AN: Welcome back for another chapter! Apologies if this one is pretty rough, I'm not used to writing duels, and need to practice more, let me know how I did! This one's going up earlier than usually due to some scheduling issues. Good for you guys though! Catch you all next friday!
Harry glanced nervously around at the large crowd that was forming around the Dueling arena in Dublin. Harry and Flitwick had arrived by floo to the center of Dublin's magical sector, a pub called The Alchemist's Elixery, and from there made their way towards where the tournament was being held.
Droves of people from all over Europe had arrived for the tournament, with Harry seeing a variety of flags and uniforms being waved about through the crowd.
"Quite the turnout eh, Mr. Potter?" Flitwick asked, seeing the boy who was carefully examining the crowd.
"I suppose, I didn't imagine there would be nearly this many people." Harry said, his nerves twitching inside of him. Hogwarts and Diagon Alley had helped him to stop getting overwhelmed in big crowds, but he still wasn't great at dealing with them.
"Yes, well, once we make it inside everything will clear out to where only the competitors, coaches, and families are there. Everyone else will be making their ways to the stands, or to the concessions." Flitwick said, adding the last bit with a smile.
"Do you think the Tonks made it?" Harry asked, nervously scanning the crowd for them. That was unfortunately difficult, as neither Ted nor Andy would stand out in a crowd, and while Nymphadora would, there was both no guaranteeing she would have made it, and also no guaranteeing what she would look like.
"I'm sure they wouldn't miss it for the world. Once we get you signed in we'll take the time to look for them." Flitwick said, as he escorted the young man towards the registration tables.
"Name of contestant please?" The official at the table asked.
"Potter, Harry." Flitwick stated.
"Alright, and what organization are you representing?" The official asked.
"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry" Flitwick said, a small smile on his face.
"Ah! Haven't had a competitor from there in a while. What age is the competitor?" The official asked.
"Twelve, I believe that's the junior competition?" Flitwick asked.
"Yes, although we've renamed it the Pegasus Cup." The official stated. "Eleven and Twelve is the Pegasus Cup, Thirteen and Fourteen is the Hippogriff Cup, Fifteen and Sixteen is the Manticore Cup, and Seventeen plus is the Dragon Cup."
"Oh wonderful. Always exciting to see the new divisions. Anything else you need from us?" Flitwick asked. Harry was glad Flitwick was taking the lead here, not only was Harry completely unsure of what he should be doing, he was also still feeling overwhelmed by the crowd.
"You'll head over to that building and have Mr. Potter's wand weighed, as well as his uniform examined for any illegal charms. Once that's over, you'll be given a competitors badge, it'll inform you where you need to be and when, so as long as you pay attention to it you can enjoy the festivities. Good luck!" The official at the table said, before waving them along.
Following their instructions, Harry and Flitwick arrived at the wand weighing building, where the was a small line that had formed for wand checks.
"Merlin's beard, is that you Filius?" A voice from the crowd called out. Harry and Flitwick turned in the direction of the voice, and a broad smile crossed Flitwick's face.
"Jean-Paul Delacour! I haven't seen you in many years." Professor Flitwick said, accepting the hug the very tall man was giving him. Jean-Paul was exceptionally tall for a normal man, standing just under two meters tall. His face seemed friendly, with average length grey-brown hair framing it.
"It has been quite a while hasn't it? Who's this young man here?" Jean-Paul asked, looking to Harry.
"This is my newest dueling student, Harry Potter. He's got quite the future ahead of him I think. This will be his first competition." Flitwick said, patting Harry on the back.
"Pleasure to meet you sir." Harry said, offering his hand to the taller man.
"Pleasure's all mine. Jean-Paul Delacour. My dueling instructor used to train alongside Filius. In some ways I might be Filius' first student myself." Jean-Paul said with a laugh.
"Oh yes, Baptiste and I trained together for many years. When he said he was taking a student I was simply floored. Jean-Paul here however proved to be very capable though. I was so sorry to hear he passed, and even more sorry I couldn't take the time off work to make it to his funeral." Flitwick said, a look of profound sadness crossing his face.
"Yes, it was hard, but he got his wishes. He had his ashes scattered beneath the ash tree at Beauxbatons." Jean-Paul said, a similar sadness crossing his face.
"Enough of the sad talk, we both know Baptiste would rather us be excited about the tournament coming up. Speaking of which, are you competing? I thought you retired a number of years ago?" Flitwick asked.
"I did, I'm here as a trainer. My eldest, Fleur, apparently took more after me than I realized, and has been dueling her way through the Beauxbatons dueling club faster than they can keep up with her. We were here for last year's tournament where she managed top eight in the Hippogriff Cup. She's hoping to grab first this year." Jean-Paul said, a look of pride on his face.
"Oh wonderful! I'm happy that your legacy shall live on. Where is the young lass?" Flitwick asked, looking around.
"She's walking over here now, she was just finishing up registration. I saw you and had to come by." Jean-Paul said.
"Papa, iz this ze Mr. Flitwick you have spoken about?" a young girl, presumably Fleur, asked. She was an exceptionally pretty girl, with a smooth face and long platinum blonde hair currently done in a braid that hung in front of her shoulder. Her dueling armor was also quite the spectacle to see. She wore a white sleeveless gambeson, with a leather skirt not dissimilar to a roman legionnaire. On one shoulder was a metal pauldron formed to resemble the head of an eagle. Beneath the skirt were a set of black trousers that appeared to have extra padding around the knees.
"Yes my flower, this is Filius Flitwick, and his newest protege, Harry Potter." Jean-Paul said.
"It iz a pleasure to meet you both." Fleur said, performing a small curtsey.
"Likewise Ms. Delacour." Flitwick said.
"Nice to meet you." Harry said, nervously scratching the back of his head. Meeting new people was kind of stressful.
"I take it you are competing Mr. Potter?" Fleur asked, looking to Harry.
"Yes I am, this'll be my first competition. The official said I'll be in the Pegasus Cup, so I won't have to worry about you mopping the floor with me." Harry said, causing himself and Fleur to chuckle.
"Wonderful, perhapz you will take the top zlot. I never managed it, some boy from Bulgaria managed to beat me both years. I believe I have the upper hand thiz year though." Fleur said, a confidence blazing inside of her. Had Harry not known better, he would believe that her hair was beginning to glow faintly.
"Well, I wish you luck. I know I'm going to need it. I'm sure several of my opponents will have been training for years, while I only started relatively recently." Harry said.
Flitwick seemed to be in a daze for a moment, before he shook his head. "You worry too much my boy, while perhaps they may have been training longer, I would be hard pressed to believe that many trained harder. You have given it 120% my boy, regardless of how today turns out, you should be proud of that. Beyond that, this is a learning experience for you, to gauge what competitions look like, and how to handle opponents of varying skill levels. Oh, I believe it is your turn for your wand weighing Harry, I'd hurry on."
Harry nodded and walked over to the weigh station. His wand was taken from him for a moment and placed on a small cradle. "Holly, 11 inches, Phoenix Feather. No outside enchantments registered. You may take it back." The official said, before waving his wand over Harry's person. "No Enchantments detected on your clothes… and no durability enchantment on your glasses. You'll need to either take them off during competition, or have them applied. For your own safety."
"Oh, I didn't know I could do that, is there someone here who can do that for me?" Harry asked the official.
"If your trainer can't do so, one of the officials can do it for you before matches start. I'd do it, but I need to keep this line moving. Please take this and move along." He said, handing Harry a badge that had his name and Pegasus Cup written on it.
Harry quickly stepped back to Flitwick and the Delacours. "The official said I needed to have a durability enchantment on my glasses?" Harry asked to Flitwick.
"Ah! My apologies, I forget sometimes you aren't as knowledgeable about the basics of our world. Hand them here and I will do so, it won't be permanent, but it'll last the day. Andromeda should be able to provide you with a permanent one this summer, she is quite the enchantress after all." Flitwick said, as he performed a spell on Harry's glasses. For a brief moment, they felt incredibly cold, before returning to normal.
"There, tough as stone." Flitwick said. "It's been a pleasure to see you again Jean-Paul, and a pleasure to meet you as well Ms. Delacour, but we need to attempt to find young Harry's family, he's very excited to see them after being away for some time."
"Pleasure's all mine Flitwick, good luck in the tournament today, Fleur and I will be rooting for you." Jean-Paul said.
"Yez, I believe ze expression iz… break zere legs?" Fleur said, a somewhat confused look on her face.
"It's break a leg, Fleur." Jean-Paul said, as Fleur flushed a bit.
"Thanks anyway Fleur, I'll be rooting for you too!" Harry said, as he and Flitwick headed off to find Ted and Andromeda.
Finding them turned out to be easier than expected, as they were waiting just inside the stadium. "Oh Harry!" Andromeda said, rushing forward and giving him a hug. "Oh, I've missed you. I thought I was over missing my kids so much when Nymphadora graduated, but now I've got you and I'm going through it all over again."
"Give the boy some air Andy, you're choking him out!" Ted said, pulling back on his wife a bit. Andromeda's hug had been incredibly tight, but Harry would never say it was bad. He was happy beyond words that she cared so much, she had even called him HER kid. "Good to see you again Professor." Ted said, shaking the hand of the diminutive charms master.
"Yes it is very good to see you again Mr. Tonks, I trust everything is going well at St. Mungos?" Flitwick asked.
"As well as it can, we're starting to get a bit short staffed when it comes to potioneers though. Seems whoever replaced Slughorn doesn't have the eye for talent that he did." Ted said.
"Few could match Slughorn's eye for promising students of all disciplines. He seemed to be able to just look at someone, find out what they were best at, and exactly what help they needed. Severus is an excellent potions master, Slughorn himself said that he exceeded him in raw skill, but he lacks the charisma that Slughorn had." Flitwick responded. "Did young Nymphadora make it?"
"Wouldn't miss it for the world." Nym said, appearing from the crowd. She had assumed her 'Harry's big sister' appearance, which included dark hair and green eyes. She was also wearing a blue sports jersey with bronze writing that said "Potter" across the back, with a large number one emplazened underneath. "Like it Harry? Transfigured it this morning. Saw a bunch of people wearing similar things when dad used to take me to rugby matches."
"I love it. Thanks for coming, Nym." Harry said, beaming at his sister. "Thanks for coming as well Ted and Andy. I missed you a lot over the holidays." Harry hugged Andy, a gestured she returned nearly tenfold.
"Oh we missed you so much. We were so excited for you to spend the holidays with us. We'd even gotten some sleds we were going to take to the park for when it snowed, but we'll have to save that for next year. I don't care what Dumbledore says, I'm not missing another Christmas with my new son."
Harry's heart fluttered at that. He knew that Andy and Ted cared for him, but to be openly called their son? That was something exciting.
Their reunion ended shortly thereafter though, with Harry's badge letting out a small 'ding' and displaying that he was needed at arena 3 in fifteen minutes.
"Oh, well. Do your best Harry, we know you'll do great. We'll be watching and cheering you on. I'd say listen for me, but I'll make sure I'm the loudest anyway." Andy said, squeezing Harry again before they parted and made their way to the stands.
The Pegasus Cup was the smallest group in terms of competitors, with only eight being present. At this time, few schools allowed students to participate in Dueling clubs during their first year, and few felt confident enough to attend a tournament like this without some significant training under their belt. Harry lacked the confidence himself that he could do this, but Flitwick believed he was ready, and so Harry resolved himself to try his best.
Harry was the only representative from England, and there were two competitors from Ireland. Then there was one competitor each for France, Germany, Bulgaria, Spain, and Austria.
Harry was in the first match against Thomas Wagner from Austria. The pair took their places on either side of the duling platform and bowed to each other before readying their wands.
The proctor shouted "Begin!" and a flurry of spellcasting followed.
Thomas went on the offensive with a tripping jinx which Harry rolled over, before Harry retaliated with a knockback jinx that connected with Thomas's chest. Thomas slid back a few inches, but wasn't knocked over by the spell. Regaining his composure, Thomas let loose a small gout of flame from his wand, forcing Harry to quickly counter with an Aquamenti charm to prevent himself from getting burned. Thomas then fired off a series of bright and flashy Green sparks spells, temporarily blinding Harry. More sparks followed, this time red ones, and Harry could feel the sting on his arms from the sparks. Peeking out a bit, Thomas seemed to be simply firing a barrage of the brightly colored spells, but was failing to aim them well, his wand movements to broad and boisterous. Harry took the opportunity created by this and used a summoning spell on Thomas' shoes, pulling them from under him and knocking him off balance, and Harry used that unbalance and cast a quick disarming charm, separating Thomas from his wand. With Harry's wand at his neck and no counterplay available, Thomas surrendered the match to Harry.
Harry could hear Andromeda's loud cheers in the stands, which to her credit were significantly louder than anyone else's. Harry let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. His first tournament match had resulted in his victory.
Harry watched the rest of the matches in the first round with interest, scoping out his opponents abilities, as well as trying to understand their styles. The French competitor, a young girl who was likely in her first year, was unable to handle the sheer amount of spells that her competitor, a boy Harry's age from Ireland, was throwing out, and surrendered. The other Ireland contestant, a young boy with bright red hair, was defeated by the Spanish representative, a girl roughly Harry's age who appeared to favor using fire spells. The final match of the first round was between the German and Bulgarian contestants, both boys Harry's age. The Bulgarian, Ivan Krum, was taller than Harry, nearly rivaling Terry Boot's height, and considerably more muscular than any of the other competitors. The German, Ben Weber, was average height, and seemed confident.
Ivan started off the duel aggressively, firing three spells in quick succession that Harry was aware of but hadn't learned yet, Stupefy. Ben managed to dodge out of the way of one and block the other two with a shield spell, but Ivan didn't let up. He marched forward firing another stupefy, before letting out a gout of flame from his wand. Ben was forced to keep his shield up as Ivan approached, before Ivan jammed his wand past Ben's wand tip and let out another Stupefy, which Ben was too close to dodge. Ben was knocked out, and the referee simply pulled him off the stage before enervating him. Ivan was declared the winner.
Harry could only stand in amazement at Ivan's display, while Harry believed he was capable of firing that many spells in succession himself, the sheer aggressiveness that Ivan showed was something Harry wasn't sure he could match. Flitwick hadn't given him any advice for how to handle different types of opponents, only telling him to trust his instincts. Harry surely hoped they'd be enough to see him through.
Harry was once more in the first match of the round, and this time he was up against the Irish boy who had knocked out the French girl. "Pleasure to meet you there Harry. Hope we'll have a good match." His competitor said, reaching out to shake his hand. Harry shook it, the two smiling at each other. "Now, let's show these chumps from the continent what a real wizard looks like."
Harry and the Irish boy got into position, and once the signal was given, the two began firing spells in quick succession. Harry believed that the best way to counter this boy's overwhelming spell usage was to simply stay aggressive and try to put him on the back foot. The Irish boy fired Red Sparks after Red Sparks, but Harry's dodging abilities as well as returning disarming charms kept the amount of spells being fired relatively low compared to the boy's prior match with the French girl. Unfortunately, the Irish boy seemed to have worn himself out with his dodging and intense spell usage, and Harry capitalized on it, hitting him with a knockback jinx that sent him over the edge of the platform. Harry was the winner, and the first finalist.
Ivan's duel with the Spanish girl however was not as close, he completely overwhelmed her fire based offense by using some kind of mist spell that shot from his wand like a garden hose. It doused her flames before she could get them started, and soaked her duelist armor straight through. Ivan then froze her armor, locking up her movements, before simply removing the wand from her hand. Ivan was the second finalist.
Up on the platform, Harry looked across to his opponent, trying to piece together a strategy. Ivan was bigger, and seemed to be more experienced. His spell repertoire seemed to be greater than Harry's and he was very aggressive in his duels. Harry reached out his hand for a handshake. "Hope we have a good match. You've been pretty impressive so far."
"I know I heff. I simply hope you are more of a challenge than the previous two." Ivan said, ignoring Harry's handshake. The two made their way to their ends of the platform and bowed, before readying their wands.
Once the official started the match, Harry was immediately put on the defensive. Ivan was throwing stunning spell after stunning spell at him, and it was all Harry could do to simply dodge them. Harry did notice something different about Ivan's strategy this time, he wasn't approaching Harry. Harry began to dodge toward Ivan, weaving in between the stunners as they fired and let out a Green Sparks spell, overpowering it slightly to create a bright flash. On cue, Ivan closed his eyes, and Harry attempted to summon his shoe, hoping to knock him off balance to end this, Ivan simply stomped his foot and wheeled around.
"Your silly tricks will not work on me." He said, before shooting a gout of flame from his wand, forcing distance between himself and Harry.
Harry fired more sets of sparks, both red and green to keep some amount of offensive pressure up, but seemed as though he wasn't able to stop Ivan's assault. Harry came up with one last play. Harry shot forth an overpowered Red sparks, once more causing Ivan to close his eyes as Harry pulled off his shoe. Harry then lined up his target and banished his shoe straight into Ivans face. The other boy barely had a chance to react as the boot launched itself into his face, and he managed to fire off a stunner in Harry's direction. Harry, now with legs of two different lengths, was unable to dodge the stunner in time, and was knocked out. Ivan, having taken a shoe to the face, was sore but still conscious and was declared the winner.
Harry was innervated a few moments later, coming to and looking around, seeing Flitwick, Andy, Ted, and Nymphadora around him. "Sorry I lost guys." Harry said, looking down.
"My boy you did excellent! That maneuver with your shoe was brilliant, perhaps your gambit didn't work, but you did remarkably. Your opponent, Ivan, is the son of a great dueling prodigy, and his older brother Victor was a regular in the junior divisions before he started playing Quidditch. Ivan was simply more experienced, especially in a tournament setting. You performed far better than I ever could have imagined for your first time. Take this and learn from it, then next year you can show everyone how far you've come." Flitwick said. "Now, you're needed at the stage to receive your trophy. Once that's over, you can spend some time with your family before I must escort you back to Hogwarts."
The Trophy ceremony was very short, with Ivan receiving a Gold trophy for his first place finish, Harry receiving a silver one for his second, and the Irish boy and Spanish girl receiving bronze medals for their third place finish. From there, Harry and the Tonks went to a restaurant just down the street from the arena, and had a celebratory dinner, which Flitwick was invited to join them, but said that he was unable to, needing to speak with some of the organizers about next year's events.
Ted got out a camera and set it up on the table after their meal, having Harry hold up his trophy with his new family around him. They got the picture, and Ted said he was going to get it framed and put up on the wall in the living room. Their first full picture as a family. Harry teared up a little at that, and looked to Ted and Andy.
"Thanks Mom, Dad. I hope it's okay to call you that." Harry said, as Ted and Andy quickly wrapped him up in a hug.
"Of course of course. We're your mom and dad as long as you want us to be. Oh, I wish James and Lily were here, I know they'd be SO proud of you."
Harry simply smiled, and embraced the warmth his family was giving him.
There may be a basilisk at school waiting for him, but as of right now, Harry felt invincible.