Sorry about the long delay, I had the best editor in the world but our college schedules didn't coincide well so I had to find someone else who was willing to do the edits for me. However I'm planning to post updates weekly at this point and Chapter 4 should be out soon enough.

Chapter 3:

Duel at Dragon Court

Harry was sitting in a dark room located in the dungeons of Grindlewald castle. Advanced potions had never felt so dreary to Harry as he looked around the room at all of the apparatuses strewn about. It was almost depressing how much this class reminded him of his old potions classroom at Hogwarts. There was just one problem, and Harry honestly could not believe it, but he missed Snape. But it wasn't just Snape, even Slughorn would've been an improvement to the boring, old witch that taught Advanced Potions at Grindlewald. Harry looked over in the corner and noticed the old crone had fallen asleep. She was a tiny witch, skinny and wrinkled with hair that had long ago gone completely gray. Her nose was long and crooked and she appeared so frail that Harry had gotten the uncomfortable feeling all class that every breath might be her last.

Harry looked up at the clock in the corner of the room as it ticked away the last seconds of class. When class ended Harry quickly grabbed his wand and books and turned to Ron as he rose from his seat.

"So that was my last class today. How 'bout you?" He asked as he walked towards the large wooden door that led out of the potions class and back into the dungeons.

Ron who had been staring at the old woman just a moment before turned to Harry. "You don't think she's dead do you mate?" He asked. "I mean, I can't really tell if she's breathing."

Harry looked at the witch for a moment and then shrugged. Ron broke out into a slight chuckle.

"Yeah that was my last class too... So what are your plans now?" Ron asked as he and Harry began to travel through the maze like dungeon back towards the commons.

"Well I've got a little bit of homework to do..." Harry said as he remembered the note in his pocket. "Hey Ron have you heard of a dueling club at this school?" Harry asked, reading the note he'd left himself.

"No. But it sound's like it'd be fun. Why were you thinking about joining one?" Ron asked reading the note over Harry's shoulder.

Harry considered for a moment. He hadn't really given much thought to extracurricular activities until this point. Sure he'd considered joining a Quidditch team once the season started up, and he heard that Grindlewald had six different teams that he could join, but a Dueling Club. Harry shrugged and he threw the note into the trash.

"I dunno. Some guy in Legendary Spells and Curses invited me to come. I told him I'd think about it." Harry said as he and Ron traveled down a long hallway heading towards the commons.

"Well, it sounds like fun." Ron said waving as he noticed Hermione waiting for them at the end of the hall.

"So Harry. I was doing a little research in my last class. Apparently Dumbledore started the Dueling Club when he went here." Hermione blurted out when they finally caught up to her.

Harry's eyes widened. "Dumbledore did?"

Hermione nodded her head as she handed Ron a large book.

"Yeah. And it's been going on all this time. But the guy whose in charge now, Tyler Sowards reorganized it a few years back and met with some of the other schools. Apparently there's a professional dueling league that starts in January and Tyler arranged it so that Grindlewald and a few other schools were able to make teams and participate."

"That's pretty cool. I guess." Harry said.

"Yes, but only ten people from each school can participate. Apparently there's some ranking system that Tyler uses and he personally selects the members. At least that's what some of the other students were saying." Hermione explained.

"So if we all joined and were able to do well we could get selected for the PDL!" Ron shouted excitedly.

Harry looked at Ron.

"Look Harry, the PDL is like the coolest sports event aside from Quidditch. I heard some duelists get paid tons just to participate in matches, and the winning team, well lets just say there are no misers in the PDL!"

Harry stared at Ron's excited expression. The young Weasley could barely contain his enthusiasm.

"But Ron what makes you think we'll get chosen. We're freshman, we don't know anyone." Harry wondered.

"Yeah but everyone knows us don't they mate. We're the ones who stood up to You-Know-Who last year. I mean, if we can fight off Death Eaters."

Harry couldn't help but agree. They had after all fought off Voldemort's army of Death Eaters only four months earlier, and Harry had always been told he was a great duelist. He'd even led a group of rebel students known as Dumbledore's Army into the ministry in his fifth year, and in his sixth and seventh year he'd personally trained the DA to fight against witches and wizards wielding far darker magics than a group of students.

"Alright lets do it." Harry agreed.

"Yes we're going to do it!" Ron shouted gleefully, dancing as he heard this. He turned to Hermione who'd been silent since she'd finished explaining the club. "Right Hermione?"

"What? Oh yeah... I mean I guess. Sure sounds fun." She said biting her lip as though she were contemplating something. "But maybe we..."

"Lets go!" Ron shouted pointing towards the Great Hall with excitement and running ahead of the other two. Upon reaching the door he stopped however and turned back as Harry and Hermione began to walk towards him.

"Um... where are we going exactly?" Ron asked, the confidence in his face turning to confusion.

"Oh my gosh Ron sometimes you're like a little kid." She said grabbing his ear and pulling as she walked past.

Harry turned around to look at Ron as they walked. "That guy Ryan said they meet in the courtyard after lunch. So I guess after we grab something to eat we should head there."

The cafeteria was large. It was located outside the great hall and mainly consisted of several isolated stands that represented everything from the magical to the mundane, from Honeydukes to Taco Bell. Any sort of food magical or otherwise could be purchased from the various attendants, which tended to be worked by young wizards trying to work their way through Grindlewald, or the occasional House Elf who was holding down the fort while the shift manager was away.

However all though there were many different stands to choose from, Harry got the feeling it would be quicker to apparate almost anywhere else in the world to get your food as the lines were tremendously long and by the time he, Ron and Hermione had sat down to eat, Harry wasn't even hungry anymore. He ate anyways however, mostly out of principle and partially because he knew that he'd be hungry later if he didn't eat now.

"So what did you think of Professor Rickman's class?" Hermione asked, looking curiously at Harry.

"It was okay." Harry replied. "It was just the first day so we didn't really do anything. I guess the professor seemed pretty cool though." He finished forcing down a slice of pizza. Harry glanced over at Ron.

"So when do Quidditch tryouts start?" He asked, looking as Ron devoured a chicken sandwich. Ron looked up with his mouthful and spilled crumbs as he talked. Hermione looked at him annoyed.

"Sometime next week I think. I'm not sure exactly how we go about signing up. Apparently we need to get in touch with one of the captains. I heard that there are six teams though, and there are always vacancies on the bench and on the field due to students dropping out or graduating."

"So you nervous at all?" Harry asked, remembering Ron's greatest problem in Quidditch was how nervous he got being in front of large crowds.

"Not anymore. I think I've gotten over my fear of large crowds. We're going to run this place mate."

"Absolutely!" Harry said as he and Ron slapped each other five.

"And as long as the crowd doesn't turn into spiders, we'll have the best Keeper out there." Harry joked.

Ron looked horrified, the color had drained from his face and he slowed down chewing, exposing a mouthful of have chewed chicken. "Why would you say something like that?" Ron asked squeakily, swallowing slowly and looking at Harry.

Harry and Hermione laughed.

After lunch Harry, Ron and Hermione made their way out of the cafeteria and headed towards the courtyard. The dragon courtyard, was a large open area with a grand fountain in the center. The fountain, which depicted a large Hungarian Horntail crouching low with its mouth wide open as though it were preparing to breath fire. Instead of fire however, a trickle of water flowed from its mouth into the fountains large granite based. The statue was enchanted however, so that every now and then the statue would break the monotonous trickle by rearing back its head and spraying massive amounts of water into the bowl. On either side of the fountain statue were large circular platforms raised slightly above the ground around them and which each depicted various dragons locked in a duel. All around the edges of the courtyard there were white stone benches with people resting on them and chatting about the day's events. The trio was amazed to find how many people gathered outside for the first day of dueling club. The benches were all full and people were gathering around the two platforms.

By the dragon statue was a small brown desk behind which sat a young wizard dark haired with glasses. The wizard seemed to be taking down the names of people who were interested joining the club. Harry couldn't help but feel that he looked somewhat nerdy, as he was extremely skinny and talked with a slight lisp. Harry, Ron and Hermione walked over and stood in line. A few spots ahead of them Harry noticed Draco Malfoy standing beside a girl Harry remembered from Hogwarts, Daphne Greengrass, a girl who'd been a part of Pansy Parkinson's gang of Slytherin girls.

Harry waited impatiently as the line slowly moved and finally it was his turn.

"Name?" The wizard asked.

"Harry Potter." Replied Harry.

"Harry Po... Harry Potter?" The wizard looked up. There were whispers in the line as people realized overheard this. The young wizard behind the desk stared at Harry for a moment. "Well, it looks like its going to be an interesting crowd this year." He held out his hand to Harry and Harry took it. "It's nice to meet you Mr. Potter, truly a pleasure."

Harry stepped out of line and waited for Ron and Hermione to finish signing up before traveling to a spot by the circular platform where people appeared to be congregating. He tried not to blush or notice the whispers that had gone up but couldn't help but overhear them occasionally.

"So what do you think this guy Tyler looks like?" Ron asked, finally after the commotion had settled down a bit and people started gathering around.

"Nobody knows." A student standing behind them and that Harry recognized as a fellow Freshman answered. "But they say that he doesn't eat or sleep, and that one time he killed a guy for blinking."

"I heard that he wrestles dragons and that that's why we meet in this courtyard." Another student claimed.

"I heard that he's a vampire, and that he eats the people that lose their duels." Another student joked.

"You said no one's seen him, but isn't he about to give a speech... in the middle of the day time, like he does every year?" Hermione asked annoyed, clearly not catching the humor in the student's voice.

"Whoever he is. He's truly a great man." The first student said.

As though to answer the confusion a man in his early twenties jumped up onto the platform as though it were a stage and made his way to the center. He wasn't extremely tall, only a few inches taller than Hermione he suspected and he didn't look incredibly intimidating either. He had medium length dirty blonde hair that framed his head in such a way that made Harry suspect he was in an indie band of some sort. As clothes he wore black jeans, a red leather jacket and a black shirt that had the words Lynyrd Skynyrd written upon it and the picture of a band. On his face he wore a pair of little girl's costume sunshades which were pink and had little wings coming off the top of them. Harry couldn't help but notice the contrast that those glasses had. In addition, he wore a friendly smile on his face that Harry couldn't help but feel was genuine.

He crouched low as he waited for the crowd to get silent and played with a dark gray top hat that he was holding in his left hand. Harry couldn't help but think that the odd appearance was more on purpose than on accident as most wizard's dressed. He looked around at everyone in the crowd and as his eyes fell upon them, they grew silent in quiet expectancy. Harry started to wonder what words he could say to match with the legend and presence that this young wizard had made for himself. And once the crowd was finally silent, he was swiftly answered.

"Sup." He said, quickly and casually as though greeting a friend. The crowd just sat there confused. A few older members on the other side of the stage answered aloud.

"Whats up Tyler?" They answered as though they were a praise chorus. Harry noticed Ryan among these members, a large smile playing across his lips as it was with all the other members he was with.

"Alright. I'm Tyler Sowards." The wizard on the stage said bowing gently. "And welcome to my dueling club. Now I say my dueling club as though I started it, so more properly it would be Albus's dueling club. But in order to eliminate confusion when I throw your sorry butts out," there was laughter from the older students. "Its my dueling club." Tyler walked around the stage in a small circle with his hands out like an airplane and then tossed his hat to the side of the stage, before speaking again. "Alright. So... The rules of this dueling club are pretty simple we don't deviate much at least in our rules from classical dueling. Every duel will be held between two duelists unless its a special event of some sort and will consist of one rule. I'm assuming you've all been taught to duel at some point so I won't bother going over etiquette at all but we do practice it here." Tyler's voice trailed off as though he were trying to remember something. "Oh yeah, right. Today is special because we're just meeting to go over the rules but, normally if its your first time at Dueling Club, you must duel. In fact everyone who signed up will duel once every two weeks while we try and figure out who's going to make the team that we send to the PDL."

Tyler looked at the group of students standing in the corner as though he were trying to remember something.

"Oh yeah. All members who are underage must have a signed permission form, from your parents! We don't want any complaining or annoying faculty interventions. We take our dueling seriously here."
There was some chuckling from the older students at this and even Tyler himself stopped and laughed.

"Alright well, that's pretty much all that we've got on the agenda for today. Before we disperse however, I always duel one person to start out the year, kind of a kick off duel. Is there anyone here you'd like to see duel?" Tyler asked looking around at the crowd.

Everyone in the crowd appeared to nervous to be the first on stage, they all whispered among themselves some of them jokingly volunteering someone else but no one stepping up to the stage. Tyler jumped up and down on stage as he waited.

"Come on anyone?" He asked.

The nerdy wizard that Harry remembered had been taking names yelled through cupped hands at Tyler from the sidelines. "Harry Potter's here this year somewhere!"

Tyler looked at him slightly surprised. "Harry Potter. Yeah but we don't let first years duel in the opening duel anymore, not after that guy got hurt two years ago." He said a slightly disappointed look on his face.

The crowd however had overheard this conversation.

"Lets see Harry Potter duel!"

"Yeah, lets see the one who defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

"Harry! Harry!" The crowd began to chant.

Harry slightly embarrassed tried to duck. Ron nudged him in the side. "You should do it mate, come on go on up there."

"But you heard him first years aren't allowed to duel." Harry whispered trying not to stand out.

Tyler walked over to the side of the stage and started talking towards the other students.

"Alright if Harry Potter's here, we'll let him duel." Tyler shouted at the crowd.

"Oh go on Harry." Hermione said nudging him in the side. "It'll be fun."

Harry gave up, his friends were pushing him to duel and the crowd appeared to be getting restless. He took out his wand and stepped onto the stage. As soon as he did the crowd cheered and hollered their approval.

"Hey Tyler." Ryan called from the side. Tyler turned and walked over towards the sidelines and knelt down. Harry couldn't hear what they were saying but he was made slightly uncomfortable when he noticed Ryan glancing at him during the conversation. A moment later Tyler walked away nodding.

"Well since we're already breaking tradition this year we might as well make it a full on special event. I know that most of you wanted to see me duel but our big up and comer last year has actually asked me if he can duel instead. So Harry, its up to you. Will you accept this challenge?" Tyler asked the question extremely dramatically looking at the crowd as he did so and not at Harry.

"Sure. Can't be worse than Voldemort."

"Woah. Did you hear that ladies and gentleman. The man has no fear at all, even speaking the You-Know-Who's name like its nothing. I think someone's in for it in this duel." Tyler said jokingly.

Ryan hopped onto the stage and walked towards Tyler. For a moment the two greeted each other jokingly and then Tyler headed to the center of the stage.

"Looks like I get to ref this one then!" He shouted. "Alright then, if the duelist's would please bow to each other.

"So Harry, have you ever done this before!?" Ryan joked from the opposite end of the stage bowing lightly as he spoke. Harry noticed he didn't have his wand in his hand as he bowed.

"Of course he has!" Shouted someone from the stands. Harry looked over to see Ron.

Harry gripped his wand tightly as he bowed.

"A few times." He answered jokingly. "Yourself?"

Ryan nodded his head side to side and made a face as though he were unsure of his answer. "Once or twice I guess."

"Shouldn't you go ahead and draw your wand then?"

"If I did that your first spell would be just be Expelliarmus."

Harry was slightly confused by this, he had been planning to disarm his opponent, but without his wand, there was no reason to even be afraid of him. Still Harry figured he should try and end it quick, just in case his opponent had something up his sleeve.

As the duelists finished bowing Tyler raised his hands and took a step backwards. "When you're ready?" He began, looking to Harry.

Harry nodded and then glanced at Ryan, he held out his wand and pointed it towards the wizard preparing for his first spell. Ryan's hands were still in his pockets as though he were casually meeting a friend.

Harry felt bad about using any dangerous spells against an unarmed opponent. But at the same time he needed a spell that was effective enough to end a duel. He decided his opening spell wouldn't be anything extremely dangerous or lethal. Finally he settled on Stupefy, he'd use the stunning spell as his opening move. Ryan looked for a moment as though he were thinking about something hard while he stared at Harry, then he turned slightly to Tyler and nodded.

"Then begin!" Tyler said dropping his hands and stepping to the edge of the arena.

"Stupefy!"

"Protego!"

Ryan's right hand rushed forward before the sparks had completely left Harry's wand. His spell sprayed against Ryan's protection spell. A split-second later there was a shattering like glass as Ryan's spell shattered and he was knocked back a few yards by Harry's spell. Ryan dropped to one knee panting, a small smile played across his lips.

Ryan's shield charm had managed to reduce the effect of the stunning charm to the point where it wasn't enough to knock him out, Harry was actually surprised that he'd managed to get such a powerful shield spell up without a wand, it was perfectly timed as though he'd known ahead of time that Harry was going to use a stunning charm.

"Lucky guess!" Harry shouted, "What if I hadn't used an attack spell, your defense wouldn't have worked!"

Ryan smiled. "Yeah, but first years always use offensive spells as their opener its kind of a rule of thumb."

Harry wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic or not, but he didn't care either way. His last spell had hit even if just barely, there's no way Ryan would be able to stop another one.

"Accio wand!" Ryan shouted almost as though in reponse to Harry's thoughts. A wand flew up from a bag on the sidelines and into his hands. Harry only got a passing glance at it, but it appeared to be very similar in design to Hermione's, a wand Harry was intimately familiar with.

"Stupefy!" Harry shouted again, quickly when he first saw the wand move. Harry's spell flew from his wand, but before it had even left Harry saw the wizard apparate. Almost that very same instant Harry felt the breath leave his lungs as Ryan's knee collided with his chest. It hadn't been smooth, it had been no grand martial arts move. He'd simply apparated inside of Harry's reach and kneed him in the stomach. Ryan held his head for a moment trying to regain his composure as Harry stumbled backwards.

"Accio glasses!" Ryan shouted as Harry gasped for air. Harry's glasses flew off of his face and into Ryan's hands. Ryan slipped them on and began running around in circles as Harry regained his composure.

"Look everyone! I'm Harry Potter!" He shouted. The crowd laughed as he pranced around the stage with his hands out, wand gripped tightly.

Hermione and Ron sat on the sidelines holding hands. Hermione squeezed Ron's hand tightly as Harry began to recover. "This duel's just mean. He's not even taking it seriously." She hissed.

"This is no duel." Malfoy spoke from behind them. Hermione looked back to see Malfoy standing there with a disgusted look on his face. He was clinching his fist tightly and staring with a strong dislike at Ryan. Hermione wasn't sure if it was out of respect or just some desire for revenge, but she got the distinct feeling that Malfoy wanted Harry to win this duel. Malfoy's lips parted only slightly as he began to speak again. "This is a public humiliation."

Harry regained his breath and realized that the duel was not going his way. He could barely see his opponent at all but he was able to make out his position well enough for his next charm. So much for taking it seriously. Harry thought to himself.However now his opponent had his wand out, if Harry could get rid of that, there would be no more surprises.

"Stupefy!" Harry shouted. The charm was off its mark but Harry hadn't meant to hit anyways, his goal was met Ryan had stopped dancing as soon as Harry had moved and quickly and rolled out of the way. "Accio glasses!" Harry shouted as his opponent was dodging. His glasses flew back to his eyes and he was able to see clearly now.

"Expelliarmus!" He shouted raising his wand from the ground and aiming it at Ryan's wand hand. The jet of red burst forward from Harry's wand. However as soon he'd moved Ryan turned around swung his wand arm forward.

"Reverserio!" He shouted.

In a flash the jet flew back at Harry's hand and his wand flew out of it. Ryan reached up caught it, then holding both the wands between his fingers so that his palms were exposed he moved into a position with cuffed hands beside him. Suddenly Ryan's eyes narrowed and he reared back in a position that Harry had never seen before.

"Ka... me..." Ryan began his eyes narrowing.

Harry knew that he'd already lost the duel but what was Ryan doing.

"Ha... me..." Ryan continued. Harry wasn't sure what to expect. Suddenly Ryan stood up straight.

"Just kidding. That doesn't actually work." He smiled. Then in a flash his arm shot out. "Stupefy." He shouted. The red jet shot forward and smacked into Harry sending him spiraling through the air. Harry smacked the stage and slid across its surface until only half his body remained on the stage. He felt as though he were about to pass out.

Harry blinked and looked up. Ryan was kneeling beside him and he put his glasses and wand down on the ground.

"Sorry about that Harry. You might have been someone back at Hogwarts, but here you're just a freshman among the best wizards from all over the world. Every one of which earned the right to be here." He said the last part somewhat condescendingly.

Ryan stood up and walked off the stage, as Harry began to lose consciousness. The last thing Harry remembered was seeing Tyler slip his top hat on and shout somewhat hilariously that the duel was over.

No one had truly needed that decision. To Harry it was painfully obvious who had won the duel. And Harry had lost.