Ch. 10

|Right after the Preliminary Matches|

"Harry," yelled Lily when Harry came to see her after the prelims, "you did so well. But I need to ask you something." Harry nodded in fear. He had a feeling about what she was going to ask him.

"Why did you keep that magic technique a secret from us. It could have been dangerous!"

"But mum," protested Harry, "I did tell someone. I told the team captain. He said that as long as I use it responsibly, then nothing bad would come from using it. Besides, I didn't get hurt when I used it." Lily sighed and hugged Harry.

"Fine. Just use it responsibly. But, other than that, I just wanted to say good job. Your father couldn't be here because of an assignment at work and Rosie is busy playing with Astoria, the younger sister of Daphne Greengrass. Good job on getting past the prelims," said Lily with a smile. Then suddenly, Michael burst into the room with a lot of urgency.

"MOM! I'm so sorry!" yelled Michael.

"Michael Charles Potter, what is going on? Why are you apologizing to me? What did you do?" Michael looked at his mom with trepidation.

"Uh, I kind of made a really big bet. I bet that Hogwarts would be able to beat Salem or get further than Salem would. I guess that I kind of bet about 1000 galleons on Hogwarts getting further than Salem or beating Salem," said Michael with a nervous look on his face.

"You bet how much?" yelled Lily while Harry watched from the background.

"Uh, 1000 galleons. I'm so sorry mum!" Lily sighed.

"Alright, you're lucky that your father is an auror and makes enough money to cover the costs. But as punishment, you will not be flying at all during the summer. And I want nothing less than an acceptable on the end of the year report card. Understood?" Michael nodded frantically.

"Harry," said Michael, when he saw Harry standing off to the side, "Hermione wanted to talk to you. Would you be willing to answer some of her questions?"

"That depends entirely on the questions that she is going to ask. I will come see what questions she has," said Harry in a distant tone. The two brothers left for the castle to go find Hermione.

|Hogwarts Library|

"Hermione," called Michael, "I brought Harry. If you want to ask questions, now is the time." Hermione looked up from the book she was reading about wandless magic.

"Yes, I did have some questions. Harry, how did you do that shockwave technique?" asked Hermione as Michael left the library, "Was it wandless magic?"

"Oh, I see what this is. This is you trying to figure out how my technique works so that you can use it yourself. Well, it took me a while before I was able to use this technique, so I won't be telling you how to use this technique. Any other questions?" asked Harry.

"Uh, well I was wondering if you could tell me how you were able to use the elemental spell? I thought it was really hard to do those kind of spells (A)?" asked Hermione.

"They are really hard to do and I have no idea why, but using elemental spells are not that hard for me. If anything they are easier to use for me than other spells. Now, I have to go find something to eat. So good bye," said Harry as he stood up and strode out of the library to go find Headmistress Priya. As Harry walked through the hallways towards the Great Hall. Harry was Daphne Greengrass, whom he had met with and played with many times when he was younger.

"Hey Daph," said Harry as he sat down next to her, "Do you mind if I sit next to you?"

"No, I don't. By the way, you did great today. Not many people can boast that they beat a sixth year student while they were just a first year student. How did you do those spells?" said Daphne.

"What's with people and asking me how I do my magic?" asked Harry. "Don't ask me why, but for some reason it's always been easier for me to use elemental magic. As for the silent casting, I just had to practice it a whole lot before I got it down. I think it helped that I was already practicing magic before I left for Salem. I would steal my parent's wands and use them to practice casting silently." The rest of the Slytherin table was in awe.

"Tch. You probably got extra lessons because you were the brother of the boy-who-lived," said a blond haired first year.

"Shut up Malfoy!" yelled Daphne in an uncharacteristic slip of her ice queen mask. "Harry did not get lessons from anyone. Everything he learned was from reading books from his family library."

"Wow Daph, I didn't know you cared for me so much," said Harry when he heard Daphne defend him. Daphne blushed and mumbled something that sounded like, "Malfoy was being a dick and I couldn't let him get away with it."

"Harry," said an older Slytherin, "Why did you choose to sit at this table instead of with you brother?"

"Meh, I chose to sit here because I get see Daphne after quite a while, but also because me and my brother are not on the best of terms. Besides I want to see if what my family says about Slytherin is true. But enough talk, chow time!" said Harry as he happily dug into the food at the table make everyone in the vicinity snicker at his behavior.

|Later that night|

"…Yeah, it was awesome. I wish you could have been there," said Harry as he talked on the cell phone that the headmistress had loaned him. "How are you guys doing?"

"We're doing great," said Neville from over the phone, "But I need to go to bed now otherwise Helena and Rachael will kill me. Later." "Yeah, later," said Harry and he hung up on Neville. He then left his room to give the phone to the headmistress. As he laid on his bed, Harry thought about who they were going to face the next day. He decided to read up on the next attack of the Hiten Mitsurugi Style: Doryusen. Basically, all Harry had to do was channel some magical energy into his katana and swing the inside side through the ground at the target.

|Day of the 1st round|

"Alright," yelled Bagman as he and the other match officials stood on the Quidditch Field pitch, "The match ups will be displayed in the air. All teams look for your country and where you will be fighting!" Harry and the rest of the team, who were all in their dueling uniforms, looked and saw that they would be facing Japan on the Quidditch Field.

"Well," said Xavier, "are you guys ready for this? This will probably be one of the most challenging matches of the entire tournament. And Harry, don't rely as much on your sword style. They will probably have a counter to it as it was once their sword style. The only one who right now can take on some who uses the Hiten Mitsurugi style or the counter to it would be Professor Gabriel. Understood?" Harry nodded his understanding.

"What is the team formation, Captain?" asked Daniel.

"We'll go with the same order. I'll let you know after the match if I think that there should be any changes. Now let's go kick some Japanese butt!" The entire team cheered as they walked to the locker room for their captain's pre-match speech.

A/N

(A) If I haven't made this clear, then I am sorry, but Elemental spells are the hardest kind of spells to do

Well , here you go. Now we have the match up between Japan and the US. This will decide whether Japan becomes a contender for the winner. I have already decided the winner of this match. If you want to choose who becomes the final winner of the tournament, go to my profile and vote on which country you want to win or message me or put in the review. Thanks.

-Airwatcher