Chapter 15 – The Duelling Contest
Phenix had tried to enjoy the rest of the ball but Kyle's kiss had been playing on his mind and he had seemed distant to Jack who kept asking him what was wrong. Phenix had lied and said his headache was still bothering him and he was glad when the evening was over.
The next morning it was still all he could think about. Had Kyle kissed him just to wind him up? Or did he really like him?
His first lesson of the day was with Kyle but he seemed to be going out of his way to avoid him. Usually Phenix would have been glad of this as Kyle only ever picked on him or mocked him in classes but he really wanted to know what was going on with him. But he knew he couldn't approach him in front of his friends and ask him outright and he wondered if maybe he should just forget that the whole thing had ever happened.
After the class was over Kyle made a quick exit. Phenix had a free period next so he was in no rush as he had nowhere to be as he packed his things away. He saw his sister across the classroom and decided to see if he could find out anything from her about Kyle's behaviour at the ball.
"Hi sis," Phenix said as he approached her.
"What do you want?" she said back, not in the friendliest of moods.
"Can't I just want to see how my sister is doing?" Phenix replied with a fake smile.
"I'll catch up with you both later," Phia said to her friends Lana and Vanessa so she could talk to her brother alone.
Once Phia had packed up her things she and Phenix left the classroom together.
"I never got to speak to you at the ball but I thought you looked beautiful in your dress. It was one of mum's wasn't it?" Phenix asked as they walked along the corridor.
"Yeah I think she wore it to a ball at school too," Phia replied with a bit of melancholy as she thought about her late mother.
"So did you have a good night?"
"Is this about me dancing with Jack? Has he asked you to come speak to me?" she said defensively. "Because I don't know why I did that. I don't like him. He doesn't think I do does he?"
"Well in fairness it's pretty much all he has been talking about since," Phenix said and he could see the look of horror on his sisters face.
"Oh great," Phia fumed.
"But how was the rest of your night? How was your date?"
"If you must know it wasn't great. Halfway through the night Kyle disappeared and I didn't see him again. And since then he's been avoiding me so I can't find out what happened. That's the last time I date a Slytherin," she said with contempt. "Anyway I've got to go as I've got Quidditch practice."
Phia disappeared down the corridor and Phenix was glad at least to hear things were over between his sister and Kyle. He wasn't sure how she would have reacted if she found out he had been kissing other boys.
Phenix headed back up to his dorm and found Jack on his bed with a broad smile on his face and seemingly daydreaming.
"Are you thinking about that dance with my sister again?" Phenix asked. "Because I wouldn't read too much into it. I think the occasion of the night probably just took over her," he said as he dumped his bag by his bed and crashed on it.
"Well I know you put something in my drink," Jack replied, still lying on his bed.
"What? I have no idea what you're talking about," Phenix said, suddenly sitting up.
"Come on I'm not that stupid. I know all those girls were only fighting over me because you put an attraction potion in my drink," Jack said as he turned to his friend.
"You managed to figure it all out then?" Phenix said, not wanting to lie to his friend anymore.
"Well no actually Amelia told me. She said it was her idea and that she talked you into it."
"Look I'm really sorry," declared Phenix with genuine sincerity.
"It's fine. I know you were only doing it cos you thought you were being a good friend and I ended up having a good time so it's all good," Jack said and Phenix was glad to see him smiling and sighed in relief. "I saw you talking with your sister earlier. Did she say anything about me?"
"No she had other things on her mind like her date ditching her half way through the night," Phenix noted.
"What a douche. Why would he do that?"
"He was actually with me," Phenix said, feeling guilty.
"Kyle was with you? What were you doing? He didn't hurt you did he?" Jack said and now he was the one sitting up on his bed, concerned for his friend.
"Not exactly. He was kissing me," Phenix said feeling awkward and could feel his face going red from embarrassment.
"Kissing you?! Why would he do that?" Jack said in surprise.
"I don't know. Maybe cos I'm an attractive guy?" Phenix said, a little offended that Jack had seemed so shocked that someone would kiss him.
"I didn't mean why was he kissing you specifically, I meant why is he kissing guys at all? Is he gay too?"
"I have no idea," Phenix said, still feeling confused about the whole situation.
"Well didn't he say anything?" Jack asked.
"No he just legged it afterwards and I haven't really wanted to go and ask him about it since."
"Do you think he fancies you then? I guess that would explain why he picks on you all the time," noted Jack.
"It would?" a confused Phenix asked.
"Yeah it's classic behaviour. You show resentment to the person you fancy. I'm pretty sure that's why your sister is always hostile towards me," Jack said with no hint of sarcasm.
"I'm pretty sure that's not the reason why she's like that to you," Phenix said, trying to be subtle and not hurt his friend's feelings.
"You know I might have a chance with her now that her boyfriend is gay. I could be a shoulder to cry on as she gets over it and then she'll see what a caring and nice guy I am," Jack said getting excited.
"Firstly Kyle wasn't her boyfriend," Phenix interrupted before Jack could get ahead of himself. "Secondly we don't know for sure that he's gay and thirdly you can't tell anyone about this."
"Why not? Why should we keep Kyle's secret?" Jack protested. "He's been nothing but horrible to both of us."
Phenix knew his friend had a point. Kyle could do with being taken down a peg or two and outing him would serve him right for his behaviour towards him over the years. But Phenix knew how hard it had been for himself coming to terms with his sexuality and coming out to his friends and family so he wasn't about to out someone else. Plus he didn't even know for sure if Kyle was gay.
In the evening after classes were over Phenix and Jack made their way to dinner. As they headed over to their table Jack saw Phia already sat at the Ravenclaw table and he tried to catch her attention. Phia had clearly seen him but quickly put her head down pretending she hadn't.
"Maybe I should go talk to her after dinner," Jack suggested.
"Who?" Phenix asked, having not been paying too much attention.
"Your sister. You know tell her how much fun I had dancing with her at the ball and say what a moron Kyle was for ditching her. I think it would cheer her up."
Phenix was pretty sure it was the last thing his sister wanted but didn't say anything and was glad once they had sat down at their table Jack became involved in a conversation about Quidditch with some of the others and forgot about his sister.
After dinner had finished and before anyone could start leaving, Dumbledore made his way to the front of the teacher's table to speak to them all.
"Good evening everyone. Firstly can I say how splendid you all looked at the Millennial Ball at the weekend and how delightful it was to see you all having a good time, some more than others," Dumbledore said with a smirk as he glanced behind him to Professor Snape who looked a little worse for wear and his head was hanging down to avoid anyone's gaze.
A small ripple of laughter crossed the hall, much to Snape's annoyance.
"And now I would like to invite Professor Flitwick up who will be overseeing the second tournament of the Hogwarts Championship."
Dumbledore returned to his seat as Flitwick came around, accompanied by a small round of applause.
"Thank you professor," Flitwick said, nodding in Dumbledore's direction even though he was barely visible to anyone sat behind the teacher's table. "Now as you all know the second tournament is a Duelling competition. I won't go into all the rules now but I will explain how the contest will work. Once again you will be competing in your year groups and the competition will take the form of a knockout tournament with the winner of each match progressing to the next round. Points will be awarded for style, execution and accuracy and a panel of judges will decide who is triumphant based on these scores. And I would like to remind everyone this is a friendly competition. Students are not allowed to use spells that can inflict harm and anyone doing so will be disqualified immediately. The first duels will take place tomorrow evening. I won't read out the full list of who will be competing against who but lists will be up in your common rooms once you return their tonight. Thank you."
Flitwick and the rest of the teachers began departing the Great Hall as another round of applause echoed in the hall and Phenix was feeling a sense of dread. He had completely forgotten about the duelling contest. He only signed up as an excuse to get Charlie to help him and spend time with him but once he saw Charlie and Lana together he changed his mind about asking. And then what with the ball and trying to see if he could find anyone for him and Jack to go with the duelling slipped his mind. But now he was signed up and was expected to compete and he wasn't even very good at it.
Most of the students who had signed up for the tournament were eager to get out of the hall and back to their common rooms to find out who they'd be facing first but Phenix was not one of these and Jack practically had to drag him there. When they got to the Hufflepuff common room there was quite the crowd around the notice board and Phoenix was in no rush to get to the front to see the list.
As people started to move away once they had found out their matches the crowd had thinned enough for Jack and Phenix to make their way over to have a look.
Phenix began scanning through the list of names and saw Jack was facing Miles Turner, Charlie's friend from Gryffindor first. As he continued to look down the names he finally found his own and was troubled by what he saw. He was to face Kyle Gray.
Phenix had barely slept that night. He hadn't spoken to Kyle since their kiss at the Millennial Ball and now they were going to face each other in a duelling contest. He wasn't looking forward to it one bit.
He had been rather distracted in his lessons that day and his head was all over the place. In Herbology he had nearly pulled out a Mandrake root without proper ear protection and in Transfiguration he managed to turn his chicken into a stool when he was supposed to be turning it into a teapot.
However his Potions lesson was a different matter entirely. Snape was in a furious mood and started scolding everyone as soon as they had entered the classroom.
"Sit down at once!" he shouted angrily to those students who hadn't taken their seats yet. "Now don't think I'm too stupid to realise what happen to me at the Millennial Ball. One of you put the Elixir of Euphoria in my drink. So either one of you had better own up or you'll all have detention for a month!"
The class was in a stunned silence as Snape was still bubbling with anger as he looked around the room.
"Well come on. Which one of you was it? We haven't got all day!"
"Excuse me professor," Miss Nightingale called out from the side of the class and Snape instantly shot her a horrid look that almost made her think twice about what she was about to say but she continued nevertheless. "How can you be sure it was one of these students?"
"Because you gave them all a vial of the potion just days before the ball," Snape seethed, giving Miss Nightingale a look of contempt.
"I understand that but that doesn't mean another student outside of this class could have brewed the potion on their own," Nightingale stated. "I mean the whole class managed to brew it quite perfectly and you're often saying how incompetent most of them are. So if they can brew it, surely someone else could have too?"
There was a slight smirk on Nightingale's face, knowing that she was using Snape's usual insult of the students against him and Snape seemed almost shocked that she was daring to challenge him in his class.
"I guess there's also the possibility that a teacher could have put it in my drink also," Snape remarked, giving Miss Nightingale a deathly stare and the trainee teacher seemed to quiver slightly and said no more.
Snape once again looked around the room at the faces of all the students, looking for any signs of guilt.
"Very well then if no one will own up then I will see everyone in detention this evening!"
"But sir the duelling competition starts tonight," Ryan Wu called out impulsively and instantly regretted speaking out.
Everyone was expecting Snape to reprimand Ryan for his outburst and he probably would have had it been anyone but a Slytherin student. But house pride got the better of Snape, who was determined to see Slytherin emerge victorious from the Championship.
"Very well we will schedule the detention for after the tournament has ended. Now turn to page seventy-seven in your textbooks."
Phenix breathed a sigh of relief. He had been trembling since Snape accused a student of spiking his drink and he was sure the professor would have spotted his guilt a mile off. Though he was still feeling bad getting the whole class a detention, he knew if he had admitted to Snape it was him the professor would have tried to have him expelled. For now keeping quiet was the best option.
At dinner all anyone could talk about was the duelling tournament and it was making Phenix feel nervous as hell. His stomach was doing somersaults and he couldn't eat anything. He had looked over to the Slytherin table once or twice to see if he could gauge how Kyle was feeling but if he was worried too, he wasn't showing it. Kyle was being his usual boisterous self, laughing and joking with his mates.
"Do you think it's too late to pull out?" Phenix said as he turned to Jack.
"Come on you'll be fine. And if it looks like Kyle is going to win just blow him a kiss and I'm sure that will put him off," Jack said with a snigger of laughter.
"Keep your voice down will you," Phenix said, looking around the table to see if anyone had heard. "Or people might think I'm the one into him."
After dinner had finished and the leftover food and empty plates had been cleared away, the students were asked to leave the hall momentarily while it was readied for the tournament to begin. Everyone waited in the corridor outside and it was rather a noisy rabble of excited students, eager to begin, all except Phenix who was trying to fight the urge to throw up.
"Come on we're going back in," Jack said, giving Phenix a friendly push forward as students started to file back into the hall but Phenix just wished the ground would open up and swallow him whole.
Once everyone was back in Professor Flitwick went over the rules, of which there were numerous, and it was all quite tedious and people were beginning to get impatient. But eventually the professor had finished his announcements and officially declared the tournament started.
Three rectangle arenas had been set up with benches either side for spectators to watch and with a professor stood beside each, who would be their referee plus a further three teachers sat behind a desk on one side of each arena who would be the judges and ultimately decide the winner. It seemed that all the teachers and staff had been roped into helping with this tournament.
Phenix's match was due on first on the arena furthest from the door and the Hufflepuff students were quick to wish him luck and push him towards his fate.
Professor Skymore was to be the referee of the match and professors Quirrell and Sinistra and Madam Pince were their judges and Phenix was glad at least Snape wasn't involved in their match at he would have totally shown bias towards Kyle, not that he needed any help. Right now Phenix was pretty sure a Squib could beat him in a duel because of how anxious he was feeling.
By the time Phenix stepped into the arena Kyle was already in position and waiting but he didn't make any eye contact with Phenix. Instead he was looking at his friends in the crowd and getting them riled up and encouraging them to cheer his name.
As the chant of 'Kyle, Kyle, Kyle' filled Phenix's ears, Kyle finally turned to face his opponent. It was the first time they had faced each other since the kiss at the Millennial Ball, but Kyle was certainly not showing any hint of an attraction to Phenix right now. As Kyle gripped his wand he had an arrogant smirk on his face and a glint in his eye that said he was going to enjoy beating Phenix in a duel.
Phenix gulped nervously, his hands trembling and he was barely able to grip his wand tightly. His palms were sweaty and his heart was pounding in his chest.
Professor Skymore quickly went over the basics of the duel once more but Phenix couldn't take any of it in. It was just gibberish to him as Kyle stared him out.
"Heads or tails Phenix?" Skymore said and it took Phenix a moment to realise he was being asked a question as the professor held a shiny Galleon in his hand.
"Er heads," Phenix replied before Skymore flipped the coin into the air and caught it before showing to both competitors that it had ended up landing heads up.
"Would you like to duel first or second?"
Phenix tried to think quickly. Would it be best to strike first or second? He didn't know which would be more advantageous but his nerves were at boiling point and he just wanted to get it over with.
"First," he blurted out and Kyle's smirk grew bigger as if that decision was now giving him the advantage.
"Please shake hands," Skymore said and both competitors seemed to reluctantly step forward before briefly touching hands in what could hardly be classed as a handshake.
Both Phenix and Kyle then stepped back on to their marks and Skymore motioned for Phenix to cast his first spell.
Before the match Phenix had gone over various spells to use but suddenly his mind was blank. He could feel everyone's eyes on him, waiting for him to cast his first spell and his nerves just grew more.
"Stupefy!" he finally shouted as he thrust his wand towards Kyle and a burst of red light shot across the arena but Kyle seemed to have no problem deflecting it.
The three judges to the side instantly looked down to their pieces of parchments and began to write but Phenix knew he wouldn't have scored highly for that.
After Skymore had checked both competitors were ready to go again he motioned for Kyle to cast his first spell.
Kyle needed no time at all to think and as soon as Skymore had given the signal his arm had been outstretched and his wand pointed at Phenix.
"Incarcerous!"
Suddenly thick robes appeared out of nowhere and were winding themselves around Phenix's body. His arm was pulled tightly to his side and he couldn't move his hand to cast any sort of charm in defence. As Phenix struggled it seemed to only make the ropes pull tighter and he fell to the ground, unable to keep his balance.
As Phenix lay on the floor, feeling helpless, he could see the judges looked impressed by Kyle's effort as they noted their scores and thought there was no way he could win.
Skymore cast a spell at Phenix, which made the ropes disappear, and then helped him to his feet and Phenix prepared himself for his next turn. His nerves had faded a little and had now been replaced by frustration. Frustration that he was clearly losing and frustration that Kyle seemed to be showing no sign that only days ago he had kissed him.
Phenix took a deep breath, gripped his wand tightly and shouted, "Locomotor Mortis!"
He had cast it perfectly but once again Kyle had no problem deflecting it and was looking smug about it.
Phenix readied himself for Kyle's next spell, poised and determined to block this one as Kyle stared at him intently.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Kyle yelled and Phenix could see the light from his wand heading straight for him.
"Protego!" Phenix shouted back producing an invisible barrier in front of him that lit up as Kyle's spell hit it.
Phenix let out a sigh of relief but Kyle was clearly not happy, fuming to himself that he hadn't been quicker with his casting.
It was now Phenix's final chance to cast against Kyle. He had to make sure it was a good one to catch up the points difference as he was no doubt lagging behind Kyle by a lot as he had successfully deflected both Phenix's first two attempts.
Once he had made his mind up what spell to use he focused on it in his mind, saying it over and over again, whilst watching Kyle for any signs of hesitation.
When he thought he saw Kyle lose focus slightly, Phenix shouted, "Confrigo!"
A fiery orange light shot from Phenix's wand. Kyle tried to block it in time but he wasn't quick enough and he felt an intense burst of heat hit his chest and he fell to the floor backwards. Now Phenix was the one with a smirk on his face, having finally landed a curse on Kyle.
Skymore had stepped over to Kyle to help him up but he pushed the teacher's hand aside and got up on his own and instantly took his position, ready to cast his last spell.
Phenix could see the anger in Kyle's eyes as he stared at him. He looked like he was about to burst with rage.
"Expulso Maxima!" Kyle shouted with fury.
An intense blue light lit up the arena and before Phenix knew what was happening he was flying backwards through the air, over the other students and slammed into the wall at the back before he slumped to the ground.
Phenix was in a daze. He could hear lots of noise in the room but nothing made sense. Before he knew what was happening Professor Skymore was at his side.
"Are you OK?" the professor asked and grabbed Phenix's arm and helped him back on to his feet.
Phenix was feeling a little unsteady and the professor helped him back over to the arena.
"Come on referee that's not on!" Phenix heard a voice from the crowd shout and wasn't sure if it was Jack or not. His senses hadn't quite come back to him yet.
"Are you OK to stand on your own?" Skymore asked and though Phenix wasn't sure he was he nodded his head.
Skymore walked over to the table where the three judges were deep in conversation. Kyle had gone over to his friends who were already congratulating him even though the result had yet to be announced.
After a short while Skymore stepped back into the arena and beckoned both boys over.
"We have a verdict," Skymore said, taking each of the boys' hands who were standing either side of him. "The winner is… Kyle Gray."
There was a mix of cheers and boos from the crowd but Phenix didn't care that he had lost. He was just glad it was over.
Kyle immediately went back to his friends, who wasted no time in congratulating him, not even bothering to offer Phenix a consolatory handshake before he went.
Phenix trudged from the arena and his fellow Hufflepuffs were quick to commiserate him on his loss. He took a seat, still feeling a little stunned from the last spell as he watched Kyle celebrating with his friends and wasn't sure what had left him more confused. Being hit by Kyle's curses or being kissed by him.