Pre-Chapter A/N: More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio. Experimenting with two chapters a week, we'll see how long I can keep this up for.
I held my wand in a loose grip even as I rocked on the balls of my feet. There were dozens of duelling platforms all around me. I was standing on platform seven—an auspicious sign if I was one to believe in such things as I waited for my next opponent. My first duel had passed without incident, the boy who faced me having been nothing special. His attempts to use transfiguration against me would have been cute if they had not been so disgraceful. To watch a wizard on the cusp of maturity struggle to conjure anything more complex than a vertebrate was sad.
This next opponent, Thiago Barreto, was a South American who looked like he had seen more than seventeen years on this planet, but who was I to judge a man for being taller than his age would suggest. He walked to the platform at a languid pace, clearly feeling none of the anticipation that I was bubbling with. His reaction—or lack thereof—to being called as my opponent made me take a deep breath to centre myself. I felt my mind clear as a matter of habit before the world snapped into focus. It was time to get to it.
"Are you ready?" the referee called once my opponent jumped onto the platform.
"Yes," I said. He just nodded. I moved to bow to my opponent but he walked forward, offering a hand instead. A South American thing? Maybe. I tossed my wand to my left hand and took his in mine, accepting the handshake.
The man looked between us both and after he seemed to have found what he was looking for, he blew his whistle as he jumped off the platform.
My wand snapped up, but against all odds, he was the first to unleash his spell. He was faster than I was. I raised my wand even as I slapped the dark blue explosion curse to the side. As I moved to redirect the next spell he sent, I noticed him flick his wrist and then my own wrist flew to the side, leaving me wide open for the spell. I barely managed to curve my body, bending at the waist to avoid the spell hitting me. How the hell had he done that?
I snapped back to standing straight and hammered him with a trio of piercing curses. His wand produced a faint mist even as he stepped to the left. My spells disappeared into the mist before coming straight back at me at double the speed. I formed a shield, and just like before, he flicked his wand and my wand arm moved out of position. I fell to the floor to avoid my spells from turning me into a mess of holes. As I prepared to stand, he flicked his wand again, and only my grip on the floor kept me in the ring as I dug in. What the hell was this?
I pushed off, rolling to the side to avoid two spells that came my way. I shot forward with an explosion curse on the tip of my wand. Before I could fire, another flick of his wand sent my arm flying to the side, sending my spell into the wards.
How the hell was he just controlling my body without even hitting me with a spell or anything like that?
I took a step forward and he matched me. This time I sent two spells in his direction, each one a blast of silver that marked them as gouging curses. They were a step up from piercing curses. Each one would take a mighty chunk out of him once they hit. So, they didn't. He weaved between both spells, moving like he was walking on air before his wand moved again.
This time, it was a blast of mist that threatened to cover the entire battlefield. '*Ventus*,' I mentally incanted, swishing my wand from right to left. All that happened was that the mist was pushed back a few metres but came back all the same. I growled, "*Ventus Maxima*." It was the first spell I cast aloud all tournament, and it was well worth it.
The blast of wind scattered the mist to all sides, making it impossible for it to reconstitute itself. With the mist gone, I turned my head this way and that, searching for its creator. The only thing was that he seemed to have gone with the mist as well. A disillusionment charm? I wondered. If he had used one, then it was much better than most; I couldn't see any flickers or distortions in the air. I stepped backwards to avoid a storm of arrows that shot through the space I'd been standing in.
I returned fire with a blasting curse, but at the very last moment, my hand was torn to the side and my spell spluttered against the wall.
"How are you doing this?" I asked but received no answer. I hadn't been expecting one either way, but it gave me an outlet for my frustration.
I slashed my wand from one side to the other, releasing an omnidirectional wave of force. Said force parted in two around a space to my left, revealing my opponent's position. I nailed him with one of my longest and quickest spell chains, trying to overwhelm his defences. The spells he didn't deflect, he dodged, and when the last three spells were sent, he created his mist again and returned them with double the speed. I just stepped to the side, taking a deep breath.
I tried another spell on him, but once again my hand was wrenched out of the way and he almost managed to nail me with a spell of his own. Okay, I could see a few things. For one, his control only applied to my wand hand. No other part of me was in danger of falling under his control. If he could have controlled my feet or body, he would have just forced me to stay still and take the full brunt of his spells head-on. Another thing I noted was that there was some sort of cooldown, like he had to wait a few seconds to use the ability again after using it once.
Both of those were notable limitations, but it wasn't like I could just overwhelm a man who had the ability to mess up my aim at any time or force me to become unable to shield his spells. The only saving graces were that beyond the ability to seemingly puppet my wand arm whenever he wanted and however he wanted to control it, he was a bang-average duellist. Okay, that was disingenuous and unfair. He was a great duellist for his age, but as far as I was concerned, he was nothing special. I had fought better. I had beaten better. I had killed better. And that would have to be enough.
I stepped backwards, slowly dragging my wand from left to right. The blasting curse tore a hole in the ground a few metres ahead of me. If I was being limited as to what I could do with my wand, then I would use the one art I knew that did not require much in the way of wand movements or aiming. Of course, this strategy had to be something he had come into contact with before, so he wasted no time in trying to isolate me and keep me unable to concentrate with his barrage of spells.
I spun my wand in a tight circle, forming a *protego maxima* that bore the pressure of close to ten of his spells before it began to quiver and shake. I tore down my shield, diving to the side in a roll before I shot to the floor again. When I did, it was with three massive serpents in front of me that reared up for a second before crashing down towards my opponent. A flick of my wand turned their skins to stone even as I used the rest of the rubble from the blasting curse as best I could.
Multiple birds with steel-tipped beaks took to the air next, and in their aftermath was a menagerie of animals. Barretto bore the pressure well, tearing one of the snakes in two with a cutting curse of some sort that produced a jagged, raw, ripped cut across the beast's body. That had to be serious dark magic, I thought to myself. Part of me wanted to say two could play at that game, show the boy what real mastery of the Dark Arts looked like, and scar him for life. A more reasonable part of me kept my focus on directing the creatures I had transfigured and creating more—Occlumency made the balancing act required child's play. It was only a matter of time before he fell, I thought to myself as one of my birds managed to stab a beak into his left arm.
Said bird disappeared in a conflagration a second later, and he snapped his wand in my direction, using the flaming carcass of my own creature against me. I did not even move, keeping my wand pointed downwards as I vanished it with a tight circle and sent the rest of my beasts in.
Mist flowed from his wand, encircling two of my snakes, and I watched, fully enraptured, as both creatures were torn from my control, smashing their heads into each other as they began to fight. The small pack of wolves I'd transfigured only fared a little better. Natural pack hunters with the instincts imbued in them at creation, I watched as they encircled their quarry, my opponent. Two of them were never in his view at the same time and he had to constantly turn this way and that to keep getting glimpses of them as they moved.
I snapped my fingers, and the one directly behind him jumped in first. The other two—on either side of him—jumped at him nary a second later. He moved like water, weaving through all three of them almost like his feet did not need to be on the ground for him to walk. He tore the one that attacked first's head apart with a savage twist of his wand. Blood and brain matter splattered. Another took a curse to the chest that dropped it to the ground, dead before it even hit the floor, and the third was sent flying into the midst of the clashing giant snakes.
My birds shot down now, disrupting his vision and pecking at his hands and arms. I took a breath and brought my magic to bear. The assembled debris from my first blasting curse would not be enough. I sent two more into the ground even as I watched my flock die quickly and surely. Their number had dropped down to six.
I gathered the debris together, using my magic to create the shape in my mind's eye and even more of it to breathe life into the shape. *Two left,* I thought to myself of my birds as I commanded the remainder to veer away. Barreto turned to attack them as they fled, but his attention was stolen by the trumpet from my newest creature's trunk. An elephant. The man actually looked like he would piss himself as the giant creature bore down on him. He moved to fire a piercing curse, and with a flex of my will, grey hide turned to brown stone. The spell pierced the stone but failed to do much damage before that as the elephant crossed the distance in a matter of seconds. He rolled between the creature's legs, getting underneath it. He lifted his wand, curse on his lips. That was when my birds struck again.
One beak straight into his wand arm while the other stabbed into his side. He screamed in pain, and I put him out of his misery with an old favourite. "*Expelliarmus*!" I took pleasure in declaring. The red bolt of magic hit him and sent him flying arse over teakettle as he went off the platform and into the grass. I caught his wand, a victorious smirk in place and not likely to be going anywhere any time soon.
"Winner: Potter," the referee said before gesturing for me to get off the stage. Healers were heading towards my opponent, but he had made it to his feet on his own and was dusting himself off.
"Good duel," I said as I walked towards him. He narrowed his eyes at me. He was looking at me like he was not quite certain I was being genuine. I tried to stretch my smile even further.
"Yes, you duel well, Potter," he said, a smile stretching his own face as I leaned forward to hand him his wand, hilt-first.
"Thank you. But can you tell me how you did that trick with my arm?" I asked. It seemed like one hell of a trick. Being able to control an opponent's movements to that extent was…
His smile froze on his face before disappearing slowly until it had turned into a scowl that split his face in two. He gave me a look I found impossible to interpret before he turned about and stomped away. I resolved to watch the rest of his duels to figure it out even as I began to make my way back to Sirius' box.
"Nice one, Harry. Almost thought you were a goner there," he said as I walked into the room. It reeked of alcohol. Not just alcohol, I thought as I sniffed further.
"Really, Sirius? The waitress?" I asked, smelling the familiar perfume that the lady attached to the private boxes wore. She was supposed to be in charge of keeping us topped up with drinks and ensuring our comfort. I was sure that what she and Sirius just did was far from her job description.
"Hostess," he tried to correct, a distinction without a difference. My unimpressed look told him just as much.
"Well, I had to find something to do, you know? You're the one that decided to sleep in."
"Yeah, some of us needed to get our rest. You know, on account of duelling today."
"Are you sure you got enough rest though? That guy gave you more trouble than I would have expected."
"He had one trick. A good trick, but only one trick. Beyond that, he was smack-dab average," I said, and I had the sinking feeling that that was going to be true for most of the people I would be facing here. Even having one trick was probably going to be too much for most of them. I turned my neck towards the field, noticing that there were dozens of duels taking place at the same time. If I pointed at one, the glass that covered the viewing box would turn into a screen showing that duel and only that duel in focus.
I switched from duel to duel, looking for something interesting. The vast majority of them were not. I stopped when the screen switched to one with a familiar-looking girl. Athena something? She was the one that had been Krum's hostage in the second task. She tore her opponent apart in a matter of seconds. The lanky blonde was on the floor and bleeding from at least three different places by the time the duel between them came to an end. The buzzer in the room rang.
"That's your name called, Harry," Sirius noted. I nodded in his direction as I made my way outside again. This was my third duel. My first and second had passed so quickly after each other that I never even got the chance to make it up here. Now this one was coming after I only got a few minutes of spotty rest. Luckily, I still had plenty in the tank. Multiple duels in quick succession would probably tire me out if I ended up matched against even semi-competent duellists over and over again.
My next opponent was Asian. Zhang Weihao, his name tag read. I jumped onto the platform and he immediately bowed. I returned the bow, straightening up to look at him. Unlike most of the people here who had hit their maturity, Zhang Weihao was just like I was—physically at least. A teenager. Fifteen, maybe sixteen years old at best.
The referee started the duel, our eyes met, and I almost recoiled as I felt a lance stab straight into my mind. Before Voldemort, I would have fallen to the attack, caught off guard as I was. Now though, my Occlumency was always waiting.
I cleared my mind, deflecting his mental probe and returning it with one of my own. His shields held my probe back as I forced myself against it over and over again.
His wand moved in the physical plane. I twisted to the side. I did not even see the spell I dodged, but I could see the smirk on my opponent's face as he forced me from his mind. He began another assault on my own shields. I allowed him through even as I cleared my mind of all thought. He tried forcing probing concepts into my mind. As if! I'd beaten Voldemort himself at this game. Speaking of Voldemort, I had an idea. I took a hold of his probe as I felt his emotional control slip as his frustration began to get to him.
I shut the metaphysical doors behind him as I dragged him kicking and screaming into the memory of Voldemort torturing me at the graveyard. I blurred the rest of the details, instead leaving only the pain as my nerves were ripped apart, and then played it on a loop.
I did nothing to him. Only one spell had passed between us to the casual observer. Still, he fell to his knees, tears running down his eyes. When I decided he had had enough, I snapped him back to his own mind. A second later, his wand was in my grip.
"Winner: Potter."
A/N: The duels begin…yay. I just showed two of the more entertaning ones rather than focusing on all nine and making them less fleshed out to save space and time. Besides, there are only so many ways to make a fight interesting. That's going to be my challenge for this arc. I need to make sure each fight feels fresh in its own way. Bear with me as this might mean updates become sporadic as I spend more time ideating than writing on this bit of the story.Next four chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.