Chapter 52 – Dueling Tournament (1)
When the first day of the Dueling Tournament arrived, it became a school-wide attraction. To not interfere with lessons, it was decided that it would be hosted on Saturday, so I had to slog through Professor Binns's lesson and then have an exhausting one at the greenhouses on Friday and to top it all off, an Astronomy class in the cold, December weather in the dead of night! I thought all this was a ploy to make me mentally and physically tired before the whole thing started.
"How are you feeling?" Quincy asked as we were heading to the Great Hall from our common room to have breakfast.
"Fine." I replied with a smile, "I'm not really afraid, no matter who I am going to face in the first round. I just don't know why are they stretching it out?" I yawned, not even trying to hide it. "First rounds now, seconds at the next Saturday, and then finals before the Christmas break... tsk. We could do this all in one go!"
"Confident, aren't you?" I heard Draco walking into the common room, passing us, but we ignored him without taking note of his presence.
"Hey!" Pansy Parkinson shouted, but the door was already closed behind us.
"So-" I continued, forcing another yawn to end earlier than it wished to do so, "My plan is to blast the poor sod who comes up against me with a strong spell, win quickly, and get back to sleep! I'm tired!"
"I told you I would let you copy my notes!" She chuckled, glancing down at my hand, and I could see she was thinking of holding it, so I acted before she could change her mind, interlocking my fingers with hers. "You could have slept the lesson through..." She continued, blushing, but didn't pull away.
"It's fine! Astronomy is a kind of interesting and unique subject, although I find no practical use for it. I thought it would be just as obsolete and banned as divination."
"Some spells do use the stars and their powers, so... maybe it has more of a ground in magic?"
"Eh, maybe! Let's eat, and we can discuss the secrets of the stars while doing so!" I chuckled, but my smile was frozen to my face.
I very quickly realized why Draco was coming back in the morning... and not leaving. The Great Hall was already altered, the future dueling stage was being set up, and I saw the notice on the door. Breakfast time was changed to very early morning, and we ran out of time already. Somehow, we were not notified of this, and I don't remember reading anything related to this on our noticeboard either!