Harry Potter: The Golden Viper

0618 The Duel (Part-1)

"Are you absolutely certain about this, Harry? Dueling Malfoy?!" Hermione turned to face Harry, her eyes flashing with a mixture of exasperation and genuine concern as she gave him a stern glare. "I feel compelled to warn you, Harry - don't allow yourself to become swept up in misguided optimism. If Professor Watson catches wind of this, he will undoubtedly expel every last participant from his class without a moment's hesitation. You know as well as I do that, he is a man of his word and always means what he says!"

Hermione deliberately raised her voice, ensuring that her warning carried across the room to reach the ears of not only Harry and Ron, but also Malfoy and his Slytherin cronies. Her warning did indeed have some effect.

Standing behind Draco was the quiet Astoria Greengrass. She and her sister Daphne Greengrass were both students of Slytherin House. Compared to the aggressiveness her sister usually displayed, Astoria was much more delicate.

From the moment she had followed Draco into the classroom, Astoria had remained silent, quietly watching the unfolding drama. However, upon hearing Hermione's ominous words, the anxiety that had been steadily building within her heart could no longer be contained.

Rising up on the tips of her toes, Astoria leaned in close to Draco.

"Perhaps it would be wise to reconsider, Draco," she said, her voice soft and urgent. "If either you or Potter were to sustain serious injuries during the course of this duel, Madam Pomfrey would definitely notify Professor Snape or Professor McGonagall. And once the matter has been brought to their attention, any hope of concealing this duel will be lost. The matter will most certainly reach Professor Watson's ears too."

For a fleeting moment, a flicker of hesitation appeared across Draco's gray eyes. Yet, in that very same instant, he caught sight of the challenge that burned in Potter's gaze. In the face of such brazen provocation, any lingering doubts that may have clouded Draco's mind evaporated and his wavering determination solidified into an unshakable resolve.

"This matter does not concern you, Astoria, do you understand?" Draco said raising his head in a display of haughty arrogance. Turning his attention back to Harry, he continued, "Very well, Potter. Let's do as you say. The duel will be just between the two of us. I swear on the name of Slytherin House that no matter the outcome of this duel, I promise that Pansy, Astoria, and I will keep it a secret!"

"Don't be a fool, Harry! Malfoy's word is about as reliable as a Leprechaun's gold - it's nothing more than a shiny illusion, don't fall for it!"

Ron interjected, his voice thick with a mixture of anger and desperation. If the matter at hand could have been settled with a good old-fashioned brawl, Ron would have likely already thrown himself into the fight. However, having long since been made aware of the rules of Professor Watson's physical education class, he definitely didn't want to see his best friend expelled from the class that so many students yearned to be a part of, all because of his own reckless actions.

"Your family may have trampled the glory and honor of pureblood families into the ground, Weasley," Draco's face darkened as he spoke, "but do not make the mistake of believing that all those of noble birth share your utter lack of regard for the value of their word!"

"I swear on the name of Gryffindor House--" A strange restlessness raged and surged in Harry's blood. He was now even more looking forward to what was about to happen. He didn't hear a word of Ron and Hermione's muttering in front of him. Instead, he directly drew his wand, pointing it at the ceiling, "I swear on the name of Gryffindor House that no matter the outcome of the duel, Ron, Hermione, and I will not leak the fact that this duel took place!"

"Oh, don't even think about it, Harry!" Hermione said heatedly.

But it was too late. Harry had already broken free from her restraining grasp, and took the lead in walking towards the center of the classroom. His back and footsteps exuded a sense of determination and decisiveness.

Hmph-- Draco snorted softly. He turned his head to look at Pansy and Astoria. After a brief hesitation, he said to Astoria, "Astoria, I need you to stand watch at the door. If anyone approaches this classroom, I want you to come in and alert me immediately. Do you understand?"

Without waiting for a response, Draco shrugged off his robe in one fluid motion, tossing it carelessly into Pansy's arms before striding forward to meet his opponent.

At this point, there was nothing more to say. Harry and Draco stood in the center of the classroom, positioned on the left and right sides respectively, about sixty to seventy feet apart, their concentrated gazes fixed on each other.

Ron swallowed hard; his throat suddenly dry as he watched the scene unfolding before him. "Do you think Harry can win, Hermione?"

There had been a time, back in their first and second years, when Ron had been able to gauge the skill levels of both Harry and Malfoy with a fair degree of accuracy. But now, after countless hours of PE class's training under Professor Watson, he found himself at a loss, unable to predict the outcome of this confrontation.

It didn't help matters that, out of consideration for Ron's feelings, Harry and Hermione had always been careful not to flaunt their new abilities in front of him. Much of what Ron knew about their progress had come to him secondhand, from whispered rumors passed along by his brothers, Fred and George.

Hermione frowned, her eyebrows furrowing in concentration as she watched the two in confrontation, her mind raced as she tried to recall every detail of Draco's performance during their regular training sessions.

"It's difficult to say, Ron," she said, her voice becoming tight with worry. "But one thing is certain - Draco is not an opponent to be underestimated. His team consistently ranks among those with the longest endurance times under Professor Watson."

The crimson afterglow gradually disappeared below the horizon, struggling with the last glimmer of light. Sensing the arrival of darkness, the torches on the classroom walls ignited with a whoosh, the firelight reflected in Harry and Draco's eyes, as if there were also torches burning in their pupils!

In the air, heat and oppression coexisted. Bowing their bodies and bending their knees, the two who were already ready to strike suddenly had a strange thought in their hearts—although there had been several clashes between them in the past few years, both with fists and with wands, this time...it felt like the first time they truly confronted each other...with a sense of destiny.

Harry and Draco were like the suits of armor behind them, maintaining an attacking posture, motionless, their eyes firmly locked on each other.

Ron shifted uneasily from foot to foot, his confusion and frustration rising with each passing second. "What in Merlin's name is going on?" he murmured. "Why are they just standing there like a couple of bloody statues?"

Ron had thought the battle would erupt immediately, but in fact, neither Harry nor Draco made a move. They maintained a petrified posture, seemingly not even blinking, except for the sharpness remaining in their eyes.

"Hush, Ron!" Hermione admonished, her voice little more than a whisper as she leaned in close. "The duel has already begun, even if it doesn't look like it. They're sizing each other up, searching for any hint of weakness or vulnerability in their opponent's defenses. Professor Watson always said that while most people put their faith in taking the initiative, more often than not, it's the one who strikes first who ends up exposing their own weaknesses in the process."

Ron pressed his lips together in a thin, tight line, biting back the frustrated retort that danced on the tip of his tongue. As much as he wanted to shout that he didn't understand, that none of this made any sense to him, he realized that at least he was now clear that Harry and Malfoy had already begun to clash in a strange way!

As the standoff stretched on, both Harry and Draco came to the unsettling realization that this duel was going to be far more challenging than either of them had anticipated. They were, after all, both students of Professor Watson's class, aware of the same knowledge and experience that the he had taught them over the course of their training. In a situation like this, where their skillsets were so evenly matched, gaining the upper hand would be no easy feat.

Harry's eyes flickered. He didn't want to admit it, but the fact was that he couldn't find a single flaw in Malfoy's defensive posture. He believed that the reason Malfoy hadn't made a move was probably because he had encountered the same difficulty as him.

But were they going to continue to confront each other like this?

Click!

The sudden, sharp click of the classroom door swinging open shattered the tense silence like a thunderclap, causing every head in the room to spin towards the source of the sound. Every head, that is, except for those of Harry and Draco, who remained locked in their silent face-off, utterly absorbed in their own private world.

It was Astoria, who had gone out to keep watch on Draco's orders.

"It's Longbottom! He's coming this way, walking down the corridor towards us. I managed to slip away before he spotted me, but he'll probably be here any moment!"

Hermione's face lit up with a surge of relief and hope at Astoria's words, she thought that this rash duel might yet be called off before any real damage could be done. However, her elation was short-lived, as the two participants chose that very moment to make their move at the same time.

Harry was a fraction of a second faster, his arm snapped up in a blur of motion as he fired off his opening spell. A beam of crimson light, as thick as his thumb and crackling with chained lightning, erupted from the tip of his wand, crossing the distance between them in the blink of an eye as it streaked towards Malfoy's outstretched arm.

But even as the spell left his wand, Draco was already in motion, his body twisted and contorted like a snake as he dodged Harry's Disarming Charm. In the same fluid movement, he brought his own wand pointing it not at Harry, but at the empty space before him.

Boom!

With a resounding boom that echoed off the stone walls, a bubbling mass of dense black fog burst forth from the tip of Draco's wand, expanding rapidly as it rushed to fill the void between them.

In the span of a single heartbeat, the unnatural fog had not only completely obscured Draco's body from Harry's view, but had begun to spread outwards in all directions seemingly unwilling to stop until it shrouded the entire classroom!

For a moment, Harry could only stare in stunned disbelief at the churning wall of blackness that had sprung up before him. In all their regular training sessions, he had never once seen Malfoy use magic of this sort.@@novelbin@@

But even as the shock of the unexpected wore off, Harry's mind was already working heatedly to unravel the purpose behind Malfoy's actions. In a flash of sudden, blinding clarity, he understood - the black fog was meant to obscure his vision, to rob him of his ability to track his opponent's movements and anticipate his attacks.

Instinct and training took over, and Harry knew with certainty that to remain still was to court disaster. Harry's figure flickered, then, like an arrow leaving the bowstring, he dodged to the side, putting as much distance between himself and the expanding wall of black fog as he could manage while still keeping his senses on high alert, ready to react to any sudden attack that might come lunging out of the unnatural fog at any moment.

His flickering movement did indeed lure Malfoy, because from the black fog that had become slightly thinner due to expansion, a black shadow shot out like cold lightning, breaking through the fog and fiercely charging towards where Harry had just been standing.

Unable to turn its body in mid-air due to its excessive momentum, the black serpent heavily collided with the armor under the side wall. Enraged, it quickly coiled up its body and sprang again like a compressed spring, swiftly charging towards Harry. At the same time, on the other side of the defensive line, another shadowy figure unexpectedly emerged.

Two black serpents attacked from two directions in a pincer movement, one from above and one from below!

In an instant, Harry determined that his speed couldn't possibly be faster or more agile than Malfoy's snakes. He could use the Iron Armor Charm to withstand the first wave of attacks from the two black serpents, but then he would be at a disadvantage because the charm couldn't eliminate the snakes, only block head-on attacks.

If they subsequently coiled around him and entangled him in close combat...don't forget, these two black serpents could move on their own without Malfoy's control, just much more slowly. Malfoy would definitely seize the opportunity to launch another attack while he was being restrained by the black serpents!

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