The next two days were not lax for Harry. For most people it would have been spent relaxing, especially after fighting a dragon, but Harry spent most of Friday and part of Saturday training. He knew that his showing in the First Task had shocked the students of the other two schools, but it also spurred on his own classmates.

However, Saturday did take an unexpected venture. Around ten that morning Harry was outside training like the other Durmstrang students under their professor's eyes. He had been practising against Klaus when suddenly the other boy stopped. Harry slightly lowered his guard, thinking maybe this was some new trick of Klaus', but the boy nodded to behind Harry. Turning, Harry found Daphne looking at him.

"Ah, morning Daphne. What brings you down here?"

"This is a Hogsmeade weekend." At the confused look Harry gave her she explained, "On certain weekends students of third year or higher are allowed to go to the village for the weekend."

"Oh, well have a good trip?" Harry's response caused Daphne to frown slightly. He felt that he was missing something, until Viktor walked over and pushed him forward to Daphne.

In his very accented English he said, "Make sure he is back by three." Daphne smiled grabbed his arm and led him toward the carriages. Looking back over his shoulder Harry saw Klaus, Viktor, and a few others including Professor Selwyn laughing and shaking their heads. As they reached the carriages Harry saw many of the Hogwarts and Beauxbatons students there as well, but he and Daphne took their own into the village. They ended up going to the pub for a bit, and then wandering the village. Overall the day was good and the two discussed almost anything and everything. Harry felt quite at peace during the excursion until the pair ran into Henry Potter and his friends. Potter was with R-something and Hermione. They seemed to be in a bit of an argument until they noticed Harry with Daphne.

"Oh look its the Dark Lord with his Dark Lady." R-something really did need to work on his insults. Daphne did not look impressed either. The two shared a look and then continued walking past the trio. Harry could hear Hermione rebuking the redhead, but that did not seem to stop the boy. "Hey! What too good to talk to me! Stuck up Prat and Bitch!"

Now that stopped Harry, to insult him, well he wouldn't accept it, but he could tolerate it. Insult someone else? Especially his friend? Now that was a quick way to rouse Harry's anger. Couple that with the source being Henry Potter and his friend. Well that was like pouring petrol on a fire. But, luckily for Harry as much as the idiot Gryffindors, Daphne was there.

She grabbed his hand and forced him to look at her. "Ignore them. Their opinions do not matter, Let's go." Harry moved to argue, but she quickly pulled him away. Harry thought he heard the two boys laughing for a second before hearing Hermione lay into them. That brought a brief smile to his lips and soon he had forgotten his anger.

As Daphne and Harry walked around, they moved into discussing classes. Harry confided that he was having quite a hard time with his potions work, and that he was slipping quite a bit. He had relied on Professor Draganov at Durmstrang and while Professor Snape seemed competent enough, something about the man's interactions with Harry unnerved him. It was like he was studying Harry, and that made him very nervous. Relating this to Daphne caused her to laugh and she thought he was being ridiculous, but offered to tutor him if he would teach her duelling and defence. Harry quickly agreed, not only to help his poor potions work, but to also spend more time with Daphne.

Soon enough the duo made their way back to the castle, where Harry rejoined his schoolmates. Professor Selwyn soon partnered Harry with Reinhard, the second best duelist at Durmstrang. When Harry asked why, Selwyn remarked how since Harry had spent the morning and early afternoon not practising he needed to catch up. The next several hours were torture with Harry trying to hold Reinhard back for longer each time. Eventually practice was halted and everyone made their way to dinner.

The next morning saw the Highmaster and Professors Albu and Selwyn all checking everyone's duelling skills. Everyone needed to be in top form, not to win necessarily, but to show that Durmstrang was strong. To lose was acceptable if it was to someone stronger or more skilled, to lose to someone worse than you, well that was disgraceful. So everyone was grilled, Durmstrang had its martial reputation to uphold.

Lunch was held on the ship, and the Highmaster began going over the rules, expectations, and other concerns for the evening. It was fairly standard and slightly boring. Eventually everyone was given the afternoon off. Some decided to have a quick quidditch game, others did some homework, and a few simply wandered. Harry decided to do some homework, and looked at his rituals book. He had read the introduction and the first chapter so far, which seemed to talk about the nature of magic, and how the spells that most thought of as magic were only the surface. They were poor constructs placed on magic to make it easier for people to understand, but that magic in of itself was often something far beyond our understanding. The closest most came to wielding magic in its truest form was accidental magic as children. Accidental magic required no wand movements or words, but relied on pure intent. Rituals were a combination of the two, while it often required elaborate conditions such as a certain time or place they were also able to do much more complex things than most spells.

The next chapter began to discuss the basics of early Roman rituals. They tended to involve a sacrifice of some sort, often a bull or other animal. One ritual it discussed involved killing a white bull and eating either its heart or another organ to gain some foresight into the future. Overall the text so far was a combination of straightforward explanations and the confusing abstracts on some of the finer points of the nature of magic and the world.

At around 4 everyone headed up to the castle. The Great Hall had once again rearranged for duelling, this time there were three large platforms in the centre with many smaller tables around the edge of the room. The smaller tables all held snacks and other finger foods. Upon entering, Harry saw that Beauxbatons had already arrived. All the Professors from the schools present and, from the looks of it, all the students as well. Professor Selwyn led everyone over to Professor Flitwick, who was registering everyone. The small professor seemed slightly shocked that all of the Durmstrang students were entering, but smiled and signed everyone up.

Once registration was complete, Selwyn and Flitwick both proceeded to the centre stage and grabbed everyone's attention. "Welcome, welcome!" Professor Flitwick's high pitch called out, "Thank you all for coming. We will be starting right away, now we will be holding all three brackets at the same time, except for the final matches, those will be held one at a time, to allow everyone to watch. Now," a quick swish of his wants and above him appeared the duel schedule appeared above him, "here are the initial rounds that will be occurring. The first and second years will be competing on stage closest to the doors, followed by the third, fourth, and fifth years in the centre, and the sixth and seventh at the back of the room. I will be judging the first bracket, Professor Dumbledore the second, and Professor Selwyn the third. For the finals all three will be judging. Any questions? Excellent off you go!"

Harry looked up and quickly found his name, he was fighting a Beauxbaton student who was fairly decent, but still not his skill level. Scanning the list, he found that both Potter and Weasley had entered. Henry was facing Havel, and Weasley ended up fighting Marcsa. That would be entertaining. Looking at who he could be facing after it would either be Adriaan or Draco. That could be fun either way.

Eventually Dumbledore made his way over and got the first contestants ready. The first several matches were made up of mostly Hogwarts students, whom Harry did not know. He did see Draco's friends Goyle and Crabbe both get knocked out fighting a Susan Bones and another Beauxbatons student. Eventually it came to Henry versus Havel. The match was interesting; Harry would never have guessed that Henry was that skilled. In the few he had watched during the practices Henry had been good, but it seemed had been holding back. Potter did a nice sequence coming out of a spin that Harry knew was an advanced auror technique, which meant that either Sirius or Henry's father had trained the boy. Havel did well, but was knocked unconscious after about a minute. Upon being woken, Havel looked upset, being the first Durmstrang in their year, knocked out, but Harry complimented him and his skills. He saw no reason that Havel had let down the school.

Next match was Marcsa versus Weasley. Just as they got up the boy made a mistake, he insulted Marcsa again. "Oh look its the wannabe dark lord, oh sorry lady." Marcsa had picked up enough English to know what he was saying and you could see her anger. The match was called and Marcsa began her attack. She was on the warpath as she opened up with some family spells. Unlike the standard spells taught at the European schools, these were in her native Hungarian, which made it harder to know what was being casted. The poor boy was soon blasted off his feet, with his wand summoned to Marcsa's hand.

She strode forward to the boy and in a cold tone spoke, "You Englist know little of fighting Dark Lords, while you British waited and watched, we fought tooth and nail against Grindelwald. You think your little terrorist is a dark lord? Your little dark lord never even expanded outside of Britain, Grindelwald and his army conquered half of Europe. Do not speak of dark lords to us." With that she threw his wand at him and made her way down.

The next set of matches was not overly interesting. Harry's own was not anything to speak of, and while his opponent was what he expected, skilled, but not trained to the same degree as Harry was. Adriaan was beaten by Draco, which was not too surprising, Adriaan being an average duelist. Surprisingly few fifth year Hogwarts and Beauxbatons had signed up, with there only being four fifth year matches, which Durmstrang won three of, and a Ravenclaw by the name Cho Chang the other. Eventually the second rounds began and more third years were beaten out as they started fighting fourth years, all but one of the third year Durmstrangs were knocked out, but two beauxbatons and a Gryffindor girl moved on. Susan Bones did well again, and Harry could tell she had received some expert training as well, maybe she was related to Madam Bones of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Henry again showed quite some skill fighting Marcsa. Marcsa had started off using her family magic like her last match, but Henry was ready and started using a unique shield spell. The spell looked slightly familiar to Harry, like one of the Black family spells, but it seemed to add some extra protection to the ground beneath Potter as well. Potter then used a curse that Harry had never seen before that seemed to cut right through Marcsa's own shield and blast her back. The match was called in Henry's favour. That left Harry as the last Durmstrang student for his year.

Soon it was Harry and Draco's turn. Both stepped up and bowed. As soon as they were up, Draco started casting. Harry was pleasantly surprised, this could be more fun than he thought. Draco had always shown some private tutoring in duelling and the spells he was using right now were not standard spells as well. Harry quickly started into some of the more advanced chains he learned at the end of last year. One chain in particular held not one, but two nasty surprises. Inside the chain were two jinxes that were particularly hard to notice and generally went through most shields. Luckily Draco did not seem to notice them and was caught. One caused all the muscles in the extremities to tense up, thus causing his arms to jerk up and his legs to crumple underneath. The second was a sort of body bind but was harder to break but lasted for a shorter time. The match was called for Harry, who quickly cancelled the spells.

After getting off the platform Draco made his way to Harry and asked about the chain. Harry explained the two hidden spells and explained that it had taken him near two months to get that single chain down, not including the time spent learning the individual spells which amounted to another three months.

For the third round the the last of the third years were beaten out, Susan Bones took the last Durmstrang third year. Potter beat out a Ravenclaw fourth year by the name of Goldstein and Harry took out the last Beauxbaton fourth year. Eventually it came down to the semi-finals where it was Susan versus Henry, and Harry versus Anton, the last fifth year Durmstrang student.

The Potter-Bones match was good. Both were fairly matched in skill and were trained similarly. They both were using auror moves and counters with the match staying at a stalemate for a while. Eventually you could see Bones starting to sweat and her spells were weakening. The match had only been going on for a couple of minutes, but duels were very taxing on the body and magic. Most were quick and lasted only a minute or so. That Henry was still going showed he had a large well of magic to draw on. Eventually Susan's tiredness caught up with her and she was too slow to dodge a disarm at the end of a chain Potter sent.

Harry's match with Anton was more standard, both had duelled often and Harry had little doubt he would win. He knew Anton typically fought defensively so Harry had to draw him out. He did this by faking a slip which could backfire and cause Harry to lose control of the duel if Anton did not take the bait. Luckily enough Anton did and switched to offence, and Harry was able to sneak a stunner at him.

So the final would come down to Henry against Harry, Potter versus Black. Harry was actually looking forward to it, It was almost like a chance to show them they were… no such thoughts were better left alone.

Once the other brackets were finished, Dumbledore had everyone move to the sides of the room and then transfigured the three platforms into one at the centre. First up was the final for the first bracket where it was two Beauxbaton students facing off against each other. Both were good, but the duel was not as captivating due to the low spell repertoire. Daphne had made her way to Harry's side where she had informed him that Astoria, her sister, had made it to the semifinals and had been beaten by the winner of the bracket Daphne had decided to forgo competing and had cheered her sister on. Next it was Harry's turn. He had thought about his strategy. Henry seemed to favour power over finesse in his spells, and his chains tended to reflect that. Harry would distract him and try to get something through that way.

Making his way up to the platform he came face to face with Henry, both bowed and then straightened. Henry opened, much like Draco, right of the bow. Harry quickly transfigured a thick wall between the two to get his distraction ready. This was one of the nastier charms that were taught at Durmstrang, the Moraka charm. It basically simulated the effects of a dementor, and caused most people to become distracted. Harry saw the wall start to crack, and began the spell. It worked well, just as Henry broke through the wall the charm was away. Henry didn't notice until too late and it landed at his feet. The charm affected a region large enough so that Potter would be caught in its effects unless he moved towards Harry, which was a bad idea in a duel. The Highmaster and other professors, having seen what spell Harry was preparing, soon cast patronus for those gathered around Potter's end of the platform.

Henry quickly cast the family shield, but when that did not work he seemed to become around Henry noticed the patronii and smiled. Harry slightly faltered, why was the boy smiling, he should be experiencing his worst memories. Then Henry yelled, "Expecto Patronum!" A silvery deer erupted. The deer was obviously a male, but its antlers were smaller, indicating that it had yet to reach maturity.

Well this was a shock: Henry knew how to cast a corporeal patronus. Harry didn't even know how. Well, Harry was going to have to change plans. Henry's smirking continued and he started on an attack. Harry quickly blocked or dodged them, but soon moved to the offensive. He tried the chain that took Draco down, but that failed. Henry's family shield blocked them all. Harry was forced back to the defence. He needed to think of something. Taking note of the surroundings Harry came up with an idea. He started off one his more stronger and dangerous chains, however this one had a summoning worked into it. Harry thought the shield most likely stopped summonings in the immediate area around Potter, but would extend to the back of the hall? He summoned the tables that was behind Henry against the wall. It zoomed directly towards Harry, and Henry just happened to be between the two. The curses of the chain kept Henry focused in front of him, so he was unprepared when he was suddenly hit from behind by the table. Causing his concentration to break, his shield fell and Harry stepped in quickly with a blasting curse. It hit Potter as he was being pulled towards Harry and knocked him out.

Harry had won. Turning he found the Durmstrang students cheering, the Hogwarts and Beauxbatons students were looking surprised. Turning to the professors, he saw the Highmaster and Selwyn smile and nod, but noticed that the Hogwarts teachers were looking at him slightly worried and scared. Dumbledore seemed particularly intent on him, even with his face carefully neutral.

Moving off the stage Harry looked up to see Fleur Delacour and Illyana make their way up. This meant that Hogwarts would not win any of the brackets, and that either Durmstrang or Beauxbatons would be the overall winner of the tournament.

The duel was one of the best that Harry had seen, both barely moved to dodge the curses of the other, they both were using silent casting and both were only using offensive spells. It was rare to see Illyana so well matched, the few times Harry had duelled her she would wipe the floor with him immediately. Lots of Fleur's spells tended to include fire and she was slowly laying flames around Illyana to box her in. Harry had seen Reinhard attempt something similar once on Illyana, it had failed miserably, and Harry doubted it would do much better this time. Illyana finally unleashed her trap breaker. The spell was one that Harry had not yet learned, and wasn't even sure if it was part of the school's curriculum. It sent out a wide shockwave of pure magic which quickly destroyed any constructs or magical created effects. As the wave progressed along the platform Fleur tried casting spells to halt it. They just broke against it until the way reached her and flung her back against the Hall's wall.

Once Fleur had been revived, the three champions made their way up to the front. They were congratulated by each of the judges and were given a set of duelling robes. Each set was made from dragon skin and other magically resistant materials. Harry was shocked, he had been planning to buy a set and had been saving up for several years to do so, they were extremely expensive. Once the ceremony was over everyone headed back down to the ship. The Highmaster addressed everyone, and said he was pleased with their efforts and had represented Durmstrang well. He offered congratulations to Harry and Illyana and dismissed everyone for the evening. Harry wrote a letter to his aunt and went to bed, nearly exhausted from the day.