Kolybel'naya

Chapter 17: The Remains of the Duelling Club

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"Use Depulso," said Riddle. He stepped away from the blackboard he had told her to aim at. "And remember: you control your wand."

Hermione took a deep breath as she stared at the blackboard, raising her wand. She had to concentrate and, to do that, she had to forget Tom was in the room. Riddle's presence had always managed to put her off, thanks to the judgmental looks he always seemed to be shooting at her. So, the only way to fully concentrate was to imagine she was alone in that classroom. Tom Riddle was out of her sight and, therefore, was out of the room. No Riddle meant no cold looks, no sarcastic remarks, no smug smiles. No Riddle meant concentration.

The witch paid attention to the feeling of her magic pooling around in her hand, clashing against her wand's. As Riddle had said, yew's magic was strong and stubborn. It kept trying to rebel against her even when she forced herself upon it. She could feel the wand's energy trying to take over her magic, but she simply gripped the wand more tightly, ordering her own magic to put the yew's down. It was strange, as she had never needed to do it before with her old wand. The Vinewood wand had always been so pliant in her hands, always obeying her.

"Depulso!"

The girl watched as the spell left her wand, hitting the blackboard and pushing it back against the stone wall. The blackboard hit the wall with a loud bang but, to her surprise, it did not break in a half like it did the previous times she had hit the board with the spell. Hermione let a cry of joy escape from her, followed by laughter, before turning around to look at Riddle, who was standing a few meters behind her, staring at the blackboard with an arched eyebrow.

"That was good," said Tom, approaching her. "You didn't break the board, didn't get yourself pushed back and didn't destroy the room. In other words, you controlled your wand. From now on, it'll obey you more and more until both of your magic work perfectly together. It just needs this first tug of dominance in order to recognize who is the one controlling the situation."

"How do you know so much about this?" asked Hermione, turning to look at him.

"Yew wand," he said, raising his own wand and smiling. "I went through the same thing. And I did some research. At the beginning I thought I was unlucky, getting such a stubborn wand that wouldn't obey me." Riddle held his wand with one hand, the fingers of the other caressing the wood as if it was some kind of pet. "But then I discovered just how… powerful Yew can be."

"So I take it that, aside from its stubbornness, Yew is the best kind of wand wood."

"Exactly." The boy took a deep breath and looked around himself. "And you managed to control it before our duel class."

"Duel class?"

"I talked with Merrythought after class and she told me we're going to have a class to practice our duelling skills," explained Riddle, walking over to the window and staring out at the Hogwarts grounds. "To put into practice what she told us about the structure of a duel."

"Like a Duelling Club?" Hermione asked.

"Kinda. The Duelling Club used to be directed by both Merrythought and Toulson. That means Toulson used to control Merrythought's lack of… hazard perception. When a duel turned nasty, he would interfere," explained Riddle. "But as we'll be in Merrythought's class, I would suggest you be prepared. She won't come to your aid unless you're half-dead on the floor. That woman is mad. Brilliant, yes, but mad."

"All right, I'll keep that in mind and hope I don't end up duelling against you," she said. "I have the feeling that you are the kind of person that enjoys only being interrupted when your opponent is half-dead on the floor."

"I wouldn't know." He shrugged. "I've never had a proper duel like the one Merrythought promised us next class."

"What about the Duelling Club?"

"We had to be at least in the fourth year to join it and, when I entered the fourth year, they closed the club thanks to a few parents complaining about their kids going back home with silly scars and no hair." The boy laughed quietly. "It's a pity, though; it would have been a good practice. Also, I didn't leave you half-dead on the floor when we duelled."

"It wasn't a real duel," Hermione laughed. "More like a practice for simple spells. During which I discovered you can't take a simple Labirinto."

"Whatever you want to think, I'll make sure not to duel against you." Tom took his bag from a chair. "You may have mastered your wand today, but I still don't want to risk my neck. But if you want an advice, try to pair up with Abraxas. He seems to like you."

"Oh?"

"He took you to the Three Broomsticks, didn't he?" asked Riddle, watching as the girl gathered her things as well. "He told me the two of you had a nice chat there. And that you met Walburga."

"What are you two, some kind of confidant for each other?" Hermione laughed. "What one does, the other must know? But, yes, we had a nice chat at the Three Broomsticks and I met Walburga Black. She seems to be a nice girl."

The girl was not sure if the odd expression that appeared on Tom's face was due to the knowledge that she had thought that her time with Malfoy had been enjoyable, or if it was because of what she had said about Walburga. The Slytherin looked like he was about to burst into laughter.

"Are you all right?"

"Of course," said Tom before clearing his throat and walking towards the classroom's door. "I take it this is our last… meeting."

"Regarding the wand, yes, it is." Hermione followed him, giving him a quick smile. It was awfully weird to act that way towards Tom Riddle. "But we still have a Potions project to finish, so I'll have to stand you for a bit longer." She laughed. "Thank God I'll have Malfoy to distract me."

"If he were here, he would say that Malfoys are never a distraction," said Riddle, an odd smiling tugging on his lips. "They are always the main event of everything."

"That seems to be the kind of thing a Malfoy would say."

"And how many Malfoys do you know if you can say that?" asked the boy, arching an eyebrow as he looked down at Hermione.

"Only one, of course." Hermione bit down on her lip. She had to be more careful when talking about people and families she knew from the future. "But I guess one Malfoy is enough for a lifetime."

"Indeed," said Riddle, closing the door behind him before walking after her.

"Are you following me now?"

"Just like you, Miss Elston, I also need to eat; therefore I need to get down to the Great Hall for dinner."

"Oh, from the way people talk about you, I was starting to think you lived on photosynthesis," Hermione said. Riddle, surprisingly, laughed.

"Do I look like a plant, Miss Elston?"

"No, you're more like a robot." 'Soulless and cold,' she thought.

"At least you didn't say I'm more like a marble sculpture," said Tom, shaking his head. "I've already heard someone comparing me to one."

"Marble sculptures usually represent bigger and more important men." Hermione smiled up to him, finding an odd expression on his face. She was not sure if it meant he was mad at her or amused by what she had just said.

That was enough to keep the boy quiet during the rest of their way to the Great Hall.

They were talking about Quidditch again. Or at least Atlas, Canopus and Cygnus were, as Abraxas was quietly – a bit way too quiet for him, actually -, eating. Turning around in order to give a quick look around the Great Hall, Tom caught sight of Hermione Elston, sitting with her Gryffindor friends. He furrowed his brows, remembering their meetings regarding the mastering of her wand.

Hermione was powerful. Not something from another world, of course, but it was incredibly interesting how she managed her magic. Yes, that was what caught his attention: her control over magic. Someone can be powerful but have no control over their power, and that made them useless. Hermione was the opposite. She had a lot of control; that had been exemplified by the way she quickly mastered the Yew wand. She was a powerful witch and, nowadays, powerful witches and wizards were rare things to find.

Shaking his head in order to clear his thoughts from the Gryffindor girl, Tom looked back to Abraxas, who was still silent.

"You look pensive today," said Riddle, finally seeing the other boy's eyes focus on his face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Malfoy smiled before grabbing his goblet and looking into it. "Care to pass me the pumpkin juice, Tom?"

"What's wrong, Malfoy?" the boy repeated his question as he handed the other the juice.

"There is nothing wrong, Riddle," said Abraxas, mimicking the other Slytherin's tone of voice.

"Then why aren't discussing your Quidditch techniques with the others?" Tom pointed to the three boys who were too busy talking and laughing to listen to them. "You're their captain, after all."

"I'm just not in mood to talk about Quidditch." The blond shrugged and Riddle sighed.

"Which book did you just finish?" he asked, seeing a smile flash on the other's face.

"Heart of Darkness," whispered Abraxas, leaning in to whisper.

"I never read it."

"No? You should, it seems to…" Abraxas stared at him for a long time, biting down on his lower lip. Riddle furrowed his brows, not used to being looked at that way. At least, not by Malfoy. "It seems to be the kind of thing you would enjoy."

"I'll try to take a look at it as soon as I finish all my homework."

"Tom." The boy looked up to his housemate once again. Abraxas gave a quick look towards Canopus and Atlas before leaning in again. "Did you really have to, you know, do that with Atlas? He was pretty pissed off…"

"As I said: he deserved to be punished," whispered Tom. "He did something wrong and deserved punishment."

"Yes, but…" Malfoy scrunched his nose. "I'm afraid Atlas is almost, you know, giving up on all of this because of the way you treat him."

Riddle arched an eyebrow and stared at Malfoy for a while. What did Abraxas want him to do? Walk up to Avery and say 'Look, I'm sorry for torturing you; I was having a bad day'? Not to mention he had gone easy on the other boy. He could never use a spell or curse that could leave serious damage or one of the Unforgivables, but Avery liked to dramatize things.

"He agreed with it all once he joined us, Abraxas. I can't help if he thinks he can get away without punishment. That's not how the world works." Except if someone managed to do something wrong without getting caught, but Avery was not the kind of person who could do that anyway. "If he feels hurt because of that, well, I'm not the one holding him here."

"Whatever you say, Tom." The blond shrugged, taking a sip of his pumpkin juice.

"Next Defence class will be a duelling class," said Riddle. "Pair up with Elston, will you?"

"Why?"

"Because I want to see what she's able to do in a duel." That was not a complete lie. If he couldn't see her in a real duel because he didn't want to be a victim to her crazy wand, he could see someone else with duelling skills doing so. Abraxas was a good choice: he was a good dueller but didn't take everything so seriously like himself. He would test Elston and yet not lose control and harm her. And, if her wand went mad again, it would be Malfoy getting hit and not him.

"Why don't you duel her yourself?" asked Abraxas before seeing how the other was looking at him. "All right, all right, I'll do it."

"Thank you, Abraxas."

The blond let a humourless smile appear on his face before going back to his food.

Minerva McGonagall enjoyed the practical Defence class very much. It was the closest she could get to the real world, as Professor Merrythought always tried to remind them of what was waiting for them outside the castle's walls. Not to mention it was way funnier to have classes where they could discuss and practice instead of sitting and listening to all the things their teacher said, taking notes and doing nothing else, like the girls who took the theoretical classes did. While the other girls were now listening to Professor Chadwick talk about how to break hexes and curses, they were watching a duel.

Half of the class had already duelled and all they could do now was to watch the other pairs do their work. She had already fought against Charlus, who ended up with a black eye, while she was now pressing on her own nose to stop the bleeding that an errant curse from her friend's wand caused. Although both of them had been injured, once the duel was over, all they could do was laugh at each other's face and sit in the corner of the classroom to watch the others. That was a unique opportunity, to duel without having the concern of ending up dead.

Right now, the ones in the middle of the room were Hermione and Abraxas Malfoy. Hermione had a serious face during most of the duel, whispering spells and curses without losing her expression, while Abraxas laughed every now and them, making fun at her and starting random conversations that were completely ignored by the girl. Elston was pure concentration while Malfoy used his lack of it in order to distract his opponent. That was actually a pretty clever strategy... He was following Merrythought's advice of distraction without even using magic and excelling at it, because Minerva could easily see how much the 'mademoiselle' and the 'ma chère' he let slip in between the spells managed to shake Hermione's focus.

But, apparently, even with all the distractions Malfoy could come up with, Hermione was not one to lose a fight, because after each silly nickname Abraxas threw out, she would haul a stronger spell towards him, and he, in turn, would cast a powerful counterspell. And that continued until Hermione managed to put a Labirinto on him right before she knocked him out with a simple Stupefy.

"That was amazing, Miss Elston." Those were the first words he said once Merrythought brought him back to consciousness.

The next two pairs were quick duels. Lestrange threw Alphard Black towards the other end of the room, thus winning his duel, while Basil and George, from Gryffindor, ended up both on the floor: one vomiting onto the floor and the other with his legs dancing uncontrollably. It was not until Riddle and Avery stepped in the middle of the classroom that Minerva perked up from where she was sitting in order to have a better view of the duel. Merlin knew how interested she was whenever Tom was doing some sort of demonstration of his magic in classes. Although she didn't like him, she couldn't help but be fascinated by his skills.

Their duel started off in a rather normal way. Simple spells from both sides that didn't even hit each other, but soon she was able to see how their duelling techniques were different. Avery was more direct, shooting his spells without even thinking, always aiming to harm, while Riddle used protective spells to deflect his opponent's attacks, and at the same time he ran from place to place, avoiding being hit by anything. Tom was smaller, thinner, and that gave him some advantage when it came to escaping from attacks. That seemed to be his strategy right now: to tire Avery until he was weak enough to be beaten. Or at least it seemed to be his strategy until Atlas almost hit him with a dangerous-looking curse.

The change in Riddle's face was clearly visible. His bored expression vanished and he gave Avery such a glare that McGonagall was sure Avery was going to crumple to the floor, dead. It was then that the duel changed. Tom gave up on running and deceiving attacks, and began to attack the other with numerous spells and curses; some of them were even done silently. Soon enough Atlas was not able to defend himself from everything that went flying in his direction.

"Riddle really takes this class seriously," whispered Charlus and Minerva nodded. "Not to mention he's a sore loser."

"Riddle being a sore loser is not new, Charlus, but I've never seen him act so…" She looked at the pair duelling. Tom's face was now twisted in a snarl while he kept muttering his spells, hauling them furiously at the other boy who could barely protect himself. "I only hope he doesn't kill Avery."

"Not that it would be a great loss."

"I prefer not to have a dead body in my Defence classroom." Minerva turned to look at Hermione, who had sat down next to her after she had finished her duel with Abraxas. "Who do you think will win, Hermione?"

But the other girl didn't answer. McGonagall furrowed her brows as she saw how her friend seemed to be disturbed by the duel that was unrolling in front of them. Hermione was frowning as she stared at the two Slytherins and held tightly on her wand, her knuckles turning white. Her brown eyes were fixed on Riddle, following every movement he made and, at each spell, she seemed to get more and more worried about what was going to happen.

"Hermione?" McGonagall touched her shoulder and the girl jumped, startled. "Are you all right?"

"Yes. Yes, I am," she blurted out, obviously lying, but Minerva was not going to confront her answer. "He's a good dueller."

"Riddle is the best in here," said Charlus. "I bet a galleon that Avery will end up in the Hospital Wing."

"I'm not going to bet over the health of another student, Charlus," whispered Minerva. Her hand was still on Hermione's shoulder and she squeezed it gently. "Do you want to leave? You look pale."

Hermione eyed Tom one last time before nodding, slowly.

"All right, let's go. Charlus, can you tell Merrythought Hermione was not feeling well for me?" asked McGonagall, getting up, Hermione following her.

"Of course." Potter looked at them, confused. "Hope you feel better soon, dear."

Hermione had never really seen Voldemort – as in the Dark Lord Voldemort – duelling, but watching Tom Riddle fighting against Avery was enough to give her an idea of how the older wizard would act if he was in a duel. That fight was not the fun, nice thing she had shared with Malfoy… Riddle had been fighting to win, no matter what Avery did. His spells, his movements, his pose, his voice, the gleam in his eyes… Everything was feral, dangerous and uncontrolled. It was as if Tom Riddle had just set free something that was hidden deep inside him, something dark and powerful that was desperate to be freed. It was like seeing Lord Voldemort materialize in the middle of the classroom. And that was enough to terrify her.

"Do you think Malfoy hit you with a spell that might have made you feel sick?" asked Minerva. The other girl's hand was still on her shoulder as she guided her through the corridors.

"No, I don't think it was his fault."

"Then what…?"

"I think I'm just not used to duels," said Hermione. She could use her fake backstory to explain what had happened and it would be a great lie too. "It's been a while since I last duelled and it was not in the best of lights last time…"

"Oh. I forgot, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, Minerva." She smiled to the Gryffindor. "I'll eventually get used to it all again."

"Yes… Well, if this helps, you were wonderful against Malfoy. He's good at making people forget about the duels and you managed to stay with your feet on the ground the whole time."

The rest of the walk up to the Gryffindor Tower was silent and, during that time, Hermione thought about how glad she was that her meetings with Tom regarding her wand were over. Who knew when he would lose control and let Voldemort take over him, right? The less time she spent alone with him, the safer it was.

A/N: Another one... About this chapter, I think the only think worth mentioning is the books Abraxas' is reading, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad. Vika (highonbooks) gave me this book in the beginning of the year and then it ended up here in Brax's hands. Well, thanks Shadow6116 for beta reading the chapter and thanks everyone who reviewed the story until now, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please, tell me what you think about it. (: