A Duel!

"How do we know you're not working with him!?" Ron asked pointing at the Slytherin clothes on Draco that matched Loki's.

Loki ignored the accusation and Harry responded in his stead.

"Remember Malfoy was listening to us in the corridor when Hagrid's letter came in? I think he heard us then and didn't he just knock him out, isn't that enough to prove his allegiances?"

"Oh.", Ron said slightly disappointed.

Loki smiled and then turned toward Hagrid, "Hagrid you should probably go back into the hut. You don't want to be involved with this, and don't you have to take care of Norberta?"

Hagrid was about to leave but Loki held his hand and looked into his eyes, "If anyone asks you saw nothing, alright?."

Hagrid gulped and nodded before leaving into his hut.

With a smile, Loki went to Hagri'd tool shed and began to search for something in particular.

A few minutes of shuffling around Hagrid's tool shed Loki found a few old cans of paint which he gladly used to give Mafoy's face a cute layer of makeup.

"Is this alright?" Harry asked since even he felt a little pitiful at how Loki was treating him while using the levitation charm to drag Draco up the stairs towards the castle.

"Eh, all that head banging on the stone might set his brain right." Ron stated as if it was a fact and nobody argued.

Then they set him up in front of the castle exit like a scarecrow by tying him to the tree that grew right outside the gate.

"We will get into trouble if we get caught.", Hermione said with a short stomp of her foot.

"Says the girl who recommended taking his wand away so he couldn't get down on his own." Loki joked.

"Hmpf. Eavesdropping is not a nice thing to do."

The trio left and parted ways from there with Ron constantly mumbling something suspiciously like "He's a dark wizard I tell you." and Loki went back to Hagrid's hut.

"Goodnight Hagrid.", Loki said to the friendly half-giant and petted the little dragon still trying to snap his fingers.

"Norberta's a feisty little dragon isn't she?" Hagrid asked happily like he was the mother.

"You should ask some professor to help you with an undetectable extension charm so that you can keep the dragon in a safe place, or I have no doubt the dragon will burn your hut down by the end of the month. They grow fast. And with Draco running his mouth in the castle I don't doubt people might get suspicious."

"But how will I convince the professors? They'll probably want me to send her off to somewhere else."

"I've always wondered why Hogwarts doesn't have a dragon of its own when its moto is 'Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus' translated as 'Never tickle a sleeping dragon.' Given how eccentric he is, I'm sure Professor Dumbledore would see the appeal."

Hagrid's eyes shone and he nodded his head, "I'll try it out."

Loki then stepped toward the castle, excited about the prospect of duelling Dominic.

In the meanwhile, everyone saw Draco unconscious on a tree. No one rushed to get a professor, and most threw stones at him.

Loki just ignored it with a simple thought as he went to bring Dominic to his training area, 'Kids are quite cruel…'

"Why did you bring me here?" Dominic asked with a confused look while looking around the forbidden forest.

"Because this is where the duelling club takes place.", Loki said with a smile on his face as he pushed through a few bushes and entered the grounds he had prepared for himself.

"Dueling club!?" Dominic asked surprised but Loki had already entered the arena so he quickly followed.

"It's not much of a club with only one member in it, but I can give you the privilege of joining if you want?" Loki joked and Dominic playfully ruffled his hair.

There were several Unicorns in the area and Loki calmed them down when they all saw Dominic.

"Here, if all of you promise to not snitch on me, you can have some fairy dust." Loki said holding up a small bag full of fairy dust while speaking to the leader of the young fouls around the area.

"What are you doing?" Dominic asked placing his hand on Loki's shoulder.

"Oh! Dominic you're here! I almost forgot. Don't interfere with serious business now, go to your spot, I'll be there to fight you soon." 

"I almost want to go back to the castle and report to the teachers that you've set up an illegal dueling arena in the forbidden forest…"

Loki's eyes suddenly widened, "Oh!! A secret duelling arena! How nice of you to give me such great ideas. I'll be using that one, so don't mind me stealing it alright?"

Dominic looked at him with a frown and-

"Is there something wrong?" Loki asked with a funny smile.

"No…I'm just lamenting how you've only arrived here when I'm in my last year. Now all the younger students will get to participate in the duelling club and not me…"

"Why do you even want to participate in the duelling club, aren't you a nerd?"

"A nerd that has won the youth duelling competition three times prior."

Loki smiled and went back to dealing with the unicorns after which he made his way to the small duelling ring he'd set up earlier in the day. 

Dominic spoke with a small but confident smile on his face.

"You can begi-"

"Flippendo!" Loki instantly cast, sending a bright red beam of light right at Dominic, but he just wordlessly cast a small Protego and defended himself from it.

"Diffindo!" Loki shouted by pointing his wand towards Dominic's feet, hoping to raise some dust to blind him.

Loki almost expected Dominic to retaliate in some way and not lose his vision, but he remained still and allowed Loki do to as he pleased.

With a dust cloud up, Loki instantly shuffled around Dominic and moved to be behind him with light footsteps so that his sound wouldn't give his position away.

Then when he thought Dominic least expected it, Loki launched a simple attack, "Aqua Eructo!!" he shouted by flicking his wand in a simple crescent moon.

A thin but fast stream of water left Loki's wand and entered the dust cloud, but Loki didn't hear the sound of Dominic screaming that he was expecting.

Instead he heard-

"You've got a good head there and can attack well, but can you defend yourself?" Dominic asked waving his wand and causing the dust cloud around him to blow away.

He was being defended by a translucent shield that didn't even form ripples as it blocked Loki's water jet stream.

Then he flicked his wand and cast a purple charm straight at Loki's feet which he promptly dodged by using simple leg work.

"Nice footwork. What about your defences?" Dominic asked casting a purple charm once again but this time with much more speed forcing Loki to defend with his wand and not just move away.

Loki's eyes could see the charm moving at high speeds right at him, but without the ability to dodge in time he panicked.

'How?'

'How do I defend against this?'

'I don't know how to cast the Protego charm.'

'What options do I have?'

'I can't dodge and I can't transfigure something fast enough to block the charm, so what do I do?'

Before Loki could think any further the light from the flash closed in on him and he acted instinctively, with a clever movement of his fingers he flicked his wand downwards and shouted, "Finite Incantatem!"

The purple light clashed with his wand and vanished into thin air without harming a single hair on his head.

There was a moment of silence in the forest when both Dominic and the Unicorn foals were stunned by what Loki had just done and Dominic spoke with a smile, "That was a beautifully executed counter curse."

Loki ducked his head embarrassed and then Dominics spoke.

"Good! Good! You're deft and your instincts are on point! And although you lack experience with actual defences you supplement it with your knowledge and used Finite Incantatem to dissolve the spell!"

"So? How was I?" Loki asked.

"You've got a good base to work with, now all you need is to learn how to fight."

"Huh? What do y-?" Loki asked confused but he didn't get the time to finish his words.

A red vermilion light shot from Dominic's wand and flew toward Loki at the same blinding speed.

Unamused by Dominic's attempt at catching him off guard, Loki once again used his nimble fingers to catch the spell while shouting, "Finite Incantatem."

'Ha! As if that would catch me off guar-'

But the truth was Dominic had planned something else.

After the red light dissolved, a pure white light shone through from inside and knocked Loki in the face.

'A charm inside a charm!?'

'What!? How!?'

Dominic's smirking face was the last thing Loki saw before he fell unconscious.

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