NOVEL NEXT Chapter 39: The Trophy Room's Newest Addition
After several seconds, Harry decided to lay a trap of his own. He took his wand behind his back and started shifting it between his hands. The girl didn't know that he was ambidextrous. He could use that to his advantage. She would probably shift her focus to the hand where he was holding his wand. If he could fool her and attack with the other, she would be thrown off guard. The crowd watched in confusion as Harry shifted his wand from one hand to the other, the entire time keeping it away from his opponent's eyes.
Amelia's eyes narrowed in calculation. This wasn't a technique she had seen before. Just a moment later, Harry suddenly attacked. The witch had expected him to fire with his right hand, as she had seen it twitch, and that was where she aimed her spell. But she figured out too late that Harry was using his left hand. She dodged, but was still caught in the path of the hex. Painful boils erupted on her upper arm. Everyone in the arena realised that he was simply toying with her, trying to predict her movements by striking first. It was standard duelling tactics.
Harry smirked as he dodged another spell coming his way. She sent a volley of hexes and jinxes his way, but he switched to Transfiguration, one of his favourites in a duel. He conjured a huge bunch of leaves with sticky sap and banished them towards her. The girl set the leaves on fire and banished them back at Harry. Harry expected this and used the Auguamenti charm to put off the fire and create a ball of water, a very impressive feat of magic. He pushed it above the ground where it was rotating at a fast rate using a smart array of quick runes.
He then cast a variety of spells that the girl dodged. It was clear that her opponent wanted to end it and deal with the water bubble, so she said mouted a spell and a white beam of light shot out of her wand. Harry cast a stunning spell and both spells connected. Flashes of light could be seen as white and red clashed with each other. After several seconds, Harry let go of the spell, dodged, looked at the ball of water suspended above and slashed his wand in the air. The water fell directly on the girl below. Harry immediately took his chance and fired the spell chain he had used in the first duel. His opponent lay unconscious on the floor.
The audience was stunned.
"What a spectacular display of the various branches of magic and sheer brilliance for one so young! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE WINNER OF THE UNDER-13 INTERNATIONAL DUELLING CHAMPIONSHIP OF 2002 IS HARRY POTTER OF MAGICAL BRITAIN! Congratulations, Mr Potter! And congratulations to our runner-up, Miss Hana of Magical Japan!"
The arena was cleared and the Minister of Magic of France came up to them to give them the cash prizes and trophies. A smaller trophy was handed to the runner-up and Harry was given the larger one. The crowd roared and several people took pictures as he hoisted his cup in the air, and Harry Potter couldn't control the tears which pooled in his eyes as he saw the proud, beaming faces of Sirius Black and Amelia Bones.
...
"I knew you could do it!" Daphne grinned as she followed Harry to the Trophy Room at Potter Castle. This was a place which was filled with all sorts of medals and awards earned by the members of the Potter family over the centuries. He carefully placed the trophy in the front, and couldn't help but smile himself.
"I was actually quite nervous," he confessed softly. "But it was well worth it. I can't believe I won!"
Daphne smiled widely at him. "I knew the moment you told me that you were taking part in the championship that you would win."
Harry simply chuckled as they returned to the drawing room of the castle. It was just the two of them here, but neither of them felt awkward anymore. They spent all their time in school together anyway, so this was no different.
"My parents are thrilled," she continued. "And so is Astoria; she was actually asking Father whether she could take part in the duelling championship too."
Harry smiled faintly as he grabbed the newspaper that was lying on the centre table. "It looks like the news has gotten out," he commented as he saw the headlines.
BOY-WHO-LIVED WINS UNDER-13 INTERNATIONAL DUELLING CHAMPIONSHIP
"What do you expect?" snorted Daphne. "At least no one is saying anything negative this time. Rita Skeeter can't write a positive article to save herself."
"Yes, I know," said Harry darkly. He didn't like that woman. She had written a scathing article about their betrothal and also about him being accepted into the accelerated program. Recently, there was a small article questioning Sirius Black's ability to take care of Harry because of his 'instability' caused by his stay at Azkaban.
The editor had resigned after information about his dealings with several smugglers made its way to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Harry was sure that Sirius had something to do with that story being leaked to the Ministry, but unfortunately, his godfather did not seem to have any information on Rita Skeeter.
Right now, though, Harry wasn't worried about that. He was wondering how he was going to handle the situation with Remus Lupin the next day; someone who had been a close family friend once, and a person Harry was least interested in meeting.
....
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