Chapter 11

Friday afternoon, Severus Snape arrived in the dueling club room, hoping that all of Rousset's shenanigans were just a terrible joke. Much to his despair it was not. In fact, when he arrived, the room was crowded by students. Of course, Rousset would manage to gather so many blasé teenagers; only a unicorn could be more popular than her. Look at her, she was the perfect teacher he thought rolling his eyes; always smiling, pleasant, with a hectic past AND beautiful. Yes, he had to admit it, she even was gifted by beauty! And she was stylish on top of that. She was currently wearing a white shirt with an adjusted dark red cape-jacket. Her trousers were high wasted and made her legs look incredibly long, and her high heels boots did help the illusion.

Yes, popularity was part of her. And she seemed to enjoy it. She was definitely an attention-seeker and that reminded him of Lockhart. He hoped that at least unlike that fraud, she would reveal herself to be more than a façade.

He joined her on the dueling podium, and she finally saw him approaching. She greeted him with a big smile, and he didn't respond of course. After all, she trapped him into being here.

"Hello again everyone. Now that Severus joined us, we can start." She said to the students "I am really glad to see you as numerous today and I hope that this club will be able to exceed your expectations. I will start the first theme which is the basic rules of dueling"

She explained quickly how two wizards were supposed to behave in a duel: salutation, restriction on the spells, the one at a time rule, the arbitration etc. Students seemed thrilled and frantic.

"Okay now you know the basics. Severus did I forget something?" she asked looking at him.

"You said the essential" he answered with a nod.

"Great, now that the boring part is over, we can move on to the next; practicing dueling. We will need two volunteers" she said looking at the crowd smiling.

No one answered.

"Should we designate two volunteers perhaps" asked Snape.

"Dommage! But yes, I guess we should" answered Rousset.

He was scanning the room for a volunteer when someone spoke up "Can we have a demonstration first?"

"Yes, a demonstration would be great!" added another student. And soon everyone was asking the same thing. Snape sighed. He heard the rumours. Apparently, some students were having a bet on who between him or Rousset would win if they were to duel against each other. Never, he thought, he would give them the satisfaction to get an answer to that question, and Rousset certainly had the same opinion.

"Well, I don't see why we shouldn't!" said Rousset cheerful. He looked at her bemused. Great. This was great he thought ironically.

"I think that the best way for them to learn is to practice. Would it not be against the main interest to duel instead of them?" asked Severus drily.

"I guess a demonstration never hurt. And they all seem to want one, we can make an exception on the first day, do you agree students?" they all agreed enthusiastically. "Or you are maybe afraid to lose Severus?" she asked with a mischievous smile.

He sighed. Undoubtedly this woman was making his life a living hell. She was leaving him no choice but to accept. "Fine, I accept" he said rubbing his forehead.

They tossed a coin to see who would start; luck was apparently on her side and she earned the right to start. They walked to the middle of the podium and faced each other. They saluted each other with a wand's movement, turned back and took 10 steps. They turned back and faced each other once more. They looked at each other intensely and the entire room was silent around them.

She raised casually her wand at him and cast the first attack spell. He countered it easily with a horizontal wand movement. It was his turn to attack. He used a basic offensive jinx that she countered easily too. They exchanged like this for a few more rounds, increasing progressively their pace. But at one-point Rousset used an invocation spell; a fire snake escaped from her wand and charged straight in his direction. He reacted just in time to counter it. She smirked at him with challenge in her eyes. Oh, so she wanted to play he thought. He smirked back and did large circular movements with his wands summoning a swirl of water that he released on her. She countered it making a twirl backwards. She attacked again and he once more countered it. They continued exchanging massive spells for a while, arising the interest of the crowd. Every student was going crazy; the duel was impressive to watch.

This duel was the weirdest Snape ever had, but it was undoubtedly the most memorable he thought. Rousset was laughing, enjoying herself and that was the first time he witnessed someone dueling like this. She didn't look like she was fighting, she looked like she was dancing. Dancing a deadly ballet. She was bewitching. But he had to stay focus, or he would lose more than this duel.

She successfully avoided one more of his jinxes and the sudden movement cost her bun to undo; her gorgeous brown hair cascaded down on her shoulders. She looked beautiful he thought. The distraction almost cost him the combat, but he managed to drive back her offensive.

He was about to cast an Alarte Ascendare charm when a huge gong resounded. Thus, the duel was over before one of them got defeated. They looked at each other breathing fast, fire and excitement in their eyes. The crowd was cheering them, and all the students were ridiculously enthusiastic.

Rousset looked away from his eyes and said to the crowd "Thank you everyone for your cheering. Normally a judge would be here to nominate a winner but since this was a friendly duel we will call it a tie" she said smiling "Now students the show is over for today, you may all leave and I will all see you in class next week".

Students clapped loudly in their hands and started leaving. Soon Snape and Rousset were alone in the empty room.

Rousset drew near him and stretched out her hand "This was a diverting match, thank you Severus" she told him smirking.

He took her hand and shook it. "It's my pleasure. I must say that I rarely participated in such a fierce duel" He realised that he was still holding her hand and dropped it quickly. "I guess I will go then" he added looking away from her. He turned back and started to walk to the door.

"Then see you at dinner perhaps. And Severus?" he stopped walking. "Don't worry, I'm sure next time it'll be your turn to win"

He smirked and as he resumed walking to the door he answered "Tell yourself whatever you want, but it doesn't change the fact that I obviously won, Évangeline"

Her name on his lips sounded strange and nice at the same time. He surprised himself thinking that he would have wanted to say it to her again.