Chapter 9
Exibitionism
For the first time in recent memory, the students of Hogwarts weren't all talking about the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend. The first Hogsmeade had been quite tame with nothing of note happening, Harry had felt too awkward and had avoided Daphne, instead wandering around with Neville and Archer. This time an announcement had been made that threw the plans of most students out the window. Since the beginning of the year Archer had been begging Flitwick about organising some duelling practice. Flitwick had declared himself too busy with seven years' worth of classes to teach, charms club to sponsor and his duties as head of Ravenclaw, he had however acquiesced to a public exhibition match for the benefit of the students. Dumbledore had agreed to preside and Professor Lupin wanted to watch and see if there was anything of note for his classes. The only time all of the staff had the time to do this was the second Hogsmeade weekend of the year.
When most of the school had expressed interest watching a former European champion duelling the current junior European champion the main hall was rearranged. House tables were gone, down the middle of the hall was a raised piste flanked on either side by tiered seating. Harry sat in the middle of the seating with Neville explaining what was likely to happen.
"So normally duels happen in two stages. Firstly, you have the probing stage, this is the flashiest bit where you'll see the most creative casting. Its where even Archer will admit I'm stronger, transfiguration is the name of the game here. You'll see things like physical objects being conjured and banished, transfigured and cast back or vanished. It's almost turn based, it goes on till someone can't deal with something or someone decides to break etiquette and rush to the second stage. The second stage is what I call the scramble and its where Archer is brilliant. Basically it becomes a free-for all where all semblance of turns goes out the window and instead of cute tricks its curses and hexes that will fly."
Neville nodded more than a little excited about what he would see. "Who do you think will win?"
"Flitwick has more experience and probably more cultured spell casting so if he can beat Archer before Archer really starts spell slinging then him but I wouldn't put it past Archer to break convention and start with an all-out assault to surprise Flitwick, that could give him a quick win." Harry replied.
"How well known is Archer's style?" Neville asked.
"Flitwick has almost certainly read descriptions in duelling journals, you don't get as good as he was without caring. He's definitely going to be aware but I doubt he's had time to track down any memories of Archer's recent duels."
"Memories?"
"Yeah, you're a pureblood you must have heard of a pensieve?" Harry answered as if that explained everything.
"Yeah I think there is one in Longbottom hall but I won't get it till I hit seventeen. That doesn't explain why Flitwick would see memories of Archer duelling?"
"Oh, well pensieves don't have to show just your own memories, I don't doubt when you get the Longbottom pensive there will be memories from your family history. What most people don't realise is once a memory is extracted a special from of the Geminio spell can copy it, these copies are sold and can be ordered from the journals. That way people can spectate the biggest duels or even quidditch matches without being there. Now pensieves are really rare but some of the families that have died out have made theirs publically available so everyone could use them. I'm sure Hogwarts has at least one so Flitwick could have used it but if he's a busy as he tells Archer then he won't have had time to do proper scouting." Harry explained.
Neville nodded as the last of the students took their seats and Dumbledore walked on to the stage.
"Ladies and gentlemen of Hogwarts, today we will witness the first ever duel between staff and a student. This duel is not about honour or pride it is simply an exhibition match. Now, before I announce our duellists Professor Lupin has a few words for you."
Remus walked onto the stage near Dumbledore, he paused and looked around aware that no matter where he faced he would have his back to half the students.
"At Hogwarts duelling between students is banned, this will be a very rare chance to see a duel. In defence classes I specialise in creatures however a large part of the course is on defending from spell casting. I want all of you to pay attention to how each of the contestants stop each other's spells. I may even put a few quizzes into my classes since it seems we aren't missing anyone."
Neville looked around and he was right it looked like the entire school was here, he even thought he saw a few of the Hogsmeade shop owners no doubt here to see why their stores were empty. Dumbledore spoke up again as Lupin made his way back to his seat. "Now it is my privilege to introduce our very own charms master and our first duellist, Professor Flitwick."
Flitwick walked in with wearing a padded blue duelling jacket with bronze buttons and breeches with a short red cape draped over one shoulder.
"And his opponent today is Archer Pittman."
Archer walked in, well they assumed it was Archer, he was wearing a long black cloak with hood up casting his entire face in shade.
"Today's duel being an exhibition will be best of three so there should be plenty to watch. There will be ten minute breaks between duels to allow our duellist time to recover and be checked over by Madam Pomfrey, provided she allows them to continue we will move on to the next round. Duelist to your marks please."
Archer and Flitwick moved to marks on the piste where they would begin. Once the match started they were free to move but they had set starting positions.
"Duellists ready, you will start on my signal."
Flitwick and Archer bowed to each other then moved to their ready positions. Flitwick took a very classical position, standing sideways, wand pointing towards Archer, back arm with the cape resting on his hip. Archer raised his hands from beneath the cloak but did not lower his hood. He stood with palms facing Flitwick confusing most people who handed paid attention to his spell casting before.
Dumbledore raised his wand and the entire hall was silent, attention completely on the piste. A loud bang echoed through the hall and a shimmer went up as a shield rose around the stage protecting the crowd. The crowd, minus Harry was surprised neither duellist had moved, both continued to watch.
"What's happening?" Neville whispered to Harry.
"Nobody wants to go first, the moment you begin a wand motion the spell or spell chain can be narrowed down so the counter can be prepared, it also tells you about your opponent."
"Oh." Neville said.
Flitwick broke first, with a double circular motion a giant jet of water was cast towards Archer, Archer replied by freezing the water and banishing the wall of ice towards the diminutive charms Professor. The professor cast a spell that blew apart the ice block and he banished the shards back at Archer, with a flick of one of his hands Archer transfigured the shards into birds which flew past him and swooped back towards Flitwick and dived towards him. Flitwick simply vanished the birds and cast an animating charm on Archer's cloak causing his hood to pull down over his eyes, he followed up with and incendio to set fire to the cloak. Archer immediately shrugged out of the cloak relieving a Jacket with Great Britain's flags as a thin ribbon down the sleeves and the Black family crest on the chest Pittman –GBR was clear on his back. He sent the cloak at Flitwick enlarging it as it went to cover the part Goblin. The cloak covered the Professor and Archer missed the complex wand motion that gave away a larger animation charm. The whole stage started to ripple and waves seemed to roll towards Archer who lost his footing and was immediately assaulted by a stream of disarming charms he was able to shield them but missed the first year levitation charm which lifted him up by his feet, surprised missed the next spell and was hit by a stunning spell.
"The first round to Professor Flitwick, we now take a ten-minute recess while our duellists recover."
As noise broke out through the hall Hogwarts was surprised to see the snack trolley from the Hogwarts express wheeled out pushed by the kind woman selling the snacks to the peckish students.
"I thought she lived on the train," joked Neville. "So what do you make of that first round?"
"Archer was stupid to lose track of Flitwick, they both had chances to finish the duel much earlier, Flitwick when Archer's stupid hood was pulled down and Archer could have hexed Flitwick into the middle of next week which the cloak covered Flitwick. They were both playing on the exhibition side of things. You saw how the duel progressed to a scramble when Archer lost his footing?"
"Yeah it was kinda cool with loads of nice magic then he just started pounding Archer when he was down."
"Well normally Archer could have recovered and fought back but he missed the leviosa. Either way expect a more brutal next round, Archer hates loosing."
After another few minutes Madam Pomfrey declared both fit to continue but everyone could see her muttering as she walked away no doubt not approving of the activity.
When Dumbledore started the second round both duellists stared at each other again and again Flitwick cast first. A ball of light shot towards Archer who for the first time of the day verbalised a spell as he called "Waddiwasi" and the ball's trajectory was reversed Archer cast non-verbally from his other hand a follow up spell that Harry identified as a variation of the knock-back jinx used to push a shield into the caster leaving him squashed by his own shield. An Ascendio charm by Flitwick forced him over the top of both spells which impacted on the spell shield behind. Where Flitwick was due to land was hit by a spell by Archer to transfigure it into a quagmire forcing Flitwick to use a hover charm to suspend himself above the piste. It left him vulnerable and with his focus split it was hard for him to maintain altitude whilst defending from the various jinxes and hexes sent his way. Eventually he dropped into the quagmire as shielding took all his focus. As his legs sunk down slightly he ducked under a nasty looking hex that shot towards him as a dark purple stream. He cast a slug eating hex into a stunning spell looking for a moments reprieve. Archer batted the spells away using an advanced duelling shield and went back on the offensive using a spell that shot lightning from his palms towards Flitwick. Flitwick was able to conjure an iron pole that acted as a lightning rod and took the spell into the stage. The section of the piste exploded and Archer banished the fragments at Flitwick who cast a ventus jinx to clear the debris and the smoke. Archer used the window to cast a series stunning spells which Flitwick shielded with a reflective shield casting them back at Archer who batted them away into the spectator barrier. Again Flitwick and Archer stared at each other before Flitwick cast a spell chain of mild jinxes at Archer and while he shielded he cast another ascendio and summersaulted out of the quagmire. Archer smirked and cast stunners from one hand while shooting physical objects at Flitwick. Flitwick couldn't stop the physical objects with the reflective shield he'd used earlier so he resorted to using a generic protego shield which stops most things but provided no threat. Archer took the initiative and disillusioned himself and silenced himself. The crowd started murmuring. Flitwick looked around. The Homenum Revelio spell would reveal Archer but would leave the Professor venerable while he cast. Drawing on all his experience Professor Flitwick waited, ready to shield and cast at wherever the spell came from. What he didn't expect was Archer to have crept up behind him and cast a point-blank stunner at the Professor.
"The second round goes to Mr Pittman with good use of a disillusionment spell." Dumbledore announced as Archer rippled back into visibility.
"Wow, that was so different from the first round." Nevile said to Harry.
"Yeah that was far more Archer's style. The moment he got the disillusionment up it was over." Harry replied.
"The magic was impressive but I had no clue what they were casting half the time. At least in the first duel it was clear what they were trying." Neville continued.
"Archer lost out trying to be cute with the fancy spells which seem to be Flitwick's forte. Think of Flitwick as a graceful swordsman, everything is done with balance and grace keeping the opponent at arm's reach. He seems to have a decent balance between attack and defence. Archer is more of a knife fighter. He wants the fight to get close enough shields are hard to pull off and dodging followed by a lightning fast offensive. It's less clean but just as deadly. The less you can follow the more in favour of Archer it probably is." Harry said shrugging.
"How do you keep up with him?"
"When he his close you can't, he's so fast, I can't cast from both hands even using my spare wand. He spent almost a year learning to pull that off. I can use transfiguration and conjuration much more effectively than he can. If I can survive the onslaught long enough to cast myself then I can outnumber and distract him with conjured creatures, but in an all-out slugfest then I can't." Harry answered.
"Any bets on the final round?" Neville asked.
"I think Archer has this. I think Flitwick will continue to treat it as a fun exhibition and keep using cute spells, Archer is going to treat this as the final of the world championships, I think he's gonna skip the whole probing section of the duel, he knows that Flitwick can best him there and knows more magic. Flitwick is out of practice however against heavy spell fire so I think Archer will just attack from the off."
Harry was right. As the duel started instead of the normal waiting both of Archer's palms seemed to start flashing. Stinging hexes and hundreds of them were shot towards the small charms Professor, so many and in such a spread all he could do was put up a shield and endure. The shield had to be spread wide to cover his whole body from the hexes as a result the magical barrier wasn't thick enough in to stop the couple of highly focused gouging hexes the were used to pierce the shield. In reaction to the pain in his thigh and shoulder Flitwick shrunk his shield to make it stronger so he could block the gouging spells. Instantly he fleet stinging in his feet as the change was felt and exploited. As the Professor's eyes started to water he knew he couldn't win if he stayed on the defensive, he threw himself to the side and dropped his shield casting a stunner at Archer hoping to catch him by surprise. He didn't Archer batted it away with one hand and cast a series of disarming charms and stinging hexes at the now prone Professor. Flitwick could endure no more as his wand was ripped from his hand.
"Halt," Dumbledore called seeing his charm's professor bested. "The round and overall match goes to Mr Pittman with and all-out offensive strategy." Madam Pomfrey rushed over to Flitwick and cast the counter spell to remove all the stinging welts. The gouges were reduced in power by the shield so were only skin deep meaning they were easily healed. One quick pain relief potion later and the diminutive charms master was on his feet and went to shake the hand of his opponent.
Astoria Greengrass turned to her sister, "I swear I've seen him before somewhere," she said playing with something hanging from her neck, "whatever if Harry is almost as good then you'll be very safe from Malfoy and his merry band."
"Yeah but Harry doesn't seem like the type to show it unless he needs to." Tracey answered for Daphne.
"I can look after myself perfectly fine thank you." Daphne said coldly.
"Oh dear, this isn't about if you could this is about if you would have to. If Malfoy found out, you were attached to Potter things could get interesting especially with Nott. But after today's display and what Pitman did on the first night I think they'll have to leave him be." Tracey said.
Later at dinner when the tables had been replaced the great hall as abuzz with chatter about the day's spectacle. Archer, Neville and Harry were sitting at the Slytherin table with Daphne and Tracey.
"So Pittman," Tracey started.
"So Tracey?" Archer replied.
"You clearly like the attention, you like being the winner, why are you playing beater on the quidditch team, surely seekers get all the glory like Potter proved the other week?"
"Ah, well I like to think about it in terms of game impact. A seeker can contribute a max of one hundred and fifty points. Against good beaters and or bad weather it could take even a great seeker a long time to make the catch. A great beater has two heavy iron balls to propel at other players, if the other team's beaters aren't in the right place at the right time their team mate can be out of the game. That glory-hunting seeker could be out of the game before he even sees the snitch if he's not defended and doesn't see the bludger coming. If Harry and I hadn't already agreed to have no match ending injuries to him he wouldn't feint and make our seeker crash. That and the Weasley twins babysitting him meant he was safe, you just wait for the next match and I'll show why beaters can have more of an impact than seekers."
"So it's not a bout of modesty at all? Not an admission of a lack of skill?"
"Not at all Tracey dear, I might admit that Harry is a better seeker than me but I could play it, I choose not to." Archer answered with a smirk. As they headed off to the dorms they knew that it would be the talk of the school for the next week or two.
