"Well, you missed the scoring. After you were sent up to the Hospital Wing, the judges forced Dumbledore to sit down with them and discuss the task. Cedric won the task with 47 points, despite the fact he was outside the time limit.
"Although he wasn't too happy with that. He actually got pretty angry, said he deserved a lot less. He seemed to think that if you hadn't stayed with Fleur, you'd have beaten him. Karkaroff agreed and tried to lower his score but wasn't allowed." Daphne informed him as she helped him to his workshop.
While Pomfrey had let him leave the Hospital Wing, he was banned from using any magic for a week and had to keep his left hand in a sling. Personally, Harry found it quite fortunate how the only serious damage from his wounds was on his already irreparable arm.
His blood vessels had been fixed, but needed to be unstrained to heal properly. The result was his fingertips going from their previous pale grey to a darker red. After he had ensured nothing bad would happen, he had simply slipped on his mutio watch and applied its disguise.
Because the disguise was a mix of glamour and transfiguration, his arm did become less damaged, but only for as long as he wore the watch. For the tasks, he had to make do with a simple glamour.
The only downside was that it did also lock him out of his full body disguise, seeing as the watch would need to be manually reprogrammed. Before the Goblet of Fire, Harry could've swapped between the two near seamlessly, but not with the Goblet's Contract hanging over his head.
"Krum got second, with 40 points. The judges weren't too fond of how he used an incomplete self transfiguration, but got points because it was incredibly advanced regardless. I suspect he's on his way to learning how to be an animagus, since being able to self transfigure is meant to be a huge help." Daphne continued.
"Makes sense… How's your own self transfiguration going?" Harry asked slyly, giving her a knowing look.
"I can turn my feet into some different animals, but I don't want to try changing anything else without somebody I trust there to undo it. Then somebody got himself locked into a death Tournament."
"Yeah yeah, I'm not exactly thrilled either. So, how did me and Fleur do?"
"Well, the judges didn't like the fact she didn't save her hostage, got help for you and only used a plant to go underwater. Apparently, according to that Weasley judge, they were looking for 'Creative and imaginative uses of magic to overcome the environmental hazard set forth by the esteemed judges.'
"According to them, Fleur's gillyweed only proved 'that she could devise a workable strategy to overcome a foretold obstacle.' Funnily enough, they didn't say the same about your runes, but they definitely knew how long you've been preparing them."
"Sounds about right, there does seem to be a certain amount of bias. Of course, I suppose it could've been because my runes could've been modified for different scenarios, while gillyweed is only for underwater?" Harry proposed.
"I guess, anyway Fleur only got a 21, which means she's scored the worst in both tasks now. But, funnily enough you gained the points she lost by helping her, Madam Maxime thought it showed good moral fibre.
"She also protested quite loudly when Weasley recommended you lose points for taking an additional hostage. Maxime looked like she was going to get violent, until Dumbledore told Weasley that they couldn't blame you for saving somebody."
"We weren't even told we couldn't take additional hostages though?" Harry asked, confused.
"They did take that into consideration. Apparently the mermen were meant to tell you… but obviously that didn't happen." Daphne admitted awkwardly.
"Could you see what happened under the lake, then?"
"Not really. Bagman seemed to be able to see, since he was commentating, but we only saw the water for an hour. At the end, Dumbledore was talking with the mermen, so I assume they were telling him what happened… Up until Professor Moody accused it of lying. It turns out his eye could see you all through the lake."
"That does make sense, my magesight could see pretty deep in the Caribbean, but at that depth I was only able to see the magic. Still, that's quite an impressive amount of magic, he must be powering that himself, no way that eye is strong enough alone."
"Does it take a lot of power to use magesight then? I've never heard anyone other than you talk about it, but it seems like the type of thing that would be draining?"
"It doesn't take as much power as you may be imagining, Greengrass." Moody's voice growled from behind them, suddenly appearing from down the corridor.
With a surprised gasp, Daphne took a step to the side, instinctively hiding behind Harry. As Moody marched up to them, Harry spared Daphne a questioning look, who only blushed in response.
"Just like true magesight, my enchanted eye allows me to project my magic and converts it into an optical representation. As such, it is not a spell like you are imagining. There is no power needed, because there is no spell to maintain.
"It is true that whilst I am using my eye, my magic is being used, magic I cannot use elsewhere. However, that is only for as long as I am using my eye. The moment I stopped Looking, my magic rushes back to me like that!" Moody clicked violently, startling them both.
"Trust me, I've had to take this eye apart a few times now, it is not a weakness I'd let anyone make use of! Now, we aren't here to talk about me, you two, into this classroom, we need to talk.
"Now, Potter, I should first warn you that the ministry has been told that you were able to use basic healing magic to keep Lovegood alive. Unless you want a closer look at the inner workings of Azkaban, you will be sticking to that story. On that note, she's going to be spending some time in Saint Mungos', we'll arrange a date for you to visit."
Nodding, Harry let out a sigh of relief. A ministry investigation would make it very hard to hide how he saved Luna, which would result in the ministry trying to steal his gauntlet. No doubt that was one of the reasons why Nicholas had taken it with him to France.
"With that said, you did good work lad, both in the lake and out. You've got another three months to go until the final task, so you have time to recover. However, in March there will be a duelling circuit, of which I have the privilege of choosing the Hogwarts contestants.
"From our lessons I know you are both quite accomplished within a duel, so if you want a spot, you can have it. But, you will be going against the best all three schools have to offer, in front of anyone who wants to watch. You have a week to submit your names."
"Well, that was interesting." Harry muttered when they left, once again heading for his workshop.
"One word for it. Do you think I should apply?" Daphne asked.
"I think you'd find it fun, it would be a rare opportunity to test your skills against those outside Hogwarts. But… don't put your faith in winning, you know?"
"Gee, thanks for the confidence boost." Daphne replied jokingly.
"You're welcome. No, I mean you shouldn't see it as winning or losing, even if you do have a decent chance of winning. Depending on how the matchups go, you could beat them all. But, if you fail, then you'd still have learned where you are at, you'd still have been able to see how others overcame you."
"Deep and insightful, but I guess you aren't wrong… I assume you're going to be trying to win then?"
"Oh but of course. After how much I keep being hyped up, can you imagine my embarrassment if I don't win? Speaking of, you never did tell me what my score was."
Rolling her eyes, Daphne looked at Harry fondly as she said "You got a 34, Karkaroff almost got himself lynched when he gave you a four. The whole 'Murderous rampage' you did on top of the lake is were you lost the most points, since they felt at that point you could've escaped."
"Yeah, well they didn't have a friend bleeding to death next to them, did they?"
"No, they didn't." Daphne agreed softly, "But you did save her. Besides, you're in joint second place with Krum, with Cedric only 5 points in front, that's not bad. Depending how the third task goes, you could beat them all."
Turning a corner, they ran into Fleur Delacour, who looked at him in relief. "'Arry! I 'ad been 'oping to talk with you?" She asked pleadingly, trying to avoid Daphne's irritated expression.
"Actually, we were on our way somewhere." Daphne announced, trying to lead Harry away, only to jerk back when he didn't move.
"Daphne, I want to hear what she wants." Harry chastised her quietly, receiving a small huff and nod. "Hey Fleur, I assume you don't want to talk here in the corridor? You might as well follow us to my workshop, we can talk there."
The resulting journey was incredibly awkward, with two silent blondes either side of him. To his relief, Fleur accepted both the intangible painting and secret door, but stopped dead upon entering the room.
"Mon dieu, 'Arry, this room is unbelievable!" Fleur exclaimed, basking as the dense magic brushed through her.
"It's just a room." Daphne frowned, settling into the sofa.
"Non, this is more than just a room! This is alive! My magic is singing so much, I feel like I could explode!"
"Are you okay, Fleur?" Harry asked in concern, not wanting to see her combust.
"Oui. Pardon, I didn't expect so much magic. I feel like I can transform at will, without needing to get angry first. To a Veela, this room is like a miracle."
"I'm glad you like it? So, what did you want to talk about?"
"Ah, I wanted to thank you for helping me in the second task and for saving my sister when I could not. I know I did talk to you much after I lost the first task, which I now see was a mistake. I let my pride at being beaten get in the way of a friendship, which was wrong.
"I hope you can forgive me, I don't care about winning this tournament anymore, I just want it to be over already. My sister could've died, your friend almost did die, but neither of them asked to be a part of this game. I don't want anyone else to be endangered again."
"Don't worry Fleur, I'm going to make sure nobody else could die in this tournament. I never wanted to be here in the first place, and now four more people were put in danger."
"Oui. Well, I'll try and see you around. I want to spend some time with my family before they return to France." Fleur announced, giving the room one final longing look as she let the door swing shut.
"Good, just us then. I swear, if anyone else interrupts, I'm going to curse them so bad." Daphne grumbled, trying to pull Harry down beside her. Laughing, Harry let himself fall into her embrace.
"When you took so long underwater, I kept thinking our runes had failed. I was so scared." Daphne murmured, burying her head into his shoulder.
"No, the runes worked perfectly. It will take more than that to finish me off."
'Dear Sirius,
First off, while I didn't die in the second task, my friend Luna almost did, even though I was able to save her. She's now stuck in Saint Mungos until she gets better mentally and the Healers are sure she is fine.
And I hate it. I hate that I was forced into this tournament, I hate that Luna was dragged into it because she was my friend, I hate how she almost died because of it!
If I had been too late, or if I hadn't been strong enough to hold onto her, then she'd be gone. All because the judges thought we needed hostages!
I even shouted at Dumbledore after I woke up, told him it was his fault Luna almost died. I know I should take it back, that I should apologise, but I just feel so angry, I can't bring myself to do it. How can I try and forgive him, when I know he must've been involved in picking my hostage?
Luna doesn't want me to hurt people on her behalf, but she's been so… cold since she awoke. She's always been airy and free spirited, but now she just sits and stares into the distance, detached.
Obviously I want to help her, but I don't know how, so all that does is make me angrier, because she's hurt and I don't know how to fix it. Things will never be the same again, that much I do know.
Please give me some advice,
Love, Harry.'
Daphne barely paid attention as her spells splashed harmlessly into Harry's nearly invisible shield, already beginning a new volley. You'd have thought that after almost a whole year of duelling him, she'd be closer to beating him.
The truth was, while they now worked much better as a team, Harry managed to stay several steps ahead. As displayed by the boulder Draco threw at Harry being cut in half with a spectral sword, halves which Harry then wordlessly shattered and sent the debris back towards them.
With a muttered curse, she had to drop her spell chain and summon her pearly green ne motus shield, which shrugged off the debris easily. What it didn't block was Harry's modified paralysis beam spell, which she had to spin away from as it phased straight through her shield.
Seeing her dodge his attack, Harry whipped his wand to the side, causing the beam to arc back to her. With the arena's shield to her side, she was forced to cartwheel over the beam, knowing better than to shield.
Unless Harry went full force, her shield could withstand a few of his spells, so long as they weren't a continuous unbroken stream of magic… exactly like his paralysis curse. Under that type of curse, she'd be bogged down until her shield broke, a trap she had fallen for too many times to repeat.
Trying to take advantage of Harry's focus on Daphne, Vincent sent a trio of incredibly powerful blasting curses down the range, spells strong enough to make the air around them steam. In reply, Harry wandlessly directed all three into the ground beside him, then immediately summoned his own shield.
Unlike her own ne motus shield, his was made up of several distinct runes, although she didn't recognise the language. What was obvious was how strong the shield was, seeing as it didn't even flicker under Vincent's attack. Even as she ducked under a new direction of the beam, she tried to figure out his newest spell.
From her angle, it looked like the shield maintained contact with him, compared to a conventional shield which hovered in front of the caster. Similarly, she didn't miss how he hadn't used the shield to take the blasting curses directly, suggesting a weakness to magical attack.
Not that the knowledge was doing her any favours, being occupied with Harry's still ongoing spell. From experience she knew he could hold it almost indefinitely, explaining why it was one of his new favourites, which meant she couldn't outlast it.
Against anyone else she'd tap into her ice magic, send something high powered at him and force him to drop the beam. Against Harry, such an attack would be a waste of time, given he had ritualistically started their duels by drawing a fire-based protectional rune.
Growling, she stamped her foot as she landed from another spin, creating a large block of ice beside her. She then quickly transfigured it into a rough looking wolf, which she directed towards Harry. Unfortunately, Harry merely flicked his wand downwards temporarily, causing the beam to glance off the wolf and freeze it in its place.
With a quick swish and flick, she raised her paralysed wolf into the air and used her to block Harry's beam, with some success. Draco's engorgio charm helped increase the size of her wolf, further obstructing the beam. Finally, Crabbe's brute force banishing charm rocketed the wolf's body towards Harry.
As Daphne expected, Harry raised his off hand to completely stop the wolf, spin it around and threw it back to them. During which her yellow mollesco hex spiralled right over the wolf and struck Harry's outstretched hand.
Grinning at Harry's audible swear, she began her next attack. She knew from prior experience that her hex wouldn't stop Harry for long, even when it was focused entirely on his already weakened left arm. What it would do is force him to drop his paralysis beam, freeing up his wand to defend against her and Draco's follow up attack.
Due to Harry's breath-taking magical power, it was incredibly hard to affect him even when struck with a direct hit. Only Vincent had a similar resistance, but that boy's slower speed reduced that advantage. It didn't help that ever since the second task, Harry's magic seemed different.
It was significantly harder to both strike Harry and get the magic to stick. Which was precisely why she and Draco were firing everything they had at Harry before her numbing hex wore off.
Annoyingly Harry was still able to block both Daphne's transfigurations and Draco's curses, whilst sending a few retaliatory attacks back at them. To her relief, Vincent recovered sooner than she expected, adding his own spells into the mix.
They had discovered that the three of them were a good team. She and Draco were able to quickly adapt to each other's plans, while Vincent was already used to just following Draco's lead.
Daphne would then focus on transfiguration attacks, using her ice as a cheap starting material, while Draco used his knowledge of curses. The Malfoys had long been renowned for their spell crafting and hoarding, with each generation trying to add more spells to their fabled grimoire.
Which left Vincent in the role of raw power, complementing their attacks whenever he could. As such, the three of them combined were fairly close to being Harry's equal, making it all the more aquivating when they kept losing.
The fact it was now three against one instead of six against one was strangely not much of a help either.
With the three of them working together, they were able to push Harry back a fair bit. That was until his left hand rose to catch the trident she had thrown, a left hand that was no longer numbed.
From there he steadily destroyed them. He used her trident to block Draco's latest spell, then in the same movement threw it at Vincent. Daphne transfigured the weapon into a much smaller fork, which bounced off Vincent's chest harmlessly.
Not that it did him much good, when a stunner raced out of nowhere and struck Vincent right between the eyes. Dazed, the boy didn't move when Harry's petrificus and banishing charms struck in quick succession.
Thrusting his hand outwards, Harry took control of the air between them, making the area hum with power. With a slash of his wrist, the giant wall of air crashed first into her shields, then into Draco's, causing visible cracks to appear within both.
Sensing Draco's shield was weaker, Harry began repeatedly slamming the air into the shield. Trying her best to help her remaining teammate, she formed the largest ball of ice she could, then swiftly transfigured it into a slightly smaller iron ball and launched it at Harry.
To her dismay, the ball got side-tracked and orbited around Harry, before carrying on straight through Draco's shield and into the boy's stomach. Bending over in pain, Draco could do nothing when the wall of air returned to sweep him out the arena.
Now it was just the two of them, Harry began to redo the complex wand movements needed to initiate his paralysis beam. Trying desperately to stop him, Daphne threw a mix of spells and transfiguration, all of which were either dodged or blocked wandlessly.
As he finished, off white magic started spurting from his wand, which slowly increased in frequency until the full beam materialised. From there, he started whipping his wand from side to side, forcing her through several gymnastic feats in order to survive.
After a quite dramatic backflip, she tried to leap backwards onto to crash spectacularly against a wall of air that hadn't been there a moment ago. Even as the beam whipped back towards her, the wall behind her started toppling over, pressing her into the ground.
Knees bent, with the wall pushing down on her back, she could only watch as the beam washed over her, leaving her completely frozen in place. Desperately she threw her magic against the spell, which achieved absolutely nothing.
To add insult to injury, for some reason Ron hadn't called an end to the match and Harry's wall was still pressing down on her back. Walking through the wall like it wasn't there, Harry crouched in front of her and made deliberate eye contact.
"Yield?"
"Yes yes, I yield." She thought back huffily.
Grinning, he laid a hand upon her back gently, pulling his magic from her. With a rush, her body unfroze, unceremoniously dumping her onto the ground as the wall pushed onto her. Another swirl of his hand dissolved the wall, letting her breathe easier and stand up.
Turning, she tried to glare at Ron, which was completely missed seeing as Ron was frozen in his seat. As Harry went over to free Ron, he gave his insightful comments.
"Well, a few things to learn from that. First, I need to increase the power of the arena's wards, my spell shouldn't have penetrated it. Secondly, we need to work on Ron's reaction times, Moody would have your head. Thirdly, find some way for you guys to block continuous magic."
While I feel it is rushed, I'm going to say the next chapter will be the duelling tournament Moody mentioned in the last chapter. But rest assured, I will also be focusing quite heavily on Luna's recovery and personality.
Things I think need explaining:
- 2nd task scores: Krum and Cedric both got their canon scores of 40 & 47 respectively, which I don't entirely understand given they were outside the time limit. Fleur got 21 and Harry got 34. If Harry hadn't killed a bunch of mermen, then Maxime and Percy would've scored him higher. The totals are therefore; Cedric: 85, Krum & Harry: 80, Fleur: 57.
- Harry and Daphne's relationship: Currently, I'm deliberately leaving it slightly vague, mainly because I'm not sure how I want to run it. However, to me I see it as Daphne thinks they are dating, while Harry is fairly oblivious.
If you see it differently, then that's totally fine. That is the beauty of leaving it vague. But ultimately, whichever way I take their relationship, it won't be a central element to this particular story. Of course, at the end of the day all that needs to be said is that the two have started caring for each other, platonically or romantically.
- Harry's Paralysis beam: Because this chapter is from Daphne's perspective, she doesn't know how he modified it. However, he took what he learned from the basilisk and used it for his version, meaning it takes a lot of power to break free. It is of course significantly weaker than a reflected gaze, but it's certainly enough to completely remove someone from a duel.