Author's Note: The characters that belong to JK Rowling belong to JK Rowling
Thanks to SilverWind for the help proofreading, and my brother for miscellaneous stuff.
Chapter 4: The Duel
Evus was quite right. History of Magic was easily the most boring class yet. James yawned and looked over to Sirius. His head was down, and James was certain he was asleep. Next to Remus, who was the only one taking notes, though quite sleepily, was an empty seat where Allyn would have been, had he not been attacked by the Whomping Willow.
"In Eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, the North Swiss Provincial Goblin Rebels signed a treaty with the Northeast Swiss Provincial Goblin Rebels to join together and rebel. After 7 months of bloody fighting, the Swiss government finally agreed to grant the North-Northeast Swiss Provincial Goblin Rebels their demand, the legal right for Goblins to eat ice cream in Northern Switzerland."
James nearly fell off his seat.
"Mister Black, I suggest you wake up and pay attention, there will be a quiz at the end of the week." Professor Binns droned.
As Sirius snorted and rose his head, the bell rang, and the class came out of its stupor.
"Why did Dumbledore take you aside, Remus?" Asked James.
"I...er, I don't know, maybe he thought I made it stop."
"Yeah, with that stick. Seriously, Remus..."
"Hey guys, let's go visit Allyn." Lily said, joining them as they strode out the door. The boys consented, and they traveled down the hall.
"Er, where is the hospital wing?" They stopped in their tracks. Just then, however, their angel of guidance appeared.
"'Ello, folks!" Said Evus as he approached them. "How're ya doin'?"
"Excellent, Evus, except that Allyn had that unfortun-ate run-in with the Whomping Willow."
"Ach, that bloody tree. Professor Marus told me aboot it, wouldn't say why they put it in." Remus stood behind everyone, so no one could see he was as white as ever.
"Where's the Hospital Wing, Evus? We want to visit him." Said Mary Longbottom.
"Ach, its just down the hall, up the stairs, through the portrait of the nurse, and up the second staircase, it's right there."
"Ah, thank you, that sounds easy enough." James led the group through the maze of staircases and portrait holes before finding the door leading into the hospital ward.
Sirius knocked.
"Hallo?" Came a voice.
"We'd like to see Allyn." Said James loudly.
"Okay, hoost a meenut." A short, pudgy witch opened the door, and pointed them to the bed where Allyn was laid out. "You can stay for fife meenut." She said, walking back to her office at the end of the ward.
"Allyn, how are you?" Said Lily quickly.
"Oh, I'm okay." He said, sitting up. "Madam Ora fixed me up easy. I can leave after I get some dinner."
"Ah, that reminds me," James said, looking at his watch. "Dinner. I am hungry."
"Ha, well, you guys go on, and eat, I'm fine. Just don't go near that willow!" He said, laughing.
"Are you sure you're okay, Allyn?" Mary said sympathetically.
"I'm fine, I'm fine, go on, eat dinner."
"Alleen! Time for joose!" Madam Ora walked over and handed Allyn a cup full of steaming blue liquid.
"See you later, guys." He said, looking at the 'juice' carefully.
"Bye, Allyn." Said the group and they walked out. They walked down back to the History corridor, when the quills and papers fell out of James's book.
"Oh, go ahead, guys." James said, shooing them off. He turned around and bent down over his things, picking them up and putting them back into his bag. He stood up and-
"Ouch!" He held his head and looked at who he had just bumped into. It was none other than Nero Lestrange the Third. James examined his nametag, which confirmed this.
Nero Lestrange III
"Not you again," Nero looked at James's nametag. "James Pudder. You buffoon." He raised his wand. "Not so tough, without your friends, are you?" He chuckled.
"I'm not afraid of you, 'Strange." Nero looked at him puzzled.
"What did you say?"
"What? Not know your own last name, Nero?" James said calmly, but loudly.
"The things I could do to you...." He nearly whispered. At that point Remus and Sirius came to James side, both panting slightly.
"What do you think you're going to do?" Nero said, looking at Remus. He was weary as usual, and that didn't make him look as if he could pose such a threat to him.
"Well, since I suppose we can't do it right, here...A duel tonight."
"Tuh." Came a voice from behind them. James turned around. Lily and Mary were walking towards them, and James noticed Peter's quivering head sticking out from around the corner.
"A duel? Please, Lestrange, you can do better than that. Trick James into a room full of Slytherins? I doubt it."
"Not that he could muster a curse, anyway. I doubt he'd be able to get past a single block of mine." James lied confidently.
"I know more curses than the five of you combined. Not that any of you probably know any anyway." Just then, however, Professor Scuro came by.
"Causing trouble, Lestrange?" Nero gulped.
"N-no sir...."
"Better not be. Come on. Get a move on." The three Slytherins turned to follow Professor Scuro, but Nero's head swiveled back.
"Tonight, midnight, Slytherin common room, if you've got any guts." He turned back and walked away.
At dinner, no one spoke.
Oh, I hope he doesn't go. No doubt those nasty Slytherins know a heaps of spells. Thought Lily.
Oh, I hope he goes. I'd love to see James whoop those nasty Slytherins with heaps of spells. Thought Sirius.
What am I going to do? I hardly know any spells. Thought James.
They are going to ambush James if he goes. Thought Mary.
We should ambush them if James goes. Thought Remus.
After dinner, they remained wordless, though it was obvious what the decision made was.
James looked stern and determined. He held his wand tight, simply sitting there in the Gryffindor common room.
"Well?" Said Sirius, sitting down next to him. "Going to blast the rules apart after our first day?" James nodded.
"Yeah. I can't let them think I'm weak."
"James, that is so pig-headed and stupid, I absolutely hate the idea that you're going." Lily said suddenly. "But I support you."
James broke his focus with the fire and turned to Lily.
"Are you serious?" He said, raising his eyebrows, and dropping his chin. She just nodded glumly.
"Well, that's excellent, Lily." Said Sirius.
"But I'm going to warn you, James." Said Lily. James turned to face her again. "If he says anything like 'Avada Kedavra, Crucio, or Imperio, just run. Run and scream. Those are powerful dark curses; you don't want to risk anything." James smiled.
"I know all about those spells, Lily. Don't worry about me." He smiled in a brave sort of way at her.
The hours passed slowly after then, by 11 o'clock they became restless. Lily, Mary, and Peter began shaking quite a bit, and Remus told them to go to bed. By a quarter past eleven Sirius finally got up.
"Let's go. We don't know how long it'll take to get there. We'll accompany you to the door." James and Remus got up and followed Sirius out the portrait hole. They knew where the Slytherins came from, from watching them go the night before, and come that morning. They went to the Great Hall and found the passage from which the Slytherins had come that morning, and walked down a staircase which Sirius knew to be the way.
"Saw a map in Hogwarts, A History." Sirius and Remus flanked in front of James, one of them turning around to check on him every once and a while.
"Do you actually know any curses, James, or are you just being a brave prat?" Sirius said, as he turned around, surprising James.
"Well, I, er, know plenty of charms and spells, maybe just if I can do enough of them in the right combination, I can screw him up enough."
"James, don't be stupid. There are rules to dueling. If you break one-"
"He's going to tell someone?" James said coolly.
"I suppose you're right." He said. They finally came to a staircase adorned by two snakes.
"You 'spose this is it?" Sirius said. They walked down it, and not to anyone's surprise, Nero Lestrange stood there with Severus Snape and the boy Nott on his sides.
"Snape. Nott. Escort Pudder's friends to the top of the staircase." Snape and Nott walked forward to take Sirius and Remus up. At this point, everyone had his wand raised.
"Severus Snape, eh?" Sirius said. "Sounds a lot like Salazar Slytherin...you fancy yourself the heir?"
"I wish."
"You do, don't you. You'd be the regular King of dark wizards then, wouldn't you, and that's your dream."
"Is not!" He said loudly.
"Wouldn't want to turn your back on the dark side, would you, Sev?" Snape clenched his teeth tightly.
"On 3 we'll go." Nero said calmly. The Slytherin room was dark and damp, tall armchairs surrounded a fireplace, in the center of the long room. Chairs were pushed aside to create a space for the duel. A carpet was set where it was to take place. The room was empty.
"What, no ambush?" James said.
"No. Fair and square. One..." They raised there wands.
Wingardium Leviosa, thought James, I'll levitate his wand out of his hand.
"...Two..." James saw a sudden movement behind Nero. He recognized it immediately.
"Three!" James ducked, and felt heat streak over his back.
"Expelliarmus!" He looked up, and Evus McQuent had knocked Nero's wand out of his hand.
"What do yeh two think yer doin'?"
"Get out of here! This is a Slytherin only room!" Nero waved his arm.
"Then what aboot him?" Evus pointed at James.
"We were having a...a duel..." James said quietly.
"A duel? I doubt it, more like an attempted execution." He looked at Nero. "Yeh set him up fer a duel, and he thinks yeh two are just goin' tah shoot sparks at each other. He doesn't know yeh know all these dark curses, he doesn't know yeh come from one the darkest wizardin' fam'lies in England, that's roit. Now come one yeh two. Lets go." He grabbed Nero and James by the shoulders and started walking them out when Nero pulled back.
"This is my common room! Where are you taking me?"
"To Professor Scuro, he'll be quite pleased to deal with you." Evus pulled out his wand and raised it. Nero suddenly grabbed his own wand out off Evus's pocket and pointed it at him.
"Furnunculus!" He uttered. Evus was quick, though. He too, pulled his wand and before the spell hit him-
"Circumvalo!" A huge silvery wall sprouted in front of Evus, and Nero's spell was absorbed. Nero gulped and went white.
"Expecto Demori!" The white jet that had been absorbed by the shield suddenly shot back out at Nero. He ducked in time, and looked back up at Evus.
"You will be incredibly lucky if you are still here in one hour." Evus said, brow scrunched.
He turned and did what he had intended to do with his wand in the first place. He muttered something, and a silvery item came from his wand and shot through the door. In a few moments came Professor Scuro down the stairs.
"Whot is going on here?" Scuro said.
"These two were dueling. Lestrange here tricked James."
"No doubt he did!" He said, enraged. "Evus. Take this boy back to his dormitory. I'll deal with Lestrange." Evus nodded to him and took James upstairs. Severus Snape and Nott were standing by the door quivering, and Sirius and Remus were no where to be seen.
"What was that spell, Evus?" James asked as they made their way back to the Gryffindor dormitory.
"It was the Circumval Block. It blocks most hexes, then shoots 'em back. Pretty cool. Takes a bit out of ya though." He said wearily.
"Did you learn that from Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts?" Evus smiled.
"Yeah. Over the summer, I took a pre-course. Yeh learn good stuff in that class, have yeh had it yet?"
"Er, no, we have it Tuesday through Friday."
"Well, Professor Dumbledore tells me he'll be teachin' yeh. Should be fun fer yeh."
"Professor Dumbledore? Really?" Said James hopefully.
"Yeh. Should be a priv'lage fer yeh. Too bad yeh couldn't have Professor Longbottom for a teacher. He is a good'n."
At that point they came to the Fat Lady.
"Flaky Bags-Wagon." Said Evus. They entered the room quietly, everyone was asleep, including Sirius and Remus, who had both passed out in the chairs closest to the dying fire.
He walked over and prodded the two of them.
"Get teh bed you two. C'mon, James isn't in trouble, c'mon now. No, Sirius, he didn't kill Lestrange, though we all would've loved that." James, Sirius, and Remus walked up to their rooms yawning all the way. James laid himself down in bed with one thought in his mind. What a way to start your first year at school.