The Price of Victory

Durmstrang, Aug. 25th

Walking down the boys' corridor, his trunk floating a few feet behind him, Harry shook his head in amusement when he saw Calypso sitting across from his room, a patient expression on her face.

"Waiting for me?"

Turning her head at the sound of his voice, Calypso playfully sighed at her boyfriend. "Why must you always arrive at the last possible minute? The first years have been here for almost six hours already, Potter. Is it impossible for you to get to school when the rest of us arrive?"

Harry looked at Calypso with a faux-baffled expression. "What's this? What happened to the sweet girl that met my family at the World Cup?"

Calypso's eyes gleamed. "Did I pass the Potter family inspection?"

"They liked you," Harry said reassuringly as he unlocked his door. "Though I was a bit disturbed at times."

"You didn't like me being nice?" Calypso asked, a little surprised.

"You weren't being yourself. Well," he amended, "I guess you were, but it was just strange. You were trying to make my family like you so much, and while they didn't notice, it was obvious to me. Personally, I'll take the demanding, curse-flinging Calypso over that one any day."

Stepping forward, Calypso kissed Harry squarely on the lips. "You say the nicest things sometimes."

"Why thank you, Ms. Rosier." Stepping into his room, Harry said, "It was just a little odd, especially once I started thinking about it later. You found a way to connect well to each of my family members. How long have you been planning out your first meeting with my family?"

"For almost a year," Calypso admitted. "I thought I was going to try and convince you to marry me, remember? I had no intention of having your family hate me."

Harry snapped his head around to look intently at Calypso. "You thought you were? As in no longer?"

Calypso smiled brightly. "Yes, thought. My father told me that he has no intention of offering a marriage contract for me to anyone, Harry. Don't worry about that. It's over."

"Really?" Harry asked, incredibly relieved but a little surprised. "What about everything you said about being the last of your family? What about–"

"Father changed his mind," Calypso said happily. "He didn't explain his reasoning to me, and I didn't ask. All that matters is it's over. You and, more importantly, I don't have to worry about it anymore."

"Well, that's a bit of a relief," Harry admitted. "I tried not to think about it, but it was always there in the back of my head."

"It was worse for me. I've had a marriage contract hanging over me for years." Calypso had a silly grin on her face as she walked around Harry, seemingly inspecting him. "I also see that you made it out of the World Cup unscathed. Were the idiots that donned Death Eater robes anywhere near you?"

"No, they were closer to the Irish tents. My parents went to help along with the Weasleys, but Nathan and I stayed inside."

"Did the Aurors catch any of them?"

Before Harry could respond, there was a series of knocks against the door. With a wave of his wand, Harry opened the door, revealing a tired and frustrated Viktor Krum.

"Viktor," Harry said pleasantly before noticing the expression on his friend's face. "What's wrong?"

"Krum has been instructed to enter the Triwizard Tournament, even though he declined the invitation over the summer."

Both Viktor and Harry turned to Calypso with varying expressions of disbelief.

"Really?" Harry asked in astonishment.

"How did you know that?" Viktor asked, surprised.

"My father found it particularly funny that you thought the Highmaster was going to accept you not coming to Hogwarts," Calypso explained. "So, have you been convinced to attend the tournament?"

"Yes," Viktor grumbled. "Apparently being the best Seeker at the World Cup is not enough for Quidditch teams anymore. They all want me to remain in the spotlight to boost exposure for the club, and the Triwizard Tournament will be a huge European spectacle."

"Isn't that counter intuitive?" Harry asked in confusion. "What if you are selected and get hurt? Your Quidditch career could be over."

Viktor's scowl deepened. "That's what I said! But no, when I met with the teams I was interested in signing with, they all told me to compete. They even put special protections into the contract. If I get hurt during the tournament, they will honor my contract and then some. I just wanted to finish my last year and graduate! This stupid fucking tournament will be a pain the ass if I get selected."

"Then don't go," Harry said simply. "They can't force you."

Viktor shook his head. "You don't understand, Harry. I have to attend."

"Why?" Harry asked, still confused.

"The media," Calypso said patiently. "Rumors of the tournament have started to build in a few circles. People who are 'in-the-know' are talking, and since Karkaroff made such a big deal about Viktor being a Durmstrang student, everyone expects him to be there. If he's not, people will ask questions. Karkaroff will lose face, Durmstrang will lose face, and if it should come out that Viktor didn't want to compete, they'll label him a coward."

Viktor nodded solemnly. "It would be different if a club said they wouldn't let me compete. They won't though. They all want the publicity of signing Viktor Krum, Quidditch star and Tri-Wizard Tournament Champion."

"Do you think you'll be picked?" Harry had to admit that Viktor, while still not an amazing wizard, had improved a lot of late. His physical skills were unmatched at Durmstrang, and his dueling was easily among the best in the school. Given his reputation internationally, the judge would have to give him some serious consideration.

"I don't know, perhaps," Viktor said, clearly annoyed. "Hopefully, I'll be able to speak to the judge in private once we get to Hogwarts. I do not want to compete."

"I do," Harry said, beginning the wand movement for the Space Enhancement Charm. "I've worked too hard this summer not to win."

Viktor and Calypso watched in awe as Harry casually began making massive alterations to his small spartan room. The walls blew outwards, expanding the room dramatically, while the ceiling vaulted upwards. The room seemed to rumble and shake as long cracks began splitting certain sections of the wall. The cracks seemed to stretch and warp the wall until large wooden doors sprang into existence.

With an intent look of concentration, Harry jabbed his wand forward, causing the nearest door to shudder in its frame as a room was formed behind it. Harry repeated the process with three other doors before beginning a very long and intricate wand movement. Eventually, a spell flew from Harry's wand and impacted the wall, causing the entire room to glow a soft blue for a moment.

Casting a quick finite, Harry relaxed when the room didn't immediately revert back to form. Lazily, he transfigured a nearby rickety chair into a medium size plush couch. Dropping into the couch, he silently conjured a chair next to Calypso before repeating the process for Viktor.

"You've improved a lot," Calypso said, impressed.

Viktor nodded his head in agreement. "How long have you been able to do enchantments of this scale?"

Unable to hide his grin, Harry said, "Two days. It was the last thing I practiced before I left home. I messed around with my room quite a bit over the summer."

Giving her boyfriend a very appraising look, Calypso asked, "Did you improve as much in the Dark Arts, or did you just focus on Transfiguration and Charms?"

A wolfish grin seemed to spread across Harry's face. "I practiced Charms, the Dark Arts, and Transfiguration every day. I did some stuff for Potions and Spell Creation as well, but not nearly as much."

"We should have a practice duel." Calypso glanced at her watch. "We have at least an hour before we need to head to the welcoming feast. That's more than enough time."

Wanting to see just how much better he improved compared to Calypso, Harry immediately agreed. "Alright, where?"

"Father should be in his office for a while. We can use the dueling platform in the Dark Arts room. Viktor, do you want to officiate?"

"Very well," Viktor said, reluctantly, "but no upper level Dark Arts."

"Absolutely not," Calypso said immediately. "That handicaps me too much. That's like asking Harry not to perform anything beyond fourth year Charms. How about nothing we can't provide an immediate counter-curse to correct?"

"I'll agree to that," Harry said, cutting off Viktor's reply as the group left his room and walked downstairs towards the Dark Arts classroom. "But, nothing that can be lethal."

"Agreed," Calypso said, pushing the door to the Dark Arts classroom open and stepping inside.

"Can I help you, Calypso?" Professor Rosier said, surprising the group with his presence.

Calypso seemed to falter slightly. "Oh, father. Harry and I were just going to try to practice a little before the feast."

"I see." The Dark Arts professor's eyes were hard as he looked over the three three students. "Well, don't let me stop you."

Walking over to a nearby desk, Professor Rosier took a seat and waited expectantly.

Turning to look at Harry, Calypso was a little relieved to see that her boyfriend still seemed comfortable having the duel. Together, the two of them walked onto the platform and took their positions.

Standing near the middle of the platform, Viktor said, "Bow."

As one, Harry and Calypso bowed deeply at one another before slowly rising up and taking their stances.

"Begin!" Viktor said, forgoing the traditional countdown.

Flicking his wand, Harry sent a pair of fireballs at Calypso.

Rather than trying to avoid the flame, Calypso simply let the fire impact the anti-flame spells on her robes. Responding immediately, Calypso entered into a simple spell-chain, sending a bludgeoning curse, knee-inverting hex, and concussion curse at Harry.

Side-stepping the bludgeoning curse, Harry casually slapped the knee-inverting hex away as the concussion curse flew slightly wide to his left. Twisting his wand, Harry summoned a desk from the classroom and banished it at Calypso.

Unable to dodge the desk, Calypso launched into a series of explosive spells, just narrowly managing to destroy it. As she turned her attention back to Harry, she was forced to duck in order to avoid a stunning spell. Dropping into a roll, Calypso recovered quickly and fired a heart-skipping hex.

Calypso watched as her spell literally flew through Harry, causing his form to shimmer slightly before vanishing. Realizing she'd been fooled by an illusion, Calypso had just enough time to raise her wand, an area-affect spell at the tip of her tongue, before a stunner caught her in the head, knocking her out.

Dropping the disillusionment charm, Harry appeared a few feet to Calypso's right.

"Winner." Viktor said unnecessarily.

"Decent." Professor Rosier said, waving his wand to wake his daughter up.

Groaning, Calypso turned an accusatory stare at her boyfriend. "I see you got the projection spell to work. I thought you said you were having problems with illusions?"

"Illusions are tricky," Harry admitted. "They're actually a lot more like Transfiguration than Charms. Your wand work and emotions are not as important as a clear mental picture of the image you want to project. Once I realized that, my illusions became much more defined and easier to cast."

"Take your positions again," Professor Rosier said, causing Harry and Calypso to look at him. "Only this time, you are both restricted using offensive hexes and curses."

Both Calypso and Harry looked warily at each other as they slowly took their starting positions. This wasn't going to be a duel of finesse. There wouldn't be any illusions, Transfigurations, or fancy wand work. No, this duel was about one thing. Dark Magic.

There was an almost tangible sense of anticipation as Harry and Calypso bowed to one another.

"Begin!"

Slashing his wand across his body, Harry sent a gauging curse at Calypso, who was caught momentarily flatfooted by Harry opening with a reasonably dangerous dark spell. As Calypso twisted her body out of the way of the spell, Harry – hoping to end the duel before Calypso could get comfortable – immediately followed his curse with a pain spell he'd learned over the summer called Vulcan's Hammer.

Slightly off balance from dodging Harry's opening spell, Calypso couldn't avoid his fast follow up. The curse stuck her square in the leg, sending her flying back a few feet and hitting the platform. By the time she hit the ground, Calypso's left leg felt as if it was being crushed, reformed, and then bludgeoned repeatedly.

Even as she screamed from the pain, Calypso felt a rush of humiliation overwhelm her. While she always acknowledged that Harry was an exceptionally talented wizard, he had always fallen just shy of her as a duelist. Intellectually, Calypso always suspected that if Harry committed himself to the Dark Arts like he did Charms or Transfiguration, he could become a true force, but this was the first time she'd truly seen him attack without the slightest hesitation.

Still, never in her wildest dreams did she think he could so casually swat her aside twice in a row, especially not in a duel when he couldn't use his best two subjects.

In the end, it was pride that gave Calypso enough focus to push aside the agonizing pain that had begun spreading up her leg and into her hip. She'd worked hard for years establishing herself as one of the most dangerous duelists at Durmstrang, and no one would dismiss her so easily!

Forcibly throwing herself to the side, she narrowly avoided Harry's finishing stunner. Using Occlumency to gather the abundance of anger, pain, and embarrassment she was feeling, Calypso released a blast of purple fire from her wand.

Recognizing the spell as the organ rupturing curse, Harry desperately cast Protego. Jerking back slightly, Harry felt his shield buckle, barely holding up against the might of Calypso's powerful curse. Unfortunately, Calypso wasn't close to finished, and Harry's shield was blown apart by a bludgeoning curse.

With no shield, Harry had to jump suddenly to the right to avoid a powerful laceration curse. Unfortunately, his movement forced him right into the path of a punching hex. His head snapping back as the spell struck him, the force of the hex dropped Harry to the ground, shaken.

Unable to breathe properly from his nose, Harry felt a trail of blood running down his face. Glancing up at Calypso, Harry saw that his girlfriend was frantically using the lull in action to cast the counter-curse to Vulcan's Hammer.

Calypso's face was drenched with sweat, and while her expression gave little away, the muffled sobs and tears running down her face showed just how much pain she was suffering. With a single look at her left leg, Harry could see the blue spider-web-like lines running down it, indicating what part of the body was being affected by his curse. Given the amount of time, the spell had probably spread throughout her body by now.

Forcing himself to clear his mind, Harry pushed aside the slight guilt he felt at hurting Calypso. Hoping to end the duel while Calypso was distracted, Harry fired off a retching hex, closely followed by a stunner and a laceration curse.

Finishing the counter to Vulcan's Hammer, Calypso frantically defected the retching hex and stunner, but she was half a second too slow blocking the laceration curse.

"Fuck," she screamed as her forearm split open, sending a slight spray of blood across the platform. Enraged, Calypso viciously jabbed her wand at Harry. Immediately, a bright orange and yellow spell seemed to explode out of Calypso's wand, closing the distance quicker than Harry could believe possible.

With no time to shield, Harry desperately tried to dodge the spell, only for it to clip him in the left shoulder.

When the curse impacted, Harry felt his skin burn violently as massive cuts and tears began to appear at random across his body. Suddenly, the tears seemed to dig into his muscles before slicing apart the skin all over his body.

As the flesh around his groin and face began to twist and split open, Harry screamed in pain and dropped to his knees. Instinctively, he completed the wand movement for his bludgeoning curse, and, channeling all the pain he was feeling, fired it at Calypso, who was so surprised that Harry was still actively dueling that she took the spell directly in the chest.

There was an audible crunch as Calypso's sternum was crushed under the impact of the powerful bludgeoner, and her body was thrown across the platform. Lying on the ground, Calypso opened her mouth to cry out in pain, only to discover that she couldn't inhale any air into her lungs. Unable to breathe, Calypso began hysterically grasping at her chest and desperately trying to signal for help.

Within seconds Viktor rushed onto the platform, looking in horror between the two battered fourth years. From what he could see, the curse affecting Harry's body was still active. His face, arms, and neck were now completely mutilated, and, given the noticeable blood stains seeping through his clothing, the rest of his body probably looked similar.

As bad as Harry looked, Calypso was the one in more danger. The girl's eyes were starting to glaze as her struggles slowed and her face began to turn blue from a lack of oxygen. Pointing his wand at Calypso, Viktor prepared to cast the emergency healing charms his Quidditch coaches had taught him, only to be shoved aside.

"Out of the way, Krum," Professor Rosier spat. A wave of his wand was all that was needed to stop Harry's body from continuing to tear itself apart, although it did nothing for his appearance. Before Harry's screams had slowed one iota, the professor was at his daughter's side casting a series of healing Charms at her chest.

After almost a minute, Professor Rosier helped his daughter to her feet, although the way Calypso was swaying slightly from side to side revealed just how injured she remained.

Glancing between the badly injured duelists, Professor Rosier favored the two with a proud smile. "Well done, both of you. Krum, escort Mr. Potter and my daughter to the hospital wing. I dare say that both of them will not be attending the feast tonight."

Viktor could only nod as he helped Harry stand up, the butchered flesh around Harry's hand caused Viktor to wince in sympathy. As the three of them left the room, Viktor tried to remain calm, but, eventually, he couldn't contain himself.

"What is wrong with you two?" he demanded, looking at the two fourth years as though they were mad. "Were you trying to kill each other?"

"No," Harry and Calypso both replied softly.

"Then what the fuck were you thinking?" Viktor spat, spittle flying from his mouth. All around them, passing students gave the group a wide berth. The sight of a mangled Harry Potter, an obviously injured Calypso Rosier, and an enraged Viktor Krum was more than enough to keep their curiosity at bay.

"Wanted to win," Harry virtually whispered, his voice breaking slightly. "Might have let things get a bit out of hand."

Viktor could only stare incredulously at his friend. "A bit!"

Wincing with every step he took, Harry turned to look at Calypso. "What spell did you hit me with?"

"Skin-shredding curse," Calypso said weakly, the act of talking causing her chest to ache in pain. "It's one of my finishing spells." Looking at Harry in sympathy, Calypso said, "I've never seen anyone manage to send a spell after being hit by it."

Glancing at his tattered arms and hands, and knowing that the rest of his body probably looked the same, Harry didn't doubt that people tended to stay down after being hit by the curse. "Does it hurt to regrow skin?"

"No," Calypso said reassuringly, "it's just like a burn salve. You'll be fine in a few hours. That bludgeoning curse at the end. Wow."

"I had a lot of motivation to make that spell hurt," Harry said, his body growing more and more exhausted with every step he took. "It felt like my body was being set on fire and put through a meat grinder."

"You're both insane." Viktor snapped. "It was a practice duel. For fun. I expected this shit from you, Rosier, but you were the one that set the tone of that duel, Harry! You practically opened with Vulcan's fucking Hammer. Where did you even learn that? It was one of the last spells introduced in my Dark Arts class last year."

Thinking of the gleeful expression on Kreacher's face when Harry accepted the book on pain curses the elf suggested, Harry said, "It was in a book someone recommended to me."

"Of course it was," Viktor said, looking disapprovingly at Calypso. Pushing open the hospital wing's doors, Viktor strode in angrily. "Lady Shluga! I have two fools that need immediate assistance!"

The large Norwegian nurse came out of her office, took one look at Harry and Calypso and gasped. "Merciful Gods, what happened?"

"Practice duel," Viktor spat disgustedly as Lady Shluga led the two grievously injured patients into a pair of open beds.

"Don't move, either of you." The matron's eyes were hard and very angry as she began casting diagnostic spells on her two charges. Shaking her head in disgust, she said, "Ms. Rosier, you have two broken ribs, a cracked sternum, and your appendix has ruptured. Congratulations, you'll be here for the night. Mr. Potter, you're not much better. I'm going to need to vanish your clothes and apply some skin-salve across most of your body."

The Matron seemed to look Viktor up and down. "Are you injured as well, Mr. Krum?"

"No, ma'am. I'm not. They were the ones dueling."

"Then at least one of you has a shred of common sense. Maybe next time you could actually stop your friends before they end up under my care. I can't believe the semester hasn't even started yet, and I'm tending to curse wounds. Just wonderful."

As Lady Shluga went to get whatever potions she needed, Viktor looked once more at Harry and Calypso. "The both of you are absolutely insane! Is this stupid tournament really worth this much to you?"

His face burning from the tears that had fallen onto his exposed flesh, Harry proudly raised his head to look at his friend. "This and so much more, Viktor."

Seeing the same determination echoed on Calypso's face, Viktor solemnly nodded his head in understanding. He, more than anyone, knew that some things were worth the sacrifices. Still, seeing Harry and Calypso throwing seriously dangerous dark magic at one another was not something he cared to witness ever again.

"Then I wish you the best of luck." Viktor shook his head in disgust. "Never ask me to officiate a duel between the two of you ever again."

Without another word, Viktor turned around and left the Hospital wing. The last thing he heard before reaching the doors was Harry tiredly asking Calypso for instructions on how to properly cast the Skin-Shredding curse.