That was really short, here, have a second one. —Lysandra

Harry had had some really bloody stupid ideas over the years, though he didn't really think anyone could blame him for that — doing something stupid when the alternative was dying or doing something just completely mad wasn't really much of a choice, was it? (Lily.) As completely stupid as some of the things he'd done might seem at face value, he'd argue they'd been the best choice he'd had at the time, or there'd literally been no other options.

But getting in an aerial duel with Viktor bloody Krum really took the cake for fucking stupid shite he'd done.

Harry ducked under another flying bronze disc, the spinning metal making a low whistle as it passed by, dipping back under tree level, jolting to the side to avoid a branch, crashing down into the underbrush, twigs and needles knocked loose falling around him. He darted off, trying to open up some distance, he'd hardly been flying for a couple seconds, popping over a low-hanging branch and slipping around a trunk, when something slammed into his left shoulder, hot trails of pain scratched down his back, yanking at his hair, something soft and light buffeting at him and screeching, Harry yanked back on his broom, whapping at the thing clawing at him with his left arm, knocking it loose, his wand coming around to blast it out of the air—

The blasting curse struck the owl full in the chest, tearing it apart, blood and bone and feathers scattered in a wide cone away from him. For a second, Harry just stared at the carnage, his stomach sinking. Had he just...?

He felt a faint tingle of magic, glanced up to find three more birds with sharp claws and beaks descending on him. Tossing up a physical barrier to hold them off for a second, Harry let out a heavy breath — oh thank God, they were just conjured. Harry liked owls, he'd have felt terrible if he'd actually killed one...

Though, it was kind of ridiculous that Krum's conjured birds actually had blood and bone in them — normally people didn't bother with that kind of detail, but apparently Krum was nearly as insane with transfiguration as Lyra was. Krum hadn't been exaggerating when he'd said he was good with combat transfiguration, Harry thought, torching the birds fluttering at the edge of his shield...which was very noisy, the things screeching in agony as they plummeted to the ground (Harry winced a little), but at least it was much less messy.

Unfortunately, setting the birds on fire might as well have been a big sign saying I'm right here, please curse me — foot long spears of metal and hexes started falling through the canopy. Harry darted off, weaving between the trees again. He needed to open a little bit of distance, he couldn't bloody do anything with Krum constantly throwing shite at him — he was older and more experienced, too fast and precise — he just needed a few seconds and maybe he could plan out a way to—

A little bit ahead something plummeted through the burning canopy, a big hemisphere of conjured metal, but it didn't keep falling, leveling off a metre above the ground, and the metal started bending around, moving as smoothly and easily as water, reforming into an array of discs floating around a figure on a broom — Krum.

Shite!

Harry took a hard right turn, a few discs whizzing through where he'd been a second ago, ducked under a branch and zipped off, weaving around and over trees and branches at speeds that were definitely unsafe, pushing as fast as he could, branches scratching at his arms and legs and hair, wind stinging at his eyes. He heard the whistle of discs closing, instinctively jinked to the right, nearly running right into a tree, he wrenched his broom around, cursing through clenched teeth at the drop in speed, at least Krum had overshot him. Harry angled away, slipping under a blanket of flickering fire up in the canopy (the veela had definitely overdone it), the air sprinkled with ash and the occasional smouldering twig or bit of bark falling from above, together with the smoke hopefully cutting down visibility a bit.

Right, once he got to the edge of the burning part of the forest he would pull up and into the smoke cloud, get a shield and some elemental magic going, and then he could—

Wham!

Harry coughed as something hard slammed into his right side, his ribs creaking, he was nearly thrown from his broom, the force pushing him a little off-course, drifting at an angle sideways. The pounding agony in his side making his head spin, little black spots dancing in his vision, he didn't see the tree coming up on his left until it was too late, he only had an instant to brace himself for the blow before he crashed into the trunk. The hit wasn't that bad, but it did wrench his hip and scratch at his left arm, his broom completely out of control now, he cut off the flight spell, ended up scraping to a stop propped up across a couple branches, surrounded by needles, poking at his skin and tugging at his hair. He took a second to breathe.

Okay, ow. What kind of aim did Krum have, he must have thrown that conjured bludger from a long way behind, and Harry had been moving around...

This wasn't working. If he kept just trying to run away Krum was going to pummel him into a bloody, misshapen mass of bruises before Harry could open up any distance at all, he was just too fast.

It might be fucking stupid, but there was only one thing he could do.

A few more conjured birds were slipping through the trees, Harry's lips twisted into a snarl. His wand swishing through the air, he hissed out, "Calōre vindicō," leaning hard into the spell, his bruises flaring with tingling heat as magic was forced through them, and a cloud of intense blue-white fire exploded out of his wand. As the needles in front of and above him popped and hissed — the conjurations dissolved by the fire, fizzling out into nothing — Harry wrenched his broom out of where it was caught in the branches, slipped out and around.

And Krum was already there — far too close, the trees breaking line of sight too easily, he was only a few metres away — flinging another tangle of wires at Harry. Gritting his teeth, "Ablue!" and the air between them was filled with shivering, almost sickly-looking yellow-green flame, the transfiguration dissolved, Harry tossed off a few bludgeoning and stunning charms as the fire burned itself out. The first couple were too early, pulled apart by the elemental dispel, but a couple got through, zipping in at Krum.

Krum was already reeling, listing in mid-air, casting fire-suppressing charms over himself, but even just drenching himself didn't do anything, little yellow flames crawling over his clothes anyway. He must have put protective charms on himself — the fire shouldn't hurt or anything, it was just pulling apart the magic on him. Ha, Harry hit him with something! And that wasn't it, either, Krum didn't notice the charms coming until it was too late, slipped out of the way of a stunning charm but took the bludgeoning hex in the side, the force shoving him teetering...

Holy crap, Harry had actually hit him!

Krum recovered in a blink — Harry was close enough he could see the narrow-eyed grimace on his face — a stunning charm and a disarming hex and a pacification spell and a stripping hex, Harry dodged the first two, just firmed his mind to ignore the third one, tossing off his own stunning charm then, pulling back his wand in a flourish, his shield barely popping up in time to catch the stripping hex, the momentum pushing him back a little. With a slash of his wand, Krum cast something, the air seeming to ripple, and something slammed hard into Harry's shield, pushing him back, a sudden roaring wind making his hair flutter, the branches around them creaking and snapping, the fires overhead roaring, Harry was tossed back, wobbling, his bristles caught on a branch a little, sending him tipping over backward, he pulled around in a little loop to recover, pushing forward to come to a stop again.

Krum was gone, but it was pretty easy to tell which way he'd gone, even without mind magic — a gap between trees had been sealed with transfiguration, wood twisted into a big spider web -looking thing connecting them. Probably put trap jinxes to either side, so, casting a pair of cutting curses in a big X, Harry zipped off, tossing out an overpowered banishing, the middle of the web punched out in a burst of hundreds of little fragments of wood and bark — the backlash kicking Harry back on his broom a bit, but he'd firmed his feet against the braces ahead of time, no problem — he ducked through the gap, sailed past a few bushes out over the stream, he could feel Krum's mind around the bend that way...

I can do this.

Krum was waiting for him, water drawn up and transfigured into big chunks of shimmering dark glass. They started flying at him, and that was a lot of shite, they'd be hard to dodge, but he didn't have to — "Violenter aufer!" An eye-piercingly bright white spellglow zipped out of his wand to strike the approaching glass on the lead edge, and exploded into yellow-orange fire, the air booming around him with the force, the flames tearing apart much of the conjuration and sending the remains spinning off in random directions, Harry had to dodge a little chunk that happened to be coming right at his head. He darted through the smoke, dipping down toward the stream, his knees nearly skimming over the water.

I can do this.

Harry was coming up from under where Krum had been, but he'd moved, circling up over the cloud of smoke and steam left behind by his destroyed conjuration, dragging fingers of water into glittering spears in his wake — right in Harry's path, but they dissolved in a flash of yellow fire, the water burst into steam or splashed back into the stream. Harry spun around as he slid to a stop, tossing a dark stunning hex over his head at Krum.

Krum had a shield up, prepared for a hit, but there was a sudden ringing of surprise in his head — that shield would block a normal stunning charm, but not this one — he dropped the shield, the bronze discs he'd been conjuring falling down toward the water. He dipped out of the way of Harry's hex, threw off a disarming jinx and a stunning hex and a bludgeoning hex, Harry dodged the first, a shield catching the second two, "flammis gemmis fascino," the bronze discs had been caught with a charm, skimming over the water and curving up at him, Harry pulled up above them, slipped to the side out of the way of a hex from Krum.

Even as his spell came into effect — an illusion started spreading out from Harry, gently wafting flames in a variety of unnatural colours, red and green and blue and yellow and violet, twinkling and glittering like gemstones in the sun. Krum, less than ten metres away, faltered in mid-transfiguration, blinking at the flames, his wand hand twitching as he struggled against the elemental magic's entrancing effects. (It was pretty, but it had a mind magic element that kind of hypnotised people, it was neat.) Harry shot off a stunning charm, as the spell flew followed it with a compulsion, slamming down on Krum's mind, you're safe, you're tired, sleep, sleep...

Krum wrenched his mind away from the compulsion, yanking the handle of his broom up and around barely slipped out of the way of the stunning charm, breaking eye contact with the multicoloured flames, shaking off the effects as he darted away at top speed. Grinning, Harry chased after him (the fire falling apart as he left it behind), throwing off stunning charms and bludgeoning and cutting hexes. But Krum's mind was his own again, he dodged them easily, conjuring more balls and discs of bronze, one swinging around to catch Harry's last stunning charm before they were shot off, slicing through the air directly at Harry.

Come on, come on!

"Violenter aufer! Stupeat ditondate diffindo! Protege! Ablue, calōre vindicō!"