Chapter Three: Duel
Rodolphus caught up with Snape in the library on Friday after classes. He tried to catch his eye, but Snape was too engrossed in his book. Finally, the older boy came over and tapped him on the shoulder. Severus looked up, recognized Malfoy's lieutenant, and immediately rose.
Lestrange led him to an empty classroom in the dungeons, not far from the Slytherin common room, closed the door, and cast an Imperturbable Charm. Then the older Slytherin sat on top of a desk. Severus remained standing.
"What you did to Macnair was pretty impressive," he said, "for a first year."
"I merely wished to make a point," Severus answered mildly. "He is, after all, a fellow Slytherin."
Rodolphus chuckled softly. "I thought you might say something like that. How do you think you would do against a Gryffindor?"
"I am the match of any Gryffindor up to at least the third year," the younger boy replied disdainfully.
"Really?" responded Lestrange in mock surprise. "I thought you'd be able to take on anybody up to seventh year."
Severus turned his black eyes on Lestrange for a moment, turning away just a second before he knew the older boy would have to.
"I do not indulge in vain bravado like some reckless Gryffindor," he sneered.
Lestrange considered him thoughtfully. Those eyes were unnerving.
"Could you take Sirius Black?" he asked, getting to the point.
"The Gryffindor Black?" Severus allowed his face to show surprise. Sirius would not even be a challenge. "What are the conditions?"
"Black must be formally challenged to a duel, in retaliation for a slight that I shall arrange. The duel will be public, and legal, because the teachers will think it is just a demonstration match. I shall arrange that as well. You will play with him for a bit, just to demonstrate how easily you can parry all his attacks. Then you will finish him off with one or two of the most advanced curses or hexes you know that cause no lasting harm. Something embarrassing would be best, but it can't be anything that requires a trip to the Infirmary."
"When?"
"As soon as I can arrange it. Within the next few weeks certainly. You should be prepared as early as next Wednesday."
"Will he accept the challenge from a half-blood with a Muggle father?"
Severus knew that most purebloods, especially the Blacks, would consider such a challenge beneath them.
"Ah," smiled Rodolphus maliciously. "But he's associating with a known blood traitor now. Potter won't like it if he refuses a duel on the grounds of your blood, Snape. And as far as the teachers are concerned, it will just be a demonstration match between two first years."
Severus remained silent. He wasn't sure how a formal challenge was made, and he was trying to decide whether he could find out without asking Lestrange. Rodolphus took his silence for hesitation. "Lucius will be very pleased if you can do this."
"Then of course, I will," answered Severus, inclining his head.
Rodolphus removed the Imperturbable Charm, and got up from the desk. "You will be contacted at the appropriate time," he said, as he opened the door, and left.
Severus had remained standing for the entire exchange.
*************
Sirius Black and James Potter were comparing their brooms in the Gryffindor first year boys' dormitory. As first years, of course, they weren't allowed their own brooms, but Potter had snuck his in under an Invisibility Cloak, and if a Black wanted to bring a broom to Hogwarts, he just did.
Sirius had been duly impressed when James had brought his Nimbus 1500 out from under the Invisibility Cloak -- not because of the broom, but because of the Cloak. "Mum won't let me have one, because she says 'A Black does not need to hide what he is doing.'"
James frowned, and Sirius suddenly realized that quoting a Black family maxim, and implying that there was something wrong with Potter sneaking his broom in under an Invisibility Cloak, was probably not the best way to endear him to the other boy. He grinned apologetically. "Lucky you're not a Black, then, aren't you?"
James smiled and shook his head as if to say, "What will he come up with next?" Having a Black in Gryffindor was certainly going to be interesting.
"Want to see mine? I got the Racing Nimbus," Sirius went on, when he saw that his grin and joke had fortunately had the same effect on the Gryffindor that they usually had on everyone else.
Short, chubby Peter Pettigrew skittered over to the other two boys. The Pettigrews were solidly middle-class, and he'd never even seen an Invisibility Cloak before. And Peter's own broom was a Comet, safely at home of course. It would have taken him a year to save enough pocket money to get any kind of Nimbus. "Does Filch know you have that?" he squeaked. "Aren't you afraid he'll take it away?"
Sirius looked in surprise at Peter. It had never occurred to him that that might happen.
James laughed out loud at the look on the other boy's face. "He might, you know. You're in Gryffindor now, not Slytherin."
Sirius was not used to being laughed at. Being a Slytherin, especially for a Black, was very serious business. But then again, wasn't that one of the reasons he wasn't a Slytherin? He joined in the laughter.
Remus Lupin was sitting up against the headboard of his bed, reading his first year Spell book. Occasionally he took a surreptitious glance over his book at the three by the window. He was not sure whether he was more jealous of the brooms or of the camaraderie of the other three boys.
*************
Rumors soon started circulating about the illegal broom in the Gryffindor first year dorm -- the Racing Nimbus, not the other. None of the Gryffindors had leaked the secret; Sirius' younger brother, Regulus had told someone who told someone, and eventually it came to the attention of Rodolphus Lestrange. It was a Wednesday evening after dinner, one of the times Lucius set for handling "business", so he had dismissed the other seventh year Slytherin boys from the dormitory.
"Go ahead, Roddy," Lucius said after settling himself in the regal armchair he had set against the one wall of the dorm that was free of beds. "I know you have something for me."
"Sirius has brought his broom to school," Rodolphus began.
"So?" responded the other wizard. "Evan has brought his as well. So did I when I was a first year."
"Sirius is in Gryffindor," Roddy went on. "I'm not sure that our usual arrangement with Filch applies to Gryffindors. What do you think?"
"I see," said Lucius, nodding thoughtfully. "No doubt you are about to tell me how we can take advantage of this situation."
"We need a reason for Snape to challenge Black. Doesn't it seem rather unfair that Black has a broom at school but Snape has to leave his at home?"
Lucius looked amused. "I rather doubt Snape even has a broom. You'll have to see to that, too, won't you?"
"A Tinderblast should be sufficient," Roddy answered. "We don't want to be too obvious. Will we be allowing him to keep it afterwards?"
"If he performs as expected, I see no reason why not," the Slytherin aristocrat answered magnanimously. "Is there anything else I need to deal with today, Roddy?"
Half an hour later, the other Slytherins were allowed back into their own dorm room.
******************
Severus was pacing back and forth on the North balcony of the Astronomy tower. There were no telescopes on this side, so there would be no one studying, and there were no niches, so there would be no one snogging either. He didn't particularly like the high, open space, preferring the comfort of solid walls on all sides, but it was the best he could come up with. He needed some time alone to think.
Grandfather Prince had answered the school owl he had sent asking for the details on how to formally challenge someone to a Wizarding duel. He knew the whole family would be worried by now, because of course he couldn't put in writing that he was doing it for Lucius. He had no way of letting them know what was really going on until he saw them in person, over the Christmas holidays. Mum and Dad would just have to trust that he knew what he was doing, and reassure the others.
Earlier that day, Lestrange had told him the plan in the same classroom as before. He was to challenge Black over a broom, of all things! Severus had made no secret at flying classes that he didn't give a fig for brooms or those who rode them. Besides the unnecessary expense of the broom itself, there was no place he could actually ride one anywhere around Spinner's End. He would have had to take the Muggle bus to the edge of town, holding what would look to a Muggle like a very misshapen broom. Not only were Muggle brooms much straighter, but Muggles rarely carried them about on buses, especially not Muggle men. He'd never had much interest in brooms or Quidditch anyway, and the complications of broom flying had made it certain that he would never acquire such an interest.
All right, then, he was doing so miserably at flying class that he and his family had decided he should have a broom for additional practice. The part about doing miserably at flying class was true enough. So all he had to do was engage Black in a conversation about brooms with non-Gryffindors in the audience, and get him to talk about the broom he had smuggled into Hogwarts. Then Severus would tell Black about the Tinderblast that he had smuggled in and Black would make fun of the broom.
"Who wouldn't?" Severus thought to himself with a snort.
Then he, Snape, would take offense, and challenge Black to a duel. Lestrange was going to convince the teachers that Black and Snape would be content with a "demonstration" duel instead of a real one, but every Slytherin would know better. A formal challenge, formally accepted, was a real duel, no matter what anybody wanted to call it. Severus wondered briefly how Lestrange was going to get this past Professor Slughorn, but then, that wasn't his problem.
It all sounded simple enough, but it made Severus extremely nervous. He was not accustomed to starting up conversations with anyone, let alone conversations about brooms. And in all his eleven and a half years, every relative on both sides of the family, Muggle as well as wizard, had impressed upon him the appropriate behavior around the Wizarding upper class, especially around such august names as Malfoy and Black. It would never have occurred to him to speak to one without being spoken to first, let alone show offense!
The more he thought about it, the more nervous he got, and the faster he paced. Snapes did not challenge anybody to duels, let alone purebloods. They might attend at a duel -- unlikely, but not unheard of -- but they did not issue challenges themselves. If only he could spend some time with Da to talk about this, and come up with the right things to say!
He suddenly noticed how fast he was pacing, and how tense he was. He stopped, and took several slow breaths. Well, his father wasn't here, and he would just have to deal with it by himself. The black eyes turned cold and empty as the gears started turning inside his head, and he began to construct a script.
************
Sirius looked over at the beanpole with the hooked nose and the greasy black hair at the other end of the duelling area. This was ridiculous! He was fighting a formal duel against a practically Mudblood factory kid over a taunt about a Tinderblast! No, strike that, he had to stop thinking in terms of pedigree, as if he were comparing a mutt with a show dog. James didn't like it, and besides, it was demeaning to both sides of the comparison. But still, who wouldn't have called a Tinderblast an old witch's broom? It was! Snape probably called it that himself!
"I have got to stop blurting out the first thing that comes to my mind," the impulsive Gryffindor muttered to himself, not for the first time. This was going to be humiliating. He'd heard about this first year Slytherin who knew more curses than some seventh years.
At least he realized that it wouldn't make any difference to James or Peter. Peter knew nothing about duels, formal or otherwise, and James thought it was a great joke and capital fun to have two first years duelling. He vaguely remembered the quiet Lupin kid frowning because he thought he remembered Snape didn't like flying, and besides, how could he afford a broom anyway? Something in the back of his mind whispered to him that this could be a setup, but Sirius had never liked listening to those whispers. He was a Gryffindor, not a Slytherin. He smiled at the thought, and steadied himself for the duel.
Severus eyed his pureblood opponent in the posh robe. He himself was wearing the only well-fitting robe he had, the one he had worn to The Party, and it managed to look both too formal and less well-made than Black's.
"Someday," he thought to himself, "all my robes will be quality and they will all fit."
The hard part was over, and it hadn't been hard at all, he thought with disdain. The Gryffindor had absolutely no control over what came out of his mouth. All the Slytherin had needed to say was "Tinderblast" and the idiot had answered "sissy broom", as if it were an automatic response. To think he had wasted so much time and energy worrying!
Professor Flitwick had shown Black and Snape to their respective places, and was going over the rules. Potter stood as second to Black, "simply to show how it would be done if this were a 'real' duel", and Macnair stood as second for Snape. Severus had wanted Yaxley, but had had to settle for the only Slytherin he clearly outranked. Two golden purebloods against two half-blood thugs. Well, it couldn't be helped. Yet.
Now the bow. Severus couldn't restrain himself from making his graceful bow lower than it ought to have been. In a formal duel, both participants were considered equal in rank. Black was lowering himself in the eyes of every Slytherin simply by agreeing to this duel. Sirius tossed off a shallow jerky bow that managed to be charming despite its gracelessness. Severus curled his upper lip. Sirius Black may be a Gryffindor, but he was still a Black, and he cared more about this than he was letting on.
They held their wands at the ready. One, two, three ...
"Rictusempra!" Sirius called out, throwing the Tickling Charm at Snape like a swordsman from a Gryffindor hall portrait.
"Protego!" pronounced Severus, quickly but methodically using his wand to describe the shield that deflected Black's charm before he had gotten the last syllable out of his mouth. Lucius nodded at Snape, pleased. There were still some adult witches and wizards who had trouble with that one.
"Tarantallegra!" Sirius threw the Dancing Charm without bothering to do anything about Snape's Shield Charm, which of course was still protecting him. Malfoy, Lestrange, and some of the other Slytherins snickered. Potter blushed, and tried to hiss something at Black. Snape stood inside the shield and raised an eyebrow.
"Serpensortia," conjured the Slytherin, and flung a snake in Black's direction, although much closer to himself than the Gryffindor. He still had a few more spells to go, and he didn't want Flitwick getting nervous and ending the duel too soon.
Malfoy smiled broadly. "Well done," he whispered to Lestrange. "A conjuring spell, and a serpent at that!"
Black looked at the snake as if he wondered where it had come from.
"Expelliarmus," he called, thinking of the Disarming Spell, but throwing it at the snake instead of Snape.
"I don't think the serpent has a wand," Severus remarked dryly when nothing happened. More snickers, not just from the Slytherins this time. Even Flitwick had to struggle to keep from smiling.
Finally, it ocurred to Sirius to try to stop Snape instead of attack him. But while he was trying to get out all seven syllables of Petrificus Totalus, Severus threw first his own invention, Langlock, so that Black couldn't speak clearly, and then finished up with a spell that tied him up in ropes. Severus had saved Incarcerous for last, because he knew that would end the duel.
Lucius declared the duel a smashing success, and thereafter Snape was no longer asked to fetch people or things, but was reserved for "correction" duty with the younger students.
Sirius was red with humiliation for about five minutes, until James started going over the duel. He almost seemed to think his Gryffindor Black friend had staged all of his idiotic responses for the other boy's entertainment. "Did you see the deadly earnest look on Snape's face? You would have thought this was over something important," grinned James. "And did you see those robes? I couldn't tell whether he was dressed for a duel or a funeral."
"A funeral, of course," parried Sirius, all embarassment forgotten. "Mine!"
Severus scowled as the Gryffindors walked off laughing. He had won, and Malfoy was pleased, but the Gryffindors didn't seem to realize it.
He sent the Tinderblast home for Mum and Dad to sell.
Posted by Madmaxime at May 12, 2006 05:10 AM