Lucius Malfoy grimaced as the trumpets blared out, signaling the beginning of the duel; personally, he'd rather not be here at all, but he'd been ordered to attend by Lord Voldemort to ascertain the strength of his enemies in preparation for the upcoming war. Six more Muggleborns had been kidnapped, and Lucius had immediately agreed to his lord's order rather than remain at his manor and listen to those poor girls' screams as the Dark Lord drained them of their life and magic.

Taking a shaky breath, Lucius cast his eyes across The Arena, loathe though he was to admit it, it truly was a testament to the wonders that could be achieved when wizards and goblins worked together. Though he would always consider wizards and witches to be superior to any creature, no matter how powerful their magic, Lucius had to admit that The Arena was truly a magnificent creation worthy of remembrance. It being the only safe place that wizards and witches could go while in the land of the Fae also made it a place of great importance, as many foolish individuals had discovered when leaving the safety of the clearing.

Casting his eyes across the crowded Arena, Lucius could see Potter's family looking nervous and pale; Lucius' lip curled in distaste as he saw Sirius Black sitting next to the redheaded mudblood, wearing the signature black robes that James Potter had commissioned to show Sirius as one of Potter's personal guard as if a fancy set of robes would save James Potter when Lord Voldemort finally began his war. Alastor Moody sat not far away from Potter's family, likewise wearing his black robes. At the same time, his magic eye spun around wildly, taking in everything around him.

As the twin doors opposite each other on the ground floor opened, the crowd's noise stopped suddenly as if someone had cast the world's most powerful silencing spell, and Lucius could practically feel the tension in the Arena grow by an enormous degree. The Arena was only built to hold a maximum of five hundred. Yet, almost double that number were here now, filling every available seat and sitting on the stone steps when the seats ran out.

Every eye was focused on the green grass of the Arena's floor. A special area had been set aside for the families of those who had died during the Hogsmeade Massacre, and Lucius felt pity, despite himself, at how many people were seated on that side, all dressed in black. As the second bell tolled, Lucius turned his attention back to the field and watched expectantly.
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James Potter strode through the twin wooden doors, his back straight as an arrow, his wand gripped tight in his right hand; the only sign of his nervousness was the slight shake of his hand as he stepped out into the sun. On the far end of the field, James could see Fudge step out of the doors on his end; both he and Fudge were wearing the traditional white battle robes that showed them as combatants of the Arena. The pair seemed to shine like snowflakes among the green grass of the field.

Once James and Fudge were fifty feet apart, they both stopped and took their positions; raising their wands, the pair bowed to one another, and James couldn't help but smirk as he saw that while healed, Fudge's face still had ugly yellow bruises. Seeing his smirk, Fudge glared hatefully at his opponent, his face taking on a nasty purple hue as he raised his wand and prepared for the second bell that would begin the duel. For a few tense seconds, James and Fudge stood glaring at each other while the Arena held its collective breath; a moment later, the second bell sounded, and Fudge immediately screamed,

"Avada Kedavra!"

The green light flew from Fudge's wand like a bolt from a crossbow and flew straight toward James, who quickly dove out of the way, narrowly missing the beam by inches as the crowd shouted in alarm at Fudge's immediate use of the killing curse; rolling to his feet, James countered with,

"Reducto!"

Fudge only had a moment to stare before he was thrown from his feet. He rolled several times end-over-end before finally coming to a stop on his stomach several feet away. Quickly rising to his feet, his once white robes now dirty and sweat-stained, Fudge began firing one curse after another in such quick succession that James found himself almost in a continuous dance of duck, dodge, roll, and evade.

"Confringo!" Fudge snarled, "Deprimo! Expulso! Diffindo! Crucio! Avada Kedavra! Stay still and die, damn you!"

Rather than reply, James simply flicked his wrist at Fudge as a smirk took over James' face; for a moment, Fudge thought that whatever James had been trying had failed, but then laughter began to echo from around the pair of duelists. Looking down at himself, Fudge's face turned red with humiliation as he saw that James had transformed his white robes into a frilly pink tutu that seemed to be a size too small.

"Looks good on you, mate!" James called out as the laughter around them grew, causing Fudge's humiliation to increase tenfold.

"You BAAAAAAAASTARD!" Fudge roared, transforming the tutu back into white robes and conjuring four large spears above his head that shot forward to impale James. James attempted to jump out of the way as quickly as he could, narrowly missing three of the spears. The fourth, however, slashed across James' shoulder, leaving a deep cut before impaling itself in the dirt behind him.

The crowd gasped in horror as James' white robe began to turn red from the wound. James thought he heard someone scream his name, but before he could register it, Fudge sent more spears at him, trying to keep James as far away as possible.

"My turn…" James growled before snapping his wand arm toward Fudge, "Expulso!"

So invested in sending spear after spear at his opponent, Fudge failed to realize his danger until it was too late, and the beam of light slammed into his forearm. A moment later, Fudge's wand arm exploded in a shower of gore that made even Sirius turn pale in shock; Fudge stared at the mutilated appendage for a moment before he began to shriek in agony, clutching the arm to his chest as it spurted blood.

"Pick up your wand," James growled as the Arena grew silent again, "I'm not done with you! Pick it up!"

Fudge didn't respond to James' words, just continued sobbing as he cradled his now ruined arm; quickly striding toward his opponent, James grabbed Fudge's arm and muttered under his breath, using a special spell from the Potter family grimoire. When he was done muttering, the tip of James's wand glowed bright red, and Fudge fearfully tried to pull away as the crowd watched with bated breath; by now, Fudge was very pale from blood loss and looked close to passing out.

As James finished his spell, Fudge's mangled arm suddenly burst into flames, causing the man to cry out in agony, but as the fire died away, the crowd saw, to their amazement, that Fudge's arm had been cauterized.

"You saved me?" Fudge asked in shock, causing James to release his arm with a sneer,

"I'm not finished with you."

Grabbing Fudge's wand from where it lay, James roughly shoved it into the man's hand before storming back to a respectful distance and raising his wand again as he waited for Fudge to shakily get back on his feet.

"You nearly killed my son!" James snarled, "A son, I JUST got back! So no, Fudge, you don't get to die yet until that debt is paid!"

"You stole everything from me!" Fudge retorted, "I worked my whole life to become Minister! I had to do horrible things to finally achieve that position, and you took it all from me!"

"How pathetic," James sneered, "Even now, you can't take responsibility for your actions, blaming others for your problems. You are unfit to lead our country, and now you will pay for all those whose blood you spilled."

A roar of approval echoed throughout the Arena at James' words, and Fudge's face was colored with shame, anger, and humiliation. Never had the Magical World cheered for him like that, not in all the years he had served them as Minister. As the roar continued, Fudge felt his anger morph into a deep black hatred for all that he had suffered and how James Potter had shredded his reputation to bits.

"Crucio!" Fudge snarled, sending a burst of light at James, who simply spun in place, causing the light to miss him effortlessly and sending droplets of blood sailing from his still-wounded shoulder.

Snapping his wand out, James snarled out,

"Levicorpus!"

Fudge immediately was pulled into the air by his ankle and hung there, his robes falling over his face. This gave the crowd a look at his skinny white legs, which made them all howl with laughter again.

Not wasting a moment, James snarled again,

"Sectumsempra!"

Fudge screamed in agony as his body was shredded to bits as though it had been slashed by a hundred knives while the crowd watched in horror.

Flicking his wrist again, James released his hold on Fudge, who collapsed to the ground in a shower of blood and bits of torn robe; as James slowly approached Fudge's body, he thought for a moment that he had killed Fudge, only for the man to begin sobbing as he slowly tried to crawl away from James.

"St-stay away!" Fudge sobbed/gurgled as he clawed at the ground and tried to crawl away from his opponent, "Leave m-me alone!"

The sight of the man responsible for nearly killing his family, as well as killing so many others, begging for his life enraged James beyond all reason, and before he knew what he was doing, James had snapped his wand forward and snarled,

"Crucio!"

Fudge's body began to convulse as he shrieked in absolute agony, his body twisting this way and that as though he might somehow make the pain stop through sheer force of will; after several seconds of this, James finally ended the spell, breathing like a bull as sweat and blood poured off of his body.

The crowd watched with mixed emotions; some stared at their new Minister in awe, while others stared in horror at the fact that James could be so merciless. Lucius gulped and looked over at a few of his 'former' Death Eaters, seeing that their view of James Potter had changed significantly during this duel, just as Lucius' had. This was not a man to trifle with, and in the coming days, Lucius fully expected alliances to shift as news of this duel was released.

James raised his wand to cast the torture curse again when he heard a voice call out his name,

"Minister Potter!"

Turning, James saw that one of the family members in black, a pale witch with long blonde hair, had risen from her chair and called out to him.

"That's enough," the witch called out, "He's beaten. Please don't let your anger destroy the good man you are! Don't let him take your honor!"

Her voice echoed across the quiet Arena, and for a moment, only silence followed her words; suddenly, as though a bomb went off, the crowd roared their approval at the witch's words, some shouting their own words of encouragement for James to finish off Fudge rather than continue to torture him.

James' eyes found those of his wife, and he saw, to his shame, that she was crying as she stared at him; slowly, she nodded at him in an unspoken message. Seeing all the people shouting for his death, Fudge began to sob harder, his remaining hand making gouges in the dirt as he desperately tried to crawl away.

"May your suffering be legendary," James said as he slowly raised his wand, "Even in hell."

"No, please!" Fudge begged, "Please, I beg you!"

"Avada Kedavra," James said in disgust, as though the words were poison on his tongue.

A green bolt of light flew from James' wand and slammed into Fudge's face, sending his body onto the grass; a small breeze blew across the field as the crowd looked in awe between Fudge's still corpse and a very pale James Potter, who stood breathing hard, his shoulder still bleeding profusely.

A moment later, the crowd roared at James' victory, shouting acclaim and cheers as loud as they could; Sirius was jumping up and down like a maniac as he screamed to heaven at his friend still being alive. Rose and Harry were sobbing happily as they hugged one another; a moment later, they were both scooped into Lily's arms, and she hugged her children tight, whispering a silent thank you to whoever might be listening.

"Get a healer down there, immediately!" Mad-Eye roared above the crowd suddenly, releasing her children; Lily saw to her horror that James had collapsed to the ground, and a growing pool of blood was beginning to spread around him.

"James!" Lily screamed, rising to her feet and violently pushing people out of her way as she ran down the stairs; once she reached the banister, Lily threw herself over it, landing on the soft grass with an 'oomph.'

Running toward her husband, Lilly saw the blood pool growing larger,

"JAMES!"
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