28 Chapter 28: Competitions

Severus said goodbye to Gwen and Freyja and headed for the Dean's office.

After Dean Stacy corroborated through Legilimency that Severus had indeed successfully modified and enhanced his first position at the age of 13, her enthusiasm for Severus increased dramatically.

The process was quick and simple as she used Legilimency to see the memories and Severus used Occlumency to show her specifically which memories she needed to see to corroborate that everything he said was true.

After finishing and being convinced that Severus was an unparalleled genius at potions, the Dean immediately sent a letter to the Department of Magical Security at the USA Magicongress asking for permission to use the Pensieve in her possession.

"Well Mr. Prince, now it only remains to wait for them to respond, but I can assure you that in a few weeks they should give us access to the Pensieve, when that time comes you must come with me to the Department of Magical Security" the Dean informed him with a big smile that highlighted her good mood.

"I thank you, madam" Severus thanked her for her trouble, though she seemed to be more excited than he was to prove that he was the first 13-year-old wizard to do such a thing.

"There is nothing to thank, I only hope you will entertain the idea of transferring to our institution, we would be delighted to have you as a SCoP student."

"I... I'll think about it," Severus said a little unsure, he was already thinking about the possibility of staying as a student, but he still wasn't sure about doing it.

If he got into 6th year at SCoP, he would be the only male in his year and even though it would be every young man's dream to be in a school surrounded by only women, he had to admit that it wouldn't be so nice and comfortable to be the only male in his year despite how beautiful that sounds.

'Maybe it would be more convenient to transfer only in the seventh year just like most students' Severus thought.

"Very well, that's all I ask of you."

As Severus was about to leave the office the Dean spoke again.

"Just a moment Mr. Prince, I almost forgot to inform you, I don't know if it would interest you, but this year there will be two important competitions taking place in the USA that you can sign up for if you wish."

"I heard about the potions contest to be held on July 10th at the Salem Witches Institute, it was mentioned in the letter I received along with my acceptance to the program, but there was no mention of another contest in the letter," said Severus remembering that he had thought about entering the potions contest.

"Yes, as you know, the potions contest is at our institution and that is why it was mentioned in the letter, while the second contest I am talking about will take place at Ilvermorny school and it is a competition for duelists under 18 years old, I don't know if you will be interested in participating in duels, but it is not out of place to tell you that currently, SCoP hired a specialist dueling teacher who will be giving preparation classes for the incoming contest."

Severus had already heard of these dueling competitions.

A duel in the magical world is a common practice as it is part of the magical culture.

In a duel two or more wizards or witches engage in combat, using only magical means to do so.

Wizards often duel for many things, to the point where it became a sport in the magical world and the participants of this sport began to be called duelists.

Outside of the everyday combat for which dueling is used, a duel began to be held as a friendly sporting competition between wizards from all over the world.

During a duel, wizards and witches face each other face to face as duelists and bow as a sign of respect to the opponent, then take the conventional combat position and try to subdue their opponent in different ways - disarm, stun, paralyze, injure, among others, including killing if the duel is more extreme - to leave them completely unable to continue the fight.

The duelist who manages to prevail over his opponent is declared the winner of the duel.

Severus considered himself a great duelist, he had spent most of his life fending off Potter's group of bullies on his own and as much as he hated to admit it, Sirius and Potter had great magical abilities so it was quite an accomplishment to take them both on alone.

He had even created his own unique spells to deal with the marauders, still, he didn't know if he could win the contest, but it didn't hurt to try, now he was more confident than ever in his abilities.

"If I wanted to sign up for the contest and the professor's classes you mention, where should I do it?" asked Severus.

The Dean was a bit surprised, despite Severus having excellent grades in charms and DADA, she didn't expect him to really be interested in dueling, that's why she hadn't mentioned it to him before, she just told him as a formality.

"Well, if you wish to participate in the new teacher's dueling classes just fill out this registration form and report to your classes on Mondays and Wednesdays from 19:30 to 20:30," said Dean Stacy as she handed him a paper with the data to fill out for registration.

Severus nodded, took the paper, and enrolled.

"Very well Mr. Prince, it seems that from now on you will be busier in your days at the institution and the program, but I trust that won't be a problem for you."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence, I can assure you that my performance will be more than acceptable."

"I don't doubt it, Mr. Prince, I don't doubt it. Very well, I advise you to leave for your first dueling class, you don't want to be late" said the Dean showing him the time on a large clock in the office.

Severus saw that it read 19:10, twenty minutes to the start of the dueling class he had just signed up for.

Severus was about to say goodbye and hurry to his next class, but he instantly stopped and realized that he had no idea where the class was, although he could guess by logic where it was.

Dean Stacy seemed to notice Severus' doubts and confirmed his thoughts, "As you must assume, the classes are in the SCoP dueling room."

Severus nodded gratefully, waved to the Dean, and headed for his next class.

On the way, he complained in his head about the fact that he hadn't been given more notice about the dueling classes, but he also knew that if he had read the entire institute program more carefully on his own he would have heard about it, only he had been busy with Hermione during that time and only looked at the essentials of the program, overlooking other unrelated things.

A few minutes later, Severus finally arrived at the SCoP dueling hall on time.

He was surprised to find only 5 wizards and 11 witches participating in the dueling classes.

'Well, considering SCoP is for potioneers, understandably, there aren't many witches interested in dueling and the 5 wizards are all part of the summer program' Severus reasoned in his thoughts.

'Prince, what are you doing here, don't tell me you plan on participating in the dueling contest' a blond wizard mocked him.

'Merlin, I would have loved not to have to cross Ethan in this class, but it was to be expected that he would take it given his personality' Severus thought in frustration.

"Brilliant Ethan, congratulations, you figured it out, yes I come to the dueling classes to take part in the competition," Severus said wryly since it was obvious that those who came to these classes were because they were interested in taking part in the competition.

As Ethan was about to start an argument with Severus, the teacher entered the classroom.

"Alright students, please settle into your seats, the class is about to begin, I am Defense teacher Ava Hale, I will be teaching the dueling classes to prepare you for the dueling contest on Saturday, August 14th" started saying the young and beautiful blonde haired teacher.

Severus recognized the teacher from when he had to sign up with Freyja to enter the ship that would sail to SWI, Ava Hale was the one who signed them up back then.

One of the witches raised her hand rather excitedly, this witch had the SWI uniform, so she was already a SCoP student and Severus didn't remember seeing her in the summer program classes.

"Yes tell me Miss..." said Professor Hale.

"Hardman, Rachel Hardman, I wanted to tell you how much I admire your career Professor, to think that a witch only 24 years old was crowned winner of the All USA Wizard Dueling Contest by defeating the favorite wizard, Thomas Dess, with a flawless Aqua Burp charm!" said the young woman excitedly as she named the Professor's accomplishments.

"That's right, I hear some people call her the Water Queen."

"Yes, and it is said to be because her water magic is the best in all of the USA."

"Impressive"

"She is internationally recognized for her proficiency in DADA and being a great duelist."

"Yes yes, she is known to have won many duels at her young age."

"And recently she was the champion of the USA dueling competition for wizards."

"I also heard that the dean was very interested in her services as a teacher at DADA despite her young age and that's why she offered her the job"

"I had heard that it was because in SCoP most of us tend to perform poorly in DADA and the dean wanted her to motivate us to improve."

"Yes it's true, we always tend to do poorly in duels compared to students from the other SWI colleges."

"Surely they sought out the Water Queen who is the recent champion of the USA dueling contest, so she will help and motivate us?"

These were just a few of the many whispers Severus got to hear from among the students present.

"Well, I appreciate your support Miss Hardman, but now we are not here to talk about my career, how about we start with the classes?" seeing that the class was getting off-topic, Professor Hale said quickly waving her wand and making several training dummies appear throughout the dueling room.

The class was entertaining, but Severus found himself a little disappointed when it was over.

Professor Hale didn't have them face each other, they just tried different stances, strategies, and spells against the dummies in the room, but not a real duel, which was what Severus was looking forward to.

'I hope that in the next class we will move on to duels between wizards' Severus thought.

"Alright, duelists, that's all for today, now wait a second so I can take a roll call of those present, please just raise your hand when you hear your name," said Professor Hale.

"Anders Rudolf" she began by saying.

"Ethan Hale," she said after a few names had passed and Severus saw his roommate Ethan raise his hand.

Severus was a little surprised because he didn't know Ethan's last name was Hale since he hadn't asked, Ethan hadn't mentioned it either and Severus admitted that he hadn't noticed him much either since he ignored him most of the time, if he looked at the nameplates on the door of his room he would see that Ethan's last name was Hale, but he hadn't given that much thought before.

Now that it was known that he was Hale that left the possibility that the teacher and he were families or related.

Many thought the same thing and whispers were again heard throughout the room commenting on the relationship the two of them might have, luckily the teacher calmed everyone down and continued naming students with a silence that would not last long.

When the teacher finished taking the list, she said goodbye to the students and the moment she left the room, the whispers started to be heard again everywhere, Ethan didn't seem to be in the mood and decided to leave the dueling room quickly without giving any answer, giving, even more, to talk about to everyone.

Severus didn't think too much about it, as he wasn't that interested, and simply headed to his dormitory to get ready for dinner.

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I would like to thank all those who are correcting the errors in the paragraphs.

Whenever I can and I see the correction you make, I try to modify it.

Keep in mind that my first language is Spanish and then Portuguese. English is my third language and I usually make a lot of mistakes.

I hope you will be patient and keep telling me about the mistakes.

By the way, I warn you that the name of the owl will be in the next chapter, so hurry up to define which one you like the most.

Greetings to all.