Chapter 16: The Duelling Club
*** Lockhart's duelling club
"Welcome to the Duelling Club! In talks with Professor Dumbledore about his recent tussle, I decided to pass on a small modicum of my talent to you young children, I suggested that he partner with me, but being a very busy man, my new partner, recommended by the headmaster is…, drumroll please…, Professor Snape! Don't worry, I'll leave your Potions Professor in one piece for your classes tomorrow… just about."
Lockhart laughed vainly as Snape scowled, looking like he would very much like to break Lockhart into itty bitty pieces and throw him in the Thames.
"First off, we'll have a duelling tournament for this lesson, just for fun and the winner from each age group will get to fight me to see where you need to get to."
Lockhart seemed a bit nervous at the idea of fighting them himself, but they were KIDS after all, he could claim he was going easy on them if he lost to one of the higher years.
The age groups were divided into years 1-3, years 4-5, and years 6-7.
Harry grinned, he'd practised his skills quite a bit, especially since the performance by Dumbledore and Voldemort that left anything he'd seen before in the dust. He was itching to try out his new skills.
"Remember, fight to knock out the opponent, not fatally injure!" Lockhart grinned, "Sometimes I can get a little carried away myself…" he said, as if he had the strength to back it up.
Harry's first opponent was a third year Asian Ravenclaw girl, who looked confident going up against a second year, even this second year.
Harry started with the standard bow and then immediately started shooting spells, reducing and transforming the wand motions to a series of quick whips and cracks as jets of rainbow coloured lights emitted from his wand, most blinking out against Chang's bright blue shield, while the lithe girl rolled out from under the area of fire and sent back a few of her own, formidable and high level spells but not containing the speed that Harry possessed with his practise of proper duelling techniques.
Harry weaved through the area of the spells, which were relatively accurate but far enough apart that they failed to build any pressure on the younger boy who responded with another string of spells, this time putting more power into it, crashing Chang's shield and forcing her to throw herself out of the way, a trick that Harry was ready for.
A stunner was waiting in the corner Cho hurtled herself into, meeting a hastily summoned chair and destroying it.
Lying on the floor, Cho was at a major disadvantage, gasping for breath and trying to block as many of Harry's spells as she could, rolling herself onto her feet somewhat awkwardly, shooting back a spell or two when she got the split second chance but nothing she sent hit Harry who looked like his multiple strings of spells hadn't taken much out of him.
Harry waved his wand around in intricate patterns and directed a strong jet of water out of his wand, crashing right through Chang's shield and taking on the likeness of a lion's head, smashing right into the girl and knocking her against the wall, drenching her and leaving her shivering and shaken, falling prey to a causal stunner from Harry that won him the game.
Harry cracked his knuckles and smiled, Cho was considered one of the best duellers in the younger age group and was the favourite to win, though his fight had been mildly challenging, he could beat the girl with relative ease, meaning he was doing quite well on duelling practise.
His next few battles were pitifully easy, most falling to his first barrage of spells that was relatively simple and one of the simplest textbook barrage techniques that any respectable dueller could perform.
Draco Malfoy was a bit more of a challenge, having been taught how to fight a little bit dirty by his father.
Malfoy fought with scare tactics reminiscent to the death eaters, his first move was to conjure a large snake, which Harry promptly vanished and sent a burst of air to clear Malfoy's smoke-screen, catching the pureblood heir with a stunner once he managed to press him properly in one-on-one magical combat, after Harry outmanoeuvred Draco and pushed his advantage.
The last battle of his group was him against Hermione who had also done remarkably well though she certainly looked worse for wear.
Harry started with a slightly more complex opening streak, all off which either hit Hermione's shield or were dodged by the witch who moved forward aggressively, something not normally done against a faster opponent, as less space meant less dodge time.
Hermione rapid fired spells at Harry, faster than Cho had, unfortunately, while she had speed, she didn't have efficiency in movements and insisted on separate movements for each spell and less fluid motion which meant that Harry still had the upper hand despite being pushed back a bit by Hermione's furious casting. Harry spurted another stream of water, using his recently learned basic elemental magic to it's best.
Hermione sent a freezing charm at the water with froze it, letting it act as a shield for Hermione as she shot her spells around the ice, which Harry took 3 spells to tear down the hindrance and once more continue the battles, fighting hard now, his spells getting harder and harder, pushing the bookish girl back, lest she get hit.
With her on the back foot again, her edge was lost and the smart witch couldn't keep up with Harry's heated barrage for much longer.
Hermione started to slow, stopping her attacks completely and reinforcing her shield, building her magic and throwing one last strong stunner before one of Harry's clipped her and she fell, unconscious.
Harry was breathing hard, Hermione was as good, if not better than Cho Chang, and quite a challenge for him, despite his pretty much assured victory.
Harry watched as a Hufflepuff, Cedric something-or-other, won the 4th/5th years and some Gryffindor won the 6th/7th year tournament as well.
*** End of Chapter
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