Shocked murmurs filled the room. Volf goggled. "I wasn't going to kill them! Just put them in the hospital wing for a night!"
"Then I shall do my best not to kill you. You can accept the duel, or try your luck with the law."
Volf swallowed. "I…I think I'll try my luck with the law."
Despite the weight in the room, she caught a few chuckles and heard someone shout, 'Coward!'
"And if I gave myself a handicap? Three on one? Those two friends you have there for example?"
Volf looked incredulous. "Excuse me a moment, Lord Slytherin." Volf hurried away to converse with his cronies. The crowd started moving. Chairs were shoved back. Books and parchment were collected.
Harry shot a finite at Tracey who rubbed her wrists, climbed into a chair, and clutched a throw pillow in a death grip with both arms.
She leaned closer to Harry. "What are you planning to do to them, my lord?"
"Nothing permanent, but it won't be pleasant. Are you sure you want to be here for it?"
Granger leaned in on the other side and whispered, "I'm not running away! They would have done it to us!"
She nodded slowly.
Harry's emerald and black mask nodded back. "Very well."
The trio led by Volf returned and accepted Harry's terms. By this time, the crowd had formed a long space in the middle of the common room free of chairs and other obstacles. Someone was setting up duelling wards with miniature ward stones and older students to channel the magic.
She stepped over to where Tracey sat and joined her, followed by Granger moments later. They would have a good view of the duel from where they sat. She placed a comforting hand on one of Tracey's shaking shoulders.
Tracey smiled weakly back at her, eyes flicking back and forth from her to Lord Slytherin. "So, that's your hero, is it?"
She smiled back. "Yes. He's amazing." Granger nodded
"But… three on one? They are all duellists."
Her smile didn't falter. "Just watch, and see the difference between a duellist and a warrior."
An older girl with long curly hair held her wand above her head and spoke loudly so the whole room could hear over the hubbub. "This is a formal honour duel. The combatants have agreed to extended class B rules. I am Miss Anabella Richardson of the House of Richardson and will act as official witness. All combatants have agreed to limit their casts to non-immediately-lethal spells. When my conjured handkerchief lands on the floor, the duel shall begin."
Silence descended. The three boys tensed.
Anticipation coiled in on her.
The girl made a complicated gesture and a pure white handkerchief shot from the end of her wand.
Her eyes tracked the flimsy piece of cloth on its journey down to the hard stone floor.
It landed.
Four wands raised.
Four spells cast.
The stone floor in front of Harry melted and thrust upwards, forming a solid shield in front of him. The sounds of spells hitting Harry's wall crashed through her head along with the roar of the crowd. Pieces of stone flew from the wall and bounced off the wards.
Harry flicked his wand.
Nothing visible happened.
She heard loud and rapid footsteps from the other side of the wall.
Harry flicked his wand again.
The two goons leapt around the wall, wands out, tips glowing, followed a split second later by several angry looking stone snakes, as thick as her arm and as long as she was tall. The deadly looking snakes lunged for the boys, still too focused on Harry to notice.
Harry returned their fire, rolling around on the floor and shielding in a whirlwind of body and magic.
A moment later the two boys noticed their stony, scaly problem. Yells and screams filled the air. They wrestled with their attackers for all but a moment before being dropped by a now back-on-his-feet Harry.
Harry jumped with cat-like grace, grabbed the top of the wall and stuck his head above it, only to drop back down a moment later, a purple spell shooting past where his head had been moments before.
She frowned then gaped as Volf rose over the wall, mounted on a broomstick. Extended Class B, indeed.
Harry flicked his wand. The wall melted.
Volf rained spells down on him. He jumped back.
The former stone wall reformed itself into one large stone serpent, several metres tall with fangs the length of her fore-arm, sticking out from its mouth and up around its head like the teeth of some horrible deep-sea monster.
Volf screamed.
The crowd screamed.
The serpent lunged.
Volf shot backwards so fast he hit the duelling wards, and knocked himself off his broom, leaving him open to counter attack.
Harry leapt onto the snake, seeming to care not for gravity or its laws, and descended on the dazed boy like a god of war.
Volf had just enough time to raise his shaky head before Harry's wand touched the boy's forehead.
"Legilimens."
And Volf let loose a scream of pain and terror the likes of which she'd never heard and never ever wanted to hear again. It went on for ages. On and on. Students covered their ears and scrunched their eyes shut. One girl broke down crying. And still it went on.
Eventually it stopped.
Volf collapsed on the floor, curled into a foetal position, and wept.
"Romulus Volf." Harry's voice echoed around the deadly silent room from where he stood several feet off the ground, balanced on the snakes raised head.
Volf sniffled.
"I did promise to myself to put you in the hospital wing, but honestly, I think that last one was more than enough."
The snake lowered him back to Volf's level. "Do you feel the inclination to attack any of my family again?" Volf uncoiled like a spring and prostrated himself before Harry. "No! My lord!"
Harry stepped off the head and kicked him. Volf grunted.
"I am not your lord! I am only the lord of those who have proven themselves worthy. Hermione has proven herself. You have not."
The crowd turned to glance at her and Granger, who'd been wearing a look total shock on her face ever since Harry had started his attack on Volf, but did flush red at that last comment.
"Nevertheless, honour is satisfied… at least for you…" Harry whirled around. "Mister Marcus Flint!"
The older child of the Gray flinched, but did manage a shaky bow. "Lord Slytherin."
"I shall be speaking with your parents about your interesting choice of behaviour tonight. You and several others." The masked face turned to each of the older students of the Gray. They bowed, curtseyed, gulped, and sweated. "And now, I am leaving. I trust this will be the last time I will have to intervene in my common room in such circumstances. Come, Daphne, Hermione, I'd like a word with you — you too Miss Davis."
Harry swept to the Slytherin common room portal, kicking the still knocked out goons on his way.
The snake turned to snap a last playfully bite at Volf who recoiled before it fell to the ground and melted back into a pile of rubble, exactly mirroring a deep gouge now in the common room stone floor.
She followed Harry departing figure, Granger and Tracey flanking her on either side. She caught both of their eyes, still wide as dinner plates, and smiled. "That, Tracey," she whispered, "is the difference between a duellist and a warrior."
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