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Now on with the next chapter!
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"Start!" The ref announced and they both burst into action.
Fleur instantly cast her version of Protego Maxima as soon as the duel started, shielding a barrage of stunners, cutting and disarming charms.
She knew that attacking the boy to fight for the initiative was a stupid move. Not only were his spells ridiculously strong and fast, he also cast them with a speed and accuracy she'd only ever seen in veteran Aurors.
For all her skill and experience, Fleur knew she would simply never be able to keeping up with his pace toe-to-toe. And attempting to do that would only risk her making a mistake and getting defeated by something as simple as a stunning spell.
So for now, she was content to be on the defensive. Normally this strategy would be stupid as well, considering how powerful his spells were as they had easily broken through his previous opponent's shields. But Fleur's version of Protego Maxima let her continuously supply her spell with her magic, maintaining it's solidity to weather the storm.
Another reason she hadn't started with an attack was due to how nimble and slippery the boy had been in his previous fights. He almost always dodged the enemy spells with perfection, having superhuman instincts. To successfully hit him, Fleur would either have to limit his movements...or destroy the entire area around him entirely.
For Fleur, Dueling was simple, because she understood the strategies. It was sort of like chess; You have to choose what move you are going to play for specific scenarios.
And to make it easier for herself, she divided spells into different sections. She named spells like Stupefy and Expelliarmus as bullet spells; these spells could only be used like those muggle-guns that simply shoot projectiles at each other and does nothing else. Then there were spells like Bombarda that she called splash spells, which affect a much larger area and could damage the surrounding.
Then came the Alteration spells that changed or manipulated their surroundings; like transfiguration and conjuration. These were also her personal favourite.
Her basic strategy was easy; dodge or shield bullets, apparate away from splash spells, and neutralize altering spells. Mistakes were expected of course; you can't always know if those bullet spells were too fast to dodge and you have to shield instead...but she was experienced enough to avoid most of these mistakes.
Dodging Potter's spells would've been incredibly risky, due to how fast they zoomed in, so she simply stuck to her shield, and the moment her opponent slowed down his shower of bullet spells, she started on her own attack.
Fleur loved fire, having a natural affinity for it. And thus most of her spells were motivated by it.
So when she fired off her own chain of spells, most of them involved a fiery element.
Her wand conjured a bunch of fiery arrows in an instant, each launching at a specific angle to tie up her opponent's movements.
She didn't take time to see how the boy dealt with them, already summoning some nearby pebbles, before enlargening them with engorio and igniting them with fire. The flaming pebbles soon joined her attack, and she took just a moment to glance at her opponent.
The boy hadn't even batted an eye as he nimbly slipped away from her arrows, while simultaneously forming a small basic Protego shield to block the flaming stones.
For some other Dueller, that would've been the end of it. While a necessary spell in any Wizard's repertoire, Protego didn't provide the amount of versatility and power needed to block multiple projectiles from different angles like hers.
But Harry Potter was different. Not only was his shield powerful enough to block her attacks, but he was somehow manipulating the shield's natural oval shape according to his wishes. Out of nowhere, the oval shield suddenly sprouted tiny little bluish tendrils that extended to swat away her pebbles as if they were some weak nuisance.
The sight was so bizarre and bewildering that for a second she just stopped her rapid succession of attacks and stared at the spectacle. The shield was rotating on it's own, and it's 5 long tentacles were batting away anything they came close to.
Never in her life had Fleur Delacour seen such bullshit.
To manipulate the shield charm to this extent, a wizard will need to have incredible knowledge of the spell, to the point where they find it comfortable to mess with the original spell structure and completely change it's basic properties.
She knew this because of her own success at spell modification. She had needed to study Protego Maxima for over a year, note down and understand the reasons behind it's wand movements and incantations, and then and only then, had she been ready to change the spell slightly.
After over 37 trials and errors, she'd successfully managed to add the infinite rune into the spell, which enabled her to keep a steady stream of magic going inside her shield. In effect, her shield shall stay stable for as long as she wanted, unless her magical reserves were exhausted or the force of the attack proves way too much for her magic.
To see such a young boy of 13 or 14 do the same, and to such a massive extent was... unbelievable. To do what he did, he'll need to have a master level knowledge in runes, Charms, Arithmancy, and spell creation.
Understandably, Fleur was baffled.
And as she saw the boy deal with her attacks as if a child's play, all of her self-given restrictions vanished. Her opponent deserved the best from her. And she was now completely willing to deliver.
She closed her eyes for just a moment, concentrating on her instinctual connection to fire. Then, with a swish of her wand a fiery tornado was conjured beside her the next moment.
With another flick, the wild tornado of fire came into heel and transformed into multiple small baby dragons, each taking flight towards her opponent and tracing beautiful fiery arcs along their path. It was stunning and breathtaking sight, and no doubt horrifying for her opponent, watching multiple mini fire dragons furiously bounding on a single target. They were 5 in total, and each burnt with powerful intensity.
It was a shame that, for all her skills with fire, conjuring a fully formed flame dragon was outside of her capabilities. Which was why she conjured lots of fire and used draconifers spell to transfigure them into the said beasts.
At this point in the fight, Fleur's heart sang to admit she was having fun. And she truly did want to simply let go of her doubts and responsibilities, and enjoy doing what she loved. But the fear of defeat, and it's consequences, were too much for her to indulge.
Harry had just finished dealing with her last conjurations when the dragons finally reached him.
The boy seemed unfazed though, as he swished forth his wand to meet the dragons. A massive bout of magic suddenly burst forth from his wand, and 3 out of 5 dragons were instantly dispersed in thin air. The other two were dissipated by a sphere of water that quenched their intensity, making them sputter and wink out of existence.
For the second time in their duel, Fleur was absolutely shocked by his move.
The spell he used wasn't all that advanced; just a simple vanishment charm. But the power and precision needed to vanish more than half of her dragons has to be...suffice to say, a lot.
And for the first time in a long long while, Fleur feared she might not be winning.
That was all but confirmed when the teen turned to her with a frown, and took over the attacking initiative once again.
This time, the boy seemed to have upped his own game.
Not in a thousand years would Fleur have thought that the reason Harry had been using basic spells was just because he was holding back. She'd simply assumed he put all of his hard work in perfecting the basics.
But then the Potter boy launched a fearsome spell-chain, and Fleur no longer had any room to wonder.
She darted away from the combination of trio; Stunning, Disarming, and cutting spell. Deflecting one of them by launching a conjured stone.
But she had to quickly disapparate entirely when she sensed the building of explosive power that her experience told meant one thing; Bombarda Maxima or one of its variants.
She appeared at another side with a crack, and the ground she'd just vacated was torn asunder the next second.
It was a good thing that the audience were seating in elevated floors, safely tucked behind protective wards...or else she had no doubt someone would've died by the massive explosion that ensued as Harry Potter finally unleashed his true power.
And even then, for some reason, she had the strangest feeling this wasn't his all.
Which was just stupid, cause she was willing to bet the boy was already a Lvl 5 dueller, at the level of experienced Aurors. Only one of them could hope to so easily dominate in a duel against Fleur.
He wasn't done yet though. Fleur's Protege Maxima materialised in front of her, blocking a rapid fire of full-body binds, leg-lockers, and Jelly-leg curses. All of them were taught to 1st or 2nd class in Beauxbatons, but Harry's spells curved in mid-air, keeping her extra cautious, while his massive power took out chunks of her magic reserves as her shield worked overtime to stop from outright shattering under the pressure.
The boy slowed down once again, preparing something different, and she let her shield dissipate to hopefully turn the tide around.
She managed to dodge a few of his distraction spells but realised too late that he'd slipped in transfigurations amongst them. The land behind her suddenly turned into two...jaws?
Unfortunately the boy once again started his fast paced assault of bullet spells and she couldn't do anything but to hide behind her shield, while trying to keep the jaws at bay.
She created a whip of fire, letting it strike one of the traps even as she maintained her shield. The other trap however, extended out suddenly to clamped down on her leg
An involuntary scream leapt out of her throat as sizzling hot pain burst forth from her ankle. Her shield flickered with her distraction, and Harry Potter successfully managed to break through her defense with a simple but powerful Reducto.
The last thing she saw was a stray red stunner speeding towards her face.
And then her world was plunged in darkness.
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Jacob Potter was having a very bad day.
He'd been so confident in his victory today, bragging to all of his friends and relatives on how he'll be winning this year's European championship. Now he was feeling like an absolute fool.
What would Dora think of him? Oh she'll be soo disappointed... Or maybe she already expected this, but let him mald in his delusions cause she thought it was funny?
Yes, he could see his cousin doing something like that. Pretend to be excited for his win, but laugh at his stupidity from behind.
Cause it was now clear to him, he was never anywhere close to winning the tournament. Hell, he hadn't even managed to come in top 16!
Out of 256 participants, almost 150 of them were Lvl 3, the same level as him! He may be strong for his level, but there was no way he was competing with someone even higher.
And hadn't that come as a shock, his own sister was higher leveled than him! Hell, she could probably match Cedric toe-to-toe.
He'd once thought Cedric was the most skilled Dueller of this generation...how stupid of him. This tournament had opened his eyes. There were duellers here that even Cedric couldn't hope to win against. Especially that French beauty, Fleur Delacour.
Just thinking of her made Jake's heart beat wildly in his chest, doing cartwheels all over the place. Fleur was the most stunningly beautiful girl he'd ever seen in his life. Compared to Daphne, Cho, and Angelina, she was like a goddess between mortals.
Just a single glance at her made him flush up in heat, and he had to actively fight the urge to leap down to the Dueling stage right this moment and kneel down to propose her.
Cho...who was Cho? This french goddess was the lady of his dreams.
Unfortunately, there was just one...small...hurdle in this.
And that hurdle was currently crouching down next to the French Goddess, having just defeated her.
Jake had been trying really hard to not think about Harry, but it was a losing cause. His twin seemed to have developed a habit of being in the centre of everything this year.
"Did you know he was that powerful!?" Dorea whispered excitedly from the side, and he couldn't help but grimace.
Harry had absolutely bamboozled him to the core today. Gone was the awkward, stumbling boy from the last 3 years, and in his place stood this...imposter. And this imposter was better than Jake in every single way.
He was stronger, powerful, more skilled, better Dueller, charming, and bloody freaking handsome. He was everything Jake had ever envied in Cedric, and more.
"There's no way that's Harry." He finally declared, unable to stay quiet as his elder sister gushed about him. "I know Harry, he couldn't even duel a troll to save his life."
He felt a stinging slap impacting on the back of his head and he turned to his mother with a scowl. "What!?"
"Don't talk about your brother like that, Jacob James Potter!" Lily said with a stern gaze, and Jake gulped quietly, glancing at his dad for protection.
"Leave me out of this." The man said with a wide grin, his eyes stuck to Harry and Fleur.
"I think Harry's making his move!" His dad whispered excitedly. "That's my son!"
Jacob whipped his head around, and sure enough Harry was helping the beautiful goddess to her feet, a tiny little smirk on his face as he said something to her. And the girl...she was giving him a shy and uncertain smile, though looking pretty nervous when she glanced at the cheering crowd.
'Bloody freakin' bullocks!' Jacob raged in his mind when he saw his twin still clutching the girl's hand. 'Leave her alone you prick! Isn't Aunt Bella enough for you!?'
"Mum, do you know how he is so fast?" Dorea asked from the side. "He moved so fluidly, almost like water."
"Probably used some potion." Jacob muttered with a grimace.
How exactly did his brother get so good really? It had to be potions!
"No, you stupid dum dum." His sister snorted. "We went through a full examination to check for these kind of stuff. I doubt Harry could fool the experts."
Well...that was true. Unless...
Jacob knew his brother's biggest secret. He normally wouldn't even think this, but maybe...just maybe ...Harry was using p
Parseltongue to cheat through the system?
But in that case, he was just making use of his own skills. Jacob wasn't so jealous that he would actually blame him for using his gifts.
But it burnt a bloody hole in his arse to see his brother leaving him so far behind.
"Well, I suppose I can give you an answer." Lily said, smiling proudly as she stared at Harry, who was now approaching the announcement dias alongside the current girl of Jake's dreams.
Jacob tore his eyes away from the duo, not wanting to witness more of this nightmare. Instead, he payed absolute attention to his mother, hoping to hear Harry's secret. Maybe he can improve as well...
"Let's just say that something bad happened with him and our...relatives." Lily grimaced, a flash of anger burning in her eyes that made Jake shiver. "Harry has been living with Bella and doing everything he can to improve. And the results are clear to see."
Ah, so that's the secret! Of course...if Aunt Bella, the greatest duelist of all time, was training him, then no wonder he grew so fast.
Oh if only Jacob could get some one-on-one sessions with the dark-haired beauty... though he doubted he'd improve as much. His attention would just be on something else all the time. On something lower than her face.
'Wait...did mother say Harry was living with Bella?'
That lucky git! Why? Oh why must merlin make him suffer so much? Here Jake was, fapping to a jaded and torn up image of a bikini-clad Cho. Then there was Harry, living all alone with Bella! And now stealing the french beauty away!
Why!? Why can't something this good happen to Jake!?
'Dont be jealous, don't be jealous, Don't be jealous.' He repeated the mantra in his mind, heaving deep breaths in.
He was more mature now. Yes, he was. And jealousy wasn't mature.
...But seriously, why can't he be this lucky!?
Unfortunately, that question will likely not be answered anytime soon. And as Harry was declared winner of the tournament, winning 750 more galleons in his pocket, Jake realised today was just the beginning.
Oh lord, Jake had another 4 years to pass with Harry!
That bastard...he better not steal Cho as well...
Oh who was he kidding...the charming git will probably be banging professor Sinistra by the end of this year...
Lucky dickhead.
'Don't be jealous, Don't be jealous, Don't be jealous...' It was a losing cause though, especially when Harry heaved his trophy up to the clapping of the crowd.
Jacob sighed, rubbing his head tiredly. He needed to go and take a big nap. Maybe the nightmare will end in his sleep.
...Hopefully. He wasn't holding his breath though.