Chapter 13 – Doubles Trouble
The next day, after both of their losses in the semi-final of the duelling tournament, Tracey asked Harry to be her partner for the paired tournament to be held over the next week.
"I'm really good at defence," said Tracey after she caught Harry just before he left the Common Room to meet with Madam Hooch, "but not that good with, you know, attacking. But you're really good at jinxes and hexes and, erm, well… just with the Mirror Charm you're…"
"Shit?" offered Harry.
"Well, I wasn't going to go that far," said Tracey, "because you have got a lot better, but I just thought that we would make a good team, that's all. And I know Blaise isn't interested in the paired competition so it would be nice if we could do that together, wouldn't it? If you don't want to…"
Harry shook his head. Tracey's offer did make a lot of sense. He'd got better with the Mirror Charm, but better still wasn't good, and he needed a partner for the doubles competition anyway. Tracey's defensive prowess seemed like just the thing Harry needed to complement his own abilities.
"No, I think it's a great idea!" he said. "I did want to do the pairs but wasn't sure I could find a partner... So let's do it."
"Ooh, brilliant!" said Tracey. She drew Harry into a hug.
"I've got a place in the dungeons where I like practise," said Harry. "I'll have to show it to you later, though—I'm going to be late to meet Hooch if I stay much longer. See you later?"
"See you later," said Tracey. "I've got to go meet Millie and Daph anyway—we're going over the Alchemy homework to get it out of the way! Good luck with Hooch, though."
Harry thanked her and then left the dungeons, heading towards Hooch's little office. He didn't think the meeting was anything bad – he knew he'd qualified for all of the events he'd tried for, whether in the free or standardised competitions – but that didn't stop a kernel of worry from forming. But he was obviously Hogwarts's best chance at success in the frees given his Firebolt, so Harry supposed it could always be worse. One less thing to worry about.
Just as Harry arrived at Hooch's office, the Weasley twins were leaving it, great big smiles plastered over their faces. They nodded to Harry as they walked past but didn't stop to talk – which was fine with him. The Weasley twins were unpredictable at the best of times, and even though Fred had been quite jovial after Harry had beaten him in the duelling, Harry was still wary of some sort of retaliation.
Once the twins were gone, Harry knocked the door and waited for Hooch to call him inside.
"Come on in," said Hooch. "We haven't got all day!"
Harry slipped inside the little office and closed the door behind him.
"Ah, Potter!" said Hooch. "Wonderful, just the lad I was hoping to see. It's nothing bad, so don't you worry about that, but we have some administrative business to get through. Yes, I'm not exactly thrilled about it either," said Hooch when she noticed Harry's expression. "But there we are. Now, you've qualified for all the events you tried out for—well done—but I don't want to put you through for all of them. It's not a slight on your skill—it's just we've got a lot of qualifying students and not that many places in the competition. Although, if you're willing, I do want you flying in all the frees. That Firebolt of yours is our best broom in the competition, and with you flying it we should have a good go at the win."
Harry hadn't expected to fly in every event of the competition. Not that he wouldn't have given it a go, but it seemed like a bit much, especially with the duelling to think about. A handful of events seemed much more manageable. He just had to pick which ones.
"I wanted to do at least one of the standardised flying competitions," said Harry. "Er, I'd thought maybe the relay or the speed racing? But I'll fly in the marathon, speed, and hazards for the frees." He paused. "But I do really want to do at least one of the standardised ones. If that's okay."
"I'll put you in for the standard relay," said Hooch after a few moments. "And three of the frees, if you're sure you're up to it. I think that you are, but it is up to you in the end. We'll have you in the standard relay, but not the free. That seems fair."
Harry paused to think about it. The loss of his Firebolt in the free relay would hit Hogwarts quite hard, but it left open the opportunity to do the free speed, hazard, or marathon...
"I'm really happy with that," Harry said. "I think I can do that. If you don't mind saying, who else is in the frees?"
"We've got a few on Nimbus 2000s, one on that new Whitestar model, and a couple on 2001s, but you're the only Firebolt on our side," said Hooch. "I've heard chat of at least one of the Beauxbatons lot having a Firebolt, but I've not been able to substantiate that… And there's bound to be at least one with a Hayami of some sort." Harry had meant the people rather than the brooms they were riding, but Hooch seemed to consider that and added, "On our side, Montague, Malfoy, Diggory… a few others. You'll find out when I post the list. For the other schools we'll all have to wait until Hallowe'en. Now, if that's all, I've got to fill in the parchmentwork for all this. God, it's going to take me hours…" she said with a heavy sigh and a glance at the stacks of parchment littering her desk.
"Thank you, Madam Hooch!" said Harry. He left the office feeling quite pleased with his choices.
Harry wanted to get on with practising for the doubles with Tracey, but she had plans to do homework with Daphne and Millicent, so Harry headed back to the Common Room to find Theodore. Theodore, who hadn't signed up for any of the Triwizard events, could – unique amongst Harry's friends – be counted to be where he usually was.
Harry found Theodore tucked away in an alcove in the Slytherin Common Room surrounded by stacks of parchment and his school textbooks. He looked up when Harry arrived but didn't say anything.
"I qualified for the flying," Harry said once he'd cleared a chair of books and sat down. "All eight events, but Hooch said it would be better not to do them all, so I chose four of them. Three of the frees, and one of the standards, just because… well, you know."
Theodore nodded slowly.
"Well done, Harry. I'm sure you'll do well. Draco was saying he's qualified for a bunch, too. He's over there with Pansy and the rest of them," said Theodore with a little glance over at where Draco sat surrounded by his little gang of underlings. "He asked me to join them, but I said I had work to do…" Theodore paused, then continued in a low whisper. "He's been an arse since last night when he won the duelling."
"Ugh, don't remind me," said Harry. Draco was always at least a bit of an arse, but he'd been especially smug since his win the night before. "How has he even managed to get so good at transfiguration, anyway? He wasn't bad last year, right, but that snake… That's loads more than we've done in classes."
"He must have been practising," said Theodore. "And you managed those bees, didn't you? I haven't tried anything like that, especially not in the middle of a duel."
"It's not the same," muttered Harry. Of course, Harry thought bees might have been – technically – more complicated than snakes, but the size of the snake had been something else... "I reckon he's had some help from an upper year."
"So what if he has?" said Theodore. "I don't think it's against the rules. I'm sure one of them would give you some tips, if you asked them, anyway. I think Draco's just been practising really hard—you know how he's been. Whenever he's not been out flying, he's been off somewhere on his own. We've barely seen him since we got back to school—not that that's a problem."
"Yeah. Yeah, you're probably right," Harry said, although he wasn't quite convinced. He decided to change the topic. "What are you doing, anyway?"
"I was doing the Alchemy homework, then I realised there was a bit I read in the arithmancy book that was useful, and then I remembered something Flitwick said, so… I had to redo everything," explained Theodore. "Started the whole thing over on a new sheaf."
"Er, do you mind if I have a look? I'm about half done with my Alchemy homework but I've not done anything like that," said Harry. "I won't copy, just…"
"Go ahead," said Theodore.
"Nice one!" said Harry. "I'll be back in a minute—just going to get my stuff!"
Harry left Theodore to go and grab his school things, and then when he returned, went over the Alchemy homework with him. The other boy's insights gave Harry quite a lot of content to add and work into his own homework, so Harry spent the rest of the afternoon doing his homework with Theodore.
Harry had wanted to go and do duelling practise with Tracey, but she hadn't come back from the library with Daphne and Millicent, and the homework did need to be done, so it wasn't a total loss.
Harry didn't get a chance to practise for the paired duelling with Tracey until the next day, but after breakfast he brought her to his dungeon practise room to start work. Paired duelling was all about synchronicity and complementary actions, and that would take a lot of work.
"How do you think we should do this?" Harry asked, leaning his chair against the dungeon wall. "I was thinking that we need to figure out how to stand—I know it sounds simple but we need to get everything right and if we're standing in the wrong places I reckon our whole strategy will go to shit. I even read in that duelling circular that bad footwork can lose a duel."
"No, I think that's the right way of looking at it," agreed Tracey. "I'll stand in front of you, so I can catch any jinxes, but you'll still have to watch out for other things because the Mirror Charm won't work for everything, will it? I think I can try to take on most of the spellfire though, you know, tempt them enough to ignore you. And I'm good at dodging and jumping out of the way."
"You are, actually," Harry said. "How'd you learn that?"
Tracey flushed red.
"I auditioned for WADA, but they didn't take me," she said. "It was a load of dancing and singing and stuff like that—I used to practise all the time and I can still do some of it… It's never been useful until now, to be honest."
"Oh," said Harry. "That makes sense, actually. Well, fair enough. I think that would work, too. I'll still have to be wary of hexes, but if you can draw most of the fire, we should be able to do it. Who do you think is doing Flitwick's doubles tournament?
"Well, not Draco," said Tracey. "He doesn't have a partner and honestly I think he thinks it's beneath him. Blaise is the same, mind, so it's not just Draco being a shit. Erm, I don't reckon we'll see Granger in it, either. But I think those Weasley twins are in it together, and I know Ernie and Susan are trying for it, too. I heard Katie Bell talking with the other girl from the Gryffindor team, Alicia I think her name is," continued Tracey. "So all of them, at least."
"Why d'you think Granger won't be trying? It seems like she'd want every chance possible in the competition."
"Oh, um, well," said Tracey, "I don't like to gossip, you know me, but… she doesn't have any friends."
"Still?" asked Harry. "I thought she was mates with Longbottom."
Tracey shrugged.
"She was, I think, but he's friends with those boys now—the Irish one and the other Weasley, you know, those ones. Anyway, she spends all her time in the library—Florence said Granger's always there when she goes in, and Florence goes in there to hide from Pansy a lot, so…"
Harry nodded. That did make sense. He felt bad for even thinking it, but Granger was a nightmare to be around, so hearing she didn't have any friends was perhaps the least surprising thing he'd heard all year.
"Shall we try out some manoeuvres, then?" asked Harry. "I think we should start with the paired spell sequences—you need good timing for those so we'll need loads of practise. And we can see how our positioning is, too."
"Yep! Let's go!" said Tracey.
The two of them spent the rest of the morning working on the few paired spell sequences Flitwick had shown them and demonstrated with Professor Snape. It was tough going at first, as they each had their own rhythm and general flow when it came to spellcasting, but Harry thought that by the end of their session, they'd done quite well. Well enough to walk into the coming Tuesday session of Duelling Club with a bit of confidence, anyway.
"So hungry… Don't want to wait…" Harry heard as the pair of young Slytherins were resting before getting ready to go to lunch. "Too long…"
"Ugh," groaned Harry. "That guy's been doing my head in for ages now," he said. "Can you hear him? He's always shouting like that! He's a bloody nuisance."
Tracey looked at him as if he'd grown an extra head.
"Hear who? I didn't hear anyone."
"Really?" asked Harry. "Are you sure? I've been hearing him since I got down here, in bits and pieces anyway. He's always bloody hungry, and he shouts about it. I reckon he's somewhere near, maybe underneath this room."
Tracey shook her head.
"I haven't heard anyone. But, maybe your hearing is just better than mine?" she suggested. She paused to listen. "No, nothing. Well, I can hear the pipes—they're always rattling aren't they? But I can't hear anyone shouting. Not that I think you didn't, I just don't hear anything. Anyway, shall we get to lunch?"
Harry nodded. He didn't understand why Tracey wouldn't have heard the other person shouting about being hungry, but maybe he really did have better hearing than Tracey. Stranger things had happened, after all.
They went to lunch and after that didn't bother to go back to practising. They'd spent enough of the morning at it, and Harry wanted to go flying, anyway. So Harry spent his afternoon up in the air, and forgot all about strange noises in the dungeons.
At Tuesday's session of Duelling Club Flitwick had all the hopeful doubles competitors sort into their pairs, and drilled them in the basics of paired duelling, as they'd mainly focused on the singles up until that point. The overall feel and flow of paired duels was different enough that Harry was glad to have had the extra bit of instruction.
Harry thought he and Tracey performed quite well. Well enough that Harry thought they had a chance at progression to the Pariturium, anyway. He did think the Weasleys were the pair to watch for Flitwick's tournament on the very last Tuesday session of the Duelling Club before the Tournament began, though. They were tricky and worked better together than any of the other pairs.
When the last Tuesday before the Tournament came, Harry was itching to go. He and Tracey had spent near enough every spare moment practising for Flitwick's selection tournament, so Harry felt like they had a good chance. Even if they didn't win, Harry thought they were a definite shoe-in for selection, anyway.
After a quick look at the fixtures board Harry realised he and Tracey's first duel was the very second duel of the night.
"We've not got long to wait, look," Harry said, nudging Tracey. "Second match."
"I'm glad to see that, to be honest," Tracey said. "At least we haven't got to wait ages and ages. And we're definitely going to win because we're up against Finnegan and Thomas."
Harry wouldn't have been quite so blasé about it, but he thought so too.
"Settle down, settle down!" called Flitwick to the rowdy students – and staff – in the Great Hall. As the last of Flitwick's qualifying events, the Novices' tournament was well attended although not quite as full as the Juniors' had been. Harry didn't mind that overly much – the standard of duelling wasn't as good, and if he'd been a spectator he'd have preferred the Juniors' event, too. "This is the very last chance for our Novice hopefuls to show off their skills and win themselves a place in the Pariturium. As we are all more than familiar with the process by now I shall not dally with endless explanation—we shall get right down to it. As with the previous events we've held the second and third year Novices who have signed up will face off amongst each other in a simple knock-out tournament until one pair is crowned the winner. We have eight brave pairs, all of whom have agreed to participate, so let us see how will win! Now, without further delay, let us begin!"
Flitwick called up the first pairs to duel – Katie Bell and Pippa Dawlish, another Gryffindor, against Eddie Carmichael and Marcus Belby – and Harry settled in to watch. They were all third years, which meant they had a few more spells in their arsenal than the second years did – although Harry did think the second years had put up a good enough fight.
But the third years had much more practise with transfiguration and more advanced charms, so Harry supposed they were a little showier. Dawlish and Bell beat Belby and Carmichael and, after a brief explanation of why, Flitwick called up the next duellists.
"Next up to duel are Harry Potter and Tracey Davis of Slytherin, and Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan of Gryffindor," Flitwick said. "Please ascend to the stage now, if you would."
Harry didn't waste any time. He'd got used to performing in front of a crowd by then, which was good considering the Pariturium would be held in front of vastly more people, so he didn't even worry about tripping and making a tit of himself anymore. Well, mostly, anyway.
Harry and Tracey arranged themselves on the stage in front of Thomas and Finnegan. Harry made sure his feet were in the right places, and held his wand just so, and then took a glance at Tracey to make sure she was doing the same. Then, while Harry waited for Flitwick to count them in, he had a look over his opponents.
Footwork looks poor, Harry noted. The two boys didn't appear to be standing in the right places for a typical doubles strategy – they simply stood next to one another. Thomas looked like he was attempting a basic duelling stance, but Finnegan didn't seem to have bothered.
"On my count," said Flitwick. Harry waited for the count to end, dipped into a bow, and then took one step backwards.
He and Tracey had practised this, both on their own and in Flitwick's doubles prep session. Tracey would stick out and make herself look like an appealing target, and Harry would try to look like he was hiding. If they took the bait and went for Harry, Tracey could deflect spells with her Mirror Charms. If they didn't, she could do that anyway. It was a solid technique. Harry had read about it more than once. The only problem was that they weren't quite sure how well they could pull it off in a proper duel.
That's what this is for, I suppose, Harry thought.
For the first few seconds, nobody moved or said anything. Finnegan and Thomas seemed content to wait for Harry and Tracey to make the first move. Harry glanced at Tracey and nodded.
She stepped forward and cast a Tickling Charm at Finnegan. He deflected it with a clumsy Mirror Charm. While Finnegan dealt with that Thomas cast a spell of his own.
"Petrificus totalus!" he said, voice unsteady.
Harry took a second to judge whether he had to move or not, but then stayed put – he had to trust in Tracey, trust that their strategy would work, or there was no point in it. Quick as a flash Tracey stepped left and caught the jinx with her Mirror Charm, sending it near enough right back at Thomas.
Thomas jumped out of the way.
Loss of points for style, Harry thought. Good. And it broke the other boy's flow enough that Harry felt confident in a follow up. He'd practised a lot with the Pimple Jinx combo, so he dropped into it, aimed it right at the retreating Thomas. Harry moved his wand through the sideways U of the Pimple Jinx, then spoke the incantation for the spell.
"Furnunculus!" said Harry. He followed it up with the sharp jab of the Stinging Jinx, which hit Thomas square on forehead, then pressed on with a Knockback. "Flippendo!"
The Knockback Hex caught Thomas on the knee and sent him staggering back further, which was more or less what Harry had wanted. Harry nodded to himself. Their strategy was working – Tracey was even peppering Finnegan with a series of annoying little Nudging Charms.
Not all of them hit, but as Finnegan had to jump to avoid some, that was still a positive sign.
What to do next? Harry wondered. He kept position just behind Tracey and mulled over his options. Their strategy was to allow Harry to do all of the more offensive manoeuvres, as Tracey wasn't particularly good with jinxes. But there were so many to choose from Harry almost couldn't decide.
Bees, he decided. That little transfiguration trick was more than the second years could reliably handle, and if he aimed it just right...
Harry took a deep breath and conjured a small swarm of bees directly between Finnegan and Thomas. Immediately both boys shot off in different directions, all thoughts about points for style lost to the aether. Finnegan waved his arms about in the air uselessly, swatting at bees only to make them ever angrier.
Thomas fared a little better, at least to Harry's eye – he was at least using his wand. But the bees worked and allowed Tracey to catch both boys with quick little Colour-Change Charms to their sport robes.
In a split second decision Harry chose his next move.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry said with a sharp jab of his wand at Thomas. He'd Disarmed the boy before, so he knew he could do it. If he could remove Thomas from the duel Finnegan would be child's play.
The scarlet light hit Thomas, who was still trying to vanish the bees to little success, and sent the Gryffindor boy's wand flying. Thomas shuffled off the stage awkwardly in search of his wand, and Harry focused his attention to their remaining opponent.
One down, Harry thought. He tapped Tracey with his spare hand, their signal for when he thought they could end the duel. Harry knew he could have disarmed Finnegan, but they'd agreed to let Tracey give it a go at least once.
She didn't try it right away. Instead, she hit out with a series of minor jinxes.
"Tarantallegra!" she said, although it went wide. She tried a Leg-Locker after that, which Finnegan deflected with a Mirror Charm. "Locomotor wibbly!"
The Jelly-Legs Jinx hit Finnegan on the hand, and he soon started to sway and wobble.
"Yes!" Harry heard Tracey say. Well, that was fair enough – she'd had trouble with the Jelly-Legs during Duelling Club sessions.
She didn't wait around.
"Expelliarmus!" she said while Finnegan wobbled across the stage. The Disarming Charm hit and the boy's wand went clattering to the floor, and Flitwick concluded the duel.
"The bout goes to Harry Potter and Tracey Davis!" Flitwick said. "Commiserations to Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan. Come over here, lads, and we'll get you sorted out..."
Harry and Tracey returned to the competitors' place on the far side of the stage to watch the next few bouts and wait until their next one.
"That was great!" Tracey said while they waited for the next duel to begin. "I didn't think I was going to disarm him, but I managed it! I'm so happy with that."
"Me, too," Harry said. "You were great with those Nudging Charms—if we hadn't got them disarmed we'd have won on points."
"Definitely," agreed Tracey. "I mean, Finnegan and Thomas weren't proper competition, but... well... it was still nice to win, wasn't it?"
Harry nodded. After that it was a while to their next duel, the semi-finals – against fellow second years Kevin Entwhistle and Lily Moon – which they won although it did drag on until near the end. Entwhistle was a bugger with charms, and he and Moon had clearly studied duelling strategies at least as well as Harry and Tracey had. In the end it hadn't been enough, but Harry was still pretty impressed by their opponents' performance.
The final round of Flitwick's little tournament saw Harry and Tracey face off against the Weasley twins.
"This'll be hard," Harry murmured to Tracey as they climbed onto the stage. The Weasley twins had all the advantages of being twin brothers who knew each other better than anyone, and an extra year's education to boot. Still, Harry thought he and Tracey stood a good chance if they could get past the twins' weird tricks.
"We can do it!" Tracey said, although she didn't sound convinced.
"On my count," cautioned Flitwick, and Harry moved his attention to the twins. He bowed, then got ready with a Mirror Charm. His and Tracey's usual strategy might not work against the chaos of the twins, so they'd agreed to try something a little bit different.
The twins didn't hang about. One of them – George, perhaps – conjured confetti all over Harry and Tracey. The other one – Fred, Harry decided – followed it up with glitter. While Harry found himself dusted with confetti and glitter, a foul smell filled the air around him.
A bloody Fart Charm, Harry thought. At least the Weasleys were true to form.
"Furnunculus!" Harry said, stepping through the glitterbomb to cast a Pimple Jinx. The Weasley Harry was calling George met it with a Mirror Charm and sent the jinx careening into the Great Hall wall. Fred Weasley struck Harry with a Colour-Change Charm while he was distracted.
Shit, Harry thought. He couldn't even blame Tracey for the hit, since a Mirror Charm couldn't do a thing against a bloody charm. Instead, Tracey was working on sending a flurry of Nudging Charms over at the twins. Several of them hit, but both Fred and George were nimble, and clearly adept at dodging. Harry conjured some bees around Fred while Tracey got to work, then cast a little wind to get rid of the swirling clouds of glitter and confetti.
But not even the bees gave them much time. George vanished the bees easy as that, which Harry was surprised at, as the Weasley twins weren't notorious for their academic prowess. Harry ducked to avoid Fred's Insect Jinx and then hit out with a Knockback Hex.
It missed.
For fuck's sake... Harry thought.
Fred cast more confetti and sent it swirling around little a little tornado while George added to it with glitter once again.
What's the point in this? Harry wondered. They'd win points for style, Harry supposed, but it was just annoying rather than anything else. Fart Charms, Colour-Changes, Nudging Charms and all the rest were of little use. Why not do a Jelly-Legs, or a Body-Bind, or ... something more aggressive?
Next to Harry, Tracey retched. Another Fart Charm, Harry assumed. The twins seemed content to just play about, dodging and dancing and casting silly charms, which meant Harry and Tracey would need to launch an all-out offensive.
"Try a Stickfast," Harry murmured. It was one of the more difficult spells they'd tried out, but Tracey had taken to it better than Harry, and if they could stick one of the twins to the stage...
Tracey nodded and tried it out. She spent precious moments working through the spell and in the end, it didn't work. George just moved out of the way. Almost before Tracey was finished with her Stickfast Hex Fred conjured ice right underneath Harry and Tracey. Fortunately for Harry, one of his feet was off the ice.
I'm fine if I don't move, Harry thought. Easier said than done, but he planted his feet firmly in place, keeping his free foot on the ground. Tracey fared a little worse – already having to dodge George's Knockback Hex, her feet were moving, and the ice made it tricky to keep her footing. She stumbled and Harry had to grab her to stop her from falling.
While Harry and Tracey fought with the ice, Fred and George conjured another glitterbomb. Confetti and glitter swirled all around, a great big mess that whipped up and around and around and around.
"Thanks," muttered Tracey. "This is really hard! They won't stay still." She knocked back a jinx with a well-placed Mirror Charm.
"I know," Harry said. "Let's get rid of this ice..."
Of course, he couldn't vanish it, as he'd had little luck with that, but he cast a little fire at it to melt it at least.
Harry sent his sonic boom and flash bang at the twins while he thought about what to do. They couldn't keep on like that, as eventually the twins would win on points. He had to try getting their wands away from them, which meant hitting them with a Disarming Charm. Or a Stinging Jinx right to the fingers, he supposed. Perhaps something like that could work, too. Tracey wouldn't be of much help there, as her jinxes lacked bite. But if she could keep the pressure off...
"Soak up their nastier spells for me, if you can," Harry said, leaning closer to Tracey. "I'm going to try and disarm. We can't win otherwise."
"Alright," Tracey said. "Let's try."
Tracey took up a blocking stance in front of Harry, and Harry turned his full attention towards the twins. Fred was the weaker duellist, Harry thought, so he started there. Harry peered through the glitter storm and waited for his opportunity.
Harry sent over a flurry of jinxes and minor spells – Jelly-Legs, Tickling Charms, things like that – to distract Fred, and then finally, when he thought Fred had relaxed a bit, a Disarming Charm.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry said while Fred was looking away. The Disarming Charm hit Fred right on the ear and his wand twitched out of his hand, knocking him out of the duel.
Thank God, Harry thought. Just George to go.
Unfortunately the loss of Fred seemed to light a fire under the remaining Weasley, who switched from his silly tactics into something a bit more serious. Harry jumped out of the way of a nasty-looking hex while Tracey tried Knockback after Knockback to break the remaining Weasley's onslaught.
None of them worked. The only one of Tracey's spells to hit did nothing more than make Weasley shift his footing, and he continued, pressing on with spells Harry thought for sure were on the fourth year syllabus.
If he'd known how George would react, Harry would have gone for him first.
While Harry ducked out of the way of Hurling Hex, George was already working on his next spell.
"Expelliarmus!" George shouted. He hit Tracey right on the forehead, and that was it – her wand went flying out of hand, leaving Harry alone in the duel.
Harry knew he couldn't afford to wait. He launched a series of Disarming Charms at the remaining Weasley – directly at him, to the left, to the right – in the hopes that one would hit. None of them did.
Frustrated, Harry sent out a Confundus, which caught George on the torso. Stunned and confused, George paused mid-movement, and Harry knew he'd carved out an opportunity.
Perhaps his only opportunity.
"Expelliarmus!" said Harry. He caught Weasley, still standing slack-jawed and disoriented, and then dropped his wand.
Harry let out a breath.
They'd won. It might not have been pretty, or neat, but it was a win, and at least he hadn't had a repeat of losing to bloody Draco.
"A rather colourful duel," Flitwick said once it was all over, "but in the end, Harry Potter and Tracey Davis win. And that concludes our tournament—well done to our winners. And well done, too, to our runners-up and all our other participants! A round of applause for our winners, please!"
Harry – and Tracey off to the side – stood there on the stage to receive their applause. It was a good feeling, Harry decided. He'd never been overly fond of being the centre of attention, but being stood there in front of the school... It was nice. Glory for... for all that stuff with Voldemort was what it was. It was something Harry didn't want, had never wanted.
But after winning a duel? Winning a duelling tournament, as small at it was? Something altogether different. That was glory. That was what Harry wanted.
"What a treat we've had tonight!" Flitwick said after the applause died down. "Now, get ready for dinner everyone—after such a display I'm sure we've all worked up quite the appetite!"
Flitwick sent everyone away, and Harry joined his friends on their way to the dungeons.
"Well done, both of you!" said Daphne. "That was so good—I'm so happy you won. Those Weasley twins were really good."
"Really silly, you mean," Blaise said. "God, those spells they were using..."
"I thought that too," Harry said, "but it's actually really annoying to fight against. Like, really annoying."
"But that's the point, of course," said Tracey. "It gets you so frustrated you forget where you are and then... well... they can disarm you. They know what they're doing."
"Well, you two won, anyway. So that's something, at least," Blaise said.
"True," said Tracey. "Thanks for all the support!"
That was the last Duelling Club prior to the Tournament itself, and it was then just an agonising wait for Flitwick to post the selections list on the very last Friday before Hallowe'en—and the day on which the delegations from the other schools were to arrive at Hogwarts.
Flitwick left it right up until lunch, when it was announced that the selections lists could be viewed outside Flitwick's office within the Charms department. Naturally, all of the relevant students—and a good few others besides—immediately made their way to look at it, Harry included.
It took Harry a while to get to the front of the crowd, as many people whose names literally couldn't be on the list because they hadn't tried out were in the way, but when he eventually got to the front and saw the list, he wasn't disappointed.
"Singles duelling selections, Novice category, second year," Harry muttered as he scanned the long sheet of parchment stuck outside Flitwick's door. He made note of his fellow competitors as he did, of course—Draco had secured himself a spot, as had Blaise and Susan as well as Granger—until he found his own name written in Flitwick's favourite ink: Harry Potter. "Brilliant!" he said.
There was another section of the list for competitors for the third year group of the Novice singles but Harry wasn't that interested in those selections, as he wouldn't be facing any of them, so he elbowed his way into the mass of students looking at the paired selections.
"Bit gutted about the singles," said Tracey, "but we got in on the pairs!" said Tracey, beaming. "Ooh, I knew we could do it! Especially after we won the tournament! I've got to tell the girls—they'll be so excited!" She paused.
Harry was glad Flitwick had selected them for the paired duelling, especially as Tracey hadn't been chosen for the singles, and she'd made the semis just like Harry had. But then, Harry supposed her duelling technique could be viewed as a little boring, even if it was effective.
"Let's go back and tell them," Harry suggested. They found Blaise, who was similarly happy at his selection, and they made their way back to the Great Hall to tell their friends the happy news during the tail end of lunch.
And with the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arriving that very evening, the only thing left to do before the Triwizard Tournament began was wait.