Chapter 15: The Climb

The Dueling Club lecture hall was filled with students, mostly first to fourth years. Crowds clustered around the four dueling platforms that had been set up, surrounding the bulletin boards set on them.

"I suppose that's where the duels are listed," Myles asked, looking at the groups around the bulletin boards posted on the dueling platforms.

"Must be," Cecilia replied, walking towards the crowd with the most first years. "Let's see if we can find ours."

They worked through the crowd, finally managing to get in reading distance when a group of loud mouthed second-year Gryffindors moved out of the way. There was a long list of names down the left side, each with a number besides it and three more names to the right of it. Luckily enough, his name was listed on this platform:

Myles | 12 | Ronaldo Tapp | Emmeline Forder | Sebastian Sickle

"Confident?" Cecilia asked, having seen his listing while looking for her own.

Myles shrugged. "I don't know them. If they're half as good as you, Elias, or Lyla then it won't be much of a fight."

"You'll be fine," Cecilia smiled at him. "Lyla and Elias are hardly twelfth duelers."

Professor Flitwick had explained the dueling ranking system and the upcoming meeting at the last Dueling practice for the first years. There were twelve ranks, split by skill rather than year. There were three dueling meetings a year where Hogwarts students had the chance to advance in rank. This was the first Dueling Club Meeting of the year (the meetings for each skill group were called practices) and the first chance that the first years had to prove themselves and rise out of the twelfth.

To advance in rank you had to win one out of three of the scheduled duels. If you won all three duels in the set, however, you were given another set of three duels with students from the next rank up. If you won any of the three you would join that rank, and if you won all three you would once again advance to challenge the next rank. The first-years in Dueling Club had been telling stories for the past month about how Teddy Lupin had risen all the way to the eighth, a whole quarter of the Dueling Club's ladder, at his first meeting.

"I don't know," Myles replied uncertainly. "I don't recognize any of them. I won't know who I'm dueling until I'm on the platform."

"Just stick to what you know," Cecilia advised him with a confidence that Myles didn't feel. "They may know a few more spells than us but they won't know stunners or shields in the eleventh."

"Hey!" A flash of blonde jumped in between Myles and Cecilia, bumping into both of them. "Are you ready?"

"I can't wait," Lyla said, answering her own question. She was bouncing up and down with excitement; she'd talked about the Dueling Meeting at every practice. "Have you seen who you're facing?"

"Yeah," Myles said, pointing to his name on the board and then pointing a couple of rounds above it where Lyla's name was posted. "You're to go right before me but it looks like Cecilia's on the other platform."

"I don't recognize any of them," Lyla said without a hint of uncertainty or doubt. "I hope they're good!"

The duels at the platform were far from impressive. First years used the Disarming Charm (with varying ranges of effectiveness and skill) and occasionally cast harmless jinxes, the most impressive of which being the Tripping Jinx. The second years that made up the bulk of the eleventh rank were barely better. In stark contrast to the duel between Teddy Lupin and Professor Calding, the duels here were a matter of who could successfully cast the Disarming Charm first.

Elias, who had dueled on the other platform, was the first of the first-years to win all three of their matches. Professor Flitwick, who was supervising the other platform, called up three of the tenth rank students waiting for their duels. Elias won the first, though it was much closer than his first three duels, but lost the second after being surprised by a wavering but effective Shielding Charm. It was a bad stroke of luck for Elias; his opponent would likely be in the ninth by the end of the Dueling Meeting.

Elias wasn't the only one to win his first three duels and challenge the tenth. Myles saw Ambrosia, Ambrose, Tor, Thalia, and Ambrose challenge the tenth while he waited for his duels. Ambrosia and Thalia managed two wins and Tor one, only Ambrose won all three, but his cocky smile only lasted until he matched against a third year from the ninth rank that blasted him off the platform within two seconds of the duel starting. The two duels that followed were nearly as short and just as decisive.

Lyla was the next to win the first three matches. She disarmed the first two with her opening spell and the last with her second charm. She was still jumping up and down at the end of it, happy about winning but clearly looking for more a challenge. Professor Longbottom called up three tenth rank students from where they waited on the fringes of the platforms.

The duels that followed were of a different sort. Even in the duels with students from the tenth rank, the winner had been decided by who cast a better Disarming Charm. Lyla won on the platform, however, not because she was better at the Disarming Charm (though she often was) but because her opponents simply couldn't hit her. Myles had seen it before, he had been partnered with her far too many times, but Lyla was always playing more than practicing. She was still playing, even on the floor in the Dueling Meeting, but she was playing to win. The first two duels lasted longer than Lyla's previous three duels, but they went much the same.

In the last of her three duels against the tenth ranked students, however, her opponent was a third year capable of weak Shielding Charms and a set of complementary magic that none of the first years were capable of yet. He missed with a Disarming Charm, blocked with a thin shield, landed a Tripping Jinx on Lyla's feet and still couldn't hit her. Lyla simply rolled on hitting the ground, as if she'd planned it the whole time. She cast another Disarming Charm as she rose to her feet, only to be blocked by a shield.

Lyla steadily moved closer as she dodged and rolled forwards. The third year Slytherin cast the Deadweight Charm, which shared the Tripping Jinx's advantage of not having to hit the opponents upper body while still being a direct spell and having an instantaneous effect. It hit Lyla's leg, but she still managed to roll over to dodge the Stunning Charm that followed, finite the charm on her leg, and then dodge the Disarming Charm being cast at her by diving to the floor. She hit the ground again, rolled forward, and came up directly next to the Slytherin boy. They both cast Disarming Charms, but the boy's was slowed by his surprise. His wand flew into the crowd and the Gryffindor students (and Myles and not a few other first-years) watching erupted into cheers at the sight.

For the second time, ninth rank students needed to be fetched for an advancing first-year. Myles had thought they would be a level above the Slytherin from Lyla's last match, but it went to show that there was a deal of luck in the system. The Slytherin boy Lyla had just faced would end up dueling his way to the seventh rank later that evening. Despite his lower rank at the time, he was better than each of opponents Lyla faced next. That wasn't to say the duels weren't exciting. Lyla dodged spells by the narrowest margins and teetered at the edge of the dueling floor. But at the end of her ninth duel, the only spells that had touched her were the Tripping Jinx and Deadweight Charm that the Slytherin third year had cast.

Professor Longbottom had to make an announcement to the crowd to collect three eighth rank students, of which there were only four at the meeting this early. Lyla was tired now, breathing heavily after the acrobatics she'd entertained in each of her duels, but she looked no less excited as the first of the three eighth ranked students walked onto the dueling floor.

She managed to the win the first duel in the same unbelievable fashion. Her opponent clearly had no idea how to deal with this completely different style of dueling. Just like that, Lyla had matched Teddy Lupin by reaching the eighth rank on her first Dueling Meeting. Her next two duels, however, did not go her way. The third-year Ravenclaw she faced had learned from watching the last two duels. She cast a spell that made the floor slippery and then a Deadweight Charm stop Lyla from her acrobatics before easily disarming her. Lyla's last duel was only a formality, as she'd already climbed to the eighth by winning her first match and couldn't go further anymore, but it went the same way. She'd managed to surprise the higher ranked students at first, but once they learned how to fight her she didn't stand a chance. Nevertheless, there was a great deal of fanfare led by spectating Gryffindors as she walked off the dueling floor. Myles joined in cheering the exhausted but brightly smiling Lyla.

"Myles! Anne!" Professor Longbottom called into the crowd. Myles started, amidst the excitement of watching Lyla's crazy duels he'd forgotten that he was up next. He walked up the short flight of stairs that led up to the dueling platform.

Myles wiped his palms on his robes and drew his wand. The perspective from atop the elevated dueling platform was different. That was obvious enough, climbing onto a elevated platform would give you a different view, but Myles was taken off-guard not by how it looked but by how it felt. Around and below him students milled about, many still surrounding Lyla or talking amongst themselves but more than a few had their eyes towards the platform, towards him. Directly across from him stood a second-year Slytherin. She bowed to him, initiating the formality that began the duel.

Myles bowed back to her, following the instruction the first-years had received at the last practice. His heart was pounding in his chest, so loudly that he could hear it over the noise of a hundred conversations in the background. Myles had wondered why so many of the first-years he'd seen repeatedly cast the Disarming Charm in practice fail on stage. Now he knew.

"Expelliarmus!" Myles didn't let himself think at the start of the duel. He'd drilled the Disarming Charm enough that it came naturally to his body and mind, even under the strange pressure of the stage.

The Slytherin girl side-stepped, clearly expecting to easily avoid his Disarming Charm. But Myles had practiced with Lyla, and her incessant dancing around spells had honed not only his accuracy, but his ability to adjust his aim while casting spells. His accidentally overpowered Disarming Charm hit and her wand rocketed out of her hand, flying up to clack against the ceiling. Myles held his wand arm out and ready before slowly realizing that the wand missing from his opponents' hand and the scattered cheers from friends and Housemates meant that he'd won the duel.

Professor Longbottom summoned and handed the Slytherin girl her wand before calling up Myles's opponent for the next duel. He managed to win the next two as well, though he was certain he was going lose on his third deal when his opponent ducked his Disarming Charm and hit him with a Tripping Jinx. Myles managed to cover by rolling to his feet and disarming his opponent on the next attempt. A cheer erupted as he won the duel, not loud enough to compete with the cheers Lyla had received, but much louder than he expected.

Myles looked around while Professor Longbottom called tenth ranked students up to the platform and saw the source of the cheers. Lyla was cheering him on with the group of first-year Gryffindors that had been congratulating her on making it to the ninth. Myles, his cheeks flushing red, gave her an embarrassed smile before turning his attention to his next opponent.

There was something special about this experience, Myles thought as he bowed to the second-year Hufflepuff across from him. The noise of the crowd, the elevation of the platform, and the presence of the opponent across from him coalesced in the pounding of his heart and warm fluttering in his stomach. And as these emotions and feelings ran through him, a battle of mind, magic, and body started as he rose from his bow.

Only a few moments later, Myles thought that "a battle of kind, magic, and body" was too grandiose a description for the simple exchange of Disarming Charms that left him wandless. Myles didn't feel disappointed by his loss, it was more of a sense of... non-fulfillment. The duel, win or lose, wasn't determined by a back and forth exchange of magic, but rather by the first to land a Disarming Charm. Despite the rush of feelings on the dueling platform, he could faintly tell that something was missing from the experience.

His pounding heart and racing mind eased slightly in the wait that followed. For some reason, losing had helped calm him. In the next duel he managed to disarm his opponent, securing the tenth rank through the victory. His next opponent, however, cast a wavering Shielding Charm that resisted Myles's Disarming Charm and, likely inspired by the duels between Lyla and the ninth rank students, caught his waist with a Deadweight Charm and then finished him off with a Disarming Charm.

"Congrats, Myles!" Lyla said to him as he stepped off the stairs.

"Congrats to me?" Myles asked, smiling. "You're in the eighth! Next year they're going to be telling the same stories about you that they tell about Teddy Lupin now."

Lyla blushed slightly (Myles hadn't thought it possible) and then rushed him, grabbing his arm and pulling him off to the other platform. "Hurry!" She called. "We're going to miss it!"

"Miss wh-" Myles broke off as he saw Cecilia dueling on the platform. Her opponent was in the middle of deflecting her Disarming Charm with a weak Shielding Charm. The Gryffindor boy she was facing was clearly decent, either in the tenth of ninth rank. But for a moment, just a moment, it looked like Cecilia had an opening. Her Disarming Charm had been repelled by the shield, but she dodged the Deadweight Charm that he'd returned with and the tenth rank student wouldn't be able to shield again before Cecilia's counter hit. The call of "Expelliarmus" filled the air, the Gryffindor boy's eyes raised with surprise, and... nothing happened.

Cecilia had missed. Her Gryffindor opponent didn't miss chance to respond, firing a quick Tripping Jinx and following it up by disarming her a moment later.

"You had him!" Lyla exclaimed when Cecilia walked off the stage.

"I missed," Cecilia shrugged in resignation.

"Looks like we're both in the tenth," Myles said, smiling. "It's not the eighth -" He gave a pointed look at Lyla "- but it's still pretty good for us mere mortals."

Cecilia laughed and Lyla protested, only for Cecilia to further tease Lyla's unexpected weak point.

"Where's Elias?" Myles asked after Cecilia had managed to make Lyla's cheeks flush red, he would have expected Elias to be with Lyla. "And Alissa too?"

"I don't know," Lyla replied, standing on the tips of her toes and looking around the crowds of students ineffectually. "I haven't seen either of them since before I dueled."

The three of them hung around the Dueling room, watching the next few ranks of students duel before heading to dinner.

The Dueling Meeting continued the next day for the top four ranks of students.

The format was different today. The number of students in the top four ranks was always one hundred, and each rank was split into twenty-five students. One advanced from the fifth to the fourth by challenging a student from the fourth rank, and students advanced within the top four ranks by challenging a student ranked within ten ranks of themselves.

The second phase of the Dueling Meeting was attended by nearly every student in the Dueling Club and a great many who weren't. It was held in the Quidditch stadium to fit all the students. Three dueling platforms were arrayed across the field, with wards put up around them and ground level seating so that students could watch from a much closer distance than the Quidditch stands.

Many students came to cheer on their friends, or to learn by watching better duelists, but just as many came for the same reasons they went to Quidditch games. It didn't hurt that the most popular students in the school, such as Hufflepuff's Teddy Lupin, Ravenclaw's Victoire Weasley, Slytherin's Mervyn Court, and Gryffindor's Nicolas Hawking. That these four students were involved in a competition guaranteed that the seats would filled.

The duels of today were of a different level than last night's. Myles watched them intently, at awe at the magic displayed. Every student cast perfect Shielding Charms and countered them with Drill Hexes. Spells that Myles had never seen before: Charms, Hexes, Conjuration, and Transfiguration, were commonplace. There wasn't a single student in the top fifty who didn't cast nonverbally as a matter of routine.

It wasn't until Myles watched Teddy Lupin duel Mervyn Court for the overall number one rank that he realized this was what he had been missing last night. Here on these platforms, duels were decided by cunning and strategy, magic and ingenuity, agility and light feet. Myles imagined that same experience as last night: the pounding of his heart, the bubbly feeling that started in his stomach and spread throughout his body, and thought of how it must feel for Teddy Lupin on the stage, engaged in a true battle of kind, magic, and body in front of the whole school.