Chapter 09

When Saturday morning broke, Harry awoke with plans to descend into the chamber of secrets. Unfortunately, the school staff had other ideas.

Harry was sitting at breakfast watching Hedwig go to town on a plate of bacon, when professor Lupin stood.

"Attention all students. Today we are holding a duelling tournament so that all students can have experience defending themselves under fire. The tournament is mandatory for all students, and begins in one hour. Use that hour to wake any of your friends still sleeping, get prepared, and be back here in the great hall."

There was a scramble as people nearly climbed over one another to get out of the hall. Harry's friends were nervous, but Hermione was nearly having a mental breakdown.

"What? They can't test us, I'm not prepared."

"You'll do fine." Sophie insisted.

"Sides, it's not really a test," Bella noted.

"Oh, that's even better, a duel." She exclaimed.

"Mione, you're the best in our class, you'll be fine. Just relax, and take it as it comes. Come on, let's go relax until it's time." Harry grabbed one arm, and Neville grabbed the other, and they nearly dragged her out onto the grass. They ended up lying under the sun for the hour, Hermione looking a lot more relaxed when they went in for the tournament.

The rules were rather simple. It was a bracket style tournament where you would duel other people in your grade. Upon return to the great hall, they found the tables gone, replaced by a long platform surrounded by bleachers. The platform that the teachers conjured in the middle of the room was made of wood, about waist height off the floor, and was mainly a ten foot length about three feet wide, with two large circles at each end. One fighter would stand in each circle, and they would fire spells at each other without leaving the ring. Leaving would be a foul, and three fouls was an automatic forfeit.

Harry looked at the list of people fighting, and felt the gods were smiling upon him, he was duelling Draco Malfoy first.

"Are you ready to loose, Scar head?" The boy in question asked as he past by.

"Oh just you wait." Harry's smile as he answered was nearly predatory.

He went to sit with his friends. They got seats right in the front row centre, where they had the best view of each fighter. After a bit of cajoling, they convinced Ginny to sit with them. Luna was already with them, as were the Weasley twins, who Harry and Bella had corralled to sit with them. She was welcomed happily.

They sat and watched as the first-years mostly stood and fired basic jinxes at each other, mostly missing, until one of them tripped and dropped their wand. There were two exceptions. The first was Ginny Weasley, who duelled a Slytherin boy named Harper Lee. He strutted to the stage like a tiny Draco, but that ego only lasted until Lupin shouted 'go' and then Ginny hit him with a spell that caused bats to come out of his nose. He was flailing around so much he dropped his wand, which rolled off the duelling platform. The other good fight was Luna Lovegood against a Hufflepuff named Henry Summers. Luna appeared to not even be paying attention, but she cast an animation spell that caused the boy to be attacked by his own robes, while she casually summoned his wand away.

Finally it came time for the second-years to duel, and it was better, though not by much. The first duel was Neville and Justin Finch-Fletchley. It was pretty bad, seeing as how Neville could barely get the spells to come out of his mismatched wand, and Justin still could barely hit him. Finally Justin got a lucky hit and Neville's wand shot from his hand.

The next duel was Hermione and Millicent Bulstrode. Hermione was nearly shaking, and yet once she got moving she won her match handily.

Then it was Harry and Draco. Harry took his end of the platform and watched as Draco stopped and appeared to get some last minute advice from Professor Snape before taking to the stage himself. Professor Lupin shouted 'go' and Draco opened with a banishing charm. He fired once, then stopped to watch it land before doing anything else. Except it didn't land. Harry simply sidestepped it, and taunted his competitor.

"Is that all you got?"

Draco fired a tripping jinx, which Harry sidestepped again. The next spell was not as nice. Draco shouted 'Serpensortia' and conjured a live snake. Harry vanished the snake with a wave of his wand.

"Getting a little dark there, Draco."

The boy in question shouted 'stupefy' and a red ball of light shot from his wand. Harry reached out with his right hand, and caught the oncoming magic. He had cast a variation of a duellist shield that he had invented long ago. The 'palm shield' covers the hand, and is designed for catching spells.

"Finally." Harry said while looking at the red spell in his hand before flinging it back at Draco, causing his unconscious form to drop to the floor. Harry returned to his seat, leaving Malfoy to be woken by the teachers. As he returned to his friends he felt it had to be said. "I beat Malfoy without casting a single offensive spell." He sat and watched as the rest of the second-years paired up. The biggest joke was Ron Weasley, who lost to Lavender Brown when she hit him with a cosmetic spell that causes temporary chest expansion. The sudden added weight caused him to topple over, loosing his wand. After that they started the second tier duels, the first of which was Hermione loosing to Hanna Abbot, then it was his turn again, this time against Justin. As soon as Lupin said go, Harry summoned Justin's wand from his hand, and the fight was over. After the non-fight, he took a minute to show Justin a better way to hold his wand so that wouldn't happen again.

The next round went faster as there were less fighters, and then he was up against Hufflepuff Hanna Abbot. She put up a good fight, for a second-year, but in the end, Harry hit her with a disarming hex that knocked her wand loose enough that he could quickly summon it away from her. He watched the semi-final round, where the winner would be his next opponent. He was going to be duelling Susan Bones. The girl obviously had training, but then that's only to be expected when the girl's aunt was the head of the Aurors. Harry figured that he didn't have anything to prove, and decided he was going to throw the fight, and let the girl have the win. She'd earned it, and fighting him with his experiences wasn't exactly fair. He went into the fight trying to make it look like he was trying, but before long he let a disarming hex slip past his shield and lost his wand. He congratulated Susan on her win when she brought him his wand back. She was gracious, saying how it could have gone either way.

Harry had just returned to his friends when an idea struck him. He dug through his pockets for a piece of parchment and a self-inking quill. The letter he wrote was brilliant, even by his standards. He folded it up, and gave it to Hedwig, who soared out the owl fly-through near the ceiling. About a minute later a large black raven flew in, delivering the letter to Professor Lupin. He seemed quite happy reading it, and quickly penned a reply before handing it back to the raven, which flew away. Ten minutes later Hedwig returned, alighting on Harry's shoulder again.

The duels continued with a break for lunch, after third-year, then went on until sixth year finished to break for dinner. After eating, Harry told his friends he wasn't feeling well and receded to the dorm room, where he descended into their trunk flat. Hedwig regained human form once there, and they headed to the back wall of the shooting and spell range room, where there was a password locked steel door hidden behind the wall. The door led to a fully stocked armoury, and their room for storing all things Unspeakable. After a quick outfit change, they returned to the dorm with hoods up. Harry opened one of the windows, and they leapt out one at a time, transforming into birds as they fell. Hedwig returned to the raven form, and Harry became a golden eagle. His falling was turned into forward speed as he spread his eight-foot wing span. They hovered in the sky, using the eagle's telescopic eyesight to watch the last of the duels. The hawk mind kept noticing mice and voles scurrying through the grass below, and it wanted them, but he kept an iron willed grip on the animal's instincts. He remembered the first time he had lost control and eaten a mouse. It wasn't something he wanted to repeat.

He continued watching, and as the winner of the seventh years was being declared, Harry closed his wings and dropped into a stoop, falling like a comet, Hedwig on his tail. He used minor adjustments to his tail feathers to control direction, and he spread his wings just enough to direct his bird body through the owl fly-through. He zoomed across the great hall like a bullet, and spread his very impressive wings to stop himself in the centre of the room, before shifting back to human form. He shifted back while still in the air, causing him to drop to the platform below, landing on one knee, making a very dramatic entrance. Hedwig was less dramatic, as she soared in, landed gently, and shifted human, giving off an air of being very dainty, which of course couldn't be further from the truth.

Dumbledore was alarmed when he saw what appeared to be two animagus' fly into the great hall, especially without being warned by the wards that something was going on. He reached for the stone he always carried in his pocket that vibrated if someone crossed the ward line. Then his worry ceased when he saw what they were wearing. He understood, as Unspeakables prided themselves at not setting off wards.

"I believe you requested our presence?" The male said to the Defence teacher. "I am Unspeakable Blackstaff, this is Unspeakable Ruby."

Dumbledore's skin crawled. He didn't know what the Department of Mysteries actually did, but Blackstaff and Ruby were two names he had heard of. They were considered throughout a number of important social circles as problem solvers, the people you turned to when something went wrong and you couldn't fix it any other way.

"Well, students," Lupin said. "It seems that we have a special surprise for you. These two Unspeakables have volunteered to come here today and duel each other to give you all an idea of what a real well trained duel would look like."

Harry turned to the smallest teacher. "Master Builder Flitwick, can I impose upon you to use your vast duelling experience to referee this challenge?"

Flitwick nearly fell out of his chair at hearing his proper goblin title used by an Unspeakable, especially one who is so well known amongst the goblins. He had earned the title 'Master' Builder long ago, and even though he was a teacher he still did the occasional building job for Gringotts. For a human to even know that title meant he must have done something extreme to earn the respect of the Goblin Nation.

"Of course, Master Unspeakable Blackstaff, I'd be honoured." He moved to stand at the edge of the duelling platform where he could properly watch. Harry and Hedwig took a moment to circle around the room, casting defensive wards just inside the seating to protect against stray spells. After that, they each took to one circle end of the platform, both taking combat stances.

"May I have the honour?" Flitwick asked Lupin.

"Please do." He answered.

Flitwick looked at both duellers. "Three... Two... One... Fight."