A Room With a View

Luck Be A Lady

What do you say, Severus? Are you courageous enough to fight a Gryffindor know-it-all?

It was at this moment that Severus noted several things: Firstly, the challenging smirk on Hermione's face was a serious turn-on. Secondly, Luna Longbottom was amongst the crowd, supervising several students who were - damn - furiously scribbling on Muggle notepads. Thirdly, Minerva and Filius were grinning at him like mad loons.

It was only after noting these facts that Severus rose from his chair, stretched a small bow toward his colleague, and replied, "If the lady so desires."

Excited squeals and sighs sounded around the room from half the girls and at least two boys. Severus heard a horribly loud stage whisper coming from Shannon Walmouth, a Muggle-born fourth year: "I ship them!" He regarded her with a stern, but puzzled gaze and watched the girl's cheeks turn pink. What on earth did that mean?

Filius interrupted his thoughts. "Very well! When Professors Granger and Snape are recovered from their bouts, will they please mount the dueling platform?"

Severus took a final sip of water and dabbed his forehead with his handkerchief before remounting the dais. He and Hermione quickly went through the formalities of the salute, the bow, and the pace-off as Filius cast the protective shell around the platform again. Severus resumed his favored dueling crouch as he thought about strategy for this particular bout; he had absolutely every intention of winning against his former pupil.

Severus quickly thought through what he'd observed with Hermione's match against Minerva. She was clearly skilled and more athletic than he'd given her credit for. Her greatest strength, however, seemed to be her situational awareness. If she couldn't turn what he threw at her against him, she would find a way to use it to defend herself. With that in mind, he raised his wand and prepared for the countdown to begin.

When the timer reached zero, Severus chose to spring into action rather than wait for Hermione to attack first. With an upward slash of his wand, he launched a cloud of paper party snakes at her, obscuring her vision. Ignoring her shriek of surprise, he jogged to the side and renewed his attack with a downward flick that caused his snakes to erupt into a shower of molasses that would, hopefully, slow her movements. Unfortunately, Hermione employed a silent gathering spell and shot the sticky substance back at him in a high-pressure stream. He was forced to drop to the ground to dodge the flying goo, casting a protego to deflect any following spells. He deflected a modified bat-bogey hex, which was absorbed into the protective shell above him but caused a shower of rubber bats to thump down on top of his backside.

Quickly rising to his knees, Severus switched his want to his off-hand and circled it thrice counterclockwise before jabbing it toward his opponent. Hermione ducked and rolled away from a highly amusing hex of his own creation, tripudium discotechus, which hit the shell and dissipated in a blast of replicated Swedish synthesizer music. Hermione narrowed her eyes at Severus (they'd had a mock-argument about the musical merits of ABBA just two days before) and jabbed her wand at his chest. He failed to dodge or shield as he was still recovering from casting his last spell (fine, he knew he'd been showing off with that one... it took too much energy to cast in a situation like this). Hermione's hot-air charm hit his chest full on and Severus felt the immediate effects as his shirt began to inflate like a hot air balloon, making it difficult to move his arms.

He quickly threw up a shield before he lost all ability to move his arm, then flicked his wand toward his sleeve to cut a vent into it (Damn. That was a new shirt too.) As the air escaped, he switched his wand back to his favored hand, gripping it upside down and punching it toward Hermione in an underhand, upward motion. The dueling platform beneath Hermione's feet turned to water, and Hermione fell through the floor with an awkward splash. Twirling his wand into its normal position, Severus approached the watery pit cautiously, prepared to cast the incarcerous that would win the battle. The only sound in the hall was that of gently lapping water.