all flashy magic, that stuff looks good but isn't of any really use" to his surprise Reg didn't agree instead he ran his hand through his mop of bright ginger hair and laughed
" You don't know who she is, do you Ri, ah well two galleon's on the blonde, I've seen her fight"
Orion raised and eyebrow and turned back to the girls, BANG, they began with Headmaster Nott's wand blast.
The blonde twirled her wand between her fingers pacing predatorily, the third year (Jessica Bones) fired the first shot, a disarming spell, which was calmly dodged by the fourth year who silently threw back an aguamenti which cover her legs and the floor, Jessica chuckled lightly and made to step into her next spell only to discover the water had frozen leaving her knee's, and below encased in ice, the blond actually laughed hurling an unknown jinx at the frozen girl who just about managed to dodge before she unfroze her knee's , Bones fired a blasting charm, knocking the smug girl back a couple of paces, Orion watched with interest as they carried on.
Then to everyone's amazement the blonde huffed and said in a light voice "Bored now" and swirled round slashing her wand like a sword, before pulling it inwards simultaneously two things happened, Jessica's clothing and skin across her chest were split open, as if with a dagger and her wand flew into the blonde's hand, the entire crowd looked on in horror, school duels almost never reached fatal levels, especially not this early on, in fact it had only happened five times, most recently thirty years ago when a Renati reached the finals against Tanya Zabini, outraged the girl, now a notorious death eater, had gutted the boy immediately.
The blonde laughed and muttered a long line of Latin stitching Jessica's wound (and clothing) back together quickly.
Regulus held out his hand for his money, Orion grumbled as he handed it over "Bloody hell some warning would have been nice, were all her other duels like that?" Reg informed him that they were "though she didn't go THAT far in any of the others"
Orion stiffened as the next year champion stood up, Abraxus Smith, his little brother "Shit I forgot he entered himself this year, he'll be fine, he's as good as she is, probably better, he'll win… right Reg?"
"Oh sure, he's a good fighter I've seen him fight, Axe has some serious skill" But Orion wasn't convinced he was being honest.
The duel that followed was depressingly short, but there was no doubting his brother put up a hell of a fight, but after five minutes, Orion's little brother flew face forward on to the floor a large rock the blonde hand conjured hitting the ground straight after, she walked over and picked up his wand before reviving him.
Axe unlike most of the losing parties in the competition, just laughed and jumped up offering the mysterious girl his hand, which she shook, before turning and bowing.
Her duel against the sixth and seventh years was of no consequence to Orion, it was safe to say she won, but he was focused on that wand, he recognised it, it was Lady Bellatrix's wand, he wasn't aware the wand had finally taken a liking to anyone, Bellatrix LeStrange had died seventy years ago and since then her hard, unyielding wand had refused any and all that tried it, even her young twin daughters, there was no doubting it, this girl would be a challenge.
He stood up, wand gripped in his hand, face straight, he walked to the centre and bowed to the girl, who bowed back, looking him dead in the eye with silver pools and he knew, those eyes couldn't lie, this could only be Vega Malfoy, Daughter of Hyperion Malfoy (II), great granddaughter of The Casseur himself, her eye colour matched that of her Great-grandfathers perfectly.
The wand blast fired and she began circling with just a small smile on her face her wand twirling, obviously she wasn't going to curse first.
He twirled his wand left and jabbed forward sending a strong curse that imitated the affects of a muggle automatic weapon, he sprayed the curse across a wide area, leaving her no space in any direction to dodge, no matter her speed. To his surprise what he heard next was not a scream or any sound of injury, instead he heard a small laugh from behind him, he whirled around to find the source only to discover his opponent ten feet above him with no broom her face smug and very much victorious.
Almost without his consent his wand slashed down and in his mind he formed the spell, her smirk fell from her face in surprise as she recognized the spell and hastily tried to dodge the oncoming spell, unsuccessfully, the spell split her skin from her left cheek to just below her right breast, as if with a sword, the scream that they heard next was not one of pain as it should have been, but of anger.
Vega Malfoy span in mid air sending blood flying everywhere, a chant could be heard from her mouth but her the spinning of her body distorted the sound and made it impossible for him to get a lock on her, suddenly she dropped to the floor twisting her wand in a complicated manner blasting him backwards and his wand out of his hand, standing up for everyone to see that her wound was partially healed.
It should have ended there, she should have summoned his wand and been declared champion, but Vega Malfoy was young and far larger than her talent was her pride, she was used to getting her own way and people simply did not get the drop on her. The desire to win was over shadowed by the desire too equal his humiliation, to the humiliation she believed she suffered.
So instead of ending the fight she bound him tightly with a swish of her wand and flung him against the wall, picked him up and repeated the process three times before leaning over him and picking up his wand with a smile.
He heard the announcement as he faded in and out of consciousness "Vega Druella Malfoy, Winner of the 2094 Hogwarts annual dueling competition, the fourth year defeated the three year champion, Sixth year Orion Scorpious Smith"
He woke up two hours later in the infirmary healer McLaggen bustling around him her sandy brown curls falling all over the place in an unusual display of fluster.
The effort of keeping his eye's open hurt his head so he closed his eye's and listened to her complaining
"Such behaviour, haven't had a competition this rough since I was here, even so that was your parents young miss, I can see you're a chip right off the old Malfoy block eh Miss Vega"
His eye's flew open as a sharp high voice replied "Oh and I though I was more like my mother, at an rate I like to think of myself as a refreshing change"
Orion chuckled loudly, it quickly turned into a cough but that's besides the point, "Something funny Smith" the blond snapped
"That's a complete cliché, 'you're a chip off the old block' 'oh no I'm a completely new block' its like a bad novel"
His chuckling stopped abruptly when his eye's finally focused on the girl hovering above him, her naturally dark skin was pale, underneath her eye's where large purple bags and most noticeably a long angry red line of puckered skin extended from her cheek to the neckline of her robes, he frowned
"Did I do that"
"The scar, yes apparently I'm going to have it for the rest of my life, the bags however no, flying takes up a lot of magical and physical energy, I'm exhausted"
He frowned again "What Smith your upset that your reputation for non lethal spells is gone" She muttered snidely
He shook his head to bring himself back to reality " Huh no, what are you doing here anyway, you don't seem to be being treated, oh.. Or did you come here to gloat, how very unsportsmanlike of you Miss Malfoy"
"No, not gloating, I wanted to apologise for losing my composure in the ring, I've never fought someone close to my own age who was able to get the drop on me, it was childish of me I should have known you would be a proficient dueler I have seen your record, and Gramps… respects you so, I should also" She bowed her head slightly as if in recognition of his talent.
Orion had to stop himself laughing at the very idea of man he was so afraid of, being a "Gramps".
Instead of laughing, he opted for saying "So you can fly eh, that's handy, where'd you learn that then"
The girl smirked lightly "Family secret, grandpa Draco says he was taught by" She lowered her voice "the prince himself, but if anyone happens to ask you, it was a nice little spell I sent at my shoes" Vega winked at him.
Over the next few days the two began a tentative friendship, they had no real choice as they where constantly shoved together for meetings and photographs, which bored them both to tears, in these meetings they were each others only form of entertainment.
During the meeting with the daily prophet Vega kept using a spell to change the shape of her nose behind the interviewers back and making him laugh but managed every time to look serious and professional when the poor man looked behind him.
As they were leaving said meeting, something interesting finally happened.
It was pasted curfew they where walking past the first floor charms classroom when they heard a loud crash from outside.
Vega pulled him into the classroom and straight to the window, peering out the window they could see the cause of the commotion death eaters, around ten of them were dueling with an opponent neither of them could see "one second" Orion muttered waving his wand over the window causing it zoom in, the scene outside was played out much like a show on muggle television through the window, the voices amplified similarly.
Five of the death eaters fell to the floor, revealing their opponent a small girl, around Vega's age with hair like fire and a large cut running from eyebrow to chin
The girl raised her wand and shot a wide spread purple spell knocking the hoods and masks off of the five death eaters still standing, Vega evidently recognized one of them "Mum! What's she doing at Hogwarts?" "The better question is who is she fighting and why are they in front of the compound?"
Another figure emerged this time from the compound, a girl taller than the fighter with wild blood coloured hair and eye's such a bright turquoise they stood out even to Orion and Vega, she grabbed the smaller girl by the arm "C'mon your not going to win and they'll make you clean up any mess you make tomorrow, without magic…"
"well at least one of you mudbloods has sense" one of the death eaters commented
"Shove it Malfoy, I'm not doing you a favour, I'm just trying to sleep but I can't with this racket" The dark haired girl snarled.
Orion looked at Vega "that's your mother?!"
"Yep, don't look so shocked, oh let me guess you thought she was blonde?"
Orion shrugged and they turned back to unfolding scene.
"Ahh you must be Opal, My father-in-laws 'favourite' he always did like spirit, explains why he married Tanya I guess, I expect I'll be seeing you over the summer yes? In the manor if course" Cassiopeia's voice dripped with distain
Opal flinched as if slapped "I suppose it will be for your husband this year then?" her voice was low and taunting
"Why you little whore!" the black haired death eater twirled her wand violently and the two girls flew into the wall of the compound, after summoning the smaller girls wand the five death eaters walked away and collected their fallen comrades.
Vega and Orion stared out the window in shock.
"Damn V your mum is… scary"
"Well that mudblood should never have implied my father would… do that" While her words said one thing her face and voice showed that she was visibly shaken.
Orion didn't comment instead look at the window again "Look the girls are moving"
The girl with fire hair stood up and shook her hair , then scowled "What the hell do you think you where doing?! I could have taken them, I could have freed you, ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!"
"No you couldn't, I was saving your arse, this used to be a quidditch stadium, granted its changed a bit but there's still four high podiums, now however they are used as watch stations. That bitch had just given the signal for the watchers on duty to take you out, It's cold out here lets get you inside, I'm Opal, Opal Murphy"
"Rose, Rose Longbottom, I can't believe they took my wand" she said the last bit mournfully
"Yeh, they only let you have a wand when you 'serving' them, basically all we're taught is household spells, to prepare us for later life or some such bullshit, but we learn anyway you'll find out on Sunday, Longbottom you say, wait till Fili meets you he'll be overjoyed"
Rose followed looking upset but curious.
That night as Orion was packing his trunk for the train the next day and pondering what he'd witnessed.
He didn't want to be death eater, he didn't want to marry some up tight pureblood and be paying not so discreet visits to young muggleborn girls, he didn't want to go around brutally destroying anything that go in his way and he definitely did not did not want to become his father.
So he decided that he wouldn't, it was over he was done, he didn't care anymore after the Malfoy's Ball he was gone, done.