CH 97

Daphne sighted down her wand and loosed a bight red stunner on the wooden target dummy.

The Slytherin dungeons were exceptionally well equipped. They had a duelling range, a potions lab, and a small library. Harry had hinted there were other, more secure, places they could use later, but until they could set them up, she planned to make as much use of these facilities as possible.

Next to her, Granger lined up her own wand. "You don't think we're going to need this any time soon do you?" Granger asked, firing off her own stunner towards the dummy.

She frowned. Their first day at Hogwarts had gone well. Nothing too drastic had happened and today looked to be more of the same. But still…

She fingered her wand. "It's better to be prepared than not."

Granger lowered her wand. "You could just say, 'I don't know.'"

She kept her face blank. "'I don't know' was part of my meaning."

Granger tilted her head in a half-acknowledgement, turned, took a deep breath, and let loose a continuous chain of spells.

A few booths away, a group of older Slytherins were also training, making use of the time before breakfast to brush up on their skills, no doubt dulled by summer sloth. Granger continued to pour magic into her target, muttering almost constantly under her breath, her spell casting fast, precise, and sustained. One stunner, one shield-breaker, one jelly legs jinx, and one more stunner. The standard stunner was medium speed and medium power, the shield-breaker did nothing to a human, but was very effective against a protego, and the jelly legs jinx was a super fast cast time threat meant to throw off an opponent for that crucial split second after their shield dropped. They called the combination the dueller's hello and it contained the three non-shield combat spells Harry had taught her so far. Each of Granger's spells flowed seamlessly into the next, an elegant dance of wand and hand movements, made all the more impressive by the witch's occasional feints and ducks, dodging the pretend counter spells of an imaginary enemy. She noticed the group of older Slytherins had paused and were eyeing them. The assumed leader detached himself from the group and sauntered over. She didn't recognise the boy but he walked with a manner that screamed pureblood. She nodded at him and received a nod in return. The older boy stood a few paces away and watched Granger for a few more seconds before her casting slowed and stopped.

Granger turned.

"Good casting for a first year," he commented. "I counted nine hellos before you slowed down. I assume you have at least one of them wordless?"

Granger stood a little straighter. "Yes, the stupefy, otherwise I'd never be able to keep that up for as long as that. I considered learning circular breathing but in the end I decided not to bother."

The boy tilted his head. "Circular breathing?" "It's a technique that allows you to breathe in through your nose while you breath out through your mouth, but I'm not sure how useful it would be when you can just learn to cast wordlessly."

The boy's eyes widened. "Where did you see that? I've never seen that before."

Granger shrugged. "It's not from around these parts."

The boy eyed her Slytherin vassal crest.

Was that suspicion in his eyes?

"Rumours say your lord comes from New Zealand…" Granger smiled sweetly. "I'm sorry, I can't divulge my lord's secrets."

The boy nodded, as though confirming something to himself.

Daphne's lightening bolt ring vibrated. Her heart leapt — a message from Harry. She instantly buried herself in her occlumency and started decoding.

The boy nodded and extended his hand to Granger. "Romulus Volf, of the Ancient House of Volf."

Granger made to bring her hand to his but before she could grasp it, Volf snapped up her hand, bowed down, and brushed his lips across her knuckles.

She almost missed this, so focused was she on Harry's message.

Granger smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Hermione Granger, of the House of Granger, Vassal of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin."

"Pleased to meet you, Miss Granger." Volf straightened up. "I hope that you are planning to join the duelling team? I've already been approached by Heir Nott, but for you I'd happily kick him aside."

'Daphne,' the message started, 'meet me with Hermione around the back of greenhouse one a few minutes before herbology. - Harry.'

"Oh." Granger hesitated. "I don't know about that. I'm sure Nott is good at duelling, and someone better might turn up." She bit her lip. Harry planned to meet them? Yes, she was happy, but she thought the whole point of the first few weeks was not to meet. Something must be wrong.

Volf snorted. "I reckon with a few weeks training you could take most second years. You have the power for it. If you can save our second year duellist from dealing with his main opponent, we'll be in a much better position. I doubt Nott could pull that off from the small amount I've seen of him so far."

She really missed Harry. She fiddled with the cuff of her robes and stared off into the distance.

"Still, I was planning on working on some other projects…" Hermione mumbled.

"Look, how about you join the club as a temporary member. Then, when trials for the team happen in November, you can see if you still stand up to Nott? If Nott can't improve enough to beat you by then, then you'll probably be better than him for the tournament in April.

Wait, what? She snapped to attention and glanced between Granger and Volf.

Granger fidgeted and opened her mouth to reply.

"Wait." She held up a hand to stall Granger. "How about she goes ahead and does that, but on the condition that if anyone can beat Hermione in a fair fight on the day of trials that you give them her spot?"

Volf stared at her. His eyes narrowed. "You… I will not tolerate anyone but the strongest being on my team." Whops.

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