Come on, come on!
Another curse was coming in, Krum's aim was scary good, a swirl of his wand and— "Aegida! Oprime, lacera!" —the curse was caught on a silvery shield, Harry immediately countered with a dark stunning charm and an elemental blasting curse, but Krum jinked out of the way of the first and their momentum had already brought them out of line by the time of the second. Harry's wand hand immediately snapped back to the handle of his broom, wood clinking against wood, wrenching it around as he groped around him for Krum's mind.
Come on, come on!
Harry looped around, planning to come in at Krum from the side, but he was only halfway through the turn when he felt Krum had changed directions, moving up at an angle, crap, Harry inverted in the middle of his turn, the world lurching dizzyingly around him as he rolled around and pulled up. Krum was still moving in an arc, Harry adjusted his turn slightly and Krum should be right...
...there! Surrounded by a bunch of conjured shite, of course. With a flick of his wand Harry could barely make out from this distance Krum sent everything zipping down at Harry all at once, but Harry grit his teeth, jabbing his wand at the rain of metal with another, "Violenter aufer!" the elemental magic tearing the conjurations apart explosively, filling the air with another burst of fire, debris sent flying in random directions. But Krum had apparently seen that coming — not surprising, it was hardly the first time Harry had done that in the last few minutes — because the cloud of smoke and leftover chunks suddenly shifted directions, not expanding naturally but shooting straight down at Harry.
Instead of peeling off Harry accelerated, casting a physical barrier around himself he flew straight through the debris cloud, little bits of metal clinking against his shield like rain against glass, he adjusted his aim slightly to come out the other side only a few metres away from Krum, down and behind. Harry shot off another dark stunning charm and then a cutting curse, abandoned a stripping hex when Krum retaliated with...something — it felt light, but Harry didn't know what it was — tipped up and out of the way, a cutting curse splashing against a frantically-cast shield (Harry rolled a little to make sure his broom was behind it, having it cut out from under him would suck). And Krum was already on the move, zipping down and around out of sight.
Dueling in mid-air, it turned out, was really bloody weird. In their little private practices and the dueling club, they were always in a flat, open area, in two dimensions. They could move around a bit, sure, and Harry had noticed the best always did — it didn't matter how powerful a spell was if it missed. (Professional duelists tended to be ridiculously fit and quick on their feet, like football players.) But no matter how much they moved around there wasn't really that much space to maneuver in, you could always immediately tell where your opponent was at a glance, even if you got a little mixed up from a bad hit.
This wasn't like that, though. Harry had been able to feel what direction Krum had peeled off in, curving around to come at Harry from below and the left, so he'd started his own turn that would bring him around behind him in about three seconds, but Krum had apparently realised what Harry was doing and changed directions partway through, zipping off at an angle below Harry, jinking out of the way of a bronze disk flying up at him he leaned over and shot a hex down at Krum, but he missed, and that was all the time they had before their momentum brought each other out of sight. Harry started looping around, he could feel Krum was turning around to the left, so Harry arced up and to the right, inverting partway through and shoving down at the leg braces to yank himself into a dive, arrowing down right at where Krum's head would be in a couple seconds, already starting to cast a hex—
Or where Krum's head would have been — he must have slowed down or adjusted his turn slightly, because he wasn't there when Harry had expected, another dark stunning charm hitting nothing. And suddenly Krum was behind him, Harry jinked out of the way of a hex on instinct (he could feel the tingle of magic coming up, which was barely enough), tried to loop around but Krum was on him, a few more hexes flying at Harry's back — though missing, Harry's turn and Krum's effort to match him throwing off his aim — so Harry kicked his broom around, flipping up and to the right, then accelerated hard, the bruises on his chest aching against the handle, his legs burning from the effort of holding himself on.
Krum zipped past in front of him less than a foot away, far too quickly for Harry to get a spell off — not that he'd be able to anyway, too busy trying to hold on to his broom — and by the time Harry could start moving again Krum had turned out of sight. He'd moved down that way, Harry darted off, angling in to come at Krum from above again, but Krum clearly saw that coming, turned against Harry's dive to slip under him, so Harry inverted the dive around to come up behind him but Krum had already looped off, now to the right and up, Harry maneuvered to counter, looping the opposite direction, and they ended up coming head-to-head again, moving fast enough for only a single spell from each, both missing by inches, and then they were moving again...
They spent far more time flying than casting spells. Sitting still made it easier to get hit by spells, so they were always moving, but brooms kind of only went in one direction, so it wasn't practical to be facing each other, they'd only have a second to get anything off, so it was best to get behind the other so their constant moving would give them a wider window to get spells off (and also make them harder to dodge or block, since they were coming from behind), but neither of them wanted the other behind them (obviously), so they had to maneuver to stop that, and counter the other's maneuvers, and...
It was a whole mess, basically. Harry had lost track of what was going on around them, where they were, what felt like ages ago, the world spinning and lurching around him, following his sense of Krum's mind and trying to figure out what he was doing and what he would do next, and how Harry could deal with that, but then oh crap Krum had changed his mind and Harry had to deal with this now, the world suddenly spinning in the opposite direction, and Krum might slip into view for a second or two, long enough to snap off a spell, but never for very long before Harry was focused on flying again, looping around and diving and occasionally sharply dragging himself to a stop before zipping off again, completely at random, trying to catch Krum off guard, even as Krum did the same against him...
It was pretty great, honestly. Playing seeker didn't require fancy flying most of the time — drift around looking for the snitch, spot the snitch, fly really fast to catch the snitch, and you win, done. It could get a little complicated if the bludger went after him, or if he were helping to break up plays or whatever, but for the most part, there wasn't much to it. And he hardly ever had to fly against people, only when going after the snitch, and that was pretty simple — just get there before the other bloke, no complicated maneuvers necessary.
But, as tense and scary as it was flying against Viktor Krum, knowing that a solid hit would have him plummeting to the ground and probably lay him up in hospital for a couple days, his body aching seemingly head to toe with bruises and scrapes, Harry could feel himself grinning. He loved flying, okay, he'd always loved flying, and this was just fun. Scary, yes, and the muscles in his legs and his middle and his shoulders were starting to burn, but it was still fun.
Oh god, Lyra and Sirius were contagious...
Looping around again, aiming to come in on Krum's rear-right, he must have misjudged the speed one of them was going at, because when he came out of the turn Krum was right behind him. Harry threw up a shield, he felt one spell and then another splatter against it, he jinked around just in case — and good thing, another bronze disc whipped by his shoulder — randomly fiddling with his speed, slower faster slower faster, but Krum was keeping on him really well, following speed changes and turns. Just as another spell zipped by Harry kicked his broom up and to the left, turning hard enough he smacked himself in the chest again — he was going to have so many bruises tomorrow — the nearly right-angle turn too sudden for Krum to pick up on, overshooting Harry in a blur.
Before Harry could turn back around and catch up Krum had already dipped down and against Harry's turn, slipping out of sight, Harry darted after him, throwing a pulse of fire magic after him, but Krum was too far away for that to do much good. Though he was closing rapidly all of a sudden, turned to approach Harry head-on (though several metres below). Probably meaning to loop up and behind, so if Harry curved this way — banishing away some more conjured darts, probably just meant to distract him — and then cut the other way once Krum was out of sight, diving against Krum's loop, standing on the leg braces to push against his momentum, pulling up again in—
Ugh, Krum had conjured wire behind him, clever bastard — a slash of his wand, "Ablue!" Harry slipped through the dissolving conjuration, Krum was that way, Harry turned the opposite direction, Harry tipped into a dive, rolling over to pull back up after a couple seconds. He saw a flash of colour, Krum, zipping by up and to the left, Harry barely caught a glimpse, frantically snapped up a shield to catch a hex.
After taking a bare second to plan what he was doing, Harry gently curved to the left, bringing him well outside Krum's maneuver. Somehow, Krum figured out what Harry was doing long before he should be able to see him — Harry was a mind mage, obviously, but he had no idea how Krum was doing that — changing direction a little. Harry tightened his turn, rolling against the momentum and laid practically flat on his broom, leaping forward in a sudden burst of acceleration, still angling downward a little bit, and Krum should be right—
There! Harry snapped off a light stunning hex lightning-fast — silently, there just wasn't time to say the incantation — and he was past Krum in a blink, Harry dipped further, rolling to start a new turn to make sure he was out of sight, and—
There was a sudden flare of shock bursting through Krum's passable occlumency, and then...nothing
His breath catching in his throat, Harry bent around to look over his shoulder, toward his best guess where Krum should be — there he was, drifting downward, slumped over on his broom, one leg tangled in the braces holding him precariously balanced. Even as Harry watched the broom lazily rolled, and Krum began to fall toward the nearby treetops, limp and unconscious.
...He'd done it.
He'd done it! Hoh shite, he'd hit Krum! A laugh burst out of him without him hardly realising it, he just couldn't believe he'd done it, he hadn't really thought he'd be able to but he'd actually done it.
Ha! I did it, we won, WE WO—
Something caught on Harry's broom, the world lurched around him and his stomach leapt into his chest, and he was sent catapulting forward, his hands reflexively groped for his broom but found nothing but empty air, brown and green tilting dizzyingly, something clawed at his arm, yanking him into a spin, and—
With a sickening thud, everything went black.