Ascension: The Triumvirate

by Define Anachronistic

(AU) The Triwizard Tournament is here and Harry has qualified as its youngest-ever participant. Rivals the world over have put a target on his back, but he's eager to test his mettle against them- the very best of his generation. But unbeknownst to him, all of this is within the scope of Voldemort's plan. Friends appear to be enemies and enemies as friends. Nothing is as it seems.

9. Go Forth and Conquer

CHAPTER FIVE

Go Forth and Conquer

Things already weren't going according to plan.

Following the pattern of Triwizards past, the Representatives were meant to rest tonight after the Opening Ceremony and then start the Preliminary Rounds in the morning. But the organisers had switched things around on them. Harry must have been hit with a Stunning Spell at the instant of his arrival as he started awake in the worst situation he could think of.

Alone. In the dark. Half-buried in snow.

No, wait, he thought, brushing snowflakes from his lashes. I'm alone, but I'm not in the dark.

When he managed to flick the last of the snow from his face, Harry had an unhindered view of the emerald waves that rippled across the night sky. His brain was trying to tell him something it had learned from this, but he was too cold to care at the moment. Feeling as though someone had placed a Numbing Curse on him, Harry clumsily sat up and struggled to his feet, almost falling over twice as he couldn't feel his legs.

Fumbling for his wand, it took him longer than he was proud of to manage the Warming Charm, and that was only because he couldn't concentrate enough for a non-verbal incantation. "Focillo!" It wasn't the immediate relief he hoped for. His nerve endings were forced back to life and he shuddered violently for over a minute as the charm did its work.

Concentrate, Harry thought furiously as he struggled to stop his body from thrashing atop the snow. Where am I? How do I get out of this?

He knew he was operating on borrowed time here. The Warming Charm only prevented him from feeling the cold, not from suffering the consequences of it. Forcing the images of frostbite from his mind, he tried to remember what he had noticed earlier.

Emerald waves. His eyes widened as he took in the night sky. The Aurora Australis.

Three years of Astronomy lessons proved useful when he managed to discern his location just by studying stars. He remained in the Southern Hemisphere, far south of the Equator. Judging by the climate, it was safe to assume he was still in Antarctica, but far from the safety of Memphis.

Relieved now that he at least knew what continent he was on, Harry was just about to warm himself up when he heard an almost imperceptible crunch of snow behind him.

The creature's approach had gone unnoticed due to the roaring winds. With speed that was possible only through years of training, Harry leapt forward in the nick of time. An enormous fist swiped through the air where he'd been standing and Harry- still rolling through the snow- jabbed his wand under his armpit. "Aequor Tutela!"

The snow between him and the Beast shot up and was transfigured into a twenty-foot-tall wall of ice. Before he could cast an Unbreakable Charm on it, his still unseen attacker let out a deafening roar- almost as though the wall had offended it- and broke through it with a single punch.

The moment Harry saw the Yeti, he did what few others in this situation would have.

He smiled.

Unbeknownst to him, the Triwizard Assessors currently observing him were taken aback by this unexpected response in the face of a deadly threat. However, they didn't see what he did when looking at the Beast:

Warm furs.

You're exactly what I need, he thought cheerfully. What luck!

The Yeti must have sensed his dwindling body heat as he lay unconscious in the snow and had come to investigate, but he wasn't complaining. He could've immediately burnt it to a crisp but he needed its fur intact, so he chose a more difficult route of slaying it.

Avifors! The shattered remains of the ice wall were transfigured into a murder of crows. Their fluttering wings hid him from the Yeti's gaze before mobbing it, pecking at its eyes and ears. Aeris! Harry was launched thirty feet off the ground by a compressed bullet of air, which swept away the crows in a flurry of snow and exposed the Yeti's face to him as he flipped over its head.

The moment the Yeti lifted its head to track his flight, Harry pointed his wand calmly at its eye. Perfuro! The Piercing Curse struck it between the eyes and drilled a hole out the back of its skull, splattering the untouched snow with its grey matter.

By the time he landed in a crouch on the other side, the Beast was already dead.

The sudden combat warmed his blood. Despite the conditions he'd woken up in, his reflexes weren't dulled in the slightest. Still smiling, Harry hurried to the Yeti's carcass and got to work, silently thanking Captain Alexandra Solace as her training was proving itself useful once again.

While it's good to rely on your comrades, an Auror should be entirely self-sufficient in any scenario they find themselves in. The memory of her voice was still clear in his mind. The only thing you should ever need is your wand, and sometimes not even that.

Harry had always been grateful for her lessons, even when he'd disliked her, but he especially appreciated them now as they kept him in the running for the Tournament.

He transfigured a lawn chair from snow and placed it before the campfire he'd conjured. The heat it emitted was trapped around him by an invisible Barrier he'd erected with a Runic Complex etched onto the snow. Working steadily, he skinned the Beast of its fur, burned its fat for warmth, and preserved its meat with a Stasis Charm. Harry had no idea how long this round would last, and he didn't want to go hungry.

Again, he didn't know it, but the Assessors were deeply unsettled by the smile on his face as he hacked away at the Yeti's carcass.

Knowing he should probably get a move on, Harry picked up the pace a little. Not only was he in danger of more predators, but other competitors might reach the goal before he did. While he didn't believe this was a competition of speed, he also didn't want to take the risk.

Finally, he completed transfiguring and enchanting climate-appropriate wear out of the Yeti's fur. While it wasn't as soft and comfortable as Puffskein fur, it was even warmer. Solace's survivalist lessons came through for him again as he knew exactly how to manufacture fitting clothes from the material before inscribing it with enough runes to keep him forever toasty. Once he'd put on the poncho, bracers, trousers, boots and balaclava over his ceremonial gear, Harry then checked himself for any signs of frostbite with a Diagnostic Charm.

Satisfied that he was no longer in immediate danger of exposure (but still cold enough that he would have killed for a Pepper-Up Potion), Harry extinguished the fire and erased any traces of his temporary Barrier. He knew he was being watched even before he opened his Mage Sight. Not necessarily by the Odeon operators- as there were simply too many competitors at this stage to broadcast them all at once- but by the Triwizard Assessors who would be there to prevent him from cheating.

Or dying, he supposed.

They wouldn't put us out here if there wasn't a goal, Harry reasoned. I just have to find it.

Checking he still had his Mokeskin pouch (even though he would be disqualified if he used anything but his wand), Harry levitated the chunks of Yeti meat into the sack he'd fashioned out of the leftover pieces of fur and skin. Then he put the conjured strap over his head and onto his shoulder so he could carry it on his back.

Ignoring the invisible Assessors watching him from fifty feet away, Harry waited for his Mage Sight to provide him with direction and perked up when he got a result. In a world of darkness in which only a few specks of magic were visible, there was one in the far distance that shone brighter than a star. Smiling beneath his balaclava, Harry turned on the spot to apparate, but nothing happened.

Groaning, he realised that this entire environment had been layered with an Anti-Apparition Charm, so he would have to make the journey on foot. Hefting his sack, Harry lowered his hooded head against the wind and began to trudge through the deep snow.

After a few hours of this (where only the fear of being the one Hogwarts Representative to fail at the first hurdle kept him from resting) Harry finally spotted a change in his environment. The Southern Lights were reflected brightly by the surface of a vast frozen lake. A frozen lake that was separating him from the shining star he'd been walking towards.

Had this been a real-world scenario, Harry would have happily risked it. The odds of an Antarctic lake suddenly cracking under his meagre weight were insubstantial. However, this was a carefully organised and monitored competitive event in which the participants were deliberately put through the wringer to entertain the general public. He couldn't take anything at face value.

Swearing under his breath- and promising bloody revenge on Master Devereaux if he was made to swim in those freezing waters- Harry kept trudging forwards, wary of any traps. He was hesitant when he first stepped onto the ice (especially as he didn't know a spell that would add sufficient grip to the bottom of his boots without fusing him entirely to its surface) but he picked up the pace a little when it didn't immediately crack under his feet. He was pleasantly surprised to have crossed a third of the lake without being submerged in its icy depths.

However, that was only because he had incorrectly guessed the challenge of this particular stage.

It was a good thing the Southern Lights were providing him with illumination, as he otherwise might have stepped onto the surface of the still water that separated the two sides of the lake.

It was a lane of water, too still to be called a river, and perhaps two hundred feet wide. From what he could see, it was the only thing preventing him from reaching the other side of the lake. Its edges were perfectly straight, as though some great god had reached down from the heavens and craved a horizontal line into the lake's frozen surface.

Already knowing this was a trap (this certainly wasn't a natural phenomenon) Harry decided to just go ahead and trigger it. After four hours in the elements, he was anxious to get out of the cold.

Silano. Vibaku. Glacius.

A wave of water gently rose from the river and formed itself into the shape of a bridge. His last spell transfigured that water into ice that was thick enough to walk across. Deciding to get it over with, Harry stepped onto the newly formed bridge and walked as quickly as he could without losing his balance. He would never live it down if he slipped and fell onto his nose as he had in his first year-

Wait. Harry blinked as a particular memory came to mind. Annoyed with himself for not thinking of it sooner, he was about to cast a spell on his boots when he was interrupted.

There was an enormous surge of water forty feet to his right and, like an idiot, Harry stopped to stare at it. The last time he had come into contact with a Sea Serpent, he'd only observed it through Supersensory Goggles, so its appearance caught him a little off guard. It was at least a hundred feet long, with shiny teal scales, a horse-like head and sharp horns that grew from its brow.

Harry had gotten up close and personal with a Sea Serpent once before. He had no intention of repeating the experience.

As the fearsome Beast opened its maw to spew boiling water at him, Harry jabbed his wand directly at it. "Confundo!" He shouted, his voice slightly muffled by the balaclava.

When the spell struck its target, Harry's mind was almost overwhelmed by its rage. This creature was at the apex of its ecosystem and was unused to being pushed around by smaller creatures. However, what caught his attention was how confused it was by its surroundings. This lake, while enormous, was infinitesimal compared to its natural habitat.

Harry lowered his balaclava to enunciate clearly. "You'll get to go home soon," he promised it in Parseltongue. "But not if you harm humans. Then we'll have to kill you."

The Sea Serpent roared indignantly, but it was only for show as it didn't shoot any scalding water at him. Its mind was calmer now that a way home had been promised. "Rest for now," he advised. "When you wake, you will be transported home."

The Sea Serpent surged forwards, as though to strike at him, but Harry didn't flinch. After a moment, it snorted haughtily and grudgingly accepted his deal. The colossal serpent turned and dived back into the water, muttering to itself petulantly as it swam away.

Harry's expression softened. Judging by the length of its horns, the Sea Serpent was several decades old, but that was still squarely within its species' adolescence.

Shaking his head, Harry leaned against the side of his ice bridge and lifted his foot. Tapping his wand to the bottom of his boots, he transfigured them into ice skates. Dumbledore had shown them how to do so when The Marauders turned the Great Hall into an ice rink in his first year.

The memory made him smile beneath his balaclava as he skated down the bridge and across the other side of the frozen lake.

His good mood didn't last very long. Through Mage Sight, he knew he was being followed and his pursuers were closing in fast. Knowing he couldn't risk a fight on the ice, Harry lowered his centre of gravity and picked up the pace, skating as quickly as he could for solid ground.

Switching the skates back to boots upon when reaching the snowy shore, Harry started to trudge towards his target: the jagged glacier ridges. There were five pursers in total, and they were all zeroing in on his location from various directions. Harry didn't know if they were Assessors or fellow Representatives, but he did know that his best bet was getting out of the open. He needed the environmental advantage.

Harry felt his legs burn as the snow made the steep ascent up the glacier even harder than it would have been. When the closest ridge was only a stone's throw away, he gave up any pretence of not being aware of his pursuers and broke out into a run for cover. He could sense the jerking running start they made before following, clearly startled by his sudden increase in speed.

Erasing his footprints as he went, Harry hurried behind the ridge and focused on suppressing his Mana. For this to work, he needed to use his eyes and not his Mage Sight. Unfortunately, this also meant he had to drop the protective enchantments on his makeshift clothing, which left him exposed to the bitterly cold Antarctic air.

Using the deep snow to his advantage, Harry buried himself standing on the edge of the ridge. He kept all but his eyes submerged as he needed them to locate his pursuers. Bizarrely, he felt a little warmer covered in snow than he did buffeted by the sharp winds, but that wasn't saying much. It took all his will to remain still; his body wanted to shiver in protest at the punishment he was putting it through.

It'll be worth it, Harry told himself, attempting to keep his focus on the coming fight. When it comes to ambushes, the one who strikes first is most often the victor.

As he monitored his breathing, Harry reminded himself that his pursuers wouldn't be enjoying this either. If they were Triwizard Assessors, then they would have spent all day waiting for him to reach this location. They were likely anxious to spring their trap and get it over with. But if they were other Representatives, then they would never expect him to turn around and fight them here instead of hurrying towards the ultimate goal.

Nevertheless, it took all he had to remain still. His hands were tucked in his armpits to keep them in working condition for the coming six-way duel.

Hurry. He started to repeat the word in his mind like a mantra. Hurry, hurry, hurry...

And then, from his perch on the edge of the ridge, his eyes spotted the first set of footprints and- by the grace of a merciful wind- his ears picked up the sound of crunching snow.

Finally.

There were five in total. Three were heading towards him as though following the tracks he'd left behind. The other two were circling his presumed location to either cut him off from his goal or attack him from behind.

It didn't matter which. He would crush them either way.

Confundo! Locomotor!

His first spell went unnoticed, invisible as it was, and it was fired down on the closest pursuer. The wizard's own will flailed helplessly against the Confundus Charm, as his comfortable state of mind was crushed by Harry's desperation to get out of the cold. As the wizard turned against his former comrades, attacking their invisible forms with jets of multi-coloured light, Harry took advantage of their distraction to dump a ton of floating snow on top of them from his ridge.

Trusting his confounded ally to pick them off (if the avalanche did not already do so), Harry remained covered in snow. He guessed the other two were planning on attacking him from behind in a pincer movement as otherwise they would have come to investigate the flashes of spellfire at once.

It took longer than he would've liked for them to arrive. He struggled with the temptation of using his Mage Sight and reminded himself not to give his position away; the cold would have certainly dulled his reflexes by now. If he was going to walk away the victor, he needed the element of surprise on his side.

Just when his will was reaching its absolute limit, he heard cautious footsteps. Someone had finally come to investigate. Even though it was only one person instead of two, Harry knew he had to act fast, as he could no longer bear the cold.

A pair of footprints appeared ten feet from where he was standing, their invisible creator likely peering over the ridge to see what had happened. Harry took advantage of their momentary distraction. Emerging from the snow like a camouflaged predator, Harry cast only two spells:

Stupefy! Aequor Tutela!

The first spell struck the invisible investigator cleanly in the back, sending them tumbling down the ridge and onto the pile of snow that the first two were still buried beneath. The second was to protect him from the final pursuer's immediate reprisal. Their initial volley of spells was blocked by the wall of ice that had sprung from the snow behind him.

Harry struggled to his feet and clumsily batted away the final attacker's spells with various shields made of both magic and elements. He was putting his trust in his confounded ally, confident that the man would fulfil his instructions before he was in any real danger. Or at least he was confident. He started to doubt him when his feet got dangerously close to the edge of the ridge.

Come on, Harry thought a little desperately. Any day now.

It was only when he was forced to duck around a Nightmare Hex that slipped past his defences- causing him to almost lose his balance on his numb legs- did the confounded pursuer finally come through for him. Harry had ordered him to hurry around the last of his former allies, attacking them from behind in the exact manner that they had planned for him.

The six-way duel ended with a flash of red light that shone brightly in the night before being swallowed by the darkness.

Harry all but collapsed. His wand moved quickly to return the warmth of his enchanted clothing before numbing his pain with a Warming Charm. He sat like that for a minute, relishing the blazing heat from his enchanted clothes before realising he had to do something about his downed pursuers.

He ordered the confounded wizard to gather his allies and bring them to him. As the man left to follow his order, Harry built a roaring fire and enchanted the area around it to keep the heat from escaping. Even though their enchanted clothes should protect them from the cold, Harry didn't want to take the risk.

It was only when the fight was over and he felt comfortable again, that Harry realised he'd been allowed to win. Not during the duel itself of course, but in how it had begun. Anyone skilled enough to track him to this point, either through Mage Sight or through a rudimentary tracking spell, would have been able to vanish their footprints from the snow.

Seeing their faces when he removed their Disillusionment Charms confirmed this. While they all had bronze Ouroboroses clasped around their wrists, the youngest of them was still twice his age. If they had wanted to, they could have put up a better fight. And he hadn't clocked that until after the fight was over.

It was a sobering realisation.

Swallowing his chagrin, Harry climbed to his feet and set off for his destination, leaving his attackers by the fire and under the protection of their confounded companion. His injured pride was only soothed by the fact that his destination, burning as brightly as any beacon through his unseen eye, was so close now he could almost reach out and touch it.

When the yawning mouth of an ice cave was within sight of his physical eyes, Harry forced his straining legs to move faster. Wary of another ambush, he kept all his senses- both tangible and intangible- at full alert. He was ready to move the second the trap was sprung.

But no trap revealed itself. It was only when he stood at the entrance of the cave that he understood why.

The cave itself was the trap.

Through Mage Sight, he observed a strange vacuum at the very front of the cave. While he could sense a bright, pulsating source of magic within its depths, all he could feel was a hollow absence of magic from the tunnel that led to the entrance.

Harry was wary. Everything in the world had some magic to it. Even inanimate objects, though grey and lifeless to his Mage Sight, were still visible. The ice the cave was formed from should have been the same, but it wasn't. It was as dark to his sixth sense as it was to his eyes.

Feeling a gnawing sense of déjà vu, Harry levelled his wand at the cave as he would a foe. "Periculum!"

With a deafening screech, a fiery ball of red light rocketed out from the end of his wand and into the dark cave. It illuminated its surroundings as it went, before exploding into a magnificent firework display five seconds later. When he saw what was waiting for him, Harry let out a frustrated groan.

Every inch of the cave was covered with black, slimy mushrooms. Malspores.

He should be safe for now. Such healthy specimens could only exist if they were protected from the elements by Runic Complexes that were likely buried beneath the snow. As such, he took a minute to stand there and figure out his next move.

This was unlikely to be the final obstacle of this particular trial. While a cave filled with Malspores might be enough to stymie your average witch or wizard, Harry and his peers were too exceptional to be stumped by them alone. At least those who were skilled enough to make it this far. A simple Impervius Charm (or a powerful enough fire spell for his more destructive counterparts) would be enough to cross this hurdle. Which meant there had to be a trap he wasn't seeing. This realisation left him with the real question:

Was he daring enough to spring it?

The way he saw it, he didn't have a choice.

There was something he wasn't seeing, something well hidden. Traditionally, the First Preliminary Round of the Triwizard Tournament was meant to crush competitors who tried to succeed through brute strength alone. This first trial tested intelligence, courage, skill and strength of will.

He had already been tested on the last three, but intelligence...

There's something hidden here, Harry thought, his mind moving a mile a minute. Something that will give the game away. But where is it? If I was the Organiser, where would I hide it? It hit him then. I would hide it in plain sight.

Extending his Mage Sight, Harry peered all around him one last time to make sure he wasn't missing something obvious, before looking deep within the cave. Looking past the dark vacuum of the Malspores, he studied the bright beacon at the heart of the cave, and there, hidden in the shadow of its pulsating Mana, was the real trap.

Harry had never seen them in person before but judging by their shape and the faint aura of Dark Magic that only Dark Beasts gave off, it could only be one thing:

Minyades. Hundreds of them.

Harry was starting to wonder if Master Devereaux and the Assessors had a personal grudge against him.

Minyades were man-sized bats that typically made rainforests their home, but the kind of hot, humid environment that was best for growing Malspores would be a close second. Not only was a single Minyade strong enough to carry a grown man in its talons, but its fangs also secreted a powerful venom that would immediately paralyse its prey. While a Minyade only typically hunted wildlife, it happily ate humans whenever one was unfortunate enough to cross its path.

This was the trap. If someone was stupid enough to force their way through this obstacle by setting fire to the Malspores, they would only awaken the sleeping predators that hid in the darkness of the inner cavern's ceiling.

However, as with the pursuers before, the Assessors had likely left a path to victory. If he tried to be sneaky and get past using the Malspores using an Impervius Charm, he might just escape with his prize unscathed.

Harry just hoped this would be the final obstacle.

"Impervius!" Harry was far removed from the terrified boy who had endured the Philosopher's Stone gauntlet. He could protect himself properly this time around and stop even a single spore from landing on his clothes or skin. "Bublet!" Glad he didn't have to hold his breath again, a bubble of fresh air fixed itself around his nose and mouth, and he stepped into the cave before he could lose his nerve.

For how long he'd lingered at the cave's entrance, the journey within wasn't all that perilous. He moved carefully, wanting to keep his balance on the mushrooms' spongy surface and avoid slipping on the copious amounts of black slimy mould they discharged.

Harry found that the most difficult thing was the rapid change in climate. The air outside was both dry and bitterly cold, but the cave was as hot and humid as anything he'd experienced before, and he was sweating through his clothes within seconds. Knowing he couldn't risk deactivating the warming enchantments on his clothes without removing his Impervius Charm, Harry forced himself to just tough it out.

Aware that light would only aggravate the Malspores and cause them to spew more spores into the air, Harry had to blindly slip and slide his way through the tunnel, relying on all his dexterity to keep himself upright. The further he went, the darker the cave became, until the light of the Aurora Australis faded away, leaving him alone to stumble in the dark.

It's okay, Harry reassured himself. I don't need eyes to see.

However, even this proved to be untrue. The use of Mage Sight while surrounded by the Malspores' vacuum gave him vertigo, so much so that he was forced to immediately stop walking to quell his sudden nausea. He didn't know what would happen if he threw up while his mouth was fixed with a Bubble-Head Charm, and he didn't want to find out.

It was only after minutes spent fearing that he was walking around in circles that Harry finally saw a flicker of light up ahead. He squashed the urge to run and forced himself to keep his steady pace, not wanting to stumble at the last hurdle. However, when he crossed the threshold that separated the hot, humid tunnel from the drier, cooler cavern it led into, Harry dropped his guard and enjoyed the refreshing air even through his layers of heavy clothes.

His eyes drifted to the centre of the massive cavern where a long, steep flight of stairs awaited him. It led to a circular platform that had a stone pedestal and a large, ornate golden key resting upon it.

For anyone else, this would have been the end of the First Preliminary Round, but Harry had forgotten two crucial facts.

The first was the environment. Minyades enjoyed the same hot, humid climate as Malspores. The dry, coolness of the ice cave would have kept them alert and on edge, far too uncomfortable to sleep.

The second was the terrific sense of smell Minyades had, and he just so happened to be carrying a sackful of Yeti meat.

If it was just one or the other, he would escaped. They either would have been asleep or it would have been too dark for them to locate him. But things didn't work out that way.

His first clue that something was wrong was the sudden silence that fell upon the cavern. What he had vaguely noted as a breeze from some unforeseen entrance suddenly stilled and- with intuition only prey could have- Harry realised it hadn't been a breeze at all.

It had been breathing.

Slowly, Harry craned his neck upwards to observe the high cavern ceiling, only to find hundreds of red eyes staring back at him.

Oh, hell.

Ignoring the instinct to freeze, Harry raised his wand and roared, "Igniotempus!"

The cool, cavern air rippled as though it didn't know what to do with the sudden temperature change, before igniting into an inferno that had Harry at its epicentre. Usually, starting a firestorm so far beneath the surface wasn't a good idea, and this time was no different. With the limited oxygen in the magically enclosed cavern being used as fuel for the fire, Harry was now under an even more pressing time limit to get the hell out of there.

As the fingers of one hand fumbled with the strap of the sack while the other cast a Flame-Freezing Charm on himself, Harry charged through the flames and towards the stairs at top speed. The cavern was awash with the roar of fire and the screeches of the Minyades that reverberated back from the walls, magnifying their number to his ears. When he finally managed to free himself of the strap, Harry threw the sack behind him, yelling, "Diffindo! Depulso!"

The Severing Charm tore the sack, and the Banishing Charm spewed its contents all over the cavern. Very quickly, the air started to smell like cooking meat and not just from the Yeti. Some of the hungrier Minyades dived through the fire to secure their next meal and got scorched in the process.

Unfortunately, some of these starving creatures preferred live prey.

It was only because his Mage Sight was no longer giving him vertigo that Harry was able to feel the incoming attack at his back. Waving his wand wildly over his shoulder, he cast, "Sectumsempra!" Carried by the momentum of its dive, the closest Minyade fell past him in five distinct pieces. Its severed head screeched at his back as he ran past, not yet aware that it was dead.

As he neared the bottom of the stairs, Harry jabbed his wand at the ceiling. Ferrum Fimus! Accio! Impervius!

On the cavern ceiling were hundreds of ice stalactites which Harry transfigured into swords before summoning them towards him. As he ran up the steep staircase, he was reassured by the sound of fleshy skewering and wailing shrieks that emanated behind him, so much so that the blades that sparked off his Impervius Charm- mere millimetres from his skin- did little to startle him.

Just as he reached the platform at the very top of the stairs, one lucky and enterprising Minyade tried to swoop in directly from above to snatch him up by the shoulders. Harry had no patience for it. Perhaps if he hadn't spent the better part of a day in a frozen wasteland being attacked on all sides then he would have been more merciful, but as it was, he was in no mood to take prisoners.

Carpe Noctem!

The Nightmare Hex flew directly into the Minyade's screeching mouth. The spell's immediate effect caused it to plummet directly into the raging fire, seeing it as the cool water necessary to put out the flames it believed it was already engulfed in. Coldly, he didn't even spare the Beast a glance, as he ran over to the pedestal and snatched up the golden key.

He felt an overwhelming sense of relief upon feeling the hooking sensation behind his navel. He would have raged if he had to return to his starting point to advance.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The Portkey dropped him off in a barren room that had only one other occupant: Eliza.

She snorted at the sight of him in his makeshift fur clothes. "Took you long enough." Judging by her sunburnt skin and the light fabrics she was wearing, Harry guessed she had been dumped in the middle of a desert.

He scowled. "You wouldn't say that if you knew what I had to do to get here."

"I can guess. You woke up in a dangerous environment, had to figure out where you were and what to do without instruction and fought a ridiculous amount of opposition in the form of Beast and wizard alike to accomplish it?" Eliza grinned at his stupefied expression. "The first round is always the same level of difficulty for everyone, even if there are too many people to have them go through identical trials."

"I knew that." Harry bluffed, but before Eliza could call him out on it, their final teammate arrived with a flood of water. "Argh! Really?" He complained as he and Eliza were soaked by seawater.

"Sorry," Cedric apologised as soon as he removed his Bubble-Head Charm. "But I didn't exactly have a choice in what came with me." He tipped his head to one side as though trying to get water out of his ear even though his bubble had encased his entire head. "I'd apologise for being the last to arrive, but you wouldn't imagine what I just went through."

Harry answered him with a straight face. "I can guess. You woke up in a dangerous environment, had to figure out where you were and what to do without instruction and fought a ridiculous amount of opposition in the form of Beast and wizard alike to accomplish it?" Cedric looked amazed at his deductive reasoning.

Harry winked at Eliza. She gave him a rude hand gesture in return.

"We all have our keys, don't we?" Eliza waved hers for them to see. Harry and Cedric nodded, pulling out their identical keys. "Then let's get the hell out of here." She moved to the door and inserted her key into one of the three locks that Harry had only just noticed. Once he and Cedric did the same, she gave them a countdown. "On three. One…two…three!" Together, they turned their keys in synchronisation, and the door clicked open.

"What would have happened if one of us never made it?" Harry wondered aloud as they stepped into a long, empty corridor that was lined with dozens of doors identical to their own. "Would the other two just be stuck in there?"

Eliza looked at him as though he were daft. "Haven't you ever heard of the Unlocking Charm? You know, Alohomora?"

"Enough of that!" Moody snapped as turned the corner. The first thing he saw was Harry returning Eliza's earlier hand gesture. "Can't I leave you alone for five minutes?" Harry and Eliza exchanged a look. Even though they had been friendly as of late, Moody kept trying to paint them as bad teammates.

"He probably thinks we'll perform better if we compete against each other," Eliza had guessed a few days ago.

"He's probably right," Harry had replied, even though he thought Moody was a bad coach for thinking so. Instead of trying to turn them into a cohesive unit, he repeatedly set them up against each other.

"Come on," Moody said. He gestured for them to follow him towards the stairs at the end of the corridor. "Now that all three of you passed, you can wait with the other teams that are due to move forward."

They followed him through a winding series of stairs and corridors that led to the arena. As there was more space on the arena floor, Team Coaches were now permitted to stand with their Representatives. Moody stood before Eliza and stared fixedly at the Hogwarts banner. Glancing up, Harry noted that the Headteachers and Auror leaders had intermingled. It was most likely out of boredom as they were forced to spend hours waiting for their Representatives to either succeed or fail.

He also noted how few of them were left. It seems most of them had already gone home in shame.

The last Triumvirate- a Citadel team from Peru- finally limped in about an hour later. They must have been the last as Master Devereaux retook his stage. Harry scanned the other competitors in surprise. Even though he had studied previous Tournaments, it was still shocking to see how few teams made it through the first round.

There had been almost seven hundred teams during the Opening Ceremony- over two thousand competitors- but that had been cut down significantly. Now, little more than a hundred Triumvirates remained.

Master Devereaux smiled broadly as though he were personally responsible for their success. "Well done all of you! Completing the First Preliminary Round is no small feat. You should all be proud of your success. Give yourselves a round of applause!" Once again, he waited until they began to awkwardly clap for themselves, even those who were injured.

Harry wondered if they were going to do this song and dance after every round. He hoped not.

When he was finally satisfied with their level of enthusiasm, Devereaux continued. "The Second Preliminary Round of this year's Triwizard Tournament will commence…" he trailed off, and Harry knew he wasn't the only one that tensed. While he wasn't injured, he was physically exhausted and he doubted he would be able to survive another round, much less succeed in it.

Mercifully, it was only another quirk of Devereaux's sick sense of humour. "…in two days!" His smile widened as he heard the audible sighs of relief coming from the Representatives. "Please, follow your Team Coaches to the temporary accommodations that have been provided for you and return here healed and energised for the Second Round."

Slumping with relief at the dismissal, Harry followed Moody and his teammates out of the arena. He was too tired to even register the crowd of spectators, journalists and photographers that were lined up outside to catch a glimpse of which teams passed and which had failed.

When Devereaux mentioned temporary accommodation, Harry had pictured a hotel room or dormitory, but the reality was more akin to a village. In the middle of the city's wide river, there was an artificial island that had been created solely for the Tournament. It had a ring of trees around the shoreline to give the Representatives some measure of privacy from the city's inhabitants, and a hundred houses that were built around a natural, grassy amphitheatre.

A giant sailing ship took the remaining Representatives from the arena's dock to the island, but Harry didn't pay much attention to the boat ride after finding a seat. Cedric had to keep nudging him awake. "No one's going to carry you inside if that's what you're hoping for." Harry was too tired to feel indignant at that comment.

As he led them towards their designated house, Moody advised them to eat and heal their injuries before sleeping, but Harry didn't want to hear it. The moment the door was opened, he pushed past Moody and stumbled up the stairs to find his assigned room.

His room was identical to the one on the Hogwarts Express, and his travel bag was waiting for him at the foot of the bed, but he didn't care about any of that right now. He only paused to take off his boots and furs before slipping under the sheets. He was asleep in under a minute.

When he opened his bleary eyes, the sun was still streaming through the window, and his first instinct was to flip his pillow to the cool side and go back to sleep. However, a glance at the clock let him know that ten hours had passed and not the ten minutes it felt like. Cursing the entire world and his very existence, Harry struggled to summon the will to climb out of bed. When he finally did, he immediately wished that he hadn't, as his aching body was locked with stiffness.

After lowering himself into a scalding hot bath, Harry used Occlumency to soothe his mind before sorting through his memories of the previous day. When he was done with that, he raised his wand to soothe his body as well.

Once he cured the lingering aches and stiffness from yesterday's ordeal, Harry dressed casually for his day off in sweatpants and a t-shirt before leaving his room in search of something to eat. He examined the house as he went, noting the small study, training hall and broom cupboard stocked with three Firebolts in case they wanted to travel into the city. Devereaux and his Organising Team had gone above and beyond to ensure their comfort during their stay here.

"You missed both breakfast and Moody," Cedric greeted as Harry padded down the stairs in bare feet. In contrast to the extravagant upper level, the ground floor was just a large open sitting room and a fully stocked kitchen. His fellow Marauder looked as tired as Harry felt but had at least put in the effort to make himself presentable; he was wearing a surcoat over his tunic, his hair neatly combed and his boots were polished and shined.

In comparison, Eliza looked like an utter mess. She was hidden inside a large sweatshirt, her bare feet curled up beside her on the sofa and strands of unwashed hair peeked out from beneath her hood. An empty plate was on the coffee table in front of her so Harry understood that, like him, she had only come down for food.

He felt much better about himself now that he knew he wasn't the only one out of sorts. Harry ducked into the kitchen to ask the Automaton for an early lunch before dropping down on the armchair. "Yesterday was brutal for me. How about you guys?"

"I expected it to be hard but…" Cedric sighed. "I woke up in the middle of the sea. Tropical belt, somewhere in the Western Hemisphere." He shook his head dazedly. "What were they thinking? What if I didn't know how to swim?"

"Desert," Eliza grunted. "I woke up sunburnt."

"I woke up drowning!"

"Antarctica for me," Harry sighed, ignoring Cedric's spluttered indignance. "Buried in the snow. Had to warm up my fingers and limbs before I could even get moving."

The three continued to swap stories about the previous day. Eliza's guess that they had all faced similar obstacles but in different environments proved true. "So, we all woke up in a dangerous environment that we immediately had to save ourselves from, fought two Class XXXX Beasts, a group of invisible wizards, and then had to get past a tunnel of Malspores that hid the presence of a group powerful Beasts- this time of Class XXXXX rank- before reaching the key and escaping?" He waited for the other two to nod. "The first round was a lot more difficult than watching previous Tournaments led me to believe." He sighed again. "Well, at least we gave them a good show."

Eliza blinked groggily at him. "What?"

Harry glanced at her and then at Cedric who looked equally blank. He wondered if they were pulling his leg. "You know, everyone who's watching at home?"

"Oh." Cedric paled. "I completely forgot."

Eliza sat up, her tiredness forgotten. "So did I."

Harry started to smile. "What did you do? Wait," he thought about the clothes they had been wearing in the barren room they arrived in. There had been no room for their ceremonial gear underneath. "Did you get changed on camera?" Laughing when they didn't answer him, Harry flicked his wand at the Odeon, switching it on and finding a channel that was still playing the highlights from yesterday.

Fortunately for his teammates, Devereaux and his Organising Team were decent enough to edit those parts out. In fact, quite a lot was edited out. The Hogwarts Triumvirate was only shown during the replay of the Opening Ceremony and in Harry's quick defeat of the Yeti. While he was pleased with how cool and self-contained he appeared in both clips, he was aware that the focus on him only came from his fame as The Boy-Who-Lived.

Mercifully, neither Eliza nor Cedric were upset by this. Whatever it was they wanted from the Triwizard Tournament, fame clearly wasn't it.

"They can never show my face on the Odeon for all I care," Cedric said relieved. "As long as they don't show me starkers. I'd never live it down."

The three spent much of the day like that, lazing around in front of the Odeon and taking meals in the sitting room. Harry almost felt bad about the trouble the Organising Team had gone through in making this house so nice, just for them to not use most of it. When the sky outside started to darken, and Harry was considering calling it an early night, there was a knock on the door.

Cedric grudgingly answered it as the other two were too lazy to get up. While he couldn't see the doorway from his seat, Harry could hear a girl's voice speaking accentless English in jovial tones. "Hi! Someone's built a bonfire in that open space in the middle of the island, so we're having a party. Want to come?"

As they likely had another gruelling day ahead of them, the smart thing to do would be to politely decline this offer. However, while Cedric presented himself as a well-mannered student, he was a Marauder at heart. He liked to live recklessly. "Yeah, why not? Sounds fun."

"She must be very pretty for you to agree so easily," Eliza teased once the door was closed.

Cedric rolled his eyes. "This'll be a good opportunity to scope out the competition."

"Sure," she said sarcastically. "Whatever you say. But there's no way I'm getting up for anything other than my bed."

"Same here." Harry agreed, returning his attention to the Marvin the Mad Muggle cartoon. "Going out would be stupid."

Cedric raised an eyebrow, unimpressed by their show of solidarity. "Is that so?"

The three left the house a half hour later, washed, groomed and dressed in neat, casual wear. Cedric was a laidback guy most of the time, but he could be very bossy when he wanted to be.

The cacophony of raised voices and thumping music meant they heard the party long before they saw it. The sun had already set, so the bonfire at the amphitheatre's verdant base contrasted heavily against the deep blue sky. Partygoers were either dancing around the flames like druidic revellers or sitting comfortably on the soft grass on the outskirts.

Harry was bewildered as he observed them from a distance. How could they be so relaxed? The next round was going to begin in less than twelve hours.

Eyes scanning his surroundings, he noticed students from several different schools had already paired off, sneaking away from the bonfire's glow for privacy. Others sat on the grass, chatting to their competitors as though they weren't in direct opposition. Strangest of all, everyone seemed to be having a good time.

The reason why quickly became obvious.

"Cedric!" A familiar voice called. It was the girl from earlier and she hurried towards them drink in hand. Eliza had been spot on in her earlier guess; she was very pretty. "You came!" She hugged Cedric as though they were old friends, before tugging on his hand. "Come on! Let's get you a drink!"

Harry frowned at their retreating backs. The moment they were out of earshot, he asked Eliza, "How did she know his name?"

"I don't know," Eliza muttered, also observing the girl with suspicion. "But I'm going to find out."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Harry asked. "Cedric probably doesn't want his sister interrupting him when-" he abruptly stopped talking when he realised Eliza had already walked away. "Never mind."

Feeling awkward now that he was alone, Harry retreated further from the bonfire's light to observe his competitors without being observed himself. Leaning against the wall of the nearest house, he noticed that almost everyone present had a drink in hand and was chugging from it as though it had been charmed bottomless.

As someone who had spent most of his life on guard, Harry tried to avoid getting inebriated. There were exceptions: the occasional glass of elvish wine his guardians allowed him with dinner, mugs of oak-matured mead during parties in Ravenclaw Tower, and tumblers of fire whiskey during hangouts with The Marauders. He'd even experimented a couple of times with Euphoria Elixir and Draught of Peace with his best friends during sleepovers.

But the one thing those scenarios all had in common was that he was surrounded by people he trusted when he chose to partake.

That was a world away from where he was now. He couldn't understand the appeal of weakening himself before his rivals and thought less of everyone here because of it.

Before he could figure out their possible motivations, a figure rounded the corner of the house. Harry glanced in their direction and froze when he realised she was observing him in turn.

She was a small, delicate girl whose fine features were only highlighted by the bonfire's distant glow, but she leaned against the wall as though she had all the power in the world. Her dark hair was unbound, falling to her bare shoulders and Harry found his eyes lingering on the clear, olive skin there. He only stopped when he noticed the amused glint in her eyes.

He felt his breath catch. She was, undoubtedly, the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

"You're not drinking?" Harry slowly shook his head. Even her voice was melodic. "It seems you have more sense than the rest of them."

"What do you mean?" Harry gave himself a mental pat on the back for managing to keep his voice even.

The amused glint in her eyes died and she moved as though to kick off the wall. "I take back what I said."

Rattled at losing her attention so quickly, Harry's brain went into overdrive to figure out what she meant. "Oh," he said, as though he had simply misunderstood her meaning. "You mean everyone with a cup being far too open?" He nodded to himself. "Yeah, I figured the drinks were spiked." He bluffed.

The girl smiled approvingly and leaned back against the wall. "Right? How obvious can she be?" She nodded at the girl from earlier, who was now swaying to the music as she spoke with both Cedric and Eliza.

Harry hummed and tried to act like this wasn't news to him. "I know. I don't remember her face from the Opening Ceremony. They could have at least planted an Assessor among us from the very beginning to make it believable." His eyes remained on his teammates for a moment longer, noting that neither was drinking from the cups their hostess had forced upon them.

"Wow." The girl blinked. "I didn't even realise this was a test. I just thought someone took it upon themselves to cheat." She glanced to her left. "I wonder how many of them are as quick as you."

Following her gaze, Harry finally noticed the other figures that had taken refuge at the outskirts of the party. He quickly found two familiar profiles among them: Ekon, who was lingering moodily in a shadowy doorway, and Andrei, who was dangling his legs off the edge of a roof. He was already looking their way and waved enthusiastically at Harry as though they were old friends.

Harry pretended he didn't see and turned to face his companion. "I'm Harry. Hogwarts."

"I know who you are." He waited for her to mention something about Voldemort, his parents or the war. Instead, she said, "Good work with that Yeti." She extended a hand. "I'm Alia Nasir. New Alexandria."

"And I know who you are," Harry said honestly. Moody made sure they were aware of who the biggest threats were. "You're New Alexandria's Captain. You ranked in the Top 128 in the last Duelling World Cup." He avoided mentioning her loss to Ekon.

"Someone's done their research." Harry tried to withdraw his hand when the handshake met its natural conclusion, but she held onto it, brushing her thumb along his knuckles as she maintained eye contact. "You have me at a disadvantage. No one has ever seen the Hogwarts Triumvirate duel professionally before."

Harry smothered a smile and pretended to not know that was to their advantage. "We're all Auror Cadets. We don't have time-" he stopped when he felt the gentle brush of Legilimency touch his mind.

His grip on her hand tightened as he withdrew all thoughts of duelling and teammates behind his Mental Anchor and allowed memories of breakfast to take their place on the surface. "Do you think I could have made it this far- that anyone here could have made it this far- without first mastering Occlumency?"

Alia's eyes had widened at his quick reaction but returned to their default amusement by the time he finished speaking. "You're overestimating the competition, Harry. Most of them only got this far with blind luck, brute strength and rudimentary tracking spells."

"But not you?" He had already known she was a force to be reckoned with, but her Legilimency had been as subtle as any he had ever felt before. It had been both wandless and nonverbal.

"No. Not me." With enhanced strength, she forcefully tugged her hand out of his grip. "I'll be seeing you tomorrow." Alia walked away from him. If it weren't for her languid pace, he would have thought she was running away.

A hand landed on his shoulder. "Come on," Eliza said, guiding him away. "It's time we got out of here." Harry glanced around for Cedric and found him already stomping in the direction of their house.

"I'm guessing he figured out the Assessor wasn't interested really in him?"

Eliza side-eyed him. Harry had been around her enough to recognise when she was impressed but didn't want to admit it. "You figured it out on your own?"

"Yeah, and I wasn't the only one." He quickly told her of his conversation with Alia and the others he had glimpsed on the outskirts of the party. "She used Legilimency on me. I didn't expect that from someone still in school."

"Expect everything and anything from these people," Eliza warned. "They're the best witches and wizards of our generation." Opening the door to the house, they found a smiling Cedric waiting for them in the sitting room.

"I should be an actor," he crowed. "If this whole Auror thing doesn't pan out."

Harry was taken aback. "You were pretending? I thought you were really upset."

"I knew what that girl was about from the start," Cedric scoffed.

"Uh huh," Eliza muttered.

"Alright, maybe not from the start," Cedric conceded. "But it didn't take me long to figure out she was shady. I wanted to see what she had planned, and once I did, I got us out of there."

Harry turned to Eliza for the truth. "I thought she was a little too interested in Cedric to be legit," she said bluntly. "It's not like he's anything impressive."

"Ooh!" Harry said, just to stir the pot.

Cedric scowled. "Plenty of girls have been interested in me, alright? One of them being from a different school isn't out of the question."

"Uh huh," Eliza said again. Her low-effort response only seemed to annoy Cedric more. "Anyway, this is to our advantage. The rest of them can waste their night drinking and partying while we get a proper rest for tomorrow," she finished. "We need to be ready for whatever they throw at us."

Harry watched the two of them ascend the stairs and wondered if he would have figured out the truth like Eliza or proven vulnerable to a pretty face like Cedric. His brief meeting with Alia Nasir didn't leave him with much hope.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Moody arrived bright and early the next day. He forcefully banged on each of their doors so they could rise with Memphis' artificial sun.

Once he made sure they had the keys from the first round and were dressed appropriately in summer duelling gear (giving them a hint towards what environment they were about to be dropped into) Moody escorted them from the house to the dock where the sailing ship was waiting to ferry them back to the mainland.

As they walked, they informed him of the events of the previous evening under the cover of a Muffling Charm. Upon finishing, they were rewarded with a rare smile from their harsh taskmaster. "I'm glad you remembered this whole thing isn't just about testing your power, but your brains as well."

That comment made Harry remember something he'd been wondering about since the first round. "About that. Why the sudden shift?" He asked. "I mean, even in the last Tournament, the prelims and tasks were focused more on power and technical skill than anything else."

"Yes, but that isn't enough anymore," Moody grunted as the dock came into sight. "I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but after the Azkaban breakout the higher-ups of the Auror Corps and the Coalition have been antsy at the idea of another war breaking out."

"I thought the inevitability of that would have been obvious." Eliza's gaze had turned sharp at the mention of Azkaban. "Another war was always going to break out."

Moody hummed in agreement. "Yes, but now we think it's imminent." He glanced at them with measured sympathy. "Even without You-Know-Who, our intelligence indicates that all-out war will break out before the little one here can graduate school." He nudged Harry benevolently, as though trying to comfort him, but he had known it was inevitable since he was eleven years old.

But Moody doesn't know what I know, Harry reminded himself.

"So, what's the plan?" Cedric asked as they climbed aboard the ship. "Weed out everyone not capable of fighting on the front lines?"

"No," Moody snorted. "That's for foot soldiers. The Magister is trying to find the Generals, Commanders and Captains for the next war."

"That's insane," Cedric hissed. "What about the leaders we already have?"

"They'll likely be the first targets for the Death Eaters, same as the last war." Moody glanced at Cedric. "Didn't you learn that in History of Magic?"

Harry swallowed. The idea of the best and brightest of the Auror Corps being done away with was disconcerting, especially as one was the father of two of his best friends.

The boat ride was just as quiet as it was two days ago, but this time it was restrained due to the hangovers half the Representatives had and not tiredness. Whatever they had imbued was not curable with a Hair-of-the-Dog Concoction. There were fewer cameras around the arena as well, but that was to be expected. The grand displays were reserved for only the Opening and Awarding Ceremonies.

Moody led the Hogwarts Triumvirate to the arena floor and had them line up before their school banner. As Master Devereaux climbed onto the stage, Moody suddenly turned to face them, startling Eliza. She took a step back onto Harry's foot.

"Listen," the grizzled Auror whispered over Harry's hiss of pain. "You need to be ruthless if you're going to survive the next round." He raised his voice slightly to quell their questions. "Don't be afraid to pick off the weakest of the herd." He leaned his head around Eliza to look at Harry. "They'll do the same to you."

Harry's expression darkened. He was the youngest-ever participant, so he might as well have had a bright Flagrate Charm flashing overhead spelling the words WEAK LINK.

Devereaux was so eager to get things started that he began speaking before he even stopped at his podium.

"-to progress to the Second Preliminary Round, each team would have had to collect three keys." He flicked his wand and a massive holographic image of the key Harry had gone through hell and back to collect was displayed. "These are not just Portkeys for the first round, but the second as well. You will be Portkeyed to a designated location and can only return when your team has collected nine other keys from your rivals. That's right," he added, as hushed whispers overtook the arena. "The only obstacle you will face in the coming round is each other and your only advantage will be your teammates."

"You will only have twelve hours to complete this challenge. You must return with twelve keys and both your teammates to progress to the third round. You cannot, under any circumstances, kill or torture your rivals. However, permanent maiming and grievous bodily harm are allowed. There will be no time for questions." Devereaux couldn't keep a straight face. The amusement he felt at being able to deny the panicking Representatives was obvious. "Best of luck to you all!"

Suddenly, the key in Harry's pocket felt heavier than it had a moment ago. He was expecting it but that didn't make the hooking sensation behind his navel any more pleasant.

This time, Harry wasn't knocked out mid-Portkey and was able to land on his feet, wand at the ready, and his eyes scanned the unfamiliar territory. The air was unbearably thick with humidity and- when combined with the heat- he found it almost difficult to breathe. They were surrounded by dense layers of trees that hid even the sky from sight. The ground beneath their feet was spongy with moisture and the sound of a hundred different kinds of wildlife overtook the air.

When he found no sign of danger, Harry lowered his wand and turned to his teammates. "So, do we hide or attack?" He spoke quietly, just in case they were being monitored. The way he saw it, there was no time to waste on strategy while they were out in the open.

"Attack," Eliza said firmly.

"Hide," Cedric said at the same moment.

They each stared at the other, outraged but unsurprised. Harry sighed. Why did he always end up in charge whenever an adult wasn't around?

"We'll do both," he compromised. "We find a safe spot to hide and strategise before going on the offensive." Cedric nodded grudgingly, clearly wanting to wait things out, but Eliza looked mutinous. Harry disillusioned himself and began moving before she could voice her disagreement. He knew she was in charge of the team, but he would relinquish his temporary control only when they found safety.

Invisible to all physical senses, the three darted through the rainforest, weaving in between trees as they raced far away from the area they had landed in. Harry didn't know all that much about this sort of environment but he'd seen enough nature documentaries at Privet Drive to know that creepy crawlies could be just as dangerous as the largest of predators. He would turn to his teammates for guidance on how to protect himself once they had secured a base.

He could only hope Devereaux was honest when he said there was only one obstacle. He was in no mood to battle magical wildlife and bloodthirsty teenagers at the same time.

Skidding to a stop when he noticed the layers of branches and leaves start to thin, Harry poked his head out far enough to examine the wide, flowing river for any enemies before whispering, "This is it." He dropped his Disillusionment Charm so they could see him.

Eliza hummed. "We can make a solid base up there." There was a brief pause. "Forgot I was invisible," she muttered and dropped her disillusionment and pointed up the nearest tree. "With the river on one side, we can safely put our backs to it."

Cedric nodded as he dropped his disillusionment. "Good idea. Let's get to it."

If someone had asked Harry to build a treehouse, even with magic, he would have been stumped. However, Eliza and Cedric had three more years of Transfiguration classes under their belts and were able to bring their idea to life in a matter of moments. Wanting to contribute, Harry waved his wand and expanded the interior, conjuring comfortable seating as he did so.

Even so, Eliza caught his eye and gave him a superior smirk. He gave her the middle finger.

"So," Cedric began once they had finished putting the appropriate levels of protection around the treehouse. "What's the plan?"

"We listen to Captain Moody," Eliza said immediately. "We go out and pick off the weaker teams."

Harry nodded. He wasn't so proud that he would choose to go after the stronger teams right off the bat. "Alright, but since we're going to be here for twelve hours, we'd better locate a source of food."

Cedric shook his head. "We can conjure water, so we're good on that front, but I wouldn't trust anything edible in this place."

"But Moody didn't give us time for breakfast!"

"It's our fault for sleeping in," Eliza said, but she sighed frustratedly. She was hungry too.

"Besides, the Assessors might have laced it like they did the drinks last night," Cedric pointed out.

Harry thought that was unlikely, but Eliza nodded in agreement, so he was outnumbered. He resigned himself to the hunger pangs that would come with magical strain.

"Anyone capable enough to sense this place-" Harry tapped his foot against the wooden floorboards- "is not someone whose attention we want, especially if we're ambushed." He would have liked to use it as bait, but it was too risky to wait for others to come to them.

"Then we abandon it at the first sign of attack," Eliza reasoned. "If we're separated, we'll meet one mile downstream thirty minutes later. Agreed?" She waited for them to nod, before asking, "Anything else?"

"I don't know much about this kind of environment," Harry grudgingly admitted. "Anything I should look out for?"

"In a fight? There's nothing you can't handle." Cedric reassured him. "But you might want to use an Impervius Charm to repel parasites." He shuddered. "You don't want to get a Chizpurfle on you, that's for sure." Harry didn't know what that was, but it sounded bad.

"Use the Diagnostic Charm first," Eliza advised. "They might already be on you." As Harry began to hurriedly examine himself, she began explaining the details of her plan. "The stronger teams- the ones with the good reputations like New Alexandria and Uagadou- will be forced to attack out of school honour or pride or whatever. We need to avoid them and pick off the weaker teams."

"You mean the Citadel teams?" Harry guessed once he was satisfied that he was safe from all magical parasites. He didn't like the idea of going after them, as they were more likely to be all Muggle-born, so it felt weirdly biased. "I'd rather not."

Eliza, a Muggle-born herself, immediately got what he thinking. "I meant Citadel and Coven teams."

Harry shook his head. "I didn't check the list of remaining teams, but Coven Triumvirates always get knocked out early." Covens varied wildly in their structure, beliefs and traditions but the one constant was their lack of strength. They usually studied specialised magic instead of the wide-ranged education schools and Citadels offered. They considered it their heritage and only came to the Triwizard out of pride or a chance to meet with other covens. "What if we come across a school team or even one of the weaker premier schools, like Mahoutokoro or Beauxbatons?"

"Then we take them down as quickly as we can," Cedric said firmly. "We've studied them all. We can take any of them in a head-to-head fight."

Harry wasn't sure if he entirely agreed with that assessment. He'd seen the lead attackers of the Uagadou and Koldovstoretz Triumvirates in action, and he could admit to himself (but only himself) that they were stronger than him. Maybe even stronger than Eliza.

"Remember, we move as a team." Eliza reminded them as they got ready to set off. "We attack or retreat at my signal and return to base after every fight. Alright?" Again, she waited for them to agree before continuing. "Good. Then let's move out."

Once again hidden under a heavy layer of concealing spells, the three moved through the forest in the direction of the closest enemy squad, hoping it was one of the hungover teams for easy pickings. Slowing down once their targets were within earshot, the three split up, each blocking a different avenue of escape.

Still moving alongside their hiking targets, Harry waited for Eliza's signal to come. It was only when the incongruous sound of nightingales joined the clamour of the rainforest wildlife that he realised they hadn't ironed out all the details, but it was much too late.

Their targets were a Citadel team, one that was still dealing with the aftereffects of last night's party. They staggered through the jungle, clearly believing that three (admittedly well-applied) Disillusionment Charms would be enough to protect them from detection.

The moment Eliza's signal arrived, the Hogwarts Triumvirate cast simultaneous Stunning Spells. The boy and one of the girls were immediately taken down, but their leader got lucky. Harry and Cedric had both aimed for the boy, sparing her.

Despite the situation, Harry wanted to laugh when Cedric gave his position away by swearing loudly. This gave the girl enough time to react with a thick lasso of flames that she expanded outward from her position. Not wanting his partial blunder to result in one of their targets escaping, Harry charged forward, casting a silent Flame-Freezing Charm on himself as he did so.

Already knowing from earlier that the girl was incapable of sensing the presence of others, he enjoyed her brief expression of shock as the fire parted for his still invisible form as he leapt through the flames, tackling her to the ground. With a knee pressing her wand arm to the ground, Harry hit her point blank with a Stunning Spell and the fire dissipated.

"Was bowling her over like that necessary?" Cedric asked. Harry started as he hadn't heard him approach.

Eliza didn't even need to be visible for him to be aware of her approach though, as she stomped over from her hiding place in a clear mood. "Forget that. Why did you even leave her untouched in the first place? Did you both think the boy was more of a threat or something?"

Harry rolled his eyes as he began searching their downed competitors for their keys. "No, we hit the same target because you, our fearless leader, failed to specify which targets were whose."

There was a slight pause, and even though he couldn't see her face, Harry knew that this was the first time she was realising her error. "I'll do better next time," she said finally, her voice even more sober than it usually was.

Harry was glad he was still invisible because his mouth had fallen open. He would have put it more gently if he knew she would take his criticism seriously. "Eliza," he began haltingly, "I didn't mean…"

Eliza spoke again, firmer this time, and he just knew she was looking directly at him. "Cedric's the shield, you're the wild card, and I'm the leader. I'll do better next time," she repeated.

When Harry failed to reply, as he was still a little taken aback, Cedric spoke up. "Now what, boss?"

"Now we grab the keys and get out of here before someone comes to investigate." It went unsaid that they were better served remaining hunters than becoming the hunted.

After they left the unconscious team behind a layer of protection spells (just in case something more sinister than other players lurked in the rainforest) Eliza led the way back to their base at a languid pace. In the moment that made the most amount of sense, as they needed to save their energy for the fights to come, but it ultimately gave their enemies more time to work against them.

Slowing their jog down to a walk when the invisible treehouse was in sight (so to speak), Eliza held her wand out to check if their perimeter had been breached but lowered it a moment later without a word. Taking that to mean it was safe to enter, the boys followed her lead in climbing the tree and entered their expanded base.

Harry, already a little tired from their earlier hard run, made his way over to his conjured armchair, but he froze when he noticed an incongruity. He had left the armchair with its back to the wall, and the makeshift hole in the wooden wall that served as a window to its left. Now the back of the chair faced the hole. He liked sitting near windows for a quick escape, but he hated having his back facing them as it exposed him to an attack from outside.

Someone had moved his chair.

Harry raised his wand, and just in the nick of time too. The runes that were hidden underneath his chair glowed bright gold.

"Aequor Tutela!" He roared. A fraction of a second later, Cedric shouted, "Fianto Duri!"

The water-heavy air was immediately transfigured into a ball of ice large enough to encase Harry and his teammates. When coupled with Cedric's Unbreakable Charm, it was enough to protect them from the ensuing explosion that obliterated their treehouse. But even within its airtight hold, they could still feel the teeth-rattling explosion all around them as the ice ball was thrown out of whatever remained of the tree and into the muddy earth below.

"What the hell was that?!" Harry shouted, righting himself as the tumble from the tree had upended him like a turtle on its back.

Cedric ignored him, gently slapping his blank-faced sister on the cheek. "Eliza? Eliza!"

Before Harry could ask what was wrong with her, their attackers made themselves known by breaching their defence. Hissing, Harry jerked his elbow from where it had been resting on the ice as an arrow made of blue flames spiked through the sphere. Not having time to figure out the potential defensive capability of a charmed ball of ice, Harry decided to go on the offensive and give his teammates time to figure out what was going on.

Finestra! Depulso! Acusignis!

In an instant, the ball of ice was shattered into a thousand tiny fragments and banished outward in all directions at blinding speed. Halfway through their flight, the fragments were transfigured into needles which stripped the trees around them of their bark, as if struck by a hail of bullets. Had he been alone, Harry would have happily used this opportunity to escape, but he had his teammates to think about. For reasons beyond him, they had been rendered useless by the explosion.

Defodio! Spongify! Formae!

The ground beneath them opened up and- with Cedric still cradling a blank-faced and unresponsive Eliza- the two fell through the newly formed hole where a soft landing awaited them. Harry had just enough time to encase the hole with a dome of earth before he sensed three Stunning Spells come at him from various directions.

Great, he thought scornfully. Now I have to fight a Triumvirate on my own. So much for teamwork.

Harry rolled to avoid the first and vaulted behind the earthen dome to escape the second before catching the third on the tip of his wand and redirecting it back at its caster with double the speed. Unfortunately, while he was still smirking at the sound of a stunned foe falling from a tree, Harry was caught from behind by a thin animated branch that wrapped itself around his throat.

Not wanting to waste time with a Revulsion Jinx that might not even work, Harry attempted to do a backflip to escape the incoming Body-Bind Curse, though it didn't quite work as intended. Just as he lifted his legs to be level with his head- holding his weight up by pressing his hands down on the branch around his throat- the fragile wood snapped as it was unable to bear his weight, and the curse skimmed over his head, ruffling his hair.

From the outside, it looked as though he had smoothly avoided an incoming spell and overcame his restraints without magic, but Harry knew it was just sheer dumb luck.

Not that he would ever tell anyone.

Gasping for breath, Harry jabbed his wand at the ground, conjuring a bullet of air to get him out of his compromised position, and just in the nick of time as well. A bundle of thick roots broke out from the earth where he had been crouched, and they flailed in the air as they searched for someone to restrain.

Knowing he couldn't handle a three-on-one ambush when he was still reeling from the explosion half a minute earlier, Harry decided to buy himself (and his team) a little breathing room. It was a good thing they had built their base so close to the river.

Silano! Ebubilo!

Harry was immediately encased in a human-sized bubble, which was good as it protected him from the physical blows the other animated trees rained down on him while he was in the air. However, that wasn't the only reason he'd encased himself in a pocket of air.

They heard the water before they saw it. The trees that had been blocking the river from sight were bent by the incoming hundred-foot wave. As they had their backs to it, Harry's attackers were forced to turn to get an idea of what was headed their way but by then it was much too late to stop it.

Still, while this attack would have downed any other challenger, Harry didn't want to take the risk. "Vorago!" Before any of them could get the idea to try and part the crashing wave (or worse, wrestle control of it away from him) its momentum was redirected into a rapid clockwise motion, sweeping his still invisible opponents off their feet and into the water's fierce current.

Harry wasn't spared from this treatment either, but as he was still in his little bubble, an Ascension Charm was all that was needed before he was safely bobbing on the surface of the ferocious whirlpool. It took a minute before the water naturally receded to the river, but by then it had already served its purpose.

Not only were the three attackers now visible to the naked eye- their disillusioned forms were covered in mud and muck- but Cedric had taken the opportunity to resurface, and he looked pissed.

"Two-on-two! Now that seems a little fairer." Unable to suppress his cockiness at having handled a three-on-one ambush while also protecting his teammates, Harry smirked at Cedric. However, as he didn't feel comfortable enough to glance away from his opponents, they seemed to believe this smirk was meant for them. He could almost see them bristle. "Nice of you to finally join me. Where's Eliza?"

Cedric didn't take his eyes off their opponents either, but he was glaring at them, not smirking. "There was some kind of cognitive curse on our perimeter defences. It was meant to trigger when someone checked it, so Eliza's out of it." Harry's smirk slipped from his face when he heard that their team's powerhouse had been knocked out before the fight could even begin. His mood plummeted further when a member of the other team finally spoke.

"I was hoping that curse would have taken care of one of you," Alia said as her Disillusionment Charm fell. The sight of her made Harry's breath quicken, but not for the reason it had last night. "If I had known Hawthorn would've been the recipient, I would have chosen a more violent curse." Cedric twitched, but Harry shot him a warning look. He needed more information before a fight broke out.

"Alia," one of the boys on her team whispered as his body came into sight. "We're not allowed to torture. We could be disqualified."

"Does torture of the mind even count?" She asked no one in particular.

Harry couldn't understand why the New Alexandria team would even bother targeting another team from a premier school. They were far more likely to be threats than their Citadel or coven-trained counterparts.

Unless they're targeting the only team with a fourteen-year-old on it, Harry figured. But that doesn't explain why she would want Eliza to suffer. What's the connection between them?

While that was a question he wanted an answer to, Harry knew he wouldn't get one if he simply came out and asked. As such, he fell back on an old reliable and decided to frustrate his enemy. "I can't believe you'd ambush me like this," he sighed dramatically. "I thought we had a real connection."

Surprisingly, instead of getting irritated at his presumption, Alia just looked right through him. "You're cute, but I'm not here for you. I'm here for her."

Harry was confused, but Cedric wasn't. Much of his anger seemed to drain out of his body as he sighed. "Seriously?" He asked. "Here?"

"Mind catching me up?" Harry asked. Maybe if he kept everyone talking, Eliza would have enough time to snap out of it and make this into a fair fight. He could see the cautious Alexandria boy revive his stunned teammate, turning this into a lopsided battle once again.

"Allow me," Alia snapped as Cedric opened his mouth. "My brother was a Cursebreaker. Or at least he was until Reyna Hawthorn killed him and his entire team eight years ago." Harry glanced at Cedric, checking to see if this was true. Judging by his resigned expression, it was.

Before Harry could think of how to defuse the situation, he heard movement behind him. Wary of another attack, Harry snapped his head around to see Eliza stumbling towards them as though she were sleepwalking.

"Reyna?" She asked, her voice little more than a murmur. Judging by Alia's hiss, it carried fairly well in the thick air.

Harry refocused his attention back on her, unsure which annoyed him more: the fact that his team was being targeted for a personal matter or that Alia had only spoken to him last night to get intel on Eliza.

Well, that second one was more of a blow to his pride than anything else, but still.

"Eliza," Harry said, not taking his eyes off Alia. "Can you hear me?"

There was a long pause and everyone present waited to hear her answer. Eventually, the girl in question grunted her answer with great difficulty. "Yeah."

"I can't believe you were brought down by such a lame spell." Harry spared her a quick scowl. "I'm embarrassed for you."

There was only a slight pause this time. "What?" Her voice was low but he heard a trace of anger in it.

"I'm only going to tell you this once. You're not allowed to lose until I beat you myself. Got that?"

Eliza responded almost instantly this time. The fog in her eyes cleared and was replaced by annoyance. "I'll never lose to you," she vowed.

"Yeah? Prove it," he hissed. "Because there's no point in beating you if you're not the strongest." Without waiting for a response, he launched himself at the cautious boy at full speed.

Everyone present was startled by this, but none more so than the poor boy Harry ran at. He paused, giving Harry ample time to aim a full-powered Bludgeoning Curse at him as he ran. While the boy reacted with impressive reflexes, shielding himself in the nick of time, it wasn't strong enough to prevent him from being thrown backwards by the force of the spell.

As Harry pressed his advantage, using his enhanced speed to close in rapidly, the other four clumsily followed his lead and the real fight began in earnest.

Harry had to admit that the burly boy had incredible reflexes for his size. He managed to meet the attacks that were levelled at him blow for blow. Instead of allowing Harry to take control of the duel from the offset, he manipulated their environment to give himself some breathing room.

Harry charged him at full speed. He wanted to get in close so that defensive spells and techniques would be all but useless, but that's when his opponent turned the tables on him. He felt the suctioning mud beneath his feet turn into dry sand, and he stumbled, instinctively struggling to regain his balance.

That was the window of opportunity the other boy needed. With a flick of his wand, the sand began to whip itself at Harry in a targeted frenzy. He just about stopped himself from crying out as the sandstorm stripped several layers of skin from his arms, face and neck. Snapping his eyes closed, Harry dived to his left to take cover behind a tree, again suppressing a hiss as the grains of sand tore at his skin and dug deep into his wounds.

Any noise he let out would give his position away.

Even in pain, it didn't escape his attention that his opponent's vision was obscured by the sandstorm as well. Harry just had to counter in the brief moment it took to switch from eyesight to Mage Sight.

Glacies! Harry sighed in relief as the sandstorm was transfigured into a blizzard. The heavy snowflakes almost felt soothing when they landed on his bleeding abrasions, but he didn't allow that relief to slow him down in the slightest. Every second counted in a duel against the unknown.

Unfortunately, the burly boy didn't allow the snowstorm to slow him down in the slightest. Harry heard his next attack before he saw it. Charging around the nearest tree was a massive, raging bull.

Harry gritted his teeth and jabbed his wand at the rampaging bovine in the nick of time. Just as the bull was close enough for him to see the frenzy in its eyes, it was switched with part of a trunk from a nearby tree. His opponent managed to counter the blizzard with a powerful Atmospheric Charm quickly enough to see the results of Harry's Switching Spell.

The bull had already been killed by being forcibly switched- Harry had not yet attempted the spell with a mammal of its size before- but its body was squashed as the remainder of the tree above it fell and crushed it against its roots. Brushing the snow from his eyes, the burly boy turned at the noise, most likely expecting a sneak attack from Harry, but was instead met by the sight of an unbalanced tree falling on top of him.

The boy leapt out of the way, right where Harry was waiting for him. However, he must have been very experienced, as he immediately snapped a Shield Charm over himself, correctly predicting that Harry would predict where he would flee to.

When his Stunning Spell was blocked, Harry paused for a fraction of a second as he was unused to people seeing through his layered attacks. This left him open to a swipe from the branch of an animated tree.

Harry felt the hit incoming due to a breeze on the back of his neck, but he only had enough time to move his head to the side. As such, he was only thrown to the ground by a glancing blow to his face instead of having his skull cracked open.

There was so much blood on one side of his face that one eye was useless to him, but he could still see his opponent quickly climb to his feet. The sight left Harry enraged. Not at the burly boy, but at himself. He had faced down tougher enemies than this guy, but no one had ever given him such a run for his money before.

That's because I was fighting for keeps all those times, Harry realised. I need to do the same here, or I'll lose.

Ventus! An intense gust of wind shot outwards in all directions. His opponent was thrown back off his feet and the animated trees were held at bay, the powerful blows that had been about to rain down on him were pushed back. Harry was untouched as he was in the epicentre, and he used the opportunity to slash his wand wildly in the air. "Sectumsempra!" He spat with no small amount of viciousness.

The branches around them were torn to splinters, and many of the thick tree trunks were severed in several different places, causing them to crash down all over the place. Harry got to his feet in this ensuing chaos and slashed his wand in the enemy's direction as though it were a sword. Depulso! The falling splinters were banished away from him and towards his target.

Knowing that he had to overwhelm him, Harry launched himself with his usual bullet of air and somersaulted over the boy's head. The boy managed to block the splinters with a conjured shield, just as Harry expected he would. But what he hadn't expected was for the boy's wand to be pointed upwards as though waiting for him to fly overhead.

"LAMINA!" The boy bellowed and a curtain of sharp daggers was conjured from thin air before being launched up at Harry.

They're the ones who ambushed us, Harry remembered much too late. They must have studied the highlights on the Odeon yesterday. They saw me use this move on the Yeti.

However, the boy had severely underestimated Harry's thirst for victory. In moments like these, it bordered on madness and it far superseded his survival instinct.

Prolourum! A ring of golden fire erupted from the ground at the boy's feet. It shot upwards and encased his entire body. Overwhelmed by visions of all the suffering he had caused, the boy crumpled to the ground, but Harry didn't trust his success just yet.

Shielding his face with his left arm and trusting his enchanted duelling gear to protect the rest of his body from the blades, Harry jabbed his wand down at his fallen foe and struck him with a Stunning Spell just before the first of the knives imbedded themselves in his bare arm.

He couldn't even hiss in pain as several other daggers struck him in the chest. While the enchantments on his gear prevented the blades from cutting into his torso, they did little to stop the physical blows. Harry felt like he had been punched in the diaphragm several times in rapid succession and the wind was knocked out of his lungs. His brain was so focused on this that he only distantly felt the blows the other knives rained down on the rest of his body.

Harry didn't even have the presence of mind to soften his landing as he crashed down on the thin layer of melting snow beside his fallen foe. Snap! The sound of his ankle breaking echoed in his ears and he clenched his jaw to stop himself from screaming.

As the rest of the daggers reached the peak of their flight and started to fall all around him, Harry moved to restrain the one who had conjured them. It was only after he had disillusioned the other boy, tied him to the nearest intact tree and removed his key that Harry finally began to work on himself.

Looking at his various injuries and that of his unscathed enemy, Harry felt a jolt of anger that he quickly squashed. Moody's lessons on anger and its benefits had come in handy just now, but he needed to keep a cool head when he was healing himself.

After he'd vanished the blades that had been driven bone deep in his arms and closed the wounds, Harry healed his ankle before beginning work on his still bleeding head and restoring the layers of skin that the sand had stripped away. Shaking his head, Harry found it hard to believe just how much he'd struggled in this fight. The only reason he'd won was due to wanting it more than his opponent, or at the very least he was willing to endure more pain to ensure victory.

Harry was frustrated with his performance. If he struggled against a no-name duellist like this New Alexandria student, then how would he fare against proven fighters like Ekon or the Molotov twins?

No, Harry realised as he thought back on his opponent's off-the-wall style and how he'd repeatedly wrenched small victories from what should have been defeats. He's a wild card duellist. Like me.

The fact that he and his teammates might not be the inventors of this team dynamic was only just occurring to him. But if I faced the wild card, then that must mean-

The moment he finished cleaning himself of blood and healing the bruises the daggers had left across his body, Harry hurried back to his teammates. Almost immediately, he came across the engaged stalemate Cedric was in with the boy who had been stunned earlier. It seemed that Harry hadn't been the only one who had been battling his counterpart; Cedric was going toe to toe against another defence specialist.

While Harry and the burly boy had carried their fight away from their teams, Cedric and the New Alexandria boy had hardly moved a step from where the ambush had begun. At their feet were the earthen remains of protective domes and transfigured items that had been used as shields. As they came into sight, he saw them taking quick shots at each other before pausing and waiting for the other to make a move.

Just watching them for a couple of seconds was enough to frustrate Harry. He was unsure where they got this level of patience from. He would have stepped in to end things, but he was distracted by the sounds of a far livelier fight that was happening just out of sight.

In contrast to Cedric's duel, the fight between Eliza and Alia was far more vicious and quicker-paced. Eliza conjured a ram to not only block Alia's Severing Curse but to banish its bloody remains at her. Alia countered by first dodging the pieces of the ram's corpse and then animating its entrails to whip at Eliza and bind her limbs.

As Eliza was burning away the intestines with a controlled firestorm- both to defend herself and to hide her position in case her opponent sought to take advantage of her momentary distraction- Alia sought to hide as well. Using the Smokescreen Spell to hide seemed like a futile move on the surface, as Eliza simply vanished it with a flick of her wand, but Alia's real plan was revealed when the smoke disappeared.

All around Eliza's position, standing in the open and lurking behind trees, were six identical copies of Alia.

Expecting this to be the same illusion the Molotov twins used in the Doubles Championship, Harry immediately did what he guessed Eliza was doing. He peered with his Mage Sight to figure out which clone was the real Alia.

He reeled back when he saw they were all emitting identical levels of Mana.

Eliza seemed rattled by this as well, but as the clones began to sprint towards her, she dug deep and released a cloak of golden energy from her body. It quickly took on the shape of her Combat Avatar and a golden wing swept away three of the clones at once, leaving nothing but fragments of the wood they had been formed from.

They're physical enough to be imbued with Mana, but can't use magic themselves, Harry realised. Did Eliza figure that out on the fly? Or did she just get lucky?

As he watched the last of the clones get cut through by one of the wings, Harry heard the sound of mocking laughter from behind him. He peered his head around the tree he was leaning against to see if Cedric needed help.

He did not. While the New Alexandria boy had simply been waiting for an opening, Cedric had been playing the long game. As it turned out, he hadn't left all the scattered remains of his broken transfigurations on the ground without reason. He banished them all towards his opponent at once.

The mocking laughter Harry had heard was the nameless boy's reaction to such an attack, which must seem desperate for someone who had been patiently waiting for his moment all this time, but he (and admittedly Harry) had underestimated Cedric's underhandedness. At some point during their brief attacks and long retreats behind various shields, Cedric had engraved Containment Complexes upon each of the scattered transfigured items. They only revealed what spell they contained when they were within range of their target.

The nameless boy raised his wand to vanish the projectiles, calm as they were still too far away to injure him, but they were close enough for what Cedric had planned.

The runes on the projectiles revealed themselves by glowing gold before igniting an impressive explosion.

Harry ducked back behind the tree, and while he was saved from the blast, the noise still left his ears ringing. Just as he was about to go and check on Cedric, he heard Eliza grunt.

Snapping his head back around to the fight between the teams' powerhouses, Harry's eyes widened when he saw Eliza's half-formed Avatar falter and splutter out of existence. Alia, appearing utterly unconcerned with the defeat of her teammates, shot forward to take advantage of Eliza's stumble and fired a conjured, flaming spear as she did so.

It might have worked, but Harry was already moving the instant he heard Eliza waver in her defence.

A giant purple wing blocked the fiery projectile, and its shattered remains fell to the ground as Alia halted her approach. But Harry wasn't looking at her. "Are you going to perform this poorly when you fight your sister as well?" He asked Eliza quietly, not wanting anyone else to hear. Her head, which had been lolling with exhaustion, snapped around to glare up at him before zeroing in on Alia.

He smiled viciously. The last of the cognitive curse was broken. For the first time since the duel began, the real Eliza Hawthorn revealed herself.

Harry's partial Combat Avatar faded, as he was unable to maintain it for more than a few seconds, but it was enough. The instant it vanished, Eliza charged towards her opponent like a racehorse out of the gate.

She covered her approach with bullets of water, but Alia simply vanished them all with a flick of her wand, but that only revealed the jagged rocks that had been hiding within. Grunting as the first two struck her- one in the stomach and the other on her cheek- Alia reversed the momentum of the rest and fired them back on their conjurer.

Eliza still ran on ahead, and just when everyone watching thought she would be struck by her own conjured rocks, the forgotten roots that had attacked Harry earlier now shot in front of her and batted the rocks away. Then they lashed out at the one who had conjured them in the first place.

Look, she seemed to say. I can use your weapons against you too.

Taking advantage of Alia's momentary distraction- she was busy burning away the roots that were whipping at her- Eliza left an afterimage of herself to stand in front of her enemy while she, now disillusioned, ran around to get at Alia's exposed back.

Harry clenched his jaw. He could remember their time in The Silver Spears when Eliza couldn't even get a Confundus Charm down. Now she was using high-level illusion spells in the middle of a heated duel. It was another harsh reminder that his rivals wouldn't remain static in their development as he struggled to surpass them.

Alia managed to burn the last of the roots to ash and tensed when she saw the image of Eliza standing bold as brass in front of her. After a second went by without an attack, she seemed to catch on to what was going on, but it was much too late.

With a single flash of red light, the duel came to a sudden end.

Alia fell face-first onto the ruined earth, revealing Eliza who had been standing right behind her. "Do we all have our keys?" She asked, not even out of breath. She crouched down and began rifling through Alia's pockets.

"Yeah." For the second time today, Cedric's voice startled Harry. He hadn't even noticed him leaning against the other side of the tree.

There was a long moment of silence, and Harry realised they were waiting for his answer. "Obviously. I was the first one of us to win, remember?"

Cedric sighed. "Oh, he's never going to let that go, is he?"

"No," Eliza agreed as she stuffed Alia's key in her pocket. "I expect we'll be hearing all about how he saved us from the ambush as well."

Harry smirked. "I don't owe you anymore."

Eliza immediately knew what he was talking about. "I saved your life in the Forbidden Forest. The worst thing that could have happened here is-"

"Our team losing?" Harry finished for her. "Isn't that so much worse?" He took her stubborn silence as agreement. "Say it. Go on," he urged cheekily. "MVP! MVP!" He began to chant under his breath.

Cedric joined in. "MVP! MVP!" When Eliza turned to him, betrayed, he mumbled, "It's catchy."

She tutted before grumbling, "MVP."

"Yay!" Harry cheered. Cedric clapped.

"You're both insane," Eliza said, but she was smiling. "We should get out of here before someone thinks to pick off the surviving team."

It was a good idea, especially as they had nine keys and ten hours to go. The odds of another team doing better than them were unlikely, which wasn't good, as it made them a target.

To save what Mana they had left for their next (and hopefully last) fight for keys, the Triumvirate ran through the forest without the cover of concealing spells. They relied only on their ability to suppress their magic to hide from teams skilled enough to use Mage Sight.

Finally, with the use of Ascension Charms and transfigured rope, they managed to find a place to rest high up in a tree, a few miles downriver from their original base but still by the water. As they couldn't get their strength back with food or potions, they decided to try with sleep. Tying themselves to branches so that they didn't fall, they took their naps in shifts with someone keeping watch at all times.

Harry volunteered for the first watch and the others accepted without protest. Cedric went out like a light but sleep didn't seem to come so easily for Eliza. While he was staring up at the dense canopy of leaves, quietly marvelling at how he couldn't see a single ray of sunshine even at this height, he felt movement from the branch next to his.

"Can't sleep?" He asked.

Eliza shrugged before casting a Muffling Charm. "How did you know?"

"I know a lot of things, so you're going to have to be more specific."

She frowned, clearly not in the mood for jokes. "About my sister. How did you know I wanted to kill her?"

Harry had never said the word "kill", but he didn't deny that was what he meant. He'd simply watched his words in case they were being broadcast live. "I heard about what she did to your parents," he said hesitantly. Through his experiences and that of his friends, he possessed an intimate knowledge of the varied reactions war victims had to their family's suffering. "But aside from that, the way you train makes it obvious. You're gearing up to fight someone stronger than you."

Eliza watched him carefully. "You train the same way." Harry acknowledged that observation with a simple grunt. "It's all-consuming, isn't it? Revenge? She used to be my favourite person in the world, but ever since that night..." she turned to face the leaves above. "Whenever I think of her I feel hatred like it's acid in my blood. I can't even picture a future for myself that doesn't include me facing her, forcing her to feel a little of what she's made me feel."

"Which is?"

"Pain, grief and terror," she listed coldly. "I want her to scream and beg for mercy before I end her."

Harry nodded slowly. Everything she described was something he had felt himself. But Eliza had grown up this way. At least Harry had been afforded a decade of ignorance before being slapped in the face with reality. Eliza was barely five years old when she lost her parents. This had been her life for thirteen years.

After a minute, he tried to move the conversation along. Even with the Muffling Charm, he didn't feel comfortable plotting murder while every Odeon in the world would be playing this preliminary round on their screens. "What did you see?" He asked. "In the vision that Alia cursed you with?"

Eliza didn't like this question. She bunkered down on her branch and rolled over so she was facing away from him. After a minute went by, and he was sure he would never get an answer, Harry heard a whisper over the breeze and the sounds of wildlife in the air.

"The time before."

After each of them got a couple of hours of rest and had drunk water that was pulled from the humid air around them, they began the search for their next set of keys. But they quickly found it to be more difficult than expected.

They had begun their final search with four hours remaining, which then steadily dwindled to two.

It quickly became obvious that teams that had all twelve keys had bunkered down in the various bases they'd sensed during their search. They were eager to run down the clock and advance to the next round. Either that or everyone was too wary to risk what keys they had until the inevitable final scramble at the end.

Whichever one it was, Harry, Eliza and Cedric weren't willing to leave their fates in the hands of their rivals. It took them a while to come up with a plan that had a reasonable chance of working and even longer to set it up. But once things were ready and they were in position, all that was left to decide was when they should start.

"As soon as possible." Cedric insisted. "We need all the time we can get and once we have them we can focus on keeping them safe."

"We should play it as down to the wire as possible," Harry reasoned. "That way we can snatch the keys without having to worry about defending them."

As the final hour mark came and went, the deciding vote fell to Eliza. They both stared at her, silently compelling their captain to speak in their favour.

"We should wait until the very end before kicking things off," she finally said. Harry fist-pumped while Cedric threw his hands into the air. "We're going to attract the attention of a lot of teams, and even at our best, we wouldn't be able to do much against those numbers."

"This is a mistake," Cedric sighed but acquiesced. Keeping his word, he didn't complain even when they entered the final twenty minutes. But that didn't stop him from nervously pacing.

Finally, when they hit ten minutes, Cedric began warningly, "Harry-"

"Now!" Harry ordered. As one, they each triggered the Runic Complexes that they had set up next to all the bases they could find in a mile radius of their position. Even from this distance, the explosions were deafening and the ground beneath their very feet seemed to shake, and that was only the first phase.

The idea was to blow the other teams out of their hideouts the same way the New Alexandria team had done to them. However, instead of letting them flee or hide from that point onwards, they would be corralled by the next few waves of explosions towards their position by the river. They hoped that the sheer size of this would confuse their rivals into thinking that this was an official part of the prelims and not realise that it was just an audacious trick.

They didn't expect it to work on every team. But as long as a single team sought refuge by the river, they would be ready and waiting to pounce.

After the fourth and final wave of explosions ended- this one so close to their position that they could feel the heat of the blasts- they waited for a minute for the first team to emerge onto the riverside. But no one came.

"I knew this was a mistake," Cedric groaned in despair. "A battle royale? What were we thinking?"

"We can still salvage this," Eliza said hopefully. "Maybe if we-"

"Wait!" Harry hissed. They all hid back behind their various trees, still suppressing their magic so that their opponents wouldn't realise they were walking into an ambush.

The sound of footsteps and pained grunts he had heard wasn't imagined. A battered Coven team came into view, one half-carrying a dazed teammate while the other covered them. "What the Bedlam was that?" The one with the wand asked. He spoke English with an American accent.

Harry chuckled silently to himself. He had expected the rival teams to be startled by such massive detonations, but he hadn't thought he would see such fear in them. Taking their keys would be an act of kindness as far as he was concerned.

The instant he heard Eliza's nightingale song, they attacked in unison. Harry's Stunning Spell hit the one with the wand, but Cedric and Eliza both hit the same target. Rolling his eyes as they could never seem to get this part right, Harry ran out to make sure the injured one was unconscious.

He wasn't.

Harry skidded to a halt, wand raised, but the boy didn't seem interested in fighting. "Help," he gasped. "Help us."

"You're fine," Harry replied, shaking his head patronisingly. "We're the ones who made those explosions, so if you'd just hand over your key-" He presented the request mockingly, as he was prepared to take the key by force regardless of what the boy said, but the response he got surprised him.

The boy reached into his pocket and threw it at him.

"Take it!" He sobbed. "Just help us!"

Cedric walked over. "What's going on?"

Harry shrugged and examined the key to make sure it wasn't a trick. "Hell, if I know." Satisfied it was real, he stuffed it into his pocket with the other three. "You've both got your four keys?" His teammates nodded.

Cedric frowned and crouched to examine the injured boys. "We should help them."

"No," Eliza corrected. She ignored how the injured boy's sobbing increased in volume when he heard her say that. "We should get out of here before someone comes and takes our keys."

They both turned to Harry for the deciding vote. Before he could figure out if the boys were in any real danger, the sound of footsteps reached their ears.

Harry and Eliza raised their wands and Cedric leapt up and hurried to them. Being separated from each other at this late stage would be the worst turn of events. Despite the sound of his movement, the encroaching footsteps didn't increase their pace in the least.

Most telling of all was how the injured boy finally stemmed his tears. His eyes were bulging in fear.

Seconds ticked by, and all they heard was the sound of undergrowth being moved aside. Harry was unnerved. Whoever it was, they were walking at a far too comfortable pace for both this environment and the situation. In retrospect, the wait seemed longer than it truly was, as he silently debated with himself: did they have enough time to flee with their keys? Or should they keep their fronts facing the nearing enemy?

Finally, when the tension was almost too much to bear, the figure revealed himself by stepping out of the darkness and into the light.

He was a slight boy, of similar age and height as Harry, but the mere sight of him had them on edge. Not only was his expression perfectly docile but his face was dry of sweat. His clothes- Mahoutokoro summer issue duelling gear- didn't have a speck of grime on them. His mere presence carried an intense weight to it, one which Harry had only felt twice before: once when he stood in defiance against Elissa Corner, and again when he argued with Magister Akingbade. But while the former's aura revealed her violent desires, and the latter his frustrated disappointment, the atmosphere that came with this boy was cold, callous even. He didn't care about them one way or another.

However, most startling of all was the sight of his empty hands. His wand was within its holster, but he still walked towards them like a predator, as though he weren't unarmed and outnumbered.

Or worse, Harry swallowed thickly as a bead of cold sweat rolled down the side of his face. Our presence is of no concern to him.

"Please, help us!" The injured boy croaked and Harry finally understood that he hadn't been terrified of the explosions at all.

He had been terrified of this unsettling boy.

The boy's dark eyes bored into his. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, there was a tugging sensation behind Harry's navel. That was all the warning he got before the Portkey activated.

The boy's words were swept away by the howling of the Portkey, but Harry could read his lips as he'd deliberately chosen to speak them in English. He wanted his meaning to be clear.

They're mine.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The Hogwarts Triumvirate returned to the same barren room they'd landed in after the first round. This time there was no feeling of triumph or relief. Only fear.

Cedric was the first to speak. "That was creepy right?" His voice came out like a croak, making Harry feel a little better about being so affected by that boy's Shadow.

Eliza, never one to admit weakness, briskly changed the subject. "Let's get out of here." She paused. "We've got all twelve keys, don't we?" Harry and Cedric each pulled out four keys and Eliza breathed a sigh of relief. "Sorry, I got a little…distracted at the end there."

Figuring that was the closest to an admission of fear he would ever hear from her, Harry stepped to the door and inserted his four keys before moving aside so the others could do the same. The keys vanished as soon as the door opened, signalling the end of their use in the Tournament. Moody was waiting for them in the empty corridor and a proud smile appeared on his face when he caught sight of them.

"You didn't fail!" He nodded approvingly. "Well done."

Cedric frowned. "You say that like you didn't expect us to pass."

Moody shrugged as he led the way back to the arena floor. "Well, I learned not to get my hopes up over the years."

Lining up in the hall felt almost grim. While they had started with over two thousand students, only forty-eight remained. Harry did a quick scan of the arena and was unsurprised to find that only ten out of the twelve premier schools had made it to the Top 16. After all, they had knocked The New Alexandria School of Magic out of the running themselves.

While Master Devereaux was making the now expectedly long climb to his podium, Harry took the time to examine his rivals more closely. While he was unsurprised at how grimy they all were, he was taken aback by the sheer enmity that was being displayed by some of the teams. They must have bumped into each other during the second round, and everyone had suffered from the experience.

Harry dreaded to think how they would react when they switched their Odeons on tonight and learned it was the Hogwarts Triumvirate that had blown half the rainforest to hell during the final minutes of the round.

As he was studying the rival teams, his eyes came upon a dreaded figure. There, standing at the front of the Mahoutokoro line, was the same disturbing boy from the end of the last round. While disturbed to see him standing mere feet away, Harry would have been able to shake it off if the boy hadn't been staring right at him.

He was so put off by this that he didn't hear a word Devereaux said. He was too focused on staring directly ahead, pretending he couldn't feel the weight of the boy's eyes on him. He only became aware of their dismissal when Moody turned around to address them.

"Alright, you lot. Get back-" he paused, having caught sight of Harry's pale face. "Are you alright, Potter?"

"Don't look now," he said lowly. "But that creepy kid from the end of the last round is staring at us." Ignoring his warning, Cedric and Eliza immediately turned to look, but the boy in question was lost in the dispersing crowd.

"Catch me up," Moody demanded as he shepherded them from the arena. On the way back to their house, they caught him up on the second round from their perspective and how it had ended. "He was probably just overconfident. Either that or he underestimated you three."

Harry didn't like how he brushed off their concerns, but he figured it was one of those things you have to experience first-hand to believe. An Auror who had fought on the front lines of the last war wouldn't blink at the idea of a creepy teenage boy, and why should he? But it made Harry feel silly as every instinct he had was telling him to get as far away from that kid as possible.

Like after the first round, they went straight to their rooms for a proper night's rest but sleep didn't come so easily this time. Even an hour after their return, Harry was still staring up at the invisible ceiling in his room, trying to get the sound of the boy's encroaching footsteps out of his mind.

Harry got out of bed and opened the window, hoping some fresh air would help. His room was facing the front of the house, so he glimpsed a slight figure walk past the house at that exact moment. Harry blinked. It was strange enough to see someone out and about at this hour, but even stranger was the direction they were headed in.

They were walking towards the trees, and past that, the shore.

The figure stopped beneath the glow of a lantern and turned to look directly at him. Harry's stomach dropped.

It was the boy.

Slowly, Harry began to reach for his wand as every instinct was telling him to prepare for an attack. But the boy dismissed him and continued to walk towards the shore.

Ducking his head back inside, Harry left the room and went downstairs. Looking back, he was unsure what he had planned to do. Go after him? Tell an official a Representative was leaving? But he did neither. When he reached the sitting room, he paused. There was noise coming from the kitchen.

He relaxed when saw it was only his teammates. They were sitting in silence, sipping from mugs.

"Can't sleep either?" Cedric asked. When Harry shook his head, he climbed to his feet. "I'll get you some warm milk. Always works for Eliza."

"You didn't have to tell him that," Eliza mumbled into her mug. Harry smiled fleetingly and her annoyance faded. "Still thinking about it?"

Harry nodded. "You too?" She and Cedric nodded as well. "I just saw him. He's heading for the shore."

Eliza raised her eyebrows. "That's dodgy." She paused. "Why am I surprised? Everything about that guy was dodgy."

"You weren't going after him, were you?" Cedric asked him.

Harry shrugged. "Maybe."

"No you're not," Eliza said firmly. "Don't be ridiculous."

Cedric nodded. "It could be dangerous."

"I meant an unofficial fight might be considered sabotage or something and get us disqualified," she elaborated.

"Eliza!"

But it was that and not Cedric's more rational concern that made him stay put. "You're right," he said as he took a seat at the kitchen table. "Still, it's crazy to think that a guy like that is even competing. Who even is he?"

"Kurai Ikari," Cedric said, placing a mug brimming with steaming milk before Harry. "He's a Fifth Year at Mahoutokoro and their Team Captain." Harry blinked. He should have known another OWL student was competing, especially if they were the best of a premier school.

"We need to stay as far away from him as we can," Eliza ordered. It wasn't one Harry was willing to defy.

The warm milk did its trick and they all managed to get to sleep at a reasonable hour. They spent their day off the same way they did the last, sitting in front of the Odeon with food and drink, and watching the highlights of the second round.

Harry was once again treated like the face of the Hogwarts Triumvirate, but this time wasn't as glamorous as the last. While the highlights from the first round displayed his defeat of the Yeti, the highlights from the second showed his poor performance against New Alexandria's wild card. Harry was focused on remembering the name of the boy who had almost bested him- Amon Salman- but his friends were more focused on his injuries.

"Why didn't you tell us you were turned into Swiss cheese?" Cedric demanded. He got up to examine Harry for any gaping wounds he might have been hiding.

Harry waved him away. "I still won, and I defeated my opponent long before either one of you got yours."

Eliza hissed in sympathy as the Odeon picked up the snap! from Harry's ankle as it broke upon his poor landing. "You call that winning?"

Harry rolled his eyes and got to his feet. "Okay, that's enough screen time for one day." He waved over his shoulder as he headed for the stairs. "See you two tomorrow."

Relieved that there was no underhanded obstacle before the Third Preliminary Round, Harry ended up getting a full night of sleep before Moody came to wake them in the morning. After a light breakfast, he told them to get dressed in full duelling gear before escorting them to the ship and lining them up on the arena floor.

While the arena had never appeared unclean or half-finished to him before, it looked completed now. Thousands of seats had been installed and massive banners for the sixteen remaining teams were expanded and hung proudly on the railings. Harry was so busy examining the various crests and mottos that he didn't even notice Devereaux take the stage until he started talking.

"Now that we have whittled you down to an acceptable number, we will begin the Third Preliminary Round." Devereaux's amplified voice carried a tinge of melancholy in it today, as though sad that he could not ambush them with any more surprises. Everyone knew the final stage of the prelims was a duelling tournament. "The first round of duels, as well as the quarter-finals, will take place today, and the semi-finals and finals will take place tomorrow. By tomorrow evening, we will have found our three competing teams while the rest of you go home in shame." He smiled then, as though relishing in the hypothetical misery.

It took a deliberate cough from one of his assistants to shake him out of his sadistic fantasy. "Right, well here our are today's match-ups." He waved his wand at the air behind him where an Odeon flashed into existence. The names of schools and Citadels flashed by while the teams in question held their breath. A bad match-up would mean going home sooner than they would have liked.

A couple of days ago, Harry would have been happy to face anyone present, but now he was wary of facing one powerful school and its disturbing Team Captain. So, when the name Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry settled next to Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, he may have breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, said team was lined up right next to them, and took offence at this.

After Devereaux dismissed them to their breakrooms, they made their displeasure known. "The little boy thinks he got off easy?" The Beauxbatons Captain, a stunning willowy blonde, asked derisively. "He overestimates himself." She spoke as though he wasn't within earshot, and in French, as though he couldn't understand.

"This will be an easy round if a child is the best they have to offer." The only boy on their team snorted.

Harry resented being underestimated, but he also wasn't above using it to his advantage.

Glancing surreptitiously at Cedric, Harry turned to the enemy team with blatant arrogance that wasn't entirely faked. "You're right about one thing," he responded in their tongue. "This will be an easy round. For me." Eliza seemed to know where he was going with this, but when she turned back to admonish him, Cedric gave her a warning shake of the head. "Three vs one." He challenged.

The Beauxbatons Triumvirate looked at him as though he were stupid. "What?" Their Captain asked. "You cannot mean-"

"The winner of the coin toss can choose how the duel is set up, right?" Harry interrupted. "Well, no matter who wins, I reckon we should go for a three vs one."

They exchanged confused looks, clearly trying to figure out his angle, but their Captain couldn't resist the chance to put him in his place. "Fine, and once we are done with you, we will move on to the real duellists on your team." She gave Cedric and Eliza reproachful looks, the kind dog owners get when their pups misbehave.

Harry rolled his eyes and brushed past her, leading the way to the Hogwarts-designated breakroom. He was glad Moody and Dumbledore had already taken their seats behind the Hogwarts banner as he doubted either of them would have held their tongues for as long as his teammates did.

The moment the door was closed behind them, Eliza rounded on him. "What the bloody hell were you thinking?!" She demanded. "Three vs one?! Are you out of your mind?!" Cedric remained silent, but he was staring at Harry impatiently, waiting for an explanation.

"Even if I fail to take them all out, which I won't," he added, "I still would have softened them up for the two of you." It was true. As long as one duellist remained conscious and uninjured enough to keep fighting, their school would still be in the running.

"Have you thought about what will happen if you fail to take out a single one?" Cedric asked calmly. He was far too used to fielding crazy ideas from the other Marauders to overreact now. "It'll be the most embarrassing moment of your life."

"I'm not going to lose. In fact," Harry started to smile, "I'm going to win in seven spells."

The two did their best to dissuade him but Harry was resolute. By the time their break was over, and the first duel of the day was set to begin, they gave up on speaking to him entirely. Harry wasn't put off by this. He knew their attitudes would shift when he walked away as the victor.

When they stepped back out onto the arena floor, every seat had been filled with thousands of cheering spectators, eager to see their teenage gladiators battle it out. Harry hoped they got their money's worth, as the tickets for the duelling portions of the Triwizard were not cheap. It went towards paying for the event as well as the prize money that was given to the top three teams.

The coin toss went as agreed, even though the Sickle came up heads in Hogwarts' favour. When the moment of truth came, Eliza glanced back at him to check if he was serious. When he nodded determinedly, she turned back to Devereaux. "Three for Beauxbatons, one for Hogwarts. Potter representing." To her credit, there was no outward display of doubt in either her voice or visage, so to anyone watching, it seemed like this was her idea.

Devereaux paused, giving her a moment to change her mind. When she didn't, he announced her decision to the arena and everyone watching at home. The sounds of shock reverberated throughout the crowd and Harry saw live images of himself on the giant Odeons around the stadium as he and his team walked back to their box.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Eliza sighed as she stepped off the arena floor. "For your sake if nothing else."

"Seven spells," Harry repeated. "You can count them if you like." He closed the half-door behind her before she could answer. A shimmering Barrier sprang into place to protect the crowd from ricocheting spells and debris, as well as blocking off any sound from the outside.

Harry walked back to the centre line where Devereaux and the Beauxbatons Triumvirate were waiting for him. As the referee began to list the standard rules, Harry made sure to keep his face perfectly blank. Had he been alone with his opponents, he might have pretended to look a little intimidated, but the eyes of the world were upon him now and he wouldn't embarrass himself like that even if it was for a ploy. Still, he made sure to keep intensely focused on Devereaux as though he were wary of making eye contact.

He felt a flicker of devious triumph go through him when he saw the blonde girl smirk at her teammates from the corner of his eye.

Returning to his starting position when directed, Harry went over everything he knew about the Beauxbatons Triumvirate, which was a lot. Had certain other teams been matched against Hogwarts, Harry wouldn't have even thought to make the same challenge, but he liked his odds against this particular team.

They were all prominent members of the Under-18 Duelling Circuit in both France and Europe. As such, Harry had studied all the official duels they had competed in outside of school, up to and including the Duelling World Cup in August.

Despite the ordeals he had gone through over the last few days, Harry felt he was in excellent condition. Not only was his body nice and loose, but his limbs and fingers were tense enough to move at a split second's notice, and his mind was free of distraction and worry. Even his stomach was at a perfect balance, where it felt empty without leaving him hungry and distracted.

This was his first public duel. The odds were stacked against him, three-to-one. His opponents were all older students with three more years of study and training. He could not have picked a harsher debut.

Now was the time to show what he was capable of. Now was the time to introduce himself to the world.

"BEGIN!"

Even at the very last moment, Harry had the tiniest shred of doubt about his plan, but the first spell of the duel washed it away. The Beauxbatons Captain, Fleur Delacour, had been duelling professionally since she was fifteen and her preference for fire spells was well known. However, whenever she wanted to end a duel quickly, she relied on the fastest element of all.

Her casting was so quick that it was only his prediction that saved him from a very humiliating defeat. Harry was already casting his counter when Devereaux was still halfway through saying "begin."

Fulgari!

For the briefest of moments, a lightning bolt hung above the centre line, frozen in mid-air. The silence of the duelling pit seemed to fill the entire world. The only sound audible to their ears was the crackle of electricity.

Then, at Harry's command, it flashed back at its caster. It bound her limbs tightly to her body with cords made of sizzling electricity.

Harry hoped Eliza was paying close attention. He wanted her to know that he always learned from his losses.

Delacour was flung into the Barrier by the force of Harry's counterattack, but neither of her teammates felt comfortable turning their back on him to release her from her tormenting restraints. While the boy was slow in his response, the girl reacted within a split second.

Unfortunately for her, Harry had guessed she would. After all, speed was Mathilde Dumont's speciality.

Mathilde liked to obscure the field with a deadly form of conjuration that masked her rapid approach on foot before relying on her excellent reflexes to provide her with a victory. She did so now, conjuring spears from thin air and launching them at him. There were so many that she and her unrestrained teammate would have been hidden from his eyes had Harry not bent his legs and jumped as high as his enhanced body would allow.

Impedimenta! Reduico!

Mathilde was halfway to the centre line before she skidded to a stop. Her spears were frozen in mid-air, all momentum forgotten, before vanishing from sight. Had her spears simply vanished instead of momentarily freezing, or had Harry remained both on the ground and in her line of sight, she likely would have kept running and simply covered her approach with another conjuration.

But all of this did happen so she momentarily hesitated. Which was all Harry needed.

Twisting in the air once he reached the peak of his ascent at fifteen feet, Harry rocketed back down. Mathilde finally caught sight of him, but it was much too late.

Magmify!

With his body still enhanced to prevent him from fracturing his bones upon impact, Harry landed on one knee and drove the end of his wand into the ground. The packed earth cracked as a colossal surge of lava rose to the surface to wash over his opponents.

That was when the first surprise of the duel came. The Beauxbatons boy, Sebastien Tremblay, was a defence specialist but Harry didn't think this was by choice. As a very broad young man, he wasn't nearly as quick on his feet as his teammates, but he made up for it by being able to tank most attacks that came his way. Harry had expected to deal with him last, as he was unlikely to move very far from his starting position.

However, Harry had failed to take their teamwork into account, or at least the feelings of protection it could inspire.

Unlike Mathilde, Sebastien had been far enough away to keep Harry in his line of sight the entire time and was already moving the instant he saw the younger boy point his wand at the ground. Running faster than Harry could have ever expected of him, he managed to get between his teammate and the crashing wave of lava in time to transfigure it into stone.

Harry was surprised by Sebastien's abrupt abandonment of his usual style, but not enough to lose confidence. Breaking through stone would be more difficult than lava, but it was well within his ability. Before the surge of magma was even fully transfigured, Harry was already casting what he predicted would be the final spells of the duel.

Fianto Duri! Depulso Maxima! Engorgio!

The still frozen spears had been shrunken to such a degree that they were almost invisible from a distance. Harry cast an Unbreakable Charm on them before banishing them back at their conjurer with blinding speed. Then he returned them to their previous size in mid-flight.

The result was a stone wall that was shattered by rocketing projectiles. It almost looked like the wall was obliterated by a hail of bullets. When the wave of spears ended, Harry saw one had skewered Mathilde Dumont. But not Sebastien Tremblay.

Harry twitched with annoyance. He sensed Sebastien raise a Shield Charm in the nick of time, as the other boy had predicted his next attack or had sensed it incoming with Mage Sight. Either way, it pissed Harry off.

He said he would win with only seven spells. Not eight.

Accio!

On the off chance the other boy had utilised Mage Sight and was about to evade another one of his attacks, Harry bent his knees in anticipation of a real back and forth, but he'd overestimated Sebastien Tremblay. The other boy had either predicted his previous attack or had simply been trained to layer his defences.

Either way, he ended up impaled from behind by the three spears that had been summoned towards Harry through him.

Spitting blood, Sebastien fell to the ground beside and unmoving Mathilde.

The entire duel had taken twenty-one seconds.

"WINNER: POTTER!" Devereaux announced as he dropped the Barrier. It was only then that Harry heard the roar of the crowd. They were cheering and stamping their feet to demonstrate approval over his display. "HOGWARTS IS THE FIRST TEAM TO ADVANCE TO THE QUARTER FINALS!"

As the medics rushed into the arena to examine his downed opponents, Harry turned and walked back to his team's designated box. Knowing the Odeon operators would be focusing on him, Harry kept his expression perfectly reserved, as though he hadn't just pulled off the coolest thing he had ever done.

Even over all the noise from the crowd, he could hear Cedric's incredulous laughter, but it was Eliza's smirk his eyes zeroed in on. She held up seven fingers for him to see before slowly raising an eighth with a mocking pout.

At that moment, Harry was feeling too proud to let her teasing get to him. Even as a kid in Little Whinging, he knew that windows of opportunity appeared most often when you prepared accordingly for them. After seeing the Molotov twins at the Duelling World Cup, Harry had spent weeks carefully studying his future opponents as he never wanted to be taken by surprise again.

Of all the teams present, it was the Beauxbatons Triumvirate that had the record for the most professional duels. Which meant more recordings for him to study. When his window of opportunity arrived, Harry had recognised it and seized it with both hands.

The Beauxbatons Triumvirate hadn't bothered to do the same with him. They didn't even treat an unknown like him with caution. And it was to their detriment.

It wouldn't be as easy from here on out of course, not when everyone knew what he was capable of. But that was okay. The knowledge that tomorrow's duels would be harder than today's wasn't enough to stop him from enjoying the sound of the crowd chanting his name.

"POTTER! POTTER! POTTER!"

Finally, he let himself smile. He'd wanted to send a message to spectators and rivals alike that he wasn't here by chance or for publicity but as a real contender. He had succeeded.

Harry Potter had arrived. The entire world now knew it.