Chapter Nineteen:

Battle Royal

A/N: The tournament is underway, and the Battle Royal Round is about to begin! Will Harry and Draco finally face each other in the ring? Will any of our Heroes, Old and New, make it through the preliminaries? What of the plots of Dark Wizards and their plans for Harry?

"Alright, we're going to start our first Battle Royal," said a wizard at Ring #1 who wore dull orange robes and wore a brown hat. "So if our first batch of contestants please enter the ring?"

As Harry started to get into the ring, Draco grabbed him by the arm, "Watch your back Potter, I do want to face you in the tournament," warned Draco releasing Harry's arm. He looked around as he entered the ring, the other seven contestants were eyeing him suspiciously, each waiting to draw their wands. 'No one said this will be easy,' Harry thought to himself as he took a deep breath.

"Now safety precautions have been taken as magic inhibitors will not allow any wand to cast any of the unforgivable curses or curses that could be potentially fatal or disfiguring. Anti-magic fields have been set in place so that stray curses from other duels will not interfere with your duel," Harry looked at his opponents, his uneasiness worsened, "Now all of you bow and be ready to draw your wands!" Time seemed to slow as Harry was ready to wandlessly cast a shield charm, should anyone draw faster than him, "BEGIN!" shouted the officiator. All eight contestants drew their wands and seven curses were sent at Harry. Harry had no time to react. He couldn't deflect or dodge them all, and all of his opponents wanted to be the one to defeat "The Great" Harry Potter.

Harry held his wand steady and smiled. He had one shot, but he didn't want to reveal his secret weapon too early. Not many wizards knew, or could even do this charm. Even fewer knew he could do it. Those who did know, would recognize the curse immediately, those who didn't… it was their loss, as a little wordless magic never hurt anyone, especially the caster. 'Reflectis,' he mentally shouted. All the curses were reflected and hit their casters. Two were disarmed, and three others were sent out of the ring. Five were eliminated, leaving just two for Harry. Before they could react he trained his wand on the closer of the two, 'Expelliarmus,' he wordlessly cast, sending the wizard high into the air and out of the ring, his wand clattering on the ground a few feet away.

Harry's final opponent raised her wand and started to mutter a spell, but Harry effortlessly flicked his wand and she did a back flip in the air and landed on her back.

"Stu-," she was sent flying again by another wave of Harry's wand. "Expelli-," she began again, as she was knocked on the ground again, the grip on the wand never faltering. Harry could feel her frustration.

"Try not shouting the incantations," Harry offered. Even without Legimency, Harry could tell she was livid. Almost without warning she sent another hex at Harry. She was practically screaming her thoughts at Harry, and he prevented her from casting it with another flick of her wand.

"Try blocking you thoughts from me," he told her, remembering his encounter with Snape, after Snape had killed Dumbledore. She growled with fury and tried to send a curse at Harry, but was cut short.

"Potter, finish her off, quit toying with her!" shouted Draco. Harry looked into her eyes and saw the mixed feelings of fury and defeat, of acceptance and defiance. It was a similar look to the one he had before Snape had escaped from him at Hogwarts. He knew the pain she felt, though his had been much worse. She could not win, but she would never give up. He lowered the wand and she sent another wordless hex at him, still screaming her thoughts at him. He raised his wand quickly, and reflected the curse. She was hit in the chest and was sent flying out of the ring. She stood; he noticed her wand was still in her hand.

Harry walked up to her and shook her hand, "Learning Occulmency helps, it was good try, I don't think I've ever seen anyone so determined," Harry said truthfully, she seemed to calm down.

"T-thank you," she said a bit touchy.

"Aren't you a class act Potter, watch how a true Champion does things!" said Draco confidently as he stepped into the ring.

"Ignore him, sometimes I really wonder if he's really changed," said Harry apologetically.

"That's okay, if he wins, you'll just have to beat him," she told Harry.

"Maybe, we've only really dueled twice, and neither time we got to finish what we started," said Harry.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Everyone freaked out because I was a Parselmouth," Harry confessed.

"A what?" she asked disbelievingly.

"A Parselmouth… It means I can talk to snakes," said Harry, uneasily.

"I know what a Parselmouth is! I just can't believe the rumors are actually true!" she said a bit annoyed.

"Well, the second time we stopped so he could help me defeat Voldemort," she flinch reflexively when Harry said his name.

"Well, it should be an interesting match, it sounds like you two have unfinished business," she said eyeing Harry, and then looked again at Draco. She knew it would be a match to watch.

They watched a Draco swiftly defeated all of his opponents. Many of the first Battle Royal matches were still not finished. Hermione was handing on, and Fleur was doing well, all her male competition had been eliminated. Ginny was still waiting for her match to begin, and Ron was a bundle of nerves. Harry and Draco were trying to instill confidence in the youngest son of Arthur and Molly Weasley. He was ghostly white, and both of them knew that Ron's greatest strength and weakness was his nerves. Both had known this since their fifth year at Hogwarts. Harry knew due to playing Quidditch with Ron, and Draco knew due to being the usual source of Ron's shot nerves.

"Ron, relax, I'd have never beaten Voldemort without you!" Harry said reassuringly, before mentally adding to Draco, 'If he doesn't pull himself together soon, he won't last more than five seconds!'

'Let me try,' Draco mentally communicated to Harry. "Just relax, Weasel, I'm sure Granger will take you back even if you lose! Although I am pretty sure she is actually more interested in wizards who can win matched and actually defend themselves1" he then added mentally to Harry, 'Just trust me Potter!' before Harry could react verbally or mentally.

Ron was red in the face from anger, "Why would I even want to be with her? She seems…"

"Pretty happy with the likes of Viktor Krum!" interrupted Draco, "Of course she would be, after all he's an international Quidditch Star, Tri-Wizard Champion, and nearly every witch's dream in the world! She'd be the envy of every witch in the wizarding world!" Draco smirked as he said this. He could tell by Ron's face that he had struck a nerve. It was very well known to those who were close to him, that Ron Weasley's loyalty to his friends was only matched by his tendency to become very jealous, and his love for a certain Muggleborn witch. Draco had used the latter to fuel the former.

"She doesn't care about any of that!" Ron shot back.

"Oh really, of course she'd tell YOU that! She wouldn't want you to hurt yourself trying to impress her and make her feel guilty," Draco taunted.

Ron was fuming, his nervousness forgotten. 'I'll show him! I'll get that lousy, no good, git if Harry doesn't finish him off first!' he thought to himself, but his thoughts were "loud" enough to be easily picked up by Harry and Draco. The officiator called the second group into the ring. Harry wished Ron good luck before he entered the ring.

"Do you think he was a bit upset with me?" asked Draco unnecessarily, because he already knew that answer.

"Not at all, Draco!" Harry answered sarcastically. "I can't even imagine why you would actually think that he would be upset with YOU of all people!" Harry and Draco couldn't help but laugh.