Expelliarmus!
Throughout the following day, Harry did his best to avoid Vincent's father, who had stormed into the school like a tornado and was leading Auror Yaxley around the school on a hunt for the culprit behind his son's petrification. Other students told him that the two men were looking for him at some point during the day, but since he never got a summon from any of his teachers or the headmaster, he assumed it was just Vincent's dad trying to blame him again, unjustly, this time.
Tuesday evening, Harry Lyra, Greg, and their Slytherin friends met every evening in the dueling room, along with Gemma to practice the spells they knew in anticipation of Lockhart's dueling club that weekend. Lyra was a bit annoyed that she still wasn't being allowed to use fire spells on anyone except for Gemma or Harry. She understood that it was a bit too powerful for them, but it didn't make it any less annoying that she couldn't use what she was best at.
Instead, she focused on trying to master the tickling spell. They had learned the pinching jinx with Cedric after practicing with the golem, and the tickling spell felt like casting a cluster of tiny versions of that spell. The spell itself didn't have a color to the magic, so it could only be seen when impacting a shield, and Harry's didn't count because that just caused spells to disperse, not collide.
Other than Gemma, none of them were able to cast a normal shield as it wasn't taught as part of the curriculum until the third year. When she demonstrated it for their tickling charms, they could see numerous impacts on the shield. What was interesting was that they each cast a different number of branches to the spell. Tracey had the most, with nine tiny impacts; while Blaise had seven, Daphne and Lyra had five, Greg managed four, and Harry had the least with three. Gemma was unable to tell if any of them were more powerful than the others as none of them were able to break her shield.
The older girl suggested that all of them hold back a bit while they were fighting in the club. They weren't in a tournament and were there just to learn new techniques. The more that they revealed in front of the whole school, the less they could use as a surprise in case they ever needed it.
Tracey thought up a good way to still allow Harry to use his punches of magic. Her idea was to create a fake incantation for him to use in place of the nothing he was currently using. Along with Blaise, who had studied Latin, in which most incantations from their region were based, they decided on the word "Telum," meaning javelin or dart. Gemma was relatively sure that she hadn't heard of another spell with that word incorporated into it.
For Lyra, if she needed to use her obscuring spell, Blaise helped her name it "Dubtia," for doubt or hesitation. Similarly, if Greg needed to take a hit, they created a funny rhyme for him of "Fortus-corpus," translated from strong-body. The three Slytherins seemed to be a bit envious of the Scamanders' innate abilities and made a vow that they'd figure out something unique for themselves before the start of the next school year.
Quidditch practice got their blood flowing for Wednesday evening. They played with real bludgers, knocking them around at dangerous speeds. Harry still found that the beater's stick he had received from Gwenog Jones to be a bit weak and reminded himself to write to her to see if he should be playing with the one she had signed for him. The practice was quite fun, playing and bonding with his other housemates.
They all had studied and lived together for quite some time, but it wasn't until the exercise with the golem did they really start to bond. Now, with Quidditch, they were able to unite with a common goal. Cedric explained to them while they were going over strategies, that if it wasn't quidditch, it would be something else that the teachers would use to unite the houses. Quidditch created rivalries between the houses, but made them stronger and more united at the same time.
When practice was over, Harry vanished to continue his preparations for Lyra's birthday. Everyone had been invited, and most of the food had been prepared, though there were still tiny details that he wanted to make sure would be perfect.
Thursday morning, Harry made sure to prepare a large fruit salad for Lyra to celebrate her birthday, it was mostly mangoes, but with strawberries, bananas, and oranges thrown in mainly just to accent it with color more than additional flavors. Throughout the day, she got well-wishes from all her friends from the various houses as well as additional mangos from Harry during class times.
Harry could see that the attention and the day itself were making his sister happy, though she was also a bit cautious because it was her first birthday and she didn't know what to expect from it. The only other party she had been to was Harry's, over the summer, and that was a complete surprise. This time, she had an advanced warning and had written to her uncle about the present she wanted. Harry hadn't been able to get her a specific present, though he did have two surprises for her… technically three.
After dinner, the two children made their usual trek up to the second floor to practice their knife stances and movements. They both had reached a point where they had three of the weights they had been given on their false blades and it was difficult to advance to a fourth while holding each of the positions without moving. Without additional instruction, they took turns hammering away on the other's knife while in each position to make sure they were able to hold them under stress. Harry made a mental note to see if they could continue their lessons soon. While their minds and bodies were getting stronger from the repeated basics for knives and occlumency, they were stagnating in techniques.
Lyra opened the door to their training room and was greeted by a few dozen voices all yelling -
"SURPRISE!"
Harry just smiled at Lyra's shock in seeing all of their housemates, the other students in their year (with the exception of four Slytherins), her friends from Gryffindor, her project group from Ravenclaw, Hannah, Theo, the Weasley Twins, Blaise, Tracey, and Daphne with Whispers hanging off of her. As she looked back at him with a big smile on her face, Harry revealed his second surprise and pulled out a handful of the Sarimanok feathers they had received in Manilla, charged them with his magic, and tossed them in the air.
When they reached the peak of his throw, they exploded in a spray of color that covered the entire room covering everyone there in various colors.
"The colors only last half an hour!" he informed everyone who was looking at their multi-colored faces and clothes.
"You figured out the feathers?" Lyra asked as she jumped up to hug Harry.
"You need to dump magic in while thinking happy thoughts," he told her while returning the hug.
Lyra went off to greet everyone who had come for the party. Harry went and did his rounds as well, thanking Theo for getting elves to provide refreshments and the Twins for getting party favors. They had refused to take money from him, so he would just sneak into their dorm later and leave them some with a note.
The party went on for hours, with everyone getting along. Some presents were given to Lyra, but because they had all been trapped in a school for the past two weeks and were only invited by Harry in the last couple of days, no one had time to go get her something. Lyra didn't seem to care or notice.
The twins had brought poppers that when pulled released a spray of confetti and some kind of toy that was much too large to fit inside without magic involved. Every few minutes, someone would pull one and receive a hat or some type of gloves that looked like an animal hand, masks, or stuffed animals. Harry and Lyra also took turns making some of their feathers from the rainbow chickens explode and keeping most of the attendees doused in various colored powder. The energy and emotions in the room were perfect to charge the feathers with magic.
Later in the party, Lyra noticed Harry had disappeared. However, as she searched for him, the lights all went out but no one except her seemed at all concerned. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, the door opened and Harry started to pull a wheeled table into the room which had a giant cake on top of it.
The other children in the room began to sing 'Happy Birthday' to her. As they sang, she admired the cake, which was four tiers high with green and orange frosting, plus a fiery 12 on top that seemed to be burning in mid-air, with no candles supporting it. When everyone finished singing, she just stared at it, not knowing what to do next.
"Blow out the candles!" Lavender instructed her.
"There are no candles," Parvati corrected her. "You need to use your wand."
"And make a wish!" someone in the back told her.
Lyra pulled out her wand and focused. The light extinguishing spell should work, and she had been trying to minimize the wand movement before but hadn't tried it non-verbally. It was the second spell she had learned, so it might work without the incantation as long as her intent was clear. There was a sharp intake of breath from the other children as she focused on her wish and raised the holly wand and performed the wand movement precisely while calling out in her head, "NOX!"
The effect was instant and a puff of smoke was all that remained of the burning '12' in the air above the cake. Two seconds later, the lights came on, and everyone applauded as a trio of house elves popped in to start cutting the cake for everyone.
When Harry got his second piece, he made his way over to Lyra who was with a large assortment of girls from all of the houses. He had no idea what they had been chatting about before, but when he arrived, Lavender asked, "So? What did you wish for?"
"No! You can't tell anyone!" Daphne jumped in. It had been interesting to see her the entire evening without her mask of indifference on. She just seemed like a regular girl. "If you tell anyone, it won't come true."
"Bollocks," Ginny jumped into the conversation. "If you tell people, they'll help you make it come true."
Lyra looked around as the group of girls argued on the subject. Harry just shrugged and passed the remainder of his cake to Whispers who had been mooching off of anyone he could for more of the sweet dessert.
"I'll tell Whispers," Lyra announced. "If he wants to tell anyone else, we know he can."
Hearing his name the demiguise bounded over to the blonde girl and Lyra put up a small silencing field, then spoke quietly into his ear. They exchanged a few words, then canceled the charm.
Everyone looked expectantly at Whispers, who simply said, "I heylp."
Some of the girls tried to get him to say more, but after he got annoyed from the pestering and vanished, they went back to enjoying the party.
A few hours later, there was a loud knocking at the door and Professor Babbling, Kettleburn, Vector, and Sinistra stood there with silence washing over the assembled students.
"We've granted a special accommodation to everyone here for the party tonight," Professor Kettleburn told them. "It is now an hour after curfew, so everyone who is not in Scamander needs to leave now. You will be escorted back by the professor from your house."
Nearly everyone looked confused, except for the Ravenclaws who immediately went toward Professor Vector.
Kettleburn pointed to himself, "Gryffindor." Then to Babbling and Sinistra, "Hufflepuff, Slytherin."
The students said their goodbyes and pooled out of the room with Tina showing up once they were gone to take the Scamanders down to their room.
On the way back, Lyra asked Harry, "Where did you get the cake?"
Other students were listening in and he had made a promise not to reveal his accomplice with threats of endless detentions if he did. So he just said, "A lot of it was me, but I got some help from the person that did my cake." As Lyra's eyes widened in understanding, he added, "Thank him in private."
Saturday came quickly enough with the whole school interested in Lockhart's Dueling Club. There were many detentions assigned around the school for students practicing in the corridors in preparation though Dumbledore purposely set down a rule that everyone would be able to attend the club meeting and detentions wouldn't prevent attendance. That just meant that there would be an extra-large population of potion brewers in Snape's detention on Sunday.
In the morning, Harry and Lyra met with their project groups. Harry still had no idea what avenue the Ravenclaws were using for the potion but Harry, Lee, and the Twins were looking through the ritual book he had received from Brandt to find a circle that would properly channel the screams of a mandrake into the potion.
While working on the cake with Professor Snape, Harry also worked on a vegetable stew for himself. While he could figure out the right temperature he needed for it by the size of the flame, he had the teacher cast the right diagnostic charms to give him the temperature he was working at. Harry had purposely set the flame too high to get Snape to correct him. It had been obvious after the first few lessons with him for potions that the best way to get the potions master to provide proper instructions was to do something wrong.
Through that method, he learned that depending on how long the stew would be cooking for, he would want it between 250-325 degrees, with longer stews being cooked at lower temperatures. Wanting to extract all of the magic from the ingredients in their mandrake stew, they decided on 250 degrees and a long time of cooking.
While Harry was doing most of the ideas and Lee was gathering books and materials, Fred and George were working on the actual process. They had decided that the best way to use the 'death' of the mandrake was to boil it alive. They would need to stew it during the ritual, slow cooking it in a dirt mixture that would keep it screaming, but still with enough nutrients in the soil that it could survive with slightly less water. For added effect, they wanted to add as many ingredients as they could which were common in all snake antivenom potions. They were all able to perform the sound detection spell that Sprout had taught their class to monitor when it stopped screaming while under the surface of the stew.
Right before lunch, Lee assigned them all tasks of books to retrieve to help with the construction of the ritual circle, and then they left to eat and prepare for the club. Students poured into The Great Hall to find it completely cleared out except for several long platforms that stretched across the room, raised about three feet above the ground, with stairs at either end. On the stage sat Flitwick, Snape, and Lockhart.
Flitwick was just smiling and fiddling with his wand, while Snape looked unhappy, and Lockhart was beaming at the stream of students coming in without end. Flitwick and Snape were both wearing the uniform black robes that all the teachers wore, but Lockhart was wearing a tailored uniform in dark gray with gold buttons and trim. The robe on the front opened to reveal golden fabric lining the inside of the outfit.
Once it seemed like no more students were coming in, Lockhart stood up and lept from the stage, landing perfectly poised on the floor below. He stepped up on the first platform perpendicular to the stage and pointed his wand to his throat.
"Welcome students!" his voice roared with magical amplification. "We are living in dangerous times at Hogwarts, and as such, I asked our headmaster to allow this club to be formed to help give you all a bit of instruction on how to properly defend yourselves, should you ever require it."
He paced down to the other end of the platform before continuing, "Now, most days, you might see me wearing an extravagant outfit filled with bright colors, dozens of buttons, capes, and tight fabrics; but for a duel, one needs to be able to duck, dive, and dodge to avoid spells and even punches if need be. While you probably won't have time to change your clothing in a real-life or death situation, if you ever went on the professional circuit, it's good to know."
There was a bit of impatience in the students who had come to either duel with their classmates or witness the event. Picking up on the anxiety, Lockhart gestured back to the stage, "To whet your appetites for the future of the club, I have asked the International Dueling Champion, Professor Filius Flitwick, to be the referee in a quick match between myself and my assistant Professor Snape." Snape growled as the whole student body perked up in anticipation. The dark professor walked down the steps of the stage and joined Lockhart on the platform.
Flitwick stood up and addressed the students as Snape made his journey, "The dueling platforms you see here are an S1 Platform, designed for the exchange of spells with minimal dodging from the participants. Five points are assigned to the winner of each duel with an extra three points given if you do not move your feet from the starting circle at your end. Each spell that successfully lands grants one point to the caster and deducts one point from the recipient. You cannot earn or lose more than ten net points in this way. The maximum amount a participant can earn in each duel is 18 points and -10 points for a loser."
Seeing that Snape and Lockhart were standing at their ends of the platform, he instructed them, "Bow to your opponents." Snape gave a curt nod while Lockhart gave a majestic bow. "At the ready!" Flitwick called out, to which they assumed much different postures.
Snape turned sideways with his wand above his head like a scorpion tail, his other arm at this side. Lockhart, on the other hand, stood diagonally, with his body almost pointing out towards the students. He had both hands extended forward, towards Snape, with his wand hand about six inches above his other extended arm.
There was silence for a few seconds before Flitwick called out, "DUEL!"
Immediately, Snape swished his wand down and yelled out, "EX-PELLIARMUS!" He put a heavy emphasis on the P in the incantation and a bright red pulse of magic rushed the defense professor.
Not moving at all, as the magic descended on him, he called out a spell of his own, "Rubio!"
It wasn't clear what Lockhart had cast as the red magic from Snape washed over him at nearly the exact moment he cast his spell. Nothing seemed to happen to either of the teachers but Flitwick called out, "One point to Professor Lockhart!"
Snape was confused, then looked down to see red paint splattered on his uniform. Lockhart's smile sparkled for a moment before Snape fired another spell, without an incantation or wand movement, made of swirling orange and black magic which knocked the defense professor into the air and would have crashed through the window behind him if the wards didn't catch him like a fly in a spider's web, suspending him in mid-air.
"One point and victory to Professor Snape!" Flitwick called out. "Total of Eight points for the victor, Zero points for the loser." Lockhart unstuck himself from the wards and dropped to the floor as the students cheered. "Professor Lockhart, please explain what you just did for the students."
He gave a bow to Flitwick before addressing the students, "I'm sure most of you recognized Professor Snape's first spell, the Disarming Jinx. It is designed to create a pulse of magic between a person and whatever they might be holding onto. It works for anything; from a wand to a bouquet of flowers, and everything in between. If cast strongly enough it can act like a knockback jinx on your opponent and if done with enough precision it can return their wand directly to your hand."
He assumed the stance that he had been in at the start of the duel and dropped his wand from the top hand to the bottom.
"However, if there's nothing in your hand when the spell hits you…" he trailed off as he turned his hands over and dropped the wand between them again. "The spell has no effect."
There was a lot of murmuring from the students as they were in awe of such a well-timed defense. Snape's face seemed to alternate between annoyance and being impressed.
Flitwick went into more detail in an explanation, "This is a very dangerous defense, but if you have the skills can work out quite well. The type of dueling platform we are using does not allow for a lot of dodging and using a shielding spell can waste time that you could use for an offensive spell."
"Additionally," Lockhart butted in, "Many adults are unable to cast proper shield spells. Some magic is more difficult to cast than others for each person. However, everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. If you find you can't do one thing very well, find another you are good at. I can barely cast a shielding spell myself, but I am quite adept at a few other things instead."
Snape said nothing and just started to remove the paint that had stained his usually immaculate black robes.
"We have seven dueling platforms for all seven years," Flitwick told the room. "Just have fun today. Winners stay on for the next duel. If you happen to win five times in a row, move to the next platform. If you make it five rounds on the seventh-year platform, go teach shielding spells to the younger students."
There was a mad dash for the platforms as everyone wanted to be the first students up for each year. It took everyone a minute to realize that they could only get through the wards at the very end of each platform.
Colin managed to make it up first with Flora Carrow on the first-year platform. A small red light in the middle of the platform flashed three times before changing to green signaling them to start.
Colin swished his wand and yelled out "Culcitus!"
A small white pillow was conjured and banished from the end of his wand and smacked the Carrow girl in the face, knocking her back off the platform. All the first years cheered and the number 9 appeared on Colin's shoulder, while as soon as Flora got up, a -1 appeared on hers. Colin managed to last two more rounds before he was unseated by Ginny who managed to tag him with a knockback spell.
Lyra took his spot. When their duel started, she immediately flooded her end of the platform with a smoke spell. Ginny fired jinxes blindly into the smoke while a well-aimed knockback spell from Lyra hit Ginny in the arm throwing her off the side of the platform.
A lot of the other students were hesitant to challenge the Black Princess, and Harry was pushed onto the platform to fight his sister.
Before they started, Lyra called out, "Don't use your stupid shield!"
It was kind of a cheap move, but he had nothing to use to defend himself from her fire, so he yelled back, "Only for fire, ok?"
She nodded and they both assumed their stances. When the red light went off, Lyra unleashed a storm of fire down the platform which Harry shielded against. He kept the shield moving to stop the drain on his magic and eventually she stopped and obscured her position with smoke before firing knockback jinxes down the platform.
Harry abandoned his starting point to dodge better and started to fire bolts of magic toward her, careful to call out, "Telum!" every time he cast the spell. When he got tired of missing her in the smoke, he called out, "Telum maximus!" and shot off a large pulse of magic to wipe away all the smoke.
His magic cleared all the smoke, but his sister was lying flat on the ground which stopped her from being knocked away too. Harry was about to cast another knockback spell at her, but she was smiling with her wand pointed at the platform. Hesitating for a second, he looked down as his shoes caught fire and he jumped off the increasingly hot platform to put them out.
Harry ended up with two points after the spells were tallied up and he had to wait his turn again. Lyra managed to make it up to the second-year group in the meantime. A seventh-year who had managed to win five in a row joined the first and second years to instruct them on the shield spell.
They all gathered around as he started speaking, "This spell is more about timing and intent than anything else. The intent is to shield yourself, of course, but depending on how much you want to avoid being hurt compared to the attacker's desire to hurt you is what makes the real difference. Someone intent on causing you harm will likely have a stronger spell than yours. It is also theorized that this is one of the reasons why the killing curse is unblockable with magic, but that's a conversation for another time." He shushed all the students talking as whispers of the killing curse started and people were looking toward Harry. "The incantation is 'protego,' Pro-TAY-go. The wand movement is just a straight line and doesn't matter what direction you use. The 'pro' should be said before you start the movement, while the 'TAY' will be right at the beginning of the line and the 'go' at the very end."
He lifted his wand and spoke the incantation while slashing his wand downward. A translucent golden disk appeared in front of him. He canceled the shield and repeated the spell from different angles and made the shield different sizes each time.
"The line of your wand movement shouldn't go all the way across your body. Ideally, it should stop at the exact point where you intend on intercepting a spell or at the center of your body if you are putting the shield to defend yourself before someone casts against you. The spell will drain your magic the longer you keep it active and will typically absorb only one spell before it breaks. Spread out and start practicing, and I will come around to correct you on your technique."
Everyone spread out and started to cast spells, shouting out different pronunciations of the incantation. Harry was pretty sure he heard someone yell out, "Po-TAY-to!" among the others. When he had gotten a small shimmer of gold in the air, someone poked him in the back and told him it was his turn on the dueling platform.
This time, without his sister to oppose him, he managed to get five wins very quickly and move up to the second-year group. He continued to practice the shield spell until it was his turn and found himself squaring off against Blaise. Both boys gave each other sinister grins as they squared off against each other. When the green light went off, neither of them made a move to cast a spell.
They both just stared at each other for nearly ten seconds as other students started yelling at them to fight. Finally, Blaise whipped his wand around and called out, "Serpensortia!"
A white snake that looked like an ashwinder, nearly two feet long, exited his wand and flopped down halfway across the platform. Harry just smiled and said, "He looks lonely, maybe he wants someone to play with, Serpensortia!"
A three-foot cobra jumped out of Harry's wand and landed near the white snake. It reared up and spread its hood before they both lunged at each other and started to fight. Most of the crowd watching moved towards the middle of the platform to watch the two snakes fight while Harry leaned out of the way to avoid a stinging jinx aimed at his head.
The two boys started firing a combination of stinging, knockback, and other small spells at each other. Harry was pretty sure he had intercepted one of them with a shield but couldn't be quite sure under the torrent of spells. Eventually, Harry got tired and yelled out "Telum maximus!" before casting a large pulse to knock Blaise off the platform.
He tried to mimic Lyra by diving flat onto the platform but was too slow, and the pulse knocked him high enough to be tagged by a knockback spell in the air from Harry that he followed up with and he flew off the platform into the wards. Harry rushed over to check on him as the others applauded. Blaise was fine, but he did get someone to cast some minor healing charms on him as he waited for his next turn.
On Harry's third fight on the second-year platform, he got to square off with Ron Wesley. While chess might have been his strong suit, he didn't seem that adept with something that didn't have turn-based combat. He was able to dodge Harry's first few spells but didn't have an adequate response before Harry hit him with a tickling charm and a knockback.
There was a bit of a debate about who would fight him next, and with a bit of hesitation, Hermione stepped up. She fidgeted a bit, and asked, "Go easy on me?" Harry nodded and smiled.
The light turned green and they stared at each other without casting. Hermione looked down towards… Blaise?... who just gave her a smile and a nod.
Looking back towards Harry, she called out, "Serpensortia!" and a bright blue snake, less than a foot long, shot out onto the dueling platform. Harry listened to the voice of the snake for a few seconds and it sounded like a child wondering why it existed.
Harry smiled at the little snake and conjured his three-foot-long cobra which stared down at the little blue snake, like a joke. However, just a moment longer, Hermione called out, "Engorgio!"
Her second spell hit the snake and it swelled in size until it was nearly twice as big as Harry's snake. He stared in shock as the giant snake went to strike Harry's but missed completely. One thing that was important in conjuring was the knowledge of how a snake moved and acted as you were making your knowledge of the animal part of the spell. Harry was much better versed in that as he had grown up with the Usurper and Flare. Harry just let the two snakes fight and didn't cast more spells until both snakes had bit into each other while tangled up in a knot. Then the fight started again between him and Hermione.
Her shields were very strong and he kept her on the defensive for most of their fight. From the seventh-year student's explanation of intent going into the shield spell, he assumed that being a victim of Vincent's attack made her intent on defending herself against others stronger than normal. She managed to hit him with a shrinking charm on his robes that caught him off guard and knocked him over before hitting her in the feet with a knockback charm and launching her off the platform. As soon as she was off, he ripped off his robes to keep them from choking him and the duel was called.
Luckily he was wearing a t-shirt and trousers underneath his robes, so he wasn't without clothes, though that uniform was ruined. After checking to make sure Hermione was ok, he returned to his position to wait for his next challenger. He didn't have to wait long, as Draco stepped onto the platform in front of him. The boy didn't walk to his starting point and instead stood off the starting mark and tried staring him down.
It seemed a bit strange how so many people tried using this kind of thing as an intimidation tactic. Harry yawned and stretched his arms a bit, then said, "Are you sure you want to do this again? In front of witnesses as well?"
Draco smiled, though it wasn't quite a sneer, just a smirk, "Truthfully, I was hoping you'd lose to the mudblood." He flinched slightly from the cursed agreement he had signed as there were gasps from students watching the duel. "I know at least one of you had something to do with Vincent's situation."
Harry stuffed down his surprise at Draco's comment and kept on his face the feeling of relaxation in the hot springs, "Yeah, because if the aurors couldn't prove it, then a spoiled little boy must be able to figure out the 'truth.' We both know that Vincent must have gotten a memory wipe to get through his testimony."
"We'll never know now, since you've somehow petrified my friend. When I'm able to prove it, Vincent's father will take pleasure in seeing you sent to Azkaban."
Harry noticed the boy was getting a bit frustrated that Harry wasn't rising to his bait, so he just gave Draco the same smirk that he had been getting, and said, "You know, I think I need a break. I forfeit this match."
"No!" Draco yelled. "Get back up here! You coward!"
However, it was too late, as Harry hopped off the platform and Draco was awarded five points. He would have gotten an additional three for not leaving his spot, but he had never entered the starting point. He continued to call after Harry as a large group of other students gathered around him.
One of the Weasley Twins pushed many of them out of the way, "Awww, why'd you have to do that? We had already started collecting bets for the duel." Jake gestured over to his fellow twin Elwood who was passing money back to students who had placed bets on the match.
"I'll do it," Lyra stepped past Harry and up onto the platform to face off against Draco.
There was a brief hush as Lyra reached into one of her pockets and pulled out her wand, which had black smoke trailing out of it and pooling on the floor at her feet. There was a scramble of students back towards the twin that had been collecting bets, but he was watching the display before he scribbled on a small chalkboard and held up odds that heavily favored Lyra.
Draco wasn't sure what to do as he had wanted to fight against Harry but found himself face to face with his estranged sister, who looked like she really wanted to fight him. Harry knew she must be clutching some of the sigbin leather in her hand with her wand, though didn't know if it was just a cosmetic effect or if she had learned to use it for some other purpose. Whatever the case, it was delivering a chilling effect, and students from the upper years had left their duels to come and watch. Draco made up his mind and moved to his starting position.
The red lights flashed thrice then lit up green. Lyra immediately tapped herself and incanted, "Dubtia!" causing her form to start to blur.
Draco hesitated for a moment, then cast, "Expelliarmus!" though the spell sailed past Lyra, off-target.
Lyra smiled and lobbed a fireball from her wand, missing Draco and landing to the side, but it continued to burn in that spot. Draco started casting more spells, but they all missed or were easily dodged, as her form was blurry and hard to target accurately. Lyra managed to get off a few more fireballs before Draco started to realize that he was getting surrounded by burning flames and started trying to put them out.
Lyra took advantage of his lack of attention by casting a flurry of stinging and tickling jinxes toward the boy, peppering him with small stings and jabs. The tickling charm only tickled if you were aiming for spots that were sensitive to that, if not, it just felt like nails on your skin, and Lyra was aiming for his face and chest.
There were too many fires for Draco to jump off his end, so he just called out, "Help!"
Snape came running over, but before he could get there, Draco regained his footing and seemed to channel the surrounding fire to his wand, casting a large fireball straight at Lyra. Distracted by his call for help, the ball of fire splashed over her, engulfing her in flame as many students cried out at the sight. Harry tried to break into the wards, but they held him back. However, after a second, the fire broke to reveal Lyra still standing with nothing but her hair on fire.
She looked over herself casually, as if she was only slightly surprised that she hadn't been burnt to a crisp. Satisfied that she was fine, she reached down and picked up a handful of shadows that had been pooling at her feet. Holding her wand inside the inky blackness, she pointed it towards Draco and incanted, "Incendio Orbis!"
Harry just smiled and waved goodbye towards Draco's position as an enormous ball of fire, twice as large as the one that he had just used, now tinged with inky blackness shot towards the boy. After the momentary shock wore off, and since the fire on his end of the platform was gone, Draco took a diving leap off the platform, crashing into the ground and crying out in pain from the impact. Half a second later, the fireball exploded against the wards, with the black smoke swirling out into little twists before dissipating.
Snape broke through the wards and picked up Draco who looked like he had a broken arm from his fall. Lyra jumped off the platform, causing everyone near her to scatter.
An older student pulled out his wand and yelled, "Your hair is on fire!"
"Oh, sorry," Lyra remarked. She focused for a second and the fire went out, with just a bit of smoke remaining.
Harry gave her a big hug, saying, "That was awesome! What happened with Draco's fireball?"
"It didn't feel dangerous, so I didn't dodge." Lyra thought for a moment, then told him and the dozens listening in, "I think it didn't do anything because it was my fire he threw at me."
"What about the black smoke?" Dean Thomas asked from the side.
Lyra didn't look like she wanted to answer it, so Harry did for her, "She won't even tell me. All I know is it is some kind of family secret."
That seemed to answer the question as someone whispered, "Black magic for the Black family."
All the other duels had stopped and Professor Lockhart called out, "I think that's enough excitement for today! All of your rankings are being posted in your common rooms as we speak. We will meet again next Saturday and learn more techniques before holding another tournament. Remember, no duels outside of the club!"
Back in the common room, the scores were posted for each year:
Standings for first-year students, a * indicates the student advanced to the next year
1. Lyra Black (Sc) 74 points*
2. Harry Potter (Sc) 71 points*
3. Ginevra Weasley (Gr) 52 points*
4. Lloyd Hickories (Ra) 49 points*
5. Colin Creevey (Sc) 34 points
And the list went on for the rest of all the first-year students.
"How did I do better than you?" a very surprised Lyra asked her brother.
"It was the last duel against Draco, you hit him with so many little spells and he couldn't touch you," Harry explained.
Any further communication between the two of them was stalled as most of their housemates nearly carried off Lyra to interrogate her about the duel with Draco. Left alone, Harry just took Whispers for a bath before heading to dinner. Arriving at the Great Hall with a fluffy demiguise was no longer something that drew interest as so many students were now clustered around his sister, asking about her duel and the shadow magic she employed.
Seeing Blaise and Tracey sitting together at their table, Harry joined them. He walked by a sneering Draco, who had gotten his arm fixed up in the last hour, but refused to look at him. Whispers jumped onto the bench next to Tracey who started scratching his fluffy head as he reached for food.
"Impressive display there," Blaise smiled. "Not just your sister beating the pants off Draco, but your forfeit was also noteworthy."
"Honestly, I just didn't want to move up to the third-year students," Harry shrugged. "Beating Draco would have been my fifth win again. It's nice that it also really annoyed him."
Blaise let out a barking laugh, "So you would have done it for anyone?" Harry nodded. "Well looks like it worked out even better this way."
"When did you learn the snake summoning spell?" Harry asked.
"Snape teaches it to all the second-year students," he replied. "Though they all start out small, I just managed to get one large enough and with venom so I can join the fight club the older students run. I'd say you should join, but we have it in our dueling room, inside the common room."
Harry smiled, "First I would have to find it, does it have a portrait or something I should be looking out for?" He said that a bit louder than necessary.
Tracey smiled, and said, "Yeah, it's behind the portrait of Salazar Slytherin on the fourth sublevel."
"There's a fourth sublevel?" Harry replied in faux surprise, channeling his occlumency to try to appear genuinely surprised by the idea of another lower level.
"Not that you'll ever find the secret bookcase that the stairs are behind," Blaise added in.
"Bollocks," Harry muttered, then reached for a serving fork to retrieve some meat.
By the end of dinner, Lyra was still engaged in various conversations with other students, so Harry told Whispers to go join her and started making the trip up to their training room to practice his knife forms by himself. He had his hand on the doorknob when he heard someone call out, "Stupefy!"
His vision went red, then he collapsed onto the floor.