The first years' afternoon matches somehow consisted entirely of stinging hexes. Nymphadora and Merula used them to disarm the unsuspecting boys almost immediately. Thorin was wily enough to pick up the trick in time to disarm Rowan for the third place duel. Nymphadora used her metamorphmagus ability to resist the swelling from the hexes again, but that counterintuitively led Merula to double down on the strategy, raining an ungodly number of hexes on the Hufflepuff girl. Eventually, poor Nymphadora could concentrate no longer. She started wheezing, and all her limbs suddenly puffed to twice their normal size as the swelling and blisters erupted all at once. Her wand fell from sausage-like fingers. Annoyingly, both girls broke down into tears. While Rolanda levitated Nymphadora over to Poppy, Severus stooped to talk to Merula. Filius came up beside him and handed the girl a handkerchief.

"Ms. Snyde, can you explain yourself?"

"I'm sorry P-professor," she mumbled. "I sh-should have s-stopped! I-I g-guess I'm just evil like m-my Mum."

Filius inhaled sharply beside him. Fortunately, Severus did not think anyone else would have heard over the audience' talk, laughter, and scattered applause. He subtly flicked his wand to ensure privacy. "I have seen no evidence of your being evil this year, Ms. Snyde. I don't care how many letters you got when you were six telling you otherwise."

"B-but I hurt her!"

"You did, yes, but in a sanctioned and supervised duel. And now you feel bad about it. That was not an evil act. You are not your mother. Nor are you bound by your parents' choices."

"I... I d-didn't realize she was hurting so much. I d-don't understand! Why didn't she give up?!"

"Because she wanted to win. Why did you continue with stinging hexes when it appeared she would not give in to them? Besides being evil, of course."

She sniffed. "Tonks is r-really fast, usually. Not with her feet, but with c-casting. She's b-better than me with hard spells. And I saw h-how she slowed down when Chiara hexed her earlier. I'm only faster with stinging hexes because we practiced them so much, Lizzy, Izzy, Barny and me. I just wanted to slow her down enough to beat her! But then when she kept going after the f-first three h-hexes hit..."

"You panicked," Severus concluded with a shake of his head. "This is why we do the drills with combinations of spells. It's important you practice the combinations on your own time, not just the individual spells, that way you don't get stuck like this in the future when you're under stress. And do use the handkerchief Professor Flitwick so kindly gave you."

"You did win the duel and win twenty points for Slytherin, Ms. Snyde," Filius said encouragingly. "And I agree with Professor Snape. I don't see even a speck of evil!" Merula smiled tremulously and blew her nose. Severus buried a sigh and nudged her over with the other first years.

The rest of the afternoon was more enjoyable. The second years made good use of the skills Severus had taught them over the past few months. They dodged and rolled well, used efficient spell combinations, and never used a single stinging hex. The Gryffindor Xian Guo won, with Ravenclaw Nicholas Barby in second and Kirley Duke in Slytherin taking third place. Third year Gryffindor Bill Weasley flattened Alexis Pucey, who also lost the runner-up duel. Tegan Cadwalader took second place in the fourth year matches for Slytherin, after the most equally-matched interhouse duels yet. There was a slight delay as Filius celebrated Ravenclaw's first win, hugging a supremely embarrassed Sarai Smith.

Disappointingly, Quentin Diablo lost both his fifth year bouts. Severus quickly congratulated Jane Court on her win before snagging Quentin as he tried to slouch out of the hall. He flicked his wand for a quick Muffliato. "No one can hear us, Mr. Diablo. Leaving so soon?"

"I need to study," he said dully.

Severus nodded. "I'm sure you do with O.W.L.s starting the week after next, but before you go, I wanted to tell you that you did well."

"I lost."

"You won all morning."

"But I lost in the end."

"You did. But... that does not matter. You did your best. Remember, this tournament is a game with rules that don't exist in the real world. You may not have won the game, but you did achieve the more important things: You held your own, even against Jane who is without doubt the best duelist of your year. And you showed me what you have learned throughout the year, Mr. Diablo."

"Quentin."

"Pardon?"

"Call me by my first name, please. Professor."

Severus quirked an eyebrow. "The faculty generally are encouraged not to -"

"No one has used my first name since I saw Mum over Christmas. Sir."

And Merlin, wasn't that a depressing state of affairs? Severus lamented his inability to order students to befriend each other and made a mental note to at least ask Erica and Felix as prefects to please acknowledge the boy's existence more often. He softened his voice further. "Quentin... I was pleased with your performance, even if you are currently too disappointed to realize how well you did today."

Quentin shuffled his feet and didn't look up. "Can I go, sir?"

Severus sighed. "You can go." He dismissed the muffling charm and walked back to the ring, where Filius was reconstructing the requisite shields around the single, larger afternoon dueling rug to protect the spectators from the increasingly violent matches. The battle of the sixth year prefects was sure to prove the most dramatic yet.

As soon as Filius was done, Gwenog and Paula Lightfoot of Gryffindor assumed positions and bowed. Rolanda blew the whistle, and the two sixth years began their duel.

"Glacius! Expelliarmus!" Paula shouted immediately. It was a decent combination, the freezing spell aimed at the floor intended to limit Gwenog's ability to dodge the disarming charm and force her instead to shield. It would have been more effective if it were nonverbal, though.

"Aguamenti!" Gwenog directed the jet of water to intercept the freezing charm then swept it upwards and horizontally. With the two spells combined, she constructed a haphazard wall of ice, only a small part of which cracked under the force of the Expelliarmus. While Paula immediately conjured a flame to try to melt the ice, Gwenog was faster to transfigure the wall into stone. And now she had a fortress. She aimed stunners through the irregular cracks in the wall. Paula wisely shielded herself until she could figure out where Gwenog's blind spots were. As soon as was feasible, she dropped her shield and started using Reductor curses to dismantle the wall, starting from the edge and working inwards. A blasting curse would have been faster, of course, but those were against tournament rules per Poppy's request. With good reason: no need for students to emulate the Sirius Black tragedy.

Gwenog remained one step ahead, though. When the last section of wall crumbled to gravel and dust, she was fully prepared with a Ventus, driving all the stone dust straight into Paula's face. Paula was too slow to block it but managed to erect a nonverbal Protego while she was blinded and choking. Sadly, standard shields do not block physical attacks. Gwenog silently levitated the huge pile of gravel and dropped it on top of Paula, completely burying her. Another transfiguration turned the loose gravel back into solid stone.

"Does Ms. Lightfoot currently have means to breathe, Ms. Jones?" Severus asked. He, Filius, and Rolanda all trained their wands on the boulder, monitoring Paula. The girl was certainly alive and seemed to be frightened, judging by her wildly accelerating heartrate.

"No, sir. I'm ready to break it now if you want me to." The watching students who had previously been cheering loudly and shaking maracas fell suddenly silent.

"No. If she does not break out herself within ten seconds, the match goes to you. Refrain from any additional spellwork for now. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One." Filius shivered the stone, and Paula scrabbled out of the sand, shaking and coughing and gasping for air. "Ms. Jones wins. Three points to Slytherin for excellent tactical control and creative spellwork. We'll take a five to ten minute break before the next match."

He swept past Gwenog to check on Paula, who was now lying on her side while Poppy helped her cough and spit up mud, charming her airway clear. "That's it, dear. Anapneo. A little more... Anapneo. One more good cough... Good girl. You can take deep breaths now."

"How is she?"

"Lungs all clean. That's the important thing. We'll get all that sand off you presently. Keep breathing deep, nice and slow and calming. When you're ready, dear, let me see your eyes. We don't want any corneal abrasions."

Paula shook her head. "My eyes hurt," she mumbled.

"Aguamenti Salinoculi..." The mediwitch lifted up each lid and directed a thin stream of saline to flush Paula's reddening eyes of any remaining grit.

"It's blurry..."

"Severus, I have murtlap essence in my kit over there."

"I'll make an ocular salve dilution for you."

"Thank you."

Severus got up and strode over to the corner Poppy had claimed for her use for the day. He conjured a fire in Poppy's tabletop brazier, grabbed a small portable cauldron to set over it, and started measuring ingredients into it: one dram of murtlap essence, two eyes of newt (pulverized), one dram of aloe, and Standard Ingredient Buffer solution titrated until the mixture turns aquamarine over medium heat. Such a small batch did not take long. He removed the potion from the flame and decanted it into a phial in one practiced movement, then continuously swirled it counterclockwise to stabilize the solution as he walked back over to Poppy. A quick cooling charm, and he handed it off to the mediwitch.

"Ah, thank you. Alright, Ms. Lightfoot, hold still..." She dabbed the potion into the girl's eyes and applied a bandage to keep them closed. "Let's get you up, now."

"Wait! How long does the potion take? Will I still be able to compete? Professor Snape?" she asked nervously.

"Settle down. Your eyes will be fine in a few minutes. I won't even disqualify you if it takes you a little longer for you to compose yourself again. Now do what Madam Pomphrey says and get up so we can clear the ring."

"Yes, sir." She finally stood up and allowed Poppy to lead her away. Some of her classmates applauded.

"Ms. Perkins and Mr. Hooper, you're up," Severus said loudly as he and Filius vanished the sand and gravel and dried up the soggy parts of the rug.

This Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw duel might just be the most fun of the day, Severus thought after a minute of watching. Although they started with logical offenses and counters, Melody completely derailed the thing when she hit Harper with a Confundus charm. Harper blinked and simply dodged for a bit, looking for all the world as if he had forgotten how to use his wand. Melody pinned him with a Mimblewimble next, and Severus figured the duel would soon be over. He was wrong. Harper raised his wand again and completely changing his usual mode of attack, firing off nonverbal charms and conjurations at a blistering rate: Cantis, Coloshoo, Cantis again which hit true this time, Herbifors to the face causing squash plants to grow out of Melody's nostrils and ears, Ferula followed by Epoximise, Orchidaeus followed by Epoximise, Ferula, Orchidaeus, Epoximise, Ferula... None of the spells should be disabling in and of themselves, but taken together, Melody ended up barefoot and covered in flowers and bandages that were stuck to her so thickly she was slowing down and starting to resemble a garbage heap.

Melody took this in stride. She, being two months older than Harper, laid a couple age lines down before she was also forced to switch to nonverbal spellwork because the Cantis made her sing all the incantations otherwise. Two age lines were theoretically enough for her to, slowly, shuffle Harper into a corner from which he would have a harder time dodging her own curses, stunners, and disarming charms. In theory. Eventually, the mountain of flowers stuck to Melody grew so thick, neither duelist could see or cast spells through them any longer. Harper appeared momentarily at a loss again, and he was backed against one of the age lines to boot. Melody took advantage of that by carefully tunneling her way out the back of the construct before transfiguring the whole thing into a wobbly pile of gelatin and banishing it at Harper, who disappeared beneath it. Rather than immediately pulling himself out of the slime, he used Carpe Retractum to shoot a rope out around Melody's legs and pulled her into it as well. When they resurfaced, both of them had lost hold of their wands and dove back into the goo to search for them.

Everyone watching was laughing at this point. Severus was debating what to do as the moderator since both combatants were technically disarmed. Melody eventually won because she still (mostly) retained the power of speech and, impressively, managed a wandless summoning charm: "Accio waaaaaaaaaand! Aha, shoo-be-do-bop!" Both wands flew to her, and she clutched them in her two fists. "Oooo-ooo-ooo - I wiiiiiin!"

"Match," Severus snorted. "Finite Incantatem."

"Oh, thank Merlin. Words. Words! I hate singing," Melody said in her usual tones.

"Professor, she cheated," Harper said.

"How so, Mr. Harper?"

"She used illegal curses, stunning charms, and disarming charms."

"Ah. No, Mr. Harper, you have been Confunded. By Ms. Perkins, at the start of the duel. Stunning and disarming charms are within the rules, as were the few curses she used."

His widened. "Oh...oh. That was clever, Melody."

"It was. One point to Hufflepuff for strategic use of the Confundus charm."

"Two points to Hufflepuff for wandless summoning," Filius piped up enthusiastically.

"And another point to each of you for an almost entirely nonverbal duel," Severus finished with a nod to Filius. "Madam Pomphrey will sort you out, Mr. Hooper. And we'll review the rules again before your next duel, just in case. In the mean time, we'll take another five minutes to clean up this extraordinary mess."

Whether Harper was still a little Confunded or just decided he liked the spell sequence, he opened with Ferula, Orchidaeus, and Epoximise again when he faced off against Paula. The Gryffindor prefect was having none of it and incinerated all the flowers and bandages before they could even touch her. She dodged the gluing spell and simultaneously shouted "Avis! Oppugno!" A flock of birds erupted from her wand and attacked Harper. Ironically, they appeared to be ravens.

"Immobulus!" The ravens froze, suspended in the air. He made no effort to move away from them but rather used the flock as a screen from behind which to aim at Paula, switching to more typical disarming and stunning spells. Paula tried to counter him but kept hitting the birds. In frustration, she used a Ventus to blow them out of the way, and Harper immediately followed up with a simple, silent, and barely visible Petrificus Totalus. Paula fell to the floor. Severus called the match for Harper.

"Ms. Jones and Ms. Perkins... begin."

Gwenog went big for her final duel. "Tapet Inflamarae!" The fireball she produced was ten times larger than usual and set over half the rug on fire. All the first and second years screamed. Melody yelped and quickly cast a flame-freezing charm on herself, but that gave Gwenog her opening to cast silent Obscuro and Oscausi hexes, leaving Melody blindfolded and mouthless. Melody immediately dived into the inferno, since she was already fireproof, to use the flames as some cover from Gwenog's next spell while she one-handedly worked the blindfold off. Gwenog threw an Incarcerous in her general direction but only snagged her feet. Melody mimicked the attack, and soon the dueling circle was not only on fire but also littered with ten tangled coils of rope, making it quite treacherous to move about. "Engorgio! Depulso!" Several coils became a heap and flew at Melody. She transfigured them into streams of water midair and allowed them to douse the flames. Gwenog immediately followed up with a disarming charm, now that she could actually see her target. Melody fired off a nonverbal stunning charm, then smoothly whipped her wand up to levitate some more rope, successfully blocking Gwenog's disarming charm. The stunner missed, but Severus might still give Melody points for speed. Gwenog transfigured the rope into a nest of serpents that collapsed onto Melody. Melody jerked and rolled away, loudly humming in lieu of screaming. One of the snakes had already bitten her leg, though, and rolled with her. She started to banish it, but Gwenog's stunner hit her first.

"Accio snake!" Gwenog cried, ripping the animal off Melody. She conjured a pillowcase to catch the angry reptile. "Professor Snape, I caught it! I'm not sure if it's poisonous..."

"Bring it here," he ordered her, leaving Filius and Rolanda to get rid of the other snakes, put out the fire, wake up Melody, and undo the jinxes on her. Even transfigured or conjured vipers retained their poisonous qualities, but not necessarily the same venom as their natural counterparts. He shoved his wand into the mouth of the pillowcase. "Stupefy." Only once the snake was stunned did he look in. "Adder. Since you conjured it, you get to milk it for me. Quickly." Gwenog followed him over to Poppy's table, where the mediwitch was already setting up everything he would need for concocting an antivenin. The work went quickly with two assistants, and Melody was soon tucked into a hastily transfigured bed, where she could comfortably watch the seventh year duels with her leg wrapped in a poultice and elevated.

Severus turned back to the quiet hall, the atmosphere no longer jovial but tense. "Ms. Jones wins," he said unnecessarily.

"She poisoned Melody!" someone shouted.

"And almost suffocated Paula!"

"She should be disqualified."

"Dirty Slytherin!"

"She's going to kill someone!"

Severus' whole body stilled in anger. Almost everyone yelling at him was a Gryffindor, naturally. When he spoke again, his voice was clear and hard as ice. "Ms. Jones broke no tournament rules and has comported herself with commendable professionalism."

"He would say that, the sadistic bat."

"-left Paula stuck inside a rock-"

"He probably told her to summon the snakes..."

Severus fought not to roll his eyes and took a deep breath. "Ms. Perkins is not in any danger. Madam Pomphrey and I were perfectly prepared for the possibility of -"

"Death Eater scum!"

"Silence!" Albus suddenly cried over the furor. All the students fell silent immediately. The headmaster stood up from his seat and walked around the staff table down to where the four sixth year competitors were gathered at Melody's bed. "You four performed very well in your first dueling tournament," he said lightly.

They shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. The rest of the hall remained quiet, straining to hear. "Thank you, sir," Paula finally responded.

"Mm. If you had to describe the strengths of yourself and your opponents this afternoon, Paula, how would you do it?"

"Er... Well, Jones had the best strategy, both times. Aggressive, but that made it all the more effective, since most students this morning were more laid back. Melody was super creative and kept her head better than I did when Jones turned tactics around. She might even have beaten Jones if she hadn't got caught in the first sally. And Merlin, that wandless summoning charm! Harper I think showed the best... dexterity I suppose with his spells, especially with the range of nonverbals he could do. And me...well..."

"You showed perseverance, and bravery, to continue against an opponent you suspected was stronger than you, and to continue after receiving a bit of a fright, if I do say so. Do you have any complaints about this tournament, whether your opponents or your judges?"

"No, sir! It's all been fair. The only person who deserved to be disqualified was kicked out this morning."

"Do you, Melody or Harper, have any complaints?"

"No, sir. Gwenog won fair and square," Melody said immediately. Harper nodded.

"And you, Gwenog? Have you anything to say?"

Gwenog lifted her chin. "I trust Professor Snape, and Professor Flitwick and Madams Hooch and Pomphrey of course, to anticipate risks and set rules accordingly. I'd therefore be disappointed in myself if I did not take every opportunity within the rules of the game. I'd be a bad tactician if I gave up an opening just because it might be scary and I might have to rely on someone else to get me out of trouble. That's not recklessness or callousness. I knew what to do even if Professor Snape hadn't been right there to take control and tell me. Trust and willingly relying on others, in this case Professor Snape and Madam Pomphrey... that's half of being a good team player."

"Well said. Congratulations on your victory. If I may, take an extra five points for the exquisite transfigurations. Professor McGonagall and I were watching closely." He nodded to Gwenog, then the others, and strolled serenely back up to his seat. He poured himself a cup of tea and sipped it.

Severus' eye twitched slightly. It would have been nice if Albus had disciplined the most offensive hecklers in the audience. At least it was quiet again. He vanished the remaining detritus and repaired the dueling rug. "Mr. Prentiss and Ms. Vance," he snapped. The seventh years scurried into place. "Begin."

If Severus were honest with himself, the match might not have been totally fair with him standing at the edge of the ring with his arms folded, glowering into the middle distance. Grace Vance kept fumbling her wand or tripping whenever she caught a glimpse of him, leading Dirk to disarm her rather quickly and without any unconventional techniques. The head boy and girl's duel was similarly lackluster, although that could also be because this was Ravenclaw Cimorene Proust's first duel of the day, having been unopposed this morning. Grace also handily beat Cimorene with elegant footwork and spell chains taken straight from the seventh year drills he'd demonstrated in March.

And then it was Dirk Prentiss versus head boy Gardner Tickes. Gardner was a very efficient duelist, a good student, and quite likeable for a Gryffindor. Dirk was Dirk. The boy had really taken to the Dueling Club, and his coursework was improving since its nadir in January, but still... Sure enough, Gardner quickly gained the upper hand. He chained his spells together perfectly, the wand movements of each spell flowing into each other seamlessly. He set up all the correct counterattacks whenever Dirk tried to throw him off his rhythm. He methodically manipulated the environment with conjured barriers to back Dirk into a corner between a fully grown Banyan tree and a Limbo mist. The golden haze was an impressive feat of student magic, Severus had to admit, even if it was more of a dueling gimmick than of any practical value. There was not a Dark wizard on earth who would not either recognize the enchantment and ignore the gravitational disorientation or simply apparate out of it. The spell was not part of the regular Defense curriculum, nor had Severus taught it in the club, so he supposed Gardner had found it in a book on dueling magic.

Dirk chose to shield against the next stunner rather than step into the suspicious mist. His shield held, and Gardner kept up the attack, switching spells periodically to keep Dirk off guard and wear him down. Dirk's shield proved remarkably durable, however, with no signs of collapsing after several minutes. Gardner frowned and tried summoning Dirk's wand, since summoning spells tended not to be affected by Protego. Unexpectedly, Dirk ran forwards, possibly in an effort to keep hold of his wand and shield spell, and tackled Gardner to the ground.

Gardner bellowed in pain, and it was easy to see why: Dirk's wand had ended up stuffed up his nose, which was now bleeding profusely from the trauma. Dirk's eyes widened. Unable to move his wand, he jabbed it forwards and shouted "Aculeo!" The wand movement wasn't perfect, but it hardly needed to be for such a simple, voiced stinging hex in such a sensitive area. Gardner's eyes swelled shut instantly. Dirk wrenched his wand free and pushed himself up off Gardner. The Gryffindor boy swiped blindly in front of him as soon as his arm was freed, with what turned out to be several nonverbal cutting charms. Some of the first years started screaming again when a long, shallow gash appeared on Dirk's face and another across his knuckles. Both boys staggered to their feet. Dirk fired off another few stunners, but Gardner must have seen the incoming red light against his eyelids and dropped to the floor. He cast two blind Incarcerous spells that Dirk jumped over. Dirk just barely clipped him with a nonverbal Expelliarmus.

And just like that, it was over. Both boys held position for a moment, seeming equally surprised at the outcome, before Dirk lowered his wand.

"Mr. Prentiss wins," Severus announced. Someone started applauding. Probably Erica. A few others, mostly Slytherins, followed suit.

"A liddle helb, blease," Gardner said, his words thick from his broken nose. He was slowly finding his feet, feeling around blindly to keep from tripping over the random rocks and bushes that he had created all over the mat in the course of the duel.

"I really thought you'd flatten me, Tickes," Dirk said quietly as he handed back Gardner's wand.

"So did I," Gardner said. He shrugged. "Bud you wuhd id. See la vie..."

"Non, non, c'est la guerre," Dirk corrected, his French almost as badly accented as Gardner's.

Gardner snorted, which was rather grotesque all things considered. He held out a hand. "Good batch." Dirk shook it, then took hold of his other arm to lead him towards Madam Pomphrey. Gardner made a noise of disgust when his fingers encountered Dirk's lacerated knuckles. "Did I ged you wid de cutting charbs?"

"A couple times, yeah. I was shocked you kept fighting totally blind..."

Severus and Filius repaired the ring one last time while Poppy fixed Gardner's eyes and nose and Dirk's cuts. Rolanda tallied up the official House scores for the day, not including the bonus technique points already distributed. Shortly, she tapped him on the shoulder and offered him the parchment with the sums. He took it with a nod and turned to address the students. "Congratulations to all the contestants in today's tournament, and special congratulations to our finalists and especially our year-winners. I am... proud... of your performance today. And now to award House points. In fourth place, Ravenclaw, with forty-seven points. In third place, Hufflepuff, with fifty-two points. In second place, Gryffindor, with seventy-one points. And our overall House winner today, Slytherin, with seventy-six points." And his House hadn't even needed to cheat for the win. He folded up the piece of parchment. "There will be a short recess before the demonstration duel." He pocketed the parchment and started walking towards the staff table to talk to Albus about lowering the apparition ward.

"Professor Snape! Can we get a picture of all the finalists?" a Slytherin third year asked.

"Of course you can," he said without breaking stride. "There's no rule against it."

"No, I mean, with you?"

He pulled up short. "Ah." Albus met his eyes and twinkled at him before innocently turning to speak to Minerva. "I suppose," he muttered reluctantly. He returned to the center of the ring, and the students arranged themselves around him. They took a picture with all the finalists, all of whom had returned from the library and dormitories by now to watch the demonstration duel, even Quentin. Then they photographed all the first-place winners, then just the Slytherin competitors. Then the Ravenclaws with Filius, per the Charms Master's request.

The young photographer also hastened to take pictures of the tournament brackets before Filius got around to vanishing them. "If I sent copies and maybe some notes about the highlights to the Daily Prophet, do you think they'd publish them?" the student asked Severus, eyeing his own camera. "I got a few action photos too."

Severus smirked. "Probably. The Daily Prophet is in want of actual news lately."

"Cor. That'd be amazing. Can I interview you about the tournament, professor?"

"No."

"But what if the Prophet editor wants details about the upper level duels that I don't know? Like what the silent spells were?"

"Then maybe. Excuse me..."

Author's note: I almost had Gryffindor winning the tournament, until I realized that was because I'd made it so Ravenclaw didn't win a single one of the afternoon brackets and had to switch it up. It's a really good thing the sixth and seventh year Gryffindor finalists were both prefects and the club teaching assistants who had already learned to respect and work with Severus, or else they wouldn't have taken their defeats nearly so gracefully, and the anti-Gwenog/anti-Snape shouting match would have been a whole lot uglier. Thank you all for the lovely reviews. Next Sunday: Snape versus Flitwick!