an unbroken force

Three

        Draco nods, pointing his wand at me and commencing the fight. "Stupefy!"
I step quickly, snapping my wand at him before his spell can be cast. "Protego!"
Luckily, I'm able to block his first advancement, which shakes him up a bit. If he didn't know before, he knows now that I'm aware of exactly what he is doing. My breathing becomes heavier when I realize how crucial it was that I just blocked that. I'm standing my ground against Draco Malfoy right now. And it's going to stay that way.

        I'm not the type of witch to immediately attack my opponents. I defend first; make sure I understand what my opponent's intentions are. I can hold my own with blocking charms for a brief moment, typically. I'm not too sure if this is the proper technique, but I've found that it works well enough for me. After I've gone through this two-second process, I finalize my decisions. Then, I fight back.

        After rolling up the sleeve of my Slytherin sweater, I point my wand at Draco once again. "Immobulus!"

        My charm does not hit him. He used a blocking charm, similar to how I had just done.
He takes a step back to analyze the situation for a second. Then, Draco thinks of another charm. I can't get a good grasp on what he's thinking and I begin to panic. My mind thinks he's about to cast a spell when I, once again, cast a blocking spell. To my surprise, he hadn't spoken before I said Protego, giving him the upper hand.

        At a crucial moment, Draco casts a spell. "Expelliarmus!"

        Suddenly, my wand is no longer in my hand, leaving me at an astronomical disadvantage. Shit. The velocity of his spell has knocked me over and, before I can reach my wand, Draco Malfoy is closing the gap between us. I keep backing up, frantically reaching my hand behind me to search for my wand.

        "You're done now, Francis!" Draco yells at me from across the room. The students begin to chat about our duel among themselves, resulting in chaotic levels of noise.

        Unsuccessful in finding the wand, my mind begins to take over. Before I can even think about my actions, my brain switches into fighting mode. I look at a chair that's not too far away from Draco. Preliminary to my knowledge, my mind throws the chair in Draco's direction. It hits him milliseconds later, causing him to fall backward away from me. In a moment of his vulnerability, I gasp and immediately turn around to search for my wand.

        I'm desperate to get back up and insert myself back into the duel. Draco is quick to rebound and rise back up himself, returning us to level ground. The adrenaline coursing through our veins makes us forget about whatever telekinesis I just used to throw a wooden chair at him.
Draco wipes a bit of blood off his brow, staining his white button-up shirt. He looks upset. Chest heaving, Draco's eyes squint in my direction, wondering if I had actually just done that in front of everyone.

        Unexpectedly, he targets his wand at me and speaks in a lower tone. I can't hear what spell he is attempting to cast.

        Suddenly, tight ropes are binding my arms to my torso. I keep a tight grip on my wand, but it feels as if I'm incapable to utilize my abilities. Beginning to internally panic, I squirm, attempting to slither myself out of the perfectly tight rope. I almost instantly regret my decisions, however, as I feel rope burns forming on my exposed forearms. I think for a second, searching for something, anything to get me out of this claustrophobic mess. Finally, it comes to me. I point my wand at myself.

        "Relashio!" I yell, with high hopes. The ropes seem to melt off of me, which only frustrates Malfoy further. I decide to give Draco a taste of his own medicine.

        I step towards Draco, focusing on his wand. He looks nothing but confused, and I don't blame him. I tilt my head, causing the wand to tremble and slip out of his hand. It falls to the floor just beneath him but I don't give him enough time to reach for it.

        "Incarcerous!" I point my wand, casting the same spell Draco just cast onto me. He's now the one bound by rope.

        Draco looks at me. He doesn't strike me as a claustrophobic one. Draco does, however, strike me as someone who hates losing control. I'm right about one of these things.

        "Let me out of this silly rope, Francis. This isn't funny," Draco looks at me sternly, but there's a certain tremble in his voice. "This isn't how you duel someone. This is torture."

        Annoyed at his comment, I mumble Relashio whilst pointing my wand at him. I make a mistake by letting my guard down for a split second. I let him get his wand and point it back at me without realizing it. I swallow down my worries and attempt to anticipate whatever move he's about to make.

        Draco swiftly moves the aim of his wand from me to the floor beneath me. "Deprimo!"
The floor beneath me is as if it is nothing but cotton candy and Draco is a water faucet. I fall through the cracking floor beneath me, grabbing onto a tile that hadn't cracked yet. I scream, for the first time, in front of everyone. I can barely control my breathing. Adrenaline passes through my body at an alarming rate and I can only act on instinct. Before Draco can respond, I cast a Stunning Spell on him. Draco's body is thrown back onto the floor, and he doesn't move for long enough to where I can pull myself out of the pit he just made. Malfoy doesn't miss a beat and is back up not long after I recover. He is panting, sweat running down his forehead. I'm pleasantly surprised; he didn't expect me to last this long, and I've intimidated him.

        Not yet feeling the impending exhaustion from this seemingly everlasting duel, I point my wand again at Malfoy. "Impedimenta!" I choose my final spell, sending Draco into the wall behind him. I bet it's going to leave a bruise, but my intentions are only to force him to give up not to hurt him.

        He, though, is quick to get up. I've seriously upset him now. Chest heaving (although rather dramatically, I must admit), Draco itches for the last spell. "Damn you, Francis!" he says, and I can see I've made him hurt more than I wanted to. "Stupefy!" he yells firsts, then, for good measure, adds, "Bombarda!"

        My eyes widen with feelings of betrayal. Within a split second, my body goes limp and something explodes; I'm blasted back into the wall behind me, the falling bricks threatening to crush my body within them. Fire roars, threatening to tickle every inch of my body with its searing hands. I hyperventilate, trying to rustle underneath the bricks so the fire can't touch me. Everyone halts to an eerie silence. The only thing speaking is the fire that craves to engulf me for supper. They seem petrified. Like something completely alien had just happened. I let out a scream of pain. Something's definitely broken. Pins and needles shoot through every inch of my body. It's not long before I can't withstand the immense pain any longer. I see a blurry Snape hurry toward me. He pulls away the bricks, searching for my limp body. I want to tell him that I'm right here but I'm too tired to speak. Finally, he finds me, his wand equipped to help me. But, I'm unable to see whether he's able to help because, before I know it, the world's gone black.

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hey you! thanks for reading this chapter :) i apologize for the rather short chapter. a sliver of my intentions for this chapter included emphasizing the competitiveness between draco and rosaline. I hope I was able to get that idea across. I know it ended on a pretty rough note, but I swear, the next chapter will be a bit less dark. lmk if dueling scenes are cool or not. and, as always, please lmk about any spelling and/or grammatical errors. thx xoxo:)