Chapter - 56 : The Depths of Courage part - 3

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Voldemort watched the proceedings with interest "You have been taught how to duel, Harry Potter?" he asked.

"I'll find my way around it," Harry responded easily.

Voldemort laughed condescendingly. "We begin by bowing to each other, Harry."

"I don't think I gave you permission to use my first name," Harry said imitating his haughty blonde friend, but he bowed nonetheless, a shallow curve of his spine.

Voldemort's eyes flashed dangerously. "And now we duel."

Without a moment's hesitation he shot off another Cruciatus, but Harry was ready, he dove to the side and came up wand at the ready. "Are those all the spells you know?" he asked responding with a severing charm that Voldemort easily sidestepped. "Killing Curses and Crucios? You're not much of a dark lord." The comment earned him another Cruciatus, which he also dodged.

Despite the grave situation, Harry couldn't help but feel excitement as adrenaline coursed through his veins, other than Loki, he had never had a worthy dueling opponent, if he didn't end up dead this would be a great test for his dueling abilities.

"Depulso! Defodio!" the Dark Lord sidestepped the first spell but stepped directly into the path of the second, a large chunk tore out of his arm and he growled in fury.

"First blood goes to me," Harry laughed triumphantly, which only served to infuriate his opponent even more if the slew of dark curses that succeeded the comment were anything to go by, he threw up a strong shield, but several passed straight through it and he was forced to dive to the ground.

"Not so arrogant now, are we, Potter?" Voldemort taunted as the fourteen year old climbed to his feet.

"My head of house has told me on several occasions that my arrogance is such an enormous force it has a gravitational pull of itself and that he fears not even the gravest of insults can dampen it."

"It'll take but a few curses from me to change that."

"It seems your arrogance is even larger than mine, that's quite an impressive feat."

The two exchanged spells, at first testing the waters, searching for weaknesses or limits in their opponents, and then they became serious. The Death Eaters could do nothing but watch in awe as the Dark Lord and the boy who defeated him when he was just a babe fought like the gods themselves. The graveyard was illuminated by blinding, colorful lights and the sounds of spells hitting Death Eaters, tombstones, and, every now and then, their targets filled the air, joined often by the bantering of the two opponents.

"You are skilled, I will give you that, Potter," Voldemort hissed as he simultaneously bombarded Harry with a mix of skin melting curses, Crucios, and a few organ rupturing hexes. "You are a worthy opponent, you would do well to join me, we could be great."

"Oh please," Harry snorted, dodging the slew of nasty curses. "After all of the grief you have, are, and no doubt will cause me? It'll be a cold day in hell when I join you."

"Very well, if you won't join me I'll simply have to kill you."

"Yes, because you've done a brilliant job at that so far."

"Avada Kedavra!"

Harry summoned a tombstone to block the incoming curse, a lot of the resulting shrapnel sliced into his skin, opening several large wounds, but he ignored the injuries and retaliated with several curses of his own. "I'm sure you can do better than that."

"Fiendfyre!"

Harry's gut clenched as the fiery serpent leapt at him, maw open in a horrible scream, but he refused to lose his cool, figuratively speaking at least.

"Glacius!" a stream of ice shot from his wand and met the snake head on, it evaporated the moment it met the fire, but it managed to hold the fiery beast back.

"Glacius Duo," the stream of ice grew larger and faster, the temperature in the graveyard steadily dropped until Voldemort, Harry, and the Death Eaters could see their breaths in the air. The snake shrieked in pain and fell back several yards. The cold invigorated Harry, making both him and his magic stronger and giving him that final push to destroy the fiery snake. He grinned as he channeled the ice flooding his veins through his wand and to the snake, wrapping it in deadly shards of ice and extinguishing the flames with ease.

Voldemort staggered back several steps, his eyes were widened just a fraction and there was horror and maybe even a hint of fear on his face. "What are you?"

This would have been the ideal time to say something totally cliché like, "Your worst nightmare," or a line as equally corny, but Harry simply raised his wand, ready to finish it all. But then his eyes fell onto the hand wrapped around his wand. It was blue. And so was his other hand, as well as both of his arms, his chest, and, if Voldemort's expression was any indication, his face.

"What in the hell?" he dropped his wand a fraction of an inch, and held his hand closer to his face. But even as he watched, the blue began creeping up his skin, slowly fading away.

The question seemed to shock Voldemort from the bewildered state he'd fallen into. "It's time for you, whatever you may be, to die. Avada Kedavra!"

Harry threw himself to the ground and cursed violently when he landed on his wounded chest, all the while he was silently berating himself for not hightailing it out of there when he had had the chance. Dueling was fun and all, but his father, not to mention his friends, would kill him ten times over if he ended up dead. It was time to go.

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Loving the story so far? There's a whole world of magic and mystery waiting for you with over 85+ chapters still to come! By supporting my Patreon.

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(P).(A).(T).(R).(E).(O).(N)

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