| Dugbog
Join Date: May 2010 Location: Iowa , United States
Posts: 141
Second Year | 
Hey everyone! How’s everyone summer going?? Its been hot here in Iowa!
Disclaimer : Everything Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.
Chapter 21
“This week has dragged!” Ella said pounding her head onto the table.
“The task will be announced next week, so we need to concentrate and try and figure out what Harry needs to know.” Hermione said looking at the distraught Ella.
“In my opinion, he should study the really important classes. You know charms, Transfiguration, oh and potions.”
“Potions?” Hermione said raising an eyebrow
“Well, maybe he could use a brush up on antidotes.” Ella said
Hermione nodded directing her attention to finding an antidote book at the library.
“Ok, well I think we have everything.” Hermione said picking up the books around them.
Ella, dragging her feet followed behind with a few heavy books.
“He better be studying.” Ella said grumbling.
As they made there way back to the common room Ella wasn’t surprised to see Harry and Ron both laughing at what the Weasley twins were doing.
“Fred and George.” “What is new?” Ella said.
“Well , hello my dear.” They both said in unison .
“ We haven’t spoke to you in a while.” Fred said
“ What gives?” George said patting Ella on the back.
“ Been kind off busy lately.” Ella said smiling .
“ Well, were your friends too!” they both walked away and Ella acknowledged that she probably should get to know everyone a little more.
“ I really want to start dueling again.” Ella said flipping through the charm book.
“Well, last time we had a bloody dueling club Mr. Parseltounge here ruined it.” Ron said laughing
“ You’re a parselmouth?” Ella said putting the book down.
“Yes” Harry said whispering. Trying not to bring the attention of other students.
“Don’t be ashamed.” “ My great great grandfather was, I kind off hoped it past down to me, but no one since him has had the gift.”
“The gift?” “Ella , you know who can speak to snakes.” Harry said leaning into the circle they made near the fire.
Ella waved him off.
“ Where I come from its not a bad thing.” “Although I can see the fear everyone might have.” Ella said.
“ We should make a tournament .” Ella said aloud.“ A dueling tournament.”
Ella was smiling.
“ Not a good idea.” Hermione said tapping her wand on a Transfiguration book.
“ None of the professors need to know, we will have it here!”
“ Ok,I know some sound proofing charms, and we could cover up the paintings.”
“ Sounds like fun.” Ron and Harry said
“ Harry, could use the practice!” Ella was trying her best to convince
Hermione..
“Give me some parchment.” Ella said to Ron.
For the next few hours Ella and her friends made up a list of all age groups,
and rules of the tournament. Soon the group added Ginny, and the twins for help.
“Ron , couldn’t duel anyone.” Fred said laughing.
“Shut it Fred!”
“ SHH!” “I will make the sign in sheet.” She said grabbing some parchment.
Hermione was finally getting involved.
“ We need prizes for each age level winner.” Harry said
“ 2nd and 3rd place can just get ribbons” Ginny suggested.
“Let us handle the prizes.” Fred said pointing to him and George.
“ Ok, then its set.” Ella’s grin was as wide as can be.
“ Hermione can you charm the sheet and make it invisible to the non students.”
“ Already done.” Hermione smiled handing the paper to her friends.
Gryffindor Dueling Tournament.
DO you have what it takes? Sign up !
Rules are attached! Read them before sighing up. NO FIRST YEARS.
Ella smiled, and took a quill and signed up.
Ella R. Greene 4
The others followed------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hermione Granger 4
George Weasley 6
Fred Weasley 6
Harry Potter 4
Ron Weasley 4
Ginny Weasley 3
“Ok, let’s post it.” Ella took her wand and cleared a spot on the bulletin board.
Word spread fast and by the time everyone went to bed, most of the 4th 5th ,6th and 7th years had entered.
“We need more third years!” Ginny said, angry at her age level turn out.
“Don’t worry, they will they still have a few days.” Hermione said walking to dorms.
Ella grew excited. For the first time all week she didn’t think about Karkaoff.
-----------------------------------Friday--------------------------------------------------------
Friday, had finally arrived and everyone grew excited about the tournament the next day. True to everyone’s word, no Gryffindor spoke about the entire event. “Over 50 entries!” Ron said taking down the sign up sheet.
“ Perfect! We need to tally each age level. And by tonight have who’s dueling who posted.” Ella said as they walked to breakfast.
“I have potions tonight, so I will not get to see everyone’s reaction!”
“No worries, I am sure everyone will still be up practicing.”
“Yeah, your right.” Ella said making sure she had her morning books.
When everyone finally sat down to eat, the entire table did not make a peep.
Hermione, Ron, Harry and Ella made sure they didn’t looks suspicious, and counted each person and began to place the students into the tourney.
“We should match up size and talent.” “No one should feel too defeated.” Ella whispered.
“Fred and George can help us with the older ones.” Ron said.
“What’s the final count, Ella?” Neville said.
“No , idea right now, but we are working on it” Ella said still trying to count.” “I am going to estimate most of the Gryffindor’s are participating!”
Ella began to smile at this point.
“Wow” Neville’s face got bright red. “This is big.”
“I only go big, Neville, come on you know me.” Ella said giggling.
She was truly impressed with the turn out.
“ Well , lets go shall we?” Ella packed up her bag and got ready for the day.
“ Your late.” Snape’s voice was stern
“ I am five minutes early.” Ella said pointing to the clock
“Do you have time to unpack everything and be prepared?”
“ No.” “Ok, well I will get here ten minutes till.”
Dumbledore wasn’t in his office, but the feeling of being watched was evident throughout.
“ Wolfsbane.”
“ Excuse me?” Ella turned pale.
“ You need to be challenged.” He was emotionless the entire time.
“ Yeah, Im only 14.” Ella wasn’t going down without a fight.
“ I will help, but this will be tonight’s project.” “Describe why this potion is important.” Still being the professor , he began to quiz her.
“ Wolfsbane, helps ease the effects of those who suffer from lycanthropy”
She knew how to describe the potion, but not for a few years did she think she would create it.
“ Does it cure?” He was pacing, which made her nervous
“ No.” Ella said in a questioning tone.
“ Lets begin.”
Five hours later , they finally stopped to pack up.
“You did well.” Snape never showed too much emotion , but he was clearly
impressed with her work.
Ella stopped to pull her hair back.
“This was very difficult.” Her shoulders slumped and a sigh came from her mouth .
“ It will only get worse.” “ You need to be trained for anything.” “After all, you are going to replace me.” Snape didn’t look up but kept putting ingredients back.
Ella turned around with a clear look of puzzlement. “ What do you mean?”
“ I mean , once you graduate.” “ Dumbledore agreed if and only if you do well here at lessons and during the summer time… you could possibly teach her.”
Ella couldn’t grasp what he was saying. She was going to teach at Hogwarts.
“What about you?” Ella said stopping her excitement for a moment.
“I will still keep a position here, I just don’t know what it will be.” Snape
shook his head. Ella wasn’t a selfish person, and thought about others.
Ella looked visibily relived. “Oh ok, good.”
“ He told your parents a little while ago.” Snape said stopping for a moment.
“ Oh, well they will be happy.” “ They didn’t know what I was going to do.”
Ella said thinking about their reaction to her love all those years.
“This summer, I want to work on a lot of different things.” Snape said walking away.
“ Like what?” She stopped washing her cauldron to hear what he had to say.
“ Potions of course, but some dueling curses, and occlumency”
Ella felt cold. For some reason she knew he wanted her to learn how to defend herself.
“ Should I extend my visit, I don’t think I will be able to learn all of this in two weeks.”
“ I will send an owl to your parents.”
“ Ok.”
“ I know this is a lot to process.”
“ It is but I am excited.” Ella said
picking up the final odds and ends.
“ Good,now you should be on your way, I don’t want you out that late.”
“ Thanks!” Ella waved rushing out the door. She still had so much to do.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Are you kidding me????” Hermione squealed.
“ NOPE!” Ella grin was as wide as can be.
“ That is amazing news!” Ginny said
“ Im excited.”……………. “ THE TOURNAMENT!” Ella realized with all the excitement of her future, she forgot the tournament.
“Its done.” As you can see people are brushing up on some skills.
“Who am I pared of with in round one?” Ella said with raised eyebrows
“ Dean Thomas” Harry said reading her the tournament papers.
“ Ok, I have a lot of brushing up to do.”
“ Let me see the list.” Ella reached her hand forward as Harry gave her the
list.
“ Hermione, you and Patil should be a good duel, you will win of course” Ella said smiling.
“ Harry and Seamus”
“ Ron and Neville”
“Ginny and Collin?”
He was the only one left.”.
“Jeez I wanted it to be fair” Ella said laughing.
“Katie and Cormac should be a good one.” “ Fred and George, going against each other?” Ella turned towards her seated friends.
“They wouldn’t have it any other way” Ron said smiling.
“I am actually really hoping Katie knocks Cormac out.” The gang laughed into the night, going over what the tournament outcomes might be.
----------------------
“ Hermione woke up early and has been practicing” Ginny said laughing.
“Good for her, Patil wont go down easily.” Ella said pulling her robe over her
school clothes.
The girls followed the rest of Gryffindor’s down to breakfast.
“ Greene, come with me.” A loud voice came from a small hallway.
Ella turned to see Professor Mad Eye
“ Yes, professor?”
“ Come with me.” He said in his usual gruff manor.
Ella didn’t really have much to do with Professor Moody. He did have this infatuation with dark spells, but he never bothered her.
“ I heard about your little dueling tournament.”
“ I don’t…” The words couldn’t come out of her mouth
“No need to lie, I already have the proof.”
“Damn. Neville.” Ella whispered.
“ No, not Neville, though I can understand why you suspected him”
“ It doesn’t matter how I know, but I do know you are the orchestrator. I myself think it was a great idea to show your strengths. All I ask is to make sure it is safe and do not try to cover up any accidents.” “If anyone gets hurt, I don’t care how great you are at potions go to Madame Pomfrey.”
Ella nodded.
“Who is your first opponent?"
“ Dean Thomas” Ella knew he could tell she was nervous.
His eye wondered as he thought about the match up.
“Incarcerous Should do the trick. But do not shout it. Whisper it like this. “
“ Incarcerous.”
He pointed his wand to a small end table and instantly the table begin to wrap slowly in strong binds. . If I said it like this “INCARCEROUS” As the words came out of his mouth the Ropes begin to grow larger and bind tighter until the table broke into a dozen pieces.
“ See what I mean?”
“ Yes.”Ella said smiling.
“ Do the charm , and you will win the first round.” “You are on your own for the rest.”
“ Good luck Greene.”
“ Thank you Moody.”
Ella was curious how he found out, but dismissed it quickly to get back to lunch.
“ The key is blocking spells.” Hermione said reading a charms book.
“ If I get a pimple spell I will be mad.” Ginny said. The rest of them laughed
at her anxiousness.
Breakfast was well under well, but all everyone could talk about was the duel.
2 pm. Couldn’t come any faster.
Right after breakfast , Ella and Hermone secured the are with sound proofing charms and covered the portraits.
Ella couldn’t take the ruckus from the common room. Everyone who had entered was practicing there jinxes and charms and those who needed piece and quiet were sentenced to the dorms.
“Ella, I am nervous.”
“Don’t be lavender.”
“ You don’t have to duel until the second round, right?” Ella said.
“ Yep the winner of Granger, and Patil.”
“ Well, you should do fine.” Ella said flipping through some pages.
“ I am going to practice the jinxes on my pajamas.” “ Ok?” Ella said making sure Lavender knew what she was about to do.
Ella practiced and practiced and got at least four new spells down, from the collection she had already remembered from previous bouts.
2 pm came quickly and so did the onset of Ella’s nervous.
Ella had a while until her bout, but since she and the others started this they needed to be judges.
The first bouts were from the second years, whose knowledge of curses was minimal as was the excitement of the duels. Once everyone completed the first round, the winners had a seat while the losers went on watching.
Some of the third years, did particularly well especially Ginny who defeated
Collin in a matter of two jinxes.
“Great Job Ginny!” Ella said giving her a pat on the back.
Ella began to think that even Ginny could teach her some things.
When Ella’s and Deans name was announced the noise died instantly. Ella was nervous. She had to prove herself, because some Gryffindor’s still thought of her as an outsider.
Ella stood and walked over to where dean was already positioned. They bowed ,wands at the ready, and Ella walked slowly to her mark.
Ella, closed everyone off, not even the sound of her breathing was a distraction. She made sure she focused on her spell, and his wand.
It seemed like an eternity when she noticed a slight twitch in Dean’s wand.
She was neither quiet nor loud, but she uttered “Incarcerous” just as Moody had told her.
Dean folded fast under slowly binding ropes. Ella ran to him and began blasting the ropes off , making sure not to accidently hit him.
“ I will remember that one next time!” Dean said laughing.
Ella helped him up and brushed off some of the ropes off of his robes.
“Amazing, Ella.” Ron said smiling wide.
“Your next tough guy.” Ella said laughing. She felt a sense of relief. Dean was a good wizard, and she defeated him instantly.
“ Thanks Mad Eye” Ella whispered to herself.
-----------------------------------
The rest of the afternoon was filled with laughter. The foursome had all qualified for the finals and George and Fred’s duel had created a much needed comic relief in the darkness that had spread in their lives.
“ I cant believe he made Fred’s hair turn into worms!” Hermione said recalling the duel.
“ My favorite was when Fred retaliate and made George have boils all over his face!” Ella was laughing so hard it hurt.
The seventh years were still dueling, and were showing just why they were about to graduate.
“ Just think we will be them in a few years.” Ella said in awe of there skill.
“ We will be better.” Harry said smiling.
“ Listen up everyone, to speed up the time, we will be moving stuff around and having two duels going at once. That way everyone will be done quickly.” Ella announced the eager crowd.
“Ella vs Ron” and “ Hermione vs Harry”
It was going to be tough, Ella knew Ron was more of a competent wizard then even he may have believed himself to be.
“ Ronnekins, don’t mess up to a girl!” Fred yelled laughing hysterically.
“ Bug off!” Ron said turning to Ron.
When it was time, Ella, Ron, Harry and Hermione rose and bowed to their respective dueling partners.
Ella couldn’t calm the conflict that was going on in her mind. The right thing to do was allow Ron to win, but she wanted to prove herself to her peers.
Ron looked nervous, she noted. His wand was shaking and sweat began to glisten off his hands.
She closed her eyes , and opened them in just enough time to utter her spell.
Ron’s ears begin to twitch. A simple hex, the twitchy ears hex came to her mind, when nothing else would.
“Locomotor Mortis” Ron said with his left hand over his left ear.
Ella’s knees went stiff and she fell to the ground.
“ You got me Ron!” Ella said trying to act mad.
“ Ella , out of all the hexes why did you choose that one?” Ron said looking confused.
“ Umm. Well see I was hoping to distract you and then make a move.” Ella said biting her tongue to stop it from saying anything else.
Ron beamed from one twitchy ear to another. The crowd cheered as Ron’s excitement grew!
“ Wow, Ron were impressed.” Said Fred
“ Hey Ron, sit by us!” Said a couple of fifth years.
Ella smiled, almost forgetting another duel was going on.
Hermione and Harry were still going at it and Ella was enjoying every minute of it. “Harry had Hermione a few times, but she is really good a blocking curses.” George said clueing Ron and Ella in.
Twenty minutes later, Ella decided to get the fifth years going .
Cheering was still going on , but as time began to drag on it became less and less enthusiastic .
“ Come one Harry!” Yelled one person.
“ Hermione I cant go on anymore!” Harry yelled.
“ TRUCE?” She yelled
“ Yeah, truce!” Harry said.
They put their wands down and bowed at one another.
Hermione couldn’t help but hug Harry.
“ One hour, Jeez!” Ella said looking at the time.
“ The third task is coming up, and Harry needs the practice, so I am forfeiting”
“ Well you did great!” “Thanks.” Hermione sat down proud of the work she accomplished.
Ella looked at the sheet . “ Next up Ron and Harry .” “ For the fourth year champion” She sat down with everyone else , as Ron approached Harry.
The competition ended around 8 : 30 pm. Worn out from orchestrating the event, and doing the majority of the clean up Ella needless to say was tired.
“ You let him win.” Harry said to Ella.
They were the only two left in the common room. It was midnight ,and
everyone exhausted from the evening and had headed off to bed.
“ You did too.” Ella said smiling back to Harry.
Ella sunk into the plush chair.
With a confused look upon his face Harry had to ask “ How did you know?”
“ My excuse was a tad bit better.” Ella said stoking the fire, hiding her smile
“ I said I used the twitchy ear as a distraction, you said you meant to cast a curse, not a blocking spell.” Ella couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of Harry trying to pull an excuse out of mid air. She was however happy that Ron got the recognition, and the glory.
Plus seeing George and Fred giving him a changing Hair color crème as a prize was priceless.
“He needed to win.” Harry said calmly
“ I agree.”
“ There is so much pressure on him to do well.” Harry said shaking his head.
“ His family is amazing, but his older brothers are successful, and Ginny is shaping up to be a great witch.”
“He has what it takes; he just needs to believe in himself.” Ella said
“We should duel.” Harry said laughing.
“Whenever you feel it is necessary to lose Mr. Potter, I will always be available.”
Harry’s laughing calmed Ella.
“I am off to bed.” Ella said Oh Harry, thanks for the help.”
“ No problem, this was fun.” Harry said still staring at the flames of the fire.
“Night.” Ella whispered. |