Chapter 5

The Dueling Tournament

Thursday was the day that James had inaccurately called "tomorrow" early that same morning. Sleep deprivation will do that to a person. At any rate, after lunch period, the marauders were making their way to Defence Against the Dark Arts Class, a class that they shared with the Slytherins.

The topic of conversation was not that of the surprising revelation that Lily Evans was now unsure of whether she was in love with him or not. James had bragged to the other Marauders about this perceived huge victory at both breakfast and lunch, and the other Marauders were very nearly at the point of being prepared to physically restrain him if he talked about the topic again. Sensing this fact, James decided to do mostly listening on the way to the DADA double session that afternoon.

This allowed Sirius casually to mention, "I'm breaking up with Electra soon."

"Really?" asked Remus. "I thought you were into her?"

"Well, she turned out to be not a lot more than a pretty face... well, and a good body, too. Not that i saw too much of it," pointed out Sirius.

"But that all sounds like good stuff," said Peter.

Sirius shook his head. "I'm not saying there wasn't some good snogging... And she has this really cute pair of shorts I got to see the other night in the broom closet, but... Looks honestly isn't enough, Petey. I mean, poor girl isn't interesting... She doesn't even like Quidditch."

"Hmmm," said James. "I'd still like Lily if she didn't like Quidditch."
"We know that," said Sirius, "but Lily's got quite a bit going for her aside from her looks, I mean she's talented, brave, and funny... and I can tell all that without even loving her. I can't imagine all you see in her. But Electra doesn't have any of those qualities. I suppose Hufflepuff House isn't actually famous for any of those qualities, so maybe I was just dumb for thinking I should date a Hufflepuff, but... Anyway, we had a few good snogging sessions and we're just about done."

"So do you have someone on your mind to see next? Or are you just sick of her?" asked Remus.

"Little bit of both, I think" said Sirius, though he used a tone of voice that made it clear that he was in little mood to talk about the subject anymore.

So Peter changed the subject. "What do you think the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor will be like. Is Julian Aurelius his name?"

"Yeah," Remus said "Marcy Clapton from Ravenclaw, who I did my rounds with last night, says he was really cool and all in class yesterday. They had a dueling competition on the first day and learned a new spell that sounded pretty cool. But now we're going to have to learn the rest in person since we've just reached the Defence Against the Dark Arts room."

And so they had. They walked inside to see that they were the first ones in the classroom, except for Julian Aurelius. Julian Aurelius looked to be about 35, with dark, long, scraggly hair, and dark eyes. It was his eyes that made him look so much older than the rest of his face and body looked. They looked somehow too wise, and they were surrounded with lines that seemed to indicate that he was concerned far more often than anyone ought to have to be.

James was immediately curious as to what made this young man so old, but he was unable to spend a lot of time on the thought process, as Marianne, Chloe, and Lily came in. This was not unusual. Gryffindors usually made it to Defence Against the Dark Arts far before the Slytherins.

Lily said "Hi," to the other marauders, but barely waved at James. This was fine with James. After all, it made perfect sense if she were embarrassed by what had happened early this morning. James himself nearly was except that, first of all, he did not embarrass particularly easy, and he wasn't the one who had just confessed that he may or may not love someone. He, at least, had had the courage to make a strong decision one way or another. And in Gryffindor, that was less embarrassing than equivocating.

James smiled at Lily though, and simply said, "Hey, Lily. I just wanted to thank you for what you said last night. And take as much time as you need."

His thanks was sincere. Going from not even friends to having her unsure of whether she might love him was a big leap. Besides, he didn't expect Lily to be unsure for too long. She had strongly disliked him for 6 years straight. Lily was a girl of strong emotions. He figured that now that she no longer basically hated, he was looking instead at either strong friendship or, hopefully, love. And he could wait as long as it took.

Lily, surprised at his kindness and lack of badgering found the courage to smile back at him. Why not? She liked smiling at James.

The remaining Gryffindors, and the already irritated looking Slytherins came into the room. It was common knowledge that most of them would rather be learning the Dark Arts than learning to defend against them, but Lily rather wondered why they couldn't have the common courtesy to at least pretend this wasn't the case during class time. But then again, common courtesy was hardly something that the Slytherins were known for. Lily's eyes met those of Severus Snape, and both of them looked away, embarrassed. Lily was embarrassed that she had once been friends with someone who was so obviously obsessed with the Dark Arts. She could only imagine what Snape was embarrassed about. She reckoned she did not want to know.

"Greetings to your first Defence Against the Dark Arts class of the semester. As you may have heard from your peers in different classes, I want to start this class off with a simple defence spell, which we will then use in our first dueling competition of the semester. The incantation for the spell is simply "Principium," and, if you are successful in getting it to hit your opponent, it means that you are the next one who will be able to cast a spell in the duel. It works best, of course, in one on one duels, but most wizards still consider this to be the most noble way to fight. It is possible to hit two wizards or witches with this spell at once, but that requires great magical power, and generally much practice. It can, unfortunately, be blocked by a simple "protego" spell, but if you are in a fight with a Dark Wizard, you will often find that he is more concerned about hurting you than protecting himself, so he is more likely to be getting ready to perform the Cruciatus curse on you than setting up a Protego for himself. Mind you, this spell can stop every spell except for Avada Kedavra if you are able to hit your opponent with your spell before he has cast his. I hope all this hasn't been too terribly confusing for the first day of class. What say you?" asked Aurelius.

Even the Slytherins grudgingly shook their heads "no," indicating that the new spell was not too hard. It was, Lily thought, an interesting spell to use though, if you were in a pinch, to give you the chance to cast the next spell. Expelliarmus could often do the same, but using that spell could lead to all kinds of difficulties... If the wizard was prepared for it, they could grip tighter and might not lose the wand, and if the wizard was lucky enough to have a particularly loyal wand, that made execution of the spell even more difficult. James had tucked away the spell in his head, as he had done with almost every Defense Against the Dark Arts spell he had come across, but he was personally more interested in getting the duels underway. And luckily, it turned out that this was where Professor Aurelius' head was at as well.

"Right, well, first of all, I'd like to ask you all to come up here and line up against the front of the room. I'm about to do a quick rearrangement of the room for which it would be in your best interest not to be in the middle of the room," he said. The class complied. It was easy to tell that Aurelius was not the sort of man who wasted words, so if he told you to do something, it was most likely because it really needed to be done.

After the class got to the front of the room, Lily found herself, completely by accident, standing next to James Potter, with the odd desire to reach out and grab his hand, and maybe never let go. This sort of thought, she reflected, was one of the reasons that she thought perhaps she loved him. But love wasn't the sort of thing that just developed in a week, was it? And certainly not towards someone who had been so much of a prat to her as James had over the last 6 years. Didn't he, just maybe, need to earn her love a bit more. Or maybe she just needed to figure out what this whole "love" thing was before she knew whether she was having it toward James.

Her thoughts were broken into by the strong, commanding voice of Professor Aurelius. It wasn't until she looked up (she realized she had been staring at the floor in thought) that she realized that Aurelius had moved all the desks to the edges of the room.

"We shall be dueling," said Aurelius. "The goal is to render your opponent incapable of fighting. That can be done in a number of ways, such as acquiring your opponent's wand or rendering your opponent paralyzed. Of course, there are other distracting spells you can use. It goes without saying, but no unforgivable curses are allowed, and nothing to intentionally send your opponent to the hospital wing. If you are to use curses, they must be ones with simple remedies. Two duels will be going on at a time, and there's two reasons for that. First of all, I can only really watch two duels at a time, and I want to see what each of your strengths and weaknesses are. Also, there's really not enough space in this room to do any more than two at a time. This is a tournament, but we can't have only the winners duel, because we've got two periods here, and it can't just be a waste of time for people who lose. Those who lose will continue to duel with each other in consolation rounds, and the best of the duelers in the consolation bracket will duel for the chance to face the winner and dethrone him or her. The prize will be 50 house points for first place, 25 for second, and 20 for third. You lot ready to begin?"

Even the Slytherins looked eager, now that the prospect of house points had been thrown into the mix. No doubt they thought they could sweep and take 95 house points. Arrogant bastards, Lily thought. James was thinking approximately the same thing but in a more vulgar way.

"Let's start with some 'friendly' duels. That is, people dueling against those in their same house. There's only 32 of you, less than I had of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws combined yesterday, but we still might as well whittle it down to 8 per house pretty quick."

Lily was one of the first Ravenclaws to duel, in contest against Meagan Weber. Meagan Weber was one of those Gryffindor girls who cheered the loudest for James at the Quidditch match, and had probably had a close encounter in a broom closet with Sirius Black at least once.

As soon as Aurelius said "go", Lily had cast a Principium spell, eager to use the spell she had just learned.

Meagan Weber must have hesitated, because by the time she cast her "petrificus totalus" it did absolutely nothing. Lily had the advantage, as she now had the next spell to cast. "Expelliarmus!" Lily yelled loudly and powerfully. The wand crashed against the wall behind Meagan. "Accio wand!" yelled Lily, before Meagan had a chance to recover it by non-magical means. Lily had won Gryffindor's first round.

Some chap who none of the Gryffindors associated with, Paul Everton, won the first round for the Slytherins.

James won his first round, which happened to be against Andrew Longbottom, who he managed to cast a jelly-legs curse on before disarming him, therefore making it unnecessary for James even to accio Andrew's wand, since it was apparent that he would not be able to retrieve it from 15 paces away without even being able to stand up straight on his own two feet.

During all this, James had missed the action going on in the Slytherin match-up, but by the time he looked over, Andrew Flint had somehow managed to give boils and visible bruises to Marcus Vice. Vice and Flint were rivals within the Slytherin house. James didn't pay much attention to those sort of internal politics where his own house wasn't involved, but Flint seemed to be using this match as an excuse to hurt Vice moreso than actually to win. Shortly after James had started watching, Vice, whose boils had started to puss and bleed, managed to aim a well-placed petrificus totalus curse and end the match. He went back to the wall where a girl who James assumed was dating Vice quickly performed some quick charms on his wounds and boils to get him feeling better. Flint did not seem to care at all that he had lost.

James walked over to Lily, who looked a little shaken up by the cruelty she had just seen. He put his hand on her shoulder and said, "Don't worry Lily, you'd have him petrified before he even had a chance to give you boils." Lily smiled at James and he was glad that she didn't take her shoulder away from his hand. He even dared to rub her shoulder for a bit before she made a face that told him that that was too much just now.

Lily continued to smile at him, "Nice trick with the jelly-legs by the way."

"Thanks. You did well yourself you know. I suppose next round won't be 'friendly,' as Aurelius is calling it, but hopefully I'll get to duel you in the third round."

"I'm not sure you want a piece of this, Potter," said Lily with a smug grin.

"I'm back to Potter, now?" asked James, with a note of fake hurt in his voice.

"Only when I'm trash-talking you. Potter," said Lily, who then smiled again. Merlin, her smile was cute.

Not too much notable happened the first round. Remus and Sirius both advanced, as did Chloe and Marietta. Peter did not.

The next round was Gryffindors versus Slytherins. In the winners' bracket, Lily easily beat a girl named Maxima Goyle, who, as James was aware, had two brothers. Marietta, Remus, and Sirius all advanced this round, too, although most other Gryffindors dropped. Chloe fell to Michael Prewett, who was the first Prewett to be sorted into Slytherin in decades. He managed to expelliarmus her wand quickly, and then gave her boils while she was going to grab it, before performing the accio charm to get it. It was foul play, and it left the Gryffindors indignant. Many wondered why Aurelius didn't call foul or something.

The most interesting match in the winners bracket in the second round, however, was without a doubt that between James Potter and Severus Snape.

James wasn't scared, but he had become aware that, over the past year or so, Snape had acquired the ability to beat almost anybody in a fair fight. He was still confident he could win, but he was slightly wary that Snape might give him boils, bruises, cuts, or something else that would not feel remotely pleasant. The loser's-bracket duel going on at the same time was that between Peter and Flint.

When "go!" was called, James immediately yelled "Protego!"

Snape yelled "expelliarmus!" and the spell was so strong that it broke the protego charm and required James to hold on tight to his wand in order to properly keep hold of it.

Knowing that neither of them had the advantage yet, James yelled "Principium!" at the same time as Snape yelled "Expelliarmus!" James wasn't sure who had gotten his spell off first.

When his wand flew out of his hand, he knew. Shit, thought James, he didn't want to lose to Snape. But the duel wasn't over yet. He was still standing. He turned his back on Snape to try to retrieve his wand, listening astutely for what his next spell would be, wondering if he would go for some spiteful curse, Petrificus Totalus, or if he would simply accio his wand.

Snape seemed to be hesitating over the same question, because James was within several strides of his wand before he heard Snape yell "Accio wand!"

But because it was a long spell to say, and because he was so close, James had a moment to crouch down into a jumping position, and watch the wand as it began to rise from the ground. It was off faster than a Bludger going toward a seeker, but James was just a little faster. He placed his non-wand hand in front of the projectile wand, and used his wand hand to grab it tight. It worked, even though James had hardly dared to expect it to.

Every Gryffindor in the room was cheering.

Snape, however, seemed to be done playing around, as he yelled "Petrificus Totalus."

But James had one more surprise maneuver left in him. He ducked to the ground, simultaneously pointing his wand at Snape and yelling "Expelliarmus!" He yelled "Accio Wand!" without even waiting to notice whether his first spell had gotten through all right. Within seconds, he had Snapes wand.

Flint had beaten Peter by giving him the Petrificus Totalus curse, in spite of the fact that he had wasted time by giving him boils and a bloody nose, too. Peter was not nearly as talented as the rest of the Marauders. Remus quickly tidied him up.

James was wondering why Snape had not fought dirtier. James was somewhat relieved, but mostly surprised, that Snape had performed no magic to give him boils, hurt him, or cut him. Perhaps he had wanted to win, or perhaps he, unlike Prewett and Flint, was unwilling to draw attention to his propensity toward painful curses this early in a new class with a new teacher.

James made his way over to talk to Lily.

"Fantastic duel, James," she said. James thought it was the strongest compliment he had ever gotten from her.

Then, "Oh Merlin, James, you're bleeding!" shouted Lily, looking at his non-wand hand, with which he had caught his wand.

"Er... I hadn't noticed," said James.

"Well let me fix it," said Lily, and she took his hand tenderly in hers as she performed a simple healing charm. James had to fight a strong urge to kiss her.

In the 3rd round, then, the 8 duelers left standing were Marietta, Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, Prewett, Vice, and some Slytherin named Dolohov.

Lily took on Prewett, and looked eager to avenge Chloe's pain.

Lily went for a disarming spell first. It worked, but only barely, and Prewett leapt on it before Lily was able to bring it to herself. Lily was in the midst of putting a Protego charm up when Prewett mumbled a spell that no one could quite hear. Lily's beautiful face was immediately covered with warts. This seemed to throw her off for a moment, especially as the Slytherins were laughing, but Prewett was momentarily distracted by his opportunity to revel in someone else's embarrassment.

James knew the best way to give Lily the offensive back was to make the Slytherin's lose their sense of humor. "Don't worry Lily, dearest, just keep the warts there. That way you'll look just like the rest of the Slytherin purebloods and old Tommykins won't be able to tell the difference."

All the Slytherins stopped laughing. The few that understood what James might possibly mean glared at him furiously. Snape, Flint, and Prewett all glared. Now the Gryffindors were laughing instead. While Prewett was distracted, Lily caught a moment to petrify him. Afterwards, she removed her own warts.

James beat Vice with little effort. A simple "expelliarmus" nearly splintered his wand against the wall, and James immediately petrified him.

Marietta beat Remus in a good fight, Black handily defeated Dolohov.

After all this dueling, it was now nearing the end of the second period, especially since now most of the duels were amongst the losers.

The round of 4 was Marietta versus Sirius, and Lily versus James.

At this point, Aurelius made an announcement, "Since there are only Gryffindor duelers left, I will have it be a Slytherin who fights to get back one of the top spots. The two most talented Slytherin duelers, in my judgment, are Flint and Prewett. We will have them duel before the round of four. From now on, all duels shall be individual; we will all be watching the same duel."

The Flint and Prewett duel, however, turned out not to be terribly exciting. They were clearly in the same clique in Slytherin. There were no dirty tricks, and in fact it almost seemed like Prewett wasn't even really trying hard. After a bit of sparring, Flint petrified Prewett.

Aurelius looked puzzled, but nevertheless announced, "The Slytherin Challenger, then, shall be Flint."

Lily and James were set to duel. "No hard feelings either way, right Lily?" asked James before they began.

"Of course not," said Lily. "Just don't give me any boils." She smiled at him. To be honest, that was almost enough to disarm James in and of itself.

When they began, Lily started with a Principium spell while James tried expelliarmus to start. Lily's wand went no where. James braced himself for what the next spell might be, and got ready to duck, dive, or dodge, as the case may call for.

Lily yelled "Petrificus Totalus!" apparently going for the immediate kill.

James, already having noted the direction that her wand was pointed, dove out of the way.

"Accio wand!" he yelled, putting all his magical strength behind the spell, trying to acquire the wand before disarming Lily. He could see Lily struggling to keep the wand in her hand, but soon it broke out and flew into James' hand.

"Unbelievable," congratulated Lily, after the match. "But then I've always said you were better at DADA than me. You'll just have to protect me all the time," she said. James perceived that she was only partially joking.

Sirius and Marietta dueled for a good long time before either of them was able to come up with a disabling spell. Somehow, though, with the way they dueled, both James and Lily were tempted to tell their respective friend to get a room. Or at least a broom closet. Finally, however, Sirius petrified Marietta, and as filthy minded as she felt for thinking it, Lily wondered if petrified was perhaps the way Sirius preferred his dates.

That meant that the final round was between Sirius and James.

James knew better than to fool around with anything like "Protego" with Sirius. He'd break through it with a single spell.

So James yelled "Petrificus Totalus!"

Sirius dodged the spell with ease as he shouted Expelliarmus. The wand left James' right hand, but he caught it with his left.

James knew enough about Sirius to know that he always dodged to his right. So James started to say "Petrificus Totalus," and then at the last moment, pointed his wand up and to the right. Sirius became petrified in midair.

Aurelius announced, "So for this final match, whoever wins comes in first. If it's Flint, he takes 50 points for Slytherin, and first place. If he loses, however, he takes third place."

James and Flint eyed each other up before the duel took place. They both knew they hated each other. Both seemed to sense instinctively that they'd meet on a battlefield someday.

When Aurelius yelled "Go!", James was simply quicker.

He yelled "Expelliarmus!" in the same amount of time that it took Flint to yell "Cru-!"

But the rest of the spell never made it out of Flint's mouth, much less did it make James' body writhe in pain, because Flint's wand flew out of his hand, and before it touched the floor, James had said the spell needed to bring it into his hand. James was pleased that he and Sirius had gotten first and second place, and as far as he was concerned, Lily had properly gotten third.

Aurelius was furious though. "Flint! Detention for a week!"

"For what?" asked Flint trying to play innocent.

"I highly suspect that you were planning to use the Cruciatus Curse on another student. If I could prove that, you wand would be snapped faster than you could say 'Merlin's Beard.' But I suppose your father's a death-eater and has other ways of getting you wands, doesn't he? At any rate, it's strictly possible, though doubtful, that you had intended to say "Cruxio," which would have drawn a red line on your opponent's chest. Therefore, you are simply being punished for your general cruelty during today's tournament."

A/N: Other stuff was supposed to happen this chapter, but DADA took forever. Please donate rice if you think this chapter was worth it, although it is not a requirement that you do. My attempts at quotas has not worked out, so I must simply have faith that the chapter will earn what it's worth. Let me know what you thought about the chapter and/or the story to this point.