Multiple rewrites due to lost material, bitch at the end of the chapter, hope you all don't hate this, I need coffee just read and review, take care.
Harry had woken up a bit later than usual and when he'd entered the common room he'd found it empty, not surprising honestly everyone including his friends would be itching to get their meals out of the way to watch today's spectacle. The dueling preliminaries had taken place with next to no fanfare, all done within their respective houses until four duelists from each participating year had been chosen. It was no real surprise that the Gryffindor fifth years had boiled down to himself, his twin, and Hermione, the shocker had been Neville Longbottom rounding out their fourth participant.
When he'd taken Seamus out with a banisher/disarmer/stunner combo he'd just shrugged at the dumbstruck crowd and said he'd spent enough time around Hermione to know how to fight fast and dirty; both the Potter and Weasely twins had to suppress their knowing grins as several older girls gave the blushing boy speculative looks.
His twin, Harry sighed at that and the myriad of emotions that had been surrounding the playfully chaotic young woman since the summer hols and what they meant for the near future, and really for his damn sanity. He mulled over his attitude towards Lillith during last nights feast and was at a loss as to what to think; on one hand he had absolutely no right to be jealous of Viktor Krum being friendly with Lillith, on the other he wanted to stab him in the eye with a fork.
What made it more confusing was the Bulgarian had been downright gentlemanly, perhaps that was part of the problem though; he could have written off the interaction as nothing if he'd been a self centered prat like most celebrities but he'd seemed almost...happy that Lillith didn't acknowledge his stardom. Harry winced at that, it was a feeling he knew far too well, this 'Boy-Who-Lived shite was a curse that guaranteed he'd never be treated normally by the public at large, he resolved to cut the Bulgarian some slack as he rationalized that Krum was just happy to meet someone who treated him like he was human.
Entering the Great Hall Harry felt his heart skip a beat when he heard his sisters musical laughter, glancing to the Gryffindor table he felt his newly found resolve crumbling immediately seeing her grinning at something Viktor had said. Gritting his teeth he was too busy glaring at his sibling to notice the small figure in front of him until he bumped into her causing her to squeak and fall over. Looking down he was mortified at seeing a small girl in a Beauxbaton uniform sprawled out on the floor who could be no older than Iris, the older witch beside the girl glared at Harry as she began speaking in rapid fire French.
Apologizing quickly he offered his hand to the small girl who looked up at him in confusion, she glanced up at his forehead and her eyes widened as she blushed profusely, resisting the urge grimace he pulled her up while scooping up her fallen hat with his free hand. Placing it in the still blushing blondes hands he turned to the older of the pair who, judging by their similar hair color and looks, was her sister. She was glaring at him and all he could do was give her a sheepish smile as he scratched the back of his head,
"I'm so sorry I was distracted and wasn't watching where I was going, please take no offense I didn't mean to inconvenience you," bowing lightly to both witches he gave them his dads patented 'I'm too damn pretty for you to stay mad at me' smile as he turned the Marauder charm up to eleven. "Allow me to introduce myself, my names Hadrian Potter, but please just call me Harry, and you are?" The older girl, well woman really gave him a cool look and Harry felt a weird feeling brush past his mind but he shrugged it off as the smaller girl began hopping up and down while tugging the taller witches sleeve.
Harry's French was shit much to Sirius and Bellatrix's lament, he just couldn't get his head around the language, but he knew enough to catch, "It's him," "handsome," and a few other random words. Harry looked about and realized they'd made a bit of a scene by the amount of looks they were getting, he felt a single brow raise in a very Malfoy-esqe manner as he realized most of the boys in the surrounding tables looked like they'd been lobotomized. Shooting his gaze to the Gryffindor table he saw that Ron's eyes were rolled into the back of his head and he was drooling, half chewed food falling out of his mouth. Grimacing at that spectacle he glanced to Neville who just looked confused and sleepy while Viktor was rubbing his temples as if to ward off a migraine.
It hit him a moment later that this woman was the Veela he'd sensed yesterday, and that she was giving him a full blast of her allure for knocking over her obviously smitten kid sister, honestly more amused than not he gave her a cocky grin as he drawled out.
"If you're trying to get me in bed my dear you only need to ask, no need to use your wiles on me," she blanched and suddenly the allure dropped and her dark blue eyes widened in surprise,
"You, you are resistant to ze allure? How?" Harry shrugged and threw her another grin,
"Clean living? Look Miss...?" She gave him an appraising stare for a moment before nodding slowly,
"I am Fleur Delacour, this is my little sister Gabrielle, I'm currently taking my rune mastery lessons from Madam Maxime, andsince she is 'ere for ze tournament, well," she trailed off there and shrugged. Harry nodded his understanding and was saved a response when his stomach growled, both blondes gave him amused looks as he blushed a bit,
"Err, well it was nice to meet you two and I'm sorry for running into you Gabrielle, hopefully our next meeting will be under less embarrassing circumstances," the little girl rambled something in moonspeak while she smiled and waved her goodbye as her sister gave him a firm nod and led her away. Sighing he approached the Gryffindor table and sat between Ron and Hermione while looking across to his very amused twin sister,
"So Har-bear double date with the Veela sisters? You don't waste time do you?" Meeting her mirthful gaze with as much dignity as he could muster he began piling food on his plate without really paying attention to what he was grabbing.
"I have no idea what you are on about dear sister, hello Hermione, Ron, Vikky," rather then annoying her for using her nickname for the Bulgarian Lillith's smile became less mocking and more outright entertained as she glanced to the now glowering man in question.
"Good morning...Har-bear," the foreign seeker drawled out, Harry scowled at the knowing smirk the older man was now sporting, he than noticed both Lillith and Hermione rolling their eyes and mouthing 'boys' at the same time. Harry opened his mouth to retort when Hermione reached over and jammed a thick slice of buttered toast in the opening while smacking his jaw shut, mouth now full of food he shot a glare at his best friend who just smirked that coy little smirk of hers.
"You can practice your neanderthalic posturing in the dueling ring, you only have five minutes to finish eating before breakfast is over and we all have to get to the pitch so do get your fill." Suitably chastised Harry began eating as quickly and civilly as he could while he resisted the urge to hex the slightly smug smile off the Drumstrang student across from him. Once finished Viktor said his goodbyes as he stood and kissed Lillith's hand once again, throwing him a cheeky grin her emerald eyes swimming with so much open affection that Harry had to force his jaw to unclench to stop gritting his teeth. Relaxing the tension in his clenched fists he inwardly seethed, what the hell was wrong with him?
Hermione drew him from his thoughts as she stood and pulled him up, she shot Ron a look of absolute disgust as she looked around Harry and shook her head realizing the ginger was still stuffing his face.
"Come on, we have to get changed unless you intend to duel in your school robes," both Potter's grimaced at that as they followed her back to the tower to change into combat clothes. Harry reflected that they should have done that before breakfast but alas force of habit was hard to break, entering his dorm he stripped to his boxers and pulled out a pair of charcoal grey BDU cargo pants from his trunk. Throwing the article of clothing on his bed he pulled on a black tank top and a heavy long sleeved shirt cut and colored in the same style as the pants, grabbing said pants off the bed he slid them on while tucking the shirts into it.
Pulling a thin leather belt through the loops he tightened it quickly while grabbing and shrugging on a much thicker nylon one with a heavy duty plastic buckle and several pouches off to the sides as well as an empty pistol holster. He sincerely doubted he'd be allowed to use the various grenades, poison gas potions, and throwing knives stored in it much less his Sig P226 but having them was part of the training he'd undergone since he was seven so unless otherwise told not to he'd bring them with for nostalgia's sake if nothing else.
Pulling a pair of heavy black boots out of the trunk he slid them on while stuffing the pant cuffs into them, after tightening the laces he stretched a bit to make sure he had plenty of mobility, satisfied he plucked the dual tone 9mm from its case and slapped it into the thigh holster after making sure it was loaded. Double checking that both his wand and knife holsters were firmly secured around his wrists he approached the mirror and stared at the young man in the reflection.
Gone was the stern but friendly Prefect, the playful seeker, and dutiful brother, the man in the reflection was a soldier, trained by Potters, Blacks, and Lupins for nearly a decade to do one thing; survive. Grabbing the heavy dark brown dragonhide duster from the bottom of his trunk he slide it on and made for the stairs, reaching into the jackets pockets he pulled out a pair of black fingerless gloves sliding them on while flexing his hands. As he entered the common room the growing gathering of students paused and stared at the Boy-Who-Lived in open shock, he just gave them a grim smile and a curt nod as he leaned against the wall to wait for his sister and friend.
The wait wasn't long which was new for the Potter heir, not that he'd complain about it mind; Hermione came down first and she caught quite a few looks, she was wearing a skin tight dark green dragon hide body suit with knee high black boots and a light black denim jacket festooned with pockets. A pair of criss-crossed brown leather belts hung from her slim waist held in place with a thick buckle where they met, the one resting on her right hip held her Glock 18, the one on her left various pouches undoubtedly filled with items of potential destruction.
Glancing up and down her lithe form he saw well over a dozen knives stashed about her as well as a massive kukri at the small of her back, he couldn't help but grin at that damn thing, was almost bigger than she was but after the troll incident she'd become very fond of edged weapons, the more sinister looking the better. Her bushy hair was pulled into a tight braid that hung down her back and she was twirling her wand in her gloved hands, she looked about the room, the mirrored rectangular framed sunglasses hiding her chocolate brown eyes until she found Harry.
Grinning she strutted forward and Harry for the life of him felt like he was watching a pirate queen rather than a fifth year Prefect, on that note he looked like a muggle action figure so he really had no room to judge. Taking her place beside her best friend she threw him a knowing smirk as she braced a foot against the wall,
"Haven't seen you go full commando like that since summer of third year, looks better on you now that you don't resemble a little boy playing dress up as he's casting killing curses at a fat rat man," Harry shot her a look and muttered,
"You're a bitch," in a deadpan tone, Hermione 'Mmhmm'd' once as she glanced up the stairs to see Lillith descend from the girls dorms, Harry could only nod in approval over her choice of attire. She was wearing similar BDU's to his own but they were cut to her form rather then being slightly loose, she wore a pair of black boots and knee pads that looked to be a mixture of magical and mundane material. Her ensemble ended with a knee length black and red dragon hide jacket over which she'd added a pair of elbow pads similar to the ones on her knees, he couldn't get a good luck at what hung off her belts but he could only assume that whatever her gear, it was amusingly destructive.
As she approached Harry and Hermione the pair kicked off their wall and met her halfway, one of the older muggleborns muttered,
"Bloody hell they look soldiers or mercenaries," the trio could only silently agree to that, when you grew up in both the magical and muggle world, you learned to find that special balance point between intimidating and practical. Harry smiled to the girls as Lillith absently began pulling her long hair into a messy bun,
"Shall we?" They nodded and followed him out of the tower entrance, the shear amount of gawking stares they received as they made their way to the pitch was going to feed the rumor mills for months. As they walked out the gates Hermione paused midstep seeing the spectator stands absolutely packed with students from all three schools, in fact it seemed several layers of bleachers had been added similar to what had been at the Quiditch World Cup. The brunette stared at the roaring crowds in amazement as she quietly asked,
"Is this what it's like for you, when you're playing Quiditch?" Both Harry and Lilly smiled as they nodded, Harry turned to Herimione and leaned down to whisper into her ear,
"It's better, wait till they all start cheering your name," nodding mutely she began moving again while still staring up at the crowds, as they entered the area off to the side of the pitch intended for the fifth year duelists the trio sat on the offered benches and waited. Harry crossed his arms and looked about the dueling ring, it was elevated and took up roughly a quarter of the pitch, rather than a traditional rectangular setup this one was circular. He was curious as to why and whispered such to Hermione who pointed out the runestones surrounding the base,
"See those? It'll form a heavy defense net around the ring so stray spells don't go flying off into the crowd, a circle is magically stronger than a square and I would surmise that the professors decided to go for substance over style in the name of safety." Harry could only 'huh' at that while Lillith muttered,
"About goddamn time they started protecting the students, only took them five years..." Harry had nothing to add to that since he agreed whole heartedly. About twenty minutes later Harry heard a sharp whistle behind him, turning he scanned the crowd in one of the lower boxes until he saw his cheerfully waving mom and dad, Iris was sitting between them smiling widely, he saw Moony and Padfoot grinning at him from the aisle behind the three Potters. Waving in return he reached around Hermione to tap Lillith's shoulder, catching her eye he jerked his thumb over his shoulder and she turned and returned the enthusiastic smiles and waves from their family.
Noticing movement up in the Dueling Ring he saw Aunt Bella and Professor Flitwick cast a few spells, a massive crystal sphere formed about the arena and after Flitwick finished a rather elaborate series of wand movements the sphere crackled and suddenly displayed the ring for all to see. There was a cheer of approval as the diminutive professor blushed and bowed, he walked off to the side as Aunt Bella cast a sonorus,
"Ladies, Gentleman, and all those in between, welcome my lovelies, this exhibition will be between the fourth through seventh years, eight duels per year and each one chosen by random draw, when their are two remaining duelists for the year in question they will step aside for the next. Once it has been reduced to eight duelists in total we'll repeat the process, now, let us begin!"
As the fourth years were being drawn up Hermione stood and motioned for her friends and the recently arrived Neville to stand as she transfigured the uncomfortable bench into a large plush couch, smirking the quartet made themselves comfortable. Neville stared at the other three a moment than just smiled and turned away, Lillith gave him a questioning look and he shrugged,
"Nothing its just that you three look like you're just waiting for someone to 'Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war,' but I decided I may sleep better not knowing your reasoning." The twins snorted in amusement at that while Hermione gave him an appraising look,
"You've read Shakespeare?" He gave her a slightly offended glare before stating,
"Come now Hermione, I may be a Pure-Blood but I'm not uncultured thank you very much," they all laughed at that as the first duel began, honestly none of them really paid attention aside for Ginny and Luna's not really knowing any of the younger years aside from Colin who was felled by the dreamy eyed blonde in the second round. In the end Ginny and Luna were destined for the finals, Harry was rather proud of them for that, they didn't take to the darker spells as well as some of their other friends but they were still respectable.
As the fifth year duels were organized Neville was chosen to go first against Terry Boot of Ravenclaw, the round faced Gryffindor did respectably but after five minutes the patient Ravenclaw managed to snare him in a cleverly disguised quicksand trap. As the duel ended and Neville was freed the Longbottom scion just grinned and shook the victors hand good naturedly, as he walked down the ramp a familiar rage overtook Harry as he heard a most hated voice.
"Way to go Fatbottom, figures a squib like you would be first to go," Neville paused, clenched his fists and turned to address the smirking visage of Draco Malfoy, rather than blush, sputter, or even yell he just stared at the blonde a moment then gave him a cold smile.
"I may have lost, but at least I fought with dignity and earned my chance to try, rather than have my daddy pull strings to get me here," not waiting for a response Neville turned and walked away. Lillith began chuckling while muttering,
"Damn, gonna need a cold fire potion for that burn," before Malfoy could respond he was called for the next match against Hannah Abbot of Hufflepuff, sneering he stomped off leaving the three remaining Gryffindors to observe his duel. It was an unfortunately one sided fight, Hannah was a good duelist but she specialized in disabling while not injuring while Draco had absolutely no such compunctions, she was defeated and sobbing in agony covered in blood and boils two minutes later. As she was escorted off the raised ring Draco strutted back to his waiting bench superior smirk firmly in place, Hermione began growling low in her throat and both Potters grabbed a hand and squeezed it gently to calm her down.
After Susan Bones completely annihilated Padma Patil both Lillith and Hermione's lots were drawn, they gasped at that while exchanging glances, Harry clearly heard Lillith stating in a panicked tone,
"Mione if you and I go all out there's a good fucking chance we'll take out half the goddamn school!" Raising his brows at that the brunette replied quickly,
"Language Lilly, and obviously we can't go all out, nothing above third tier, no explosion spells, neither of us do the whole 'restraint' thing very well," Lilly looked close to hyperventilating but nodded her understanding. Harry frowned as the two best friends trudged towards the ramp but were both stopped by Professor Flitwick, frowning the small man looked them over slowly before speaking.
"Ladies, could you please leave all weapons outside of your wands here?" The pair nodded and Flitwick conjured a table, after roughly two minutes passed a rather sizable arsenal of mundane explosives, knives, garrotes, guns, poison potions and what looked to be an RPG-7 was left before the charms professor. He gave the sheepish looking teens a tired look that screamed 'I'm too old for this' before shooing them towards the stage, Harry watched the two nervously and as the fight began he could tell they weren't putting their all into it. He'd been training with Hermione since he was a second year and she was usually a blur of fluid grace and it looked like the pair of them were basically just taking turns deflecting spells. Harry muttered as much and to his surprise professor Flitwick responded,
"I've seen it before, they are both incredibly competent and having the bearing of very dangerous fighters, they also care greatly for each other so they're doing their very best to put on a show but their hearts aren't in it, a pity they got drawn against each other chances are good they would have been magnificent if unhindered." Harry nodded slowly and eventually Hermione fell to a stunner, Lillith enervated her best friend and looked very irritated as she helped the other young woman up and pulled her into a tight hug. Throwing an arm over each others shoulders the pair walked down the ramp and just like before Malfoy spoke up,
"Nice going Mudblood, why-" the blonde boy sputtered as with one smooth movement Lillith had summoned her pistol from the table and stuck the massive piece of stainless steel in his mouth, she cocked the hammer back and Harry saw true murderous intent in those oh so familiar green eyes. Oddly enough he took this time to take in her weapon of choice, it looked to be a long slide 1911 or at least used the frame of one, the large slide had 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good' engraved in cursive along its length; he Immediately recognized it as one of Aunt Bella's side projects. Hermione gently raised her hand and placed it on Lillith's trembling arm while calmly whispering,
"Lilly dear, you cannot commit murder in front of the entire school, as amusing as it would be, come now put the pistol down," growling as her finger began tightening on the trigger she eventually sighed and pulled the gun from Draco's mouth, she took a step forward to stand directly in front of the still startled blonde while spitting out,
"Pray to the Goddess you do not have to face me boy, you're an embarrassment and an insult to what you could have been, just had to follow in your rapist murderer fathers footsteps didn't you? Get out of my face, now," Draco did just that and as the ponce ran back to his bench tail between his legs as Harry came to a very uncomfortable conclusion; his sisters violent outbursts turned him on, a lot. With that disturbing self revelation Harry didn't pay much attention to the rest of the duels until he was called up; he'd had to surrender his weapons much like his sister when he was called to face Susan Bones, Flitwick just rolled his eyes while muttering 'Potters'.
Susan as it turned out was a good duelist which wasn't a surprise and she fought unconventionally enough where Harry actually managed to have some fun, she was as fond of combat transfigurations as he was but in the end he distracted her by conjuring a swarm of birds and having them explode around her. As she threw a protego up to fend off the shards of bone and spray of blood he hit her with a stunner. After she was woken up she gave him a rueful grin and promised him she was going to steal that move for later, he figured that was acceptable if she was going into law enforcement like her aunt. He was snapped out of his reverie when he realized Lillith was staring at him practically nose to nose grinning manically,
"You just got called up for the last fifth year duel, you got Malfoy, I'm so jealous," gulping at his sisters proximity he licked his dry lips and nodded quickly, as Lillith stood to let him by he ran his hands through his hair wondering when the hell things had gotten so complicated and...squicky... Taking position in the ring the sneering Slytherin and glowering Gryffindor gave each other half hearted salutes and the moment Flitwick yelled 'Begin!' Harry cut loose, later on he would reflect it was rather cruel of him to dump all his frustrations on Malfoy like that, funny, but cruel.
Malfoy began with a pair of piercing hexes along with a tripping jinx, Harry responded with a bombarda, a pair of reductors, an over charged cutter, he finished off his opening combo with a specialized piercing curse Hermione had rather appropriately nicknamed 'The Gatling Gun'; suffice it to say within ten seconds Malfoys end of the ring looked like the surface of the moon. There was a roar of approval from the Gryffindors (and the Hufflepuffs, they remembered what the bastard had done to Hannah) as Draco went flying, he really had no idea if the Slytherin was out of the fight or not due to the dust but considering Harry was still frustrated and hadn't even begun to tap into his power yet he pushed the offensive. Casting a chain of explosion and fire curses Harry smiled grimly as Draco's bloody body came flying out of the dust and smoke landing in a bloody heap snapped wand laying at his twitching feet; the dark satisfaction roiling in Harry's belly began to uncoil as he remembered everything this little shit had ever said and done to his family and friends.
Almost as if guided by an outside force 'Crucio' was halfway past his lips when there was a massive gong noise and he heard Aunt Bella declare him the winner as Madam Pomfrey rushed the stage to check on Malfoy, coming back to his senses Harry felt genuinely sick when he realized what he'd done to the blonde ponce. The broken form looked so small and weak in this state, just a spoiled brat who had an an over inflated opinion of himself, Harry had no right to drop the hammer on him like that, as he walked away to the cheering and jeering he was tackled to the ground by a black blur. Musical laughter filled his ears as he straightened out his glasses to see the weight straddling his waist was his grinning and cackling sister, his mouth went dry as he realized...things were starting to react directly where she was sitting and it was nothing short of an act of will that kept him from freaking out.
"That was great!" Lillith crowed happily, she glanced up seeing Draco's bloodied form binge carried out of the ring, she snickered a bit in morbid amusement as she stood and helped Harry back up to his feet, "I mean it was excessive and moms scowling at you a bit but you didn't use anything really dark at all so they can't complain, good thing those wardstones Flitwick set up dampen our spells though I sincerely doubt you want a manslaughter charge on your record." She paused tapping her chin a moment before shrugging and dragging him to their couch, neither really cared about the rest of the duels, Lillith because she was irritated she'd made Hermione look bad and Harry because he didn't know what the hell to do about his feelings, no wonder Sirius swore off relationships emotions complicate everything.
Much like earlier Harry didn't pay attention to the duels, after the six and seventh years finished he cleared the semi-finals with ease, distracted by his thoughts or not he had the power and training to win regardless, he supposed Iris would accuse him of being arrogant but alas he was James Potters son it came with the territory. As he tried to come to terms with what he was feeling for his sister...his twin (!) he was drawn out of his thoughts by the announcement of the final duel, apparantely it was Lillith and himself; of course, nothing can be simple. Sighing he stood and entered the ring while Lillith's head craned back and stared at the darkening skies, the wind was beginning to kick up and it sent the few locks of her hair that had fallen out of the messy bun fluttering.
Straightening her posture his twin threw him a devilish grin that caused a reaction Harry hadn't expected, he grinned right back with equal amusement and suddenly all his angst, worries, and self doubts melted away. Only one thought seemed to beat through his mind as they saluted each other as Flitwick declared the duel to begin,
'This outta be fun,'
This chapter languished for a week, good god you have no idea how much I hate this little bit of the story. Not because of what it entailed no, because I rewrote the fucking thing twice due to a power outage and a six year old nephew, ugh...anyway I know its shit just read and review I hope I don't lose too many readers with this one.