AN : I am not J.K. Rowlings so cut me some slack
The weeks following the diagnostic ritual had been eventful for Harry. He had dedicated more time to his studies and personal learning. Since the ritual, Professor Morgan had taken a lot more interest in him and increased his work load. She had also recommended a few more books for him to study. The most interesting of them was "δώρο από τον Θεό", in English "Gift from God". It was written in ancient Greek by Theon Argyros, who was the great grandson of the last person recorded to be blessed with the power of the gods. Harry had to make use of a translation spell to read the book. While there were no spells to learn in the book, it contained a lot of first hand experiences and stories from past wizards.
To be blessed by the gods is to be a god among men. To carry out the will of the gods is both a gift and a curse. The blessing of the gods are reserved for a chosen few. There are no indications for how the gods choose who to bless, the ways of the gods are a mystery to men. When you accept the gift of the gods, you accept the responsibilities that come with it.
The first few sentences made it known to Harry that being blessed by the gods was not just fun and games, it came with a huge burden and responsibility.
Harry placed the book on the small wooden shelf by the side of his bed as he stood up. Today was a Saturday, which meant no classes or lectures. Most student used the free time to catch up on their work load, others spent their free time in the dueling yard watching students duel. Dueling was a huge part of the culture at Emry's Academy. Every weekend there would be several exciting duels going on at the dueling yard. Harry often spent a few hours at the Dueling yard watching and studying the students duel. Watching them duel made him conscious of how unskilled and outmatched he was at dueling. At Hogwarts he might have been good enough to teach his fellow students to pass their OWLs, but at Emry's he was clearly outmatched. The students threw around spells he couldn't even identify, they had sleek footwork. He would fall flat on his face if he attempted some of the moves the students made.
Not all students were fighters and interested in dueling, a lot of the students were simply scholars and spent their free time in the expansive library. There was no restricted section in the library, every book was available to all students. Hermione would have loved it here, he thought.
Harry locked his door as he made his way to the dueling yard to watch the duels. He had taken to spending a few hours every Saturday to watch the duels and take notes before spending a few more hours in the library studying. There was already a small crowd of students standing around to watch the duels.
Harry stood outside the protective dome surrounding the dueling yard with his arms folded as he waited for the duel to start. The two fighters stood at opposite ends of the yard as they waited for the duel to start. The referee for the duel was Stuart Atwell, one of the most senior students at Emry's academy. He had already completed his masters in Transfiguration and was already close to completing his masters in battle magic. The prevailing rumor was that he was leaving Emry's Academy at the end of the year.
One of the fighters was either John or James, Harry didn't know which since they were identical twins. From the little Harry saw in the duel when he first arrived at Emry's, he knew the twins were very good fighters. The second fighter was a tall blond girl, she had very unique facial features. He had not seen her before and she was in none of his classes. Harry wondered if perhaps she was part magical creature, his guess was either elf or nymph based on her looks.
Since coming to Emrys, Harry's mind has been opened to the different new possibilities the magical world offered. In Britain, other sentient magical creatures like Veelas, Werewolves, Nymphs, Elves, Vampires among others were regarded as inferior so it was uncommon to see any. This reflected in the population of Hogwarts students. There were no other sentient magical creature attending Hogwarts as students. The only other sentient magical creature among the Hogwarts faculty and students were Professor Flitwick who was half-goblin and Hagrid who was a half-giant. At Emrys Harry had already encountered several students who were either full or part magical creature.
"Who do you think is going to win?" A voice asked just behind Harry. Harry looked over his shoulders to see the owner of the voice. He recognized the student from some of his classes, she attended his rituals and charms classes.
"I don't know. I have never seen her fight before." Harry responded.
"Hi, I am Athena, we attend rituals and charms classes together. Anna is definitely going to win" Athena said, extending her hands for an handshake as she introduced herself. Athena was around the same age as Harry, he noticed she had an uncanny resemblance to Cassandra Sonaya. Harry wondered if perhaps she was her daughter.
"I am Harry. Why do you say she is going to win?" Harry asked as he shook her hands. Athena moved forward to stand beside him as they waited for the duel to start.
"John may have the edge in term of power but he gets frustrated and gets sloppy easily. Anna simply has to be patient and frustrate him, he will become sloppy. I have watched her fight many times, she is very good."
"Standard dueling rules apply. All spells are allowed except those that cause permanent damage or death. The duel ends when one party either forfeits the duel, becomes unconscious and is unable to continue or is disarmed of their wand. At the count of three, the duel starts. ONE . TWO . THREE ." Stuart said in a loud booming voice announcing the rules of the duel.
John immediately launched a very complicated spell chain starting with a stunner. All the spells were cast non-verbally but Harry could identify the bright red light that signified a stunner. The wand movement for every spell in the chain seamlessly flowed into the next with no breaks. Anna dodged majority of the spells easily, her movement was sleek like a dancer. Her transition between dodging and shielding the spells she couldn't dodge was flawless.
"Wow, They are very good." Harry said
"Yes, they are some of the best here." Athena replied not taking her eyes off from the duel. The crowd around the protective dome was quiet as they watched the two fighter go at each other. John was pressing on the attack trying to break through what seemed to be an impenetrable defense. Anna was able to slip in a few attacks of her own but John's intensity did not allow her to put up any real attack.
"She is getting slower. She must be getting tired." Harry said
"Yes, her movement is getting sloppy. But John is also getting tired, he is breathing from his mouth." Athena said. Harry watch John closer and noticed that his mouth was slightly opened. It seemed the consistent attack had also taken a toll on his energy levels.
John transfigured some rocks close by into wolves and set them on Anna, he hoped to get a few seconds of rest while Anna death with the wild animals. Anna slashed her wand downward casting a cutting curse that cut all but one of the wolves down. The last wolf jumped at her with it teeth bared. There was a look of surprise on Anna's face as the wolf bared down on her, she had expected her cutting curse to get all the wolves but one had managed to slip through. There was no time to dodge or escape the attacking wolf so she raised her left arm up to protect herself from the rabid wolf. The wolf grabbed unto her arms with its sharp teeth and held on as it dragged her to the ground.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ! " Anna let out a loud scream of pain as the wolf took a big bite of her arm and held on. The crowd surrounding the dueling yard had their hands in their mouth as they watched on in shock.
Anna cast another cutting curse splitting the wolf in two across its stomach. John decided to press his advantage as he cast another spell chain starting with the disarming spell. Anna managed to cast and hold a shield with her right hand as her left arm bleed profusely.
"She has to do something now or the fight is over. She is losing a lot of blood, she can't hold the shield for much longer." Athena said not taking her eyes from the duel. Harry nodded his head as he focused on the duel. He had not seen a duel this intense between students before. He had trained the Dumbledore's Army in last year at Hogwarts and they had held some duels to practice but it had never gotten this intense or bloody.
"Avis Oppugno" Anna said. This was the first spell that had been cast verbally through out the entire duel. Angry flocks of bird rushed towards John in attack. Some of them dropped dead to the floor as they intercepted his spells but the majority got through. John had to stop his spell chain to deal with the angry flocks of bird.
"Cauterizo" Anna took advantage of the short break given to her by the beds to cauterize her bleed and get back to her feet.
"Incendio" John said burning the attacking birds into ashes.
"Bombarda" Anna went on the attack immediately she got on her feet, she had lost a lot of blood and couldn't afford to let the fight go on for longer. Now it was John's turn to be on the defense.
Anna utilized charms and curses in her offensive to force John back. She cast the spells verbally as she was already tired and had lost a lot of blood. This enabled harry to take some notes o the spells so he could research them later. In a couple of minutes John was forced to the edge of the protective dome of the dueling yard. His back was literally against the wall. Hannah started wobbling on her feet, her eyelids were drooping and she was struggling to maintain consciousness having lost a lot of blood to the wolf bite.
"She is going to faint." Harry said.
"Shhh. Wait for it." Athena replied shushing him. Harry wondered what he was supposed to be waiting for, to him Johns victory had become the inevitable result.
"Bombarda Maxima" Anna cast an exploding charm at John as a last ditch effort. He raised a shield to block the charm but it the spell missed him totally, it hit the ground a few feet in front of him. John saw Anna wobbling on her feet in dizziness and decided to lower his shield and regain the advantage. The fight was all but won to him
The exploding charm created a small crater about 4 feet in diameter and raised a lot of sand and dust into the air. Just as John lowered his shield, Anna immediately transfigured the sand and dust in the air to a swarm of tiny flies and sent them after John. The flies themselves were not venomous but there were hundreds of them, and they bombarded John, buzzing in his ears, flying into his nostrils and eyes and causing all sorts of nuisance to him.
Everything happened so fast, in a few seconds the tides of the fight had changed once again.
"Haaa" John shouted as he waved his hands about trying to stop the flies from entering into his orifices. The flies kept following him as he ran around in panic trying to get away from them waving his wand wildly.
"Expeliarmus Stupefy" Anna said, disarming and stupefying John before canceling her transfiguration causing the flies to turn back to dust and fall to the floor. Johns wand flew through the air and she caught it with a flourish before bowing slightly to crowd who applauded her loudly. There was no sign of drowsiness or fatigue in her eyes as she smiled.
"Winner of the duel is Anna Hemm" Stuart announced to the crowd who continued applauding Anna. John walked toward Anna to retrieve his wand, he shook her hands and walked away from the yard to lick his wounds and fix his broken ego.
"I told you she would win." Athena said excitedly as she clapped for the winner of the duel.
"What kind of spell did she use to turn the dust into a swarm of flies?" Harry asked. Them duel had been very entertaining and educating for him.
"It's an old Egyptian spell. Very tricky to learn and difficult to master. I can lend you some of my spell books if you like." Athena said. Anna had left the dueling yard to get her injuries seen to in the infirmary, she might have won but she also took a lot of beating in the course of the duel.
"That would be nice, when can I get them. I need to go to the library now, I have some research to do." Harry said. There were still a few duels to be held today, but Harry had lots of research and assignment to do so he couldn't watch the duels. In the absence of Ron who was always convincing him to put off studying Harry had begun taking his school work more seriously. Hermione would definitely be proud of him. Thinking of Hermione, he had been swarmed with work that he had forgotten to reply her last letter. Perhaps he would get to it after studying in the library.
"We can meet tomorrow in the library at 2pm."
"Sure, have fun watching the duels." Harry said as he turned around to leave the dueling yard.
"I will." She replied.