The Duelling Showdown

~_ that means paragraph for something not a journal entry

It was a chilly day in November, and many of the students, especially fifth and seventh years, were studying. Melody was under a lot of pressure, as O.W.L year was the most important. It depended on how many O.W.L's you got in order to do your N.E.W.T's, and if you fail, it'll be very difficult to get a job. Tom, of course, just calmly sat across from Melody, studying peacefully and showing no sign of stress whatsoever.

~_The magical theory behind the transfiguration transformation of chair to cage and the differences between the 'Chagite' incantation and the 'Cairite' incantation._~

Melody had no clue what the first part of her study worksheet meant, but she at least remembered what each of the two incantations did. 'Chagite' (ché gjee téh) was the spell to transfigure a chair into a cage, and 'Cairite' (ca ree téh) was the spell to transfigure a cage into a chair.

But the 'magical theory behind the transfiguration transformation of chair to cage—'

Like, what?!

Melody flipped through the pages of her transfiguration textbook, looking for something to help her answer. It was theoretical Transfiguration and theoretical Charms Melody had difficulty with. Ancient Runes wasn't as difficult as she knew two other languages other than English, so she could make new Runes as well. Arithmancy was sort of similar to mathematics so that wasn't too hard either.

"There's a duelling club today."

Melody looked up from her textbook. The paragraph felt like a whole essay. It was only then Melody realized how much of a headache she was having.

"When?" She asked.

"Today," Tom replied with emphasis.

Melody rolled his eyes, already irritated on top of her headache. "No, Mr Obvious, I meant what time, in twenty minutes or an hour?"

Tom smirked, amused. "Well then, you could've just said so. In an hour."

Melody didn't retort, as she was already in a bad mood. "Is it mandatory?" And although Melody wouldn't mind a break from O.W.L studies, she really had to improve on theory.

"Yes, it might even help you. Professor Dumbledore is giving a short lecture about theoretical Transfiguration, and so's Professor Taney, for Charms."

Melody looked thoughtful for a minute. "I guess that's okay.." then she got up and took out even more books on duelling.

"If you want to improve in duelling, reading won't help."

Melody scoffed. "Yeah, but I need to read to find any good tips." Melody mentally scheduled a time to go to the Room of Requirement that way she could practice.

Melody found a couple good tips on duelling, and after ten minutes, she got up, return the duelling books, and rushed to the seventh floor corridor.

'I need a place to practice duelling, I need a place to practice duelling, I need a place to practice duelling...' she thought three times while pacing in front of the wall.

On the third try, a door appeared so Melody entered. There were many dummies for her to practice on, and a lot of light.

Melody wished for a few books on duelling and Charms, and they appeared. Melody charmed the dummy to also fight back with a few spells. She even managed a few non-verbal spells, which were supposed to be very advanced. 'Not for Tom anyway..' she thought bitterly.

Melody reviewed and practiced some previous spells she learned over the years, and even managed to summon her wand to her non-verbally, just like with how she summoned the love potions from the girls on the Express.

~_A duel usually ends when the opposing witch or wizard ends out with their opponent's wand. However, real, official duels last until one of the duellers are dead. But, for example, when young wizarding children practice duelling at home or school (magical schools), it is only until one of them has their wand taken by their opponent does the duel actually end._~

After discovering this, Melody began practicing summoning her wand to her while it was still flying over to the other person (or, in some cases, to the side).

As Melody summoned her wand to herself one more time to reassure herself that she could do it, she cancelled the charm on the dummy and began mentally writing a list of spells she would use. After all, she didn't know who she was going to go up against, and if she was to lose, she could at least make the loss worth it by trying anyway.

Melody then left the Room of Requirement.

"Point me duelling club room."

The golden arrow led her to....an unused classroom. Many others were already in there, standing around some stage that reminded Melody of a fashion show.

Then, there at the start of the stage, was a huge poster of a wand emitting light.

Melody went to stand beside her friends, Cheryl and Katie.

Then the lights flicked on, and Dumbledore and Taney came on stage. What followed was a quick lecture and demonstration of a few spells that required theory behind the casting, and then some more lecturing, and then finally, Dumbledore told everyone to back away from the stage. Everyone backed away as the stage began to expand, large enough to fit twenty duels at once along with a bunch of open space. Some first years were wondering how this even fit in the classroom.

Then Taney chose duelling partners up until third year, and then the others watched as twenty pairs duelled. The first year duels weren't very interesting as the only thing they could do was disarm and send sparks at each other. The upper years were slightly more interesting in terms of style, and then it was time to pair up the fourth, fifth, and sixth years each with their own age. Dumbledore, of course, expanded the stage even more so that it could fit fifty duels on each side, yet also somehow not be too crazy so people could still see. Melody was paired with Fleamont Potter, while her friend Cheryl was with Allen Bulstrode and Katie was with Septimus Weasley. (Other duelling pairs not mentioned, because like, come on, I'm not naming a hundred pairs, which, according to math, 100 x 2 = 200 people).

Melody cast a non-verbal disarming charm, which Fleamont easily blocked, and then sent a jelly legs hex her way. Melody ducked and the spell ended up hitting the protective shield around them (every duelling pair has one around them that way spells wouldn't fly everywhere).

"Stupefy."

Deflected by Melody, blocked by Fleamont.

Full body bind by Melody, dodged by Fleamont, who then sent another Stupefy. Which Melody easily blocked. Then he sent another Stupefy. Blocked again.

And another Stupefy.

Once again, blocked.

Melody was getting a little exhausted with all the spell shouting and non-verbal attempts, which was when she realized something.

He was trying to exhaust her on purpose, that way when she let her guard down, he'd send an offensive spell!

So instead of blocking, Melody deflected the Stunning spell, and used Fleamont's dodging to her advantage.

'Accio..' she thought, focusing on his wand. It came flying over to her, and she caught it.

"Impressive. I should've cast a shield charm. Oh well, you win, can I have my wand back now?"

Melody tossed it back to Fleamont, and the two went to Professor Taney, who assigned them both new partners.

Melody won the next duel, lost the third, and the fourth (but she tried well), and won the fifth. After a dozen more duels, and several breaks, the people duelling were narrowed down to ten; Melody, Fleamont Potter, Tom Riddle, Cheryl, Charlus Potter, Alphard Black, Lilian Eves, Eleanor Porter, and Hadrian Shafiq.

Hadrian won against Eleanor, but then lost against Alphard, who won against Charlus, lost against Fleamont, who was then beaten by Cheryl. Cheryl lost against Tom Riddle, then Melody won against Lilian, which left Tom and Melody. (Sorry if the counting is inaccurate)

Their duel was the most interesting one to occur yet.

The two approached each other, raised their wands, murmured spells no one could make out, and the two spells collided, and deflected off each other, and hit the shield.

Then something very strange happened.

Tom dropped his wand.

Nobody could understand why, although Melody seemed to, because she dropped hers too.

"Huh?" Cheryl mumbled aloud. "Are you crazy?!"

"First one unconscious loses, how about that?" Melody said with a smirk.

"You're on," Tom raised a finger.

"Stupefy."

Deflected by Melody, deflected by Tom, blocked by Melody.

Melody sent a leg locker curse his way, but he cast a shield which literally absorbed the spell, then strengthened the shield. Melody began firing spells at it, careful to dodge if some were deflected.

It continued like this for around ten minutes, by then in which Melody started using defensive while Tom switched to offensive.

This went on for five more minutes, until Melody pushed the shield forwards, nearly knocking Tom over, who, fortunately for him, managed to get out of the way in time, so he was only shoved lightly. And then the duel escalated and became more intense.

People were gasping and whispering, eyes glued on the duel. It was like a pattern, offensive for Tom, defensive for Melody, and vice versa.

Until Melody, while pattern/melody was her name,   broke the pattern on the third try, switching to offensive while Tom was on offensive. This caused a whole flow of spells going her way and his way, most just barely missing, whizzing by her hair, and others crashing into the shield around them. The closest her spells got to Tom, were just a minor tear in the sleeve.

Nobody was exactly sure how long they kept going like that for, but it was definitely a long time, as Dumbledore and Taney stepped in and told them to stop, stating that it was almost curfew. So Melody, Tom, and everyone else considered it either a draw or an incomplete duel.

The two retrieved their wands and left to go to their common rooms with their other housemates.

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"Th-that was absolutely brilliant!" Cheryl chortled on the way up to Gryffindor Tower. It was the tenth time Cheryl had said that, and she wasn't the only one either. Nobody had every been equal to Tom Riddle in a duel. And certainly not wandless either.

"I can't believe neither of you had to use your wands! How is that possible?" Charlus asked. Melody shrugged. "Wands only channel one's magic, wandless magic is possible, but not common. I guess it's either natural for me, or from family genes."

"Man, your family sounds...brilliant!" Katie echoed, wide eyed in an impressed way. Melody laughed at the repeat of the word Cheryl had used just a moment ago. Melody and Charlus escorted everyone in, then went to sit with their own group of friends.

All they could say was, today sure had been a day.

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A / N : There is one minor detail I forgot to focus on at the beginning. Melody is a Metamorphmagus. She hinted at it in her journal entry a few chapters ago, but I never really confirmed that it was true.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed, as I wrote this chapter when I wasn't supposed to be on the phone...So, if you have any comments to make, I'd really appreciate a review or two, they're actually fun to read sometimes (as long as they are civil if it is critical)

Next chapter coming out tomorrow or after, depends if I get writer's block.

Heh, anyways, till next time!