Chapter 30:

Harry's appearance in classes the following day had started the rumor mill like never before. Due to the fact that they couldn't prove the two Ravenclaw's involvement in the attack, the badgers had all remained silent, and not openly accused anyone as of yet.

The main goal was to get through the new two weeks and win the dueling and quidditch matches that were ahead. The dueling team was 2-0 so far, and with the Slytherin match coming up they hoped to advance to an acceptable 4-0.

On Saturday morning Harry sat among his fellow quidditch players preparing for the match, as Cedric gave a basic spill on what was going to happen today, "The Slytherins have no talent in the seeker position, Terrence Higgs, and I have been playing against each other every year, and most of the match he sits up there and floats around."

"I want our chasers to implement a blitz from start to finish. The school has seen Hufflepuff' take its beating this week from our youngest member, and now it is time for us to dish one out with twice the power. Miles Bletchley is a decent keeper, but the only real talent you could say is on the team is Marcus Flint, but today our beaters are going to shut him out."

Darrel muttered quietly under his breath, "Hopefully permanently."

Cedric didn't acknowledge the temperament of his dueling captain but went on to say, "I am going to do my best not to catch the snitch until we are up by more than 150 points, Potter...Harry, it's your show out there on the Chaser spot...you know what to do out there."

Harry exchanged looks with Malcolm and Heidi and when they nodded the green-eyed boy gave the confirmation look to his captain. Cedric clapped his hands together in excitement, "Let's go out there and show the school we aren't going to be pushed around. Hufflepuff fight?"

"TO WIN!"

The team gathered around and broke a quick huddle as they took their brooms and took strides out towards the field. It was a beautiful spring day, and the weather for playing was perfect. When he heard the roars of the stands the team mounted their brooms and took off towards the skies, and after a few minutes of basking in the glory of the sport, Madame Hooch called the teams together.

The chasers lined up in the air as Hooch declared today's match rules and regulations. Harry went directly in front of Marcus Flint, just as Cedric had planned, and gave him a wicked look of anger.

Flint merely grinned at the young man though, and when the quaffle was unleashed Harry dove straight at the boy, stole the quaffle, and darted to the other end of the field where Bletchley was simply not ready for such a fast approach and missed the oldest Potter's shot by a mile.

This caused Flint to react like an embarrassed man, and when he received the quaffle he attempted to rough house Harry, but the young man was not going to be handled, not today.

Faster than some pro's he stole the quaffle from the bullying Slytherin fake tossed it over to Macavoy and fired it straight into the closest goal, making it 20-0 with less than a minute of game time.

Over the next half an hour, a few goals were scored for Slytherin, but not a single one of them was made by Marcus Flint. Part of that problem was that Darrel Abbot had marked the Slytherin captain, and was pounding him with bludgers all day, even at the expense of a few goals.

Harry in turn had managed to score 14 goals, alone, while Heidi and Malcolm put together only 8. This wasn't by accident though. The team had come together after Harry's attack and decided that at every opportunity Harry was going to strike out against the Slytherin house for their part in his attack. He called it a bit of righteous vengeance.

They weren't cheating at all, unlike Slytherin who was becoming increasingly angry as the game went on. The score was 220-60, and the team was up by more than a hundred fifty points, which left Cedric dedicating it all to finding the snitch at this point.

However the quidditch gods merely frowned on the Slytherin house that day, as the Hufflepuff team would score another 50 points, 30 of which would be scored by Harry before Cedric swooped in to catch the snitch making the final score 420-70, the second-largest blow out in Hogwarts History.

Ironically enough the largest blowout was held by James Potter's defeat of Slytherin house as well but in the mid-'70s. The announcer, Lee Jordan, was going ballistic, over such a humiliating and painful defeat after the attack on their youngest player. The crowd was wild, but it went silent as the team walked off the field refusing to shake a single Slytherin player's hand.

Over the next week, the tension within the school would be heightened, and pranking, and straight-up attacking between the Puff and the Snakes were happening nearly daily. The school was almost perfectly divided in the matter too. Due to the fact that Slytherins were involved, most of their house stayed out of it, but all of Gryffindor stood behind Neville, who was firmly standing behind Harry.

The two houses all roamed the halls in packs together, and when the week ended and the dueling tournament came around, nerves were at an all-time high, in basically the entire school. Professor Lily Potter had even been forced to place serious wards on her office and classroom, due to the number of times the Slytherins and or Ravenclaw had attempted to trash it, which just infuriated Harry, and to an extension Hufflepuff even further.

Other than that, if the teachers noticed the tension, it was not commented on by any. Harry figured like most of the teachers did, that after the dueling matches were over, the tension will have died down.

It was the even numbers dueler's turn to fight today, and Harry knew that Slytherin basically stood no chance. With Darrel, Heidi, and Cedric all having been training nearly every day for three months, and Harry now resting at the sixth seed, he knew Slytherin was in deep trouble.

Sadly Cedric had been moved up to the third seed duelist, Heidi was actually now number four, and Malcolm had been moved down to eight. So the first matches line up would be in this order: Tamsin Applebee, Herbert Fleet, Malcolm Preece, Harry Potter, Heidi Macavoy, and Darrel Abbot.

Tomorrow's lineup would be Anthony Rickett, Leanne Summers, the sixth-year prefect Gabriel Truman, Heather Bennet, Cedric Diggory, and the number one seed Tonks. They figured after Harry unfairly defeated four duelists in his first match, that it would be better to save his strength and let him take on stronger duelists.

If it wasn't a matter of house pride, Harry likely would've been the number 3 or 4 duelist. Cedric and Harry went back and forth a lot in their practice duels, but he pretty consistently beat Heidi. However, Heidi had more power behind her spells and had seniority, which left her in the #4 spot.

When the dueling team took to the great hall, they realized almost the entire school had gathered to watch this match. The Slytherin team led by Terrence Higgs was not yet in attendance which made Hufflepuff the first to arrive on the actual dueling floor. In this match, Flitwick was going to be the judge, as he would have no prior interest in the winner.

The team quickly set out to warm up, with Harry sparring with Malcolm and Herbert in preparations for the match. It wasn't long before Harry saw the Slytherin come in, and when they did the Hufflepuffs started booing while the team just stared on with neutral looks.

Darrel commanded that the team not be affected by what has happened, or they would win on general principle. Harry agreed with the good captain and quickly went back to warming up. As Flitwick was calling up the two duelists Professor Snape and Sprout came over to them, while Sprout was wishing her Puffs good luck, Snape spoke quietly, "Remember your solid shields. You are going to have a rough go of things if you don't. Good luck Potter."

Harry acted like he hadn't heard a word, but he knew the potions master knew something, or he wouldn't have said anything. When the first duelist came onto the platform, Tamsin and a nameless second or third year came up and bowed to the other. This fight today would be a little more even than past matches, as this time this was the 12th seed vs the 12th seed.

When the fight began, Tamsin was quick as lightning to throw multiple stunners, and since neither duelist was capable of solid shields yet, they were both dodging a lot, which lasted up to nearly two minutes, before the Slytherin boy tripped over himself and caught a blasting charm to the chest, which knocked him clean off the platform.

The Hufflepuffs cheered, while Darrel came on the platform and gently congratulated the girl on her first victory of the season. The next match was on its way quickly, and this time Tamsin was trounced pretty thoroughly by the Slytherin Keeper Miles Bletchley.

Bletchley would pick up another victory on Herbert before Malcolm would come over and put the boy down hard. The match between #8 seed Malcolm and #8 seed Flora Carrow was fairly even, but the girl proved to be crafty. It was one of the longest duels Harry had yet to witness, but Malcolm would end up taking home two victories before Hestia Carrow avenged her sister in the next match.

This turn of events brought Harry face to face with the third year who clearly had quite a bit of finesse as a duelist. Harry knew this was likely due to her death eater mother, Alecto, but that wasn't going to stop Harry, because she was the only thing that stood between himself and Marcus Flint.

When the two opponents exchanged bows, Harry noticed there was actually a bit of respect, and maybe pity in the girl's eyes which threw him off a bit. He decided that the conflicting emotions could be questioned later when Flitwick began the countdown.

The second the last number was called out Harry was moving his arm flinging blasting charms with perfect speed. He was taught a three chain by Darrel that allowed him to throw three different blasting curses, bombarda, expulso, and configno into a deadly fast chain.

This immediately put the girl on the ropes, and her shields collapsed quickly as Harry followed his three-chain spell with a disarming hex which she batted away, but not in time as a stunner quickly followed. Hestia didn't even have time to move her wand as the red light consumed her knocking her straight out.

One of the Slytherins was quick to help her up, and she marched over to Harry, and for a second he thought was going to get slapped, but instead, she offered her hand, "You've got speed Potter, I'll give you that. I hope me wishing you luck in the next match is interpreted the right way and shows you that not all the Slytherins agree what happened the other night, regardless of who you may be to our parents."

Harry gave the girl a tight smile and took her hand, "I judge people by their actions, not that of their families. Thanks for the match, Ms. Carrow."

The girl gave him a wink, "Just Hestia actually."

The green-eyed boy didn't get a chance to respond and wondered for a brief moment if he was being pranked. The Carrows were both about as evil as it got when it came to death eaters, but one of their daughters was actually being kind to him. It just went to prove that the apple doesn't always have to fall near the tree.

Flitwick called the number four seed duelist to the platform, and Marcus Flint jumped up and began walking the length of the platform. Harry locked eyes with Darrel who mouthed the words, 'No Mercy.'

When the referee called for the duelist to bow both just stared at each other, while Flitwick then called them to go to their respective positions. Both took their positions, when Flitwick counted down to two however Marcus flicked his wand, "Reducto!"

A blasting charm came at Harry with breakneck speed, but he easily sidestepped it, and before he could return fire, Flitwick had created a shield screaming at the Slytherin, "Fault to Slytherin house, and thirty points for poor sportsmanship Mr. Flint. Hufflepuff gets the first spell."

Harry knew the rules. If a fault was called on a player, then the other team or duelist would get to cast first, and get to dictate the paste of the duel. Harry wasn't sure if Flint had gotten carried away, or if he was just an idiot.

Regardless of power level, you don't hand any advantages to a duelist, especially if you are a Slytherin. Harry attempted to fake the boy out a few times, but he refused to move. Suddenly however Harry took an advancing step forward pouring his magic into one overpowered blasting hex, "REDUCTO!"

The sheer power of the spell crushed Flint's shield and uprooted him from the ground. This however wasn't enough to throw him off the platform so Harry threw two curses at him before a final blasting hex hit the boy's face, and then a finisher was a simple stunner.

Both spells made an impact, and blood erupted out of the Slytherin boy's nose, while he was rendered unconscious. Flitwick was quick to declare a winner, while Harry turned his back. This however didn't last for long as he saw Darrel moving toward him, and the gasp of the crowd behind him.

When he turned he didn't even hesitate to throw up a solid shield, which reverberated with a snap and crack. Whatever it was didn't break his shield, but he felt a lot of heat coming from whatever was thrown at him. He heard the quick sound of spellfire being traded, and when he dropped his shield Darrel was standing protectively in front of him, while Flitwick was yelling at the boy for being a coward, and promising the threat of expulsion.

Harry looked questioningly at his captain who looked back at him with a grimace, "You got a pretty nasty cut on your shoulder mate."

Looking confused, Harry couldn't even feel anything, but when he peered down there was indeed a sizzling side of his clothes, and blood leaking down from it, "Dark magic curse. It was a level one spell in the dark arts, which is nothing more than a slap on the wrist, but it was lucky you threw up that solid shield instead of just a protego, or we would be having this conversation in St. Mungos."

Flitwick hurried over to his young student questioning sharply, "Mr. Potter are you hurt?"

Harry shook his head, "Don't even feel it, professor. Honestly. I am ready for the next match."

Flitwick was quick to disagree, "You don't always feel the pain or notice the damage in dark magic. That spell is forbidden in the Jr. age dueling. I am afraid I am going to have to ask you to withdraw. I have awarded you victory over Mr. Flint, and Mr. Higgs is not a push-over seventh year. I suggest you let your fourth seed and captain deal with this last opponent."

Darrel put a hand on his young friend's shoulder, "You did beautifully Harry. Let us take it from here. Besides, between you and Heidi you would beat him for sure, and I would never get a duel this season! Where would the fun be in that?"

Harry conceded the point and agreed to withdraw from the next match, while Heidi came onto the stage to face off her opponent.