As Harry locks eyes with his opponent, he realized that his 50/50 odds came up on the wrong half. With a sigh he lowered his head in resignation to the current events. Surprisingly Daphne, Susan, and Nymphdora were sitting at the table, watching this all happen completely unconcerned. It then clicked in Harry's mind that they all knew before hand and didn't say anything.
"Bloody traitors, the lot of them." he murmured to himself. He didn't get the chance to say more as Amelia went on the offensive.
"Confringo, Refractumos, Vourkosei, Diffindo, Diffindo" Amelia practically sang. She loved a good duel regardless of the reason it was being fought. Harry could only watch as the spells flowed from her wand tip, each with precise accuracy and purpose. The first to break line of sight, the next two aimed directly at Harry, while the cutters went wide either side of him preventing a proper dodge. Harry couldn't think that she looked like a conductor, one of pain and misfortune that was currently targeting him.
"Speculo Argenti" intoned Harry. With his shield active he effectively batted away the two spells that posed any sort of threat to his current position. This earned him a look of appraisal and intrigue from Amelia. Harry did not let this stop him as he responded with his own spell chain.
"Aqua Tormentis, Colloshou, Terrae Motus Parvus" were the spells uttered from his tongue. His water cannon was met with another one of Amelia's confringo's created a cloud of hot steam. Harry's second spelled missed. The third landed on the floor in between them, causing the ground to rock and shake. Harry had hoped it would knock Amelia off balance, but he quickly realized it was a futile attempt and cancelled the spell.
At this moment Harry felt like this entire situation was a bit overboard. Sure, he had kissed Susan and groped her breast, but it wasn't out of lust or disrespect. If Harry had a moment to spare, he would've realized how it all looked to literally anybody besides himself. But he didn't as Amelia was on the attack again. Amelia for her part was enjoying herself immensely. A small part of her brain reasoned that she may be going overboard but her love of dueling overruled quickly. Sadly, as much as she loved dueling, she knew this couldn't keep up forever, so she enjoyed it as much as possible as she sent a myriad of bone breakers, bludgeoners, stunners, and underpowered cutters at Harry. She hoped this would teach him a lesson he'd never forget.
Harry weathered her onslaught of pain and misery. He was forced to duck and dodge all over, never getting a moments peace to gain either solid footing or his breath. Without any solid footing he was loathe to use any shields he knew in fear of their repercussions. Harry grunted and rolled as another spell clipped him, sending him in the sofa that had yet to be destroyed.
Amelia looked gleeful thinking the duel was about to end. Harry's head was spinning, his body aching. When he stood, albeit a tad wobbly, Amelia was suitable impressed at his resolve and endurance. Harry was understandably annoyed at this point. He had been under siege for about 10-15 minutes by now, had been hit by several bludgeoners and a few weak cutters. He wanted this to end, whether he won or lost was irrelevant at this point he just wanted to be done with it. On the other hand, he couldn't simply give up, so he figured he'd go out in a blaze of glory so to speak.
He had come up with a plan while dodging spells. Amelia had one glaring "weakness" and it wasn't even a weakness really. Harry had noticed that at the end of each of her spell chains she has to recover from her movements. As she moves her wand through the spells her body follows akin to a dance. He noticed that the end of each chain was a small refractory period where Amelia was essentially finishing the last steps of her "dance". This left her in a state where she is at her most vulnerable as she can't properly shield or dodge. That didn't mean she couldn't still attack though.
Harry watched the end of her most recent spell chain from behind his shield charm. He leapt into action once he spotted his opening.
"Gin Noyari, Depulso, Aqua Tormentis, Yol Toorshol" casted Harry all in quick succession. Despite the quickness of Harry's attack Amelia was just as fast in her counter.
"Ferreum Murus, Fumos" she intoned. Her iron shield taking the brunt of Harry's silver spears and water cannon. She casted her smokescreen spell in hopes to get some space between her and whatever fire spell he had just used to melt her shield. She was momentarily surprised when it was all blown away.
"Ventus, Colloshou, Terrae Motus Parvus, Ekrixi Petras, Diatrypo Centesimum" Harry practically shouting the last spell. He watched every spell connect perfectly on to be brought down by a stunner she had cast moments prior. Amelia just stood there in shock for a moment as Harry slumped to the floor. When she finally reeled herself in, she took a step forward and looked behind her. She analyzed his last spells in her mind. The first obviously clearing her smokescreen. The next two caused her to momentarily fight for her balance with her shoes being stuck to the ground that was doing its best to knock her down. It was the last two the really impressed her, Harry had erected a stone slab against her back. The slab was riddled with roughly one hundred tiny little holes in the shape of her body. She was downright impressed with not only the power but the accuracy and control he wielded.
With several waves of her wand Amelia fixed all the damage in the room, released the barrier protecting the girls, and awakening Harry. When Harry came to he let out a loud groan. Daphne and Nymphdora came over to help him into a chair. From their the two girl performed basic healing although they left him with a bit of bruising and ache as a reminder. When the first aid was finished Harry looked amongst the four women in the tent with a calm gaze. Daphne had a small sympathetic smile adorning her lips. Susan held a look that roughly translated to "oh well, what can you do". Nymphdora looked amused as if watching a good show, she was simply ecstatic when other people shared in some form of misfortune. Amelia stared back with a wicked smirk that said she'd have no problem going for round two. Suppressing the small shudder of what he would forever deny as fear, he spoke.
"Let me guess, despite Susan explaining the situation almost flawlessly you all simultaneously agreed that while my intentions were harmless, I still needed to be taught a lesson?" he questioned.
It was Amelia who responded, "Of course, Susan had explained that it was all a misunderstanding. But I still couldn't let you get away with kissing and groping my niece so crassly. On top of that Susan is always praising your spell work and I figured I'd like to see it for myself. And I believe there is no better way to see somebody's skill with a wand than a surprise duel. Nymphdora and Daphne also agreed that letting you get roughed up a bit would teach you that you couldn't just walk up to a girl kiss her and grope her breast and walk off like nothing happened."
He looked to the aforementioned girls them both with sympathetic smiles but nods in agreement to Amelia's statement. With a sign and a grunt of effort Harry stood and shuffled off to his room in the tent intent on sleeping till noon tomorrow. The women spent the rest of the night chatting about random topics and the game tomorrow. The next morning Harry found Amelia in the kitchen with her coffee and newspaper. Ever curious to learn and improve Harry sat down with an idea.
"Hey Amelia, do you own a pensieve?" Harry asked softly. "I'd like to take a look at our duel yesterday and use it as a learning experience and see where I can improve."
Amelia was impressed by his thought process and called for one of her family elves to bring her pensieve. She herself was curious about a few things from the fight and wouldn't turn down an excuse for free information. After the spent twenty or so minutes reviewing the memory Amelia couldn't stop herself from asking the question she wanted answers to.
"Harry what is that fire spell you used, and how did it come out of your mouth?" She inquired.
"It's an ancient Nordic spell. It's incredibly difficult to learn as it actually doesn't require a wand, nor can it be casted with one. The spell itself mimics dragon fire. As far as the spell is casted, the magic is essentially your own voice. Or more like your voice is casting the magic into reality like a wand. I know several other spells that are all casted as such, they were all very hard to learn as you need to speak the magic into existence. Then into form, bending it to your will thereby creating the spell effect." he replied.
"Do you mind if I keep this memory too show all the auror trainees? You fought very well, good use of dodging and shielding. Impressive spell repertoire and creative thinking. Not to mention powerful but accurate and decisive. I think there's a lot they could learn from watching this."
"Sure, but I think the most they have to learn is from watching you Ms. Bones, watching you fight is like watching a concert. You as the conductor, your magic as the orchestra. It's beautiful like a symphony of pain and misfortune. I wish I could duel like that." Harry quietly lamented.
"Maybe we'll have to see about some private dueling lessons for you then. I'd love to make you one of my aurors." she offered.
It was at this point that the other three girls started waking up demanding Harry make breakfast because he was the best cook any of them had met. Harry with some good-natured grumbling got up and made breakfast. After they ate the group took off for their seats as the game was starting in just over an hour. They were seated in the minister's box due to Amelia's position as a department head in the ministry. Along with the foreign officials the Malfoys were also there. Draco had tried provoking Harry yet again in his never-ending attempt to prove himself better. The Susan and Daphne gave each other confused looks wondering why Draco kept trying despite never once getting a reaction out of Harry in the past three years. Nymphdora herself was positively giddy as she was going to tease Harry about Draco seemingly having a crush on him. Harry for his part was bored, utterly bored. That was when he noticed the Weasleys.
Making his way over to the twins he caught them debating whether to take Mr. Bagman's bet on the game's outcomes. Harry quickly interrupted them with a proposal of his own.
"Excuse me gentleman but I have an offer your unlikely to refuse. I'll bet you that Bulgaria wins snitch and all against your claims of Ireland winning but Krum catching the snitch. If I win you guys have to give up pranks for a whole month. And if I lose, I'll give you the startup loan to start making products for your joke shop. I know you just started talking about it but I think that's a fair trade." Harry offered.
Fred and George looked at each other, then back at Harry, then back too each other and finally to Harry.
"Deal" they said in perfect unison.
Harry walked away with a small smirk as he had just saved his friends from a mistake as well and giving them a business loan and securing a profit if they were successful. He figured he'd have to just wait and see. Finally, the match was starting as the teams' mascots came out. The leprechauns tossing shower of fake gold as they danced and sung. It was a decent performance in his opinion. Next were the veela. Their performance wasn't bad as it was just confusing. Harry just didn't understand their humming and chanting along with their rhythmic body motions. It was then that he noticed Daphne and Nymphdora staring at him. Daphne's gaze was curious and calculating. Nymphdora's was confused and curious. Harry figured if it was important, they would tell him later. So, with a shrug of his shoulders he turned back to the pitch just in time to watch the start of the match.
AN: this one is a bit shorter in length, yes i know Amelia is mad OOC but thats why its fanfic labeled as au. hopefully i'll have the next chapter done by this weekend.
For those that may wonder some of the spells i use will be heavily influenced by skyrim shouts as well as a few from pokemon moves.
hope its enjoyable or not
confringo- explosive flames
refractumos- bone breaker
vourkosei- bludgeoner
diffindo- cutting curse
speculo argenti- silver mirror shield(reflects spells)
aqua tormentis- water cannon
colloshou- sticks shoes to the ground
terrae motus parvus- cause small earthquakes
yol toorshol- mimics dragons breath
gin noyari- conjures silver spears
depulso- pushes objects away from caster
fumos- creates smokescreen
ventus- blows gusts of wind
ekrixi petras- summons stone slab
diatrypo centesimum- creates 100 small piercing hexs
