Just You Wait | James Sirius Potter (On Hiatus)

Chapter 25: Cabinet Battle #1

After a couple weeks of awkwardly dancing around the subject of my dad, my group finally returned to our old dynamic. Alice and Rose always working tirelessly on their numerous projects, Gwen and Brianna laughing to each other, propped up on the couch. And, of course, me sort of going around between the pairs, while simultaneously juggling my time I'd reserved for James. This year's Ravenclaw prefects, Alice and Evan, had decided to create a sort of dueling competition where the Ravenclaws could battle it out and win glory (and free butterbeers) for their team. Of course, our fifth-year team, led by Alice and Evan (who spent most of the meetings blushing and holding hands under the table), mostly spent our time messing around instead of practicing, much to the dismay of Rose, who threatened to leave us for the sixth-year team if we didn't get our act together. Of course, she never left, but she made a habit of telling us how close she was to leaving at the beginning and end of each meeting.

Surprisingly, Gwen and Brianna were the most effective pair of our team. They seemed to fight in tandem, even pulling the muggle-movie style back to back fighting during our year vs. year battles. Even mid-duel, one will take a hex and the other will heal them without anything more than a glance in their direction. Brianna's skill in creating explosions and Gwen's quidditch reflexes allowed them to take the front lines during the full-scale multi-year battles (Years 1, 3, 5, and 7 vs Years 2, 4, and 6).

Rose would strategize on how to attack properly during such battles and I would add some sort of pranking embellishments to her carefully thought out plan. Our favorite method was casting a levicorpus on as many as we could and setting off bombs of Peruvian instant darkness powder underneath them, and then dropping them into the darkness.

Annoyingly, Alice and Evan seemed to be so attached to each other that they would literally hold hands during battle, which Rose would not have stood for, if it weren't for the fact that Alice was left handed and Evan was right handed, leaving them with their dominant hands free should they decide that they needed to show PDA in the middle of a large-scale duel.

Eventually, the Ravenclaw duels turned to a multi-house tournament, even being sponsored by the teachers. Headmistress McGonagall even sponsored the creation of new robes specifically for the dueling competitions, which were relocated to the quidditch pitch for safety and to allow for more people to duel at once.

Our first multi-house duel starts off with a literal bang. Fireworks representing the houses go off, teal for the Slytherins and Ravenclaws, and orange for the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. And with that, the air is filled with laughing and yelling as the first hexes are fired. The teachers are in the commentator's box, with each teacher taking over commentary for their respective houses. McGonagall is supposed to remain neutral, being headmistress, but when she thinks we aren't looking, she occasionally casts a charm to project the image of a lion into the air.

Rose is carefully maneuvering me (via my robes and wingardium leviosa) over the crowd, with Alice and Evan deflecting hexes coming our way. With a quick burst of blue sparks into the air as my only warning, I begin to drop the instant darkness powder, the gasps of the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs in my wake as they lose their ability to see for a precious few minutes. A flash of pale blue light in the form of a black and white mare from the center of the field signals that Gwen's patronus has entered the field to make its way through the blackout. I quickly cast my own St. Bernard to join her patronus and dive back towards Rose. She gives a passing high five as she passes me, though I know that the ministry requires everyone to attempt to learn how to cast a patronus charm, though many cannot. After the boy who lived's many encounters with dementors, the ministry wanted to have more security in that regard. Of course, being Rose, her otter is cast perfectly nearly every time.

At the end of the battle, it's customary for the houses to choose their best duelers from their prefects and head girl and boy to do a four-way duel to gain extra points. Of course, Alice and Evan let Rose step in instead of them, and even offered to let me have a turn, but as soon as I saw Cora Zabini fighting alongside her king cobra patronus, I quickly turned it down. I like my life, and I'd like to keep it, thank you very much.

But even after all that, when every student has dust settling on the hems and shoulders of their robes, there is always a hot chocolate party in the Hufflepuff common room for all houses, even after the first duels.

And so, after casting a quick scourgify on my friends, I lie down in front of the Hufflepuff common room fireplace under a gigantic blanket with my friends, sipping hot chocolate and worry-free for the first time in five months.