Students had returned to Hogwarts after the Christmas holidays and now it was time for The Underage Duelling Championship.
" Are you all going to participate in the Championship ?" asked James.
The marauders were sitting with the girls in the common room.
" I am going to participate, it will be fun to jinx others," said Sirius.
Marlene rolled her eyes " I don't think I will, with the pressure of O. already ." she shrugged.
"I neither I don't fancy duelling much," said Mary.
" Nor me, I am already lacking behind in syllabus," said Peter tensely.
" I am also not participating," said Remus sadly.
The Marauders and Lily knew that there was a full moon that week so they didn't push Remus to participate.
" I am participating ... what about you Evans," asked James grinning.
" I am also participating, it will be good for my career," replied Lily.
" We will make good partners " James winked at her and Lily rolled her eyes.
They then began talking about their holidays and learned that Sirius has moved out of Grimmauld Palace. And soon the topic changed as they all laughed about how Pete ate the entire cake before Christmas eve and how Mrs Pettigrew had scolded him by making him clean the entire garden and how he was beaten by 10 gnomes. ( This was their talent of Pete knew how to lighten the mood and make everyone laugh ).
Eight people participated from Gryffindor house, Frank Longbottom ( having won the Championship himself) was given the task to select the best 2 Duelling pair from Gryffindor who would compete with other house students in pairs then the best pair selected by Flitwick will represent Hogwarts.
James and Lily were best in class but Sirius' talent was hidden from no one, the other five were talented but except for Dorcas Meadows, others were not able to cut. They were selected by going against Frank, Edgar Bones, and Alice Prewett.
Snape, Mulciber, Flavius Flint, and Regulus Black were selected from Slytherin.
Rowen Jonas, Kat Brunt, Nat Marsh, and Sam Cook were selected from Hufflepuff.
Henry Foakes, Philip Gooch, Sue Li, and Iris Turpin were selected from Ravenclaw.
All 16 students were standing on Quidditch grounds while the students sat on stands. In the middle of the ground was a big stage where they had duelled against each other to be selected.
Lily was hoping to be paired with Dorcas Meadows but Flitwick paired her with ( to James' delight and Lily's dismay ) James Potter stating that James and Sirius both have the same aggressive approach.
"You better perform well Potter because I want to win," said Lily although she knew he was a good dueller.
" Sure I will Evans, but I will perform better if ... " James said with a mischievous grin.
" If what? ..." Lily asked confused.
" If you will go out with me to next Hogsmeade ." Lily was expecting this.
" Listen, Potter, if you want to compete alongside me then you will not ask me out again, otherwise I will make sure you are not fit to compete ... Please, Potter, I want to win this, I want to prove that a muggle-born can also win. " Lily said the last sentence with such determination that James smiled at her, a genuine smile, a proud one.
He put a hand on Lily's shoulder and with determination in his eyes he looked into her green eyes and said with seriousness in his voice "Don't worry Lily, we will surely win. I will not let you down ." Lily knew James was serious and smiled at him.
"That's the spirit ".
And they began to discuss their tactics.
" So students, you will come up to the stage in pairs when your pair is called and will dwell. You are not allowed to use any illegal spell or else you will be disqualified. Points are given on how you avoid the jinxes and how much time you take, the pair with the best display of spells and skills and most points will be selected " said Flitwick.
The first duel was between Henry Foakes, Philip Gooch vs Hestia Jones, and Kat Brunt followed by a duel between Sue Li, Lisa Turpin vs, Nat Marsh, and Sam Cook.
The next was Dorcas Meadows, Sirius vs Snape, and Mulciber.
The duel progressed in full flow both pairs throwing hexes and spell at each other, Snape was already great at duell and so was Mulciber but Sirius and Meadows were no less. The duel becomes intense and then along with hexes words began to exchange.
Lily heard Snape and Mulciber comment about Sirius being disowned and about by his family and Meadow's mother being a blood traitor in return Sirius commented about Snape's parents which made Snape very angry and Marlene's comment about how Mulciber's family licked others' ass just so that they could be safe.
This all resulted in the use of illegal spells from both sides, all of them got severely injured and Mulciber's hand was bent at an odd angle. As a result, the four of them were disqualified but that did not stop them from throwing abuses at each other.
They were separately sent to the hospital wing, but before going Dorcas approached the pair of James and Lily.
" Sirius and I want both of you to kick those Slytherin's ass nicely and not to care for his dear brother," Dorcas said angrily and left.
" Well we were already going to do that anyway, right? " James asked Lily.
" Yeah " replied Lily.
James and Lily climbed on the side opposite Flint and Black.
" Bow," said Flitwick they all followed.
" Wands at the ready!" shouted Flitwick " At the count of three you will begin and do not use illegal curses. ... one...two...three "
James as per the plan cast a shield charm around them while Lily pointed her wand between the floor of the two Slytherins and cried " Bombardo ". There was an explosion which resulted that both the Slytherin's spells' directions briefly getting deflected from their targets. Both were expecting James to attack but were shocked when the attack came from Lily.
Black immediately sent another spell which was deflected by the shield charm.
James used that moment to point his wand at Black " Tarantallerga " but Regulus quickly dived to avoid the spell and Lily threw another spell at Flint who deflected it. Lily and James quickly exchanged their positions and cross-fired jinxes at their opponents Regulus deflected the hex but Flint was blinded by the Conjunctivitis curse sent by James.
Regulus sent another spell at them but it was only able to destroy the shield, Flint tried to cast a shield charm and not any other spell in case he would harm Regulus, but before he could do so Lily pointed her wand towards him " Stupefy ", Flint was knocked off his feet and fell on the ground.
While James continued duelling and when Regulus was distracted by the fall of his companion, James disarmed him before stupefying him.
" Excellent Mr Potter and Ms Evans, you both were the best and quickest. Both of you will represent Hogwarts at the championship," announced Flitwick and cheers erupted from the stands. " Now please follow me to my office," he said to both of them.
"Well that was easier than I expected," said Lily happily to James as they followed the tiny professor.
" That was because our plan at the start worked the way that we wanted."
" Yeah "
" You both have to sign this paper to officially participate in the Championship," said the professor, and they did.
" Now before the Championship begins I will give you special lessons that will help you against the other competitors who all will be the best. You will come to the charms room every Monday, Wednesday and Sunday " they both nodded and left.
Flitwick taught the pair many spells, which both of them mastered quickly. He told them about many tips, tactics, and strategies that could help them during the duell.
" The most important thing in this kind of duelling is to have great coordination with your partner because during a duel you are not duelling alone, both of you have to duel as only then you will be able to win. For that, you have to practice as much as possible. Mr Frank and Mrs Alicia will pair against you to give you the best practice. "
Soon by end of January, both Lily and James have got great coordination between themselves, both were working hard and were also managing the school work.
During one session they were even able to defeat Frank and Alice.
" We make quite a good pair," said James after a tiring practice session.
" Yeah, I just hope we win the championship," said Lily looking kinda nervous.
"Don't worry we will surely win " James assured her.
"And we are not good pair but I think we are the best pair " Lily smiled at him and James grinned widely, he has to summon all his power to prevent himself from asking her out at the moment.
Lily was happy with this James Potter who took the Championship seriously. Lily doesn't think she has ever seen James being serious about anything, since her request on the day of selection he hasn't asked her out, but only during practice sessions otherwise for rest of day, he goes back to being annoying and arrogant.
" You know we should practice nonverbal spells much," said James.
" I am not very good at them " shrugged Lily "But I cannot cast them effectively. What about you? "
" Dad and Uncle Ben taught me last summer and, I have practised it all summer and during Christmas break," replies James.
" But doing magic outside Hogwarts is banned. "
"It is banned to use, I know, but I was doing it in a safe basement at our house under my Father's guidance and was just learning it, also my father had already got approval from Ministry for that. If you want I can help you "
Lily consider it for a moment then agreed " Sure but don't use it to grow your ego more otherwise it'll explode. " Lily grinned and James laughed.
Lily against her will was Impressed by James' knowledge of nonverbal spells, he had books, old books which he had used to look up for spells.
" It is an old book of my father, he had kept it in the library and I took it, it's helpful," said James
" You have a library at your home ?"
" Yes, it's not that big but has a lot of books, mostly used by Aurors, many very old books are also there about ancient magic and deep magic as my grandfather used as he was a curse breaker, there are many books on potions of my father ."
"Sounds amazing," exclaimed Lily
" Yeah it is, that's why I brought some useful ones here, though everything is present in Hogwarts library and if not there then in Dumbledore's office"
" How do you know? "
" Two times we were summoned to his office, and I saw the books and asked him if I can borrow one on transfiguration and he said to feel free ' to ask for any books you want if you are not able to find them in restricted section' "James chuckled.
" Was it in the third year when you and Sirius were caught thrice in a restricted section ?"
" Yeah it was that time only, we didn't know that some books would start shouting " shrugged James.
" Where were Remus and Pete? "
" Oh they were there, but we didn't want to risk them getting caught so being good boys Sirius and I surrendered and gave the other two chance to escape," said James as though he was proud.
" What were you searching for? "
" Um... for ... Pranks?" James said, as more of a question, he didn't want to tell that they were looking for books on Animagus Potion".
Lily rolled her eyes. " Anyways let us begin the practice, shall we? "
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