The next three months passed quickly for Harry as he was kept constantly busy with his training and the DA along with his NEWT lessons. The DA had been transformed in this time into a proper fighting force, with Harry making Ginny, Dobby and Neville the generals to his commander in chief. The troops were making remarkable progress. With a good DADA teacher for a change, Harry was really able to focus on the war effort and training his soldiers for combat situations and he had just done that with multi-party duels and battle situations.

Ron and his relationship with Harry had returned to something almost resembling normality, though they still weren't nearly as close as they had been before, as Ron was burdened with the friendship and, to his eyes, unrequited love of Hermione Granger who still maintained that she was right; disillusioned that Harry would use the dark arts, even in the war. Hermione was frosty at best towards Harry, staunchly supporting Dumbledore, with whom Harry hadn't spoken to since their argument at the start of term.

The order, however, were a different matter, Harry had started receiving letters from Remus just after the start of the year and it turned out that Thane was right, the order was made up of mostly good people. People of whom many were against Dumbledore's handling of 'the Harry situation.' Harry's training had progressed well and, though he didn't have much time with his other responsibilities, he had taught himself many new spells and techniques and he was starting to feel that he might even have a chance of surviving for more than five minutes against the massively superior army that he was planning to take on.

His spies too had been good to their words, Dobby continued to bring regular updates about the order and what they were doing (which was not much as far as Harry could see). Wormtail reported to him every week about death eater meetings and further plans which proved highly useful, though Voldemort didn't seem to bother keeping Wormtail in the loop about his biggest plan of all, Harry was still very short on information on the mysterious 'object'; what it was, where it was and how close Voldemort was to getting his hands on it.

Since their meeting on the second day of term, Blaise Zabini had started to come along to DA meetings, bringing along regular updates of rumours in the Slytherin common room along with anything he could find out from his uncle who, it turned out, was a highly ranking death eater, answerable only to Malfoy, Lestrange, Dolohov and Voldemort himself. It took a while for Blaise to be accepted by his fellow soldiers into the army, old biases being hard to fight past, but his usefulness and undeniable skill and power were hard to ignore and fairly soon he was being treated as one of them, with being promoted by Harry to the rank of sergeant helping him to feel included.

At first Harry was not sure what to do with all of this information, his troops were not yet ready for open conflict with the death eaters and, though Ginny tried to persuade him, his pride would not let him speak to Dumbledore. That was when Remus started to write, making it very clear what he thought of what Dumbledore had done to Harry, Remus was in the order and Harry could use that. After persuading Remus of his plan, Harry started to feed him all of the useful information that he received which Lupin then forwarded on to the order, claiming that he had a 'contact' (which was true) in the werewolf branch of Voldemort's supporters (which was not).

The term had been hard for Harry, with so much work load, he had to do something he never thought he would; give up quidditch. The time spent with his friends too was cut short, Ginny still had quidditch, filling in for Harry as seeker and Ron still had to divide his time between them and Hermione. With all of this going on, Harry was relieved that it was almost Christmas, Remus had invited him to stay at his house for the holidays and it was implied that Thane and a certain metamorphmagus would be coming too.

There was still two weeks left of school though and Thane had a surprise for everyone.

"We're going to have a duelling tournament" he said.

It was Monday morning two weeks before the start of the Christmas holidays and Harding's words were met by a shocked and confused silence which quickly turned into excited chatter. Harry just smile up at his teacher, he and Thane had gotten fairly close over the past few months, Harry would often go and see him in his office where they would share a butterbeer (and occasionally something stronger) and swap anecdotes about their time at Hogwarts and, in Thane's case, after. Harry had known about the tournament for a few weeks now, in fact it was he that suggested that the students should somehow put together and showcase their talents.

"It is not compulsory but I highly recommend it, the duels will take place in the afternoon every other day, except for weekends starting today, half one in the afternoon in the great hall. If you want to enter, just place your name into the sorting hat which is on a stool outside the hall The competition is open to fifth years and above and the winner will be duelling in front of the whole school against a fully trained, highly powerful and devilishly handsome auror… me. Well that's all we've got time for so get out of my classroom, read the section of your books on specific defensive spells, that is spells that block against spells protego won't."

With what they recognised as their dismissal, the class filed out with Harry bringing up the rear.

"Oh professor," he said as he left, "I just want to apologise in advance, it'll be very embarrassing to be put on your arse by a student, even if it is the boy who lived."

Thane grinned and shook his head; "Don't be too confident Potter," he retorted, "I've been holding back my best moves for that moment."

Coming out of the classroom, Harry looked at his watch only to realise that it was already one pm and so jogged to the great hall. Reaching the hall, Harry jumped into his seat next to Ginny, shocking the youngest Weasley, who hadn't heard him approach.

" Hey Gin'" Harry began, "heard about the tournament yet?"

"Yes, actually I've just put my name into the hat, pretty much everyone in my year have entered, not that they expect to get very far. Dean and Seamus have taken over Fred and George's job, but they stopped taking bets on you within the first fifteen minutes."

"I don't know Gin', I wouldn't like to get on your bad side and the DA have come on a long way, I'm not going to walk it," Harry replied modestly.

After dinner Harry, put his name in the sorting hat just as it was being taken away, before joining the crowds in the hall. It looked like the whole school was there, even those ineligible for the tournament had turned up to watch and all those present were engaged in excited chatter, which died down into silence as Thane Harding took to the stage.

"Welcome to the Hogwarts duelling tournament. Over the next couple of weeks before the Christmas holidays you'll test your mettle as well as the skills you have learnt over the term against your peers until we have one champion who will face me in a duel the day before the end of term. The tournament works in stages, an even number of you have entered so we will have randomly chosen one on one duels until half of the entrants have been eliminated from the competition with the other half progressing to the next round. This will continue until all but one are out the competition and we have our champion. Ninety six of you have entered the tournament which means that there will be five rounds until there are three competitors remaining, those three people will duel each of their two rivals separately the winner will be the person who wins the most. If all three of the finalists win a dual each then… I guess I'll just have to think up a plan B, but for now let the contest begin."

The sorting hat was then brought onto the stage by a miserable looking Filch, still sulking from the loss of Umbridge and silence descended once more upon the crowd as they waited with baited breath for the sorting hat to speak. After a tense pause the sorting hat finally opened split in the middle like a mouth and spoke;

"The first duel will be between Draco Malfoy…" A cheer erupted from the Slytherin crowd as Malfoy stepped onto the stage, "…and Ginerva Weasley",

Harry felt a stab of dread about Ginny having to face Malfoy but nonetheless led the cheers for her, giving her an encouraging smile as she glanced back at him before joining Malfoy on the stage.

"OK here are the rules", Thane began, taking his position between them as the duels referee, "No unforgivable curses and no curses that will cause death or serious or lasting mental or physical damage. Is that understood."

"Yes sir", Ginny replied.

Malfoy just gave a small jerk of his head to show that he had heard. Harding looked worried for a second but , with a reassuring smile in Ginny's direction before backing off to the back of the platform before speaking again.

"OK, are you both ready?" Both parties nodded. "When I give the word, turn away from each other and start to walk away, on the count of three you will turn and the dual will begin. And take note that I said three if anyone should decide to begin before I reach three I will step in and that person will be disqualified from the competition. Now bow to each other." They obliged, both keeping their eyes on their opponent and just barely inclining their head. "Good enough, now start your paces. One…Two…Three."

As soon as the word escaped Thane's lips, both Ginny and Malfoy whipped around. It was Malfoy who got his spell away first, however, screaming;

"Condolesco!"

Ginny was forced to dive out of the way, recognising the sister curse of the cruciatus curse, a curse designed to inflict severe pain wherever it strikes. Rolling out of her dive, Ginny came up and sent a stunner at Malfoy who deflected it with protego before returning fire with a reducto curse. Ginny rose a shield but was blasted back by the force of the spell which was only weakened by the simple shield charm.

Jumping back up to her feet Ginny immediately found herself bound to the floor with ropes conjured by Malfoys wand. Malfoy smirked and casually raised his wand to finish Ginny off but was caught off guard as she pointed her wand at the floor and shouted;

"Lubricus Humi!"

The floor was filled with a slippery substance and Malfoy was caught off balance and slipped onto his backside. Ginny made use of the time she had bought herself to cut herself free of the ropes as Malfoy stumbled back to his feet, vanishing the slick substance with a wave of his wand.

Going on the attack, Ginny aimed her wand at the ground once more and shouted

"Motus Humo!"

The floor disintegrated at Malfoy's feet but he leapt over the broken ground just as Kingsley had done months earlier, landing smoothly, he shouted

"Extrudo!"

Ginny just managed to raise her shield in time with a shout of

"Aegis ultimus!"

The shield took most of the spells power but forced Ginny back a few feet, making her stumble a little and her shield disappear. Malfoy took advantage of this and with careful aim, screamed;

"Expelliarmus!"

Ginny was caught of guard and her wand went flying from her hand as the red jet of light struck her in the chest.

"Excellent…" Thane began, stepping forward to declare the duel. Before he could finish his sentence, however, Malfoy had directed his wand at Ginny again and, with a Malevolent smirk, calmly spoke the word "Sectumsempra!" The evil beam sped towards a shocked looking Ginny. Thane scrambled for his wand but Harry had reacted first, stepping forward, he waved his hand, his eyes glowing a furious emerald green and a silver shield materialised in front of the youngest Weasley.

The shield took the blow of the spell, rebounding the dark curse back upon a horrified looking Malfoy who was forced to dive out of the way. His eyes still emanating green light his face a picture of fury, Harry stepped onto the stage and faced Malfoy.

"She is incapacitated Malfoy, the duel's is over. Stow away your wand,"

for the first time, Harry drew his wand from his pocket and aimed squarely between Malfoy's eyes,

"NOW."

Malfoy seemed to recognise the seriousness of the implied threat from the cold calculated way Harry spoke and, looking frankly terrified and with a vague attempt at bravado, smirked at Harry before stowing his wand and walking off the stage.
Harry turned around to find Ginny running towards him, flinging her arms around him as she reached where he stood. Finally separating after a number of seconds, Harry looked at her, she was still pale but was beaming at him.

"I would have blocked it you know." she said to him playfully.

"Well I am sorry," Harry replied sarcastically, "next time a junior death eater shoots a dark curse at you remind me to leave you alone."

"You let him off quite easily, I would have expected a body by now, not a person and especially not a conscious one."

"I'm not a complete idiot Gin'" Harry replied, "I'll kill him when the whole school isn't watching us"

"Ahem." Thane cleared his throat, bringing the fact that he and the whole school were still there back to Harry and Ginny's attention.

"As I was saying, the winner of the first duel of the competition is Draco Malfoy, congratulations to both combatants for a great duel. And I think ten points to Slytherin for the victory would be appropriate."

The Slytherins broke in to applause, cheering until Thane held his hands up for silence. "And I think fifty points from Slytherin would be just as appropriate for the use of a dark spell on an unarmed opponent."

The smirks were instantly wiped off the Slytherins' faces as the rest of the hall cheered.

The sorting hat was then brought up to the stage once more and one by one people were either eliminated from the tournament or progressed to the next round. The first round saw Ron, Hermione, Neville, Blaise and Cho join Malfoy in the next round along with countless other, many of whom were from the DA. Harry was just starting to get bored as Colin Creevey lost out in a duel against Ernie Macmillan and the sorting hat was brought on to the stage to announce the participants in the fortieth and ninth to last duel. The sorting hat sat silent for a moment before announcing;

"The next combatants in the tournament will be Harry Potter and Theodore Nott."

Harry smiled and jumped onto the stage, watching from above as a stringy Slytherin, looking decidedly frightened, made his way to join Harry on the platform.

"OK you know the rules," Thane said as they took their positions opposite each other, "you may start your paces and begin on the count of three"

Harry turned and started to walk, his wand held in front of him like a sword, listening to Thane's voice from behind him.

"One…Two…Three!"

Harry turned on the word, raising an 'aegis ultimus' shield as he did so. Taking his respite to analyse his opponent as Nott's spell rebounded harmlessly of his shield, Harry saw in the Slytherin's duelling stance that he wasn't the most competent of fighters and decided to end it quickly.

"Incarcerous!" He shouted, watching satisfied as ropes flew at Nott, ready to wrap themselves around him when they hit. Nott was quicker than Harry had thought, however, and abruptly brought up his wand and started shouting; "Diffindo!" at the roped, cutting them to shreds and rendering them useless.

Harry had made good use of the distraction and kept Nott on the back foot by keeping on the offensive, wordlessly shooting the 'motus humo' jinx at his feet and tripping him up. Nott somehow managed to raise a shield in time as he fell to the floor, blocking the red beam of the stunning curse and scrambled back up to his feet.

Harry, for his part was getting annoyed at Nott's persistence and decided to make sure he finished him off. Casting a bubble head charm around himself, he muttered the word "Intransitus!" A deafening, screeching white noise tore through the hall, making everyone but Harry, safe in his bubble-head charm, contort their faces in pain and cover their ears.

Nott immediately dropped his wand, trying desperately to stop the tortuous sound from penetrating his ear drums. Harry took full advantage of his distracted opponent and calmly said;

"Lubricus Humo!" The slippery liquid which materialised on the floor made short work of Nott's balance, making him fall to his knees. Harry tried to disarm him once more with a shout of "Expelliarmus!" but the Slytherin somehow managed to role to the side.

Harry then decided on a big finish, aiming his wand at the floor he said, "Petrolius Aduro!" Petrol streamed out of his wand, circling Nott, leaving only a gap at the front, he then muttered,

"Incendio!"

Nott, who had just managed to stumble to his feet, just had time to look shocked before he was surrounded by flames, shaped and made more powerful by the flammable petroleum. He then just managed to grab his wand from the floor and point them at the flames when he was forced to duck as a dozen arrows flew at his face courtesy of Harry's arrow-wand charm. Happy that there was no where for him to run, the flames cutting of all retreat, and the arrow wand charm delaying Nott from putting out the flames, Harry then paused for a second, finding his inner magical core and channelling his power to his finger tips. Then with a cry of;

"Stupefy!" he unleashed his the magical power bubbling at his fingertips in the form of a huge bolt of red light which flew straight at the awe-struck Nott.

Nott quickly gave up his efforts to put out the fire and shouted "Aegis Ultimus!" The shield was raised in time but the satisfied smile that spread on Nott's face was soon wiped clean off as the curse struck the shield. Time seemed to slow down and though for a second the shield seemed to hold, the beam of light then smashed through it hitting Nott squarely in the chest. He was unconscious before he had even hit the floor as he was flung through the flames and right to the other end of the platform.

Smiling at his success, Harry put out the flames with a wave of his hand and, walking forward to where Nott lay, did the same to Nott's smouldering clothes, before waking him up with a silent 'enervate' and pulled him to his feet. Cheers rung out from the crowd and Harding stepped forward beaming.

"Excellent duel. The winner is Mr. Harry Potter and that means another ten points to Gryffindor."

Harry left the hall with Ginny after his duel, too tired to be bothered to stay and watch the others. It was now five o'clock and they decided to get some early dinner, walking down to the kitchens (the great hall being occupied with the tournament), Harry paused at the entrance.

"You go ahead Gin'" he said, "I just have to take care of something really quickly first."

Tapping his wand on himself, Harry felt a sensation like an egg being cracked over his head as he was disillusioned. Going into a jog, he made his way back to the entrance hall and hunted down his target. Seeing the blonde prince of Slytherin, Harry walked quietly over to him and cast a silent 'silencio' charm. Next he tapped his wand on Malfoy's head, performing the same charm on him that he had on himself only minutes before. Malfoy looked around confused and tried to say something, only to find himself unable to speak. Panic settled in the eyes of Draco Malfoy and he went to run and try and alert someone to his predicament but he soon found himself in a fully body bind, which had been silently performed by an invisible source.

Levitating the, now completely panic-stricken Malfoy ahead of him, Harry walked calmly and slowly out of the hall, making sure not to bump into anyone, and into a small nearby classroom. Locking the door and satisfied that they were alone, Harry then took the disillusionment charm off of both of them and sat down in front of Malfoy who he had leant against the teachers desk at the front of the classroom. Harry though the disused and cobweb filled classroom, with it's slightly dank smell made the perfect setting for this little conversation.

"I brought you here Malfoy as a friend," Harry began in a calm, friendly voice which carried with it an oddly threatening inference. "You see as your friend I would hate to see you dead or horrifically maimed and disfigured or even humiliated in front of your house mates but that is what is going to happen if you try and hurt one of my friends again. So consider this a friendly warning Malfoy, because if you so much as look at Ginny Weasley the wrong way again, I will kill you."

This last part was spoken so casually, it terrified Malfoy, it seemed to him that Harry would have shouted an empty threat at him, this seemed much more serious. It seemed like a promise. With a smile at his captive and a click of his fingers to cancel the body-bind and silencio charm, Harry strolled out of the classroom and made his way back to the kitchens.

"What was that all about?" Ginny asked as he walked into the kitchens and was mobbed by an army of enthusiastic house elves.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." Came Harry's reply, Ginny didn't seem satisfied with his answer but, correctly interpreting the expression on his face, let it go.

The tournament carried on over the next couple of weeks without any real problem for Harry and pretty soon it was the semi-finals. Hermione had knocked Ron out in the last round in a, Harry had to admit, brilliant duel. Hermione had just managed to tip the balance in her favour with a well worked out plan which involved distracting Ron with a bang from her wand, tying him to the ground and disarming him as he tried desperately to free himself. Only Harry, Hermione, Blaise, Neville, Cho and, much to Harry's dismay, Malfoy, remained in the tournament and the first duel to be announced was Blaise against Cho.

As far as Harry could see, Cho had gotten this far into the competition on pure luck. She had certainly improved vastly from her time with the DA but she didn't seem to be nearly as talented as her fellow semi-finalists and had an easy run in into the semis. It came as no surprise, therefore, that Blaise had annihilated her, dancing circles around her in a completely one-way, but nevertheless impressive, duel. Blaise was the first person to progress to the final and Harry knew that he would be a worthy competitor, under his tuition in the DA, Blaise had become a highly skilled and powerful ally and Harry never regretted his decision to recruit him, even if it was still costing him 50 galleons a week. Harry was brought back to reality as the sorting hat was brought on to the stage to announce the second semi-final.

"The next duel", the sorting hat began, "will be fought between Harry Potter and…Hermione Granger."

Harry didn't know whether to feel pleased about this draw or not, he had really wanted an excuse to fight Malfoy, but he had a nasty feeling that Malfoy would beat Neville and that they would be meeting in the final anyway. This also gave him a chance to show up Hermione who still wouldn't talk to him and was still creating a rift in the friendship of him and Ron. Confidently, knowing that he was a better dueller than Hermione any day of the week, Harry jumped up on to the duelling platform and faced his old friend. After Thane had done his spiel about the rules, they bowed and then turned away from each other to begin their paces.

"One…Two…Three."

Harry whipped around quickly this time, determined to go on the offensive straight away.

"Extrudo!", he shouted, making Hermione cancel the curse she was about to perform and raise a shield. Hermione's shield was strong and took most of the power from the shield, but she had to struggle to maintain her balance as the power pushed her back a few feet. Harry, meanwhile, had started running towards her, turning his shoulder slightly to avoid the stunner just shot from Hermione's wand. He then pointed his wand above her head and silently conjured a large boulder, which fell towards her.

Hermione looked alarmed but recovered to summon a powerful shield above her head which blocked the boulder, making it fall to one side. At that moment however, Harry had shouted;

"Motus Humo!",

Hermione, too distracted from the attack from above didn't have time to block the attack from beneath and fell as the earth crumbled under her feet. She rolled to one side to avoid the 'expelliarmus' Harry had shot at her, but while all this had been happening, Harry continued to run forward. Hermione jumped to her feet, her wand at the ready, but was shocked to find Harry standing right in front of her, his wand inches from her chest.

Harry smiled at her and whispered;

"Stupefy!"

Hermione keeled over where she stood. Harry 'enervated' her and sportingly offered her his hand, which she begrudgingly took, pulling herself up and walking off the stage.

"Very well done Harry," Thane said, "that will be another ten points to Gryffindor. So that leaves Draco Malfoy and Neville Longbottom in the final Semi-final before we go into the finals tomorrow."

As Harry predicted, it was Malfoy who emerged victorious from the duel. Neville put up a good fight but Malfoy's magical power and duelling skill proved superior and his shameless use of border-line dark spell gave him an advantage over Neville who remained completely above board in his choice of spells.

"Excellent," Thane shouted walking to the front of the stage and speaking to the crowd,
"we have our three finalists, they are; Harry Potter, Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy",

Cheers greeted all three of these names from various sections of the crowd.

"The final will take place tomorrow when the whole school including staff will be there to watch. All three of the of the finalists will fight the other two with the person with the most wins will be crowned champion. If all three fighters win one each then they will all fight again until we have a winner. The champion will then face me in a one on one duel with Professor Dumbledore acting as referee. That is the end of the duels for today, I'll see all of you tomorrow."

The crowd exited the hall chattering excitedly about the upcoming duels. Harry went to bed early that night to get plenty of rest before the big duels. It was not Blaise and Malfoy that he was concerned about, he was fairly confident that he could take them. Thane, however, was another matter, he was one of the most senior aurors in the ministry, trained by both Mad eye and his own father, so it was safe to assume that he could look after himself in a duel. And though he knew that nobody expected him to beat professor Harding, he didn't want to end up humiliated.

Classes the next day seemed to go on forever and Harry was unable to concentrate, feeling uncharacteristically nervous. Ginny and Ron tried to reassure him and stop him from losing too many house points (they had potions), but it was no use and Harry was vastly relieved when dinner time came around, even though he knew that he wouldn't be able to eat a thing.

"Welcome to the final of the Hogwarts duelling tournament," Thane was addressing the whole school, which was packed into the hall along with the professors and even the ghosts, "you all know the rules and what your fighting for so without further ado. Minerva, if I could have the sorting hat please."

McGonagall passed the ragged old hat to the DADA professor, who then placed it onto it's stool and waited, along with every one else in the room, for the hat to announce the first duel.

"The first duel", the hat finally spoke up, "will be between Blaise Zabini and…Harry Potter."

Harry and Blaise bowed to each other, mutually respectful of the others skills, and turned around, starting to pace.

"One…Two…Three."

This time Harry allowed Blaise to get the first spell in, shouting "Arma Agentum!" to conjure a shiny silver shield which blocked Blaise's arrow-wand charm without a problem. Blaise's biggest weakness, Harry knew, was that he would sometimes over-commit to an offensive, leaving himself vulnerable to attack. For this reason, Harry decided to fight tactically and stay on the defensive for the time being, striking when the opportunity arose.

Blaise followed up his arrow-wand charm with a reducto aimed at Harry's feet. The spell hit the ground and Harry was forced to jump over the hole in the ground, shooting cutting spells as he fell to counter the ropes Blaise had shot at him with a cry of "Incarcerous!" Harry had barely landed when Blaise launched his next offensive, thrusting his wand forward and shouting;

"Deflagratio!"

Blaise looked momentarily shocked then delighted as the flames engulfed Harry in a jet of fire, knowing that nobody could come out of that still on their feet. As the flames cleared, however, the silhouetted figure of Harry Potter stood tall in the smoke which still swirled around him. Blaise recovered almost immediately, with a shout of

"Condolesco!"

Harry pointed his wand behind him, muttering,

"Pulsum!" The propulsion spell sped him out of the way of the dark curse, Harry then decided that it was time to act and shot a powerful stunner at his opponent.

Blaise spun around to face Harry, who had been propelled at a 90 degree angle to him, just raising an 'Aegis ultimus' shield in time. However he was knocked slightly off balance by the angle at which the spell struck the shield and stumbled. Harry took full advantage of this, silently performing the 'incarcerous' charm and watching as ropes flew at his opponent and wrapped themselves around his ankles. Harry then magically pulled on the rope, tripping Blaise up, Blaise had raised his shield for an attack he felt was sure to come and this blocked the stunner Harry had sent flying at him. Blaise then managed to cut away the ropes but, on stumbling to his feet, saw that Harry was nowhere to be seen, he raised his shield once more confused and apprehensive. At that moment, Harry seemed to materialise less than a foot away from Blaise and casually reached through his shield, designed only to block spells, and plucked his wand from his grip.

Harry smiled as the crowd broke out in applause and he glimpsed and Blaise sportingly came up to him and shook his hand.

"OK," he said, "I give up, how did you do it?"

"The deflagratio curse? Wordless flame freezing charm." Harry replied

"And the whole invisibility thing?"

"That was just a disillusionment charm, all it took was a distraction and me creeping up on you on my tip toes."

"Well I'll give you that one Potter, good luck against Malfoy."

"You too", Harry replied, as they walked off the stage together.
The hat opened it's mouth to speak a few minutes later.

"The next duel will be between," it paused, seemingly to create tension, "Draco Malfoy and … Blaise Zabini."

Both Slytherins climbed up onto the stage and took their positions opposite each other, glaring at each other with a hatred Malfoy usually reserved just for Harry. The duel which followed was a brilliant one, it seemed that they were evenly matched and both were unafraid to use border line dark arts. Eventually, Malfoy managed to trip Blaise up, following up with a shout of "Sectumsempra!" Blood spurted from wounds appearing on Blaise's chest and face and Thane was forced to call the duel, instructing a third year Slytherin to escort him to the hospital wing.

"Well, with both Mr Malfoy and Mr Potter winning their first duels, this will be the true final, the winner of this duel will be the champion of the whole tournament. If Harry and Draco could please come up here."

Harry and Malfoy faced each other on the stage and jerked their heads at each other, their eyes never leaving the other.

"Good luck Draco" Harry said, with a smirk Malfoy himself would have been proud of. They then turned and started to pace away from each other waiting for Thane's order to turn and begin the duel.

"One…Two…Three!"

Harry whipped around, slashing his wand and yelling,

"Sectumsempra! Stupefy! Expelliarmus!", determined to get revenge on the young Malfoy.

Draco jumped out of the way of the first two, raising a shield as he rolled to block the third. Malfoy then came up out of his dive and summoned a suit of armour which came whizzing onto the platform and was animated by Malfoy, with a shout of,

"Animus!".

The suit of armour sprung to life and launched itself at Harry. He pointed his wand at it and vanished it, saying; "Evanesco!" followed quickly by,

"Aegis Ultimus!" to block the coma curse which Malfoy had fired, hoping to catch Harry off guard.

Harry then decided to take the initiative and whirled his wand silently conjuring a stone statue of a man who, with another flick of Harry's wand, awkwardly started to walk at Malfoy it's arms outstretched like a zombie. Malfoy first sneered at this stumbling creature and casually raised his wand, slashing it in the air and saying;

"Reducto!" The spell hit, blowing a wide hole in it's torso.

The statue faltered but, with some effort and encouragement from Harry, then started running at Malfoy who panicked, running backwards and sending spell after spell after his chaser. These spells only served to slow down the statue and Harry took advantage of Malfoy's distraction by flicking his wrist, sending a silent and wandless 'Motus Humo' flying from his hand, hitting the floor immediately behind the still retreating Malfoy.

Right to plan, Malfoy tripped, falling backwards over the broken ground. However, as he was falling, he finally managed to get rid of the statue with a well placed reducto to the legs, sending the conjured being crumbling uselessly to the ground. He then managed to avoid Harry's stunner with a neat backwards roll which brought him back up to his feet.

"Extrudo! Supplantus!" Harry yelled,.

Malfoy's shield took the power of the extrudo curse but broke up from the effort, allowing the tripping to jinx to strike him in the leg.

Malfoy fell spectacularly but recovered quickly from the shock, rolling to one side and scrambling to his feet. As soon as his feet found the floor, however, there was a cry of;

"Suffuco!" and Malfoy was brought up into the air, floating eerily and clutching at his throat, suffering from the effects of the dark strangulation spell. Too busy desperately trying to breathe to remember that he was in a duel, Malfoy dropped his wand and Thane made to move forward but Harry did not release the spell and Malfoy started to turn blue.

"Release him Harry," Thane shouted, "he is disarmed, incapacitated."

Harry, however paid no heed, his only reply being to thrust his left, wandless hand out, pushing an unsuspecting Harding back. Finally, Malfoy fell unconscious, his head drooping forward and Harry immediately released him from the spell, letting him drop to the floor.

"Harry I-" Thane began but Harry interrupted him.

"Just a friendly reminder professor, that no junior death-eater can try and hurt my friends."

Thane seemed to understand and nodded almost imperceptibly before saying, "Five points from Gryffindor." The other teachers around the hall seemed shocked that such a lowly sum was deducted but didn't say anything and Thane carried on as if nothing had happened.

"We have out champion ladies and gentlemen. I present to you Mr. Harry Potter." Thane shouted as the crowd broke into cheers. "Congratulations Harry, I think fifty points to Gryffindor will be appropriate. We'll now take a fifteen minute break before out champion here will be taking on yours truly in a duel."

That fifteen minutes passed in a flash for Harry, who spent it just outside the hall with some DA members who were trying to get him psyched up for it. Soon the call came from Dumbledore for everybody to re-enter the hall as the duel was about to begin.
Climbing onto the stage to the sounds of cheers from his supporters (and some boos from Slytherins), Harry avoided looking at his headmaster and former mentor, who was watching him interestedly. Instead he focused his eyes on his opponent who smiled and winked good-naturedly at him before turning to Dumbledore and listened patiently to the rules of engagement.

"…all spells are legal except unforgivables and spells which cause serious or lasting physical or mental damage. When I give the order, you will turn and walk away from each other and the duel will begin on my count of three." Dumbledore spoke clearly, looking specifically at Harry as if not trusting him to comply, "you may begin your paces."

Harry felt a stab of nerves but forced himself to concentrate, he knew full well what he was going to do, having planned it out months in advance. Dumbledore's voice then permeated his musings, bringing Harry back to the present.

"One…Two…Three!"

Harry immediately threw himself to one side, rolling out of the dive and coming up with his wand pointing at Thane, the red bolt of the stunning curse having flown past him.

"Motus Humo!" he cried, aiming at Thane's feet

"Arma Agentum!" was the reply, and the silver shield conjured from Thane's wand was flung forward to block the ground disintegrating curse. Thane then cried

"Praestigus!"

Harry didn't recognise the spell so, to be on the safe side, rose a shining silver shield.
Instead of a bolt of light, however, three lions appeared out of thin air and launched themselves at Harry. Harry's eyes widened in shock and he stumbled backwards, shouting;

"Evanesco!"

The spell passed right through the lions and Harry realised that he was confronted with illusions rather than actual gigantic carnivores. Too late however, he raised his wand and uttered the words;

"Finite Incantatem!" The lions disappeared but were followed by the tripping curse, which struck him in the leg, making him fall to the floor.

Thane propelled himself forward so that he was only a foot away from Harry, but Harry, still on the floor, raised his wand and cried;

"Flabrus!" A powerful wind blew from Harry's wand, lifting Thane into the air and flung him across the room. Harry followed this by a stunner which he shot at Thane who was still flying through the air. Thane spun in the air, raising his wand and crying;

"Aegis ultimus!"

The shield took the blow and Thane managed to land safely on the ground.

"Serpensortia!" Harry said, pointing his wand at the floor just in front of Thane's feet, a large boa constrictor, over eight feet long sprung from Harry's wand. He then muttered;

"Duplicus!" and the snake split into two and started to advance on Harding.

"Wrap around his ankles and tie him to the floor."

Harry hissed at the snakes in Parseltongue. The snakes gladly complied, wrapping their thick bodies around the shocked looking Harding. Harry tried to make the most of this and wordlessly pointed his wand at Thane, the red bolt of the 'expelliarmus' spell flew at high speed towards him, Thean, however, seemed to sense it coming and raised his wand.

Though stumbling backwards, still trapped by the snakes, Thane managed to block the spell and then turned his wand to the snakes which he vanished with a swish of his wand. Harry then fired a stunner at Thane but he, now free of the snakes, dived to one side and from his position on the floor shouted;

"Stupefy! Extrudo! Condolesco!"

Three spells flew at Harry who hadn't been expecting a counter attack so quickly and realised that he wouldn't be able to raise a powerful enough shield. Improvising quickly, Harry pointed his wand to the floor and cried;

"Pulsum!" Harry was propelled in to the air, flying over the top of the three spells and looked down onto a very shocked Thane Harding. Aiming his wand down below, he shouted;

"Stupefy!"

Thane raised his shield in time and the spell rebounded harmlessly away as Harry landed.

"Expelliarmus!" he cried. Thane looked puzzled at the use of such a basic spell but raised simple shield anyway;

"Protego!" He soon got a another shock, however, as instead of the red beam of the 'expelliarmus' spell, the lightning blue bolt of the 'extrudo' curse cam flying out of Harry's wand, fresh from months of practice of saying the incantation of one spell and firing another.

The extrudo curse broke through Thane's basic shield with ease and struck the professor in the chest, pushing him along the floor until he hit the wall at the end of the duelling platform. Thane immediately jumped back to his feet before diving right back down again to avoid a stunner which flew over his head. Thane then jumped back to his feet.

Harry took full advantage of having Thane on the back foot, shouting "Sagitto!" Arrows came flying out of his wand directly towards the still recovering Thane, Thane reacted quickly, flourishing his wand and transforming the arrows into a harmless block of wood. The block of wood continued to fly at him, but Harding then poked his wand at the block and cried;

"Portus!" The wood glowed a bright blue before finally reaching Harding who caught it and faded into thin air.

Harry realised what was happening and looked around waiting for his teacher to reappear. Recognising where the most likely place for him to want to be, Harry abruptly spun on his heel, coming face to face with his opponent. "Extrudo!" Harry cried as Thane simultaneously yelled, "Stupefy!"

The bolts of blue and red mixed, dancing around each other until, with a huge BANG! They exploded, lifting both Harry and Thane into the air and blowing them apart.

They landed on the opposite sides of the stage, both the worse for wear, battered and bruised from the explosion. Harry struggled to his feet, determined to keep fighting and knowing that this was a good chance to gain the upper hand. Meanwhile, Thane was having a few more problems, the battering he received from being hit by Harry's extrudo earlier on along with the one from the explosion making it difficult for him to stand, especially on what he suspected was a broken leg.

Harry had struggled to his feet and pointed his wand at the injured Harding; saying;

"Stupefy!" The stunner flew at it's target and Thane looked up sensing it's danger. Harry was sure that he was done for but at the last plausible second, he raised his wand and slashed it downwards and, with as much power and conviction as he could muster, cried;

"Scissum Intermundia!"

The air itself in front of Harding seemed to rip, leaving only a line of blackness where his wand had slashed. The beam of the stunning curse entered the rip and, with a pop, both beam and rip had disappeared.
Harry just had time to wonder what the hell had happened before behind him there opened the same rip and the bolt of red flew out striking Harry in the back. Harry crumpled on the spot and Thane, realising that he had won the duel, smiled before collapsing on the floor out of exhaustion.

"Absolutely incredible," Dumbledore muttered under his breath, looking down at the two men at his feet. With a few waves of his wand, Dumbledore revived both of the combatants, who gingerly got to their feet and started walking towards each other.

"The winner of the duel," Dumbledore announced, "is Professor Harding." cheers greeted these words just as Harry and Thane reached each other in the middle of the platform.

"Now that was some duel." Thane said, shaking Harry's hand.

"I'll say," Harry replied, "of course you got lucky with that last move, you have to show me how to do that by the way."

"Over Christmas," Thane replied, "while you're explaining about that say one spell fire another thing. Oh and why you didn't think to mention that you're a parselmouth."
Harry grinned and they both jumped down off the stage, Harry to be met by a gaggle of Defence Association soldiers, led by Ginny who reached him first and flung her arms around him.

"Very impressive", she told him, withdrawing from his arms. "As soon as we get back from the holidays you are teaching me all that."

The next day everyone was gathering in the Hogsmeade station, waiting to be taken home for Christmas. Harry boarded the train with Ron and Ginny, searching for a free compartment they eventually found one that contained only Neville and Luna and Ginny entered. Harry was about to follow when he saw Ron hesitate, following his friend gaze, he saw Hermione sat in a compartment on her own a few doors down from where they were.

"Go to her mate", Harry told him, "we're not exactly on the best terms at the moment but I know how you feel about her."

Ron nodded appreciatively, "Thanks mate", he replied, before walking off to join Hermione.

The train journey home was spent playing chess, gobstones, exploding snap and generally laughing and joking with each other and, in what seemed like no time, they arrived at Kings cross station, London. Harry and Ginny bade their farewells to Neville and Luna and soon found themselves alone.

"I'll write to you over the holidays Harry," Ginny said to him, "and you better invite me over. I can't be alone with Mum, Dad and Ron all summer, I'll go mad."

"You can count on it," Harry replied, hugging her as he saw Thane and Remus standing by the gateway from platform nine and three quarters. As they parted, Harry waved her off and turned to join his room-mates for the next two weeks.
Harry was just setting off in their direction when he came across Malfoy with a couple of his cronies.

"Enjoy your Christmas Potter," he sneered, "I'm sure you'll find it very hectic, but death can do that to people."

"As veiled and subtle as that threat was Malfoy, if you have something to say how about you come out and say it." Came Harry's reply.

"Just a friendly warning Potter, wouldn't want you wandering of on your own again now would we? Maybe next time their won't be anyone around to save you."
With that Malfoy stalked off smiling, obviously feeling pleased with himself and leaving Harry deep in thought. 'Did Malfoy mean what I think he means? How the hell did he know about me running from the order?' Harry snapped himself out of it as he saw Remus and Thane looking at their watches pointedly. He went over to join them and together they walked through the gateway.

"Aren't we one short?" Harry asked Remus.

"Tonks'll be joining us a couple of days before Christmas, she wants to spend a some time with her parents first. It's good to see you again Harry." Remus replied.

"You too Remus, and if it's OK with you I was thinking about inviting a friend over some of the holidays."

"A red haired, female sort of friend?" Thane asked smiling knowingly.

"Maybe." Came Harry's reply. And with that the three of them walked out onto the street, Remus putting his wand arm out to summon the Knight bus.