Chapter 279: Train Express

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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

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19 November 1994, Rome, Italy

Cedric Diggory fancied himself one of the best students in Hogwarts. To be perfectly fair, he was right in that aspect. He held the highest grade in his year, and he hadn't taken any easy classes. He was so confident that he was the best that he forgot what it was like to be utterly outclassed by someone, something that he was currently learning the hard way.

He had been dubious when he was told by McGonagall that Potter would take over their training for the task. Sure, the boy was a great wizard, definitely better than Cedric himself, but there was still some doubt that someone three years younger than him could be of some help in such a short time.

Cedric was regretting this doubt now as he ducked to avoid the incoming maw of the giant wolf, which almost bisected him. He followed up with an earth-repelling spell that Potter had taught them, which made the ground move like a wave and sent the beast away in surprise.

The wolf was an Alpha Dark Mongrel, a species of wolf that was apparently commonly found in the wild during the old days of Ancient Rome. It wasn't that hard to fight, just very quick and surprisingly quiet, with about the same magical resistance as a troll.

It was also on the list that Potter had put together of possible monsters for the task, and they were getting some experience fighting what they might end up facing in the tournament. To be honest, he didn't expect Potter to help them this way.

Speaking of the magical prodigy, he was standing impassively at the side and gave Cedric an approving look, "Well done Diggory. For magical creatures that can't fly, the ground is your greatest ally. Manipulating it is an easy way to get some distance and precious time to think."

Cedric noticed that Cho was getting overwhelmed by the Griffin, and he conjured a stone hand to bring her to him. She gave him a cute smile in return, "Thanks for the save, Cedric."

"Anytime…"

Johnson yelled out in a frustrated tone, "Can you two seriously flirt later? I need some backup here."

She was being accosted by the more complicated of the enemies that they had to face, a fucking Nemean Lion. It was, by far, the hardest enemy they had to face in this round of training, that's not to mention exceedingly rare and ludicrously expensive. Its hide was almost invulnerable, its claws as sharp as swords, and it was extremely agile and strong for its humongous size.

The Gryffindor had created a raised platform to have some high ground, something that the lion seemed to have taken issue with and kept trying to knock her down. Cedric cast the earth wave spell once more, pushing the Nemean Lion to the other side of the arena.

He quickly helped Johnson get back up but then froze when he heard Cho speak up with a hint of panic in her voice, "Guys, I think we have a problem."

Cedric turned and noticed that they were surrounded by the three beasts, the Alpha Mongrel, the Nemean Lion, and the Griffin. He suppressed the urge to gulp, and he looked at Potter for help.

The younger wizard simply shrugged, looking unconcerned, "You have the tools necessary to win. Analyse your position properly, and remember your enemies' strengths and weaknesses."

"The Nemean Lion doesn't have a fucking weakness, Potter!" Angelina exclaimed.

"Everything has a weakness. Perfection is nothing more than an illusion and an unrealistic dream. So, start with the Mongrel. What are its weaknesses?"

"It's magically resistant to physical attacks, blinding attacks, and any prison that might overwhelm its physical strength," Cho retorted exactly as Potter had taught them.

"Perfect, now what about the Griffin?"

Cedric thought about it. The half-lion and half-eagle hybrid had the usual magic resistance that most magical creatures had, but it wasn't that distinctive. The main issue it had was its mobility and aggressiveness, that's not to mention the wind magic that it seemed to be capable of, "It relies too much on the wind magic when it flies. If we destabilise its flight with a well-placed spell, we could probably stun it with just two of us."

Potter nodded, "Good plan, now finally, the Nemean Lion…"

The creature was a giant lion with an invincible hide. It was special in the way that it just couldn't be overwhelmed by any spells. Magically resistant creatures, even dragons, could be taken down if a large number of wizards tried to stun them at once. Not the Nemean Lion, though. It was why their hides were so sought after.

Huh, it was only the hide that was invincible though, right?

Cedric smirked, "the mouth. Its hide is invincible, but the insides aren't."

"Yes, you could try to hit the inside of its mouth. Personally, I would probably dose it with a potion…"

"We don't have any potions…"

Potter's grin turned vicious, "And whose fault is that? You knew that you'd be fighting magical creatures today, but you didn't make any preparations. There weren't any rules announced about you just having your wands, only that any form of expanded storage was not allowed. In the fight between any two opponents, nine times out of ten, the most prepared fighter wins. Now, that's enough talk, let's resume the training."

The three creatures, who had been silent during Potter's impromptu lecture, roared. The Griffin rose in the air and sent a blast of air at them. Cedric used a shield charm to protect them, "Johnson, get the damn bird with a concussion spell. Let me know when you're about to cast so that I can drop the shield. Follow up with a stunner with Cho."

Johnson aimed and yelled out, "Now!".

Cedric dispelled the shield and a white spell hit the griffin's chest while it was flying. After it fell down, the hybrid quickly succumbed to the two witches' stunners. The Hufflepuff didn't have time to celebrate and used the earth wave attack to repel the two incoming attackers.

Luckily, the Alpha Dark Mongrel wasn't able to stick the landing and Cedric yelled out, "Stunners, now!"

Three stunning charms reached the giant canine, and it slumped down, unconscious, leaving them to deal only with the most troublesome opponent…

Cedric did his best to use the Earth Wave spell to overwhelm it. Any time he tried to hit the beast's open maw, it stubbornly dodged. Potter was right, this was a lot less reliable than just trying to get a potion in.

Unfortunately, while thinking of another plan, he didn't notice that Cho had left herself open and that the Nemean Lion was leaping at her. He tried to reach her, but even as he did, he knew he'd be too late. He prepared to see the Asian girl die, but Cho's hand glowed and some weird Eastern symbols started to glow all around her arm. She pushed her palm forward and the Lion found itself frozen in mid-air, with its maw open.

Cho was obviously grimacing in exertion, but Cedric did not waste this chance and sent a stunner into the inside of the creature's mouth, knocking it out…

Of course, like at the end of every training session, the creatures turned into rubble. Potter was calmly clapping, "Very well done, Chang. I'm guessing this was your family crest."

The Ravenclaw nodded but did not add anything more to explain… To be fair, it was her family crest, and she was perfectly allowed not to elaborate on it. The last Potter didn't seem annoyed or anything, "Very well done, but you need to remember that this was just a simulation. An actual Nemean Lion could possibly escape from this spell, and you'd have been very injured if you used yourself as bait. So, what have we learned?"

"That you're a spiteful bastard and not to pick a fight with you," Johnson grumbled.

"If you're just learning that today then I'm worried about your intelligence Johnson," Potter retorted.

"We need to be more prepared for the fight," Chang answered.

"Yes. You knew that you'd be fighting magical beasts today, but you didn't bother to get anything to make things easier for yourselves. I'm talking about lures, repellent smokes, irritant potions, or anything else. You know what I told you… An unprepared wizard…"

The three of them interrupted him, "… is a dead wizard."

"Good. I'll be honest, you're probably not the best wizards in the task. So, that means that to compensate, you'll need to be prepared to deal with anything. Now, again, look back on the fight. Tell me what you think…"

Johnson looked pensive, "We really started taking them out when we worked together… It didn't go so well at the start."

Potter nodded, "That's true. You're three mages fighting on the same team, you need to act like it. Anything else?"

They all looked hesitant, "We won, didn't we?"

The Slytherin sighed in disappointment, "You might have won, but these are just the imitations of three beasts out of the seven you'll be fighting, that's not to mention the other teams who will be out for blood. If you went about things the same way during the actual fight, you'd probably end up taking out a single team and maybe even a beast at the most before someone takes you out in turn. What you should have done is the first trick in the book. Use your enemies' strengths against each other. You could have enraged the Griffin by getting the Mongrel to attack it. You could have started a fight without involving yourselves at all, just so you could then take out the winners. You also didn't attempt to take control of your environment. Conjuring mist to blind your opponents, certain smells to distract them, trying to hide and take them out stealthily... You went directly to challenging them up-front. You need to be more devious…"

Johnson grumbled, "Says the Slytherin."

"This has nothing to do with Hogwarts houses. If you had to choose between fighting someone stronger than you in direct combat or ambushing them, you should always ambush them. And believe me, you're on the weaker side here. After all, surprise and deception are very powerful agents and far more effective than you could possibly imagine."

"Come on, we still won," she complained.

"I suppose you did. You've improved a lot in the last few days, and since you're so happy with your victory, I believe it's time for us to kick things up a bit."

"Wait! What?" Cedric exclaimed.

"As I said, you were able to deal with three beasts at once, but you haven't really experienced fighting the beasts alongside other wizards. Don't worry, you'll only have to face little old me…"

Cho grumbled while giving Johnson a dirty look, "See, this is what happens when you open your mouth."

Potter raised his palm, "Don't worry, you just finished this exercise. You can rest for a few minutes, then I'll give you a choice of spells that will help you make up for the shortcomings I found during the fight… We'll practice them a bit, and then we'll do the new exercise."

Cedric ended up choosing a variation of the ground wave spell, which added spikes to the wave. Cho, on the other hand, chose a spell that conjured some mist that she could make see-through for her allies, and Johnson chose one that created a pit in the middle of the ground, which was good for catching enemies off-guard.

All in all, the training sessions with Harry Potter were physically gruelling, bordering on bullying, but they had shown him just how big the gap between him and the Slytherin was … The fake magical beasts alone that Potter used were more than enough. Sure, he knew that the boy had purposely created and enchanted them over the course of hours and that there was a lot of illusions, and discreet spell use, to sell the idea that they were real, but the power and the control needed for something like this was completely out of his league. They were strangely similar to what McGonagall did with the dragon, but on a smaller scale.

It was some of the most demoralizing moments in Cedric's life. It was also a period where he had learned more about magic and tactics than he ever did before. The sad thing was that the boy didn't even use this kind of magic in his fights. He preferred to fight using tactics and pure trickery.

Cedric shuddered at the idea of Potter using his full might in a fight… He wasn't sure if he was excited or unsettled by the image that appeared in his head.

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AN: I'll be completely honest here, I'm not really sure about this chapter. I know that I say that a lot, but I wrote this in a bit of a hurry and didn't have time to include a lot of stuff that I wanted to. You'll get what I mean when we get to the task itself, which is very soon. So, if you have any comments or suggestions please let me know. I don't mind modifying this chapter a bit when I have some free time.

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.