Umbridge v. Bane

 

Isn't more like, Umbridge VS Centaurs: Love across species....

 

Dumbledore vs Inferi horde from the HBP movie.

 

Fanon, but the best fight scene for me was Ecthelion3 - The Prisoners Cipher. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7309863/5/The-Prisoner-s-Cipher

The battle for Hogwarts is one of, if not the best I've ever read.

 

It was great at the time, but the absurdity of Molly killing Bellatrix or Harry Crucio-ing Carrow for spitting at McGonagall kind of ruins it in retrospect.

 

Sorry, not very clear, I meant Ecthelion3's battle for Hogwarts, memory 6 lol

 

Harry vs Peeves

"Peeves," he said, in hoarse whisper,"the Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible."

That was probably the smartest thing Harry ever did.

 

Harry crucio-ing Carrow was awesome. Instead of taking it as solely due to Carrow spitting on McGonagall, take it as the last straw that made Harry snap. Harry had already been furious at the Carrows for what they did to his friends, then Carrow contemplated sacrificing the kids for his fuck-ups. There was no question Amycus deserved it.

Best battle for me is a toss-up between the Final Battle and the DoM Battle. The Final Battle seems better paced, and with more awesome and emotional moments (Voldemort's ultimatum, Fred's Death, Harry walking to his death, Neville killing the snake). I didn't quite like Molly killing Bellatrix, not because I've anything against her going murderdeathkill over protecting her remaining family, but because Bellatrix had built up too much as an antagonist to be killed off just to give someone else a moment of awesome. It seems JKR went for show and shock value rather than logic in Bellatrix's and Voldemort's deaths. Harry talking down Voldemort was awesome and all, but the elder wand shenanigans were a bit too contrived (quite unlike Harry's walk to death and subsequent survival, which had been foreshadowed since book 4, and even before that.)

The DoM battle had Sirius's death, Harry's crucio and the Dumbledore-Voldemort duel, and all three were unprecedented levels of awesome. Still, the entire thing just doesn't have the same impressiveness of the Final Battle, and they were fighting over a prophecy that ultimately would have proven useless to Voldemort anyway. Much ado about nothing.

Best duel is undoubtedly Dumbledore/Voldemort. Nothing comes close, canon or fanfiction. Most fanfics make duels overly grandiose, and they don't really feel like Harry Potter duels.

Best in fanfiction would be the Moody-Gallowbraid duel in The Phoenix and the Serpent. The rivalry and hatred had been built up for almost 250k words, and it delivered in spades, Moody making excellent innovative use of his super trunk.

Best extended battle would be Teddy Lupin and the rest of Hogwarts vs the Goblins in Hogwarts Houses Divided. The defenders were overpowered right from the start, and it was up to the first year students (and a handful of older ones) to save the school. Harry makes an appearance towards the end.

Honorable mentions to the battles in The World I leave Behind and the Battle against Dementors in After the End. The first one had non-canon aspects of magic, but it had some awesome moments (Harry calling Merope out using the Resurrection stone to talk to Voldemort, Mr No-Name Granger being crushed to death under the rubble of his broken house and yet simultaneously trying to strangle Hermione to death, unable to fight Voldemort's imperius). The second was excellent from first to finish, and lived up to its amazing build-up and the almost insanely high expectations people had of the fanfic back then.

 

For Harry centric it's a toss up between the Basilisk in CoS and Harry & Co. vs Death Eaters at the ministry in the OotP. Both are awesome, and the ministry scene gave me faith Harry might amount to something more, before HBP dashed those hopes.

Non-centric the obvious choice is Dumbledore vs Voldemort, but I would say a close second would be Snape vs McGonagall.

 

Fawkes verses the basilisk in CoS was short but awesome.

 

Ooh, I forgot about this one from Silens Cursors' Renegade Cause - The whole sequence where Dumbledore confronts Voldemort in the heart of his stronghold disguised as an Italian Lord.

 

Harry cutting up Malfoy. I enjoy watching Tom Felton cry everytime I see than scene.

 

Huh. I actually agree with you. Although, you picked the wrong thread to comment.

 

Definitely Dumbledore vs Voldemort in the ministry tops the list for duels in the books, and the movies for that matter imo. It really showed what a magical fight should be like, powerful magic backed with trademark styles, not just shooting different colored lights at each other with random effects assigned to each.

The portrayal and 'feel' of magic as something more than random lights and effects is as important as any character or plot device in HP fanfiction and what sets a good/great story apart from the rest I think.

Blackhood

 

Fake Moody v Malfoy was hilarious.
It's funny how a professor can transfigure a student and abuse him, and it never gets brought up in the rest of the series.
What are the psychological effects of being transfigured into an animal and tossed around like some ragdoll?

 

Considering it was never mentioned again and Malfoy suffered no ill effects... nothing?

 

I would have to say Dumbledore vs the Infers, it's one of the few time we see Dumbledore flex is magical muscle, even while he was weaken.

 

The graveyard fight in GoF. It was atmospheric, intense, climactic, and dark. It was the first time in the series that the war felt real and actually dangerous, not just for Harry, but for the wizarding world. It signified a change in the Harry Potter world, because after that one battle, the stakes were higher and friendly casualties were taken. Plus the death of Cedric. We never got to know him well, but not many people expected him to get murdered, especially not in such a sudden, dark way.

 

It took me a moment to remember there was a Centaur Bane, because my first instinct was to think you were talking about Bane from Batman.

Admittedly, watching him break Umbridge would be highly entertaining. Or would the battle end with Bane writing "I must not break break the Batman"

 

If we're talking Fight Scenes, I'm going to have to go with Eilyfe's Magicks of The Arcane. Absolutely fantastic fight scenes, considering I actually read and enjoyed them. As opposed to quickly getting bored and skimming to the part where the plot advanced again.

Canon? Definitely Hermione vs Malfoy's nose. Her socking that smarmy little git in the face was and still is one of the best moments of the books IMHO.