Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since I updated. This chapter is a bit slow-moving at first (I think), so bear with me until the good stuff starts. Also, this is the longest chapter in this fic so far, but don't get used to it. Finally, I've got end of year exams and assignments coming up soon, so apologies if updates are very far apart. Here goes...!

CHAPTER 10

The sun had set, and the air grew steadily cooler. The turnout was massive. It must have been half the school.

From 1st years to 7th years, the crowd slowly gathering around the Whomping Willow was a hush of whispers, mystery and curiosity.

As nervous as he was about either who was going to win and if the teachers were going to (inevitably) find out, Harry was looking forward to the fight.

A tap on his shoulder alerted him to the presence of one of the contestants and his posse.

Harry turned around and greeted them.

"So, do you think you're ready?"

Jace, as per his usual fashion, laughed. Then, his expression sobered, and he grew serious.

"I'm not sure. Even though I've been training for most of my golden existence as a demon hunter, I'm not quite sure I can take a snobby prince like His Royal Highness Draco Malfoy in a fist fight."

"Well, angel-boy, I daresay that's what you'll be calling me in a few minutes when I beat the crap out of your sorry ass."

Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and pretty much the entire of Slytherin house had arrived.

Without further ado, Jordan Lee, the school's unofficial commentator, called everyone to attention and everyone moved into a large circle.

Malfoy, who had left Jace to warm up in his make-shift bench, looked deep in concentration, and was getting some last minute advice from a particularly frightening-looking 7th year Slytherin student. The thug was demonstrating something by pumping his fist firmly into the palm of his other hand.

Jace was just standing in the middle of the circle, waiting for Malfoy, with his arms crossed over his chest and a slightly amused look on his face. He stood there on his own, in all his golden, muscular glory.

Finally, after some words of encouragement from Pansy Parkinson, Malfoy entered the circle. The Slytherin part of the crowd cheered, while the other part jeered.

Somehow, Ron had come up with a chant that rivalled Weasley is Our King in sophistication. Then again, Weasley is Our King wasn't all that sophisticated to start with.

Malfoy is our king

He's gonna prove how dumb he is

Jace is never gonna miss

Coz Malfoy is our king

Ron was conducting the crowd with a look of utmost glee on his face. Fred and George took over with a few very rude verses of their own.

Hermione surveyed the crowed, her eyes hovering over the Slytherin area, frowned and hurried over to Jace, with an urgent look on her face.

"Erm, Jace, I have a sneaking suspicion that Malfoy might be using his wand in the fight. We use wands for magic, like turning on lights or summoning things or rather painful – "

"Hermione. Darling. I may look as good as a god, but contrary to popular belief that is the more incredible you look the dumber you are, I actually know what wand magic is. I've only hung around this giant medieval castle thing for a month and a bit."

Looking a bit startled, Hermione opened her mouth, then closed it again, like she just emitted a tiny, silent, odourless burp. It wasn't clear whether she was going to defend herself or Hogwarts castle. Regardless, she didn't say anything.

Jace winked at her and sidled over to Clary who was watching the exchange with an exasperated look on her face.

"Really, Jace? Is there any one time in your life where you can talk to someone without making them feel like you've been talking to them in Swahili?"

Jace put his hand up to his chin, the universal symbol of contemplation. After a few moments, he shook his head.

"Nope."

Clary sighed. Typical.

Lee was getting antsy.

"Gentlemen, in the ring, please."

As last minute preparation, Jace asked Clary for a rune.

"Jace! You're meant to be in there!"

"I know! Just give me a rune!"

"You don't need a rune! You're a Shadowhunter! You've got magical powers!"

Jace put on a face the Puss in Boots would kill for.

Clary sighed. "What type? Strength? Stamina?"

Universal symbol of contemplation.

"A badass rune."

Unable to contain herself, she laughed.

She closed her eyes, waiting for a rune to come to mind. Nothing. Wait, something was there, yes, blossoming away in her mind's eye. Badass, she thought. Something badass.

It was, well, weird. And it looked slightly like a fist with the middle finger raised. It was curly and spiralling, and it made Clary question the weirdness of her sub-conscious.

"Got it."

Jace smiled, full and genuine. He lifted up the hem of his shirt to his chest. In his periphery, he saw Lavender Brown gasp and collapse on the ground. He turned his head to see the Patil twins rush to her side and lift her up. He didn't see what happened next, because there was a sharp, burning sensation in the flat, hard muscle of his stomach. He looked down and frowned. Now that was an interesting-looking rune.

Whatever.

Finished, Clary straightened up and Jace smoothed out his shirt.

He smiled at her in thanks, and just that simple little grin was enough to show his appreciation for Clary.

His face set in mock concentration, Jace entered the ring.

Malfoy was jumping up and down, shaking his arms out, readying for the upcoming fight.

The other Shadowhunters were incredibly amused that Malfoy thought he stood a chance to what some called the best Shadowhunter of his generation. Regardless, the two fighters faced each other as the last of the onlookers arrived.

Ever the gentleman, Jace bowed to his opponent and swept his arm in front of him, as if inviting the first punch. Some of the crowd laughed.

Malfoy spun around and yelled, "Shut UP!" Jace took this opportunity to swiftly and silently approach Malfoy, so that when the wizard spun around again, he jumped a few feet in the air in surprise.

Jace grinned. "When, you're ready, feel free to do some damage to my pretty face."

Malfoy narrowed his eyes. "Game on, goldie."

Jace raised his eyebrows. "That's a new one."

Instead of using his brain to think of a comeback, Malfoy messily swung his fist, which would have connected rather painfully broken Jace's nose, if not for a few factors. The first, of course would be that Jace was a trained demon hunter and had been for most of his existence. Also, Malfoy's attempt at injury was rather pathetic. With a smug smile, Jace thought that his new Badass rune might have made a difference.

As not to bore his opponent, Jace brought his fist up into Malfoy's stomach. In a brave attempt to remain manly, Malfoy put on the face of someone who had just swatted a particularly annoying fly.

In return, Malfoy sent a flying kick towards Jace's abdomen, which was quickly deflected.

The two circled each other for a few seconds before Jace was aware of two rather large figures entering the circle.

Malfoy spun around, and a look of immense gratitude filled his features. Jace just stood back and crossed his arms. Oh boy. So not fair.

The two winners of the annual gorilla look-a-like competition had entered and positioned themselves behind their leader.

Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy faced Jace.

And then they launched themselves on him.

Not holding back (after all, the Shadowhunters hadn't had any physical exertion in the past month), Jace replied with as much power as he had, without killing any of them.

In the background, Isabelle was looking bored, but was occasionally catching the eye of Harry, who was watching the fight with intense satisfaction, watching his arch enemy and his cronies being beaten to a pulp. Hermione was watching the proceedings with an amused look on her face which was carefully guarded by a look of anxiety. Ron was helping Lee Jordan commentate.

"…and Jace has packed a punch resulting in… a blood nose for Malfoy! My fellow Hogwartians, this is a day of triumph! Someone, draft a letter to his father! Oh, would you look at that! Goyle's gone down! Or maybe it's Crabbe. I dunno. They look exactly the same to me. Big fat gorillas, they are. Anyway, here comes Jace again with a kick that should have some profound name after it… and Goyle's back up, but he's limping… and here comes Malfoy with a very girlish slap in the face for Jace which has ended up on one of his own… once again, can't tell the difference… and Jace is looking like the victor in this challenge, but then again, it wasn't much of a competition, even with two great elephants joining in… and … Here we go! The biggie! Oh, hang on, who's that over there?"

Indeed, someone had joined the onlookers. Only, this viewer didn't wear the robes of Hogwarts students, nor the simple attire of the Shadowhunters.

This person was wearing zebra-print skinny jeans with a sparkly lime-green ruffled dress shirt and a mauve silk vest on top.

Magnus.

He strutted up to the small group of Shadowhunters gathered on the edge of the circle.

"Such goings on. What has pretty boy over there gotten himself into now?"

"Well, in an effort to alleviate some of the boredom of us being here, Jace thought it would be a good idea to pick a fight with possibly the most arrogant kid in school, by the looks of things." Clary answered.

Magnus looked at her with a look of mock surprise and raised his thumb and forefinger to his chin. "Really? I thought Jace was pretty arrogant himself."

Clary merely shrugged and turned back to face the action.

The group of Shadowhunters plus warlock surveyed the fight with an almost critical eye.

At one point, Clary thought she heard Alec murmur, "Hmm. He really should have used that opening when he had the chance. Oh well."

A few more minutes passed while Jace was busy beating the pulp out of Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle.

Suddenly, Alec stiffened. Not a nanosecond after him, Isabelle's eyes shot up and began surveying the vicinity. Something wasn't right. The air had swiftly become cooler. As his parabatai, Jace sensed it too. He quickly dealt with Crabbe (the other two were either unconscious or writhing in agony on the ground), and jogged over to the other Shadowhunters, instinctively pulling out a Seraph blade. The others did the same. Sensing danger from the others, Magnus closed his eyes and raised his hands, and immediately aqua-hued sparks began dancing on his palms. The Shadowhunters looked at him expectantly.

Magnus' eyes flew open, and there was a look of determination and fierceness that hadn't been there a moment ago.

By that point, the witches and wizards in the crowd had realised something wasn't quite right. Magnus confirmed it.

He levitated himself, floating a few metres above the crowd.

"Everyone needs to get indoors right now, preferably to your common rooms. This isn't debatable. Someone also needs to tell Professor Dumbledore that Valentine's day has come early. He'll know what I mean. Go."

And with that final, powerful word, everyone scrambled. Magnus waved his hands like an orchestral conductor would to signal the end of a piece, and the pain-ridden bodies of Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle disappeared, presumably to the hospital wing.

When it seemed all the Hogwartians had left, Jace turned to Magnus, about to ask what was going on, when he noticed Harry, Ron and Hermione standing stubbornly a few metres away.

"Hey, you guys have to leave. Stuff's gonna go down that you won't want to witness or take part in. You better go."

Harry, stubbornly as ever, stood his ground. "I don't mean to be rude, but we've had all had our fair share of life-threatening situations, and this seems to be one of the least frightening. We have a right to know what's happening."

Clary jumped in before Jace had a chance to reply.

"Let's just say that our equivalent of Voldemort's son is about to do some serious damage, pretty much like Jace did to that kid Draco's face."

Hermione pulled out her wand and adopted a strong, battle-ready stance. Ron stood next to her with a similar sense of determination too. It was clear whose side they were on.

Ron stepped forward. "That's all well and fine. But we need to fight too. We are not about to let our castle be attacked by some evil Shadowhunter. Harry's got a army full of people who can appear in an instant and be ready to stop any unwelcome visitors. Much, I might add, like yourselves."

Getting angrier by the minute, Jace said, "This isn't your fight. You can't expect just to jump into someone else's battle for your own entertainment. You and your fairy-friends need to get the hell out of here right now, before I — "

Isabelle interrupted him. "Jace! Calm down. If they want to fight, then that's their choice. I daresay we might need it."

Jace wasn't sure if this had anything to do with Harry or Izzy's passion for 'do whatever and worry about the consequences later'.

At that precise moment, Dumbledore joined them, a look of fury and power etched into the ancient lines of his face.

"Magnus. What's going on?"

"He's arrived." Magnus said simply.

Indeed, a moment later, whoever "he" was, stood in front of the group.

This figure did not wear such flamboyant clothes as the last surprise visitor had. He wore a simple black shirt, jeans and boots.

Some would say, typical Shadowhunter wear.

He had white-blond hair, not unlike Malfoy's, and he stood tall and proud.

Beside him, Jace felt Clary shudder. He protectively put his arm around her shoulders, never taking his eyes off the newcomer.

It was Dumbledore's booming voice that broke the silence.

"Jonathan Morgenstern. Get away from my students and my castle. Get out of my sight."

The teenager, however shrugged.

"Your call."

And with that, he appeared right next to Clary.

And slit her throat.

Ooh! Cliffy! Review! (Need I say more?)