A/N: I wished I owned Harry Potter. Alas, I do not. Ms. Rowling, I'd be happy to take it off your hands
A/N: This chapter might be my most exciting fights so far
Chapter 60: The "Third" Task
May, 1995
"So, we have deiced to have a dueling task, one on one matchups. This should also help show off your respective strengths."
"Haven't we done enough so far?" Harry said with a roll of his eyes. "I would think that matching up with dragons…"
"The confusion of the second task led to a few articles in the prophet," Dumbledore said calmly. "They questioned everything that occurred, which gave the ministry a big of egg on their face. For the ministry and the Daily Prophet to get behind the rest of the competition-"
"That rag?" Victor's eyes were burning when he interrupted Dumbledore.
"Nevertheless, we believe some dueling could be an interesting third task. There are a few interested parties who would like to see your strengths as well. Now that Harry has showed us how flawed the final task was to be, these parties need to assess your strengths in order to build a challenging, but completable task."
"So we are to fight each other?" Fleur asked.
"No, no," Dumbledore assured. "We will have a few on the quidditch pitch. Ms. Delacour, you will be facing off with Professor Flitwick, due to your respective strengths in charms. Mr. Diggory, you will have a match with Professor Moody for the same reason."
"Awesome," Cedric said with a grin at the ex-auror, his eye spinning wildly.
"Mr. Krum, you will be facing Professor Hayashi, due to your Defense specialty, as well as your apparent mastery of physical magic."
"I am no master, but I look forward to it," Victor said, shaking hands with Akira." Harry turned to his girlfriend and raised an eye. He would have assumed he would match up with Akira. Surely Dumbledore wouldn't make him fight his grandmother seriously.
"And me?" Harry asked.
"Ah yes," Dumbledore fixed his eyes on Harry. "I was hoping you might fight Professor Snape."
"Again?" Harry scoffed. "I think I proved that matchup pointless at the ministry."
"Well, it is only to allow you to fight as well. The winner of the fight will be determined by your real fight. The other three champions will not have their matches easy, and neither will you."
"Then why me against Snape?" Harry asked, disappointment clear in his voice.
"We were hoping to have the exhibition this weekend," Dumbledore said. "If you are amenable, the spars will be Sunday afternoon. But Saturday night, you will come with me to a special facility set up by the EICW, and you and I shall have a little match. Severus and you can then fake a fight, depending on the result between the two of us that demonstrates where you are."
"You versus me?" Harry stared at Dumbledore, eyes an, as murmuring filled the office. Dumbledore say the interest in Harry's eyes and smiled. The boy was a world-class occlumens, but he did not yet have the skill to keep his emotions from his face. Harry was guaranteed to accept his offer, and Dumbledore would know where the boy was, and if he was starting to turn.
"Headmaster, this is quite unusual," Madame Maxime stated.
"I accept." Harry's calm voice cut through the tumult. "I will see you tomorrow night."
"I look forward to it," Dumbledore said. "Wear no dueling robes. I will hold nothing back."
"Neither will I," Harry said. "Until tomorrow." He left without saying another word, a grim grin on his face." Fleur leaned into Cedric and whispered a few words, and then hurried after her boyfriend, concern etched on her face. The various teachers talked among each other, as Cedric and Victor conversed quietly. Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, hiding his smile. The feeling of a plan coming together was still one of his favorites, after all these years.
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"Welcome all to the third task!" Ludo Bagman called out, his voice enhanced by the sonorus charm. "Or at the least the preparation for the final task!" The crowd in the quidditch stadium cheered. "As we speak, the EICW is preparing a proper final task. In order to make it challenging for our champions, today they will be tested by masters in their field."
"The first matchup will be the charming Miss Delacour versus Charms Master Professor Flitwick." From the champions box Harry clapped enthusiastically, and then grimaced.
"You ok?" Cedric asked. Harry managed a half smile.
"Yeah, just a little sore from last night," Harry told Cedric.
"I can't believe you won't tell anyone what happened," Krum said. "Fleur said you won't even tell her."
"Dumbledore and I agreed," Harry explained. "We both fought seriously, very close to full power. He'll keep my secrets, so I'll keep his. Of course a few EICW personal were observing, so I couldn't go all out. But I didn't hold back too much, I couldn't. Someone important asked that I take it seriously. Dumbledore is tough. I can say I don't like him much, but last night reminded me that while as a person I can't stand him, as a wizard he still deserves my respect."
"I mean, we've seen you train, and I can't imagine you losing," Cedric said. Harry just smiled lightly. "But he's Dumbledore! Seriously, what was the result?"
"Let's just watch Fleur," Harry said, focusing on the two contestants below as Fleur and Flitwick bowed to each other. "I rarely get to see her fight with real intent. I'm looking forward to it."
Fleur smiled at the half-goblin who she had been training with extensively the last two months. He was clever, had quite an extensive spell arsenal, and ridiculously fast and agile. With a blur of speed, a few charms were headed her way, starting the fight. Fleur dodged the first two and deflected the second pair. Flitwick grinned at her effortless defense and then began to speed up.
Fleur ducked under two jelly leg charms and responded with her first offense of the match. It was a chain spell Flitwick had taught her a month ago. A disarming hex, a body bind, then a blasting curse, a jelly-fingers hex, ending with a stunner. Flitwick dodged most of them, flicking away the stunner at the end. He was a small target, but Fleur's accuracy training was paying off, every spell on target even though Flitwick remained untouched.
They circled each other, continuing to alternate chains of spells. Fleur was being forced to deflect and shield more and more as Flitwick seemed to have no limit on his speed. If this kept up, he would start to tag her with spells, and the moment he landed even the simplest body bind he would follow it up with a disarming spell. While Fleur knew she had already given a good account of herself, she wasn't willing to give up so easily.
"Time to try one of your tricks, my champion," Fleur murmured to herself, dodging another stunner chain from Flitwick. She rarely trained with Harry at this point. Harry couldn't go all out, both because he didn't have it in him and the fact he was beyond Fleur in power. In contrast, even with all her power poured into a single shot, Fleur couldn't break his shield. But Harry had taught her a few things, tricks that Hogwarts teachers wouldn't teach wizards and witches who were technically students. Harry's spells were all beyond N.E.W.T. level.
As another chain of spells headed Fleur's way, she snapped her wand up, bringing up a huge dirt wall from the ground. She copied the action twice and soon she had a semicircle of dirt slabs around her. Fleur concentrated hard, and then jumped over the wall, twirling her wand, unleashing a concussion blast again the half-goblin, who dived to the side and hit Fleur midair with a stunner. But the stunner simply past through her.
From the dirt slabs, her illusion discovered, Fleur dove low and fired her own stunner chain at the unexpecting charms master. Against someone slower, the fight would have been over. The stunner chain was followed by her strongest shield breaker. But with an unexpected burst of speed, Flitwick wove through the spell chain, and now Fleur was truly out of position.
"Excellent, Ms. Delacour," Flitwick chuckled, allowing her to get to her feet. "I do not know I could cast such an impressive illusion, even firing an illusionary spell itself. I assume Mr. Potter taught you that. It is beyond me, perhaps beyond the entire staff here."
"The fight isn't over yet," Fleur bared her wand. "Please continue."
"Ah well." Flitwick brought his own wand up and Fleur was forced to throw up shield after shield as strong and fast charms shattered her defenses. Fleur brought up another earth wall but a blasting curse reduced it to pieces, and a banishing spell sent the debris towards her. Fleur threw up her hands to guard her face from the pieces of earth, and Flitwick caught her in the chest with a stunner, collapsing Fleur to the floor.
A gust of wind coiled under Fleur, gently dissipating and placing Fleur on the ground. Flitwick walked over and hit the Veela with a reviving charm. Fleur groaned and rolled to her feet, shaking the stunned look from her face.
"I guess you won," Fleur said, giving a grimace to her instructor.
"Yes I did," Flitwick stated calmly. "I must ask why you took it easy on me, though? You did well enough for the EICW to take you seriously, but I know you could have challenged me more defensively." Fleur raised an eyebrow. "I'm just curious. I am well aware that your true strength with charms are elemental charms, especially fire and air charms. You only used earth charms."
"I guess I just wanted to try something different." Fleur gave a half bow before walking out of the stadium." Flitwick took his time clearing the field, keeping his eyes on the champion box until he saw Fleur appear there, happy his student wasn't in such a bad mood she left without watching the others.
His observation was very valid. Fleur was excellent with a variety of charms, especially her counters against most of his offensive charms. Fleur was talented offensively, but brilliant on defense. She probably had similar levels of sensory magic to the dueling master, though Flitwick's speed helped negate that. Only rarely did someone managed to get in his blind spot. Even Harry, during their midweek training session, only managed to catch him unaware once, and although Flitwick's sensory magic was not a strength, no one could become a dueling champion if they were unable to dodge or counter blind spot attacks.
But for whatever reason, Fleur had not used any fire or wind charms. Her Veela nature meant she could cast all of them without any wand indicators, which made them tough to counter. They were also her best area attacks. She had primarily cast single impact spells, which were easier for Flitwick to dodge. If she cast fire charms over a wide area, he would be pinned down behind a shield. Anyone else and he might have assumed accuracy was a concern, but accuracy was a central part of their individual training, having diagnosed it as a weakness back in March. The problem was more than corrected now, and her accuracy was one of her main strengths.
A problem for another time, Flitwick resolved as he sat in the teacher's box, giving a nod to the Headmaster and the Deputy Headmistress, and cast his eyes on the next matchup. Cedric was lightly bouncing on his toes as Moody stumped into the arena. Flitwick was intrigued why Dumbledore had chosen this matchup. It was sure that Cedric would fight one defense teacher, and Krum the other once it was determined Harry's fight would be a show. While Flitwick had not seen much evidence that Krum was truly a wizard who excelled at the dark arts, he was certainly more adept at "darker" spells than Cedric, which made him a more evenly matched opponent for Moody. Then again, Cedric couldn't crack a table in the great hall with his bare hands.
Dumbledore had been odd this year, more so than usual, but there was certainly a method to his madness. It had only taken 10 minutes with Harry the other day to realize that Dumbledore was perhaps the only wizard in the castle capable of giving Harry a challenge anymore. Flitwick was not surprised that the attendance had been extremely limited to the fight between the Headmaster and the student to the mysterious Lord of Lightning, but was still a little upset he had not been able to attend. Not that he had expected an invitation, but it would have been a fight for the ages. Harry had displayed unbelievable physical magic skills this year, and to see that up against someone whose casting speed was a magnitude of order Flitwick himself was not something one came across often at a school.
Cedric took in the sight of Britain's last master auror across from him. He had at first been disappointed not to be fighting his mentor Akira, and had spoken to the young man after Dumbledore had made the announcements in his office. Akira had denied Cedric's request to change the matchups outright. At first, Cedric was upset. Akira's explanation that Moody would be a good match due to the auror's tendency to cast first and hard, as opposed to Akira who tended to start slow and ramp up. Facing a different style would be good experience. The explanation mollified Cedric a little, and Akira said he would ask the EICW to observe a duel between the Cedric and himself, but only if Cedric could last more than 5 minutes against the one-eyed man.
The master auror just cocked an eyebrow, and Cedric instantly snapped his wand into his hand with a tiny touch to his holster. Constant vigilance was stuck in his head, and he doubted the master auror would be bowing to him anytime soon. He was just in time as two stunners shook his shield, and Cedric stepped out of the way of the third that shattered his shield.
"I heard about your bet with my co-instructor," Moody said with a laugh. "Expected me to expect without warning, did you?"
"Constant vigilance professor," Cedric said, taking two steps back to keep his distance. The stunners had been fast coming out of Moody's wand, and there had been virtually no time between the spells.
"Good on you," Moody said, and Cedric ducked a cutter that would have clipped him in his wand arm's shoulder. Moody wasn't playing around. Despite the peg-leg, Moody slowly closed the distance, not allowing Cedric to maneuver around him. Cedric was barely able to fire spells back, and Moody began to curve his spells, forcing Cedric to throw up full body shields as the spells came fast and furious.
Moody was like a hurricane, spells coming from every angle. Moody was literally shooting spells at the crowd on either side, and the spells zoomed back at Cedric as if he was facing multiple opponents at once. What was worse was that Moody seemed to control the speed and power of the spells at will, so four powerful spells could hit his shield at once, or Cedric could be forced to dive out of the way as one slow spell drew his attention instantly followed by a speedy shield cracker coming from behind him.
Into the eye of the hurricane, Cedric thought to himself as he dove towards Moody, and he saw the defense teacher stall for a tiny moment at the tactic. Finally, it was Cedric's turn to attack. A bevy of shield crackers and immobilizing spells sprung from his wand, two chains of spells he had drilled all year long. Stunner, body bind, stunner, cutter, shield cracker. He instantly followed with his most dangerous chain. Cutter, flamethrower, cutter, cracker, jelly leg, shield cracker, stunner. He threw all 12 spells with barely a breath in between, but everything impacted on Moody's shield. His shield crackers barely made Moody flinch, and Cedric realized what Akira meant when he said Moody would be good experience from his style.
Akira was so fast and mobile he dodged most of Cedric's spells. When he stood and exchanged, Akira's speed allowed him to redirect and deflect anything Cedric threw at him, allowing for rapid counterattacks. But Moody was confident enough in his magic's strength to let Cedric exhaust himself on his shield. Akira was efficiency and grace, dodging and attacking to never waste movement or energy, like a specialty healer. Moody would pummel you down like a hammer and take your attacks in return.
Cedric was indeed winded from 12 unanswered spells, and Moody stopped defending and resumed his attack taking advantage of the Hufflepuff's lull. Now the spells were whipping at him from the sky, arcing above him and dropping down at steep angles. Cedric knew he was too tired to put up a full body shield, but he didn't have another option. He got the shield up just in time as a spell jumped up from the floor. That was new, Cedric had time to think before a shield cracker hit him from behind and he felt nothing.
He came to a moment later, seeing Moody eyeing him. There must have been a spell right behind the shield cracker, and Cedric vaguely remembered a spell coming straight at him, right at his eyes. The aurors fake eye was spinning wildly, which Cedric figured was a good thing. Perhaps his spell chains had impressed the master auror?
"Not bad," Moody told him after a lengthy silence. "Better than I was sixth year, that's for sure. The training with the Hayashi boy has done you good." Cedric nodded at the praise. "Any reason you didn't take up martial arts with Potter and the Longbottom boy?"
"By the time I saw its effectiveness, it was halfway into the year. I talked it over with Akira, and he said that it would be a waste of our private sessions."
"Well, those spell chains were at auror trainee level." Moody gave him a pat on the back. "I'll talk to Hayashi, got a few notes on how to get you up to shape. But final task shouldn't be a problem for you."
"Thank you, professor," Cedric said. His vision was still a little out of focus and he stumbled a little. He felt Moody's arm go around him, and a few seconds, or was it minutes later, he was laid down on a cot with Madam Pomfrey next to him. "Madam Pomfrey?"
"Hush now," the healer chided him. "Alastor, how hard did you hit the boy?"
"I thought his shield would hold up against the shield breaker," Moody commented. "So the double stunner was only supposed to be one hit."
"Double stunning a child," Pomfrey sighed in exasperation. "I can't believe I am saying this, but you could learn from Severus's example."
"Please," Moody scoffed. "Did Dumbledore not tell you that fight was pre-arranged?"
"Wait, what?" Cedric cried out. "How long have I been out for?"
"It's nighttime, if that's what you mean?" Moody queried. "You missed the other two fights, if that's what you mean."
"Oh. How did they go?"
"Your boy Hayashi had quite an interesting match with Krum to start."
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Akira looked worriedly as Cedric was levitated off the field by the Deputy Headmaster. But he saw the look on Krum's face as he strode to the middle of the field. The Bulgarian was only close with Luna and Harry, and had instantly discarded any thoughts about Cedric's wellbeing. It wasn't that Krum wanted Cedric to be hurt. He just compartmentalized it until after the fight. Akira calmed his mind, and turned to face his opponent.
Krum had an advantage here Akira knew he would have to overcome. Krum had certainly discussed Akira's style and abilities with the other champions. In fact, he could have asked any student about it. He would even have gotten some clues from the game of tag. But Akira didn't know a thing about how Krum fought.
What worse was Akira knew well what his own weakness was. He had always been a slow starter in duels. In extended fights that lasted for long times, he excelled, due to his precise style and magical control. He had a sixth sense for when his opponent was tiring and when to push the pace of the fight to the next level. But if Krum knew his style, and his tendency to start slow and grow into the fight, he could find himself under serious pressure right away.
As he stared down the Bulgarian, nothing showed on his face. Akira schooled a blank face as well, and as Krum bowed deeply, Akira followed suit. He could do cool and collected as well as the next time. If that's how Krum wanted to play it, he'd go along. Krum flicked his wand out of the Hessler Holster, and Akira copied his actions.
"Begin?" Krum asked.
"Begin," Akira confirmed, firing a chain of stunners Krum's way. Krum threw up a shield, surprising Akira. Shielding so early threw him a bit, and he slowed. Krum whipped his wand around, and Akira recognized the upcoming spell as an animation trick, but couldn't see what Krum was trying to animate. They were in the equivalent of an empty field.
His sensory magic was tingling so Akira threw himself to the ground as a giant slab of earth flew over his head. Akira realized with surprise that the walls Fleur has used to protect herself were now heading his way, one already over his head. He dodged the second and destroyed the third with a blasting curse. He turned to see Krum completing a transfiguration, the first block of earth now a large tiger racing towards him.
Akira simply vanished the tiger, and saw two flame bolts right behind the tiger. He opened the first limiter on his physical magic and dodging the spells was all too easy. But Krum had vanished, and Akira felt pressure from behind him. He turned and saw a magical aura collected in Krum's right fist. Akira simply dropped and swiveled away from the fist. Krum's fist collided with the ground, creating a sizable crater and sending up patches off earth all over the place.
But Akira had kept his balance and completed a 360 degree swivel, his right leg extended. Krum was unbalanced from the missed punch and he felt his leg crumble as Akira's reinforced leg swept his own out from under him. As Krum fell he contorted his torso allowing him to fall on his stomach instead of his back. He rolled as his stomach hit the ground and came to his feet quickly.
Akira was twirling his wand and Krum was forced to throw up a shield as two concussive blasts smashed his shield. A third blast was coming, so Krum abandoned his shield and dove to the side. Krum realized the professor had anticipated that, and with a burst of speed he was right into Krum's chest. Krum had heard Akira was a slow starter, but apparently he was warmed up now. Akira's martial arts were fast, too fast and after a quick exchange of blows Akira landed a solid punch in his oblique, knocking Krum down.
Krum was able to rise, and he realized the punch had barely had any concentrated magic around it. While Krum's physical magic was visible, Akira could hide his and Krum had to response to every attack as if it was full powered. Meanwhile, Akira must have realized that Krum could only use his right fist to hold a combined charge of magic. But the fight wasn't over just yet. Krum had suspected he would lose, but he was determined to make Akira regret going easy on him.
The defense professor wasn't attacking, so Krum began to stockpile magic taking advantage of the temporary lull. Akira clearly sensed his intent, but he hesitated before firing a few charms at Krum. There was not a lot of power or intent in the spells, so Krum was able to dodge and redirect them, all while still stockpiling his magic. He hit his maximum and released it in a complex serious of transfigurations. Earth rose up from the ground, forming into a six foot golem. This was Krum's most unique spell, far beyond student levels, discovered when studying the language of giants.
"Attack," Krum ordered in Bulgarian. The golem roared and ambled towards Akira, its arms raised. Akira might defeat the golem, but it would give Krum time to build up more magic, hopefully enough to power a shield breaker through Akira's shield, and maybe steal a solid hit on him. Krum respected Akira, but he did not appreciate someone only a few years older than him taking it easy on him.
Akira was impressed by the golem. It was impressive transfiguration and animation. He did not know that along with physical magic that the Durmstrang champion was so adept and complex transfiguration. He was sure that after the fight, Minerva would want to discuss it with him. But once again the champions had gotten unlucky. This type of brute force attack was probably a diversionary attack, and it would have taken Moody a little while to batter it down. That wasn't Akira's style, and he leveled his wand at the golem, aiming where he knew Victor's wand arm was.
A crack issued from Akira's arm, his own warm arm kicking back in recoil. A small hole was now in the golem, as Akira's piercer had gone right through it, catching Krum's wand arm. The golem crumbled as Krum's wand dropped from his hand, his arm bloody. Akira snapped his wand summoning Krum's wand. He rushed over to the Bulgarian and waved his wand twice, slowing the bleeding.
"Well fought," Akira said, examining the arm. He sighed in relief. He had fired with a little too much power, but the arm would be fine until Madam Pomfrey could look at it.
"No match for you," Krum grumbled.
"No, but I have years of experience on you," Akira commented. Krum didn't seem consoled by that. Akira wasn't surprised. Being the world's best seeker probably didn't make someone a good loser. "Get that looked at later today. Pomfrey took Cedric to the infirmary, but she can patch you up no problem."
"Will it hold?" Krum asked. Akira cocked an eye at that. "I'd like to see Harry disassemble that onerous potions teacher."
"Didn't you see that a few weekends ago?" Akira asked mildly.
"Unfortunately I only saw him flying through the air. What's more, I can tell Harry is irritated from his fight last night. I suspect he might have lost, and will take it out on Snape. I don't like him much."
"No one does," Akira joked. "And did he tell you? My father was supposed to go to the fight to observe, but he sent me a message saying he was outranked. I think along with the EICW, someone very important from the Asian Ministry went to that fight, which means I certainly won't be informed about it. I may be close to Harry, but if he is fighting with his real power, he won't be allowed to share it."
"He didn't even tell Fleur, and he doesn't keep secrets from her," Krum relayed. "She was annoyed to begin with, but Harry explained he had promised Dumbledore even before the fight the details and result would be kept a secret. Since it wasn't his secret to share, Fleur let it go. But he and Cedric were taking about it right before Fleur started her fight, and I could sense a little disappointment in his voice."
"Huh." By now Akira and Krum were back in the stands. Snape was standing on the field, but Harry was nowhere in sight.
"You don't think…" Krum trailed off as there was a disturbance across from the snape. The wind was swirling, turning into a miniature tornado of harshly whipping winds. Then with a flash the winds blasting into the sky, revealing Harry staring down Snape. There was silence from the crowd, before cheering broke out.
"He certainly picked up his master's showmanship qualities," Akira commented as he sat down next to Minerva. "He never would have done that in January."
"Descriptions of his master seem to suggest a lack of flamboyance," the transfiguration mistress commented.
"You would think so," Akira agreed. "He justifies it by saying sometimes a show of power can stop a fight before it starts, but no one knows why he does it. It is a little out of character, but we are all allowed our quirks. For now, I'm just worried Severus forgets that this isn't a real fight." Minerva nodded in agreement.
Harry was calm on the outside as he allowed the wind charm to dissipate above his head. But inside he was still seething. He wouldn't allow it to affect the fight, and he glanced at his watch. Dumbledore had said to show a variety of spells, and then Severus would disarm the student after three minutes of exchanging spells. It would do away with the rumors that Harry was stronger than the staff, which apparently were undermining Severus among some of the more ambitious Slytherins. Harry didn't care much, but after the fight last night he didn't have much of a say in the outcome today.
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The Night Before
"Thank you again for allowing us to borrow your facilities," Dumbledore told the man, who just nodded. "Mr. Potter, this is Damien Etoile, the head of magical research at the EICW." Harry shook the man's hand. "He helped construct the area in which we will do battle tonight. Mr. Etoile, can you please explain how this works?"
"Of course." The man straightened his glasses. "Please direct your attention in front of you." A display popped up in front of Harry. "This display will allow you to choose the area in which you plan to fight. For example, if you would like a wide-open field, you would select like so." Damien waved his hand and Harry saw the screen in front of his change to a grassy field. "You could also choose a well-known location, like muggle London." Another wave of his hand, and Harry saw Trafalgar square, empty of any people.
"Is there a space limit in terms of how wide the area can be?" A voice asked from behind them. Harry turned and his face went wide. He instantly dropped to one knee and crossed his right hand across his chest. To ensure he was correct in his identification, his eyes flicked to the shadow of the new figure, and saw a tiny flicker in the shape.
"I'm sorry?" Dumbledore was stunned by both the appearance of someone he did not know, as well as the reaction of Harry. The fight was to be observed by a member of the EICW who would help craft the final exam, as well as Severus, to review in his pensieve later. No one else should even know about this. "This is a closed demonstration."
"It was," the woman said simply. "I heard about this from Akira Hayashi's father, as protocol dictates and made a call. The EICW were nice enough to agree to allow me to observe. Any formal confrontation between a member of a team I work with and a foreign governing body means that I, or someone from my staff, can be present to ensure no irregularities. As a member of the Mibu Wolves, Harry's presence here as well as your position as Supreme Mugwump means someone needed to be here. As I was interested in the fight, I decided to come personally."
"You have me at a loss," Dumbledore admitted. "You seem to know everything going on, and I do not even know your name." He felt like he had seen a report about the Asian Ministry with the woman's face before, but he didn't remember the specifics, such as the woman's name or her position that allowed her access to this very private demonstration.
"My confirmation was only a month ago, and I have been busy, but I assume the press release would have gone out to the British Wizengamot." The woman glanced at Harry. "By the way Mr. Potter, you may rise." Harry nodded and instantly straightened, staying stock still. "At ease," Harry relaxed. "But if you were not informed, I am Lanfen Zhou. I was formerly the head of Foreign Affairs for the Chinese Ministry of Magic. Recently I was confirmed as the head of Foreign Affairs for the Asian Ministry."
Harry knew that while it sounded like political nonsense, his correct assumption of the woman's identity just ratcheted up the stakes of the fight with Dumbledore. To someone who did not understand how the Asian Ministry worked, it would seen like Lanfen was a random official here to observe the fight. But her appointment to her current position meant that she was quite literally the most important person in the Asian Ministry of Magic.
The Asian Ministry was a parliamentary system, where the party with the majority of votes choosing who led the governing body. However, there were only two parties: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of the Interior. Whoever was chosen to lead the party was usually a good orator and charismatic, but all policy was dictated by the head of the party in charge, and at the moment Foreign Affairs had a majority of the seats. All major policies for the entire Asian Ministry of Magic were made by the woman standing not five feet from him. Any intention of throwing the fight was gone. This was someone Harry wanted to impress.
"Ah," Dumbledore said, and Harry knew that while the titles had an impact on the headmaster, he did not know the significance, and neither did Damien. "Well, Damien can show you the observation area."
"To answer your question, the maximum space the area can stretch to is five square miles." Lanfen nodded in understanding.
"Good luck then, Mr. Potter." Lanfen sauntered off with Damien trailing behind, all eyes on her.
"Well then, now with that settled, shall we discuss the battlefield?"
"I'd be fine with an open field, but that would be a disadvantage to you, with no materials to animate of transfigure. I think a city environment would be a more even fight, as there would be plenty of materials, while I have training in urban combat." Dumbledore nodded in agreement. Then a lightbuld went off in Harry's head. "I have an idea." Harry flicked his hand a few times and the screen showed the intended makeup of the battlefield.
"Quite an interesting idea." Dumbledore chuckled a bit. "Shall we set the parameters to 1 square mile, and start 500 feet away from each other?"
"Sounds good." Harry reached into his bag and pulled out a firework with a W printed on it "This is a Weasley Firework. The neat feature about this one is that is explodes at a random time. I'll toss it when we get in, and when it goes off, we start?" Again Dumbledore agreed, so Harry punched in the final notes, hit confirm, and then walked in the door, Dumbledore right behind him.
It took Harry a second to adjust, but as he observed his surroundings, he was amazed to see that he was actually in a recreation of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. Damien had really created a remarkable piece of magic. He saw Dumbledore in between stalls 500 feet away. Harry drew his wand, mentally reviewing his strategy in his mind. He snapped his fingers and the fuse of the firework was active. He tossed the firework in the air. Silence stretched out over the empty Bazaar as the two combatants raised their wand.
The firework exploded and Harry's magic exploded into his legs, and Harry raced a few rows over, feeling a few spells flying through the space he had been in a second ago. His view of Dumbledore was obscured. He jumped to the top of a nearby stall and was forced to dive wildly across the top of the stall. Harry felt the heat of the fire spell Dumbledore had fired and smiled. The old wizard certainly wasn't pulling any punches at the start.
Harry waved his wand quickly, conjuring a large shield and instantly dashing across a few rooftops as spells impacted his shield, even though Harry was already nowhere close. He leapt and landed right behind Dumbledore, fire coating his arm as he started his right cross. Only inhuman reflexes allowed Harry to jump back and cast a full body shield, catching two powerful impact spells, one from behind him and one from his right.
Dumbledore was grinning wildly as Harry kept his distance, twenty feet away from the Headmaster. He had not even seen Dumbledore cast those spells. It was not like he had seen Dumbledore move at insane speeds. He had seen Dumbledore casting the spells that had hit his conjured shield, and had not lost sight as he closed the distance. Something odd was going on, but attack was still the best strategy.
Harry seemed to blur, his movements seeming to produce multiple Harry's, spread around Dumbledore. The headmaster cast a massive cutter, going in 360 degrees around him. He felt the magic pulse of a shield to his right and hammered the shield with a water summoning spell. But he felt a pulse above him, and he looked up to see Harry launching himself down towards Dumbledore, magic gathered around his leg.
This time Harry was sure he had him. Seismic step would land and would crush Dumbledore's collarbone and the fight would be over before it even-Harry threw up his arms and did his best to quickly summon his magical aura shield but it only dulled the impact of the pillar of earth that smashed into Harry's side. He was able to roll as he smashed into a stall of various curios, diffusing the damage.
Harry instantly created some distance, doing a self-inventory. The ribs on the right side of his ribcage were cracked. It would impact any physical attack from his dominant side. He couldn't continue with this injury as is. Harry dove into his magic and his body began to shake. Harry felt the ribs shift back into place, cracks all gone. He flexed his right arm. All fixed.
Harry hopped back up to the top of the roof, and was instantly confronted by two large lions. It was too easy to vanish them, so Harry's senses were instantly on high alert. A ball of fire appeared around him, but a piercer allowed Harry to dive through the flames before it enclosed him. He was around 75 feet away from Dumbledore.
Everything inside him told him that going spell against spell with the 100+ year old wizard was a bad idea, but until he figured out how Dumbledore was perfectly countering his attempts to land a hit. He knew a few spells Dumbledore wouldn't know, but he could only fire ones that were not secrets, or that needed to be faced more than once to be understood. But for now, he had other options.
He picked the stall next to Dumbledore and reduced it to debris with two blasting curses. Then he banished all the shrapnel at Dumbledore, who simply transformed it into a single ball of clay with a swish of his wand, sending that ball straight at Harry in the same moment. Harry dropped below the ball then jumped backwards landing with a stall in between him and Dumbledore. Harry went prone as he edged around the corner of the stall, firing two spells straight up into the air. Being on the ground, he was forced to shield from Dumbledore's conjured spear, using a dissolving shield to turn the spear into dust.
But apparently Dumbledore was done holding back. Harry's two spells sliced down from the sky, to be devoured by a magical aura shield wrapped around his body. Harry groaned internally. Of course Dumbledore would know how to use a technique he had only recently discovered. It was time to up the ante and start using the spells his master had authorized. As much as Harry wanted to go all out, that could end up with Dumbledore server injured, a result he very much wanted to avoid.
Harry traced a triangle in front of him and a very real triangle raced towards Dumbledore. Harry saw Dumbledore begin to dodge, knowing that Dumbledore had probably seen a memory of his fight with Severus at auror training. But he hadn't even had to show half of what the spell did against such a lousy opponent. Even as Dumbledore danced out of the way, a simple flick of Harry's wand and the triangle banked hard left, smashing across Dumbledore's hastily cast shield.
Harry jerked his wand up and then down, and he saw shield breakers smash into Dumbledore's full body shield. The shield breakers broke the shield, but all the power was gone from the spells and they were absorbed by Dumbledore's aura shield. Dumbledore looked at Harry curiously. He had obviously never seen the spell before. Harry estimated he would only be able to use it once more before Dumbledore figured it out.
Once again he formed the triangle and fired it at Dumbledore, who transfigured a series of golden shields. The triangle soared through the shields as if they weren't there and a surprised Dumbledore in the chest. This time Harry snapped his wand straight down. This time he spoke the follow up spell, aimed at Dumbledore's right shoulder. "Almaznyy Rezak!"
Harry saw the modified diamond cutter, his most dangerous non-lethal spell slice through Dumbledore's shield, only to be met by Dumbledore's wand as he snapped out a counter spell, and Harry had to stop his jaw from dropping to the floor as the counter spell stopped his cutter. That should have been impossible. Not only was the diamond cutter an obscure spell, but he had modified it. No one, not even the world's strongest wizard John Eagle would have been able to analyze the modified spell and create a counter the first time he faced the spell. There were ways to deal with the spell the first time you saw it, but what Dumbledore had just done was impossible.
He really was a genius, Harry concluded as Dumbledore trained his wand on a nearby stall. Well, there was a way he could do the impossible: Specialty magic. Harry berated himself silently for not realizing it earlier. Dumbledore had been using his since the beginning of the fight, since the EICW probably knew at least part of where his strength came from. That must be how he countered the spell. But he had also managed to hit Harry with spells when Harry knew that Dumbledore couldn't even see him and barely sense his presence.
Spells would be pointless. Whatever his specialty magic was, Dumbledore would just neutralize him. There were a few more things Harry could do, but only one that was allowed by his master. Lightning was out, but Harry had one more substitute for specialty magic. He took a more formal stance, his left first fully extended with his right crossed his chest. Dumbledore had conjured a host of animals in the time Harry had been thinking and preparing, and they, along with a host of conjured weapons were feet away when Harry simply disappeared, leaving the weapons hitting only air and a bevy of confused animals.
Dumbledore could only stare in amazement. He hadn't even felt the slightest pulse of magic, and his sensory magic was far beyond basic mastery level. But Harry had just up and vanished. As he searched in vain, his specialty magic, in concert with the power of the elder wand fired two blasting curses into empty space. Then he felt a horrible power coming from behind him.
The spells he had just fired arced towards Dumbledore, but he was quick enough to turn to see Harry, left leg extending towards his face surrounded some kind of green swirling energy, obvious aimed towards cutting through his aura shield. Dumbledore leveled his wand at Harry, a immobilizing spell on his lips, only to see Harry literally yanked upwards a few feet over his head. Dumbledore was totally defenseless, his aura shield would not hold up as Harry's foot descended and broke though the shield, only to be sent flying across the bazaar by the returning blasting spells.
He smashed through more than a few stalls and Dumbledore took a deep breath, looking down at his shoulder. His clothing was burned down to the skin, and there was a slight burn on the skin on his shoulder, which he quickly healed. He had literally defeated Harry by the skin of his teeth. Of course both of them had not been at 100%, but Harry had clearly taken the fight seriously. His first thought was that Harry could have been a little more lethal and had avoided doing so. The 4th year was more dangerous than he was dark…Unbelievable.
Standing in front of him was a totally unharmed Harry Potter. He didn't have a single surface injury despite crashing through at least 10 stalls without an ounce of shielding at a fairly high speed, not to mention the literal impact of the blasting spells on his skin. But he looked like he had just left history of magic, even if he looked more a little tired rather than refreshed from a nap.
"How…" Dumbledore brought his wand up. That kind of recovery power was unnatural, even for a wizard. Tom was such a tough fight because of his recovery power and his abnormal speed when recovering magical power. But what Harry was showing was miles beyond that. There wasn't a scratch on him.
"Ok," Harry said with a harsh grin. "No more playing around." He began to whip his wand around his head, and Dumbledore animated two large pots to stand in front of him, on guard against any attack. His eyes widened as a myriad of colors began to collect above Harry, forming slowing into a giant dragon's head.
Harry jerked his wand down and the dragon roared and smashed down towards Dumbledore. A tiny flick of Dumbledore's wand enlarged the two pots and he sent them to either side of the dragon, smashing them into his head, only to see the pots slide through the magical construct. He hastily conjured a magical shield, and the dragon's head smashed against it, cracking the shield. With a second to think, Dumbledore snapped his wand out and the flame whip came from his wand, rolling around the dragon's neck and tearing it to pieces. To Dumbledore's surprise, the magical construct simply turned to two smaller dragon heads. He saw Harry moving his wand quickly and the dragon heads came at him from both sides. Dumbledore sent a wave of magic out, banishing the dragon heads. Once again, his eyes widened as the two dragon heads became four.
Harry was concentrating only on the dragon heads. Four was the most he could control at one time, and he had them dancing and twirling around the old wizard, a terrifying dance of magic, impossible to follow with the flashing colors and speed of the dragons. Dumbledore was forced to conjure a golden magical shield, and saw as the dragons pulled back, starting to circle each other. Harry's wand was a blur as the dragon merged together into a spinning four headed monstrosity, sending the beast towards Dumbledore.
No shield would stop the dragon. Dumbledore would be forced to meet it head on, and Harry poured magic into his construct. Dumbledore dropped the shield and Harry watches as he shot two spells. The first hit his dragon in the head and forced it to rear up, and the second seemed to pierce through the dragons, and Harry was forced to jump to the side. His concentration gone, the dragon simply faded away.
Harry gnashed his teeth in frustration. He had been focused on the complex magic that he had simply forgotten that Dumbledore's magic seemed to be telling him how to answer his attacks. He was low on magic now, so there was point in doing something unfamiliar in the hope Dumbledore would be confused. Harry raised his wand, and all of the debris around them rose into the air. This would not be an all or nothing attack, but it was time to really push the envelope. It was clear he would not win a battle of attrition. He could tell Dumbledore was still full to the brim on magical power.
Dumbledore saw the debris rising around him. As the rubble zoomed towards him, he cast a layer of magical shields, while also summoning the remains of a nearby stall and wrapping himself in a cocoon. Although he could see, he felt the magically infused pieces impact on his magical shield, while the normal pieces slipped through the magic but were unable to penetrate the layered physical shield around him. He allowed his shields to drop, and saw Harry was now panting.
Harry's occlumency kept his face impassive. Dumbledore had taken everything he had thrown at him, but the old man barely attacked. To be fair, transfiguration was not the best art for attacking. But after a few deep breaths, Harry was ready to throw caution to the winds. Looking over his attacks, he had never truly committed to one thing. There was an element of doubt since the beginning of the fight, not wanting to get knocked out without seeing what Dumbledore was capable of. But now was time to give it one last shot.
Dumbledore watched as his 4th year student slowed his breathing. Everything in his magic screamed to be ready, that this would be Harry's last attack. It was almost guaranteed to be some form of magical martial arts. As impressive as Harry's spell arsenal had been, he was clearly uncomfortable fighting at a distance. Harry slipping his wand into his holster only reinforced the idea. He would fight up close. Dumbledore allowed his magical aura shield to flare out. Harry's speed meant that his best chance would be for his shield to slow down Harry enough for him to counter. But he did not need to let Harry build up power unbothered.
Harry saw the ruins around him become metal chains, swinging towards him. He simply stepped to the side and jumped as the chains instantly changed direction, heading towards his midriff. The chains didn't follow him up, completing a revolution around his opponent. It was a simple flick of Harry's wand to send the chains off course, and he sensed Dumbledore a little off balance. Rather than rushing in head first, Harry put his head down and began to run. Not at Dumbledore, but rather around him, increasing speed with every revolution.
Dumbledore shot a few single impact spells but saw them all miss. Eventually he fired a flame spell out all around him, but somehow Harry managed to outrun something all around him, bursting through a weak spot in the flames. Then with a hard right turn he headed at Dumbledore, who was ready for him, a bevy of spells on his lips as Harry stared down his wand.
Dumbledore saw his spells simply fly through Harry, and realized his mistake too late. His magic had been fooled by Harry's illusion, as he had filled it with killing intent and magic. He sensed rather than saw Harry jumping behind him all his remaining magic gathered in his fist. Dumbledore through up a few non-verbal shields but Harry smashed through all of them, and Dumbledore braced for contact.
When the contact came Dumbledore stumbled back. Harry had hit him, but there was barely any power behind it. He turned and saw Harry jump back, staring at his fist. His magic was flickering around his fist, and then it simply went out. Harry sighed, staring at Dumbledore. Then he shrugged and started laughing. Dumbledore laughed along with him. It was such an odd end to their fight they couldn't help but laugh.
"All of that, and I run out of magic the moment I hit you. I give up," Harry said, sliding to the floor. "I'm all tapped out. I have to give it to you Headmaster. You beat me fair and square."
"You had me at that last moment," Dumbledore responded.
"And had to burn through most of my magic to get that close," Harry explained. "Besides, I don't think I fully healed myself after that attack you hit me early with. Hopefully someone thought to bring a healer. I think I have some broken bones." Harry turned and saw a few people coming in, and hobbled over to the man in white robes.
"Good thing I thought ahead," Lanfen said, directing a new person to Harry's side. The person cast a few diagnostic spells, before looking Harry over critically. They started to chide him in a language Dumbledore didn't recognize. Though the fact Harry could respond suggested it was Japanese. "Well, I'm happy I came personally. This certainly was not a fight to miss. I have to admit I did not expect you to come out on top, not in such a way."
"It was a close fought thing," Dumbledore said. "Do you know much about what is going on with the tri-wizard tournament…Foreign Minister Zhou?"
"Only the basics. I understand this was done with the intent of gauging Harry's power to design a proper task." Lanfen asserted.
"Yes." Dumbledore confirmed. "I fear that his level is far beyond the other competitors. Much thought will have to go into how to fashion a task that is challenging to Mr. Potter while not endangering the safety of the other contestants. We have already come perilously close to the death of our champions, and if not for Mr. Potter's and Professor Hayashi's continuous intervention, we might indeed be down a champion or two. Professor Hayashi will be missed, and I truly hope Harry does not follow him to Mahoutokoro."
"Answer honestly," Lanfen cut of Dumbledore. "Do you truly think, after what you just witnessed, that school can teach that boy anything anymore?" Dumbledore stayed silent, not wanting to say out loud what was clear to all his teachers by this point. If he had not been in the tournament, Harry would not have returned to Hogwarts in February, and it would take a miracle on par with his first defeat of the dark lord to have Harry boarding the Hogwarts express on September first to start his O.W.L. year.
-O-O-O-O-O-O-O—O-O-O—O-O-O—O-O-O-
His mood could only be described as frustrated as he relived the fight over and over, but he wouldn't allow it to affect the fight, and he glanced at his watch. The old man lived up to his billing, but that didn't make the defeat any less galling. Dumbledore had said to show a variety of spells, and then Severus would disarm the student after a few minutes of exchanging spells. It would do away with the rumors that Harry was stronger than the staff, which apparently were undermining Severus among some of the more ambitious Slytherins. Harry wasn't a fan of the plan, but after the fight last night he didn't have much of a say in the outcome today.
He gave Snape the respect of a full bow and started snapping spells off, enough to keep the professor uncomfortable. It was actually taxing to keep Snape at bay. He was still not fully recovered from his fight the night before. It had not even been 12 hours since the end of the fight, and since he had been entirely drained his magical power recovery was slowed. He had only started to regain strength a few hours ago, and he did not fancy emptying the tank to just show Snape up when he agreed to lose.
Harry could tell the potions master was frustrated to be entirely on the back foot, and then enraged when he realized Harry had not moved a step from his position since the duel started as they exchanged spells. A ripple went through the crowd as the more observant students realized that while Snape was often forced to throw himself out of the way of spells, Harry's only movement was an occasional pivot.
Finally Harry felt like it had gone on long enough and as agreed sent a few blasting spells wide of the target. That would be cue for Snape to disarm him, but Harry saw the look on the ex-Death Eaters face and conjured a metal shield that creaked under the weight of a spell that was certainly not a disarming spell. In fact, it was a spell Harry did not recognize. He frowned at the look of fury on Snape's face. If he was going to act like a child, Harry had no intention of indulging him.
The wind that had heralded the arrival of Harry onto the field battle whirled around the quidditch stadium, and when the wind died Harry was simply gone. No crackle of lightning or afterimage, just present one moment and gone the next.
"Albus, tell me that spell was not what I think it was," Minerva hissed at him. Dumbledore sighed at the tone of her voice. Why was it that all the days where Dumbledore wished he stayed in bed revolved around Harry Potter?
