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Chapter 17 The Dueling Club

Harry spent Saturday morning going trough what they would teach in the afternoon one final time with Fleur and Tonks. They had no age restriction so it was likely that they would have first years that had never done more magic then levitating a feather. However, it would not really matter since first years would only duel with other first years. Tonks had told them that she would love to teach the first years the tickling charm, 'Rictusempra'. Tonks seemed to love first years as much as Arthur Weasley loved muggles. When lunch ended most of the DA stayed back to help rearrange the great hall. They had decided on having three dueling rings, one monitored be each of them. Soon the house tables were gone and three huge dueling rings stood there in their place. Each dueling ring resembled a boxing ring though they were round and much larger as dueling was not a contact sport. Some members of the DA began dueling while waiting on the rest of the students.

"Hey! Harry" Tonks called "dare to duel?"

"I don't duel with girls, Professor" Harry replied teasingly.

Every girl in the hall glared at him.

"Get here Potter" Tonks said in mock anger.

"Right, Professor" Harry said and walked over to the dueling ring closest to the staff table. Tonks entered the ring and walked over to the far side of it, Harry entered it too.

"As you all can see we have our wands drawn" Tonks explained to the audience that had gathered at the ring side.

"And now we bow and at the count of three we duel" Tonks said "Fleur will you?"

"One… Two… Three" Fleur said loudly. At three Tonks pointed her wand at him, Harry was a little awkward dueling with Tonks. Last time he had duelled Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort had tried to kill him not to mention that he had actually wanted to kill Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Impedimenta" Tonks cried.

Harry snapped out of his thoughts and managed to side step Tonks spell at last moment.

"Reaktus" Harry said and waved his wand at himself. Reaktus was one of the agility charms Dueling for Masters had described. He had never used Reaktus before and didn't think that it had worked properly every motion he made seemed much slower instead of faster but then he realised when he pointed his wand at Tonks again that he made swishing noises in the air and probably moved about twice as fast as usual.

"R e a k t u s" Tonks said very slowly or at least that is what Harry heard. The shock of being in this almost dreamlike state had given Tonks the opportunity to cast the same agility charm.

"Expelliarmus" Harry cried and sparks flew slowly out of his wand towards Tonks, who without much trouble stepped out of the way.

"Rictusempra" Tonks said now at, to Harry, normal speed. The sparks still flew slowly through the air and Harry decided to block them rather then dodge them.

"Protego" Harry replied and successfully blocked the Tickling Charm.

They walked around the circle facing each other casting every major friendly dueling spell. Tonks was a very good dueler you could tell that she was a fully qualified auror. Harry would not stand a chance if she had decided to use more nasty curses. Tonks managed to hit him with the jelly leg jinx and Harry her with a blindening hex when their agility charms started to wear off. They both managed to reverse the spells at once.

"Stupify" Harry yelled the red sparks flew out of his wand as fast as ever.

"Protego" Tonks cried blocking it.

"Accio Wand" Harry said trying to summon Tonks wand from her.

"Protego" Tonks said again and managed to hold on to her wand.

"Expelliarmus" Tonks yelled at the same time as Harry yelled "Locomotor Mortis" Both hit. Harry's wand flew over to Tonks who did not manage to catch it since she had fallen over when Harry's leg locker curse hit her.

Harry was defeated. His wand laid a short bit behind Tonks. Tonks easily unlocked her legs and sat up.

"Give in Harry?" Tonks panted.

"What if I don't" Harry panted back he had not realised how physically exhausting the duel had been. He knew that the Reaktus curse was draining physically but he had not expected it to be so bad.

"I'll tickle you to death" Tonks said from the floor "Rictusempra"

Harry did not have energy to jump out of the way and instead stood his ground and took the spell squarely in his chest. He fell to the floor laughing feebly he was at the moment to exhausted to laugh as much as he felt like.

"Give in?" Tonks asked and lifted the tickling charm.

"Yes" Harry gasped "I do"

"That's better" Tonks said she help him of the floor with a wave of her wand and banished his wand to him.

Harry looked over to his DA and saw to his surprise that it was not just the DA standing at the ringside. Half the school seemed to stand there, he glanced over at them more carefully most Gryffindors, half the Hufflepuff and half the Rawenclaws seemed to be there waiting for something. It was a moment before the thought that they were there for the dueling club stroke him.

"Welcome all" Fleur announced from the staff platform "Please give a hand to the first duelers Professor Tonks and Mr Potter"

Everyone applauded and cheered, Harry saw Tonks bow to him and he did the same. He had never finished a duel before and had no idea that you were supposed to bow afterwards as well.

"Please step forward and signup here" Fleur said and gestured to a long parchment "If you are a first year or feel that you have no idea how to duel Tonks will help you with the basics she will be teaching Rictusempra in the third ring"

Fleur pointed at the ring farthest away from the staff table and closest to the doors.

"For every one else Mr Potter will be observing dueling at the second ring" Fleur said and pointed to the ring in the middle.

"Any questions?" Fleur asked.

"Will this affect our grades" Ernie Macmillan asked eagerly.

"What you do here will not affect the grades we give you" Fleur said and Ernie looked slightly disappointed "But for those of you who are taking your OWLs or NEWTs I highly recommend paying close attention to what we teach here"

"Any thing else?"

"Are you really Harry Potter's girlfriend" A little Hufflepuff first year squeaked, Tonks smiled fondly at her. There was a an awkward silence as Fleur didn't respond at once everyone seemed very interested in the answer and kept unusual quiet.

"I don't usually discus my private life" Fleur said firmly as if she just had decided that the entire situation was ridicules "but yes Harry Potter is my boyfriend"

Everyone already knew that Fleur was Harry's girlfriend but now it was as official as it ever could be. The silence that had filled the hall broke, every girl seemed to giggle and every boy seemed to grin knowingly at Harry. He blushed and looked down on the floor he was very grateful however that Draco Malfoy wasn't there to witness this.

"Any thing else, except my private life" Fleur asked sharply and then added almost at once "Good, get going"

The students slowly managed to form a long line up to Fleur who helped them put their name down correctly. When a student had signed up, they walked over to Tonks or Harry. The first one to walk over to Harry was Ginny Weasley. She didn't say anything but looked dangerously at him as if daring him to start a conversation. Harry could once more see Ginny naked in front of him it had been a while since last time his brain had showed him that image but he turned red none the less.

"Pathetic" Ginny muttered loud enough for him to hear and gave him a very cold patronizing look. Harry didn't know what to think or what to feel. He had never expected Ginny to say something like that and much less look at him in that way.

"So… Harry" Ginny said in a very cool challenging voice "Are you going to duel with us"

"N-No" Stammered Harry "I thought I would just stand back and give pointers"

"Oh" Ginny snarled.

"You all right Ginny?" Harry asked carefully, something had to be terrible wrong for Ginny to behave like this.

"Why would it be any of your business" Ginny snapped.

"Because I'm your friend" said Harry feebly.

"Hermione's right you do have a thing for saving people don't you?"

Harry gaped at her, he had saved her life and now she had a problem with him caring for her. He tried to say something, anything to her but the no words would not form in his throat instead he closed his mouth and tried again but nothing. Ginny raised an eyebrow in a bored way and gave him another very cold patronizing look that caused Harry to look down on the floor again.

"Lost something?" Neville asked he was done too with the sign up "I always lose thing, need help to look?"

"Er, no Neville it's nothing important" Harry said he didn't have the heart to tell Neville that he had not lost something, if Neville thought that for once he was the one who had not lost something Harry wasn't going to spoil it for him "Probably left it in my trunk"

Ginny's face contorted in an unreadable expression for a moment Harry thought that Ginny was going to tell Neville that Harry had not lost anything but Ginny didn't say anything.

"Why don't you two go first then?" Harry asked changing the subject "If you don't mind?"

"No" Said Neville happily and looked over at Ginny.

"Sure" Ginny said and tried to smile even though her face still was contorted in that unreadable way. Neville and Ginny climbed in side the ring and faced each other.

"Ready?" Harry asked they both nodded in reply and bowed to each other their wands drawn.

"One… two… three!" Harry said firmly. Both Neville and Ginny hesitated for a moment before they started to whirl curses at each other. The rings was sealed by magic so every curse that went flying off in the wrong direction died out at the ringside this was fortunate as Ginny suddenly aimed as bad as Neville. Harry thought for a moment that Ginny was being nice but then he saw that her expression was a mix between fury and disappointment. After a short while, Neville hit Ginny with the impedimenta curse and won. Ginny was furious at her for losing to Neville but still managed to bow politely to him and walk off the ring. Ginny placed herself at the far side of the ring and didn't speak to anyone.

Many more students had arrived from Fleur now and Harry teamed up Justin Finch-Fletchley and Dean Thomas. Harry was very proud when he saw them duel the cast all kinds of hexes and curses at each other and managed to block most of them. If they were hit, they quickly did the counter jinx and continued to duel. The duel went on for several minutes but finally Justin managed to hit Dean's right foot with a stunner and Dean fell to the floor immobile.

"Eneravate" Harry said after a short moment and Dean came back to life. Dean got to his feet slowly and bowed to Justin.

"Nice one" Dean said to show that he had no hard feelings.

"You too" Justin replied and smiled.

"Excelent both of you" Harry said proudly.

"You might want to keep moving a bit more when you casting spells, Dean" Harry said carefully he didn't want Dean to think that he was being lectured then added jokingly to Justin "And you might want to aim higher"

Next, he paired Ron and Hermione on request by Hermione since she and Ron was having an argument about muggle stitches and whether or whether not brooms was invented for the purpose of Quidditch. It seemed to be a specially of theirs to argue about several completely unrelated things at once. However when they stood opposite each other in the ring they didn't seem to be the slightest mad at each other. Both of them seemed to wonder how much they would hurt the other by winning.

"One… Two… Three" Harry counted firmly.

"Reaktus" Hermione said almost apologetically and waved her wand at herself. To Harry's surprise Ron did the same and soon they were engaged in a fierce battle. Hermione cast many curses and hexes that Harry had never heard of. Ron on the other hand seemed to be able to use some of his Quidditch experience and managed to dodge Hermione's spells in the most spectacular ways. Hermione seemed greatly annoyed by this and started to cast her curses even more violent but Ron kept dodging them and even managed to hit Hermione with an ear-twitching jinx. Hermione seemed very angry by this at first but then grinned and performed the counter jinx her ears stopped twitching at once.

"Riddikulus" Hermione cried Ron stopped moving for a moment clearly confused and got hit strait between his eyes by the Riddikulus charm. Ron's robes turned into his old frayed dress robe that he had worn during the Yule ball almost two years ago.

"Finite Riddikulus" Ron hissed and waved his wand at his dress robe which turned back to his normal black school robes. Ron glared at Hermione who seemed to realise that she had gone too far and looked truly sorry. They continued their duel, Ron started to use more serious curses then ear twitching jinxes. Hermione however had no problem blocking Ron's curses.

The duel had now changed character completely it was now Ron who was getting annoyed by Hermione's ability to block everything.

"Petrificus Totalus" Hermione cried after a long moment of just blocking Ron's curses, the body bind curse took Ron with surprise and hit him in his chest. Ron fought it helplessly for a fraction of a second before he fell face down on the floor stiff as a board.

"Ron" Hermione squeaked she apparently was afraid that she had hurt him she quickly ran over to him and turned him over to his back. The floor of the ring had a light cushioning charm on it so you wouldn't hurt yourself too much even if you fell face down on it.

"Finite" Hermione said "Oh I'm so sorry Ron"

Harry could tell that Ron wanted to be angry with Hermione for humiliating him like this, not only had he been beaten by his girlfriend in front of half the school but Hermione had to run over to him and apologize for doing it, Ron could not be angry with Hermione for caring about him however. Instead, he glared at the peoples at the ringside who was watching them with great interest perhaps even expecting them to kiss.

"Very good" Said Harry loudly hoping to take some attention from Ron and Hermione, it worked all to well half the school turned to him expectantly. Harry knew he aught to give some kind of pointers to them or compliment them or something but he couldn't think of anything. Fortunately, Fleur came to his rescue.

"Listen up every one" Fleur said every one looked up at her instead of Harry, especially the boys. She was apparently done with signing every one up.

"We are three hundred seventy two members of the dueling club" Fleur said proudly, they had not been expecting this many to join "Which makes it very hard for us to teach properly, we will have to divide you into two groups"

"First to fourth years will be the first group who here after will be taught Friday afternoon's instead of Saturday afternoon's when the fifth sixth and seven years will be here" Fleur explained "Today I'll teach fifth years and up here in ring number one" Fleur said and gestured at the ring closest to the staff table. "Ha… Mr Potter will teach the third and fourth years and Professor Tonks the rest"

Tonks was of course the one best-qualified dueler and should teach the oldest students but she had absolutely refused, she wanted to teach the youngest. Fleur had tried to persuade her as she didn't feel too confident as a dueler but to no use. The third and fourth years gathered around Harry's ring. Harry felt very awkward teaching so many peoples at once, he had felt very awkward teaching the DA in the beginning too but they had only been twenty five and he knew most of them now there was about a hundred peoples which he didn't know looking expectantly at him. He glanced over them once more and saw Denis Creevy's eager face beaming at him Denis had been the youngest DA member.

"Today" Harry said with much more confidence then he felt "We will begin with the most fundamental dueling, we will be practising Expelliarmus the disarming spell" he had figured out on forehand what to say and expected groans of boredom when he announced that they were going to practise a so basic spell but nobody protested the slightest.

"We are unfortunately too many to practise this all at once, so why don't the girls go first" Harry said jerkily and gestured towards the ring. The girls entered the ring and looked nervously around.

"Has anyone used Expelliarmus before?" Harry asked he wanted someone to demonstrate the spell.

"No one?" Harry asked uncertainly he had expected that about half of them wound have at lest tried it sometime but maybe it wasn't that odd after all Umbridge had of course not taught them any thing remotely like a spell much less a combat spell.

"Denis?" Harry asked "Would like to demonstrate?"

"Yes Professor Potter" Denis said eagerly and started to climb the ringside and fell over onto the ring. Harry didn't know how to react towards the 'professor' he didn't want to be called professor but decided to just let the matter slip since most students probably would call him Harry or at least Potter.

"As you can see the ring floor has a light Cushioning Charm so you won't hurt yourself" Harry said when Denis almost bounced off the floor and up to his feet.

"Okay, Denis got your wand?" Harry asked and pulled out his.

"Yes Professor Potter" Denis said and pulled out his wand so quickly that he almost dropped it.

"You don't have to call me Professor" Harry said "Harry will do fine"

Denis smiled widely at him as if it was a proof that Harry knew him well enough to be on first name terms.

"Right Denis disarm me" Harry said and prepared himself for being thrown backwards.

"All right… Harry" Denis said proudly "EXPELLIARMUS"

Denis had a fairly good aim and hit him in the stomach, his wand flew out of his hand and he landed softly on the floor.

"Excellent Denis, good aim" Harry said when he stood up again Denis handed him his wand "Any questions?"

"Does it hurt?" Asked a blonde girl who was wearing the Ravenclaw crest, Harry thought she was a third year but wasn't sure.

"No, it doesn't Miss…" Harry said and kicked himself mentally, he sounded just as a professor.

"Dobbs, Professor… Emma Dobbs" The blond girl replied and blushed slightly.

Harry didn't know what to reply, if he called her Emma then she might be offended since she thought of him as Professor. Perhaps he would let them call him professor in the Dueling Club and force them to call him Potter or Harry between classes.

Harry swallowed "Anything else Miss Dobbs?" he said trying to look confident and smiled.

"No" Emma said "Well… will we get any homework?"

"No, no homework" Harry said and there was a breath of relief from the students "And we won't force you to be here every lesson if you don't want to. This is supposed to be all fun"

"Professor Potter" A boy from the ringside asked.

"Yes" Harry replied and added painfully "Mr…?"

"Moss, sir" The boy said. "Will you teach us all the time or will Professor Delacour teach us as well?"

"Professor Tonks and Delacour will teach you as well" Harry replied shortly not to pleased about the question.

"Any thing else?" Harry asked "Good let's get starting then"

They all practised expelliarmus, first the girls for half an hour then the boys they kept shifting all afternoon until dinnertime. It all went very well every one seemed able to cast the disarming spell in the end. There was only a minor incident when two girls were hit by the spell at the same time and flew backwards into each other, but fortunately, they didn't hurt themselves too badly. Harry had walked around among the students giving pointers, some aimed to low, others waved their wand the wrong way and some did not pronounce Expelliarmus correctly. A quarter to six, they dismissed their students and started to return the great hall to its original state.

"They all call me professor" Harry complained to Tonks and Fleur when they magiced the long tables back.

"I know, me too" Said Tonks sadly.

"You are a professor" Fleur reminded Tonks.

"I know, but they don't have to go around telling me all the time do they" Tonks replied crossly and added after a moment "But I suppose it's better then Nymphadora"

"We didn't get a single Slytherin" Fleur stated.

"I know" Harry replied happily.

"No" Fleur said "I'm serious, it can't be a real dueling club if one of the school houses is missing"

"Come off it. We don't want to teach them to duel"

"Why not?" Asked Fleur "If you hadn't known any thing about the school houses when you was sorted you would have been a Slytherin"

"It wanted to place you in Slytherin?" Tonks asked incredulously and fell over a chair that she had just Magiced back giggling madly.

"Yeah, but it's only because I'm can talk to snakes"

"No it's not" Said Tonks teasingly "You are a bit evil sometimes"

"Like when" Harry retorted.

"When you were in court" Fleur replied.

"I wasn't evil they disserved it" Harry exclaimed.

"Yeah, but you enjoyed it"

"You would too"

"Yes, maybe I should have been a Slytherin" Fleur said, they had unconsciously stepped close to each other and were now only a couple of feet away from each other "After all I'm pure blood and a veela with horrible temper"

"No you wouldn't" Harry said "You would be a Gryffindor, or Ravenclaw or a Hufflepuff like Tonks"

"Not if I asked it to be Slytherin" Fleur smirked "If you got to be a Gryffindor why shouldn't it let me be a Slytherin"

"Because" Harry said and was about to say something nasty, but then he thought of Selena Malfoy and that he would still love Fleur just as much even if she were a Slytherin.

"Because?" Fleur echoed questionably.

"Never mind" Harry replied "It doesn't matter what house you would have been in, I would still…." Tonks was watching him expectantly with a huge smile across her face she turned away when she saw that Harry was looking at her.

"… love you even if you were a Slytherin" Harry whispered to Fleur so that Tonks wouldn't hear.

"I know you would Harry" Fleur said whispered teasingly "I'm a veela after all"

Harry chuckled and Fleur grinned.

"We really should have at least one Slytherin though" Fleur said.

"Fine" Harry said "But I won't beg them"

"Do you want me to beg them instead?" Fleur asked innocently and made a very pleading face "Oh… Please Draco, Please come to the dueling club, I would do anything for you"

"Stop it" Harry said crossly.

"Jealous?" Fleur asked teasingly.

"No just disgusted" Harry said truthfully "Are you black mailing me?"

"What if I am" Fleur said, Harry knew that Fleur only was teasing him.

"Because, I could shut you in the chamber then we would have a horrible veela petrifying boys by kissing them"

"No boy have ever been petrified by me" Fleur stated.

"Bet you could lure them down in the chamber then" Harry said suggestively. "I bet you could even make them write bloody messages on the walls"

"Shut up" Fleur said "I'm only interested in you" She said softly and blasted him with her veela powers. Fleur's hair started to blow her lips seemed to swell as well as her chest, her deep blue eyes seemed to penetrate his soul and became almost mesmerising

"Now" Fleur purred softly "Why don't you go write a goodbye in your blood on the wall and meet me in the toilet on second floor and I'll show you something… important"

Harry smiled teasingly at her "You are cute" He didn't know why her veela charm effected him so poorly but he supposed he knew her too well.

"You are not supposed to say that" Fleur said and lost most of her veela charm "You are supposed to say oh Yes love of my life I will do anything for you"

"And peoples say I can't behave properly" Tonks said shaking her head disapprovingly. Harry and Fleur turned red they had completely forgotten that Tonks was listening.

"Blushing are we?" Tonks asked.

"Shut up" Harry and Fleur chorused.

"Fine then you don't want to know that you have an audience" Tonks said and gestured over at some second years that had just entered the great hall. Harry and Fleur blushed in an even deeper shade of red. Fleur glanced over at the second years and seemed to decide that she had nothing to hide from them. Before Harry could react Fleur pressed her body close to his, kissed him on his mouth. They second years goggled at them and some girls giggled.

"Right" Harry said and licked his lips slightly Fleur had given him a very wet kiss. Not that he minded. Out of instinct, he put an arm around her.

"I rather have facts then rumours" Fleur explained "Besides they already call you professor and there is nothing wrong with two professors loving each other"

Harry smiled "You know what I think? I think you would have been in Slytherin"

"No I wouldn't I would have been in Gryffindor or maybe Ravenclaw"

"How do you know?" Harry asked.

"I tried the hat on" Fleur said "I asked Dumbledore after a staff meeting"

"So it said Gryffindor or Ravenclaw?" Asked Harry, the sorting hat usually settled for one house.

"Yes, but since it didn't have to put me in a house it simply said that I would have done best in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw" Fleur explained "It was kind of weird…"

"So, dinning at the staff table tonight?" Fleur asked jokingly "You worked for four hours as a teacher today after all"

"Yes of course I will, I can sit next to Snape and maybe we can have a nice little chat about potions" Harry said sarcastically.

"Professor Snape Potter or I will have to take points"

"Oh yeah, Fleur" Harry said pronouncing Fleur very clearly.

"Harry seriously, we really need a couple of Slytherins it's not good for the school to be divided like this"

"I'm not stopping them" Harry said "but I really think we will do better without them especially the sixth years"

"You wouldn't be mad at me if talked to Snape about it?" She asked.

"Yes I would" Harry said angrily "I told you how I feel about Snape, besides he won't help"

"Please Harry" Fleur begged "It's not like I would plead with him or anything I would just ask him as one Professor to another"

"He won't treat you as a professor" Harry said irritably "To him you are James Potter's son's girlfriend that loves and favours me because I'm the boy who lived"

"Even so he has to treat me right or he'll have to answer to Dumbledore" Fleur pointed out "And he respect Dumbledore"

"Right, ask him then but I warned you"

The hall had now filled with students who sat down at their tables talking happily or reading a book some even did some homework while they were waiting for the dinner to begin. When the hall was full of hungry students and the food was about to appear Harry said goodbye to Fleur and walked over to his usual seat. He was painfully aware that most of the students were talking about him and Fleur.

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Before you judge Ginny or me, please note that her behaviour is a part of the story!

I just wondered does anyone read this at all? Well I know some do but I didn't have a single review on last chapter so please Review!

Next chapter Cactaceae Capillus.

Thanks again Sevear for your pointers.