Chapter 8: Dueling and end of summer
Chapter 8
AN: Welcome to another Chapter guys! As always, let me know what you think and if you have any feedback for me!
Enjoy!
The recognizable sections belong to JKR
July 31st, 1992
Harry woke up later than usual on his birthday. The Flamels allowed him to sleep in a bit since Harry literally got his ass kicked in last night's dueling practice. Sure, he had improved quite a lot within the last month at the Flamels', but it would still take a couple of years before Nick would even take him seriously. Nevertheless, Harry was grateful for the lessons.
His time with the Flamels has been the most enjoyable summer he had spent so far. Even better than spending summer on his own in Diagon Alley, as he did last year. Nick and Penny were incredibly kind-hearted people and loved to share their wisdom whenever Harry asked.
Harry quickly started treating them perhaps not as a fatherly or motherly figure, but definitely like a mix between aunt/grandma and uncle/grandpa. Today for his Birthday the couple had a surprise planned for him.
Harry took a shower put on some of his nicer robes and made his way downstairs. The Flamels and house-elves were already present in the kitchen and greeted Harry with a loud Happy-Birthday, followed up by a choir of the elves singing him a birthday song and some bone-breaking hugs from Nick and Penny. Those two were definitely stronger than they looked.
"What, what do you have planned as a surprise for me?" Harry asked while helping himself to some warm croissants.
"Today we will take you Paris, or specifically to the quarter-finals of the French Dueling Championship. We will be leaving in about 30 minutes, so you better eat quickly and get ready afterward."
Now that was a surprise… Ever since Harry let it slip, that he would love to see some professional dueling at some point, Nick and Penny had a smug look on their face, whenever Harry would talk about the topic again. This must have been the reason for it. Quickly finishing his breakfast and a piece of cake, he raced back upstairs to get ready for the day.
Penny apparated to the Dueling-Arena while Nick side-longed Harry. The feeling was even worse than using a Portkey, but Nick promised one would get used to it and it would be more enjoyable when apparating on your own.
The arena looked like a muggle football stadium. Four dueling pits sat next to one another. Currently, there was only some practice taking place. It was 10.30 and the event would start at 11:00 am. So, Harry followed Nick and Penny around as they talked to various famous people in the French wizarding society.
This was another lesson they had planned for Harry, and he thought that he did quite well given the circumstances. He politely greeted the men he was introduced to, by firmly shaking their hands and holding eye contact.
The women and girls he greeted by bracing their knuckles with a slight kiss, earning him some serious blushing from a couple of girls his age and slightly older.
Finally, they took their respective seats and waited for the first duel to start. After his month of intensive practice of the French language, Harry was able to pick up most of what's going on around him. Still, Nick and Penny had to help him out quite a lot.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 1982 French Dueling Championship!" The announcer roared, much to the appreciation of the crowd.
"We have seen some fiery dueling over the last week, however now each competitor will have to step up their game for the beginning of the quarter-finals!"
"From now on, we continue via straight K.O. That means if you lose you are out of the tournament! Please welcome our competitors for the first match!"
"On platform one, Gustave Auch will face Dominique Alarie!"
The crowd cheered significantly louder at the second name. Obviously, Alarie was their favorite. Harry knew neither of the opponents, but they seemed evenly matched. Both were quite young, maybe around 25, and looked agile and athletic.
"You know the rules, ladies and gentlemen… No Unforgivables! The duel ends as soon as one of the opponents is unable to continue or finds himself captivated. Please take your position. On my sign: BEGIN!"
Harry watched as both opponents took their stands. He recognized them from his book about dueling by Dolohov. Auch favors a more aggressive stance, ready to strike as soon as the signal was announced. Alarie currently stood a bit more defensively, moving the majority of his weight to his rear leg, knees slightly bent.
The duel began and Auch instantly opened with a disarming charm followed up by a stunner. Alarie flicked the disarming charm to his left while dodging the stunner and returned fire with his own spells.
He was fast, Harry noticed, much faster than him and also significantly faster than his opponent. Alarie chained his spells, meaning that he uses a certain pattern of spells that allowed him to continue the wand movement in the same direction as the previous spell.
So far, both opponents simply used spells and hexes, but Auch switched it up by conjuring some water and banishing it at Alarie. Alarie froze the water mid-air, transfigured it into ice spikes of the same size, and with a flick of his wrist they zoomed towards Auch, who quickly conjured a bright silver shield. The spikes shattered at Auch's shield, but a couple of the splinters connected with his legs, cutting through his trousers.
Drawing first blood, Alarie went on the offense, continuously blasting spell after spell against Auch's shields, which quickly became weaker and weaker. Auch got desperate and send a couple of bone breakers at Alarie's head and chest.
Alarie was forced to interrupt his spell chain and dodge the incoming lethal curses. He returned fire with a blood-boiling hex and a bone breaker of his own which caught Auch's wand arm as he cried out in pain.
Auch switched his wand to his weaker left hand and managed to dodge the first stunner coming his way. The "Leg locker" however caught him and he fell over after an additional "Petrificus Total".
"The winner after an intense two minutes and thirty seconds is Dominique Alarie!"
The crowds' cheering roared through the stadium. Alarie canceled his spells on Auch, as the healers quickly approached the beaten opponent. With a polite bow to all four sides of the stadium, Alarie descended the dueling platform and made his way to his team and sponsor.
"That was fantastic! Did you guys see how easily Alarie batted away the incoming spell! And the way he chained his own spell-work, it was so much faster than mine. How do I learn to duel like that?"
"After long years of practice, Harry!" Nick chuckled. "Come on, let's watch the second quarter-final."
Harry returned his focus to platform two, where Anastasie Besnard started dueling Jeanne Garnier. Both witches instantly went on the offense and started trading blows. The spell work was a lot more lethal, ranging from bone breakers and conjured knives to more powerful fire conjurations.
Suddenly Besnard stopped returning fire and instead dodged incoming spells. It was fascinating to watch, no matter what her opponent threw at her, Besnard simply dodged it. Dropping to the ground, jumping through the air, and rolling to the side. She was very acrobatic and obviously had a lot of practice.
"Why is she not returning fire?" Harry asked Nick.
"She is conserving energy, Harry. Watch as her opponent's spells lose power and became weaker. Besnard might be physically tired soon, but magically she is still fresh and will unleash her build-up energy."
It came just as Nick predicted. Garnier took a break from her continuous spell-casting, panting heavily and catching her breath. Besnard started conjuring a large bubble of water around her fusing them into a watery wall in front of her. With quick jabs of her wand against the wall. Section of it started forming into icey-frisbees, which then flew towards her opponent.
Garnier barely had enough energy to cast a shield for the first one. Her shield was so weak, that it crumbled after the frisbee connected and she was forced to dodge the second and third incoming ice conjuration. The third one painfully connected with her shoulder and she cried out.
It looked like her shoulder had popped out of its socket. The last frisbee caught her in the chest, knocking her back and making her almost fall from the platform. The referee interfered and Besnard was declared the winner, leaving the platform to thunderous applause.
The third and fourth duels were equally as exciting. Harry witnessed tactics and spell-work he had never seen before at Hogwarts. The fourth match for example ended after one of the competitors conjured a giant golem out of fire, animated it with some charms, and watched as his creation chased his opponent from the platform to the amusement of the entire stadium.
Harry took notes on all the matches and any spells that he was unfamiliar with and vowed to look them up later in the library of the Flamels. He couldn't wait to incorporate a couple of the spells he saw the duelers perform, in his own repertoire.
The Flamels and Harry walked to the apparition point to get back home surrounded by other visitors and excited fans. Just as Nick grabbed Harry's hand and they twisted away in a whirlwind of colors; Harry could have sworn he saw some very familiar, long, silvery blonde hair.
15th August 1992.
Two more weeks had passed since the Flamels took Harry to the dueling championship. Two weeks of studying, exercises, and practice, but Harry was happy. In fact, he was enjoying his stay with the Flamels so much that an inner conflict about his return to England and even Hogwarts started in his mind.
He was positive that he could learn so much more by staying with the older couple, however, Nick and Penny wouldn't hear any of it. Their goal had been to lay the foundation in a couple of subjects so that Harry had no problem continuing to study them on his own after he returned back to Hogwarts.
Harry had advanced in all of his studies. He was now almost able to replicate Penny's achievement of feeling the color-switching spell on feathers without looking. On his last attempt, he correctly identified six out of the eight different colors.
His mind shields were stronger than ever and he noticed the benefit of his Occlumency practices for other areas of life. First of all, he was able to remember his teachings much easier than before. It almost felt like the effects of a photographic memory, since he stored all the information in his mind palace which had grown from a small house to a manor, rivaling the villa of the Flamels. Second of all his organized mind needed way less sleep. Everyday he felt fully rested with six to seven hours of sleep.
His studies with Nick had also come along nicely. Harry was much more connected to his magical core and could now put quite a lot of power behind his spells. His Reducto penetrated a four-inch wooden block and sent splinters all over the training room in the basement.
He still had some difficulties with intent-based magic, but Nick assured him that this was very natural for someone so young, even a child as bright as Harry.
Harry had now also noticed the effects of his physical workouts during his dueling sessions with Nick. He didn't tire out as easily and managed to uphold the exchange of spells for almost five minutes, a huge achievement according to Nick.
Today, Nick and Penny would travel to the French Ministry for a meeting of international Alchemists. Harry decided to do some reading in the library. Remembering his own research about the Peverell family, Harry looked for a book on old pureblood families in magical Britain. Harry was sure that this was something Nick and Penny could have easily helped him with. However, he wanted to finish this project on his own. He was also slightly scared that the Flamels might get curious about his sudden interest in the Peverells. Maybe they already knew about the connection between the old family and the Hallows.
Harry did not want to risk anyone finding out about his cloak or his search for the hallows. In a shelf all the way in the back of the library he finally found an interesting title:
"Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy"
To his disappointment, he only found the families Parkinson, Potter, and Prewitt under the letter P in the glossary. However, he was still interested in his own family, so he started reading the section about the potters anyways.
"The wizarding family of Potters descends from the twelfth-century wizard Linfred of Stinchcombe, a locally well-beloved and eccentric man, whose nickname, 'the Potterer', became corrupted in time to 'Potter'."
That's pretty interesting, He knew his family was old. But he had no idea it was that old… He continued reading.
Hardwin Potter, Linfred's eldest son, married a beautiful young witch from the village of Godric's Hollow who went by the name of Iolanthe Peverell, the granddaughter of Ignotus Peverell.
Harry almost spilled his pumpkin juice all over the old book. This was it. This was exactly what he was looking for and pretty much undeniable proof. He was a descendent of Ignotus Peverell, who must have been the third brother. This meant that his invisibility cloak was almost certain to be the third Hallow.
It also meant that the two other Hallows must have been real... but where are they now? Both could be quite useful to Harry. The stone could be used to finally get some closure and say goodbye to his parents. The wand, however, would be his best chance at beating Voldemort in the future.
It is not like he was unhappy with his own wand. It was perfectly fine, maybe even just as powerful as Ollivander claimed. Harry did not really have anything to compare it with. But the Elder Wand might just be a whole different level if one was to believe what Grogorovitch wrote about it all those decades ago.
Could the old wandmaker still have it? Did he succeed and managed to replicate the Elder Wand's features? Harry wondered if he should ask Ollivander about it when he met him in Diagon Alley next week. However, could he trust Ollivander not to betray him and go running to Dumbledore?
How would he explain that he even knew about the famous wand and the Hallows all together? What if Ollivander already knew about his connection to Ignotus Peverell and started asking Harry questions about the cloak.
Undoubtedly, this was how Dumbledore established the connection between his father's Cloak, the name Potter and the third Hallow in the first place… No, he had to be careful on his hunt for the Hallows and he wouldn't trust anyone with his finding yet.
He continued the chapter he started about the Potter family and went to bed afterward. He had a long week ahead of him. His last week with the Flamels as he sadly remembered.
Harry's last week was definitely the most exhausting one yet so far. The Flamels changed his routine and had him wake up at six am in the mornings to complete his physical workouts. That way Harry could continue his "Tradition" as they called it, at Hogwarts.
The content of his lessons with Nick and Penny also became immensely difficult for him. Especially Nick pushed him harder than ever, arguing that if he truly wanted to be the best, he'll have to work harder for it.
Harry reluctantly agreed and pushed himself to his physical and mental limits each day. His magical core became stronger. To fully exhaust himself, Nick had him perform his brightest Lumos spell for as long as possible, before he dropped the brightness a bit, and then continued that way until Harry's core was completely drained of magic.
At the beginning of summer, Harry held up for slightly over 10 minutes. Meanwhile, the total length of the exercise stretched over many variations in brightness and a total of just under 20 minutes. Nick explained that his results were comparable to a third/fourth-year regular student.
Harry woke up on his final day and desperately wanted to stay in bed, wake up another day, and just continue his routine with Nick and Penny. The elder couple had really grown on him and he genuinely liked them, not just because they were a walking encyclopedia.
Reluctantly he made his way out of bed and joined the Flamels at breakfast after a quick shower. They had all his favorite dishes as a sort of goodbye gift prepared for him. Harry tucked in and enjoyed the sweet pastries and fresh juices he got so used to over time.
"You will take the Portkey at 11:00 am. We will walk down the road in front of our Manor to the edge of our wards. Our wards are so strong, that even we ourselves as the owners cannot create Portkeys through it. The only thing that could breach these wards is a phoenix via flame travel and trust me, Albus has tried… However, the phoenix cannot bring a person with itself, it can only breach the wards alone."
"Dumbledore has a Phoenix?" Harry asked, completely astonished.
"Of course! It had bound to him sometime after his defeat of Grindelwald and he has kept it ever since. I think his name is Fawkes."
"Anyways" Penny interrupted the two: "The Portkey will take you back to Privet Drive and you can walk up to your house. You can use the last week to finish your preparations for school and do your back-to-school shopping. Make sure to get new robes! You've grown quite a lot.
Harry nodded, finished his breakfast, thanked the elves one last time, and went back to his room to continue his last bits of packing.
At 10 minutes to 11:00 am, he stood in the entrance hall and waited for the Flamels. They arrived carrying a heavy book.
"This is our final gift to you Harry, this book will act as your Portkey, but remain with you afterward. As soon as you arrive in Privet Drive it will be a book like any other. However, it should be a very interesting one if I may say so."
"You probably wondered why we did not teach you any wandless magic while you were here, even though you have a talent for it?"
Harry nodded: "Yes, I was surprised, but kind of glad after a while. I am not sure it would have fit into my schedule."
The Flamels chuckled: "Well, this book will guide you through some useful exercises to improve your control and show you other fields that wandless magic might be used for, like apparition for example. You should not try that before you're 14, however. I don't want you to splinch yourself."
Harry promised to be careful and together they made their way down to the edge of the wards. Harry noticed that he couldn't feel the wards when he first arrived almost two months ago.
Now, however, it almost felt like stepping through a cold waterfall and his skin tickled. Powerful wards indeed, Harry thought.
Harry hugged Penny as a tear appeared in her eyes and shook hands with Nick.
"Thank you so much, you two. I will never be able to repay you for everything I have learned from the both of you."
"Use the knowledge well Harry. There is a lot of hate and darkness within you… A leftover from the abuse you suffered at the hands of your relatives. Try your best to heal and put it in the past. Don't let it corrupt your future. Goodbye, young man!"
Harry waved a final goodbye as he touched the book and experienced the familiar pull at his naval. Seconds later he dropped behind some bushes in a park at Privet Drive and made his way back to Number Four.
He barely reached the door as it swung open.
"Where the hell have you been?" His uncle hissed. "This freak of a teacher from your school checked up on you several times and couldn't find you apparently! We had a deal young man. We leave you alone and in return, you keep your freakishness away from us! What do you think the neighbors thought about seeing an old man in bright purple robes at our doorstep asking for you?"
This was bad, Harry thought. Dumbledore noticed his absence and came looking for him. He wou