Ron was worried.
He and Harry had been inseperable from the moment they'd met on the train. It had been a relationship that almost seemed destined to be.
It wasn't that Harry was famous, although that was what had made Ron introduce himself in the first place. Harry hated being famous, which was something Ron couldn't really understand. He'd lived his entire life in the shadow of his brothers, and the opportunity to stand out, to be known seemed like a gift far more than it was a burden.
It was true that a lot of people watched Harry like he was a dead man walking. Voldemort was on the rise, and the general consensus was that sooner or later he'd be coming for the Boy-Who-Lived.
That fear caused a lot of people to avoid Harry; they assumed that when Voldemort came for him he wasn't likely to be too disciminating about who he killed in the meantime.
All of that meant that Harry really didn't have anyone other than Ron. It was petty, but Ron really appreciated having someone, anyone all to himself. If that meant that eventually he'd have to face danger, well, he was a Gryffindor for a reason, wasn't he?
However, since returning from winter break, things had been different between them. Harry had been distant, and he'd been secretive. He kept sneaking off so that no one knew where to find him.
He had shown Ron his invisibility cloak, and so it was possible that he was simply sneaking around in it, but there had been a time where he would have done that with Ron too.
Ron found himself wondering if he'd done something to offend the other boy. When he was around Ron, Harry acted perfectly natural, but there was something about his expression that almost seemed haunted.
It couldn't have been the war, because for once, things seemed to actually be going right. Death Eater enclaves were falling right and left, and Ron's dad seemed to think that the war itself might be over by the end of summer.
The possibility that Harry might be seeing a girl worried Ron. He'd seen how some of his older brothers got when they were infatuated, and it was like their brains fell out of their head.
He'd never be that stupid. Girls were disgusting, and the only reason to bother with them at all was because you had to.
Everything had become clear though one day when Ron had managed to follow Harry. He'd seen him talking to the Hebert girl, and they'd been standing close together.
Was Harry an idiot?
Of all the girls in school, he had to fall for the one girl who was known to be completely mental. The fact that she was a Slytherin was enough not to date her; Slytherins were untrustworthy, and they lied a lot. They were cowardly, too, most of them. They'd attack from behind instead of head to head like any reasonable person.
Not this one, though.
She was as vicious as a Nundu, and by all reputes would happily maim someone just for looking at her wrong.
Even worse, people were saying that Voldemort wanted her dead almost as much as Harry. That doubled the size of the target on his back.
When Harry declared that he was joining the new Dueling club, Ron had understood. Harry was going to have to fight Death Eaters sooner or later, and getting better sooner might mean that he lived just a little longer.
So Ron, being Ron, had joined up too.
He hadn't lasted past the first round. It wasn't surprising, really. He'd been more concerned with playing Gobstones than paying attention to his homework. That didn't make him that much different than most of his classmates, except that the ones who joined the dueling club tended to be a little better than everyone else.
What was surprising was just how much better Harry had done even though he knew barely any spells that would help him.
The scary thing though was Hebert.
She was utterly relaxed, showing none of the tension any of the others showed, and she was fast. Harry was fast too, but his speed was undirected.
Hebert moved like she knew what she was doing. She made beating her opponents look easy, almost as though she was bored.
"She's fantastic," Harry said, moving beside him.
"You said she was barmy before Christmas Break," Ron said, staring at him.
Harry looked at him. "I spent some time talking to her over the break. She helped me with a few things. She's not nearly as bad as people say."
"What things?" Ron demanded. "What could she have possibly helped you with that would change your mind this much?"
A cagey look came over Harry's face. "She's just a lot more open minded than I would have expected."
"I don't even know what that means!" Ron said. "She beats people up, like all the time."
"You can't tell me you wouldn't be beating people up if you had to live with the Slytherins," Harry said. "Especially Malfoy."
Malfoy surprisingly hadn't been as insufferable over the past few months as he had been in the past, but he was still a git. Ron had had to deal with him when he was younger and he'd been intolerable.
Now though he was just a constant irritant. He didn't brag as much about his father, but that didn't mean he didn't made snide comments whenever he thought he could get away with it.
"You know the best way not to have to live with the Slytherins?" Ron aaked. "Don't be a Slytherin!"
"The Hat didn't give her a choice," Harry said defensively. "She says she asked for Hufflepuff."
"Her?" Ron asked incredulously. "She'd have murdered them all in their sleep the first night. The Slytherins are the only thing keeping her from taking over the entire school!"
Harry shrugged. "Maybe... but she's fantastic at dueling."
Harry was talking about dueling the way he usually talked about Quidditch. Ron had a sinking feeling that meant this wasn't going to be a one time thing.
Harry was probably going to be good at it, like he was good at everything else. He'd been pushing Ron to work harder, but Ron had been resisting. Why work harder than you had to; unless you were in a few, select professions, graduating with good grades didn't get you a better job than graduating with poor ones.
They weren't ever going to have an opportunity to enjoy themselves like this again. Once they were adults, they'd work in a dreary government job, or work in a shop. If they were barmy, they'd get jobs as an auror; that seemed likely the path that Harry would take. He'd already saved Wizarding Britain once, why wouldn't he keep doing it?
It was probably more interesting than the other limited options available, but the danger wasn't wortth it. Ron had seen Mad Eyed Moody once, talking with his father, and he'd seen what happened to aurors.
People like Granger and the Ravenclaws were mental; they worked hard for something that didn't mean anything in the end. Nobody cared about grades once school was over.
If Harry loved doing this, Ron would follow, and that meant a lot of work was up ahead.
"Where'd she learn that?" Harry asked.
Spells were bouncing off of an area in front of the witch, and everyone in the room was stepping back as the spells were reflected in every direction.
Flitwick stepped up beside them.
"She's doing really well, isn't she, boys?"
Ron looked at him. "Are we supposed to be learning that this year?"
"No," Flitwick said. He sounded almost gleeful. "She's a little sloppy in her wandwork, but at this age, it's astounding. I'd almost think that she'd been doing this for months."
As her opponant, a rather competent Ravenclaw girl went flying through the air, they all winced.
"I suspect Madam Pomfrey is going to have her hands full tonight," Flitwick said. "Well, you can't have a duel without breaking a few eggs."
Ron wondered if by eggs he meant someone's head. The man had once had a reputation as a vicious duelist.
"Now you, Mr. Potter have a natural talent for this," Flitwick said. "And should you choose to pursue it, I suspect you may go far. You may be able to catch up with Miss Hebert sooner than later if you apply yourself."
He slapped Harry on the back, and Harry looked stunned.
"Thank you, sir," he said.
Ron felt something ugly deep within him. He'd never envied Harry his fame, not once he'd seen just what it had cost him. He had envied everything else.
School seemed to come easy for him; Ron had to work twice as hard for half the result. Girls liked him, although it mystified Ron as to why he would want them to.
Was this another thing that Ron would be overshadowed in?
No.
Ron had been in the shadow of other people all his life. He was sick and tired of it.
"I'm going to try too," Ron spoke up suddenly.
"That's very good," Flitwick said absently. He didn't appear to even be listening.
Anger burned in Ron's gut.
"The Winners of the third year combat are the Weasley Twins and Taylor Hebert," Travers called out.
Even the twins were good at this; they'd demolished their opponents without even trying. Was everybody Ron knew an expert at this kind of stuff?
"For the fourth round," Travers said. "I would like Taylor Hebert and George Weasley to stand up."
So one of them would be forced to lose. Ron felt conflicted.
Hebert was untrustworthy, a Slytherin, someone who was trying to take his best friend away. He suspected that she didn't even care that much about Harry.
She never even looked at him, although the truth was that she hardly ever looked at anyone. It was part of what made her so creepy. She always seemed to know where everyone was without looking.
Yet the twins had tormented them throughout his childhood. He wouldn't want something bad to happen to one of them, but seeing them taken down a peg or two wouldn't bother him one bit.
It was probably best to treat it as a win no matter who won.
At that decision, Ron felt himself cheering considerably. It didn't matter who won, not really. Someone was going to be humiliated that wasn't him, and that was a win in his book.
"Begin!" Travers called out.
Both combatants bowed very low toward each other.
Ron suspected that Harry didn't understand the meaning of the bow; he hadn't grown up in the Wizarding world. The depth of the bow was an indicator of a wizard's respect for his opponent. A deep bow, like both were giving now was indicative of a great deal of respect. Opponents who hated each other would barely nod.
The crowd around them burst into murmurs.
They were acknowledging each other as equals? Ron would have expected a mocking flourish from George, something to indicate that the little firstie wasn't realy on his level.
Even stranger, Hebert had barely bowed at all for any of her previous opponents. Most people would have attributed that to her being a muggleborn and not knowing any better, but this indicated that maybe she did.
Had she had training somewhere?
While dueling wasn't Ron's favorite sport, he'd watched as much of it as any other pureblood. He knew the basics, at least.
"What?" Harry was asking him, pulling on his shirt. "Why's everybody talking?"
"It's the bow, mate," Ron muttered.
Both of the combatants got into the accepted combat positions. Hebert was crouched low, lower than most duelists; presumably she thought that presented less of her to be a target. George was in a more classical pose.
Both combatants simply stared at each other for a long moment, and then they began throwing spells at each other. Both were using shields and spells were bouncing off right and left.
George was using stunners, which was a spell Ron thought wasn't supposed to be taught until fourth year. Hebert was responding, shouting out "Flipendo!" and "Expelliarmus!"
Both of them were running around, dodging despite having shields up. Ron supposed it was possible that having spells hit shields took energy of some kind; if not, why try to dodge spells? That would leave you out of breath and more vulnerable.
Everybody cursed as George threw a bunch of sand onto the floor and then used a spell to cause it to spray across the battlefield. Hebert ducked and rolled, and George followed up by throwing something onto the floor.
The floor began to melt and sink into some kind of swamp. Hebert immediately sank into the swamp and her movements slowed.
An angry expression appeared on her face, and she immediately dropped down into the swamp until only the top of her head was above the edge of the water. She continued to cast spells at George, but not her shield spell didn't have to cover much.
It was over eventually, although it took a lot longer than any six of the other duels. Hebert hit George with a tickling charm, and then used a summoning charm on his wand. As she strode out of the swamp, she kept hitting George with the tickling charm as he rolled on the floor laughing.
"Miss Hebert!" Flitwick called out sharply.
She turned toward him, her robes soaked and stinking. She looked angry.
"Mr. Weasley has forfeited his place by using an item in a duel. You have won. Perhaps you would like to return to your rooms and get cleaned up."
She frowned, then nodded.
The professors spent the next thirty minutes trying to dispel the portable swamp, but nothing they did worked. The Twins didn't know how to reverse it either, and for once Ron believed them.
"She just dropped down inside it," Harry said. "Used it as cover!"
"I thought girls were supposed to be all worried about how they looked," Ron muttered.
Harry shook his head. "I don't think she cares, realy. Isn't duelling great?"
Harry only thought that because he'd never been around it before. Ron had known about it al his life, and so it seemed like old hat to him. Presumably the shine would wear off for Harry too, but probably not before Ron had been dragged to all sorts of events.
Eventually Flitwick transfigured a section of stone floor over the portable swamp. Once it had settled in the duels resumed.
The next duels went by in a flash. Ron couldn't help but watch Harry instead of the duels.
Harry's eyes were shining.
It wasn't Hebert that had him so excited. It was the duels. Ron had a feeling that Harry was going to admire anyone who was good at them, much as Ron would admire a great Quidditch player. It didn't matter that most Wizards never got into a fight in their entire life once school was over; what mattered was being able to beat your opponent in as flashy a manner as possible.
Potter was watching every duel with an intesity that Ron had never seen before, and he could almost see him learning from every one. Potter kept muttering to himself as one after the other students made mistakes.
"Watch your footing," he muttered to himself as one girl stumbled, only to be hit by a stunner.
As another boy was surprised by a flash of light that left al of them blinded, he muttered something that Ron couldn't understand.
Looking across the room, Ron saw that the Hebert girl was watching with almost the same intensity. For once, she was using her eyes; she watched every fight like a hawk, and it was like she was assessing everyone who fought, one after the other.
Hermione, beside her was taking copious notes. Ron wondered if she was doing it at the request of the Slytherin, or because she was simply that obsessed with learning.
"Taylor Hebert, and Cassius Warrington," Travers called out.
Warrington was one of the few pure blooded Slytherins who'd chosen to join; from the look in his eyes it was because he had a bone to pick with Hebert, and he was choosing to do it here, where he wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night with her standing over him with a bloody sock.
He'd been friends with Avery, from what Ron had heard, and he'd tried telling everyone in the school that Hebert should be expelled.
Ron felt himself leaning forward, even as Harry started pulling him back. The lackluster nature of a lot of the duels had been boring him; mostly they didn't last long, and then one person lost. A grudge match, though, that was likely to get nasty, and there was a high likelyhood that someone was going to try to cheat.
They were both Slytherins, after all.
"Bow," Travers said.
The nods they gave each other were almost imperceptible. It was obvious that Hebert knew who the boy was. Despite that, she was standing loosely, as though she wasn't worried about him attacking.
It was a deliberate insult, and Ron could see the realization of that on Warrington's face. The boy scowled, and his expression turned ugly.
Beside him, Harry seemed oblivious to the byplay. He was watching their wands and their feet and didn't seem to notice anything else.
"Begin," Travers said.
They did.