The Magic Revolution
By: Tellemicus Sundance
#02: Feats of Impossibility
June 24, 2015
Draco Malfoy could only stare in awe and bewilderment at what he was seeing. As a highly-educated wizard of a very pure magical lineage and very proficient in most of the magical disciplines and practices of the world, he felt that he had a better understanding than most other wizards and witches about the limitations and possibilities of magic available. Yet what he saw now utterly blew away everything he'd learned, studied, and been raised to believe was possible! He was so enraptured by what he was seeing that he failed to notice that he was one of the few Slytherins still remaining in his seat.
From his position in one of the tower stands, he had a better view than most of the rest of the students to what was happening in the Maze. Such was the luxury that his family's wealth and his father's position afforded him and his select group of friends. Along with the misty vision spell that allowed the spectators to watch the Champions, Draco had also brought with him a pair of omnioculars so he could zoom in and record certain parts of the Task that interested him. For most of the task, he'd just watched the spell screen with passing interest, spending more time 'socializing' with his friends since there really wasn't anything very exciting happening down there. But as the Champions had neared the center of the Maze and what looked to be a race to the finish had started, he'd quickly pulled out his omnioculars and started recording. With the enhanced sight afforded to him by the magical artifact, Draco found himself swept up rapidly in the mystery of the cloaked stranger. He was literally sitting upon the edge of his seat with even more excitement coursing through him than when he'd watched the Quidditch World Cup last summer.
And now he watched as the three Headmasters finally arrived to confront the overwhelmingly powerful intruder. It was a curious sight to be sure. The black-haired fire boy had quickly crumpled to his knees, holding his ears tightly in pain, when the Headmasters had started yelling at him with Sonorous-enhanced voices. Why was that? Did he have sensitive hearing or something? But the boy was quick to stand back up and attack again once the yelling had died down, shooting forward and nailing Karkaroff in the gut with a flaming fist. This was the first time that Draco had seen him actually land a punch on anyone. But considering the large crater he'd made earlier when he'd missed his first punch against the Champions, it didn't surprise Draco when he saw the Durmstrang headmaster go flying at least ten meters in a fiery explosion. And with that, the battle reignited with a frenzy.
However, instead of the three Triwizard Champions ganging up on the lone stranger, it was the three Headmasters. Madam Maxime instantly went on the offensive, favoring curses and charms. Dumbledore seemed more concerned with defense, watching and studying the black-haired boy's movements and fire magic abilities. Karkaroff was slow to join the battle, considering how far he'd been thrown and having lost his breath in the process. The three Champions had wisely decided to scurry off and watch from the sidelines, trying to catch their breaths and rest their exhausted bodies.
The amount of magic being used was nothing short of incredible. Each of the Headmasters, alone, seemed capable of unleashing the same output of power and variety that all of the three Champions had achieved when working in concert together. That wasn't even taking into account their decades' more experience with magic and battle alike. Thus, it would've been more accurate to say that the fire boy wasn't fighting just three people, but more than a dozen compacted into the three of them. And the fact that he was still able to either dodge, counter, or otherwise negate all their attacks with nothing more than some fancy fire tricks and physical acrobatics made the battle seem exceedingly more exciting and awe-inspiring than the entirety of the Triwizard Tournament had been up to this point.
The fire boy was currently flying upside-down through the air, having been blasted by a Banishing Hex from Maxime. Rather than be intimidated or scared, he merely went with the blow, fire blasting from his heels. The giant woman frantically ducked under the arcing fires that shot towards her, just barely dodging them. At the same time, the fires pushed the boy right-side up and he landed in a crouching slide, one hand digging a trail in the soft dirt under him to quickly slow himself down. Once he stopped, he leapt back up into the air, arms spread out at his sides as long trails of fire sprung out of them, sweeping up behind him almost like wings. He quickly swept his arms forward and swung the conflagration down towards where Maxime and Dumbledore were currently hunkered down.
The Hogwarts Headmaster swung his wand about, summoning up huge amounts of earth and dirt from around them and forming it into a very thick shield. This seemed to do the trick as the fires struck and exploded against the dirt wall, but didn't penetrate or otherwise damage the earthen protection from Draco's perspective. As the boy landed once again, he quickly ducked low, narrowly evading what Draco recognized as a Dark cutting curse from Karkaroff. As the boy raised himself up, his cheeks bulged comically before he once again blasted an inferno from his mouth straight towards the Durmstrang Headmaster, incinerating yet another path through the charred remains of the Maze. Unable to Apparate to safety and not possessing the youthful dexterity that Krum had used to dodge the same attack, Karkaroff dropped to a knee and created a large metal shield in front of himself. The shield was only partially successful at blocking the fires, preventing the full brunt from hitting the man but still allowing some to slip around the edges and hit the man nonetheless.
Once the massive flame attack ended a few moments later, Draco turned his attention back to the boy and blinked in surprise. He was panting, panting! Was he finally starting to tire out?! "I guess all those huge fire attacks eat up a lot of his magical power," Draco muttered to himself.
"Apparently," a distracted female voice uttered in agreement nearby, catching Draco by surprise. He glanced over quickly towards the voice, finding it to belong to none other than the Ice Queen of Slytherin herself, Daphne Greengrass. Daphne ignored him, keeping her gaze locked on the combat below. "Looks like the Headmasters are about to wrap this up now…assuming the other kid doesn't interfere."
"Huh? What 'other boy'?" Draco asked, confused.
"The flying one, who's battling the Aurors," Daphne said as if it was obvious, while pointing toward commotion in the lower stands. Draco's eyes fell upon the figure silhouetted in yellow, and immediately was torn. On the one hand, he had the battle between the Great Albus Dumbledore, his father's old comrade Igor Karkaroff, and the admittedly talented half-breed against a wizard whose talent over fire was unheard of. On the other hand, he had the larger scale battle between yet another impossibility: a broom-less flyer who was batting away what spell bolts he couldn't dodge, with his bare hands, and when he wasn't doing that he was wandlessly returning fire with his own spell bolts. Sure, the battle against the headmasters was almost over, but he had already watched it this far.
As his eyes darted back and forth between the two awe inspiring battles, he noticed the pair of omnioculars clutched in Daphne's hands that were still trained towards the fight with the flying boy, just as his had stayed trained on the center of the maze. Noticing his gaze, the Ice Queen smirked, before offering him a deal. "A copy of your recording, for a copy of mine."
"Deal." Draco nodded before turning his full attention back to the Headmasters fight.
Zooming out slightly, Draco watched as the Dumbledore and Maxime seemed to be trying to speak with the boy, probably trying to reason with him. But movement off to the side caught Draco's attention. Karkaroff was up to something. Then, suddenly and quite menacingly, a massive flare of fire erupted from Karkaroff's wand. Draco literally flinched back in shock and fear as he watched the cursed flames of Ignis Pugnator emerge. The Ignis Pugnator was often compared to as being the exact opposite of the Patronus Charm, in that it was fueled by a person's hate, and that once cast, the fires would take the shape of an animal unique to the user. The spell was just a few degrees lower than Fiendfyre in how dangerous it was. One of the primary differences being that this spell would only stop after it'd either been extinguished or incinerated the user's target. And since no two versions of the spell were ever the same, no two tactics for fighting against the spell would ever truly be effective against it.
"That idiot!" Draco snapped as he watched take the fires form into the shape of a large burning vulture. "What was he thinking?! That level of curse is too dangerous for this!"
"I don't think he was thinking," Daphne stated in a slight deadpan voice, her attention understandably drawn to the Headmaster fight. "Neither of them."
Screams of terror from the remaining audience and a few nearby Aurors started up as they all recoiled away from the fires. Even Dumbledore and Maxime looked rather annoyed and nervous, respectively, considering they were the next closest to the fires and were completely unprepared to deal with fires of that caliber. Everyone was scared…except the fire boy.
The fire boy merely turned to watch as the cursed fires of hell latched their sinister, all-encompassing gaze upon him and came charging at him with all the speed of a Nimbus 2000 and the ferocity of a demon. Draco could only assume the boy was frozen in terror, not that he could really blame him, mind you. The boy didn't move an inch as the burning vulture crashed into him and promptly exploded like a small volcanic eruption.
"Now we'll never know who he wa—What's that?" Draco said, his eyes widening as he spotted something strange happening. Rather than spread and grow like they normally would following a death inside them, there seemed to be…a spiral suction forming inside the inferno. It was like the fires were being drawn down into a sink drain like water. The longer it went on, the faster the flames disappeared. Everyone, even the panicking audience, quickly came to a stop as they watched yet another impossibility take place before them. Then, slowly, a silhouette began to emerge from the dead center of the flames. As the flames vanished away, it became increasingly clear what was happening.
"H-H-He's eating them?!" Draco sputtered out, completely dumbfounded. "He's eating the fire?! HOW'S THAT POSSIBLE?!"
Then, abruptly, the last of the fires were gone, sucked down into the boy's mouth. A moment of total silence fell across the area as everyone stared at the boy while he idly wiped his mouth. Looking around seeing that he'd gotten everyone's attention, a wide grin spread across the boy's face. Banging his fists together as flames erupted around his body like an aura, he laughed out loud, "I'm all FIRED UP!"
Bringing his hands up, an enormous fireball formed between his hands at nearly double the speed the previous ones had been. He quickly leapt up and lobbed the fireball down towards Karkaroff again, laughing quite loudly as the Durmstrang struggled to move away. Time slowed down as Draco watched the next few moments. A burst of light flew from Dumbledore's wand, shooting into the air and striking an invisible barrier, which almost immediately seemed to disintegrate. By the time the barrier had fully vanished, the fireball was nearly upon Karkaroff when he suddenly disappeared, finally being able to Apparate to safety. It was only thanks to the angle that Draco was at that he even was able to see Karkaroff teleport away before the fireball struck where he had been and instantly exploded with enough power to rock the tower they were seated in.
Momentarily being knocked from his seat because of the swaying tower, Draco quickly climbed to his feet and leaned heavily upon the railing, fumbling to bring his omnioculars back to his face. Quickly searching the grounds, he managed to find the boy just a few moments before Karkaroff suddenly reappeared. The former Death Eater reappeared less than an arm's length away from the boy, surprising both the fire boy and Draco at the abruptness of the unexpected action. That surprise was all that Karkaroff needed to jab his wandtip forward, right into the boy's mouth, and blast what must've been an enormously-overpowered lightning bolt straight down the boy's throat. The boy's stomach quite obviously ballooned outwards for a moment as the lightning filled his gut before returning to its normal shape.
Rather than laugh off the attack like he had when he'd eaten the flames earlier, the fire boy recoiled away from Karkaroff. His hands instantly shot up to his mouth and neck, trying to cradle the agony that was coursing through his throat, even as he gagged and stumbled away, falling gracelessly to the ground at Karkaroff's feet. And he remained there, convulsing violently as a few stray bolts of lightning began jolting and zapping along his limbs, crying out in absolutely agony as though he were being subjected to the Cruciatus Curse.
"He can eat something as dangerous as Ignis Pugnator and grin about it," Draco murmured in disbelief. "But he's crippled when someone feeds him lightning? Weird."
"Well, that seems…anticlimactic," Daphne stated in agreement, her attention still fixated on the fire boy. Draco could clearly hear the disappointment in her voice.
"I don't think it's over just yet," Draco replied evenly, watching as Dumbledore and Maxime rapidly made their way over to Karkaroff and the boy. "Remember, there's still the other kid out there."
As if summoned by the Malfoy heir, a bolt of bright yellow light flew from one side of the stadium to slam into Karkaroff's exposed backside and send him tumbling. Half a second and blinding streak of light later, the flying blonde boy was crouched over the convulsing form of his partner, examining him and his symptoms. Zooming in with his omnioculars, Draco watched as the hugely-muscular blonde teenager stood up and abruptly stomped down on the fire boy's stomach, causing the boy to gasp out in pain from the blow.
"Why did he do that?" Draco wondered quietly to himself.
But even as he was saying it, Draco saw the reason why. As soon as the blonde removed his foot, the dark-haired boy seemed to snap out of the whatever pain-induced deliria he'd been stuck in. He quickly but clumsily picked himself up and climbed to his feet, settling into what even martial arts-ignorant Draco Malfoy could see as being a very sloppy fighting stance. The reason for the poor stance was made clear as there were still random bolts of electricity and severe nerve-twitches that shot through his limbs, but now the fire boy seemed able to somewhat ignore them. 'I see,' Draco realized. 'The blonde snapped him out of his funk by giving him some new pain to focus on so he could ignore whatever the lightning is doing to him internally.'
"Are they seriously still willing to keep fighting when one of them is handicapped like that?" Daphne asked, more to herself than Draco. Fire ignited around the dark-haired boy while a golden aura of yellow light sprung to life around the blonde boy as they both crouched before launching themselves towards the Headmasters once again.
"Apparently so," Draco said in a deadpan voice, even as he watched the blonde strike Karkaroff with a high kick to the chest, knocking him flying backwards.
The fire boy thrust his arm forward and launched a pillar of flames towards Dumbledore, which the old man easily Apparated away from, reappearing several meters to the side. Spinning on his heel, fire burst from the boy's feet as he leapt towards the headmaster. But even as he was doing that, electricity jolted across his legs and knees, knocking him off balance and sending him flying slightly off target without Dumbledore even having to move to dodge. As the boy landed awkwardly on his feet, looking like he was just a soft breeze away from tripping and fall over, Dumbledore saw his chance and leapt on it. Chains flew from his wandtip and wrapped themselves around the fire boy's body tightly. Had Draco blinked, he would've missed it, it was that quick. While the boy struggled for freedom and his balance, Dumbledore finally was able to strike him dead on with a Stunner that sent him tumbling through the air from the sheer force of it. But even as he landed, Draco blinked in surprise as he saw that the boy was still somehow conscious and struggling to escape, even if his movements were slowed and sluggish now. There was an obvious moment of hesitation from Dumbledore as he too stared at the boy with surprise at the feat of still being conscious. But the old man recovered himself quickly and sent another Stunner at him. This time knocking the boy out for sure.
Quickly shifting his attention, Draco saw that blonde boy freeze in mid-punch from where he was floating off the ground about to deliver pain to that large eye sore of a half-breed woman. The blonde looked over to the side in time to see his partner in crime crumple to the ground unconscious. Call her what you will, but the half-giant didn't miss a beat as she jumped away from the startlingly fast and strong boy, aiming her wand to launch her own counterattack before he recovered from his surprise. But even as the spell left her wand, the blonde had already flown away, landing in a slight slide next to his friend, trying to wake him up.
"It's useless," Draco murmured knowingly. "Unless you got some kind of fancy wandless magic that awakens the stunned, he's not going to get up any time soon." The blonde seemed to realize this quickly, setting his friend back down on the ground with surprising gentleness.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
A multitude of Apparation cracks filled the air as the entire interior of the former Quidditch stadium was suddenly host to what must've been thousands of Aurors. Draco could tell they were Aurors because of the maroon robes they all wore, even if the national emblems on them were different. The sudden noise and appearances seemed to have spooked the blonde boy, who'd instantly shot upwards into the air in a blaze of yellow light. He came a halt and hovered in place some fifty meters over the new arrivals, arms crossed and glaring down at them like a warrior who was displeased to have his fight interrupted.
"WHAT WILL YOU DO NOW, BOY?" Dumbledore asked, his voice Sonorous-enhanced once more as he and all of the others looked up at the flying boy. "WE HAVE YOUR FRIEND AND YOU ARE NOW GREATLY OUTNUMBERED."
"Ha! Hahaha! HAHAHAHAHA!" the boy laughed, starting softly but rapidly growing in volume. He threw his head back as he started giving full-belly laughs at Dumbledore's statement. Though he couldn't be sure, Draco felt that he had an idea of what the boy found amusing. "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHahahahah! …I haven't laughed that hard since that time in Brazil." Draco only heard that last part because he was a fair bit closer than any of the others down below.
"SOMETHING AMUSING, BOY?" Dumbledore asked, asking the question that most of the Aurors were thinking as they glared up at him.
"That you all seem to think that you can stop me from doing anything!" the blonde called back. "I'm the single most powerful warrior in all the world! No one but the Salamander can challenge me anymore! And you lot think that because you can wave little pieces of wood while chanting gibberish that you can tell me what to do?! I have fought DRAGONS, GIANTS, MANTICORES, HORDES OF RABID MOBS, AND EVEN AN ENTIRE ARMY OF MUGGLES! AND YOU THREE THOUSAND LITTLE WIZARDS, WHO COWER BEHIND SPELLS OF CONFUSION, CONCEALMENT, AND INDUCED AMNESIA THINK YOU CAN SCARE ME ENOUGH TO BACK DOWN?!"
As he was yelling, the blonde had raised one of his arms over his head. A ball of light formed over his hand, rapidly growing in size until it must've been large enough to fit an entire house inside. The light it was giving off was bright to the point of blinding, lighting up the area like a miniature sun, as waves of ambient energy washed off it. Every single wizard and witch present could feel the energy contained within that massive orb. It was so strong, it was palpable. The amount of destructive potential that orb contained would've easily been enough to completely obliterate the entire Quidditch stadium, the cliff, and the nearby Hogwarts castle. And every single person present knew it.
"Now, tell me again," the blonde's surprisingly soft voice called down, no longer threatening but still hinting towards violence. "Who is outnumbered here?"
"YOU WOULDN'T THROW THAT ORB!" one of the Aurors with a heavy Germanic accent shouted. "YOU'D KILL YOUR FRIEND HERE!"
"HAHAHA!" the blonde laughed, robbing the Aurors of whatever sliver of courage they might've retained. "The Salamander takes blows of this caliber daily! You should worry more about yourselves!"
Just then, a plume of fire burst out of the center of the Aurors, attracting everyone's attention and causing those nearest it to back away in surprise. What they revealed as they did so was the fire boy, awake but clearly delirious again. 'What is that guy made of?!' Draco wondered in amazement. He'd taken two Stunners from Albus Dumbledore himself and still managed to awaken after only a few moments?! Who was this kid? Who were both of these guys?! Seeing the boy staring up at the blonde and trying to call out to him, one of the Auror witches cautiously stepped forward and pressed her wand to the boy's throat.
"PIC…CO…LO…" the boy drawled out, earning a snarling grimace from the blonde. "REMEM…BER…WHY WE…HERE…" With that said, he slumped back towards the ground as the pink-haired witch caught him in her arms. He had once again seemingly fallen back into unconsciousness.
After a long moment of confusion by the Aurors and silent glaring from the blonde, the massive orb he held began to shrink as its energy slowly dissipated. Once it fully disappeared, the blonde slowly lowered himself back down to the ground next to his friend, causing the witch to back away cautiously. Once firmly on the ground, the blonde held up his hands and shouted out, "WE SURRENDER!"
(Author's Note) Big time shout-out to badassumbreon and Fiori57 for helping me brainstorm and beta-ing this chapter. I wonder how many of you guys saw this little twist at the end coming? Not many, hopefully! And though I'm sure that many of you are confused and curious as to what Harry and Dudley (yes, the 'Saiyan' is Dudley Dursley) are doing and why, just be patient for a little longer. If not in the coming chapter, the boys will be answering a lot of questions in the next one for sure. Just be patient, ok?
Ignis Pugnator – Fire Warrior / / The Ignis Pugnator is considered Dark magic curse spell. It is ranked just a few tiers below the lethality and power of Fiendfyre. But what makes the Ignis Pugnator so deadly isn't the amount of power it has, but the fact that every person who casts it always got a different and unique 'creature' to manifest and attack the enemies of the conjurer. This has led to wizards comparing this spell as a Dark version of the happiness-fueled Patronus Charm. Dispelling this curse is no easy feat for most witches and wizards. Most times, the quickest and easiest means of doing so is drowning it in high quantities of water or burying it under dirt and rubble.
