21 Exploring the Restricted Section

Ivan spoke again, as if he had just remembered something.

"And, Malfoy, you owe Hermione a thank-you. Don't forget that!"

"Hales! That was your dirty sneak attack!" Malfoy pulled out his wand and pointed it at Ivan, his fair cheeks flushed.

"I, Malfoy, would rather fall from the sky and die than thank a Mudblood in Azkaban!"

Crabbe and Goyle drew their wands at the same time, but were met with looks of surprise from the many Gryffindors, reminding them that they were at the Gryffindor table.

Ivan winced at the mention of Mudbloods, and Ron jumped to his feet and shouted.

"Malfoy! We accept your challenge! I will teach you a lesson tonight!"

"Very well, then. Tonight I shall wait…" Malfoy raised his eyebrows and left with a sinister smile.

"Duel? What's a duel? Do two people stab each other with their swords?" Harry asked Malfoy after he had left.

"Of course not. How could we be as stupid as those Muggles?" Ron proudly stated the rules he knew.

"Well… first, the two sides must stand against each other, then bow to each other, and both sides must hold up their wands in a glorious duel by magic. If one side dies, the assistant must take over, and the duel will not end until both sides are down!"

Ron got more and more excited as he spoke, and he was more interested in a duel than in a boring classroom filled with books.

"Died?" Harry gulped.

"Ron was exaggerating. It was a proper wizarding duel, and the best we could do was use a Disarming Charm or a Leg-Locking Charm. Sometimes it's not as useful as a fist," Ivan explained, shaking his head.

"You'll be there at night, will you, Ivan?" Ron asked hopefully.

"No, like I said before, I've got things to do tonight, and I don't have time for Malfoy." Ivan shook his head.

In Ivan's opinion, this silly face-to-face magical duel with one another waving their wands was stupid, not at all what he would expect from a wizard, and might as well have been a show of fencing. At least it would have been entertaining.

Given Ron's and Harry's restless nature, Ivan was kind enough to warn them.

"We don't even know if Malfoy will come tonight. Maybe he's trying to trick us into going over there so Filch can catch us all…"

"Surely not?"

Ron and Harry looked at each other, thinking that Malfoy should not be so shameless, as this was a duel of honour!

Seeing the looks on Harry's and Ron's faces, Yvonne knew she couldn't talk them out of it, so she sighed and gave up trying to talk them out of it.

In any case, based on his memory, Harry and the others should have been able to escape with their lives tonight.

Even if something did go wrong, Dumbledore would clean up the mess, and the Headmaster would not allow anything to happen to his chosen savior.

"Ron, are we really going to Malfoy's for a duel tonight? What if it's like Ivan says, and Malfoy doesn't come at all?" Harry asked Ron worriedly as they returned to the dormitory.

"Of course we're going, it's a duel! There's no way Malfoy won't come. How humiliating would it be if he arrived and found out we didn't go?" Ron was desperately trying to cheer Harry up, since he had just agreed to go.

"But without Ivan, there's only two of us. There's no way we're going to win against three Malfoys!" said Harry.

"We could ask Neville to join us, and there'd be three of us!" Ron thought this made sense, as Malfoy's two henchmen were a little stupid, but a lot stronger, and would be at a disadvantage in a fight.

"Neville?" Harry opened his mouth to speak, then swallowed the words he was about to say.

Why did he suddenly feel more worried?

Why don't we go alone…

…

At midnight, in the Gryffindor break room, Ivan put down his copy of Flight Lessons.

In order to avoid the awkwardness of the previous lessons, Ivan borrowed the books on flying after class. After a few hours of reading and a lesson in flying, he was nearing Level 2.

The room was empty, as Harry and Ron had sneaked out with Neville ten minutes earlier.

Ivan could only wish them luck, as the three-headed dog did not have a good temper.

Seeing that it was almost time, Ivan climbed out of the tube-like passage and looked back to see that the junction had sealed itself.

The Fat Lady, who was guarding the passageway, did not seem to be there.

Hogwarts at midnight was more deserted than usual, and the silence was frightening. The corridors were pitch-black, and only the dim candlelight every ten or so yards allowed Ivan to see his way.

Fortunately, ghosts were not scary in this wizarding world, and Ivan had made small talk with some of them, so he was not flustered at all. Instead, he complained about the system's method of rewarding him.

This was too hardcore. He actually had to go to the Restricted Section to get his own reward…

This is not systematic at all!

Yvonne went straight down a long corridor, and was met by another annoying spiral staircase on her way to the Restricted Section.

At night, the stairs seemed more mischievous than they had been during the day. There was no regularity to the changes. Sometimes, when Yvonne arrived at the stairs, they would suddenly move to the other side. It was hard to tell if this was to make things more difficult for young wizards like Yvonne, who liked to wander around in the middle of the night.

Fortunately, Ivan did not learn the charm for nothing. He used the Levitation Charm to levitate himself for a short period of time, using the momentum to float where he wanted to go, and the Petrifaction Charm to jam the staircases where they connected…

With the help of a few not-so-profound charms, Ivan managed to get away with it.

The spiral staircase was surrounded by a large number of portraits, some of which were of elderly white-bearded men who were watching Ivan jumping up and down with interest, others of whom were enthusiastically greeting him.

Yvonne greeted each of them politely as she went downstairs, then turned from the Great Hall and headed for the library.

"Alohomora!" Ivan shouted as he used the Unlocking Charm to open the library's closed doors, then flipped them shut just to be on the safe side.

"Fluorescent…"

There was a flash of bright white light from the tip of the wand, and when it settled it was much dimmer, but it was enough for Ivan.