47) Duelling Tournament

Severus woke up with a small yawn in his bedroom. It was time he went back to Hogwarts. The dinner last night had gone pretty much okay after all the explaining was done.

Lucius was a little intimidated by Evelyn's father and given a seperate conversation between him and Evelyn's father Louis in his sitting room. Lucius had returned happily and relieved from the room after everything had ended nicely. He was a little bored but was surrounded by the twins who started to ask questions more and more about the Prince Potions Factory. Apparently Evelyn's sister was quite skilled in potions and she was interested in learning about Potions in future and make her career in that fields.

Alice had already gone back last evening and he too was going to arrive there this morning for the classes.

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Horace Slughorn looked at the fireplace as the flames turned green signalling someone's arrival.

"Severus, it is good to see you back," Horace greeted his student who was the reason he had to face Dumbledore's questioning for ten minutes about the whole party.

"Professor, it's good to see you back too," Severus said back calmly to the portly wizard sitting in his desk.

"I will be going back to the dorms Professor, I have to get ready for the classes," Severus spoke up instantly as he wished for leave. Slughorn nodded as he expected Severus to do so, the boy really needed to work on his social skills.

"Take the schedule for this week Mr Prince," Slughorn said as he waved his wand sending the new schedule flying to Severus.

Severus exited the room as he walked through the familiar corridors into the Slytherin dorms.

"Valerian Roots," he spoke in infront of the

disguised entrance of the Slytherin common rooms. Slughorn liked to keep the passwords of the common room as the names of potion ingredients as it made the names easier to remember for him and the other students.

The stone wall parted away to reveal the Slytherin common room. The common room was filled with a greenish hue like usual when he entered to the empty common room. Its location being under the lake giving it a greenish hue due to the refraction of light all to the base of Slytherin common room.

The walk to his dorms was quiet as all the students of the house were in the great hall, having ther breakfast. There was only 10 minutes left for the classes after all to start.

He looked around his bed and found that it was clean and immaculate as usual. He took the books needed for today's classes as he crosschecked them with the schedule given to him by Slughorn.

There was no Potions today, infact the starting class would be the Defence Against the Dark Arts class led by Professor Hart. He had no qualms against Professor Hart. Infact he didn't even bothered with the Professor and his antics. While there was some bias in the Professor's decision with Slytherin. Nothing range to extreme, it was a basic human nature to have favourites, likes and dislikes. While a man in his position shouldn't have those bias, he was only a human in the end.

There was apparently three consecutive classes of Defence Against the Dark Arts today and that too mixed between fifth, sixth and seventh year students. He couldn't understand why it was being done so as the three years entirely of four houses was going to be a bother for everyone present there. There would be more than 200 students in total when they would gather and only the Great Hall was feasible in his opinion for a practical class if the Professor wished for so.

He quickly took his books and placed them in his bag as he walked away from the dorms to suffer one more day of gazing and whispering at him more furious than before due to the news and his actions.

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Laena Greengrass looked at the Great Hall filled with 5th, 6th and 7th year students , Dumbledore had announced that the students of these three years would have classes together today and two days every week. It irked her as the large number of this students meant that she will have to bear the noise the three years of Gryffidor students were making together when mixed along with the other two houses. While the number of students in her house were also much, they were however behaving nicely and talking slowly or in soft voices unlike the rowdy behaviour the other three houses were showing.

It was one of the best things in Slytherin that the students were instructed strictly to not tarnish the image of their house. It helped in building awareness among the students of her house to behave courteously even among the presence of their rivals, so that they will not show their weakness or vulnerable side in front of anyone.

Dumbledore was infront of him and arranging the tables in the corners to create more space for the students combined of 3 years. Laena new that he could do all of it with a single spell but he was doddering on purpose. It was the same attitude which was dooming the wizarding world currently.

From the corner of eye she saw Severus arriving quietly into the big room and silently moving towards the area where the other Slytherins were lounging around. She was a little excited and was already anticipating to see where he will go and how his friends reactions would be.

He had gone and declared himself Neutral in the whole conflict and wizarding war happening right now - but did he really thought about all the consequences he will be facing for it. She dearly wanted to know more about the matter.

She saw him standing alone in a corner while his eyes roamed around with a disinterested gaze among the Slytherin students present there. She was honestly impressed with the skill with which he pulled the simple action with a grace and precision she rarely saw.

Severus meanwhile found himself in a corner as he inspected his own housemates. He knew that declaring himself neutral in the whole conflict would cause some actions and resentment against him. The dark side will be furious for his refusal to join them while the light side would consider him as a craven for his refusal to join the fight. While the light side may claim themselves to have a better moral ground with them, but in truth they too had prejudices long ingrained in them.

When he had found himself in this world he had long thought about his purpose and plans for the future. While Lord chaos had told him to create as much chaos as he could, the truth was that it was not that easy as Lord Chaos wished. He had no clue on how to do so; the most he could do was create blasphemous potions and things which might cause enough scandal and chaos in the Wizarding World.

John Wilkes was the first to see him along with Evan Rosier and both of them walked towards him calmly with a blank expression on their faces. He didn't reacted when they were directly in front of him.

"Severus," John greeted with his usual happy to go smile. It only meant one thing, they won't discuss their alliances amongst them. The things were going to be same much but there would be stuff about which there would be no talks among them.

"John, Evan," he replied to them back with a small amused curl of his lips.

Evan simply nodded back at the gesture about what he and his dorm mates had talked about earlier. While Mulciber and Avery wanted him to join the Dark Side, Evan and John both knew that it would not do well to simply cross wands with each other. They will deal with the matters civilly among them.

They didn't had to understand Severus's position as each of them were the Heirs to their families and knew fully well what responsibilities lied on them. Severus was just doing what he thought would be the best for him and his house to remain unscathed throughout the war. If they wanted him to support Dark Lord then they will have to show him that the Dark Lord was the best option for now.

At that moment, there was a small bang in the Hall and he looked at the podium where Professor Hart, Headmaster Dumbledore, Professor Mcgonagall and Professor Flitwick were present.

"Students, as you all know we will be having a duelling competition this year during the Triwizard Tournament. There is however another event of duelling to show the best duellist among the ranks of the three schools. 10 best students of each school who excel in the field of martial magic will be given chance to compete against each other in this event. Out of the 30 participants only one will win, the winner shall get a price money of 500 galleons in total and a trophy. This will also be a chance for the students present in our school to test their mettle against the best students of other schools," Professor Hart spoke up among the students present there gaining smiles and eager whispers from the students.

Severus understood the gist, the main reason the age gap for the tournament was reduced by a year was due to the fact that both the European Under 19 Duelling champion and the runner up were only of 16 at this moment. The winner of Under 19 Championship was a student of Durmstrang Institute whereas the winner of under 17 Championship who was also the runner up of Under 19 Championahip was a student of Beauxbatons Academy. The press was already gunning for them as their school champions, faming the rivalry between them more.

"By this classes we will have practical lessons as well as a check for best eligible 10 students. Today we will have a small mock duel among the members present here. Please remember that the selection will be only up on the basis of continued good performance not on the results of a single day," Professor Hart said with a smile gaining loud cheers at his words.

Severus had to supress his cheshire grin as he awaited for the duelling part. It would be fun to test his mettle against duelling champions who both were skilled enough that the Dark Lord decided to eliminate them personally when they refused to join him. Their existence ending within some seconds when they crossed their wands with the Dark Lord.

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The last week had been hectic for me with the continuous parties and guests I have to deal with, leading me to post only two chapters in the previous week.

This chapter is around 1.8K words.

The next chapter will feature a duel where Severus shall display a part of his talents.

Thanks for the 1.3K powerstones this week.

Let's cross another 1K this week.

This week shall see me posting around 4 to 5 chapters totalling 10K words.

For many some parts of chapters may seem like filler but believe me it isn't, I am building the scenario for the future and only the POV of Severus won't provide the world building I want.