The Next Dark Lord

Defense Duel Tournament

'I don't want detentions eating up my time', thought Hermione as she ran through the castle from her table at the library to the defense class and entered the class just behind the last student. By her standards, that was like being very, very late and she chastised herself for losing track of time like this. She saw that were seats empty next to both Ron and Neville, and took the seat beside Neville, which left the redhead fuming.

Severus Snape had turned the defense classroom into one that suited his personality, a dark and gloomy one. "Put your books away and take out your wands", came Snape's voice from a dark corner. Surveying the gathered Gryffindors and Slytherins, he continued, "This is your OWL year and considering the instructions you received in the subject in the years past, I do not have much hope. But I expect all of you to have at least read through the texts. Today will be a review of all that you have learnt and a way for me to analyze how abysmal your skills are".

He flicked his wand at the blackboard and pairs of names appeared. "Divide according to the pairs on the board. We are going to see your prowess in dueling", he said in a condescending voice. Hermione started at the board that almost all pairs were Gryffindors vs Slytherins, except Crabbe and Goyle who were paired off against each other. She wondered if either would get any spells off to finish their duel.

"We do not have all day Granger, ours is the first duel. Come to get crushed", shouted Pansy. Shaking her head, she went to the middle of the classroom. As soon as Snape flagged off the duel, Pansy started throwing a bunch of spells, which might have had an effect were they accurate. Seeing spell after spell miss her, she cast an accurate stunner at Pansy to end the duel. Snape revived Pansy with a murderous glare directed at the girl, who was understandably cowed under it.

"Ms. Brown, Ms. Greengrass", Snape called the next pair. Without taxing herself Daphne won against the chief gossip queen. Malfoy won the next duel against Dean and Nott won against Seamus.

"Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle", Snape called next. Both the morons walked to the middle of the bowed to each other. "Five points each for respecting your opponent with a bow", Snape said through tight lip. When indicated to begin, both of them shouted "Stupefy", brandishing their wand at the other. Instead of the expected red spell, a light pink spell sped at each other, and they ended up taking out each other. A few started tentatively laughing before changing it into cough under the glare that Snape directed around the class. Crabbe was declared winner since Goyle was stunned a moment before Crabbe.

"Next", called Snape after enervating both Crabbe and Goyle. Neville stepped to the center to face Zabini. When Snape indicated that they could begin, Neville went into defense and cast a strong shield which stood solid against the vast array of spells Zabini threw at him. The strength of the shield took everyone by surprise including Zabini. Noticing the momentary shock on his opponent's face, Neville dropped his shield and threw a disarming hex which connected squarely with Zabini and proceeded to throw him to the wall where he came to rest with a huge thud. The power behind his spell shook everyone who called him a squib, including a professor. "Ten points from Gryffindor. Tone it down or it will be a detention next", growled Snape. "Mr. Goyle, take Mr. Zabini to the hospital wing", he added after enervating Zabini to his shaky leg.

She saw the board to see that the winners were updated, and she was to face the winner of Parvati vs Bulstrode duel. Neville will face the winner of Ron vs Tracey duel; Nott will face Daphne and Malfoy will face Crabbe. 'Snape must have planned this to give Malfoy the advantage in next round', she thought.

"Why do I have to duel a girl, there's no fun in beating a girl. I should have been assigned to duel against Malfoy instead", grumbled Ron not bothering to keep his voice low.

"Ms. Patil and Ms. Bulstrode", called Snape. While the girls walked to the center and did a halfhearted bow while not taking their eye off the other, Hermione caught Daphne's eye, who was glaring at Ron for his remark about her friend. She nodded at Ron and gave a finger across neck, the universal finish him off sign. Daphne nodded and whispered something in Tracey's ears. Turning back to the center, she saw that the girls were fairly matched in how bad each of their accuracy were. 'One has to hit the other by accident at this rate. Even Crabbe and Goyle were on their mark, which was very surprising', she thought. She watched as Parvati stepped out of a disarming hex and straight into a tripping hex and dropped her wand during the fall which Bulstrode immediately summoned winning the duel.