Chapter 155: Dueling Club

Chapter 155: Dueling Club

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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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8th October 1995, Hogwarts (Earth 2)

(Harry Potter POV)

For the first time since he joined the Quidditch team, Harry was joining an extracurricular club. When he had first heard that Professor Sayre was starting a dueling club, he had made sure to not feel too enthused. After Lockhart's joke of a club two years ago, the Boy-Who-Lived was understandably cautious of the idea. Of course, this hesitation completely went out of the window after his first lesson with the new professor.

She had been, by far, the professor that had helped him the most. She had taught him magic, in such a simplistic way that he was leaping ahead of his classmates, much to Hermione's chagrin. His friends didn't know about their private lessons; Professor Sayre had requested for him to tell them that he was training by himself, so as to avoid any feelings of jealousy or accusations of preferential treatment.

Even if the woman had made him quit Quidditch, Harry thought that it had been worth it. But their lessons had stopped ever since Umbridge's arrival. Truth be told, the woman made everyone uncomfortable, with her little snide remarks in the middle of lessons, and her obnoxious pink outfit, that should only be worn by seven year old girls pretending to be eighty.

McGonagall and Sayre didn't seem to hold the woman in high regard, ignoring the woman entirely, and sometimes going so far as to berate her when she interrupted the lesson. Her look had been priceless, in both McGonagall and Sayre's lesson. Even Snape seemed to hate the woman considering he was looking at her as if she was a pink insect in front of him.

Some didn't fare too well, especially Trelawney who pretty much had a breakdown in the middle of the lesson.

The woman had especially been targetting him, probably on Fudge's orders, trying to find a way to punish him somehow. It was why Sayre cancelled their lessons, in the first place, and had given Harry a strict warning to not speak about what happened in June to anyone during her stay at the castle. Umbridge was very vicious and would try to exploit anything he would say.

The charms professor conjured a dragon made of water which flew towards the attacker, creating a burst of steam. The defense professor conjured a gust of wind which cleared out the steam, and quickly conjured some sort of metallic spike.

Harry's confusion to the strange conjuration was immediately satisfied when a bolt of lightning was immediately absorbed by it, casted by a gasping Flitwick, from the other side of the stage.

Sayre immediately transfigured the rod into some weird red spear which flew towards the charms professor so quickly that it was barely more than a red blur. The professor created a shield that the spear somehow broke through, but it gave enough time for Flitwick to dodge it. However, this was the opening that Sayre needed to banish him outside the stage.

Harry didn't notice how silent everyone was ever since the start of the duel, which was by far one of the most beautiful uses of magic he had ever seen. So, the sudden applause and cheering had surprised Harry so much that he stiffened in shock.

The Boy-Who-Lived knew for a fact that what he just witnessed was something special. It was so different than what fighting Voldemort was. It was more elegant, more refined. It was an art, a demonstration of skill, not a fight between two of wizards trying to kill each other. There was no Voldemort, sending killing curses left and right. They used each other's attacks against each other, trying to unbalance the other, with discreet tricks that were very impressive to pull off.

Sayre smiled at the reception, and Harry knew for a fact that no one would be leaving this club any time soon. The defense professor waved her wand and the stage fixed itself, and Flitwick had gotten up and helped her with it. They both bowed to each other and Harry could see the charms professor's opinion of the woman rise at the skill demonstrated.

Sayre raised her hand again and everyone quieted down, "Now, this was a nice little demonstration, that we both were holding back immensely in, especially to make things a bit more child friendly. Every single spell we cast is one you have learnt in your seven years of schooling. Which means that seventh years have no excuses not to be able to do this. Now, who could tell me what kinds of magic we both used?"

Hermione raised her hand in lightning speed, and was called upon as well, "Well, I saw the use of transfiguration and charms, mostly animation charms with a lot of uses of banishing charms. There was also a small amount of elemental magic mixed in."

Professor Sayre nodded, "very good, Ms. Granger, but you actually missed one. Who here can tell me what she missed? It's nothing that you haven't learnt"

Hermione looked like someone had just slapped her in the face. Harry stifled a chuckle at her face, unlike Ron who was on the ground laughing. No one raised their hand, and the professor just sighed, "The last attack, with the lightning rod. I used runes to add a shield breaking aspect to the spear. Of course, the end was blunted to avoid anyone getting hurt, but as you can see, you can use a large variety of magic when you duel. As long as you're creative enough, there's no reason not to use your strengths while dueling, no matter what they may be."

Harry looked around the back to see Umbridge leaving the dueling room. He didn't know if this was trouble or not, but Sayre looked unconcerned with her presence, so he dismissed it. The woman had looked furious though.

Still, this was a hell of an introduction and in a few minutes, Sayre had half the school hooked and had made dueling almost as popular as Quidditch. He couldn't wait to see what else they were going to learn.