Chapter 9 First Duel Second Year

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Albus POV

"...New junior duelling club, so anyone who is interested is welcome to join us tomorrow morning in the duelling hall on the third floor. Class dismissed." Merrythought finished her lecture.

I quickly gathered my notes and quills into my bag, following my friend out the classroom.

"Are you going to join?" Hendrick asked Elphias and I, as he slung his book bag over his shoulder.

"Of course! A teacher sanctioned chance to hex slimy Slytherins? Count me in!" Elphias happily replied.

I winced. Seraphina is a Slytherin, but she is not even half slimy! Try as I might, I could not change their minds, I know after trying to explain to them all throughout last year.

"What about you, Albus?" Hendrick asked.

"Oh, yes. Of course I will join. I can't let you have all the fun!" I teased. I am also itching to try some of the more offensive spells Seraphina and I found last year too. It was such a disappointment when we agreed to not perform any offensive spells against each other, after her knockback jinx landed me in the hospital wing with a twisted ankle. We really did not want to risk the ire of the teachers by performing potentially harmful spells…At least not until we learn some healing spells.

We walked towards the Great Hall, eager for dinner, while Hendrick and Elphias discussed the quidditch match, again.

"Welcome to the duelling club. Today, I will show you the basic forms and rules of duelling and the simple tickling charm, Rictusempra, so that we may all practice these forms." Professor Merrythought welcomed from the raised platform.

Across the room, my eyes caught sight of a shock of silky blue-black hair and a pair of fiery golden eyes. Great! Seraphina is here, that means I will finally get to try some of those spells we learnt together! I am also curious how well she will do against me. She has been much quieter than before when we returned this year. Her eyes were oddly wide and she went pale when she saw the unpulled carriages. Of all people I did not expect her to react like that to a simple carriage. Maybe this will get her talking again?

"Now, there are multiple forms acceptable for duelling, but the main idea is that you do not point your wand towards your opponent until you are en garde." Merrythought continued, slowly going through a few different opening poses.

She then went through the wand movement of the tickling charm, to the immense boredom of the entire hall. Afterall, we learnt that spell in the first week of second year. Finally she clapped her hands together.

"Now, I want each of you to find a person in your own year. When you do, line up facing each other five paces away from other people along this hall. I would prefer if you kept to the tickling charm, but if you don't, try not to use too dangerous spells. I don't think I need to say this, but NO UNFORGIVABLES! You may begin now!"

"I am going to get a slimy snake!" Elphias smirked, as most Gryffindors nodded in agreement.

Grinning from ear to ear, I quickly approached Seraphina from behind.

"May I have the honour of partnering up with you?" I asked, in exaggerated politeness.

"You may." She replied, sticking her nose up in the air. We held our poses for two seconds before bending over, bursting out in laughter.

Behind me, Elphias yelled, "You're on, slimy snake!"

"Well, let's see how well you can humiliate yourself, shall we?" Arcturus drawled.

I winced, while Seraphina slowly closed her eyes, as if in pain. We left the two to their impending violent clash, and found an empty spot, near the centre of the hall. Turning so that we are facing each other, we raised our wands in front of our faces. I bowed, while Seraphina curtseyed. Turning once more so that we are back to back against each other, I took ten paces forward, before turning around to face Seraphina, adopting the defensive opening position, my wand raised in front of my face, while my other arm was bent against my chest. Seraphina adopted the Serpentine position, her wand pointed at me while her other arm hung at the ready, palm pointing towards me, forearm parallel to the ground.

"Ready?" I asked.

"Certainly." She smirked.

"Rictumsempra!" I yelled, the purple light streaking towards her.

She casually sidestepped my spell, "Flipendo!"

I dodged, the spell grazing my hair. ""Furnunculus!" I cast the first dark spell.

Seraphina tilted her head, the spell barely missing her cheek, she smirked. Then she changed her stance to a more serious one, bringing her other hand up to her chest, pointing at me while adjusting her feet. Then she sprung.

"Densaugeo! Deprimo! Expulso!" She cast in succession.

I dived to the side, barely in time to get out of the range of the Deprimo pressure wave. I smiled. If you want to play, let's play!

"Impedimenta! Avis!"

She casually dodged my first spell.

"Aguamenti! Fiat voluntas mea! Petrificus totalus!" She called out, her water forming a shield, enveloping all my conjured birds which she then threw towards me. I dodged. She was definitely not using normal Aguamenti. Almost running directly into her second spell, I jumped to the opposite direction.

"Obscuro!" I cast, while falling out of the way.

"Relashio!"

…And directly into her last spell. My wand was yanked out of my hand by an invisible force into the air.

"Wingardium leviosa!" Then slowly floated into her hand.

A slow clap echoed throughout the hall. Which was now dead silent. We turned to face Merrythought, the only person who was clapping. I looked around. Sometime during our duel, everyone had stopped to watch. The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were trying and failing to pick their jaws off the ground. While the Slytherins and Ravenclaws observed us with keen interest.

"...wonderful duel!" Merrythought said, just as I refocused on her.

"Thank you, professor." Seraphina smiled. "But it was nothing, we just wanted to try out some spells that we chanced upon in the library."

Merrythought beamed. "Nonsense my dear! You two are very talented and powerful! You should be proud of what an amazing duel you put on today!"

A small smirk crept up Seraphina's face before vanishing. She tilted her head, instantly, a look of abashedness replaced it. I almost did a double take. If I had not been friends with Seraphina for the past year, I would have sworn that her expression was genuine.

Smiling at the two of us benevolently, Merrythought walked back onto the stage.

"Now, after the illustrious duel between Mister Dumbledore and Miss Astrum, let's try to refocus, and I'll show you a few simpler spells…"

Arcturus POV

"Tarantallegra!" I commanded, my spell hitting the idiot Elphias Doge's green pockmarked face.

Suddenly, a large black shape flung in front of me, almost crash landing on top of me. It was one of the Gryffindors who were friends with Doge. Hendrick Prewett, the person who was duelling Athena, I think.

What the bloody hell!?

I spun around, trying to see how on Earth had Athena flung Hendrick all the way in front of me, only to be met with her baffled expression. So it wasn't her. I looked around, trying to find who might have hit him with the spell.

"Furnuculus!"

My head snapped to the direction of the caster of that spell. I heard Sirius cast it once on Boris Burke during an argument they had once, and he told me it was a dark hex, one that should not be cast by first, second or third years. My eyes locked onto a head of Auburn hair as the spell left his wand and rushed towards…Seraphina.

Instead of the painful cry or frantic dodging that I expected, Seraphina only tilted her head, the spell barely missing her cheek. Then she smirked. Instantly, her entire bearing changed and she lunged.

"Densaugeo! Deprimo! Expulso!"

My jaw hit the ground. Did she just do a spell chain? With dark spells no less? My eyes widened even more as I watched her opponent, Albus Dumbledore dive to the side, before smiling.

At that moment, I am certain that the two of them have lost their minds. The rest of the hall had paused to watch their duel with interest. It is rare that we get to see an interesting duel, even rarer when the duel in question is between two second years using dark curses.

"Impedimenta! Avis!"

Seraphina gracefully sidestepped the first spell, as the flock of conjured birds began rushing towards her. She raised both her hands.

"Aguamenti! Fiat voluntas mea!" The stream of water formed a giant sphere, which slowly flattened to form a concave. She moved her hands together, her brows furrowed in concentration. The wall of water enveloped the birds, rounding them all up. She smiled, then pushed her hands towards Dumbledore. Following her command, the sphere of water blasted like a giant cannonball, heading straight for Dumbledore.

"Petrificus totalus!" She cast, cutting off the option of diving to the left for Dumbledore to avoid the water.

Just as expected, Dumbledore dived to the right.

"Obscuro!" He cast while falling.

"Relashio!" Seraphina retaliated as the conjured blindfold wrapped itself tightly against Seraphina's arm, tying it to her body.

Dumbledore's wand went flying. Quickly wriggling her arm free from the piece of cloth, Seraphina pointed her wand towards Dumbledore's wand in the air.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" She cast, guiding it to float into her open palm.

Merrythought dramatically slowly clapped at the conclusion of the duel. My mind was whirling. I have never seen anyone around my age duel like that. I knew she was ridiculously powerful already, seeing her perform wandless spells almost everyday. But conjuration? Don't we learn that in fifth year? Deprimo? Isn't that a spell for diving? I have never even heard of Densaugeo!

"How did they do that?" Hesper whispered to Lestia, their faces mirroring the stunned expression of my own.

"She's Seraphina." Athena replied, her face was a mask of neutrality, but her eyes were of respect and awe.

Junior Duelling Club continued without anything of much interest. As soon as it finished, I joined up with Hesper, Alvis, Lestia, Athena and Seraphina.

"That was astounding! Where did you learn to duel like that, Seraphina?" Lestia gushed.

"Just from reading." Seraphina replied with a casual shrug.

Reading? My eyebrow rose up. I thought those spells were not printed in normal books? Unless she was reading dark books, but aren't those books banned? I thought they were only found in private family libraries, like the Blacks'. Alvis's expression mirrored my own, we exchanged glances.

"We are in Hogwarts, the place with the world's largest collection of books." Seraphina casually replied.

I raised an eyebrow.

"I can see your faces, you know." She deadpanned.

I gallantly looked away as we walked towards the common room.

When we arrived, the room became silent. For the second time during my Hogwarts years. I mentally groaned, of course the rumours travel faster than us. The last time this happened, Seraphina gave a speech that changed the entire dynamic of how Slytherins were expected to behave! The snide comments she gave whenever the rumour of someone bragging about bullying about Hogwarts falling so low as to let muggles into Slytherin was more than enough to keep everyone in line. It was pretty amazing. Seraphina ignored the calculative glances sent her way and walked straight towards her dorm, closely followed by Athena.

As soon as she left the room, Sirius beckoned for me to come over. I saw Alvis get called over by Barnabus Lestrange, while Hesper and Lestia were called over by some of the gossip queens.

"Tell us, is she really that powerful?" Sirius asked, while casually twirling his wand in his hand. Septimus Malfoy sat opposite him, his pose one of casual boredom while his eyes sparkled with interest.

"She is…And more." I replied. "While this was the first time I have seen her in a duel, I have seen her casually solve magic and poke holes in long established ideals that have never been questioned. I have seen her cast spells like they were an extension of her will, not like…magic. She is powerful, unlike anyone I have ever seen before." She is also invested in spell development, even though I have no idea how she even understands the books on it. They look like arcane runes to me…On second thought, they might very well be.

"And she can only grow stronger…" Sirius murmured.

"Very well, Arcturus. Continue to observe her, and report back to us, this may affect our family. If need be, we will remove this threat…"

"You do not want her as your enemy." I interrupted. "Go against her and there is a chance that I will lose a brother." As much as I look up to Sirius, I would be lying if I didn't think that Seraphina wouldn't hesitate to take him down and would succeed.

I turned and left for my dorm. Leaving the two pureblood heirs deep in thought.