Hi all! Trying to finish this, as I said before, without rushing. Still attempting to finish it before summers over. Think I can do it? Hmm.. Unlikely, but I'm hopeful.
Also, there will be a new addition to the castle soon enough! I've had this planned since the very start of my plans -- and a lot have changed since then, but I stayed on bringing in this addition. Anyway, on with the chapter.
My FF account is totally banjaxed, too, and I have to put everything to the left, because if I centre anything, all of it moves to the middle. And the letters keep erasing each other so I have to be careful and.. ugh. So annoying. Anyway!
The Emilia/Snape thing will be explained eventually. He doesn't reciprocate, of course, in any way. He's much older and would have no time for a girl like her. Have you never fancied a teacher though? Emilia will explain herself, eventually. Not in this chapter, or the next one, but soon.
Song is very cheesy with the chapter, I know. But I'm, like, the Queen of Cheese at this point. I have to retain my title, right? ;)
Thanks to my beta silverbirch for editing this chapter!
I'm not brilliant at action, so beware. Also, all the action in this chapter makes it a boring one if you're like me and don't like action at all. ;)
Chapter Thirty-Five: Eye of the Tiger
It's the eye of the tiger, it's the cream of the fight
Risin' up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he's watchin' us all in the eye of the tiger
"Eye of the Tiger" -- Survivor.
Hermione hadn't been this nervous in a while, and that was really saying something. It wasn't that she didn't like performing in front of other people, but it was the potential failure factor that had her nerves rising and enveloping her. Failing was not an option open to Hermione, but sometimes was forced upon her. If she were to fail now, everyone would see. They all thought she was a know-it-all and successful in nearly everything she did, but she wasn't and they were going to see it.
Of course, there was the chance that Hermione wouldn't fail at all. She was rather hoping for that outcome, but could only rely on her own abilities. Don't mistake her though, she had confidence in her abilities. She thought she had a good chance of beating Draco Malfoy. Despite the endless competitions between them that ended in draws, Hermione thought this one would be different.
Someone would win -- and she was determined to be that person. So, pushing out all her nerves and uncertainties, Hermione stepped up to the main field across from Draco Malfoy and took on a determined expression.
She was going to win.
"Ready to lose, Granger?" He asked arrogantly, a smirk stretching across his pale face.
"Hah, don't be so sure." She laughed at his egotism. She couldn't wait to knock him off of his self-built pedestal.
"Avis!" Hemione yelled, smiling as her flock of canaries flew towards Draco and proceeded to peck and nip him.
"Agh, what is this, Granger?!"
"Just a favourite of mine." She quickly got bored with this then, "Aguamenti," The bout of water shot towards Draco and the birds.
He spluttered, "That is it." Expelling the birds away, he trained his wand on her, "Flippendo!" Before Hermione could duck from the curse, she felt herself being thrown back through the air and onto the floor. She winced in pain, and attempted to stand.
"Expelliarmus!" Draco smirked as he caught her wand in his hand. He was fully aware that she was capable of wandless and non-verbal spells, but was a lot weaker without her wand.
"Going to attack me when I've no weapon, Malfoy?"
"We all know you're capable, Granger."
"Deprimo!" Draco blew a hole into the ground, causing Hermione to fall down into it. She screamed a little, but it died as soon as she it the bottom.
Hermione felt anger build up in her, he thought he was going to win here -- he was winning. She wasn't going to let things go on like this.
Draco had been enjoying the duel -- which had gone much easier than others with Hermione -- when a flying horse exited the hole he had made.
"Shit," he mumbled, that wasn't a horse. It was her bloody animagus. Draco sighed, it was obviously expected of him to do the same. He thought of his animal, but focused on Hermione as he did. He was now thankful for Lupin deciding to duel outside rather than in their usual indoor classroom. Hermione's animagus wouldn't fit in the indoor classroom, much less Draco's much larger one.
His eyes narrowed on Hermione, now much smaller than him. Everything was smaller in his Dragon form. His icy blue skin shone in the dull light coming from the clouds, and he flew to reach Hermione.
She soared through the air as she tried to escape the ice-breathing dragon. Draco's dragon animagus was unlike others, as he breathed ice rather than fire. Hermione thought it fitting given his personality.
He was behind her now, so she ducked quickly and dived high-speed towards the ground. When she was sure he would crash to the ground, Hermione pulled up. It was easy, nothing like riding a broom. Everything came easily to her in this form and she loved it.
Draco, however, found it harder to manoeuvre his larger form away in time to miss the ground, and crashed roughly into the grass.
Scowling, Draco stood to see a smug-looking Pegasus before him. He marvelled how she pulled off the smug look while she was in animagus form. If you observed close enough, you'd notice that Hermione was just as arrogant as Draco at times and was a slight hypocrite for reprimanding him for it. She was just as bad at times.
Her chest was puffed out and she stood tall, looking down on him from a few feet away. From his spot on the ground, Draco opened his mouth and blew. He watched as the Pegasus froze and ice coated her exterior.
Her eyes darted behind the ice, and she transformed back into her human self. The ice melted and Draco assumed she had cast a fire spell to melt the ice.
He transformed back into his human self.
"I'm not going to lose," she growled, and closed her eyes. When they opened, her eyes were glowing blue. They flashed white as she opened her palms and fired water towards Draco viciously, the water circling him at first before collapsing on top of him. He fell to the ground, struggling to crawl back away from the overpowering water.
He frowned; he couldn't let her win either. Hermione's concentration was solely on the water, moving and shaping it to almost drown Draco.
It slightly frightened him, but he'd never admit that. His mind focused as she thought the silent spell, performing wandless and non-verbal magic at the same time, Draco "flippendo'd" her and stood quickly.
Hermione flew through the air before landing with a thump on the ground harshly. Draco took her moment of weakness to strike, and raised his hand so to control the weather elements. Almost instantly, the sky began to rumble and it was only a matter of time before a lightening bolt struck beside Hermione.
Deciding that that was too much, he instead opted for gale force wind. Hermione had stood now, her eyes were glowing blue again, and Draco's were a luminous white.
Her sent the wind towards her, but at the same time, she sent a wave of water towards him. They clashed, and fought to get past one another. The wind was pushing the water back to Hermione, but the water was fighting its way towards Draco.
They stayed like that for ten minutes; attempting to shoot spells to get the upper hand, losing some ground and then gaining some. But then Lupin called it to a halt.
"I call it a draw. There is no winner to be found here -- again. Perhaps someday soon, one of you will win." He smiled at the two, but neither returned it and were instead staring at each other; eyes narrowed, intensely staring the other down. Their breaths were quick as they trierd to recover.
"You two go stand over to the side while I call up the next two," Lupin announced, somewhat shooing the two heirs off of the main field. He looked around at the remaining students; Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Blaise Zabini, Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom. Perhaps he should have an heir fight one of their other friends, to test the friends. To see how powerful the heirs could be.
But there would be no contest, Lupin reasoned. The heirs have too many extra powers.
Perhaps... "Let's make things interesting," Lupin started, observing the five students.
"Let's not." Blaise countered, looking suspiciously at the professor.
"Let's try Neville Longbottom and… Harry Potter. Neville is not allowed to use animagus' form or other heir powers; such as his destroying and breaking the earth, or controlling Harry's emotions. It is still somewhat of an unfair match, given that Neville has been practicing the past few months and Harry has not. However, it should prove interesting. Okay?"
Neville gulped and nodded, "Y-yeah."
"The two of you may proceed to centre field."
All eyes were on Harry and Neville as they approached each other, one question on their minds; Would Neville really still win?
~*~*~*~*~*~
Neville's hand was shaking as he held the wand tightly, and he berated himself for it. He shouldn't be afraid or scared, he had been training months now -- the odds were in his favour, and he should be able to win. Should didn't mean would, though.
Harry had duelled You-Know Who, Neville reminded himself. He could never defeat someone who did that. Hell, Harry had been the one to teach Neville last year! Nevertheless, Neville would try his best, and if that wasn't enough, he'd just practice more.
His hand stopped shaking. Neville smiled and relaxed slightly.
"Expelliarmus!" Neville dived out of the way of the red light just in time, rolling across the ground to out of its line of fire.
"Incarcerous!" He pointed his wand at Harry, and hoped that it would hit him.
Harry, knowing Neville was about to attack, put up his shield, "Protego!"
The power shot back towards Neville and he uttered a, "Finate Incantum," just in time to diffuse the spell. "Impendimenta!"
The spell hit Harry and Neville watched as the Boy-Who-Lived slowed down, giving Neville time to stand, "Locomotor Mortis!" Harry fell over then, but seemed to get a grip on his wand again as he ended the slowing spell and leg-locker.
"Aguamenti!"
Neville turned his wand towards himself, "Impervius," The water fell off of him, as if he were wearing a rain coat or protection.
"Relashio!" Neville let out a small sound of pain as sparks of fire burned his skin.
Turning to Harry, his eyes lighting red, he resisted the urge to open the ground and bury Harry in it, "Expelliarmus!"
Harry's wand was then in Neville's hand, leaving the boy to stare at his opponent in shock. A small grin worked its way onto Harry's face, "Without my wand, I forfeit."
"I won," Neville whispered in astonishment, gaping at the wand. He then turned to look at the others, and exclaimed, "I won!!"
Ginny let out a cheer, and laughed at Neville's dumbfounded yet gleeful expression.
"Don't get too cocky, Nev. Once I'm better at the wandless spells, you better watch out." Harry joked as the two walked back towards Lupin.
"Impressive Neville. Much better -- do you see how much of an improvement you've made since the start of our training? Brilliant." Lupin told him.
A blush appeared on Neville's cheeks, "I guess."
Ginny looked smug as she walked over to him, "I told you you could do it."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Lupin clapped his hands together and looked around at the students ponderingly, wondering who he should put against each other next. There were three that hadn't fought, so someone would have to fight again. Luna was the only heir left to fight, and Lupin had a feeling she would defeat Ginny and Blaise with a flick of her wrist. Perhaps no so easily, but he knew she would defeat them with some ease.
He looked at Neville again. The boy had improved a lot since they started training, and could now perhaps beat Luna? Neville had yet to beat an heir in training, but with his confidence from the battle with Harry, Lupin thought that he could maybe win.
Blaise and Ginny would be on the same level to fight, too. And from what Lupin heard at the dinner table, the two didn't get along. It would make a good fight.
"Yes," He concluded, glancing between the pairs. "Ginny and Blaise will fight, and afterwards," He paused, admittedly being dramatic, "Luna and Neville will duel."
Neville shot Luna a apprehensive look, but nodded, as did the others.
"Excellent. Ginny and Blaise, duel!"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ginny knew she could win this; she had been in many more battles than Blaise. He hadn't been in the department of Mysteries earlier that year, nor in Dumbledore's Army to improve his spell work. No, he couldn't be as good as her.
She narrowed her eyes at him, wand at the ready. Raising their wands, Ginny decided that she would let him make the first move and waited in anticipation. Surely, whatever it was that Blaise threw at her she could handle. He was, after all, only Blaise.
"Ferula!" Ginny, who was not familiar with this spell, furrowed her brow. She had not been prepared for this. What was this spell going to do to her? Ginny cursed herself. He was a Slytherin, he probably knew dozens of dark spells that he could use against her.
In her five seconds of madness, Ginny did not realise that it would be foolish of Blaise to use any dark spell in front of his peers and professor.
What seemed to be a piece of wood landed before Blaise, "Wingardium Leviosa," It was common knowledge to anyone who knew Blaise that he had problems with this spell, and Ginny watched in interest and delight as he struggled with it, momentarily forgetting she was in the midst of a duel.
The wood shook under Blaise's pitiful casting, but with a flick of his wrist, the wood was hurtling towards Ginny.
Before she had time to duck, the small piece of wood hit her in the head. A roar of laughter was heard from Blaise.
Typical Zabini, Ginny thought sourly.
She wasn't going to play games, this was a duel, and she had let the foolery go on for too long already. Ginny glanced up to see another log of wood heading her way, ignoring the headache coming on from the blow, she shouted, "Expulso!" and the wood blew to smithereens. Blaise's expression was sorrowful.
She smirked, "Incarcerous!"
He halted the spell in its tracks with a flick of his wand, enjoying the diffusing of Ginny's smirk. Blaise was going to have fun during this duel, and didn't really care whether he won or not for the moment, he would worry about that when training became serious for him, Harry and Ginny. "Mobilicorpus,"
Blaise felt like he should be laughing evilly or something as he raised Ginny into the air, ignoring her shreiks of protest. Without delay, he moved her over to the side and dropped her. Of course, Blaise wasn't about to let Ginny fall to the ground.
Which is why he -- very kindly -- placed her in such a way that she would fall into Neville Longbottoms arms.
"I am too kind," He drawled loudly, watching as the two teens blushed before Ginny jumped down and turned to him, fire blazing in her eyes. Metaphorically, of course. "You're lucky I decided to play nice, you'd be finished otherwise."
Ginny couldn't believe she was performing so badly. She had wanted to show-off, to display her amazing talents and sheer power over Blaise. Perhaps it was arrogant of her, but Ginny was so sure she would defeat Blaise with a flick of her wand. But she had gotten distracted by his strange tactics, and was annoyed with herself for doing so. Ginny found she could relate to the phrase "curiosity killed the cat." now.
Ginny couldn't allow the duel to continue like this; it was a farce. Deciding she was finished playing games, Ginny trained her wand on Blaise. You'll have to practice in your own time in coming weeks, Weasley,Ginny advised herself.
"That's it, Blaise! I'm not playing your stupid game. Stupefy!" The strength of the spell penetrated Blaise's shield, and he fell to the ground, stunned.
"Ginny wins," Lupin stated simply, waking Blaise and then gesturing for Neville and Luna to step up.
~*~*~*~*~*~
When Luna had first stepped up to duel Neville, she reckoned that she should go easy on him; try not to bruise or shatter his newfound confidence. It was what a friend would do; put up a good fight, but ultimately let the other win. She knew Neville needed the confidence and self-belief, but as the duel progressed, she found she couldn't go easy on him.
Luna had never thought herself cocky, but looking back to her thoughts a moment ago, she had been very arrogant and presumptuous to assume she was going to beat Neville, that she was better than Neville.
Because as she duelled him, Luna realised that Neville had improved hugely, and reasoned that he must have been practicing in his spare time in addition to training.
Luna lost her footing and fell to the ground, hoping that Neville would pause for a minute to allow her to stand. If he didn't, she would surely lose.
A light-bulb went off in her head as Luna realised she could use her powers. How she forgot about her fire ability was beyond her, but she pushed that thought aside and instead shot fire balls towards the Gryffindor Heir.
As Neville was distracted, Luna stood quickly and took that opportunity to shoot a tripping spell at him. He hit the ground, causing the fire to shoot over his head and miss him. That wasn't Luna's intentions, but she supposed it was fine either way.
As Luna was about to bundle Neville in ropes, she felt the ground move underneath her. Glancing down, a crack appeared where she was standing. Swallowing thickly, Luna raced out of the way just in time to see the ground open up.
The two heirs then reverted back to using spells, instead of elemental powers, but there seemed no sure winner between the two. Each spell was matched with equal precision and deftness, every move defined and purposely made. Lupin eventually called it a day.
What confused the heirs, however, was the radiant smile beaming from his face, "This is excellent! Luna and Neville are on equal footing, as are Draco and Hermione. Now, all we have to do is place all of you..." He was mumbling now, talking to himself as the heirs exchanged confused looks.
Hermione then spoke, a pensive look on her features, "What was he talking about? Maybe..." Realisation struck her, "Maybe we all have to be equal before we can even have hopes of fighting Voldemort."
Draco snorted, "But then we'll never defeat him." He quickly ducked the two spells fired at him with a smirk. Hermione rolled her eyes and put her wand away, his arrogance was never ending.
~*~*~*~*~*~
All, save Emilia, were exhausted as they retired to the heir's common room. The heir's daily routine was surreal to their friends, and they were only beginning to understand how much work the heirs truly put in. Reasoning said they shouldn't be surprised; these people were training to defeat one of the most powerful wizards of all time. Nevertheless, they were. What surprised them more though, or at least Ginny, Blaise and Harry, was that they would have to partake in the heirs routine, too. They definitely hadn't expected that, and it made them question what would happen when they returned to Hogwarts. Would they still train outside their ordinary lessons, or would things go back to how they were before their visit to the heir's castle?
"I'm beat." Blaise's voice called everyone out of their reverie and Draco smirked.
"You're out of shape. We're used to all of this training by now."
"Some of us," Hermione corrected, "Are not. I'm used to the training, but the physical still wears me out every time."
"Physical isn't so bad." Neville countered.
"The only one I can do is physical, so I should hope I'll be better at it." Emilia mumbled worriedly.
Draco laughed, "If you take after Granger One, then you've not a hope."
"You'll be brilliant at whatever you do," Blaise winked at Emilia.
"Blaise, please stop that with my sister."
"We've been over this before, Hermione, and I just don't think we'd make a good match."
"Zabini, you need to get over yourself," Ginny snapped.
"Oh please, Weasley, as if you're the epitome of modesty."
"Can we not fight? Every meeting gets turned into a fight." Neville whined.
"What do you expect when you throw together a couple of Slytherins, Gryffindors and a Ravenclaw." After Harry's admission, there was silence for a minute.
"Does no one think it weird there's no Hufflepuffs?" Harry questioned, glancing around.
"No." Blaise and Draco answered in unison, exchanging grins afterwards.
"And there you have Slytherin ignorance at its finest!" Hermione exclaimed, waving her hands towards the two boys.
"I'm sure they're just joking. I'm the Hufflepuff heir, after all. I think there's no Hufflepuffs here because none of the heirs are close friends with Hufflepuffs. And... I don't know why there's no Hufflepuffs in the heirs. You'd think the founders would be equal and pick a student from each house..." Luna wondered
"There is no one to pick in the Hufflepuff house." Draco quipped, but his wink at Luna let on he was teasing.
"Yes, but eqa--"
"Sorry to disturb you all, but I forgot to mention something. Are you all here?" Lupin's voice startled many of the teens, making some jump in surprise and others start in their seat. He smiled, "Didn't mean to scare anyone either." A few glares where directed at him, but he continued, "Moody should be here as well, but he had business to tend to in the Ministry.
"In two days, there will be a competition, of sorts. It's not, per se, a competition, but to see your abilities. Working with -- and against -- each other to get to a common goal. We'll be working in the Forest, as it's a difficult, and easy, place for a battle to take place. You can't see your opponents easily, but it's also easy to hide. There will be two teams fighting to reach the finish. It's like the course you had before Christmas, Heirs. Except, I dare say, it's harder. There will be more opponents, as well as Moody and I fighting at the finish point. Your goal will be to reach Emilia," The girl blushed as everyone looked at her, "As she will not be able to take part in the fighting -- given she is a muggle. It will be two days from now, and the only practice you receive will be tomorrow. Any questions?"
Hermione's hand shot into the air, receiving a few eye rolls. "Will we be allowed to pick our teams? And will there be a limit to the spells allowed?"
"You will not be able to pick your teams. It would be entirely unfair. No, we will pick your teams. There will be a certain limit, but the heirs will be able to use their powers. Any more?"
"It will be unfair teams." Draco observed, "Three versus four."
"Yes, we noticed that. We may put three heirs on one team to even it. Or two heirs and the strongest out of Harry, Ginny and Blaise. We'll decide it later."
"The three heirs would no doubt win!" Harry objected.
"As I said, Harry, we'll talk about it." He took his gaze from Harry to look around the room, "No more questions? Well then, I'll walk Ginny, Blaise and Harry back to their rooms. There is a curfew here."
"We weren't told of a curfew, professor."
"I know, Hermione. I've just made one now to prevent you all sitting up all night. Come on now, back to your rooms."
The three begrudgingly stood, bidding goodbye to their friends.
"I will save you, Emilia! Or my name is not Blaise Zabini." He declared, grabbing her hand and holding it to his heart. "Goodnight, Millie." He dropped her hand, shot her a grin and walked to stand near Lupin then, having already said bye to everyone else.
Emilia was still blushing as she sat beside her sister. Emilia had decided to stay with her sister for the first two nights, just until she got to know everyone better. She didn't feel comfortable enough to share a room with Ginny Weasley yet although Ginny, next to Luna, was the closest in age to her.
Just as the three friends were approaching the door, Dumbledore stepped through and they stopped, anxious to see what he was there for.
His face wore a serious expression as he scrutinised each person in the room.
He opened his mouth to speak when Ginny groaned, "Not you," It was then everyone's eyes moved to the person standing behind him. But before he could open his mouth to say anything Ginny groaned, "Oh, no! Not you!" It was only then that everyone else saw who was accompanying him.
~*~*~*~*~
Wasn't sure who to make win; Ginny, or Blaise? I decided that you would all expect me to make Blaise win, given he is my favourite, and that Ginny would actually probably be more likely to win. Don't be disheartened if you wanted Blaise to win though ;) He will eventually. I also Ginny very bad at duelling, and will remedy that. She was distracted in this match, but is usually much better. Poll results were interesting. Results are on my page. I have a question though for you to answer in reviews, please, how many of you oppose Harry/Luna? Anyway, tell me what you think of the new addition. xCNx
By the way, Harry did go easy on NEville.