Chapter 144: Chapter 144: Four!
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"How about both?"
"Four of you?" My voice comes out higher pitched than it should. And here I was worried about Harry taking the third place...I never last long against those three.
"Why not?" Hermione asks. The two younger girls take position right next to each other, forming the apex of the equilateral triangle of attackers.
My head and shoulders droop dramatically, but then a thought occurs to me and I stand up straighter and smile.
I've got my secret weapon, and it's time to use it. My left hand slides into a pocket casually.
"What are you smiling at?" Daphne asks suspiciously.
"You shall see, my dear," I say with a grin, which widens when my term of endearment makes her eyes narrow.
Hermione looks at me suspiciously as well. "Harry?"
"Don't look at me, I have no idea," he says, holding his hands in front of him.
Hermione rolls her eyes. "No, I mean, give us the count."
"Oh, right. You know the rules, ladies: Stunners only, target cannot retaliate. Watch for friendly fire. Here we go! Three..." Harry gives a slow count.
"Aren't you going to use both hands?" Astoria asks.
"Two..."
"I don't need both today, sweetheart," I say with a wide grin. I wink at Daphne's darkened face and wonder just why the hell I'm taunting them.
A thin stream of magic trickles into my left hand just above the control rune.
"One...mark!"
"STUPEFY!" Four voices shout in tandem.
A spherical, shimmering blue shield leaps into existence around me when I activate the control rune, and I roll the runestone so I can link up with the sowilo power rune and monitor the charge.
The Stunners splash harmlessly against my Shield and I cover my mouth as I fake yawn.
This power rune has at least double and maybe nearly triple my magical power stored within, so it can easily take five more shots from each.
Daphne packs a mean punch, though, and she'll bust out a dozen Stunners before Astoria casts half that many.
It also doesn't help that Luna is almost as strong as Hermione, and sometimes seems to know what I'm going to do before I do it. I start stretching then.
"What's this, Lerner?" Daphne calls. "Stupefy!"
"Just limbering up, my dear," I say with a lazy smile.
"STUPEFY!"
Yeah, I am so going to get hurt when this is over. I start to dodge, hopping in between Daphne and Luna, hoping one of the younger girls make Daphne lose her concentration.
I dance over to between Hermione and the Ravenclaw/Slytherin pair for the same reason.
Hermione and Daphne are too good for that to work between them, but it does make them more predictable when I don't have this giant shield absorbing spells that won't hit me.
Speaking of my shield, it's down to less than half power.
"It's a Shield rune!" Hermione calls. "Stupefy!"
"He can't have much left," Daphne calls back. "I'll take it, you guys hit him as soon as it drops!"
"Don't want to save the honor of dropping me for yourself, Daph?" I ask teasingly.
"Oh, I will have my chance," she says with a malicious smile. She snaps off three more Stunners, all of which make a direct hit and nearly wipe out my shield.
I'm between her and Hermione then, so when the next one has almost reached me, I quickly drop the Shield and duck out of the way.
My left hand comes out and I hold both of them up as they spring spheres of shimmering blue, both of them slightly smaller than beach balls centered on my palms.
As I expect, Hermione has to dodge Daphne's Stunner so Luna gets one off first, followed shortly after by the other three.
I dodge Luna's and Daphne's – the former was aiming where she thought I'd be but wasn't, but the latter was too close for comfort. I have to block Hermione's and Astoria's, which doesn't drain too much of my magic.
As I suspect, Daphne recovers first, followed by Luna, and I dash toward the younger Ravenclaw to dodge the older Slytherin's spell.
Out of the corner of my eye I see a blast of red coming much quicker than I expected from Hermione, so I'm forced to block that as well.
With her quicker-than-expected recovery all semblance of planning goes out the window.
It's just a dance of instinct and reaction continuing for what seems like minutes, but my heart is beating so fast that time seems to slow around us.
It's strange, despite my highly increased pulse rate, I feel calm – detached from the urgency of dodging spells that could very well injure me.
Jump forward, duck, swat at one as if to bat it away, jump back, whip my arm up to block another.
I wake up looking into the serene visage of Luna and a grinning Astoria. "Welcome back," the latter says, all too pleased with herself. She must be the one who got me.
"Hello, William," Luna says. "You lasted an entire two minutes, thanks to that first shield. Was that one of your handheld runestones?"
Despite how pathetic two minutes sounds, I grin back. "It was." The two tiny girls try to haul me up, but I probably weigh more than both of them combined so they fail.
With a laugh I push myself up. My stomach aches but I quickly determine that I still have over half of my magic.
I note Daphne and Hermione deliberately not looking at me, so I turn a questioning look back to the two girls that helped me up.
"They're just mad they didn't get you," Astoria says smugly. Yep, she definitely got me.
"And that you were laughing," Luna adds.
That startles me. "I was?"
She tilts her head at me and smiles. "It was quite amusing."
"Bloody hell, that was brilliant, mate!" Ron calls out, apparently now oblivious to the Veela aura that usually turns him into a blubbering fool.
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