Even from her aloft position at the very top of one of the spectator towers, Daphne was almost deafened by the crowd's roars as Harry and Krum stepped up to face each other, putting their previous roars to shame.
The two had been forced to wait while the professors fixed the arena. Despite all the damage it had already obtained, it had taken Cedric driving a meteor into the ground to convince the judges a reset was required.
The obvious byproduct was that they both had enough time to fully recover, or at least Krum did. It wouldn't surprise her if Harry had been ready to go before quarterfinals had even finished.
Bowing deeply, both boys took a moment to look in the other's eyes before launching into their attacks. In one fluid motion Krum flicked his wand upwards, sending a wave of earth towards Harry, then moving fluidly down into a chain of the bombarda charm.
To finish it off, Krum raised a significant sum of rocks from the ground, transfigured them into metal blades, which then rode the earth wave towards Harry. Immediately afterwards he was forced to transfigure a larger box over him, summoning a magical shield just before he vanished behind metal.
In that time, Harry had almost purposefully wafted his wand through the air, leaving a trail of light grey balls with a black core hanging in the air. After reversing his journey and leaving another line of the balls, Harry had created 15 of the strange objects.
With a small push with his hand, all of the orbs leisurely floated over to Krum, while Harry focused on defending. A vertical slice down cut Krum's earth wave in half, making it split around Harry. The exploding charms were then redirected into the weapons.
It was about that time Harry's spell reached Krum, settled gently into the ground around his metal box. There was the briefest moment of calm, before that entire side of the arena erupted into explosions, shocking Daphne immensely.
"Ah, the spore bomb charm, I haven't seen that for a few decades." A voice announced from behind her, startling her for a second time. Spinning around, she was shocked to see the Headmaster at the top of the stairs, having entered the otherwise empty area an unknown time ago.
"Headmaster, I'm sorry, I didn't know you'd be up here." Daphne said nervously, wondering if she was about to be kicked out.
"Nor would I expect you to have known, given I came up here to talk with you. May I have a seat?" He replied pleasantly, smiling easily.
"Oh, of course, take it. I'm surprised you'd seek me out though, I'm not in trouble am I?"
"No trouble, I merely wanted a chat. Besides, I find the view up here excellent, a great way to watch the views, assuming you don't mind the climb."
On the field, Krum had pushed away his blackened metal protection and was doing his best to balance the number of craters on Harry's side. When that failed, he used the purple Facea Volare wave, ripping a line down the pitch in its intensity.
Barely blinking, Harry let the wave hit him face on, completely unaffected. In reply, Harry wandlessly picked up a large ball of earth, letting it levitate beside him. With a simple swipe of his wand, he increased the heat till the earth turned molten, then threw the lava at Krum.
Even as Krum rolled away from the attack, he fired over a dozen curses towards Harry, most dark. Each was blocked by the rocks Harry rose in an orbit around him, each the size of his head.
"Amazing, is it not, to see how far a student can go?" Dumbledore commented, pride evident in his voice.
"Harry's always been like this, casually doing fantastical feats of magic."
"Perhaps, and yet I remember the boy who first stepped into this castle. Fantastic though they may be, to great wizards magic is simply easier. It takes a rare wizard to challenge them as equals, especially when they have the power, drive and opportunity to cultivate their skill."
"Great wizards like you?"
"Some might say so, but I never considered myself as great. You see, unlike Harry I lacked the drive to improve, at least until I was already into adulthood. The truth is, while I spent time working towards my ambitions, Harry was doing magic.
"I learned the theory enough to impress my teachers, I mastered spells easily, but I never looked beyond. I was in NEWT year before I realised I loved magic itself, loved learning new spells.
"To be truly great, you must have the drive to actively learn their craft. Then they need the opportunity to get the resources and teaching to grow, but then they also need the power to practise their craft. You'd be surprised how few meet that criteria."
"Surely lots of people going through Hogwarts have had the same chance?" Daphne questioned in disbelief.
"Certainly, they have the chance, but few take it. Harry entered this school with an abundance of power and a thirst for knowledge, all he needed was the opportunity to learn, which he whole-heartedly took. That is why, as the rumours correctly guess, I show him a certain amount of favouritism.
"I saw something greater than myself in Harry, something that I had the power to help grow. Of course, with that grew familiarity and fondness. But then I failed him." The headmaster finished miserably, right as a sea of bright blue fire consumed Krum's side of the arena.
The Durmstrang student avoided it by pulling a column of rock out of the ground below him, letting the fire flow beneath him. Reaching out, Krum conducted the fire into the shape of several boars, which rushed back at Harry.
"I spent too long being told how great Harry was, that I fell for his myth. I didn't take the time I needed to safeguard the hostages, because I foolishly believed Harry would've been enough to keep them safe."
"I'm sorry, are you blaming Harry for what happened?" Daphne demanded.
"No, no, you misunderstand. With Barty unavailable, it was my responsibility to talk with the Selkies and ensure the hostages were always safe, it never should've fallen to Harry. It didn't matter if Harry was strong enough, because I had taken a vow to protect them, not Harry.
"It seems I am cursed to forget how young Harry truly is, I keep falling for how mature Harry acts. So, when my plans backfire, it is Harry that ends up hurt. In that mind, I cannot in good conscience go to Harry and ask for forgiveness, not when I have yet to forgive myself.
"But, I can at least impact on you the weight of my mistake, so that someone he trusts knows my shame. And that he knows I'm working on making the rest of this infernal tournament safer. I've sent out parties to look for Barty, to find out why he's not here."
"I'm sure Harry will be pleased to hear that… I think he wants to forgive you, but he's angry."
On the field, Krum sent a storm of small boulders towards Harry, even as he burned the plants Harry had charmed to attack him. On his side, Harry just waved his wand and the boulders sequentially exploded, creating a significant amount of stone dust that joined the orbit around him.
The dust spun around him fast enough to hide him from Krum's view, allowing him to perform a fairly complex manoeuvre that sent a jagged bright pink bolt rocketing towards Krum. Eyes widening in surprise, Krum dived to the side, letting the bolt fly into his last position.
Immediately, a shadowy sphere exploded outwards, reaching about six feet radius, before snapping back into nothingness. At first, nothing seemed different, until the ground disintegrated, breaking into miniscule pieces.
Daphne didn't want to think about what would've happened if Krum's foot had been within range, given how close it had gotten. Already the circle of ground had collapsed in on itself, adding yet another crater to the field.
From his position on the ground, Krum snapped off a dark blue spell, which zigzagged towards Harry. Instead of reacting, Harry continued his incantation, seamlessly blocking the jinx wandlessly mid-way through his movement.
With a final jab, an off white spurt of magic shot out towards Krum, followed by another and another. With each spurt, the frequency between attacks increased, until it became a continuous beam.
Where Daphne consistently struggled against Harry's paralysis curse, Krum spent a moment trying to dodge, then stood his ground. Thrusting his wand into the ground, drawing a pure silver barrier out of the ground.
The beam seemed almost attracted to the shield, where it rebounded back at Harry. With a flick, he cancelled his spell while simultaneously raising one of the remaining bouder to absorb the beam.
In a sudden move, a bolt of lilac red lighting snuck under Harry's boulder and into his leg, making him hiss in pain. Despite the bolt electrocuting his leg, Harry kept his stance, waiting until the entirety of his paralysis was stopped before wrestling the lightning away.
A quick tap on his leg seemed to heal most of the damage, just leaving behind a lightly smouldering mark, clearly visible through the hole in his robes. A second bolt flew towards him, brandished like a whip.
Lifting his arm into the way, Harry instantly transfigured his robe sleeve into bark, nullifying the electricity. Frowning in concentration, Harry raised his wand up to the storm clouds above, visibly irritating the clouds above. Within seconds, flashes of lightning began to appear in the sky.
For once looking quite fearful, Krum tried to finish Harry off, only for his spells to vanish into Harry's shield. Not that he had long to attack, when a brilliant bolt of lightning shot down towards Harry, only to curve away from his wand.
The bolt seemed to almost run down the outside of Harry's arm, then all the way to the other and straight out from his fingers, straight at Krum. In a shockingly quick move, Krum had transfigured a copper spike into the ground in front of him, directly in front of the bolt.
To everyone's surprise, the lightning unnaturally circled around the spike, before striking Krum straight in the thigh. If she had to guess, Daphne would say Krum got hit in the exact same spot Harry had, except the Durmstrang opponent didn't fare as well.
For the brief time the bolt was channelled through him, Krum remained perfectly ridgid, until the tail of the lightning dissipated and he collapsed to the ground. As if that was a cue, a deafening thunderclap followed.
The sight of Harry standing tall against the defeated Krum, wand still raised, the faint echoes of lightning fading behind him struck an imposing figure. In that moment, to Daphne, he seemed to glow with power.
"What was that?" She gasped.
"That, my dear, is two very competitive wizards trying to out show each other." Dumbledore explained, chuckling "That is also an example about the importance of knowing where you stand in relation to another's abilities. Mr. Krum tried to use his minor lightning affinity to best Harry, only to find out the hard way that his opponent was more competent than himself."
"But, that was a proper lightning bolt, how could Harry channel that much power?"
"Ah, but that wasn't a proper bolt. Without Harry's interference, that bolt would never have left the cloud belt, it was only his drawing of the element that allowed a surprise appearance. Then you have the fact Harry wasn't channelling all of that energy, instead he was simply providing the bolt the path of least resistance, in this case into Mr. Krum.
"Lightning redirection is a tricky thing to learn, but when mastered it is perhaps the easiest of lightning manipulation. One must merely lay down a line of magic, with the intent to transfer the electricity without resistance, mother nature will handle the rest."
It was midday before Fleur and Cedric were able to begin, a fact which doubtlessly annoyed Harry. With them having entered the semi-finals, Harry wasn't allowed to watch their duel, the same way those two hadn't been able to watch his.
Taking a leaf out of Daphne's book, Cedric almost immediately began transfiguring the arena into water, managing far more than she had. Spreading too quickly to react, the floor turned into a pool no more than two feet deep.
Her fall into the water had the unintended bonus of interrupting her warding, leaving a comedic trail of fire as she fell. If it were Daphne, she'd have reached out and frozen the water, maybe throwing a few curses that way. But then again, she didn't have the strength to make that much water in one go.
Instead, Cedric took a moment to cast a flame-freezing charm on himself, before waving his hand with seemingly no effect.
"Ah, a space rendering transfiguration, you don't see that nowadays. Ambitious, but certainly useful here. In effect, he's made it so no fire may cross the boundary around him, for a price." Dumbledore explained, leaning forward excitedly.
Spitting water out, Fleur glared at Cedric, then jumped out of the water and fired a multitude of spells at him. Despite how weak the spells were, she was able to fire them with incredible speed, making their combined might a problem.
That was as far as she got however, before an animated stone tentacle reached out of the water and pulled her back in. To Daphne's surprise, Cedric didn't dodge the spells, favouring a shield against them all. As strong as he was, she felt like that was a huge waste of power.
"And thus we see the cost of a spacial rend. While it will isolate him from both flame and smoke, he is likewise stuck within his barrier. Depending on how much power he spent, it's unlikely he can move more than a foot to either side."
Enraged, Fleur burst out of the water again, steam hissing off her. Aggressively throwing her hands outwards, a wave of pure white fire spiralled out of her, boiling the water as it went. In response, Cedric pressed his palm against the ground and started lowering the ground around her.
It certainly wasn't as fast as his transfiguration had been, but it had the benefit of being focused. If she didn't act fast, she'd disappear within the hole he was digging around her, dropping her below the water.
Daphne didn't even see Fleur move, but her spell nevertheless struck the ground at her feet, temporarily halting the descent for all of a second. Definitely frowning now, she stopped her fire and tried to climb out of the pit, only for the edge of the pit to turn to mud and collapse under her weight.
By then, the water started to reclaim land, pouring over the lip. A new chain of spells at Cedric forced him to release his control over the earth, reinforcing his shield. During that time, Fleur covered her entire body in fire and tried to crawl out again, using her palm to cook the mud before climbing it.
Victoriously leaving the hole, she unleashed a jet of pure fire at Cedric, a jet easily 6 feet in diameter which swallowed him whole. It was only due to their elevated position that they were able to see him, seemingly unaffected by the attack as the flames unexpectedly bent around him.
Under this cover, Cedric crouched again and contacted the earth. This was almost immediately followed by the flames shutting off, as a pillar of rock broke through the earth and smashed into Fleur. Toppling backwards, Fleur took her third fall into the water, sending up a plume of steam.
Before she could pull herself free, the earth rose up and covered the hole, entombing her within earth and water.
Compared to Harry and Krum's fast paced duel, Cedric was taking it slow, but he was undeniably doing better than Daphne had. Which was incredibly frustrating, especially when he was throwing around a not insignificant amount of magic.
Then you had Fleur, who's cutting charms tore through the earth and faded into the sky, before a large chunk of the ground was thrown upwards by a levitation spell.
Before the audience could even see her, Fleur transfigured the dirt and rocks around the hole into wood, which then rose up to block the water. A few burning logs even flew out of the hole and towards Cedric.
As the logs passed through Cedric's spacial rend, the fire extinguished while the outer layer of bark was shredded. But enough of the wood passed through without issue, which Cedric swiftly vanished.
He was then startled by a piercing spell going through his thigh, barely shielding the incendio charm. Standing on a raised wooden platform, Fleur now stood tall, feathers visibly dotting her skin and heat radiating off her.
A burning ring of fire orbited around her, once again boiling the water. Fuelled by her anger, spells began flying at Cedric, with a fair few making it past his defences. Slowly cuts, wounds and minor effects started to spread over him, even as he systematically blocked the worst of it.
That wasn't to say he wasn't returning fire. Earthen attacks regularly rose from the ground around her, which were either blown up or untransfigured. Finally, a wall of earth rose and blocked her view of Cedric.
She quickly began blasting it apart, but with them both confined to static locations, it was a clever move. The wall was barely four feet wide, yet it was incredibly thick.
Making the most of his time, Cedric began a familiar invocation, involving elaborately waving his wand from side to side, as if conducting an orchestra. With a final sweep, his wand tip lightly tapped his chest, before then jamming it into the earth.
Nothing seemed to happen at first, before a crude stone head rose from within the earth wall. The head was perhaps twice the size of a human head, shaped from a dirty boulder.
With a great heave, two large arms were pulled free, finally drawing Fleur's attention. Instantly changing targets, everyone was shocked as her spells caused minimal damage to the golem.
Compared to his last golem, this one was clearly both bigger and stronger. Even before its legs broke free of the earth, it towered over Fleur, seemingly immune to her magic.
As it slowly got to it's feet, water began to stream down its body, released from the hollows they had hidden in. With the water, loose bits of dirt and rock were pulled away, revealing a pure granite body.
"Most impressive! I think me and Minerva will need to test Mr. Diggory next year, it's rare to see such transfiguration talent. I was impressed with his previous dirt golem, but to follow it up with a granite golem… That takes some skill.
"Using a material like granite against Ms. Delacour also shows a great degree of wisdom. Not only does granite present a reasonable resistance to magic, it has a similar heat resistance. She will struggle to counter it with her normal means, especially while the golem remains in contact with the ground."
To match his words, the golem lumbered through Fleur's jet of fire, seemingly unaffected even as what water had remained steamed away. Even when she raised a wooden barrier in front of it the golem didn't even stop, its foot crashing through effortlessly, sending shrapnel back at her.
Seeing that nothing was working, she was forced to jump down into the water, avoiding the thing's fist. Despite how flushed he had grown, Cedric seemed capable of manipulating the ground again, causing Fleur to visibly struggle to walk.
Every so often, she'd need to stop and burn the ground under her, costing precious seconds. With the golem lumbering after her, Fleur came to a stop under a ray of sunshine, which had broken through the dying clouds above.
Reaching upwards with her wand, holding it tangentially to the sunlight. In a fluid motion, Fleur then pulled the wand tip towards her chest, before slipping the wand out of the ray and back upwards. She repeated this several times, with noticeable effect.
With each repetition, the area around her grew brighter and more defined. Soon, even the water started to generate faint fog, as the tip of Fleur's wand seemed to have rays of sunlight stuck to it.
Drawing a slow circle around her with the wand tip, leaving rays of sunshine floating parallel to the ground, Fleur then pointed her wand at the approaching golem.
Instantly, the circle around her seemed to suck in the light, leaving the ground at her feet in an unnatural shadow. Despite this, Fleur's hair seemed to glow brilliantly, glowing with some inner light. Not that it was easy to focus on her hair, not when her wand seemed to connect with the ring via a faint beam.
There was no noise to signal the event, yet in a moment a beam of purest white fire appeared, linking her wand tip with a spot some six feet behind the golems head. However, even with the ray of fire going through its head, the golem barely faltered, raising its fist up high to crush her.
Clearly struggling to contain the power, Fleur was just able to flick the wand sideways, sending the beam through the creature's wrist. The fist then obediently crushed the ground below it, although it had struck near its own feet, instead of on top of Fleur.
A final swish carved a deep fracture into the golem's chest, Fleur's spell fading mid cut. With a sharp rush, the ring around her imploded, sending her falling to her knees. Not that Cedric was faring much better, given he was on his hands and knees.
What followed was a fairly awkward moment, as everyone waited to see who would recover first. Eventually Fleur raised her wand, throwing a faint stunner at Cedric, which he lacked the will to avoid. He had barely fallen unconscious before Fleur collapsed sideways.
"And thus the problem with touching divinity. Ms. Delacour is lucky she was able to find that patch of sunlight, otherwise she'd have burned up trying to power such a spell. Of course, I know of several adults who've burned up before managing spells weaker than the Sun's Fury.
"Then you have Mr. Diggory, who shouldn't have tried to repair his golem against a divine spell. If he had let the golem be destroyed, then he'd have won. For that, I blame the ministry for forbidding us from teaching any divine magick." Dumbledore mused.
"So, Fleur used too much magic with that fire beam, but Cedric wasted magic trying to repair it?"
"Quintessentially. Seeing her spells fail against the golem, Ms. Delacour chose a spell with more than enough power to melt the rock, but didn't seem to account for the cost. It's lucky her Veela nature allows her an affinity for both fire and channelling divine fire, but then without that nature, it's unlikely she'd know about the spell.
"Now we get to wait for her to recover to a duellable condition in time. Otherwise Harry'll be declared the winner by default, something I'm sure he'll despise."
Dumbledore finished cheerfully, reaching into his robes and withdrawing some knitting while the officials desperately tried to remove both the dead golem or the remaining ring of fire.
Well, I finished my theatre work, which was as fun as it was tiring. Working up to 12 hours a day, every day for 2 weeks was quite a shock to my system. But I survived it and will probably let myself be talked into it again next year.
Things I think need explaining:
- Incendio: In canon it seems to just be a flame-thrower spell, but for my canon, the spell is just magic, until it hits something. Within the story, the character's have only ever known incendio as this type of spell, hence it getting a mention here.