"So a duel?" Draco asked, over breakfast the next morning. "That's it?"

"It's more of a battle really." Harry corrected. "There won't be any of the usual duelling rules or etiquette."

"Surely there are some rules though." Theo commented. "They're not just going to let you kill each other."

Harry nodded in agreement. "We can't do any damage that a healer won't be able to fix in twenty four hours and we can't use any illegal spells."

"That's it?" Neville asked, his eyebrows raised. "That leaves you with an awful lot options."

"I know." Harry allowed his smile to spread across his face. "I'm looking forward to it actually. The only problem is that Sirius can't help me train."

Most of his friends looked up towards the Head Table where Sirius was talking to Madame Brusilov.

"That's not unexpected, is it?" Daphne tilted her head to the side. "He hasn't been able to help with any of the other tasks."

"No," Harry acknowledged. "But he's been duelling with me all year and, now that I really need to practise, he has to stop. Apparently it was allowed when I didn't know that I would be duelling in a task, but now it would go against the oath he's taken."

"So how will you prepare?" Neville asked curiously.

"Well," Harry looked them all over. "I was hoping that…"

"Absolutely not!" Draco interrupted firmly. "There is no way that I am going to duel against you. I've seen you in action and I do not want to end up on the wrong end of your wand."

Harry had to swallow down a grimace at the reminder of his duel with Barty Crouch Junior. "What if it was all of you against me?"

Draco considered that. "Fine, but you can't use any dangerous spells."

"Deal." Harry agreed quickly. "Define dangerous."

"As tempted as I am to say anything more than a stinging hex," Draco grimaced. "Anything that would take a healer to heal."

Harry nodded in understanding before looking around at the rest of his friends. "What about the rest of you?"

"I'll help." Daphne said quickly, as Neville and Luna both nodded.

"I will too." Theo added.

"I'm in." Blaise agreed.

"Great!" Harry grinned. "Thanks. Now I just have to get Takashi, Fred, and George on board."

"They're sixth and seventh years." Neville pointed out, his eyes wide.

"So are the other Champions." Daphne pointed out.

"Yes, but there's only five of them." Neville argued. "With them involved, there will be eight of us against Harry."

"It will be good for me." Harry told him. "I need to learn to duel against more than one person at the time. The more the merrier."

"Besides," Theo exchanged a glance with a Draco. "Harry's probably better at duelling than they are. The five of us wouldn't stand a chance against him."

Neville narrowed his eyes at Theo, before turning to Draco, and then to Harry. "I suppose this is connected to that thing you can't talk about."

"Gryffindors." Draco sneered at Neville. "No sense of guile."

"I'm going to take that as a yes," Neville grinned. "And so ask no more questions."

Draco shook his head in obvious disgust. "Gryffindors!"

"So I'll meet you all in the Come and Go Room after classes?" Harry asked, after sharing an amused smile with Neville. "I'm hoping it will be able to create something similar to the enclosure that the Third Task will be held in."

46-46-46

With exams less than two weeks away their classes were mostly just review – which Harry found frustrating. He'd already been doing his own exam preparation for over a month and very little of what the professors had them review was helpful to him. In a way it was encouraging, since it suggested that he would do well at his exams, but Harry had better things to do than practising cross-species transfiguration (which would be not use to him in the Third Task) or the Summoning Charm (which he could do wandlessly).

He was tempted to accept the option of not sitting his exams that came with being a Triwizard Champion, since that way he could maybe convince his professors to let him skip classes, but he knew that he would regret it. Admittedly most of his exams weren't that important, but he was due to take his Ancient Runes OWL and there was no way that he wanted to postpone that for a year.

So after a morning of needless exam review, Harry visited the Library during lunch to find some books on duelling strategy that he could begin reading during his afternoon classes. He wasn't sure how it would go over with his professors, but thankfully Remus and McGonagall (who was taking their DADA class) seemed to understand the need for him to focus on researching for Third Task. Though McGonagall did make him prove that he could cast all the spells the class was reviewing before letting him turn his attention to his book. He didn't even attempt to read during Potions class, partly because it was the hardest subject to review outside class and partly because he knew that Snape wouldn't be impressed.

Finally classes were over for the day and, after dropping his bag off at his and Sirius' quarters, Harry made his way up to the Come and Go Room. He was the first of his friends to arrive and as he paced back and forth in front of the wall, Harry tried to hold the image of the duelling arena in his mind. Once the door appeared, Harry pushed it open before grinning in satisfaction.

He'd forgotten how big the room could be, since normally he asked it to form a much smaller room, but this room was just as big as it had been when he'd seen it filled with junk – if not bigger. Not only was the size perfect, but the ridge of stone was there, as were the boulders, the flame pillars, and the pool of water. This would be perfect!

"Woah!" Neville commented, coming in behind him. "This room is huge."

"I know." Harry turned to face him. "It's great!"

"Are those actual rocks?" Neville questioned, walking towards the nearest one and banging on it with his fist. "Ow!"

Harry chuckled. "So they're real, then?"

"Does that mean that the fire's real too?" Neville asked, shooting a worried glance towards the flame pillars.

"I presume so." Harry nodded. "And the water."

"How does the room do it?" Neville asked, looking around. "When it was just chairs and cushions I presumed it was just borrowing them from somewhere else in the castle, but these rocks…"

"They weren't just any chairs though." Harry pointed out. "Most of the time it was an exact replica of one of the rooms at Grimmauld Place. As to how it works, I have no idea."

"It must be some kind of transfiguration, right?" Neville asked.

"Powered by Runes maybe?" Harry suggested. "Professor McGonagall might know. You could ask her?"

Neville grinned sheepishly. "I'm not sure I care that much."

"You might not, but now that you've mentioned it – I do." Harry told him. "Imagine being able to replicate this room? You could have a Come and Go Room in your house."

"What if you had entire house of rooms like this?" Neville asked. "That way you would have as many bedrooms, bathrooms, or living areas as you needed."

"Or you could simply visit Malfoy Manor." Draco commented haughtily, stepping into the room. "We have ten bathrooms in the left wing alone."

"Why would anyone want that many bathrooms?" Neville asked, throwing his hands in the air. "Ten greenhouses I could understand, but ten bathrooms?"

"Why would you want ten greenhouses?" Draco rolled his eyes.

"To grow plants." Neville told him flatly. "Which makes them significantly more useful than your ten bathrooms."

"You two always have the most amusing conversations." Theo commented, as he arrived with Blaise and Daphne. Takashi and Luna followed soon afterwards.

Draco shot him an annoyed glare, before turning back to Neville. "Malfoy Manor has significantly more bathrooms that just ten. It's a Manor, not a hovel."

"It's ostentatious is what it is." Neville retorted, with a small smile. "A perfect example of the grandiose nature of affluent traditionalists."

"I'm sorry," Draco made a show of looking Neville over. "I didn't recognise you, Weasley."

Neville snorted. "You think Ron knows the word grandiose? Or ostentatious? Or affluent? He'd just call you a Death Eater and be done with it."

Draco chuckled. "Not unless he wanted to be suspended again."

Harry turned away from their conversation and made his way across to Daphne. "Merry meet."

"Merry meet." Daphne agreed with a smile. "How was your afternoon?"

"Not a complete waste of time." Harry acknowledged. "How was yours?"

Daphne let out a light laugh. "Well, as I haven't completely memorised the textbook, I found my classes quite helpful."

"I haven't memorised the textbook." Harry argued. "Not word for word anyway."

Daphne shook her head in amusement. "I love that you think that's any kind of defence. Still, I suppose it gives you more time to prepare for the last task."

"It does." Harry agreed, looking around the room. "Though part of me wishes that I could just get it over and done with now, without any kind of preparation at all. Last night two weeks and five days felt like nowhere near enough time to prepare, but today it seems like forever."

"Two weeks and four days now." Daphne encouraged him. "And then it will all be over."

Harry smiled weakly. "And then there will just be Voldemort trying to get me, and the majority of the school hating me, and…"

Daphne slipped her hand in his. "And the summer holidays when we throw pool parties, and attend balls, and you and Draco can join the Under Seventeen Quidditch League, and you will turn fifteen and become Lord Potter."

"Which isn't a terrifying thought at all." Harry chuckled, before squeezing her hand gratefully.

"Sorry we're late!" Fred exclaimed as he and George rushed into the room. "McGonagall held us behind after class."

"Don't worry about it." Neville commented, his tone amused. "You didn't miss much. Harry and Daphne have just been making eyes at each other."

Harry whipped his head around to glare at his friend and he could see Daphne doing the same out of the corner of his eyes. "I beg your pardon?"

"Nothing wrong with it, you know." Neville grinned, before looking down at Luna who was standing beside him. "Luna and I do it all the time."

Luna nodded. "It's nice. Sometimes if we look long enough we create baby Curoses."

There was a long pause, as everyone considered that, before Harry cleared his throat. "Alright, since we're all here, let's get started."

"So where do you want us?" Fred asked, looking around the room.

"We'll each start behind one of the boulders around the outside." Harry explained. "Then, one of you, will whistle to indicate that we're starting."

Draco grimaced. "You want us to whistle? What do you think we are? Plebians?"

"Well, speaking for the two of us…" Fred started with a grin

"…yes, yes, we are." George finished with an identical expression.

Draco waved a hand dismissively. "No, you're scions of the Ancient and Noble House of Prewett. Even if you are uncouth anti-traditionalists."

"Non-traditionalists." George corrected.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Draco, you don't have to whistle. One of the others can indicate when to begin, or you can just create a loud noise. After that, all of you will be working to knock me out."

"I'm still not so sure about this." Neville admitted, looking around. "All of us, against you? That hardly seems fair. Maybe a few of us should sit the first one out."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Neville, I've been practising every week for two years. Not to mention that I know wandless magic and parselmagic. I'll be fine. Besides, none of us will be causing enough damage that we'll need to go see Madame Pomfrey, so the worst that will happen is that I get knocked out."

Neville nodded unsurely. "Alright."

"And don't take it easy on me." Harry said, looking towards Fred, George and Takashi. "I'm going to be facing five seventh years. I need as much of a challenge as you can give me."

They all dispersed, wandering around the room looking for a boulder to start behind. Harry chose one of the ones closest to him. It wasn't in the most strategic position, but he figured that he would need to practise starting behind each one just in case.

He'd only ever duelled against one person at a time before and, aside from Crouch, his duels had never involved objects to hide behind. He really wasn't sure how his strategy should change to incorporate more people and a different environment, though the book he had started reading had started giving him some ideas.

The boulders would be useful to help him shield himself from his opponents, but they would also make it harder to cast spells of his own. Which meant that, while he did want to utilise the boulders, he couldn't spend the entire duel behind them if he wanted to knock out his opponents. The difficulty came with the risk that leaving the safety of the boulder put him into. With more than one person to look out for, who could be behind any of the boulders, Harry would have to be ready to dodge spells from all angles. Not mention he had no idea how he was supposed to know if a spell was being sent at his back.

The ridge was possibly the most usual piece of cover in the arena, though it, like the boulders, would make it hard to go on the offensive.

"Go!" Draco's magically amplified voice suddenly filled the room.

Harry tightened his hand around his wand. Alright, how was he going to do this?

He peeked his head around the boulder, but couldn't see anything except boulders, flame pillars, and the ridge to his right – the nearest piece of shelter, aside from boulder he was currently crouched behind, was at least twenty feet away from him. He doubted his friends would leave the safety of their shelters, which meant that he was going to need to. What could he do?

He could climb to the top of his boulder so that he could see further – except then he would be a perfect target for his friends.

He could run from the boulder he was behind to another one – except that felt too much like playing hide and go seek. Not mention that it would make him a target as well.

He could sit behind this boulder and hope that his friends sought him out – but that wouldn't help him learn how to defeat the other Champions during the Third Task.

He could use his blasting curse to destroy all the boulders – but that was likely to cause more injuries that was allowed. (It was a good plan to consider for the actual task though.)

What he needed to do was figure out where his friends were, and then get to them without being hit. Which, now that he put it like that, wasn't that much of a challenge.

He lay his wand on the palm of his hand. "Point me, Takashi."

The wand spun around on his palm, before slowing to halt and pointing straight at the boulder he was crouched behind. Right, so Takashi probably wasn't the best person to start with then,

"Point me, Theo."

This time the wand ended up pointing towards Harry's right. Which gave him a direction, now all he needed to do was get there without being seen.

He crouched lower, before raising his wand over his head and twirling it around. "Talpa!" He whispered.

Immediately he could feel the disillusionment charm traveling down his body. It felt as though a raw egg had been cracked over his head and Harry barely managed to hold back a shudder. He looked down at his legs and was glad to see that they now looked like the floor.

That done, Harry slowly stood up from behind the boulder, his wand in his hand, and scanned the room for any visible sign of his friends.

"Stupefy!" Fred cast loudly, his head popping up behind one of boulders in the middle of the circle. Clearly Harry had been wrong about his friends not moving out from behind their original boulders.

Harry watched for a second as the red spell flew towards him, before quickly beginning to run towards where Theo was hiding. So the Disillusionment spell wasn't actually that useful when moving – that was good to know. He wished he had his invisibility cloak – except he knew that he wouldn't be able to use it in the actual Task since they were only allowed their wand.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Theo's voice called desperately from the behind the boulder that Harry was quickly approaching.

"Protego!" Harry cast, continuing to run as his friend's spell splashed harmlessly against his shield. "Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!"

The first two spells hit the boulder, but by the time the third one left his wand Harry was close enough to see Theo and the spell hit him in the arm.

Harry ducked behind the boulder with a grin, ignoring Theo's unconscious body for the moment. One down, seven to go.

46-46-46

"How did it go?" Sirius asked, looking up from the parchment he was reading from as Harry entered their quarters.

"Terribly." Harry sighed, dropping onto the nearest seat. "It's nothing like the duelling we've done."

"I know." Sirius grimaced sympathetically. "That's why I was allowed to duel with you all year."

"My friends are terrible at duelling." Harry sighed, letting his head fall back against the chair. "I managed to beat them all within half an hour, and that was with me having no idea what I was doing."

"I imagine your friends are actually quite reasonable for their age." Sirius corrected gently. "You're just very good."

"Takashi's a seventh year!" Harry pointed out.

"Yes, but not only are you incredibly powerful, but you've also been trained by one of the best duellers in the Order of the Phoenix." Sirius told him, with a crooked grin.

Harry rolled his eyes. "You and Draco are a lot alike. No humility whatsoever."

Sirius laughed. "There's no point in pretending you're not the best when you really are, Harry."

"Which is exactly the sort of thing Draco would say." Harry pointed out.

"If only," Sirius continued, with a half-hearted glare. "Because it makes people who aren't as great as you feel even worse about themselves. I was very, very good, Harry. Ask Dumbledore," he grimaced and shook his head. "No, don't ask Dumbledore, ask someone else. Your grandfather used to call me a duelling prodigy."

Harry's mouth dropped open. "But I beat you sometimes."

"Because you are also very, very good." Sirius told him. "Not as good as me yet, but Merlin, Harry, you're fifteen years old."

"Fourteen." Harry corrected.

Sirius grimaced. "Right, sorry."

"So you're saying that I'll be fine in the Third Task?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Not without a good strategy." Sirius said sternly. "You might be brilliant, but the people you're going to facing off against aren't exactly slackers. What did you learn from your practise?"

"That duelling identical twins is hard." Harry said immediately. "Fred and George worked together seamlessly. They hounded me the entire time and were the last two that I managed to take out. I think I just got lucky."

Sirius laughed. "Yeah, I remember duelling with their uncles. They were a force of nature. Always seemed to know exactly where the other one was and what they would be doing. Good thing there aren't going to be any twins in the final task. What else did you learn?"

"That I'm going to get destroyed." Harry groaned. "It was like playing hide and go seek. I tried to use a disillusionment charm, but it didn't seem that effective."

"Probably because you were moving and they were looking for you." Sirius commented. "Disillusionment charms leave a blurry edge around your body which, when you're still and nobody is expecting to see anything is easy to miss, but if you know what you're looking for they're easy enough to spot."

Harry sighed. "I need a new strategy."

"Good think you've got over two weeks to prepare then." Sirius told him. "Don't forget that Cissy, Andy, Lucius, Ted, and Tonks are allowed to help you. I imagine that Tonks and Lucius will have some good ideas, both of them have some experience in duelling in this kind of environment."

Harry smiled gratefully. "I'd completely forgotten I could ask them. Thank you!"

"I'd write to them soon." Sirius advised. "You've only got two weeks and four days."

Harry groaned. "I know."

46-46-46