CHAPTER 21: The Dueling Tournament Round 1

The end of the week couldn't come soon enough for Harry, who had been receiving a mix of sympathetic and 'serves you right' looks from the school. Only the Slytherins gave Harry the dirty looks, which lifted his spirits considerably. On Friday Harry was walking out of the great hall when he heard an unfamiliar voice call him.

"A word, Potter?" Harry turned to see Blaise Zabini nod his head in the direction of an empty corridor and continued towards it. Harry looked around briefly, wondering what was going on before following. When Harry arrived the Slytherin was looking relatively tense. "I apologize for the clandestine nature of the meeting, but I can hardly allow my housemates to see me with you. I wanted to let you know that not all of us are bad, as a matter of fact I may hate Draco Malfoy more than you, if that's possible." He said with a wry grin. "I wanted to warn you that he's planning something, I'm not entirely sure what, but it's going to happen during the dueling tournament."

"Why are you telling me this?" Harry asked skeptically.

"Because, Potter, not all Slytherins side with Voldemort. I would ask that you don't mention to anyone that we've ever spoken. And by the way, don't hex me too bad if you hear me saying something nasty to your friends when I'm around Draco. In return I will pass any important information on to you, so long as it is safe for me to do so."

Harry looked into the Slytherin's eyes intently, willing himself to make a connection. Suddenly he saw a filmlike sequence like when he was practicing legilimency with Dumbledore. He saw Draco Malfoy telling his goons how he was going to embarrass Potter in front of the whole school, but Harry wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

"Anybody home, Potter?" Zabini's voice snapped Harry back into reality. Apparently it had worked, not only did he get the information, but Blaise didn't know it.

"I appreciate it, Blaise." The Slytherin turned to leave. "Hold on a second. You said you had a few friends you trusted, friends that hate Malfoy?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I do." He said, clearly wondering where Harry was going with this.

"Did you hear where Malfoy and Umbridge caught me last year?"

"Yeah, you mean the inquisitorial squad? What about it?"

"Meet me there at 7 tonight, bring a few of those friends. I figure what I'm going to introduce you to is the least I can do for your information."

The day continued without much incident until it was time for the Dueling tournament to start. Harry was still wondering what Malfoy could possibly do to him that would embarrass him. Harry knew that in a duel he would easily defeat the Slytherin, he was well trained enough to block or dodge almost any spell Malfoy sent his way, so what could he possibly do? Harry made a mental note of all the things Malfoy had been ridiculing him about over the past years. Quidditch was the first thing to come to mind, but Harry wouldn't be on a broom. The Harry thought about how Malfoy kept impersonating him after the Dementor attacks, his heart fell, was Malfoy going to summon a Dementor? The thought quickly vanished from Harry's mind, even if Malfoy could get a dementor into Hogwarts during the duel, Harry could defeat it easily. Harry was thinking so hard he missed the beginning of McClaggan's address to the crowd. Hermione, as always, had heard every bit and filled him in.

"The duel will go on until one student is disarmed or incapacitated. Winner advances, loser goes home. All spells are legal except fatal curses. The winner of each year will face each other in another tournament, winner of that faces a 'mystery guest'" Hermione told him as quickly as she could.

"First match will be Ronald Weasley versus Lavender Brown." Breannan called from the platform. Ron gave Hermione a quick kiss on the cheek before leaping onto the stage. He bowed to Lavender, who followed suit, and the duel began. Lavender, despite knowing a wider variety of spells, had trouble with Ron's sheer power. Despite being both of their friends, Harry found himself analyzing their strengths and weaknesses. After a few minutes of heated battle Ron hit Lavender with a disarming hex and the match was over.

"Well done!" Breannan called as the two made their way off of the platform, Ron apologizing profusely for any injury he may have caused.

"Next match will be Hermione Granger versus Pansy Parkinson." Harry rolled his eyes, everyone knew Hermione would win easily. They bowed to each other and about two minutes later Pansy was laying on the ground in a heap. Hermione made her way over to them with a satisfied smile.

"Why'd you toy with her so long?" Harry asked, Hermione simply grinned.

"Congratulations, Miss Granger. The next match will be between Neville Longbottom and Gregory Goyle." McClaggan made his way off the platform and signaled for the duel to begin. Harry knew Neville would be able to pull through, he was just surprised how quickly he did it. Goyle was laying on his back after almost a minute. Harry couldn't help but join in and laugh.

"Settle down, settle down." The Professor said, but Harry noticed a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "It's time for the next match. This one will be between Harry Potter and Vincent Crabbe. Please make your way up to the platform." Harry walked past the Scot and heard him whisper "Just don't hurt him." Harry smirked.

The signal for the duel to begin came and Harry simply looked at Crabbe, who seemed terrified. "Accio Wand." Harry said simply, causing Crabbe's wand to slip out of his trembling, sweating hands and into Harry's. Harry tossed the wand back to Crabbe and strode off of the platform. Harry looked around to see the entire crowd laughing hysterically, even McClaggan was shaking his head and laughing.

"That was the fastest duel I've ever witnessed, 10 points to Gryffindor." McClaggan yelled, causing the fans in sarlet and gold cheer wildly. "The final match of the day will take place between Draco Malfoy and Parvati Patil." Breannan jumped off of the platform, and Harry's heart sunk with him. Malfoy was going to do something to Parvati, he didn't have the guts to face him, so he's going to do something to Parvati. Harry looked for his girlfriend, but she was already on the platform. Harry began to push his way through the crowd to where McClaggan was standing, a complacent smile on his face.

"Professor! Stop the duel!" Harry panted as he got up to the Scot.

"Why, Harry? What's wrong?" Breannan asked, concern in his eyes.

"I think Malfoy is going to do something to Parvati." But before McClaggan could respond Malfoy began to chant in another language. Harry couldn't recognize it, but it made his blood run cold. He willed Parvarti to make her move, before Malfoy could succeed in whatever he was doing, but she seemed frozen to the spot. Before anyone else reacted Harry turned to McClaggan, "He's summoning a dementor."

"I know, I can feel it. The problem is technically he's doing nothing wrong, it's not a fatal curse."

Harry began to try to explain how Dumbledore hated dementors, and it was a school rule not a tournament rule he was breaking, but it was too late. A fully grown dementor had emerged from the stage and now stood in front of Malfoy. Draco tugged at something around his neck and pointed the dementor in the direction of Parvati. Parvati simply stood their, the fear petrifying her.

"Parvati! Try the patronus charm!" Harry yelled, snapping her out of it. All of the other students had backed away from the platform, while Harry ran towards it. He did not feel the effects of the dementor the way he normally did, but he barely noticed as Parvati sent a whisp of silver smoke at the dementor, who extended its bony hand and swept it aside.

"Help me!" Parvati screamed as she fell to her knees, her wand clattering to the floor next to her.

Harry saw the dementor approaching her in almost slow motion, he ran towards the platform. He couldn't hear the student's screams or McClaggan's instructions, all he could hear was Parvati whimpering as the dementor approached. Harry leapt onto the platform and raced towards Parvati, he stood in between her and the dementor and raised his wand. The dementor seemed to pause for a second, as if second guessing his instructions. It turned towards Malfoy, who held up whatever was around his neck again and the dementor proceeded towards Harry. He could hear Parvati's breathing shallowly. If anything happened to her he could never forgive himself.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" He yelled, expecting to see the silver stag erupt from his wand. He was surprised when he saw a jet of gold light, with the head of a stag shoot out of the tip of his wand like a bullet and bear down on the dementor. The dementor froze in place before getting hit by the stag's antlers square in the chest. The dementor was knocked back across the platform, where the golden beam attacked again. It charged at the creature, this time hiding it right under the hood.

BANG

Harry was blinded by the bright gold light, and his ears rang slightly from the explosion. He blinked his eyes rapidly before the platform came back into focus. Malfoy was unconscious on his back, and their was a pile of ashes in front of him, right where the dementor had stood just moments before.

"Are you ok, Parvati?" Harry asked, turning to pick up his girlfriend. She just looked into his eyes and fell limp in his arms. Harry picked her up and carried her off of the platform. He walked straight through the crowd of awed students and out the door, refusing to let anyone stop or help him.

Harry waited in a chair next to Parvati's bed, Madame Pomfrey had tried to send him away, but gave up simply saying that he had become almost a part of the hospital wing over the years. Harry watched Parvati as she slept, hearing the nurses reassurances that his girlfriend was fine over and over again in his head, praying that it was true.

"Harry?" The teen whirled to see Professor McClaggan standing in the doorway, he had been so deep in thought that he never even heard the door open. Harry turned back to his girlfriend and waved his professor to come in.

"I'm sorry I walked out like that, Professor." Harry whispered, trying not to wake Parvati.

"I don't blame you, if I had a girl I cared about like that I wouldn't let anyone else touch her either. I came to ask you something though." McClaggan asked, whispering as Harry did.

"You want to know about the patronus?"

"No. I've already figured that out. You've become so powerful that you're emotions allow you to kill a dementor. This time you just cast a spell instead of stabbing it." McClaggan smiled, as if reflecting on something. "What I wanted to ask you was how you got through my ward."

"What ward?" Harry asked, momentarily forgetting to whisper.

"Don't you remember me telling everyone that you could go anywhere, but you wouldn't be able to cross the barrier?" Harry nodded. "I meant physically get through the barrier, not only was it against the rule to do it, but physically impossible. Or so I thought. Nothing was supposed to be able to get in or out of that barrier until the duel was over, yet you just walked through. Do you have any idea how you just walked through my barrier?"

"N-Well, I'm not sure if it makes any kind of difference, but Dumbledore's office unlocks as soon as I approach it." McClaggan thought for a minute, then his eyes widened.

"I'll talk to you later, I think I have an idea." He ran out of the room, slowing only to close the door quietly. Harry had the sudden image of Hermione running to the library and couldn't help but laugh.