December 19th, 1977
The great hall had been rearranged for the duelling competition. The long house tables were removed. A small ring was made in the middle with seats arranged around the ring. Shield were erected in front of the seats, to prevent any stray spell from hitting the students in the seats. The shields would instead absorb them, thus protecting the students.
At a time, only one duel would be held. Duels between the boys and girls were going to be held differently. Once every student and professor were inside the hall, Dumbledore began the competition and announced the first duel.
After 2 hours, all the duels of the 6th years were done. Samuel Davis from Ravenclaw and Samantha Greengrass of Slytherin won the competition. They were given some discount coupons for various shops in Hogsmeade. After another hours, the duels for the semi-finals were decided. For the boys, it was Sirius, Remus, James and Severus who made it to semi-finals while for the girls it was Alice, Lily, Patricia and Olivia Avery, another girl from Slytherin. Peter, Marlene and Dorcas missed the semi-final by one point. To Harry's and Ginny's surprise, Peter had duelled very well.
Peter knew that his own magical prowess and skills were not on the same level as his friends. So instead of depending on the spells themselves, like his friends and many others were doing, he instead played smartly and cunningly. He dodged and blocked the spells of his opponent, therefore tiring them and then using offensive spells. This method worked on almost everyone, but not on his friends and Snape. His friends released so many spells that he wasn't able to block all of them while the strength and ferocity of Snape's spell made it impossible for him to win.
It was time for the duel between Sirius and James. They both went inside the duelling ring and bowed to each other. They then took their stances. Dumbledore then started the duel. Both James and Sirius slowly moved around, waiting for the other to make the first spell. It was clear that both James and Sirius were going to play this duel defensively. This surprised the professors, since Sirius was very good and one of the bests in offensive duelling.
So instead of Sirius, it was James who casted the first spell and began attacking. Sirius was perfectly dodging the spell and counter attacking James. A lot of Stupefy's, Protego's, Expelliarmus and other spells were used in the duel. Neither James nor Sirius was giving any chance to the other. The duel went for nearly 20 minutes and James and Sirius were slowly getting tired. James knew that he needed to surprise Sirius to win the duel. He decided to trick Sirius. He first used a tickling charm, aiming just beside Sirius. His plan was to distract Sirius with the spell, who would block it with his shield. James would then use the spell again on him quickly. With both of them being very tired, he hoped Sirius wouldn't be able to block it. Then James would use Expelliarmus to end the duel.
The plan went perfectly. As he expected, Sirius was unable to block the second spell and as he began laughing due to the charm, James was easily able to use Expelliarmus and win the duel. Once Sirius's wand was in his hand, he cancelled the charm on Sirius. Sirius was a bit angry on himself for falling to that trick and losing the duel. But he knew James outsmarted him and won the duel fairly. The two best friends patted each other's back, for it had been a hard-fought duel. Lily and Alice duel went similarly, with Lily using Stupefy on Alice to win the duel. Patricia's and Olivia duel in contrast got over quickly. Both the girls duelled offensively right from the start and used many strong attacking spells on each other. In the end, Patricia won when she used the petrifying charm on Olivia and then stunned her.
Next was the duel between Snape and Remus. They both entered the ring, bowed to each other and took their stances. As soon as Dumbledore started the duel, Snape began attacking quickly. He unleashed a barrage of stunning, disarming and petrifying spells. Remus was trying to dodge as many spells as he could and tried to block with his shield. Seeing Remus blocking nearly all his spells, Snape began using cutting spell and stinging spell. Remus still blocked most of them and even counter attacked. Severus then began using the exploding curse near Remus to distract him. It worked and he quickly used the cutting curse on Remus. Several cuts appeared on Remus's arms and one was even on his face. He started losing blood but still refused to give up.
Harry, Ginny, Dumbledore, James, Sirius, Peter and Lily however clearly saw that Remus was still holding on Severus. The wolf inside him was angry and was itching to come out. If Remus was provoked more, the wolf could come out and things would turn very violent if it did. It would not end well for any of them if the wolf came out. And the way Remus eyes were slowly turning grey, he was barely keeping the wolf in control. Harry quickly stopped the duel and told Remus to go to the Hospital Wing. Remus tried to protest, not wanting to give up and fight till the end. But the look from not only Harry, but from the other professors and Dumbledore told him that he needed to go the hospital wing. He accepted defeat and left the ring. Severus tried to taunt Remus for losing. James, Sirius and Peter, who had till barely held their anger inside, were about to curse Severus right in front of everyone very badly, wanting to use their complete list of cures and jinxes on the slimy git. And they would have, if the girls hadn't held them back.
But the most damage was done by Lily, who just gave Severus a look of complete disgust and anger. Yes, Snape hadn't done anything against the rules of duelling. But no one else had used cutting spells or exploding spells during the duels0. They didn't used any harmful spells. She however turned towards Remus and tried to heal some of the cuts before Alice took Remus to the hospital wing. Snape never imagined Lily would look towards him like that, that she would find him disgusting. That she would hate him. Not even in his worst nightmare did he imagine that.