Exhibition is a Right: Chapter 22 Early Release (Patreon)

"Foul Family Magic"

It took Flitwick a matter of minutes to fully fix the duelling stage. During this time, Harry had cast his eye over the remaining students that were waiting their turn.

Only four remained. A small group, all things considered, but many students under fourth year felt they wouldn't be able to compete with their peers, so hadn't bothered. The Creevey brothers really showed their Gryffindor colours by still trying out.

Flitwick called over to Clair, and soon she stood at the end of the stage ready for the next competitor once more. Her Catsuit had been fully repaired of the damage Seamus had caused.

Gregory Goyle was next to climb the stage. Taller than most students their year, Goyle was certainly an imposing figure. Physically at least.

“I'm not sure if this Goyle is any different to the one I know…but I doubt he's any smarter” Harry mused, watching as Goyle's gaze seemed mostly fixed upon his opponents cleavage.

If Clair noticed, she didn't comment. “Begin!” called Flitwick, and immediately Goyle started flinging cutters in her direction.

Much like Bulstrode, Goyle seemed to favour power over finesse. Only about two out of three spells would have hit her, had she stayed stationary. As I wasn't standing still, she was able to dodge most and redirect the rest fairly effortlessly.

Despite this, he continued in this tactic. “Does he not know any other spells? Wait…” Harry noticed that Goyle was focused on hitting her torso, and rarely bothered to change his aim to get her head or legs.

“I know what you're trying to do, you know. Even if you hit me, my suit won't cut that easily, little boy. If you want to see my breasts that badly, I'm sure you can find a copy of my photo shoots.” Clair smirked. 

Goyle flushed in embarrassment, made worse when a few jeers and teasing laughs broke out through the audience. He made the mistake of looking out into the audience to scowl just as Flitwick called “five minutes!”

With a precise cutter of her own, Clair managed to slice clean through Goyle's belt. Without its help, his trousers drop to the floor to reveal his boxers to the world.

Goyle dropped his own wand in order to reach down desperately to pull them back up…but the damage was done. The hall had broken into peals of laughter, and Clair had already summoned his dropped wand.

“Aww…too bad.” Clair said with a smirk. Goyle huffed, retrieved his wand, and shuffled off the stage still holding his trousers up.

Up next, Su Li gracefully climbed the stage. She was the only student so far to have come to the tryout in an outfit other than the usual school uniform. Su had chosen to show her roots and was wearing a Cheongsam in Ravenclaw colours of deep blue with silver highlights. Harry was unsurprised to see that it was a very short example of one, barely reaching her upper thighs. Her hair was held up in an intricate knot with what looked like a needle pushed through.

Harry had very little interactions with the quiet girl, but he had to admit she was strikingly pretty. A fact Claire seemed to notice, based on the slightly jealous frown on her face as she eyed her up and down.

“Begin!”

Su Li surprised everyone by immediately sprinting towards Clair, not even visibly drawing a wand. Clair’s eyes widened. Unable to offensively cast until the five minute mark, she chose instead to point her wand to the floor and raise an earthen wall to about head height instead.

This barely slowed Su down, as she jumped, grabbed the top and flipped herself over the wall in an impressive display of acrobatics.

“Well, at least she's wearing something…” Harry thought with a chuckle as her move flashed her small white thong to the audience, her dress having flipped up from the movement.

As Su landed, she pressed her advantage and got right up into Clair's personal space. Rather than choose to cast anything, Si instead started to strike out at her using martial arts, mostly involving palm thrusts.

Clair did her best to dodge, but she was clearly more used to avoiding spells. After a few misses, Su managed to hit her clean on the chest, forcing Clair to tumble backwards with far more force than would have been expected from such a hit.

Clair rolled with the punch, before regaining her footing and rubbing the struck area. “Clever. Enchanted gloves?”

Now that they were pointed out, it was clear that Su was indeed wearing fingerless leather gloves, which were currently glowing softly.

Su simply nodded before moving to run towards her again. “Five minutes!” Clair smirked…before launching a barrage of spells her way. Su was forced to abandon her approach, dodging the spells as best she could but being pushed back gradually.

Clair then followed up with a wide and bright arc of magic. Eyes widening, Su reached up and pulled out her hair needle, revealing it to actually be her wand. She cast a “Protego” to defend…only for the colourful spell to curl around the shield and obscure her view.

When the spell finally dissipated, Clair was now the one to have closed the distance. With her wand pointing straight at Su’s chest, there was no avoiding the point blank stunner that took her out of the fight.

“Well…that was exciting. Didn't know Su was such a fighter.” Harry chuckled. Ginny looked up to him from his side.

“It's always the quiet ones, huh?” The pair laughed as Hermione sighed slightly. “I'm not surprised, the Chinese magical community often mixes traditional casting methods with martial arts, or so I've read.”

After Su had been enervated, she stood up and bowed towards Clair. Clair hesitated…before returning the gesture. “Good show, girl. It surprised me at first.” Su smiled slightly, before moving towards the edge of the stage, just as Theodore Nott was climbing up.

As Theo took his place, he looked at Clair with barely concealed disdain. Or maybe that was how he always looked, given the similar looks he had been shooting Ron while he had been waiting his turn.

“Ready? Begin!” Flitwick called. 

Theo didn't cast immediately. In fact, he continued to frown in Clair's direction. Clair raised her eyebrow, keeping her wand held loose to her side. “See something you like?”

Theo just blinked slowly. “No”. He then flicked his wand and summoned a long chain that snaked its way towards her. A chain that looked strangely familiar.

Clair barked out a laugh. “Trying to use my own spells against me? Tough luck, I know them better than you do.” She jabbed her wand towards the chain, which rapidly began to rust and break apart.

Theo scowled before levitating the rusty remains and banishing them in a similar way that Susan did in her match.

The shards were melted by a wall of fire that Clair cast. However, the moment she did so Theo cast a blast of air that caused the fire to detonate, similar to what Seamus had created. Clair was better able to avoid the blast this time however.

“He's just copying the ones that went before him…” Ginny grumbled, as they watched this back and forth.

“True…but that's pretty impressive that he knows which spells they even were…” Hermione mused as the group watched Theo attempt to freeze Clair's feet to the stage using the same spell Terry had earlier, though Clair simply melted the ice again.

This back and forth continued until the five minutes mark was called. “Impressive…but copy this!” Clair called out, before moving her wand in an intricate pattern, before several cord-like strands of light burst from her wand and flew towards Theo like gossamer in the wind. This then floated upwards, seemingly not targeting Theo at all.

As the cords hung there, Theo ignored them in favour of casting a bright “Lumos” in a flash, briefly stunning Clair as she was forced to close her eyes. He then followed this up with an intricate wand movement of his own.

One that made Alex, watching from the side with recently recovered vision, frown. “You better not be casting what I think you're casting…” he called out…but Theo simply continued.

With a snap, his wand finished moving and pointed directly at the still stunned Clair. “Nervus Scindet!” he shouted, as a deep purple bolt of light struck Clair in the arm.

With a scream of pain, Clair dropped her wand and grasped her arm, before falling to her knees. Just as Theo was beginning to smirk, the gossamer strands that were still floating in air forgotten reached the space above him…before dropping rapidly and binding him in a glowing cocoon of golden silk.

“Match!” Flitwick called, though he was striding towards Theo with a furious look upon his face. He may have been small, but the professor looked more than a little intimidating.

In almost the exact same moment, Alex was on the stage and kneeling next to a cursing Clair. “Can you feel your arm?” He asked her, to which she looked at him as if he was stupid.

“Yes, I bloody well can…what does it look like?” She seethed through gritted teeth. When Alex sighed in relief, she looked at him as if he'd just insulted her. Seeing her look, he shook his head. “If you weren't in pain…id be much more worried” he replied seriously.

Clair sniffed, still fighting back tears from the obvious pain. “What was that spell?”

“That…was as close to being a banned spell as you could've gotten. Something I suspect you knew, Mr Nott!” Flitwick answered, standing next to the still bound Theo. Due to the spell still covering all but his head, Theo was only able to look down to avoid eye contact. He was flushed with embarrassment, though whether it was due to the accusations or his predicament, it was hard to tell. 

Alex looked away from Clair to also look in Theo's direction. ““Nervus Scindet”...the nerve-rending curse. Designed specifically to detach and damage the nerves in your body. Permanently”

Clair's eyes widened in shock. The audience had gone deathly quiet, not wanting to miss what was said. “Wait…is my arm?” Alex shakes his head and smiles.

“That's why I'm happy it hurts. He must have cast it weakly, or poorly. If he hadn't…you wouldn't feel anything from your arm.”

Clair, visibly relieved, looks over. “Why isn't that spell on the banned list?”

Alex huffed. “Because it's rare…it's “family magic” of the Notts. The only person I've seen cast it is Theoden Nott, Theodore's father.”

Flitwick nodded. “Yet, had he cast it better? Or hit, say, your heart?” The inference was clear, and Clair clearly looked shaken. “Exactly. No, I think it's safe to say that you, Mr. Nott, are disquali…”

A short but sharp cough interrupted Flitwick from the side. Looking over, it had obviously come from one of the two duelling officials from the panel.

“Now now, Filius. We can't disqualify someone who hasn't actually broken any rules. That spell is not, after all, on any banned list” The man said with a suspiciously cheerful smile, given the circumstances. The man was fairly short, with thick round glasses, a receding hairline and a thick, bushy moustache.

Flitwick frowned. “True. But the rule regarding excessive force when using ANY spell is still very relevant, wouldn't you say, Boris?”

The now named Boris simply held his arm out wide. “And yet, by Alex's own admission, the boy clearly held back on the spell's power to avoid permanent damage, yes?”

Alex scowled, standing up and walking towards the edge where the official was. “That is nice what I said at all…” 

“Did you not say that, had he cast it at full strength, Miss Nightengales arm would be numb?”

“Yes, but…”

“Good! In that case” here, Boris flicked his own wand and released Theo from the gossamer he was still trapped within. “If you could vacate the stage, Mr. Nott, we are running out of time and still have one more try out to complete.”

Alex glared as Boris walked back towards the panel table. Sharing a clearly disgruntled look with Flitwick, he walked back towards Clair who was now standing by the edge of the stage.

As he did, he looked around before gesturing towards Colin Creevey. “You, camera lad. Think you could take my friend here to your matron at the medical wing? Tell her what spell it was that was used, she'll know what to do.”

Colin briefly looked torn about helping the lady that had been rude to his brother, but a nudge from an elbow and a nod of the head from Dennis had the pair stepping forwards to help.

Clair rolled her eyes. “I know the way to the hospital wing, Alex,” she said. Despite this, she accepted the offered hand down from Colin with her still working arm.

“I know, just making sure you're not too stubborn to go. I'd take you myself if I didn't have to do the last match…”

Clair huffed, but smiled slightly as she was led from the hall by the Creevey brothers.

Meanwhile, Flitwick had approached the now standing Theo. Before the Slytherin boy could move off the stage, he caught up to him. 

“Mr. Nott? Let me make one thing clear. I don't care what the duel officials decree, that spell was excessive. You will be having detention with me every Monday night for the next month. And if you cast that again, in or out of a duel, I will do everything in my power to expel you. Do you understand?”

Theo looked briefly like he was about to argue, but thought better of it. “Yes, professor.” 

Flitwick nodded. “Good. You are dismissed.” 

The boy nodded stiltedly, before climbing down off the stage. As he passed Ron, the only one still standing in the waiting area, he glanced at him…before smirking. Ron simply scowled back.

Harry, still watching the exchange from the seating area, slumped back into his chair. “I knew Theo was a bad egg…but I wasn't expecting him to be that bad.”

Ginny scowled at the balding official, now sat conversing with the other one. “How could he let that happen then give him a pass with a smile on his face?”

“Maybe he knows Theo’s father?” Fay asked, also frowning in his direction. 

“Honestly, that wouldn't surprise me. Still, there's only one more tryout left…” Hermione gestured to the waiting area.

Ron was now climbing the stage, ready to take his own turn.