A/N: This has been beta'd by Nessi. Thank you, Nessi.

Chapter 44: The Tournament

The next two weeks passed in a blur. Harry taught every day from eight in the morning until lunch, then he let students work in his classroom for lightly supervised study sessions during lunch, and then he taught from twelve-thirty until three-thirty. After classes, he had what felt like a quarter of the student body on his doorstep every afternoon. He'd given up assigning homework entirely because he didn't have time to grade it, and he knew everyone was working on Defense Against the Dark Arts outside of class anyway.

During the weekend in the middle of the two weeks, Harry finished the brackets. He deliberated for some time about whether to publish them. If he published them, he worried that students would try to sabotage their first opponents in the week before the duel. Publishing them would give students the opportunities to study up on how to defeat their specific opponents, but Harry wasn't entirely sure that was a good thing. In the end, he decided not to publish the student brackets, but he did publish the faculty brackets.

There were eight faculty members entered in the tournament, so there'd be three rounds. Harry'd set it up so that he and Albus were on opposite ends of the bracket so that they wouldn't duel until the championship. In keeping with tournament tradition, he stacked the strongest duelers with the weakest to make for the most interesting semi-finals and final. Harry was dueling Sprout in the primary, and would then duel the winner of the Slughorn-Minerva duel for the semi-finals. Albus was dueling Kettelburn in the primary, and would duel the winner of the Flitwick-Binns duel in the semi-finals.

At the beginning of the two weeks Albus helped Harry a lot with the tutoring sessions, but after the middle weekend when Harry published the faculty brackets, Albus suddenly started coming up with a wide range of excuses not to help. The sessions were becoming so hectic that Harry tried enlisting Minerva's help on a few occasions, but she was proving just as illusive. Harry started to wonder if they just didn't want to help until Thursday afternoon when he decided he wanted a ten minute break from students. He apparated out of his office and up to the seventh floor corridor. I need a place to hide from my students. I need a place to hide from my students. I need a place with no students.

He entered the room of requirement and froze. Beams of light were shooting all over the place as two long-haired figures spun and slashed at each other with their wands. The taller of the two hit the other with a lucky shot and had her on the ground in an instant.

"Good. Better," panted Albus offering Minerva a hand up. "But he's going to be a lot faster. He'll feel any of that magic as soon as it leaves your wand. You need to practice the other methods I taught you."

She groaned. "I'm going to look like an idiot against him."

"If it's going to bother you so much, you could just lose to Horace and save yourself the trouble."

"Is that bad sportsman ship I hear, Albus?"

"Yes."

"Well," she stopped and laughed. "Save the bad sportsman ship for your duel with him. I think you'll need it."

Harry interrupted. "And who's this 'him' you're discussing?"

Minerva and Albus looked 'round at Harry. "Oh, Crockett, you—Albus, I thought you said nobody would come here—and I thought you said he was busy."

"Hello, Harry," said Albus sheepishly.

"I've been wondering where you two kept going," said Harry.

"How long have you been standing there, Crockett?"

Harry grinned back. "Long enough."

"We were just practicing," said Minerva.

"Minerva wanted to practice before her duel with —"

"Slughorn!" she interrupted loudly.

"Excellent," said Harry grinning at Albus. "Well, I was just…looking for a moment's peace, but I'll be off. –Do you think the kids will riot if I take the weekend off? It is the last weekend before the tournament but…"

"I think you've done enough, Harry," said Albus.

"Well, in that case, do you two want to go to the vault this weekend?"

"Er…" Albus and Minerva looked at each other.

"Sorry, I have—"

"I'm going—"

"—lots of things—"

"—to be busy—"

"—to do and I think—"

"—the entire time and—"

"—I won't have time." They both finished in unison.

Harry looked at them and frowned. He popped his lips and scratched his nose. "Ok." He ruffled his hair. "I'll just…work on the phoenix thing."

The school assembled in the Great Hall on Monday morning, the last week of term, and the first day of the tournament. The students chattered excitedly, waiting for their bracket assignments. Harry and Minerva were waiting anxiously for Albus to finish his scones. By the time Albus started on his fourth scone, Harry began to suspect that Albus had sensed their impatience and was drawing it out as long as possible.

"These are truly magnificent," he said to Harry as he delicately spread clotted cream and raspberry jam in equal measure onto his scone. "It takes true magic to make the perfect scone. I've been recommending recipes to the house elves, and I think this is my favorite."

"Albus…" growled Minerva with her fists clenched on the table.

"Yes, love?" he asked, still quite focused on his scone.

She blushed and leaned back. "Nothing."

Finally he licked the last crumbs and bits of jam off his long, white fingers and blotted his mouth with a large purple napkin. Every eye in the room was on him as he rose from his chair, and he didn't have to even clear his throat to gain complete silence.

"Good morning! I can see you've all been looking forward to today. Contestants are looking forward to their duels…I know Professor Crockett has been looking forward to his first free time in weeks…" The students and teachers laughed. "And what all of you are looking forward to is the unveiling, or unrolling as it were, of the student bracket! On this wall…" he clicked his fingers and a large purple banner with gold stitching unrolled itself down the wall on the side of the hall closest to the Gryffindors. While everyone watched it unroll, he turned and winked at Harry.

Harry mimed clicking his fingers and smiled back.

"On this wall is the faculty bracket that you've already seen, and now, by each pair, is a time and day that indicates when the duel will take place. For instance, a duel between Professor Kettleburn and me will occur at nine-o-clock today.

"As you know, there are no classes this week, and thus you are expected to be present for all of the dueling. Student duels may occur simultaneously, so there will be plenty to watch. Lunch is at noon every day. The duels will take place in the Quidditch field. It is cold outside so dress warmly, but the field is currently protected from severe weather. Professor Crockett, is there anything you would like to add?"

Harry stood. "I'm really proud of the way you've all been preparing, and I would like to remind you that good sportsmanship is very important. I hope that everyone treats their opponents with respect and takes their wins or losses with grace. I know you all are here to have a good time. That being said, I will know if you cheat, and I will know if you attempt to sabotage any of the other contestants. Don't. We will have no injuries during this tournament." Harry nodded to Albus that he was finished.

"Thank you, Professor Crockett. Witches and wizards, your brackets." He snapped his fingers and a large banner on the Slytherin side of the hall unrolled itself. The room erupted into conversation. "Good luck to you all!" called Albus over the din, "And I shall see you in twenty minutes on the field!"

Twenty minutes later, the whole school sat in the stands save Albus and Professor Kettleburn. The giant screen was up, displaying the names "Dumbledore" and "Kettleburn" and those two men were standing ten paces apart on the field as the whole school stared down at them.

"Less than ten minutes," said Minerva, sitting down next to Harry.

"Nah. He'll drag it out to make it look more even."

"Ten galleons?"

"Yep."

"See," Minerva said as the two men bowed to each other, "He's not going to do any of that gaudy lion tamer stuff he did with you. It would just look like showing off with Kettleburn."

"And in what way was that not showing off when he did it with me?"

"You were both flashy, so it didn't matter."

Harry laughed nervously. The board counted down to zero and the duelers started dueling.

Kettleburn had fast reflexes and strong shield charms from years of working with magical creatures, friendly and unfriendly. He crouched low to the ground like an animal reducing the size of his target. He ran fast, rolled, and jumped high, but magically he was no match for Albus. After a good five minutes of magical exchange, Albus sent a spell that split into seven beams of light and all converged on Kettleburn from different sides. The spell immobilized him, and Albus quickly disarmed him with an "Expelliarmus!" according to the screen.

Seconds had started ticking down…fifty…thirty…fifteen…five….a bell rang at zero, and the stands erupted into cheers. Albus freed Kettleburn and gestured to him. Kettleburn took an awkward bow, and Albus followed with a sweeping curtsey.

"Seven and a half," said Minerva. "That's twenty galleons you owe me now." Harry glared at her.

"The first round of student dueling will begin in fifteen minutes," boomed Albus over the stadium. "You will notice that the brackets are also displayed here in the stadium," he gestured to the brackets which now hung on either side of the large screen. On the faculty bracket, "Dumbledore" now also appeared in a semi-final duel happening on Wednesday. His opponent spot remained blank.

"Good luck!" he said, before quieting his voice again.

All of the faculty converged on the field and started setting up for the student duels. Four student duels were to occur at once, so the faculty split up the field into four arenas separated by wide paths. The arenas were shielded from each other, and each arena had its own score board, complete with spell detection. Students would be allowed to stand on the path around a particular arena if they wanted to look closer, and anyone in the stands could see all four sections. Two teachers refereed each duel.

The first-year primaries were first. Hooch and Andromeda Black, Amos Diggory and Ted Tonks, Gideon and Trelawney, and Fabian and Umbridge were paired. Harry was monitoring Hooch and Andromeda with Flitwick. Andromeda's magic was more sophisticated and powerful—sometimes more powerful than she meant it to be— but Hooch was quite aggressive and a very good shot. In the end, Hooch's agility and aim won out. She hit Andromeda with a decently strong full body bind and won the duel.

By the time Hooch and Andromeda were done, only Diggory and Tonks were still dueling. They were almost evenly matched, but Tonks was a little faster. Tonks hit Diggory with a jelly-legs jinx, and took his wand as he was flailing around. Tonks ran around the arena for a minute, evading the twitching Diggory by foot as the clock ran down.

The first years were all finished by ten-thirty. Their semi-finals would be the next day, Tuesday, between Gideon and Hooch, and Fabian and Tonks. Next up were the fourth years. Harry supervised a duel between Pius Thicknesse and Dorcas Meadowes, which Dorcas won. She, Harry remembered, was one of the members of the Order of the Phoenix who was killed by Voldemort in person. The thought sickened him, but he could see why Voldemort had taken the trouble; Dorcas Meadows was an excellent witch.

It was eleven-fifteen by the time the fourth years were done. Next, all of the students retreated back up into the stands for a duel between Flitwick and Binns. The teachers removed all of the arena dividers and small score boards and took their seats. Harry and Minerva sat on either side of Albus, as usual.

Minerva leaned forward to talk to Harry across Albus. "I'll put ten galleons on Flitwick."

Harry leaned forward too. "That he loses? Sure. I'll bet he wins."

"No, you can have ten galleons if Binns wins," said Minerva.

"So, I'll take ten galleons if Flitwick wins, and ten galleons if Binns wins, and you can have ten for a tie?"

"Have you two been betting on the duels?" asked Albus, finding himself quite sandwiched between Harry and Minerva.

"Not the students, Albus. Goodness, what do you take us for?" asked Minerva.

Harry laughed.

"What did you bet on my duel?"

"Crockett said at least ten minutes, and I said you'd win in fewer. I won."

"Really, Harry? I thought you of all people would bet that I am capable of incapacitating—"

"Yes, Albus, I am fully aware that you are capable of bewitching the best of us into submission. I expected that you'd draw it out for…appearances and sportsmanship."

"Did I disappoint you?" challenged Albus.

Harry laughed. "No, no. You did draw it out…I just didn't realize ten minutes were so long."

The countdown had reached zero and Flitwick and Binns began their duel.

The two had entirely different styles. Flitwick immediately conjured a small metal disk to stand on. The disk lifted him in the air, and Flitwick zoomed around the stadium and shot spells from on high. Binns, on the other hand, stood exactly where he was quite stiffly, and fired off spells as if he was conducting a sinister orchestra.

It turned out, Binns' style was dignified to a fault; Flitwick used Binns' immobility to his advantage. While Binns kept out a lot of Flitwick's spells with a shield, Flitwick embedded charms in the grass all around the shield, and then charmed the grass to grow into the area where his spells couldn't penetrate. Soon, Binns' spells slowed. He gave an almighty yawn, and collapsed onto the ground. The clock started ticking, and Flitwick landed. The shield had fallen and Flitwick immobilized the sleeping Binns and took his wand. Thirty…fifteen…five…The bell rang and the stadium erupted into cheers. Flitwick nodded to the audience and bent to rouse Binns.

Instead of dismissing the students with an announcement, Albus pointed his wand at the screen so that the words "Enjoy your lunch! Please be back by 1:00" appeared there. The students slowly started leaving the stadium to go back up to the castle for lunch.

Harry noticed that Flitwick's name now appeared in the next line of the bracket right above Albus's. This signaled that Albus and Flitwick would duel together on Wednesday in the semifinals. The other faculty semi-final duel would be decided by the duels in the afternoon.

"Shall we?" asked Albus. Minerva and Harry stood up and accompanied Albus back to the Great Hall for lunch. The hall was already full, and the students were louder than normal. Harry and Minerva took their seats on either side of Albus and began eating lunch. Harry was eating a salad and thinking about plants in general, and that led him to think of Pomona Sprout. Harry turned to his right to talk to her, but the chair to his right was empty. Pomona Sprout usually sat there, but she was missing. Harry stood up and looked up and down the table, but she was nowhere to be seen, nor was she anywhere in the hall.

"Have you seen Pomona?" Harry asked Albus.

"No."

"Aren't you dueling her after lunch?" asked Minerva from across Albus.

"Yes," replied Harry slowly.

"Sabotage!" she hissed with false venom. Harry glared at her. He reached into the auror bag he carried everywhere (full of his shrunken objects and artifacts) and pulled out the Marauder's map. He unfolded it, tapped it with his wand, and quietly muttered, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Ink immediately flooded the page, showing the details of the castle and grounds.

The rest of the castle was empty, except for the ghosts, and the grounds were clear. After a few minutes of looking, Harry finally spotted Pomona Sprout in the locker rooms by the stadium. Harry frowned.

"Sorry, I'll see you later," he told Albus and Minerva.

"Hey, Crockett—Make it fewer than ten minutes, ok? Albus, I bet ten galleons Crockett beats her in under ten?"

"I am not going to gamble with you, Minerva. Goodbye, Harry." Harry laughed and dashed out of the hall.

Harry pushed open the door of the locker rooms and poked his head in. "Pomona?"

Harry heard a wet sniff and then, "Ah…Um…" Someone coughed. "Who is it?"

"It's Harry," said Harry.

"Oh."

"Where are you?" Harry asked.

"Um…I'm over here." She sniffed.

Harry walked farther into the room and rounded a corner to where the benches and lockers were. Pomona Sprout sat on a bench and was quickly stuffing a wad of tissue into her pocket.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" asked Harry.

She sniffed. "No." Harry sat down next to her.

"So!" he said, leaning back against the wall. "Looks like we're dueling next." Pomona gave a sob and buried her hands.

"What's the matter?" asked Harry.

"H-how am I s-supposed to d-duel you when even P-professor Dumbledore couldn't beat you?"

"I—"

"Do you know how h-hard it is to be taking classes one day and t-teaching the next? I have students who are older than I am!"

"Pomona, I—"

"I don't get to live with my f-friends anymore, a-and—"

"Pomona, it's not too late to enter you into the student bracket."

"The others in my year, or…who, who were in my year…they say I think I'm b-better than them. That I don't d-deserve to t-teach. If I l-lost a duel to one of them, it would p-prove them right."

"Albus Dumbledore did not hire you because he thought you were a better dueler than your peers. In fact, I am sure that there are students who could beat you in a duel, but dueling is about as relevant to your job as playing chess. Albus Dumbledore hired you because you are not only the best herbologist in the entire school, faculty and staff included, but you are a magnificent teacher. Few of your peers can claim that skill, whereas I know for a fact that you will teach for many years and inspire hundreds of students. Besides, I know you have friends that don't say that about you. I overheard Mr. Longbottom and Mr. Ogden talking about how well you teach the class and how impressed they were."

"R-really? Algie said that?"

"Hmm…yep. And you know, some of the students might be mean to you, but they're just jealous. You got the job you wanted before even leaving school—and between you and me, Mr. Crouch is never going to make Minister of Magic."

Pomona cracked a smile.

"So what do you want to do," asked Harry.

Pomona's smile vanished. "I can't be in the student bracket," she said. "But I'm going to be humiliated in the teacher bracket. Students are already disrespectful in my classes…it's so hard to k-keep them in order sometimes. What if my students make fun of me? How could I teach like that?"

"I'm not going to humiliate you," said Harry.

"Why couldn't I have dueled Binns? I could have won that."

"You know, I think I'll tell him you said that," Harry joked.

"Oh, he wouldn't care," she laughed. "I don't think he really notices that other people exist. Have you ever managed to have a proper conversation with him?"

"Yeah, once. He was so shocked that someone was asking him a question…" Harry and Pomona both burst into laughter. "But then if you'd beaten him, you'd have had to duel Albus. Who would you rather duel, Albus or I?"

"Well…you, I guess. Professor Dumbledore is so intimidating."

"What, more intimidating than me?" Harry looked offended.

"Sorry, yes. I never know what he's thinking."

"And you know what I'm thinking, then?"

"Something like 'oh no, how am I going to duel Pomona without playing easy or making her look silly?'"

Harry laughed. "Alright. You got me." He was actually feeling quite horrible. He hadn't thought much about the faculty's feelings as he'd seeded them best against worst. That was how tournaments worked!

"Everyone expects you to win in just a minute or two," continued Pomona. "I don't care about losing to you—you and Professor Dumbledore are the best duelers I've ever seen…but, agh, Crouch is going to be insufferable. And the students…" she sniffed.

"Well, I'll make sure to let you get a few good punches in."

"Don't let me win," she pleaded. "They'd know it was fake if I won, but…if you could make it last longer than five minutes that would be nice…"

"Don't worry; I can do that… " He trailed off. "Actually," Harry's eyes lit up, "I can do a lot better than that. Do you want to put on a show?"

"Um…what kind of show?"

Harry grinned. The stadium above them began to thunder as students started pouring into their seats.

"Here…switch wands."

"What do I do with this?" she asked once they'd switched.

"Don't break it."

"What else?"

Harry shrugged. "Use your imagination."