mickume/harry_potter_tiny · Datasets at Hugging Face

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Hermione looked down at them, cupping them before she pinched at the nipple and felt a gasp elict from herself.
Oh, she realised. She hadn’t realised they could be so...sensitive.
Biting her lip, she hid beneath the water, worried that someone might suddenly appear and see what she was doing, but it really was just exploring her own body, learning what she liked. She didn’t care for her breasts being grabbed, but the soft touch on her nipples was nice.
And the feeling of hands raking down her side was nice, too. Hermione lay back, closing her eyes as she leant against the lip of the bath and felt down the side of the body, pretending that she was touching someone else as they touched her.
She could imagine feeling her nails trace over the dip of the waist, over the hip and down. Stroking over the side of her thighs (something Hermione found she liked) and up. She explored the touch, sinking in the moment until she felt almost as if someone was pressing their lips against her jaw, down across her neck to her shoulder, whispering how beautiful she was.
Be quiet for me, now, little mouse.
Hermione closed her eyes, taking in a slow breath as she slid a hand between her thighs, beneath the water. It felt different, now. But as she touched over her sex, feeling the folds of her labia, Hermione realised Bellatrix was right.
How could she ask a partner to touch her tenderly if she didn’t know how she liked to be touched?
Slipping over her clitoris, Hermione let out a gasp. She started slow, softly stroking over it and then built it up until her thighs were slipping apart and Hermione was sliding over her body with one hand as the other stroked between her thighs.
Her mind was bright, listening to her soft, panting breath as her heartbeat raced. This was pleasure, this was something she could find herself sinking into as she imagined being kissed, held and loved by another. The feeling ached inside of her as she squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her jaw shut to stop the moans spilling out until––
"Oh," she gasped, pulling away suddenly as a feeling rose and fell inside of her.
Hermione gasped, panting as she felt the feeling slip away, leaving a strange frustration behind. She’d almost had an orgasm and had been so surprised by it that she’d let it slip away.
Pulling her hands away, Hermione shifted around the bath as she was left with the awkwardness of knowing what she’d done. Bellatrix had told her to do something, and after a sudden unexpected dream, she’d followed the witch’s instructions.
What did that say about her?
Finishing her bath, she drained the water before drying herself off and dressing in her school clothes.
Hermione spent the rest of the morning doing homework until it was time to go and get breakfast.
"You’re up early," Bellatrix commented as she came down the girls’ staircase. She paused then, coming to step closer as she touched a loose curl hanging over Hermione’s shoulder.
Hermione turned to look at, realising that when she’d magically dried her hair, she’d missed a piece. Swallowing, she looked back at Bellatrix, wondering if the witch knew, if she could somehow tell what Hermione had been up to.
But all the witch did was smile before fixing her bag onto the shoulder, leading them out into the hall.
At breakfast, Ginny sat by Bellatrix, talking to her about the upcoming Quidditch practice before she’d turned her attention to Hermione. "So we’re meeting after classes in the spare Charms room, right?"
Hermione blinked, failing to follow for a moment before realised. "Right! Of course, for Duelling Club."
"Have you thought of name, yet?"
Hermione shook her head. She’d scribbled out a few attempts before scrunching them up and throwing them away, the same as she had for her letters to Sirius. "I haven’t found the time," Hermione said.
"I’m sure it’s hard to find the time," Bellatrix said, a lilt in her voice that had Hermione turning her eyes away. Bellatrix knew, she knew what Hermione had done and was now relentlessly teasing her about it and oh god, if she asked what Hermione thought about, what would she say?
Hi, yes, you told me to masturbate and I did and I did it because I had a sex dream about you which coincidentally I then fantasied about whilst touching myself.
No. Absolutely not. That was too much. No one wanted to hear that kind of thing, so if Bellatrix asked, Hermione was going to have to lie, which should come easily to her but for some reason, it was becoming increasingly difficult to lie to the witch. It was like the moment she looked into the witch’s eyes, she fell under some veritaserum and everything spilled out in a horrible monologue.
"Hello," Ginny said, snapping her fingers.
Hermione looked up at the witch, blinking. "Sorry, what did you say?"
"I said you have a letter," Ginny said, handing it to her. "And from the looks of it, it looks like it’s the same that Harry gets."
Hermione frowned, taking the letter and looking at it. On the front page, it had Hermione name written in a sharp, neat script. As she opened the letter, her eyes ran over an invitation from Dumbledore to meet later that week.
"Dumbledore wants to meet," she said, before looking up at the table. There, Harry and Ron sat talking to one another next to Neville. "Ron didn’t get a letter."
"Maybe it’s unrelated," Ginny suggested. "Could be seeing how Bella has been settling?"
Of course it was, Hermione realised. Setting the letter in bag she smiled. "We have herbology this morning so we should probably leave to get to the greenhouse. I’ll see you at lunch?" She said to Ginny. Ginny nodded, giving a wave as she took her own bag to head off to class.
It was outside as they walked across the lawn did Hermione find herself sneaking a look at Bellatrix. "Has Dumbledore requested to see you since you’ve been here?"
"No, but I imagine that would be a good sign," Bellatrix responded. "If there was a problem, he would likely have me removed from the school."
"Not necessary. I think he sees that you’re doing your best. If you made a mistake he would give you reasonable chances to correct it," she assured. "Are you worried that he’s going to do something?"
"No. I know that I haven’t done anything wrong."
Hermione nodded, smiling. "Are you enjoying Hogwarts though? I know it’s only been a month, and sixth year has so much homework, but the subjects have been fairly interesting."
Bellatrix shrugged. "Honestly, none of it seems challenging," she said. "Writing the essays is the worst part and that’s not difficult. You reference the texts, look for additional ones and re-write what they say in your own words. The spell-work is easy and you just get on with it." She sighed, looking at Hermione. "Honestly I’m looking forward to Quidditch the most."
Hermione felt a strange jealously twist in her gut. "I guess all of this would come easy for you since you’ve done it all before. Even if you don’t have any memory of it, it’s clear some part of you knows."
Bellatrix shrugged. "It’s fine. It’ll be good to start the duelling club."
"But you know that none of them are going to be as good as you."
"Obviously," Bellatrix said, casting her a smirk. "But there’s something to be learnt from duelling against inexperienced duellers. They can be wild and do things you would never expect. They’ll throw some random spell you wouldn’t think of and then suddenly your wand has been windguardian leviosa’d off to somewhere random and you have to get it or do something clever."
Hermione gave a thoughtful nod, she hadn’t thought about that aspect for Bellatrix. "You know in my second year I found everything easy. I knew enough about magic by that point, having read every book I could get my hands on in the library, that I didn’t find it challenging. I used to ask for additional coursework. You could do that."
Bellatrix’s scrunched up her nose. "Pass," she said. "I’d rather use my spare time on something more useful."
"Quidditch," Hermione asked skeptically.
"Riling you up," Bellatrix retorted and Hermione coughed, looking away. "Speaking of...where were you this morning?"
"Doing homework," Hermione said as they came up the greenhouse.
Hermione didn’t respond as they stepped inside the greenhouse, setting her book aside to get everything set-up as Professor Sprout moved to step forward at the front of the class. Hermione knew that Bellatrix had taken their conversation and made a mental note to ask about it again, later and she dreaded the moment it occurred.
What was she meant to do when Bellatrix did finally ask her directly? What if she pulled her into some random classroom or secret corridor or...her thoughts began to fill with the idea of the witch pinning her against the wall again.
No, absolutely not! She would not allow herself to fantasise while she was in class. It was of absolute importance to her that she got the best marks and wasn’t distracted by beautiful witches who grinned at her like she couldn’t wait to devour her.
Classes thankfully flew by fast and Hermione found herself relieved when she was able to set her bag down, sitting in the charms classroom
Ginny and Luna were already there by the time she and Bellatrix arrived, and for a horrible moment, Hermione wondered if anyone else would be arriving, but it turned out she didn’t have to wait long.
Cormac was the next to arrive. They set the classroom up, moving the desks and chairs out of the way by the time Dean and Seamus arrived.
"Right, so, how are we going to do this?" Ginny asked.
"I can take meeting minutes," Luna declared. Hermione frowned at the statement.
"There’s no need. I’ll do a roll call and then we’ll show how a proper duel goes before setting up. It’ll be two at a time and there’s a few ways we can do—"
"Loser has to sit out and the next person challenges the winner," Bellatrix said, looking smug.
Hermione gave her a look. She knew it would end up with everyone challenging Bellatrix. "I was thinking something more structured," she said. "I drafted up a pairing of everyone. Dean with You. Ginny and Seamus. Luna and Cormac," she said, presenting it. "And then we continue to mix pairs until everyone has versed each other. That way we all get a fair turn of facing each other and get some mixed skills in. At least while we’re small."
"When are you going to practice?" Bellatrix asked.
"We’re an odd number at the moment so I’ll fit in when people want time out."
Hermione had planned that if more people were to join it would be more structured per the rules of duelling with points awarded to presentation and skill work and showmanship, allowing someone to win at the duel but overall lose the match...but that would be something she’d gradually introduce.
Hermione presented a mock-duel with Ginny, showing when to bow, how to turn and walk the set paces before beginning. She marked out a superficial stage and told everyone that stepping over the line was considered out of bounds.
Then, they began.
Cormac and Luna went first. Luna gave a curtsey instead of a bow, which Hermione sighed at before watching as the witch flounced ten paces. Cormac took irritation at this, more so than Hermione. As they reached ten paces, his grip on his wand was so tight that when Luna spun and decisively cast expelliarmus, he was caught surprised as he was thrown back with his wand.
"Luna wins," Hermione declared, giving a short clap.
"That’s hardly fair!" Cormac said. "I didn’t––"
"I know, but you’re turn will be up again soon. You’ll be versing Dean next round," she said, smiling. "It’s hardest being first." That seemed to deflate his hot-head enough for him to come marching back to his seat to watch as Ginny and Seamus took to the stand.
Both Ginny and Seamus had been in DA last year, under Harry’s tutelage, so it came at no surprise that the duel went for a bit longer than Cormac’s and Luna’s. Ginny managed to bounce a hex off her shield onto Seamus, who became frozen in the full body bind until Hermione undid it.
"Good job!" She said, grinning at Ginny. "Point to Ginny."
Ginny grinned, shaking Seamus hand and declaring a good match before Dean and Bellatrix went up. Hermione bit her lip, expecting the fight to be over before Dean could cast his first spell. As it was, he held his own for a while.
Bellatrix bounced a few hexes and jinxes his way, only for Dean to knock them out, casting them aside off into the classroom. Hermione watched, impressed, until she realised that the only reason that he was holding his own was because Bellatrix was playing him.
As soon as Dean got cocky, throwing a few hexes that Bellatrix dodged out of, he decided to throw a more dangerous spell. Hermione heard the spell leave his lips, knowing that it was the same hex Ron had attempted to cast on Draco in their second year that had backfired.
Bellatrix grinned. Instead of throwing up a shield, she darted her wand before her, catching the spell before she spun it around and threw it back.
Dean had been so surprised he just stood dumbfounded as it hit him square in the chest and he began vomiting slugs.
"Crap," Hermione said, transfiguring a chair into a bucket to hand to him. "Go and sit down. It should wear off soon." She cast a counter-hex on him to help, but from her own experience in second year, watching Ron, she knew that at the end of the day it would take time. At least it wasn’t a backfired spell for Dean.
"Fucking Merlin’s beard," Seamus swore. "I haven’t seen anyone catch a spell since I saw the Wild Griffins play at the Spell Racquet Tournament. Where’d you learn to do that?"
"Dueslist’s secrets," Bellatrix declared. "But now that our dear friends out of the running, I believe that means that...Hermione will be taking his spot?" She said, looking far too mischievous for Hermione’s likening.
A part of her wondered if Bellatrix had...planned to do something like that and had been waiting for Dean to do something.
"Well, next turn is Cormac," she said, before realising that meant it was her turn. Frowning, she moved into duelling circle and bowed at Cormac.
"I promise to go easy on you," he said, winking at her.
"Don’t," Hermione said. "I’d rather a fair loss."
Cormac blinked before smiling at her. "I respect that," he said, giving her a bow. They turned, stepping ten paces and then Hermione waited a half-second to let him cast. She took the spells, allowing herself to fling them back and forth, bouncing them overheard.
"You’re doing well," Cormac said, as though he was surprised by her. He shouldn’t have been. Hermione was the best in all but two of her classes, she was known to be one of the best and sure Bellatrix and Harry were further ahead in DADA than her, but she was better than Luna.
Getting angry, she aimed her shield, watching the spell fling back into his leg, below where his own shield cast.
Cormac’s legs went out from underneath him with the jelly legged jinx and Hermione rose, exhaling her breath. "Lucky shot," Cormac declared, undoing the spell.
"It wasn’t luck," Hermione snapped.
Cormac flinched, frowning at her before he shifted away, taking his seat at the sidelines again.
"Shouldn’t have gone easy on him," Bellatrix said as she passed her to verse Ginny.
Hermione crossed her arms, sitting down as she watched the pair play. As it was, the rest of the day was kind of fun. Bellatrix continued to take her time with the duels, drinking in every moment as if they were a routine she was trying to learn, where as the others watched her performance with rapid enthusiasm. Even Cormac slowly grew impressed. When he finally versed her and lost, he didn’t take personal offence as he had with Luna and Hermione, instead treating it as a fair match.
Hermione soured at his response, trying to ignore it the rest of the evening as she watched the others duel. At last, it came to final match of the evening. Her versus Bellatrix.
And Hermione knew that Bellatrix had been saving everything for this match.
Hermione took a breath, righting herself as she came and stepped forward before the witch. "I’ll go easy on you," Bellatrix said, winking. Hermione flinched at the comment before realising that...unlike Cormac...Bellatrix was only trying to rile her up.
"Don’t worry," Hermione assured, "When I win I’ll make sure to rub it in."
"I’d love to see you rub it in," Bellatrix said. Hermione found herself stumbling as she rose back from the bow. Surely the witch hadn’t meant––
But Hermione didn’t have time to think. She’d reached ten paces, turning on her heel as she deflected the fast spell Bellatrix threw.
Unlike all the other fights, Bellatrix wasn’t speaking her hexes and jinxes. She only grinned as she cast them, one after another. She’d catch a spell, throw it back and Hermione would bounce it one after the other.
It was quick and fast. They would danced forward and back, careful to avoid stepping over the edge. The room became a light with fireworks of spells as they shifted and moved. Deflect, dodge, cast, spin, throw, catch...
Hermione was panting, her heartbeat thudding in her ears as she twisted aside to allow the hex to pass her whilst she cast her own. Over and over.
It was the hardest she’d fought, refusing to allow the witch an easy win and Bellatrix fought for it. When she’d duelled the others, she’d barely broke a sweat, but Hermione could see her chest rising and falling with quick gasps of breath as she grunted before ducking a spell, casting another.

Hermione looked down at them, cupping them before she pinched at the nipple and felt a gasp elict from herself.

Oh, she realised. She hadn’t realised they could be so...sensitive.

Biting her lip, she hid beneath the water, worried that someone might suddenly appear and see what she was doing, but it really was just exploring her own body, learning what she liked. She didn’t care for her breasts being grabbed, but the soft touch on her nipples was nice.

And the feeling of hands raking down her side was nice, too. Hermione lay back, closing her eyes as she leant against the lip of the bath and felt down the side of the body, pretending that she was touching someone else as they touched her.

She could imagine feeling her nails trace over the dip of the waist, over the hip and down. Stroking over the side of her thighs (something Hermione found she liked) and up. She explored the touch, sinking in the moment until she felt almost as if someone was pressing their lips against her jaw, down across her neck to her shoulder, whispering how beautiful she was.

Be quiet for me, now, little mouse.

Hermione closed her eyes, taking in a slow breath as she slid a hand between her thighs, beneath the water. It felt different, now. But as she touched over her sex, feeling the folds of her labia, Hermione realised Bellatrix was right.

How could she ask a partner to touch her tenderly if she didn’t know how she liked to be touched?

Slipping over her clitoris, Hermione let out a gasp. She started slow, softly stroking over it and then built it up until her thighs were slipping apart and Hermione was sliding over her body with one hand as the other stroked between her thighs.

Her mind was bright, listening to her soft, panting breath as her heartbeat raced. This was pleasure, this was something she could find herself sinking into as she imagined being kissed, held and loved by another. The feeling ached inside of her as she squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her jaw shut to stop the moans spilling out until––

"Oh," she gasped, pulling away suddenly as a feeling rose and fell inside of her.

Hermione gasped, panting as she felt the feeling slip away, leaving a strange frustration behind. She’d almost had an orgasm and had been so surprised by it that she’d let it slip away.

Pulling her hands away, Hermione shifted around the bath as she was left with the awkwardness of knowing what she’d done. Bellatrix had told her to do something, and after a sudden unexpected dream, she’d followed the witch’s instructions.

What did that say about her?

Finishing her bath, she drained the water before drying herself off and dressing in her school clothes.

Hermione spent the rest of the morning doing homework until it was time to go and get breakfast.

"You’re up early," Bellatrix commented as she came down the girls’ staircase. She paused then, coming to step closer as she touched a loose curl hanging over Hermione’s shoulder.

Hermione turned to look at, realising that when she’d magically dried her hair, she’d missed a piece. Swallowing, she looked back at Bellatrix, wondering if the witch knew, if she could somehow tell what Hermione had been up to.

But all the witch did was smile before fixing her bag onto the shoulder, leading them out into the hall.

At breakfast, Ginny sat by Bellatrix, talking to her about the upcoming Quidditch practice before she’d turned her attention to Hermione. "So we’re meeting after classes in the spare Charms room, right?"

Hermione blinked, failing to follow for a moment before realised. "Right! Of course, for Duelling Club."

"Have you thought of name, yet?"

Hermione shook her head. She’d scribbled out a few attempts before scrunching them up and throwing them away, the same as she had for her letters to Sirius. "I haven’t found the time," Hermione said.

"I’m sure it’s hard to find the time," Bellatrix said, a lilt in her voice that had Hermione turning her eyes away. Bellatrix knew, she knew what Hermione had done and was now relentlessly teasing her about it and oh god, if she asked what Hermione thought about, what would she say?

Hi, yes, you told me to masturbate and I did and I did it because I had a sex dream about you which coincidentally I then fantasied about whilst touching myself.

No. Absolutely not. That was too much. No one wanted to hear that kind of thing, so if Bellatrix asked, Hermione was going to have to lie, which should come easily to her but for some reason, it was becoming increasingly difficult to lie to the witch. It was like the moment she looked into the witch’s eyes, she fell under some veritaserum and everything spilled out in a horrible monologue.

"Hello," Ginny said, snapping her fingers.

Hermione looked up at the witch, blinking. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said you have a letter," Ginny said, handing it to her. "And from the looks of it, it looks like it’s the same that Harry gets."

Hermione frowned, taking the letter and looking at it. On the front page, it had Hermione name written in a sharp, neat script. As she opened the letter, her eyes ran over an invitation from Dumbledore to meet later that week.

"Dumbledore wants to meet," she said, before looking up at the table. There, Harry and Ron sat talking to one another next to Neville. "Ron didn’t get a letter."

"Maybe it’s unrelated," Ginny suggested. "Could be seeing how Bella has been settling?"

Of course it was, Hermione realised. Setting the letter in bag she smiled. "We have herbology this morning so we should probably leave to get to the greenhouse. I’ll see you at lunch?" She said to Ginny. Ginny nodded, giving a wave as she took her own bag to head off to class.

It was outside as they walked across the lawn did Hermione find herself sneaking a look at Bellatrix. "Has Dumbledore requested to see you since you’ve been here?"

"No, but I imagine that would be a good sign," Bellatrix responded. "If there was a problem, he would likely have me removed from the school."

"Not necessary. I think he sees that you’re doing your best. If you made a mistake he would give you reasonable chances to correct it," she assured. "Are you worried that he’s going to do something?"

"No. I know that I haven’t done anything wrong."

Hermione nodded, smiling. "Are you enjoying Hogwarts though? I know it’s only been a month, and sixth year has so much homework, but the subjects have been fairly interesting."

Bellatrix shrugged. "Honestly, none of it seems challenging," she said. "Writing the essays is the worst part and that’s not difficult. You reference the texts, look for additional ones and re-write what they say in your own words. The spell-work is easy and you just get on with it." She sighed, looking at Hermione. "Honestly I’m looking forward to Quidditch the most."

Hermione felt a strange jealously twist in her gut. "I guess all of this would come easy for you since you’ve done it all before. Even if you don’t have any memory of it, it’s clear some part of you knows."

Bellatrix shrugged. "It’s fine. It’ll be good to start the duelling club."

"But you know that none of them are going to be as good as you."

"Obviously," Bellatrix said, casting her a smirk. "But there’s something to be learnt from duelling against inexperienced duellers. They can be wild and do things you would never expect. They’ll throw some random spell you wouldn’t think of and then suddenly your wand has been windguardian leviosa’d off to somewhere random and you have to get it or do something clever."

Hermione gave a thoughtful nod, she hadn’t thought about that aspect for Bellatrix. "You know in my second year I found everything easy. I knew enough about magic by that point, having read every book I could get my hands on in the library, that I didn’t find it challenging. I used to ask for additional coursework. You could do that."

Bellatrix’s scrunched up her nose. "Pass," she said. "I’d rather use my spare time on something more useful."

"Quidditch," Hermione asked skeptically.

"Riling you up," Bellatrix retorted and Hermione coughed, looking away. "Speaking of...where were you this morning?"

"Doing homework," Hermione said as they came up the greenhouse.

Hermione didn’t respond as they stepped inside the greenhouse, setting her book aside to get everything set-up as Professor Sprout moved to step forward at the front of the class. Hermione knew that Bellatrix had taken their conversation and made a mental note to ask about it again, later and she dreaded the moment it occurred.

What was she meant to do when Bellatrix did finally ask her directly? What if she pulled her into some random classroom or secret corridor or...her thoughts began to fill with the idea of the witch pinning her against the wall again.

No, absolutely not! She would not allow herself to fantasise while she was in class. It was of absolute importance to her that she got the best marks and wasn’t distracted by beautiful witches who grinned at her like she couldn’t wait to devour her.

Classes thankfully flew by fast and Hermione found herself relieved when she was able to set her bag down, sitting in the charms classroom

Ginny and Luna were already there by the time she and Bellatrix arrived, and for a horrible moment, Hermione wondered if anyone else would be arriving, but it turned out she didn’t have to wait long.

Cormac was the next to arrive. They set the classroom up, moving the desks and chairs out of the way by the time Dean and Seamus arrived.

"Right, so, how are we going to do this?" Ginny asked.

"I can take meeting minutes," Luna declared. Hermione frowned at the statement.

"There’s no need. I’ll do a roll call and then we’ll show how a proper duel goes before setting up. It’ll be two at a time and there’s a few ways we can do—"

"Loser has to sit out and the next person challenges the winner," Bellatrix said, looking smug.

Hermione gave her a look. She knew it would end up with everyone challenging Bellatrix. "I was thinking something more structured," she said. "I drafted up a pairing of everyone. Dean with You. Ginny and Seamus. Luna and Cormac," she said, presenting it. "And then we continue to mix pairs until everyone has versed each other. That way we all get a fair turn of facing each other and get some mixed skills in. At least while we’re small."

"When are you going to practice?" Bellatrix asked.

"We’re an odd number at the moment so I’ll fit in when people want time out."

Hermione had planned that if more people were to join it would be more structured per the rules of duelling with points awarded to presentation and skill work and showmanship, allowing someone to win at the duel but overall lose the match...but that would be something she’d gradually introduce.

Hermione presented a mock-duel with Ginny, showing when to bow, how to turn and walk the set paces before beginning. She marked out a superficial stage and told everyone that stepping over the line was considered out of bounds.

Then, they began.

Cormac and Luna went first. Luna gave a curtsey instead of a bow, which Hermione sighed at before watching as the witch flounced ten paces. Cormac took irritation at this, more so than Hermione. As they reached ten paces, his grip on his wand was so tight that when Luna spun and decisively cast expelliarmus, he was caught surprised as he was thrown back with his wand.

"Luna wins," Hermione declared, giving a short clap.

"That’s hardly fair!" Cormac said. "I didn’t––"

"I know, but you’re turn will be up again soon. You’ll be versing Dean next round," she said, smiling. "It’s hardest being first." That seemed to deflate his hot-head enough for him to come marching back to his seat to watch as Ginny and Seamus took to the stand.

Both Ginny and Seamus had been in DA last year, under Harry’s tutelage, so it came at no surprise that the duel went for a bit longer than Cormac’s and Luna’s. Ginny managed to bounce a hex off her shield onto Seamus, who became frozen in the full body bind until Hermione undid it.

"Good job!" She said, grinning at Ginny. "Point to Ginny."

Ginny grinned, shaking Seamus hand and declaring a good match before Dean and Bellatrix went up. Hermione bit her lip, expecting the fight to be over before Dean could cast his first spell. As it was, he held his own for a while.

Bellatrix bounced a few hexes and jinxes his way, only for Dean to knock them out, casting them aside off into the classroom. Hermione watched, impressed, until she realised that the only reason that he was holding his own was because Bellatrix was playing him.

As soon as Dean got cocky, throwing a few hexes that Bellatrix dodged out of, he decided to throw a more dangerous spell. Hermione heard the spell leave his lips, knowing that it was the same hex Ron had attempted to cast on Draco in their second year that had backfired.

Bellatrix grinned. Instead of throwing up a shield, she darted her wand before her, catching the spell before she spun it around and threw it back.

Dean had been so surprised he just stood dumbfounded as it hit him square in the chest and he began vomiting slugs.

"Crap," Hermione said, transfiguring a chair into a bucket to hand to him. "Go and sit down. It should wear off soon." She cast a counter-hex on him to help, but from her own experience in second year, watching Ron, she knew that at the end of the day it would take time. At least it wasn’t a backfired spell for Dean.

"Fucking Merlin’s beard," Seamus swore. "I haven’t seen anyone catch a spell since I saw the Wild Griffins play at the Spell Racquet Tournament. Where’d you learn to do that?"

"Dueslist’s secrets," Bellatrix declared. "But now that our dear friends out of the running, I believe that means that...Hermione will be taking his spot?" She said, looking far too mischievous for Hermione’s likening.

A part of her wondered if Bellatrix had...planned to do something like that and had been waiting for Dean to do something.

"Well, next turn is Cormac," she said, before realising that meant it was her turn. Frowning, she moved into duelling circle and bowed at Cormac.

"I promise to go easy on you," he said, winking at her.

"Don’t," Hermione said. "I’d rather a fair loss."

Cormac blinked before smiling at her. "I respect that," he said, giving her a bow. They turned, stepping ten paces and then Hermione waited a half-second to let him cast. She took the spells, allowing herself to fling them back and forth, bouncing them overheard.

"You’re doing well," Cormac said, as though he was surprised by her. He shouldn’t have been. Hermione was the best in all but two of her classes, she was known to be one of the best and sure Bellatrix and Harry were further ahead in DADA than her, but she was better than Luna.

Getting angry, she aimed her shield, watching the spell fling back into his leg, below where his own shield cast.

Cormac’s legs went out from underneath him with the jelly legged jinx and Hermione rose, exhaling her breath. "Lucky shot," Cormac declared, undoing the spell.

"It wasn’t luck," Hermione snapped.

Cormac flinched, frowning at her before he shifted away, taking his seat at the sidelines again.

"Shouldn’t have gone easy on him," Bellatrix said as she passed her to verse Ginny.

Hermione crossed her arms, sitting down as she watched the pair play. As it was, the rest of the day was kind of fun. Bellatrix continued to take her time with the duels, drinking in every moment as if they were a routine she was trying to learn, where as the others watched her performance with rapid enthusiasm. Even Cormac slowly grew impressed. When he finally versed her and lost, he didn’t take personal offence as he had with Luna and Hermione, instead treating it as a fair match.

Hermione soured at his response, trying to ignore it the rest of the evening as she watched the others duel. At last, it came to final match of the evening. Her versus Bellatrix.

And Hermione knew that Bellatrix had been saving everything for this match.

Hermione took a breath, righting herself as she came and stepped forward before the witch. "I’ll go easy on you," Bellatrix said, winking. Hermione flinched at the comment before realising that...unlike Cormac...Bellatrix was only trying to rile her up.

"Don’t worry," Hermione assured, "When I win I’ll make sure to rub it in."

"I’d love to see you rub it in," Bellatrix said. Hermione found herself stumbling as she rose back from the bow. Surely the witch hadn’t meant––

But Hermione didn’t have time to think. She’d reached ten paces, turning on her heel as she deflected the fast spell Bellatrix threw.

Unlike all the other fights, Bellatrix wasn’t speaking her hexes and jinxes. She only grinned as she cast them, one after another. She’d catch a spell, throw it back and Hermione would bounce it one after the other.

It was quick and fast. They would danced forward and back, careful to avoid stepping over the edge. The room became a light with fireworks of spells as they shifted and moved. Deflect, dodge, cast, spin, throw, catch...

Hermione was panting, her heartbeat thudding in her ears as she twisted aside to allow the hex to pass her whilst she cast her own. Over and over.

It was the hardest she’d fought, refusing to allow the witch an easy win and Bellatrix fought for it. When she’d duelled the others, she’d barely broke a sweat, but Hermione could see her chest rising and falling with quick gasps of breath as she grunted before ducking a spell, casting another.