Disclaimer : I am not J.K. Rowlings, so cut me some slack

"How are you feeling?" Athena asked Harry as she squeezed his hands nervously. Harry and his friends were on their way to the outdoor duelling yard. Harry was having his first duel today and he was excited for it.

"I am good, you don't have to worry about me." Harry replied with a smile.

"I will be the judge of that." Athena responded. Ever since he was found unconscious in the hallway weeks ago Athena had become very protective of him. He had since recovered fully from the episode, but his friends were still worried about him, Athena more than the others.

"Let the man breathe, he has been preparing for this for weeks." Kane said, patting Harry on the back.

"Athena, I am good. The Healer has cleared me for duelling weeks ago and Professor Morgan also confirmed that there has been no long lasting side effects. I am prepared for this." Harry reassured Athena.

"Good luck Harry."

"You are going to be great." Harry's friends said patting him on the back. He had been unconscious in the infirmary so he missed Athena's first duel. His friends regaled him with tales of how Athena outclassed her opponent in the duel.

He had immediately signed up for a duel once Professor Morgan had cleared him fully fit. Ever since his stay in the Infirmary he had been having weekly meetings with Professor both to assess him for any lingering side effects from the ritual and to teach him Occlumency. He had learnt more about Occlumency from Professor Morgan in weeks than he ever learnt through the past year from Snape. His lessons in Occlumeny had helped him in better organizing his mind and maintaining focus, this in turn had helped him to learn and study better. His mind was like a sponge, absorbing new information and knowledge and an astonishing speed. He had finally caught up with his mates in all his subjects.

Harry hugged his friends one last time before stepping into the protected duelling circle to face his opponent. Harry's opponent was Elmira. Harry had tried investigating her once he knew she would be his opponent but there was very little to find about her. No one would tell him her surname, all he knew was that she was taking her Mastery in Charms. Although this was also her first duel, she was more experienced in various branches of magic than Harry.

From the information Harry could gather, she was given the opportunity to pursue a Mastery in Alchemy, Charms or Blood Magic. She had chosen Charms and decided to forgo the others for now. To be accepted to gain your Mastery in two branch of magic was rare enough, to be accepted in three was almost unheard of. She had never been interested in partaking in duels since she got to Emry's years ago, Harry wondered the reason for her sudden interest in duelling.

A small crowd was already gathered waiting for the duel to start. Harry decided to do a few stretches as he thought of his plan for the duel. Since this was Elmira's first duel, Harry had no idea what to expect from her. He had to be prepared for everything.

"Welcome everyone to the Debut duel of Harry Potter and Elmira" Stuart announced to the crowd. As usual Stuart was the announcer and referee for most of the duels. There was a loud cheer and clapping from the gathered crowd.

Harry took the time to settle himself. With his recent advancement in Occlumency he was able to clear his mind quickly of all distracting thoughts. It was something Professor Morgan had thought him. A sufficiently skilled legilimens would be able to pick up on your spell choice even before you cast them if you are unable to clear your mind. Harry didn't know if Elmira was a legilimens but he wanted to avoid making any mistakes and embarrassing himself in his first duel.

"Fighters are you ready?" Stuart asked. Both fighters nodded their heads, very eager to get the duel started. Harry's was starting with a basic duelling stance, he was unsure of how Elmira fought so he decided to start with a stance that allowed to defend and attack efficiently. Elmira was in a complicated stance Harry had not seen before. She was standing on the tip of her toes like a ballerina with her body sideways to make herself more difficult to hit.

"Standard dueling rules apply. All spells are allowed except those that cause permanent damage or death. The duel ends when one party either forfeits the duel, becomes unconscious and is unable to continue or is disarmed of their wand. At the count of three, the duel starts. ONE . TWO . THREE ."

Immediately, Elmira non-verbally cast a very complicated spell chain. Harry was forced to dodge as he couldn't identify many of the spells in the chain. He was saved by his very sharp reflexes he had honed from years of playing seeker. Harry was on the back foot as Elmira kept on peppering him with spells after spells, he dodged the ones he couldn't identify and shielded against the ones he could.

"She is very fast." Sammie commented as she watched the ongoing duel. Harry's friends were all nervous, Elmira was much better than any of them could have expected.

"She has not let him cast a single spell in attack." Paulo added. Harry was stuck defending wave after wave of attack, only the training and practice he got since he arrived at Emry's allowed him to survive this long. If she fought him a year ago, she would have disarmed him in less than two minutes.

"She has to be getting tired, right?" Athena asked as she bit her fingers nervous.

"No one can keep up this pace up for soo long."

This is not going to plan. Harry thought to himself as he fended off a flock of cursed birds Elmira had sent after him while also trying to dodge her follow up spells. The cursed birds were immune to fire so Harry had to blast them apart one after the other as they tried to scratch his eyes out.

"What is she doing?."

Elmira had suddenly stopped casting spells at Harry and instead brought out a knife, she sliced across her palm with the knife and let the blood drop to the ground.

"This is not good" Kane said. The crowd started whispering excitedly among themselves as they watched Elmira chant. Just as Harry blasted the last of the birds he noticed that Elmira was no longer casting spells at him, instead she was chanting.

Harry saw the blood dripping from her palm to the floor as she chanted. While Harry didn't recognize her chant he knew he couldn't let her finish it because the effect would be disastrous for him. Blood magic was one of the most powerful branches of magic, Harry had learnt enough from Professor Morgan to know that allowing her complete the chant was a bad idea.

"BOMBARDA" Harry cast the blasting curse at Elmira, for the first time in the duel Harry was the one attacking. Elmira was surprised that Harry had managed to deal with her cursed birds quickly enough to interrupt her chant. The cursed birds were supposed to keep him busy long enough for her to complete her chant.

"PROTEGO" Her hastily cast shield charm protected her from major damage but her chant had been interrupted before she could complete the first time in the duel Harry had the opportunity to go on the attack.

"What do you think?" Gabriel asked his wife Cassandra as they both watched the ongoing duel through an Omnicular from the Headmasters tower. The Headmaster's office had a direct line of sight to the duelling yard, Gabriel had designed it that way so he could watch the duels from the comfort of his office.

"She is very fast but so is he, he has very good reflexes. Any other junior student and the duel would have been over. I am impressed." Cassandra commented. As professor for Elemental magic she had very little contact with Harry. Only very few students had the gift for Elemental magic and could harness its powers, Harry was not one of such students.

"He still has a long way to go. His attack is very weak, she is finding it easy to negate most of his attacks." She said, continuing to give her observations..

"She is more advanced than he is, so that is to be expected. If we are to prepare him for what is coming we must know how far along he is." Gabriel said. His friend Albus had entrusted him with the training of Harry Potter. Albus was too busy running the school and trying to keep Voldemort at bay to be able to teach Harry anything.

"Why did you chose her as his opponent if you know she is better than him?" Cassandra asked. Usually, Gabriel avoided interfering in the duelling rooster but he had made an exception when he heard that Harry had put his name forward to duel.

"She is not too experienced in duelling herself. She is good enough to push his limits but not good enough to give him a trashing. I want to see how he fares against an unknown opponent" Gabriel said as he stroked his beards.

"Besides, Albus entrusted me with preparing him for what is coming. I need to see how far along he is in his learning before I can begin to teach him anything useful." He continued. Gabriel had been receiving notes from all the Professors about Harry's progress in their classes. Although he had not spoken with Harry since he brought him to Emrys Academy, he had been keeping a keen eye on his progress.

"He has a long road ahead of him. He will not have an easy life." Cassandra said in a sombre tone. She was well aware of the threat of Voldemort and how it related to Harry.

"I cannot walk the path for him. All I can do is give him the tools he needs to survive it."

The couple continued to watch the duel mostly in silence. The duel had been going on for about ten minutes now. And while Harry had spent the first few minutes on the defense, he had since found his footing in the fight.

"BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP"

"What's that noise. Sounds like its coming from inside the walls." Cassandra said. A loud beeping noise interrupted the silence.

"It must be from one of the monitoring devices." Gabriel said as he stood up to check the source of the noise. He walked towards the wall opposite his desk and drew out his wand. The wall was blank except for a portrait of himself which was gifted to him by a wizard he had helped during one of his travels. He gently removed the portrait from the wall and handed it over to his wife before running his wand across the wall. A secret compartment opened which contained several devices, one of which was causing the beeping noise.

"What is it?" Cassandra asked, moving closer to take a look at the device.

"It's one of the devices monitoring the barrier around the school. It is strange."

"Is someone trying to break in?"

"If someone is trying to break in all the other monitors should be beeping also. This is an old device, I didn't even know I still had it." Gabriel said as he examined the device. Since he founded Emry's academy fifteen years ago, they had not had any attack on the school. The school was built to be unplottable to those who didn't know it's location. In fact the only people who knew the actual physical location of the school were Gabriel, his wife Cassandra and Professor Morgan.

There were several portals hidden around the world to get to the school. New students were led in through the closest portal to their location. Only Gabriel, Cassandra or Morgan could bring in new students in through the portals. Staffs and Older students were allowed to go and come as they please but they could not bring in or take out anyone with them.

"We should investigate this. It might be nothing but we need to be sure."

"I'll send a message to Gavin to confirm everything is fine." Gabriel said. He pulled out an old watch from his pocket and click a button on the side of the watch. The watch was golden and has several runic carvings on it's sides.

"Gavin, I am getting some strange reading from the devices monitoring the perimeter. Can you check it out." Gabriel spoke to the watch. The watch was a communication device Gabriel had designed for short to medium range communication for use around the school grounds. Gabriel waited for a few seconds but there was no response from Gavin.

"Gavin, are you there?" There was still no response. Gabriel began to become worried. Gavin was the Head of Security and Keeper of the Grounds, it was a job he took very seriously.

"Something must be wrong. Gavin never misses a call." Cassandra said with a worried look on her face.

"We must check it out ourselves. Come with me." Gabriel said, he extended his hand towards Cassandra. She held his hand as he apparated them to the Atrium. The Atrium was the singular entrance into Emry's Academy. All portals around the world led solely to the Atrium where visitors can be checked in before gaining access to the school grounds.

The Atrium was empty and quiet as Gabriel and Cassandra apparated in. The only sound was that of the water from the mouth of the Chimera fountain.

"Where is everybody?" The atrium was unusually empty. There were no guards or visitors in sight, no students or staff leaving or coming in.

"You should see this?" Cassandra said. She was bending crouched behind the large desk Gavin usually sat at.

"What is it?" Gabriel asked as he walked towards her. Gavin was unconscious, bleeding from a deep laceration in his stomach. His intestines were almost pouring out of the hole in his stomach.

"I need to sound the alarm, we are under attack."

Harry had begun to find more success utilizing transfigurations in his duel against Elmira. The duel had been going on for about ten minutes, although it seemed like a lifetime already to Harry. From the spectators view it seems like they were evenly matched, both fighters were beginning to tire and show signs of fatigue.

"I don't think I've ever seen a duel go on this long. Have you?" Sammie said.

"You didn't watch the twins last duel. They were at it for almost half an hour." Kane said. The twins, James and John had the most famous rivalry at Emry's Academy. They were always in competition with one another, from duelling, do assignments and coursework, they fought to be the better than the other. This rivalry pushed them to be some of the best students at Emry's.

"Those two need to let their rivalry go. They are too evenly matched."

"Their duels are usually very fun to … Ohhh" Paulo cringed as Elmira manged to hit Harry with a blasting spell that sent him sprawling in the dust.

"Ohh, she is going to finish him here!" Athena exclaimed with her hands over her mouth. Elmira immediately sent a stunner at Harry but he manged to dodge it still on the floor. Harry was struggling to defend himself from his position on the ground. It was obvious to the crowd that it was only a matter of time before Elmira nailed him with one of her spells.

"WE ARE UNDER ATTACK. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. RETURN TO YOUR ROOMS!" The Headmasters voice blared out all around the school grounds as if there were invisible speakers.