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Chapter 9: International Dueling Champions
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The stone hallway was dark. No torches were lit and as he walked, his cloak trailing behind him, Peter Pettigrew tightened his grip on the box he was carrying. Ahead of him he could see the faint glow of light, the sign he was drawing nearer to his master's chamber. Peter pushed the door open with his foot and let himself in silently, letting the door shut behind him. The circular stone chamber was dark except for the torches on either side of the high-backed chair in the middle of the room.
"Wormtail, do you have it?" Voldemort asked, standing from his chair.
"Yes, yes my Lord, it is here," stuttered Wormtail, rushing forward, his arms outstretched to hand his master the box.
"It has already been discovered missing," Voldemort whispered.
Wormtail cringed. "As it would, my Lord, something like this is heavily guarded," he whispered, hoping his master would see that whether or not the Golden Serpent had been discovered missing, the fact remained that it was now in his hands rather than under the security of the Ministry of Magic.
Voldemort caressed the box with his long fingers, turning it over in his hands, triumph on his face. "You know what this is, Wormtail?" he asked, looking up suddenly.
Wormtail swallowed. "The Golden Serpent."
"Of course it is. And now, Wormtail, now no one can stop me," Voldemort whispered, his red eyes lighting with a manic fire.
Wormtail swallowed again, contemplating whether he should ask. "My Lord, I'm not questioning your abilities, but the Golden Serpent, My Lord? How can it be of any help to you?"
Voldemort's eyes narrowed, causing Wormtail to step back shaking. "I expected that from you, Wormtail, I expected it. You really don't know what this is do you?"
"I guess not," he whispered, shaking his head slowly.
"It is the key to defeating Potter, Wormtail; he won't escape this time."
"It's just a pendant, how will it benefit us?"
Voldemort stared at Wormtail, contemplating, and slowly sat back into his chair. "Do you know who is at Hogwarts right now?" whispered Voldemort. Wormtail shook his head. "The very person for whom this pendant was made. The very person who will bring Potter's destruction and hand to us everything we want. You have heard of the Prophecy regarding the Potters, Wormtail, you must have?" questioned Voldemort, taking in Wormtail's confused face.
"The only prophecy I'm aware of is that made by Professor Trelawney before Lily and James were married; I didn't know it was about them though."
"Idiot, it has nothing to do with them, only their children."
* * * * *
Luckily for Adrienne, the rest of the week was not marked by any more mishaps and by Friday, she was in her element.
"Look at the schedule for today!" she exclaimed at the end of breakfast, when everyone was finally pulling out their schedules to see what classes they'd encounter that day.
"DUELING!" she said, jumping up and swinging her bag onto her shoulder, "then Defense!"
"Wonderful," muttered Ron, "Defense; you know what, I'm starting to doubt whether we'll ever have a good defense professor."
"It would be helpful to have one who actually stayed for more than a year," added Hermione.
"What, you guys haven't had one for more than a year, Hermi?" asked Adrienne, still standing.
Harry couldn't help it anymore, before he could stop himself he had blurted out a question that had been nagging at him for quite some time. "Where, Adrienne, do you get Hermi from Her-my-oh-knee?" he asked. Adrienne stared at him and then turned to Hermione.
"Sorry, I thought it was Herm-e-own, gee, really sorry," she said but then added, "But I like Hermi as a nick-name better than Herm. So to me, Hermione, you'll always be Hermi the Prefect." Adrienne nodded and walked out of the Great Hall, in hopes that she'd be able to meet the dueling master before class. Hermione stared after her with mild surprise,
* * * * *
Adrienne found the new dueling classroom easily and knocked on the closed door. She watched a young lady approach through the door's window.
"Yes?" said the petite red head.
Adrienne stared, her mouth slightly open. "You're Jasmine Lycé aren't you?" she asked quietly.
The red head smiled slightly. "And you're that girl from the dueling competition, Adrienne Miles, right?"
"Yep," replied Adrienne, beaming at the fact that Jasmine Lycé remembered her.
"Come in, come in," she said, holding the door open.
Adrienne walked into the classroom. It was a large room without proper rows. Instead, the desks were circled around the middle of the room.
"Like it?" asked Professor Lycé, taking in the amazed look upon Adrienne's face.
"It's just like a dueling ring," Adrienne answered in response.
And so it was. The middle of the floor was painted with the shiny light blue paint that always covered the floor of a professional dueling ring. The ring was encompassed by a dark purple circle painted onto the ground, surrounded by the bright green circle that served as the boundary for a competition.
"I thought it should look as real as possible," said Professor Lycé, sitting down upon her desk.
Adrienne nodded her head in agreement. "So we're learning basic competition dueling?" she asked, stepping to the edge of the green line.
She snapped her feet together and brought her hands, knuckles facing inward, to the sides of her hips, simultaneously raising her head a little in salute before entering the dueling ring.
"We'll study basic competition dueling and practical dueling," replied Professor Lycé.
Adrienne walked slowly into the middle of the ring.
"I watched you at the competition; you're a very accomplished dueler," said Professor Lycé, standing up, saluting, and then entering the circle after Adrienne.
"Well, I had a great teacher."
"Yes, Mia Hartel, the first female International Dueling Champion; no wonder you are so good," said Professor Lycé, smiling her approval. Adrienne returned the smile. "She doesn't compete anymore does she?"
"No, she's the Defense professor at Salem, but she is the Dueling coach," replied Adrienne, turning to face her professor.
"Good for her. Well Miss Miles," said Lycé, her small eyes sparkling innocently, "What do you think? The current International Underage Dueling Champion and the International Dueling Champion alone in a dueling ring? We could have some fun before class." Adrienne grinned and reached for her wand. "That's the spirit, kid," said Professor Lycé, reaching for hers.
Hermione, Ron, and Harry arrived at the door to the dueling classroom. Harry moved to open the door but stopped.
"Look, they're going to duel," he whispered. Hermione and Ron pressed their faces to the window on either side of Harry to get a better view.
"Rules, Professor?" asked Adrienne calmly, clearing her mind of all other thoughts, focusing her entire being as Professor Hartel had taught her to do before every competition.
"How 'bout just the basic ones, you know: no killing, no illegal curses, only stunning or disarming wins."
"Sounds like a deal." Adrienne and Lycé's eyes locked and each bowed slightly, raising their wands.
"On three?" asked Adrienne; Professor Lycé nodded, and they both started counting:
"ONE, TWO, THREE."
Adrienne was quicker, with a flick or her wrist she had yelled, "Stupify," and a blinding jet of white light burst toward Lycé. She stepped out of the way, blocking it perfectly and replied with, "Petrificus Totalus."
Flashes of light engulfed the room as the two duelers pointed, shouted, and blocked their way around the ring.
"Wow," muttered Ron as Adrienne jumped into the air out of the way of a low shot curse. Adrienne pulled her knees up to her chest just as Professor Mondel had taught her in marital arts. She sailed over Professor Lycé, twisting in the air and landed behind her.
"Expelliarmus," she yelled, raising her hand to catch Professor Lycé's wand as in soared through the air. Adrienne held up her opponent's wand, the indication of the end of a match, and then smiled broadly at her professor.
"You really are good, Adrienne," said Professor Lycé, walking over to retrieve her wand.
"So are you, Professor," said Adrienne, putting her wand back into her robes, "I think we had spectators."
Professor Lycé glanced over to the door and motioned for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to come in.
"Are we going to learn to do that?" asked Harry, thinking about how helpful it could prove to be as proficient in dueling as Adrienne was when Voldemort came for him again.
"That's the goal, but Adrienne's been dueling competitively for four years now, so don't be disappointed if you don't start out with such success," said Professor Lycé, saluting herself out of the circle and walking over to her students.
"I'm Professor Jasmine Lycé and I'll be your Dueling Professor this year," she said warmly, holding out a small hand. Hermione was the first to grab it and smiled sweetly, thinking how young Professor Lycé looked; she couldn't be much older than 20.
"I'm Hermione Granger," she began.
"Ah, Hermione, that's my mother's name," said Professor Lycé, "I always liked that name."
"And I'm Ron Weasley," said Ron, taking her hand.
"Nice to meet you, Ron." Professor Lycé turned to Harry. "And you must be Harry. My Grandfather has told me much about you. He seems to think you and Adrienne will be the captains of the Gryffindor Dueling Team."
Harry took her hand and shook it unsurely, not quite knowing what to say: His past attempts at dueling were quite interesting events, but they hardly put him at a level to be a captain, let alone a co-captain with the likes of Adrienne.
"Your Grandfather?" asked Harry.
"Yes, you know, Professor Dumbledore," said Professor Lycé smiling and turning to her desk. Harry cast a quick glance at Hermione who looked just as shocked as he did to find that Professor Dumbledore had a granddaughter.
"We didn't know he had a granddaughter," said Hermione, walking towards one of the desks.
Professor Lycé smiled. "He has one - yours truly."
* * * * *
After the excitement of learning and practicing how to salute oneself into a dueling ring and how to properly begin a duel, Harry wasn't sure Defense would be very fun. He actually wasn't looking forward to it at all and was dreading who the professor would be. Considering that since over the last four years he had had two Death Eaters and a complete fraud, he wasn't expecting that much.
The classroom was empty when Harry reached it. He held the door open for Hermione, Adrienne, and Ron, and then traipsed in last. It was the same classroom as it had been the previous year, and he took the same seat he had sat in the day he learned about the Unforgiveable Curses. The rest of the class filed in warily, casting skeptical glances at the teacher's desk, making hushed comments on what sort of crazy they were going to have this year. The room didn't fill with the normal chatter but only a soft hiss emitted from the students, as most were straining to hear any approaching footsteps; however, none came.
Five minutes past and still no professor had entered the room. As the clock ticked towards ten minutes, they heard the faint rustle of a cloak, and the slight click of heels. Everyone became deathly still. Ron held his breath, and then suddenly, the door burst open and inside the doorway stood a very tall woman with short, spiky-blonde hair. She walked into the room, the clicking noise belonging to the inch heels she was wearing. She stopped in the center of the room and smiled, a very wide smile that reminded Harry very much of Lockhart.
"Welcome to 5th Year Defense against the Dark Arts. I am Lindsay Wallace, and I will be your Defense professor," she said, twirling her wand between her fingers like a baton. She jumped back to sit upon her desk, and she swung her legs much like a child.
"Defense is an essential class, probably the most essential class you will ever take, considering the condition we have lived in since the rise of the Dark One." Harry had never heard Voldemort referred to as the Dark One before, but continued listening.
"So last year I hear you got a treat, not many days you get taught by a convicted Death Eater, eh?" she said this as if it was her greatest desire to have been taught by Voldemort's right hand man.
"Think of the stories you could tell about that one," she continued, now holding her wand with both hands, as if she were going to snap it in half.
"Well, I didn't come here to teach you how to tell stories; I came here to teach you how to stay alive when something from the dark side is set on destroying you. Not a pretty thought, to know that there are very powerful wizards who have awards on your head, I imagine I'm correct, right Potter?" she asked, turning her gaze to Harry, who promptly sunk in his chair and muttered something incomprehensible.
"Well, this year I think you will find that we will be taking a different approach to studying Defense. We will be using something the English Ministry has just recently developed to train their Aurors; it's called a Magical Simulation Bubble, or MSB.
"These are little 'bubble worlds' where you can go head to head against any magical creature: You can practice your defensive and offensive tactics without allowing pain or repercussions from your opponents to affect you. When you are hit or a successful attack is made against you, all you will feel is a tingling feeling. This will allow us to practice defensive tactics against both the Cruciatus Curse and Imperious Curse without me being imprisoned for putting them on you. You will all be graded on how well you perform inside the bubble on the different assignments taught during the course of this year."
All the students stared at her, obviously not too encouraged about the last part concerning the Unforgivable Curses. Harry, on the other hand, felt somewhat reassured by this bubble thing, telling himself that if he could learn how to block the Cruciatus Curse then that would be one less thing that he'd have to worry about.
"However, before I can begin letting you use the bubble, I must first know exactly where you are in Defense curriculum. So, naturally, the only way to discover this is to give a . . ." she whipped out a stack of papers from behind her. The class groaned. "Yes, a diagnostic exam."
* * * * *
Adrienne ran down the spiral staircase into the Gryffindor Common Room, holding a letter.
"Look you guys! It's from Salem!" she tore open the letter and straightened it with a flourish. Hermione looked up from her Arthimancy homework, and Ron and Harry looked up with eager faces, glad to have some legitimate excuse to take a break from their Divination work.
Dear kid,
I can't believe you've been gone almost an entire week! I don't know what to think of it - the castle is still in one piece, has to be the first time in many years. We all miss you terribly. I'm glad to hear that your first few days went fine. I told you Snape was a stick-in-the-mud; why couldn't you have slimed his class instead of McGonagall's? Oh well, there'll be plenty of time for that this year. So, Jasmine is your Dueling mistress? I'm not sure what Mia thinks of that; oh, don't get me wrong, I think she is just a little put-off. She's probably afraid you'll end up liking Jas more than you do her. Well, I don't have that much to say. Mia's off looking for Boggarts - where are you when we need you - you can find them faster than anyone. And I'm going to go try out a potion that's just been released by the Russian Potions Society, its supposed to work the same as a polyjuice potion, but longer. I'll see how it works; maybe I'll steal a piece of Mia's hair and turn into her just to scare her. Keep up all the good work; you must be doing something right since we haven't gotten a letter from good old Dumbledore saying you're being sent back. Remember, be strong, and tell us if you have any more nightmares.
Love always,
Professor Glenn
"He reminds me of Professor Lupin," said Harry thoughtfully.
"You're on pretty good terms with him?" asked Ron.
"Yep, he's like my dad, except he's way funnier than any parent could possibly be."
Hermione looked at Adrienne with a strange expression. "You have nightmares?" she asked, tilting her head slightly to the side.
Adrienne quickly looked back to her letter. "Sometimes, but everyone does sometimes, its no big deal," replied Adrienne, not looking up.
Hermione just looked at her, not saying anything, and then turned back to her Arithmancy work.