Shadows || A Severus Snape Fanfiction

Chapter 18 - Duelling Diggory

A/N: Just short n' sweet c:

2025: That meme still NEVER fails to make me laugh 💀💀

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Asha was utterly exhausted and infuriated by the unexplainable events that continued to plague her existence. Why did it have to be her? Why not someone else? Hadn't she suffered enough? Then her internal monologue immediately reverted to: Who are you to judge what you deserve? Other people suffer far greater hardships! Don't be so weak and whiny!

A few minutes after Snape left, she stormed down the corridor, struggling to control the frustration and unease that was roiling inside her. Once in the basement, she tapped the barrels with her wand a lot harder than was necessary and strode into the common room. Cedric was sitting by the fire, conversing with some members of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. No longer caring who saw, Asha marched over and grabbed him by the arm.

"With me, Diggory," she ordered. He had no choice but to follow as she dragged him out into the corridor. The rest of the team was baffled.

"Woah, Ash, what's the matter?" Cedric asked once they had emerged from the common room.

"Nothing, I don't wanna talk about it, can we just duel please?"

"What, now? Dinner's about to start..."

"Please," Asha urged, "Just for a little bit? It'll clear my head."

"Er... yeah, okay then," Cedric conceded, "I've got a new shield charm I want to try out anyway."

As the pair entered the duelling room, Cedric glanced at Asha warily. She wasn't looking her normal self. She was paler than usual and had an agitated air about her. During their training sessions, Cedric had discovered that though Asha appeared friendly and not particularly strong, she was a fierce, resilient duelling opponent who wasn't afraid of being hit by nasty hexes or, in some cases, curses. Because of this, he found seeing her in a distressed state very disconcerting. He was deeply curious about what could've affected his usually imperturbable friend, but didn't press the subject.

Asha aggressively yanked off her coat and rolled up her sleeves, already enjoying the familiar anticipation of the fight and the magic buzzing within her.

"Walls or no walls?" asked Cedric. Sometimes they would set up enchanted barriers of wooden pallets and dive behind them to make the duel more interesting. But Asha was in no mood to hide.

"Think fast, Diggory," she called, before sending knockback jinx straight at him. Cedric blocked the spell just in time and it rebounded, heading straight for Asha. She lazily drew a film of shimmering magic in front of her and the jet of white light hit it with a dull thud and was absorbed.

"Oh, so we're playing like that are we?" Cedric smirked. He muttered "Stupefy" and a blue-white light soared towards Asha. But she had anticipated it and blocked the spell with a flick of her wand.

Feeling the power at her fingertips, Asha finally felt in control enough to unleash her emotions. She channelled all her feelings of hate, fear and injustice into the duel and suddenly she was firing spell after spell. Flaming balls of blinding light exploded from her wand, each one more powerful than the next. They were coming so quickly, all Cedric could do was maintain his shield charm and brace himself as the shockwaves blasted through the room one after another. Asha didn't even know what spells she was casting anymore. The room flashed blue, then red, then white. The release of built-up energy and the feeling of power and control were like a breath of fresh air.

Suddenly Asha registered yelling over the banging and whistling of her hexes. She immediately stopped. She expected to feel shaky and weak after such an excursion. Instead, she felt calm and relaxed, like all the tension in her body had dissolved. However, this sensation was instantly replaced by one of gut-wrenching dread. At the other end of the room, the stone wall was blown apart and scorched. Asha's breath caught in her throat. Where was Cedric? She rapidly scanned the rubble for any sign of him.

"Ash..." came a hoarse voice. Asha's tunnel vision arrested and her body sagged with relief. Cedric was leaning on the left wall of the room, panting, but smiling weakly.

"Fuck," Asha breathed, "I'm sorry, I don't know..." She fidgeted uncomfortably with her wand. "I went a bit overboard."

"You think!" Cedric exclaimed. "I didn't even know it was possible to cast that quickly!" He sounded half angry, half impressed.

"Oh shit," Asha muttered, suddenly noticing Cedric's thigh. She jogged over to him as he winced, sitting down on a stack of pallets.

"I knew I couldn't hold my shield much longer so I tried to dive out of the way - clearly I wasn't quick enough," grimaced Cedric. "Must've been an Expulso Curse?"

Asha didn't reply. She didn't want to admit she had lost track of what she was shooting at him. He wouldn't be able to comprehend it anyway - he could only cast a few blocking spells non-verbally. It was impossible to lose track of spells when you had to call out their incantation each time.

"Did you not notice I'd moved?" Cedric winced as Asha healed his burn, "did you not hear me yelling at you?"

"You should've used Sonorous, you idiot," Asha retorted. Her voice had a cold edge to it; hardly able to stand the guilt, she had subconsciously converted the emotion into anger. She could've seriously hurt him. She met Cedric's eyes and saw he was taken aback by her heartless response. She bit the inside of her lip and mumbled, "I'm really sorry."

After a long, awkward pause Cedric said, "Listen, I think we should have a break from duelling."

"But the first task's in a fortnight!" Asha objected.

"And there are tons of other ways I can prepare for it. I doubt they'll pit the Champions against each other in the first round," Cedric reasoned, though anxiety flickered across his face. "Plus, I can't risk getting injured". He stood up, muttered, "Thanks for healing my leg," and left the room.