Wednesday, June 5, 1985
The Australian Department of Magical Games and Competition was about to start their annual duelling matches, with the first competition of the season being held at the Magical Stadium in Sydney. The Quidditch hoops had been removed for the event which would last about one week, with preliminary matches being scheduled at first, leading up to the elimination rounds over the weekend and then to the championship round on the following Tuesday.
As it was the first such tournament of the season, there were several new names who had signed up for the duelling tournament, most of whom were recent graduates of the Sydney Magical Institute.
A young wizard, with black robes, long dark hair pulled back into a ponytail and striking green eyes was keeping to himself on one side of the arena, waiting for his time to be called. After waiting less than an hour, the name Westley Farmer was called, and the man looked up and made his way over to the duelling platform. His first opponent was randomly assigned and it was a man with a Russian sounding name. The referee for the tournament quickly inspected the wands of the two wizards. Westley showed him his wand, which was a rowan wood with a core that referee did not recognise. Noting the confusion on the face of the referee, Westley simply stated, "Griffin feather."
The referee looked back and forth between the wand and the young man holding it. "Unusual, to say the least," stated the tournament official. "But it does seem to be in working order."
He then turned to the other man, "Vladimir Ivanov, you do need to show me your wand."
Ivanov held out his wand briefly, and the referee mumbled something about the dark wood.
Westley turned and faced the wizard who would be his opponent. He seemed to be in his mid thirties, and appeared to have a sturdy athletic build. The tall man with short blonde hair just glared back at him.
The referee then began a countdown from five to start the duel. "…Three….Two…One….Begin!" exclaimed the referee. Immediately Ivanov sent a series of blasting hexes towards Farmer, who just leaned to one side and avoided them. The next two spells he sent were a dark red and were timed and aimed so that they could not so simply be avoided. Westley held up his wand and deflected the spells to either side of him.
Vladimir paused, surprised to see a newcomer had been able to so easily avoid his spell. He tilted his head to one side as he noted his opponent flick his wrist slightly. A dark blue spell shot forth from the tip of Farmer's wand. As he was not sure what exactly the spell was, Vladimir erected a quick shield. The blue spell splintered the shield as it collided with it, then impacted on the centre of Vladimir's chest. The man collapsed immediately and his wand fell out of his hand.
The audience erupted into cheers upon the victory, while the officials for the tournament seemed stunned themselves as they gazed out upon the duelling platform. Westley made his way off of the platform as soon as the referee declared him the winner.
He sat down back at the chair where he had previously been awaiting his first duel in the tournament to begin. A house elf came up to him and offered him a drink, but Westley declined. After a moment he noticed that a witch was seated near him who was just staring at him.
He looked up at her and tilted his head. "Excuse me, but did I do something wrong?"
"Wrong? You're an unknown, you just show up here for your first ever tournament and you defeat the third highest ranked dueller on the Australian circuit with just one spell. So, yeah, I'd say something is wrong."
Westley shrugged his shoulders. "Are you suggesting that I shouldn't try and win my duels just because I am new to this?"
The woman leaned back away from him. "What? No, that's not what I meant at all. It's just, well, Ivanov is one of the top five duellers in the country. New blood doesn't just show up and effortlessly dispatch one of the top duellists."
Westley nodded slightly at her words. "Perhaps I should have you tell me something about my next opponent so I might know if I shouldn't dispatch them so quickly."
The witch stared at him for a minute, then noted the smirk on his face and she started to laugh. Then she simply said, "Amanda Lester, at your service, Mister Farmer was it?"
Westley smiled at her. "You can call me Westley, that would be fine."
"You're obviously not from around here," stated Amanda. "You haven't been in one of these tournaments before and I don't remember someone like you at all from school, not in my year or any of the years ahead of me."
Westley smirked at her. "I was homeschooled in magic. My father was a squib, came here from England, kind of the cast out from the family. He didn't think that I would be accepted at a proper magical school based on his experiences back in England. So, he basically hired a bunch of tutors to come and teach me many of the basic magical subjects."
Amanda smiled at him. "Basics? I'd say you've learned more than the basics. As it is, you seem to have plenty of skill and tricks. And I don't recall ever seeing you around these events."
Westley smiled back. "No, I'm not from around here, in reference to your previous comment. I grew up outside of Perth."
"That would explain why I haven't seen you around before," said Amanda. "But you're still a mystery, and not just to myself, but now the whole tournament will be watching you closely. But more practically, how did you do it? What did you do to him?"
"Your pretty smile won't get me to reveal anything," quipped Westley.
"Fair enough,Westley," said Amanda as her smile widened slightly. "But nevertheless, good luck to you in the tournament."
"And good luck to you, Amanda," replied Westley.
Westley had more duels over the next few days, and each one he managed to end quickly with what appeared to be minimal effort on his own part. He used mostly simple spells, stunners, disarming spells, even stinging hexes, but they were all more powerful than his opponents would have expected.
Sunday afternoon had arrived and the quarterfinal duels were announced, and Westley would be facing off against Amanda Lester, the young woman he met on the first day and the only competitor who took the time to actually speak with him and get to know him. When it was time for their duel to start they met up at the steps leading up to the platform. Amanda gave him a smile which she turned into a smirk.
"I guess we'll see just how well you can do against some real competition," she boasted, allowing some humour in her voice.
Westley inclined his head towards her, and smiled back. "Should be fun," he replied as he waved for her to go up the stairs in front of him. "I would hate to disappoint you in our duel," he added.
They took their stances facing each other on the duelling platform and the official counted out the start of their duel. Immediately Amanda began a series of spells in a chain that started with a blasting curse, a freezing charm, a stunning spell, a bone breaker hex and then an overpowered blasting spell.
Westley barely moved as he held his wand in front of him simply sending the spells to either side of him with the slightest twitch of his wand, not even moving his feet from his initial stance.
Amanda paused momentarily, her jaw dropping slightly at the sight of her opponent not even flinching at her initial attack. She bit her lower lip momentarily and then she sent a volley of more powerful spells.
Westley took a slight breath and then waved his wand a little more, again deflecting the spells until he reflected the banishing spell she had sent back at her. Amanda barely had the time to react and dodge the spell.
As she dove to one side to avoid her own spell and then she stood up only to be hit with a series of stinging hexes. They hurt more than a swarm of yellow jackets attacking her, which turned her smile into an angry glare. This was no longer good fun, but was now turning into a nearly humiliating experience.
She internally shook of her thoughts and sent a series of cutting curses at Westley. He created a shield, which glowed slightly orange as it absorbed all of her spells.
Westley then collapsed his shield and sent a stream of water at the ground in front of her, and quickly followed that with a freezing charm to turn the platform around Amanda into ice. Amanda decided to plant her feet firmly so as not to slip on the ice when she felt a powerful gust of wind hit her. In order to not be knocked back she had to shift her balance and started to slip on the ice. She noticed the incarcerous charm heading her way next and managed to deflect it with her wand, which again caused her feet to slide on the ice. Amanda turned to prepare for the next spell coming at her only to see that her opponent cancelled the spell just before it hit her, which caused her to lose her balance and slip on the ice as she was shocked that Westley had stopped attacking her.
As she landed on her back on the ice covered platform she felt the slight shock of being hit by the expelliarmus charm as her wand flew out of her hand. She closed her eyes momentarily in frustration, only to find someone offering her hand to stand back up.
"Don't worry, I already cancelled the ice from the floor around you," he said with a slight grin.
She took the offered hand and pulled herself up to face him as he handed her wand back to her.
"Is there anything you do that is predictable?" she asked the young man who had just beaten her in the tournament.
"Only that I can be unpredictable," he replied with a smirk.
The two then walked together off of the platform side by side, which was in itself a very unusual sight at any tournament. As they reached the bottom of the steps, she smiled as she said, "Good luck in the rest of this tournament, but then again, you probably aren't about to rely on luck."
Westley smiled back, "Luck can be useful, but I would rather rely on skill first."
Amanda started to walk away, then stopped and turned back. "I hope to run into you again at the next tournament, maybe I will actually have luck on my side if we face each other again."
Westley smiled back at her, "Then I expect to see you in two weeks at the tournament in Melbourne."
"Wouldn't miss it," she said before turning away again to go gather her things before heading to the stands to watch the rest of the tournament.
***MiB?****
At the next several tournaments Westley and Amanda faced off in either the quarter final duels or the semifinal duels. Two months later they were face to face in the finals at the Brisbane tournament, the last open tournament prior to the Australian Nationals scheduled for the next month. And so far, no one had managed to beat Westley.
There was a thirty minute window prior to the start of their finals duel, and the two actually had the opportunity to chat briefly, which only confused many of the spectators and the other duellists, as it was not common for the witches or wizards in these tournaments to be openly friendly with their competitors.
"I have figured something out about you, Mister Farmer," Amanda said with a smile.
"Oh, and what is that?"
"You clearly study all of your opponents, as you seem to be ready for anything any of us have ever tried to use against you in any of the tournaments," she said.
"That would only be expected," said Westley, "knowing your opponent is a very important lesson to learn."
"But still, what you do each time is different," continued Amanda. "You have never used the same strategy, the same spell chain, or even the same pattern of attack. "Your versatility is clearly part of your advantage, against all of us. But what I would like to know, if you would tell me, is how did you learn this skill, this patten of attack, or the randomness which you use?"
"Practice," was his simple answer as he looked away, noticing there seemed to be a slight commotion near one of the entrances to the arena. Westley dismissed the incident and turned back to his opponent. "I like to practice, I like to duel."
"But your attack style," she began to comment but only to be cut off by Westley.
"You're trying to get me to give something away, it won't work," he said with a smile.
"But you already have, you've given everything away," she replied. "I only have deduce what I can expect from you, the son of a squib who had an atypical and unorthodox training regimen and magical education."
Westley raised his eyebrows, silently asking her to continue.
"I can clearly trust that you will not repeat anything you have done in any of the previous tournaments. And I can be quite certain that you will be prepared for anything that I send your way," stated Amanda.
"You're trying to get me to give something away," replied Westley. "It won't work."
"But it already has! You've given everything away," she said with a smirk. Then she stood up and walked to a bench on the other side of the arena.
Westley simply raised an eyebrow at her as she walked away. He then stood up to turn to walk and clear his mind when a woman with overly ornate thick rimmed glasses stepped in front of him. Westley wondered how did Rita Skeeter end up in Brisbane Australia of all places.
"Excuse me, Mister Farmer, Westley. Can I call you Westley? I'd like to ask you some questions if I may," stated the blond woman who Westley simply stared at.
"Excuse you? No, I'm not sure I have an excuse for you," he retorted before he could stop himself.
"Oh, you misunderstood me," she continued. "My name is Marilyn Ravenwood, I'm a reporter, for the Australian Magical Times. Our readers would like to learn more about this mysterious newcomer to the duelling circuit."
"Do George and Steven know you stole their character's name?" asked Westley.
"Who are George and Steven?" she asked bewildered.
"Never mind," he added with a slight smile. "I'll answer a few questions, but if you misprint anything I say, I just might need to let the Australian DMLE know that you are an unregistered animagus."
Marilyn flushed slightly. "Wait, how would you know anything about that?"
Inwardly Westley could hardly believe that he had actually guessed correctly. This Marilyn cannot be too different from Rita Skeeter back in England, he was sure of that.
"We'll keep it our secret," he added with a smile. "Now, what did you want to know?"
"What did I want to know?" she asked dramatically. "Why, just what everyone on magical Australia wants to know! Where did you come from? Who are you? Who taught you how to duel? Do you have a girlfriend?"
"In the order you asked," replied Westley, "my parents, Westley Farmer, tutors my family tried, and that would be a no."
Marilyn frowned, "Wait, what?"
"I answered your four questions, just like you asked," he said simply.
Marilyn tapped her chin with an ornately manicured finger, then she smiled. "You're an eligible bachelor!"
Westley tilted his head slightly as he considered that was the only information she took from what he had said, but then it was the most specific answer he had given her considering she already knew his name.
As he started to walk away she held up her hand. "Now wait a minute, where did your parents come from, and telling me your grandparents will not be an acceptable answer young man."
Westley sighed, "My father moved here from England many years ago. He met my mother, a muggle born, a first generation witch. My father's family assumed he was a squib so they kicked him out, which is why he moved across the world. Turns out he was magical, just not as strong as many of his relatives. Since he was worried I wouldn't have much magic, he didn't want to enrol me in any magical school. So he arranged for private tutors. And no, I am not allowed to reveal the identities of my tutors."
Marilyn raised an eyebrow at that revelation. "So, why would your father be hiding from his family?"
Westley visibly rolled his eyes. "You need to listen more carefully, I stated that he was cast out from his family."
"I am not aware of any powerful magical family from England with the name of Farmer," stated Marilyn.
"I didn't say that was the family that cast him out," was the simple reply he gave.
"Oooh, so the mystery deepens," exclaimed the reporter.
Westley ignored her quip. "That will be all," he added. "I do have a duel to prepare for." And with those words he simply walked past her towards the duelling platform where his next contest was set to take place.
Westley stopped at the bottom of the steps of the duelling platform and stretched slightly before he made his way to the centre where the judge was standing with Amanda. The two nodded slightly at each other.
The judge then cast a sonorous charm as he announced the duel. "We will have the finals of the Brisbane Regional Duelling Championship momentarily. Amanda Lester facing off against Westley Farmer. You both understand the rules. No unforgivables. No directly lethal spells. The winner is the one who either disarms their opponent or incapacitates them or knocks them off of the platform. We will begin on my count. You may take your positions."
One more nod to each other and they made their way to the opposite ends of the platform.
"Five, four, three, two, one, begin!" declared the judge.
Amanda started her attack with the same five spells she used in her first duel against Westley. One again he was face with a blasting curse, a freezing charm, a stunning spell, a bone breaker hex and then an overpowered blasting spell. However, instead of simply batting them aside with his wand, he dove to the floor of the platform and let them all sail over his head. He quickly jumped back up to his feet just before she sent a stream of water at the floor in front of him and quickly followed that up with a freezing charm, to place him on ice just like he had done to her when he defeated her the first time.
Amanda allowed a smile to show when she saw Westley slip slightly and she cast bombarda hex at him anticipating that she would knock him over on the ice.
However, before her spell had arrived he had used his left hand to wandlessly conjure a large rubber mat underneath him, so that he was sure footed enough to simply side step away from her spell without losing his balance.
Amanda prepared for Westley's expected attack of spells as she prepared to cast her most powerful shield. She was surprised that he reverted to a string of stinging hexes, something she had seen him do before. The stinging hexes were overpowered and after about a dozen of the spells her shield was starting to falter. She had suffered the effects of his stinging hexes and decided she would allow a couple to hit her while she cast an elaborate spell chain not unlike ones he had used in other tournaments. She had to concentrate on her wand movements as she was hit by the first two stinging hexes so as not to miscast her own spells. As she was finishing the incantation for the second spell she had prepared what appeared to be a stinging hex hit her arm and disarmed her, sending her wand spinning in the air which he then summoned after side stepping the spells she had managed to send off before his masked expelliarmus spell connected with her arm.
There was applause from the crowd along with various shouts of excitement and even a few hisses from the audience as well.
Westley held out her wand for her and she slowly walked across the platform to retrieve it.
"What the bloody hell was that?" she exclaimed as she approached him.
Westley smiled back at her. "The expelliarmus changed to look exactly like a stinging hex? A little invention of my own."
"I will find a way to beat you, someday," she said as she shook her head in wonder at the wizard in front of her.
Westley decided to just smile in response and not say anything further. The two made their way to the seats where they had left their belongings before the duel, trying to ignore the various cameras taking pictures of them, or mostly of Westley as he had once again won another duelling event, and had not lost a single duel in the previous months leading up to the Australian Duelling Championship event in two weeks.
"You're becoming quite the celebrity," she called over to him as she picked up her things.
Westley shrugged in response. "It's about to get worse, I'm sure, now that one of the more notorious reporters for the Magical Times tried to obtain an interview of sorts."
"So the world will soon learn more of the mysterious Westley Farmer, man in black, wizard duelling champion from out of nowhere," she said with a laugh.
Westley shook his head back and forth a little. "I'm not sure what she will actually write. I didn't really give her much information, but she will probably try to either track down any leads on my family and my background, or just create a tale of mystery and conjecture to sell even more papers."
Amanda smiled at his comment. "Well, she definitely is good at selling more papers with conjecture and fantastical story telling." After a moment, she asked him about his plans. "Where are you heading to now? The Australian National Tournament isn't for another few weeks. You heading home to mom and dad?"
Westley shrugged. "No real home to go to. Mum and dad passed on a couple of years ago. So I mostly just hang out at whatever place I'm currently staying at."
Amanda frowned slightly at his answer. "I'm sorry, I didn't really mean to pry."
"No, it's okay," said Westley reassuringly. "It's not like I have talked about things with anyone really."
Amanda simply nodded in reply.
Westley fidgeted slightly in his seat. "So, um, would you, er, would you like together dinner or something before you head home?"
Amanda couldn't hide the smile from appearing on her face. "Sure, I'd love to. There's several places not far from here if you want. Well, we'd have to wait on the final awards ceremony here first. But you probably already knew that."
Once the awards ceremony was finally over, and Marilyn Ravenwood had tried to get a few more questions answered, Westley and Amanda made their way to a restaurant not too far from the stadium where the tournament had been held. Amanda could tell that Westley seemed distracted throughout the meal as he wasn't much of a conversationalist.
"So, you grew up alone, were trained by magical tutors, who must have been quite good based on how well you have been performing by the way, so I presume you never really got out much, had time to make many friends," said Amanda, trying to find a way to get him to open up.
Westley leaned back slightly and took a deep breath before he responded. He figured using information from his actual growing up would be best, so as not to try and remember too many fabrications about his past. "I did have a couple of friends, they used magic. They went to school. They were originally from England. Ron, he liked to play chess. He'd rather play chess than ever do any studying when he was in school. But Hermione, she was all about studying. Probably did enough studying for the three of us." Before Amanda could comment about these two he added, "They're back in England, as I said. I lost contact with them. They'll probably end up together even if they don't know it yet."
Amanda could tell that he wasn't about to open up much about his friends. So she tried another topic. "Obviously you like to duel. You're good at it. Hell, you're bloody brilliant at it. But you must have some other interests, something you like to do, unless staying up all night figuring out new and devastating spell chains is all you do with your time."
Westley smiled at her comment. "Well, I do like Quidditch. I think I would have like to play seeker if I had the chance. Yes, I've flown a broom, and I quite enjoy flying actually."
"So, you're a Quidditch fan?" she asked, hoping that this would lead somewhere more personal.
"A fan? Not so much of a fan to be able to tell you who won the World Cup or any national competitions. But I do enjoy the game. Don't ask me about my favourite players, I really haven't paid that much attention to any of the leagues," added Westley. "But enough about me, what does Miss Lester like to do with her free time, besides pester wizards who beat her in duelling tournaments?" The smile on his face made it clear he did not view her questions as truly bothersome.
Amanda leaned back in her chair and twirled a few strands of her hair before she answered. "I like Quidditch, and I like it enough to actually follow teams and players. I enjoy the duelling circuit, and think I might like to eventually become an Auror, after I get tired of the duelling that is."
"Duelling isn't quite the same thing as trying to catch evil wizards and witches," stated Westley.
"Oh, and you know about fighting evil wizards now, do you," replied Amanda with a raised eyebrow.
"All I know is that I'd rather not have to fight evil wizards," said Westley. "They don't tend to play by the rules. Duelling is easier, there are rules, and they apply to everyone."
Amanda nodded slowly as she considered his response.
The conversation drifted to what types of food they liked and places they would like to go visit. Soon the meal was over and the two said their goodbyes as they left the restaurant. Westley smiled as he said he looked forward to seeing her at the Australian National Championship Duelling Competition in a few weeks. They parted ways and Westley started to make his way towards to inn he was staying at.
Half a block later he felt his magic tense and quickly leaned to one side as he avoided being hit by a flash of red and a flash of green shooting towards him from a nearby alley.
He crouched down and erected a shield that then absorbed three more spells. He sent a wide area stunner down the alley and heard several bodies collapse to the ground. Another red spell shot out of the alley towards him. Using his left hand he batted it away without using a wand, and then casted an overpowered light spell down the alleyway. A couple of voices called out from the pain in their eyes from the bright light that erupted around them.
Westley could now see into the alley and saw that there was still several wizards and witches standing in the alley, and behind them was the visage of his first ever opponent in a formal duel a few months previous, Vladimir Ivanov.
"Make him suffer," growled Ivanov. "He should not be allowed to compete against any of us."
The four other magicals standing in front of him whipped the wands and shouted out various spells. Westley targeted the two to his right, as he prepared to dodge whatever the two on his left were about to send towards him.
His bludgeoning hex connected with the two he aimed at as a blue and a yellow streak of magic came towards him from the other two. Westley was about to jump to his right when a magical shield appeared in front of him. The shield shattered under the onslaught of the spells, but the two spells were dissipated.
Amanda Lester jumped into place on is left as she called out to Westley. "Looks like you could use a little help."
Westley raised an eyebrow at her and then immediately he started to make his way towards Ivanov.
"So, it's down to you and it's down to me," stated Westley.
"You've just been a lucky little bugger," shouted Ivanov.
"Lucky?" questioned Westley. He and Amanda had already dispatched the two wizards whose attacks Amanda had blocked with her shield. "It looks to me that you have already had your team of, what was it, eight other witches and wizards taken out of the fight. I gather I must be pretty lucky. Perhaps you've fallen for the second greatest blunder of all time. The first, being, never get in a land war with goblins. Only slightly less well known, is never get into a duel with a Sicilian when death is on the line."
"You're not a Sicilian!" exclaimed Ivanov.
"No, how observant," replied Westley. "But that's not the point, you see, you've allowed yourself to be distracted."
Before he could respond again to Westley, Ivanov found himself entangled with a silently cast incarcerous spell.
Amanda called out cheerfully to the bound wizard. "What do you think the Department of Magical Games and Competition in the Australian Ministry of Magic will make of these events tonight?"
"Probably ban Ivanov and his friends," replied Westley, as Ivanov had also been gagged by the magical binding.
