I only got 2 reviews for the last chap, so I'm assuming that I was correct when I said that the last chapter was of very poor quality. I knew it!!
This chapter is dedicated to Mooney's Black, who beta'd it. Yes, I finally got a beta!
I'm reeeeeeally sorry for the late update, but I've just been overcome with the urge to never move away from my schoolwork. My excuse is that I am trying to channel Hermione. ;).
Serianna14: If you're reading this, I know that I promised you a prank, but instead here's an example of what Hermione+Ginny+Duel=.
What the hell's she been doing to make herself look so— here, he was about to think 'sexy', before he caught himself. Don't think that! That's your godson's best friend you're ogling! And indeed, he was ogling. He tore his eyes away from the teenager, but not before Remus noticed. The werewolf carefully noted this in the back of his mind.
Meanwhile, Hermione had eaten a piece of toast, despite Ginny's incessant pleas for her to eat more ("I'm fine Ginny!"), and left for the first class of the day. Defence Against The Dark Arts.
Hermione caught up with Harry & Ron as they were about to enter the classroom. She tugged on his arm and said "Ron."
He immediately started stuttering and turned a shade of red. "Yes, I'm Ron—Ron Weasley, and may I ask your name?" He asked as politely as he could while he was stuttering incoherently.
She giggled, she had forgotten, he hadn't seen her in her made up form yet. She thought for a bit about teasing him a little like she did with Sirius, but she remembered where that led, and she had no desire to be blackmailed by Ginny again. She hit him on the back of the head "Ow!" He exclaimed as he rubbed his head.
"Ronald Bilius Weasley! I have known you for 7 years, I have saved your life on numerous occasions, and don't forget stopped you from failing in about all your classes! And you still don't remember my name!" She screeched in his ear as Harry tried to muffle his laughter and the other students milling in the corridors stared.
"What are you talking about, woman! I don't know who you are! Girls! You're all mental, the lot of you!" He shouted.
Hermione narrowed her eyes, and hit him on the back of the head again. "Ow!" He said again. Another hand reached over to hit him on the head again. "Ow!" He said for the 3rd time.
"Ron! Girls are not mental! You are just stupid!" Ginny screeched in his ear and slapped him on the head again.
He clapped his hands over his head, trying to shield it from further attacks by angry females. "I am Hermione Jean Granger." Hermione said.
He looked confused. "But you're not Hermione. Hermione's not that pretty", which earned him two pinches on the arm, since his head was protected.
Hermione & Ginny walked past him & Harry, who was still trying to muffle his laughter, into the classroom with both of their heads head high.
As Hermione slid into her seat, she heard a cough. She turned to face the sound, and she was confronted with a very happy Snape. Never a good sign.
"Miss Granger, you're late" He said. "That's detention.".
"Now, Severus, it's only by a couple of minutes!" Remus said kindly, coming to her rescue.
Severus glared at Remus, then reluctantly agreed, "I suppose". He said grudgingly, he glared at the werewolf.
Hermione sighed with relief, Nearly a detention, nearly missing class, pranking Malfoy, what's gotten into me?
"Now, class. I am Professor Remus Lupin, the werewolf. Professor Snape & I will be sharing the teaching of this class," He said, introducing himself, paying no heed to the mutterings that accompanied the mention of his affliction. "It will be an excellent opportunity to show some of the students that did not participate in the war what a duel is like".
He turned to Snape "Severus, how about a duel first, then we pair them off to see how they go" He offered.
Severus nodded. Remus cast a few spells and the room seemed to expand. The chairs and desks were replaced with a large mat on the floor. On half of the room there were circles coloured red, green, yellow and blue, on the other half was a small raised platform.
The teachers stepped onto the platform, and Remus signalled the students to sit down on the mat. They did so, some with a disgusted look on their faces. One of those 'some' was Draco Malfoy, and the others were all Slytherins. Zabini, however, sat down with no complaint.
Hermione sat, on the mat and watched the two men prepare to duel. They set a timer for 20 minutes, bowed to each other, then began.
"Expelliamus"said Snape calmly. Remus cast a shield charm and the spell bounced back towards him. He dodged it easily and the two began circling each other.
"Locomotor Motis" Shouted Snape suddenly. Remus dodged the curse and quickly retaliated "Serpentsortia", a snake flew out of the ex-Marauders wand, "Avis Oppugno" quickly followed by a flock of birds. "Confoundus" Snape cast, and the birds and snake turned to attack Remus.
He banished them and attacked again "Conjuctivitus" Snape countered, and she spell hit. He didn't let his guard down, though, and to buy him time, he cast an Incendio on the spot where he judged his opponent to be while he fixed his eyes.
When he opened his eyes, the fire was out and there was a burn patch on the Slytherins robe. He wasted no time in attacking him and promptly released a tickling curse. Severus didn't laugh or move, just stood there with a painful expression on his face.
The alarm rang, and the fight ended. The two teachers weren't phased at all by the duel, only slightly heavier breathing and the burn patch on Severus's robe and the floor to indicate that a duel had taken place.
"You!" Snape said, pointing to a terrified Griffindor first year, "What was the first spell Lupin used?" He snapped.
"Um.." Stuttered the first year "A Shield Spell?" He answered timidly.
"The incantation, wand movement and effects of the spell?" Snape demanded.
"Umm… I don't know" The student asked, shrinking against the glare the Head of Slytherin gave him.
"Imbecile! Five points from Griffindor!" He glared at the rest of the classroom "Does anyone else in this class know?" He asked with a sneer.
Hermione's hand shot in the air without her even thinking about it. "Potter." he said, completely ignoring Hermione.
"The incantation is Protego, the wand movement's an upward flick and the effect is to put an invisible barrier between you and the opponent, so that if he attempts to hex you, the hex will be rebound towards the caster" Harry answered readily. He had, after all, taught half the class the spell himself.
"Correct, five points to Griffindor" Remus said, much to the displeasure of the other professor.
They divided up half the class for Remus to question and reward appropriately and one half for Snape to question and punish unfairly.
After they were done, Remus and Snape paired people up with partners and instructed them to stand in one of the protected coloured circles and duel each other. You could step in and out of them at will, but spells couldn't get in or out.
Remus paired Harry with Dean and Hermione with Ginny, but Snape got to Ron first and paired him with Draco. Hermione smiled evilly as she took her place in a circle and trained her wand on her friend.
"Everyone, there are a few things you need to know first. Number one: Be surprising. Did you see the snake I launched at my colleague? Since Severus is a Slytherin, it is not suspected for me to use the spell. Number two: Never let your guard down, and when you do, get it back up. Quickly. There are more, but first you should duel." Said Remus.
There was a raised hand, "Yes, Miss Weasley?" Remus asked pleasantly.
"Is non-verbal magic allowed?" Ginny asked sweetly.
"No, sorry, but it wouldn't be fair to the pairs that only have one member that knows non-verbal magic" He answered before signalling that they could duel.
Ginny and Hermione bowed to each other and began.
Hermione cast three rapid disarming charms. Ginny dodged each one and cast Tarantallegra and a Tickling Charm. Hermione cast a Shield Charm and then a Reducio on her friends shoes. The red head yelled as her feet were stuck into shoes five sizes too small. She cast a Engorgio on the cumbersome shoes and turned back to attack the bushy brunette, only to find that her line of vision was blocked by a large blue flame. She ran through it, knowing that this was the phantom flame the brunette often used.
"Levicorpus" Ginny shouted, sending Hermione dangling in the air by one leg. Hermione cursed and thanked that she was wearing jeans. The upside down girl cast an Incendio on the ground in front of her friend, then let herself down. As Ginny extinguishing the flame, Hermione let loose a flock of birds at her, but they were intercepted by a jet of water coming from her opponent. "Incarcerous!", ropes came out of Hermione's wand to wrap themselves around Ginny.
"Diffinio" The ropes fell to the ground, but not before Hermione had launched an unidentifiable spell (at least when it's heading straight for you) at her. She quickly dropped to the ground and stood up in under five seconds. Ginny darted forwards and gave her a sweeping kick to the shins, and Hermione fell to the ground, giving Ginny enough time to cast Accio and summon Hermione's wand to her. She manoeuvred quickly into position so that one wand was trained on the fallen Griffindors throat and the other held tightly in her hand.
The winner helped the muggle-born up, and gave Hermione her wand back. "Good one, Gin!" Hermione laughed.
"Well, it's the little spells that are the most useful" Ginny said with a grin.
"I know, I keep forgetting. But when you've been studying the complex spells for most of your life, you end up forgetting the simple ones." Hermione said.
"Aha! Finally I have a reason that you'll accept for you to not study until your hand fall off!" Ginny said, wickedly.
Hermione glanced around the room, and noticed, for the 5th time in two days, that everyone was staring at her. What did you expect, Hermione? That you could avoid the stares? She thought bitterly.
Apparently they had taken a bit longer than the other students, and the two girls still firing hexes at each other had provided good entertainment, as well as a lesson. The Professors were highlighting the parts of the duel that were important to learn the proper way to duel.
Once the two had stepped out of the ring, Remus addressed them "Miss Granger, Miss Weasley I hope you don't mind this, but everyone else was finished, and you were duelling superbly so we thought we'd just show the rest of the class the proper technique"
"No, professor, it's alright" Hermione said reassuringly. Sure, go ahead, I don't mind being put on a stage and used as an educational resource for my classmates to stare at. No Professor, I don't mind that one bit. She was thinking.
"Miss Granger, you didn't speak when you cast your last spell before Miss Weasley disarmed you?" Snape asked curiously.
"Err… I used Quietus to make my voice softer so the attack would be surprising, since I wasn't allowed to use non-verbal spells." Hermione said, unsure at being addressed anything but snidely by Snape.
"Well, that was a very good effort, but in the end, Miss Weasley won" Snape said snidely, but it had no effect on Hermione, other than relief that he was acting normally again.
She smiled "Actually I don't begrudge her the victory. I won last time"
The sound of the bell ringing signalling the next class, broke the silence that followed announcement of the fact that Hermione Granger didn't mind that someone else had beaten her.
The students filed out of the classroom, with no homework. Harry & Ron fell in beside Hermione and opened their mouths to ask, but Hermione beat them to it. "Since last year, me and Ginny have been duelling. She came to me and asked, because no one else would give her a good one. That, or they were all afraid of breaking their fragile little sister. I accepted, and we've been duelling ever since. I need a good fight sometimes" She said, shrugging at the end.
The rest of the day passed by with no incident, except for three other boys coming onto Hermione. At the last one, she exploded "I have had 5 different people come onto me, and as soon as I tell them who I am, they hurry off away from me like I'm a leper! What exactly is wrong with wearing some good clothes for once in a while??", at a startled Dean Tomas.
Bye!