Chapter 10

At the word 'fight' Hedwig opened with two blasting curses and a stunner. Harry erected a shield to absorb the incoming spells, and snapped off two cutting curses. Hedwig cast her own shields to absorb the curses and released a stunner whip, a long flexible stream of energy containing a stunning hex. She snapped the whip at Harry repeatedly, trying to get around the shield. He cast the same palm shield from earlier, and snapped his hand out, grabbing the stunner whip and pulled, throwing Hedwig off balance. She stumbled and stepped out of her circle causing Flitwick to jump up and down with excitement.

"Foul! Out of circle! First warning." In a regulation duel, they only get three warnings before accepting a forfeit. At the warning call, per regulation rules, they both held the duel and reset to the centre of their circles before continuing. "Go!"

Harry fired first this time, shooting gouts of flame out of his wand. Instead of using a flame freezing charm as expected, Hedwig responded with water, and lot's of it. It was like she turned on a fire hose. The fire and water collided filling the air with steam. She then fired a lightening spell at Harry. The lightening spell was the predecessor of the stunner, which is just like getting hit by a strong electrical charge. Harry put up another shield, blocking the stunner effect, but the electricity carried through the humid air, strongly shocking him. The metal of his wand carried the charge, and he almost dropped it. As he twitched, he cast a wind spell blowing the steam back towards Hedwig with a quick snap of his wand. He then waved it slightly turning the steam into ice. Hedwig stepped back, as the ground in front of her froze, and the ice crawled up her legs, sticking her in place. Harry made a complicated set of wand movements while Hedwig was busy freeing herself. The ice on the stage in front of her shifted upward, expanding and forming into an ice warrior, not unlike a snowman wielding a large sword. Harry cast an animation charm on it casing it to come to life and swing it's ice sword at Hedwig. She managed to free herself moments before the blow landed and leapt back dodging the swing, and began blowing it apart with blasting hexes. As the ice warrior finally crumbled, She banished the pieces back at Harry causing jagged chunks of ice to fly at him. He waved his wand upward transfiguring the ground into a stone wall blocking the oncoming ice.

"Hold." Harry called. Hedwig stopped mid-cast, letting the spell she was working fizzle. Harry turned to Lupin and Flitwick who were both struck silent, never having seen such mastery in duelling. He spoke loud enough for all the students to hear. "That was the duel per tournament rules. From here on, we are going to duel by street standards so your students can see what they should be working towards in being able to defend themselves."

Lupin seemed unsure, but counted down anyway. With a flick of Harry's wand, the narrow walk between the circles widened to become one long area for them to fight in. When Lupin said 'go' both fighters charged at each other, blasting and cutting curses firing, while Harry swung to punch Hedwig in the face, which she ducked before lashing out with a kick to his stomach, pushing him backward. He landed on his rear, while creating a fire whip with his wand, snapping it at Hedwig, causing her to leap away so Harry could regain his footing. He lunged forward again, landing a knee to her stomach causing her to let out a whoosh of air before shoving her down onto her back. Harry then dropped to one knee, casting a transfiguration on the ground around Hedwig as he went, before pocketing his wand. He pressed down onto the ground with the palms of both hands, controlling the four transfigured arms that were surrounding her. The arms held onto and wrapped around her, pinning her to the ground. She twisted to get the best angle, before blasting apart the arms. She then jumped up, and swung her wand underhanded, banishing the wooden ruins of the platform at her opponent. He leapt aside, and pulled out his wand again, snapping it at the flying wooden pieces, transfiguring them into birds which spun around and flew fast at Hedwig. She shot out a gout of flame, roasting the birds, before leaping at Harry, spinning in the air to land her boot across his chin, tossing him to the ground. She fired a number of blasting curses at him, but he rolled aside, then banished the newest platform wreckage at her. She waved her wand causing the wood to turn into soap bubbles and float away. She lunged again, but Harry dodged aside, then moved in, wrapping one arm around her neck, and flipped her onto her back, then dropping himself to land his knee on her chest. She rolled, pulling him with her. They rolled together before they stopped with her straddling him. She leaned forward and kissed him with a smile on her face, then leapt back, her wand shooting out to fire a cutting curse that he dodged, launching himself into the air, and landing back on his feet. He moved his wand in a complicated gesture, causing the remains of the stage to stand, forming into a nearly ten foot tall wooden golem and start lumbering toward her. In response, she leapt back and swung her wand causing the seats under a few of the students to melt and twist turning into two large dogs that leapt up onto the ruined platform and dragged the golem to the ground. Hedwig dove in again, this time wrapping both arms around Harry's neck and kissing him deeply. "I think we went on long enough."

Harry looked around noting the wrecked stage, the two wooden dogs still wrestling with the wooden golem, the students standing in the hole that used to be their seats, and everyone, including the teachers and ex-professional duellist looking at them as if they'd never seen the likes before. He agreed with her before speaking loudly to the students. "That is an idea of some magic open to you with a Hogwarts education, and an example of street fighting, using a combination of physical attacks and magic. We kept it simple by not using any overly dark or lethal attacks."

"That was simple?" Came the voice of Ron Weasley.

Not long after that, they had left the castle and shifted back to bird forms to return to their flat. It wasn't an hour later that Professor McGonagall came to take Harry to Dumbledore's office. He wasn't really surprised, after all the palm shield was a very advanced bit of magic, and the Headmaster was no doubt wondering how he knew it. Luckily, he had already come up with an answer for it.

"Hello, sir." Harry said, as he entered the Headmaster's office.

"Good evening Harry."

He took a moment to look around and noticed for the first time that the empty golden perch he had seen the last time he was in this office wasn't so empty any more. Sitting on the perch was a magnificent bird with red and gold plumage.

"Is that what I think it is?" He asked, as he moved closer. The bird looked at him intently for a moment, before tilting his head in a way that he recognised from Hedwig as asking to be petted. The owl in question, as always on Harry's shoulder, hooted and clicked quietly at the bird, who sang softly in return.

"If you think that is a phoenix Harry, then you would be correct. His name is Fawkes."

"Wow." Harry whispered. "I read about them, but never thought I'd get the privilege of seeing one."

"Well now you have, my boy." He chuckled softly, as Harry scratched Fawkes' neck. "I was hoping for a chance to congratulate you on your showing in today's tournament."

"Thank you sir." Harry said off-handedly, while watching as Fawkes and Hedwig seemed to have an in-depth conversation.

"I was wondering if you could tell me where you learned that fantastic hand shield. I've only seen the like once before."

"I'm not supposed to tell anyone yet." Harry answered.

"Oh but I'm sure I can be trusted."

"He specifically mentioned you." Harry said, while quickly building an intertionally shoddy but solid occlumency barrier around his mind. "He said 'and especially that liar, Dumbledore.' He didn't seem too happy with you. Did you do something to him sir?"

The headmaster was pretty sure now who the boy was talking about. "Yes, Harry, I think I did. You can go now."

"Thank you sir, and have a good night."

Once they were back in the dorm, and behind the silenced curtains, Hedwig shifted to human form.

"I asked Fawkes if he could bring Adrian to us."

"Good thinking, my love." Harry said. "I've wanted to ask him about the wards."

They took the time to review their plans for the chamber the next day while waiting, until finally near midnight Fawkes appeared in a burst of flames. He dropped the sorting hat on the bed, before alighting himself on the headboard. He trilled softly at them before tucking his beak under his wing.

"Thank you, Fawkes." Hedwig whispered.

"Hello Adrian," Harry said. "How are you?"

"I'm doing well, yourself, Mister Potter?"

"Quite well, thank you."

"And shall I assume that this is your magnificent owl?"

"Yes," She said. "My name is Hedwig."

"So, tell me, Adrian?" Harry asked. "What in the god forsaken hell happened to the castle's wards. They were a thing of beauty last time we were here. Now they are on the brink of failure."

"Corrupt headmasters with delusions of grandeur are what happened. One too many that thought being in charge of a school made them master warders."

"Ugh... I expected as much."

"Is there any way to get Dumbledore away so we can fix them?" Hedwig wondered.

"Sadly, no. He carries the ward control stone with him everywhere, he shrunk it, and keeps it in his pocket."

"So basically the castle is boned if it is attacked." Harry muttered.

"Seems that way, yeah." Hedwig agreed.

"Aright, thank you, Adrian. Have a good night."

"Oh, before I go, I think you will want this back." Adrian moved as much as a hat could move, and Hedwig picked him up to help. The hat sort of convulsed, and a sword with a leather wrapped handle fell out.

"The sword of Gryffindor, I've been wondering what happened to that."

"Salazar put it in me as a joke," Adrian explained. "Thought it would be funny the next time you put me on and the pommel hit you on the head. Unfortunately, that was right before you left. It's been here waiting ever since."

"Well thank you for not dropping it on me during my sorting."

"Yeah," Hedwig agreed, "That would have been bad."

"Okay Fawkes, you can take me back now, thank you." Adrian instructed. Fawkes appeared to wake up, fluttered his wings to grab the hat, then both were gone in a flash of flame. Harry held up the sword, and suddenly the blade slid through the handle until there were lengths of metal coming from both ends, the one on the top only slightly longer. The blade itself thickened and rounded, then began to curve slightly toward Harry. As it curved a metallic braided cable came out of the weapon as it bent, attached to both ends and suddenly the sword was now a bow. The change happened very quickly, in nearly the blink of an eye. Harry smiled, and then the bow lost it's curve, the bow-string re-absorbing into the weapon, disappearing again. The blade slid up until it was entirely above the handle, but it shortened and widened, as the handle lengthened, until Harry was holding a double bladed battle-axe. Then the weapon shortened again, both the blade and handle shrinking until he was now holding a short dagger.

"Oh, how I've missed this thing."

"A shape-shifting weapon," Hedwig commented. "It's so you."

Harry slid the dagger under his mattress, before rolling over and drifting off to sleep.