The breeze was welcome, despite the chill, as none of the students could ever remember smelling life and woods and all manner of things while simultaneously attending a Snape class. It felt almost forbidden; they breathed deeply, filling their heads for a moment with air before turning to the Professor, looking not as out of place as he should have under the sky and surrounded by blades of grass.
"Today commences our third section on the unit of dueling. As you all know, we passed to theory sections last month, with varying degrees of success. Hence, it is time for us to put our theory into action, but I must first categorize all of you based on ability. To prevent any… mishaps." He smirked mercilessly.
"This will be our dueling grounds." He lifted his hands, gesturing loftily to the wide plain of green. "Today, we will begin with a strict one pair at a time rule, but of course, that is never how it works in a real-life situation, is it?" Several students, Draco Malfoy and the Golden Trio included, looked up sharply.
Snape gave a curt nod before continuing.
"By the end of the year we will be practicing in large-group maneuvers, free-for all melee situations, and all-on-one tactics, in all varieties of settings. Be grateful I am intelligent enough to understand how inept you all are at the present moment, because a great deal of body parts could be lost if I thought you at all capable enough to attempt these things at present. For now, you will each try your hand with me, and I shall place you from there."
Many were just now realizing what they had gotten themselves into.
"Indeed. Alphabetically, then. Miss Brown, if you will."
Lavender, glancing only once over to Ron, stepped forward from the group, looking distinctly ill.
Snape practically rolled his eyes. "I will only be using techniques I have already taught you in this class, Miss Brown. You, however, are free to use any legal magic you can think of. Hence, I you will not come to… undue bodily harm."
Lavender didn't look comforted, but raised her wand despite.
They began with a bow, and Snape allowed her to fire off the first hex, which he blocked easily, but without marked carelessness. He allowed her to send him a few more hexes, measuring her, and then quickly ended it with an Impedimenta.
Without comment, he waved her away.
"Millicent Bulstrode."
And with that, Snape moved methodically through the class, student by student, allowing each a bit of time to show the extent of their abilities before ending it calmly. He demonstrated good form, respecting them enough to resist flicking his wand condescendingly, and resisted using any painful or unduly embarrassing hexes. Even against Hermione, he simply cast a leg-locker jinx at the end, although she'd managed to get in a few stinging hexes, and had disarmed him momentarily. (She was the first to actually hit him with anything, although Seamus had been close.)
Neville had obviously exceeded Snape's expectations, as Snape had actually had to physically dodge a few of Neville's hexes, flailing in a most undignified manner.
When Malfoy stepped forward, however, the tension thickened. Their bows were curt, bordering on rude, and Malfoy instantly launched into a loud blasting curse, twirling swiftly out of the way as Snape repelled it back with a quiet "protego". Their fight was by far the most furious, and also the shortest yet. Snape had Malfoy down in a full-body bind no less than fifteen seconds after the duel began. Both were breathing heavily.
But still, Snape said not a word besides "finite." Malfoy returned to his place between Crabbe and Goyle without a word, looking pale.
Theodore Nott then used some vicious curses to very little effect. Pansy Parkinson was deplorable, and Snape actually had to send her to the hospital wing with Millicent Bulstrode for the cure to her own backfired Conjunctivitis Curse. He then turned back to his class, glaring.
"Potter."
The class froze, acutely aware that the wind was gone and clouds had rolled in, aware of the stillness as they had not been before.
Harry stood. The group shrank back.
"Professor."
They bowed.
And Snape snapped his wand up in an instant shield.
But Harry hadn't thrown a curse, and has instead darted off to Snape's right, and was now out of his line of vision.
Snape lowered the shield angrily, and Harry, still moving around him to the right, sent an expelliarmus followed closely by a petrificus. Snape spun and stepped to the left, narrowly avoiding both. He tossed back a freezing charm. Harry waved his wand in front of it and whispered harshly, making it dissipate before it reached him. But a red jet of light was already hurtling towards his face.
"Protego!" Harry cried, and his instant shield threw the spell back violently towards Snape, who deflected it easily. Harry sprang forward instantly, retaliating with his own stunner, but Snape side-stepped and cast his own, and the two met ferociously, ricocheting off into the crowd.
"Protego!" Hermione shielded herself and the surrounding students, and many cried out, but Snape and Harry paid no mind, already exchanging rapid-fire hexes, yelling loudly.
Harry lowered another blue shield breathlessly to execute a bat-bogey hex, spinning to the right, but Snape sent another spell directly into his line of movement. Having just lowered his protego, Harry dove to the ground and conjured the first thing he could think of to absorb the oncoming blue jet; a large glass windshield shimmered into existence in front of him. But Snape's spell pulverized it into hundreds of shards of glass, showering both duelers with sharp, glittering pieces.
With a quick banishing charm, Snape sent the splinters hurtling away from himself, coincidentally into Harry's face, but Harry's cry of "Leviosa!" sent them into the sky instead. Snape sent another stunner, presuming Harry distracted, but Harry leapt to his feet, returning with incendio, lighting the hem of Snape's robes. As Snape gritted out "aquamenti" to extinguish them, Harry cried "levicorpus!" and Snape was whisked off his feet.
With a cry of anger, Snape sent a wall of fire away from himself, forcing Harry to cast a fire-freezing charm to avoid it. Regaining his feet easily, Snape sent him several petrificus totalis spells in rapid-fire succession from within the circle of flames. But Harry, dodging, found out painfully that his freezing charm couldn't hold back such a powerful onslaught of magical fire. He was forced to turn his back to the flames, protecting his face, and drop to the ground to extinguish them. And Snape kept firing spells, catching Harry on the last, an expelliarmus.
Harry's wand clattered away and he was blown several feet backwards, almost at the feet of the other students, who stood horrified above him. He lay, wandless, flat on his back, gasping and smoldering. Snape cancelled the flames silently. And instead of ending it quickly, he stalked slowly towards Harry, leering widely.
"Well, Potter, you're very lucky I decided to play at beginner's level… or you'd be worse than losing at the moment. If I had really wished it, this duel would have been over within seconds."
He raised his wand theatrically. "Stupe-"
But suddenly Harry's wand was back in his hand, and he was surging upwards. "Contego!"
Snape's red hex was absorbed into Harry's bright white shield with a ripple. The rest of the class sprang back, out of the range of fire. Harry rolled to his feet as Snape whirled to meet him, and they fired simultaneous hexes. As Harry jumped to avoid the ricochet, his legs gave out from under him and he slammed into the grass. Snape sent a stunner hurtling towards him and Harry reflected it back with a protego, trying to regain his feet.
Harry suddenly fell over, completely rigid. A full-body bind.
"Potter, go to the hospital wing. And ten points from Gryffindor." And Snape waved his wand over Harry, wordlessly again, and turned away, towards the cluster of students.
"Wha-what?" Harry spluttered. "You can't just-"
"I assure you I can and I just did. Please leave my presence."
"But you CHEATED!" Harry accused, springing to his feet. "You-"
Snape turned back to him languidly, but cut him off sharply. "Used wordless magic, yes. Any imbecile can do it. Have you not been learning this technique for a month now? Twenty-five points from Gryffindor. For stupidity."
"But you said all your spells out loud against the others and-"
"And you assumed it would remain thusly? Poor Potter. Let me assure you, no true opponent will hold back as kindly as I have. Twenty more points."
"YOU BLOODY CHEATED!" Harry yelled, and raised his wand to fire a hex, but Snape simply turned to him, and with a slashing motion of his wand, cut it off.
"STOP THAT!" Harry yelled. "Fight fair!" But his next sentence never quite made it out, as he suddenly lost his balance and grasped his head, as if to steady it. He wondered for a moment if it was a curse, clutching his hair painfully.
He felt something sharp and foreign, and with a gasp from the rest of the class, pulled a rather large shard of glass from the side of his head. He looked curiously at the blood on his hands, and felt around for more bits of glass in his face, now turning away from Snape as if he'd forgotten the taller man was there.
"Go to the hospital wing before I bind you and banish you there myself. And three week's detention, for attacking a teacher. I shall have to inform your Head of House." Snape tossed over his shoulder, disregarding Harry as he checked a Slytherin's student's injured arm.
With a final growl, Harry spun on his heel and stalked away. Or, at least, he tried to. He actually did something more along the lines of a wobble and rapid teetering, but he made his way towards the castle all the same. The rest of the class watched, murmuring. Hermione and Ron started after him, but Snape barked,
"Weasley! You are after Thomas. Move and receive a zero. Granger, you may leave, if you would like to receive three week's detention for skipping class."
So they both stopped, and Dean approached apprehensively.
Snape disposed of Dean, Ron, and Zabini in much the same indifferent manner as he had all of the other students, save one.