Chapter 17: Duel PT.2
Harry and Ron were trying to sneak out of the Gryffindor's common room when suddenly Hermione called out from behind.
"Where are you two going?" Hermione asked making Harry and Ron jump,
Ron looked at her annoyed, "Why do you care?"
Harry shushed Ron, "Maybe we shouldn't go!"
"No, Harry... not showing yourself at a Duel is insulting to us. If we don't show up all the Slytherins will gloat at us, calling us cowards."
"Duel?" Hermione asked, "What Duel are you two talking about?"
"I said go back." Ron said glaring at Hermione.
"If you won't tell me then I will complain it to your brother, Percy-- he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this.."
Ron stiffened at Percy's name,
"Why do you care so much?" Asked Harry getting annoyed as well.
"I don't care about you two." Hermione said snorting, "I don't want you to lose us more house points, Today you were lucky but your luck isn't going to always be with you. Slytherins is already ahead of us and with your nagging, this evening, didn't you want to compete against Slytherin. In the end, you don't care about Gryffindor, you only care about yourselves, I don't want Slytherin to win the house cup, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells. and from Professor Binns since Draco isn't good at History."
Hearing Draco's name both of them had a weird face,
"Aren't you a friend of Draco, why do you want him to lose?" Harry asked.
"We are friends but the fact that we are from the different house doesn't change, He and I both know this and since he isn't petty like someone else, he doesn't mind," Hermione said the last words looking at Ron.
Harry looked as if he was considering things but Ron nagged again, "Harry let's go."
Seeing them Hermione guessed something, "Are you going to duel against Draco?"
Harry and Ron turned stiff once again and looked back at Hermione,
"Ha! I guessed correctly, didn't I? Are you two stupid? Have you ever read the newspaper... Draco's other strength than Potions is his spells. It was said in the Prophet Daily, that he could defeat peers his age easily when it comes to spells and dueling is one of his specialty, One year ago, In the 'All-England Wizarding Duelling Competition.' The Winner Mary Kate who was 14 at the time won in the Age (10-15) group, but it was said that she had a secret duel against Draco and both of them ended up in a tie."
(The competition does exist but there isn't any information about it other than someone winning an award in the year 1430, so I made everything up under the name of the competition.)
Hearing that both of them went silent,
"The newspaper doesn't really always tell the truth," Ron said getting a bit nervous, he said all those things to Draco in a fit of anger and jealousy but in reality, he didn't know many spells at all.
"Yeah! But are you willing to risk it." Hermione added.
Harry didn't know much about Duelling but hear he managed to end up in a tie with a 14-year-old when he was 10 was already an amazing thing for Harry who was new to the wizarding world. Ron, on the other hand, knew the significance of the award and was regretting it all now.
Ron took a long breath, "We still have to go, Harry, losing is much better than not showing up at all."
Hermione was amazed that Ron was still talking about it, "Are you sure you don't have a couple of screws loose, I will talk to Draco, I am sure he will understand."
Harry nodded to Ron as well, "I hate to say this but I think she is right Ron, we will only be making a fool of ourselves going there. Heck! I didn't even know what dueling was an hour ago."
Ron shook his head, "No Harry, you don't understand the wizarding world... I initiated the challenge and if I don't show up its considered as a mark of cowardice. We will be a laughing stock if the words get out."
Harry looked at Ron and sighed, Ron was his first friend so he couldn't let him down. "Fine! Let's go. We can give up before things get serious."
Hermione was looking at them, considering if they were really stupid like Pansy always said, but she didn't say anything more to them.
(If you are wondering why this chapter is more focused on Harry and Ron, here is the reason,
1) I ended up making Ron a villain too quickly, even though he has a jealous nature he has a good side too also don't forget that he is only 11 right now. So I wanted to show that he isn't always a piece of crap who keeps talking shit all the time and is always jealous. I don't want my characters to be too one dimensional so I will show all of their perspective on things like this from time to time.
2) Similar to Ron, Harry is also the same. In fact, he is still a good guy (in a way). And I wanted to show his vulnerable side, which is him being unsure of what he wants to do.
3) I wanted to show how Hermione views Draco.
4) I wanted to add the concept of Duelling in the picture.
If you are thinking why I am writing this long ass explanation, I don't want people to whine about me not making Draco the focus of every chapter, and I want people to know that I will write chapters like this in the future where Draco won't always be the focal point, to give other characters more personality. ✌)
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Draco, Pansy, and Theodore reached the Trophy room hiding and looking out for Filch. Ron and Harry hadn't arrived yet so they were looking at the Trophies.
Draco was looking around when he found an award dedicated to James Potter for being the best Seeker. Draco knew that Harry's father was a dick, He took Lily away from Snape, bullied him and still acted self-righteous about it until the end.
He hated James the most when he read the books since it reminded him of a person from his previous world. (Our MC was on Snape's side in his world.)
Then something popped up in Draco's head, 'Am I being the same as James?'
Draco considered, 'I am the leader of my group, I go around acting tough and arrogant. But there is still a fact that I am not stealing someone else's loved one. Technically, since Hermione and Ron aren't even friends and I liked her first in this world. But am I really a bad guy?'
Pansy looked at Draco, who was in deep thought, "Draco, are you alright?"
Draco snapped back hearing Pansy's voice, "I am okay."
"What are you thinking about?"
"Umm..." Draco thought for a while and said, "I am thinking if I am a bad guy."
"Hahaha.." Theodore laughed, "I don't know, but looking at yourself in the mirror with your face would make me consider if I am a bad guy or not too"
Draco gave an annoyed glance at Theodore, "I am serious."
"What made you think that?" Theodore asked coughing.
"What Weasley said, he said that he and Harry were being bullied in a way, by other Slytherin students." Draco said, "Most of the first year in our class look up to me, and if I tell them to stop I am sure they will, but I am not doing anything, so does that make me a bad guy?"
"I don't think so." Pansy replied, "I have known you for 2 months now and even if you are short-tempered and you say mean things sometimes, I know you aren't a bad guy. In fact, you are one of the nicest guys I have met till now, you don't hide who you are and aren't afraid to show it to other people either, and that's what I believe is the most important."
"It's the same as she said." Theodore said, "We been friends for more than 5 years now and even if we didn't like each other at first we still managed to stick through, didn't we? I am a strange person myself. After my mo... after what happened in the past, I always stayed to myself and once you get in that state, you start understanding people more. People, they are selfish, unkind, fake and completely opposite to what they pretend to be. The more I saw it the more I wanted to call it quits with socializing, but you were different, you were completely open. I could read what kind of person you were on the outside and you were the same in the inside too. You weren't hiding anything. You were childish, arrogant and a kid spoiled rotten by his parents."
"Hey! no need to mention bad things." Draco said.
"But those bad things makes you, you. Without it you wouldn't be Draco, I know. And talking about other first-year students.. you can't control everyone. Everyone has their own view on things and you can't blame yourself for their action. They respect you out of their own will, you didn't force them to, so you have no responsibility to take care of them. Today they will bully Weasley and Potter and if you stop them, they might stop but tomorrow they will bully other people. The cycle will keep going on and on. So if you ask me if you are a bad guy, you aren't." Draco smiled gently looking at Theodore, "Well, at least if we don't consider your face."
Draco smiled turned to a frown quickly, "You know for the first time, I really was feeling that there was some good friendship being developed between us but after the last sentence, it turned back towards the border of 'You are my friend' and 'I hate you.'"
Draco then pulled Pansy and Theodore into a group hug, "Thank you!" He said with all his heart.
Pansy smiled happily and Theodore was doing the same,
"Don't cry on my shoulder though, the robe is pretty expensive."
Draco laughed hearing that.
After 5 minutes, Ron, Harry, Neville, and Hermione came in,
Draco looked at Hermione, wondering what she was doing here, understanding his gaze she said, "Sigh! I was trying to stop these two but they wouldn't listen and Neville got out of the hospital right now but the door was locked so he and I couldn't get back in. So we followed them here so that Filch wouldn't catch us."
"Do you wanna participate in the duel?" Draco asked jokingly, but all he got was an annoyed glare from Hermione.
He then turned to Ron, "You do know the rules, right?"
Ron nodded, this is something he at least knew about, coming from the wizarding family everyone at least knew how to properly duel. Draco then turned to Harry. Harry shook his head in response,
"Sigh! Then I will explain it to you, so clear up."
Pansy pulled Hermione and Neville to the side and Theodore and Harry were behind Draco and Ron respectively being their seconds.
"So Potter listen up, In a formal duel, one wizard or witch challenges another. If the other person accepts, they then arrange a meeting time and place for the duel. Opponents then bow to one another before beginning to fight, But duellists who do not respect their opponents do not usually bow correctly, you get me don't you. Your job as a second is to come in after the challenger is killed, but since this isn't a real duel you can jump in after Weasley gives up."
Harry nodded. Hermione was also listening to it keenly since she didn't know much about dueling since it was never in the exams.
"So let's start shall we?" Draco turned to Ron who nodded in response,
"The rules are simple, No physical contact and no lethal spells which I doubt you know any." Draco said making Ron frown a little,
They went towards each other lifted their wands up and swung it back down and did a little but proper bow. Then they went back to their position and both of them stood in a dueling stance.
"Let me teach you something Weasley." Draco said
Ron started chanting a spell but before he could finish, Draco had already swung his wand, "Expelliarmus"
As soon as Draco read the spell out loud, the wand was knocked away from Ron's hand by a force.
"First thing to consider when dueling is your wand, if you don't have one, then you are useless."
Ron hurriedly went back to pick his wand, but Draco didn't let him,
"Accio"
Ron's wand flew towards Draco's and he caught it before he could even pick it up. Ron looked more nervous now.
"Second thing to consider is to never underestimate your opponent, which you have been doing since day 1."
"Locomotor Mortis"
As soon as Draco read the spell, Ron's legs stuck together making him fall.
Theodore yawned not even looking at the match.
Hermione and Neville were very surprised since Ron couldn't even put up a fight.
Draco went towards Ron and pointed his wand towards his neck.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Sonet
Sonet Had nothing to do so wrote a quick chapter. From tomorrow on wards there will be only one chapter again unless we enter top 30, then I will again post 2 chapter each day for 3 days.
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