Dueling Hearts Ch. 24 (Patreon)

"Hey."

Harry didn't look over. He didn't have to. Even if he hadn't instantly recognized the voice, there was only one other person than knew to find him here.

Only one other person knew that when Harry was feeling down, he would go to a specific classroom in the dungeons.

This classroom had long since been abandoned, the chains and other implements of torture still present in the room dating it's last usage to sometime in the middle ages.

When Harry had stumbled upon this room in his second year, he'd decided it would be perfect to practice some of the more destructive spells he'd learned. After all, he could get in trouble for scuffing and scratching up the walls in a classroom that still saw use, but this room already looked like crap, so no one would find out.

It was during one of these sessions that he discovered the room's secret. Hit one of the walls with any green colored spell, and it would turn transparent, providing non-Slytherins with a view into the depths of the Black Lake.

Harry had been fascinated by the eerie green glow the lake emitted. Even at night, the wall allowed him to see the waters as if they were being kissed by the midday sun. He'd spent hours sometimes just staring, hoping to catch a glimpse of a kelpie or a merperson.

He still remembered when he'd brought Daphne here for the first time, all excited to show her his discovery, only for the completely unimpressed girl to tell him she saw the same view every single day in the Slytherin common room, and she found it a bit depressing if anything.

Harry had never questioned why she still insisted on coming along whenever he came here. He snorted, realizing how clueless he'd been.

"What's so funny?" Daphne ran a hand through his hair as she sat down beside him, the warmth of her body lifting Harry's spirits, if only just barely.

"It's nothing." The lake was calm tonight, so Harry's vision was consumed by a wall of murky green, littered with specks of debris in a way that seemed uniform. It was calming, somehow.

Daphne sighed, leaning her head on his shoulder. "It's ok to be hurt, Harry."

Harry didn't speak. Daphne didn't prompt him to either, she wrapped her arms around him and they remained in a comfortable silence.

Harry wished this could stretch on forever. Here, in Daphne's embrace, letting his mind empty as he stared into a sea of nothing. Here, he didn't have to think about the betrayal he felt.

"It just hurts, Daph. She was my hero, I worshiped the ground she walked on. In my head she was so-"

"Perfect?" Daphne asked.

Harry inhaled deeply. "I thought that if I trained hard enough, I could be just like her one day. And now, I find out it was all a lie." His head dropped, articulating the words making the reality set in that much more.

"Harry, do you like Bellatrix?"

Harry's head snapped up as he looked at his girlfriend. Daphne wore a serious expression as she looked back at him.

"Do you like Bellatrix Black the person?"

Harry was taken aback by her question. He thought back to all the moments he'd shared with Bellatrix. She was domineering, demanding, emotionally closed off, erratic, violent and very, very impulsive.

But he could say beyond the shadow of a doubt that he loved spending time with her. Being with her was exciting, but more than that, being with her made him happy.

"I love her."

Harry blanched as his words spilled out from his mouth. He worried about Daphne's reaction. Despite this weird arrangement they'd been barreling towards, admitting he loved another woman still felt like such a taboo, especially when confessing it to your girlfriend. He wanted to tell her that he loved her too, that he was head over heels for her. And he genuinely was. While his feelings for Angelina and Fleur hadn't reached that point yet, he could honestly say that he was madly in love with Daphne, Lily and Bellatrix, as insane as that sounded.

Daphne smiled, and she understood without Harry having to say a word. "Then I think you should hear her out. Remember, Harry, Bellatrix the hero was never a real person. She was an image you projected. She's a real human being, she's flawed, and she definitely fucked up by keeping secrets instead of being honest with you, but I think you should talk to her."

Harry stared at Daphne. "You're the most amazing fucking woman I've ever met, Daph."

Daphne blushed deeply, and the two lovers shared a tender kiss before pressing their foreheads up against each other.

"I love you, Daph, with all my heart and soul."

He felt Daphne smile against him. She gave him another kiss. "I love you, Harry."

They basked in the moment for a few minutes more before Daphne pulled back. "Come on, let's go have that talk."

Harry looked worried, "Bellatrix will probably hole herself up in her quarters. She's stubborn enough to not let me in to avoid a confrontation."

Daphne smiled. "Don't worry about that, your mum already has her secured."

Harry blinked. "Huh?"

She shrugged. "I went to get you, she made sure Bella didn't run away."

Harry shook his head as they began to leave the room, "I guess the coven self-regulates, huh?"

Daphne grinned. “You're darn right, Potter. We keep our members in line, and we settle all disputes in house.”

They left the classroom and made their way up to Lily's quarters. As they were walking up the stairs from the dungeon, a gangly figure wearing a funny mask stopped them.

“Ron?” Harry raised an eyebrow. “You know the wrestling thing is done, right? You can take off that mask.”

Ron had his arms on his hips with elbows flared out, chin held up high as he looked at them.

“Wrestling? The Masked Weasley has evolved beyond such paltry things. I am Hogwarts’ secret avenger, its protector in the shadows. Whenever a child has their belongings tossed to the giant squid, I will be there, whenever a lonely boy is hexed in an empty hallway, I will be there, whenever-”

“Alright, we get it Ron.” Daphne cut him off. “What are you doing here?”

Ron took a step down and placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, “I am here to talk to you, Timmy.”

“Timmy?” Harry blinked in confusion.

“I saw what happened out there, little Timmy. I know you must be feeling crushed. Losing faith in a hero is a terrible thing to happen. But don't fear! The Masked Weasley is here, and I offer you my powerful shoulders to cry on.”

“Ron, Daphne and I kind of already figured stuff out.” Harry said slowly. “Thanks, though.”

Ron's shoulders did not sag, instead, the boy chuckled. “Oh, ho, ho. I guess I'm more powerful than I thought.” He lifted his hand and ruffled Harry's hair. “Be safe, little Timmy, and know that I will always be there, in the shadows, your silent protector. The hero you need, and the hero you deserve.”

Ron spun around and marched his way up the stairs. Harry and Daphne could only look at each other, waiting for his footsteps to disappear before they also made their way out.

“There's gotta be something in the pumpkin juice, I swear.”

…

Bellatrix fidgeted nervously as the ropes that tied her to the chair dug uncomfortably into her torso.

"Can you let me go already? I'm not going to escape." She huffed.

Lily stood over her with a very disbelieving look. "We both know you're lying, Bella."

Bellatrix whined and tried once more to wriggle out of her bonds to no avail. She cursed Lily for tying her up when her back was turned. And in front of so many people, too! It was embarrassing, she could already hear the stories. Bellatrix Black, worlds greatest duelist outfoxed by a spell researcher.

Well, probably the story the prophet was going to run tomorrow would be about her ban. It wasn't enough that all those people had been there to witness her exchange with Snivellus, Rita Skeeter had been there too, and she was sure the woman's blasted quill would be scratching away well into the wee hours of the night.

Bellatrix looked over at Angelina, who had so far been rather quiet from her spot leaning against Lily's desk. The girl had sort of followed along after Lily had hogtied her and levitated her over to her office.

She opened her mouth to speak but decided against it. She was already going to have a very difficult conversation, she'd rather not have it twice.

The door to Lily's office opened, and everyone tensed as they looked over to where Harry and Daphne were stepping in.

Bella really wanted to avoid Harry's gaze, but their eyes met and she felt forced to witness the hurt and disappointment that was evident in his expressive green eyes

Lily stepped up, placing a hand on her son's shoulder. "Harry, I want you to let Bella talk, and I want you to hear her out without letting your emotions get the best of you, understood?" Harry gave his mother a nod, glancing back at Bella with an expectant look.

"Are you really making me do this? In front of you three?" Bella whined.

"Bellatrix." Lily's voice was firm and commanding, taking the wild-haired witch by surprise. "If you truly love my son, you'll swallow your pride and talk."

Bella gulped, but in that moment, she looked straight at Harry, blocking everyone else from her vision.

This was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do.

"I'm sorry, Harry. I know you idolized me, I know I let you down."

Harry's expression didn't change, he only nodded stiffly. "What did you do, exactly?"

Bellatrix sighed. "I performed a ritual. When I was just slightly older than you, I caught the eye of a mentor, a man who took an erratic little girl and honed her into a machine. His name… was Tom Riddle."

"Tom Riddle was your… mentor?" Harry asked, a tinge of jealousy creeping into his voice that Bella greatly appreciated.

"He was. He taught me everything, and I'll admit, I idolized him much like you did me." Bellatrix shook her head. "I won a few tournaments here and there, and then I began training for the junior British championships." Her eyes took on a glint of melancholy as she reminisced. "That's when he revealed the secret to me."

"The secret?" Angelina asked as she pushed off the desk.

Bellatrix nodded. "The secret that every professional duelist learns when they join the circuit proper. The inconvenient truth that everyone tries to sweep under the rug."

"Everyone is cheating." Angelina whispered, and all heads turned to her.

"Exactly that." Bellatrix fixed Harry with a sad look. "The truth is, Harry, the sport has always been dirty. Since its inception, everyone's been pulling what they can to gain an advantage."

Harry looked completely shaken by her words. Daphne squeezed his hand as Harry's mouth hung open. "But… that can't be true. Something like that…"

"Harry, you know your history, how did Robert Giscard win the first ever dueling championship?"

Harry's jaw tensed. "He poisoned his opponent's mead before the duel began. B-But… that was before they put the rules in place-"

"And the moment the rules were put in place was the moment they figured out ways to circumvent them." Bella tried to keep her voice as gentle as possible, knowing how much this was tearing Harry's world down. "Flitwick wore a thin sheet of goblin silver under his robes, that's why he took hits that would have knocked anyone else for a loop. He also drank re'em blood by the gallon. The Soviets grafted like four different XXXXX creatures onto Arshavin, and then the Chinese turned around and did the same with Li. Shit, I lost to Keita because I was sloppy and got confunded by a fake notice from the governing body that I found in my locker room right before the duel."

"Wait! That's why you lost?" Harry yelled in indignation. "Doesn't that piss you off?"

Bella shrugged. "I was pissed off, pissed off with myself. I made a rookie mistake. There's an old joke among duelists, Harry. To be a good duelist, you have to be a better curse breaker."

Angelina snorted and Daphne and Lily giggled at that.

Bellatrix's eyes finally left Harry's to look at Angelina. "You don't seem that shocked."

Angelina frowned. "I guess it's the same everywhere. I went to a quidditch camp in the summer and found the same thing. Everyone was off their rocker on potions."

"Why'd you suddenly get caught then?" Daphne asked.

Bellatrix's expression filled with rage. "Snivellus, he's why I got caught. The bastard was supplying half the circuit with potions, but he started making them a bit too potent. Then, that idiot Rookwood went and died, probably from chugging three at once. The higher ups decided they had to crack down. Snape was facing an ICW trial, so of course the fucker starts ratting out anyone he can. I don't do potions, so he couldn't get me there, but he somehow knew about my ritual and he talked about that too."

"And then you received a secret suspension." Lily said, putting all the pieces together. Booking the dueling final on the same night as the Quidditch World Cup made a lot more sense if it was meant to be a punishment.

"Why'd only you get suspended?" Harry asked, trying to come to terms with all these unfortunate truths about the sport he loved so dearly.

"I wasn't the only one. Have you seen those Friday Night Dueling cards recently? Not many big names, are there? The issue was, everyone else got caught on potions, I got caught on a ritual, and no word is more terrifying for a ministry bureaucrat than that one. Plus, I'm the face of the entire sport. I got pinned with the long ban." Bellatrix couldn't help the bitterness that seeped into her voice. "And now, look at what they're doing. They're testing the waters with this tournament. I already heard through the grapevine that there’ll be an ‘open’ exhibition match at the next major tournament. It's a short hop from there to full on, no holds barred dueling.”

“Why would they lean into it? Especially after someone died?” Angelina asked.

Bella scoffed. “What matters most to them? Money. Dueling’s been getting the short end of the stick for decades now-” she swallowed bitterly at her own words. “We're shunted off to the back in all the sporting magazines. Our prize money pool has been stagnant for decades, and every day, it seems like more and more people are finding themselves more interested in seeing some berk whip around on a broom than seeing a proper fight. With this, they hope they can rope in all those idiotic brats with short attention spans.”

Harry let out a long breath. Everyone around him quieted down, waiting to see what Harry’s reaction would be once he processed all this.

He hated the fact that he wasn’t mad anymore, he really did, but that was the truth. Bella had finally been truthful with him, and as she talked, he realized that like Daphne had said, he’d been partially at fault for deifying all of these duelists, not just Bella, and placing them on a pedestal that was simply much too high.

He felt a pit in his stomach, knowing that the world he’d built up in his head had been a lie, but he also felt something else, a building excitement.

If what Bella said was true, and they would soon turn the dueling world into a free-for-all, well…

Magic was so varied, so unique, there were so many shapes and forms it could take. To think that he could prepare for any eventuality and still find himself coming up short. To think that absolutely anything could happen down in the dueling pit…

It was a very exciting prospect.

“I’m going to win this tournament.” Harry finally spoke up, his voice sounding firm and determined. “And we’re going to do that coven ritual in the winter, and I am going to be the best damn duelist the world has ever seen.”

The girls were all different shades of turned on by Harry’s statement, but none looked as determined to jump his bones as Bellatrix, who Harry was sure would have already broken through her bonds if it hadn’t been Lily that had conjured them.

Bella licked her lips as she stared at him intensely with those violet eyes. “There’s one problem with that, Harry. I’m still going to be around, and you’re nowhere near my level.” she said in a challenging tone.

Harry stared right back at her, with a look that made her nether regions tingle in excitement. “Not yet,” he corrected. "And I'm going to get up there fast."

Bella gave him a grin that showed all her teeth. "Can't wait to see you try."

"That's so hot." Angelina said in a breathy voice.

Daphne couldn’t help but agree. Seeing Harry be so assertive was doing things to her that she couldn’t begin to describe, and the looks Lily and Angelina were shooting at him weren't helping cool down those feelings at all.

It seemed everyone in the room was getting hot and bothered, and no one noticed the shift more clearly than Bellatrix. “So, now that we’ve had our little talk, can you get these ropes off me?” she struggled against her bonds once more to emphasize her point.

Before Lily could move to do just that, Harry put a hand up. “Hold on, we might have cleared the air, but I still have a lot of pent up anger, and I really need an outlet to let it all out.”

“Let it out?” Bellatrix asked with more than a little apprehension in her eyes. Lily grinned. “I did always tell you to work through things in a healthy manner,”

“How about we all put our heads together as a coven and work through our frustrations?” Angelina suggested

It seemed like as good a plan as any.