A/N- Hey guys im so sorry that I missed my dead line. I know that I said I would try to get them to you within a week but this was terrible. Between school, work, and everything else that I had going on I was only getting like fifteen minutes at a time to try and write this. I hope that it was worth the wait and im going to stop ranting so that you can read your long awaited chapter. Have fun and dont forget to review please.
Two days later at the dueling tournament was the first time that Hermione saw Harry since the pub incident. He floo called out of work the day before and Croaker commented that it was the first time since Harry started work at the Unspeakable that he hadn't showed up for work. Knowing that she was the cause of his absence weighed heavy on her conscious even after Croaker told her that after four years anything that could get Harry to stay home for a day was a good thing. The only good thing that happened that day was that Croaker instated her as an Official Unspeakable, but even then she was too focused on Harry to be excited about it. Going to bed that night she fell into a restless sleep and she tossed and turned until six that morning when her alarm went off.
She was now entering the tournament and looking around her she could see some stiff competition. Both Croaker, and Kingsley had entered this years tournament and that alone was speaking numbers in itself. The two were considered the best duelist that the Ministry had to offer, besides Harry but not many people knew about his actual skill so they didn't put him in the mix. Along side them were some world famous dueling champions, and even Professor Flickwick was entering. Ron and Ginny were both entering with her but after seeing all of the other people who were here none of them were too sure of themselves. After she signed her name she turned around to give the quill to the next person and her heart skipped a beat when she locked eyes with none other than Harry Potter.
" Hey Harry." she said quietly. For a second she didnt think that he was going to reply but then he took his hands out of his pockets and answered.
" Hello there Mrs. Granger ." He replied. " So you're entering in this thing too?"
" Yeah it seems like it would be fun. I was told that you never enter yourself into these things." she said.
He shrugged his shoulders. " I dont. I able to get someone to agree to enter if I did as well. She's about the only person here im worried about, Croaker might be difficult but if I stay on my toes I will be fine. That older wizard is supposed to be America's version of Dumbledore. What do you know about him?."
Hermione looked over to where he was pointing and saw the man that he was talking about. " Oh dear, his name is Ruthford Griphon and is definitely a very powerful wizard. Ive seen him do things that I would only think to see come from Dumbledore or Voldemort so I would definitely not want to have to duel him." She told him as he signed his name on the paper.
" Good to see you on the platform." He said and started to leave but she put a hand on his shoulder.
" Why are you talking to me. I mean two days ago you wouldn't even give me the time of day, so what changed?" she asked.
Looking at her he frowned and answered. "Do not get me wrong it still hurts, what you did, but i'm used to dealing with emotional pain. Seeing as we will be working within close proximity from now on trying to avoid you will be impossible. I am not the emotional boy I was when you left, it was your choice to leave, nothing more and nothing less. I cannot blame you for your choices but understand that it is not me who caused this rift between us, it was only you."
She was stunned at his answer. She was both happy and sad to hear the words that came out of his mouth. On one hand he had all but came out and said that he forgave her for leaving but he also said that he was still hurting because of the things that she kept from him. It also seemed that he had no want to become the type of friends that they were before but at least he wasn't going to give her the cold shoulder. In the end she was glad that he took the day off because if he would have had to be around her yesterday he may have never came to the conclusion that he had. She wanted to hug him like she used to do when he was upset and emotional but knowing that she was the person who caused it stayed her reaction. There was nothing that she could do except watch him walk off and get lost in the crowd. After he was gone she went and sat in the front row with Ginny and waited for the list of first duels to start. Talking about what had just happened Ginny seemed happy that any progress was being made between the two as if she knew something that Hermione was oblivious to. Fifteen minutes later the announcement started and the large piece of parchment that was hanging in front of the crowd started to list the first round of the competition. Finding her name it said that she would be dueling on the third platform against someone who wrote down "Unspeakable two". She had already been told about how the secrecy of the Unspeakables was of the highest priority. Hermione was guessing that they wanted to be known as an Unspeakable so that it wouldn't look weird that some random person was skilled enough to duel in the tournament.
She wasn't worried about it though, when she was first inducted into the Attack Force they tested her skill with the last master level dummy that they had left. While it gave her a little problem she had it disarmed and demobilized within five minutes. The leader was quite impressed in her skill and had said that she was the first person coming into the force that was able to deal with one of the dummies as quickly and skillful as she did. She was by no means the first person to come in and beat it, but she had only taken one curse. Hermione could tell that most of the Unspeakables that were watching her were fairly impressed with her skill considering that it was only her first day.
Saying bye to Ginny, who was on her way to her own platform, she made made her way through the crowd towards the dueling stage. There were a few people who were already dueling and some of the magic being used was quite impressive. Flitwick was dueling toe to toe with another one of the Unspeakables and Neville was backing George into a corner. She stepped up to the platform and took a look at the person that she would soon be dueling. Just from the badge on their robes she could tell that they were from the Battle Squadron and from the barely noticeable uncomfortable shift that they gave she knew that they remembered her from yesterday. She showed no worry or discomfort in having to duel her opponent and that was impressive to the crowd who didn't know that Hermione herself was a Unspeakable. She could hear different yells and cheers for her to win, and this only boosted her moral. Seeing her name on the roster and stunned many of her old friends and acquaintances who had no idea that she was back from America. Drawing her wand she got into dueling position. The Unspeakable on the other side of her did the same and when the both nodded the judge gave them the go ahead.
Strait of the bat, Hermione started with a full on frontal attack that didn't really take the Unspeakable by surprise. A powerful shield was thrown up around them which took most of the first volley of spells. A fire whip shot out from the other side of the shield and she summoned a wave that intercepted it before it could get to close. Now that the Unspeakable was free of spell fire for a moment he rushed forward and started firing off his own set of curses. She had to dodge out of the way as a supercharged banishing hex made its way through her spell fire. Coming out of the roll she deflected both stunners back at them followed with ropes that she shot out of her wand, and a blasting hex to sum it all together. He dodged out of the way of the first spell like Hermione expected him two and was right in the way for the others. Having no choice he threw up a shield for the second stunner but the ropes passed right through and bound his arms and legs together. A moment later the blastin hex hit him and sent he flying backwards. Summoning his wand he stunned him for good measure before turning the judge. A roar of cheers sounded when Hermione was declared the winner of the match. On the parchment the unspeakable was marked off along with Fred, George, another another Unspeakable, Flitwick, Ginny, Kingsley, and Ron.
A few of the duels had been fairly close, Ginny and Luna were both pretty evenly matched but Luna, being a spell maker, had some spells that Ginny had no idea about. In the end that was her saving grace. Kingsley and Griphon were going head to head for a while but slowly Griphon overpowered him which was an amazing feat when you are battling Kingsley Shacklebolt. Flitckwick had the upperhand for a while but his small older body, even with his years more of experience, couldn't keep up with the lean young body of the Unspeakable. Ron didnt do to bad against Croaker either but his lack of Unspeakable training and a smaller spell pool sealed the deal for him. Other's had been a bit of overkill from what Hermione saw. From what Hermione could make from the tidbits that she heard she didnt think that Harry's duel with Fred lasted more that thirty seconds, and Neville's duel with George didn't last much longer. What she saw next was what surprised her even more was that there was one duel still going on.
McGonagall was firing off spells faster than she could keep up with at the last Unspeakable who entered. He was wearing a specific mask that Hermione had grown quite accustomed to the day before. It was the head of the Attack Squadron and the fact that her old professor had him completely on the defencive filled her with pride. The head of her department was the only other Unspeakable besides Harry who could say that he could defeat Croaker one on one. He was a legend in the Unspeakables, he and Croaker had a friendly competition to see who could win the most duels against the other. Right now the score was 12- 10 in Croaker's favor. Hermione didn't get to much of the duel because McGonagall ended it fairly quickly afterwards. A spell clipped the Unspeakable's robes and suddenly they were transfigured into Gorilla that bear hugged him and in that distraction she summoned his wand from his limp grip. Not being able to get out of the apes grasp there was nothing that he could do except admit defeat. Stepping off of the stage it didn't seem that she had one hair out of place. She saw Hermione watching her and started to walk towards her old student.
" That was amazing Professor." Hermione said giving her a hug.
" It is good to see you again child. And none of this Professor business, it has been a long time since I was your professor." She smiled. " And after you face up to the most powerful dark lord in history, Unspeakable or not, any opponent doesn't seem up to par. I am guessing though Harry is waiting to prove me wrong."
" I guess that you do have a point there Prof- Minerva. So you are the one who Harry convinced to sign up for this tournament." she replied.
Chuckling McGonagall answered. " Yes, said that he's never had the chance to duel me before and that he had been wanting to for a while. For some reason he seems to think that im an above average duelist."
" Quiet being modest, you just took out the head of the Unspeakables Attack Force and your hair is still perfect."
" Well, I couldn't be shamed in front of all of my students now could I?" she told her. " Besides you don't think that I got where I am by being a pushover do you?"
Hermione laughed at that. " I don't think that anyone who's met you would call you that, and if they thought it they definitely wouldn't say so."
On the other side of the crowd, Harry watched Hermione and his old teacher talking and laughing as if they had talked everyday for the past five years. It was something that he knew that he couldn't do even if he wanted to. He spent the day before doing nothing but thinking about everything that had happened and what he should do about it. He had been and still was very upset about the choices she had made, but as he told her before he could now understand that it wasn't his place to make her stay. That didn't mean however that she didn't have to live with the aftermath, and the fact that Harry couldn't deal with her return was part of it. She never lied to him, even if she was going to pretend that her and Neville wern't in communication, she didn't have the choice to now and he couldn't be angry with her for something that she didn't do. Instead his anger was replaced with sadness and hurt. He knew it would be a while before it didn't, but the longer he tried to avoid and give her the silent treatment the longer it would be before it would stop. In the back of his mind he longed for them to have what they did at one point in time, for the friendship that was shattered that night but as thought about it only more anger and pain rose with it. She would have to earn everything that they had lost and more because of the fact that she and willingly left him alone. The hardest part would be giving her the chance to earn it back in the first place. Their conversation had been a test on Harry's control because he had wished to do nothing more that walk away when she had first spoken to him. She still tried to talk with him as if nothing had changed and the first step in the process of healing what they had was definitely getting her to understand that he just couldn't talk with her in the same way that they did before. Forcing it to the back of his mind he made his way towards his next opponent which just who happened to be his boss.
When he got to the platform he saw that Croaker was already there waiting for him. He knew that he could beat Croaker, but that man was tricky. Shedding his battle robes All of Harry's weapons were in view of the public and most of them let out gasps. A wand on each arm, Harry had a long katana strapped to his back, five throwing knives on each hip, six shuriken down his back, and two tomahawk on the sides of his calves Harry looked like he was ready to go to war with a small army at any second. They watched as Croaker also dropped his heavier robes to show that he was as armed as Harry was. Without waiting for the judge to start the match they both started dueling with a ferocity that had been absent in the previous round. This is how high caliber Unspeakables battled and it made most of the people in the crowd never want to run into one in a dark ally.
Batting a few of Croaker's nastier spells back at him, Harry high jumped into the air and conjured a large flaming Basilisk, not unsimilar to the one that Voldemort cast in the ministry, and hissed at it to attack Croaker. Seeing the giant flaming serpent coming towards him, he shouted an incantation and a large vortex of wind swallowed the snake and the flames shot up creating a large flaming tornado which was heading back towards Harry who sheathed both of his wand and drew his katana. With a downward slash the tornado dispersed and Harry lunged at Coraker who had already drew the two short swords that were strapped to his back. Shooting a blast of magical energy out of the tip of his sword which Croaker deflected Harry had to dodge out of the way as two short swords entered the place where where he used to be.
The crowd watched in both fear and awe as the two slashed, hacked, paired, and dodged out of the way each time the other attacked. Croaker seemed to have the advantage with his two swords but no matter how fast or powerfully he saw able to swing his sword Harry's katana was their to deflect it with minimal effort. Decided to do something a bit risky Harry didn't deflect the next jab that came towards him but instead waited until the last second to move just out of the way. Before he could react Harry clamped his open arm to his side trapping one of Croaker's blades in his armpit and sent out a kick towards his other arm, making him drop his other sword in the process. Twisting his body Harry threw a shoulder into Croaker's chest and disarmed his trapped sword. Not giving the older man a chance to get his footing back Harry shot an over powered stunner at the stumbling man who crashed to the ground. Binding him for good measure, He put his sword back onto his back and drew his wand which he pointed at the man until the judge declared that Harry was the winner.
Harry revived his boss and after removing his binds he gave the man a pat on the back. " That was a nice little battle that we had there."
" Yeah but I think that we broke the crowd." Croaker said when he noticed that they were getting blank stare from most of the audience. In the background they could both hear and announcer yelling 'And what else would expect from the man who defeated You-Know-Who himself'
Croaker gave him a cheeky grin and Harry ran his hand down his face. " I don't know what's worse, the fact that they thought that I was this skilled when I fought that bastard or that they still can't say his name."
" Definitely that they thought that you were this skilled. You were damn good don't get me wrong but you are in a caliber that few can boast about. By the time that you' were my age I would hate to face you." He said as they stepped down. They walked and talked as they moved towards the competitor area. They were being given a thirty minute rest since they didn't want anyone to blame exhaustion on losing a match. Going into the tent that saw that there were refreshments and drinks sitting out on the tables along with chair's scattered about. Most of them were in use while the beaten competitors were talking among themselves about some of the duels. It seemed that Hermione, McGonagall, Harry, and Neville would be going into the next round.
Hermione and dueled Luna which was the quickest duel of this stage. Luna's advantage in the last round was null-in-void against Hermione superior casting, dodging, and just as wide knowledge of spells. Hermione said that it was a good duel, but most could see that she was just trying to make Luna feel better even though she didn't seem upset by the lost in any way shape or form. Neville on the other hand claimed that he had won completely on luck. Hermione had not been exaggerating when she said that Griphon was the American version of Dumbledore. Neville had been just skilled enough to stay on the defensive after the first few spells had been cast. It was only when Griphon used a lightning spell that hit the water he had been stepping in was he defeated. The man sheepishly rubbed his hand on the the back of his head and gave the group a goofy grin. Minerva dueled another Unspeakable so no one was surprised that shew as one of the last four. The most impressive fight had been hands down Harry and Croaker's. As they talked Harry sat as far away from Hermione as possible, only putting his two cents in every once in a while. This was something that didn't go unnoticed by the people in the tent but Harry was far from sharing pleasantries with her. Some discussion had to be made but overall he still didn't want much to do with her. He was shaken from his thoughts when the bell signaling the second half of the tournament rang out inside the tent.
A/N- Hope you like it. Review and hopefully the next one will be on time. Love you guys.