49 49) Face offs 2

Severus recalled calmly the whole duel which had been fought among Lily and Laena. True enough, as per his predictions, Laena won very easily. It was not that hard considering the background each of the two came from respectively. While Lily was a skilled witch, Laena was simply better in every aspect between the two when it came to skill and perseverance.

He saw Laena walking back calmly to their area and going to her group whereas Lily too stood up and dejectedly walked to the Gryffindor area.

The applause on the Gryffindor side was a little slow but he could see discreetly that the girls were congratulating her on a good performance. Ridiculous, he thought inwardly at the whole spectacle. If she had wanted to win, she should have gone on attacks instantly. You don't give the chance to attack you to someone who has been raised in a noble house and knows spells, been trained in the arts of duelling.

Narcissa Black walked from the Slytherin area next amidst the polite cheers from their crowd.

Severus looked at the Ice Queen of Hogwarts whose indifference to anything was just on another scale. Her mid waist long blonde hair cascading smoothly, her perfect aristocratic features enhanced more by the regal way she carried herself. Smooth milky white skin, a curvy gorgeous figure, blue eyes that could hide emotions perfectly and an attitude that could slay others without saying 'I don't give a fuck' to them. If there was words with which he wanted to describe her, then it would be simply 'a deadly beauty.'

He looked at the Gryffindor side and spotted Hermione Granger coming to the podium.

Now this would be interesting, he thought inwardly as he looked at the girls who had reached to the duelling arena.

"Both of you, Ready?" Professor Hart asked looking at both of them.

"Yes," came the reply from Hermione Granger while Narcissa simply nodded her head in affirmation.

Both of them were ready, it was clear from their posture and battle ready stance.

This was a match that was hard to predict according to Severus. While Hermione had experienced in fighting, it was hard to gauge her strength by the books and movies. She didn't had any practise in fighting apart from the Department of Mysteries scenarios where she got her ass handed by Antonin Dolohov. But it was hard to gauge her strength against someone of their same age, who could fight her on an equal basis of her own age.

Narcissa Black was another scenario, as a member of the Black Family, she too was taught by the best. Infact she had strength in non verbal magic from what he had seen from old Severus' memories. Her grades were among the best and perfect in everything, but then again it was to be expected from her. The Black family older generations were quite hard to please if you were not the best. Besides it would be interesting to see her duel. It would be nice to gauge her abilities a little.

Her sister Bellatrix was one of the fiercest witches in the history of Wizarding World. Her sister was a deadly one in duelling with capability of taking multiple opponents at once with her skills. It would be logical that Narcissa was going to be a tough one to beat with her experience coming as a plus for her. It would be foolish to assume that Bellatrix may never have taught her sister about some of the specks of duelling considering the love she held for her little sister.

At the bang from the wand of Professor, Hermione and Narcissa both immediately went on to attack mode.

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Severus looked impressed at the end of the duel which had been fought between the two witches.

Narcissa had been the winner at last but she was given a tough competition by Hermione according to him. He was impressed by Narcissa's defensive abilities though.

Her shields were far stronger for Hermione's attacks. It seems that she had practised with someone of a caliber like Bellatrix with her shields. Her face had been calm and composed during the whole match till the last disarming charm she had thrown at Hermione Granger who was bruised by the flipendo and the whip she had conjured and hit her afterwards.

Meanwhile in the Gryffindor stands, Hermione was given consolations after her loss.

"Worry not Mione, you did well," Ron said with a smile on his face as he looked at Hermione who smiled back at him.

"Yeah, you gave a tough fight. It was perhaps the longest fight till now," Harry agreed with Ron as they tried to cheer her up.

"Thanks guys," Hermione said a little dejectedly. Narcissa Black was stronger than her in duelling for now, but Hermione would start to work on her duelling as well. She would make most, of this duelling class which they were told to participate. While they did survived tough scenarios, it was mostly dumb luck and with a little help. Now they were going to be adults and war was coming for them, she had to gather herself for it along the way making sure that Ron and Harry would survive with her.

Her entire spells were totally useless against the strong shield she had erected for her. Her shield was so impressive that three reductos from her even didn't fazed it much.

The whip she had created out of thin air and used on her ribs had hurt her though very much. She really needed to see Madam Pomfrey for the bruise which had already formed up by now. Though she will delay it a more till the end of the class. It was so much fun to see the duels, to learn from their mistakes and to see the calliber of the other students.

"The next match: James Potter and Severus Prince, then Harry Potter vs Evan Rosier" the sorting hat announced heating the atmosphere of the room instantly.

In the Gryffindor area, James couldn't believe his luck of getting to fight with Snivellus. He would show and teach that rotten, no good of a wizard about some manners. He will not get away after what he said about Sirius. The nerve of him to insult

Harry meanwhile looked at the face of his father which was holding a gleeful smile on it. He could already imagine that this was going to be one hell of a situation which would not be calmed down so easily.

Sirius was excited for his friend however. He was going to cheer for James, to beat that Snivellus so bad that he will remember not to mess with them anymore.

Ron looked the shit eating grin at James' face who started walking towards the podium excitedly and with cocky steps. His entire body swaggering cockily as he moved to fight his enemy. Ron felt a little weird to see James acting so like Malfoy but he was not going to say anything like that infront of Harry. His friend was truly happy and he didn't wanted to mess it up for him.

What more weirded him out a little was the huge applause from Gryffindor, James was a hero to most of them with his Quidditch skills and all the pranks he played on Slytherins.

In the Slytherin stands however the mood was more vigorous than usual.

"Prince, beat the shit out of him," Izar Nott said calmly at him as he stood besides him. He wanted to fight Potter himself after the bastards had pranked him in the train this year.

"Hmm," was the reply from Severus as he looked at his opponent from Gryffindor. Fate really was a nuisance, he thought inwardly with a groan.

"Come on Prince, don't let the name of our house down in front of the Gryffindors," Wilkes said excitedly, hoping and cheering for their house's wins.

"Ofcourse," Severus said with a small amused tone as his face turned completely blank and emotionless as he walked up to the centre of the Great Hall for his fight.

The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were watching eagerly for the duel. The enmity between both of them known by nearly all of the Hogwarts.

He remembered Alice's words about not engaging first until he was forced to end the things. She knew perfectly well how vicious he could be and had asked to keep things calm.

But he was not a Slytherin for anything. No, he would use her words carefully and pressurize his opponent till the last end, until it gives him an opportunity to exploit.

Alice was a girl, hence she didn't understood everything between boys and the rivalries they had.

"Both of you, ready?" Professor Hart asked looking at both of them. The whisperings had already given him an inkling about what type of relationship they had and he had to govern this match nicely lest accident occured or things escalated heavily.

Both of them nodded as James got serious while Severus gaze was still calm as usual not bothering to be serious but he was ready nonetheless.

Both of them were ready as Severus too held his wand lazily in his hand waiting for the Professor to start the duel.

His ebony and phoenix feather wand getting excited for the duel.

The bang was heard by both of them and James with all of his quidditch reflexes and muscles fired the first spell towards Severus who even didn't bothered to raise his wand to cast his spell.

While a part of him wanted to end things quickly and not act like a petty brat, but at the end of the day, he was still a man. And men will be men, this grudge had gone for too long and he was going to end this with humiliating his opponent a little.

"Flipendo," James shouted out aggressively putting some of his power inside the spell as he fired the knockback jinx on Severus.

Everyone in the Hall saw the spell moving towards Severus, who was too slow according to them to react to it. He didn't even raised his wand to shield himself from it.

However something unexpected happened infront of their eyes. At the near last moment, he moved right so fast that the spell which was going to hit him earlier moved past him by near half a foot.

Severus grinned mentally at the stupified looks on everyone's faces, he had treated his body with the magical copy of super soldier serum. His body movements could go so fast that he will be dancing around most of the fast projectiles thrown at him. He had trained his body and movements such to help him in hard corners.

James's eyes narrowed as he started to fire spells rapidly.

"Flipendo"

"Reducto"

"Stupefy"

"Petrificus totalus"

He started to cast vigorously but each time, the same thing happened.

Severus was enjoying this game of mouse and cat. He could finish it seriously but he will play a little longer with Potter. Severus was just dodging the spells, the oaf of an opponent of his was so in battle lust that he had stopped thinking about using wide area spells to negate his actions.

Testosterone really made things so easier, Severus thought amusedly as he ducked behind another of his stunning charms.

Alice who was watching the absurb but correct movements of Severus and his actions sighed inwardly. Testosterone really made boys idiots, she thought with a grimace.

There was no need for Severus to prolong this apart from some petty grudges. He was sure going to hear about it from her. She knew his calliber personally and also recognised from the start that he was simply playing with James Potter.

Harry meanwhile was looking wide eyed at the duel till now. Snape was so calm and not a single emotion was on his face as he dodged everything like they were nothing infront of him. His father should go for a 'depulso' he thought inwardly with concern.

Sirius who was cheering for James didn't stopped the cheering for a second.

"Pronga go for a depulso!" Sirius shouted to James loudly. Till now nobody had done like this, so the legality of the act was a question.

James who heard it amidst the applause slowly nodded and went for the spell.

"Depu..." He tried to cast angrily at Severus but suddenly couldn't do so due to the harsh gut wrenching punch he received at his stomach at that moment when a red light hit him square on the stomach sending him flying higher than anyone till now.

Severus wasn't satisfied however as he made two handsigns discreetly with his non wand hand and thrusted it at James Potter's mid air flying or dropping figure fastly which suddenly was thrown more backwards and collided with the Wall. (Explaination in paragraph comments)

When he dropped to the ground painfully, Severus simply looked at the figure of Professor Hart who was looking to intervenue. Perhaps he should stop now, he thought inwardly with concern as he looked at the dropped figure of James Potter.

Professor Flitwick walked over to Potter and helped him get up. Severus could see that blood was trailing from his lips, perhaps the Knockback and impact combined made him cough blood.

"Winner Severus Prince," Professor Hart said as he gestured Professor Flitwick who nodded at the words considering it the right decision.

Severus calmly walked back amidst the gazes upon him.

He wasn't born to impress them, he thought derisively.

While his two handsigns were missed by most, it wasn't missed by Albus Dumbledore in the slightest. To him Severus Prince was becoming more interesting.

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Word Count - 2.3K

Hope you like this one and let's cross 1K pwerstones this week.

Also please comment upon the chapter as for the case of hand signs, this was no inspiration from any anime simply the information available about the Wizarding World.