the marriage stone (Discontinued)

Chapter 71 - The Things That Matter

He glanced at Dumbledore expectantly, noting the extreme effort the man was making to keep the grin of amusement off his face. Indeed, Lucius Malfoy was staring hard at the floor of the Chamber and appeared to be fighting to keep the smirk from his lips.

"You are right, my boy!" Dumbledore said cheerfully. "I hate to think of the amount of homework Professor McGonagall will assign you if you miss much more of class." His words were all the cue needed - Alrik, Diana and the Aurors moved swiftly forward, surrounding him as they all headed straight toward the main doors of the Chamber. Dumbledore, Malfoy and Madam Bones closed ranks as well, blocking the men and woman who began calling out to Harry and attempting to bar his way.

But if he expected to step into the quiet peace of the hallway beyond, he was disappointed. The doors opened upon a battle and Harry heard the distinctive sounds of swords clashing against one another as the hallway was lit up with the fiery light of curses. Harry stared in horror at the spectacle before him, trying to understand what he was witnessing.

The hallway was filled with men armed with swords - he noticed the gauntlets various men were carrying. At the far end of the hall he could see Severus fighting with another man - his sword blazing with fire as his wand shot hex after hex at his opponent. Sirius and Remus were standing just on the edge of the battle. Sirius held both his sword and wand in his hands, though neither was in use at the moment - there was blood on his sword however as if he'd been fighting earlier. Harry could see blood dripping from the man's wand hand, though he was too far away to see what type of injury he had sustained.

There was blood on the ground beneath the duelers' feet, and Harry could see three swords lying off to one side. And Severus - he could see numerous wounds on the man's body. The sword of his current opponent was still clean, so the wounds must have come from an earlier battle. Why Sirius and Remus were not hexing the men in front of them for all they were worth Harry did not know, but the panic that welled up in his heart at the realization that his family's lives were in danger was maddening.

"Severus!" Harry shouted as he charged forward. But he had taken no more than a step when he was grabbed around the waist by both Lucius Malfoy and Alrik. He fought against both men, intent on aiding the three men before him.

"It's a duel!" Lucius hissed at him. "You can not interfere."

"He's right, Harry," Alrik told him. "Severus must finish the fight himself. It would dishonor him if you intervened."

Alrik's words brought Harry up short. Dishonor him - the last thing he wanted to do was dishonor Severus. But what did he care for honor when the man's life was at stake? Was he just supposed to stand here and do nothing! Even as he watched a stray spell escaped from the fray and slammed into a large, nearly invisible shield which lit up briefly with light - Remus he could see was holding up the shield, keeping any stray curses from harming the spectators.

Severus had explained the rules of dueling to him during their sword lessons so he knew on a basic level what he was seeing. The men with gauntlets in their hands were challengers, and it would seem that Sirius was acting as Severus' Second. Indeed more than one fight had already been fought and Sirius must have taken his turn to let Severus rest. Normally the job of holding up the spectator shield fell to the two Seconds - but Remus appear to be holding up both sides of it. That could only mean that all the Seconds intended to fight as well; Remus was giving Sirius a chance to rest.

It was odd though that he would allow the challenger's Second to rest - why not force him to hold up his end of the bargain and tire him out before facing Sirius? But even as he watched he saw the answer to this oddity - another spell escaped the fray, shot from the challenger's wand. It struck the shield directly in front of Remus and ricochet back. For a moment Remus seemed to stagger under the effort to deflect the spell, and the shield in front of the other challengers weakened - the spell slipped through and slammed into a previously untried challenger, sending him to the ground.