During his admittedly rather short stay at Hogwarts, Draco had never seen the Dark Lord quite as tense. The moment the countdown was over, Harry started casting.

The Headmaster's legs were suddenly being enveloped by two big snakes, slithering higher and higher, their hisses making some of the students shiver. This proved to be only a distraction, as a second later, Harry cast two spells in a rapid motion, both of them coming straight for the ancient wizard's head. And for many students watching the duel, it seemed to be almost over, just as quickly as it had begun.

With two reptiles on his body and two beams of light getting closer and closer to his head, Draco could see no hope for the poor Headmaster.

And just like that, there were suddenly no snakes, no beams of light, and only a smiling Albus Dumbledore remained.

Confused noise erupted among the crowd.

"What happened?" Draco could hear a voice to his left.

"Why is the grandpa still alive?" a voice to his right questioned.

The Headmaster has a grandson? Draco's surprise at this revelation didn't last long as he focused back on the duel.

The Dark Lord himself didn't seem confused, merely annoyed. With a grimace, his hand began to move rapidly once again. This time he didn't stop, he continued casting spell after spell, none of them known to Draco's inexperienced eyes.

What the blond boy could tell, however, was just how powerful they had to be.

The Headmaster constantly seemed to be under attack, conjured beasts and spells coming at him from all angles. The ancient wizard didn't panic, he defended himself with calmness and precision, barely moving from his spot at one end of the dueling platform.

This continued for seemingly a few minutes, the Dark Lord attacking with fury and the Headmaster defending himself gracefully.

A ginormous serpent-shaped fireball escaped the tip of Harry's wand, obscuring the Headmaster's view of the boy. With another flick of his wand, Harry sent a bunch of black spears and swords in the Headmaster's direction, their tips glowing with a menacing red light.

Albus Dumbledore was suddenly enveloped by a great ball of water that collided with the Dark Lord's fireball and extinguished it completely. Just before the spears and swords impaled the Headmaster, he transfigured them all into chocolate and they crashed into his body and fell onto the floor.

With the flurry of spells seemingly over for now, Draco took in the sight of the Dark Lord. He was sweaty, angry, and barely standing on his feet. His hand was shaking rather badly as he tried to calm his breathing.

Draco himself realised that he had been holding his breath. The room was practically filled with magic, the air itself tasting weirdly to the blond boy. With a panicked squeal, he noticed that his usually perfectly-combed hair was now standing up on his head. As he quickly glanced around, Draco sighed with relief as it proved to be the case for all the students present.

"I surrender," Harry said in a pained voice.

Albus Dumbledore nodded and smiled at the boy. "You have great potential, Harry," he said. "With practice, you will become an incredible wizard."

The Dark Lord grimaced, still struggling to catch his breath.

"There is no shame in surrendering," the Headmaster continued. "It is the mark of a wise wizard, to surrender when the time is right. And now, excuse me," he said as he stepped off the platform and walked towards the door, "I have another appointment," he concluded with a smile and left the classroom.

Still stunned, the students eyed the exhausted Harry warily. He concluded the meeting quickly and they all left, leaving him alone in the room with the chocolate swords and spears.

The next day before lunch, Draco was approached by two familiar figures.

"Crabbe, Goyle, how are you doing?" he greeted them with a smile.

The two Slytherin boys looked at each other. "Good, very good," one of them said and snickered.

Draco raised his eyebrows. "What have you been up to?"

"Yesterday, we found something amazing," Goyle declared and Crabbe nodded enthusiastically.

"What?" Draco asked.

"We found a kitchen," they both said at the same time. "Look at this," Goyle said and took a piece of pie out of his pocket. "It's amazing, now we can have meals anytime we want to."

Draco eyed them with confusion. "How did you find this kitchen? Where is it?"

Goyle's mouth was full of pie, so Crabbe decided to speak up this time. "We were just walking around, yesterday in the evening," he said. "And we were really hungry, and there was this painting, and there were fruits in it," he continued. "We normally wouldn't eat fruits, but we were really desperate, and I just tried to grab them and suddenly, there was a doorknob there, and we opened it, and there was a big kitchen, full of food!" he finished his grand tale with a look of utter awe on his face.

Goyle swallowed his pie and spoke up. "And there were house elves there, and also Harry Potter," he said.

Draco paused them at that. "Harry was there? Yesterday in the evening?"

The two fat boys nodded. "Yes, but as soon as he saw us, he ran away, we couldn't catch him, but we didn't really try because the elves offered us food."

The blond boy eyed them suspiciously. "Were you so hungry that you hallucinated?" he asked. "Harry was in the meeting at that time, he couldn't have been in the kitchen."

Crabbe shook his head. "He was there, I swear!" he yelled.

Draco decided to believe his two spies for now. "Alright then guys, thank you for the information, good job you two," he offered them both a pat on their shoulders and they immediately stood up straighter, pushing their fat bellies out.

Leaving his master spies behind, Draco's mind was filled with questions. Was it possible to be in two places at the same time? Draco had never heard of such a spell before. But I guess, if someone would be able to do it, it would be the Dark Lord himself.

As his friends proved equally uneducated in this matter, Draco resolved to write a short letter to his father, posing him the same question.

The answer came the following morning, and Draco opened the letter with excitement.

Dear Draco,

Your question is a most difficult one. Is it possible to be in two places at the same time? Perhaps, but it's not the sort of spell you could learn at Hogwarts. While I cannot give you a definite answer right now, I will try to do some research and get back to you as soon as I find out anything interesting.

Love, Lucius

PS. I know it's still a long time from now, but we can't wait to see you during the winter break. I might have organised a fabulous surprise.

As Draco finished reading the letter, he glanced at Neville, who was sitting right beside him, drinking a glass of pumpkin juice.

It's time to plan my own spying mission.