Disclaimer: I solemnly swear that Harry Potter belongs to the amazing JK Rowling and that I am most definitely up to no good.
Previous Chapter Summary: Daphne throws her first ever New Years Eve party and forces her father to re-evaluate his stance on Muggles and Muggle-borns when she asks to invite Hermione Granger.
A/N: Hey guys, I am beyond sorry that this update is so late. I have been moving and had difficulty finding the time to sit down and write. This chapter is a bit rushed since I didn't want you to have to wait any longer so please excuse any mistakes you might find. Harry's first year is almost finished and I anticipate about 3 more chapters, including this one, before we wrap it up. Don't hold me to that because Christmas was originally supposed to be only one chapter and we see how well that turned out :D.
Getting back into the swing of things once Harry and his friends got back to Hogwarts was much harder than they thought it would be. As nice as it was to get to see each other every day, waking up early and going to classes wasn't nearly as fun as Hermione made it seem. It was the first weekend of February when their studious friend finally put her foot down and drug Harry, and consequently Neville, to the library to finally try and complete their research for the report on the Dueling club.
"Come on then Harry, we have been neglecting this for far too long." Hermione said as she pulled him into one of the isles and began taking books down from the shelves to place in his arms.
When he felt he couldn't hold anymore, Harry stepped away and went to their normal table while Neville moved forward to take the rest of the books Hermione decided they might need.
"So lets go over what we have so far yeah?" Harry suggested when they joined him. "Actually, why don't you present it to Neville like you would Nell to see what he thinks since he doesn't know as much about it." They knew that their proposal didn't have to be perfect but there had been attempts at creating Dueling clubs in the past that hadn't worked out in the long run so they wanted to try and work out as many kinks as possible before presenting it. Harry had stumbled upon a very informative book called A Brief History of Hogwarts' Clubs when they first got into their research that let them know what exactly to look for when creating their own club and that was what they had been working on all this time.
Hermione looked to Neville to see if he was all right with this and when he gave her an encouraging nod she took her parchment out and skimmed her notes and ideas for the club. "Ok, we would like to present to you our idea for a Dueling club, which we have decided to call the Dueling Association, or DA for short. The purpose of the DA's creation and its objectives is to teach students new spells as well as how to properly compete in tournament dueling, participate in honor duels, and how best to protect themselves if ever attacked. Membership will be open to all students, no matter what year, but they will not be considered a full member until they participate in their first official club duel.
"It is recommended that meetings take place every Tuesday and Thursday in the evening for no longer than one hour to practice spells, dodging, aiming, and etiquette and a two hour meeting on Saturday or Sunday to perform practice duels. On the last weekend of each month a dueling competition will take place between the members that will be broken up by their skill level. If enough skill is shown, with the Sponsors and their parents permission, students may also apply to participate in the All-England Wizarding Dueling Competition held once a year at the beginning of July."
"Wow really?" Neville asked. The Dueling Competition was a pretty big deal since the winners were invited to compete in the World Championship Dueling Competition which was held in a different country every year.
"Yeah." Harry said and pulled a stack of parchment from his bag to hand to Neville. "We wrote to the British Dueling Association at the Ministry and they sent us a stack of application forms for the various age groups saying that they were always looking for more talent, especially competitors for the younger age groups since they had steadily been decreasing over the years. I think they were pretty excited to hear we were creating a Dueling club because they even offered to send someone to speak to the club once we got it up and running."
Neville looked through the forms and noticed there were three different age groups listed; ages 11-13, 14-17, and 17-19. "That's really neat and will probably be a big motivator for a bunch of the older students, particularly those looking to go into Auror training or become a Hit Wizard."
Harry nodded. "That's what we are hoping. This idea originally started because I wanted my friends to learn how to defend themselves but once Hermione and I started to really get into the research and everything it kind of grew into something more. Now it's more about teaching anybody and everybody how to defend themselves as well as to help them when they leave Hogwarts." He had yet to tell any of them about the prophecy or Voldemort but his friends had figured out that there had to be a specific reason he wanted them to be able to defend themselves and why Perenelle began training him like she had in the first place. They had actually discussed it several times while Harry had been at Quidditch practice and figured he would tell them when he was ready.
"There are going to be bylaws that everyone has to follow of course." Hermione said. "There are quite a few but I won't really go into them right now since Professors Flamel and Flitwick would still need to ok them first."
"What about officers? Are you going to have a President and stuff like that?" Neville enquired.
Hermione gave Harry a piercing look as she answered him. "I would really like us to have at least a President, Vice President, and Secretary for now and add on new positions as necessary. I have already volunteered for the Secretary position and have been trying to convince Harry to be the President since this was originally his idea and he does really well when helping to teach us so shouldn't have too much of a problem running the meetings."
Neville looked to his best friend. "Do you not want to be President Harry?"
Harry looked unsure of himself as he thought it over. "I don't know to be honest. I've never done anything like this before and I don't know how the older students would react if I was the one to run the meetings."
"Why don't you participate in the Dueling Competition this summer?" Hermione asked and both boys looked at her as if she were crazy. "What? We have been practicing dueling since we got back from the holidays but neither Neville nor I can seem to beat you." The frustration at this fact was evident in her voice but she was also proud of how well Harry had been doing and he truly seemed to enjoy their dueling sessions.
"You really think I could compete?" Harry asked, running a hand through his hair.
He had progressed by leaps and bounds since that first week of training and was now able to go 10 straight minutes dodging spells on the medium setting. Perenelle had upped the setting for all of them when they had come back from the holidays and now they were dodging 12 spells per minute vs the 6 before. Harry's numbers had dropped somewhat at first but he was now managing to dodge an average of 80 shots out of 120.
Neville and Hermione had of course gotten better than they were at the start too and all the exercise was beginning to show on Neville as he slowly lost his baby fat. They now held practice duels every Saturday while one of the others learned their spell of the week and Perenelle had told them they were doing very well for students who were still in first year.
"Of course, you're very good. You may even be able to get first place if you work hard enough." Hermione declared vehemently. "You should speak to Professor Flitwick, he is considered a Master Duelist and could probably help you prepare. Although, as good as she is, Professor Flamel might have competed at one time too so we can ask her about it as well."
Harry's cheeks went slightly pink. "Thanks Hermione but why wouldn't both of you try too? You have been doing it just as long as I have."
This caught his two friends on the hop and he grinned at their twin looks of surprise.
"I… I don't think I would do very good." Neville said lamely.
"Come on Nev, you would do great and if we all do it, it just might help us to gain some recognition amongst the students before we start the club." Harry encouraged.
Neville thought about it some more and realized that Harry wasn't just trying to help him boost his confidence but he also wanted his friends there beside him for support and Neville wasn't about to let his friend down. "Ok fine, we will both do it as long as Hermione participates too." He agreed and they both looked to the bushy-haired girl expectantly.
It didn't take nearly as long as they thought it would for her to crack. "Like I would let you two show me up." She said and threw her nose up in the air but couldn't hold it for long and began to giggle, which started Harry and Neville off too.
"Ok, now that that's established." Harry said once they had settled down. He pulled out his journal and flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for. "I think I have an idea on how to organize the students based on the differences in skills and abilities between the lower and higher years."
"Oh good, I was beginning to think we would never sort that out." Hermione said and grabbed her notes so she could write down whatever Harry had come up with.
"What if we ask the British Dueling Association to send us a list of all of the designated spells that can be used in a duel and sort them into the appropriate year level. Each person would get a parchment with the spells listed and their skill level will be assessed based on the amount of spells they can perform from the parchment."
"How will we know which spells they are actually capable of casting without having them show us one by one?" Hermione asked. This had been their main issue from the beginning. Yes, they could simply split them up by year but it was obvious to anyone that paid attention that just because a student was in a higher year didn't necessarily mean they were good with magic and they wanted to make sure that those lower years that excelled had the opportunity to move up when possible.
"That's where that enchanted parchment you mentioned will come into play, though my idea is a bit different. We would have to speak with Nell if it's possible but I was thinking that we could imbed the Reverse Spell into the parchment and key the parchment directly to the individual members via their magical signature. Once that is done, all they would need to do is cast the spell then touch the parchment with their wand and incant Prior Incantato, at which point the parchment will automatically read the spell and that spell's ink will change from black to green on the parchment if they cast it correctly."
Neville and Hermione both stared at him in astonishment but Harry misread their expressions. "Does it sound that stupid? I can come up—"
"No!" Hermione shouted and immediately turned red at realizing what she had done, in the library no less. "Harry, the idea isn't stupid at all. In fact, it's beyond brilliant."
"You really think so?" Harry asked.
"Yes and it will actually make everything so much more simple. They can show that they know each spell and as they learn and complete the ones from each level they can participate in the higher level dueling competition at the end of the month and be promoted a level if they do well enough." Hermione suggested as she wrote down everything Harry had said.
"I really think you should become the President Harry." Neville spoke up. "Hermione would do well as Vice-President too."
"I'm going for Secretary remember? I will be keeping track of how well each member is doing, taking care of any research that needs to be done, as well as corresponding with the British Dueling Association about possible visits and potential applicants for the Dueling Competition." Hermione said.
"Oh right. So do you have anyone in mind for Vice-President then?" Neville asked and went pale when they both gave him a pointed look. "M… me? No way."
"I think you could actually do very well in the position." Hermione said matter of factly.
"What about one of the others? Surely there is someone more qualified." Neville pleaded. It wasn't just that he didn't think he was cut out to be a leader but also the fact that he could hardly talk to strangers without stuttering, though he had gotten much better since he had started school. Imagining trying to speak in front of a large group of people nearly had him hyperventilating.
"We thought about everyone in the group and you were the best candidate, especially considering you already know the basics of what we will be teaching. Daphne and Blaise wouldn't have the patience, Tracey wouldn't want the responsibility, Hannah would be too engrossed in her Healing internship, and Susan is much too shy at the moment to be able to run any meetings in the President's place." Harry explained.
When it still looked as if Neville would say no, Harry pressed further "It would also really help with your confidence Nev. There is no harm in at least trying and if you still don't like it after a few months we can see who else we could find."
Neville tried to think of another valid excuse for them not to choose him but came up empty. "Fine, but only if you take the President position Harry."
"If that's what it will take, then I accept." Harry said and grinned at both of them. "Now, were there any other issues that needed to be fixed for the report?"
Hermione looked through all of her notes again. "Huh, it doesn't seem like it. I thought we had more stuff to work out but looks like we are ready to give the report to Professor Flamel."
"So we didn't need any of these defense books after all?" Neville asked, eyeing the large stacks scattered about them.
"Well, we could go ahead and get started on our DADA homework and then go see Professor Flamel after dinner." Hermione suggested and dug into her bag for the journal Harry had gotten her for Christmas and some parchment.
The boys groaned but didn't really have anything else to do so pulled out their parchment to get started.
OoOoOoO
"What's the matter Harry?" Susan asked as she and Hannah walked into the common room and saw that he had buried himself beneath one of the very comfortable quilts that had been hanging off the back of the couch near the fire. He was sitting with Cedric drinking hot cocoa and looking very upset about something so they quickly sat on the small sofa next to him so they could thaw out from the freezing corridors beyond their sanctuary and find out what was wrong with their usually mellow friend.
"I just got back from visiting Jaidynn, Auris, and Kylina." He said forlornly and sipped his cocoa.
This confused both girls because while he would sometimes get upset at having to leave his familiar, Harry had never gotten this depressed after one of their visits.
"Did something happen?" Hannah asked.
Harry bit his lip as if to keep from crying and immediately grabbed onto something that was hanging around his neck. After a few deep breaths he seemed to calm down somewhat and the other three Puffs shared worried glances. "Auris said that another Unicorn had been killed and he wasn't sure it would be safe to come so close to the school to visit anymore. He thinks it might put Jaidynn and them in danger."
Both girls felt for the raven-haired boy since they knew how much those visits meant to him but they were somewhat confused so Susan asked to clarify. "Why would coming close to the school put them in danger?"
"Because the Unicorns they found dead were near the edges of the forest rather than deeper in. Nell also said it's because leaving the herd makes them an easy target for whoever is killing the Unicorns since they could just wait until the three of them are far enough away and attack them. Unicorns are fast but whoever is doing this is using some pretty heavy dark magic and since Jaidynn is still a foal she wouldn't be able to keep up with her parents if they needed to make a break for it."
Before anything more could be said, there was a loud distressed bark from the entrance of the common room and Hedwig came swooping in to land on Harry's shoulder, nuzzling his head and cooing softly. They were wondering how she had gotten in when Nicolas and Perenelle came down the stairs looking worriedly at Harry.
"Harry will you come with us to our quarters so we can talk please?" Perenelle asked in a soft voice.
"No!" Harry said loudly, startling everyone in the common room and causing all eyes to turn to him as he sunk more deeply into his cocoon. "You agreed with Auris and now I won't get to see Jaidynn for who knows how long. What if something happens to her and she thinks that I just abandoned her. What if they never catch who is doing this and then I won't get to see her ever again."
"You know this is for her protection more than anything else. Keeping Jaidynn near the herd will ensure that she is safe." Nicolas tried but knew that nothing they said at the moment would make Harry feel better. He was angry and only time would help him see reason.
Hedwig was sending massive waves of comfort down their bond, trying to help Harry calm down but all he could think about was Jaidynn's sad whinny and forlorn look as her parents led her away. "I don't want to talk to you. Leave me alone." He said petulantly, setting his cup of cocoa on the table in front of him.
"Harry—" Perenelle said but Harry stood abruptly and, without even looking at them or saying anything, left through the door to the boys dormitory.
Silence followed his exit and the student's watched the Flamels share a sad look before gazing around at them all.
"Shows over everyone, go back to what you were doing." Nicolas ordered and nobody even thought to disobey the normally kind Professor when he spoke to them with such steel in his voice.
"Professors?" Hannah spoke up hesitantly before they could turn around and leave.
"Yes Miss Abbot?" Perenelle said.
"Is Harry going to be all right? I've never seen him that upset before. I don't think any of us have, even when he went after Ron Weasley for being mean to Hermione." The little blond-haired girl inquired.
Perenelle gave her a small smile. "He will be ok once he has time to think everything over and calm down. He and Jaidynn may not be fully bonded yet but the link is still there and not being able to see each other for an extended period of time will be hard for both of them. Just be patient with him and maybe speak with your other friends just so they know what's going on. Perhaps after dinner since I don't think he will be up for our normal Sunday dinner."
"I'll bring him back something and make sure he at least eats a bit." Cedric volunteered and received appreciative looks from Nicolas and Perenelle.
"Thank you Mr. Diggory, that's very nice of you. Maybe just some hot soup and bread will be best." Nicolas said and Cedric nodded.
"Professors, it looked like Harry had something around his neck that helped him to calm down when he held onto it. Do you know what it was?" Susan asked.
"Yes, Miss Bones. When we went to Egypt over the summer we met a group of Native American witches and wizards. One of them was named Gabriel and he is considered a Shaman in their tribe and his magic manifests as soothing waves that help calm those around him. Before we left he revealed himself to be an eagle Animagus and gifted Harry one of his feathers on a necklace that emits the same calming magic. I don't think Harry has taken it off but a handful of times since he got it but he usually has it underneath his shirt." Nicolas explained.
"Is that why he always seems so laid back and rarely gets angry?" Hannah asked.
Nicolas and Perenelle looked thoughtful for a moment since they had never really thought about that.
"I suppose it might help but the majority of that would be just the way Harry is." Perenelle said. "We have to go speak with the Headmaster about what we found out but if Harry comes back out try not to speak about Jaidynn unless he brings it up himself. Maybe try distracting him with talk about your upcoming Quidditch match against Gryffindor."
All three nodded and thought that would be a good idea since Harry seemed to enjoy trading barbs with the Weasley twins on who would win. Rumor had it that Professor Vector, the new Head of Slytherin, had threatened the Slytherin Quidditch team with temporary disbandment if they didn't clean up their act out on the pitch. However, despite the amount of cheating and fouls they committed dropping significantly, Gryffindor had lost their match against Slytherin in November due to them not having been able to find a good replacement Seeker for Charlie Weasley, who had graduated the previous year, and they were determined to make up their loss by beating Hufflepuff on March 14th.
Hufflepuff was equally determined since they had just managed to defeat Ravenclaw in their first match by only 20 points so felt they needed to defeat Gryffindor by a wide margin in order to keep ahead for the Quidditch Cup.
Susan looked nervously towards the boys dormitories after the Flamels left. "Should we try to talk to him?"
"I think it's best if we leave him be for now, I'll try talking to him when I take him dinner." Cedric suggested and to try and take their minds off it he asked. "Have you two finished all of your homework for this week?"
"We finished everything with the study group yesterday except for our Potions homework." Hannah said.
"Would you like any help with it?"
"Sure." Hannah said, brightening somewhat. They stood up and made their way to an empty table.
"What does Professor Nick have you working on?"
Cedric helped the girls until it was time to go to dinner. They waited patiently for the older boy to go and see if Harry wanted to join them but were disappointed when he came back alone.
Tracey, Daphne, and Blaise—who had taken to sitting right behind their Hufflepuff friends so they could converse more easily during meals—noticed the absence of Harry and how quiet the two girls were during dinner so pulled them to the side as they were leaving the Great Hall. Hermione and Neville caught sight of them and joined them to see what was going on. Once they had all been updated, they began brainstorming to try and come up with a way they could help Harry feel better.
As Harry's friends were coming up with one outrageous idea after another, Cedric was knocking lightly on the door to Harry and Justin's room.
Harry was laying on his bed stroking Hedwig's chest as his familiar dozed off and on but didn't respond to the knock and hoped whoever it was would leave like they did earlier. He didn't want them to see his puffy blood shot eyes or hear his sniffling from the runny nose he got when he had started crying. The knock came again, this time louder, and Harry groaned into his pillow. "Come in." He finally said, his voice sounding muffled and far away.
Cedric hardly heard him but opened the door anyway and preceded into the room holding a tray with chicken noodle soup, some bread, and more hot cocoa. Rather than draw attention to himself by grabbing everything from the Great Hall, he had stopped off in the kitchens and the house-elves were happy to help him out. "Harry, I brought you some dinner."
"I'm not hungry." Came Harry's muffled reply.
Cedric walked over and set the tray on the bedside cabinet. "I won't leave until you eat at least some of it. I'll even sleep in here on the floor if you force me to." Cedric threatened.
Harry raised his head from his pillow and gave Cedric a disgruntled look.
The older boy could see that Harry had obviously been crying but chose not to say anything about it. "I know you're upset Harry but starving yourself won't solve anything."
There was no movement for a moment but then Harry decided that Cedric was serious about his threat so sat up properly in his bed, Hedwig moving to perch on his headboard. He went to grab the tray but Cedric beat him to it and placed it in his lap for him. With a mumbled 'thanks' Harry began eating as Cedric sat at the end of his bed.
"Are you feeling any better?" He enquired. It was plain to see that Harry wasn't but he thought it a good question to get the conversation started.
Harry gave him a look that told him just how stupid he thought that question was.
"Right." Cedric said. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really." Harry grunted in between bites.
"Ok." The older boy sighed. "I'll leave you alone but I want you to think about something for me while you sit in here. I read up on true familiars after you told me about Hedwig, I read the same book as you in fact, and do you recall what happens when a witch or wizard's true familiar dies?" Cedric asked as he stood.
The book had been very informative on this bit and it had made Cedric shudder when he read the first hand experience of a witch whose true familiar had been killed by a dark wizard. She said that it had felt like the bond they shared was forcibly ripped from her mind and shredded beyond repair, leaving a gaping hole where it had once been. Learning to cope with that missing piece of herself had been difficult and even after 10 years she could still feel the loss.
Cedric knew he was being a bit harsh by bringing it up but he also remembered the part about how familiars would do anything to protect each other and would go through hell itself to get them back if their familiar was taken from them. He didn't want Harry doing anything reckless just to try and go see Jaidynn and he hoped that she wouldn't try and do the same thing for him. They may just be animals but the familiar bond went both ways and the same protectiveness and drive were there in the animal familiar just as much as it was the human one.
He turned to look at Harry and saw the boy staring at him in horror with tears streaming down his face.
"I'm sorry Harry." The older boy rushed out. "I was just trying to make you understand where the Professors and Jaidynn's parents are probably coming from. It's just like Professor Flamel said, you and Jaidynn may not have bonded yet but the link is still there. They are trying to protect you just as much as her because they know what would happen to you if something happened to her."
Cedric moved the tray back to the bedside cabinet and sat down next to Harry, who was now gripping what he thought was the feather Nicolas had told them about in a death grip and nearly hyperventilating. 'Maybe I should have kept my big mouth shut' Cedric thought as he pulled the boy into a hug.
Huge racking sobs tore from Harry as images of Jaidynn dead passed unbidden through his mind for several moments until Hedwig let out a very loud bark and her medallion began to glow.
'Don't cry my Harry.' He heard a silvery feminine voice inside his head say before images of the time he had spent during Christmas and all of his other visits with the Unicorns flashed through his mind along with massive amounts of positive emotions. 'We aren't going anywhere. Please don't cry.'
Harry stopped crying at once but then began immediately hiccoughing. He ignored this though as he pulled away from Cedric and turned around to see Hedwig's medallion glowing. He got up onto his knees so that he was face to face with his familiar. "Was that you Hedwig?"
'Yes my Harry. I can't hold it much longer though. You won't cry anymore?' Harry shook his head slowly as he stared at Hedwig in wonder. 'Good, we won't leave you so don't worry. I love you.'
"Harry?" Cedric asked into the silence.
"She spoke inside my head." Harry said and reached out to stroke his familiar's cheek. "I love you too Hed." He whispered to her and she nipped the tip of his nose lightly in affection.
"Hedwig spoke to you?"
Harry turned around to face Cedric, wiping his tears with a sleeve and plopping back down onto the bed. He was still upset that he wouldn't be able to see Jaidynn but some of the despair that he had been feeling had lifted. "I think it's the medallion. She must have pulled magic to strengthen the bond enough for her to be able to speak to me. She couldn't hold it for very long though."
Cedric bit his lip. "I'm sorry what I said upset you like that Harry. I didn't mean for it to."
"It's ok Cedric, it wasn't just you saying that. I had been laying here thinking along the same lines and you saying it made it seem so much more real that before I knew it, thoughts of Jaidynn dying just kind of consumed me and I panicked. It still hurts that I won't get to see her for a while but it's not nearly as bad as it was." Harry admitted.
"That's good to hear. I'll leave you alone now, but if you want to come out of your room, I know your friends are pretty worried about you." Cedric said as he stood up again.
Harry looked a bit guilty as he remembered the way he had acted towards Nicolas and Perenelle in front of everyone but a part of him was still mad at them for letting Auris take Jaidynn from him, no matter how reasonable their reasons for doing so.
Cedric left and Harry lay back down, Hedwig hopping down next to him so she could nuzzle up close to his head. His crying jag had wiped him out even though it hadn't been that long and before he knew it, Harry had fallen fast asleep. He was so deep in sleep that he didn't even stir when a house-elf popped in to take the tray of food, only to see that Harry had fallen asleep on top of his covers so pulled them gently from under him and tucked him in with a snap of her fingers. He didn't even notice Cedric poke his head in an hour later to check on him or hear Justin make his way cautiously into the room to start getting ready for bed himself.
OoOoOoO
The next few days were a bit solemn for Harry and his friends. Though he had apologized to Nicolas and Perenelle, he was still somewhat depressed and nothing his friends had tried to cheer him up seemed to work.
It was Wednesday afternoon about an hour before dinner and he and Ron were currently playing a game of wizard chess in the Great Hall with Neville sitting off to the side watching them while eating an apple from the bowl of fruit that had appeared on the table when they sat down. These had replaced the plates of biscuits that appeared between meals when students sat at the table per Professor Bennet's request since fruit was much healthier than them consuming massive amounts of biscuits every day.
It had taken some time but Ron had finally taken Hermione aside and mumbled out a nearly intelligible sentence to her around Christmas time, which she had managed to decipher and deduce that Ron was apologizing for the things he had said about her at Halloween; in his own way of course. It was also rumored that he had gotten an earful from his mother about his abysmal grades the previous semester and so he had also broken down and joined their study group so that he could get help with his homework but made a show of staying as far away as possible from the Slytherins.
Harry had hardly spoken to the temperamental red-head during their time at Hogwarts except for during studying and the one time he approached Harry to thank Sirius for him for the new owl he had gotten him. Sirius had been true to his word on getting Ron whatever new pet he wanted to replace Scabbers and the Gryffindor had asked for an owl of all things. Considering he despised writing home, according to Hermione and Neville, Harry couldn't fathom as to why he had asked for one but figured Ron would be too lazy to care for a cat and wouldn't be caught dead with a toad.
The distance Ron had tried to keep from Harry since their run-in on Halloween was forgotten however when Neville mentioned to him that Harry had received a brand new chess set for Christmas so he had cornered Harry and asked if he wanted to break it in by playing a few games since he apparently couldn't find any worthy competition in his own house. Harry very much doubted he was any better than the other students but figured playing Ron would help up his game so he would hopefully be somewhat of a challenge the next time he played Nicolas.
The chess set that the old Alchemist had gotten him was in the shape of magical creatures, which he thought were much cooler than the traditional pieces, so they weren't able to spout out unnecessary 'advice' but if they felt he was making a bad move they would stomp angrily around their square before reluctantly moving. The pieces consisted of a Dragon king, Phoenix queen, Centaur knights, Unicorn bishops, Griffon rooks, and Mooncalf pawns.
He wondered why a class XX like the Mooncalf was mixed in with creatures class XXX and higher but found it amusing when they took a piece by jumping up, surprisingly high for their short legs, and kicked the opposing piece in the chest, causing them to topple over.
"You know, you should challenge Nick to a game." Harry suggested as Ron's knight took one of his Mooncalf pawns.
"Yeah? He any good?" Ron asked without really thinking.
Harry cracked a smile and directed his own Centaur knight to take one of Ron's bishops. "Considering he has been playing for most of his life, I would say he is very good."
Ron was kept from answering by the arrival of Malfoy, followed by Crabbe and Goyle.
Giving a large sigh, Harry looked to the three new arrivals. "What do you want Malfoy?"
He and his friends had had to put up with Malfoy's constant taunts throughout the school year and he was honestly tired of it, especially the past few days. Malfoy had gotten wind of what had happened with Jaidynn and Harry had very nearly punched him in the face when the blond git had insulted her just to get a rise out of him. Blaise and Neville had managed to stop him from possibly breaking Malfoy's nose but the Slytherin had realized what had almost happened and threw out one more barb before scurrying away.
"Don't think I didn't notice that you wanted to have a go t me the other day Potter. I was wondering if you wanted to settle our grievances with a wizard duel?" Malfoy said with a smirk.
"I really don't think you're worth the time but if you want to have a duel then I'm game." Harry replied coolly. Perenelle had of course taught him all about duels, then he had learned even more during his and Hermione's research and he knew perfectly well that treating Malfoy as less than threatening would get the prats ire up.
Malfoy bristled. "Fine, at midnight in the trophy room. Wands only and no contact."
Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes at hearing that, causing Ron to snicker. "If you think I'm going to stay up late just so you can try and get me in trouble for being out after curfew then you can forget it." Then Harry remembered what day it was. "Besides, I have Astronomy tonight."
"Scared Potter?"
"No, just not an idiot. If you want to duel then right here and now works for me. Considering it's a non-formal duel and we are only 11 we wont need to sign a waiver but we would need a judge who is of age."
"I'll be your second Harry." Neville volunteered.
"Thanks Nev."
"I don't accept the change in time and location," Malfoy argued, going slightly red in the face. He had heard that Professor Flamel had been giving Harry extra lessons and though his father had taught him a few spells before starting school, Malfoy knew that he probably wouldn't be able to beat Harry in a fair duel.
"Then consider the duel canceled. If we are done here, I am kind of in the middle of a chess game." Harry said dismissively. If Malfoy had come up to him and issued the same challenge a week ago, Harry might have taken him up on the offer but after the week he had been having, he simply wasn't in the mood to deal with the blond.
Before Malfoy could respond, Hermione came running into the Great Hall with an excited smile on her face. She brushed past Malfoy and his goons without acknowledging them and sat down to Harry's left. "Harry! Professor Flamel just gave this to me and told me to come find you before I open it. I think it's the results for the Dueling club."
Harry spared Ron an apologetic look before turning his attention to Hermione. "Well go on then, lets have a look."
"This isn't over Potter." Malfoy snarled before stomping off with a scowl but he was thoroughly ignored.
Hermione looked nervous as she flipped the rolled up parchment around in her hands, it had been a little over a month since they handed Perenelle their finished report and they had been growing more anxious by the day to hear whether they had the go ahead. "What if Professor McGonagall said no?"
"Was Nell smiling when she gave it to you?" The girl nodded. "Then I doubt she said no but we won't know for sure unless you open it." Harry said reasonably.
"You're right." Hermione said, taking a deep breath and unfolding the parchment to read it. She squealed in delight and threw her arms around Harry, nearly bouncing in her seat she was so happy.
"I take it she said yes." Harry said and took the parchment she handed to him so he could read it for himself.
Dear Mr. Potter and Miss Granger,
I hereby approve of your proposal to start a Dueling club next year. Professors Flamel and Flitwick have already expressed their desire to sponsor the club for you but because Professor Flitwick already sponsors the Charms club, he will be acting as co-sponsor with Professor Flamel as full sponsor.
Please arrange a meeting with either Professor to go over preparations for your first meeting, determine for sure which days the club will take place on, and establish club officer positions and responsibilities. I am quite impressed with the amount of research you put into starting the club and heartily approve of you allowing all students to join, no matter their house, and look forward to seeing what you are able to accomplish.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
"Excellent." Harry said excitedly giving her his first genuine smile that week.
Hermione stood up, pulling on his arm. "We should go ask Professors Flamel or Flitwick when we can meet with them to go over everything."
Harry very nearly jumped up to leave with her before he remembered Ron. "Hang on Hermione, Ron and I were playing a game of chess before Malfoy came and interrupted us." He said and turned back to the red-head.
Ron grinned at him. "It's all right mate, you would have lost in 6 moves anyway."
Harry laughed at that and began gathering up his chess pieces to put in their carrying case. "I don't doubt it, till next time." He said and turned to Neville. "You want to come with us?"
"Sure. See ya Ron." Neville said, standing to follow his friends.
Ron gave him a dismissive wave as he began resetting his pieces and filling the other side of the chess board with his remaining set so he could activate the board's one player function. This would allow him to keep playing against a semi-opponent since the opposing pieces would move themselves. This function was best used with older chess pieces that had seen plenty of games since that gave them the experience to play more thought out strategies and precise tactics.
The trio were talking enthusiastically to each other as they turned the corner to get to the Grand Staircase when they saw spell fire coming at them from off to their right. Their training kicked in and all three dropped to the ground, the spells missing them by mere inches, then rolled out of the way as they saw another set of spells coming their way.
Harry and Neville sprang to their feet with their wands drawn, Hermione joining them only a few seconds later. At a glance they saw that the corridor was nearly empty but then they noticed Malfoy with his goons sequestered in an alcove, pointing their wands at them with surprised looks on their faces.
Harry and his friends opened their mouths to fire a Disarming Charm each when an angry voice yelled, "Halt!"
Everyone froze and looked to the side to see a furious Professor Flitwick standing at the bottom of the Grand Staircase.
Malfoy lowered his wand only to step forward and attempt to get his version of the story out before the others. "They started it Professor, we—"
He was cut-off with a loud bark of, "Quiet!" from Flitwick as he made his way toward them. He looked to Harry, Neville, and Hermione and noticed that while they had lowered their wands, they were watching the three Slytherins carefully. "I saw perfectly well what happened here Mr. Malfoy and I do not appreciate you lying to me. That will be 5 points from each of you for using magic in the corridors, 5 points for each spell you fired, and another 5 from you Mr. Malfoy for lying to a Professor. All three of you will also serve a detention with me Saturday afternoon."
"But the Quidditch match is this Saturday." Malfoy whined.
"A match you will miss for your cowardly attack on your fellow students." Flitwick snapped.
Malfoy seemed ready to argue but one look at the charms professor and he wisely closed his mouth, spun around, and walked off.
"That was some very good dodging you three." Flitwick said once Malfoy was out of earshot and the few people that had come upon them and stopped to watch events unfold had dispersed.
"Thanks Professor. Malfoy had tried to get me in trouble by challenging me to a duel at midnight but I didn't really expect him to attack us like that when I refused." Harry said, re-sheathing his wand.
"It was a cowardly move and one that will no doubt make its circulation around the school. Mr. Malfoy probably did more damage to his reputation with that stunt than if he had lost to you in a fair duel."
"We were actually coming to find you Professor." Hermione spoke up, determined not to let anything deter them from their original plans. "We received the letter from Professor McGonagall about the club and were wanting to know when we might be able to meet to talk about it."
Flitwick thought about it for a moment. "Why don't we meet on Sunday with Professor Flamel present. I am very interested in this enchanted parchment that she mentioned you came up with."
Harry and Hermione blushed. Perenelle had been ecstatic when they had told her the idea for the enchanted parchment and promised that she would come up with a way to make it work if it was the last thing she did. She also wanted to experiment and see if she would be able to put in some kind of alert spell on it so that they would know if one member attempted to cast the spell for another member.
"Thank you Professor. We were also thinking about signing up for this years Dueling Competition and were wondering if you might be willing to help us make sure we are prepared." Hermione said.
"Oh, that is wonderful news! My old friend Nathaniel Stoke with the British Dueling Association has been moaning that they haven't had nearly as many competitors lately for the 11-13 age group as they would like."
"Mr. Stoke is actually the one we have been corresponding with the past few months. He said he would be willing to come and speak to the club and watch some of the duels that we have if we were interested." Harry said.
Flitwick nodded his head excitedly. "I would suggest you take him up on his offer. It would also be a good idea to invite Professor McGonagall to a meeting or two to speak about using Transfiguration in a duel. She may not have participated in any official duels but she has seen battle. A perfect example of using her craft in a fight would be her attack on the troll at Halloween."
Hermione's eyes lit up. "That's a great idea! I'll be sure to ask her sometime before school lets out." She said and pulled her journal out to jot down the suggestion.
"Be warned however that using Transfiguration during a duel versus a classroom setting is vastly different. It is usually not recommended for students to use it in a duel unless they are 5th or 6th year and above since it takes much more time and concentration." Flitwick lectured them lightly.
"That makes sense." Harry said thinking back to all of their Transfiguration classes and how difficult it could be to get the desired result even after practicing for a full class period. Hermione was much better than Harry or Neville and he was confident that she probably wouldn't have any problem incorporating Transfiguration into her dueling repertoire when they got older whereas he and Neville would need to wait and see how they progressed in the coming years.
"I will speak with Professor Flamel at dinner to see if she will allow me to sit in on some of your training classes. Now if you will excuse me, I was on my way to the Staff Room before dinner." Flitwick said and gave them a small wave as he walked off.
"Of course, thank you again Professor." Hermione said then turned to Harry and Neville once he had left. "Isn't this great?! Oh, I'm so excited for next year."
"Are you three all right?" A familiar voice asked. The three turned around to see Daphne, Blaise, and Tracey coming hurriedly toward them.
Harry looked confused at Daphne's question. "Yes. Why wouldn't we be?"
"We just heard Malfoy talking to Crabbe and Goyle in the dungeons about ambushing you three." Blaise answered as he and Daphne came to a stop in front of them and Tracey began circling them, looking for injuries.
Neville snorted and told them all about what had happened with Malfoy from the time he came into the Great Hall to when he stormed off in a huff.
"That little git." Daphne fumed.
"Don't worry about it Daphne, they didn't even manage to hit any of us despite having the element of surprise." Harry said as Hedwig swooped in and landed on his shoulder. She had been especially attentive since Sunday and would appear out of nowhere to nuzzle and send feelings of love down their link whenever she pleased. If the professors disapproved of her showing up in the middle of class just to perch on his shoulder and preen his hair then they didn't say so in front of Harry. He also found, to his amusement that his familiar found History of Magic just as boring as he did and would entertain him with images of her flights across country or the happy faces of Sirius and Luna whenever she delivered his letters to them.
"Still, to think he would just hide in the shadows for a sneak attack and then not even manage to hit any of you with a spell. He gives us Slytherins a bad name." Blaise said with disdain.
"Don't worry Blaise, we consider Malfoy and his goon squad to be in a category all their own. I've come to the conclusion that the Sorting Hat only put them in Slytherin because they wouldn't fit into any of the other houses and though they really don't embody all of the traits that typically make up a Slytherin, their background made it easier to sort them there in the end than say Hufflepuff, which is wrongly thought to be where all the cast-offs end up." Hermione said this last bit with a roll of her eyes since that was all her fellow Gryffindors would talk about the first couple weeks of school after Harry was sorted there. They seemed to think that he should have been destined for Gryffindor since he somehow defeated Voldemort when he was a baby; like he had had any control over what had happened in the first place.
"You're in the majority then." Tracey spoke up. "Most everyone just seems to lump us together as if we aren't each an individual person but just one gigantic future dark witch or wizard."
"That's so not fair." Hermione griped. "We have met all of the first years and except for Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Parkinson you all just mind your own business; going to classes and doing your homework. Though Millicent Bulstrode, Isabella Lancaster, and Theodore Nott are still sort of an enigma since they don't really venture out too much other than to join the study group."
"Nott is a bit uppity and prefers to keep his own company most of the time but he is also pretty brilliant. Isabella isn't bad though she likes to hang out with her older sister, who is in 4th year, most of the time so we don't see her all that often. As for Milli, well, I think she is having a hard time deciding whether she wants to follow Parkinson and her ilk or if she should take the plunge and try mingling with Tracey, Blaise, and I. We have tried to reach out to her because we know that Parkinson makes fun of her a lot for the way she looks but she reads it as us just feeling sorry for her and her pride won't allow her to accept our friendship if she believes that that's the only reason it's being offered." Daphne explained.
"We're still trying though." Tracey said almost conspiratorially. "Hearing some of the things Parkinson says about her, we do feel bad for her but that isn't our only reason for trying to befriend her. She seems pretty mean looking and it's rather difficult to get her to open up but when she does she can be super nice and even kind of girly."
"I haven't actually talked to her a whole bunch but let her know that she is welcome to join us for studying outside of the study group or whatever if she ever feels like it." Harry offered and looked around at the others to make sure they agreed. He knew a thing or two about being made fun of thanks to Dudley and it could be pretty awful to have to endure when you thought you didn't really have a choice.
Blaise smirked when he saw the others nod. "We might just do that Harry. She may not turn down an invitation if we mention that it's from the famed Boy-Who-Lived."
Harry went slightly pink in embarrassment. It had taken months for the student population to settle down enough that he no longer heard their whisperings about him or caught them pointing at him in the hallways as he walked past. Thankfully he didn't have to put up with random people trying to come up and shake his hand or hug him like he did when he ventured out into Diagon Alley the second time around and someone had shouted out his name in excitement after they recognized him. It kind of went downhill from there and Nicolas and Perenelle had broken up the large crowd that had surrounded them but made sure Harry stayed close the rest of their trip. It was still a shock to see for himself just how many people knew of him and thought him some sort of celebrity.
His friends chuckled at his uneasiness but before they could tease him some more a bell rang throughout the school to let them know that dinner was now being served. As they made their way back towards the Great Hall, Hermione took pity on Harry and to keep the others from continuing their teasing, she excitedly began telling the Slytherins that they had gotten permission from Professor McGonagall to start the Dueling club.