Warrington.
I had very little respect for him. At least the Slytherins who had attacked me earlier in the semester has done so directly. They'd had the courage to at least risk getting into trouble, even if they were only attacking a little girl.
Theirs was a casual kind of cruelty; still cowardly, but at least they'd done something about it.
Warrington had been Avery's friend, but he hadn't done anything about it other than run his mouth all semester. I'd ignored it, because the only people he'd been talking to had been the people who already hated me.
Letting him talk had actually been useful; I'd listened to the responses of the people he'd been talking to. Some had been enthusiastic about feeding into his delusions. Others had been more reticent, and some had rejected him altogether.
I'd considered those last to be the people to watch the most, because they were likely the smartest of the group. The fact that he'd approached them in the first place meant that he'd thought they'd be receptive to what he had to say. He wasn't brave enough to try to change the minds of people who would actually resist him.
He'd preach to the choir, but standing in front of the congregation was too much for him.
If he'd been smarter, he'd have actively been trying to undermine my reputation. He could have spread rumors, made accusations, caused all kinds of trouble for me. Instead he'd just been petty and whiny, saying enough to make people think he was loyal to Avery without actually doing anything.
So he was stepping up now?
He looked angry, and his face was red, which didn't bode well for a professional, dispassionate match. I hadn't done anything recently to make him more angry, so I wasn't sure what had set him off.
Travers called out, and the match was started.
Warringron stared at me, then smirked. He pointed his wand at the floor and mumbled something that I couldn't hear over the sounds of the students talking.
Blue light exploded all around us even as symbols appeared on the floor.
"I've spent the last couple of weeks every night on my knees creating this," he said. "It's based on the charms that protect Hogwarts in times of danger."
I couldn't hear anything from outside the blue force field, not with my ears anyway, although my connection with my bugs told me that Flitwick and Travers were trying to bring the field down, without success.
"Some friends of my father showed me how to do this," he continued. He smiled grimly. "All so that we could spend some quality time together."
I ducked as Warrington pointed his wand at me and a ball of fire exploded from his wand. I quickly put up a shield, and I attempted to grab his wand magically.
The fire bounced off my shield and struck the inside of the blue wall separating us from everyone else. It bounced off that wall, and it fizzled out.
"Expelliarmus!" I called out.
I didn't expect it to actually do anything; he seemed to have some experience in fighting unlike my other opponents other than George. I was right, he stepped aside and launched another ball of fire at me. My shield this time defected it up toward the ceiling, and despite the scene of the open sky above, we felt plaster raining down.
Warrington then tried to hit my legs with a jelly legs jinx; undoubtedly he was hoping to keep me from moving to set me up for something much nastier.
I easily stepped aside.
"I'm not trapped in here with you," I said. I stared at him. "You've trapped yourself in here with me."
"You can't bluff your way out of this one, mudblood," he said. "I don't know what trick you used to murder my father, but it won't work on me."
"What's the matter?" I called out, as another gout of flame shot past me. I stepped to the side as it struck where my back would have been. "Can't hit a mudblood?"
He cast stunners at me; several of them bounced off the wall behind me, and I had to be careful not to be hit in the back by one. I kept my eyes firmly focused on him, and used my bugs to keep an eye on what was happening behind me.
His face was growing increasingly red and sullen, his expression determined. There was something ugly in his expression. I hadn't seen that on the face of another student since the early days of my schooling here.
I had no idea what he was talking about. I hadn't done anything to him since I'd put Avery in the hospital, certainly not enough to warrant this kind of anger.
"My father is dead," he said. "And you are going to pay." There were tears in his eyes, as well as a look of undiluted hatred. He launched something dark at me, something that I didn't recognize. I stepped out of the way, and then I dropped to the ground as it whipped around behind me and tried to attack me from behind.
He meant to kill me. I'd known that from the moment he'd lifted the barrier, but I hadn't known why. Had his father been one of the Death Eaters who had attacked us in the forest? The Wizarding world was so deeply inbred that it was almost certain that those men had relatives who went to school here.
I'd been stupid not to try to find out who they were; I'd need to be on guard against their children. While most people knew better than to try to fight against me, a grieving family member might not care about the consequences. They wouldn't care about being hurt or expelled, only that the person who had ruined their lives was eliminated.
If I let this continue, he was only going to escalate, and sooner or later he was going to hurt someone.
"Your father killed himself, you know," I said.
"He did not! My father's friends told me what happened."
"What, that he was out working for the Death Eaters, trying to murder a could of eleven year old children? That was brave."
"Shut up!" he screamed. He screamed and more fire exploded out of his wand in my direction.
I lashed out with a cutting spell; it flew past him and bounced off the blue wall. It hit him low in the back and he screamed and stumbled.
"
He died like a little bitch," I continued, "Crying and begging like the rest of you cowards."
I wouldn't have said something like that in front of the crowd if they could hear what I was saying.
He screamed and lunged toward me, throwing fireball after fireball. I ducked and dodged, and I returned fire, slashing out at him with diffindo spells. I caught him on the calf, and he began bleeding heavily. Blood loss would slow him down eventually, the only question was whether or not he would get lucky before that happened.
I grinned at him, although I didn't let it reach my eyes.
"Can't even hit a mudblood," I said. "Wouldn't daddy be proud?"
He cast several spells that left slices in the floor when I deflected them. It was only a matter of time before he tried a spell that I didn't know the counter for. I wouldn't put it past him to try the Killing Curse, and from what I'd heard those slid through shields like a knife through hot butter.
It was time to end this.
He was tiring and I took the opportunity to lash out. "Accio shoes."
I'd just learned this spell, and I was happy for a chance to use it. As Warrington's shoes jerked toward me, he lost his footing, and he fell on his rear end. He started to slide toward me.
He dismissed the spell, and his face red, he cast another spell from the ground.
Two snakes appeared and came slithering toward me. While I couldn't assume that they were poisonous, I had to assume they were.
He was staring up at me closely, presumably to see if I was terrified. I couldn't imagine how he would possibly think that; hadn't he lived in the same dorm as me for the past few months? Did he really think that a couple of snakes would be what made me quiver in terror?
I considered my options. I could try to speak to the snakes, but I only knew a few words, and these things were conjured. Were they actually snakes at all, or were they simple projections? If they were projections, all my speaking would do was waste time and let them get within striking range.
It was better not to take the chance. I flicked my wand, and I said "Aqua Eructo!"
I focused my will, and a jet of water exploded from my wand, striking the snakes and driving them back. I stepped forward. The snakes kept trying to move around the jet of water, but every time it hit them it sent them flying.
Finally, they collided with the boy, and then I hit him with the water jet directly between the legs. I could see the snakes lashing out and biting him repeatedly as he frantically tried to dismiss them.
"Scourgify," I said coldly.
I hit him in the face, and the spell began to scrub away at his skin. It had never been meant to be used on flesh, and it was painful to say the least. He screamed and tried to turn away, but this just left me scrubbing at the back of his head.
"Avis," I said, as he was hiding his face with his arm.
I'd been interested in this spell because it was the closest thing to my normal method of operating that Wizards had; summoning creatures to use against your enemies.
"Avis, Avis, Avis," I said.
He was trying to dispel the birds that were increasingly pecking at his body. As I cast the spell over and over again, a massive swarm of birds appeared. They pecked over and over at his body. Welts and blood began to appear on his body. He flailed around and screamed, and I easily pulled the wand from his hand with magic.
"Densaugeo," I said.
His teeth began to grow, and I leaned down toward him, watching as they grew larger and larger. They were already inhumanly large, and as I focused my will they grew even larger than that. By now he looked like a caricature of himself, almost like a cartoon character.
I was barely aware of the sounds of the crowd reappearing as the blue wall surrounding us went down. Apparently whatever Flitwick and Travers had come up with had worked, finally. I was too focused on the boy in front of me to even notice, other than peripherally.
"This can kill, you know," I said. "If I keep letting your teeth grow, eventually they will pierce the top of your skull and into your brain. You'll be aware of it every second, and it will be a painful way to die."
It was only then that I realized that my voice had carried across the room. The students were so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.
"Miss Hebert!" I heard Flitwick say, sounding shocked. The next thing I knew I was being pulled off my feet and levitated into the air, my wand flying out of my hand.
My hand darted toward my fanny pack until I realized that it was Flitwick who was holding me up in the air with magic, and then I stopped.
"Miss Hebert and Mr. Warrington have both been disqualified," he said firmly. "And both have forfeited their match."
He dismissed my swarm of birds after letting me down.
"Are you all right, Miss Hebert?" he asked in a low voice.
I looked up at him. "Why wouldn't I be? I hadn't had someone try to kill me in a couple of weeks, so it was about time."
"You lost control of yourself for a moment there."
"I didn't," I said. "I just needed to make a point. I knew that you or Professor Travers would stop me."
I was lying out of my ass, but I needed Flitwick's approval. He didn't seem like the type who would be all right with making a schoolboy's teeth grow until they exploded through the top of his head.
"You could have been more gentle with him," he said.
"No I couldn't," I said.
"You understand why I had to disqualify you," he said. "I did ask that you not maim anyone. I suspect that you could have stopped him without doing what you did."
I saw that the youngest Weasley was staring at me. He leaned close to Potter and said "I told you mate."
Fourth year was fine with me; they were or at least would be good enough that I'd have a workout, but not so good that they'd be regularly beating me. The kids in the higher grades were learning to cast spells non-verbally, which was going to be a nightmare for someone like me, who was just learning.
Finding a spot where I was at was a win as far as I was concerned.
"Do you think I should allow you to continue, Miss Hebert?" he asked, watching me closely. "If these matches arouse your bloodlust too much, perhaps it would be better if you watch from the sidelines."
"No, no," I said. "I don't mind an honest match. But if someone tries to kill me, I take a dim view of that."
"Do you know why he tried to kill you?"
I leaned forward and spoke quietly in his ear. "He seems to think that killed his father."
He frowned. "Why would he think that, Miss Hebert?"
I shrugged. "It might have something to do with the...incident over break."
He stared at me for a moment, and then his lips tightened. He'd been one of the few who'd gotten the full story of what had happened. Most of my teachers had been told, if only because they were trusted and because they needed to know what to watch out for.
After all, if the Death Eaters had attacked once, it was possible that they might attack again.
Some of the teachers hadn't been told. The Divination teacher didn't know; whether that was because they thought she couldn't be trusted or because they thought she wouldn't be competent enough to protect us I didn't know.
What mattered was that Flitwick knew.
There were people nearby who were trying to listen in while not being obvious about it. The only ones who were close enough to possibly hear my voice were Potter and Weasley. Hopefully Potter could keep Weasley in check.
Flitwick took a deep breath and looked at the destruction around the Great Hall.
"We're going to have to clarify the rules," he said. "And find better ways to protect those who are watching. We will take a thirty minute intermission while we deal with Mr. Warrington's injuries."
He quickly assigned three seventh years, including a prefect to take Warrington to the Hospital Ward. His legs were already swelling up and turning black from the snake venom. Apparently whatever snake he had chosen to conjure was highly venomous.
Furthermore, his breath was whistling in his lungs. He was sweating and he was convulsing.
From the look on Flitwick's face, this wasn't the normal response to a bite from one of these snakes. Apparently Warrington had changed the spell somehow, and had made it much more dangerous and possibly lethal.
Flitwick insisted on having Travers accompany the boys floating the body to the Hospital Wing. Likely he would have liked to have done it himself, but with his short legs he would have slowed them down.
"This isn't an auspicious beginning," he muttered.
"That's what he meant for me," I said quietly.
"I have no issues with your performance," he said. "You are brilliant at combat. I worry about the streak of cruelty. I only wish that it had not come to this."
For a moment he looked as though he was reconsidering the very idea of the dueling club. Having the club end before it had even started wasn't my plan, not at all.
"This is exactly why we're here," I said, and I realized that my voice was carrying further than I'd meant it to as the entire room had gone silent.
I looked around at everyone. I might as well continue.
"Sooner or later, all of us are going to be facing snakes coming at us in the night. It might not be this year, and it might not be in school, but it's coming. We aren't here because this is fun, although it is. We aren't here for the glory, although there is glory to be found. We're here because this is what is going to keep us alive."
Everyone was staring at me, including Flitwick.
His lips tightened, and he nodded.
"Quite right, Miss Hebert," he said. "We will move on to the final three years once Mr. Warrington is sorted out."
Flitwick had a discussion with Travers once he returned, and it was decided to finish up the matches, since the students still seemed interested despite the danger.
From the looks on some of their faces, I suspected that the danger only made them more interested. This was no longer a club where people did even more classwork. It was more like watching NASCAR; most of the fun was in waiting to see if someone crashed and burned.
Hopefully that wouldn't be me.