CHAPTER TEN

THE DUEL IN THE CORRIDOR

The next couple months progressed mostly quietly, at least at Hogwarts. By the middle of December, the temperature had plummeted and snowstorms had become a common occurrence, making even visiting Hagrid a perilous journey. Rose preferred to stay inside, and continued looking for something about a stone that brings people back from the dead for a moment, or anything about the symbol. The symbol was the most frustrating, as Rose wasn't really expecting to find anything about the stone, and she knew she had seen the symbol somewhere. She only wished she remembered where she had seen it, as then at least she could ask the right person about it. The Azkaban breakout also caused her some stress, but she tried not to think about it too much, and told herself she wasn't in any real danger where she was.

Hugo had started attending the Modernist meetings, despite Rose's concerns, and had brought Lily along for the last few weeks to James's annoyance. Rose didn't want them to be scared by the meetings, but she secretly was glad that they were informed about what was going on. She knew that it was dangerous, especially considering what Rosier had said and the Death Eaters on the run across the country, but she was proud of her brother for not being afraid of any of that.

Rose arrived at the Great Hall with Hugo, Al, and Scorpius for the last meeting before the holidays to find Lucy pacing in front of the table and Stephanie, Aidan, James, and Ava sitting at the end nervously, while Hagrid watched from the other end of the table. The Great Hall was mostly deserted, as no one was really bothering to study so close to Christmas, and Rose sat down next to Aidan, confused. "What's going on?"

"Lucy just found out about even more attacks in the country," he told her. "They're attacking Muggleborns everywhere. Godric's Hollow, Bath, Cardiff, it's all over the news."

"We have to warn people," Lucy exclaimed. "Muggleborns are going home for Christmas and some of them don't even know they're in danger! We should start by just going over what's happened in the last two months, and then maybe teach some self-defense?"

Rose sat through most of the meeting taking notes quietly, while Lucy and Stephanie talked the group through the last two months of attacks. Ever since the Death Eaters broke out of Azkaban, there had been sightings all over the UK, and occasionally they would kill a Muggleborn. They were sporadic enough to be sparking panic; there was no way to predict where they would be and what they would do. After that, Lucy motioned for her to put her quill down and said, "All right, so we're going to go over some defensive strategies for those of you who don't know them. Does everyone know the Disarming Spell?" Most people nodded, as it was first or second year magic, but Hugo and Lily tentatively shook their heads. "Er… Rose, come help me with this one. We can teach the Shield Charm too."

Rose felt a little nervous to get up in front of everyone, especially considering she had only done the Shield Charm once or twice. "All right, so the spell's Expelliarmus…er, you move your wand left, then down, like this." Lucy demonstrated the motion, then turned to Rose. "Watch me. Expelliarmus." Rose's wand jerked out of her hand and landed about ten feet away, and she went to get it. "Now, Rose is going to stop me with a Shield Charm. The incantation's Protego, and… watch her. Ready, Rose?" Rose nodded, a little nervous, and Lucy did the Disarming spell again.

Rose shouted a little more forcefully than probably necessary, "Protego!" To her delight, it worked, and Lucy's spell did nothing to her wand. The shield disappeared after a few seconds and Lucy grinned.

"Brilliant. Okay, first years, you're up." Rose spent the next fifteen minutes or so trying to help Lily and Hugo with the spells. Both of them managed to disarm each other eventually, but only Lily produced a flickering grey barrier for about a second, and Hugo's spell still worked. Rose tried to tell her that she could barely do the Shield Charm herself, but Lily was very put out by the whole thing. At the end of the meeting, Lucy said, "So we'll be meeting again after we come back, there'll be a notice in the common rooms. Try to enjoy the holidays and please stay safe." The meeting ended and Aidan stood up.

"I'll see you after break, Rose," he said, and started to leave. Rose called after him as he walked towards the door.

"Aidan, you'll be careful at home, won't you?" she asked, and he looked a little embarrassed.

"Er, I'm not… going home," he explained quickly. "Happy Christmas, Rose." As he left, Rose walked back to the table and saw Hugo, Al, and Scorpius waiting for her.

"Let's go," she said, and they had just left the Great Hall when they heard an all too familiar voice laughing at the end of the corridor. Rose looked quickly to see Rosier and Burke approaching quickly, talking loudly.

"I'm glad we're all going home tomorrow," Rosier was saying. "Maybe some of the Mudbloods will go get themselves offed by those prisoners."

"Yeah, Merlin knows they're safe here. That old bat McGonagall has got Aurors everywhere," Burke said. "My great uncle's trying to stop it, but that old bat McGonagall isn't letting him do anything."

"Oh, brilliant," Rosier called out when he saw them, "is the Mugglelover club let out? You know your Mudblood mother can't protect her own over the holidays, Weasleys, I hope Dolohov and the others get her too."

Rose felt her ears growing red and Hugo said angrily, "Don't talk about my mum like that!"

Rosier and Burke laughed. "I'll say whatever I want, it's not like you could do anything to stop me." Hugo started fishing for his wand and Rosier looked at Burke in surprise. "You don't want to fight me, Weasley."

"Expelliarmus!" Hugo shouted nervously. Despite not really being very concentrated, he managed to drop Burke's wand to the ground. Rosier chuckled a little and pulled out his wand.

"Densaugeo!" Rosier yelled, and the spell shot from his wand towards Hugo. Al, being the closest to him, cast a Shield Charm before the spell hit him.

Rose saw Al telling Hugo to go find a teacher as Scorpius stepped in front of both of them and shouted, "Furnunculus!" Rosier blocked it and Burke, having found his wand, looked directly at Rose.

"Relashio!" he shouted, and she felt her wand being thrown from her hand as she flew backwards into the wall. At this point, there were a good deal of students watching and Rose felt embarrassed to be the first one really affected. Rose got up, angry, ignoring her sudden headache, and scrambled for her wand. She noticed with annoyance that her books had spilled out of her bag and started to clean up before remembering a spell she had learned the previous week.

"Oppugno!" she shouted, and the books and papers started rocketing towards Burke, who was sufficiently distracted for the only remaining threat to be Rosier.

"Pungerium!" Rosier shouted as Rose hurried back to Scorpius and Al, and Scorpius was blasted back to the ground as his face began to distort.

Al tried to disarm Rosier, but he blocked it and called out, "Engorgio skullus!"

"Protego!" Rose yelled quickly, and to her surprise, it held and Rosier's spell turned back onto himself. He fell over as his head started to grow.

At that moment, Rose heard a voice call out, "Enough!" The whole crowd turned as Professor Barton ran in with Hugo and Al groaned.

"You got the Head of Slytherin?" he asked incredulously.

"I couldn't find anyone else!" Hugo insisted, and Barton walked over to Rosier and Burke.

"Mr. Burke, please take Mr. Rosier to the hospital wing. Oh, and your detentions will be served when you return from the holidays. Thirty points from Slytherin.""You can't do that! We're in the lead for the Cup!" Burke complained as he helped Rosier up.

"As a matter of fact I can," Barton said. "You, however, cannot start duels with first years. You four, follow me to my office," he added, turning to Rose and the others, and Rose felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. "The rest of you, get back to your houses," he said, addressing the whole room, and the crowd began to disperse as Rose followed Barton to his office, with Al and Hugo guiding Scorpius, who was finding it difficult to see.

They entered the dungeons and went into the small office off of the NEWT Potions room. Rose shuddered as she remembered the last time she had been here, in first year with the Order. There was only one seat in front of his desk, and Al helped Scorpius into it as the other three stood behind the chair. Barton sat down and looked at all of them. "What happened to Mr. Malfoy?" he asked. "A Stinging Jinx, correct?"

"Yes, sir," he said.

"It'll go away within the hour, there's not much else I can do," he said apologetically.

"We didn't mean to get in a fight, sir," Al began, and Barton held up a hand.

"It's all right, Mr. Potter, I know how Mr. Rosier and his friends can be. It seems they constantly have detentions. And while I will have to take thirty points from Gryffindor, in fairness… I will not give you detention. I will be required to inform your Head of House, however. If you have no further questions, you may go." Rose looked at Al in surprise, and then turned to Professor Barton.

"Thank you, Professor," she said, and they quickly left the office.

"That was not what I was expecting," Scorpius said as they climbed up the stairs from the dungeons.

"He was an Auror," Al said. "He's not anything like the last two Potions professors."

When they returned to Gryffindor tower, they were met with loud applause and James and Roxanne came running over to them.

"Did you really make Rosier's head swell?" Roxanne asked. "Dylan said it was nearly twice its size."

"Rather poetic, really," James remarked.

"It was his own spell," Rose said. "It rebounded."

James grinned. "Well that's even better."

"I saw the whole thing," Harry added, coming up behind James. "She took out Burke, too. Sent loads of books at his head."

"He threw me into a wall, I wasn't happy," Rose said.

"Well, no, I reckon not," Roxanne said.

"This is your second duel, Rosie, you might want to relax a little," James said. Rose sighed and walked towards the girls' rooms.

"I'm going to bed," she said, and James looked a little put out. "And Hugo started it anyway," she added as she walked up the stairs. James's eyes widened and he turned around.

"Hugo! Hugo!" she heard him shouting, and she laughed a little as she climbed the stairs to her room. She sat down on the bed and tried to relax a little, knowing she would soon be hounded by Min once she came upstairs. Despite the growing concern she felt for the Muggleborns, especially her mother, she was very glad to be going home the next day.