the one | h. potter

23. duel

I've always enjoyed dueling. On the other hand, learning to duel is a nightmare.

My dad taught me how to duel when I turned 13. He said it was a right of passage, some shit like that, but I became so good at it that I began beating him once I got older. Perks, again, of my bloodline.

The instructors have been teaching us dueling spells and making us practice all sorts of techniques in the past few months. Today, finally, they decided we could practice. The instructors have seen me train, so they know how advanced I am.

They partner me with the other best student in the class. I'll give you one guess to who.

Harry Potter, of course.

Not that I'm surprised. When the instructor calls our name together, I meet Harry's eyes and he winks at me from across the room, where he's standing with Ron.

"That's awkward," Katie says beside me.

"What? Why?"

"Now you've got to duel the guy you're shagging."

I grit my teeth and send Katie the worst glare I can muster. "For the last time, we are NOT shagging."

"You can lie about it as much as you want, but I've got eyes. The two of you are pining for each other."

"Katie..." I warn.

Katie winks at me, and I shoot her another glare in return. Rolling her eyes, she goes to work with Ron, who's her partner. Harry comes over and winks at me.

"Oh, piss off," I say, glaring at him.

"What? I didn't even try to piss you off yet."

"Katie thinks we're shagging again."

"So does Ron."

"Merlin, what is wrong with those two?"

"I know right? Shagging is more like a third date event to me."

"Shut it," I scoff.

Harry sniggers. We walk towards the dueling ranges and stand the necessary feet apart.

"Don't worry, I'll go easy on you," Harry smiles at me.

I snort. "You better hope I go easy on you."

"Oh yeah?"

I send him a smug smile before we begin.

I'll admit, Harry is pretty good. A bit of a challenge, per se. He started with layering himself with shield charms before opening up and attacking me, which is one of the strategies I use. It takes me a couple of seconds to find a flaw in his dueling style; when he opens his shield to attack me, he leaves a window open for me to attack him.

I layer some more shield charms around myself before aiming for the chink in Harry's armor. The window is small, so it takes me a couple of tries to get through, and when I do it's only with a stinging jinx. Fortunately, the jinx causes Harry to be momentarily distracted and I'm able to take down his shield. I can see the surprise written all over his face. Harry starts over-shielding himself, which gives me the window to hit him with every offensive spell I can until his shields fail and my stupefy sends him flying backward.

"Ouch," I hear Harry mumble. I run over and pull Harry up to his feet.

Looking around the room, everyone seems to have finished dueling and has stopped to watch us. I feel giddy when the instructor commends me on my casting and wandwork. I feel a hand on my shoulder and find that it's Harry's.

"I bet you couldn't beat the instructor," he whispers.

"Is that a challenge?" I reply, smirking.

Harry meets my eyes. "If you win, I buy you dinner."

My blush must show in the bright training room lights. "And if I lose?"

"You buy me dinner?"

"It's a deal."

I send Harry a smug smile before asking the instructor.

"Could you, by any chance, duel with one of us? So we can look at your form in action?"

The instructor looks surprised at my suggestion. "I suppose so," he says. "You wanna give it a try?"

I smile and nod, meeting the instructor at a dueling range in front of the rest of the class.

I love a good challenge, and facing the instructor should be a good challenge. But, sadly, it really isn't. It only takes me five minutes to blast him onto his back in front of the whole class.

And I wasn't really trying, to be honest.

My magic works best without a wand since wands regulate the power emitted from them. You can send out much more powerful spells without wands, but it's rare for witches and wizards to be able to do that. I think I'm more powerful without my wand.

The other instructor helps the fallen instructor up, looking shocked, and commends me yet again for an outstanding performance. They dismiss the class early, and Harry catches up to me when I head out.

"I owe you dinner now, don't I?" he asks, looping his hand through mine.

I giggle. "Friday night? Your place?"

Harry's face brightens and he nods his head enthusiastically. "Be there at six. I'll make our reservations."

I can hardly contain my smile. "It's a date."

We make our way back to the office, and Katie pulls me aside.

"I don't care what you say, the two of you are definitely shagging."

"No, we're not."

"No, we're not," Katie mocks. "I mean, did you see the look on your face? It's pretty obvious! At least be honest about it!"

"Katie..."