Harry Potter And The Betrayal

"Lord Ravenclaw, why are you so willing to duel a woman who is nowhere near your equal? You do realise it makes you look like a bully." Dumbledore pointed out once they were in his office.

"I am not the one who offered the challenge to a duel." Dantes reminded him. "I am not the one who wanted to be magically bound appear and fight. Molly Weasley was the one who issued the challenge and magically bound us both to this duel. She either will have to see it through or if she does withdraw or fail to show up, then she will forfeit her honour."

"But we are not talking about a magically binding contract." Dumbledore persisted. "You do not have to duel Mrs. Weasley."

"Actually we are. A challenge to a duel that is made with every intention of it being carried out by the offering party and accepted by the party it was offered to is in fact every bit as binding as the contracts for the Triwizard Tournament, except in this case instead of a person's magic being lost, it's their honour that is." Dantes pulled out his watch and looked at it. "And Molly Weasley has thirty minutes to appear or forfeit the duel and her precious honour."

"But Molly wasn't thinking clearly when she made that challenge. You had just insulted her daughter and her families honour." Dumbles reminded him.

Dantes looked him straight in the eye, "If you want this duel stopped, you are talking to the wrong person. You need to be talking with Mrs. Weasley. I don't know why you are in such a hurry to stop it. No one is going to get hurt. It is simply a paintball duel."

"But it may not stay that way." Dumbledore reminded him.

"It will on my part, unless Mrs. Weasley chooses to sacrifice her honour to win the duel." Dantes countered.

As Dumbledore made a firecall to the Weasley's home, Dantes walked over to the phoenix perch and whispered, "Hello Fawkes."

Fawkes stared into the hazel eyes for a moment and then took a quick look at his bonded before stretching out his head and rubbing it against the man's hand.

"You like me now," Dantes commented in a very low voice, "but will you like me at the end of the year when I give the old fool what he richly deserves?"

Fawkes gave him a reproachful look.

"Oh don't worry, he's not going to be dead, but he's not going to be too happy either." Dantes warned him. "He is going to pay for all the crimes he's committed in his quest for the so-called Greater Good."

Fawkes gave him a soulful look, but Dantes shook his head. "Not even you can change my mind, Fawkes. He has been meddling too long and destroyed too many lives. It ends now, before he can cause more harm. Now I have a question for you. Why do you stay with him, Fawkes? You know he is no longer Light, so why stay."

Fawkes whistled a mournful note.

"So you care about the meddling old coot," Dantes concluded, "and you think you can turn him back toward the Light?"

Fawkes nodded.

"Hate to tell you this, Fawkes, but I think it's too late for him." Dantes told the phoenix softly. "All you are doing with your presence at his side is fooling people into thinking he's still on the side of Light. They don't realise he is Grey and a Dark Grey at that. If he'd done half the things he's done to me to Neville or say even Malfoy someone would be screaming their bloody heads off, if not burning him at the stake, but because I have no one to speak up for me, he gets away with everything he's ever done to me, because you are still here. You may not want to believe me, but just think about it."

Dumbledore pulled his head out of the fire and looked around for Dantes only to seeing him standing near Fawkes petting the phoenix. Dumbledore was glad to see that, it meant that the man was a good person. He'd always found Fawkes to be an excellent judge of character.

"Molly is on her way." Dumbledore announced, getting to his feet.

"So you couldn't convince her to call off the duel either." Dantes concluded.

"Regrettably no," Dumbledore told him. "She has get hold of Arthur since he is her second, but they should be here in time. Since I am not able to change either of your minds there is another matter I would like to discuss with you that concerns Hogwarts itself."

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