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Autumngold: The Dark Lord isn't tame. He is trying to seduce Harry to his side by making him believe that everything Harry thought he knew about him was false. Lucius is helping him with it. Voldemort isn't insane anymore because his youngest soul piece stabilised him when he got his body back years ago, but he isn't a softie either. He's just a good manipulator.

FanFictionLover: Alright, alright, I believe you :) It's still a bit difficult for me to accept such praise of my modest skills ^^

Chapter 19: 31st of July 1997, Part One: Mock duels

The next few days had passed swiftly. Nothing of importance was said between Harry and Lucius, partly because the latter wanted to allow some reflection time to the younger man. And he could see that Harry was indeed quite preoccupied by the questions turning around in his mind.

The Dark Lord hadn't talked to the young man again, even if Lucius could feel that the man itched for another exchange between the two of them. Lucius had gone to him the day before to report his conclusions about Harry and his Master had looked particularly pleased with his words to Harry and their effect on him. He had told Lucius that he would come and visit him again the day after to introduce Harry to his new tutor. If the young man wanted to take his NEWTs any time soon, he would need one, after all, and none of his Death Eaters, who all either had highly placed functions in his government or were mentally unstable, had time for such a task.

Lucius was a bit worried by the interest his Master had toward Harry. He had noticed that the fascination was mutual as well, so this didn't bode well for Harry's chances of resisting to the Dark Lord's charisma. The young man might be mature for his age, but he would probably be devastated when he would be thrown aside after a few nights, like so many had been before. He thanked Magic every day that he was strictly heterosexual and had a lovely wife. The Dark Lord's power was intoxicating and mouth-watering, but he had never been particularly affected by his Master's beauty and elegance. His young guest was not as lucky, however. Perhaps it would be a better idea for him to give up the Duel altogether. It would make him less conflicted. It wasn't as if Harry stood a chance anyway.

There was also the matter of the living quarters. Lucius actually liked having the young man in his house. It gave Draco something to do and Harry was one of the only child the age of his son that wasn't in awe before him either because of his Malfoy good looks, prestige or richness. Salazar knew that Draco needed someone who wouldn't treat him as the next coming of Merlin on Earth. And their developing friendship was beneficial to both of them, if Harry's increasingly relaxed demeanour was anything to go by. He had surprised the two boys laughing together often when he arrived from a long day in the office, and the joy that resonated through the Manor was the best welcome he ever had in his home. He couldn't wait to see if a new addition to the new family would have the same effect. Perhaps a little daughter to shower with gifts and attention, this time. He still had yet to talk of his plan with Narcissa. He dearly hoped that she would agree with him...

o0o0o

The day after, Lucius, who was once again heading for an early breakfast, heard sounds of a fight coming from the training room. By now, he knew that Harry liked to train every morning and sometimes even for a second time in the evening, so he wasn't overly concerned by the noise. However, it sounded as if someone was shouting spells back at the boy. Lucius decided to go and investigate.

When he arrived at the door, he decided against Disillusioning himself. He had already established that Harry could always sense him, regardless of if he was visible or not. He opened the door silently...and was quite shocked by the sight that greeted him.

Harry was duelling his son. No, Harry was playing and Draco was barely keeping up with the younger wizard. He had trained Draco in the duelling arts as much as he could, really, but his son had grown up mostly during a time of peace so there wasn't the same need, the same urgency in his training than Lucius' own had had. Lucius had been brought up by his father to participate in a war, to kill, to win his deathly fights and duels. Draco had been trained enough to beat his opponents in friendly duels at Hogwarts, to not embarrass himself in dangerous situations and to be able to defend himself should the need arise.

Harry Potter had trained all his life to kill the Dark Lord. The difference between the two boys' fighting style was quite apparent. They were both brought up with different needs, different skills in mind. Draco was forced on the defensive, protecting himself continuously because he feared potential injuries. Harry was skating around the spells, flirting with danger with the practised ease of someone who had a lot of fighting experience, of someone who had nothing to loose, ultimately.

That was also perhaps the biggest difference between his Lord's fighting style and Harry's. Harry wasn't afraid of dying, of taking risks. His Lord had too much to loose to be so reckless. He was also the type to want to stay graceful, to appear immutable even in a fight. He now fought most of the time to impress a crowd, or to prove his superiority. In a duel, his feet would be firmly entrenched in the ground to show his opponent that he was better than them and that he didn't need to roll around on the ground and dodge left and right. He would be like an unbreakable statue, an all-powerful deity on Earth.

Harry, however, was moving around, exploiting his space to the maximum and dodging as much as he could to preserve his magical energy. His movements were quick and fluid like water most of the time, but sometimes jerky and abrupt when he needed them to be. At the moment, he was only using low-powered basic spells, but Lucius knew that the young man most likely had a deathly arsenal in store in case the fight became more serious.

Draco was panting, throwing himself painfully right and left, absorbing the wrong spells in his shield and dodging useless ones. He was clearly in over his head. He was also probably too exhausted to come up with an appropriate strategy at this point. Harry was making him run around in circles around him while he stayed there, analysing Draco's movements.

When a Cutting hex flew over to his son without Draco noticing it, Lucius stepped in with a short flick of his wand. Enough was enough. He wouldn't let his heir be beaten in front of him without intervening.

Harry sent him a knowing glance.

He had probably shot this Cutting spell on purpose, the devious child.

Lucius wouldn't say that he was out of shape, but he was a bit rusty. He joined in the fight with a clear head and with the intention to prove that, as one of the Dark Lord's best lieutenants during the War, he wouldn't be beaten so easily.

.

However, he realised early in the fight that he had underestimated his young guest as well. Seeing that he now had two opponents, Potter quickly took Draco out of the fight by Stupefying him and pushing him in a corner of the room. Lucius was too busy defending himself against vicious vines to help his son. When he managed to incinerate them, Potter was already done with getting rid of his younger opponent and had turned all his attention on him. His eyes were completely focused and determined, and glowing with his magical sight.

Harry shot a chain of spells at him that seamlessly flowed one after the other. Lucius dodged most of it, but was forced to absorb the last two of the chain in his shield and they hit it with a resounding impact. He retaliated with a fire whip and tried to wrap it around one of Potter's leg but the later jumped and shot a water spurt at the whip before landing back on his feet like a panther and shoting him a Bludgeoning spell and a Cutting hex at the same time, one slightly to his right and the other to the left side of his body. Lucius dodged the right, evaluating that the Bludgeoning spell would be less draining to block than the Cutting one. Potter had apparently predicted his move because the Bludgeoning spell was overpowered and resonated with a deep sound on his vibrating shield.

Lucius, not to be undone so quickly, conjured seven sharp blades in a swift move and shot them at the youth in all possible directions. Harry turned on his side, making the knifes heading to his sides pass without touching him, crouched slightly to dodge the blade heading for his head and pushed downwards with his wand making the knife aimed to his knees clatter on the ground. Then he Summoned Lucius' blades and shot them back to their creator in a quick succession. Lucius had to spend a considerable amount of energy to block their quick approach or to dodge them one by one.

In the meanwhile, Harry had had time to ponder his next move, which made the ground under his opponent's feet crumble to dust and change into a sort of glue after Lucius had sunk in it.

The Minister used the water from Harry's earlier spell, adding to it and freezing the ground, hoping to make the younger man slip on the ice. Harry transfigured his shoes into ice skates and gained even more mobility. They exchanged curses and he only had to slightly twist to the side for his whole body to move completely out of the way. Lucius was still stuck in the ground and steadily loosing his magical stamina. He tried to end the duel quickly by shooting deathly dark curses at Harry, hoping that the latter would surrender when confronted with those disproportionately dangerous spells.

But Harry only skirted out of the way on his ice skates and muttered counter-curses to the ones who were target seeking. He then shot an overpowered Blasting spell at Lucius that shattered his shield noisily and followed it a fraction of second after by a Binding charm and a Disarming spell.

Lucius conceded his defeat. He hadn't been so thoroughly bested since his last duel with the Dark Lord. A small voice inside of him whispered that perhaps Harry Potter stood a chance against his Master, in the end. They had completely different styles and the Dark Lord was far more experienced and vicious...but Harry had stayed in control of their fight the whole time, always one move ahead of him. And he was just standing there, looking a bit dishevelled by all his dodging, perhaps, but not even breathing heavily. He could have continued on fighting for quite a while. Not to mention that he had been duelling his son for who knew who long beforehand.

Lucius was the one who had used draining and demanding spells. Conjuring those daggers had been a bad idea. It took too much concentration to conjure solid objects during battle and Harry had turned his magic against him too easily without tiring himself nearly as much.

No, Lucius had utterly underestimated his opponent. He had been fooled by his young appearance and his seeming naïvety. He had thought that, since Harry was so uncertain about the direction of his life in general, he would be a weak opponent.

But there was strength in second guessing oneself. It showed adaptability, it showed that Harry didn't take anything for granted or for absolute truths, it showed that he had an investigating and sceptical mind. It showed that he might believe whatever lies you say to him at first, but that he would catch it at the first misstep you made. This wasn't an impressionable youth that one could easily manipulate.

At the corner of his vision, he saw his Lord standing there, watching Harry attentively with evaluating eyes. He knew what his Lord's conclusion would be. They had to revise their strategy. They had both underestimated Harry Potter...

Just how strong is Harry? Could he really defeat the Dark Lord?

Next chapter, we will see Harry's POV on the duel, the identity of his tutor...and there will be HPLV slash! It will be a very diverse, very long and important chapter!

People, the time has come! Show some enthusiasm if you want some slash now! I had originally planned it to be in two chapters, but I'm offering it to you next chapter if you show me that you want it now! ;)

Thanks in advance for reviewing! ^^