“Did you say something to Ginny, Ron?” Hermione asked, “I think she’s been avoiding me for some reason. She hasn’t come to talk to me in weeks.”

Ron shrugged, “I didn’t say anything, maybe she’s just busy with school? Midterm exams are coming up soon, she might not have time for your extra spells.”

“I dunno. Maybe…” Hermione said skeptically. Ginny could have at least come up to her and talked about her day a little with her. Hermione had tried to talk to her after a few days of silence, but whenever Hermione went looking Ginny had suddenly disappeared into thin air. She felt like the girl was avoiding her for some reason…

“Did you hear that something killed all of Hagrid’s roosters yesterday? I heard there was blo- blood everywhere in the coops. What creature do you think did it?” Neville asked after it appeared that Ron and Hermione were done.

“Could have been anything,” Ron said, “The birds weren’t even magical. Honestly it's surprising something didn’t get them sooner, I heard that their coop didn’t even have any wards on it. Something probably just got hungry and wandered out of the forest in the middle of the night.”

“Hogwarts itself has wards against that,” Hermione said, “They repel creatures unless someone specifically invites them onto the Hogwarts grounds. Otherwise things would come out and attack people all the time.”

There was a bright flash of light and all of them flinched and turned to a first year they had all grown annoyingly familiar with. The boy stood there, his large camera held between his hands.

“Colin Creevey, for the last time, lay off of it!” Ron said, “Stop taking photos of Neville, it's bloody annoying.”

“But I thought he was super famous! He was reading in the papers about his parents and…”

“He didn’t ask to be famous, now leave us alone Colin,” Hermione said in annoyance, “It's rude to take pictures of him like that.”

“Can I at least get an autograph?” Colin asked, pulling out some parchment.

Ron glanced at Neville and Hermione noticed that Neville seemed uncomfortable with the situation.

“No, mate. Just go eat your food,” Ron said, “Neville doesn’t want to be some celebrity. So shove off.”

Dejected, Colin left. Hermione would have felt a little worse about it if they hadn’t already told him to stop three times by now. He just didn’t seem to understand why Neville or the rest of them wouldn’t like it or want to be famous.

Hermione noticed Ginny sitting a couple seats down the table, staring at them. Hermione gave her a wave and Ginny looked away, put her head down, and started eating her food. Hermione lowered her hand. Why was Ginny doing that? Hermione thought that things had been going well between them, what had she done wrong for Ginny to suddenly avoid her like this?

— — —

“Welcome to dueling club, all of you! Dueling has always been a fascination of mine. Learning even the basics helped me incapacitate the witch at Traskin’s bog early in my career!”

Lockhart winked at the crowd and Hermione jumped on the ball on her heels, unable to hold back her excitement. Lockhart had been very vague in class on his techniques, but maybe he would show them more in the dueling club!

Ron rolled his eyes at her, but Hermione ignored him. She had been right about that first exam, hadn’t she? Lockhart had tested them again the next day with the same exam again now that he had given them the answers. Only Ron and Neville had been ready because of her warning.

They were in the great hall, which had been altered for the dueling clubs first practice. Three long stages fifteen meters long stretched across the room, draped with a silky blue cloth. Lockhart stood at one end of the center dueling stage while a rather dour Snape stood at the other end, his expression curled up in distaste. All the students who had signed up for the club crowded around the central stage as Lockhart started talking.

“Now, I thought before we start pairing you up, you would like to see two master duelists at work! My lovely assistant Professor Snape will be assisting me in running this little club.”

Snape sneered at Lockhart's words, but the Lockhart didn’t seem to notice.

“Now, let us begin,” Lockhart continued, “We will first walk forward, wands held like so.”

Lockhart held his wand at his angle pointed to the floor and Snape did the same as they walked forward until they were at the center.

“Now, we bring our wands forward in respect, and bow.”

Both men snapped their wands upward in front of them so it was held upwards in front of their faces. Then each of them gave a slight bow to each other.

“Now ten steps backwards, keeping the same position of your wand upwards.”

They did so until they had returned to the opposite ends of the stage.

“We will now enter our dueling stances in preparation for the bout. I will make sure to take it easy on our dear Severus Snape here.”

Lockhart flashed a smile for the crowd as he held his wand arm forward and raised his other hand over his head as if to make a lopsided crescent with his arms. Hermione thought he looked sort of like a crab. He really was taking it easy on Snape if he was taking a stance like that.

Hermione looked over to Snape draped in all black in opposition to the golden flamboyant robes of Lockhart. Snape’s face was ice cold and he stood with his side pointed at Lockhart, his wand arm held out, and his other held behind his back. Uh oh, Snapes cold expression was exactly how he looked right before he was about to explode on Seamus for messing up a potion.

“Now, I will begin the countdown from three. Three. Two,” Lockhart continued looking at ease, “One. Stupif—”

“Expeliarmus,” Snape said quickly, making an efficient flick of his wand to send his spell blasting into Lockhart, sending Lockhart’s wand flying out of his hand. The wand flew into the gathered crowd of students before Lockhart could react, sending the man falling to the ground from the force of his wand violently jerking from his hand.

After a moment, Lockhart popped back to his feet and cleared his throat, “Ah, an excellent demonstration of the disarming charm. A good start, and excellent technique from my assistant. Perhaps I should have not taken you so lightly, Severus! It seems you do have some skill after all. Now, has anyone seen my wand?”

Hermione nodded. Even the best duelist could be surprised sometimes, that made sense. Had Lockhart lost on purpose? Wow, he was even trying to teach them life lessons too? So cool…

After a few seconds the man’s wand was passed back to him. He clapped his hands, and panned his gaze around the room.

“Well, now let’s start off with some duels between students. Now, do we have any volunteers?”

Everyone shifted nervously, not wanting to be the first ones to start. Lockhart’s eyes locked on Hermione's. “Ah, Hermione Granger! Why don’t you come on up? I’ve heard of great things about your spellwork in the teachers lounge! And quite on top of my class too.”

Hermione rushed up and climbed on stage. Lockhart had singled her out, he had heard good things about her!

Lockhart continued, “And for your opponent, how about… Ms. Patil, was it? Let’s have a little friendly competition between the Gryffindors.”

Snape cleared his throat, “Now, Lockhart. I do not think they will try hard enough if they are such great friends. Perhaps we should choose a student from my house as her opponent. Someone with a little more… Competitive spirit. How about… Pansy Parkinson?”

Hermione watched as Pansy climbed on stage, a self satisfied smile on her face. Hermione scratched her head. Did the girl seriously think that she could beat Hermione? The Hermione that had already learned silent casting in her first year? Hermione was trying not to be arrogant here, but she didn’t really see why Pansy would be so confident about this.

“Well, quite right, Severus,” Lockhart said, “Then let’s begin. Approach, remembering to keep your wands in position.”

Pansy and Hermione approached the center until they were only three meters away from each other.

“Bring your wands up, and bow to each other!” Lockhart called and they followed.

“You are going down, Mudblood,” Pansy hissed, “I’ve been training all summer for this. I'll make you regret that you ever attacked me.”

Hermione started getting angry and almost retorted before she got a brilliant idea. She slowly smiled.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

After a moment, “Good luck with that, Pansy,” Hermione said before the both of them gave the shallowest bows possible for each other.

“Ten steps backward to the ends of the stage!” Lockhart called. At the fifth step backwards, Hermione flicked her off hand and called on her wandless magic. The back of Pansy’s robes were dragged downwards and the girl tripped backwards with a small gasp.

Hermione had to suppress her laughter as Pansy’s face went crimson as she made her way back to her feet. The students around them muttered and laughed at Pansy, making the girl’s face flush an even deeper shade of red.

“Hey, how is that fair?! We weren’t supposed to cast spells yet!” Pansy shouted.

“I didn’t cast a spell, Pansy. Maybe you should just not be so clumsy next time,” Hermione replied.

“Now, girls, girls. It is not time for fighting yet!” Lockhart said, “Save it for your upcoming duel! And remember the rules! No spells that can cause serious injury and stop casting the instant Severus or I call for it.”

Pansy and Hermione reached their places and assumed their dueling stances. Which was them just standing there with their wands held in front of them at the ready since they hadn’t been taught that part yet. Pansy looked furious, breathing heavily as she glared daggers at Hermione. But Pansy still had that vindictive smile on her face for some reason. Now all Hermione had to do was thrash Pansy at the duel.

“Now on the count of three. Three. Two,” Pansy’s wand moved as she cast a spell and cast it before Lockhart finished. Nothing happened when she was finished her motions, so it must be an invisible spell. Hermione retaliated with two curses straight and angled her wand up and launched another spell arcing to strike from above. Pansy pointed her wand at herself and seemed to cast another spell. Hermione frowned, what was Pansy doing? Hermione watched as her first two spells hit Pansy straight on, locking Pansy in place and causing her skin to burst out in boils. But Pansy’s face was still locked in a smile, why…?

— — —

Where was she, why were they fighting? Hermione looked to the other side of stage and saw a blank faced Harry Potter standing there. She had just defeated him in their duel, and he was locked in place. She hadn’t realized that he had woken up from his coma! She was overwhelmed with happiness as she realized she had been right that he would recover.

Someone said something, but she didn’t listen to them. Something was wrong. Something tickled in her spine as she remembered the arcing spell she had sent overhead. It was about to land on the paralyzed Harry! It was a basic force spell that pushed its target downward and lightly pin them to the floor. But Hermione realized with dawning horror that she had made a mistake and that she had turned on too much force. It would crush Harry into a paste if it landed!

What should she do? Hermione didn’t know how to block spells mid-air yet! She started running forwards towards Harry and cast the only spell that might work. She said it out loud and poured her desperation into the cast as she made the motions she had practiced for so long.

“Resistentia Arcana!” She shouted, and it felt like her magic clicked like a key in a lock as she cast the spell. She could feel the five points of emotion in the structure activate as the spell coursed through her wand and shot towards Harry. It landed on him just in time as her force spell hit him a second later.

Hermione kept running towards Harry but let out a sigh of relief as the spell dissolved and his frozen body was unhurt. Hermione quickly undid the boil and petrifying curse she had hit Harry with and put her wand back in her robes. Luckily, the Resistentia Arcana spell still allowed friendly spells through. The voices around her grew louder, but Hermione didn’t listen to them, they weren’t important right now.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Harry,” She said, “I have so much to tell you about when you were gone.”

Suddenly the world wavered around her and popped like a bubble. Hermione could now hear the confused mutters of the students around her and Lockhart's voice filtered into her ears, “An unusual show of sportsmanship after a resounding victory! Now, generally you do not cross the center line, but…”

Hermione stared a daze at Pansy Parkinson who was standing where Harry had been only seconds before. Pansy seemed slightly uncertain as their gazes met. What… Where had Harry gone?

Eventually, Pansy settled on a nasty smirk, “Fell right into my trap, mudblood. Thought I would turn all of your careful training against you. Did you like what you saw? As purebloods we are always taught spells like none you could even imagine…”

“Where is Harry? How did you bring him here?” Hermione asked as she took a step forward, her heart beating fast.

“He’s gone, Hermione. Still at St. Mungo’s in his little coma.”

“What… What did you do with him? Did you hurt him?! Bring him back!” Hermione demanded and took a step forward.

Pansy’s face grew uncertain, “What? No, it was only a…”

“BRING HIM BACK RIGHT NOW!” Hermione shouted and Pansy backed away as Hermione took another step towards her. The room had grown silent at Hermione's outburst.

“What? I can’t it was only…” Pansy said.

“GAAAAHHH!!!” Hermione screamed and her magic leapt to respond to her anger. Pansy stumbled forward as Hermione’s magic drew her right into Hermione’s outstretched hands. Hermione grabbed either side of Pansy’s collar with a tight grip and began shaking her as hard as she could.

“YOU BRING HIM BACK RIGHT NOW PANSY OR I SWEAR I’LL…”

Hermione felt a spell hit her and a web of magic tried to paralyze her. Stop her from forcing Pansy to bring Harry back here. Hermione's magic struck the web like a snake and broke it apart, shattering it in under a second in a series of heavy blows. Hermione was breathing hard as her magic churned into overdrive within her as the spell shattered and she could move again.

“WHAT HAVE YOU…” Hermione resumed shaking Pansy and shouting at her, lost in her rage. Her arms felt unnaturally strong, her magic coursing through her veins as Pansy looked at her in fear.

“Stupify!”

Hermione heard Snape’s voice from the side and saw a flash of red light approaching her from the side. Before she could dodge, it struck her chest and in an instant she fell unconscious. Stopped before she could do anything worse.

— — —

“I have heard of others about this incident, but I think your direct accounts are in order. I thought this unpleasantness was finished after the punishments you both received at the end of last semester.” Headmaster Dumbledore asked frowning, his gaze focused on Pansy. Hermione did end up serving some boring detentions with Professor McGonagall as a result of her actions last time, but she would gladly have served at least ten times as much detention to get personal lessons from Dumbledore.

“We were at dueling club and Hermione won our duel. After it was all done, Hermione walked over and just started trying to throttle me!” Pansy said, “She was so crazy that Professor Snape had to stun her to get her to stop!”

The headmaster turned to Hermione with vague disappointment in his eyes. Hermione shrunk down into her seat. Why had she lost her head like that? She had never been just so overwhelmed with anger like that before.

“She— She cast some sort of curse on me. To– so she could look like Harry," Hermione said, "It made me think differently, like my third spell was going to kill him. I cast the Resistentia Arcana spell and stopped the spell. I don’t know, I was confused, and I thought that Pansy had done something to make Harry disappear again…”

Dumbledore’s head snapped to Pansy, “What spell was this exactly?” He asked in a sharp tone, “This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

Pansy’s face went slightly pale, “I… I… I’m not sure what she’s talking about, Headmaster. She’s lying! That's just what a crazy person would say!”

Dumbledore held out his hand to Pansy, “Well then there is nothing for it. Ms. Parkinson, please hand me your wand.”

“I… headmaster…” Pansy stammered.

“Hand it over, Ms. Parkinson,” Snape added from behind them. McGonagall was present too, Lockhart having left after giving his version of events.

Dumbledore took the wand from a reluctant Pansy and raised his own wand over it.

“Prior Incantatum,” He chanted and a series of different colored lights came streaming from the wands tip. The headmaster hummed thoughtfully as he observed them.

“Well, Ms. Parkinson. Lying about casting that curse has done you no favors,” Dumbledore eventually said after handing back Pansy’s wand, “While not illegal to cast, it is very nearly so. I have been under the effects of the curse myself before and I can tell you that it is extremely unpleasant to experience. Especially in the context of dueling... I will be informing the Board of Governors of this incident, and they will weigh any possible suspension or expulsion.”

Pansy was shocked, “But… but… she attacked me! Why isn’t she getting punished?!”

Dumbledore shook his head, his expression serious, “Casting a curse of that severity on her makes any actions taken directly afterward considered self defense or her not being of sound mind. She will face no consequences for actions that weren’t fully her own at the time.”

“That’s… That’s,” Pansy stammered before Snape put a hand on her shoulder.

“Severus, if you would see Ms. Parkinson out?”

Pansy left in a daze, having to be guided by Snape’s hand on her shoulder to make her way out the door.

The headmaster turned to Hermione after Pansy left, “Now, Hermione, I would just like to say that…”

He paused and stopped speaking in mid sentence. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped slightly as his entire face shifted into surprise.

“Did you say that you fully stopped that spell with the Resistentia Arcana spell?!” He asked Hermione excitedly.

Hermione nodded nervously, “Yes, Sir. I was just so desperate and everything felt like a key in a lock as I cast the spell.”

Dumbledore’s eyes widened further for a second before he seemed to realize his visible reaction and schooled his features.

“This… this is extraordinary. Here demonstrate for me. Let us test if you can do it again!”

Dumbledore quickly summoned the usual dummy with quick gestures. Hermione took out her wand and took a deep breath. She remembered the feeling when she was sure her own spell was going to kill Harry.

“Albus, what is all of this? Why is the girl casting a spell now?”

Hermione’s concentration broke as Professor McGonagall’s confused voice spoke. She turned along with Dumbledore to see McGonagall still standing there, looking between the two of them.

After a seconds shock, Dumbledore gave a dismissive wave to her, “I will explain in a few minutes, Minerva. I just wish to see this first if you don’t mind. Go ahead, Hermione.”

Hermione turned back to the dummy and started preparing again. She remembered the feelings, Harry was about to be almost killed again… She cast the spell and her magic pulsed at the five points of the spell. She felt another internal click as everything worked smoothly as her magic smoothly connected with the spell. The spell shot out and landed at the dummy.

A few seconds later, Dumbledore cast a beam of light at the dummy. The beam was dispersed before it hit the dummy. Seeing the result, Dumbledore cast again. And again. The spell ended up blocking five attacks and weakening the sixth before disappearing.

After he was done, the headmaster quickly waved his wand and the dummy disappeared again. A proud smile was on his face.

“Hermione, I want you to know that I am extremely proud of your progress in this spell. It is nothing short of exemplary. I think our next lesson this Friday will be very interesting indeed. Now, Professor McGonagall looks eager for answers, so I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave. Don’t view your actions to Ms. Parkinson as indicative of your character. Better witches and wizards have done things they would never normally do when placed in situations they view as desperate. Make sure to rely on your friends, I’m sure they will be there to support you in this trying time.”

“Thank– Thank you, Headmaster. I— See you Friday, thank you again.”

Hermione left. As she closed the door she heard McGonagall speaking from inside.

“What is this about lessons, Albus? Tutoring a second year? What…”

The door shut and Hermione left. She shouldn’t eavesdrop especially after the headmaster had done so much to help her.