Chapter 10: The Midnight Duel
Draco crouched down, carefully, in the trophy room, wand drawn in case Potter jumped out and started right away. He glanced behind him, at where Crabbe and Goyle both crouched- and both, he knew, had left their wands downstairs in the Slytherin common room. He, like Potter he suspected, knew that neither of them would need their ‘seconds’.
He also knew that he was almost half an hour early. But no matter; it gave him plenty of time to run over the events so far in his head.
Nearly two weeks ago, the Sorting had been rather surprisingly uneventful, despite happening just an hour before midnight. Somehow, they had gotten all thirteen thousand students sorted in just ten minutes- and Draco could swear there just wasn’t the time to do that, especially since his sorting alone took almost all of them; the Hat had really not wanted to put him in Slytherin, but he had insisted. He knew his father wouldn’t have been happy if he ended up anywhere else, not to mention the damage it would do to the Malfoy family name- and his own future. The Hat had, eventually, let up- but told him where he really would have done best.
Gryffindor, apparently. The one House that would be even worse than Hufflepuff. Hufflepuff formed much of the middle class, but Gryffindor housed literally all of the blood traitors.
After the sorting, Dumbledore had stood up to announce that the Welcoming Feast would proceed as normal, albeit a bit late because the Hogwarts Express had “needed a leg-up”. As a direct result, both breakfast and the morning classes the next day would be delayed somewhat, to let them all get a good night’s sleep before it came time to study.
The next morning, which had started a mere one hour later than it had ever since, he’d found out about their whole ‘student instructor’ program in a big way. It was kinda hard to miss how he didn’t have any classes with any of the school’s professors. All his teachers had very strange names- and every class had two of them, as well.
And, as he had found out through his classes, every one of them were students themselves. His Charms instructors in particular didn’t seem to understand their own material, and had even spent half of his last class goofing off. He was starting to get the idea he was going to have to teach himself for the most part.
Quidditch lessons had been the only exception; for as much as Professor Binns had lectured a class of a thousand or so at once, Draco didn’t really consider that a class. Madam Hooch apparently taught all of them- and according to the poster in the common room, she would be cycling through the entire body of first-years throughout the year, in order to teach them all to fly.
And, as he had found out when he walked out onto the grounds without Crabbe and Goyle (the first had Transfiguration and the other Potions), he happened to have the same flying class as the famous Harry Potter, another Gryffindor whose last name was Longbottom (he didn’t remember the boy’s first name), a Weasley he didn’t care to know the name of, and a bushy-haired girl the Weasley didn’t like- he had no idea who she was or why the Weasley didn’t like her- that was very disapproving of Harry’s decision to follow him into the air after Longbottom’s remembrall.
That evening, he’d encountered Harry walking down a passage next to the Weasley, the girl a little off to the side and looking hopeful, and confronted him. “Having a last stroll, Potter?”
For some reason even he couldn’t fathom, the confrontation had ended with him issuing a challenge to a wizard’s duel here in the trophy room. The Weasley had furiously accepted it for Harry and announced himself to be Harry’s second, despite his friend looking confused.
So Draco had identified Crabbe as his second (like he’d need a second) and set the time and place.
And now… he waited.
His ears perked at the sound of shuffling footfalls. It sounded like more than two people, though.
Then, they entered.
It was Harry and the Weasley, all right. They were followed by both the girl and Longbottom- the first looking irritated, the latter scared.
Malfoy rose from his hiding place and stepped out, Crabbe and Goyle taking position behind him.
Harry’s eyes locked on him as he silently took his place in the room.
Harry then obeyed his body language, and took the accepted position facing him; his party moved in behind him as well, though a lot less synchronized.
Then the girl sucked in a sudden breath, head whirling to look at the door.
Everyone froze, listening… then, Draco heard it too.
“Sniff around, my sweet. They might be hiding in a corner.” It was Filch.
Draco turned and started tip-toeing to the opposite door, just like the rest. “Quietly,” he hissed at Crabbe and Goyle.
Finally, Goyle’s robes had just whipped around the corner when they heard Filch entering the trophy room.
It wasn’t long after that before something happened. Draco, being behind the girl, didn’t see what had happened- but one moment, they were walking down a gallery full of suits of armor… and the next moment, Longbottom, the Weasley, and one of the suits of armor were all over the floor.
“RUN!” he yelled, in time with Harry, and they all took off. Harry yanked the two boys back to their feet as they fled.
Draco noticed that Crabbe and Goyle had suddenly disappeared from his sides. He glanced back as they rounded the corner out of the gallery, just in time to see Filch enter the gallery only to run face-first into Goyle. They had run in the wrong direction.
Oh well. It just meant that he was on his own… which suited him. All he needed was to get away from the rest for long enough to cast some family magic spells, and he could return, unhindered, to the Slytherin common room.
Still, though, he ran with them. He wasn’t exactly sure why- maybe it was because the numbers would make it easier to confuse Filch if he caught up?
Finally, they stopped running, in a distant corridor.
“I- Told- You!” the girl told Harry, between great gasps of breath while she clutched the stitch in her side. “I told you! Filch knew we were there!”
“He did,” Draco mused, much more accustomed to running (an exercise routine to maintain his appearance, mostly) than she, the Weasley, or Longbottom, though apparently less so than Harry, who looked like he was ready to do it again. He wondered, silently, why Harry seemed so practiced.
“I think we lost him,” the Weasley muttered, evidently ignoring the girl.
Harry hardly glanced at either of them before turning to lead again. “Let’s go.”
No sooner had he done so, though, than a doorknob rattled… and Peeves the Poltergeist appeared, zooming out of the newly opened classroom door, squealing in delight.
“Shut up, Peeves, please!” Harry pleaded. “You’ll get us thrown out!”
Draco raised an eyebrow. He knew, from what his father had told him, that it was actually hard to get expelled from Hogwarts.
“Wandering around at midnight, ickle firsties,” Peeves jeered. “Naughty naughty, you’ll get caughty!”
Draco took a deep breath, planning to make a break for it. Peeves would almost certainly not let them go quietly. He missed the words Harry and Peeves exchanged after that, until-
“Get out of the way, Peeves!” The Weasley barked, taking a swipe at Peeves.
Draco resisted the urge to facepalm just moments before Peeves let out a holler. “Students out of bed! Students out of bed, down the Charms corridor!”
The Weasley then led the charge, past Peeves, to the door at the end- where he crashed into it. “We’re done for,” he announced.
Draco looked to the side, listening to Filch’s footsteps. These classrooms would be great hiding places, and he knew Peeves would rather infuriate Filch further than tell him where they had gone.
“Oh move over,” the girl stated, snatching Harry’s wand and tapping the door. “Alohomora.” The door opened, and they all slipped through it… and stopped on the other side, listening… and facing it, with Draco in the back. He closed his eyes briefly, gripping his wand at both ends, and opened them again to make sure noone was watching before he started mouthing incantations.
It was a tricky piece of magic… but it was also very simple, in a manner of speaking, since he’d been practicing these incantations since he was five. It was a secret, Malfoy family spell, and it came in two parts.
The first part would give him a limited transformation ability- limited in how long he could stay transformed, how frequently he could change… and in what he could turn into.
The second part- which was the important one- would let him turn invisible, at the cost of shortening the maximum transformation duration.
But it would be long enough to reach the Slytherin common room.
He had just finished casting the first part when his attention was drawn to the others by an exasperated “What?” He looked up, and followed their gazes down the room… No, corridor. The forbidden corridor Dumbledore had mentioned after the welcoming feast- and there was a giant three-headed dog standing right there, in the middle of the passage and beginning to growl.
Harry threw the door open, and they all fled, back down the passage.
Draco fled with them. He didn’t care about Filch, or even where he was going- he just wanted to create space between him and that dog, and the others seemed to be a good way to do that.
It wasn’t until they reached a corridor with an oil painting of a fat lady that he realized his mistake. He should have run separately, rather than following them to the Gryffindor common room.
He made a snap decision, and slowed down to deliberately fall behind. He was bringing up the rear with the girl, after all- and he didn’t particularly want her to realize what he was doing.
Then, he activated the spell he had cast in the dog’s corridor.
He had spent much of his free time, over the last week and a half, designing and ‘saving’ some forms he could shift into- and by now, he could make himself into a Ravenclaw boy… or a Gryffindor boy.
Thanks to the spell, he seamlessly shifted to become a fairly generic Gryffindor boy. Rather fortunately, the spell included his clothes, so his robes were automagically adjusted to fit his new, slightly different stature- and to reflect the name he’d made up for it: Alastor Abraxis.
He had to admit, he wasn’t very imaginative. But it worked.
“Where have you all been?” the fat lady asked- and Draco felt instantly uneasy when the girl glanced behind them and looked at him curiously.
“Nevermind that,” Harry told the Fat Lady. “Pig snout, pig snout.”
The portrait swung forwards… and Draco followed them into Gryffindor Tower. He quickly took a seat near the entrance, and made as if he’d always been there, while the others collapsed into armchairs near the fire.
There were a few minutes of silence before anyone spoke- and when it was, it was Weasley, facing away from Draco, so he didn’t catch what he was saying- aside from something about dogs and exercise.
The girl scowled. “You don’t use your eyes, do you? Didn’t you see what it was standing on?”
The Weasley twitched in her direction, but resolutely didn’t look at her.
Harry blinked. “The floor?” he asked. “I wasn’t looking at its feet- I was too busy with its heads.”
She rolled her eyes. “No, not the floor- it was standing on a trapdoor. It’s obviously guarding something. I hope you’re pleased with yourselves, because we could all have been killed- or worse, expelled!” She glared at them- mostly, Draco noticed, the Weasley.
It was only a couple minutes after that when all three boys headed up the stairs to their dormitory- after which the girl stood up, looked around, then walked over to sit next to Draco. “So… Malfoy?” she asked, looking curiously at him.
He didn’t move.
She glanced at his nametag. “Or… Alastor, then?”
He still didn’t move.
She let out a small sigh and continued on. “I noticed…” She glanced around, as if making sure nobody was listening. “I noticed you… changed?” She gestured towards him. “How did you do it?”
He looked at her. “You’re… okay with me, being here…?”
She shrugged. “Some things are more important.”
He laughed.
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Aww, yay! Will they be friends?
… interesting
Now I interrupt this fan fiction to bring you a special message from the Princess of Friendship's voice actress herself!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzqmvInMsVU
I rather like this portrayal of Draco & Hermione. There really are more important things!
For a moment, I wondered 'What did Twilight doing here?' before realizing it was Hermione who said that.
Honestly, it's doesn't matter what that dog was standing on, they are about to become a chew toy. Why did they suddenly forgot about Filch when they were going to the duel in the middle of the bloody night. Surely the courtyard in the middle of the day would have been fine?
Well this is a very good chapter.
I feel like you are skimming over a lot of world building, and even important character development.
Not everyone read the original fics this is based off of.
But right now you are only pointing out the differences between the other fics, and not giving a reimagining of the originals...
I don't know if a new reader would be able to understand what is going on
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Thank you dear spam bot
10926073
Sorry about that.
10926042
It’s not based on the old ones, it’s a reimagining of them. It’s based on the Harry Potter novels, and I’m catching the high points of difference for that.
Why skip to this? Because it’s only two weeks into the school year, and since the ponies don’t have magic, everything in between is better told in summary between Draco’s flashback and what’s coming next chapter. Admittedly, things are moving a lot faster this time without things like the helicopter, Slytherin common room brawl, Spoonata, and Sweetie Belle comedy to slow things down. Know that things are going to plan this time, Fluttershy won’t be running around with an anti-tank rifle, and things SHOULD slow down as more and more characters start getting further and further from canon, for one reason or another.
The opening to this chapter was very confusing, because it was your other fic, in which Draco is not actually going by Draco, and has had their place as Draco taken by a stand-in villain, that just had a challenge to a duel issued. So I found myself wondering if you had gotten things mixed up, before realizing that no, Draco being Draco meant that wasn’t the case and I went on further to reach confirmation that there was a timeskip.
TL;DR: I think you need to open with a clear indication of a timeskip having taken place.
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I thought Draco’s flashback did that well enough…
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Eventually, but if a reader has to slog through confusion to get to it, it’s too late. Just my feedback.
So ...
How do you get a generic student of house X? You are not a student of house X until the hat puts you there, and then you are classified as such to the school magic.
And how has Hermione seen this new form already? For that matter, wouldn't Draco show up as Draco to the house wards, exactly the way "Tom Riddle" shows up as "Tom Riddle", etc?
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Wait, there are House wards, that can be fooled by Polyjuice?
Basically, by “generic X”, he means “generic boy that looks like he’d be sorted into X, and is wearing the house identifier of X”. Other students are presumably unable to query the castle magic.
As for Hermione, she hasn’t. She guessed.
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... Polyjuice.
Welp.
Marauders' map was, if I remember correctly, a hack into the hogwarts magic/security that allowed locating people on the school property. And yet ... that would imply that Dumbledore would have always had access to said magic -- and he did not know where people were. So ...
And there was magic to keep people out of places they could not normally go -- keeping boys out of the girls dorms, or out of the wrong common rooms.
And then there's that polyjuice scene.
Either my memory of the books is worse than I thought, or that writing is even less consistent than I thought :-).
We know that Hogwarts has some strong magic. We saw what happened with the castle in book 7 (straight out of Mechanicsburg). We know that the map saw "Tom Riddle" and was not fooled by the disguise of a Harry Potter body. (Or ... I am confusing HPMoR with the real books, aren't I? Never mind.)