Chapter 7: Quidditch and Duelling

The first few months settled into a routine for Harry, with classes, quidditch practice, studying, hanging out with Ron, having his dates with Ginny, and playing in renegade tower. Aside from some stubborn Ravenclaws, no one believed he was becoming the next dark lord. For Ginny it was almost the same as Harry, it was relatively peaceful, her newspaper has been sending weekly issues to every student of Hogwarts, with Lavender's and Parvati's and sometimes Gemma Farley's help, she wasn't short of news. When Harry was on his dates with Ginny, Ron started to become closer to Tracey Davis, the Slytherin girl, and had their chess games periodically.

The Halloween feast went without incident because the diary was safe stashed in a trunk in the Tonks family home. Harry, Ron, Tracey, Ginny, Demelza, Natalie and Luna attended nearly-headless Nick's deathday party. After the party they heard that Malfoy was disappointed about something, that something was probably that the plan from his father failed.

November came and with it the first quidditch match of the season, Gryffindor vs Slytherin, Harry and Oliver practiced intensely some novel tactics for that match. The day of the match came, and Oliver said the same speech as the last timeline finishing with the phrase, "Get the snitch before Malfoy or die trying."

Harry was authorized by Oliver to play as an aggressive seeker. Playing seeker at quidditch is half flying and half mind games. Aggressive seeker was a playstyle that pumped up the mind games up to eleven. It required being very observant and aware and being very skilled at flying erratically. Aggressive seeker was a playstyle that only a few professional seekers could do effectively. The two main goals of an aggressive seeker is to lower the seekers' guard, and the other is to take the other seeker to the bludgers.

The game began and Harry saw that the Slytherins had the quaffle. Draco Malfoy was more focused in trying to taunt Harry than in seeking the snitch but got scared when Harry did a brusque turn and intercepted a Slytherin pass and passed the quaffle to Angelina who scored the first goal.

"Hey, that's a foul." Complained Marcus Flint.

"No, it isn't. The rules only state that the seeker can't score goals, but don't forbid the seeker of touching the quaffle." Retorted Oliver Wood.

"Mr. Wood is correct, the rules don't forbid the seeker of intercepting, possessing, or passing the quaffle. The goal stands." Said Madam Hooch.

The game continued as normal, with Harry using the aggressive tactics. Harry then noticed that a friend he remembered from the other timeline entered the scene. Dobby didn't get the memo that the diary was taken off the equation and tampered a bludger to go against Harry. The twins tried to protect Harry against it like in the other timeline, but Harry decided to tell the twins to focus in protecting the chasers. Harry knew that the bludger was only after him, so he decided to use it to his advantage. He waited until the snitch was in Malfoy's proximity, then he purposely stayed close to him and caught the snitch.

"Potter caught the snitch, Gryffindor wins 310-80." Lee Jordan's voice was heard.

Harry then saw that the bludger was very close to him and waited until the last moment to avoid it. Dobby didn't have the best reaction speed, so the bludger couldn't turn to pursue Harry and hit Malfoy's broom snapping it in two. While Madam Hooch and Professor Snape were trying to slow down Malfoy's fall, so he didn't die, then the rogue bludger still followed Harry who was flying a victory lap that culminated with Harry giving the snitch to Ginny. When Harry climbed off his broom, he accepted that the bludger was going to hit him, the bludger hit him, shattering his right arm. The rest of the team carried him to the hospital wing, Lockhart tried to 'help' but was hexed by Ginny.

Some hours later, Harry woke up in the hospital wing, he saw Lucius Malfoy angry arguing with Poppy Pomfrey. Dobby appeared and made all the questionings he made Harry in the other timeline.

"Dobby, the artifact isn't here at school, the chamber of secrets won't open. The plot has been thwarted." Said Harry.

Dobby started to walk away, but was found by his owner, Lucius Malfoy. "You, what are you doing here?"

Dobby was forced to answer because of his house elf bond, "Dobby tampered that bludger to make Harry Potter leave Hogwarts and avoid the great danger."

"You! You are the one that hurt Draco," Lucius waved his wand and cast, "avada kedavra," killing the house elf.

Lucius then vanished Dobby's corpse and left.

Percy Weasley and Penelope Clearwater had recruited some more people to their debate and current history club, and they had meetings every Thursday, aside from Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom, they recruited Penelope's roommates, and a diverse collection of people of many years, including Susan Bones and Justin Finch-Fletchley from Hufflepuff and Sue Li from Ravenclaw. The group was mostly Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, with Percy, Granger and Longbottom as the only Gryffindors, and some of the exiled Slytherin first years as the only Slytherins.

"Today we are going to learn about families. One of the big problems in this society is the fact that people are defined by their family's reputation." Exposed Penelope.

Percy came with some books, "Let's do an exercise, here I have genealogy books from basically every wizarding family. Some circles care a lot about bloodlines and use those books to see if a potential spouse is of," gesturing quotations, "The right sort. Every wizarding family is related to each other, and if you go far back enough, you'll find a common ancestor. Don't worry about potential incest, a distance bigger than second cousins tends to be ok."

Penelope took the book about the Gaunt family and passed it to the group, "This is what happens when a family is too inbred, the Gaunts are now extinct."

A Ravenclaw asked, "What's the goal of this?"

Penelope answered, "This is to show how attacking someone for being from a 'dark family' is stupid. When people from wizarding families all have very few degrees of separation each other. Tell me two wizards and I'll tell you the relationship."

One person answered, "Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy."

"Harry's paternal grandmother Euphemia is a Rosier and is the paternal aunt of Draco's maternal grandmother Druella." Percy answered.

"Percy, I challenge you to find the relationship between you and Sirius Black." Challenged another student.

"My grandmother, Cedrella is a Black and the granddaughter of Hogwarts' most unpopular headmaster Phineas Nigellus Black, she shares this grandfather with her cousin, Arcturus Black. Arcturus was Sirius' grandfather and died last year."

"So, your grandmother is a Black, Harry Potter's grandmother was a Rosier, both dark families."

"Thinking about Light or Dark families is stupid. Look at your family books, the so-called dark families are present in basically every family tree. Also, many of the dark families because of the inbreeding sent their squib children to muggle orphanages. Many so-called muggleborn wizards or witches are descendants from exiled squibs. The Gaunt family had many squibs before their demise, is possible that some of the muggleborn here are descendants from the Gaunts and have the ability to talk to snakes. You should judge people from their own actions." Penelope declared.

"But talking to snakes is evil." A fist year student protested.

"What makes a snake more evil than other animals?" Penelope retorted.

The student was struggling to think an answer.

Penelope explained, "Right, snakes aren't more evil than other animals. The ability to talk snakes is appreciated in places like Brazil or Australia that have many dangerous snakes. Take this as a lesson to not be prejudiced because of the past and bother to know people before judging them."

The club then split on groups and started to work for their first debate.

Sirius, was a man on a mission, rebuilding his brand. The duelling season had started, and he was undefeated, Remus also had a good track record. Ted didn't do that well; he wasn't that creative at casting and dodging. The trio was getting acquainted with Ted's old classmate Caoimhe who also wasn't doing well in the duelling season.

The group were in an empty site in Northern Ireland, close to Caoimhe's house, where the first lesson for Ted and Caoimhe was being imparted.

Sirius was standing in front of his students with wand in hand, "The first lesson you need to have is that no matter if it is competitive duelling or war duelling, if you get hit once, you lose. You both know how to cast a simple shield charm, but that isn't enough. You must know what your opponent is going to do, you must predict your opponent, and you must have constant vigilance."

As Sirius said his final word, Remus started sending barrages of stunners. Ted and Caoimhe were barely avoiding the stunners and couldn't focus to cast a shield charm. After thirty seconds, Ted was hit by a stunner, a minute later Caoimhe also fell.

"Instincts to avoid getting hit can't be taught directly, you must figure out how to do that more efficiently, shield charms are not the only way to block spells as well, if you are good in transfiguration, you can use it to create physical walls, you can also use charms that aren't shield charms to block," Sirius explained, "we are going to do this exercise every training session. You must work your physical fitness as well, too many people in the wizarding world neglect that side, some purebloods even have pride on being physically frail. Now Remus is going to teach you the offensive lesson."

Sirius then stepped side and Remus took over the class.

"Sirius explained something very important, you must predict the opponent, but also the opponent is predicting you. You must be creative in your casting. Something you must consider is that in competitive duelling, speed is more important than power, because when you get hit once, you practically lose, also power is only relevant when you have more than one opponent. I have a challenge for you, is to hit me once with a spell, I won't fight back, only block and evade. I need to test your creativity."

Ted immediately sent a stunner towards Remus who just evaded it, Caoimhe sent her own stunner, but Remus blocked it, Ted realized the importance of speed and started to cast barrages of stunners, Caoimhe started doing the same, Remus just avoided them and cast shields when they were close calls. The pair was shooting spells for thirty minutes, but couldn't hit Remus, until Caoimhe decided to start shooting the ground with blasting hexes lifting a lot of dust, Ted followed by shooting an aguamenti charm, Caoimhe then sent a freezing charm. Ted and Caoimhe then shot everything they could. When the dust settled, Remus was stunned.

Remus said "Good job, but not enough for a real duel. We'll keep practicing".

The group practiced until sunset, when a muggle woman that looked like a heavily tattooed version of Caoimhe appeared.

"Guys, this is my sister Aoife, she works at the tattoo shop."

Aoife went to Sirius, "So, you are the famous Sirius Black. The wizarding world are stupid for sending you to prison without a trial. It looks like everyone here is a second-class citizen in some kind. It looks like the wizarding world isn't that cool."

"You could say that."

"The non magical world also sucks, my sister and I are Irish, the Irish here in Northern Ireland are basically treated the same as people from non-magical families are treated in the wizarding world."

"We want to open a business in the muggle world as well, we want to expand our influence. Do you have any ideas?"

"I think this should be talked at home. I think I want to be a partner in that business venture."

Ted and Caoimhe weren't the only ones that were tutored in duelling by Sirius Black. Sirius using his dog form, entered Hogwarts many times to tutor the Hogwarts renegades in duelling in the room of requirement. Aside from Harry and Ginny, Gemma Farley and the rest of the Weasleys showed a lot of promise in the discipline. Ginny and Ron one day went to the room of lost things to find wands that were compatible with them, Ron was especially glad of getting a better wand because Charlie's wand was too damaged by its previous owner.

One day, Ron, Tracey and Gemma were in the great hall for Lockhart's duelling club, Harry and Ginny didn't go because they knew that the teachers weren't of their liking, and Harry specifically wanted to avoid being exposed as a parselmouth, he had already left a conflict where the school though he was dark, he was going to avoid another.

Ron was approached by Hermione Granger who mockingly said, "Look at you Weasley, it looks like Potter ditched you as well."

Ron replied, "He didn't ditch me, he didn't want to come to this club because he found out Lockhart and Snape were the instructors."

Hermione then laughed hysterically, "I'm sure of that, I think he is scared because everyone will know that he is a fraud."

"A fraud, like your dear Lockhart?"

"Shut up! Harry is probably out there defiling your sister, I've heard many rumours about her, that she is a whore, and I believe them true. One night I went to her dorm room to give her a lesson and she wasn't there, and her whore friends weren't there also."

Ron became angry, he knew the real reason Ginny and friends didn't sleep in Gryffindor tower, "My sister is not a whore. She is not sleeping in Gryffindor tower because she is keeping her friend Luna from Ravenclaw company. But you don't know that because you hate my sister's friends for reasons I don't understand."

"Believe what you want to believe, Weasley. Now you'll see how my duelling is superior."

Lockhart then arrived with Snape, Lockhart presented Snape as his assistant, something Snape wasn't pleased with. Then Lockhart and Snape did the demonstration duel where Snape instantly disarmed Lockhart. Then Snape went to assign pairings to duel each other.

"It looks like Potter is a coward, as I expected him to be, a coward just like his father." Snape sneered, "Weasley, it looks like you are going to be Mr. Malfoy's opponent."

Snape also assigned Hermione against Tracey and Gemma Farley against Marcus Flint.

"Weasley, you are pathetic," said Malfoy, "you had to sell your little sister to Potter in order to eat, you should have given her to me, I'm a perfect pureblood specimen."

Ron ignored Malfoy's taunts and sent a disarming charm against Malfoy, defeating him instantly. Ron smirked, "perfect pureblood specimen you say?"

Ron then looked around and saw that Gemma defeated Marcus easily and Tracey had Hermione in a body bind.

Snape then split the remaining duels and made Ron duel Malfoy again, "If Potter isn't here to be taken down a peg, you are the best substitute."

Before the second duel, Snape whispered something in Malfoy's ear. The count to three started and Malfoy cast "serpensotia".

Ron reacted in the most interesting manner, he pointed his wand to the snake that was summoned and cast, "depulso". The snake was hurled towards Malfoy. The snake bit Malfoy in his right hand, that started to swell.

"The snake was venomous, Weasley. How are you so reckless, you'll have detention until end of term. I'd expel you because you deserve it, but your head of house would prevent that." Snape scolded.

When Malfoy was being levitated to be taken to the hospital wing Malfoy screamed, "You are going to pay weasel, you and your whore sister. My father is going to make you pay."

"If your only weapon is your father, you are pathetic, Malfoy."

Hermione had an interesting reaction between Malfoy's and Ron's interaction, I'm turning into Malfoy. But I still don't want to hang out with the Snakes or Ron's sister, those damn snakes, I'm the superior witch, Davis defeating me was just a fluke. I know, when Ron realises that he is going to be dead last on Christmas, he'll come crawling to me.

Dean and Seamus approached Ron and patted him in the back.

Dean congratulated him, "Good way to deal with the blond ponce."

Seamus asked him, "Where did you learn a fourth year spell?"

Ron replied, "Sirius Black taught me."

A surprised Dean asked, "How?"

Ron replied, "We have a little club; do you want to join?"

Seamus declared, "We want to learn to duel, and it looks like we won't learn in this farce."

"Follow me."

Seamus asked, "Ron, is Tracey your girlfriend?"

A flustered Ron replied, "NO!"

Dean and Seamus laughed, and fist bumped.

When the group arrived at the room of requirement, they found Harry, Ginny, Fred, and Angelina inside it. Fred and Ginny made the recruitment pitch to Seamus and Dean to join the Hogwarts renegades and gave them communication coins.

Dean asked Harry, "So, this is where you hang out most of the time?"

Harry replied, "Yes, and we learn a lot of useful things while having fun, sometimes Sirius visits us."

Dean continued asking, "Why are you doing this group?"

Harry explained, "Is to kill the boy-who-lived. This is why I didn't go to the duelling club, I found out that Lockhart and Snape were going to be there, and they both are obsessed with me for different reasons. And duelling is associated with heroic deeds, and I don't want more reputation as a hero. This is why I'm flying as an aggressive seeker, to associate my name with quidditch and not with dark lords."

"I understand, Snape tried to take his hatred on you with Ron, but his pet Slytherin Malfoy ended up being bitten by the snake he summoned, now he is in the hospital wing."

Tracey chimed in, "I'm glad of that. I hope that ends up denting Malfoy's influence in the dungeons. Is the second embarrassment he has had the last month."

Gemma said, "I'm going to check the Slytherin common room to see if some of my housemates see reason and desert Malfoy. If they don't, I'll use that hex from Ginny's book. Maybe I'd use it anyway is pathetic to see sixth years and seventh years bowing to a spoiled second year," Gemma then left the room.

Dean asked, "What's about Ginny's book."

Ginny replied, "My brother Bill in Egypt bought me a book full of funny hexes to use against the bullies. The hex Gemma referred to, is a hex that we are trying to avoid using because it effects everyone, including the user. Is a last resort measure if you are surrounded."

Seamus requested, "Can you demonstrate another of those hexes from your book?"

Ginny waved her wand towards Dean and cast "antíthetes aisthíseis."

Dean looked disoriented yelling in different directions and walking around clumsily, until he stumbled into one of his steps and fell.

Seamus asked, "What happened to Dean?"

Ginny replied, "His senses were inverted, so he is disoriented."

Seamus replied, "Remember me to never cross you. Harry, how do you deal with her?"

Harry laughed, "First, I also have some weird spells in my arsenal, we are going to teach you those spells as well. Second, is that I know her buttons and to not press them."

The renegade meeting continued until nightfall, Harry went to sleep thinking about what happened, now four of the five male second year Gryffindors are renegades, maybe should be time to move to renegade tower. He was also worried about Longbottom, he was aware that Granger was forming her own club with Percy and Longbottom, but Granger was the only one that was antagonistic towards him. Harry was going to start to keep an eye on Percy's club and see if they were allies or enemies.