Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit
There has not been any great talent without an element of madness
~L. Senecea
4. Dueling
A swift stillness befell the train. All laughter died. I could feel the faces turn toward me in bewilderment, mouths agape and brows furrow. Harry and Ron, who had speedily withdrawn their wands and were no doubt charging to my rescue paused in confusion. However my eyes were focused on a certain platinum blonde whose sneer had falter at my unexpected challenge.
"What's the matter Malfoy, afraid of getting your arse whipped mercilessly by a know it all muggle born?" I asked.
"Not at all Granger", he replied coolly, falling into a fencing position and his usual sneer. There was an awkward moment when neither of us moved. Finally I broke the ice by sending a basic boils hex his way to have it countered. He then tried a curse to make me grow a beard. I countered with ease.
"Not bad, for a Mudblood", he jeered.
I dodged and repelled curse after curse. From the sounds of the audience a few must have found other victims, but I could not afford to look away from my rival. He was better than I expected, but I could defend myself well, thanks to DA meetings and my own private studies. "You've still got quite the dirty mouth don't you Malfoy? Let's see what I can do about that." I said with an evil grin. I let my curse fly and it struck true.
He made a face as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. He began to speak, "What the..." and bubbles escaped his mouth with each word. Laughter erupted again and the Gryfindors cheered. Ron called out "Good one Herm!"
Angered that I had stuck the first blow, Malfoy charged. I was slightly unprepared for the violence of his onslaught and found myself covered with a light coat of brown fur, reminding way to much of how a certain spell had gone awry in 2nd year. I began matching him blow for blow and eventually forced my spells passed his guard, Malfoy was now covered in light green scales and had grown a second head, however it was 1/4 the size of the original but no less irritating. Fortunately it was concentrating on annoying the original Malfoy as much as possible with jeers and obscenities.
I become aware of a hissing and tickling in my ear, and out of the corner of my eye I spy a cold reptilian head bobbing beside my cheek. I let out a small shriek of surprise, which wins me some nasty snickers from the Slytherins. More importantly I had dropped my wand in that instant... and Malfoy was raising his wand again.
What was to happen next may only be described as chaos in its purest, unadulterated form. First with a smug grin Draco began to shout a curse at me while I was defenseless, then this year's head girl somehow threaded herself through the crowd, took one look at the two of us and began waving her arms about her head madly, screaming bloody murder at both of us. Thirdly, Ron stepped in as my unspoken second by brandishing his wand menacingly and yelling "expellimentus". Malfoy was interrupted before his curse was completed and hurled with great force into the crowd.
The three shouts had blurred together in unison, masking a 4th voice. A desperate, unthinking, instinctive whisper had escaped my lips. Oh Merlin what did I do! Amidst the prevailing confusion I snatched my wand from the floor. Harry and Ron were by my side in an instant. As the rest of the students were trying to get a better look at Malfoy, we tried to sneak out of the train. No such luck.
"Hold it you three!" called the Head Girl and she tripped over students to get to us.
We turned around. I felt a great heave of shame well up inside of me like a sudden wave of nausea. Why was I so stupid? Whatever curse Malfoy had up his sleeve would have been preferable. I'm going to be expelled and my wand will be snapped.
"What in blazes did you do to him?" the girl looked expectantly toward Ron.
"I…er…it was just a basic disarming spell", stammered Ron.
Thank Nicademus! She didn't see. Come to think of it everyone was looking at Ron, not me.
"Everyone else please move along, you three come with me", she said with the sort of sharp, commanding tone that wasn't often disobeyed. She walked over to where Malfoy lay covered by a cloak. When she revealed him I tried to act as surprised as Ron and Harry, but I knew what we where going to see.
There on the floor lay the unconscious form of Malfoy. Double headed and scaly though he was there was more to it. His skin seemed to glow with faint pearly swirling clouds just on the surface and his body hovered 3 inches off the ground. More shocking though, his eyes were wide open but they were a completely black. No. They were more like two tiny voids that seemed to suck up all light for they where absolutely shineless. The overall effect was very unnerving.
~*~
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree.
(From a poison tree by W.B. Yeats)