Potter managed to leap to the right, dodging the orange Everte Statum.
The yellow jets of Leviosa and Descendo, however, flew right to where Agnes expected him to jump. She had read him like an open book. But before they could strike him, Potter yelled:
"PROTEGO!"
The yellow jets dissipated against a translucent blue shield. Agnes didn't wait around, though. She whipped her wand sharply toward Potter, weaving it strangely like a snake, and cried:
"Flagellum Ignis!"
Crack.
A fire spell burst from her wand, reminding me most of a whip or a strap. With another crack, she pulled it down to the ground, snapped it against the floor, and pulled it taut once more.
"That won't save you, Potter!" Agnes shouted with a smirk.
Why the fuck isn't she attacking? I thought.
Surely she didn't plan to give a monologue like some terrible cartoon villain parody? Especially when she still held an active pseudo-elemental spell in her hand.
Potter decided to take advantage of her idiotic behavior. Dropping his shield in a flash, he leaped aside and flicked his wand.
A deep red jet—likely an Expelliarmus—shot toward Agnes.
Yet that same smirk still played on her egg-shaped head.
I held my breath.
Fortunately, my friend snapped out of it in time, casually flicking her wand upward directly through the red jet that was already almost upon her.
WHOOSH. Crack.
Agnes's whip cut through the red spell, erasing it effortlessly. This time, Agnes didn't hesitate. She swung the whip over her head and brought it down toward Potter as if trying to slice him in two.
He managed to leap out of the way just in time. With another crack, Agnes drew the whip back and immediately swept it in a wide arc.
Potter threw himself to the floor and shouted:
"Expelliarmus!"
Agnes snapped the whip back in an instant, stepped casually to the side, and swung it over her head again.
The Boy Who Lived rolled aside.
Crack.
The whip missed him by a hair's breadth. Agnes pulled it back, and judging by the satisfied smile on her face, it was clear she was thoroughly enjoying the duel.
Potter scrambled to his feet and immediately leaped back a meter, even though he didn't strictly need to flee from another attack just yet. His face was pale and sweaty, but he had brought this on himself... Who the fuck asked him to scalp Agnes anyway?
She merely smirked at him cruelly and whipped again—this time in a wide arc, as if intending to cut him in two.
Potter lunged forward. The fiery whip missed him by a hair, and at the same moment, he flicked his wand.
A greyish-white spell shot from its tip. Potter immediately followed up with another attack, sending a red jet at Agnes.
Agnes managed to dodge the greyish-white spell, but the red charm hit her right in the leg. I knew it was pure luck. I was already expecting her to be thrown backward with her wand flying from her hand...
Instead, her face contorted in pain, and blood began to spread rapidly from under her clothes.
But that didn't stop Agnes. Quite the opposite. She started lash-whipping at Potter even more frantically. He ducked, threw himself down, and rolled, but he was gradually slowing down. He no longer had the time or space for a counterattack.
Another sweeping blow almost hit him when Potter cast a spell at the last possible second.
This time, I didn't hear the incantation. Only a faint, almost invisible Protego appeared in front of him.
Crack.
The flaming whip struck the shield. I expected it to shatter under the impact, but it held. Agnes pulled back her arm and instantly lashed out again.
Potter's shield suddenly flared deep blue.
Crack.
The color faded from it, and the shield turned nearly translucent.
Agnes drew back the whip, stepped forward a few paces, and spun sharply on her heels as she struck again.
Crack.
Potter's shield was still holding. It had gone almost entirely transparent, but after a moment, another pulse of blue rippled through it. Potter gripped his wand before him with a trembling hand, sweat dripping down his forehead, and even Agnes was no longer looking her best. Blood was still dripping from her injured leg.
Her expression shifted. She apparently took Potter's shield as a personal insult. Her face contorted into a furious grimace, and the fiery whip dissolved.
Then she whipped her wand sharply and yelled:
"INCENDIO!"
A torrent of fire burst from her wand and slammed straight into Potter's pulsing Protego. In a split second, flames surrounded and engulfed him. Through the wall of fire, his silhouette was still visible behind the active shield, but the stream of flames didn't abate in the slightest.
I saw Agnes's arm begin to tremble while Potter's Protego steadily lost its glow.
Unease spread through the hall, punctuated by shouts. On our side, most students were smirking, while the other houses watched Agnes as if a demon stood before them. The professors, however, looked completely calm. Even Dumbledore was smiling as Agnes grilled the Boy Who Lived.
Agnes was slowly beginning to hunch, her arm sinking lower, yet fire kept streaming from her wand. Potter's shield grew increasingly transparent.
"You have to stop this, she's going to kill him, Professor Dumbledore!" shouted a girl's voice from Gryffindor.
"Calm yourself, Miss Granger," McGonagall's sharp voice came back.
But I kept watching the duel in front of me. I expected it to end at any second.
Three seconds later, the figure inside the flames collapsed to the floor. Right after, the fire vanished, and Agnes dropped to her knees. By sheer force of will, she kept her head held high and proud, though her image was somewhat ruined by her missing hair and eyebrows.
For a moment, silence reigned. Then our entire Slytherin side burst into applause, and the teachers joined in immediately. Naturally, no one from Gryffindor clapped. A few people from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff managed some applause, though.
The only one rushing toward the platform was Madam Pomfrey, potion bottles in hand, while we clapped.
Real gladiator matches, I thought with a smirk.
She approached Potter first, so I could barely see what shape he was in past her. She poured potions down his throat while waving her wand over him.
From a pocket in her robes, she pulled out a tiny stretcher, enlarged it with a single flick of her wand, and placed Potter onto it. Then she made it float above the ground and headed toward the kneeling Agnes with the levitating Potter in tow.
While she tended to Agnes, I looked at Potter again. He lay unconscious, hairless, his head and face covered in blisters and raw red burns. His clothes were singed and scorched. Even so, he had gotten off relatively easy—the fire had died down almost the instant he collapsed.
Madam Pomfrey forced Agnes to drink a potion, then pointed to the stretcher. Agnes initially shook her head in refusal, but a moment later, she slumped over helplessly. Pomfrey merely sighed, nodded to Flitwick, and he instantly boomed across the entire hall:
"Sensational! Miss Agnes DeMille wins this extraordinary duel and advances to the next round! A brilliant match, my dear, simply marvellous!"
With a wide grin, he clapped once more before turning back to the container filled with names. Meanwhile, Pomfrey exited the hall, both stretchers floating in the air behind her.
I was determined to visit her in the Hospital Wing as soon as I could. Magical exhaustion and minor blood loss were nothing serious, but what kind of friend would I be if I didn't chew her out and then congratulate her on her success? And besides... I needed her help.
"1-0 for Slytherin," I said with a smile.
"Did you expect anything else?" Theo chuckled.
"Honestly? No." Augustus shook his head. "But Potter surprised me. He's remarkably powerful magically."
"He really is," I agreed.
"Agnes still won, though... so she's stronger," Draco smirked.
"Agnes is a better duelist, but I don't think she's more powerful than the Boy Who Lived," Alexander said.
"Debatable..." I muttered. "Agnes wasted magic and was way too arrogant. Potter didn't use anything special—aside from how much magic he shoved into his Protego."
"Precisely... That must have cost him an absurd amount," Augustus said.
"Does it matter?" Draco asked with a broad grin. "He lost either way."
"It doesn't matter, Draco," Theodore laughed. "You're just happy Potter lost. Anyway, Patrik... I blame you for Agnes's arrogance."
Smirking, I shook my head and sighed theatrically, placing a hand over my heart.
"I blame you guys. She was beating you so easily last year that her ego blew through the roof."
"Whoa, hold your horses," Theo rejected firmly.
"Definitely not," Draco shook his head.
"Ahem, ahem," Flitwick cleared his throat. "This time we have a duel between different year groups! From Hufflepuff, fourth-year Cedric Diggory against..."
He paused again, savoring the dramatic effect and the tension on the students' faces.
"Patrik Rosier, second-year from Slytherin!" he finished with a smile. "Duelists, onto the platform, please."
"Guess we don't need to wish you good luck," Theo piped up.
"Don't kill him," Draco chimed in with a smirk.
Only after their words did it sink in that it was my turn. So I stepped toward the platform from the opposite side, sweeping my gaze across my housemates along the way. Slytherin remained completely calm—here and there I caught an amused smirk, but no one else cheered or shouted encouragement.
Over in Hufflepuff, Diggory had a rather different support system.
"Smash him, Cedric!"
"Get him, Cedric!"
"Show him the badger's claws!"
"For Hufflepuff!"
And then those idiots actually started chanting:
"Ced-ric! Ced-ric! Ced-ric!"
I genuinely started feeling embarrassed, though I didn't even know why. Face slightly stiff, I walked into the center of the platform until I stood eye-to-eye with Cedric Diggory.
He was a handsome boy, almost in a delicate, girlish way. Sharp features, dark hair, and deep grey eyes complemented by a friendly smile. He was roughly as tall as I was, his athletic build clearly forged by Quidditch. At first glance, he seemed like someone you could hardly imagine as an unpleasant opponent.
"May the best man win," he said calmly, offering his hand.
"May the best man win," I repeated out of courtesy, shaking it.
Almost simultaneously, we bowed. We held our wands to our chests, tips pointing upward, never breaking eye contact. We stayed like that for a moment. Diggory looked completely calm.
Then we straightened up and lowered our wands to our sides.
I offered him a smirk, spun on my heel, and counted off five steps from him.
Cedric was honestly a thoroughly likable guy—both in looks and behavior. But he was just unlucky. I planned to start with a big BANG, no mercy whatsoever... and the Hufflepuffs' cheering definitely sealed the deal.
When I stopped on my fifth step, I already had a respectable amount of magic prepared in my hand, precisely calculated so as not to kill him.
Cedric gave me a friendly smile and nodded. I returned the gesture and turned my attention to Flitwick, who was beaming contentedly. He evidently appreciated that despite the impending duel, we maintained mutual respect.
Flitwick clapped his hands once, and instant silence fell over the hall.
"Three, two, one... Begin!"
I didn't hesitate for a second. The moment the last word rang out, I flicked my wand.
"Fulmino!"
A blinding bolt of lightning shot from the tip of my wand, racing straight toward Diggory. His calm expression changed in a heartbeat.
"PROTEGO!"
A pulsing blue shield materialized in front of him at the very last second.
CRACK-BOOM!
The shield shattered under the lightning's force, throwing blue sparks in every direction. The lightning struck straight into Diggory's chest, hurtling him across the entire stage. He slammed hard into the barrier, bounced off, and hit the floor.
THUD.
Smoke was still curling from his clothes, and his hair was sticking up in every direction. Tiny electrical arcs flickered across the fabric here and there.
He wasn't moving.
Then I heard muffled screams.
"He killed him!" screamed some stupid cow from Hufflepuff.
"Cedric!"
More voices joined in, but fortunately the barriers muffled the noise enough that it reached me only as a distant shout. Even so, I was sick of them.
My spell had been stronger than expected... Fortunately, Diggory had managed to react in time.
None of the teachers panicked. They must have had some diagnostic charms set up on the stage; I couldn't imagine how else they stayed so calm. With the smoke and crackling discharges, he looked a bit too dead for my liking.
Instead of Pomfrey, Professor Sprout stepped onto the stage. She pulled a stretcher from her pocket, enlarged it, and levitated Cedric onto it. Then she gave me a kindly smile, which I returned rather strainedly.
How the fuck was I supposed to react?
Sprout exited the Great Hall, with the stretcher carrying Cedric dutifully floating behind her.
"In this lightning-fast duel, Mr. Rosier takes the victory!" Flitwick chuckled. "Have no fear, dear students! Mr. Diggory is quite alright. He merely needs to recover from the shock, and Madam Pomfrey will take good care of him. Mr. Rosier advances to the next round!"
Flitwick began to clap, and slowly the others joined in. The Slytherins chimed in right away, with satisfied grins and far more enthusiasm than the rest of the hall. Applause from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff was sparse, and most students remained quiet.
From Gryffindor, only Granger was clapping. When I looked over at her, she suddenly flushed red and stopped.
I smirked at her, gave Professor Flitwick a nod, and stepped off the platform.
Honestly, I hadn't expected much of a challenge from the lower years anyway. Augustus had set the bar fairly high, and Diggory, a fourth-year, simply couldn't compete with him. A polite, sweet boy compared to the son of a Death Eater who was reading Dark Arts books before he could even walk.
I smirked at the thought. Maybe I was exaggerating a bit in my head, but the point stood.
I hoped that in my next duel, I'd face a capable seventh-year I could actually have a proper fight with.
"That was way too fast, Patrik," Alexander said with a smile as soon as I approached them.
"That's how it was supposed to be!" Draco laughed. "Did you see the faces on those Hufflepuffs? They won't sleep a wink tonight... And did you hear someone yelling for Diggory to show his badger claws?"
"I heard," Theo joined in laughing. "Especially the part about him smashing you."
"Yeah, yeah..." I smiled. "I'm going to check on Agnes. Anyone joining? Tobias, Alexander?"
Tobias looked about to nod when Theo nudged him with his elbow.
"Are you insane? She just lost her hair... The only one safe around her is Patrik."
After hearing that, Tobias clearly changed his mind, and Alexander immediately agreed with him.
"I'll pass on that, Patrik, but give her our best!"
I shrugged.
"Alright then, boys, I'm going alone," I chuckled. "If any of you have a duel coming up, good luck."
I waved at them and set off toward the Hospital Wing. Behind me, I could hear another two unfamiliar names being called up to duel. A couple of fifth-years. I was somewhat curious to see what they could do, but I had entirely different priorities right now.
I needed Agnes's help, so it actually suited me that she'd just lost her hair. I was sure Pomfrey could grow it back almost instantly. In the Hospital Wing, I'd have her to myself for at least a short while, and none of my friends would have any reason to suspect I was keeping secrets from them.
Master Vane's chest was under my bed, so it was high time the Weasley girl lost Riddle's diary. The paler Weasley got, the more terrified I became that a fucking basilisk was going to leap out at me from a toilet any minute now.
"Fucking horcruxes and a fucking basilisk," I cursed under my breath and quickened my pace.
***
Author's note:
I absolutely despise the Diggory family, mostly because of Amos. I blame the fanfic Fighting From the Shadows by bachau for this... If you haven't read it, it's actually pretty good, though I'm sure you'll share my hatred after reading it.
As for this chapter... I rewrote it like seven times, almost pulled all my hair out, and it's still not quite where I want it to be. Sad…
Buuut thanks for reading, haha!
***
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Upcoming Chapters – Already Written(15):
105. Better to Be Feared
106. A Serial Killer Under the Bed
107. The Legacy of Rookwood Castle
108. Worse Than Horcruxes
109. Cleansed by Fire
110. Running Dead
111. I'm Dying
112. AM: Everything We Had Left
113. Still Breathing
114. The Headmaster Is Expecting You
115. The Silver Hand
116. Last Thoughts and Pancakes
117. Hello, Father
118. Detention, Slytherin Style
119. The Price of a Quarrel
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