Chapter 56: Quinn vs Tracy, Parseltongue, and Gossip (1/2)
If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @
[ ]
The link is also in the synopsis.
.
-*-*-*-*-*-
.
The change in his magic bought immense pleasure and delight to Quinn as he found his mood uplifted and a skip accompanying his step. Quinn looked around the crowd to see if anyone wanted to be his next opponent. And, his eyes met with those of Tracy.
He smiled and beckoned his Slytherin friend with his hands.
The gesture surprised the brunette Slytherin as she shook her head side-to-side, but Quinn relayed everything would be okay with his eyes, and it was okay to come up.
Tracy hesitated if she wanted to go up to the stage, and after some thinking, decided to go up. She stepped forward and directly climbed the steps to the stage.
There was a lot of boo-ing from the other three houses because of Tracy's status as a Slytherin. The harsh boos affected Tracy, and she did her best not to show that it affected her. But if you looked closely, you could see the slight slump in her gait.
”Ignore the other, and let's have some fun, Tracy.”
It startled Tracy to hear Quinn's voice so close to her; it was like that he was directly whispering into her ear, but when she looked up, Quinn was standing a distance from her, showing a comforting smile, and when their eyes met, Quinn gave her a quick wink.
”You called me Tracy,” she spoke in utter surprise. After an entire year of Mrs. Davis and Davis, she finally heard Quinn call her by her given name.
Tracy's words made Quinn realize he had called the girl by her first name, and it was quite a surprise to himself as well.
Tracey saw Quinn's lips move and once again heard his voice like he was standing right beside her. ”Yes, I did. It looks like I will be calling you by Tracy from now on. You are the first one, you know? The first one I called by their first name. Ha ha ha, be honored, little girl.”
Tracy's eyes sparkled with delight at being first, and she couldn't feel any negativity from the boos of the crowd. She took out her wand with confidence and aimed it at Quinn, following Quinn's lead.
”Remember, cast a Disarming spell, Expelliarmus.” Tracy nodded, hearing Quinn's explanation, directly delivered to her ears and no one else's.
”One - two - three, GO!”
The second Flitwick yelled go, Tracy moved first and cast a Disarming spell.
”Expelliarmus!”
An impulse of scarlet magic burst out of her wand and buzzed towards Quinn. Quinn also pointed his fake wand and whispered Expelliarmus in the likely event anyone was listening and countered with his own scarlet burst of spell light.
The two spells made contact in between the two casters and canceled each other out.
Quinn grinned and again cast a Disarming spell towards Tracy. Tracy, who now was feeling confident, and countered with her own Disarming spell.
The crowd ooh-ed and aah-ed when they saw the two spells collided with each other. Once again, they canceled each other, giving the crowd the show they wanted.
Tracy was back in her element and showed her taking-charge personality and shot a stream of Disarming spell light which hurled towards Quinn.
”Now we are taking,” laughed Quinn as he shot out a stream of the same spell towards Tracy's.
The two red jets of magic met in the middle, colliding with each other, fighting for dominance. It entranced the younger students when they saw the continuous jets of magic meeting each other.
Tracy held her wands with both her hands when she felt Quinn's magic overpowering her and tried to channel magic into her wand, trying to push back.
But, the struggle was futile as Quinn's magic continued to overpower hers, and Quinn's spell light moved closer and closer to hers.
The Slytherin students in the crowd cheered for their representative. Quinn had humiliated the last one, but she stood steadfast against Quinn, which was had redeemed the house of Slytherin.
Quinn calmly smiled as he inserted a burst of magic into the spell and overpowered Tracy's magic in one fell swoop, forcing Tracy's hand open and driving her wand out it, disarming her in the process.
The wand wheeled in the air before it landed in Quinn's hand, who caught it with a cheeky smile on his face.
”I won,” he laughed, walking towards Tracy, handing her the wand back. ”Good duel?”
Tracy held her wand back in her hands and grinned her usual bubbly smile, ”Good duel!”
”Great,” he smiled before turning to look at Flitwick and gestured that he was done for today.
Flitwick picked up the gesture and climbed up to the stage while Quinn and Tracy took the other set of steps to get down.
Tracy and Quinn parted their ways, and Tracy ran to Daphne and got looks of approval from many Slytherin students.
”Are you okay?” asked Daphne, worried about her friend. ”He didn't overdo it, did he?”
Tracy swayed on her spot with her hands behind her back and grinned a boastful smile, ”He called me Tracy.”
Daphne tilted her head in confusion and asked, ”What?”
”Quinn called me Tracy,” she repeated, waiting for the news to sink in her friends' pretty head.
”What else would he call-,” Daphne began speaking, but mid-sentence realization struck her, and she stopped. ”He called you Tracy?”
Tracy giggled and bumped Daphne's shoulder with her's. ”He said I was the first one he called by their first name. He he he.”
The blonde turned her blue eyes to look at the Ravenclaw in question and saw him putting his robes back on, laughing with his friends and housemates.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked back to see Tracy gazing at her with an encouraging expression, ”Don't worry, he will call you by your given name soon.”
Daphne stared at her best friend and spoke in a flat voice, ”I couldn't care less.”
Tracy waggled her eyebrows, opting not to say anything, but gave a 'sure you do' look to her best friend.
.
- (Scene Break) -
.
It was like someone pasted a permanent smile on Quinn's face causing him to beam like the happiest person in the world. He was experiencing something like a euphoric high. The change in his magic was becoming more pronounced to Quinn when he took a moment to feel it and could sense the enchanting feel of his magic under his control better than ever.
He just wanted to let his magic loose and cast a massive freeze wave in the Great hall or transfiguring the floor to change the terrain of the hall. Anything would do as long as it would allow him to flex his magical capabilities, but he held back and looked at the stage, watching the duels.
His interest deepened when he saw Harry Potter climb up the stage with a swagger in his step and confidence in his gait. The boy-who-lived looked comfortable on the big stage and under the gaze of the majority of the student population.
Harry walked near the Slytherin side and pointed at Draco, hooking his index finger to beckon his enemy/rival to come up to the stage to duel him.
”You won't be a no-show like that last time, would you Malfoy? Because last year was an utter disappointment. Let's have the duel you so much wanted,” said the boy-who-lived, speaking so that everyone could hear him.
Draco's face heated up with anger as he growled, ”POTTAH!”
The blonde Malfoy stepped onto the stage, stepping up to face Harry Potter in a duel.
Both second-year students faced each other on the circular stage and looked at each other with their chins raised slightly, not bothering to bow to each other.
Flitwick looked side-to-side at Harry and Draco and didn't bother telling them to use Disarming spells. From the looks the two gave each other, it didn't look like they would listen to him.
The half-goblin wasn't actually worried about the spells the two would use against each other. If they got injured, that would only serve as a lesson to them that the spells were dangerous.
”One - two - three, GO!”
Harry swung his wand high, but Malfoy had already started on 'two,' his spell hit Harry so hard that Harry felt as though someone had hit him over the head with a saucepan. He stumbled, but everything still seemed to work, and wasting no more time, Harry pointed his wand straight at Malfoy and shouted,
”Rictusempra!”
A jet of silver light hit Malfoy in the stomach, and he doubled up, wheezing with laughter. Harry had hit him with a Tickling charm, and he could barely move for laughing.
Malfoy pointed his wand at Harry's knees, choked,
”Tarantallegra!”
And the next second, Harry's legs jerked around out of his control in a kind of quickstep. It was the spell that made a target's legs spasm wildly out of control, making it appear as though they were dancing.
Harry was startled but cast a Finite on his knees, stopping them from spasming. Draco, on the other side, did the same to make himself stop laughing.
Below the stage, Quinn, with his arms crossed, observed the duel and thought, 'I would have obliterated both of them together multiple times by now.'
”Serpensortia!”