Chapter 49: Dueling Competition

Before starting this chapter, I wanted to tell you not to jump to conclusions about the characters' relationships.

Things are going to take many twists and turns in the story, nothing is as simple as it looks.

Each character has their life, their past, their tastes, their thoughts and they are not as simple as they are shown so far.

Think that the story still hasn't shown much about others than Severus and maybe a little bit of Hermione.

Keep in mind that the incorporation of Severus in the USA and Hermione brought many changes to the HP canon, so things are already taking unexpected turns and every action has a consequence, just not yet shown in the story. So I hope you have patience.

Lastly, this story is focused on Severus, so I don't plan to write love scenes of other characters.

With that finished, I hope you enjoy the chapter, good luck to everyone.

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Chapter 49:

The dueling competition was scheduled to begin at 11 am.

The Ilermorny building where the competition was being held was as large as a soccer stadium.

Inside the building was a line of several dueling platforms that were each surrounded by their respective steps.

While in the center was a podium that was elevated above the platforms.

Gwen, Freyja, Hermione, and Sasaki were seated on one of these stands along with many other people who were anxiously awaiting the result of the draw for the pairs in the competition.

The draw took place on the central platform of the building and the results were displayed on a large magic board showing the names of the participants and who they would be dueling with.

List Draw:

Michaele Harinton vs. Lina Lafurcade

Renata Medal vs Victor Sidman

Ethan Hale vs Marco Danel

Neil II Lament vs Andy Bardon

Anders Redmun vs Florencia Drida

Tamar Arling vs Fedorov Patrio

Pauline Novak vs Severus Prince

These were just a few of the many duelists participating in the championship.

Most of the participants were North Americans, but there were also several wizards and witches from other countries who had come to participate, although they were in the minority since a dueling contest that only includes people under 18 is not that important in the magical world.

Finally, the first round of duels began, and luckily Ethan and Severus were fighting on different schedules, so Gwen, Hermione, Freyja, and Sasaki could support both of them.

First up was Ethan who was now preparing to face Marco Danel, a guy as tall as he was unsightly.

If he didn't shine for his magical prowess, Danel could boast of benefiting from an impressive build.

As the two duelists now stood facing each other, several people in the stands raised their fists to cheer Ethan on.

"Looks like Ethan has a lot of support" Hermione commented as she saw the large number of people rooting for him.

"That's normal, he's from Ilvermory, so it's to be expected that they would support one of their students" replied Gwen.

The duel went very quickly, Ethan didn't seem to have a problem defeating his opponent, he didn't even make an effort to do so.

Despite this, much cheering was heard from several Ilvermorny students.

Severus was next to a duel, attracting the attention of many in the audience.

He faced Pauline Novak, a fellow who was rather ordinary in appearance, but had participated in other duels and was considered a meticulous duelist and his reputation preceded him.

The duel began.

As an experienced duelist, Novak kept Severus in a constant back and forth.

Novak seemed to be very patient as he focused on repeating a string of continuous spells looking for his opponent's mistake.

When Duelist Novak opened his mouth brandishing his wand to cast a spell again, Severus seemed to get bored and went on the offensive, he left his opponent no chance.

Performing several continuous movements with his wand with a speed that instills admiration, Severus launched several spells in a non-verbal manner until he finally managed to disarm his opponent, and without wasting time he cast another spell of astonishment, gently immobilizing Novak.

It was interesting to see that the applause and cheers for Severus were even more intense than for Ethan, but considering how much they had been talking about him during this time, that was normal.

"Come on Sev, you're the best!" shouted Freyja at the top of her lungs trying to stand through the crowd of people cheering and congratulating Severus.

Apparently, Severus heard her despite the number of people shouting in the stands and turned in her direction to nod in appreciation.

Many people in front of Freyja thought Severus' nod was for them and started shouting in excitement.

Freyja smiled happily not caring that others thought Severus' greeting was for them, because she knew he had heard her.

"As expected from Prince, a calm and well-conducted duel," Gwen smiled.

"Well, Severus always excels at handling a situation precisely, it's as if he already has everything planned from start to finish," Hermione said.

"Oh, you'd be surprised to know how good he is at improvising too," Gwen replied with a wink.

The next duel was again Ethan facing an Ilvermorny student.

And apparently, the two knew each other as there was quite a bit of tension in the air.

Even the people in the stands didn't shout much.

"Please Sparky, don't lose so fast, I want to see you get beaten by Prince," Gwen hissed, while Ethan seemed to hear her as he looked in her direction and gave her a blank stare.

Ethan had a moment's flinch.

His opponent was anything except a bad duelist.

Ethan was pretty sure he could deal with him, but he didn't know if he could do it in a way that would look good.

He wanted to show off in front of that jerk Gwen and the cute Freyja, as for Hermione, well, he never thought of that considering she was Grimprince's family.

The golden rule is that you don't mess with a friend's family.

'I could do it the simple way, but that wouldn't look good at all, dammit' Ethan thought as he got into a defensive stance, waiting for the duel to begin.

As Ethan expected, his opponent was faithful to his reputation in Ilvermorny: careful, diligent, and determined.

Initially, he left no room for Ethan's imagination.

He was the one who led the exchange.

Evils and spells rained down upon Ethan, who was content for the moment to fend off each and every assault with agility and dexterity.

Unable to find a way to stand out, Ethan simply kept the duel simple and used his incredible prowess in fire magic to restrain his opponent.

Eventually, his opponent was wearing down and this caused his intensity to weaken as well.

"This is my opening," Ethan whispered, before shouting loudly, "Enough time has passed, let's get this over with."

It was time for him, the prodigy of fire magic, to show what he was capable of.

Raising his wand, he caused several flames to shoot out chaining his opponent, thus quickly winning the duel since if his opponent sought to break free he would only be burned by these and could be dangerous despite it being only a spell to restrain.

"A victory acquired by the same old methods. I expected nothing less from you Sparky," Gwen said sarcastically.

"Don't be like that Gwen, it was a good duel" Hermione defended.

She gave Hermione a wide smile, "I don't doubt it was, but it's boring when you win with overwhelming force and not ingenuity,"

Hermione just nodded and headed off along with the group to watch Severus' next duel.

"Go Sev!!!", Freyja encouraged him with all her might.

"You can do it, Severus."

"That's right, smash it Prince!", shouted Gwen without caring about the looks the others were giving her.

"That was a bit over the top don't you think?" said Hermione to him a bit flustered by the looks she was getting.

"It's not worth wasting time with weak duelists and Severus knows that," Gwen said calmly.

Severus who heard her just nodded in amusement and focused on his opponent.

A quick silent spell was all it took.

This was all it took for Severus to get rid of his opponent.

As soon as the duel began, a devastating curse ripped through his opponent, launching him into the air, before he crashed heavily to the ground, absolutely unable to continue the duel.

Gwen smiled in amusement and looked at Hermione.

"You saw Hermione, he had the same opinion as me with regards to smashing if it's not worth the time."

"I thought you said winning with brute force was too boring and it was better to do it with ingenuity" Hermione contradicted.

"That only applies if the opponent is worth the time," replied Gwen.

While Freyja triumphantly raised her arms, congratulating Severus.

The first rounds of the competition were coming to an end.

And now only a few duelists remained.

The following duels were more intense and evenly matched.

Ethan and Severus reached the quarterfinals.

And this time it was Severus' turn to go first against Neil II Lament.

It was quite a cocky guy who was in front of Severus.

And to make matters worse, a Slytherin like him.

"Snape!!!, it's been a few months since I've seen you, you seem to be doing quite well around these parts" Lament said with a twisted smirk.

"It's Prince now, you came alone Neil?, I didn't see any other Slytherin in the stands."

"Well, you could say I was the only one interested in participating this time" Lament continued to smirk twistedly.

In the stands, Hermione seemed to recognize Severus' opponent.

'A Slytherin?.... Lament ... pureblood family and must be related to the Slytherin Quidditch captain I have heard quite a bit about'

"Do you know him Hermione?" asked Gwen seeing Hermione's surprised face at the sight of Severus' opponent and apparently Severus knew him too.

"No...I just heard some disgusting things about his family" replied Hermione.

"Oh, regarding blood purity isn't it?" asked Gwen.

"Yes, I've heard that Neil Lament was a Quidditch player who took advantage of the game to severely hurt Muggles or those he considered blood traitors" Hermione nodded.

"I see, this Neil seems to know Prince quite well."

"That's because he's a Slytherin, a year older than Severus if I'm not mistaken, in that house everyone knows each other and they tend to be quite dark" Hermione explained.

"Yeah, Prince told me and explained quite a bit about that, pretty nasty I must say, I don't envy Severus for having to deal with people like that, even though he's been part of it too," said Gwen.

Severus had already explained to them that at Hogwarts, Slytherins were not very open-minded and tended to be quite unpleasant, playing all sorts of pranks or humiliating others for not being purebloods.

And that in Slytherin house one had no options to choose from, all Slytherin were united, it was either be in favor or be against, but being against was too dangerous.

Most who disagreed with what the Slytherin were doing opted to keep quiet and turn a blind eye, but this also brought problems as they had no protection from a group to rely on when there were problems with other houses.

While some would join despite disagreeing so as not to be excluded and get protection.

Severus made it clear to them that even he used to hold a great grudge against Muggles that caused him to have more than one bad relationship in his house.

He didn't really oppose what they did in Slytherin, he just didn't care, he didn't participate in these things but he didn't condemn them either since he also used to go through those situations with the Gryffindors.

"Sev doesn't think like that anymore, he was just lost, he's nice!" suddenly said Freyja interjecting into the conversation.

Sasaki as always kept quiet, but seemed to be very interested in what they were talking about.

"I know Freyja, hate, and pain can make us all change and it's not like Prince ever did anything to anyone either, he just chose not to bother with other people."

"That's right Freyja, Severus may have made a mistake, but I suppose he has his reasons and as Gwen said, he just abstained from doing anything" agreed Hermione.

Even though for Hermione one had an obligation to help the other if they saw that the situation was unfair or harmful, but she understood that Severus didn't think like her.

The only thing that bothered her was the fact that in reality Severus not only didn't help, but he didn't disagree with what his fellow Slytherins were doing either, but that seemed to have changed and that relaxed her.

The duel finally started.

Very quickly, the spectators witnessed a magical duel of high standing.

The two protagonists engaged in a ruthless duel.

The air crackled.

A halo of smoke surrounded the duelists.

Each spell resulted in an impressive flash.

No one could easily find a flaw in their opponent's defense.

The attacks were getting more and more powerful, more and more brutal, especially from Nail who showed a clear dark intention of wanting to hurt his opponent in a brutal way.

While Severo was redoubling his wits calmly, and the dark intent he put to work was implacable.

One completely mad and brutal, while the other calm and cool but both were equally dark.

"You still seem to have those eyes, I thought you had lost them after spending so much time in the USA with the blood traitors" Neil said as he continued to madly send one spell after another.

Severus didn't bother to answer and just deflected spell after spell as he occasionally went on the offensive.

"Tell me Snape, what happened, you were so close, why?, tell me why dammit!" Neil began to scream as if he had lost his sanity as he made his spells go with greater intensity.

Severus, on the other hand, did not give an ounce of ground to his opponent.