Harry and the Pirates, Chapter 31
by Technomad
The First Tournament
At last, the time drew near for the first official Hogwarts Dueling Tournament. Professor Flitwick gathered his proteges in his office for some last-minute advice.
"First off, and I cannot emphasise this enough, don't get cocky! You may think that you've got a duel in the bag, but until your opponent is unconscious or surrenders, the game is not over!" Harry nodded, and Dudley looked grim. Both of them had seen more than enough in Roanapur over the years they'd lived there to know that much.
"Second, always bear in mind that spells can have unusual uses. Our Mr. Potter can testify to that." Harry grinned and took a little bow as everybody turned to look at him. Then he remembered that Hermione Granger had been there when they took the troll down, and knew just how it had been done. He reminded himself that while Hermione, like many of the other girls, had been temporarily addled by Gilderoy Lockhart's smile, she was probably the smartest witch in Hogwarts. She had also taken Roanapur completely in her stride, which, along with her accompanying him, Ron, and Dudley on what had turned out to be a hunt for the Philosopher's Stone, argued for her being a dangerous opponent.
"Lastly, what have I always said is a duelist's most important weapon?" Flitwick looked expectantly at his proteges.
Back came the answer from several of them, including Luna, one of the few girls present: "The mind, sir!" Flitwick beamed; he was, after all, Head of Ravenclaw House.
"Now, go out there and make me proud!" With confident smiles, Harry and the other team members stepped out to face their opponents. Someone or other (Harry privately suspected Dudley of having arranged it) had figured out a way to play Wagner's "Entry of the Gods into Valhalla" as they entered the Great Hall, to the cheers of the assembled audience.
The judges of the dueling competition were seated at one end of the hall, where the faculty table normally was. Harry noticed a pretty young woman with purple hair in a rather "punk" style, a tough-looking black wizard, and a grizzled old man with one eye and a flask by his side. In the middle of the judges sat Professor Dumbledore, along with a man in a lime-green bowler hat and green robes, and a tall, elegant blond wizard. They all applauded as Flitwick's team came in to line up on one side of the hall. "Presenting…Filius Flitwick's 'Flitwick's Furies!'" echoed through the hall.
"Aaand now…Gilderoy Lockhart's 'Gilderoy's Gladiators!'" came the announcement. To the tune of Mendelssohn's "War March of the Priests," Lockhart's own pupils came in, two by two, their faces solemn.
The hall went silent. Professor Dumbledore's voice, amplified by a Sonorus charm, could be heard throughout the hall. "Welcome to our first Dueling Association tournament. Allow me to introduce my fellow judges: Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic…" The man in the green robes and hat stood and bowed, to the sound of applause, "Lucius Malfoy, a member of the Board of Governors of this fine school," as the blond wizard stood and waved, acknowledging the crowd's welcome, "Alaistair Moody, Senior Auror," which apparently meant the one-eyed wizard, "Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt," and the black wizard stood and bowed to the crowd, "and, last but never least, one of our newest Aurors, N. Tonks." The young woman with the purple hair gave Dumbledore a rather dirty look, but stood to acknowledge the crowd.
Fudge, as Minister of Magic, took over. "You all know the ground rules. No lethal spells. No Unforgivables. No continuing after an opponent is down and helpless. While we have Healers on call, I hope that they have a boring, uneventful time of it tonight." Professor Snape and Madame Pomfrey both nodded vigorously. Harry grinned. In Roanapur, the maxim was "a bored paramedic is a happy paramedic," and apparently that applied to Healers, too.
"When your opponent is down, or appears unable to continue, you are to look to us judges. If a majority of us turn our thumbs up, that means that you have won. If our thumbs are down, that means that you are to fight on." explained Dumbledore. "Now, let us begin, and I hope that you will all make us, and Hogwarts, proud."
Both teams of duelists turned to face the judges, raised their right hands, and said in unison: "We, who are about to duel, salute you, judges!" Regally, Fudge nodded his acknowledgement, while Lucius Malfoy smiled an enigmatic smile.
With that, the matches began. The contestants had been divided by year, so that a first-year such as Luna wouldn't find herself paired off against a seventh-year. The seventh-years went first, and Harry was dazzled by the spellwork he saw. He could see Hermione, over on Lockhart's side, visibly wishing for a quill and parchment to write notes on.
At the end of the seventh-years' exhibition, the score was slightly in favor of Flitwick's Furies, but it had been by no means a shutout. Then things progressed down the years, with the sixth-years, fifth-years, fourth-years, and third-years showing what they could do. Finally, it was time for the second-years.
Harry had been keeping track of the scores, and Lockhart's team was falling further and further behind. He had heard muttering about the DADA teacher's pupils being not as prepared for the tournament as people had expected, and smiled grimly to himself. There's a lot more to a real fight than winning Witch Weekly's "Most Charming Smile" award, he thought. Lockhart had started the tournament full of confidence, but by this time, he was looking increasingly distressed, for all the world as though his puppy was dying.
The judges announced the next match: "For Flitwick's Furies, Harry Potter of Slytherin. Representing Gilderoy's Gladiators, Hermione Granger of Slytherin!" Harry gave the judges a long, considering look. The matches were ostensibly set by randomly drawing names, one from each team, but he could easily imagine ways for someone or other to fiddle that sort of thing.
There was no time to investigate, though. He walked out into the middle of the hall, as a hush fell and hundreds of eager eyes followed every move he made. From the other side, Hermione stepped forward, her eyes narrowed as she watched him. Harry was reminded of Revy Two-Hand preparing for a gunfight.
Fudge rang a gong, signalling the beginning of the bout. Harry pointed his wand, shouting "Petrificus Totalus!" Unfortunately, Hermione knew him fairly well, and had anticipated that opening move. She ducked, firing a Tickling Charm back at him, which nearly incapacitated him until he managed to gasp "Finite Incantatem!" Then he had a quick idea, and shot a Tarantallegra at her, followed by the same charm she had used to slick the floor under the troll, the previous year. Dancing helplessly, she was soon on the floor, and Harry finished the duel with an Incarcerous, tying her up as neatly as a Christmas present.
He looked up at the judges. Cornelius Fudge's face was unreadable; Lucius Malfoy seemed to be rather amused, and the Aurors were clearly intrigued by his approach. Fudge stood, and held out his hand, his fingers curled in a fist-and raised his thumb. "The victory goes to Harry Potter, of Flitwick's Furies!" The room erupted in cheers, and Harry could hear his teammates chanting his name. It felt good.
Harry pointed his wand. "Finite Incantatem!" Released from his spells, Hermione looked up at him, then slowly got to her feet and rejoined her teammates. As she left, Harry could see her shoulders beginning to shake, and all of a sudden, his victory tasted like ashes and dust in his mouth. He wasn't particularly romantically interested in Hermione, or in anyone else, no matter how much his friends in Roanapur teased him. However, Hermione had always been a firm friend of his, and he hated what he'd had to do to her.
His teammates noticed how he felt. Dudley patted his back, whispering "Don't feel so bad, Harry. She went into this knowing that losing was a possibility, or she should have known." Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy was going out, to face Zacharias Smith of Hufflepuff House, and the attention of the crowd was distracted.
The Malfoy/Smith duel was adjudged a draw after both contestants ended up unable to continue fighting at the same time. When Draco came back, he was faced with some good-natured ribbing. He didn't seem to notice it, which was unusual. Instead, he looked rather uneasy. When asked what was bothering him, he said "My dad is up there, and he expected me to clean Smith's clock for him. I hope he doesn't hold it against me!"
The others were startled at this; from what Harry could see, Zach Smith was one of the best and most talented members of Gilderoy's Gladiators. Slytherin common wisdom was that Hufflepuffs were best not meddled with. Ravenclaw was reasonably friendly, at least when they could be got to notice the world outside their books, while Gryffindors were traditional rivals, and could be pranked and feuded with with relative impunity. Hufflepuff, on the other hand, stuck together; an attack or affront to one was an attack or affront to all, and they specialized in coordination and working together far more than the other Houses. Individually, Hufflepuffs didn't have the flash and fire of Gryffindor, the sheer intellectual brilliance of Ravenclaw, or the cunning and subtlety of Slytherin, but they were no less formidable than other Hogwarts students.
Adrian Pucey patted Draco reassuringly on the back. "If you'd like, I'll have Flitwick have a word with your dad. You did pretty well against that 'Puff. And this is our first tournament. I'm sure we'll all do better next time around." Draco looked at Adrian skeptically, but didn't contradict him.
The final duel of the evening pitted Ginny Weasley against her housemate Luna Lovegood. While Lockhart's team had spent most of the evening trailing in points, they had rallied desperately in their last few matches, and it now came down to these two girls. When Ginny came out, she turned, her arms raised, acknowledging the cheers and whistles from the audience. Fred, George and Percy Weasley were all applauding frantically, their usual differences utterly forgotten in family solidarity. Harry felt a brief stab of envy. When Ron had faced off against Parvati Patil, they had cheered just as hard for him, and rejoiced when he pulled off a victory.
Luna stepped forward, her expression as serene as though she were miles from any such thing as a dueling tournament. Dudley set up a chant: "Lu-na! Lu-na! Lu-na!," and his teammates took up the chant. That penetrated the veil of serenity that Luna generally carried around with her, and she turned, giving Dudley a dazzling smile for a second before facing Ginny and awaiting the signal to begin.
When Fudge rang his gong, Ginny was ready, firing a Bat-Bogey hex at Luna. Luna, however, was quite familiar with Ginny, and had anticipated that move, bending herself over backward and touching the floor behind her feet for a second before bouncing back to her feet and shooting an Expelliarmus at Ginny. Ginny, for her part, was so startled at Luna's flexibility that she didn't dodge Luna's spell in time, and her wand flew from her hand. Luna Petrified Ginny, then turned to face the judges.
Fudge looked down at her impassively, then stood and raised his arm, his thumb up. Beside him, Dumbledore held out his hand with his thumb up, and Lucius Malfoy also gave a thumbs-up, followed by the Aurors. Luna smiled, bowed politely to the judges and the audience, then went over to un-Petrify her friend, helping Ginny to her feet as the crowd roared its approval.
With the tournament at an end, the judges huddled for a minute, before Cornelius Fudge turned and held up his hand for silence. In the sudden echoing quiet, his voice echoed through the Hall: "Gilderoy's Gladiators took fifteen bouts, while Flitwick's Furies took twenty-three. In addition, we notice that Flitwick's Furies used spells in a much more imaginative and creative manner than Gilderoy's Gladiators. It is our decision that Flitwick's Furies are the victors!"
Harry, his teammates, and their supporters in the audience let out a roar of joy. Flitwick found himself grabbed and being carried around the hall on his proteges' shoulders, his face wreathed in smiles. Harry got a glimpse of Snape, and noticed that the saturnine Potions Master also seemed to be very pleased, in his own quiet way. Hope this leads to better times in Potions, he thought.
After the hubbub had died down, Harry and his teammates headed for their dorms. When Harry, Ron, Luna and Dudley got into the Slytherin common room, they found that they weren't the first ones there. Hermione was sitting in one of the comfortable leather sofas, crying as though her heart would break.
All three of her friends stared, horrified. Ron was the first to act, rushing across the room and sitting down beside her. "What's the matter? What's wrong?" he asked, concern in his voice. "Are you all right?"
"I-I made a fool of myself! I believed all that hype about Lockhart! Nobody will respect me now!" With that, her voice trailed off into a wordless howl.
Ron gathered her into his arms, as Harry, Dudley and Luna gathered around close. "Hermione! Don't feel so bad! It's not your fault! Lockhart's fooled a lot of people over the years!"
"Yes, Hermione. We think the man's an out-and-out fraud," Luna said, her big silvery eyes shiny with tears at her friend's distress.
That got right through, snapping Hermione out of her distress. "A fraud? But how…I mean, all those books of his…" Harry saw Luna wink quickly at Dudley, who winked back, and his respect for their eccentric-seeming little blonde friend rose. Luna had known just what to say to get through to Hermione!
Dudley explained gently, putting his arm around Luna's shoulders as she nestled against him: "Hermione, one reason we've been studying those books so hard is to find things that are impossible, or incidents where Lockhart claims to have been in two places at one time. We've found quite a few. Would you like to see our chart?"
Wide-eyed, Hermione nodded, sniffling and wiping tears from her face with a hanky that Ron had handed her. She snuggled against Ron as Harry went to get the chart that the Slytherin boys had compiled from their shower room.
"Here it is. Take a look." Hermione peered at the chart, muttering inaudibly to herself, and going paler and paler.
"My God, I think you're right! The man's an arrant fraud! If he really had a cure for werewolves, or a way to force them back into human form, he'd have the Order of Merlin for sure, not to mention the thanks of many werewolves and their families! Instead, he writes these lying books…" Her lips went thin. "That bastard! That utter, conniving, two-faced…bastard!"
Ron said: "We asked Snape about him, and Snape's not impressed with him at all, but can't do anything about it. You do know that Snape was a Death Eater briefly, in his youth, don't you?" Hermione shook her head, her eyes wide. "Well, Snape says that for someone with his dodgy rep to accuse a popular hero like Lockhart of lying and being a fraud would just recoil on him; everybody would believe Lockhart, and Snape would be painted as a jealous, malicious liar."
"Well, I won't stand for this! I'll bring that posturing poseur down if it's the last thing I do in this life!" snarled Hermione. "How dare he? How dare he?"
"We're already working against him…Slytherin style. We're amassing evidence. Your mission, if you choose to accept it," Harry said, catching a grin from Dudley, who, alone of all of them, knew where that line had come from, "is to stay with his team and make him think you still believe in him. If he trusts you, he might let things slip, and you can come and tell us."
"I'll do that little thing," vowed Hermione.
"If we can prove publicly that he's a fraud, he'll have to go, no matter how many Most-Charming-Smile awards he has," Luna explained. She bent down and took Hermione in her arms. "And don't feel bad! You did very well against Harry, and we're all still your friends!"
At this, Hermione burst into tears and hugged Luna, while Ron patted her back and exchanged helpless looks with the boys.
END Chapter 31
