Chapter 15 friendly duels
As Harry stood twenty feet apart from Dumbledore. He remembered what he knew about his fighting style. Dumbledore was a passive fighter who was acting after the actions of the other. He was also one who was heavily relying on transfiguration and he was nearly every time using mostly powerful spells. Over a longer period of time he would be fast drained.
His first step would be, to irritate him. He would wait until Dumbledore had to do something. That wouldn't be a great advantage because of Dumbledores experience but a small one was better then nothing. From then he would see. He had to be wary of Dumbledore's transfigurations and therefore traps of that kind. He cleared his mind and got in ready stance.
This time the "Go" sounded from Remus but the students looked questioningly as nothing happened, only Richard smiled.
"What is happening?" asked Tonks irritated.
"Well, he is distracting Dumbledore. Dumbledore is thinking Jared is an aggressive dueler while Dumbledore himself is a passive one. Now he is acting passively and leaves it to Dumbledore to attack first, which is against his nature." Richard explained.
"He is a sneaky one." Tonks mused and Richard laughed.
"You could think he is a Slytherin." Richard replied.
"And, is he?"
"No. He is a lion at heart but a snake at mind."
They were interrupted, as Dumbledore attacked with a disarming spell.
Jared countered it with a complex and ancient deflection spell which deflected the curse back to the caster but added his own power to it and tripled it too.
So three bright beams flew back to Dumbledore who was too shocked to react and his wand flew out of his hand to Harry's.
Dumbledore came to his senses and yelled: "ACCIO WAND!"
Before his wand reached Harry it flew back to his hand and he smiled.
"Nice one. Wandless magic. You have to be quite powerful to do it." Jared said approvingly and bowed slightly.
Dumbledore's eyes were in full twinkling-mode as he sent a series of stunners and disarming spells at Jared.
Jared cast simply a moderate powerful Protego and all spells flew back to Dumbledore.
The head master now conjured a wall of stone which blocked the curses but Jared destroyed it quickly with a powerful reductor.
Now was Dumbledore more in his element and transfigured five of the bricks of the wall in large birds of prey which flew to Jared to attack him.
Jared conjured a huge spiderweb but ten feet wide and its strands thick as a finger and it flew against the birds and captured them.
Harry erased it all with a fireball while he was dodging another stunner.
The headmaster tried to transfigure some of the floor to vines which should trap Harry's feet. Harry recognized his spell and his intention and evaded the vines with a back flip. Again he burned the vines away with a fireball.
Dumbledore fired a banishing spell at him and this time he was too distracted to doge in time and he flew some feet through the air. His excellent reflexes and the agility he got through his harsh training combined with the 'forms' allowed him to land swiftly on his feet. He instantly fired a tripled stunner at Dumbledore while Dumbledore had sent another banishing spell at him. This time he could dodge the spell of the headmaster as he jumped from his crouched position to the side, rolled over his shoulder and jumped up again. Dumbledore protected himself successfully with a silvershield from Harry's stunner beams.
Then Dumbledore used an unknown spell but Harry simply turned one time around himself and stepped with this move two feet to the side and evaded the spell successfully. As he ended his turn he cast a spell with his wand out of the movement to Dumbledore but no one could hear it, because it was only whispered.
They all however could see the result, as Dumbledore's feet sank into the now liquid floor up to his knees and stuck there.
While Dumbledore tried to get out of the glutinous liquid, Jared went fully into the offensive and fired spell after spell at Dumbledore, half of them unheard by most of the audience, that included most of the teachers.
Dumbledore conjured shield after shield, from Protego to the most powerful silvershield but all shattered under the continuing impact of Harry's spells and Dumbledore was still glued to the ground. He had not really the time to free himself.
The next spell from Jared came surprising. He drenched the whole floor around Dumbledore in water and smiled.
"Well, good night then." he said grinning to the dumbfounded headmaster.
"ELECTRIFICUS!" he roared and a flash of electric lightning struck the water and Dumbledore was paralyzed through the electricity and sank unconscious to the floor, his feet still hold in the liquid stone.
Harry freed him from it and revived him.
"Are you alright?" he asked concerned.
"A bit … loaded." the ancient wizard joked but nodded.
"That were quite the spells there, I have to admit. Well done, Jared."
"Thank you. Now lets rest and enjoy the show." Jared helped him to the stands.
Every one stared at him that he had defeated the most powerful wizard of this time but he shrugged it of. Tonks sent him an admiring smile but then they concentrated on the next duel.
It was quite a show too.
You would never have guessed that the tiny charms master was that agile. He kept dodging all the spells of Richard and fired back really powerful and creative charms.
Jared was chuckling as he saw that Richard had his hands full with the tiny wizard.
While it was clear, that Richard was more powerful than Flitwick, the charms professor had a larger assortment of spells to use, especially because Richard wasn't permitted to use half of his knowledge. And Flitwick putted his spells to good use too.
Illusions for distraction, clones of himself, spells which caused mist around Richard, powerful and quickly cast attacking spells.... yeah Rick was hard pressed to counter all the attacks.
The only thing that saved him, was his vast experience in real battles and his awesome knowledge about tactics. After nearly half an hour he finally got the small wizard trapped and stunned him with a multiple wave of Stupors.
Both were heavily panting as Richard revived the teacher and both bowed to each other as well.
"It was a honor to me, Mr. Flitwick. That was a nice duel."
"For me too, Richard. It was the best duel since my championship."
"You are a champion?" he asked surprised.
"Yes, I held the title four times in a row."
Richard shot a glare to Jared who was laughing holding his stomach.
Then a devious glint sneaked in Rick's eyes.
"GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!" he bellowed and Jared went down, still laughing, only stopping to congratulate Flitwick.
But he congratulated Rick too.
"Now back to the basics! Magicless fighting. No fatal moves!" Richard declared.
"Are the weapons sharp?" Hermione asked frightened.
Dumbledore answered, "I am afraid they are. But I am sure, they know what they are doing."
Both drew their swords and bowed.
Then they clashed the blades so fast, they were only a blur to the audience.
"Wow!" Ron gasped.
"They are really good." Remus said astounded.
Then they locked the blades and Richard drew a dagger with his left hand and attacked.
Some girls screamed at this sneak-attack.
Jared drew his own dagger fast enough and now were all four blades locked.
Now Jared headbutted the surprised Richard and caused him to stumble back.
Harry pursued him instantly and kicked him hard on his chest like he did with Remus and swept his legs under him away with a deep roundhouse kick afterwards. Finally he held the tip of his sword against Richards throat.
"Do you yield?" he asked with twinkling eyes.
"I do." Rick replied and let his weapons fall.
Jared helped him up and as Remus, Rick was stroking his chest.
"Did you have to kick me so hard?" he asked as they made their way to the stands.
"Did you have to let me hit you?" Harry countered and caused laughter around them.
"You brat!" Rick spat, but grinned.
"Whatever you say."
As they went back to Harry's dorms with his friends in tow, Tonks asked: "I thought you were in charge, Jared. But in the room of requirement it sounded as you were even or maybe Richard was in charge?"
"Well, Richard is the older one and more experienced. We have the same rank. But regarding your safety I am in charge and he is my assistant. So no one cares much about it. But he will follow my orders concerning your safety without hesitating though."
"That is irritating."
"Yeah, that's our job." Richard joked.
"No, that is your job. My job is to save fair maidens from the dragons." Jared joked and laughed and Rick too.
Tonks blushed at this and promptly stumbled over a step. Jared caught her out of a reflex. A stinging pain shot trough his heart as he held her so close and couldn't tell her that he was in fact Harry. He had to use all his willpower to get a grip. He made it barely and pressed his sadness in the far back of his mind as he helped her up and let her go. They continued their way back to the quarters of Gryffindor.
They sat down in the living room and drank some butterbeer.
"Well, you have beaten Tonks and Dumbledore. What have you planed next?" Ron asked ginning.
"Kick some Deatheaters asses. Of course." Jared said sternly.
They became more serious instantly.
But they talked after that again at ease avoiding dangerous grounds like Voldemort or the missing Harry.
They both befriended Tonks and Remus soon and came along very well. The next days they kept his watch over Tonks and helped her in class often. But after the incident with Draco nothing more happened.
Tonks felt a little pressured because of the constant guard though but somehow she didn't mind the company of Jared, more on the contrary she enjoyed it very much and that began to irritate her to no end.
She started to feel something for him, but was on the other hand sure, that she still loved Harry with all her heart.
She would keep smiling at him and greeted him every day with beaming eyes but she felt with each more day more disturbed. Finally that leaded to uncertainty around him.
She had sometimes the feeling that she was betraying Harry and her love and she began to worry about it.
He however did nothing to make her believe that he was feeling something for her. He was simply a friend for her and Moony even if that was the hardest part of his job. He missed her, he missed it to kiss her or to hold her close. He wanted nothing more as to tell her how much he loved her but it was simply not possible. His mask was constantly under threat a little bit more with each passing day he was near Tonks. He spent nearly all day with her and slept only a room away, but the job hold them really apart, the job and his disguise.
Harry felt the inner turmoil of his love but could do nothing about it. He had to held out only one more day now.
AN: As promised the next chapter after only a day ;-) However this is an exception. The next will go up next week maybe even later as I am revising the last chapters more carefully and I intend to add some things.
WhateverStar: As you could see, they didn't show their special abilities to Dumbledore. All they did was to duel with good and fast tactics and a large assortment of spells and powerful ones at that. But that is only reasonable for officers of the magical law enforcement and more so for Unspeakables first class.
uten: Tonks was with friends and at least one of the two warlocks except for the last duell. But this time Dumbledore as well as Remus and Flitwick sat beside her. Furthermore the only other people in the Room of Requirement were the students of the DA. They are all trustworthy, aren't they? The last bit is, that Harry was the one who set up the room. Had happened something, he could erase the shield between him and Tonks with a thought or 'wish' the room to protect his love. Not to unreasonable I believe.
ERMonkey, Burner of Cookies: Jared is Harry.
skeeter17: Well, as I tried to explain in the story he decided to join the Unspeakables and to enter this apprenticeship for himself. So he knew he would be ordered around and he accepted it willingly. He also has only to accept the orders as long as he is in the apprenticeship because this is under the control of the department. Later he would have to follow orders if he would accept an assignment. You are right, he missed Tonks a great deal but he can't show it because it would blow his mask.
gryffindors: I can't suggest a translator at least no technical one. All they deliver is stupid senseless text. The flair of the story would be blasted into pieces. The best way would be to ask a german with good knowledge of English to translate it. I thought of translating 'Dunkle Zeiten' that means 'dark times' but sadly to say, I don't have the time for that. That applies only more to Legacy of the mages.