Alexandra Dursley {Golden Trio}

Chapter 118 - Round One

Guys, sorry not sorry, but you're getting a play-by-play of this duelling tournament, because I just love writing duelling so much! But, lucky you, you get two chapters today, even though it does very little for the plot! Whoooo :)

 There was a buzz about the school the first Saturday back, and Al wondered why, but by mid-afternoon she had her answer. There were three times the number of people that showed up to watch than last time, all of them clad in their house colours and some with banners, but not sat together, resulting in a fiasco of colour. Most of the people from the amateur Duelling Club attended, along with all of the people from the advanced, all their friends, and a fair few people Al had never seen before. Even one or two professors had come to watch, presumably to see what all the fuss was about. Needless to say, there was no spare room on any of the benches except the front row where the competitors were sat, and a lot of people ended up stood in groups around the edges.

 She could spot loads of people she did know in the crowd. Ron was sat with Dean Thomas near the front, holding a red banner that flashed the names of Harry, Ginny, Seamus, and Neville!! in gold writing. She spotted McGonagall's face sat next to Sprout, whispering and smiling to Flitwick, though what about, Al couldn't say. Slughorn was talking to a very unamused Snape, both of them stood up and without seats. Daphne was waving a green Al and Theo! banner on the topmost row, and Pavarti Patil was giving her sister a hug for good luck.

 She quickly went around checking all the competitors were ready, stopping to reassure Anne when she became panicky about being the only fourth year. "I competed in my fourth year," Al reasoned, "And I won." This eased her nerves a little bit and Al jumped up onto the platform with Flitwick, ready to get going. "Welcome to the Hogwarts Duelling Tournament of nineteen-ninety-seven!" There was a deafening cheer from the crowd that reminded Al of the Triwizard Tournament. She quickly read out the rules, looking around to see the competitors all nodding nervously. "So, without further ado, let's get on! First up we have Marlene Bennet of Ravenclaw versus Seamus Finnegan of Gryffindor!"

 The Ravenclaws and Gryffindors cheered and whooped as Marlene and Seamus made their way up and Flitwick and Al made their way to the giant, charmed scoreboard that McGonagall and Flitwick had so kindly created. As predicted, much of Seamus's spellwork involved fire and bangs that Marlene had a hard time dodging and caused extensive reactions from the crowd. But in the end, Marlene's more refined and elegant spellwork overruled, and she won by hitting him with a beautifully cast petrificus totalus.

 The Ravenclaws cheered as Madame Pomfrey revived Seamus and they shook hands, both grinning. "So we have our first winner: Marlene Bennet!" Al announced, pointing her wand at the scoreboard. Between their names, Marlene's appeared, putting her through to round two. "Next up, Hannah Abbott of Hufflepuff and Tracey Davis of Slytherin!" This duel was far more interesting. Davis spent most of the time in rapid fire, while Hannah dodged and ducked, casting well-aimed stunners and disarming spells. It was this that allowed her to win, when Davis was hit in the face with a well-timed and particularly powerful stunning spell that sent her flying backwards. The Hufflepuffs cheered and the Slytherins clapped as they shook hands, and Hannah's name appeared under Marlene's.

 "Anne Macmillan of Hufflepuff and Neville Longbottom of Gryffindor!" This duel was surprisingly well-balanced, as both of them were adept at aiming, blocking and dodging, but had a limited array of spells to use. In the end, Neville won by hitting Anne with a disarming spell, making her wand fly off the platform, and she had no choice but to tap-out to retrieve it. Neville looked both shocked and delighted, and Anne, always gracious, patted him on the back in congratulations when his name appeared on the board and the Gryffindors roared in triumph.

 "Al Dursley of Slytherin and Michael Corner of Ravenclaw!" Flitwick announced, and Al made her own way onto the platform, grinning as the Slytherins stomped and clapped for her. Al wasn't too nervous for this. She didn't underestimate Corner, but she knew his technique very well, so she thought she might have a bit of fun with it. They bowed and began the duel. She jumped about for a bit, avoiding spells while she warmed up, and then shot a perfect and silent tallentallegra, making him dance about on the platform while he fired spells that she easily blocked. Then, she did a silent levicorpus, watching as he tap-danced, upside-down, in midair, before finally relieving him and knocking him off the platform with a depulso.

 "And Al Dursley is the winner!" Flitwick announced as Al and Michael shook hands, and the Slytherins cheered louder than the Gryffindors had.

 "Good game!" Al shouted, grinning and Michael nodded and produced a smile in response. "Now, we've got Harry Potter of Gryffindor against Theodore Nott of Slytherin!" Al passed Theo on her way off the stage and whispered, "Good luck." This match was very fast-paced, as both boys were highly adept at duelling, and had somewhat mastered silent spell-casting. It was only lights flashing by and dancing around and once or twice Al found herself blocking them. Harry only won when he caught Theo with an expelliarmus on the side of his head, and caught his wand. Theo had been so close to dodging it, then everyone was surprised when the spell casting suddenly stopped, before an eruption of applause sounded and Al announced the winner.

 "Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff and Luna Lovegood of Ravenclaw!" brought another duel that Al had been greatly looking forward to, and she was right to think so. Luna didn't seem to need to dodge much, as she stood day-dreaming behind a shield. It wasn't until Ernie broke through that she cast another spell, and Ernie dropped his wand, batting around his head at something invisible. There was a confused laughter as he fell backwards off the stage and Madame Pomfrey hurried over, frowning. "I've got no idea what spell that was, but it worked!" Al announced as they shook hands to a mixture of laughter and cheering.

 "Ginny Weasley of Gryffindor and Zacharias Smith of Hufflepuff!" Al had been looking forward to this ever since she paired them together. It seemed Ginny did everything in her power to humiliate Smith, and it was hilarious to watch, especially since he was such an arse. She started by aiming stunning spells at his feet making him jump around and look like he was doing some sort of jig. Then she hit him with a pimple jinx and a bat-bogey hex in quick succession, confusing him and making him look like even more of an idiot, before finally knocking him off the stage by exploding it underneath him.

 Ginny did an exaggerated bow to the crowd, which performed the loudest cheer yet, before jumping off the platform next to Al and whispering, "Thanks for that, it was great!" making her laugh.

 "Ginny Weasley everyone!" The thunderous applause started up again, only stopping when Al waved her arms around. "The final duel of round one will be Padma Patil of Ravenclaw and Amanda Rowle of Slytherin!" Padma looked very nervous as she got up on the platform and shook hands wit the stony faced Rowle, until Al gave her an encouraging smile and the duel began. She sent only stunners in Rowle's direction, dodging and blocking every single one. Rowle was faster at firing but Padma was faster at dodging. She dodged a particularly nasty purple hex, doing a weird sort of spin, before hitting her with a depulso. Caught unawares at the faster-moving spell, it hit Rowle in the side and she flew backwards off the platform, spinning through the air, before hitting her head on the stone floor and she was put on a stretcher and taken to the side room while the Ravenclaws cheered.

 "So, we're into round two!" Al said as Padma made her way over to where Marlene, Luna, and Michael were sat just off the platform. Al turned to read off the scoreboard. "Our winners so far are: Marlene Bennet of Ravenclaw, Hannah Abbott of Hufflepuff, Neville Longbottom of Gryffindor, me of Slytherin," - there were laughs in the crowd - "Harry Potter of Gryffindor, Luna Lovegood of Ravenclaw, Ginny Weasley of Gryffindor, and Padma Patil of Ravenclaw!

 "Our first match of round two will be Marlene Bennet of Ravenclaw versus Hannah Abbott of Hufflepuff!"