Chapter 21
He reread the letter.
Potter,
I'm rather impressed. Swords or pistols? Wands and/or staffs? As my response, you select any two and we will flip a coin on Saturday for the final selection. I assume that you have a sufficient supply of each. In the event that you select wands, and they are chosen, I would defer and allow you to select any two wands other than yours or my own. Please bring your wand. It will make a wonderful souvenir for me to hang on my wall after you are dead.
You are indeed a capable young wizard. Should you decide that you do not wish to risk losing your life next Saturday morning; I will offer you one last opportunity to join me.
Six on six? That too would be a very tempting offer. Who would you choose? Would you subject your closest friends to almost certain death, or optimistically rely on five people who may be less inclined to sacrifice their lives for you as others have in the past. Perhaps the old fool and his Order of losers would volunteer to be buried on Sunday along side of you.
Of course, several of those that I may have wished to have at my side are most likely unavailable. Since I am giving you the choice of weapons, I reserve the choice to flip a coin for the determination of a single or group duel on Saturday morning.
I expect to hear from you by noon on Friday regarding the venue. You may send your reply via school owl or announce it in the Daily Prophet if you prefer.
The Dark Lord
Moody put the paper on the table. "You've got a steel pair, Potter. No one will ever deny you that."
Harry rubbed his forehead. This was a lot more complex than setting up a one-on-one duel with McNair.
Sensing that Harry was actually looking for guidance, Moody said, "I have three questions for you - What are you best at? Do you have five people who would stand by you and not distract you in a fight? If so, what are they worst at?"
Harry explained his thoughts on each weapon. He didn't bring up fighting as a team.
After carefully listening to him, Moody suggested that they go and talk with Dumbledore.
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Albus Dumbledore was surprised that Harry would initiate such a move, but impressed in the way that Harry had framed the offer. He agreed that a one-on-one duel with wands would be Harry's weakest move.
After discussing the different plans for nearly an hour, Dumbledore took Harry completely by surprise by saying, "Harry, if you would have me, I would volunteer to stand by you next Saturday." Even more surprising, Moody made the same offer.
Harry had been unprepared for this response. The plan seemed better when he was originally writing the challenge than when sitting in the headmaster's office waiting to be scolded. Sensing Harry's hesitation at accepting such an offer, Dumbledore said, "Harry, you should consider your options. We can talk more about this tomorrow."
"Thank you sir. Thank you both. You both mean more to me than you could know."
The ancient wizard nodded and replied, "Enjoy your day, Harry."
"Moody growled, "Potter, we meant what we said."
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The young tailor at the armor shop was not surprised to see Harry walk through the doors. "Good afternoon, Mr. Potter. I have a pleasant surprise for you. Another Horntail died and this one has the thickest hide that I've had the pleasure to work with."
"Good," replied Harry. "I'll buy the entire hide, and provide specifications at a later date. For now, I would like your best vest and trousers in my size as soon as you could begin them."
She smiled at him. "For some reason, I knew you'd be here today." She handed him a large package from beneath the counter. "Thank you Mr. Potter."
Harry smiled at her. "Thank you Nikki."
She beamed at him, not thinking that an important celebrity like Harry Potter would remember her name. He seemed so nice. "Mr. Potter sir, would you mind if my mum took our photo together in your armor?"
Harry smiled at her. "I wouldn't mind, but please don't show it to anyone for a few weeks. OK?"
She understood the implication of his words, and nodded. "It won't fail you sir. I promise."
He kissed her on the cheek. "Thanks. That means a lot to me. I'll stop by again and just visit. Bye."
She smiled and waved as he walked out the door.
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"Can we read his response please?" asked Katie respectfully. Harry took the letter out of his robe pocket, set it on the table and sat on the sofa by the fireplace. Winky brought butterbeers for everyone.
"Why Harry?" asked Hermione willing herself to suppress the tears in her eyes.
"We've been very fortunate lately in our battles," said Harry. "I wanted to choose the time and place for this and if possible, even up the odds a bit. I want to be at the dance next Saturday and be thinking about lovely women, not worrying about who Riddle will go after next."
"That's fine if you win Harry," said Ginny. "What happens if…?" Tonks cut her off. The fifteen-year-old witch was crumbling under the stress of the situation. Negative self-talk would get them nowhere.
"I'll stand by you Harry, if you'll have me," said the young Auror.
There was silence for a moment. The witches weren't certain if Harry would be grateful for their help, or push them away like he was prone to do.
As the silence continued, Hermione stood next to Tonks and said," If you'll have me, I'll stand by you. I'm seventeen. I can legally duel."
"So am I," said Susan. "If you'll have me, I'll stand by you."
Katie stood by her, winked at him and said, "So am I. If you'll have me, I'll stand by you Harry."
Ginny ran from the room in tears. She was still fifteen, and her mum would never give her permission to duel with Lord Voldemort. In truth, Harry, didn't want to risk getting her hurt either. Not knowing what to say, he let his girlfriend run down the hallway sobbing.
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Moody filled Dumbledore and Minerva in with the details of the challenge as he knew them. They began discussing the different possibilities.
"So who would he bring on his side?" asked Alastor.
Dumbledore replied, "Likely Voldemort would select Zabini or another duelist from outside the country. I expect that he would recruit someone that would be an expert in each of the weapons that Harry has offered up. For sake of discussion, two handgun aficionados, two warriors of the blade, and two of magic. On the other hand, it is possible that he would select several people that Harry would not wish to hurt and place them under the Imperious curse."
Minerva asked, "How could he be countered?"
Moody replied, "One strategy would be to limit the number of bullets in each pistol to two. I do not know the skill of the young witches in swords or handguns. They each own good armor that would probably stop a pistol round from 30 yards."
Minerva said, "He could be double-teamed."
Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "True. As Tom will doubtless do against myself." He hoped that Riddle would go after him first, allowing Harry one last opportunity to kill the Dark Lord.
Minerva asked, "Who would stand by Potter?"
"Alastor and I already have offered to."
Minerva observed, "Certainly Miss Granger and Miss Tonks will offer. Miss Bell and Miss Bones might offer to as well."
Dumbledore thought for a moment. "They all would offer themselves. Remus and Kingsley would volunteer as well. Arguably Miss Weasley is not of age and cannot be allowed to get involved."
Moody replied, "True, but that didn't stop her from killing a Death Eater last weekend. I assume that this is being held as a legal duel?"
Dumbledore nodded yes. "It is said that most golf matches are won not on the links, rather before the match starts by negotiating the terms of the wager. Harry has presented quite an interesting challenge with four elements to be selected - the venue, the weapon pool, the potential team and then singles or team. If we presume that the only real mismatch would be Harry and Riddle one-on-one with wands, I would suggest that he select pistols or staffs.
Dumbledore continued, "If we select pistols, Riddle would probably go one-on-one and lose. If we select staffs, he probably would prefer to go teams and at least fight to a draw, depending on who he selected to stand with him."
Moody replied, "Since Potter can select the venue, I would suggest that it be warded to his advantage. He's taught his team to be nimble where as the two of us are not. It is legal in a duel to ward the area as long as the wards that are used are announced to both parties."
Minerva asked, "Did Potter specify blood staffs, or sticks like quarter staffs?"
Dumbledore replied, "I have not seen the original letter."
Minerva said, "A blood staff is arguably a stick, whereas a stick would not necessarily have to be a staff. Perhaps the Weasley brothers could be enlisted to create some similar looking items."
Moody stood to leave, and had a final comment. "It's Potter's fight. Maybe we should wait to offer any advice that he actually asks for."
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By dinnertime, the rumor was all over the school. Whether she meant to or not, Ginny had spilled the beans about the upcoming duel. With each retelling, the story grew wilder, but the core facts remained that Harry Potter had challenged you-know-who to a duel and the leak originated from miss Ginny Weasley herself.
By 9PM on Sunday, the rumor had effectively spread to every witch and wizard in Britain.
By 10PM, Molly and a host of Ministry officials were giving Ginny a face-to-face howler of the worst sort. By 11PM, even Molly was talked out, but Director Bones was ready to keep Ginny locked in a Ministry holding cell for a week to keep her from blabbing any of the other details that might hurt Harry's chances.
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Harry had all but made his mind up. If needed, his six-on-six team would consist of:
Albus Dumbledore
Hermione Granger
Susan Bones
Katie Bell
Nymphadora Tonks
Harry Potter
Harry would again ask Moody to referee the duel. He would ask Professor Flitwick to charm the coins so that they couldn't possibly be tampered with. In the event that Professor Dumbledore was not able to participate, Harry would ask Kingsley as he was skilled in both weapons. Remus and several others had offered to stand by him, but Harry knew that he would be strongest with the witches in the event that Riddle selected staffs.
His choice of weapons would be swords or staffs. He honestly felt that he could beat Riddle in a one-on-one fight with swords, and each of the witches could handle a blade better than most wizards. He would allow the rumor to spread that he had requisitioned twelve Colt model 1911 pistols from Director Bone's group. Harry made certain that pistol shots could occasionally be heard from the Hogwarts grounds to provide substance to the illusion that Harry and the witches were practicing with handguns. Harry hoped that Riddle might load his team with a bunch of pistoleros who couldn't swing a sword.
Based on what he had told Riddle, Harry owed him an announcement of the venue by noon Friday. Harry's announcement of the two weapons and the ultimate flip for them as well as the quantity of duelists would be announced and take place on Saturday morning.
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At nearly midnight on Sunday evening, Dumbledore summoned Minerva, Filius, Remus, Kingsley, Moody, and Minister Diggory to a meeting to update them.
He began. "Good evening. I have asked to you come tonight to share the little knowledge of the situation that I do have and gather your input regarding how we might best help Professor Potter in meeting his prophesized destiny."
He looked at each of them and said, "It is indeed Harry's destiny that he should meet and hopefully defeat Riddle. It was foretold nearly seventeen years ago. That in fact was Riddle's quest a year ago in the Department of Mysteries last June, to obtain a recording of the prophecy." Those that had heard of the prophecy and the details of the DOM battle nodded in comprehension.
He continued. "Harry has issued a legal challenge to Riddle to duel with a clever set of terms including Harry's choice of venue. Harry mentioned a selection of muggle and magical weapons in his challenge letter. He will provide two sets of weapons of his choosing. Riddle will flip a coin for both the final choice of the weapon and the choice between a team duel, or one-on-one. If teams are selected, each side will have six members."
"The parameters of the duel itself have not been announced. They could be last person standing, or the death of the principle, or an announcement of a yield. Given the nature of the situation, I presume it will be to the death."
He continued, saying, "The venue itself could prove either a distraction or advantageous, depending on the weapon selected. One suggestion that I received was the Quidditch pitch, or a stadium. The reality is both the light and the dark side would likely wish to have witnesses. It would be necessary to prohibit wands or weapons of most of the spectators."
Amelia said, "It would also be advantageous to Harry if there were anti-apparation and or anti portkey wards in place in the fighting field. What Harry would want on the actual field of battle remains to be seen." She had not mentioned her anxiety over Susan's probable participation in the event.
Amos said, "What about offering some of the captured Death Eaters as potential team mates?"
Dumbledore asked, "Why do you suggest that, Amos?"
Diggory replied, "Some of them have more skill at talking in court or making threats to weaker people than fighting. In fact, I'd suggest that many would fit that mold. There's a difference between being a cowardly killer and a skilled fighter. We could know of Potter's final weapon choices by then, and offer up some candidates who might not have a true expertise in that area."
Remus said, "That might eliminate his using truly qualified people in favor of people that he knows. He probably believes that he doesn't really need teammates." The others nodded in agreement. Neither Bones nor Diggory had aspirations to join Potter on the field of battle, but their ideas could improve his chances.
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At about the same time, Harry heard a soft knock on his door.
"Harry, can I come in and talk"
"Sure what's up?"
"Harry, I am willing to fight and die by your side if it comes to that, but I'd rather not die as a virgin. Would you spend the night with me and make love with me? Please? I'm not asking for any promises, or anything beyond tonight, but the reality is that we might not be in a position to do this next week and I want to know what it's like."
Harry looked at his friend for a moment, and knew that she was sincere. "Close the door."
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When Harry woke up at four the next morning, he was alone in his room. He showered and went to his classroom after getting dressed. Hermione and Tonks were practicing thrusts and blocks with the wooden swords.
Susan and Katie arrived a few minutes later. He showed them blocks and had them focus on them with the idea that they could use them to stall for time. He asked them to recheck their armor and let him know that day if there was any damage so he could get them a replacement set if needed.
Ginny was still with her parents and would be there for at least the rest of the week. Diggory had initially directed Bones to press numerous charges against the girl, but had been talked out of the most serious charges by both Bones and Dumbledore. He might be right, but he was quick to act and judge. Stern words from Mrs. Diggory had finally caused him to reconsider.
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It was truly unfortunate that Ginny had blabbed. The Ministry and the school were inundated with inquiries, expressions of concern and support. Collectively they were causing both organizations to lose focus.
On Monday morning, Dumbledore pleaded with the students to leave Professor Potter, the apprentices and the staff alone with respect to the subject. The available members of the Order were recruited to sort through the stacks of mail that were collecting in the Owlery. After they were done sorting the mail, Remus visited the twin's shop and Ollivanders. He explained what he wanted and they promised to have everything ready by Thursday evening.
It seemed that every owl in Britain was flying a message either to Scotland or London. Rita Skeeter and numerous other reporters tried unsuccessfully to gain access to Harry, but were blocked at the front doors of the castle.
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The first year students in Harry's class accepted what they had heard much easier than most of the adults. They had absolute confidence in their professor. Some of the girls giggled and asked if Harry was going to dance with Hanna next Saturday night. Harry smiled at the little witch and nodded.
Harry deviated from what he had planned, and discussed the basic rules of a wizards duel. At the end of the class, he shook everyone's hand, and they each wished him well. Hanna and most of the little witches gave him a hug. A few had tears of concern in their eyes.
Harry promised them that he'd be careful.
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On Monday evening, there was a knock on Minerva's office door.
"Come in."
Harry opened the door. His Professor and good friend saw him and immediately invited him in. "How can I help you Mr. Potter? Please have a seat."
Harry carefully displayed two swords that he had brought and drew them from their sheaths. "I would be honored if you would transfigure twelve copies of each of these swords Professor. I need them to be as perfect as possible, and…"
She looked at him with the utmost respect, honored that he would trust thousands of lives with her work. "I understand Harry. Please show me the details that are important."
Harry showed her the important points of a katana sword – the point, the edge, the grain of the steel blade, the blade back, the tang, the hand guard and the laced grip itself.
Minerva carefully studied the weapons that he had shown her. An hour later, she had made thirteen copies of each of them. As he was getting ready to leave, she pulled him into a hug, and wished him the very best.
"I won't let you down, Professor. Please keep the extra copy of each sword."
"I have absolute faith in you Harry. I will keep the extra copy in case you need it. You'd best get going now." She tried hard not to sob in front of him. The possibility of losing the two most important wizards in her life in one afternoon was too much for her.
Harry carefully took the weapons back to his classroom and practiced several test cuts with each sword into straw bundles. The blades were quite sharp and appeared to be quite strong. He decided on using the katanas rather than the dirks, hoping to avoid injury to the witches.
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As requested, Ollivander had created ten staffs. While not as powerful as a blood staff, they were more generic and much more likely to respond to a user that they were not specifically made for. The woods and lengths varied slightly.
He finished them Tuesday evening and would deliver them in the morning. The old wizard hoped that he hadn't created another murder weapon for the Dark Lord.
Fred and George had contributed something equally useful. They produced eight walking staffs. They looked very similar to the blood staffs that the apprentices had produced, but were nothing more than carved sticks of wood. If one of Voldemort's side selected them in an attempt to deny the apprentices of their own staff, they would be in for a very disappointing afternoon Harry showed them to the witches so that they could see the small differences between the copies ant their own staffs.
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Wednesday after dinner, Dan and Emma Granger were escorted to the door of Harry's classroom. Emma was about to knock, but realized that the teens were practicing. They watched in awe as their daughter flashed her sword with amazing speed and grace, sparing with a large black man in Auror wear. Susan and the others were of equal finesse and obviously well skilled. Amelia had brought over the best swordsmen on the Auror squad to spar and coach the apprentices and Auror Tonks.
The two dentists had never intentionally enrolled their brilliant daughter in a military academy. They had come to realize that her world was in a civil war and accepted that their daughter had volunteered to help win it.
Their attitude had changed greatly the last summer when Voldemort and his minions had killed twelve people and destroyed their home while attempting to murder their family. They had accepted Harry's lead and trusted him with everything that they had. Like the parents of the other witches, they hoped that someday Harry would return the love that their daughter felt for him.
After the teens were done practicing, Dan, Emma, and Minerva visited with Hermione and Harry. They held each other and spoke softly. The Grangers would not be watching the duel; rather they would be waiting for their daughter's safe return in the castle.
Hermione and Harry both promised to be careful and to watch out for each other. Harry and Minerva waited outside the door while Hermione spent a few tearful moments alone with her parents. Each promising that they'd see each other on Saturday afternoon, they parted company.
Hermione slid under the covers and snuggled with Harry. The flaming passion that she wanted to express with him was tempered by their shear exhaustion from their training and the crushing stress that they each felt. If they went six on six and were evenly matched with their opponent, they each had a fifty percent chance of winning. She mentally estimated to odds of flipping six coins and having each coin come up heads at less than two percent. She vowed to come up with a plan to raise the odds.
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Dumbledore had been putting his affairs in order all week. Assuming that Harry was successful, Minerva would be announced as Acting Headmistress of the school on Sunday. It had been recently anticipated that she would be named Headmistress at the end of the school year. Few people knew the true extent of Dumbledore's wounds.
Headmistress was not a position that she honestly aspired to, but she was willing to accept it in a stewardship role. She knew that the school thrived while under the tenure of truly great leaders. She prided herself on being an excellent instructor, a fair head of house and a competent administrator, but deep down, she knew that she was a follower, not a leader. Dumbledore had serious doubts that he would see the ceremony.
Albus and Aberforth had taken the red Corvette that Harry had given him out for a ride. Remus had been right. Traveling the highland roads at 130 MPH made it clear to both brothers that it was a much different vehicle than Albus' old Desoto. At the end of the day, Aberforth accepted the keys from his brother and offered his best wishes.
Dumbledore made certain that he spent at least a little time with each individual person on his staff. Harry had made him a series of two-way portkeys, so he could get to Diagon Alley as needed without tiring himself too much.
Harry and Dumbledore spent an hour together overlooking a bluff in the Scottish highlands. He told Harry of times that he'd spent there as a young man, typically in the company of a spirited young woman. Dumbledore encouraged Harry to build a family, or an extended family of his own. While polygamy was accepted in the European wizarding world, serial monogamy was not uncommon, nor was the practice of keeping a mistress. None of those practices fit with Harry's image of his own parents.
Both men felt like they had the distribution of their estates documented to their wishes. Dumbledore was fairly certain that he'd seen his last Sunday. He hoped that if a team duel were selected, he would still have the strength to shield Harry one last time.
Like the wizards, each of the witches had documented their last wishes and filed the paperwork with Harry's estate goblins at Gringotts. While refusing to believe that they would be defeated, filing the paperwork placed the stark reality of the possibility right in their faces.
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Thursday after dinner there was a knock on the door of the apprentices' common room. It was Director Bones. She asked to speak with Harry for a moment on official business. The witches went out to Tonk's living area to give them some privacy.
Amelia began, "Harry, regarding the selection of team duelists, I have a proposition for you. I know that you helped my family obtain some closure with the capture of Malfoy and Rookwood. I would like to offer you the same. I would like to offer the conditional release of, Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Antonin Dolohov, Michelle Edgecombe and Peter Pettigrew. If Voldemort flips for teams, they might be a better choice than the mercenaries that he undoubtedly has collected. Dolohov and Malfoy are accomplished swordsmen. The others aside from Draco would have had little if any formal instruction with a blade. The downside is that collectively, they might represent a stronger than average team in the event that staffs are selected. Defeating them might give you some additional closure."
Harry understood the spoken and unspoken implications of her words. The five Death Eaters were known commodities and arguably a safer bet than five hired assassins. The Death Eaters could be counted on to follow Voldemort's directions, even going against their better judgment for individual survival. Finally Harry knew that as long as the Malfoys and Dolohov were alive, they would pose a threat to the decent folk of the wizarding world. Their death in a duel would be seen as nothing more than their bad fortune, whereas Bones really did not possess the authority to have them executed.
Harry understood her reasoning and agreed to allow them to be offered as substitutes before the weapons were announced.
Harry asked about Ginny. Amelia said that she was still being held under house arrest at the Weasleys charged with endangerment of Ministry officials. Harry requested that she be released. Amelia offered to release her at seven in the morning on Saturday. In truth, she still believed that Ginny represented too much of a distraction to safely be reintroduced so soon before the duel, and did not want to pile additional risk upon her niece.
After leaving Harry, Amelia went to spend a quiet hour with Susan.
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Most of Colin's photos were returned to him. A complete set was made for Harry, the other apprentices and Amelia. She used it as the basis for preparing the lengthy Order of Merlin paperwork. She prayed that the awards would not be given out posthumously.
True to expectations, the Daily Prophet offered Colin fifty thousand galleons for the photos! He immediately accepted the money only to realize later that he could have received double that amount and had been seriously taken advantage of.
Creevey's father had always been amused by his son's obsession with photography. He was astonished to hear that Colin had been offered the equivalent of ten years of his regular salary as a milk deliveryman for one roll of film.
Minerva was besieged with requests for tickets to the duel. It seemed like it was the wizarding event of the century. The part that she found ironic was that if Voldemort were to win, almost every witch or wizard there would certainly be killed or tortured.
The Hogwarts Quidditch stadium held a mere 600 people. She decided to allocate 150 tickets to students to be given away on a drawing basis. The apprentices were allocated 50 tickets as were Voldemort's side. McGonagall had a mental image of a muggle wedding with the usher asking the guest, Are you a friend of the light or the dark side? She shuddered to think of anyone who would come up to claim them. Another fifty were allocated to friends of the school or the press. Having learned something from Fred and George over the last year, she placed the remainder for sale. She originally was going to price them at a hundred galleons each. Moody suggested that she add a zero, and use the proceeds to set up a substantial scholarship fund.
She contacted Skeeter about the offering.
Skeeter realized that a stadium the size of the one set for the world cup would have been more appropriate strictly from the point of the quantity of people who were interested in watching the duel. She immediately purchased ten tickets and resold them for five thousand Galleons each.
The board of school governors were each sent two tickets. Of course they each sent back replies asking for many time that number.
By the end of the day, Minerva had collected 300 sacks of gold, and had a waiting list for nearly a thousand people who just had to be there. An evil thought slipped in her mind, half wishing that at least one stray shot would get past the barrier, no never mind.
She had the embarrassing moment with Harry asking him if there was anyone who he wanted to give his tickets to. He asked her to save three seats in honor of his parents and Sirius and do with the rest whatever she felt best.
Ten of Harry's tickets went to the teachers and the rest were given to the Order, the other apprentices and the DA.
Amazingly the friends of the dark side tickets did get claimed. She carefully kept track of each of the names of those requesting a ticket, and then they were also gone.
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During the week, Harry spent some individual quiet time with each of the four witches discussing anything that the witches wanted, or just quietly comforting each other. Friday evening, they all spent the evening together. Collectively they prayed that the outcome would be favorable to their side. Their magical energies became one. Satisfied that they had done everything that they could to ensure their success and their safety, they rested in each other's arms.
While Harry and the witches finished their training, Ginny was a howling ball of sorrow. She realized that she had impulsively made a life changing decision by abandoning Harry and the others a week earlier. Unable to communicate with the apprentices while under house arrest, she realized that she had made a horrible mistake, and prayed that someday she'd have the opportunity to properly make up with Harry.
Molly believed that Harry's actions were too dangerous for her little girl to have anything to do with. She did not encourage Ginny to have any immediate contact with Harry, or the others, believing that the ministry should be dealing with him, not a handful of school children.
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A/N
The setup is a bit different, the battle was expanded and the aftermath is completely different. I hope that you like it. If you're looking for something to read, consider looking at Ri-Kun;s story Harry Potter and the Daughter of Darkness.
Should Molly have let Ginny into the fight?