Chapter 35.6- Doom Days

__ I twirled my wand as I apparated from platform to platform. I dodged away from a stunner by turning on the spot and sent one of my own at my opponent who also apparated to avoid it. I appeared behind the platform he’d chosen before he could even adapt and fired a stunner straight ahead. My spell hit nothing but air and I felt myself be slapped into consciousness.

“You could have just used a renervate”, I said with irritation beginning to mount.

“I could, but what would the fun have been in that?” Sirius asked, clearly having the time of his life. I shouldn’t have let him talk me into this silly contest.

“What’s the score now?” He asked next.

“You know what the sore is”

“Yes, but I want to hear you say it”

“Piss off, wanker” I pushed him off and rose to my feet.

“Is that a forfeit I smell coming?”

“Get up there let’s go again. I almost had you just now” I said, and he way he laughed grated at me. I turned on the spot and appeared on one of the platforms while keeping the next platform I was going to apparate to in my mind’s eye.

This time, I was going to play the long game. Sirius didn’t have as much magic as I did and we’d already done eleven rounds— of which he’d won every single one. So I was going to let hum exhaust himself this time by focusing on avoidance rather than trying to attack him as well.

When the charmed buzzer rang, I turned on the spot and appeared on the platform to the left. He turned in time, sending another stunner my way and I apparated to one close to the middle of the room.

The room we were in was the villa’s massive ballroom, but since neither of us were likely to be hosting a ball anytime soon, Sirius had taken up the passion project of putting his charms skills to good use. It wasn’t something I’d hear much about, but Sirius was to charms what James was to transfiguration. He’d been the one to cast most of the enchantments on the marauder’s map after all. He’d turned that skill and genius into designing a course for getting better at using apparation in duels. Most duelling tournaments did not allow use of the skill, but the world championship did, and that was what my Godfather had gotten it into his silly head to train for.

I apparated left, and then to a platform to the right, and then to a platform right beneath the one I’d been standing on. There were about sixty-four platforms each of them floating in place, at different heights and different positions in relation to the room. It meant that I had to be precise with where I wanted to go. In the beginning, I’d managed to apparate to space not covered by a platform a few times but that had thankfully stopped happening on the fifth round— I still hadn’t won a single one, but I was getting better.

I teleported upwards and to the left, before having to apparate a second later when I noted that I couldn’t see Sirius on the platform he’d chosen anymore. This time, I felt the stunner hit me from behind. It had less power in it than Sirius knew he’d need to overcome my resistance, and I whriled around to find him with his hands on his knees breathing heavily.

I wish I could say that honour and sportsmanship made me take the loss then and there rather than hitting the obviously exhausted man. That would have been a lie, though. The stunner I sent his way was so powerful that it sent him flying straight into the wall with a crack before his body fell to the cushioned floor.

It took two renervates to get him back to consciousness, and I was all smiles to see him blinking the grogginess away.

“That was definitely cheating”, he said.

“Sucks to suck, doesn’t it? But how the fuck were you doing that? Being able to tell where I’d be all the time” I asked. In that round where I hadn’t even tried to attack, it should have been impossible for him to get the drop on me, and yet he did. For him to do that, he had to have some way of telling where I’d teleport to next.

“Legilimency?” I tried. He snorted in reply.

“Divination” he said instead.