Claimer/Disclaimer: Same as the first ten.
Ch. 11- Duels
Halloween approached and Harry started worrying about finding a date for the dance. He had wanted to ask Ginny, but that wasn't going to happen now that she was dating Draco, so his choices were to go with someone he had no desire to go with, or not go. He pondered the dilemma a while, unable to choose. In Transfiguration, Ron wasn't of any help.
"Well…. you could go with Parvati again," he suggested.
"She has a date."
"Lavender?"
"She has a date too."
"Well, you don't have to go with a Gryffindor, you could always ask a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff," Ron suggested.
"Yeah, but I really won't know them as well…"
"Come on!!! It's a date! It's not as if you're asking them to marry you!"
"I don't remember you being all brave before I got you and Hermione to go together!!"
Harry's mild outburst got Ron to shut up. Harry sat there and concentrated on getting his hair to change color. Ron had gotten his to go a bit lighter, but it was barely noticeable. So far Harry had only gotten his to turn blonde in the front.
"I wish McGonagall would let us change each other's hair. It would be a lot easier if we could see what we're doing…"
"Well, we better master this soon," said Ron, " because next week we're going to start transfiguring our noses."
"Why?"
"Because McGonagall said so."
"Right."
Class ended and Ron and Harry wandered over to the library. They found Hermione seated with approximately twenty books open around her.
"Don't tell me that you're already starting to study for N.E.W.T.s," teased Ron.
Hermione glared at him, then continued to read. "What are you reading anyway?" asked Ron. He grabbed the nearest volume. "Obliviation: What You Need to Know to Succeed? Since when are you training to be and Obliviator and why are you reading these now? These are the books you read during training." Ron looked at her with a questioning look.
"Well, I might as well tell you two, but you have to promise not to tell anyone else. Dumbledore got a Ministry official to come and train me now, so when we graduate, I'll be nearly done with training and I could start working sooner. But don't say anything to anyone else. Dumbledore isn't supposed to be doing this."
"Hey, no fair," said Harry, "that means you'll be done training years before Ron and I are. And I thought you were going to be an Auror so you could work with Ron and me."
"Obliviators often work with Aurors when they are sent out to do stuff like investigate odd magical accidents, just in case any Muggles were near."
"Fine then," pouted Ron.
"Did you two talk to Ginny lately?" asked Hermione.
"No," Ron and Harry replied with frowns.
"Will you two stop? I know Malfoy isn't exactly Ginny's best boyfriend choice, but there's nothing you can do, so get over it! Anyway, I was going to tell you that she said that her and Malfoy's relationship isn't going so well. She thinks he only asked her out to see how much Jewels likes him and-"
"The jerk! How dare he do that to my sister!" Ron cut in. He went on ranting until Madame Pince shut him up.
"Well if you would have just let me finish, I would have told you that Ginny is thinking about breaking up with him!" Hermione said in an irritated manner.
"Really?" asked Harry. He and Ron looked at each other and began jumping up and down with joy.
"They might break up! They might break up!" they chanted as they continued to jump. They looked exactly like the girls did every time one of their friends got asked out. "They might break up! They might break up..." All of the sudden, the two of them realized that they were jumping up and down like girls and stopped.
Ron cleared his throat and scratched the back of his head. "So…"
"Yeah," said Harry, shoving his hands in his pockets.
(A/N: I credit that part to lennonesquenpaperbackwriter)
Later that evening the sixth and seventh years gathered around for some friendly, non-competitive dueling between houses.
"Okay, who would like to volunteer to go first?" asked Dumbledore. Several hands shot up into the air. "How about Miss Weasley. Would anyone like to challenge her?" inquired Dumbledore.
"I would."
Harry looked over and saw that it was Jewels who had volunteered. "Poor Ginny," said Harry to Ron. "Jewels is going to kill her now that she's dating Malfoy."
"Now, girls, choose your seconds."
Ginny scanned the Gryffindors. "Harry Potter," she said.
Jewels turned around and looked at her gang. Harry heard her ask Chris where Blaze was before she turned around and stated that Eve would be her second.
"On the count of three. One…. two…. three!" shouted Dumbledore.
Jewels immediately let the first spell fly. Ginny barely had time to block it before Jewels yelled, "Serpensortia!!" The Slytherins cheered at the use of their favorite spell. Harry could tell that Ginny was having a difficult time. Jewels wasn't giving her a chance.
"Expelliarmus!" Jewels yelled. Ginny's wand went flying out of her hand. "Petrificus Totalus!!" Ginny didn't even reach the ground before Jewels sent her crashing into some tables. The crash was hard enough to knock Ginny out and Harry stepped in for her while she was carried to the Hospital Wing.
Jewels did not let up for Harry and the two of them kept going for quite some time. Their dueling ceased, however, when a series of fireworks that exploded water and dungbombs let off in the room.
"Students!!" yelled Dumbledore. He could barely be heard over the chaos. "Please go to your common rooms while the professors sort this out!"
"Who did that?" Harry asked Ron.
"Taurus and Blaze. I saw them on my way back from the Hospital Wing. Speaking of the Hospital Wing, want me to take you there, mate? You look terrible."
"I'm fine," Harry replied, despite the pain in his side. Jewels came out looking a bit better than him because, he regretted to think about it, he had gone easy on her since she was a girl and all.
"Let's go get some cramming in. We have a Potion exam tomorrow," said Harry.
"That's tomorrow? Darn it!" exclaimed Ron.
A/N: Yes, I know it was another short chapter, I just haven't had a lot of time to write lately. I'll make the next one longer.
JewelzRulz