Fire and Ice

A Blur of Red

"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled immediately, pointing his wand directly at Draco.

Deflecting the spell easily, Draco countered Harry's curses with lightning-fast reflexes, cutting into Harry's skin, robe and soul. Harry's right hand sawed through the air, trying to catch the curses Draco was shooting at him, only to find them too well-placed and intricate to Protego.

Ginny wanted to look at Draco, but she couldn't tear her eyes off of Harry. Every spell Draco threw at him visibly made Harry weaker and weaker, until he became a blur of Gryffindor garnet and blood burgundy. Red, red everywhere.

"Draco doesn't have a scratch on him," Parvati murmured to Ginny. Tearing her eyes off of her ex-boyfriend, Ginny looked at her best friend fearfully. Parvati's dark chocolate eyes were watching the duel with a feverish excitement mixed with awed fear.

"I knew he was good," Parvati continued, "but I wasn't expecting this! I bet he'd give Dumbledore a run for his knuts!"

Dumbledore fought Voldemort in the Department of Mysteries, and they were equally powerful. This must be a good sign.

"Yeah," Ginny muttered, as she turned to look at Draco. Her eyes widened as she saw his expression. Instead of looking relaxed and confident, his face was slightly furrowed in strain. With a jolt, hundreds of terrified thoughts of Draco being too weak and being unable to fight Voldemort flew into Ginny's already-vulnerable mind. It was only when Draco bit his lip slightly that Ginny realised that Draco was in fact holding himself back, and restraining himself from causing any actual damage to Harry, while still making Harry weaker. She remebered Draco biting his lip the first few times they made love, in an attempt to control himself when trying not to rush Ginny, as he'd known that she was inexperienced, and not yet ready for the things that he was.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Ginny took a moment to admire Draco's duelling skills. His wand slashed through the air like a sword used in medieval Muggle times, and his lethal grace mirrored that of a king cobra snake.

Without realising, Ginny had voiced her last thought aloud.

"Fitting," Parvati snorted, nodding towards the serpent pattern which was coiled around the base of Draco's robe. Lions mirrored the image on Harry's robe.

Suddenly, Harry stumbled and groaned, causing the entire arena to gasp as he fell to his knees and shuddered.

"This is it," Parvati mumbled behind her hands, too shocked to look, too afraid to look away.

"This is it." Ginny whispered, turning to lock gazes with Draco as dark phantoms began to dance above them.