Chapter 14 - The key to victory

Harry saw Iris gather her things and make to leave the great hall. With how the Slytherins had been acting today, he had a feeling he wouldn't be welcome at their table, so he had stayed away this time. However, he still wanted to check up on her. He had been very worried after their talk. Something about whatever happened with Malfoy was weighing heavily on her mind, and for some reason, she didn't want to share it. Of course, he couldn't make her talk, if she didn't want to, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

What he could do, however, was be there for her, in case she needed anything, or wanted to share more. He gathered his things quickly, and moved to catch up with her. However, someone beat him to it. Right outside the great hall, after the first corner, someone had pulled her aside, and was whispering to her in hushed tones.

"...didn't think I had forgotten, did you?"

An older Slytherin boy had perched himself in her path, and Iris was squirming uncomfortably. Nobody else seemed to be paying them much mind, so he guessed whatever this was, he might be acting on his own. Harry slowly moved closer, ready to intervene if necessary.

"I'm still owed a duel, and since Malfoy seems no longer willing to hold up his part of the deal for you, I guess you'll have to step up yourself then..."

He took a step closer to her, and Harry tensed.

"That is... unless you want to face the consequences..."

What in the world had she gotten herself involved in now? Was this something to do with Malfoy? What sort of duel? Ron had explained a little about those, but not much.

"Where, and when?" she growled.

"Same time, same place... If you win, we'll go separate ways."

"And if I lose?"

"Well, then I suppose you'll know what to expect, should anyone else find out what you know."

Harry grimaced. This sounded like he just wanted a somewhat legal excuse to hex Iris. There was no way she'd agree to this.

"Fine. We're agreed."

Harry froze. No way. His mind started racing. A duel had many implications, Ron had at least explained some about that. There had to be something he could do, if... Wait, that was it! He took a firm step forward, and barged into the conversation.

"I'll be her second."

The older boy was taken aback for a second, as he looked between the twins. Then, slowly a smile came upon his lips.

"Will you? Well, I guess I can work with that... As for me, I'll be my own second, of course. Makes this more... fun."

Iris was looking at him in shock, and something like betrayal? Well, tough luck. There was no way he'd let her face this boy alone.

"Well, seeing how you're not getting into the Slytherin dueling ring, I guess we'll need a change of location. Let's say... The long corridor past the third floor, tonight at midnight. Nobody ever goes there, we'll be undisturbed."

He took a moment to let his gaze linger on Iris. "I'll be seeing you there," he said, as if there wasn't any doubt he would.

With one last meaningful look, he turned, and swept down the hallway.

Iris turned to Harry and glared.

"What did you do? What's a second?" she said, with a hint of anger in her voice.

Harry sighed. "Something Ron told me. It's an old dueling tradition or something. It's someone who takes over, when you can't continue the fight."

Her eyes went wide. "You mean, you'll get yourself hurt, again!", she exclaimed.

The 'for me' part went unsaid, but he heard it anyway. Harry shrank under her glare, but he refused to back down. If there was a way for him to get hurt instead of her, he would always take that option, no matter how much she disliked it.

"What was that about? Why does he want to duel you anyway?"

Iris snarled. "Just leave it, Harry. Do us both a favor, and stay in your dorm tonight."

She turned, and stomped off down the corridor. They both knew, that wouldn't be happening.

~V~

Iris firmed her expression, and stepped out of the common room. She had spent the whole evening in the library looking up spells, and the whole night trying them out in her room. So far, without any success. Any spell she had attempted had malfunctioned in some way, no matter which color she had used. Apparently, single aspect spells were indeed really rare. Her current plan of action was to try use some of the jinxes and hexes from the book she had tried that had resulted in some of the more spectacular or destructive misfires, and hope to get lucky.

Looking up and down the corridor to check if the coast was clear, she started her way up the stairs. When she reached the third floor, she heard steps and whispering coming from above.

"...back! Even if it's not a trap, you'll get caught! You'll get in trouble, and lose us points!" whispered a desperate voice.

"I won't get caught! Also, I can't let her do this alone!" came the hushed reply.

Iris looked up the stairs and felt some level of dismay as she spotted the scruffy outline of Harry sneaking down the steps, accompanied by someone else. That someone seemed to be a girl, judging by her hair. Her very bushy hair. No way. What would she-

"What are you doing?" she hissed. "Go back! I don't need anyone else for this." She tried her best to sound as sure as she absolutely wasn't feeling.

In truth, she didn't want anyone else to get hurt for her, least of all Harry. Also, a part of her felt that since the whole situation came about because of what happened with Draco, she kind of deserved whatever the outcome would be.

"I'm staying, end of discussion," came the determined whisper.

She looked into the barely visible green eyes of her infuriating brother and saw no mercy. He was dead-set on coming with her.

Iris sighed. She would just have to make sure to beat Warrington somehow before Harry even got a chance to get hurt.

"And what's she doing here?"

Harry shrugged and turned to the mystery girl. "That's what I wanna know."

"I'm here to make sure you don't get us into even more trouble!"

"Whatever," Iris whispered sharply, and pushed open the large double doors that led to the long corridor. She paused, as she saw the statues. It was that corridor, wasn't it. A wary eye rested on the old wooden door at the end of it, as her mind was forced to picture the thing she had seen behind it, from the shadows. Then, her gaze was captured by a silhouette standing in front of it, in the middle of the corridor. Warrington.

It looked like he really had come alone. She couldn't spot anyone else hiding in the torch-lit corridor. The moment the door swung shut behind them, he spread his arms and spoke up.

"Welcome, one and all. Potter, Potter, and... Who are you?" he said as he turned to look at the girl, which had indeed turned out to be the annoying girl from the train.

"I-I'm Hermione Granger," she said with a mix of wariness and indignation. She took a deep breath, and continued.

"You're all not supposed to be out here!" she hissed. "I know you're here to duel, that's against school rules, and after curfew at that. If you don't go back... I- I'll... have to tell the teachers!"

Iris had to admire the girl's bravery in just coming out and saying that, but she also had to wonder what the hell she thought she was doing.

Warrington was gaping at her. Then, his face slowly turned into a smile, as he twirled his wand in his hand. "Is that so? Well... I suppose in that case, I'm sorry but I can't let you leave yet."

His wand snapped forward and he shouted "Locomotor Mortis!"

A blur flashed through the air, towards the shocked girl, and she squeaked as her legs snapped together. She waved her arms around frantically, trying her best to stay upright.

"W-wha?"

He turned to look at Hermione again.

"Now, if you shut up, stay out of the way, this'll all be over in a second, and we can all go back to our dorms. Isn't that what you wanted?"

Hermione's mouth moved, but she didn't manage any words. Her face was slowly turning red.

"Now," Warrington began, waving his hand in an inviting gesture. "Let's begin, shall we? Do you know how to duel?"

Iris took a careful step forward, doing her best to act confident. If you had a bad hand, you bluffed.

"Of course." She really didn't. The only things she knew was that you were supposed to bow, and that whoever gave up or couldn't continue lost, which was all Tracey had time to explain when she finally realized she had no idea what she was walking into ten minutes before midnight. And no, she didn't drag Tracey along. She had a feeling the girl had had enough of these kinds of adventures for the foreseeable future. Her rant had made that much clear.

As she confidently approached him, his smirk fell slightly, and he stopped twirling his wand. Great. Now he was taking her seriously. She really hadn't thought that through all the way to the end.

Stopping half way across the corridor, they approached each other, and finally stopped and bowed.

"Fifteen steps," Warrington said.

Iris nodded, slightly confused. His words became clear as he turned and started taking measured steps in the other direction. She followed his lead, and soon they ended up standing across from each other in the corridor, over twenty meters apart. Iris only now realized that this was quite the distance, and she hadn't practiced her aim at all. Somehow, she hadn't expected they'd be that far apart.

Warrington smirked at her with an expectant expression, and raised his wand. She didn't let him finish.

Iris drew up red light, jabbed her wand in a triangle and shouted "Rictusempra!"

His smirk widened, but as soon as an angry crackling red bolt burst out of her wand, he frowned.

Her aim had surprisingly been true; however Warrington had been faster. He had shifted his weight and taken a step back, allowing the spell to harmlessly sizzle past him.

He swished his wand and muttered something she couldn't overhear, but the flash of pink light that followed had her attempt to move to the side. She only realized too late, that Warrington had predicted this, or his aim had been off. The spell wasn't coming directly at her, it was coming slightly towards her left, exactly the direction she had evaded towards.

She felt a tingling sensation as it slammed into her, and then... nothing.

Just what had the spell done? She looked back up at him and saw him grinning widely. Only then she realized that something had changed, a distinctly different color was tinging her vision, and as she shook her head, she saw what it was. Had... had he really just turned her hair pink? Was he... playing with her?

Iris snarled and attempted another spell, again using the aspect of Destruction to fuel it, hoping it would do something at least mildly inconveniencing.

Another red bolt that felt slightly different rushed towards Warrington, but he had apparently raised a glowing pale-blue shield, which it harmlessly splashed against. You could do that? That was so unfair.

Iris fruitlessly cast two more random spells, all of which splashed against Warrington's shield as he started laughing.

"That's it? I thought you were at least going to be a challenge! Those don't even look like proper spells!"

He dropped his shield, took a step to the side, and jabbed his wand forward. Another flash of color, almost too fast to see, and suddenly she felt herself flung backwards. Iris rolled on the ground, came to a stop, and scrambled to her feet.

"You're wasting my time, Potter..." he was mocking her.

He swung his wand like a baton, but this time, Iris was ready. When the spell raced towards her, she ducked and countered with a spell of her own, hidden under the glow of his spell. This was a spell from a dueling book way above first year material, but it was supposed to be powerful, and her few attempts had at least produced... something. Never anything consistent, however.

She drew more red light, jabbed her wand up, slashed down towards him and shouted, "Stupefy!"

An angry red bolt flashed towards him, and his eyes widened as he fumbled his wand, then made to dodge. Her vision was tinged in a red glow while she watched as his body slowly twisted away as her spell closed in, and was just about to hit him.

A bang, the spell impacted the outer edge of his ribcage, just an inch shy of missing him. Bright red light flashed for a second, and then-

Nothing. He looked down at his torso in confusion, and suddenly a patch of his robes slowly began to turn to dust, smoldering away into nothingness. It continued until there was a hole about the size of a fist, and the spell finally ran out.

Warrington raised an eyebrow. Then, he shrugged, swished his wand and shouted, "Locomotor Wibbly!"

This time, Iris didn't manage to dodge. Not that she had really tried to. After that sorry display, a feeling of defeat had already settled in her stomach. His spell hit her, and suddenly she lost control of her legs. Iris tumbled to the ground, legs feeling like jelly. She heard a gasp from Hermione, and a shout from Harry.

That shout had turned out to be a spell, as she could see a red flash of light blasting towards Warrington, who quickly raised his shield again. This time, the spell impacted the shield with a massive bang, which made the shield flicker.

Warrington raised an eyebrow, and smirked.

"Well, looks like you're going to be at least somewhat of a challenge."

Harry snarled and kept casting, Warrington returning fire with glee. Apparently, Harry hadn't been kidding when he said he had been practicing. Some of these spells definitely weren't from the first year book. However, after a few exchanges of Harry casting and Warrington shielding, or Warrington returning fire and Harry frantically dodging, it became clear that while Harry's repertoire did include spells outside of the curriculum, it was still very limited. He kept cycling through the same five spells in different combinations, and the longer it kept going, the easer Warrington seemed to be blocking his attacks, and even landed a few hits of his own. Already, Harry was sporting a pair of antlers, had his robes turned yellow, and was groaning in pain when what she assumed had been a few stinging jinxes had landed. Apparently, Warrington was playing with him too. Just what was his plan?

She tried again to get to her feet to no avail, her legs were still unresponsive. She looked over her shoulder and spotted Hermione. She was still stuck with her legs pinned together, but she had her wand out and was doing... something. It wasn't pointed at Warrington, however.

"This is getting boring, Potter," sneered Warrington.

A flash of red hit Harry's leg and he yelled in pain, and stumbled backwards. "No!" Iris shouted, unsure what the spell had done. Harry was getting hurt, again, and it was her fault, again.

He groaned, held his wand back up and shouted "Everte Statum!"

A flash of pale blue light zoomed towards Warrington, and he leaned out of the way, the spell missing him by an inch. The spell continued down the corridor and splashed against the stone wall with a bang.

Warrington's eyes narrowed; apparently, he was done playing. He swished his wand in a circle and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"

Iris gasped. No. This was the spell he had used to finish Draco, before the fight had even begun! He wanted to take his wand! Iris had to do something. She rolled over onto her side, and raised the arm that still clutched her wand off the ground. With dismay, she watched the spell hit Harry in the chest, knock him on his bum, and cause his wand to come flying. It spun through the air, in a high arc, towards Warrington's waiting hand. Whatever she would do, it would have to be now. But what could she do? Her light would be useless. There was no time to set up a ritual. And she had no idea if the shadows could do anything, but she couldn't call them quickly enough anyway. All of the spells she had tried had been useless, because she couldn't cast them properly. The only spell she could cast properly... Well, that was useless too, wasn't it? She had no idea what it would do if she hit Warrington with it, but it was the only thing she could think of. It had to work.

Iris jabbed her wand, drew up a blinding amount of yellow light, twisted 45 degrees, and shouted, "Alohomora!"

A massive bolt of frizzling yellow energy exploded out of her wand, much brighter and more dangerous looking than anything she had cast before, and barreled towards Warrington. Her aim had been true; it was going to hit!

She could see his eyes widen first with confusion, then realization and shock. He abandoned all attempts to catch Harry's wand, and dropped.

Iris watched on through a red haze in painful clarity, as his body moved, slowly, ever so slowly to the side and downwards, as he made a desperate attempt to evade her spell, probably not willing to find out what it would do. At the last second, he twisted his lower body to the side, and she was forced to watch in dismay as her one shot, her one chance missed by an inch, and continued down the corridor. On and on it went as everyone in the room was seemingly unable to look away while it raced past statues, torches, lit up the far end of the corridor, and finally slammed into the door.

There was an audible clunk that seemed all the louder in the deafening silence of the corridor, followed by an even more ominous and familiar sound of clattering metal. Iris eyes widened in horror, as she remembered what had been behind that door. Somewhere behind Warrington, Harry's wand clattered to the ground unnoticed.

A low groan announced the inevitable reality of the old wooden door slowly tilting towards them, until it crashed to the ground.

Silence followed. It seemed that all of them were unanimously holding their breath.

Seconds ticked away. Nothing happened. Was... was the thing not there after all? Had it really just existed in the shadow realm?

A sharp crash and a ferocious growl, as something huge slammed against the doorway from the outside. Iris couldn't see much in the darkness, but she could see mouths, and one too many heads, which made it desperately clear what it was that was trying to get through. Thankfully, it seemed to be too big to fit through the doorway.

Out of all of them, it seemed Warrington was the only one with common sense, as he immediately turned without a word and bolted towards the double doors leading to the grand staircase. Iris groaned and tried to heave herself up in vain. Instead, she started to shuffle on her arms towards the door, which seemed so very far away.

Someone stepped into her vision. Surprisingly, it turned out to be Hermione. Apparently, she had somehow freed herself from Warrington's spell.

"W-What's that?" Harry shouted. He was scrambling around the edge of the corridor, looking for his wand.

Surprisingly, Hermione answered. "I-I think that's a Cerberus. It's a mythological... I mean, I guess a magical creature, XXXX class. It's very strong and fast, has three heads that act independently, and is supposed to have magically resistant skin much like a troll..." it almost felt like she had half-recited that from a book.

Hermione approached Iris, knelt down in front of her, and drew her wand. However, she almost dropped it when there was a loud sound of shattering stone, and suddenly the Cerberus burst through the doorway, breaking it open until it was almost twice the original width. The giant three-headed dog let out a thunderous bark, and started to charge down the corridor, straight towards them. Hermione screamed, frozen in terror, while Iris helplessly rolled on the ground, intent on getting out of its path. Just as the Cerberus was about to barrel into Hermione, something beat him to it. Harry crashed into Hermione from the side, throwing them both out of the way, as the dog charged past them, and slammed into a statue further down the corridor.

Harry jumped up and shouted, "Go, get to safety, I'll distract him!"

He ran up to the center of the corridor, wand in hand. Iris had no idea what he was planning to do, but her thoughts were interrupted by a shaking Hermione, who crawled up to her, pointed her wand and whispered, "F-Finite incantatem."

Suddenly, feeling returned to her legs. Whatever the girl had done, it had worked. She gave her a grateful look and whispered, "Thanks."

Then she scrambled to her feet, and helped Hermione up too. She turned to look at Harry. He was swinging his wand and threw a spell that she didn't recognize at the dog, which splashed uselessly against his thick fur. Harry narrowed his eyes, and tried another spell, which hit one of the heads, or specifically its nose. A cloud of green smoke erupted, and the giant dog whined and sneezed, or at least the center head did. It didn't look like it would keep the Cerberus down, but it had successfully distracted him. Iris looked around in desperation. The Cerberus was between them and the exit. The only way out was blocked. Also, the corridor was brightly lit—probably Warrington's doing—so escaping into the shadows would be very difficult if not impossible. She looked down the hallway and spotted the hole in the wall. Darkness greeted her. This could work, if they could make it all the way there in one piece.

"Follow me, I know a way out!" Iris shouted, grabbed Hermione's wrist, and started running down the corridor. Harry followed behind them, but he kept his wand trained on the huge dog, which was currently recovering quickly and starting to come towards them again.

"In there?" Harry shouted skeptically.

"Yes! Run, quickly!"

The Cerberus was now running, getting closer and closer, and Harry swished his wand again, shouted another spell, and something red impacted the giant dog's eye. There was a howl of pain as the dog jumped backwards. Harry turned to catch up with them, while Iris continued dragging Hermione towards the hole and into the dark room. Stepping inside, they found a small dark rectangular room, which must have held the Cerberus, and curiously, a large trapdoor in the center. Hermione had spotted it too; she was pointing at it and shouted, "There! Can we get this open?"

"No time!" shouted Iris, as she threw a look back to see the Cerberus had already recovered and was charging towards them again.

Iris focused on her feelings of fear and panic, which didn't need much effort to surface right now, and drew on the darkness.

Shadows started to converge, move and grow, especially in the corner of the room she was dragging Hermione towards. Said girl noticed what was happening, and her eyes widened and she shrieked. "W-wha? Let go! What's that?! G-get away!"

"Don't worry, we'll be safe in there!" Iris shouted, hoping it was true. At least, it seemed like the giant dog wasn't actually in the shadow world, so there was a good chance he couldn't get there, either. She made it to the far corner of the room, just as the shadows had grown wide enough that they looked like she could fit through them, and she quickly stepped through the breach, dragging a struggling Hermione with her.

Feeling the familiar oppressive sensation of pure darkness and shadow wrapping around her, as she became part of them, she held her fleeting grip onto Hermione's wrist, until the girl was finally pulled through, and she lost her grip due to the nature of this place.

Iris turned and looked back through the gap, only to see Harry stare at her with a horrified expression. Right, she should have probably explained that trick to him at some point. Then, her eyes widened in terror as the moment of distraction became Harry's undoing. The giant dog barged through the hole and knocked right into Harry, tossing him into a corner on the opposite side of the room. Iris wanted to scream, but couldn't.

Desperation filled her as she saw him tumble to the ground. He had to be okay. She had to get to him. With a sudden stroke of thought, she turned and looked behind her, spotting the corresponding gap in the corner of the room Harry had landed in, on the other side of this dimension's version of the room. She took a single, urgent step, and was right in front of it. The shadows needed almost no encouragement, they all but came by themselves. The gap opened wide, she stepped out, and knelt next to Harry. He was knocked out... she hoped. The Cerberus let out a roaring growl that shook the room, and locked all six eyes with her. Iris froze. This was it. She either had to come up with something right now, or Harry would die for good, if she didn't get killed alongside him.

Her mind went back to their defense lesson. They had been talking about trolls, but if what Hermione had said was correct, she could apply a lot of those ideas to this situation as well. Distraction was out. Nothing she could do would prove a worthwhile distraction, and she was the only one left. She glanced over at Hermione's shadow on the wall at the opposite side of the room—damn, that's how that looked from the outside? —the girl couldn't help right now either. Harry had tried hitting his weak spots, but she didn't think she could do anything that would hit even harder than any of the proper spells Harry had tried, and they had done little but slow him down.

The giant dog snarled, and bent its legs, ready to charge at her.

Mind-control, as well as the Unforgiveables were both out, she had no idea how to do any of those. There was nothing here to use as a weapon, and she was even worse at Transfiguration than at Charms. Could she affect his fur somehow? She didn't know any petrification spells, or freezing spells, and the only Force spell she knew was useless because she still had no idea how to use multiple colors at the same time. The other two spells the professor had mentioned she hadn't tried, but she did come across them tonight during her research. Accio summoned a specific object from a distance. That sounded like it needed Force and Control as well, and Depulso knocked the target object away from her and...

...And nothing. Was that really all it did? That sounded almost like it was simply using pure Force.

The dog let out another ear shattering bark and started charging towards her. It was now or never. She had no idea if this would work, but a second ago, she hadn't had any plan at all.

Iris focused and drew up blue light, as much as she could muster. The room was drowned in it, the shadows retreating further and further, except in the two spots she had purposefully summoned them, as the glow increased brighter and brighter, until her wand started shaking in her hand. Wand aglow in a vibrant light blue, it seemed to drown out everything else as the rest of the room slowly faded out of sight, what little light remained seeming almost red in comparison.

Her heart was hellbent on trying to punch through her ribcage with every beat, as the massive dog unstoppably barreled towards her, almost painfully slowly, and her wand started to glow and crackle with power. Blue wisps of light were swirling through the room, condensing around her glowing focus, all of them bracing for a singular purpose.

At the last second, just as the dog was about to tear into her, she jabbed her wand forward and cried with all she had, "DEPULSO!"

And then everything went black.