CHAPTER 15 - HOGWARTS DUELLING CLUB

A few minutes later, Hermione arrived and sat down next to him.

"Good morning Andrew."

"Good morning Hermione, can I ask you a favor?"

"What do you need?"

Andrew looked around to make sure no one was listening, having confirmed that everything was fine, he continued.

"Do you remember that day when I had the ice problem?"

"So - are you finally going to say what happened?"

"Yes..."

After a few minutes of explaining everything, Hermione looked at Andrew with concern on her face.

"Andrew, you should stop getting involved in this matter, I don't know what you're doing, but what if that strange ice had killed you? Besides, how many wizards who hear voices do you know? There's something wrong with that!"

Andrew sighed and said, "I know, you're right about it, but it only happened once, and recently I can't help but be curious, I've been thinking about the words the voice had said, and I think part of what he said was about Harry and you-know-who. "

"Whatever the abyss the voice mentioned, it has something even more dangerous than Voldemort, being serious, I don't know what could be worse than a dark lord, maybe a nuclear bomb, but I doubt that wizards have something like that. "

Hermione looked at Andrew like he was suicidal, putting her hands on her face, she sighed and said.

"Andrew, I'm going to help you, but only if it doesn't endanger you or break the school rules, then tell me, what do we need to do?"

"First we have to visit Dumbledore -" Andrew looked at Flitwick before continuing. "and find out why being good with charms was necessary to get the headmaster's help."

Nodding, they turned their attention to the class.

...

Later that day, Andrew and Hermione went to Dumbledore's office and waited for the opportunity to speak to him, luckily it didn't take long, he already seemed to be aware that they would come.

"I imagine you came here at Professor Flitwick's request, did he say anything?"

"Only that I had to bring someone as talented as me in charms." Andrew looked at Hermione.

Dumbledore stroked his beard and looked at them thoughtfully, sighing he got up and walked over to a desk, opening the drawer, he took out a type of contract and handed them both a pen and ink.

"If you want to participate in those matters, sign these papers, it's a contract, if you break one of the conditions in it, your memories related to what you're going to get involved in will be erased."

Andrew and Hermione looked at each other, he was the first to sign, he couldn't hesitate right now, that was the only way to get any clues regarding his vision. Seeing the determination in Andrew's eyes, Hermione sighed and signed the contract, too.

"Very well. You probably don't know, but 10 years ago, I approved a request from Flitwick and the other Professors to create a dueling club, we wanted to prepare the most brilliant students at Hogwarts so that they could defend themselves in the eventual chance of being forced to deal with death eaters and ... Voldemort, for that reason only a few students from each year and House were invited to participate. "

Nodding, Andrew understood why he couldn't find Ben Copper, he was probably in that club all day, but one thing didn't make sense.

"Why is there so much secrecy around something like that?"

"Precaution, Many wizards believe that I am a dark lord, or that I am preparing an uprising against the ministry of magic, their thoughts are obscured by fear and lies spread by ill-intentioned people and inconsequential journalists like Rita Skeeter, and although I'm friends with Cornelius Fudge, he is not prepared enough to deal with the pressure of the job, especially when I had my reasons for refusing the position of Minister of Magic...

Besides, as I said earlier, the main reason for creating the club was to prepare the most brilliant students of that period, I don't want to admit, but the number of times accidents happened in the internal and external regions of Hogwarts that involved these sympathetic groups of Voldemort weren't low. This year the last group of students will finally graduate, so we will be closing the club. But this time I will make an exception for you, I will allow you to enter and participate in the activities of the Club when you leave the office, Professor McGonagall will take you there.

Now if you excuse me, I still have other matters to deal with."

As soon as they left Dumbledore's office, they ran into Professor McGonagall, she was already waiting for them.

"Let's go then, I'll show you the way to the dueling club."

She took them to the dungeons and after walking for some time, she stopped in front of a wall and said. "Those who have permission to enter the dueling club, just have to walk right into it, remember it's location, it's not that far from the potions class as you may have noticed it."

She then went inside the wall and disappeared, they followed her and found themselves in a corridor that led to a dor.

"Let's go."

As they entered the dor, Professor McGonagall stopped and said.

"Before you duel, ask someone from your house to teach you the three necessary dueling spells, only when you learned them you will be allowed to duel, I'm talking about the spells, [Protego], [Expeliarmus], and [Flipendo], I have to go now, remember to visit the Hospital wing if you hurt yourselves."

She then left the club, turning behind, they saw a group of students surrounding some sort of arena, when they approached some of them stepped back allowing them to continue forward.

When they arrived at the edge of the Arena, they saw two students dueling each other, one was a boy from Slytherin and the other was a boy from Gryffindor, the one from Slytherin was wearing some sort of mask so they couldn't see his face, but the other one was a tall boy with orange-blonde hair, a common face, and light brown eyes.

The Gryffindor boy raised his wand and shouted [Stupefy], but the one from Slytherin countered with a single wave of his wand, and soon after with another one he sent four ice stakes. Those watching the duel seemed to be concerned with the way things were developing.

Fortunately, the boy from Gryffindor reacted fast and cast [Protego], the moment the ice stakes hit the shield it made it crack, while also spreading an icy air that made everyone robes fluter with the wind.

Then they heard the boy from Gryffindor shout [Bombarda Maxima].

This time, the one from Slytherin ran towards the boy and jumped son after he finished chanting the spell, the floor behind exploded sending debris everywhere, thankfully there was some sort of shield around the arena stoping anything that could hurt the onlookers.

As the boy from Slytherin fell on the ground, he rolls out to the side and with a wave of his wand, made the ground beneath the one from Gryffindor to tremble. As the boy from Gryffindor fell on the ground, another spell hit him, making him freeze on his spot as if he was some sort of statue.

At that moment, they heard the students applaud, everyone was excited after watching that incredible demonstration of non-verbal spells, Andrew and Hermione looked at the boy from Slytherin with awe in their eyes, they have never seen such a powerful wizard fighting!

After that the Slytherin boy who wore a mask cast some other spell that made him invisible and disappeared from everyone's sights.

Soon after they saw a blonde girl walk over to the boy lying on the ground, she bent down to help him get up and said.

"Haha, you improved a lot, Ben, I bet you are the third most powerful student in Hogwarts this year, to think that you would be capable of facing Leonard, truly amazing!"

The boy smiled as he took the girl's hand, "Thank you, Penny, I guess I was to greed to try and compare with him..."

She smiled and gave him a quick kiss on his lips.

"Don't say it like that, there's nothing wrong in aiming to become stronger, I believe that one day you will be capable of defeating him."

Then the other students start to speak as well

"Yeah Ben, look at us, we can't even stand against him for a few seconds, but you fought against him for full five minutes!"

"He's right Ben, you are truly amazing!"

He smiled hearing everyone's words. But then he noticed the two kids that should be from the first years.

"Oh, and who are you two? Didn't know the Professor would allow other students to enter the club." Ben smiled as he walked to them, making the other's finally pay attention to them.

"Oh, my name is Andrew Jacobs, and she is..."

"I'm Hermione Granger, and who are you, I never heard of such powerful wizards between the Hogwarts students!?"