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Disclaimer: This fan fiction was based on the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. I do not claim ownership on any character created by J.K. Rowling, and no money is collected from this story. This is one way I show appreciation to J.K. Rowling's works. Other names or places on this story are fictional. Any similarity to actual name is purely coincidental.




Chapter 12: Dueling Class

It was a clear and sunny Hogsmeade weekend. Most students were heading to the village. For Neville Longbottom and his girlfriend Cho Chang, they decided to laze near the lake and enjoy the sun. The giant squid's tentacles would surface, now and then, twisting and curling in a ballet of movement. Neville couldn't ask for a better leisure time than spending it with Cho.

"What?" a musical voice cut through his reverie. She was smiling at him with a puzzled expression on her face. He couldn't get enough watching her. She was so beautiful. "Neville, would you stop staring at me and tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing is wrong. I was just thinking this day is perfect." Neville reached up and brushed a lock of her hair away from her face. "Do you ever regret going to the Yule Ball with me instead of Cedric?"

Cho smiled wistfully. She stood on her knees and cupped his face with her soft hands. "How many times do I have to tell you? No! He might be handsome and charming. And I'm sorry he died. But, he was nothing compared to you. You're brave, powerful, and very good-looking."

Neville smiled happily. He too stood on his knees and gazed at her beautiful brown eyes. He buried his right hand on her luxurious black hair. And with his left hand, he brought her warm and supple body close to him. As his lips neared hers, he softly said, "I love you, Cho."


"Master Longbottom! Please wake up! Wake up! I is not your Chowy!" The little house-elf struggled to free himself from Neville's loving arms. He was being aggressively kissed on his ear, head, and cheek. "Master Longbottom! Stop! Stop!"

Just as Neville was about to give a searing kiss on the lips, the house-elf popped out of the way. The loud popping sound suddenly woke up Neville. "Wha... Where is Cho?" He frantically looked around and realized he was in his bedroom. It was all a dream. Cho, the lake, and the kiss were all a dream. Neville disappointedly plopped back on his bed, face down.

"Master Longbottom," the house-elf said with as much dignity as he could muster. "Mistress Longbottom is calling you, sir. She is wanting you to eat breakfast." He heard a muffled reply. "I is telling her you comes. Very good, sir." The house-elf left with a pop.


Neville saw his Gran already having breakfast with Susan and Luna when he entered the dining room. He kissed his Gran on the cheek and cheerfully greeted his friends. His happy mood didn't escape the notice of Susan and Luna who secretly smiled at each other.

"Good morning Susan, Luna, how are you today?" he greeted with a smile.

"We're fine. You seem to be in a good mood. Is there any particular reason?" Susan asked teasingly.

"He probably got stung by a Billywig," Luna suggested casually. Mrs. Augusta Longbottom gave her an odd look.

"Don't mind Luna, Gran. For your information, I'm just excited to see Ron, Hermione, and Ginny again." Neville filled his plate with sausages, eggs, and bacons.

"And, knowing Cho will be visiting Grimmauld Place has nothing to do with it?" Susan asked with a smirk on her face.

Neville buttered his toast before answering. "None whatsoever."

Mrs. Longbottom just shook her head in amusement. She was glad her grandson had true friends he could count on. He was such a nice boy. Most wizards and witches couldn't see past The-Boy-Who-Lived image. Some even considered her grandson a snob because he wouldn't pay them any attention. What they didn't know was that her grandson felt uncomfortable with people fawning over him.

A loud pop sounded on her right side. "Begging your pardon, Mistress Longbottom. The phoenixy men waits in the hall," the house-elf respectfully informed her.

"Show them in the sitting room, Tebit. We will be out in a few minutes." Mrs. Longbottom turned to Neville and his friends. "You better finish your breakfast. You don't want to be late for your class."


Back at number twelve Grimmauld Place, Harry and Hermione started their lesson in Defence Against the Dark Arts early. Hermione was showing Harry the correct way to cast the Shield Charm in combination with other spells. She was glad Harry could maintain the shield after three days of practice. However, he was still a little slow in casting his counter spells.

She decided to do a mock duel to test his knowledge of defensive and offensive spells. "I will try to hit you with different spells. I want you to cast a shield or dodge the spells. Remember... If you see an opening, don't hesitate to hit me with any spell."

Hermione couldn't help but be impressed with Harry. He was fast in dodging her spells. His shield charm wasn't too bad either. However, for some unknown reason, he was still slow in his offence. As a result, he was hit more times than he could block.

"Harry, you have to concentrate. Your duel with Ron is this afternoon." Hermione watched Harry limber up while walking around the room. She was getting irritated. Harry didn't seem interested. "Harry, are you listening to me?"

Harry, at the moment, was concentrating on something else. He had a nagging feeling that someone was watching him. He and Hermione were alone in the dueling room. So, he thought his senses were playing tricks on him. And yet, the nagging feeling persisted. He started walking around the room to shake off the feeling. That was when he caught a whiff of a pungent smell...the smell of cheap cologne. He breathed deeply and casually traced the smell, it was emanating from the fireplace.

A loud yell cut through his thought. "What? Oh, I'm sorry. Could we try it again, Hermione. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it." Harry positioned himself in front of the fireplace.

He heard a faint rustle of cloth moving to his left. He mentally marked the spot where the sound stopped. With wand at a ready, he nodded to Hermione to start. She rapidly shouted /Reducto, Stupefy, Expelliarmus/. Harry quickly ran, dived, and rolled to his left. As he hoped, his body hit unseen legs. He quickly wrapped his arms around them and pulled hard. Whoever it was went down screaming. He grabbed a hold of whatever magical material covering the person and yanked it off.


Hermione stopped shooting curses when she saw Harry grappling with something. For a moment, she thought he was fooling around. When she heard a scream, she immediately ran to his side in time to see...

"Ron? What are you doing here? And, why are you hiding under an invisibility cloak?" Hermione had a suspicious look on her face as she rattled off her question.

Ron slowly stood up and smiled sheepishly. "I wanted to make sure he's not doing anything funny." He frowned at Harry who was closely examining the invisibility cloak.

"But, why hide? You could have joined us. Whose invisibility cloak is it anyway?" Hermione gave him a speculative look. She couldn't understand Ron's odd behavior.

"I don't want to disturb your lesson. I... I borrowed the cloak," Ron replied casually. He threw Harry an angry look. He was beginning to really hate the prat.

Harry was half-listening to the conversation. He chuckled when he heard Ron's lame excuse. "Why don't you tell her the truth? You're here to see my dueling skill. After all, forewarn is forearmed."

Hermione's suspicion was back full force. She was giving Ron questioning look. "Is that true, Ron?"

"Hermione, who would you believe, him or me?" Ron was looking mutinously at Harry. He turned to her with a pleading expression. "We have been friends for almost six years now. Don't you trust me?" Ron unconsciously held his breath. He didn't know how Hermione would respond anymore.

Hermione, for her part, searched his face for any sign of deceit. She found none. She never expected it anyway. Subtlety was never a strong point of Ron. "Of course, I trust you. But, if you want to observe our practice duel, you should have asked me instead of skulking around with an invisibility cloak. I'm sure Harry wouldn't mind." She turned to Harry for confirmation.

Harry just shrugged his shoulder. He didn't care one way or another. "I don't mind at all. In fact, why don't we start our duel right now, since you're here?" He stared challengingly at Ron.

"Nobody starts anything," a loud voice gruffly interrupted.


They turned around and found Mad Eye standing just past the doorway. Immediately behind him were Remus, Tonks, Shacklebolt, Neville, Susan, Luna, and Ginny. He limped his way to their side and regarded each of them with interest. He also noticed the invisibility cloak, and it piqued his interest.

"Where did you get that Evans?" Mad Eye asked abruptly. His true eye was fixed on Harry while the fake one madly spanned around in its socket. His question drew everyone's attention to the invisibility cloak.

"Is that an invisibility cloak? I heard it's very expensive." Susan was very excited. "May I hold it?"

Harry raised the silvery grey cloak and handed it to her. "That isn't mind. Ron borrowed it from someone." Now everyone's attention turned to Ron.

"Who in their right mind would lend you an expensive invisibility cloak?" Ginny asked incredulously.

Ron glared at her. "For your information, I borrowed it from Neville. Isn't that right, Neville?" Ron discreetly gave Neville a meaningful look.

"Th...That's right," Neville replied uncertainly. "I lent it to him before we left Hogwarts for the summer. I guess he forgot to return it."

Everyone accepted his explanation. Hermione, however, had a dubious look on her face. She surreptitiously glanced at Ron and Neville's faces. She noticed Ron had a relieved smile on his face while Neville gave him a questioning look.

"Here you are, Neville. It's best you keep it safe in your school trunk. Ron might lose it." Susan had carefully folded the invisibility cloak and gave it to Neville.


"Right then... Since we're all here, it's time we start the duel." Mad Eye stood with his back on the fireplace. "Weasley, stand near the right wall. Evans, you take the left side. Everyone else stands beside me or the opposite wall." The two duelers went to their assigned places. "This is a freestyle duel. Since Death Eaters wouldn't care for any formality, you shouldn't either. There will be no Unforgivable Curses. The duel is over when one of you surrenders or knocked unconscious. On my signal, you will start to duel."

Neville felt excited even though he was only a spectator. He was confident Ron would beat Evans. After all, they had been training in the DA and for most of the summer. Mad Eye and Kingsley also mentioned their training wasn't dissimilar to the auror recruits. Knowing Ron, he would probably show off his skills a little bit. Make Evans danced around the floor.

A gasp pulled his attention from the duelers. Luna was staring hard at Evans. He looked at Evans to see what Luna was staring at. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"Begin!" roared Mad Eye.

Neville nearly jumped. He glared at the crusty auror. A loud gasp from Luna again drew his attention to the duelers. As he expected, Ron shouted a volley of curses. From the type of curses he used, he aimed to maim and knock-out Evans, fast. Neville grinned widely. It won't be long now before Evans got hit. The prat wasn't even retaliating.


Ron's plan of attack was simple. He would shoot a salvo of curses to Evans. One curse, he would aim directly at the prat. Two curses, he would shoot at the prat's left and right side. If he tried to dodge at either side, he would get hit.

"Reducto!"

"Relashio!"

"Diffindo!"

To his great surprise, Evans didn't move from where he stood. The great prat merely inclined his body to the right and twisted his torso from the waist up. The curses passed by him harmlessly.

Ron didn't lose his temper. He quickly pointed his wand at the floor near Evans feet and peppered it with...

"Reducto!"

"Reducto!"

"Reducto!"

Wood chips, dust, and mortars flew up into the air. To make doubly sure he hit the prat, he shouted "Bombarda! Bombarda!" aimed directly into the center of a cloud of floating debris.


"Good one, mate!" Neville shouted excitedly. "Never give the little bugger a chance to counter attack." He clapped loudly in appreciation of his friend's skill.

"Quiet, Longbottom!" Mad Eye growled. "You will have your turn once this is over." Neville gave his training instructor a confident smile, but shut his mouth just the same.


The thick cloud of dust and debris slowly settled. Hermione and the others could see a lightly obscured white light like the one produced by a very small incandescent bulb. Before it completely cleared up, they saw it was coming from the tip of Harry's wand. The light wasn't a product of a Lumos spell but by a shield charm if the shimmering light around Harry was any indication. It was a very strong shield if it could withstand Ron's volley of curses.

Ron renewed his attack by shooting arrows at Harry. Hermione saw Harry easily evade the barrage of arrows. It looked like he was doing a modern freestyle dance. She had never seen him moved this fast even in practice. That's when she realized he was holding back on her. Hermione noticed the arrows were getting fewer and far in between. She looked at Ron and saw him sweating heavily. It seemed he was getting tired, Hermione thought.

When Ron paused to rest, Hermione saw Harry immediately transfigured a small number of debris into marble sized spiders. She smiled with pride at his skill. She taught him that. Hermione saw Ron tensed and backed up in fear. She still couldn't understand how a big strong boy like Ron was afraid of spiders...at least, little spiders. He started shouting curses at the crawling spiders instead of at Harry.

While Ron was busy with the little spiders, she saw Harry raised his wand and pointed it towards Ron who yelped in surprise. By this time, Hermione had a noticeable surprise look on her face. She had no idea Harry could silently cast spells. When did he find the time to do this without her knowledge? As Ron sailed across the room to Harry, she saw Harry hit him in the face with a high kick. Ron was flipped over in mid-air before he dropped to the floor unconscious. And, the little spiders crawled all over his body.


"Evans wins the duel!" Mad Eye announced loudly. He had a smirk on his face when he looked at Neville. "Longbottom, you're next. Take your place at the right side."

They waited a few moments while Tonks and Shacklebolt cleared the dueling area. Tonks levitated Ron to the side near the door. She waved her wand over his body to check for injuries. When she found no serious injury, she woke him up. Meanwhile, Shacklebolt was busy repairing the floor and some parts of the wall.

When everything was in order, Mad Eye reminded the duelers of the same rule. "This is a freestyle duel. No unforgivable curse will be allowed. Anyone who surrenders or stunned lost the duel. You, two, understand?" Harry and Neville quietly nodded their heads. Everyone could see on Neville's face his determination to win. Harry's face, however, was unreadable.

Luna gasped loud enough for Hermione to hear. She slowly edged to Luna's side and anxiously asked, "What is it, Luna? Is there something wrong?"

"His eyes," Luna whispered. "Look at his eyes."

Hermione momentarily glanced at the two duelers. She didn't notice anything different. "Whose eyes are you referring to, Luna? And what exactly am I looking for?" she softly asked.

"Harry's eyes," she whispered again.

Hermione looked intently at Harry's eyes. From where she was standing, they were the same beautiful emerald color. Only this time, it had a tinge of yellow. Hermione gasped. Even as she looked, the yellow color was spreading to cover almost three forth of his irises.

"Begin!" roared Mad Eye.


Neville launched into offence, shouting curses one after another. Unlike Ron, he aimed each curse directly at Evans. It was like blasting annoying pixies, one at a time, when he was a boy of nine.

"Reducto!"

"Impedimenta!"

"Diffindo!"

"Incendio!"

"Bombarda!"

Neville knew Evans could easily dodge his curses. That was the plan. Amidst his shouting of curses, he inserted the anti-gravity mist charm. He encountered this charm in the maze during the third task of the Triwizard Tournament. He had been fascinated with it ever since. Now seemed like a good time to use it.

He saw Evans jumped high in the air to avoid it. But unlike the curses, it would not dissipate at once. Evans landed in the midst of it. Neville saw his eyes glazed over. He was wildly looking around. Never moving from where he stood. Sometimes, he would look down on the floor. Sometimes, he would look up to the ceiling. Neville knew quite well what he was experiencing.

He stopped shooting curses and savored his opponent's predicament. "You don't look so tough now, are you?" Neville said in a gloating voice. "Just say you surrender and I will let you down." Evans didn't answer. Neville felt angry. It's prat like Evans who sought to ruin his good reputation, Neville thought. "If that's the way you want it, I'll be happy to oblige." In a voice full of anger, he shouted, "Bom..."


Harry felt trapped. He couldn't understand what happened to him. One minute, he was dueling with Longbottom. The next, he was hanging upside down in an open field. It was like the whole planet became flat and turned over. And, gravity was pulling him towards the sky. But, he knew that was impossible. He looked up at his feet and debated whether he should move. He might fall to the sky if he moved. He looked at the sky and saw it was a long way down.

Then suddenly, as if from far away, he heard a voice. It sounded like the voice of Longbottom. It was asking him to surrender. As if a light bulb turned on inside his head, he realized the whole scene was an illusion. He listened carefully and he could hear people whispering in a seemingly empty field. One loud voice caught his attention. It was beginning to shout a spell. Throwing caution to the wind, he jumped as high as he could and somersaulted three hundred sixty degrees.

"...Barda!"

The curse missed Harry when he jumped high into the air. He executed a three-point landing...his left hand, left knee, and right foot supporting his crouching form. His wand hand tucked at his side. He had cleared the mist with his jump, and immediately his vision returned to normal. He saw the surprise expression on Longbottom's face. Harry grinned devilishly, and disappeared.


Neville couldn't believe it, even though he saw it with his own eyes. Evans escaped his trap and avoided his spell at the same time. And now, he disappeared. He wondered why Hermione didn't mention to him Evans was already learning advance magic. With both arms stretched out in front of him, Neville cautiously scanned the room.

Neville stumbled a little bit. Harry had cuffed him hard on the back of his head. Neville quickly turned around, a curse forming on his lips, but it was a little too late. A trainer shoe slammed on his chest, throwing him on his back. He plowed the floor feeling extreme pain on his chest. He stopped in the middle of the room, unconscious.

"Evans wins the duel!" Mad Eye announced loudly.

His announcement was met with silence. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and Susan were looking at the unconscious Neville in disbelief. For the first time, since his first-year, Neville lost a class duel. As if acting as one, everyone's head turned to watch the retreating back of Harry Evans.