Just after the duel between Snape and Remus
The next duel was between Patricia and Lily. Everyone was excited for this duel, for both the girls till then had been dueling brilliantly, showing great use of the spells and charms. It would be interesting what spells they would use and how. The girls entered the ring and took their stances. Dumbledore then started the duel.
Just like her previous duels, Patricia cast the first spell and right from the start played offensively, determined to not give Lily any chance of counter attack and to make her be on offensive. In her mind, if she defeated Lily, then James would see just how weak and ordinary she actually was. That he would realize that she wasn't like the special witch he thought she was and that she was much better than Lily could ever be. And then he would realize his mistake in refusing her. In her mind, winning this duel meant winning James.
She started using spells aggressively and quickly. She used a variety of spells and her shield was strong enough to easily block any of the spells Lily got the chance to cast. She even talked smack to Lily, telling how weak her spells were and how easy to doge them and block them, trying to rattle her up, hoping that in anger she would make a mistake. Lily however kept her calm and focus. Her mind was thinking of ways to distract Patricia long enough to win the duel. Patricia's spells were strong, as was her shield. She needed to do something unconventional to win the duel. She decided to use charms to distract Patricia, just like how James used to distract Snape.
She first conjured some birds using the bird conjuring spell Avis. She then used Oppugno to make the birds fly towards Patricia. This distracted Patricia, who began using her shield to prevent the birds from attacking her. Using this moment of distraction, Lily used stupefy and stunned Patricia. The spell was on point and knocked Patricia out.
When Patricia felt herself being woken up, she saw James and others hugging Lily and congratulating her for winning the competition, James being the loudest. When she saw this, Patricia felt resigned and dejected. She realised that even if she had won the duel, James would still like Lily. Just because she lost the duel wouldn't mean his attraction for her would go away. It wouldn't mean he would start liking her.
The thing that made her see just how foolish she had been was when afterwards Lily shook hands with her and said that she put a great fight and was a great dueler. James said that as well. The fact that Lily hadn't been condescending towards her after the way she fought during the duel made her feel ashamed. She realised that it was time to move on from James and let go of the anger she had towards Lily.
And finally, it was time for the final duel of the competition. The duel everyone had been waiting for since the day the competition was announced. The duel between James Potter and Severus Snape. The Gryffindor head boy vs the Slytherin DADA prodigy, arch rivals and sworn enemies. Even the teachers were excited for this duel. What kind of spells would they use? How would they use them? Everyone was excited for this duel.
But Harry and Ginny however were the only one who saw the barely suppressed anger in James eyes. Prongs was in rage inside, demanding retribution for the harm done to his friend Moony, wanting to attack Snape. And James agreed with Prongs. He was itching to unleash all his spells, curses and jinxes on Snape. Severus meanwhile wanted to defeat and humiliate James. He wanted to take revenge for all the pranks, insults, nicknames and biggest of all, destroying his friendship with Lily. Both of them were being fueled by anger.
Both boys took their stance and then started the duel. Snape once again started aggressively, using cutting curse and exploding curse right from the start. Using a special shield charm from the Potter book of magic that his parents had thought him, James blocked all spells Snape casted. Snape however continued casting spell at a quick pace. But he began feeling tired after few minutes and began thinking what to do. James used this moment of distraction. He wanted to humiliate Snape in front of everyone. And the best way to do that would be to defeat him using the easiest defence spell, the disarming spell. He used the spell perfectly and with pin-point accuracy. Snape's wand flew into his hand. Snape at first didn't realize what had happened. But when he saw his wand in James's hand, he realized what happened. James defeated him, a prodigy in DADA and dark arts, the best in Hogwarts in DADA, with the simplest spell in the entire course, taught in the first year, with a disarming spell. He was humiliated and getting angry. James threw the wand back into Snape's face and said, "Next time, try to do better. You only beat Remus because you played unfairly and used lethal spells, just how you used on me now. No one used a cutting spell in any one of the duels except you. You surprised Remus. Otherwise, Remus would have defeated you easily." Snape was so angry that his whole face was red with anger. His hatred of James Potter reached new heights. He grabbed his wand and went out of the great hall with an angry scowl on his face, not caring what happened after he left the hall, not caring what everyone else thought of him. His mind was focused only on his anger and hatred for James Potter.