Chapter 12

"Who do you think will win" Ron says excitedly as their charms and dada professors get ready for a duel in front of them.

"Professor Pettigrew surely" Harry says.

"What if one of the spells hit.... hits someone in the crowd" Neville says nervously.

"Look at the sides, they have erected a ward around the field to stop stray spells. Professor Terence himself helped put it up, he teaches Warding to the 6th and 7th years so it surely is strong" Hermione informs everyone.

Neville seems a bit reassured with that but still trys to hide behind others incase a spell comes his way.

"Although the half goblin is not that strong but he will easily defeat that glory hunting rat" Draco Malfoys voice carries over to the Gryffindors.

They look towards him angrily as he is sitting only a few seats behind them.

"Shut up Malfoy, no one asked for your opinion" Ron spats at him.

Malfoy sneers at him and is about to retort when the duel starts in front of them.

"Stupefy!" Flitwick cried, a jet of red light streaking towards Pettigrew.

Pettigrew roared, a shield of shimmering blue light erupting from his wand to meet the spell, the clash sending sparks flying.

"Impedimenta!" Pettigrew countered, a tripping jinx aimed at Flitwick's feet.

Flitwick sidestepped with surprising agility, his own wand whispering, "Flippendo!" sending a well-placed jinx that almost knocked Pettigrew of his feet but thankfully he raised a piece of ground above to block the spell.

The duel continued, a dazzling display of light and sound. Flitwick, nimble and quick, weaved between jinxes, firing stinging spells in return. Pettigrew, though younger was less agile but he made up for it with brute force it was clear for everyone that his spells were more powerful, his booming voice accompanying every powerful jinx.

As the intensity heightened, a stray curse clipped Flitwick's arm, drawing a hiss of pain. He gritted his teeth, determined not to yield.

"Reducto!" he yelled, a forceful banishing charm aimed at Pettigrew's wand.

Pettigrew reacted instinctively, his wand emitting a jet of water that deflected the Reducto. The water, however, splashed onto Pettigrew's boots, turning them a comical shade of bright pink.

A momentary surprise flickered on Pettigrew's face. Flitwick seized the chance, a sly smile playing on his lips.

"Expelliarmus!" he shouted, the disarming spell. Pettigrew hastily put up a shield which blocked the spell.

Both the professors looked at each other expectantly for a few seconds. This time Peter attacked first. He sent a flurry of stunners at the charms professor.

At the the same time he conjured a pair of wolves from the ground who ran of towards Flitwick.

Flitwick showed his mastery as he quickly put up a shield to block the stunners and conjured a large piece of rope to bind the wolves running at him.

The dada professor didn't stop, kept sending spells at him, so he had to constantly block and move out of the way.

Flitwick seemed to be getting overwhelmed and finally one spell which he had judged to be off target missing him, curved around to hit him from the side. Making his wand fly towards Peter.

Peter stood with his wand pointed at Flitwick's chest, his chest heaving. Flitwick, panting slightly, smiled at him.

The students were in awe, none of them had ever seen two powerful wizards battling it out with such ferocity. All of them started to clap as the two professors smiled and shook hands. Pettigrew returned the charms professors wand.

Harry smiled and looked back at Draco.

"What were you saying huh" he teased him.

Malfoy had a shocked expression on his face, his face turning red he walked away silently with his cronies.

"That was epic, did you see how the last spell curved" Ron exclaimed.

"I've never heard about spells curving on their path, Professor Pettigrew is really great, I should ask him how he did that" Hermione smiled.

The students were excited after the amazing duel between the professors everyone imagining themselves becoming that skilled.

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Take that bitch, trying to surprise me with a duel Infront of the whole school. I hand Flitwick his wand back and we smile at each other. I can tell that his smile is not genuine, he seems sad that he lost. If it weren't for the hundreds of students around us we might have exchanged some barbs.

I'm quite giddy inside, I defeated one of the strongest wizards in Great Britain, although we were limited to a small amount of spells and he most probably knows more high level spells than me, still I could tell during the duel that my magic was stronger.

Afterwards we inform the students about the timings and further explain the rules.

The club will meet every Saturday, 9:00-11:00 a.m is the slot for 6th and 7th years. 11:30 a.m to 1:00 p.m for 4th and 5th years. 2:00-3:00 p.m for 2nd and 3rd years and finally 3:00 p.m to 4:00 p.m for 1st years.

In the two weeks I have come to enjoy teaching but having one of my free days taken over by this club is not something I'm that excited about.

Thankfully this first meeting was short, after our duel we only hung around for another hour, informing the students which spells they should start reading about and what to expect with the club.

As the students start making their way out of the colloseum. Professor Terence approaches me. This is another thing different from the books. Upto 5th year the subjects are the same as told in the books but NEWTs have many more subjects like Warding, Enchanting, Healing, Cryptozoology and Magical arts.

"That was quite a duel Peter, I never thought anyone apart from the headmaster himself could best Professor Flitwick in this school" he says.

"I'm surprised myself, Professor Flitwick is a formidable opponent, if it was a proper duel with more freedom he could easily defeat me" I try to appear humble, no one likes a show off.

"Woah, strong and humble to boot, the ladies must like you" he wiggles his eyebrows, which frankly looks weird on a 50 year old man.

"Even if they do, they don't tell me to my face" I jest with him.

"Well I wanted to thank you a bit, I heard from some students that you have been impressing upon them the importance of wards and runes. Professor Babbling tells me a lot of 3rd and 4th year's have asked to study ancient runes and arthimancy, that means more students will be studying Warding in the future" he says with a smile.

The level of general education is really going down here, students go for easy subjects to get good grades, but that makes them weaker overall. Currently only a couple dozen students take advanced subjects like warding and enchanting.

"I'm only telling them the reality of things, runes and warding are really helpful in defending against the dark arts if you know what you are doing" I say.

"All the same, this is great for my subject, if there is anything I can help you with just tell me" he offers.

"Well I could always use more advanced books or notes on warding"

"You've got it, I'll send some of my best books and notes to your office"

"Thank you Terence"

"No problem, it's good to see others being interested in this subject, I'll see you in the castle" he nods to me and starts making his way back.

"Congratulations Peter" a squeaky voice behind me says.

I smile and turn around. "Thank you professor, that was quite the surprise you pulled on me"

Flitwick smiles "sorry, the idea just came to me and I couldn't resist"

"No problem, I quite enjoyed the duel, maybe we can do this again, where you go all out so I can learn something"

"Ohh that's a great idea, we will definitely do that, thank you for entertaining this old man, now I believe some students want to congratulate you" he points towards the golden trio, who are walking towards us.

Nobody exactly calls them that but me in my mind.

"I'll see you tonight at lunch Professor" I nod at him, he nods back and leaves.

Harry, Ron and Hermione reach me with smiles on their faces.

"That was epic" Harry exclaims.

"Wicked" says Ron.

"That was quite impressive Professor Pettigrew" Hermione says.

I smile, "You guys really know how to boost my ego huh"

All of them smile back at me.

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Professor Terence is quite efficient, he sent the books to my office before dinner the same day. I wanted to get right into them but sadly I have patrol duty today.

My patrol is from 10-12 every Tuesday and Saturday.

So here I am roaming around the castle at night. A few months back I would have been under the invisibility cloak, prowling around to find my next victim. Now here I am as a teacher in the same school, it's funny how things turn out.

I have the marauders map out for convenience sake. Most of the corridors are empty, even the Weasley twins are in their dormitories.

Oh, what do we have here. I see a very interesting name on the map. I quickly make my way towards it. Before reaching the place, I cast a powerful disillusionment charm on myself along with a silencio on my shoes and clothes.

Soon I reach a classroom on the 4th floor, only a little distance away from the Ravenclaw common room. I enter the room and inside is a student sitting on a chair with her head on the desk. With straggly, waist-length dirty-blonde hair, this is Luna Lovegood. She looks like her actress in the movies. She doesn't have any shoes on and looks to be in a state of disarray.

Hmm the books really downplayed how ostracized she was before she met harry and co in the fifth year.

I undo the spells on myself. "Ahm" I clear my throat.

She raises her head and looks towards the entrance where I am standing. She has that dreamy look in her eyes which is always there but now it is accompanied by a bit of tiredness and sadness.

"What are you doing out past curfew miss Lovegood" I ask her softly.

"Hello professor, I couldn't enter the common room so I am trying to sleep here" her voice is soft and she talks slowly, it's quite creepy actually. I didn't have a chance to interact with her directly during these 2 weeks so it's the first time we are having a conversation.

"Hmm why didn't you try to find a teacher"

"I didn't have shoes and it hurts to walk long distances without them, so I settled here"

I raise my wand and transfigure a seat into a pair of soft slippers. I walk towards her with the slippers in my hand.

"Can I see your feet" I ask her.

She demurly nods and shifts her legs towards me. I bend down and observe her feet. They are swollen with a few cuts on her soles. Seems like this is a case of bullying quite severe one at that.

I take out my wand and point it at the soles of her feet. I recently learned some new healing spells, time to try them for real.

"Episky" A green hue envelopes her feet and I can visibly see them healing. I keep recasting the spell to fully heal them.

"Can you fully explain what happened, I would like to have the full picture" I ask her.

"Hmm well I couldn't go to dinner because someone hid all my clothes and I was trying to find them, when I returned to the common room all my shoes were gone. Then afterwards Elara Silver told me that someone wanted to talk to me outside the common room, she didn't even let me wear the only shoes I had. When I came out no one was there and I couldn't enter the common room again. There were small pieces of glass on the floor so I couldn't walk far, so I came here." She finished.

While hearing her talk I kept healing her feet, then I help her wear the slippers. During this time I made eye contact with her and read her mind. It is alot worse than the books, students with access to magic can be really petty and dangerous. She has faced similar things for the last 2 years.

"Has this ever happened before??" I ask her.

"Yeah sometimes but it was never this bad" she says sadly.

"Did you tell the teachers about it"

"Yes, they punished some of them but it starts again after a few weeks"

"Ok, come with me, can you walk now"

She experimentaly stands on her feet and smiles.

"Yes it doesn't hurt now"

"That's good, follow me please"

I start walking towards my own quarters, making small talk with her, asking about her family, likes, dislikes, making some lame jokes to make her feel at ease.

"Ok, here we are this is my room you can sleep here tonight I will go talk with professor Flitwick, we'll take care of it in the morning, you are okay right" I say standing Infront of my room.

She smiles and nods, gives me a small hug and moves to my room.

I leave her there and make my way towards professor Flitwicks office.

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