Someone gasped in shock. It was probably Hermione, but she had a point. Yeah, that man really was a petty ass. Seriously, why the hell would he give him a day to finish a week's worth of assignments? Still, Harry was still one step ahead, "Oh, right, Professor, I have my assignments right here. I was a bit bored in the infirmary, you see."
He knelt down and grabbed his potions assignments, fully written assignments that he had done the previous day. Harry had prioritized them because he knew that Snape was the only professor that could end up doing something like this. Harry slowly stood up and walked towards Snape's desk and just put his assignment on it while giving a polite smile, "Thank you, professor, for your consideration."
He then bowed and left the classroom, leaving everyone gawking behind him. Yeah, it might be a little petty from him, but so was cornering a student who was unconscious for a week because of some stupid decision the staff made. Snape was always prowling at him as if he waited for Harry to do something wrong just to catch him. What the hell had James Potter done to him that made him that wary of his son a decade after his death?
Thankfully, the rest of the day went by without anything unusual happening. Finally, Harry found himself at the Great Hall after dinner, waiting for the duelling club session to begin.
Professor Flitwick was waiting for them, and Harry saw his fellow club members slowly join him. The half-goblin looked excited and clapped his hands, "Ah, good, you're all here. Today is the day I know you've been waiting for. You will start really duelling. It was supposed to be last week, but since Mr Potter was injured at the time, I chose to postpone it since it's a very important session."
Harry sighed in relief at the fact that he hadn't missed this session. He noticed that the other students were giving him the stink eye for some reason. They haven't really been duelling in the past sessions. It was just mock duels with one or two spells at most. It was more like a choreographed fight, with events and tactics, that didn't really have a winner. Still, Harry was excited at the prospect of being in an actual duel, at least in a controlled setting. Harry shivered at his encounter with the wraith in the Forbidden Forest.
Don't think about it, Harry. Don't think about it, Harry. He took a deep breath and calmed himself. He really needed to get a grip.
He had missed half of what Flitwick was saying in his little inner freakout, so he decided to pay attention to the rest, "You will have access to your full arsenal, as long as the spells are in the current Hogwarts curriculum. That means no unknown spells, and especially no dark magic. Am I understood?"
Everyone nodded, "Yes, sir."
"Good, let's start with Potter and McLaggen to warm up a bit," the diminutive professor exclaimed.
They all nodded, and the two contestants slowly walked up to the duelling stage that the professor had conjured. This particular style of duelling had a narrow rectangular stage, where each consistently stood at one of the edges. They were not allowed to go past a third of the way to the other side, meaning that a physical confrontation was impossible. This was designed to showcase how skilful the duelers were at magic and countering hexes. It didn't leave a lot of space to move around and dodge too much. It wasn't even close to what a real fight would be, but it was very entertaining to the masses.
Harry and Cormac McLaggen walked to a side of the stage each, inclined their heads slightly, and took their stances. The Gryffindor seemed to prepare to be on the offensive, and so Harry took a defensive stance, ready to dodge or shield the coming spell.
Professor Flitwick spoke up, "Now don't forget the rules. If you break them, you will be expelled from the club. Am I understood?" both Harry and McLaggen nodded at him, "Alright, the duel will start at the count of three. one… two… three!"
Harry tilted his head slightly when the punching hex came his way, dodging it. He retaliated with a Flipendo which McLaggen was able to block with a Contego. Harry took a deep breath, and the entire room washed away, it was just him and McLaggen.
Harry waited for his opponent to send another spell to counterattack. Luckily it was a cutting hex of all things. It was a pretty dangerous spell that's derived from the cutting charm but that attacks enemies. It was taught in Defense Against the Dark Arts in the second year, but it was easily countered with a Contego shield from Harry. Unfortunately, the spell required far more magical manipulation to cast.
The truth is that when you cast a spell, you manipulate your magic to cast it. To cast another spell, you need to wait until your magic comes back to normal before casting, or else the spell will either fail or just destabilize and cause an explosion if it's very wild, but that was a rare event.
Long story short, the more a spell needs manipulation, the more time your magic needs to regulate itself. Meaning that generally complex spells take more time to recover, while basic spells like the simple cast can be used continuously without any problems. Of course, the magic of the caster is important. People who are attuned to a certain magical field will recover quicker since they don't need as much magical manipulation to cast a spell in the first place.
Back to the duel, McLaggen had cast a very intensive spell without a way out, leaving him defenceless for a couple of seconds. It wasn't much but it was enough for Harry to send three basic casts at him, hitting him in the chest every time. Honestly, the spell really wasn't that impressive, damage wise, but it required no magical manipulation whatsoever, meaning that Harry could cast it multiple times without pausing, and it was effective. By the time his opponent was able to cast a shield, he was already hurt.
McLaggen was on the defensive, with Harry bombarding him with basic casts, making him unable to drop the shield. Harry tried to sneak a disarming charm in between them. The Gryffindor's shield buckled at the surprisingly more powerful spell. But he was able to dodge Harry's finishing strike, giving him enough time to send a desperate counterattack.
McLaggen sent a green spell at him and suddenly everything changed. Harry knew that it wasn't the killing curse. The shade was different, and his Arcane Magic analyzed the spell, showing it to be a common hex. But suddenly, Harry wasn't in the Great Hall anymore. No, he was in the forest again, fighting an impossible enemy. Harry quickly dodged it and sent a fireball at his opponent who barely shielded against it, and then sent an overpowered stunning charm that knocked him out.
Just like that, the great hall returned, and Harry looked at the shocked club members. He shouldn't have shown off like that in the end. The stunning charm was a fourth year spell. He shouldn't have known it. And the fireball was just too dangerous to use in an average duel.
The professor applauded and called for the other students to duel. Harry half-heartedly listened to him as he analyzed their match. What happened in the duel was dangerous. Harry was almost tempted to send actually dangerous spell at McLaggen.
He really needed to get a grip on this and fast.
.....
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