Fleur recovered with just a few minutes left on the clock, much to Harry's relief. Having realised the tent was extremely good at blocking out the outside world, even against magic, Harry had been left with nothing but his own planning. Suffice to say, he was bored out of his mind, and he was fairly sure the official that had sat with him during all those hours was of the same mind.
While he worked on his magic, it was funny to see the official's face go from awed to bored as time went on. The official had been quite startled when Harry had immediately sat on the floor and caused several objects to levitate around him.
Harry knew he wanted to be tested, and part of that meant entering the fight at 100%. For him, that involved entering the duel with his magic already regenerating magic, avoiding the slight delay of starting with a full core.
For once, there was something he simply didn't know, which was why did it take so long for magical regeneration to kick in after magic was being spent. Despite the lack of a why, it was easily avoided by just doing something small beforehand, kickstarting the regeneration early.
Of course, 'something small' slowly grew alongside Harry's boredom, finishing with two large orbits of intersecting figure-eights of furniture. When he was called forth, he happily stood and left the circle. With barely a thought, he walked straight through the orbit, sending the furniture to their rightful place as he went.
In all honesty, he'd have willingly given up some more time to let Fleur recover longer, had his opinion been asked for. After-all, he'd had several hours now to plan how to beat her, time she hadn't gotten.
Stepping onto the field, he was pleased to see that she didn't look awful. From the way she was slouched over it was clear she was exhausted, but magically she was quickly recovering. It was quick enough to be alarming, far beyond anything he'd manage alone, proving that in any war of attrition he'd lose.
His next thought was that the ground was surprisingly water-logged, causing him to leave footprints of water behind in the grass. Anything else had been cleared away by the officials, able to fix everything but the punishment the previously perfect pitch had received.
As soon as he was allowed, he sent a ball of lightning at her, sending her running and giving him time to start his defence. For his protego, he made sure both his wand movement and incantation were perfect, creating the strongest shield he could.
Seeing a streak of fire fly towards him, Harry hastily began drawing an alchemical rune on the shield, a rune he had spent the last few hours mentally designing.
The base of the rune would take any heat in front of it, then turn it into magical energy, which would then feed itself. A second overlaid rune would then absorb any spare magic and pass it into the shield.
Finishing the runes just in time, Harry could only grin as the flames dissipated, coinciding with the shield flaring. Now that the runes were done, he had effectively neutralised Fleur's attacks.
Her very nature caused any spell to give off heat, constantly feeding his shield. With the shield done, he anchored it onto his off-arm, allowing him full mobility around the arena.
This was why the runes had been so important, allowing him to move without maintaining his shield, at the cost of cooling the area around him. The chill was perfectly manageable, especially given his exposure to both Dementors and his Dementor's cloak.
Easily blocking three fireballs and a boiling rock, he began his offensive. Against a regular fire user, the counterintuitive advice was to get as close as possible, seeing as they were often equally susceptible to fire. But, he knew for a fact Fleur had at minimum a higher tolerance to heat.
With that in mind, keeping at range would give him more time to react, but then that also worked in reverse. With his superior defence, he could sacrifice his own reaction time to gain another advantage over her.
As he marched towards Fleur, she began hammering his shield with an incredible number of spells. It reached a point he couldn't see through his shield, almost blinding by the flashes of light.
Occasionally she'd fire a curving spell that would've gone around his shield, which he needed to avoid. In a creative move, she even pitched a large ball of fire behind him, whereupon it detonated and spread waves of fire in all directions.
Her plan was clear, she didn't expect him to be able to protect both his back and front, proven by her spells battering his shield quicker. Unfortunately for Fleur, Harry had aerokinesis, allowing him to make a vacuum in the shape of a wall.
As the wave passed through the wall, the fire was instantly snuffed out, without either oxygen or heat to fuel the reaction. The actual shockwave carried on, ruffling his robes dramatically, but was otherwise unscathed.
Given she knew he had done a similar trick against the dragon, he wasn't too sure what Fleur's plan was. But given it was working in his favour, he wasn't going to complain too loudly.
But, he did have to admit that while she had yet to hit him, he was at considerable risk of having his own shield hurt him. With each hit it absorbed, it generated a small amount of heat, heat which appeared on the wrong side of the runes.
Then the runes themselves were generating a considerable amount of both heat and light, which fed into a near infinite feedback loop. A very hot, very close feedback loop. Harry figured there would be a reason why the heat sink wasn't commonly used, now he knew.
When he considered himself close enough, he started his own attack. He stuck to basic spells to start with, but he made use of his full power, hitting hard and hitting fast. Fleur only tried to directly shield once, only for his stunner to instantly collapse it.
Unfortunately, her style was similar to Daphne's, preferring to acrobatically dodge instead of static shielding. They both had the annoying ability to incorporate their exaggerated dodges into their wand motion, adding a stronger will to their spell.
Harry had none of that, but then the mithrilium in his head gave him a drastically increased source of will, placing them on an equal footing.
Thrusting his wand upwards at a diagonal, he fired off a jagged bolt of golden light, which sailed up into the air before fragmenting. Each fragment formed a new smaller dart, which locked onto Fleur and shot towards her.
The darts would keep following the point of his wand, but he could continue sending spells with point casting. Despite her best efforts, two of the darts managed to strike her, one in the shoulder and the other in the thigh.
His yellow Mollesco hex was able to make use of her start at the pain, striking and numbing her shoulder. Eyes literally burning in anger, Fleur turned and pointed two fingers at him, firing a brilliant golden fire at him.
As it drew closer, Harry suddenly became aware of the raw sense of divinity emanating from the fire, which explained how it passed through his shield without even a ripple.
Without time to react, the fire easily splashed against his chest, disappearing beneath his skin. The burn wasn't serious, no more than an annoying itch, but it would take time to counter. Seeing that she was clearly ready for a higher form of duelling, Harry was willing to oblige.
Pointing his wand a bit over her shoulder, he fired a bolt of emerald green magic at her, which formed in the shape of a cartoon lightning bolt. As he had planned, she easily dodged it, only for his spell to slow down and spin around.
Without her notice, his spell snuck up behind her, hitting her in the small of the back. Instantly his paralysis curse took effect, freezing her in place. His expelliarmus and stunner soon followed, winning him both the duel and tournament.
Duel over, Harry cancelled his shield and checked on the golden flames he had been struck with, startled to see a bright golden glow coming from his chest. It took several charms for him to cancel the divine curse, which was quite alarming.
With the referee declaring Harry the winner, the audience broke into thunderous applause, the stands filled to the brim with people from all over Europe.
Before he could decide if he liked the attention or not, madam Pomfrey had dragged him into the medical tent. He was forced to wait there alone for a long time until he heard some raised voices from the tent entrance.
Eventually, a disguised Tonks burst in, dragging Remus Lupin behind her. They were then followed by Ron, Percy and another two redheads. It was certainly not who he was expecting, given he was fairly sure one was Ron's mother and the other must've been Ginny.
"Wotcher Harry, it's madness out there!" Tonks announced, throwing herself into a chair next to him, body reverting to her usual pink haired form as she fell.
"Oh? I wouldn't know, Madam Pomfrey won't let me leave." Harry replied mulishly.
"Well, loads of people want to speak to you, but the ministry officials are trying to keep them all back. Mad-eye has placed himself as guard outside, but he must be quite stressed because he didn't recognise me until I showed my badge.
"Normally, he can identify me from across a field, much like you can. Anyway, I showed up and found Mr. Lupin here trying to talk his way in, so I brought him with me cause I remember you got on well last year. Then I kind of ran into the Weasleys, so we decided to come in together."
"Quite." Percy announced, stepping forwards. "Firstly, I've been asked to give you your trophy. There was a ceremony planned for the winner, but with how the crowd is acting, that is impossible, so I volunteered." He finished pompously, as if volunteering had been a big sacrifice that he had bravely faced.
"Secondly… I wanted to apologise. After the Yule Ball, Ronald was able to explain to me that you were in fact telling the truth in your article. The ministry told us all that you were simply covering for Dumbledore's favouritism.
"But, when my girlfriend and brother both assured me you were telling the truth, I decided to look into it. That's not to say I disagree with Dumbledore's favouritism, but I believe that you are innocent in this affair." With that said, Percy flamboyantly handed over the trophy, a large cup with two wands sticking out, bowed and left.
"No idea how someone like him can be the brother of Bill and Charlie." Tonks muttered, shaking her head, "Oh, no offence Molly."
"None taken, dear. We've known for a long time that Percy takes after his grandfather more than anyone. Arthur's father, Septimus was a very… 'judicial' man, but very influential because of it. Not that we're complaining of course! The ministry is a wonderful job, certainly better than the twins and their idea of a joke shop…
"Anyway, I wanted to thank you in person, Harry dear, for saving our Ginny. I know Ronald gave our thanks last year, but we really are indebted to you."
"Err, mum, it was dad who was going to thank Harry, you didn't trust me to do it." Ron cut in, suddenly looking nervous.
"No no, Arthur said he didn't have time, the ministry was demanding a lot of his time back then. He was meant to tell you to do it." Molly argued.
"To me, this sounds like nobody told Harry," Remus quietly pointed out, "If Mr. Weasley was too busy to tell Harry, he was probably too busy to tell Ronald either."
At this, Ron and Mrs. Weasley began to shout back and forth, until finally a new voice spoke up.
"For goodness sake. Hi, Harry, as you may remember I'm Ginny. You saved my life, but despite everyone's best efforts, I seem to be a squib now, any questions?" Ginny said, giving a sardonic curtsey in his direction.
"Hi, I must admit I thought you might've died… but nobody seemed to speak about it and I didn't want to upset anyone." Harry returned tentatively, using the time to scan her with his mage sight.
Sighing, Ginny nodded "Yeah, that's about right. Can't have people knowing they have a squib in the family, can they? No, I get to be kept at home throughout the year working on the farm."
"We don't keep you at home, Ginny dear… We just want to know you're safe, since… well since you can't protect yourself anymore." Mrs. Weasley replied, in a voice that was clearly meant to be appeasing.
"Except I only had magic for less than a year, I've been a squib for longer than I've been able to use magic!" Ginny exploded, spinning on her mother. "Just because you'd be helpless without magic, doesn't mean I am!"
With that said, she stormed out of the tent, leaving a heavy silence behind.
"I'll have to talk to her when we get home." Mrs. Weasley said with a sigh, "We came here because Ginny's wanted a chance to thank you in person for a while now, and says she still enjoys duelling tournaments. You did very well, I'm sure your parents would be proud."
With a friendly pat of the cheek, she went after her daughter. Left behind, Ron grimaced and with a hasty nod in Harry's direction ran after them, leaving them alone.
"Never a dull moment with a Weasley around." Tonks pronounced sagely, earning a chuckle from Remus.
"Quite, trying to teach them was… memorable. Now that I think on it, I do remember seeing Ms. Weasley's name on the 'Students not returning' list, which I found odd. It's rare for a student to be removed by a parent while their siblings remain, especially without any disciplinary record."
"So, Harry, any ideas what's wrong with her? Gonna whip out a miraculous cure?"
"I'm… not sure, Tonks. I saw what was wrong, but I'll need to talk to someone about it before I can do anything… So, Professor Lupin, what are you doing here?"
"It's Remus, Harry. And can't I just visit my favourite ex-student after he wins his first duelling tournament?" Remus asked innocently, holding it for just a moment.
"Besides, I have a message for you. I've been in the Caribbean for the last few months, but I'm back now. There's also a certain dog staying in Hogsmeade who'd like to see you, perhaps tomorrow?"
"I might be a bit late, but I'll try and be there." Harry promised, having a strong suspicion about the identity of the mystery dog.
"Great, I'm sure he'll be thrilled!" Remus announced. "I must say, you were brilliant out there, Harry. Both Lily and James would've been so proud."
Things I think need explaining:
- Daphne's Backflip dodges: I had someone ask why she'd do this, so I added an explanation in this chapter, but just in case it wasn't clear, by doing a physical movement that matches the desired spell, it allows that spell to be stronger by raising your will.
So, when Daphne did a backflip to raise an ice wall behind her, that wall lasted longer because her physical movement matched the way the ice was raised from the ground.
- Ginny Weasley: Many of you thought she was dead, which is fair given I wasn't sure myself if I wanted her dead or not. Now you have a solid answer.