When we entered the Room of Requirement, we didn't start practicing right away. We had subconsciously agreed on a brief conversation; it was a habit—settling in after school, finishing off essays, and only then moving on to practice. Now that essays were no longer necessary, we simply sprawled out comfortably in the relaxed atmosphere.
Agnes, of course, was the first to speak what was burning on her tongue: "A thousand galleons is quite a large sum, Patrik. Probably the whole of Hogwarts will get involved."
"I hope so," I nodded with a smile. "We all need to test ourselves against other duelists. Training amongst ourselves is fine, we're friends, but I don't plan on hurling lightning at you just yet... But at those older students?" I smirked, feeling eager excitement boiling in my veins.
"You're putting your entire allowance into this, aren't you?" Theo chimed in. "If needed, I can contribute a certain amount."
"No, thank you, it's alright," I shook my head gratefully. "Essentially, Potter sponsored it for us."
"Potter?!" Draco blurted out, nearly jumping out of his chair. "What do you mean, Potter sponsored it?"
Oops, wrong answer, I thought amusedly, and immediately decided to change the subject: "What are your plans for the holidays?"
"Don't deflect—" Draco began, but Agnes, with an amused smile, decided to cut him off and help me out: "Wleeell, probably the same as Christmas. I'm going with my father to the Magical Alps in Austria. Skiing is the bomb, and Dad promised he'd teach me how to use a magical snowboard too."
"Better be careful with that, snowboarding is very demanding on the tendons and knees," I warned her.
Personally, I had never stood on a snowboard, but I had on skis, and I was a total klutz at it. During my very first lesson, I broke my arm twice so badly that the bones were sticking out of my wrist. They had to put it back together with a metal pin. I hadn't stood on skis since, though a snowboard did look really cool. It was strange because I was otherwise talented at sports (modestly speaking), but on the snow, I was useless. Of course, I blamed the skis—they were longer than they should have been because my father wanted to save money at the time, figuring I'd eventually grow into them.
I shook my head to return to the cozy magical reality just as Theo replied: "Nothing special. My father will be dealing with nonsense as usual, so I'll just be sitting at the manor, and Tobias will visit with his father every now and then, or vice versa... Or we'll go to Draco's."
"They are business arrangements, Theodore," Draco corrected him haughtily and ostentatiously, but smiled immediately after: "When you come over, we can play Quidditch or we can duel!"
"Sure, sure," Theo grinned amusedly. "As long as you don't spend every other moment talking about your father... We'll help you out with Tobias, so you can be our Seeker!" he promised.
Draco flushed at the promise, but then realized how the sentence started and wanted to defend himself. However, Tobias cut him off: "Exactly what Theo says. Otherwise, I'll probably just be buried in books. Maybe Diagon Alley every now and then, right, Theo?"
Theo just nodded and then turned directly to me: "And what about you, Patrik?"
Hmmm, I had a fucking lot to do this entire holiday, and I'd have to summarize it before leaving so I wouldn't forget anything important... I still hadn't even replied to Black.
"Hm, honestly, it's going to be a lot..." I began thoughtfully. "I need to learn a few spells over the holidays; Vespera is going to help me with that. I'll also likely be traveling because there are things I need to acquire... And then in August, I've got that Order of Merlin thing from Fudge. A pure nuisance. I wish he'd just sent the money by owl instead..." I complained. "Then I have to stop by Manchester sometime in the summer... and there's a bunch of other things I'm currently forgetting."
As soon as I finished, Draco eagerly blurted out: "You can come over anytime during the summer, Patrik. We have plenty of room, and Mother would love to meet you."
I saw Theo silently open his mouth, pointedly mouthing "Mother?" in a silent question.
Draco ignored him and continued toward Agnes: "You can come too, of course... but without your father."
"What do you mean, without my father?" Agnes snapped at him, frowning.
Draco took a breath to answer, but fortunately, Theo cut in: "Draco is being a bit tactless, so I'll explain it a little more considerately," he began seriously, nodding at Draco to stay silent. "Your father betrayed many of his old friends, as you surely know. Our fathers are in this together... You are our friend, and our parents know about you and Patrik. But if you brought your father, conflict would break out immediately. I think mine would even try to kill him... Well, except for Draco's father; he certainly wouldn't want a bloody scene among his peacocks in the garden."
Agnes was breathing deeply with clenched knuckles, so I joined in as well: "Be a realist, Agnes," I said irritably. "The boys are right, even if Draco could seriously work on his tact." I pierced him with a look—fucking up a chill moment like this... "We're all friends here. If someone betrayed us, what would you do? Would you hang out with them as if nothing happened? Because I guarantee you'd set a traitor on fire first and ask questions later."
"But..." she began, but after a moment, she sadly closed her mouth. She caught our serious gazes and realized we were right. She looked down for a moment, then determinedly clenched her fists.
"You're right..." she uttered into the stifling atmosphere of the room. "Thank you for the invitation."
Draco just nodded wordlessly; he could still feel my sharp gaze on him.
"And what spells are you planning to learn, Patrik?" Theo decided to break the heavy silence.
"Better not to know, Theodore," I replied with a small, mysterious smile.
Everyone except Theo smiled amusedly; he, however, took me dead seriously and, after a moment, just nodded with quiet understanding.
"Why haven't you actually written back to Black yet?" Draco asked curiously. Probably the whole of Slytherin already knew I'd received a letter from him and that I was responsible for his exoneration.
"At the start, probably because I didn't have the energy for him... Sirius Black is one big ball of psychological issues," I shrugged. "And later, it just felt awkward to reply. In the end, I realized that a face-to-face meeting would probably be best."
"A ball of psychological issues?" Tobias prompted with interest. Of course, he was interested in medical status—young medic. Though if Tobias doesn't watch what he eats, in a few years he'll look like that pot-bellied ghost, the Fat Friar.
"Sure... Think about it. The cruel upbringing by his mother, which was public knowledge. Eventually, he ran away to the Potters, who were betrayed by their closest friend. The entire Black family dead, the surrogate family dead... Falsely accused, he ended up in Azkaban for ten years," I shook my head. "He lost everything. How old was he then? Twenty-one? The man can't even trust his own shadow..."
"And then there's the influence of the Dementors," Tobias nodded. "I read about them recently..."
"Exactly. So his psyche must be in shambles, and physically, who knows..."
"Physically he'll pull himself together in no time, and psychologically... probably as well," Tobias smirked, looking sequentially at Theodore and Draco. "Because a few years ago, certain anonymous pure-blood wizards contributed a large sum of gold to research potions that mitigate the conditions after a stay in Azkaban."
"Alright, alright, but it's the end of the year... How about a less serious topic? Or duels?" Agnes suggested with a small smile, her mood clearly returning.
"Who do you think will win the House Cup?" Draco threw out.
"Fifty galleons on us," Theo immediately jumped into the gambling.
"Fifty galleons on Gryffindor," I joined in.
"But we're leading by a lot, Patrik! Gryffindor would have to get over a hundred points now to skip Ravenclaw and catch up to us," Agnes noted wonderingly.
I just shrugged: "They've got Potter there for the first time, so we'll see how Dumbledore behaves. Let's get to those duels instead," I added, starting to push myself up from the armchair.
The others followed suit. The question now was how we would duel. It occurred to me that I could work on precise water control.
"Me against all of you," I proposed to them with a challenging smile.
"You'll just wash us away with water like always," Theo shook his head in disagreement.
"No. I'll only use water to precisely defend and attack. No heavy streams or waves, I promise," I pledged.
"We're in!" Agnes blurted out immediately, dragging Theodore to the other side before he could object. The others followed her uncertainly until I finally stood alone against the four of them.
I gave them a moment to consult. I saw Agnes energetically giving them instructions. After a moment, they stood ready with wands raised, spaced several meters apart. They wanted to catch me in crossfire.
"We can begin!" I called out. "Aguamenti!"
A stream of water immediately shot from my yew wand, splitting in front of me into two levitating sections so that I could clearly see my opponents and their incoming spells.
They didn't wait around, though. White, orange, grey, and red jets whistled through the air toward me. There were so many that I immediately merged the water streams into a single mass and positioned it at a sharp angle against the trajectory of the spells. Part of the incoming magic instantly splashed the water apart, but the spells that didn't dissipate continued harmlessly meters away from me. However, I immediately pulled the splashed water back into the main volume with a magical tug. I planned to fight with only this amount.
"Incarcerous! Incarcerous!" Agnes and Theo shouted simultaneously. Ropes flew toward me, twisting greedily in the air. Before they could hit me, however, I deflected them to the side with a water jet. I made sure not to block anything directly in front of me, but always at an angle.
I just managed to dodge a red and orange beam coming from the side—likely Expelliarmus and Everte Statum. I didn't have time to track the exact incantations; I was just defending. I was certain, however, that if I remained passive, I'd lose. Theo and Agnes kept me busy from the front, while Draco and Tobias tried to flank me.
I split the water again. I decided to take out the weaker links first. I sent the first part directly at Tobias, who only managed to cry out: "Protego!" The second part flew at Agnes, who immediately returned fire: "Stupefy!" Theo didn't hesitate either: "Petrificus Totalus! Everte Statum!" he roared.
I knew I could evade their attacks, so I sharply veered the second part of the water, originally aimed at Agnes, toward Tobias. His Protego held against the first impact, but the second wave bypassed it entirely. The water hit him hard in the stomach, causing him to double over with a groan.
Draco didn't wait and attacked immediately: "Aculeus! Everte Statum!"
I managed to avoid the red beam from Agnes, as well as the white one from Theo, but his orange spell hit me directly in the shoulder as I dodged. He had clearly put a significant amount of power into it. It immediately spun me around violently, and I felt a sharp pain, as if my shoulder were dislocated. I couldn't hold back a groan of pain, but I immediately dove to the side—just in time. Both the purple and orange beams from Draco flew harmlessly past me.
Draco had a problem, though. Part of my water was still near Tobias, who was writhing on the ground, and I immediately sent it at Draco from behind. Peripherally, I saw Theo sending a blue beam at me while Agnes was silently moving closer to my flank. She was trying not to draw attention to herself with spells, so I focused fully on deflecting Theo's Flipendo with the water at the right angle.
I only had time to notice my water violently sweeping Draco's legs out from under him. He flew into the air epically and landed on his back with a surprised, painful cry. He immediately began gasping for breath.
Theo didn't let up the pressure: "Expelliarmus! Everte Statum! Flipendo!"
Red, orange, and blue beams flew at me in rapid succession. I focused on them so intensely that I almost forgot about Agnes. She, of course, reminded me at the worst possible moment: "Everte Statum! Incendio!"
Fuck! I didn't know what to do first. I immediately pulled the water toward me. Three spells were flying directly at me, another from the side, and on top of that, a stream of ravenous fire. In a split second, I had to decide. I dove to the side, more toward Agnes, hoping Theo had aimed too precisely at my original spot and would miss me. I managed to deflect Agnes's Everte Statum at an angle, but immediately after, I sent the rest of my water against her fire. I realized instantly that I was making a mistake—my amount of water simply wasn't enough for that heat. A tactical error.
Reflexively, I raised my left hand in front of my face to protect my eyes. My water evaporated in the flames instantly, and the fire swept further. I felt a sudden heat, and a moment later, my sleeve caught fire. To make matters worse, Theo's Expelliarmus hit me from the side in the confusion. I felt my wand ripped from my palm, flying in an arc directly toward him.
Fortunately, no further spells came. Even without a wand, I instinctively cried out in slight panic: "Aguamenti!" A massive stream of water poured from my right palm, immediately extinguishing my burning sleeve. I exhaled with immense relief; I was no longer on fire. Once the adrenaline subsided a bit, I began to calmly look around the battlefield.
The only one still standing firmly against me was Theo, with a satisfied, almost appreciative smile. Draco was still trying to catch his breath, Tobias looked like he might vomit at any moment, and Agnes was kneeling on the ground. She was breathing heavily, beads of sweat running down her forehead, and she was shaking all over from magical exhaustion.
I immediately rushed over to her. Peripherally, I saw Theo following me. As soon as I reached her, he handed me my wand, which I flashed back into its holster.
"Are you alright, Agnes?"
She tried to say something shakily, but then changed her mind and just nodded exhaustedly. Theo immediately shouted to the rest of the group: "Tobias, get over here! You can puke later!"
I smirked amusedly. It was clear that Agnes was just totally drained from the massive magical output. Tobias and Draco trudged over to us like two wrecked piles of misery. With a wave of my wand, I removed the vomit from Tobias's collar. He took a heavy breath but then pulled vials of Wiggenweld Potion from his pocket and started handing them out.
Theo refused his, but Draco, Tobias, Agnes, and I knocked them back in one go. Color immediately began returning to Agnes's cheeks as she stood up with difficulty, while Draco's breathing finally stabilized and the pain in my shoulder gradually faded.
"A great end to the school year," Theo stated amusedly.
"We won!" Agnes nodded tiredly with a small, triumphant smile. "Finally."
Draco and Tobias looked sour for a moment—after all, taking water to the stomach and landing on your spine wasn't exactly the victory they had imagined—but after a moment, they nodded in friendly agreement.
***
Author's note:
Who do you think will take the House Cup this year?
That was the final duel for now, and everyone is fired up! It's going to be interesting to see what new spells the gang picks up over the summer—it's definitely time to expand their repertoires. We'll see how it all pays off in the duels next year. They've all mastered the basics brilliantly, so the real fun is just beginning…
***
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The shadows are shifting, and the story goes much deeper... If you can't wait for the next update, Advanced Chapters are already waiting for you.
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Upcoming Chapters – Already Written(15):
57. The End of the Year
58. VR: The Warrior of Durmstrang
59. The Mind of a Rosier
60. The Lioness and the Black Blood
61. A Rosier, Not a Goyle
62. The Babel Charm and the Emperor's Dagger
63. Business and Bloodshed
64. Cruelty for Cruelty
65. Adopted by Fate
66. The Scent of Darkness
67. Socks, Sandals, and Sorcery
68. From Peaks to Plates
69. Ashes of Justice
70. The Scent of Despair
71. The Old Bird's Wisdom
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