Chapter - 05

Fate works in mysterious ways.

Albus Dumbledore and Alexander Slytherin, are boys both disgraced by the misunderstood actions of their families.

One a rightful prince of the British Wizarding World, the other a rising underdog, at least that's the narrative their chattering peers would have an outsider believe. But in Alex's mind, he was the underdog as humiliating as it was to admit that a mere teenager was a threat to him, or it was just the Slytherin pride engraved in his blood.

"It truly has been a while since we last talked. I wonder why we don't talk much more ?", standing opposite the grey-eyed lad, Albus honoured the courtesy.

" The flies surrounding you are most... off-putting. I don't prefer such a company.", Alexander answered with his revulsion veiled in the garb of sophistication. His dig at Albus' faithful sidekick did raise an ire out in Albus as he forgo the traditional bow. Slytherin still gave a slight bow just to annoy him a bit more.

"BEGIN!!!"

Time seemed to slow down as the duelers brought forth their wands.

Albus was barely faster in his incantation for he chose to initiate with a simpler spell in order the gain a premature advantage, which proved to be fruitful.

|Dis|

Alexander was pushed back ever so slightly causing him to lose his balance, seeing an excellent opening Albus proceeded to throw a disarmament charm at him.

However, Slytherin managed to spin himself in mid-air via wandless magic and cast a charm of his own.

|Viverra|

A minute charm that pulled an object toward the caster, the opposite of the |Dis| charm which pushes an object away from the caster. Both spells only work on objects thus the target of their spells was each other's clothing.

A barrage of similar low-level spells was being dished out akin to a game of chess where players fight to control the centre of the board while making way to set up their special pieces.

|Expelliarmus|

Like lightning dyed in red, the spells clashed, and the intricate spell casting was forced to a halt as now the match depended on the one with greater raw magical output.

Silence reigned supreme as the onlookers were either too enamoured with what was essentially a tug-of-war or ones who didn't want to distract the participants given that it seemed like one of them was about to give in.

Sure enough, the moment of weakness came and Albus capitalised on it, going all in.

"<HAAA>", Albus screamed out, forcing Slytherin to take a knee. But that action, no matter how humiliating, lent enough leverage to deflect the spell towards the ceiling of the duelling room, however, Dumbledore had anticipated such a desperate move as pounced on his opponent.

" Yield! ", with knee striking Alexander's gut and his wand pointed at his neck, the match was set. Dumbledore's cold yet triumphant blue eyes met with Slytherin's grey eyes, carrying in them an amusement of sorts, that gave the auburn-haired boy a foreboding that something was off, that he missed something.

" You didn't beat me. You gave up a safe vantage point for a killing blow.", Alexander smirked as his body transformed leaving only his robes clenched in Albus' hand as the broken chunks of the ceiling fell on him.

The Gryffindor however, showed his prodigious talents at Transfiguration as he waved his wand turning the falling debris into spears and hurled them behind him were the Slytherin stood, with his sleeves folded, ready for the onslaught.

|Expelliarmus|

Dumbledore's wand flew out of his hand and a green serpent coiled around his neck in a stranglehold and hissing in his face while a wand was pointed at his temple.

" You lose.", in an almost whisper-like tone, Slytherin declared the result of their match which was corroborated by the ruling of the referee.

"How?", incredulous bafflement bled out of Albus' question. In his mind, the match pretty much won he knew that the transformation of Alex's robe into his imitation should have depleted all his magical reserves and he was pretty sure that the Slytherin wasn't capable of Apparition and even if he was there wasn't enough energy to achieve it.

" You really shouldn't believe everything you see.", a sly smirk graced the victor's lips and Dumbledore's eyes widened in surprise as he realised what had happened, " You fabricated a memory, but when? How? Which?", he hadn't felt any probe on his mental shields at all and he refused to believe that Alex, who despite his heritage, was practically a muggle-born to have superseded him in the mind arts to such a degree.

"That is for you to figure out." having said his piece, Alexander with the serpent slithering in the sleeves of his robes and walked out of the arena and disappeared into the crowd of animated and excited spectators that were trying to make out the head and toe of the match.

P.O.V. Alexander

'Shit! He had on the ropes there, had the deception not worked I would likely be skewered pig.', with these thoughts in mind I walked out of the duelling club. My heart was pounding and a nervous sweat breaking out of my hairline, ' Damn he transfigured all the debris without verbalisation and he still had a little left in the tank.'

Despite my post-match nervousness, I had to admit I was feeling pretty proud of my victory, ' ... ah yes, defeating an Eleven-year-old boy via smoke and mirrors. Such a great achievement.' voiced out my pessimistic evaluation of the situation.

' But still, I won against the future greatest wizard of the century.', despite the method, a win is a win. With that thought, I commenced my journey back to the Slytherin common room.

"Besides I wouldn't have been great if I used more destructive and 'darker' spells.", I said to myself knowing that it would only bring upon me more investigative scrutiny and I would have to further delay my plans to sneak into the restricted sections of the library.

" You did real good Lucy, looks like I'll have to find a delicious treat for you, my dear.", the little sneaky response was to run her head against my neck, which amused me quite a lot.

"Well, who would have thought? I'm beginning to enjoy myself."

×××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××

Yo peeps.

How'd you like my fight scene? I tried to keep it short and crisp to not drag it out. Anyways, guess when, how and where would have Alexander fabricated the memory. Also do give me ideas about the progression of the academic aspects of Hogwarts, power progression and the historical and political atmosphere of the period.

Peace out ✌

×××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××