ꜱᴇʀᴘᴇɴᴛɪɴᴇ ꜱᴇʀɪᴇꜱ | ᴛᴏᴍɪᴏɴᴇ

Whispers from the Past, ch. 24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The duels came non-stop, and each one blurred into the other: cast spell, block spell, repeat. She encountered Aurors she recognized from her previous life, ones she had seen walking the cobble stones of Diagon Alley or the Departments of the Ministry. Only few did she recognize were from Hogwarts, most of which were from Slytherin and they treated her like equals. For once.

And she won. Each and every time.

She was booed and she was cheered. But, the strangest thing, the latter seemed to increase over time. After she dueled one particular bloke who was quick to use the Unforgivable curses, a man approached her when she left stage and shook her hand. He neither smiled nor sneered, but said one thing before walking away.

"You're what we call a lenient dueler; you always respect your opponent by letting them go first. It is a rarity to see such esteem."

It was true. She still waited until her competitor cast first, except in special cases like the Death Eaters. Several more times she encountered witches and wizards who refused to duel with her; they only bowed and let her win. This was what caused most of the booing. Other competitors in the crowd thought it was unfair she could progress in the tournament without even fighting. But no one disqualified her, because—of course—there were no rules on the dueling stage. So she progressed throughout the night and the competition increased.

Mag had just won another duel and Harmony had to duel one more until they would need to compete each other. To have some relief from the busy crowd, she escaped into the solitude of the dueler's tent to wait for her next opponent. Resting on one of the benches near the entrance, she watched as a woman walked in and she instantly disliked her. The tall woman had black short-cropped hair and gray eyes. Her thin lips twisted into a mocking smile when she saw Harmony.

While she strutted over, she said in an annoying soprano voice, "I've been looking forward to finally meeting you. You don't know who I am, do you? No, I didn't think so. Well, anyway, I'm one of your boyfriend's babysitters." Her thin lips tightened and she giggled. The tall woman dropped down on the bench across from Harmony who looked at her quizzically.

"My boyfriend?" Harmony asked.

"You-Know-Who, Nutcase, Loony, He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named-Because-No-One-Cares."

Harmony narrowed her eyes at this woman and her hate doubled like dried tinder thrown into a blazing fire. She swallowed back her anger and said as calm as possible, "You mean Voldemort? So you work at Menkar insane asylum?"

"I'm one of many that work there. When he first arrived, there were hundreds of us to look after him. But I'm telling you, that man is pathetic; he can't even speak." She laughed shrilly. "Me and my coworkers were temporarily laid off because Menkar figured they didn't need so many people to look after one useless has-been. So we came here to have some fun until Menkar called us back for his execution. That's right, sweetheart, when your dear lover gets the Dementor's Kiss I'm going to have prime seats. My friends are already taking bets on how long it'll take him to keel over. Given he hardly has a soul, it shouldn't take long at all. Oh, I'm going to let you win this duel, because I so want the Ministry to capture you; that way we can get a double execution." The woman squealed like a little girl, twiddling her fingers together. "How would you like that, Mudblood? To die at the side of your lover?" She snorted, and then screamed when Harmony launched from her seat and tackled her to the ground.

Harmony wrapped her fingers around the pesky woman's neck and shook her. The woman screamed at the top of her lungs, more out of shock than pain. At the sounds of struggle, several people rushed into the dueler's tent. A couple men hurried to them, wrapping their arms around Harmony and pulling them apart.