"Finish him!" Marcus Flint roared, his voice rising above the cacophony of noise that filled the great hall.
Angela seemed to have heard her big brother as she paused her frenetic casting briefly before taking a deep breath and started to advance down the piste. She slowed down her wand movements in an attempt to address the problem of her incantations barely keeping up with the speed of her wand. A bad habit which had been causing her to miss caste spells as her voice tried to keep up with her wand which tried to keep up with her intent.
That's better she thought as her favourite knockback jinx was hammering her opponent, causing him to stumble backwards until he was hard up against the protective wards and could not retreat any further.
Being first years, this signified the end of the duel, as it was not expected of first years to have the power or spell knowledge to disarm or stun.
Flint roared again as Angela was declared the winner, his voice joined by the rest of Slytherin house, who were on their feet chanting "Slytherin! Slytherin!"
Even Snape was smiling as he knelt in front of Angela, checking for any injuries or spell damage. "Well done Miss Flint."
She smiled back at him "Thank you Professor Snape" her face was flushed with excitement and was looking very pleased with herself. Wow, she thought, that was fantastic, so much better in front of a large crowd.
"We will of course work on controlling your casting speed before your next match" Snape said deflating her slightly, the smile dropping from his face. But was that a twinkle in his eye? Surely, she had imagined it.
"Of course, Professor. I will strive to do better next time" She replied with a cheeky smile.
"Yes, Miss Flint, you will" he said, before sending her back into the temporary bleachers that lined either side of the duelling piste set up in the great hall. Slytherin had claimed one side as their own, with the other three houses preferring to sit themselves on the opposite side, with Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor students mixing freely.
"That was very good Miss Flint" Harry as Angela made her way over to where he was sitting with Daphne, Tracey, Millicent and Theo, slightly apart from the group that surrounded Marcus. The group that Draco considered his close allies. Angela looked slightly ruffled from having to extract herself from the hug that her big brother had embarrassingly wrapped her in the second she had returned to the bleachers.
"Thank you, Mister Potter" Angela gave Harry a smile which slipped off her face almost instantly "But I still don't get to see you in action for a few more weeks"
"Such are the vagaries of the draw" Harry replied. The championship was being run on Saturday evenings after dinner, with one match from each year being held every week. This allowed for all the first round matches to be completed before the quidditch season started. In the older years where there were fewer entered, and in deference to their study commitments, there was a match every second week.
"But you will get to see Malfoy in action today"
Angela just waved that off "Malfoy versus Macmillan, hardly a match to stir the blood. Although, this next match may just fill the void nicely. I hear that you have been training this muggle boy, Creevey isn't it?"
Harry frowned at her casual discrimination. "As I keep telling you, it is not me that you need to be watching. Millicent here is the one to the best duellers I have seen. And she is the one that has been training Colin. Trust me, you are in for a treat."
And treated they were.
Demelza Robins, Colin's opponent was very adept at dodging spells and was crazy brave, as befitting her place in Gryffindor.
It had all started off pretty normally, the house mates bowing to the referee, Professor Lupin and then to one another. They took their stance, the protective wards went up, and the countdown began.
Colin judged the count perfectly and had his first spell leave his wand on the command "Duel"
Like the first-year match, for the second years the duelling piste was shorter than regulation, and Colin's spell was on Demelza in the blink of an eye, almost ending the match instantly. But she was more than up task with her reflexes getting her out of the spell's path with barely an inch to spare.
Another spell was on her just as fast as the first one but coming from a completely different direction as Colin switched into full fight mode, moving around trying to find an opening, probing with spell after spell.
Demelza was dodging and weaving, sometimes stumbling but always just managing to get out of the path of Colin's spells. She had yet to be able to return fire.
Colin was biding his time, the spell limit placed on the students stifled his ability to create an opening as the spells Moody had taught them were definitely not within the rules. But at least he could rely on his speed and movement.
Foregoing the usual practice of staying at your own end of the duelling piste, Colin was closing in on Demelza, although she refused to be herded into a corner at her end and managed to slip past Colin with just the width of the piste between them.
From this close range, Colin could not miss, but incredibly his stunner flew over the top of her.
Admittedly this was because Demelza had tripped over in her haste and went sprawling face first onto the floor with Colin's spell flying over her prone body. She started rolling, trying to avoid Colin's next spell and desperately trying to free her wand arm from under her.
Colin meanwhile, was taking aim at the rolling witch, determined not to miss in haste, and was about to send his match winning stunner. But for once Demelza got in first. She had managed to free her wand and she blindly fired off a stunner in the general direction of where she thought Colin would be. Surprisingly it was on target and it raced towards Colin catching him wrong footed as he tried to keep his aim on his opponent on the canvas.
Colin's eyes widened as he saw the spell flying towards him. With no time to dodge he threw up a shield, reaping the benefit of the lesson with Croaker during their one on one at the boot camp. It worked perfectly, he held it for just long enough to stop Demelza's stunner before collapsing it and returning fire with his own at the still prone girl.
This one struck, winning Colin a hard-fought victory.
Professor McGonagall entered the piste as Professor Lupin dropped the wards. She rushed to check her little lions. She was so proud.
Colin, well he was one of Daphne and Harry's group so her expectations were high, but she could see he had been holding back. She wondered what spells he could have used if the rules allowed. She had heard stories about lessons from Mad Eye Moody over the summer. She shuddered to think what he had taught them, certain that nothing that would be appropriate for a second year, or any student for that matter.
Giving Colin the all clear, she turned to Demelza who had been revived by Professor Lupin. Demelza may have been beaten, but her apparent ability to dodge everything had caught the head of house's eye. She knew that Demelza had applied for a reserve chaser position on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. If her ability to avoid spells translated to avoiding bludgers on a broom, she may very well get a chance at that reserve spot.
Colin, ever the gentleman, helped Demelza to her feet and they headed back to the Gryffindor crowd to watch the next match.
In the Slytherin section, Angela turned to Millicent. She had enjoyed that very much, more entertaining than she had expected from second years. "He moves very well" she commented thoughtfully "Fast and light on his feet. Always moving and casting. But his spell casting didn't seem to flow as fluidly as his movements."
"Spell limitations of the competition" Millicent explained "The added time between spells for a split-second judgement over whether a spell was within the rules or not. You should see Colin when he gets to play his natural game, he is something else."
"Colin is more of a fighter than a duellist" Harry agreed "Some of the spells that appeared on the tip of his wand that he dare not cast, well let's just say they that whilst they may have been within the rules, they would have been frowned upon by the Arbiter" Harry indicated towards where Dumbledore sat overseeing the competition on a raised platform where the teacher's table would usually be. He had the final say on the result of every match, including the appropriateness of any spells. "Why give the old man a reason to disqualify you?"
"Gee, Malfoy looks like crap again" Tracey said watching Draco enter the great hall for the next match. He must have come straight from his quarters as he was not in the warm up area set aside for the days competitors to run through their spells before a match.
Harry studied Draco as he walked on to the piste, Tracey was right, he certainly looked tired again. Which was strange as he was looking reasonably well rested at dinner, but then again, he seems to swap from looking fresh and fit to looking so tired he can barely walk on a daily basis.
"Is Luna trying to curse Malfoy?" Daphne whispered in his ear.
Harry looked across to where Luna was sitting with Hermione and Susan. Luna was staring at Draco with an intense look on her face whilst keeping up a constant flow of words from lips that were barely moving. Harry thought for a moment that Daphne maybe right.
Then he saw Luna's hair move and a little blue hand poked out with the index finger pointing directly at Draco. Obviously, there was a heated discussion happening between Luna and Trixie.
Laughing, Harry pointed out the little blue hand that had just turned into a fist that was being shaken at Draco.
Draco was followed onto the piste by his opponent, Ernie Macmillan, a Hufflepuff, who appeared to have difficulty climbing the steps. Ernie was not the tallest of boys, and his stout body seemed to make his legs look even shorter. Upon reaching the match surface he turned and headed towards his end, seemingly taking forever to reach his position. He stopped at the end of the piste and turn around to face his opponent. By this time Draco was already at his own end, had taken his stance and was waiting for his opponent to be ready, impatiently smacking his wand against his leg, eager to get on with the match.
Ernie fumbled in his robes and drew out his wand. Turning to Professor Lupin he nodded his head to indicate that he was ready.
This brought a good-natured ironic cheer from the audience who had watched his slow progress with varying degrees of disbelief.
Ernie smiled, a little bit embarrassed, gave the audience a small wave.
Draco was fuming, there were sparks coming out the end of his wand now as it smacked against his leg.
Professor Lupin looked at Draco "Are you ready Mister Malfoy?" He dead panned, his face a mask of seriousness. Draco muttered something under his breathe which Professor Lupin took to be agreement and started the countdown.
Surprising no one, Draco jumped the count. But not by a bit, he let his first spell go when Professor Lupin got down to two causing the majority of the crowd to jeer him.
Draco's spell raced towards Ernie who seemed surprised, he started a bit before raising his wand just in time. A shimmering shield appeared, bronze in colour and whilst almost transparent was still quite visible. Draco's spell crashed into it with a resounding "Gong" just like, well a gong being struck. Draco's spell just disappeared.
"What type of shield was that?" Harry asked Daphne, his eyes never leaving the match as Draco had sent another two spells racing down the piste.
"I have never heard of anything like it" she admitted as the same shield appeared again "Gong!" "Gong!"
Both spells stopped in their tracks, no ricochet, they just disappeared.
Draco frowned, he launched some more serious spells only to see the same result which did nothing to improve his temper. He tried casting spells faster and moving around more, trying to get a spell past that damn shield. But it didn't matter what he sent Ernie's way, the spell was absorbed with a resounding gong.
To make matters worse, every time there was a gong, the crowd let out a loud cheer, almost as one voice.
The more powerful the spell, the louder the gong, and the louder the cheer from the crowd.
Draco was livid, this is not how this was meant to go.
"The shield is turning all the magic into sound" Daphne said to Harry "The more magic in the spell, the louder the gong."
Harry agreed, even Malfoy's favourite Serpensortia spell had no effect, the snake just disappearing into the shield with a loud gong. That made sense, all that magic had to go somewhere. So, you either needed a strong shield to deflect it or a way to dissipate the magic.
Harry also noticed Ernie was advancing down the piste, very slowly, making it look like he was stumbling as the spells hit his shield, but advancing none the less. He wondered what Ernie had in mind, but it was definitely a plan which seemed to be working.
Draco's spell casting was starting to slow down, all the energy he had expended at the start, trying to end the duel quickly, was taking its toll. He also seemed to be losing focus, with his temper getting worse at each incessant gong.
"He is in range now" Daphne whispered to Harry. She too had seen Ernie advancing down the piste, and had seen him judging distances between him and Malfoy. Maybe his offensive spells weren't as powerful as his shielding and needed to be caste from a closer range.
Harry thought the same as he saw Ernie prepare himself to finally retaliate with an offensive spell of his own.
Whether Draco noticed this, or whether his temper finally got the better of him they would never know, but Draco shouted out the spell with all the hatred and malice in his heart.
"Sectumsempra"
The spell raced at Ernie who cast his shield again only to see the dark cutting spell pass through it unchecked. The spell thumped into his body, slicing across his torso.
Ernie cried out as searing pain tore through his stomach. Dropping his wand, he clasped his hands over the wound trying to stem the gush of blood that was now soaking the front of his robes. He slumped to the floor.
Draco strode towards the prone figure, the duel was not technically over until he claimed his opponents wand. He looked at Ernie laying on the ground writhing in pain, his blood was starting to pool around him. Lying next to him was his wand, there for the taking.
Draco raised his wand and sent a bone breaker directly into Ernie's face, watching it break the nose and cheekbones of the boy on the ground. Ernie cried out once before passing out. Draco summoned Ernie's wand. Now the duel was finished.
Meanwhile, Professor Lupin had already brought down the wards and Professor Snape and Madame Pomfrey were rushing to help the injured boy.
Snape pushed Draco aside in his haste to get to the wounded student, crouching down beside Ernie frantically whispering the counter curse in an attempt to close the gaping wound in the boy's stomach.
Madame Pomfrey came bustling up and concentrated on Ernie's ruined face, ensuring he could breathe and doing what she could to mitigate any permanent damage to his eyes from the fractured eye sockets.
While they were treating Ernie, the crowd was out of its seats howling its outrage at Draco's actions. The Hufflepuffs were incensed as such a cowardly attack on one of their own, especially the other third year boys who shared a dormitory with Ernie and enjoyed his easy-going nature. Neville having to be physically restrained from going down to the piste and confronting Draco.
Draco just watched them, standing on the other side of the piste in front of Slytherin. His face showed no concern what so ever for the boy on the ground or the hostile crowd opposite.
Professor Lupin's voice rose above the crowd "Mister Malfoy. You are disqualified for the use of a dangerous dark spell. A spell that fell a long way outside the rules for this competition. And for an unsporting attack on a fallen opponent."
Believing justice had been done, the crowd roared its approval. Many taunting Draco with what they thought Lord Macmillan would do to him once he found out about this. Shouting out that a rich and powerful family like the Macmillans could crush what is left of the Malfoys like a bug. While the more helpful in the crowd were explaining to others that an honour duel between the heads of family was not out of the question.
With Malfoy being disqualified, and with the probable retaliation from the Macmillan family in his near future, the somewhat mollified crowd returned to their seats, ignoring Malfoy and instead focusing on the treatment Ernie was receiving.
Down on the piste, Professor Lupin had assisted Madame Pomfrey to move the now awake Ernie onto a stretcher. Madam Pomfrey levitated his stretcher, and as it started to float away towards the infirmary Ernie gave the crowd a weak wave of his hand. This brought a relieved cheer from the crowd.
Daphne meanwhile was watching Draco, he did not seem the least bit concerned about his disqualification. "Look at Draco" she whispered to Harry, a sense of foreboding overcoming her. "He is up to something"
Harry was just turning from watching Ernie's departure to look at Draco as Dumbledore's voice rang out, magically enhanced causing every head in the hall to look at the Headmaster who had arisen from his seat.
"I am afraid I must over rule you there, Professor Lupin" Dumbledore said calmly "Mister Malfoy broke no rules as far as I could see. Whilst Sectumsempra is certainly not a spell I would ever consider using, it is not a ministry prescribed dark spell and therefore acceptable. And there is nothing wrong with a bone breaker to end a duel, common practice in fact. The result must stand."
The was a moment of silent disbelief, before a huge cheer went up from the Slytherins.
"That's rubbish" Neville yelled out, jumping to his feet.
This time there was no stopping Neville as he ran down the bleachers and leapt onto the piste, wand drawn, preparing to confront Draco to let him know exactly what he thought of his actions. But Draco was gone. He was there before Dumbledore started talking, but was gone by the time Neville had reached the piste. No one had seen him leave as their focus had been on the Headmaster.
Neville stood in the middle of the piste scanning the Slytherins opposite looking for Draco, but he wasn't there. "Coward!" he shouted at the top of his voice, venting his frustration.
Draco's disappearance had the crowd booing at injustice of the overturned result, and with Draco's cowardly disappearance they soon turned on the Slytherins on the other side of the piste, shouting insults and threats of retaliation. The Slytherins were also out of their seats, wands drawn, shouting their own insults and threats.
Fearing the worst, Daphne and Harry quickly rounded up all the first and second years and moved them to one end of the bleachers, standing guard between them and whatever threat the angry crowd presented.
From somewhere amongst the group of Slytherins surrounding Marcus Flint, a spell flew out towards Neville who dismissively battered it aside. That was all it took, the flash point reached. The Hufflepuffs swarmed out of the bleachers and headed across the duelling piste towards Slytherin. It was only fast thinking by Professor Lupin, raising the wards between to two opposing groups of students that stopped hexes flying.
Dumbledore's magically enhanced voice rang out again "Enough! This behaviour is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated"
The sight of Dumbledore standing on the raised platform, his wand in hand and his face wearing an expression of absolute fury was enough to stop even the bravest in their tracks. This was not the friendly Headmaster with a twinkle in his eye, nor was this the weak old man recovering from a heart attack. This was the Dumbledore that had taken down Grindelwald.
The effect on the crowd was almost instantaneous, the Hufflepuffs that had invaded the piste were now looking down, shuffling their feet in embarrassment. The Slytherins renowned self-preservation came to the fore as wands were quickly stowed and faces took on what passed for looks of innocence.
"We will take a 30-minute break" Dumbledore continued "Prefects, regain control of your houses. I expect all of you to use this time to compose yourselves, and when you return your behaviour will be suitably moderated. We will then be able to resume the matches. Any more instances of such unruliness will result in the cancellation of the championship."
"You Puffs, you lot are worse than Gryffindors" Tracey teased Neville as the study group used the short break to get together just outside the great hall.
"Hey!" the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors in their group exclaimed indignantly before looking at each other and smiling, some of the tension dissipating.
Whilst tempers were now back under control, the groups of students that had gathered in the entrance hall were being closely watched by the prefects who were patrolling in pairs, threading a path between the different groups ensuring there were no flare ups.
"That was pretty ruthless of Malfoy to end the duel like that" Dean said. If he won his match against Justin, he would be facing Malfoy in the following round and was a little concerned.
"Whilst not out of character for him, it did seem a bit over the top" Lavender agreed "But why would he risk being disqualified?"
"Maybe he wasn't risking disqualification" Luna said, causing everyone to look at her, waiting for more. With Luna, there was always more. "Maybe he knew that Dumbledore wouldn't disqualify him. Maybe Dumbledore is helping Draco to win the championship. I mean there is no way that he should have been seeded at number two, everyone knows that. I think Dumbledore did that so Draco didn't have to come up against Harry until the final. A lot can happen between now and then, accidents, injuries, suspensions."
"Harry has to get past me first to get into the final" Daphne said in all seriousness.
"And you have to get past me" Neville looked at Daphne with an evil grin.
"Never mind that" Ginny said "Daphne has to get past Ron first. According to my loud mouth brother, he is going to wipe the floor with that evil snake"
Daphne just smiled, a very broad smile. Nothing malicious about it, but it sent shivers down the spine of every one who saw it.
Fred and George who were approaching the group saw that smile and reeled in mock horror.
"Oh, brother of mine, it appears that our little sister has just informed the lovely and gracious Miss Greengrass of our younger brother's unfortunate and deranged public musings" Fred said
"Thus, shortening his life span considerably" George agreed.
They both dropped to their knees in front of Daphne hands clasped in front of them in the classic pleading pose.
"Please Miss Daphne"
"Beautiful and kind Miss Daphne"
"Please spare our brother's life"
"We would be ever so grateful"
"Mum would make our life unbearable if we let anything happened to little Ronnikins"
"Although" Fred paused "It would mean that his room at the burrow would become available"
"We could set up a laboratory in there"
"And it would double our storage space for ingredients and completed products"
Standing up, they both bowed to Daphne
"As you were, do want ever you want to him"
"With our blessing"
Everyone cracked up at their performance, the final residue of any bad feelings gone. And off the twins went, interrupting the next group of students, making them laugh with their antics before moving on again.
"Luna, for what it is worth, I think you are right" Daphne said "When Professor Lupin disqualified him, Draco just stood there as if he was waiting for Dumbledore to overrule him."
Dean was now worried what Draco would try against him. "But why would he want to win like that? Deliberately hurting Ernie. I mean why risk it?"
"Politics" Daphne said looking pointedly at the group of students from Slytherin who had congregated a short way away from them. Theo was with them, standing in the background watching the heated argument Flint and Montague were having. Whilst surrounded by a privacy spell so they could not be overheard, it wasn't hard to guess what they were discussing. "Draco has lost his money and political influence, all he has left is his Lordship and his ability with a wand. So he is trying to prove himself as ruthless with his wand as his father was."
"He wasn't doing too well with his wand against Ernie. What was that shield?" Susan asked looking around the group. Nobody seemed to have an answer, everyone just shrugged. "Well, whatever it was, Ernie played to his strengths magnificently."
"And it was a great act he put on." Millicent agreed "It had Malfoy totally fooled, and it got him within his obviously limited offensive range. One more shielded spell and I think Ernie would have had Malfoy. Draco had nothing left, a fast stunner and he would have been down."
"And this sets the standard for every other match," Hermione said, glad she had the chance to read the duelling championship section of Harry's copy of Hogwarts, A History.
"Any Arbiter's decision stands for the entire competition. By expressly stating 'it is not a ministry prescribed dark spell and therefore acceptable' means that any spell that is not on that list has now been deemed appropriate for the competition. I am pretty sure Dumbledore didn't realise that by announcing it to all the competitors like that, it sets the new standard."
That gave everyone pause for thought, relaxing the spell limitations would benefit their group greatly, but most were sure that once Dumbledore realised what he had done he would reverse it immediately.
"Come on, we better go in" Hannah said as she noticed the groups around them heading back in to the great hall.
"Yes, we wouldn't want to miss seeing Diggory in action, would we Susan" Tracey watched as Susan blushed, but she was used to Tracey's teasing and responded with a dreamy look on her face "Yes, what that boy can do with his wand in his hand is a sight to behold."
Susan laughed at the look of disappointment on Tracey's face that her teasing was so easily countered and rushed to catch up with Hannah and Neville.
Millicent pulled Colin aside as the group broke up "Dumbledore can change his mind again at any time" She had noticed Colin was looking very pleased at this apparently relaxing of the spell limit "So stick to the game plan. You were lucky to win tonight with such slow spell casting" This saw the smile drop from Colin's face until Millicent winked at him "We will have to put in some more one-on-one practice time" which returned the smile to his face with remarkable speed.
Harry had just taken Daphne's hand and was following the rest of the group when he felt a tug on his sleeve, looking around he saw no one. Then Dobby's voice whispered in his ear "Master Harry, sir. You needs to be coming to the seventh floor now. You must see this."
"That was Dobby. He has something to show us" Harry said quietly to Daphne before rushing to catch up to Tracey.
"Cover for us will you" he asked her "We have to go and do something"
"Ahh, young love" Tracey teased them "Broom cupboards to inspect?"
Ignoring her jibe, Harry took a quick look around and pulled out his invisibility cloak and threw it over Daphne and himself as they headed towards the stairs.
Arriving at the seventh floor they saw Dobby at the end of the corridor, opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. Invisibility cloak or not, Dobby obviously knew they had arrived as he looked directly at them and smiled.
He then did a strange thing. Not acknowledging them further in any way, he turned and walked along a section of the wall and back again three times. Suddenly a door appeared, it wasn't there a second ago.
Dobby looked pleased with himself, but still not acknowledging Daphne and Harry, he just popped away, leaving them standing there.
Harry stepped forward and turned the handle and slowly opened the door, not knowing what to expect. Daphne was beside him, almost pushing him out of the way in her eagerness to see.
The door swung open and the light from the torches in the corridor revealed the room.
"A broom cupboard?"