Tom was setting the common room up for the duel and also to make it look like a court, the older students sat in their seats this was optional for 2nd year up, for the 1st years it let them test their skills once everyone was in Tom cleared his throat the students looked. "Welcome everyone to our annual Slytherin house tournament, this tournament is set up like a royal court the highest rank is the King and Queen, then the Prince and Princess, Duke Duchess, Marquis Marquise, Count Countess, Viscount Viscountess, Earl Countess, Baron Baroness, Lord Lady and knights now each rank has a male and female role, now from Barron and baroness up it is one per role, but lords ladies and knights there are many of them, so even if you don't get an official title you will be a lord or lady of the court, the King and Queen lead Slytherin if they can't it's the Prince and Princess, those four roles hold the most power in Slytherin"

The first years listened "professor how do we get a title then?" a girl asked "well it's simple, you are going to duel each member one by one going up the ranks, if you beat someone you take the title so let's say you beat a lord or lady, you become that and can move onto the next level which would be an earl or countess, and it keeps going if you are defeated you have the title of the person you beat, but you also have the choice to not duel them also professor Flitwick will be the judge, he is a world dulling champion, to make it fair you have the choice of swords, wands or hand to hand" 'if this was a muggle school and some heard this, they'd think of a card game or video game' Draco thought, knowing some of his friends like Pokémon and yu-gi-ho and other games would ask to duel with that.

Flitwick said "that's as professor Riddle said, and it makes it so I can make a fair judgement on this" everyone sat down. "Now any questions?" "Professor, how are the roles of knights decided? and is it just say boys can become them or both?" Theo asked "well that is actually a role assigned by the top four, the Prince, Princess, King and Queen you see there the ones they pick to act as a protector, the person assigned that could be an Earl or Duchess, they have the right to accept or refuse and if they accept, they then duel anyone wanting to try to take the role if they are defeated the person gets that role or if no one can, they then hand pick the person" the first years understood this. "Each house has its own little traditions, this is Slytherins for Ravenclaw its more academic, and so on but since Slytherin is a house steeped in tradition, they like to keep this one that Salazar Slytherin founded, it's changed to fit with the times"

Tom nodded and said "exactly, now one at a time I'll call you up, and you'll fight up the list one by one, it will be drawn at random" he pulled a name out of the hat for a first-year and an older student.

"So, what are you guys hoping for?" Blaise asked "I think for me an earl, it's not too high ranking and not low and we can climb up each year," Theo said. Draco nodded and said "yeah, I mean where first years we know a few simple spells from family or reading, but everyone else they know a lot more, if we use weapons, they could have had more training same with hand to hand" they watched it. A few first years got to Barron or earl, but then had to duel each other to keep the rank "next is Blaise Zabini!" Tom called out. Blaise went over "now hand to hand, weapon or wand?" Flitwick asked. Blaise thought and said "sword, I'm at a disadvantage with a wand" Flitwick nodded Tom brought a sword over and said "pick" there was a normal sword, and a fencing sword. Blaise picked the fencing sword "the sword is spelled to make a red dot appear on the person, when you get a point, it will be the first to 3 points" he nodded.

"Ok who can fence please come up" a 4th-year girl came up, she said "best of luck" Blaise nodded "you as well" it was a tough fight, but he managed to get 3 points, so he went up to earl. He was happy with that "do you want to try for viscount?" Tom asked him Blaise shook his head "no, I'm happy with that" Tom nodded "next is Theadore Knott!" Theo went up and chose to do his wand "to make it fair first year spells only, it shows how you can impressive" Tom told the ones challenging Theo, it was always done for first-years to make it fair, but when they had the end of year one it was any spells. Theo, unfortunately, lost the battle and was a lord "you did good" Draco told him. Sumire nodded "thanks, maybe next year," he said the group nodded. "Sumire Snape!" Tom called out she went up "how will you duel?" "a weapon and I pick katana" Tom nodded, bringing it over Draco watched this as did the others.

"it's the best of 3 matches," Flitwick told them Sumire nodded and she was soon fighting them, she had some close calls but easily passed some she soon came to the princess. Fred said "you know it's rare for a firstie to get a royal title" George nodded "a Knut she wins" Sumire and the girl who held the princess rank fought; it was down to the last match. Everyone holding their breath Tom was surprised a first-year had gotten this far, in a long-time last time was when he was at the school when he took the prince slot, the match was a blink and you'd have missed moment, a katana was sent flying and landed on the ground with the 5th year girl in front of Sumire holding the katana at her neck. "Winner!" Flitwick pointed to the 5th year, the girl helped Sumire up and said "you did great, maybe next year" she nodded. Everyone clapped so Sumire now had the Duchess rank within Slytherin, the 6th year who was the Duchess said "you did well Snape if you have any questions let me know" "I will and thank you" Sumire told her.

"Ok last one is Draco Malfoy!" everyone went quiet, he was the last one to fight he went up. "Now how will you fight?" Tom asked Draco thought about it for a moment. He remembered one of his uncles telling him about how in a duel if you lose your wand you need to be ready to fight and most wizards relied too much on that, and forget they can fifth with a weapon or their hands, so they'd made Draco take defence classes in different styles, as much as his aunt didn't like the idea, she understood that he needed to. 'Which one would be most effective, if I use karate, it's not useful with judo I can use their size against them, and if I do kick-boxing or MMA id likely lose so judo' Draco thought to himself. He would have to thank his uncles for making him take these different classes.

"I'll fight hand to hand, with judo," Draco told Tom, some didn't know what that was luckily Flitwick explained, and Draco gave a quick lesson soon it started he was able to breeze through the first 5 fights up to count, but like Sumire, the challenge came in the next rank duke. Blaise had been wise enough to forfeit the match to not fight Draco, those who didn't know about judo did to the one who held the duke rank was a 6th year "so you know, my cousin taught me over the summer, there a teacher part-time" they told Draco 'Oh crap!' Draco thought it was best 2 out of 3 and like Sumire's match, it came down to the last match to decide the winner, the ground had a cushioning spell to make it soft Tom and Flitwick could see Draco thought carefully about the choice of duel. "He has a smart head," Flitwick told Tom who nodded. "Yes, he doses I could see he was weighing up the options with spells it's limited to what they learn or have read, with weapons its if they have been trained but with hand to hand it seems his family has had him take lessons, and in the magic world we at times rely too much on magic, he at least has a way to fight back if he has no wand or a weapon" Flitwick nodded agreeing with him.

Soon Draco was pinned, Flitwick said "winner!" pointed to the one pinning Draco, he was helped up the 6th year said "you did well" Draco nodded he just got unlucky but got the count rank but he was now aiming for prince or king. He was going to become one of them by the time he graduated he sat down Flitwick left. "Now we have our new rankings, the next tournament will be before we finish school for the summer as the 7th years will graduate, and we need to fill certain roles by then and you will all have learnt more spells and such now for anyone interest in duelling, professor Flitwick has an after-school club for it also it is a lesson you'll learn as of next year" Tom informed them. After they could go to bed from the first years Sumire and Draco held the highest-ranking positions. All the older students could see the group had potential, especially Draco and Sumire, it had been a while since a 1st year got a high-ranking position in the court, usually at most it was either a Barron and Baroness or Earl and Countess rank.

I had seen this done in other fanfics and it seemed like a great idea so I wanted to use it for my fanfic