Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [154]
“Congratulations Mr. Longbottom, and Miss. Granger,” said Professor Flitwick, “you and your clones are the winners!” Neville bowed to Professor Flitwick, and a tiny door appeared in the side of the arena that his clone exited from. The door disappeared, and the entire arena returned to how it normally looked: carcass-less, hole-less, and blood-less.
Ron and Hermione stormed back to their seats, and Neville returned to his as well. Neville looked quite satisfied with himself, but a little tired as well, as if the spells really drained him. Ron and Hermione, however, looked downright miserable.
“What’s wrong?” asked Harry to Hermione. “You still won, didn’t you?”
“That’s not what’s bothering me,” said Hermione, pulling her chair out violently, and collapsing into it. “What’s bothering me is the way Neville won.”
“Yeah, he was pretty good,” said Harry. Hermione glared at him.
“Harry,” she said, “he showed no pity, no mercy. He just… killed them.”
“Well what did you expect him to do?” asked Harry, putting his hands behind his head, to try and show in his body language that he didn’t think anything was wrong.
“Come on Harry,” said Ron. “You have to think there was just something… wrong with the way Neville was acting, don’t you?”
“Well, I guess so,” said Harry. “But we don’t have time to discuss that right now. We have to go down for the next round.” They looked over, and saw that Lavender and Neville were already back at the arena, their clones out and ready. Harry’s clone was waiting for him by the invisible door into the stadium. Harry and Hermione ran over, Hermione to the red spot, and Harry to the blue.
“Alright, everyone,” said Professor Flitwick, “this is the last round! The top three from this round will get the O.W.L., so basically, the first one out is the only loser.”
Harry stared at Professor Flitwick. He wasn’t acting his usual jolly self. It wasn’t like him to speak of negative outcomes. But, Harry shrugged off that thought at Hermione produced her clone.
“One… two… three… don’t go! Heh, only kidding… go!” yelled Professor Flitwick, making everyone stumble.
“Harold!” yelled Harry to his clone, having an advantage over Hermione and Lavender since he already knew his clone, “take out Neville first!”
“Whatever you say captain,” said Harold sarcastically, brandishing his wand at Neville’s clone, and yelling the Killing Curse.
“Ardeur Booklier!” yelled Neville’s clone, just before Harold cast his spell. A glassy fire popped up, going around Neville’s clone, forming a shield. The fire absorbed the Killing Curse, and it grew larger, and became a light blue instead of a deep red.
“Whoa,” said Harold, “it took the offensive energy from the spell and somehow changed it into defensive energy, making his shield stronger!” Harry gritted his teeth. With that shield up, the more Harold hit Neville, the more powerful he would become. Harry looked over at Neville and saw that he was smiling. Harry had to think of something….
“Hermione! Lavender!” he yelled. The two of them, who were trying to convince their clones to fight for them, looked over. “We’ve got to team up, to beat Neville!” The two of them nodded, and their clones seemed to accept Harry’s small speech as a reason to start fighting. They got into their stances. Maybe if they gave the shield too much energy to absorb at once, it wouldn’t be able to handle it.
“Avada Kedavra!” yelled Lavender’s clone.
“Korosucide!” yelled Hermione’s clone.
The green light from Lavender’s wand, and the black light from Hermione’s hit Neville at the same time.
“That’ll get him, the fire can’t take all the energy at once…” thought Harry to himself.
However, they were better off if they had never used the spells. The fire absorbed them both, and turned a bright white; it was so bright, Harry had to shield his eyes. Neville was now laughing out loud.
“Harry, what do we do?” pleaded Hermione. Harry thought… each offensive spell they used on it just made it more powerful…. So, if they used a defensive spell on it, maybe it would become less powerful!