Chapter 10: Nationals

Oxford Dueling Stadium, February 8

"Are you nervous?"

Harry yawned loudly, and looked at his brother. Using a tone of complete seriousness, he answered, "Yes."

Anna rolled her eyes and smacked him on the head lightly. "Be nice. I swear your sarcasm will rub off on Edward one of these days! Dealing with one you is quite enough trouble."

"Owww! Are you trying to injure me, woman?" Harry whined, rubbing his head. "That hit could affect my dueling. Is this the appreciation I get for arranging your leave from school to attend your awesome brother's exciting dueling tournament?"

"First of all, I wouldn't call two people flinging spells at each other as exciting." Anna said.

"I don't fling spells at people…" Harry protested. "just tables and, on occasion, a grand piano."

Anna crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Secondly, this is just me getting even, git. You did ignore me for the entire school year. We were in the same school for six months and you didn't even have time to say good morning once."

"Yeah, and the only time you bothered talking to me was to get a book." Edward piped in. "You owe us big."

"You mean getting you passes into this shindig wasn't enough? You people are insatiable." Harry shook his head. "Alright Edward, what do you want."

Without missing a beat, his brother answered. "Teach me how to duel."

Harry raised a brow. "How about no?"

Edward pouted. "Why not?!"

"Dueling is a dangerous pastime." Harry said. "And mum would bury me alive if she found out. Besides, why would you need to learn how to fight?" Harry tore his eyes away from the ongoing duel and looked at his brother.

Edward remained silent, and refused to meet Harry's eyes.

Harry opened his mouth but was interrupted by the announcer. "NEXT MATCH IS HARRY POTTER AND EDMUND CANMORE. I REPEAT, HARRY POTTER AND EDMUND CANMORE."

Harry stood up and stretched his arms. "Good luck out there, Harry." Anna said.

He gave her a cocky smile. "It's me were talking about here. Luck will have nothing to do with it." With that, he stepped into the stage.

The stage was different from those used in Hogwarts. In the regional tournament, they had used raised wooden platforms, which were narrow and long. That had encouraged the tactic of overwhelming your opponent since there was little space to maneuver properly. Here, it was a raised circular stage made of stone about 10 meters in diameter and was a lot more spacious.

A Scottish fellow walked up the platform followed by the referee of the match. Canmore took his place opposite of Harry and the referee positioned himself between the two. "Alright lads, listen up. The duel's format is elimination by knockout, 1 round only. If at any point in the fight you are knocked off the stage, it counts as a knockout. Using illegal spells is an automatic forfeit. You are not allowed to bring in any magical items but your wands." The referee alternated between looking at Harry and Canmore. "I want a good, clean fight from the both of you. Now, bow to your opponents."

Harry took note of the difference in styles between him and Canmore. Harry lightly swayed his body from side to side, constantly shifting his weight and ready to dodge to either side at a moment's notice. He began by pointing his wand to his extreme left, before bringing it around in a semicircle in front of his chest and ending it by raising it in front of his face in a saluting gesture. He preferred to use mobility rather than magic as his primary defense, freeing his wand to cast offensive spells rather than defensive ones.

Canmore, on the other hand, had turned sideways towards Harry, limiting the part of his body that would be exposed to spell fire. At the same time, he had made a large, overhead circular motion with his wand before pointing it at Harry, indicating he was preparing to cast a charm. His style was overtly defensive, a fact Harry planned to take advantage of.

"Begin!"

Canmore, as expected, opened with a powerful shield charm, ready to intercept anything. Harry sent a charm that landed to the right of Canmore, never even being remotely close to hitting him. Canmore, now looking smug, dropped his shield and launched a trio of stunners in response to the "poorly" aimed spell.

As if forewarned, Harry spun to his left before the spells were cast, easily dodging them. He was not idle while spinning though, and managed to complete the wand motion necessary for his next spell just as he finished his turn. "Bombarda." Refusing to trust that hex to be enough, Harry chained his wand and began casting yet another charm to follow up, this time a Silencing one. As the wand motion necessary for the Silencing Charm ended, the one for a Blasting Hex began, and by alternating between the two spells, Harry managed to send half a dozen spells in the span of a few seconds, all aimed at pressuring his opponent's left. The action forced his opponent to move to his other side.

Right where Harry wanted him.

Canmore suddenly felt a chill overtake him. His legs became numb and he found that, despite his best efforts, he could not get them to budge. A quick glance confirmed his suspicions. The poorly aimed spell was a trap, a leg locking jinx under a time delay charm, which activated just as he stepped into it. He cursed himself for underestimating his opponent and looked up to see another burst of light heading his way.

Acting purely on instinct, he raised another shield, just in time to absorb the impact of a blasting hex. A second later and he would have been thrown off the stage forcefully.

Harry was impressed with the speed of his adversary's casting. He doubted if even he himself could match the speed at which the shield was raised, and facing anyone else, Canmore probably could have won.

Unfortunately, he was dealing with Harry Potter.

Refusing to grant his enemy a reprieve, Harry conjured a table – his signature move, it seemed – and banished it towards Canmore, before following it up with a stunner for good measure.

Canmore's eyes widened as he saw the piece of furniture headed his way. A Protego Charm was useful for defending against magic, but was next to useless when dealing with physical objects. With no other choice, he dropped his shield and immediately blasted the table to bits. The table, however, was already too close, and Canmore had to cover look away or risk being blinded by the splinters of wood that showered his position.

The next thing he saw the face of his smiling opponent, looking down on him. "You alright there?"

He blinked stupidly. "Yeah, I think so." He accepted Harry's hand and felt himself get pulled up. "What happened?"

"There was a stunner behind the table." Harry explained. "It was a good fight though. Your casting speed was remarkable."

Canmore shook his head. "Not enough to beat you though."

"I just got lucky." Harry admitted. "If you hadn't fallen for the Leg Locker, I probably would have lost."

Canmore couldn't help but grin. "Next time we fight, I won't be falling for that one again."

Harry smiled. "I'll be sure to prepare a few new tricks just for you then." He extended his hand.

The Scotsman shook it firmly. "Good luck to you in your other duels then." His voice showed no hint of ill will despite having lost.

"Thank you." Harry said.

Harry walked off the stage to see Anna smirking at him.

"What?" He asked.

"Quite a sportsman you turned out to be." She definitely overheard his conversation. "It was certainly unlike you."

Harry shrugged. "There's no reason to shove it in the chap's face. Psyching myself up for a fight is one thing, adding insult to injury is just being downright ungentlemanly. Besides, he was a formidable opponent to face. No reason to make him hate me over a trivial affair like gloating."

Edward gawked. "Formidable? It took you less than a minute to wipe the floor with him."

"Actually, if we're counting, it only took 23 seconds." Harry corrected. "And like I said, he was formidable. He was up against me after all." He said pompously.

Anna rolled her eyes at his brother's antics, but struggled to stop the edge of her mouth from curling up. "How many more matches do you have?" She asked, trying but failing, to sound disinterested.

Harry did a few mental calculations before answering. "Five more, if my estimates are correct."

"Only five?" Edward asked curiously. "Why so few?"

"You're forgetting that this is the Nationals for the Under 17 Division." Harry emphasized. "You have to take into account that many duelists were eliminated at the regional level and the Department for Magical Sports sets a certain standard for these sort of competitions. Hogwarts was an exception in that we received 3 representatives instead of 1. Being one of the best schools in Europe, it's expected that they produce a better caliber of students than local schools. That's why the top 3 were sent instead of just the champion. It's also the reason, I suspect, of why the National Youth Champion in the past 36 Tournaments has usually been from Hogwarts."

"That sounds unfair to the other schools." Anna said with a frown.

"It's the law, unfortunately, and the law isn't always fair."

Auror Office, 1 hour later

"…and the crowd goes wild! Harry Potter advances to the final round of the tournament!" James smiled widely as he heard the announcement. He was proud of how far his son had gone. In just a few short months, he had managed to turn from an invalid to a Dueling Champion. It wasn't just that aspect that had impressed James though.

Due to the nature of their son's illness, the Headmaster had agreed to send him weekly reports on his son's progress. The first week was pretty normal. He had been called as an exceptionally bright individual with something of a troublemaking streak. When James heard the news, he couldn't have been happier. He saw Harry as a younger version of himself. The normalcy ended there however. Reports began streaming in of his prodigious talent in Charms, Transfiguration, Ancient Runes and DADA. Lily, suffice to say had been ecstatic at the news. Harry even managed to best his professor, Gilderoy Lockhart, at a duel. While James did not think highly of the man anyway, for a Third Year with barely a month of schooling under his belt to defeat a fully grown wizard in magical combat was an impressive feat. Even the Headmaster had nothing but praise for the eldest child of the Potters!

Then, even the newspapers started mentioning Harry. Initially, it was for his role in unveiling Lockhart's crimes. Then there was the court trial where he as a star witness. He was in the headlines for a week from that event alone. That's not even mentioning the fact that he won the Edinburgh Dueling Cup. James was unsure how he felt about his son's sudden fame. On one hand, he was happy that Harry was doing well. On the other, it was attracting attention from certain elements of society he'd rather not be involved with. Just the other day, a pair of Unspeakables had interviewed him about Harry - a fact, in itself, that was worrying enough.

James was snapped out of his thoughts by WWN broadcast again. "…Tell me John, what can you say about the young Harry Potter?"

"Well Tommy, he's certainly an exceptionally gifted lad. He's the second youngest duelist to be fighting in the Nationals, and he'll be the youngest person to hold the title of National Champion for the Youth Division if he wins in his next fight against Sean Callaham."

"Sean Callaham? The Lion of Ireland? He's been the Champion of Northern Ireland for three years running and he was also the National Champ 2 years ago. Potter will certainly be in for a tough fight! Who do you think will win?"

"It's hard to tell really. Callaham looks pretty exhausted to me. Potter, on the other hand, is barely breaking a sweat out there! His fights are impressive in that none of them, so far, have lasted longer than a minute. The boy moves so quickly it's as if he knows what his opponent's going to do before they know it themselves!"

"Tell me about it John. His first fight was particularly impressive. He went up against John Canmore, last year's champion and took him out in record time! He used some particularly advanced charms which earned him a swift takedown. He certainly became a dark horse after-" The announcer's voices suddenly fizzled out.

James looked up from his reports to see Madam Bones standing there with a grim face. "We got tipped off by one of our informants, Captain. There's going to be an attack in fifteen minutes."

"Where could they possibly attack?" James felt his throat constrict as the answer hit him. "Not-not Oxford?"

Bones nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid so. It's the only event of any significance today. You-Know-Who's Lieutenant, Yaxley, is going to be there. I'm sending your Hit Squad to capture him. I want Yaxley alive and brought in for questioning." Bones paused, looking intently at James. "I know your children are there, but can you keep focused on the mission? We can't afford to let the man escape so it's going to have to be a quick in and out for your team."

James frowned. "What about the civilians?"

"I'm deploying the Aurors to help evacuate them and counter the Death Eaters. Shacklebolt will be heading them. Can you handle yourself out there James? I can't afford you being distracted in a fight."

"I can manage." James answered with resolve.

Bones nodded. "Good luck out there, Captain."

Oxford Dueling Stadium

Harry took a deep breath as he prepared to face his last opponent for the day. His Core was still in pretty good condition, while he sensed Callaham's to be under half of his fighting strength. Of course, if that was translated to the number of spells each one could cast, he was still outclassed. Deftly, he pulled off his gloves and handed them to Edward. "Hold on to these for me, will you?"

"Sure thing, bro. Kick some butt out there!" Edward cheered.

Harry grinned and stepped onto the stage.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! WELCOME TO THE FINAL ROUND FOR THE NATIONAL DUELING TOURNAMENT, JUNIOR DIVISION! WE HAVE SEAN CALLAHAM, THE LION OF IRELAND, UP AGAINST HARRY 'BLITZKRIEG' POTTER!" Harry winced at the nickname the announcer had bestowed upon him. Couldn't they have thought of a better one?

The referee stepped up. "Boys, you two know the rules. Keep it clean. Bow to your opponents." He instructed.

Unlike Canmore, Callaham's style screamed attack. He had his wand pulled back, ready to snap forward for the thrusting action necessary for many jinxes, while his feet were planted firmly on the ground to keep himself balanced when he did cast his spell. It left him open to a quick strike if his opponent was fast enough, and Harry realized that Canmore's quick reflexes would have allowed him to cast a stunner and raise a shield. That explained how Canmore won last year.

Harry had no intention of trying such a risky move though and had opted to stick to a simple salute, bringing his wand in front of his face. The simple salute's advantage lay in the fact that one could easily transition into any style they wished with relative ease, and it gave away none of your plans to our opponent. The downside, of course, was obvious enough. It would take you longer to get a spell off since there was no preparation involved.

"Begin!"

With rehearsed ease, Harry enhanced his limbs and executed an aerial flip in place, narrowly missing the Tongue Tying Jinx that Callaham had sent. He raised his shield to deflect the next three jinxes that were sent his way. He watched with a grin as Callaham jinxes his shield ineffectually, and began casting a rune chain he had prepared just for this situation.

His opponent saw what he was doing and stepped up his attempts to break the shield. If he could get Harry to cast a spell before the chain was complete, the rune chain would have to be made from the beginning. It was one of the reasons why Runes were rarely used in duels anymore. Harry placed the finishing touches on his chain just as his shield began faltering.

Without hesitation, Harry let the shield drop, and activated the runes. He turned his eyes to watch an oncoming spell, yet he refused to budge an inch despite the spell being right on target, much to the confusion of Callaham.

The reason became obvious enough though. The spell, very abruptly, fizzled out, as if the magic was simply sucked out of it. It turned into nothing more than a shower of colorful, if harmless, sparks.

Harry smirked, and raised a brow at his opponent, silently challenging him to try again. Callaham growled. "BOMBARDA!"

Harry, for his part, didn't even look remotely concerned about the oncoming spell. In fact, he even took a few steps forward, goading his opponent. It dissipated moments after it had left Callaham's wand, the true extent of his runes now becoming apparent. Many underage witches and wizards would simply have dropped their wand at this point. To his credit, Callaham was actually fairly knowledgeable about runes and decided to exploit another weakness.

He tried to overload it with magic.

Unfortunately, one person alone could not so easily overpower a rune chain. Harry speculated that Canmore might have been able to do so, but for an underage wizard who was restricted to using Ministry approved spells, it would take far too long.

Harry idly flung stunners at Callaham, all the while extending the range of his Magical Disruption field. A few moments later and Callaham had been knocked out, limited in his options.

"UNBELIEVEABLE FOLKS!" Harry heard the announcers say. "HARRY POTTER HAS MANAGED TO DEFEAT CALLAHAM WITH A SURPRISING TRICK! I DON'T BELIEVE I'VE EVER SEEN A RUNE CHAIN USED AT THE JUNIOR LEVEL BEFORE! WHAT ABOUT YOU TOMMY?"

Harry ignored the rest of the announcers' drivel and went to enervate his opponent, as was his habit. As he did so, panicked shrieks began coming from the stadium. Harry's face turned grim as he saw that an ethereal serpent danced around a skull above them. It was the mark of the Voldemort, and perhaps the first time, he realized, that he had heard or seen of an attack in this dimension.

"Accio Gloves!" Harry hissed, pointing his wand at Edward, who was cowering in fear. Masked men in black robes began appearing and flashes of light indicated that they were casting spells. Around him, Harry noticed that three of the Death Eaters had approached the base of the stage and were beginning to overload his runes. He had, perhaps a few seconds.

Harry pulled his gloves tightly down on his hands to make sure they were snug, just as he felt his rune chain breakdown. He saw a stunner head his way. Without hesitation, Harry raised his glove to intercept it, and his glove emanated a soft glow.

Before the Death Eaters could react, the stunner shot out of Harry's outstretched palm like a rocket, slamming into the one that had cast it in the first place. They were stunned, to say the least.

Harry normally hated having to injure others too much in a duel and often went for quick, decisive strikes to win. Against Death Eaters though, he had no qualms with unleashing his full magical potential. "Flagrate." Harry hissed vehemently. A stream of fire burst from his wand. Directing it like a whip, he managed to entangle one of the men in it.

The man screamed as he felt his skin burn, and he struggled against the flames, to no avail. Harry maintained his iron grip and refused to let the fire die down.

His companion reacted quickly enough though, and tried to disarm Harry. It was strange that they were using non lethal spells to subdue him. Harry used his free hand to absorb the spell, before redirecting it towards the entangled Death Eater. The man's wand was ripped from his hand, and Harry cancelled his spell, leaving the man charred, but alive. He doubted the masked man would be able to get up anytime soon.

Harry turned his attention towards the last Death Eater and began calculating the best way to take him down. With a flick of his wand, he conjured a grand piano above his last contender's head, and sent it crashing down with a force of 9.8 meters per second squared. It brought Harry no end of satisfaction to see the piano crush the man's body.

"Well done, Potter." Harry spun around to see another Death Eater holding his brother captive. "Now drop your wand."

Harry tightened his grip. "I've already taken down three of your companions. I doubt taking out one more will be much of a problem."

"Those men you downed were amateurs, hardly trained fighters. They help fill out the ranks though and the Dark Lord accepted them. What is one to do?" He shrugged casually. "You'll find I'm a far more accomplished fighter."

"Let go of my brother than, you coward!" Harry jeered. "Face me like a man, or are you afraid of a boy?"

The man scoffed. "Hardly, I just fail to see why I should give up an advantage so willingly. I didn't come here to chit chat, Potter." He pressed his wand into Edward's throat, choking the boy a little. "Let go of your wand, or your brother. It's really of no consequence to me which option you choose."

Harry looked at his brother with sorrowful eyes. "Forgive me, Edward. Sectumsempra!"

The man sighed. "I was afraid you'd do something like this." He stunned Edward and threw him to one side, and flicked away the spell playfully. A scream followed, and Harry saw one of the dark robed men go down. "Tsk tsk…that was a particularly nasty curse. One would think you were actually trying to kill me."

"One would be correct."

"My, my, I certainly misjudged you. You're a far better duelist than I thought." He paused dramatically. "It's a shame I have to kill you now."

"I doubt that."

"What makes you say so?"

"Your friends haven't used anything lethal so far. That's definitely not modus operandi of Death Eaters. If I had to guess, I'd say you're here for hostages."

The man grinned. "Perceptive as well! You'll be quite a catch, Harry Potter. The Dark Lord will be most pleased when I bring him to you." He raised his wand and froze like a statue, falling over to reveal a man donning Auror robes.

"Nice of you lot to finally show up." Harry said, nodding thankfully to the man.

"You kids better get out of here. Things are going to become very messy very quickly." The Auror enervated Edward and Anna, who Harry only noticed was unconscious on the floor. Harry kicked the Death Eater in the head for good measure.

"Follow me, and I'll get you out of here." The man was barely able to take three steps before a rogue killing curse took him down.

Harry sighed, largely unaffected. "So much for the heroic rescue." He blocked a stunner that was headed straight for him, and sent it right back towards the caster. Certain that the reflected spell had reached its origin, Harry gestured to his siblings to follow.

If the Aurors couldn't get them out of here alive…

Harry dispassionately stunned another Death Eater that was in his way, not wanting to be overtly violent with his siblings watching.

…then Harry would make his own way out.

Outside the Stadium

"Alright men, listen up!" James Potter barked. "Our objective is to secure the Death Eater known as Yaxley. He'll be the one directly in charge of the Death Eaters, so keep your eyes peeled and your wands ready for anyone that looks like he's in charge. Understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!" His four subordinates replied.

He nodded to them. "Breach the doors, and let's take this man down." Two of his men positioned themselves at either side of the breach point, while the other two took their place besides James.

"Jones, Ready!"

"Thompson, Ready!"

"Riley, Ready!"

"Underwood, Ready!"

"Potter Ready. Breach!" James called out. The two besides him blasted the door open. At the same time, James sent a gust of air to blow the dust and debris from the resulting explosion inside. It would serve as a smokescreen of sorts to cover their entrance. Before he finished the though, the two men near the wall moved in and set up shields, while those beside him rushed forward. James joined them soon after.

"Move out." Working as a five man team rather than five individuals, the group easily picked their way through the chaos inside the stadium. James began looking for the target, yet always dreading seeing the bodies on the floor. He could picture his children lying in a pool of their own…

James snapped himself out from his dangerous train of thought, focusing on the task at hand. "Anyone have eyes on the target?"

"Negative sir."

James scowled. From a glance, he could see the situation quickly deteriorating. There were at least five Death Eaters still concentrated in the center of the Stadium engaged in a fight with someone and twenty more scattered along the fringes. Most of them were engaged in beating back the outnumbered Aurors, and the difference in numbers only grew larger with each passing second.

James felt his blood chill as he recognized who was engaged with the Death Eaters. At the center of the stadium, he spotted his eldest son engaged in a battle with the five Death Eaters, all the while trying to protect his brother and sister. Even from a distance, he could see his son was tiring, unready for the pressures and fatigue that came with extensive combat.

James pointed. "There at the center. That's where Yaxley will probably be." It was the truth too; helping his son out was simply a bonus.

He heard Thompson, his second in command, let out a low whistle. "Your son's quite a fighter, sir. You've trained him well." Harry had managed to send a Death Eater flying into the ceiling with some unknown charm. At least a dozen Death Eaters were unconscious surrounding the Stadium, and while not doubt many of those were Auror hits, it was still impressive for a Third Year to last this long in a fight.

James wasn't interested in exchanging pleasantries with his colleague just yet though. He still had a job to do, and children to save. "Impedimenta! Expelliarmus!" His spells hit one of the four engaged with his son in the back, rendering the man useless. His men surged forward to take on the last three Death Eaters, herding them away from the Potter children.

James watched his children take the opportunity to run, and he watched them for a moment to make sure they were safe, before joining his men. "Sir, target identified!" He heard Thompson shout.

He'd make Yaxley pay for trying to attack his children.

Omake 1 – Many Thanks to Kingdark for the suggestion ^^

"Move out." Working as a five man team rather than five individuals, the group easily picked their way through the chaos inside the stadium. James began looking for the target, yet always dreading seeing the bodies on the floor. He could picture his children lying in a pool of their own…

James Potter took in the scene that awaited them. It was not quite what they had expected.

"Hello there! Nice of you to finally show up. It was starting to get awfully dull here." The entire team was dumbfounded, to say the least, when they found one Harry Potter sitting on a pile of unconscious Death Eaters. "You know, say what you will about these guys but they make awesome chairs." Harry said offhandedly, patting one his "cushions."

James couldn't bring himself to say anything, despite the fact that his mouth was no hanging open from shock.

Thud.

"Umm…sir?" One of his men, Thompson, called out to James. "Riley just passed out. We think it's because of shock."

James continued to ignore his men. "H-how did you…do this, Harry?" James managed to say, after exerting a herculean amount of effort to regain control of his vocal cords.

Harry waved his wand in a small arc in front of him. A burst of color appeared, taking the form of a rainbow. Extra sparkly glitters, at the center of the rainbow, formed the word "Magic."

Thud.

"Sir! Thompson just fainted!"

James felt like fainting himself as well.