Welcome back to another chapter of Bad Moon Rising, in which we get to see a bit of a tournament, Harry teaching some people, and maybe a meeting about Harry's future.
On with the show.
Harry Potter, Hogwarts, March 1996.
Zoë told him about the Roman Colosseum when she was at Hogwarts the year before and how much she had missed the shows and events that took place there. How the hunt would sneak into the city under cloaks to watch the grand shows and recreation of great battles that they put on during them, and contrary to popular sentiment, how very few matches ended in death. Her personal favorites were when they would flood the Colosseum with water to reenact naval battles on ships that they had built in the stadium.
Harry, personally, wasn't a big fan of it.
It reminded him far too much of the Tri-Wizard tournament, everyone gawking at him as he fought for his life for the cheers of an audience that he couldn't care less about, which mirrored his current predicament with the inter-house dueling tournament and how much he didn't want to do it. Between it, getting back in the air with his quidditch team, and the OWLs, Harry felt he had far too much on his plate at the moment. While it was a boon that his role in Quidditch was rather simple and didn't require a lot of practice on his end, finding the last two members of his dueling team and engaging in OWL reviews in all his classes was going to make him go spare. Harry was pretty sure that he would have too if it wasn't for Delphini, because, well, shagging helped a lot with the stress.
Harry couldn't help the chuckle that escaped from him every time he thought of the morning after Valentine's Day.
He and Delphini had made it back with minutes to spare before bed checks that day, they had honestly debated about going back to the castle at all. But they decided not to press Harry's luck too much that night and hustled back before eleven. It was the following morning at breakfast when Harry had to help Delphini, who was limping a bit, and, in her own words, "sore in the best possible way" that they were cornered by Hermione.
"Where were you two?" Hermione had asked over breakfast as Harry and Delphini sat down. "Ron and I had to cover for you two with Professor McGonagall when you didn't arrive back in time for dinner," she said, her brow furrowed with annoyance at being put in that situation; she didn't like lying to teachers even when the reason was good.
"What did you tell her?" Delphini asked as she piled up her plate with fruits and sausage.
"That you two were skipping dinner because you had a big lunch," Ron immediately supplied through a mouthful of eggs before swallowing. "But I don't think she believed us," he informed them as Hermione picked up her morning cuppa to have a drink.
"Oh, I can work with that," Delphini said as Harry started to pile up some waffles and bacon (mostly for Hedwig) on his plate. "But we were shagging in the Shrieking Shack," she told them, which caused Hermione to do a spit take and Ron to pause his eating to look at them with wide eyes.
"Wh-cough-What!?" Hermione hissed out after coughing up her tea and she looked between the two.
"Nice!" Ron said with a grin before he raised his hand for a high five, "Up top!"
Delphini immediately took the opportunity to high-five Ron with a grin, even though he meant it for Harry. Ron looked at Delphini for a moment, confused before shrugging and turning back to Harry, who also high-fives him.
"Ronald! We're not supposed to encourage this!" Hermione snapped at him as Ron put his hand down with a bit of a sheepish look on his face.
"Hermione, Harry has a map of the school that tells him where everyone is at any given moment and his cloak, I don't think we could stop them if we wanted to," Ron had pointed out, and by the angry and blushing look on Hermione's face, she couldn't think of a rebuttal to what he had said.
So, instead, she turned on Harry with a small glare. "At least tell me you used protection," she half whispered to him as she leaned across the table a bit before Delphini answered.
"Of course, we did," Delphini said before pouring herself some coffee. "Our wands were always in reach," she supplied absentmindedly.
"No, I was talking about a condom," Hermione said as whipped her head around to look at Delphini.
The other girl paused for a moment, her face twisted in confusion. "The fuck's a condom?" she asked to Hermione's aghast face.
Thankfully, Delphini had informed them she was taking a potion that worked like the muggle birth control pills to stop any "happy accidents" that she got from Madam Pomfrey the week before. Apparently, the head nurse of the school had a "No Questions Asked" policy when it came to birth control, all a female student had to do was ask for a potion and she would hand it over to them while telling them to return next week for another dose if needed. Which was fine by Harry, so long as they didn't do anything in the castle, he didn't need teasing remarks about what he got up to from Scáthach anymore than he already did.
But even with the stress relief, putting together the dueling team was a pain in the arse. He had asked Ron and Hermione, but between Prefect duties, Quidditch practice, and a full class load on Hermione's end, they couldn't find the time to do it. Which was fair, and as luck would have it, Harry got two volunteers for the team in the form of the two biggest troublemakers in the school.
Fred and George Weasley.
Harry had let out a sigh of relief when they asked to join up. The twins weren't all that worried about their NEWTs this year, and were only studying for potions, charms, and, surprisingly, arithmancy so they could continue to invent and create new ways to cause chaos and legally market them without the Ministry stepping in to stop them. They also had finished all their product testing, not due to running out of test subjects or products they needed testing. No, it was they were told to stop by a teacher, and while it would have been normally laughed off by the two before they continued, the teacher who told them to stop was none other than Scáthach, herself.
If the rumors were true, a first-year in Slytherin with anemia got her hands on a nosebleed nougat. She had to be rushed to the hospital wing when she didn't have a second nougat to stop the bleeding. When Fred and George heard what had happened they all but flew to the hospital wing with the second one and saved her life, which is the only thing that saved them from being expelled when they had to face the combined wrath of McGonagall, Snape, and Scáthach. They explained the testing process was set up in a controlled environment to stop anything like what happened from happening, and neither had any idea how the girl had gotten her hands on one because most of the testers were Gryffindor students from third year and up.
The twins had lost Gryffindor a lot of points and were serving detention with Snape for the rest of the year, and worst yet, had earned Scáthach's disappointment, which Harry knew burned worse than any punishment, but it freed the twins up for the dueling tournament, so with the twins joining up he had a full team. Delphini, Neville, Ginny, the twins, and himself. The last few weeks of February and most of March were spent either studying or training. Harry had set up a mock duel between himself and the members of his team to get a sense of their individual combat skills.
And, honestly, he was pretty surprised.
Delphini was pretty good, she had a good reaction time, could cast spells without a single word uttered, knew a large range of spells, and could bring about a decent shield. The jinxes, hexes, and curses she knew were nothing to sneeze at either. When Krum had called her "The Darkest Witch at Durmstrang" he wasn't kidding and that wasn't even touching the fact that she was far better with ritualistic magic than wanded.
Neville was, well, Neville. Harry had a lot of work to do with him to bring him up to snuff. He fumbled and stumbled over his wand, feet, and words. He knew a few dueling spells, but couldn't cast them silently, his shield spell was pretty weak, and he knew next to no curses or hexes. The one thing he did have was that bit of druidry he had been shown, which wasn't all that useful in a pitched battle at the moment from what Harry knew, so Harry had accepted the fact he was going to be the most work of the team.
The twins were another story altogether. One-on-one, neither Fred nor George were all that special. They were decent, but not something that would stand up in a pitched battle. They both had excellent reaction times thanks to Quidditch and both could cast silently, but neither knew anything remotely close to what could be called dueling spells. Individually, they weren't that impressive, but when they fought together, they were a menace. If one was shielding, the other was casting. Iif one moved, the other did too. They didn't even have to communicate, they just acted and trusted one another to cover and support. In the span of the half-minute duel he had with both the twins, Harry cast three spells, a stunner, and two shields.
The twins had cast sixteen in the thirty seconds.
Before Harry knew what was happening, he was hung upside down by his ankle, his pants around his ankles, a rainbow afro on his head with a bright red nose, and clown makeup applied to him with a sign that read "The heir to the fart" stuck to his chest. As he blinked the stars out of his eyes, he couldn't help but voice what he was thinking. "What the fuck just happened?" he asked but all he got in return was the echoing laughter of Delphini in the stands. Needless to say, Harry was happy to have them on his side.
But if the twins were a menace, Ginny was terrifying.
As soon as she stepped onto the field and took her stance, Harry knew there was something wrong. She drew herself up to full height with her back straight and her chin up, her arms were drawn up and back as her wand was held loosely in her hand, the body of it resting between her middle and pointer finger as her pinky and ring were wrapped tightly around the back of her wand. It looked as if Ginny was coiled like a snake, ready to strike, and for one horrifying second Harry felt as if he was back in the graveyard with the monster. In that moment of panic and hesitation, Ginny struck.
Her hand lashed out like an adder striking, sending curses, hexes, and jinxes at him with frightening speed. Some she spoke, some were silent, and all were reduced in wand movement as she gained momentum and pushed Harry on his back foot. As Harry shielded and deflected most of the spells, she started to mix in minor transfigurations to make the ground uneven or slicker to move in to knock Harry off balance. Harry was forced to tap a bit into the Hunt to keep up with Ginny and fell back into Battle Magic to trap and beat her.
Needless to say, Harry was very impressed and extremely worried about his best mate's little sister.
Harry Potter, Hogwarts Dueling Arena, February 20th.
"Hey, Ginny," Harry called out after telling Delphini he would meet her in the common room. When Ginny turned to him as she was picking up her bag with a surprised look on her face. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" Ginny pauses a moment then nods before waiting for everyone to leave so they can have some privacy.
She blushes a bit before sweeping a lock of hair behind her ear as Harry approaches her. "What's up, Harry?" she asks, her tone curious and relaxed.
"Right, yeah, so I had a question," Harry says awkwardly while scratching the back of his head. Ginny raises a brow but doesn't say anything as Harry lets out a sigh. "Where did you learn to duel like that?" Harry asks bluntly, intending to rip out the thorn quickly. Harry watches as Ginny's hands tighten around the straps of her bag and her face goes blank.
"Oh, just- just picked it up here and there," She says dismissively, looking away from Harry. He frowns, as his eyes narrow a bit, it wasn't like Ginny to lie about something or to avoid a subject. She was a pretty open girl, almost like one of the guys with how she acted. She was honestly one of the coolest girls Harry knew.
"Ginny," Harry says, the concern leaking into his voice causing her to look back at him. "You duel just like Voldemort," he says bluntly. While Ginny doesn't flinch at the name, shame and horror leak into her eyes and spread across her face before looking away again.
She was quiet for a long moment before letting out a shuddering sigh. "I know," she whispers weakly as her arms begin to shake. "After-after what happened in my-my first year, I-I started having dreams, I started to-to know things, horrible dark things and it was like I could feel him in-inside me again. In my skin, in my mind, and I-I couldn't-I c-can't," Ginny confesses, her shoulders begin to shake as she sobs and cries while being confronted by a truth she had long tried to ignore.
Harry curses to himself as he gently grasps Ginny by the shoulders and guides her to take a seat on the stands, her book bag falling to the ground, forgotten at the moment. "Ginny, Ginny, listen to me, okay?" Harry says as Ginny looks at him with tears running down her splotchy face. "I'm not blaming you for anything, okay? I-I just want to know how this happened, that's all," Harry tells her as he kneels in front of her.
Ginny shakes her head, her eyes screwed tightly shut. "I-I don't know," she says before opening her eyes to look into Harry's. "I just-just know these things, I know how he would move, I know what he would cast, I know how much intent and will to put behind something, I know how to make people hurt without even using my wand. I swear Harry, I don't want to know any of this, I would never do anything like that, but he would and I remember it so-so clearly," she says in anguish and uncertainty. Harry's lips begin to pinch as he realizes he is far, far out of his depth of understanding.
Harry sighs because luckily he knows someone who does know about this stuff. "Teacher, can you come here if you have the-" Harry begins to say out loud, confusing Ginny for a moment before another voice spoke up before he was even done speaking.
"I was beginning to wonder if you were going to ask for my help or not," Scáthach says from behind Ginny, causing the girl to jump and spin around to see the defense professor forming from shadows. Her face was stern and serious as she walked down the steps of the stands, her arms folded behind her back just to unfold them as she took a seat next to Ginny. She slowly and carefully wraps an arm around Ginny's shoulder and pulls her into a soft hug, "Hush little one, no tears," she whispers as she strokes Ginny's hair softly.
"Greaca, this event that happened to Miss Weasley, is it what I think it is?" Scáthach asks, turning to look at Harry.
"The Chamber of Secrets, yeah," Harry says with a nod of his head before standing. "Lucius Malfoy snuck a dark artifact created by Voldemort into Ginny's things. It would later go on to possess her and open the Chamber," Harry says, not failing to notice how Ginny flinched at the word "possess".
Scáthach nods before speaking, "The journal, correct?" she asks and watches as Harry nods and feels Ginny stiffen under her arm. Scáthach frowns before looking back to Ginny. "I know this will be hard to talk about, little one, but I need to know a few things to get the full picture. So, do you mind if I ask a few questions?" she asks Ginny softly, who sniffles and nods her head slightly as it is tucked into Scáthachs neck. The questions were soft-spoken and carefully worded to not upset Ginny as Scáthach asked about the memories she has but weren't hers, how she felt in them, and how they played out for her. After Scáthach was done with Ginny; she turned to Harry.
"Greaca, The Chamber is one of the few places connected to my school I have no power over. Its wards aren't based on or powered by Dún Scaith, so I have no records of what happens in it," Scáthach explains as she hugs Ginny tighter to her to keep the young girl calm. "So, I need you to tell me, in detail, about your encounter with the shade, if you please," she asks Harry, her face blank as she does. Harry nods and tells the story again to Scáthach, adding in as much detail as he can recall about the shade of Tom Riddle. He explains what Tom had told him of what he had done to Ginny and what he was planning to do, and by the end of the tale, Scáthach had a thoughtful look on her face.
"Poured her soul into me," Scáthach mutters to herself, her lips twitching for a moment. "How very interesting, sloppy and ill-thought-out, but interesting," she murmurs to herself as she looks off into the distance for a moment.
"What is it?" Harry asked, his arms crossed with a frown on his face.
But before Scáthach could say a word, Ginny spoke up. "I'm turning into him, aren't I?" she asks in a whisper, her voice horse from the sobbing with fear lacing her voice.
Scáthach turns back to Ginny, before speaking in a soft and comforting voice. "Of course not, sweet girl. You are no more Tom Riddle than Harry is," she tells Ginny as she flinches at the name. "And you are not becoming him. When that boy tried to steal your soul to empower himself to reach a physical form, he also had to let his soul into you to create that bridge. Overlaying his soul onto yours, but when Harry destroyed the journal amid the ritual, it caused a backlash and left an imprint on you of all the memories he was pouring into you," Scáthach tells Ginny softly as she stroked her shoulder gently.
"It is more than likely that he started with what he saw as his most practical skills, such as his skill in dueling. Is there anything else you can do from his memories?" Scáthach asks gently and after a moment, Ginny nods once before standing and taking a deep breath before taking a single step.
There is a rushing sound before Ginny vanishes from sight, causing Harry's eyes to widen before he turns around to find Ginny all the way across the dueling arena breathing heavily. "What the hell was that?" Harry asks, shocked at how fast Ginny has moved. "She didn't apparate, did she?"
"No, she quick-stepped," Scáthach says, sounding impressed as she stands up and watches Ginny wave her wand, causing some of the lights to die in the arena before, with a flicker of shadow, she vanishes again, only to reappear right next to Scáthach. The Witch-Queen turns to look at the littlest Weasley with a brow raised. "And shadow hopping. My oh my, that is a rather impressive technique," she says, a smile growing on her face as Ginny looks away from them, shame in her eyes.
"I can cast all three of the unforgivables as well. I mean, I haven't! But I-I just know I…" Ginny says in a bit of a panic, looking at Harry first then Scáthach, before trailing off and looking away again, not wanting to complete her sentence.
"Quick question," Harry says, drawing the attention off Ginny for a moment as he raises his hand. "The hell is quick-stepping and shadow hopping?" he asks as Ginny sends him a grateful look.
"They are essentially the same thing just using different methods to achieve the desired results. They're pre-apparation techniques of rapid movement," Scáthach tells Harry, picking up on him wanting to give Ginny a few moments to collect herself. "Quick-stepping is the art of collapsing space between two points to move much quicker and is very magic-intensive to use, so it fell out of favor when apparation was created. I know it's still taught in the Auror Academy and used on the professional dueling circuits, however," she informs Harry, who nods in understanding.
"Shadow hopping is a dark art," Ginny says, finally looking up at Harry, an unhappy scowl on her face.
"It is not," Scáthach swiftly says, an angry tone in her voice that causes both of the students to look at her in surprise. "Those who label it as such are fools that buy into superstitious nonsense. Shadow hopping was created by-by my sister when we were studying under my own teacher and she taught anyone interested in learning it. I even taught it back during my own time in this very school," Scáthach tells both Ginny and Harry, Harry far more surprised than Ginny that Scáthach had mentioned her sister.
Scáthach sighs before turning fully to Ginny, looking at her with critical and inspecting eyes. "Miss Weasley, I know you may see these memories as a curse or a reminder of the violation of your person that happened to you," she says softly, causing the look of shame to enter Ginny's eyes once more. "But it does not need to be," she tells her in a softer tone, causing Ginny to look at her confused.
"This, Miss Weasley, is an opportunity. You have ingrained into you the basis of Voldemort's own dueling style, a style that no one lived long enough to find a weakness in," Scáthach says with a smile and a glint in her eye.
Harry blinked before his eyes widened, catching on to what his teacher was getting at. "You want her to be a stand-in for Voldemort, so I can learn how to fight him," Harry says as Ginny looks between Scáthach and him in surprise.
"Yes, but only if Miss Weasley is willing to-" Scáthach begins to say before being swiftly cut off by Ginny.
"Yes!" Ginny shouts, angry and excited all at once, causing both teacher and student to look at her in surprise. "If I can help Harry stick it to that snake-faced cunt, then yes," Ginny says, her eyes alight with the hungry fire of vengeance.
Scáthach smiles before nodding her head. "This will not be without benefits to you, Miss Weasley. I will also be teaching you how to make the most out of this unexpected boon," She informs the littlest Weasley.
"Thank you, Professor Árd-Greimne," Ginny says with a smile as Scáthach smiles back at her.
"Please, Miss Weasley. Call me Teacher," she says, and Harry does not doubt that Ginny is going to regret this in some way, shape, or form.
Harry Potter, March 30th, Dueling tournament.
The dueling tournament was scheduled for the last weekend in March and would be an all-day event as the four houses battled it out between one another. The arena stands were packed full of students cheering on friends and houses alike while Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Sprout, and Flitwick watched over the tournament with Scáthach acting as referee. The brackets were broken down to Ravenclaw vs Gryffindor and Hufflepuff vs Slytherin. The team with the most eliminations would get to move on to the finals, and the team with the most members left standing at the end won it all.
It was as simple as a tournament could be.
Harry had spent the last month and a half working with his team to get them up from decent to great in his eyes, spending most of his time with Neville as Ginny (his co-captain) worked with the rest of them. It was hard work with Neville, but by the end of the month, Harry had thought his God-brother was now passable in his role for the team. His biggest issue was his confidence, which greatly impacted his ability to cast spells seeing that will and intent were largely based on one's confidence in oneself. By the end of the month, Neville had gotten the hang of a few of the non-lethal battle magic spells that affected the arena and the enemy's footing, so Neville's job was to disrupt their footing by either throwing off their balance or making sure they couldn't move.
Fred and George were to do what they did best and cause as much chaos for the other team as they could, and knowing the twins it was sure to be a show.
Delphini was to debilitate and stun everyone she could while hiding behind the twins for protection.
Ginny was to be the spearhead. She had only joined Scáthach and him for two nights of training, but the littlest Weasley was terrifying when she got going. Even without quick-stepping and shadow hopping, she was a pain to pin down, always twisting and sliding out of the way of each spell by centimeters before lashing out with staggering spell chains to confuse, shock, and crush anyone at the other end of her wand.
Shock and awe she called it; how he would duel.
Because Voldemort didn't fight to win, Voldemort fought to ruthlessly crush the person in front of him so they could never rise against him again. Winning was just a side effect of it.
Harry, much to the surprise of everyone, was the alternate for his team. He really didn't like the idea of any type of spotlight on him, and he trusted his friends to do their best to win. But when the Ravenclaw team walked onto the field for the first round, Harry and his team hit their first roadblock; Luna was on the Ravenclaw dueling team.
No one on his team wanted to hurt Luna, let alone fight her. Ginny was her best friend, the twins saw her as practically another little sister, Neville was her friend as well, and Delphini was all but smitten with the odd girl that Harry had brought over to the Gryffindor table. Harry himself was sworn to basically be her knight in a silver jacket, he had no idea why she was on the dueling team either (though he was mentally blaming a certain cat). Luna hadn't said anything about it, but knowing the odd girl, she probably thought it would be a fun surprise or something.
It wasn't until he and the Ravenclaw captain, a tall seventh-year he didn't know the name of, met in the middle of the field to shake hands that he saw another person on the opposite team smirking at him, as if he had the best joke in the world and was waiting for someone to ask him about it, all Harry does is glare back before wishing the opposite captain good luck then walking back over to his team.
"I don't know how, and I don't know why," Harry says as his team gathers around him looking on with curiosity and concern, "but it's that fuckers fault that Luna is on the team." Harry scowls before turning and pointing out the random smirking Ravenclaw as the whole team turns and glares at him. The Ravenclaw's face falls into an incredibly scared look as he faces down the combined glare of the entire Gryffindor dueling team. Thankfully the match didn't last long after the Gryffindor team focused fire on the guy who had somehow talked Luna into being on the team. He was quickly followed by the team captain and the other two members of the team before Luna politely raised her hand and forfeited the match to Gryffindor with her normal smile.
After a short recess, mostly to take the Ravenclaw to the hospital wing, the next round started. Hufflepuff vs Slytherin, and before the match started, and if Harry was a betting man, he probably would have put his money on Slytherin. The House of the Cunning's team was pretty good with Nott, Sabini, Malfoy, Davis, Selwyn, and one of Selwyn's friends as the alternate against the Hufflepuff team with Susan, Hannah, Cedric, George Cash, Gréagóir Uí Néill, with Justin Finch-Fletchley as their alternative. Harry didn't know Cash or Uí Néill all that well, only from the one time the two sixth years had shown up at the impromptu gathering where he was showing Tracy battle magic. But from what he remembers from the two (other than the constant arguing), he wanted to punch Uí Néill in the nose.
But as Scáthach started the match, he wasn't surprised to see that Slytherin struck first. They leaned into shock and awe, sending charms into the assembled Hufflepuffs that went off like fireworks as Theodore grew roots from the ground that wrapped around the ankles of the Badgers. Draco and Blaise threw out stunners like they were going out of style as Tracy conjured a few shields to hover in front of everyone to give them some semblance of cover. Harry couldn't help but smile a bit at that sight, he had taught her the spell after all and felt a small amount of pride in Tracy. Selwyn was hiding behind one of the shields and shouting orders to everyone else about what they should be doing; it was controlled chaos all pointed at the Hufflepuff team.
It was just a shame it did nothing to the House of Loyalty.
The Hufflepuff team had arranged themselves into a diamond, with Cedric at the back, transfiguring the packed wet sand of the arena into constructs of dogs, birds, and large cats, sending them forward to harass the Slytherins in any way they could. Hannah was in the center of the diamond, switching between stunners and shield charms depending on what was needed at the moment. Susan was at the point with Cash and Uí Néill flanking her, while the two older Hufflepuffs were shielding, deflecting, and vanishing anything coming remotely close to their teams.
Susan unleashed a hail of stunners, body binds, and thin cords to take down the Slytherin team. Thanks to her teammates, she didn't have to worry about blocking any incoming spell, she was focused purely on the offensive. Much to Harry's surprise, Susan was also mixing in battle magic into her barrage of spells; spears and shields that sprung to life from sand and stone began to encircle the Slytherin team. They cornered the House of the Cunning and, right before any one of them could do anything, Susan had dropped to her knees and sent out a wide angle stunner below her shield line at the shins of the Slytherin team. With one fell swoop, Susan had knocked all five members of the silver and green team out.
After Scáthach had called the match in favor of the black and yellow over the cheer of the crowd, another small break was called before the final match. Harry and his team quickly met up to discuss what they were going to do for the next round.
"Okay, so that was unexpected," Delphini comments as she looks over at Susan and the Hufflepuff team doing the same thing.
"Yeah, who thought that-"
"-The House of Duffers could fight like that," The twins comment, both of them having their arms crossed and rubbing their chins in thought.
"Oh, it's not very shocking at all. Susan Bones comes from a long and proud line of aurors like her aunt and mother," the dreamy voice of Luna cuts in and everyone turns to her, blinking and confused about how and why she was in their team huddle.
"Luna?" Harry says, looking at his oddest friend with a flat look. "What are you doing here?" he asks.
Luna shrugs. "It seemed like the thing to do," she says as she nods sagely.
"Right," Harry says, unsure before turning back to his team. "So, Neville, not to be a prick or anything, but I'm benching you for the last round," he tells the boy, and to Harry's surprise, Neville looked relieved.
"No complaints here, Harry. I don't think I could do anything to help with, well, that," Neville admits while nodding over to where the Hufflepuff team was meeting.
Harry nods at Neville's reason. "Listen, mate. You did perfectly against Ravenclaw and you've gotten a lot better from when we started, it's just sometimes you've got to know when you're out-matched and know when to step aside," Harry tells him with an encouraging smile that Neville returns with a nod.
"I understand, Harry. I'll still be cheering all of you on," Neville says, turning to look specifically at Delphini who blinks in surprise at the other boy before Neville takes his leave to move to the benches for the teams.
"Wasn't expecting that," Ginny mutters as she watches Neville walk back over to the benches.
"Makes two of us," Delphini says, a bit of disbelief in her tone.
"Alright team, listen up. Hufflepuff is a bit more coordinated than we first gave them for, so we need a plan," Harry says before he, Luna, and the rest of his team begin to discuss what to do next. After the break was up and the game plan set, Luna took a seat next to Neville before the rest of the team moved back onto the field just as the Hufflepuff team did. Both captains, Harry and Susan, met under the watchful eye of Scáthach, who seemed to be enjoying the matches so far if the proud smile on her face is anything to go by, but as both Harry and Susan go to shake hands, Scáthach lets out a small cough; catching both of their attentions.
"Before we begin the final round, I'm going to have to ask for your jacket, Greaca," Scáthach says while holding out her hand toward Harry. The heir to the hunt sighs, but nods and swiftly takes off his jacket to hand it over.
"Why the jacket?" Susan asks, looking between the article of clothing, Harry, and her professor with an inquisitive frown.
"It counts as armor, technically," Harry tells her with a shrug as his teacher folds the silver jacket that meant so much to him over her arm.
"Hm, dragonhide?" Susan asks, eyeballing the leather with a small frown.
"And basilisk hide," Harry offers with a grin before Scáthach turns to him, unamused by his bragging words as Susan's eyes widen a bit.
"Aren't you just full of surprises, huh?" Susan asks, turning back to Harry with a small grin. "Well, it won't matter who or what you are, Harry, because I'm going for the win for Hufflepuff," she says with her own cocky grin as she crosses her arms. This causes Harry to snort at the challenge in her voice as his hands slide into his pants pocket and look Susan in the eyes.
"Fine by me, because we'll be doing the same and just so you know, Teacher told me I'm not allowed to use the other stuff in the tournament, magic only," Harry tells Susan, causing the girl to look between student and teacher once more before her cocky grin becomes bigger.
"Well, don't go around whinging about how you had to fight with a handicap when I hand you your ass, Potter," Susan says, tilting her head back slightly to look down her nose at Harry who could only grin ferally at her challenge, because as soon as he was about to shoot back a comment Delphini speaks up.
"Oi, Pot-Head. If you're gonna flirt with another girl, could you at least do it while I'm not in the same room?" Delphini says from behind him, sounding put out. Harry turns to apologize quickly, but someone else speaks up before him.
"What's wrong, afraid of a little competition?" Uí Néill says in a taunting and haughty tone of voice as he smiles mockingly at Delphini.
"Oi, pretty boy, how about shutting your cake hole?" Delphini shoots back with a glare as she crosses her arms over her chest.
"Or what? You gonna cry because you're not the center of attention anymore with that stupid hair color of yours?" Uí Néill snaps right back at Delphini and is completely unaware of who he is talking to as Delphini cocks her hip.
"Or I'm gonna fuck your dad and give him a child he actually loves," Delphini says with a straight face and a flat honest tone. There was a pause as everyone around her processed what had just left her mouth, Cash immediately started to laugh before turning to his friend's shell-shocked face and pointing at him as he fell into hysterics. Cedric tries to hide his laughter behind a fit of coughing but fails as Hannah covers her mouth in shock and Susan looks at Delphini with a mixture of shock and admiration.
"Delphini! Poseidon's forbidden blowhole, holy fuck!" Harry says half in shock and half in amusement as he turns to his girlfriend, somehow loving her even more at the moment. "Calm down, damn," he says with a laugh.
"Maaaaaate, she-"
"-just roasted-"
"-Your ass," the twins and Ginny all say before they start to laugh at the blushing and humiliated boy.
"Enough!" Scáthach says firmly, though having a small grin of her own. "That's enough of the trash talk, and Miss Lestrange, that will be five points from Gryffindor for cursing," she says with a pointed but amused look while she chooses to ignore Delphini muttering "worth it," under her breath. "Now, if the captains would please step forward and shake hands before we begin," Scáthach asks as Harry and Susan nod before moving forward and locking hands.
"Good luck, Harry," Susan says sincerely with a small grin on her lips as she shakes his hand.
"Yeah, you to-" Harry begins to say before he's cut off by the most high pitched and self-important whine of a voice he had ever had the displeasure to hear.
"What is going on here!? What is going on here!?" The screaming and panicked voice of Umbridge fills the arena, causing Harry to roll his head back and close his eyes as the Hunt growls in his mind, and his good day is ruined. He looks over to his teacher as Susan drops his hand to look at the approaching toad while Scáthach glares at the woman like the piece of filthy rubbish polluting her school that she is. Umbridge was wearing her obnoxiously pink robes as she glared around the dueling arena at everyone in her way, but worst yet, she was flanked by two aurors whom Harry didn't know. They were tall and brutish-looking, with scowls on their faces, as they glared at the students around them to move. The red robes of the auror office looked untidy and were missing the normal insignia that one got from service in the distinguished department.
Harry turns to look at Susan, who is looking at the two men, confused, before her eyes narrow in on their uniforms with a frown.
"This is a private school event," Scáthach says with deathly calm to Umbridge as she hands Harry's jacket back to him before stepping between him and Umbridge. "And I am relatively sure you were not invited, Dolores," she says with contempt.
"'Ow bout you back off, miss," one of the men says, shoving his arm between Scáthach and Umbridge as he glares at Scáthach. Teacher merely looks down at the arm and looks to be considering how she was going to remove it from the man's person for a second before Susan speaks up.
"Excuse me, aurors. What are your names, ranks, and AIN?" Susan asks, looking in between the two men with a glare as a scowl grows on her face.
"Piss off, ya wee bitch," the other auror says with a glare at Susan, whose eyes widen at the insult while her face grows red as her anger comes out full force.
"Excuse you? You do know that impersonating an auror is a crime, correct?" Susan snaps back at the man as she tightens her grip on her wand. The man looks to be about to say something else, but is quickly cut off by Scáthach.
"If you speak to my student like that again, you will not be leaving this school with your tongue, am I understood?" Scáthach says softly, never looking away from Umbridge, the flunky looked taken aback for a moment before looking to Umbridge for direction.
Umbridge scowls at Scáthach for a few more moments before turning to Susan with an overly sweet smile. "Now listen here, Miss Bones, these two men are fully qualified aurors, I assure you," she says, sounding as if she wasn't to be questioned on it.
But Susan wasn't taking that as an answer. "That's a load of bollocks. I know every auror in the department, I practically grew up in the auror offices and I've never seen these men before in my life, and we've had no recruits since Auror Tonks took the red. So I'll ask again, your names, rank, and auror identification number," Susan says with a lot more authority and force than Harry thought she had in her as she turns to glare at the men in red robes. Both men turn to look at Umbridge who was now glaring at Susan, unsure of what they should say. Their eyes shift from Susan, who was giving them a death glare, to Scáthach's blank and imposing stare, as if she was challenging the men to do something foolish in front of her.
"These men were promoted by the Minister himself to the office-" Umbridge tries again but is swiftly cut off by Susan.
"That is illegal," Susan says with a glare at Umbridge, her eyes alight with anger. "The Minister has no control over who becomes an auror, nor can he promote anyone to the office. That privilege lies strictly with the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," Susan snaps angrily at Umbridge as she continues to glare at the small girl in front of her for a few more moments before turning back to Scáthach, completely dismissing Susan.
"Educational Decree number twenty-four states-" Umbridge begins but is swiftly cut off by Scáthach.
"You were just beaten in a debate by a student about laws, and you wish to try me now?" Scáthach asks simply with a raised brow as Umbridge's face becomes redder and redder as she speaks.
"-STATES! That all organizations, groups, teams, societies, and clubs are henceforth disbanded pending approval of the High Inquisitor," Umbridge says in near hysterics as she glares at Scáthach. "And seeing that you had no approval for this, this event, all these students are subject to expulsion!" she spits at Scáthach before turning to Harry. "Starting with this one!" As she begins to reach out to grab Harry, he takes a swift step back before sliding on his jacket, but soon realizes that it isn't needed.
Scáthach had already grasped Umbridge's wrist and with a sharp, sudden jerk, twisted.
"You will not touch my students!" Scáthach snarled with such protective rage that the whole of Hogwarts shook with her anger.
"Unhand me this moment!" Umbridge snaps at Scáthach, unable to keep the fear out of her voice as she looks into the blood-red eyes of the Defensive Arts teacher. "I am the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts!"
"And I do not care," Scáthach says with a seething hatred as she pulls Umbridge closer to her face, Scáthach's visage contorted wrath, reminding Harry of some of the drawings of demons he had seen in his life; something of cold beauty and barely contained fury. "Your decrees mean nothing to me, the power you think you have is but a fallacy that you've created in your own mind to hope to have some semblance of control over your own pathetic and miserable life because you can not cope with the fact that your hatred extends to yourself," she snaps in the face of Umbridge as the repugnant woman in pink's blood begins to drain from her face.
"A-aurors!" Umbridge all but screams, unable to cover up the fear that she felt while meeting the eyes of a goddess of death. "She is assaulting me! Help! Take her down!" she screams.
The two aurors then make the biggest mistake of their lives as they both draw their wands and aim them at Scáthach. The Witch-Queen yanks Umbridge's wrist, twisting it further until a wet pop of the bones dislocating is heard, but before Umbridge could begin to even scream, Scáthach flung the overly large toad of a woman away from her. She then turns to the first auror, her eyes blazing with power, and with one quick hammer fist to the jaw, Harry sees the lights go out in the man's eyes as his knees buckle and he crashes to the ground, unconscious. The last auror, still reeling from the swiftness with which Scáthach moved, had no time to prepare himself as she fell on him with speed that only Harry could follow.
Scáthach grabs the man's wand hand before twisting and shoving the tip into the man's mouth to stop him from casting any spells before sweeping his legs out from under him, grabbing the side of his face and slamming it, face first, into the ground. Harry heard the man's teeth snapping on the wand and breaking from the force with which he hit the wet sand. He wasn't getting back up on his power again, and all this happened before Harry could even take a step back.
Most of the assembled students looked on with awe and horror as they saw just a sliver of the monster that was Scáthach's anger. "Jesus wept!" Uí Neíll cries out after getting over the shock of what he had just seen, his jaw hanging open. "By the emerald isles, I take back what I said about her being the Scáithanna," he mumbles under his breath as Scáthach turns her attention to Umbridge.
Umbridge, like most of the students, looked on at the display of such causal and brutal violence with abject horror before turning to the woman who committed it and looking at her in nothing less than pure fear. "S-St-Stay back! I-I'm warning you! I am the-the undersecretary of the M-Mi-Minister of M-Magic Himself!" Umbridge says, pushing herself away from Scáthach with her feet as her uninjured hand fumbles with her wand.
"Such grand titles you have," Scáthach says as she begins to slowly walk toward Umbridge. "Undersecretary of the Minister of Magic, High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, but tell me, how do you think those words will protect you?" Scáthach asks calmly, but Harry can taste the rage in her voice as the shadows around the room began to quiver and twist at the anger of their queen.
"Lady Árd-Greimne!"
"They are just pretty petals dancing in the wind that leaves your mouth. Tell me, what scheming, backstabbing, cowardly acts earned you those titles, hmm?" Scáthach asks as she approaches Umbridge slowly, her eyes burning blood-red pits of power. But all Umbridge could do was shake in fear as she cowered on the floor. "Would you like to know how I've earned my titles?" She asks, tilting her head back with a raised brow as she looks down at Umbridge sniveling on the floor.
"My lady!" Dumbledore calls out again as he quickly pushes past the students on the dueling field.
Scáthach raises her hand and summons forth shadows and a blood-red mist before it forms into her divine spear. The hooked and barbed weapon point was aimed right where Umbridge's heart lies, the spear begins to quiver, anticipating the bloodletting about to start.
"Scáthach!" Dumbledore all but screams as he reaches out and grabs Scáthach by the shoulder, stopping the Queen of Shadows from executing the interloper in her domain. Scáthach turns to glare at the Headmaster, rage at being stopped dancing in her eyes and Harry honestly was surprised that Dumbledore wasn't killed right then and there. Dumbledore looks at Scáthach, with no fear in his face as he says just three words. "Remember our agreement," he says softly, almost pleadingly as Scáthach's face contorts in rage for a few moments, before, with what looked to be with great difficulty, dismissing her spear.
"Then handle this, Albus," the Witch-Queen commands in soft anger before turning back to Umbridge. "And you," she says, spitting the word as if it was a vile curse. "If you wish to try and remove me from this school, you will need a lot more than these rancid things you call aurors to do so," she says with a glare before turning around and walking away from both the Headmaster and Umbridge as the collected school lets of a breath they didn't know they were holding.
But none knew that come morning; the troubles at Hogwarts had only just begun.
Chapter done!
So, I'm not gonna lie, the tournament was supposed to be a much bigger thing, but soon after I announced it I realized that my plate was already full enough with this story and I didn't want to do any more. The tournament was created to be a stand-in for Dumbledore's army and all four of the houses came together to train for it, but sadly I had to scrap it.
In my original idea, it was teams of six setting themselves as proxy armies before going to "war" with each other to capture flags from one another in different environments around the castle and inside it. The first team to collect all four won the game and the grand prize. I would have shown off a lot of cool concepts and magic I wanted to work into the story with a few OCs of a few people, such as Frank Blackmoor and his cousin Emily, George Cash, Gréagóir Uí Néill, and probably even a self-insert of myself. I also had an idea to contact a few of my favorite comments to put them in as well.
Shame really.
But I instead use the tournament as a launching point for this story's final act, which boils down to The Ministry Vs Scáthach. So, that should be fun.
But did you guys see Scáthach feeding that one guy his own wand before basically telling him, "Nah, I like it sloppy, now deep-throat this, bitch," and introducing him to an intimate moment with the ground?
Also, changing the date that the school year ends to July first.
Kingsaxcul, Out!