Harry Potter and the Physical Adept
Chapter 16: Duel Monster, Part Deux
"I can't find anything in the library about the Chamber of Secrets," Hermione grumbled on the same day the head of Hufflepuff went around and took down the names of those students staying at Hogwarts over Christmas break, and Harry had put his down, even though he had no intentions of staying on campus during the two-week period between terms. "Nothing on the monster that allegedly lives there, either."
It was one of the few times since Harry had told her she needed to do her own research and development for the Hermetic arts that Hermione had joined Harry in an abandoned classroom to work on the form of magic not formally taught at the school; most days, she either hunkered down in the school's library or borrowed the Hufflepuff's portable one for her own research, and while she was steadily developing Hermetic spells that worked for her, Harry noticed they had very specific effects and replicated the most basic magic from Dungeons & Dragons, like light or wizard mark; beyond her original spell for personal magical flight, she had yet to begin attempting to develop magic on her own that emulated more advanced magic, and Harry wondered whether it was due to caution or fear.
The Hermetic mage recalled something Colin had told him the previous month.
"The night Colin saw that huge slotting snake, he was tailing the headmaster and saw him taking a gigantic stack of books out of the library," Harry said.
"And you think those were the books that had to do with the Chamber of Secrets or the beast that resides therein?" Hermione asked.
"Could be," the Hermetic mage said. "Otherwise, the timing feels too coincidental."
"But why would Dumbledore do such a thing?" Hermione asked.
"Remember last year, when he would not allow Madam Pince to assist students researching Flamel?" Harry reminded the Ravenclaw, and she nodded. "Or that he employed Quirrell as the professor of Defense, even though he was possessed by the big bad evil guy?"
"What are you saying, exactly?" Hermione asked.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he's involved, in one way or another," said the Boy-Who-Lived.
"I really hope he isn't," the Ravenclaw said, worried. "Do you have any ideas on how I could find out more information about the Chamber of Secrets or the beast within it? Binns dismissed it out of hand as a myth, and all the relevant books are missing from the library."
"What have you found in my library?" Harry asked.
"Not much," Hermione admitted. "Without any sort of card catalogue, there's not much I can really do to look up the subject, and, as extensive as your collection is, books written by magicals usually don't include indexes, so it's kind of hard to dig through every single book to find every minor detail."
"What do you have?" asked the Hufflepuff.
"Right now, only speculation and suspicion," said the second-year girl. "I know Slytherin has an affinity for snakes, which is why it's both the symbol of his house and on his heraldry, and he was said to be a Parselmouth, so it'd make sense he'd choose a snake or serpent as the creature he kept in the Chamber of Secrets, if it exists, since he'd be able to communicate with it, but I can't find any sort of proof that would confirm the theory."
"Well, if there's really a Chamber of Secrets, there's a pretty good chance it's been opened before," Harry said. "Magicals are pretty long-lived; you might be able to gain some information by writing Hogwarts alumni and asking about it."
"That's a great idea," Hermione said, nodding.
"I'd suggest writing Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws first," continued the Hermetic mage. "With the Hufflepuffs, mention that students have been petrified again and play to their sense of loyalty and desire to help other people, and with Ravenclaws…"
"I'll tell them I'm doing research for a project and play to their desire to pass on knowledge," said the bushy-haired girl. "Thanks!"
"Null sweat, chummer," Harry said.
~ooOoo~
"I want to try the dueling club," Liv announced one afternoon mid-December.
"What's that now?" Harry asked.
"Liv and I saw a parchment on the notice board announcing the start of a dueling club, with the first session being for tonight," Luna explained.
"You do realize you could pretty much smoke anybody at this school, right?" the Hermetic mage asked the dragon.
"It'd be fun," said the Norwegian Ridgeback. "I'd love to see how witches and wizards integrate magic with physical combat."
"Actually, that's a point of interest for me too," Harry admitted. "Last time I got into it with a wizard, I kind of just threw my wand at the fragface, then tripped him and sat on him. I mean, I was crushing his windpipe too, so I'm pretty sure I won, but it wasn't much of an experience."
The Boy-Who-Lived mentally checked his schedule and decided he could afford to take a night off from the research and development of his Hermetic magic; he had hit a wall in researching higher level magic and was currently perplexed by polymorph any object, a spell so broadly functional he had trouble figuring out the necessary visualization to make it work half the time even though he had a foundation of lesser, similar spells like alter self and polymorph other already in his repertoire.
"Let's do it," Harry agreed. "I could use a break from research."
"Yay!" Luna exclaimed. "We're going to the dueling club!"
~ooOoo~
"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all, in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have on countless occasions — for full details, see my published works."
Hermione's hand shot up as soon as Lockhart finished declaring himself in charge of the club, and the Defense professor nodded. "Yes, young lady?" he asked.
"Would that be the times you defended yourself against the strigoi in Break with a Banshee or Gadding with Ghouls, the time you fended off Cornish pixies in Marauding with Monsters, the times you fought off chupacabras in Voyages with Vampires or Magical Me, the times you battled the tarasque in Magical Me, or the times you encountered manticore in Holidays with Hags or Gadding with Ghouls?" asked the Ravenclaw, consulting the memo pad in her hand.
"Yes," Lockhart said, smiling brightly, and the bushy-haired girl quickly scribbled in her notebook, frowning deeply.
The Defense professor then introduced the Potions professor as his assistant in the club, only to be blasted off his feet by Snape during the ensuing demonstration, to the many cheers of the Slytherins present.
From what Harry could tell from the presentation made by the two adults in the room, wizards seemed extremely unskilled in the ways of war; by even assuming a fighting stance, they were giving away their intent to engage in battle, something that would immediately put them at a distinct disadvantage in a real-life combat situation, particularly against somebody who needed no such stance to be effective.
With the demonstration over, the two professors moved through the gathered students, pairing them off with one another; Snape reached Harry and his clustered group first.
"Mister Malfoy, come over here. Let's see how you make of the famous Potter," said the Potions professor with a cold smile.
The platinum blonde Slytherin flinched. "I'd rather not, sir," he said weakly.
Snape froze for a moment, not prepared for the usually confident Slytherin boy to be afraid.
Quickly, the professor recovered his wits. "Very well, then. Malfoy, you can partner with Miss Baldursdottir; Potter, you will partner with Bletchley."
The Hermetic mage considered the girl with slicked-back black hair, dressed in Slytherin green, for a long moment; she was only a little taller than he was despite certainly being in a higher form, and her being in a higher form made him think there was no reason to go easy on her, particularly because it was unlikely she would go easy on him, not with the reputation of beating the Boy-Who-Lived in a duel on the line.
"Wands at the ready!" shouted Lockhart, and the girl raised her wand to mimic the stance Snape had adopted in his mock duel with the Defense professor, while Harry shifted his weight onto his cane, leaning on it heavily while his wand remained at his side.
"When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents — only to disarm them — we don't want any accidents — one… two… three —"
The moment the countdown reached its end, the Hermetic mage flung his wand at the girl in a quick sidearm motion, disrupting her concentration and forcing her to break off her wand movement and bat the thrown wand to the side with her own, lest she be struck in the face with it. Breaking into a dead sprint, he closed the gap between them in an instant, using the crook of his immovable rod to hook the wrist of her wand hand and drag it across her body, forcing her wand off line as he ducked into her personal space, her wand arm going over his shoulder as he wrapped both arms around her body just below the swell of her breasts, pushing forward with his hips as he lifted her off her feet, forcefully driving her to the ground, face down.
Before the Slytherin could react and organize an intelligent defense, Harry spun from where he was atop her, isolating her wand arm and seizing it by the wrist, twisting until she yelped in pain and was forced to drop her wand.
Looking up momentarily, Harry noticed the variety of spells flying around that were decidedly intended not to disarm, along with the Defense professor screaming in alarm; nearby, Malfoy was slinging spell after spell at Liv, who was twirling her truncheon of a wand around her fingers like a pencil, but they all seemed to fizzle into nothing before they reached the Norwegian Ridgeback, likely courtesy of the dragon dispelling the peroxide blonde's spells in midair, a task Harry would find extremely difficult even in the best of circumstances.
"Finite Incantatem!" bellowed the Potions professor, waving his wand.
Suddenly, the magical pandemonium ceased, leaving behind a scene of students in various states of exhaustion and injury. Bouncing around the crowd with a cheer inappropriate to the circumstances he had inadvertently caused, the Defense professor volunteered advice to the fallen and the injured with oblivious exuberance.
Carefully, Harry dismounted the Slytherin he had disarmed, offering her a hand and helping her back to her feet.
"That was pretty amazing," the girl said, brushing off her robes. "How'd you do that?"
"Lots of practice fighting people bigger than me," Harry said, meaning the program.
"Right, your cousin and his gang," said the girl, thinking the Hermetic mage meant what was written in the articles about him. "I'm Myla Bletchley; my friends call me 'Miles', not that I have any here at Hogwarts."
"I can't imagine why," said the Boy-Who-Lived conversationally, not really caring.
"I'm a half-blood. In Slytherin," the girl said. "Slytherin, the house whose founder said he'd only teach those with the purest ancestry and only took the pure-blood wizards who were cunning like he was."
"So, what you're saying is your house is racist?" Harry asked.
"Oh, so very much," the girl said. "If I weren't the Keeper, I don't think they'd ever talk to me. I mean, they barely do now."
"I don't know what that is, but, sounds unpleasant," the Hermetic mage said, paying attention now his interest was suddenly piqued. "I'm Harry Potter, but I think you already knew that."
"Of course," Myla said and was about to continue when the Defense professor interrupted.
"I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells," Lockhart announced, surveying the mayhem spread throughout the hall and nodding sagely to himself. "Let's have a volunteer — Potter and Bletchley, how about you —"
"Professor Lockhart," Myla said loudly, taking on a scornful tone. "Everybody knows Potter can't use magic; you should pick somebody else."
"Excellent idea," said the Defense professor brightly. "Malfoy, Baldursdottir," he added, gesturing towards the center of the hall.
"Sorry," whispered the Slytherin girl. "I figured you wouldn't want to have to try to defend against a spell in front of everybody."
"I mean, I could just dislocate your elbow," Harry said casually, watching as the Defense professor whispered something into the dragon's ear; even from where he stood, he could see Liv roll her eyes dismissively, though Lockhart seemed oblivious.
"I'd really rather you didn't," Myla said.
"Me too," said Harry, before calling out to Liv as the Defense professor started to count down. "Remember your cover!"
"Go!" Lockhart shouted.
Malfoy chanted something, and a long black snake shot out of his wand; it was too late, though, as Liv simply hopped over the reptile en route to the Slytherin boy, quickly rising up as she planted one foot on his hip and jumped off the floor, her other leg swinging over his head as she flipped in midair, using her weight and momentum to torque him to the floor even as she seized control of the arm with the wand in it, wrenching sharply as they hit the ground.
The sickening crunch of bone snapping could be heard just under the sound of the children screaming and backing away from the snake.
"You're way squishier than Bear," said the dragon, standing over the prone Malfoy clutching his broken arm and whimpering.
"Don't worry, Draco," declared the Defense professor, rushing over to the Slytherin boy. "I'm about to fix your arm."
Turning, the dragon hissed sharply at the snake. Without tongues on, Harry figured she was talking to it, though what she said was anyone's guess.
"No, don't," Draco said weakly, but Lockhart was already doing something appropriately stupid.
In an instant, the boy's arm went from broken to boneless.
"Cool," said the Norwegian Ridgeback.
Meanwhile, the hall was filled with ominous whispers.
"What's the big deal?" the dragon asked, as the students backed away from her.
"You're a Parselmouth!" declared one student.
"Uh, actually, she speaks everything," Harry said, loudly enough for the entire hall to hear. "Listen, if you don't believe me, any of you have a pet on you?"
A boy in Ravenclaw blue and bronze produced a toad from his pocket.
"What do you want it to do?" Liv asked, catching onto what Harry was trying to turn the situation into.
"Can you make it lick my face?" asked the boy.
The dragon croaked at the toad, who turned around in the boy's hands, hopped onto his shoulder by way of his arm, then shot its tongue out, tapping the boy on the cheek.
"How about Scabbers?" asked a ginger in the crowd. "Can you make it run in a circle?"
Liv chittered at the rat, lips curling back in a wicked smile. The rat looked terrified, then ran around in a circle in the boy's hands.
"I'm going to get my cat!" declared an older student.
"I've got a dog," said another. "Will you wait while I go get her?"
Dueling club quickly devolved into Olivia-Talks-To-Animals club as would-be duelists rained questions and requests on the dragon, who seemed happy to oblige. It was only an hour later that the commotion died down, as the club session ended and the students went back to their room, but by then, the ominous idea Liv was a Parselmouth had been defanged, replaced by the more curious notion she could speak with any animal.
"That rat the ginger asked me to make run in a circle?" asked Liv rhetorically, as soon as she, Luna and Harry were back in their dormitory room, "That rat is a person. It looked like McGonagall did when she was a cat, except a rat."
"Of course it is," Luna said distractedly, a handful of cards in her hands. "Got any twos?"
"Maybe it's a paedophile," Harry suggested, shrugging. "Or, a guardian of some sort."
"Go fish," the dragon said to the girl, before speaking to the Hermetic mage. "Either way, it's not our problem; just thought you should know."
"Duly noted," said the Hermetic mage.
It wasn't his problem now, but he had the feeling it might soon be.
~ooOoo~
*beep*
"Harry, where are you?"
It was rare for Colin to contact him outside of arranging the daily meeting to review the results of the surveillance the first-year boy had performed in the past twenty-four hours, so when the two-way radio on channel two squelched in the evening, during his normal research and development time, the Hermetic mage was immediately on alert.
"I'm in four seventy-five," Harry said, bringing the radio to his lips. "What's going on?"
"We'll tell you when we get there," Colin answered.
Hurriedly, the Hermetic mage gathered the materials he had out and shoved them into his haversack, then placed several open textbooks around him for cover; he had no desire to reveal his magic to Colin just yet, and from the sounds of it, he was likely bringing somebody along, so Harry needed to give off the appearance of doing something reasonable in an abandoned room.
The door to the classroom opened a few minutes later, and Colin entered, accompanied by a second Hufflepuff boy Harry had seen around but did not know by name.
"All right, what is it?" asked the Hermetic mage.
"I saw the giant snake," said the boy whose name Harry did not care to remember. "It petrified Nearly Headless Nick, and I barely got away in time."
"Guess the Ribbon's doing its job, then," Harry said.
"Here's the thing, though," the boy continued. "When I tried to report it to Dumbledore, he called me a liar and insisted that I didn't know what I saw, even though I know what it was!"
"You familiar with James Bond?" Harry asked Colin.
"I love the movies," said the third boy. "I'm not sure how that relates though?"
"You know that line in Goldfinger?" asked the Hermetic mage. "'Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.'?"
"This is the second time," Colin said. "If it happens again…"
"We should consider Dumbledore our enemy?" concluded the last boy.
"Something like that, yeah."
Author's Notes: There's always more than one way to skin a cat. I thought it was about time Hermione started using more than just books in her research, and start using the human element as well. There's a lot of ways to attack a problem, and, as expected, Hermione Granger's paradigm is "research the hell out of it".
Malfoy might still be smart-mouthed with Harry, but he's not going to risk getting smoked by him again.
Why is Bletchley female? In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the Slytherin keeper was played by an actress, Amy Puglia, despite there being no females on the Slytherin Quidditch team in the books. That—the only girl on a team of all boys—was a more interesting character to me than the stereotypical Slytherin, and it kind of just snowballed from there, with me asking myself, "What could make a character's life in Slytherin harder?", until this version of Miles Bletchley, half-blood Myla who loves both her parents and is shunned by her peers, was born. And yes, I do take cues from both the books and the films, which is why Creevey is a blonde (as he was in the films, whereas he's got brown hair in the books), but there's also the potions trial in Hermetic Arts (taken from the book but was omitted in the films), and I also take cues from ancillary media like the trading card game (where I got the Manegro potion produced in Hermetic Arts).
Harry kicking the shit out of wizards with his physical skills is pretty much one of the recurring elements of the story; while his methods might be considered uncivilized by magicals, if it works, it works. And, seeing that it worked for her father, Liv does the same thing when she's called upon.
As a way to start demonstrating some of the philosophical and stylistic differences between Harry and Liv, I purposefully chose to have Harry use a bodylock takedown to get Bletchley to the ground, because it was a simple and effective technique that isn't flashy but gets the job done; Liv, meanwhile, uses a flying armbar on Malfoy specifically because it's flashy and she likes to show off, even if the only person there who could truly appreciate it was Harry.
Once again, many, many thanks to my long-suffering editor, Romantically Distant, for all their efforts in reading and proofing my writing. And now you've read this chapter, feel free to leave a review or just PM me, and, with the WARS pandemic still on-going, stay safe.