Harry
The tick tick tick of the small hand on the clock was beginning to drive him mad. He had sat motionless like a stone, staring at the wooden grandfather clock in the corner of their potions lab down in the dungeons of Hogwarts for nearly an hour now. He had spent probably more than eighty percent of his life at Hogwarts down in this potions lab and in that time had spent more than a few hours alone in the lab working on some assignment or another. Never in that all that time though had he ever really noticed how annoyingly loud the clock was. Today, in all of his anxiousness and nervousness, he had quickly become very ready to return to the real Hogwarts so that he blast the damned thing to pieces.
Before today he had always considered himself to be a very patient person. When his father and Sirius had long quidditch debates over the holidays Harry had been able to sit quietly by and wait out the conversation until it changed to something more interesting. When Hermione started a lecture about her time magic he was always patient enough to make it through the entire lecture without shouting out to her that he didn't understand a ounce of what she was talking about. And whenever Marik and Alina got into arguments over the merits and differences of cornbread versus sourdough he had always been patient enough to let the argument run its course before attempting to change the subject to a non-bread topic.
Sitting alone in the potions lab in silence-waiting alone on the sliver of a chance hope that either Hermione or Marik would be able to find their way to Hogwarts and to the potions lab was wearing his patience thin, and by this point in the final task he had just about run out of any scrap of patience he had left.
They had been prepping for this final task for what had felt like forever and he had been filled with a rush of adrenaline as the task finally came to a start. He had appeared, much to his delight, in the familiar courtyard of Hogwarts at the task's start. With his wand at the ready he had loaded up a dozen spells behind his lips and was ready for war. War had not come though, only silence, silence, and more boring damn silence.
Their potions lab was on the complete other side of the castle from the courtyard, so Harry had to trek across the entire castle to get there. He had been somewhat hopeful that he would run into someone along the way and get some early action, however, throughout the journey from the castle's courtyard to the dungeons he had not so much had as heard a peep from another champion. Even the illusion of Jeeves had been quiet as a kitchen mouse.
It had taken all of the mental strength left in him to remain tucked away in the potions lab to this point. With each loud tick of the clock that decision to remain here had grown only harder. The task had been live for a little more than two hours by this time. He knew the odds of his friends making it to him by now where growing slimmer with each passing second and that it was near time to leave the confines of the potions lab behind, which was a very appealing notion at this point.
Thinking of Hermione and Marik out there, wandering the hallways of the other castles didn't do much to help calm his waning patience. Had his friends found other champions yet? Had Hermione found Marik yet? Where they still even trying to make it to him here at Hogwarts? These questions and thousands of others flooded his mind with each passing tick of the dusty old grandfather clock. The questions tore at him the longer he thought of them. He was forced to close his eyes and pulse a bit of his mind magic in a desperate attempt to reorganize and calm his thoughts.
After a few moments of cooling himself off he opened his eyes. With a calmer and leveler head he turned his gaze from the oak door to the grandfather clock in the corner. For a few seconds his eyes just followed the smaller hand as it danced in its circle path. Harry Potter was a very patient person, but it was past time to be patient. It was past time to stay here in this room a second longer. Now, it was time to go to work.
In a flash he was off of his stool and cracking the thick oaken door of the potion's lab to peer out into the hallway of the dungeons. A thin stream of illusion students were still slowly making their way from one side of the hallway until they disappeared down at the other side. All seemed to checkout as normal and Harry tiptoed out from behind the door into the stream of students heading for the dungeon's stairs.
He was a drifting wayfarer at this point, walking with no real endpoint or goal in mind. He just wanted to find something, if that something was another school's champion good, he would beat them in a duel and get to have some fun; if that something was Hermione or Marik then even better. He remained in line with the illusion students throughout his travel. His hand was grasped tightly around his wand and his eyes darted around the halls of the castle, searching for anything that looked the least bit out of place.
The stream of students curled and weaved their way through a number of hallways and up and down a number of staircases until Harry found himself yet again on the other side of the castle. The entrance hall was only one hallway over from where he was and the Great Hall one hallway over from there. If Harry had learned anything in his many dueling lesson with his friends and professors over the years it was the importance of space in a duel.
Dueling in an area like the entrance hall or Great Hall would provide him a lot more legroom and peace of mind than dueling in a hallway such as the one he was in would. Harry was confident enough in his abilities to beat any of the champions in a one on one duel. However, he was not that confident in dueling in a crowded hallway such as this one where there was a number of objects and items that could be used against him. As the line of students turned towards the hallway leading to the entrance hall Harry tried to formulate a quick plan.
Wandering aimlessly like this could help him find someone quicker, which he desperately wanted, but it also put him in much more of a risk for dueling in a tight space or a disadvantageous position. Plus all of the illusions made it much more difficult to find someone,friend or foe, if he just kept walking. He could walk right past someone and very well never even know it. It would be smarter to make his way to the entrance hall or the Great Hall and try and lure an opponent their, or just lie in wait in a good vantage point, though he wasn't sure how much more sitting and waiting he could stand.
What would Hermione do if she were me? He found himself thinking as the students turned another corner. Hermione would probably go to the Great Hall if she had been in his shoes. The Great Hall, outside of the quidditch pitch, had the most open space of any place in Hogwarts. There was only one entry point into the Hall which made it much easier to spot someone when they walked in, plus with only one entry point setting up traps was made much easier. He could probably see everything in the hall from the teacher's table as well.
As much as Harry did not want to sit and wait again he knew that going to the Great Hall, at least for a little while, was his best strategy presently and was certainly a lot smarter than just walking around aimlessly waiting for something to happen. He needed to place the needs of winning over his own wants and needs. So for the sake of his friends and everyone cheering them on at Hogwarts he needed to be patient for a little longer and go to Great Hall.
Upon his arrival into the entrance hall he scanned the main staircase along with as much of the hall as he could see before he continued along with the students to the other side of the large room. All of the room checked out to be normal from what he could tell. Besides the absence of the sounds of students talking and portraits conversing among their frames everything seemed to be in place. He whispered out a magic and human reveal spell as he trudged along. Nothing came up in the room though and all was still clear.
The two large wooden doors of the Great Hall were currently propped open and a large portion of the students in the entrance hall were split between heading up the staircase at the entrance hall's center and towards the Great Hall. Even from his current position he could see that there was a large number of illusion students walking and sitting throughout the Great Hall. That was both a good and a bad thing for him. It provided him a great deal of cover to get inside and hide, but at the same time it also did the same thing for all of the other champions. With his wand at the ready he continued along with the line of students headed towards the Great Hall.
As soon as he passed the borderline of the doorway his animal instincts went into full effect and if he had hair on his neck he was sure it would have stood up. Both of the large wooden doors swung shut at speeds that rivaled a snitch and immediately two immense orbs of red magic were being flung in his general direction. In the blink of an eye Harry was diving to dodge both the swinging doors and the spells.
He dove under the nearest house table and his ears rang painfully as the two red spells collided loudly with the now shut wooden doors behind him. Now on full alert, Harry tried to scan the room from under the table, desperately trying to find the source of the spells. It was an impossible task to do when all you could see where the shoes and knees of people. Giving up on his search under the table Harry slowly lifted his just above the top of the table to look out over the hall.
Just as his eyes broke the table's surface another spell, what looked like a cutting spell, came slicing across the hall towards him again. Harry dove back under the table just before the spell collided with the wall behind him, shattering the glass of the tall stained window and sending it to the scatter across the floor around Harry.
He still had absolutely no idea who had cast the spell at him. All he knew at this point was that it had come from somewhere near the Slytherin table.
"Humenum Revelio!" Harry quickly whispered out the spell as he pointed his wand towards the direction of the Slytherin table. His wand turned in his hands a little and tugged his arm towards the far corner of the Hall. That was all he had to work with at the moment, he would have to make it work. He paused for a brief second to collect his thoughts and breath before bursting upwards in a full sprint along the edge of the table.
"Wingardium leviosa!" As soon as he got to his feet Harry levitated the long house table up into the air, spilling all of the plates, glass, and food onto the floor. Once he had the table in the air he slung his wand outwards and sent it flying across the Hall towards the Slytherin table.
"Finite incantatum!" Harry heard the spell being uttered from across the Hall and just as the table fell in its place in the middle of the Hall, Harry saw Viktor Krum standing with his wand raised. "Wingardium levimaxima!" As soon as the table dropped Viktor had levitated almost everything atop the Slytherin table into the air.
"Uh-oh," Harry muttered as hundreds of forks, knives, goblets, and plates were now coming towards him at high speeds. "Impedimenta, wingardium leviosa!" thinking quickly, Harry slowed down the wave of objects in front of him and threw another table into the air between him and them. Loud thuds, clashes, and clatters echoed around the Great Hall as everything collided with the table and fell loudly to the floor.
"Stupefy!" Another one of Viktor's spell casts echoed off the walls and Harry pointed his wand towards the corner where Viktor had been; only Viktor was no longer there. His neck on a swivel, Harry frantically searched the Hall for the new source of the spell. It was coming from above him. Flying around the ceiling of the room at high speeds was Viktor, who was now riding a broom at high speeds and raining stunners down at Harry.
"Protego!" Harry only had a second to throw up a quick shield as the stunning spell collided with his shield. Hitting Viktor on the ground was a tough challenge. Hitting Viktor on a broom would be like trying to hit a nat with needle.
Harry had never been much of a quidditch person, much to his father and uncle's disappointment. Regardless of that he had grown up in the magical world long enough and spent enough time among quidditch fans to know a lot about the sport. Even he knew the reputation Viktor Krum had throughout the quidditch world. Most quidditch players don't make the pros until their twenties, Viktor had received professional offers in his third year at Durmstrang. If it had been any other student riding that broom Harry could have probably picked them off easy; hitting Viktor on the other hand would be near impossible.
Two more powerful stunners came falling from above as Viktor danced around the room. Harry was left to throw up another shield to block them both as he tried to think, which was something that was difficult to do when dodging stunners from above. Harry needed to at least try and keep Viktor busy or preoccupied while he tried to think of a way to knock the Durmstrang champion off his broom.
"Reducto, expelliarmus, confringo!" Wildly, Harry threw the spell chain up into the air. He knew none of them would be able to hit Viktor but at least aiming them in his general direction would give Harry a few seconds to breath.
A few seconds was literally all Harry got as Viktor dove and spun to easily avoid all three spells. With a quick spin Viktor had turned his broom around and was now diving down towards Harry again. "Incendio sagittas!" Viktor shouted out the spell as he dove and a dozen fire arrows materialized in the air and shot off towards Harry. With little time to react, all Harry could do was once again levitate one of the tables in front of him to block the arrows. Twelve loud thuds sounded as the arrows collided with the table and started a small fire in the Hall.
Still covered by the table Harry leaned out behind it and shot two more stunners towards Viktor who once again easily dodged them.
Come on Harry! Think you bloody fool think! He internally screamed at himself. Throwing up hopeless spell after hopeless spell was not going to get him anywhere. Hiding behind a table that was currently on fire at the moment to wasn't a great strategy either. He had to do something and he had to do it fast. What though?
Harry sprinted from out behind the table as another volley of spells came flying out of Viktors wand to the spot Harry had been seconds before. The table shattered into splinters of wood as Viktor's spells collided with it, sending small cinders of flame and wood out into the air. Fire. . . Smoke. . . The idea slowly came to Harry's mind. Smoke rises!
"Incendius maximus!" Harry screamed out the spell as he pointed his wand towards the remaining three tables in the hall. A large gust of flames screamed out of his wand out into the Hall, causing immediate drops of sweat to drip down Harry's brow. The fire engulfed each of the tables with a ferocity and within seconds the hall was ablaze..
Huge plumes of flame stretched into the air and licked at the ceiling of the Hall. The crackling of the flames roared like an angry demon as it devoured the long wooden tables, hanging banners, and benches. A thick, black cloud of smoke had already formed under the ceiling and was rolling down the walls of the Hall like black waves. Harry watched as Viktor weaved in and out of the flames, dodging each one like he would a bludger in quidditch practice. Harry took aim and was ready to start slinging spells at Viktor who was forced into lowering his descent to avoid the smoke.
"TEMPESTA!" Viktor shouted out the weather spell in between his weaves and bends before Harry had time to so much as blink. The enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall seemed to burst open as gallons of water fell like rain to the floor. Harry along with all of the flames in the Hall were immediately drenched and in seconds Viktor had countered Harry's plan.
Where smoke and flames had just been there was now water and steam. Viktor was once again soaring near the ceiling of the hall, the steam and rain not affecting him in the least bit. Plan A had been a quick failure and now Harry needed a quick Plan B or he would not be lasting much longer.
"Stupefy, diffindo!" Harry threw up two more spells at Viktor who once again easily dodged his spells. As Harry threw up another shield to block Viktor's spell counter he searched the Hall for anything that could help him. Nothing besides slinging food and tables at Viktor came to mind though and hitting Viktor with spells had just been made even harder as the rain and steam blocked his vision. Harry was sure his heartrate was starting to rise as he stood there, blocking Viktor's spells one after another.
What would Hermione do? What would Marik do? He tried thinking of what his friends would do again in his situation but that only made his heart race more. He couldn't think about them now. His friends would be focused on the duel at hand, not on eachother. His friends would do whatever it took to beat their opponent. Harry needed to do the same.
"Aeriacta!" Harry sent the wind explosion spell up towards Viktor, hoping the wind explosion spell would push Viktor off his broom. The spell once again missed and collided behind Viktor on the ceiling of the hall, exploding with a boom that sounded like thunder as it did so. Viktor recovered quickly enough from his dodge and threw another spell towards Harry, forcing him to throw up a shield once again.
Thunder. . . Another idea was coming to mind as Harry's shield faded.
"Rainovio!" Harry pointed his wand at the ceiling, just like Viktor had done moments earlier. The enchanted ceiling glowed for a few seconds before a bright bolt of lightning flashed and struck the ground of the Great Hall.
One after another bolts of lightning cracked downwards and thunder boomed off the walls of the Great Hall. Viktor was forced to navigate not only through rain and steam, but was now forced to dodge the random towers of lightning that were striking all around him. This seemed to keep Viktor occupied as Harry watched him dart around the Hall at immense speeds. This was Harry's chance.
"Incarcerous, incarcerous, incarcerous, waddiwakka!" Harry cast three powerful waves of the rope spell followed by a sticking spell, aiming each wave at a different area of the Hall. Hundreds of ropes shot out from his wand and stuck themselves to the wall. This forced Viktor to dodge the ropes alongside the lightning and everything else. The fact that Viktor was still on his broom by this point was a testament to just how good of a flyer he was.
If you don't get a pro offer after this flying demonstration Viktor than you never will. I'll take my thank you for helping you put on this show later. He thought to himself as another wave of lightning crashed onto the floor.
"Wingardium leviosa!" Harry pointed his wand at the mass amount of objects on the floor that had previously been on the four house tables. He put a lot of power behind the spell and lifted as much as he could off the ground. With a grunt he threw it all up towards the ceiling.
Viktor may have been a good flyer, but nobody could have hoped to dodge everything going on in the room. Viktor managed to dodge the bolts of lightning, he managed to even dodge the flying forks, plates, and knives headed towards the ceiling. In all of his weaving though he had not been able to come out of his turn quick enough to dodge one of the ropes Harry had put in place.
Viktor's gut collided with the rope and his body remained stationary as his broom spurted off to the other side of the Hall where it crashed into a thousand splinters of wood. The impact must have knocked the wind out of Viktor who fell silently down the floor of the Hall with a loud crack and crash. Harry didn't wait to see if it had been enough to knock the Durmstrang Champion out though.
With haste he sprinted over to the middle of the Hall where Viktor had landed and pointed his wand at the large boy.
"Expelliarmus, stupefy!" With two quick flashes of magic Viktor's wand came shooting out of his hands into Harry's and his body fell limp and motionless back onto the ground.
A wheezing breath of air left Harry's lung as he stood over the defeated Durmstrang Champion's body. Harry had had some intense duels over the years but very few that had come close to as intense as that duel had. Viktor had set up a solid strategy and played brilliantly to his strengths. If they had been in any other room of the castle Viktor may have very well wiped the floor with him, thankfully Viktor had chosen the room with the enchanted ceiling and Harry was thankful for that.
He was also thankful that he was coming out of this duel relatively unscathed. Besides being absolutely drenched and tired he had luckily managed to not get hit by any of Viktors spells. After taking a few seconds to catch his breath he took out his wand and pointed it at the ceiling to cancel out the still falling rain and lightning. When the rain ceased he waved his wand over his face and robes with a drying charm.
The Great Hall was a mess to say the least. Huge puddles of water lined the stone floor and the few spots where there were no puddles were filled with piles of food, glass, plates, and silverware. The duel had also been a loud one. Odds were high that if anyone else was still in Hogwarts that they had heard the echoing thunder and spell blastings. Whether those who heard the sounds would chose to come to the source or not he didn't know.
He honestly didn't know if he should remain here or not. On the one hand the Hall had proved to be a useful place to duel against Viktor. On the other hand there was so much debris, water, and junk scattered around the room that he would be forced to combat not only spells but potentially anything in the room.
One thing he did know though is that if Hermione or Marik had been in Hogwarts they would have certainly came to the source of the sounds. Marik would have wanted to join in on the action and Hermione would have set up a million traps for if anyone tried to leave the Hall. The fact that he was standing in the Hall alone still meant that either they were still not in Hogwarts-or worse.
To stay or not to stay was the question of the hour and Harry needed to make up his mind fast. He weighed the pros and cons of both choices for a bit before deciding that it would probably be best to leave the Great Hall. Surprisingly no one else had come in to join in on the fun yet but if he remained here longer someone just might. The longer he stood inside here too the more time someone could be setting up traps for him just outside the Hall.
After slipping Viktor's wand away Harry made his way through the maze of tables and rubble towards the door of the Great Hall. The two wooden doors were still sealed shut so he would have to open them to make his way back into the castle.
"Specialis revelio, homenum revelio." When he made it to the large doors he cast the two revealing spells, the first one looking for any magical traps placed on the doors or floor around the doors, the second searching for another champion lying in wait on the door's other side. Both spells revealed nothing, however, so Harry slowly opened up the doors with his wand. The doors slowly swung open and Harry waited with baited breath for anything to happen.
Nothing out of the ordinary happened though. The stream of illusion students that had been cut off by the door's closing now once again made their ways into the Great Hall and those who had been in the Hall previously began filing out. No spells came raining down on him though and no traps activated, all seemed to be well in the entrance hall.
Harry didn't want to linger there though so he quickly fell into line and began following the students into one of the nearby hallways. He found himself once again wandering aimlessly, a little unsure of where he needed to go or what he should do. Normally plans came to him easy, at least they had throughout the rest of the Triwizards' Tournament.
In the first task he had been calm and collected throughout the task's entirety He had been able to formulate their team's plan in mere seconds and change them at a moment's notice. The same could be said throughout the second task. This task, however, was getting to him and getting under his skin. He was used to being able to lean on his friends strengths and weaknesses for help. This task didn't allow you that comfort though.
Maybe he was too reliant on Hermione and Marik, at least that's what this task was making him think as zero plans or ideas had come to mind so far today. In everything he did he always had Hermione's brilliance and knowledge bank backing him up along with Marik's technique and dueling prowess. Today though all he had was himself and even as confident as he was in himself and his abilities he definitely preferred having his friends behind him to this.
The hallways on the ground floor of the castle seemed unaffected by the duel in the Great Hall. All seemed normal around him and no other champions had come bursting around a corner guns blazing. It was hard to keep his mind focused and from wandering as he turned each corner and wandered down another hallway.
They had discussed this point of the task a number of time throughout their preparation for the final task. Each of the three castles were huge, although with Beauxbatons they had no idea just how huge. They had speculated and wandered as the number of champions dwindled down just how long this task could stretch on for. Some champions could be hiding in one spot like he had done at the start of the task for who knows how long.
Others could be wandering the halls like he was doing now. With three castles and only a few champions in them the odds of finding someone else grew smaller and smaller, which tested one's patience more and more the longer the task went on. And not to beat a dead horse but, again, Harry had little patience left at this point.
None of the illusion students were making their way into the many classrooms lining the east wing's hallway but instead were all continuing in their path towards the grand staircase. The grand staircase was not a place Harry was too keen on going to. Getting stuck on a moving staircase whilst dueling someone was not a promising prospect. However, the grand staircase was the best way to get to other parts of the castle and Harry had covered just about every inch of the dungeons and the ground floor so far.
Begrudgingly he continued along with the other students and made his way over towards the grand staircase. The dozens of moving staircases towered above him in the tall tower as he entered the room. The grand staircase looked just as hectic as it normally did on a typical Hogwarts school day. All around him illusion students moved about and waited for their staircase to arrive. As he waited for the first staircase to rotate back to him he tried to decide which floor he wanted to get off on.
The third and fourth floor were mainly practice rooms and housing rooms. The second floor was almost entirely classrooms and the library. All of the floors had a number of rooms and nooks, any number of which another champion could have decided to hide in. No floor really seemed a better option than the other and in the end he decided just to work his way up the castle and start with the second floor.
The staircase finally swung around to where he was waiting and he piled onto it with the long line of illusion students. He began climbing the familiar staircase at the pace of the other students, his eyes darting from one of the many staircases around and above him to another. As he reached the midpoint of the staircase his instincts flared again. In almost slow motion the trail of a deep black strand of hair in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He craned his neck to get a glimpse of the hair and in one fluid motion spun with his wand raised.
"Reducto!" he called out the blasting spell as he spun. The strand of black hair had belonged to Durmstrang's champion Rosa Westerwelle and his spell had been dead on the spot where she had been walking past him down the stairs. His dark blue spell, however, collided with no body and instead seemed to pass right through the girl where it collided and exploded on the rail behind her, sending stone and rock down to the floor as the staircase continued to swing.
Harry stood planted, confused about the events that had just unfolded. Rosa just continued to walk down the staircase, unfazed and untouched by his explosion spell. She didn't even so much as turn to fight back.
What the hell. . . He started to think to himself when a flash of red light came into the corner of his eye.
"Protego totalum!" Unsure of where the spell had exactly come from he threw up an area shield around himself. The red spell collided with his shield violently and shook him down to his core.
"Expelliarmus, glisseo, reducto!" Harry barely heard the spell combo echoing off the wall as the spell hitting his shield dissipated but he still wasn't able to pinpoint where in room they were coming from. Three bright colored spells were raining down from somewhere above him.
"Reducto! Protego!" He threw out a random explosion spell onto a random staircase above him before quickly throwing up another shield, hoping that it would be enough to block the three oncoming spells.
His shield withstood against the first spell, however, it never got the chance to block the second two spells. The second spell collided with the staircase he was on and immediately the stairs turned into a steep ramp. Instantly Harry lost his balance and began sliding down the staircase. The only good thing about being slid down the staircase was that the third spell, the blasting spell, hit the part of the staircase he had been moments before and thus missed him.
Rocks and stone exploded on impact with the third spell and a large chunk of the top of the staircase was now missing. Harry continued to slide down the staircase and only managed to just stop himself from making a long plummet down to the floor by grabbing on to the handrail. The staircase was still stuck as a ramp and getting to his feet on it was impossible at the moment; he cursed himself for not remembering the counter spell to the glisseo spell.
"Absorbulus, locomotor mortis!" Harry prepared himself for another onslaught of spells but none came towards him. Instead, as he looked up in the room, he saw the two spells being fired down from one staircase at the top of the room towards one at the middle. He watched closely as the two spells collided with something, and disappeared. Two bright streams of light came soaring from the staircase that the spells had just hit back up towards the top of the room.
To say Harry was a little confused was an understatement. One second he was getting an easy shot on the back of Rosa and the next second he was sliding down the stairs. Now it seemed the spells were all being directed in a whole nother spot.
"Stupefy, diffindo!" Another voice, echoed across the grand staircase. The voice sounded lighter than the one that had cast the spells at him. Did that mean there were two other champions in here with him? If that was the case he was in bad shape, hanging on a ramp in midair while dueling was definitely not a good strategy. He needed to act fast before whoever was in the room with him started firing spells in his direction again.
The staircases started changing again and Harry aimed his wand and waited for his staircase to move to just the right spot.
"Incarcerous, waddiwakka!" Harry shouted out the spell and ropes came soaring out of his wand. The ropes shot up to the wall above the next staircase and stuck in place. Harry pulled himself up to his feet with the tightened rope and began pulling himself up the ramped staircase. Above him the room was filling with flashes of bright light as spells were being sent out chaotically. He squinted his eyes as he made his way up the ramp to try and make out what was going on above him.
He could just barely make out the two figures that were casting the spells. The one in the middle of the room was definitely Rosa Westerwelle. Her long black was flowing wildly behind her as she sprinted up her staircase and threw spells out one after another. Her target Harry could only barely make out but from the long blonde hair; it was either Fleur or Weiss from Beauxbatons. Whichever one it was it meant he had two enemies with him in the grand staircase, and both of them had the high ground on him.
Do I let them go at it for a bit and stay out of it or do I try and join the fray. He thought to himself as he watched the two girls duel. As he stood their watching Rosa turned her casting from her target above and sent two spells down towards Harry.
"Protego totalum!" Harry quickly through up the area shield, trying to protect the staircase this time along with himself. Both of the spells collided with his shield and disappeared.
Guess that means I am in this battle too. He thought as Rosa seemed to have answered his internal questions.
"Reducto, aisuterra!" Harry joined the duel with a quick spell combo of his own. The first spell he aimed at the bottom of the staircase that Rosa was on, blasting a large portion of it off. His second spell was the ice make: ground spell. His hope was that it would turn the staircase Rosa was on into ice and make her slip and fall down it.
His combo seemed to work well as the staircase shook from the explosion of his first spell and sent Rosa slipping down the ice. The Durmstrang champion slid all the way down the staircase and unlike Harry she was unable to grab onto anything to stop her fall and fell right off the staircase down into the open space of the room. In midair Harry watched Rosa close her eyes and with a soft pop she vanished.
"Confringo!" Another soft pop sounded and immediately the exploding flame spell was being cast from the platform above Harry. Harry turned to see Rosa now standing there, a mere ten feet or so away, and her spell coming towards him at high speeds.
"Finimagus!" Harry barely managed to blurt out the dispell, stopping Rosa's spell before it could hit him.
"Absorbulus, expelliarmus, stupefy!" Another spell combo was being fired off this time from a staircase towards Harry's left. Harry turned to see that the third person in the grand staircase had in fact been Fleur, who it appeared had made her way quickly down the staircases and was now firing spells at he and Rosa.
"Protego totalum!" Harry heard Rosa throw up a shield.
"Bendculum!" Harry countered Fleur's spell combo with a bending spell. He bent the path of the green spell headed his way to make it go towards Rosa's shield. All three spells collided with Rosa's shield, which was only just able to deflect all three spells. Rosa was still sent flying backwards from the sheer force of the impact and hit the wall behind hard. The impact didn't seem to shake the Durmstrang Champion that much though as she was back up to her feet in a flash.
"Stupefy, stupefy!" As soon as she landed back on her feet Rosa shot out two more spells, one at Fleur and one at Harry.
"Protego!" Harry threw up a quick shield to block Rosa's stunner. "Wingardium levimaxima!" Harry aimed his second spell at the wall next to him, lifting a dozen or so of the large framed paintings off of the wall and into the air of the room. He controlled them in the air and sent them flying off towards Rosa.
"Subduco!" At the same time as Harry's spell Fleur had cast the spell stealing spell and stolen Rosa's stunner and sent it right back at her as well. With a stunner and a dozen paintings being sent her way Rosa was in a tough spot. Instead of raising her wand and blocking them Rosa again closed her eyes and popped out of sight. Harry scanned the room, looking and listening for the next pop to sound. When it did he immediately found where Rosa had apparated to. One staircase above him and two below Fleur, Rosa had appeared on the platform and was in a full sprint into the hallway it attached to.
It appeared Rosa was now thinking just like Harry that dueling on the grand staircase was not a good idea and was making a break for it. Harry took a split second to decide what to do next. He couldn't let her get away now. If he did it could take him forever again to find her. If he did chase her though would Fleur follow? His eyes darted between the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champions.
Oh fuck it! He mentally screamed and in a sprint shot off up the staircase towards Rosa.
"Expulso, reducto!" As he ran Fleur had thrown two spells off towards him. From her vantage point he was a sitting duck. Again his instincts flared up as the two spells came towards him and in a single stride he transfigured himself and went into his animagus mountain lion form. On four legs he was now much faster and outrunning Fleur's two spells was a breeze.
Skipping up two steps at a time he bounced his way up the staircase and across the platform. Within seconds he was in the same hallway as Rosa who was still in a full sprint. His blood was now pumping and the hair on his nape standing straight up in his animagus form he bolted straight after the Durmstrang champion.
"Stupefy, displodo!" With two quick flicks of her wand over her shoulder Rosa sent a stunner and an explosion spell towards him as he sprinted after her. An angry snarl escaped his mouth as he gritted his teeth and jumped out of the reach of the two spells and continued to close in on the girl. "Incarcerous!" Again, Rosa tried to hit him with a spell cast over her shoulder. A dozen or so ropes came flying out towards harry in his animagus form but he easily was able to slip in between them and continue his pursuit. Quickly he closed the gap between them and with a final pounce leapt out towards her.
With his two front paws he made contact with Rosa's back and dug his long nails into her shoulders. His momentum and size pushed the girl forwards and towards the ground and as he fell over her he just barely managed to take a small bite at her right shoulder before she hit the ground he toppled over her.
On the ground Rosa screamed out in pain briefly as large drops of blood came spurting out of her shoulder and onto the ground below her. Her scream was cut short though as two beams of light came flying into the hall behind her. In another flash Rosa had a shield up around her and the two beams deflected right off it. Fleur had made her way into the hallway now and once again it was a three way deul. Harry calmed his animal instincts and came out of his animagus form. It was useful to catch up and get a quick attack on Rosa but mountain lions were not known for their dueling ability.
"Incendius maximus!" Rosa screamed out into the hall as her shield vanished. She conjured a large, steady stream of flames from her wand and began whipping it around her at the center of the hallway. Harry was forced to dive out of the way as one of the tendrils of the flame came close to him.
"Schneezzard!" Fleur cast the blizzard spell on the other side of the hallway and at once the hall was filled with a mixture of both fire and ice. Large pools of water dripped to the floor as the flames melted the ice and large flame patterned ice sculptures were formed all around them.
"Aeriacta!" Harry cast the wind explosion spell at the nearest tower of ice. The spell exploded the ice into a hundred smaller pieces which were then carried in the wind of his spell down the hall towards his two opponents.
"Impedimenta, Reducto!" Rosa turned to his spell and slowed the incoming ice before turning back to Fleur and sending a blast spell her way.
"Expelliarmus, erecto!" Fleur managed to get off a quick disarming spell before summoning up the stone floor below her to block Rosa's blast spell. Rosa still had her back to Harry as she braced herself to defend against Fleur's disarming spell. This was Harry's chance, he closed his eyes and cleared his mind.
"Legidisco!" Just as Rosa raised her wand to cast the shield spell Harry cast his mind magic spell. The legidisco spell was one of the first mind magic spells that he had mastered. It caused the target to temporarily forget the action or spell they were just about to do until the spell is lifted. So instead of throwing up a shield Rosa stood their with a blank look on her face and Fleur's spell hit her dead on.
Rosa's body was sent flying backwards across the hall as the disarming spell hit her and her wand went soaring off into Fleur's hands. The Durmstrang Champion landed on the floor with a thud and remained there, unmoving. For a few seconds the hallway was quiet and the only sound was his and Fleur's heavy breathing.
"Hermione says hi," Fleur shouted out from the other side of the hall. Her wand was still raised and pointed right at him.
Harry had spent enough of this year with the French girl to say he knew her fairly well. The look she currently had on her face was not her normal dimpled smile, but more of the look he remembered her having during the summer dueling tournaments, one of ferocity and competitiveness. Friends or not, it was clear from her body language that Fleur meant to win.
"You saw her? That means . . ." his voice trailed off as the realisation of her words dawned on him.
"Yes, I beat her. Though, the troll and Weiss really did most of the work for me to be fair," Fleur replied. His grip tightened around his wand at the news of Hermione's defeat. He knew Fleur was good duelist, he had seen that first hand a number of times, but for her to beat Hermione. . .
"And Marik?" he asked, curious to know if Fleur had seen him.
"Haven't seen him." Harry wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
"Who all have you seen?" he asked another question, curious to know who all was left in the tournament.
"Harry, I don't think now is the time to talk," Fleur laughed.
"Oh, yeah, right," he nodded in agreement.
"Shall we do this then?" Fleur asked with an arched brow, her wand still raised.
"Yeah, I guess we should," Harry replied and did a quick bow to her, a symbol of respect towards his opponent before the duel began. Fleur returned his bow with a slight curtsey and allowed him to raise his wand to meet hers.
"Absorbulus!" Fleur began their duel with a spell that Harry did not know.
"Transmorgo!" He countered her green spell with a spell of his speciality. His transfiguration spell collided with Fleur's at the hall's center and he transfigured the spell to a lumos maxima spell. Just before the hall was filled with blinding light he closed his eyes, rolled to his right, and raised his wand again. "Expelliarmus, confundus!" Quickly he cast the disarming and confusion spell through the blinding light while Fleur was distracted.
"Sorphere!" Fleur shouted out another spell Harry had never heard of. All of the magic in the hallway contracted on itself, including all of the lumos light and his two spells. As the magic contracted it formed a flowing ball of magic at the room's center. With a slash of her wand Fleur cut right through the ball of magic and in room shaking burst all of the magic was released outwards towards Harry.
"Protego totalum!" Fleur's magic was moving at such intense speeds he was forced to go on the defensive and throw up a shield. His shield was able to hold back the magic but the force of the spell's power pushed him and his shield about twenty feet down the hall before it stopped.
Holy shit! What the bloody hell was that! He thought to himself as the spell's last traces of magic ended. It appeared Fleur had some tricks up her sleeves. That was okay, so did he.
"Flipendo, stupefy!" As soon as his shield vanished he went back on the offensive with a quick spell chain. The first spell was a knock back spell followed by a stunner with his second spell.
"Finite incantatum! Avis!" Fleur banished his spells and countered with a spell that she had used on Marik back in their first year dueling tournament. A dozen birds were conjured out of thin air and were now flying towards Harry.
"Impedimenta, expulso!" Harry first slowed the birds and proceeded to follow that up with a powerful explosion spell. Each of the conjured birds vanished into thin air as his spell collided with them.
"Stupefy, fulminous!" Fleur was not letting up on her offensive attack. As soon as the birds vanished she was sending a powerful stunner and lightning beam spell back towards him.
"Subduco, protego!" His first spell, the spell stealing spell, was aimed at Fleur's lightning spell. He stole the spell and sent it right back at her. Fleur's stunner bounced right off of his shield.
"Protego!" Fleur threw up a quick shield as she was forced to block her own lightning bolt.
"Expelliarmus, legilacordus!" Harry's next spell combo took a lot of energy out of him and could go bad very quick if he did not focus. His first spell was just another distraction to keep Fleur on the defensive. His second spell was another one of his mind magic spells.
The legilacordus spell was of the best mind magic spells to use in tough situations during a duel. It caused the target of the spell to see a memory of the caster instead of the actual caster. In this case the memory that Harry had planted in the spell was one of him sprinting across the floor as his animagus towards Rosa. As long as Fleur didn't have any strong mental shields up at the moment the spell would have no problems and Fleur would see his animagus running across the hall towards her instead of him standing there facing her.
Fleur's protego easily managed to block her own lightning spell and his stunner and as soon as it vanished he waited with baited breath. Fleur's eyes turned from where he was standing to a spot on the ground a few feet in front of her.
"Absorbulus, stupefy, reducto!" Fleur threw out a powerful spell combo, thankfully, not actually at him but instead at random spots in the hall where Harry could only guess his memory had been running. Once again he focused his mind and cleared his thoughts.
"Legobarodo, stupefy!" Harry sent one final powerful spell combo at Fleur. The first spell was one of the hardest mind magic spells that he currently knew. The spell sent an endless stream of distracting thoughts into the target's mind, incapacitating them until it is lifted. The spell broke through Fleur's mind and in an instant she had both hands on her head and had dropped to her knees. Harry only kept the spell active for a split second, not wanting to do his friend any irreparable damage.
As soon as his stunner was inches away from Fleur he lifted his mind magic spell. Before Fleur could even open her eyes his stunner nailed her square in the chest. The French witch was sent rocketing backwards down the hallway. Harry kept his wand fixed on her, ready to cast at even a twitch of movement. Fleur didn't move though. Harry stood their in the hallway, his breath heavy and his body shaking as the exhaustion of three duels piled on him.
He nearly jumped out of his skin as loud pops and hissing sounds sounded from somewhere outside. He ran over to the window of the hallway to look outside, expecting to see two champions dueling out on the grounds.
It wasn't someone dueling, however, it was fireworks in the colors of the four Hogwart's houses bursting in the sky above the astronomy tower. A smile came over his face as he watched them explode into the night's sky one after another. A large snake was slithering around in the sky only to be replaced with a roaring lion seconds later.
It was a beautiful sight to behold, only made better by the meaning behind each of the fireworks in the sky. They were signaling the end of the final task of the Triwizards' Tournament; they were signalling that Hogwarts had won.
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