Disclaimer: I own nothing except this epically awesome duel. Which JK Rowling invented the spells for. So technically, I do not own it :(


Chapter 7: The Duel

Penny

I was Malfoy's second. Finally, a chance to get Potty and the Weasel in trouble! And maybe, while we were at it, we could give detention to the Mudblood and... Lilac. The Best Friend Ditcher, the Traitor.

"Well, of course we aren't going to go - " he started.

"What are you talking about, Draco! This is our one chance to send Potty home to the Muggles for good!" I interrupted.

"No, Penny. We're just going to tip Filch off that someone is going to be in the trophy room at Midnight. He won't suspect a thing."

"Don't be a wimp, Draco."

"I'm not a wimp!" he whined.

"Yes, you are," I argued. "If you don't think you and Ias a TEAM can beat a Potty and a Weasel, then you are a wimp. You're just scared of facing Granger and Li - Starre because they know more spells than you."

He sighed, admitting defeat (and not noticing that I almost said Lilac...). "Fine. We'll go."

"YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!" I spent the night practicing my best spells and curses and teaching Draco some really cool ones. One of my signature Slytherin spells was Serpensortia, used to set a snake on someone. Snape had taught me that one. We trained until 11:30, and then walked to the trophy room. I wore my robes, my Slytherin Princess Tiara, my jade earrings, silver charm bracelet, and an evil sneer. Draco was wearing his robes, a large ring, and a matching evil grin. He had spiked his hair and he looked sooo cute! Why I was thinking about that at a time like this, I don't know.

The trophy room was more than large enough for a wizard's duel, the polished trophies glinting at us from every angle. We stood, wands at the ready, waiting for Potter and Weasley to show up. Draco had wanted to bring Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy, but I had called him a wimp again so just the two of us went. No doubt Potty would bring his whole gang of worshippers.

"Go a-WAY, Hermione -" I heard Weasley say.

Granger the Mudblood hissed, "If you get us in trouble I'll just say I was trying to stop you, maybe we won't lose so many points!"

"All of you people shut up!" Lilac's voice.

Potter whispered urgently, "We're nearly there - " Draco and I were ready.

Lilac

At 9 o'clock, I hurried to the Gryffindor Common Room. I think I was allowed to be there, no one said I wasn't, and I wasn't as touchy with rules as Hermione. The boys were hunched over a table, and I thought they were studying up on spells. A closer look revealed that they were reading a book about the Chudley Cannons.

"Really, you guys!"

They both looked embarrased. Ron was red and his freckles seemed to disappear, and Harry looked down at his shoes. I sighed. "Well, then. Let's get going."
I taught them any useful spells, curses, and hexes I knew. Neither of the dodos could remember the spell to block curses, so we practiced protegoon each other as well. At 11:30, when I deemed them ready, we left. It was decided that I would come with them just in case. I braided my hair so that it wouldn't get in the way and attached a large lilac made of amethyst to the bottom of the braid (still almost 3 feet long). If I swung it at someone, it was deadly.

I cast Disillusionment Charm on all 3 of us. "This way," I said. "We don't have to worry about running into anyone on the way there." But just as we were about to leave through the portrait of the Fat Lady, Hermione appeared in a fluffy pink bathrobe.

"I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry," she said.

"You!" Ron whispered furiously. "Go back to bed!"

"I almost told your brother. Percy - he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this."

"Hermione - " I started.

"Don't you guys care about Gryffindor, Lilac, don't you care about Ravenclaw, you and Malfoy and Penny aren't the only people who exist - "

"Hermione - " I tried to argue. The boys were clambering out of the portrait hole.

"Fine! Go!" she said. "But don't say I didn't warn you -" She turned around to go back to the common room, to find that the Fat Lady had disappeared. I giggled.

"Now I guess you have to come with us," I said.

"I guess I do." I cast a Disillusionment Charm on her, and we set off after the boys, whispering about spells and such. We came across a shivering object on the floor. Closer examination revealed it to be Neville.

"Thank... Goodness you found me," he said, his teeth chattering. "I've been out here for hours!"

"Well, the Fat Lady's gone for a walk," Hermione said. "But the password is Pig Snout."

"Fat lot of good that does me now," Neville grumbled.

"Okay, bye Neville, we've got to go - "

"No!" he cried. "Don't leave me! I don;t want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already."

Ron and Harry wandered back towards us, probably wondering what was taking us so long. "Neville - " Harry started.

"He's coming," I interrupted.

"But - " Ron started.

"Shut up, Ron, they're coming and you can't do anything about it," I snapped.

Ron looked at his watch and then glared at Neville and Hermione. "If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, and used it on you."

"Mucus ad Nauseam," I said automatically, then realized that would probably be harmful to Hermione and Neville. Oops. Hermione punched me (though not as hard as Penny's "soft punches").

"Thanks, Lilac!" Ron said happily.

"Let's get going, guys," said Harry. "It's nearly a quarter 'till." We set off towards the trophy room. Hermione started talking nervously about us getting into trouble and making noise and other such things. Ron kept telling her to leave, and she replied by saying that she couldn't get into the common room. It went on like this for some time.

"Go a-WAY, Hermione -" Ron said.

Hermione hissed, "If you get us in trouble I'll just say I was trying to stop you, maybe we won't lose so many points!"

"Just shut up both of you!" I snapped.

Harry whispered, "We're nearly there - " We had arrived at the trophy room. Malfoy and Penny were there, wands at the ready.

Penny

"Brought your little gang of followers, eh, Potter?" Draco sneered. I giggled. Lilac stared at me, and I stared my most piercing glare back. She didn't blink or flinch. Ah, well, she was used to it. Lilac was possibly the only person on the planet who could withstand my evil glare.

"Hello, Malfoy," Potter said, "Nice to see you, too." Ron smiled.

Draco shot a curse out of nowhere at Lilac. "Furnunculus!" he yelled. Large boils would have appeared all over her skin, but she had extremely quick reflexes, and blocked it far before it reached her. She seemed to duel almost lazily... and she looked like she was having... fun! The spell rebounded off of her silent shield and hit Draco. Boils erupted all over him. "What - you will pay, Starre!" he yelled. She laughed in return and shot another curse at him soundlessly. She somehow knew how to do nonverbalspells. What?

"Tarantellegra!" she said, laughing all over again. Draco's legs started moving like crazy. He was quite a good dancer, but it didn't look as good when his expression was one of pure hate mixed with fury and surprise, and he was covered in boils. I stifled a laugh. He couldn't stop dancing.

"Avis!" Weasley yelled. A flock of canaries appeared in thin air.

"Canaries?" I said. "That's all you can do?" I laughed mirthlessly, and Lilac shuddered. This was my new laugh, for a new me. She hadn't heard it before, and it was obvious she didn't like it.

"Oppugno!" Weasley said. The canaries flew towards me in a "V" formation, about to attack.

"Evanesco," I said, and the canaries vanished. Lilac shot a purple curse at me. I didn't know what it was, but I blocked it just in time.

"Densaugeo!" Harry said, and Draco's teeth began to grow at an alarming rate.

"What the - " he said, but his speech was cut off by his front teeth, which had now grown past his chin. He clasped a hand to his mouth, completely embarrassed, and ran off to either the Common Room or the Hospital Wing, his teeth now down to his chest. Now, it was five to one. Me against 4 Gryffindors and a Ravenclaw. I needed to get some of them out of the way, somehow.

"Stupefy!" I yelled, and Longbottom fell to the ground, useless.

"Rictumsempra!" Hermione screamed, and I started laughing like a hyena. I couldn't stop, it was like I was being tickled by 6 invisible hands. Just as I was about to collapse on the floor, I pointed my wand at myself and gasped out the countercurse.

"Clau - si - sempr - a" I managed to say between giggles, and I stopped laughing a split second before I had to block the Petrificus Totalusthat Potter had just sent my way.

"Stupefy!" I yelled, and Weasley went down as well. Now it was just me, Potty, Lilac, and Granger. "Immobilus!" I screamed, and Potter froze in place. "Not so much of a hero now, are you, Potty," I sneered. He stared back, not being able to move. Time to cast my (to-be) signature spell. "Serpensortia!" I yelled. A jet-black snake slithered onto the floor. Granger and Lilac stared at it.

"Can you - " Lilac asked, turning to Granger urgently, who nodded. Lilac kept her now almost-glowing purple eyes on the snake, while Granger whispered, "Mobilicorpus!" and lifted the frozen forms of Potter, Weasley, and Longbottom and walked out of the trophy room. It was just me and Lilac now. Just how I had always wanted it. This was going to be good. I laughed evilly.

Lilac

The duel went pretty well. Malfoy left because of all the curses we set on him, and Penny started laughing so hard that she barely escaped being petrified, although she did knock out Neville, Harry, and Ron. I can't believe I didn't block those. Hermione took them all to the Common Room to recover, and hopefully she had the sense to disillusion them all before leaving, or they would be caught.

It was just down to me and Penny. I was facing a seven-foot long serpent, and I stared at it apprehensively while Penny laughed that evil, mirthless, un-Penny-like laugh. But I guess this was Penny. This wasn't the Penny I used to have. This was a totally transformed, evil Penny. *sigh*

When I got pressured, angry, really happy, really sad, or basically any other big emotion, my eyes would almost glow with a faint purple light. It was cool (but creepy). I stared at the snake.

I waited until the exact right moment. The snake slowly lifted its upper body off of the ground. It prepared to kill. "INCENDIO!" I yelled just as the snake was about to strike. A jet of blue fire struck it in the head, and it dissolved into a pile of ashes. Penny stared at me, like she couldn't believe I defeated the snake.

"I'm not that stupid, you know," I said. She sneered in return. I knew she could never go back to the girl she used to be, no matter how much I wanted my best friend back, no matter how much I could beg and plead, she would never be the real Penny again. "We can still be friends..." I started.

She didn't talk. Instead, she tried to set a Bat-Bogey hex on me. "Protego," I said softly. "Penny - "

"No."

"Fine. If you want to - "
"Lilac, we're not friends anymore. I thought you realized that a long time ago. I have new friends now."

I felt choked up. But here we were, dueling each other, when we could be hugging each other. To try to hug Penny right now would be suicide. So instead, I spun around, finally giving usefulness to the lilac in my hair. It hit her face and left an angry red welt, but that just made her madder. "You will - " but she didn't have time to finish, because I cast the slug-vomiting charm on her, and she started throwing up disgusting green slugs all over the place. She looked really angry, but she couldn't curse me as an effect of slugs spilling out of her mouth, and she could barely move. She gave me one last look of pure hate, then staggered out of the room.

I smiled. Revenge was sweet.


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