Chapter Forty-Six: Dueling and Dinner

Just like the year before, Daphne had a lot of fun spending time with Harry. Even when he was being drilled by Mum — who was tougher on him than ever now that he had a Firebolt — and she was just watching, she felt at ease.

The visions she'd seen in the crystal ball in Trelawney's Divination class seemed far from her mind now, and leaning back in a comfortable chair while idly petting Nyx and sipping a drink, watching Harry being put through his paces, felt like the best thing in the world.

She was still excited for the World Cup, of course, but now that Harry was here it seemed to have taken a backseat to just…enjoying her free time. The little voice inside her head she'd heard on Harry's birthday, telling her that she liked him as more than just a friend, was still present, but she squashed it every time it popped up.

Additionally, Dad had spotted Harry's new wand holster and offered to teach him a bit of dueling, to which Daphne had indignantly asked why he'd never offered her the same, leading to them both receiving lessons in what Dad called the noble art of dueling, but which Mum insisted on calling 'brawling with a fancy name'.

"Now, it's important to remember that I was never as good a duelist as some other people in school were," Dad said. "A proper duel is fast-paced and hectic, but neither combatant should just be shouting spells for their own sake. It's important to try and force the action into your strengths, and then using those to gain and hold the upper hand.

"If you're very good at Charms, for instance, but your opponent favors Transfiguration, then ideally you want them unable to Transfigure anything while you can work your Charms unimpeded, for instance by opening the duel with a lot of attempts at Confunding your opponent — the repeated attempts at it might slip past parries and have some effect through Shield Charms, or even extend beyond a physical — Transfigured — shield, reducing their ability to concentrate and making it that much harder for them to pull off complex Transfigurations.

"In the same vein, always question the rules of a duel offered to you. If certain spells are banned in them, you can safely assume that the person who set the rules doesn't like dealing with them, and you can plan accordingly to use spells with similar effects, or try and get spells banned that you don't like dealing with. Ideally, all spellwork in a duel is nonverbal, but since you won't be learning that until sixth year, it's fine to simply cast as you're used to."

The early lessons, much like the ill-fated dueling club at school in second year, focused on Disarming each other, and Harry soon turned out to have a good grasp on the spell.

Equally important was the ability to parry such attempts. Dad warned them that more complex jinxes and hexes would be harder to parry, and that dodging or blocking them with an object would generally be preferable, but he said that with enough skill, most things short of an Unforgivable could be parried.

"And even with those, if you know they'll come, it's possible to stop your opponent from casting them. Unforgivables are very difficult to do nonverbally, so if you respond on the first sound with something like a silent Flipendo, you might stagger them out of the spell. If someone does use an Unforgivable, though…better not risk it and get out of there as soon as you can, if at all possible."

Harry and Daphne sparred a lot, and at first, Daphne mostly struggled with the physical aspects of it. Dueling didn't look particularly intensive, but constantly moving, dodging, and casting was draining, especially since she also had to think about performing the spells correctly.

Harry, who was in much better physical shape thanks to all his Quidditch practice, was often able to simply outlast Daphne in a fight and then beat her, which spurred Daphne on to begin doing more physical exercise as well to make up for that deficit.

Occasionally, Dad sparred with them instead, and for all his reassurances that he was never that good, he handily wiped the floor with them both, even in two-on-one situations.

"Don't let it bother you too much," Dad said, when he saw Daphne's annoyed expression after one such session. "I've had years of experience with this. If you really thought you could beat me — or any competent duelist — after only a few weeks of practice, then better to be disabused of that notion by someone who has your best interest at heart than someone who would actually seek to harm you. You've improved a lot in a short amount of time. For now, you should be proud of that achievement."

Daphne wasn't entirely reassured by those words, but she supposed it made sense. Of course she wouldn't be an expert at something just because she'd done it a few times.

"It's a good thing we've never had to duel for real," Daphne said as she and Harry exited the library, where they usually practiced.

"I know…I'm glad your Dad is helping us. With…the things that might happen…I think it'll be good for me to be able to fight," Harry said.

"Do you…have you…?" Daphne asked hesitantly, flicking her eyes up at Harry's scar.

Harry shook his head. "Not since that nightmare. I don't even know if it meant anything, but Sirius was pretty concerned about it and I don't like it much, either. But I don't know what I can do about it. I mean, I don't even know where Voldemort and Wormtail are…" he said.

"Keep our eyes open and alert Dumbledore the moment we find something?" Daphne suggested.

Harry nodded slowly. "Probably. But something tells me it won't be that easy." He smiled ruefully. "Maybe your Divination thing is beginning to rub off on me."

"I wish it would just show me the answers to every exam question I'll get this year, but of course it's never that simple," Daphne said with a sigh.

She'd told her parents about her visions — leaving out the one where Harry got killed — but neither of them was all that well-versed in it, never having bothered to follow the subject themselves. Dad did say he'd try and ask some of the Unspeakables he sometimes worked with at the Ministry about it, but so far, nothing had come of it.

Despite that one, rather bleak conversation, however, Daphne and Harry had a lot of fun learning how to duel, and when the day arrived they'd go to the Burrow to spend some time with their other friends before going to the World Cup, they were sure they'd at least be able to beat anyone from their school year in a duel, and Harry was a better flyer than he'd ever been.

"We'll see you in two days at the campsite," Mum said.

"Why are you camping out anyway? You know how to Apparate," Daphne said.

Mum grinned. "Because it's fun. Camping grounds feel different around a big tournament. You never know what could happen there," she said suggestively, and Daphne shuddered.

Before Mum could decide to add an even more embarrassing parting remark, Daphne scooped Nyx up into her arms and stepped into the green fire in the fireplace.

"The Burrow!" she said, and a few moments later she emerged in the Weasleys' kitchen, where Hermione and Ron were already waiting.

Hermione was holding Crookshanks, who seemed very interested in Nyx.

Nyx, for her part, was initially more intrigued by her new environment, but soon she and Crookshanks left the kitchen together, almost as if they had stories of their own to share.

Harry emerged out of the fire as well, and after a short reunion the four of them went out into the garden, where two red-headed men Daphne hadn't met before were busy ramming tables into each other.

Just when Daphne had taken in the sight, a window on the second floor opened and Percy leaned out of it. "Will you keep it down?!" he bellowed.

"Sorry, Perce," one of the men, who had a long ponytail and a fanged earring, said with a grin. "How're the cauldron bottoms coming on?"

"Very badly," Percy said peevishly, and he slammed his window shut again.

"What was that about?" Daphne asked Ron.

"Percy's got a job at the Ministry, and he's been boring us with it all summer long," Ron said. "Come on, I'll introduce you to Bill and Charlie…"

When Daphne was introduced to Bill, who turned out to be the one with the fanged earring, he said, "You were the one looking for a curse breaker, right?"

Daphne nodded. "Yeah, for a friend of mine."

"You're in luck. The woman I was going to recommend you to get in touch with is going to the Quidditch World Cup as well. She's an Italian witch called Valentina Barese, and she's easily the best curse breaker I've ever met. You should seek her out at the campsite; she'll be there a day or so before we get there."

"That's great! Thanks!"

Bill grinned at her. "No problem. I have to say I'm surprised to meet a Slytherin who wants to break a curse. Usually they're trying to inflict them, in my experience."

"Yeah, well, I'm not like other Slytherins," Daphne said a bit stiffly.

Bill seemed to pick up on it, because he said, "So I've heard. It's about time someone stepped up to fix Slytherin's image a bit."

By seven o' clock, the tables were groaning under the weight of all the food Mrs. Weasley had made, and the nine Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, and Daphne sat shoulder-to-shoulder, loading up food.

Daphne had the same feeling of peace she'd had on Harry's birthday, and she silently enjoyed herself listening to the conversations of everyone else.

Percy seemed to be bragging about his efficiency to his father, and then switched to discussing a missing witch, Bertha Jorkins. Daphne seemed to recall Dad mentioning that name as well recently, and she briefly felt uncomfortable, but the warm summer air made it hard to be too worried about anything.

Then, Percy smugly began hinting at another big event that was to follow the World Cup, but he refused to elaborate.

"You know, you might as well tell us," Daphne said. "Or I'll ask my parents and then tell everyone anyway."

"That information is classified, Daphne," Percy said pompously. "Surely your parents wouldn't–"

"I'm still a Slytherin, Percy. Rules aren't necessarily my cup of tea," Daphne said.

Mrs. Weasley's eyes narrowed a tiny bit, while Fred and George grinned at her.

"Yes, well, be that as it may, I'm afraid I cannot divulge any other information at this time," Percy said.

"You've put the idea in my head now, though…what would Mr. Crouch think of that?" Daphne asked slyly.

Percy reddened. "That– I– You know perfectly well–" he stammered.

Most of the Weasleys seemed to be trying very hard not to laugh. Only Mrs. Weasley didn't seem very amused.

Daphne felt a bit guilty, despite having fun teasing Percy, so she said, "Relax, I'm just joking. Honestly, Percy, I'd never try and get you in trouble at your job. I wouldn't do that to a friend."

Percy seemed at least partially reassured by that, but he didn't try to draw more attention to the 'top-secret' project he'd be working on.

"Haven't your parents mentioned anything about it?" Ron whispered.

Daphne shook her head. "No. Dad doesn't officially work at the Ministry, and when he does work with them it's mostly for the Department of Mysteries. They seem a bit…detached from the rest of the Ministry, so it's possible no one there mentioned it. But you can bet I'll be asking him about it now," she said.

"But if it's really top-secret…" Hermione said.

Daphne shrugged. "We've been getting involved with things we had no business knowing since year one. What's one more secret?"

Daphne once again shared Ginny's room with her, but this time Hermione was there as well, and the two mattresses had been awkwardly positioned at a right angle to each other, making the desk entirely unusable but at least allowing the door to more or less open as normal.

"I still feel bad about hogging your room like this," Daphne said when the three of them had settled down.

"Don't worry about it," Ginny said. "Ron has to share with Harry and Fred and George, because Bill and Charlie have their room. Besides, it's fun to have everyone over. I don't usually hang out with you at school, so…"

"We could, though," Daphne said. "I mean, why not?"

"Because having friends in your own year is important, too?" Hermione suggested.

"I've got plenty," Ginny said. "But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy hanging out with you, too, does it? Especially since I'll get to go to Hogsmeade as well this year."

"That's right! Harry's allowed now, too," Daphne said. "We should all go together; it'll be fun!"

They spent some time discussing what they'd do on their first trip to Hogsmeade that year, but after a while Mrs. Weasley came in to tell them they should try and get some sleep, because they'd be getting up early to head to the World Cup campsite by Portkey.

Daphne was sure it wouldn't be that bad, but when Mrs. Weasley came to wake them up she felt like she hadn't slept at all, and she stumbled into the kitchen feeling like her legs were made of both jelly and lead at the same time.

"Why did I decide to do this again?" she groaned as she sat down next to Harry at the breakfast table, dressed in the same Muggle clothes she'd worn to pick up Harry. "I don't even like this sport."

After breakfast, Daphne and the others followed Mr. Weasley outside and set off in the direction of the hill that lay beyond the village near the Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole, from where they would take a time-activated Portkey to the campsite.

As they made their way over, Daphne was glad for the couple of weeks she'd spent training her physical conditioning. The hill was steep, slippery, and filled with rabbit holes they got entangled in, and Daphne could feel her legs burning by the time they'd made it to the top.

"Whew," Mr. Weasley panted, taking off his glasses and wiping them on his sweater. "Well, we've made good time…we've got ten minutes…Now we just need the Portkey. It won't be big…come on…"

They spread out over the hill, searching for any objects that didn't seem to belong there. They'd only been searching for a few minutes when someone called them over, and Mr. Weasley introduced them all to Amos Diggory and his son Cedric, whom Daphne recognized as the Hufflepuff Seeker. He seemed to be a nice enough guy.

"Are all these yours, Arthur?" Amos asked, indicating everyone but him.

"Oh no, only the redheads," Mr. Weasley said. "This is Hermione, friend of Ron's, Daphne, also a friend, and Harry–"

"Merlin's beard," Amos said. "Harry? Harry Potter?"

"Er…yeah," Harry said, a bit uneasily.

"Ced's talked about you, of course," Amos said. "Told us all about playing against you last year. I bet you wouldn't have beaten him without that Firebolt of yours, would you?"

Harry remained silent, Fred and George scowled, and Cedric looked a bit embarrassed.

"Harry's a really good flyer, Dad, even without his Firebolt," he said.

"Yes, but that broom of his did all the work! Always modest, our Ced, always the gentleman, but you nearly beat him, didn't you, Ced? Surely, that shows you would have been the superior flyer in a straight-up competition."

"Must be nearly time!" Mr. Weasley said quickly, to prevent the atmosphere from becoming grim. It was probably a wise decision, since Fred and George seemed like they could pull their wands out at any moment, while Cedric and Harry exchanged awkward glances. Daphne didn't think she liked Amos very much, but at least he seemed very supportive of his son.

They all stood in a circle and put a finger to the old boot Amos held out and waited.

Mr. Weasley, looking at his watch, counted down. "Three…two…one…"

Daphne was pulled forward, glued to the boot, and moments later she slammed into the ground, jostled by everyone around her, but managing to stay on her feet, at least, as did Harry, Mr. Weasley, and the Diggorys, but everyone else lay sprawled in a heap.

"Seven past five from Stoatshead Hill," a voice said.