Chapter nine - Brooms and Honor duels

The days since Andromeda had taken over most of the potions classes had gone by relatively quickly with the students from Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff all going to Andromeda instead of going to Snape for their potions lessons.

The only holdouts were the Slytherin students. Magnus suspected at first that Snape actually taught they properly because they were his own house, but Daphne had informed him the third day after Andromeda had started teaching, after speaking with one of the girls she knew in the house of the snake, that he was just as bad with them. The only reason as to why they didn't go to Andromeda for lessons was because Snape had forbidden them from doing so and threatened harsh punishment for anyone caught doing so.

And it was just like that, that Magnus lost what little respect that he had left for the potions master.

But on the brighter side of things, he, Tracey, Daphne, Harry and Nevill had actually been progressing really well in their potions class with Andromeda teaching. She took the time to lecture and go into great detail about the brewing process and answer any questions that any students posed to her and was always watching over them all when they were brewing to make sure that no accidents happened.

Over the past couple of days, Magnus, Harry and Neville had also gotten closer, with Neviell actually starting to open up slowly to both boys as their friendship grew. When Neville had heard about Harry's lack of heir training he had instantly offered to help Harry study and prepare for when he grew older and joined Magnus and harry during their private study sessions over the next couple of days to help fill in the blanks where Magnus was unsure.

But potions hadn't been the only class the five of them had been excelling at, with the exceptions of history and defence, they had all been progressing well in their other classes, having no trouble with one subject for long before one of the others stepped in to help the other out, and the teachers had taken notice giving points for inter-house unity, they had gained a fair few points.

But right at this very moment none of that mattered to Magnus as he stood out with the rest of his class out in the castle courtyard looking down at the item at his feet with mild annoyance and irritation. A ratty old broom.

Yes, it was finally time for him how to ride a broom, and at first, he had been all for the idea. Sure it might not have been something that he thought would have been all that comfortable but he had been willing to give it a go. That was until he saw the state of the brooms that they had to learn with.

'Seriously, this is what they expect us to fly on?' Magnus thought to himself as he looked at it, 'it looks like it will snap the second I try to take off.' he mentally groaned.

But regardless of his hesitations he obeyed Madam Hooch when he was told what to do and held his hand out over his broom and ordered it up to his hand. He was less than impressed when it lifted up just slightly before falling back to the ground.

He glared at the broom before ordering it again, to the same effect. He was getting frustrated, but his anger was placated slightly seeing that he wasn't the only unfortunate one in his ground to have the problem, as several others were having similar problems and Madam Hooch didn't look surprised as she waited.

Eventually after another dozen tries Magnus finally got his broom to reach his hand, if barely. Before being told to mount it and grip it tight.

Doing so he winced slightly as he heard the wood crack a little under his hands and feared his previous worry about the broom snapping may actually come through given how frail the wood felt in his hands as he adjusted himself to try and get comfortable on it, with was rather difficult considering how he was going to be riding a long thin wooden pole that ran between his legs and would likely ride up once he took off.

He did not voice his worries however and prepared to follow Hooch's commands as he braced himself for his first time flying, if only for a little bit. He needn't have bothered.

As soon as Hooch blew her whistle and Magnus kicked off the ground to hover in the air, he felt himself lift for a single second before he was flipped on his axis, arse over teakettle as he heard something snap before he landed flat on his back with a thud on impact and a groan from him as he realised just what had happened.

The broom had lifted up alright, he'd been flying, all of about seven feet. The broom had taken him up a few feet before its back end had decided to climb higher and literally flip him off it snapping its body in the process and sending them both to the ground, much to Magnus' embarrassment.

He could only groan and shake his head as Hooch came over to check on him, "I hate brooms"

Timeskip

It was two hours later that Magnus was pacing back and forth in his trunk ranting angrily, "honestly what the hell are they thinking, making children ride ratty old brooms like those, it's a miracle it didn't break when I was up higher," he raged his hands rubbing through his hair that was a dark red at the moment in his anger.

He had been informed by Madam Hooch while he was in the hospital wing what had happened. The broom was just too old, after so many uses the enchantments on the broom had finally given out, and when one went it threw the others off and that's what caused the back end to flip on him as it did and throw him off.

Though that had only furthered to stoke Magnus' irritation even further, he had been made to look like a right idiot because the school was too cheap to replace their brooms.

"I mean, this is supposed to be the premium magic school in all magical Britain for fuck sake, and yet they have their students riding around on brooms that are older than their parents!" he continued in his irritation.

He could only imagine the ribbing he was going to get that night when he made his nightly call home to check up on things, sure Andromeda might be here, but he still wanted to call Ted and Tonks to see how they were doing, he had grown rather close to the three of them. He knew that Tonks was going to give him hell about this and laugh his ear off, no doubt Andromeda would have already told her about it, having come to visit him in the hospital wing when she had heard, Tonks would know everything about his first take-off and landing and would never let him hear the end of it.

"I know that it's foolish to give learner drivers spit new cars to drive in, but come on this is just taking it a bit too far, even buying a bunch of second hand brooms every ten or so years would be better than the brooms they have now" Magnus said throwing his hands up in the air as he walked to his desk and slumped into his chair. "Hell I don't know why we even need brooms in the first place, we're magical aren't we" he commented of handly.

Erebus who had been listening to Magnus rant for the past half hour shook his head, 'last I checked partner, magical or not, wizards aren't birds, you don't have wings so you can't fly like us' he commented mentally as if Magnus was going off the deep end.

Magnus smirked, "Oh I beg to differ" he replied before closing his eyes and mentally sent Erebus a recollection of one of the last Harry Potter movies, where when Harry was being moved he was being chased by Voldemort, and how Voldemort was flying without the use of a broom or any other item that could be seen, "If that snake faced, no-nosed fucker can fly then so can I," he said with annoyance, "I just have to figure out the spell and how to do it" he said before sitting forward and taking the mirror out of his desk drawer, "but until then, I'm going to deal with these bloody brooms myself"

Time skip

It was later that evening at dinner time in the great hall that Magnus was just sitting down to eat when Daphne and Tracey came hurrying over to him.

"What did you do?" Daphne asked suddenly. Magnus raised an eyebrow.

"Why does everything interesting that happens in this school have to have something to do me and not anybody else?" He asked amused.

"Oh please" Daphne rolled her eyes not believing him for a moment and was about to speak before Tracey butted in not wanting to wait, any more.

"Did you really buy a whole new set of brooms for the school? Madam Hooch is ecstatic, apparently, she's been trying to get new brooms for years now but every time she tries to file for the funding for them Dumbledore or the board of governors turn her down" Tracey asked and explained.

Daphne crossed her arms, "and then a few hours ago Andromeda, your aunt, is seen stopping by Madam Hooch's office with a large trunk and leaves without it, and then during the next flying lesson all of the students are suddenly practising with spit new Comet 260s, admit it Magnus you did something"

Magnus put his hand on his chest, "why I never Daphne." he said sounding scandalised, "to accuse me of buying thirty new brooms for the school because it's too cheap to afford to buy them for its students, after I had been a victim of one of those ratty old brooms breaking and tossing me, you clearly have a wild imagination" he said unable to hide his smirk.

Daphne smirked, "so you're not the one responsible for Hooch giving Ravenclaw over two hundred points for that little gesture of "extreme kindness"," she said gesturing to the point counters at the top of the hall.

Magnus looked and he had to blink a couple of times to make sure he wasn't seeing things, Ravenclaws counter was way ahead of the others, "hmmm," he said before shrugging, "sure I'll take credit for that" he smirked while inwardly thinking, 'Lets see that old goat give the house cup to Gryfindor now'

Daphne rolled her eyes while Tracey giggled as they sat down at the table to get their dinner, their pieces said as they began to eat.

Just as he was about to take another mouthful of food something Daphne had said clicked with him and he paused, "hey Daphne, did you mention a second first-year class after ours went for flying lessons?" he asked thinking he might have heard wrong.

Daphne arched an eyebrow but nodded her head, "yes, it was the Gryffindor and Slytherin first years, honestly whoever thought about…." she began to say but Magnus's mind was elsewhere at that moment as things began to click in his head.

He may have begun to change things in the canon but right at this very moment he had done very little to change the current events of things, and if things played out as they did in the canon at this point then that meant…..

Looking over to the Gryffindor table in a hurry Magnus searched for Harry, and it didn't take long to find him, and the platinum idiot heading right over towards Harry from the Slytherin side.

Magnus rose from his seat and instantly began planning as he quickly made his way over to stop things before they got into motion, he could think of only one way right now to do so, and it was a hell of a risk to pull off this early, but he didn't really have much of a choice in the matter.

If he let things play out, then it was more than likely that Harry would get sucked into the whole Philosopher stone mess that Dumbledore had set up. Magnus wanted to delay that a bit longer, if he was right Dumbledore would just use some other means to get Harry interested in exploring the tunnel but for now he wanted the stone all to himself. Plus this would actually fit nicely into his overall plan for things involving House Blacks future, and there was no time like the present to get started on those.

Magnus hurries along arriving at the confrontation just in time to hear Malloy Male his challenge.

"I'd take you on any time, on my own," said Malfoy. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only…" he began to say before Magnus stepped up.

"I would think that House Malfoy would have other concerns that they need to attend to first before they go out issuing honour duels with other houses over petty matters like this" Magnus spoke gaining their attention.

"What are you talking about?" Draco asked indignantly, "House Malfoy has no qualms with the House of Black!"

"I see it otherwise, or is your memory so short that you have forgotten about the insult that your father, Lord Malfoy, levied towards me not but a few days ago by issuing slander against my claim to being the rightful heir to the House of Black." Magnus stated as Draco seemed to go pale with realization, "Slander that was printed in black and white for all to read, and yet even all these days later I have not received a missive of apology nor have his words been publicly retracted. I would think that I have given your father more than enough time to do so, but as it's clear that he has no intent to do so I am left with only one alternative as a response to the insults levied against my house from yours."

Magnus' little speech seems to have garnered the attention of the other tables at this moment as all the students fell silent as Magnus' next words booked out for all to hear.

"I Magnus Roark Black, Heir to the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Black, hereby challenge you Draco Lucius Malfoy, Heir to the Magical House of Malfoy to an honour duel for the insults levied by Lord Malfoy against my house, person and honour. A duel to settle the matter once and for all, a duel between the heirs of our houses to restore lost honour" Magnus stated officially having researched deeply into honour duels recently, with the prospect of having to face others in the setting.

Draco's face was chalk white, which wasn't that much different from his usual completion, as students began to mutter around them, most of them in confusion about what was happening. He could feel the eyes of his fellow purebloods and the whole of Slytherins house eyes on him, he was about to speak and respond before another voice cut in.

"What is going on here, stop this foolishness and get back to your tables" the irritated voice of Severus Snape intervenes as he swooped in.

Severus has been watching his godson from afar knowing the boy would be up to something but didn't know what, he was about to let the challenge to Potter go ahead knowing that his godson would put the arrogant little brat in his place, but Black was an unknown and so Severus felt it best to intervene and put a stop to this before it went too far, Magnus was having none of it.

"This is a matter between the Houses of Black and Malfoy, it is not under your preview to interfere Professor Snape, nor does this matter concern the houses of Snape nor Prince, so be silent" Magnus snapped back at him causing Severus to stagger back a step as if slapped.

Snape's eyes were wide after hearing Magnus' words, the mention about his house was expected, but not the mention of his mother's house which had been what had shocked him, 'how...How did he know that…. no one should'

Magnus turned his attention back to Malfoy who seemed to realize that he wouldn't be getting any aid from his godfather and head of house with this problem and because he had made the challenge so public like this Draco was left with only one choice.

'Damn it, why did this have to happen, I was just trying to get one over on Potter and now this,' Draco mentally groaned before straightening up, "very well, I Draco Lucius Malfoy, Heir to the Magical House of Malfoy accept your challenge, what are your terms"

Magnus nodded, "a duel between heirs, just us, no seconds, to be held here in the great hall Saturday evening after lunch, agreed"

Draco nodded his head, "agreed, and when you lose the words of my father stand, and we demand suitable monetary satisfaction for the insult towards our honour for this duel" he said mentally patting himself on the back for his wording, it would allow his father to take any amount from the House of Black as reprisals. His father would be able to completely drain the Black family vault dry, so even if Draco wouldn't be able to get a hold of the wealth now that Magnus was the heir, it wouldn't matter as they would effectively be knutless and House Malfoy would just be able to buy its way up the ranks.

Magnus could see what Draco was planning through his wordplay but didn't seem to be bothered by it and just nodded back, "agreed, and when you lose House Black demands an immediate apology from Lord Malfoy for his insults towards House Black and a retraction to be printed of his insults on the front page of the daily profit as well as monetary satisfaction to be paid in reprisals to the sum of fifty thousand galleons"

There was a hiss of an intake of breath from all the purebloods in the hall when Magnus named the reprisal amount, fifty thousand galleons was no small amount, and Draco looked like he wanted to faint at the mention of such an amount, he'd been down to the Malfoy family vault and knew they had more than enough to pay it but it was still no small amount. He knew his father would be less than pleased with him putting such an amount on the line but he had little choice in the matter now Magnus had played him into this and if he backed out now it would only look worse on his house.

"agreed" Draco states reluctantly as the air shimmered around them as golden strands of magic seems to manifest which signaled that magic had bound them as the agreement had been made, there was no backing out now.

As the magic faded Snape came forward again and placed his hand on Draco's shoulder and quickly began to lead his godson away and out of the hall obviously going to his office so that Draco could contact his father to inform him of what had just transpired. Snape giving Magnus a wary look as they left.

As soon as Malfoy led the hall whispers began to break out all around the hall about what had just happened. Those closes to Magnus began asking him questions.

"What was that for!" Ron yelled angrily

"Why did you do that?" Harry asked worriedly

"What was all that? What was that bright light, you didn't cast a spell? What's all this about magical houses?" Hermione began to ask one question after another from the other side of the table.

Magnus let out a sigh, his serious attitude dropping as he saw Daphne and Tracey come rushing over to him along with Professor Flitwick who was scampering behind them as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Magnus that was awesome!" Tracey smirked.

"Tracey no it wasn't, Magnus what were you thinking!" Daphne began to berate him.

"Mr Black," Professor Flitwick spoke cautiously, "was that absolutely necessary, honour duels are not something to be trifled with"

Magnus sighed, "yes Professor I am, it was something that needed to be addressed now. I've been putting it off but it would have happened sooner or later. If I may, I'd like to request that you be the judge for the duel and take care of the formalities for it, I understand that an auror has to be present for any honour duel to make sure that everything is by the book."

The small Professor nodded, "very well Mr Black, I will gladly be the judge to make sure that things run smoothly and will contact the DMLE to have an auror come to oversee as well, Saturday after lunch wasn't it?"

Magnus nodded, "yes sir," he said before looking to Daphne, "I was thinking that I needed to deal with Malfoy now rather than later, it was going to happen eventually Daphne, and I intend to see this through,"

"But what if Malfoy called his father to be his champion like I warned you he could" Daphne stated clearly unpleased by being surprised by this sudden turn of events, she didn't like being surprised.

"If Malfoy wants to be a worm and have his father fight in his place, then I will deal with it," Magnus replied plainly, "I have already accounted for that."

Daphne seemed to huff but didn't say anything more on the subject, Magnus knew he would be hearing more from her about it later though, she wasn't the type to just let things lie.

Magnus looked to Tracey next with a smirk, "thank you, I'm glad I could provide you with some entertainment during your dinner," he said and gave a little mock bowl making Tracey snort, Daphne rolled her eyes and Professor Flitwick chuckled.

Looking to Hermione next, Magnus cleared his throat, "Miss Granger, if you have any questions about what just happened, please direct them to Professor Flitwick or any pureblood students, I'm sure they will be able to answer any questions for you" he instructed her, knowing that she would likely have a hundred questions for him before he looked to Harry.

"Cousin, relax, I already had a beef with Malfoy, I saw he wanted to start something with you and stepped in to settle things with him first, he's a problem I would have sorted out anyway. I just chose to do it now so to save you from having to deal with him Magnus explained but Harry didn't look all that convinced, "oh and congratulations on making seeker by the way" Magnus added grinning.

Inwardly Harry was grateful for Magnus' actions, he was going to just turn down the duel anyway, after all, he only had three days schooling under his belt, what did he know about fighting duels, but Magnus was in the same position as him and he seemed so confident about things, he didn't know what to think and could only sigh before saying, "thanks."

Magnus only glanced to Ron before rolling his eyes, "piss off Weasley, this has nothing to do with you," he said plainly before turning away.

"What!" Ron replied indignantly. But Magnus just ignored him and he began walking down the hall heading for the exit.

"Where are you going!" Daphne called to him.

"It's still dinner time!" Tracey called as well.

"To the dorms, incase it escaped both your notices I have a duel to prepare for in just under two days" Magnus called back as he left the great hall, and the whispering doubled as he left.

Scene break

Magnus quickly began making his way back to the Ravenclaw dorms his mind began to race as he began running over everything that just happened and began running over the mental plans that he had already formed for this situation.

'Erebus, I've done it, I've challenged Malfoy to the duel' Magnus mentally called out in his mind as he sent a copy of his memories over their link.

Magnus felt his familiar bristle with annoyance, 'I thought you were going to give it another week before you challenged that little ferret, what caused the change in plans?'

Magnus sighed as he reached the entrance to the common rooms, 'Malfoy was about to challenge Harry to an honour duel, I intervened and challenged Malfoy instead'

Magnus felt Erebus's confusion as he entered through the portal into the common room area, 'things are changing already, I don't recall seeing that happen in the memories of the movies you showed me' Erebus recounted, referring to the memories of the movies that Magnus had been showing him while he practised his Occulmancy in the mornings, they had only gotten through the first two movies so far, aside from the odd scenes that Magnus had shared because he found them amusing.

'It's not from the movies, it's from the books, the movies didn't include everything,' Magnus explained as he started up the stairs to the dorm room, 'Malfoy was pissy after Harry didn't get expelled after the stunt during their first flying lesson and so was going to set Harry up to get caught by Filch out of bed to try and get him in trouble again, it would have lead to him running into fluffy and started him down the whole corridor question route,'

'And you intervened, why?' Erebus asked confusion still in the link.

Magnus gave a mental shrug as he went into his room and closed the door, 'well for one now that I'm not concerning myself with no longer maintaining the status quo, I didn't see a reason not to, and another reason is that with Harry clueless about the corridor he has no reason to go near it yet. At least until Dumbledore does something to put it in his sights, it gives me a bit more breathing room to plan more on how to get my hands on the stone for myself' he thought as he opened his trunk and started down the ladder inside.

'It's a risky play partner, changing events like that purposefully, you might not know how things will play out now,' Erebus warned him.

Magnus chuckled as he made his way from the entrance to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler and began to make his way towards the training room, 'what does it matter now, I know the key aspects and as long as they stay the same I will still have the advantage, the dark prat is still on the back of Quirrell's head, the stone will be in the Mirror of Erised and I know how to get it out. I know how to get past each of the trials to get to it, and once we know it's in place it will be a cakewalk' Magnus recited back as he walked into the training room.

Over the past couple of days, the two of them had worked out exactly when the stone would be in place. Dumbledore needed Harry to be exposed to the Mirror of Erised before he put it in place to hold the stone, so it would be after Christmas or Yule that the stone would be in place and ripe for the taking.

Erebus remained silent after that, which Magnus took as him thinking more on the facts, for now, his familiar got like that sometimes he could be rather studious when he wanted to be and got lost in his own mind, quite like him at times.

Magnus chose to leave him to his thoughts and went to take off his outer school robes to get ready to start his spell casting when he heard the door open to the training room and looked to see who it was his wand flicking out into his hand on reflex ready to cast, but he stopped when he saw who it was.

"Andy?" Magnus said in confusion seeing his Aunt coming in, "what are you doing here?"

Andromeda gave him a smirk, "I just came from the great hall where I heard about your little stunt with Draco," she stated openly, smirking a bit more when she saw his wand already in his hand.

Magnus sighed, "things happened," he stated back as he continued to take his robes off.

"Oh do tell?" Andromeda asked. And Magnus knew it wasn't a request, and so proceeded to inform her about what had happened.

When Magnus finally got through telling his tale Andromeda was tapping her arm with her finger pensively and nodding her head, though Magnus couldn't tell if it was in agreement or irritation.

"While your actions were a bit brash and no doubt reckless, I agree that your challenge was justified," Andromeda finally stated after several moments, "you dealt with the matter professionally and handled yourself well in regards to Draco's wording. And as you said that you intended to wait longer before issuing your challenge only being forced into it by what you perceived Draco was going to do your brashness can be justified. However, I would ask what you intend to do if Draco decides to call his father to take his place? I trust your not foolish enough to think you can face Lucius Malfoy head-on in a duel at your age?"

Magnus shook his head, "I was planning on asking you to champion for me if it came to that, I'm willing to bet I can take Draco in a duel, his father is a different matter, and I have no doubt that Lucius would take over for Draco in a heartbeat with what's on the line"

Andromeda seemed to get a predatory smile when Magnus mentioned championing for him and nodded, "good, I've been wanting to wipe that smirk off his face even before he was betrothed to Narcissa, he was always a pompous arrogant ass" she said happily with his reasoning, "now then" she said as she began loosening the buttons on her sleeves, "since you have a duel coming up I think it's best if I leaned you a hand in getting ready,"

Magnus blinked, "really?" He asked not exactly having expected that, though something told him he shouldn't have been surprised.

"Oh yes, I'm not about to let my newest and favorite nephew get his posterior handed to him in a duel, even if it is by another one of my nephews" Andromeda said as she walked a bit away from him taking her wand from her sleeve, "now show me what has you so confident that you can handle your cousin in a duel, and then I'll show you how a proper Black duels"

Magnus smirked confidently as he took up a dueling stance and began to cast, confident in his ability, not noticing the smirk on Andromeda's face. Less than an hour later he would know what real skill was, and that Bellatrix wasn't the only Black sister that should be feared.