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11 - Significant Surprises

Harry walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, explaining to Lupin that he had been kept after in Snape's class. The professor nodded in understanding. The Gryffindors must have been discussing the events in Potions.

They were all beaming at him, especially Neville.

"As I was saying," Professor Lupin said cheerfully, "today we will practice deflecting and dodging curses. If you can do this, then try to disable your partner. These skills are used by Aurors all the time and are necessary if that's what you plan to do for your career. They're useful even if you're not planning on being in Magical Law Inforcement, especially in light of recent times. So, everyone pair off. We'll take the winners of each pair and pair them up. The winners will continue dueling until one is left who will then duel with me. So go ahead and grab a partner!"

Everyone was pretty excited about this exercise, especially with the absence of the competitive rivalries that had existed in the dueling club in their second year. Neville grabbed Harry for a partner while Ron and Hermione paired off together. He thanked Harry profusely for earning him some points with Snape. Harry secretly doubted that it had made that much of a difference in their potion master's attitude towards the clumsy boy, but decided not to bring down Neville's high spirits.

Once things got settled and Lupin gave the signal, everyone bowed.

"All right, begin!"

Harry let Neville have the first shot. Neville threw the leg-locker curse. Harry easily deflected it and simply sent it back at Neville, almost like a mirror. Harry didn't even know he could do that! Neville lost his balance and Harry quickly disarmed him. He sat laughing on the floor while Harry undid the curse and helped him to his feet.

"Well that was quite embarrassing," he said with a smile. He had been the first one in the class to lose.

They watched everyone else finish dueling. Hermione and Ron went on the longest, but finally ended when they both shouted "Petrificus Totalus" at the same time, not blocking the other fast enough. It ended with them both lying on the floor unable to move. Professor Lupin quickly undid them claiming it was a draw and that neither would go on. It seemed for a second that they were both going to be put in bad moods because of it, but luckily, they both laughed it off. Harry was thankful for the way it ended since it didn't include in any hurt feelings.

Harry next dueled with Seamus, who he stunned and disarmed just as quickly as Neville, even with letting Seamus have the first shot. He went through Lavender and a couple of Hufflepuffs just as quickly and easily. He was surprised to see he was the only one left.

"Well, Mr. Potter, I must say, you have dueled very well. I'm surprised at the speed you were able to win each time. Well now you're against me. I'm going to use some more advanced spells and curses so it's going to be much more difficult. Just want to work on blocking as many as you can, all right? Miss Granger, may you give the signal?"

They both bowed and took their stances.

"All right," Hermione said excitedly. "Begin!"

Immediately Professor Lupin began shooting curses that Harry was unfamiliar with. It was strange though, it was almost as if the curses were moving in slow motion. It was like he could sense what Professor Lupin was going to do.

Harry easily dodged, blocked, or deflected each one of them easily. He could sense his professor's surprise, but Harry continued to resist the curses. Lupin became more determined and shot the curses faster, but it didn't affect Harry's ability to block them.

Finally, Harry sensed Lupin pause to prepare for the next curse. Harry quickly shouted "Expelliarmus!" Lupin's wand shot from his hand and landed in Harry's. The whole class, including the professor, stood there in shock. Harry began to feel a bit uncomfortable. He had never been that good at dueling. It had felt almost like his powers had increased during the duel, allowing him to fight easily.