After a few more duels with Hermione, Medea was completely exhausted and still hadn't beaten her opponent a single time. She had tried to come out of her defensive way to duel, she had tried using different spells, she had tried to surprise Hermione, she had tried everything she could think of. But it didn't work.

Instead, she had sore muscles and felt as if she couldn't move at all. She was sad and angry that she didn't even get close to beating Hermione. She was disappointed and had really no nerve for another hour of duelling others, getting beaten again and again.

Still, she couldn't leave her first session of the DA before it had even begun, so she braced herself up to stay and slapped on a smile as soon as the others entered. At first, many of them were unsure of what to do, as they hadn't seen her in the sessions before and all of them knew she was a Slytherin.

The Weasley twins entered soon, they carried a trunk on which something like Weasley's Wizard Wonders or anything stood. They kept advertising any kind of ill-making sweets and shot a tiny firecracker through the room.

Hermione explained everything, but many of the other students still didn't trust her. While Harry explained what they would be doing today (practising the stunning spell again), girls shot daggers at her and boys bumped into her on purpose.

"Okay, pair up in twos and practise the spell, I'll walk around and see where I can help," Harry said and everyone followed his orders. Soon, everybody in the room had a partner. Everybody, but Medea.

"Hey! Medea, right? You wanna pair with me?" a tall boy asked her, "I'm Dean. Thomas."

Medea sighed in relief, happy she found a partner. There had been so many times in school by now when they were told to pair up and she ended up alone.

Dean was a very nice partner. Even though he had been a part of the DA ever since it was founded, he was patient with her and her skill, that was, due to a lack of training, far below his level.

He kept explaining her things, waiting for her, he went easy on her in order to make her feel good. Her performance improved a lot during this hour with Dean, he gave her good advice and Harry as a teacher explained a lot she hadn't known before.

At the end of the session, they were told to do a duel with their current partner in order to improve their resilience under pressure and fasten their reflexes.

This was a thing scaring Medea again because her last duel didn't work out too well for her. When Harry announced it, she gazed nervously at Dean, afraid of getting shown her weakness again. But still, Dean had been nice throughout the session, Medea tried to calm herself down.

She breathed slowly, trying to get herself under control and getting her knees to stop trembling. She reminded herself of the many times she had duelled in Durmstrang when it always went pretty good.

She positioned herself after bowing to Dean and waited for the signal to start. One.

Harry counted. Medea intended not to be an opponent as easy as she had been with Hermione. Two.

The bushy-haired girl had told her what to do differently. Stay focused. Take the offensive. Outguess his moves. Be unpredictable. Three.

She shot an Expelliarmus. Medea's blood pumped fast, she could hear it in her ears. Dean blocked the spell with an impressive shield charm. He shot back, his Stupefy missed Medea, she had ducked in time. Instead, the burst of red light hit Parvati. But he didn't go back to the defensive then, they both shot an Expelliarmus and met at the middle. Their spells worked against each other for some time, emitting sparks when a plan worked out in Medea. She broke the contact and cast a powerful but still non-verbal Incarcerous to beat her opponent in a matter of seconds.

Dean, who hadn't known what spell to block, got hit right on the chest. The power of the spell made him fall over and he hit his head, falling backwards against one of the walls. Medea gasped, she didn't intend this.

She ran to him, her eyes wide open in surprise and fear. He lay on the floor, there was blood at the back of his head and the evoked ropes wound around him tighter and tighter.

At first, nobody else noticed the hurt boy and Medea sitting next to him. The others were crowded around Parvati who had been caught by surprise by Dean's Stunning charm. Apparently, she wasn't hurt that much though, because soon a lot of people hurried over to Dean until Hermione finally realized it too.

She came over, a concerned look on her face, she kneeled down next to Dean and cast some spells Medea had never heard of.

After some time, the blurry expression in Dean's face faded and he sat up slowly. Somebody had cast the countercurse for the ropes that had held his body in place just seconds before.

He groaned and held his head, there was blood shimmering at its back under the hair. Dean's knuckles were bruised and still, he didn't seem to feel it.

"Dean, I'm so, so sorry! I really didn't mean to...do this. I just...I was just swept up in the moment and cast the spell without thinking it could hurt you. I'm so sorry!" Medea apologized, her eyes filled with tears.

"No worries, it's all fine," the boy said though he still mustered his knuckles sceptically. Two other boys were helping him stand up then, Medea was sure that one of them was Seamus, a Gryffindor who was apparently friends with Dean, and a boy Medea didn't know.

They were upholding him and helped him to the doors, Hermione had suggested he should sleep for some time. Medea went with the boys, still feeling terrible.

Suddenly, she collapsed, a pain pumped in her head, so sharp it made her vision go blurry and she yelled.

The others all turned at once, all of them shocked, Medea was now laying on the ground, shaking in pain, gasping for breath and then and now yelling and groaning.

All of them hurried to her, concern standing in every single face.

"Oh my gosh!"

"By Merlin's beard!"

"What's happening to her?"

"Hermione, fast!"

The kids yelled through the room, Medea looked as if she was suffering torments. Hermione kneeled down next to Medea and cast a spell to make her stay still. Now she looked like a dead body. Hermione bend over her, desperately seeking for a wound, but she couldn't find a thing.

"Harry, there's no wound. - We need to get her to Madam Pomfrey!" she whispered urgently.

"But- we can't risk her finding out about this," he replied conflictedly.

"She's suffering and I don't know why we need to get her to the Hospital Wing!"

Harry bowed his head in surrender and turned to the other DA members and told them to leave, some of them wished him a 'Merry Christmas' since the holidays were to come, but not many had that positive attitude and the main part of the students left the room urgently, sending a few quick gazes to the in pain groaning girl.

"Go to your common rooms, you know nothing about anything like this, got it?" he instructed them. He then turned to Hermione and lift Medea up.

"Ron, how about a little help?" he asked and the red-head came running. The two of them went to the hospital wing, Hermione behind them, when they heard Filch around the next corner.

"Oh no, we need to get somewhere else!"

"But she needs to get to Madam Pomfrey!" Hermione answered a confused Ron. None of them knew what to do until Harry led them into a secret passageway. They sat Medea down against a wall, waiting for Filch to pass.

Then, Medea coughed and she opened her eyes. Slowly realizing where she was, she got up and hold her head.

"What? Where am I? - What the...? What has happened?"

"Medea! You alright?" Ron asked and his expression showed genuine concern.

"Medea! Oh thank god, I was so worried!" Hermione hurried over to the pale girl and hugged her tight. There was a moment of relief when the whole trio was happy their friend was alright. But it didn't last for long.

"Well, well, well. Who have we got here?" Filch's voice came from afar. He had entered the passageway.

***

I just want to say, thanks so much to all of you who are reading my book, every vote or comment, even just the reads number that tells me you exist, means a lot to me.

So, I would be happy if you voted or told me in a comment what you think about the story so far.

How do you think will they be punished? And how much worse will the pain in Medea's head become?

xoxo