Harmony and the Philosopher's Stone

10-The Midnight Duel

We were sitting in the common room. 'We' is Harry, Ron, Claire, Hermione and myself. Lavender went to go do her hair or something.

"So," I said, sitting on the plush red couch, looking at Ron. "What, exactly, is a Wizard's Duel?"

"Yes, I'm sure that's what we're all wondering," Claire commented.

"Well, I'll start with seconds," Ron said. "A second is a wizard who will replace the first wizard in case they get hurt or die or whatever."

"Die?" I shrieked. "What did you sign us up for, Ron?"

Ron rolled his blue eyes. "Nothing that bad. Malfoy can't kill you, trust me. I would be suprised if he could even disarm you, I mean, we're only a week into school."

"I still have a bad feeling about this," I said to Ron.

"I agree," Hermione said. "What happens if we run into somebody?"

Everybody looked at Ron. "Uh," Ron said. "We run or something. I don't know."

"Okay," Harry said. "What happens if Malfoy actually does kill us? I don't really want to die."

"He won't kill you!" Ron shot. "All you'll be able to do is send sparks at each other- none of you know any real magic."

"And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?" Harry questioned.

Ron looked exasperated. "Then you throw it away and punch him in the nose."

"It works," I said smugly.

"Everyone stop!" Hermione said, standing up out of her chair. "We shouldn't go wandering aroumd at night. It's rather selfish, all you will accomplish is losing us house points."

"Then don't come," Ron said simply. "Bye, now."

Hermione flared with anger as she left the room and went up the winding stairs to our dorm.

"Oh, now look what you've done," Claire scolded, heading up the steps. I followed her, leaving Harry and Ron behind.

"Hermione?" I called. The bathroom door opened.

"They never listen to me," Hermione pouted. "We're going to lose a lot  of house points if those dunderheads get caught, you know. And what if they get caught by Professor Snape? Gryffindor points would be in the negatives!"

"True," I said. "We'll just have to hope that those goons don't get caught."

After that, Claire and I spent the rest of the night in the bathroom standimg in front ofthe mirror. She was explaining how to properly use my metamorphagism, or whatever you'd like to call it. The only thing that I had successfully done was bring some of my freckles back from the dead and change my blue eyes to a tinted green. While we were working on my hair, Claire almost pulled it back, but I swatted her hamd away. I didn't know how suspicious it would be for someone to find out that I had a scar similar to Harry's, and I didn't want to find out.

"Well," Claire said hopefully. "You'll get better. To do it on your own will take some practise."

When we left the bathroom, the clock on the wall read 10 o'clock.

"Finally," Lavender said, and rushed into the bathroom. The lock clicked.

"So," I said to Hermione, who was patiently sitting on her bed, still in her robes. "What are you waiting for? I mean, you can't possibly want to go to the duel."

"That's exactly what I'm waiting for," Hermione said politely. I'm going to try and talk them out of it, and if that doesn't work, then I'll just tag along with them, no matger what they say." Hermione stood up from the bed. "In fact, I'm goimg down to the common room right now, so I don't miss them."