Hermione
"Where is Marik?" she asked, punching Harry in the arm.
"I swear I'm having deja vu. . ." Harry replied while rubbing the new bruise on his arm.
"Would you two calm down I am right here! Like I would ever miss this," Marik announced as he made his way over to the section of the stands they were sitting in. She saw he had his usual smirk on his face as he sat down.
"Yeah, where I have heard that before?" she asked, rolling her eyes.
"Teehee, sorry about that," Alina said with her usual smile as she arrived with Marik and sat down beside him.
"Where were you guys this morning? You made me eat breakfast alone with this nervous devil," Harry asked Marik and Alina. His comment earned him another punch to the shoulder.
"Ow!" Harry complained.
"I am not nervous!" she argued.
"Notice how she didn't argue the devil part," Harry joked, still rubbing his arm.
"Marik and me did a few last minute training sessions," Alina said, looking accomplished.
"You both did more training without me?" she said, a little upset at them.
"Oh would you stop it. You had plenty of training sessions, you will do fine. Harry doesn't stand a chance this year." Marik tried to calm her down, but his joke didn't help much.
"I appreciate that Marik," Harry said, rolling his eyes.
"Oh Harry you will do fine too. Although I bet my sister is going to make it tough for you both this year. She was pissed last year," Alina added. Right on cue the ice-queen made her entrance into the Great Hall. She looked extra icy today. Aline was probably right and Hermione doubted that Daphne would go down as easy this year.
"Are you nervous at all Alina?" Harry asked her.
"Nahh with all the help you guys gave me I really think I can win this thing!" Alina replied, looking confident. Her cocky, confident grin looked a lot like Marik's usual smirk.
Hermione would not be surprised if Alina ended up winning the first year tournament, even though she had only seen a few of the first years actually perform magic. Since Alina and them had all become friends and started working together Alina had proven herself to be quite the talented witch. Hermione would even go as far as to say that Alina might even be a little bit better than even Daphne had been in her first year around this time.
Marik had pretty much taken Alina under his wing since they both returned to school over two months ago, and the two of them were practically inseparable ever since. Since then Alina had joined them in their room in the dungeons whenever she was free and they all had started helping her catch up. She never expected that she would end up becoming friends with Daphne's little sister and when Marik started bringing her to their study sessions she had expected things to be awkward. However Alina had instantly fit in perfectly with their group and after a few minutes it had already felt like the four of them had been friends for years.
The night after Alina and Marik had both returned to the school Dumbledore announced that the dueling tournament was being rescheduled and would be taking place in the second week of March. Apparently the Durmstrang tournament had to be rescheduled as well so the ministry was still allowing the tournament to take place. Since the announcement the four of them had sacrificed a lot of sleep to help Alina catch up in her classes, train for the tournament, and work on their end of year projects, along with doing all of their own training and work.
Marik had missed two week of classes while he was in the hospital too so he was also a little bit behind in his work. He had caught back up with his work with a little help from them quick enough but due to all of his injuries and magic deficiency issues it had taken him a good month before he was back to his old self magic wise. Luckily for her, Harry, and Alina, Kingsley and Flitwick had canceled some of their training sessions with Marik until he was better so for during his first month back Marik had a lot of free time to help them all train and study.
Hermione had already felt confident going into the tournament the first time around that she could win. But now with all the extra time and training she had done with her friends she was even more confident that she could win. This year that top spot was hers, and not even Harry would beat her!
"You better win. I didn't spend all my time helping you train for you to lose!" Marik joked to Alina, and he got a punch on the arm from Alina. See, Alina fits right in.
"Actually I'm not really in the mood to duel. I do have a really strange urge to go open a Chamber right now though. . ." Alina tried to say without cracking a smile. She failed miserably.
"Still too soon Alina!" Harry laughed.
"So Alina, who do you think is the toughest competition in your year?" she asked Alina.
"Well you guys saw Ginny duel in the first tournament and I still think she is one of the best first years. Luna has gotten a lot better too though so I really don't know," Alina answered.
There had only been one duel last time before the tournament had been canceled and it had been between both of the first years Alina mentioned. That duel had proven to be a good one, and if Alina said they were two of the best first years that came as no surprise to her.
"You guy's got any last minute advice for me since I'll be up first?" Alina asked them.
"Stay away from the glass. It hurts," Harry joked, rubbing his arms where the scars had been. They all laughed at his joke.
"Watch out for tarantallegra. It makes losing even more embarrassing," she replied, feeling a tinge bit angry at remembering how she lost to Harry last year.
"Duel with your guts first, your head second, and your wand third. Just like we practiced," Marik answered last. He sounded like a coach giving his boxer advice in the corner of the ring. It was cute the way he looked out for Alina.
The Headmaster made his way up to the podium at the center of the stage after the last few students sat down in the stands. He gave them the usual speech about the tournament, how it worked, and how it played a part in their grades before the first year bracket started appearing over head. In her head she crossed her fingers that this time the tournament actually finished without any interruptions.
"The first duel will be between. . . Colin Creevy and James Hartly!" Dumbledore announced the two names and two boys in Gryffindor robes made their way up to the dueling platform.
"Okay, so what's the scoop?" Harry whispered to Alina.
"There both Gryffindors as you can tell. Colin Is smart but has the casting abilities of a toaster from what I have heard. And I have never heard of James so that probably says something too." Alina answered as she was looked intently at the dueling platform.
"Pay attention to their movement while casting. . ." Marik started whispering tips for Alina. She just nodded her head along to what he was saying. The two boys raised their wands after they bowed and returned to their sides of the platform.
"One. . . Two. . . Three!" Dumbledore counted them down and started the tournament off.
"Expelliarmus!" The boy named Colin started the duel off first with the disarming spell.
"Porteco!" The other boy named James tried to throw up what looked like a shield spell based off his wand movements, but the incantation sounded way off. Apparently the spell incantation was in fact way off as the Colin boys disarming spell hit James and sent him flying back off the stage onto the hard floor of the Great Hall.
"Well that sucked," Marik said, looking disappointed
"How do you not know the incantation for a shield spell by March your first year?" She asked her friends, looking bewildered.
"Told you," Alina announced.
"Well I guess it can't get any worse from here. . ." Harry added.
Harry it turned out was a wrong, very wrong. A lot of the first year duels were unfortunately about the same. Apparently Alina's year was not one of Hogwart's best bunch of students. Maybe she was remembering wrong but she remembered their first year tournament being a lot more intense than this one had been so far. She was probably just being a little harsh about it all though.
"Alina Black and Marcus Monte please come to the stage for your duel," Dumbledore announced the next two names, finally calling out Alina's name. She turned to look at Alina and was happy to see that she looked confident.
"Good luck Alina," they all said wishing her luck. If Alina's opponent was as skilled as the other first year's they had seen so far, this would be a walk in the park for Alina.
"One. . . Two. . . Three!" Dumbledore announced and the duel was off. Alina immediately started to charge full sprint at her opponent.
"Expelliarmus!" Alina's opponent shot out the disarming spell. Alina easily dodged it with a sidestep to her left.
"Accio Marcus!" Alina shouted her spell out and the result was. . . well. . . scary.
The small boy's body was summoned through the air towards Alina who instead of hitting him with another spell or grabbing his wand, charged further towards him and with all her momentum punched the boy square in the face. With a loud crack followed by a thud the boy landed on the platform completely knocked out cold.
Alina with a cute curtsey to the stands simply bent over and picked up the boy's wand, ending the duel just like that. After a few moments of stunned silence the stands cheered. Even from their spot in the stands she could hear the Weasley twins choking on laughter from the other side of the Hall.
"Holy hell Alina. That was a little mean don't you think?" Harry asked his cousin, looking slightly scared as she sat back down by them. Marik was laughing uncontrollably from his spot in the stands and had fallen out of his seat.
"An accio spell can only be used to summon a person if they are weak minded and unprepared. If it worked on him than he deserved it!" Alina answered looking proud. She was right. That was one of the first lessons you learned as a first year.
"Good job Alina. It was smart. Now your opponents will be afraid of you moving forward, it was a good way to make a statement. . . And scare the hell out of everyone," she said to Alina, giving her credit for her choice in strategy. Alina beamed a large smile at the compliment.
"Was it a little too much?" Alina asked her in a whispered voice. Hermione couldn't help but giggle at the question. Alina was the type of person to beat you to a pulp with her magic and then apologize after each spell hit you.
"Maybe a little. But I'm happy things finally got interesting. So thanks for the show!" she answered. The rest of the first round ended quickly without too much excitement. As Alina had said the only other people that stood out in the first years were Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley. Both of the girls had each won their duels about as quick as Alina had and Ginny had even sent her opponent off to the hospital wing with a powerful stunner to end the first round of dueling.
"Ginny Weasley will go up against. . . Alina Black!" The stands erupted in cheers as everyone was ready for finally a good matchup.
"Good luck Alina." her and Harry said in unison.
"Remember to watch her movement," Marik added as Alina got up from the stands.
Both of the girl's faces were stone cold serious as they made their way up to the platform. Ginny may have the skin and hair color of a Weasley but so far she had proved that she certainly didn't duel like one. This match would certainly be a tougher one for Alina than her first duel had been. The two girls met at the center of the platform, bowed and then returned to their sides. They both raised their wands as Dumbledore started counting them down.
"One. . . Two. . . Three!" Dumbledore announced the start of the duel.
"Locomotor mortis, expelliarmus!" Ginny fired off the leg locking and disarming spell and immediately started charging forward.
"Erecto, expulso, deprimo!" Alina fired back a powerful spell combo at the red head. As a result of Alina's erecto spell parts of the platform in front of Ginny shot up like pillars. Alina then exploded each one of the pillars with her expulso spell and sent all of the debris flying towards Ginny with her wind spell. It was a good combo that they all had used a bunch in training.
"Flipendo, tarantallegra!" Ginny fired off two of her own spells back in return. Her first spell sent all of the oncoming debris back towards Alina, along with her jinx that if it collided with Alina would cause her to dance uncontrollably. Good thing Hermione had warned Alina to watch out for that spell.
"Protego! Mobiliarbus!" Alina threw up a shield quickly and sent the incoming debris that she had made and Ginny had sent back at her towards the ceiling. Ginny continued charging as this happened.
"Expelliar. . ." Ginny started to fire off the disarming spell.
"Finite incantatum, stupefy." Alina's first spell stopped Ginny from casting the disarming spell before Ginny was able to recover and cast another spell. There was no time for Ginny to react or dodge at the short distance they were to each other and Alina's stunner hit Ginny square in the chest. Ginny's body flew across the stage and landed with a thud. Alina was victorious!
"Way to go Alina!" Marik started the cheers and the rest of them, along with the stands, followed shortly after. In a flash Alina's face went from serious to a huge smile as she made her way off the stage and back to her seat. She was welcomed with hugs and smiles all around, as they congratulated her on her victory.
"Told you that you could beat her," Marik said, smirking from his seat.
"I know, you are always right Marik," Alina said sarcastically.
"Please don't ever say that again," Hermione responded, earning a roll of the eyes from Marik.
"One more to go and you are the champ," Harry added.
"I wonder who it will be." Alina looked up to the bracket as the next two names were filled out.
The next duel was between Luna Lovegood, who Dumbledore had allowed to participate again even though she technically had been beaten during the last tournament, versus Dominey Kibbins, who was a small Hufflepuff girl. The duel started off looking promising but in a few quick seconds Luna had managed to stun Dominey with a weird rainbow colored spell that Hermione had never heard of before. That meant it was Alina versus Luna in the finals. Both of their names filled out the last two spots on the bracket.
"Your time to shine," Marik said, pushing Alina out of her seat as her name formed. Alina looked a little nervous as she stood up.
"You can do this Alina!" she said, trying to comfort her friend.
"Good luck cuz." Harry added.
"Thanks everyone. Here goes nothing," Alina said under her breath as she headed to the stage. If she really had been nervous she certainly did a good job of changing her face to look confident. Luna looked like her mind was lost in a deep thought on her side of the platform. Alina looked ready for war on hers. Both of the girls raised their wands ready to go.
"One. . . Two. . . Three!" Dumbledore started the duel.
"Orchideous, oppungo!" Alina started the duel by firing off two. . . well, two odd spells to use in a duel. Luna was apparently caught off guard by the spell selections as well. The first spell conjured flowers all over the platform. The were really quite pretty. However, the flowers became quickly less pretty as Alina, with her second spell, made the newly conjured flowers began closing in on Luna to attack her.
"Tarantallegra, expelliarmus!" Luna fired off two spells back in return. Luna aimed her first spell at the ground and all of the flowers stopped their advance on her and instead began to dance uncontrollably on the platform. Her second disarming spell headed right at Alina. This was a weird duel to say the least.
"Protego, petrificus totalus, stupefy!" Alina returned fire by throwing up a shield to block Luna's disarming spell and sent two powerful spells back. Luna was able to dodge the first spell but Alina's stupefy was a direct hit. Luna was knocked out by the spell meaning Alina had won the first year tournament.
The stands immediately erupted into a standing ovation for her, and the Hufflepuff section all started chanting Alina in response to their housemate winning. Around her both Harry and Marik were clapping loudly for their friend who was beaming on the platform with a large smile. Alina turned and bowed to each section of the stands drawing more applause before she returned back to her seat.
"Congratulations!" Marik was the first to meet Alina with a large hug. Hermione noted Marik tried to let go a little early but Alina extended the hug at least an extra five seconds. After she finally let go of Marik Alina received two more congratulatory hugs from both her and Harry.
"What was with that strategy though Alina?" Harry asked after the applause had died down and they had all been seated.
"I fought weird with weird," Alina answered proudly.
"Weird with weird?" she asked confused.
"Luna is weird with her strategies! She enlarged two peoples teeth, made another one dance, and randomly conjured an umbrella in one duel. So I tried to catch her off guard early by using a weird spell combo of my own," Alina explained. Marik looked like a proud parent, nodding his head behind her.
"That's actually pretty smart," she admitted.
"Thank you Hermione!" Alina answered. Alina was almost bouncing in her seat with her excitement at winning the first year tournament.
"Alright now, before your tournament begins I want to make it known that I am rooting for the both of you equally and I am not picking sides!" Alina said to her and Harry as she wrapped her arms around them both.
"But I am your cousin!" Harry tried to argue.
"And Daphne is my sister but I sure as hell don't want her to win more than I want you guys to win!" Alina argued. Harry could only nod in agreement at her point.
"Yeah, Me too. But good luck Hermione," Marik joked. Harry just glared at his friend. "I'm joking Harry! We all know you are going to win!" He quickly found himself rubbing both of his shoulders as she connected with his left and Alina found his right. "Oww!" Marik cried out.
Dumbledore congratulated Alina on her victory and went over a few more rules for the second year's tournament before the bracket started forming overhead again. She crossed her fingers that she was not first.
"The first second year duel will be between Daphne Black and. . ." Everyone in their group perked up and leaned forward at the announcement of Daphne's name. "Cho Chang!" she sighed in relief that she was not one of the first names called.
Both Cho and Daphne had proven themselves to be good duelists last year. She new Daphne had been ranked fourth in their year and Cho had been ranked fifth. From what Alina told them about Daphne they knew she had been working her ass off all year to do better in this years tournament. Hermione knew enough about Cho from sharing all their classes together to know that Cho had not been slouching on her studies either. This was sure going to be a good duel to start things off.
"One. . . Two. . . Three!" Dumbledore started the duel.
"Aeriacta, stupefy!" Cho fired off two high powered spells at Daphne who was already moving on her side.
"Azuflamen, protego totalum!" Daphne retaliated with another high powered spell along with an area-protection shield.
Both of their spells collided in the center of the stage and exploded with a huge release of magic throughout the Hall. As far as Hermione knew Cho's aeriacta spell was a type of wind spell that used air as a sort of explosion, or something like that. Daphne's spell on the other hand was one that Marik had shown them from one of his sessions with Flitwick.
The spell was a high powered elemental blast spell, that had multiple variations. Daphne had chosen to use a water blast version of it. After the dust and rubble from the explosion settled she could see that Daphne's shield had protected her from both of Cho's spells and Cho seemed to be alright as well. Now however the platform was covered in water from Daphne's spell, which meant moving around would be much harder.
"Incarcerous!" Cho cast the rope binding spell, the spell which Marik had used to beat Daphne easily with last year with. Bad move on Cho's part. Daphne was more than used to that spell by now.
"Displodo, azuflamen, stupefy!" Daphne countered with another high powered spell combo, one that must have taken a lot of her magic to use. The end result though was worth it though for Daphne. Her displodo burst magic spell disintegrated the ropes flying at her and Cho was not able to defend against the next two high powered spells Daphne had sent Cho's way. With only half a shield up in a huge burst of magic Cho was knocked unconscious and lost the duel.
"Damn. . ." Alina said, breaking the silence between them as the rest of the Hall cheered for Daphne.
"So I guess Daphne was mad about losing," Harry added.
"I would say so," Hermione responded. Daphne had put on quite the power show. Both her and Cho had gone with the strategy to overpower their opponent with sheer force and Daphne had proven that she was the more powerful between the two. It would be hard to match the power of spells like that consistently in a duel, let alone still have enough energy to defend with. Daphne would be a tough win this year it certainly appeared.
"Well good luck guys," Marik said with a sneer as Daphne got off the stage. All three of them glared angrily at him. The next two names formed on the bracket.
"Harry Potter and. . ." She looked over at Harry and put her arm on his shoulder. He turned to her and smiled at the sign of support. "Will face Hermione Granger." She took her hand off his shoulder.
"Well good luck Hermione." Harry extended his hand towards her as he stood up. She was going against Harry for her first duel! She had known that they might have to duel at some point but she figured it would be the finals or something, not the first duel. She had not even had time to warm up yet.
"Yeah. . . You too Harry." She took his hand and pulled herself up. They turned from each other and she started off towards her side of the platform. She heard Marik and Alina wish them both luck as they left but she was too focused on the task at hand to acknowledge them. This was not going to be a walk in the park. This was going to be a true battle.
Ever since last year's tournament they had all practiced and trained together more times than she could count. Ever since they had returned to the school after it reopened they had both intensified their training twofold. Harry had been a man on a mission to improve this year and she had been so mad that she lost last year that she had worked as hard as possible to make sure that it did not happen again this year. Harry had been the one to beat her last year, she did not want a repeat of that.
When it came to practice duels she had mainly dueled with Alina and Marik. Her and Harry had a rivalry between them when it came to this tournament so they kept the dueling to other opponents so they didn't spoil all of their tricks. While she had seen Harry perform magic basically everyday she was sure he still had some new tricks up his sleeves. So did she though.
They both made their way to the center of the stage, bowed, winked, and then headed back to their spots on the platform. Harry on the other side of the platform did not have his usual friendly smile on, but instead wore a look that meant business. She did her best to focus more and match his look.
"One. . . Two. . . Three!" Dumbledore announced the start of the duel.
"Animorph!" she heard Harry on the other side of the platform get a quick spell off. Immediately his feet turned to their animagus mountain lion form. She had seen him do that spell countless times and knew that would mean he would be able to move across the platform quicker now.
"Aisuterra, expelliarmus." She quickly started the duel with two spells. The expelliarmus spell was mainly just to keep Harry busy on his side of the platform. She used the ice-make spell to cover Harry's side of the platform in a slippery sheet of ice. Hopefully that would slow some him down a little, even with his transfigured feet.
"Transmorgo, incendio!" Harry stopped moving to keep his balance on the ice and aimed his first spell at her disarming spell. The spells collided at about the same time as his fire spell melted the ice on the platform. So much for that idea. When Harry's transmorgo spell hit her expelliarmus spell Harry caused the spell to explode into a wall of black smoke, blocking any sight she had of him. She prepared herself for an attack from Harry.
"Gemino, protego totalum!" She had to bring out some of her big guns earlier than she had wanted to but who knows what Harry was doing on the other side of that smoke. Five thought projections of herself appeared around her. All of them were in the area of her shield, although that didn't really matter since they would disappear when Harry hit them anyways. She sent one of them to the middle of the platform right in front of the smoke to hopefully draw Harry's attention.
"Stupefy!" Harry shouted as he quickly burst out of the smoke on her side of the platform with an extra boost thanks to his transfigured feet. The spell collided with her thought projection up front just as she had planned. She took advantage of the caught off guard Harry.
"Gravitas, expelliarmus!" She fired off two spells at the shocked looking Harry, who was now looking at five Hermione's standing in front of him instead of just one. She aimed both her spells right at Harry's feet.
"Protego!" Harry reacted quickly and threw up a shield. Fortunately for Harry her expelliarmus spell hit and disappeared on his shield. Unfortunately for him though he had not been quick enough to deflect her gravity spell. In the area right around Harry the gravity increased tenfold and Harry's entire body was forced to the ground. With the extreme increase in gravity it made it almost impossible to move. However he would still be able to cast spells so she would have to act quick.
"Legilimens!" Harry cast a spell that she had never heard of. "Over here." She heard Harry whisper from behind her. But how? She could see that he was right in front of her. She turned around quickly ready to defend herself. However Harry was not there. "Relashio, stupefy!" She heard Harry shout two spells from behind her again. She turned again this time to see him break from her gravity spell and send a stunner right at her. It seemed Harry had some dirty tricks up his sleeve too.
Luckily Harry had to guess which was the real Hermione, and even luckier for her he had chosen wrong with his stunner so that gave her more time to act. They were standing so close to each other now whatever spells they both cast would have to be countered quick.
"Stupefy!" She started her attack.
"Protego, expulso!" Harry threw up the shield and sent an explosion spell at her feet.
"Subduco, incarcerous!" She used her first spell to steal Harry's expulso and send it right back at him, followed by her ropes. She ordered one of the Hermiones to charge at him at the same time.
"Finite incantatum, tempesta!" Harry stopped her incoming spells in midair where they disappeared and fired back a storm spell. Out of the tip of his wand a burst of magic that resembled a dark cloud with lightning came booming at her and removed one of her thought projections in the process.
"Finimagus." She cast the first spell and ended Harry's storm before it got any closer. "Expelliarmus, restituo, flipendo, stupefy!" She fired a spell combo off as quickly as she could using about the rest of the magic she had left up.
Her first spell was just a distraction. The odds of a simple disarming spell hitting Harry were pretty slim. Harry quickly rolled to his left and the spell missed him. Her second spell she had aimed a little bit away from Harry and it collided with the ground right behind him. Harry in return raised his wand ready to fire off a spell back at her but found that his spell did not work. It worked! She thought to herself, her fingers crossing in her head.
The restituo spell was one that she actually had only found recently. The spell was an area effect spell that would nullify a spellcaster's ability to use magic in that area. As soon as they moved outside the area they would be able to but luckily for her Harry was still currently in the circle. Her next two spells collided with Harry and sent him flying across the stage, thankfully not into the glass this time, where he landed on the floor of the Great Hall beaten. The stands erupted. She had beaten Harry!
She could not help the smile that washed over her face as she heard the stands cheering for her. She took it all in for a few moments before she realised that Harry was still unconscious on the other side of the stage. She quickly ran over to him and helped one of the professors bring him back.
"Bloody hell that was good Hermione. Thanks for missing the glass this time by the way." Harry looked up to her with a smile on his face. She imagined it must have been hard for him to put on a smile after losing.
"Thanks Harry. You were amazing too," She replied as Harry got to his feet and they both made their way back to their seats. Both of them were met with hugs and congratulations from their two other friends.
"So that's what your secret weapon was huh?" Harry raised his eyebrow as he asked her.
"What did you think?" she asked him.
"I almost shit my pants when I came out of the smoke and saw six Hermione's. Scariest thing I have ever seen," Harry answered.
"How the hell did you make me think you were behind me?" she asked curiously, wanting to know what magic he had performed.
"That would be part of one of my end of year projects! So you will have to wait until the end of the year for that answer." Harry grinned as he answered. He knew how much she hated not knowing something.
"That is not fair Harry!" she said pouting.
"I guess Harry is going to get to learn all of your secrets now though Hermione," Alina said from beside her.
"What do you mean?" she asked not sure what her friend meant.
"Well if you win the rest of this tournament this summer you have to duel Marik. Which means if you keep practice dueling with him he will know all your tricks. So you will have to start dueling with Harry again," Alina explained.
"Oh. . ." she said looking slightly panicked. "I never thought of that. . ." She looked over at Marik who was grinning.
"Don't get too worried yet Hermione, this tournament is still up for grabs. You did great but don't get carried away," Marik responded bringing her back to the moment.
Marik was right. Before she could worry about dueling in the next tournament she had to win this one. Looking up at the bracket board it looked like that meant she had to beat two more people before she would be crowned the champ. She calmed herself and tried to focus on getting back some of her magic. She had used a lot of it during her duel with Harry.
Luckily for her it seemed that luck was on her side today. Although luck better have been on her side for what it did to her the last time they tried to have this tournament. The next few duels each took a while so it gave her the chance to recuperate and rest before her next duel. When it was finally her turn in the semifinals she drew a duel against Padma Patil. Padma was one of the better students in their year when it came to classes but when it came to dueling Hermione proved that she had the edge by far.
In just three easy spells she had managed to stun Padma and claim her spot in the finals. Looking across the Great Hall she knew exactly who that meant she would be up against too. Sitting in all of her ice and royalty was Daphne glaring at her. She glared back unitimitated. If she could beat Harry she could beat Daphne.
"The final duel will be between Daphne Black and Hermione Granger!" Dumbledore announced their names. The crowd erupted and the seats cleared as everyone stood up anxious for the final duel.
"You ready?" Harry asked her, putting his hands around hers. She turned to look at him. Even when she could tell he was upset at losing he still had her back and cheered her on. He was a good friend. She squeezed his hand and nodded before letting go and turning towards the stage.
She heard Marik and Alina shouting words of encouragement at her as she walked to her spot but again as before she was in full focus. As Alina had said earlier, here goes nothing.
She and the ice-queen made their way to the center of the stage and both of them did a half attempt at a bow before returning to their spots. She tightened her grip on her wand ready to end this quick.
You can do this Hermione. She heard Harry's voice say inside her head. She looked over to see him smiling. He gave her a quick wink, which she gave a smile and wink in return before she returned her gaze back to Daphne, knowing her friends were all with her by her side. There was no way she could lose this.
"One. . . Two. . . Three!" Dumbledore announced the start of the duel and they were off.
"Gemino, protego totalum!" She cast her thought projection spell as soon as the duel started and threw up an area projection spell to defend herself along with her thought projections as she prepared to go on the offensive.
"Azuflamen, rubyflamen!" Daphne screamed out her spells from the other side of the platform.
She recognized the first one from her duel with Cho earlier, but had never heard of the type of elemental blast Daphne chose for her second spell before. Two huge beams of magic came speeding towards Hermione. The first beam was a bright blue stream of glowing water and the second one was a raging red beam fire. Daphne had literally started this duel with a bang going all out on her first two spells. Not wanting to gamble on if her shield was strong enough to block both spells she acted.
"Gravitas!" She cast the spell she had used during her duel with Harry on the ground a few feet in front of where she was standing. Daphne's two spells collided with her shield and then changed their direction towards the small circle of increased gravity on the platform where she had aimed her spell, softening their force and impact on her shield.
When they impacted with the platform at the spot of intense gravity both of Daphne's spell sent off a massive wave of flames and water breaking her gravity spell. Luckily her shield and thought projections took the brunt of the impact and she was left unscathed. She quickly checked how many thought projections she had left from all of that; it appeared only one. Hopefully that would be enough. She ordered the thought projection to charge at Daphne.
"Erecto, expulso. . ." She started casting her spell chain combo.
"Stupefy, locomotor mortis!" She heard Daphne cast two spells from the other side of the platform at the same time as her erecto spell had erected at least ten pillars from the floor under the platform and her expulso had impacted with a good number of the pillars. She continued her spell combo.
"Corver, deprimo, protego!" She finished her spell chain and let out gasp of air at the strain the combo of spells took on her magic. As her combo headed towards Daphne she ordered her last thought projection to sacrifice itself on Daphne's stupefy spell. Her combo was a costly one, and drained a lot of her magic, but hopefully it was worth it.
The exploded rubble and rocks that shot into the air when she exploded the pillars were turned into to around fifty large crows with her corver spell. She had then used the wind spell to give all of the crows an airstream that they could use to fly and quickly attack Daphne.
"Impedimenta, incendio!" Daphne cast two more spells to counter the incoming spells just as Daphne's locomotor mortis spell collided with her shield. Whether or not Daphne's defense would be good enough to stop and block fifty high speed crows she did not know, but regardless the fact that Daphne had to defend against them gave her time to act.
"Speculum, stupefy!" She cast two more high powered spells, draining a lot more magic than she would have liked. Her body felt like it was almost fully drained at this point.
Daphne's defense did end up being strong enough to withstand her crow attack. Her impedimenta spell had slowed all the birds down to a snail's pace and they had been so grouped together that her incendio spell had eliminated them all back to rock and rubble in one blow. As soon as Daphne had dealt with the birds she turned and readied herself for the oncoming stupefy spell Hermione had just cast. Daphne never saw it coming though and Hermione watched on as Daphne's face turned to one of confusion.
Hermione's speculum spell had created two mirrors on the platform. One mirror had been placed over Daphne's head. The second one had been placed right in front of where Hermione was standing. When Daphne turned to look for Hermione and her spell all she saw was a reflection of herself.
Hermione had sent her stupefy through one of the mirrors and out the other. It was a trick that she owed credit to Marik for teaching her. He had learned it in one of his lessons with Flitwick and had taught it to her only two weeks before. Her stupefy spell traveled through the first mirror and came out of its sister mirror over Daphne's head where it collided with the back of confused ice-queen. The power behind the spell had not been one of her best but it looked to be just enough as Daphne dropped to the platform, beaten, and unconscious. She had done it. . . She won!
Without thinking acting on instincts she turned on the stage and bolted to the spot in the stands where her friends were.
"I did it! I won!" she shouted in excitement when she made it to her friends, tears of joy streaming down her face.
"Congratulations Hermione! I'm so proud of you!" Harry said as he engulfed he in a tight bear hug, swinging her around in a circle at the same time.
"Way to go 'Mione, you kicked ass up there," Marik said, giving her another warm hug as soon as Harry released her.
"Sorry for knocking your sister out Alina," she apologized halfheartedly to Alina, who she knew couldn't care less about it.
"Are you kidding me! That was freaking awesome Hermione!"Alina said with a bright smile as she followed her friends lead and gave her a hug.
"Thank you guys. Thank you all so much!" she said, thanking her friends who were the absolute best friends in the world. "So how did I do?" she asked them, only just now realising that all of the stands were still on their feet applauding her. She couldn't help the blushing in her cheeks the more she took it in.
"Amazing," Harry answered her first, and gave her another one arm hug as they all sat down.
"Meh. I've seen Filch do better," Marik joked from his seat behind her. Even as drained and tired as she was now she still had enough energy left to hit him. "Ow!" Marik groaned.
"Congratulations to our second year dueling champion Hermione Granger. Let us all give her one more round of applause for a spectacular display of magic." The stands erupted again into applause following Dumbledore's announcement. Her friends all around her ruffled her hair and gave her a few more congratulations and hugs following the announcement.
She honestly was still in disbelief. She had actually won! She had put in so much time, energy, and effort over the course of the entire year and it was now paid off. She had completed her goal and the mission she had set out to accomplish. She smiled again as she took in all of the people in the crowds still clapping for her. She now understood why Marik was always smirking when he did things like this. This was a feeling she could get used to. This was a feeling she would get used to.
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