Returning home

*Narrator pov*

After Amelia Bones bested her opponent on the chilly platform it was as if Hogwarts was revived. Next was Xenophilius, his unpredictable spells and odd movement made his opponent confused and frustrated.

Xenophilius barely won, and that win could be said to be because of Pandora's spell-creation abilities. The various strange spells seemed to befuddle the Durmstrang student.

After that was Davey Gudgeon, a Gryffindor student most hardly paid attention to but, his prowess could be seen in the dueling platform. He fought hard sticking to the basics but, the basics work. And they worked well for him, sadly in the end he lost but that was not without a fight.

Surprisingly, Marinette Helshire one of the students Morpheus has paid attention to in divination performed well in the dueling tryouts and even better on the platform against her opponent, she truly dueled as one would think a snake would. Coiling around you waiting for the perfect moment to strike hard and fast. It seemed like she was losing for the most part of the duel but, in the end, she surprised everyone with a fierce counterattack using the reppello charm paired with a fast disarming charm.

The fourth-year students ended up losing sadly. However, they only lost by one match, a singular match decided to win and that was a statement of its own. A statement of the potential Hogwarts has, say what you want about the school but there is a reason why it is so famous.

For the fifth-year duels, it was rather odd as Hogwarts had significantly less duelists in this year. As Durmstrang has had this program for a while more students apply whereas for Hogwarts this is new so they didn't even have a complete team.

The first match was between Frank Longbottom and a Durmstrang student named Viktor Krovkov. Frank once again showed he is a prodigy in the way of magical combat, he bested his opponent with relative ease. Many could see him being an Auror in the future, as he already said he didn't want to be a duelist.

The rest of the fifth-year duels were electric, both schools had students who were hungry to win, and they had a passion you could see from a mile away.

Surprisingly, they tied.

The sixth and seventh-year duels were interesting you could tell the older Durmstrang students had more technique and a larger repertoire of spells. The Hogwarts students still performed admirably, but the Durmstrang students did not let up the pressure and ended up winning.

"THE MATCH BETWEEN HOGWARTS VERSUS DURMSTRANG COMES TO AN END…. DURMSTRANG WON!" The announcer yelled into the mic

"RAHHHH!!!" the crowd exploded in applause and cheers

"DURMSTRANG!"

"DURMSTRANG!"

"DURMSTRANG!"

"DURMSTRANG!"

The cheers were deafening they seemed to drown out the small figures of the Hogwarts students yet raise the figures of the Durmstrang Students higher.

The Hogwarts duelists felt sick, they hated that they lost. It somehow made them feel worse that the professors didn't mind the loss.

Professor Abara and Yowie left the viewing area and headed back to the students deciding to keep them company during the journey back to the carriages.

Albus stood from his seat with a smile on his face as he brought Ivan into a big hug, "Congrats my friend! You have some fine students I eagerly await our next meeting," his smile was not fake or forced

Ivans on the other hand was 'Couldn't Albus look defeated just once for me!?' he wondered

Not voicing his inner thoughts Ivan hugged back, "Hahaha! Albus, I await our next duel! My students performed well but yours have great potential," he laughed patting the headmaster on the back

"Let me escort you to your transportation my friend," Ivan added as Albus began to leave the room

"Thank you," Albus said and they departed

Elena looked around for Morpheus not seeing him present, 'odd' she thought as she didn't remember seeing him leave

Morpheus was currently taking a different route to the carriages he walked slowly through the halls taking everything in. Entering the bathroom he later left after about ten minutes.

Finally, he decided to actually head toward the carriages.

No one would notice anything amiss for years to come.

"Morpheus where did you run off to?" Albus laughed while Ivan looked at the professor with narrowed eyes

"The bathroom, the only one I know of is the one by the dining hall so it took me a while to get there," Morpheus shrugged helplessly

"I see, you should have let me or one of my professors know we could have escorted you to a closer one," Ivan replied coldly

Morpheus laughed, "Nonsense why would I waste the precious time of your professors," patting Ivan on the shoulder like they were old friends Morpheus walked off into the biggest carriage

Ivan huffed "Just who are you hiring these days Albus?" he asked with some anger in his voice

Albus laughed helplessly, "How I wish I could tell you," he bid farewell to Ivan and then joined Morpheus and his fellow professors in the largest carriage after doing a headcount of the students

As the flying carriages make their way from Durmstrang to Hogwarts, leaving the island the ground below unfolds like a tapestry of diverse terrains. Thick forests with ancient, snow-laden pines give way to expansive valleys blanketed in pristine white. The carriages glide over frozen bodies of water, reflecting the shimmering moonlight.

Students feel the exhilarating rush of the wind against their faces as they peer out, catching glimpses of magical creatures darting through the night.

Albus looked over at Morpheus as they flew through the air, "The lineup of students, why did it need to be in such an order when you must have known we would have lost?" he asked genuinely curious

The other professors leaned in toward Morpheus also interested in his answer. Morpheus laughed, "You have a grand concept of divination yes, I knew we would lose but so did everyone in this carriage. The reason I had each student go in that particular order is because I foretold those were the matches they needed to have, they would gain something out of the match," he replied with a small smile

"Like Stiles Marr? He surprised me with his ability to pick up spells he's never seen before and use them so well," Yowie said with a grin

Morpheus nodded, "Exactly, every student who dueled won or lost gained something today. Something that will help them and the school in the next duel," he replied

Albus smiled, "I see. Overall today went better than expected, we can now adjust the dueling club meetings to fill the gaps the students have. With more practice and adjusted meetings the next time we face Durmstrang the outcome will be very different," he said his eyes twinkling in thought

Today was just setting the bar, next they will surpass it.

"I agree, we now have a direction to head in. The repello charm was a nice edition for our students to learn but now we need to focus on strategy amongst other things," Abara said while looking out of the carriage window

The sky was particularly beautiful.

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A/N: Patre on : patreon.com/Boogie324

showing off every duel would take forever so next duel you will see some of those that were mentioned duel. On Patreon we already got to the second duel, and I'm realizing they take up a lot of chapters. I will have to offscreen some, would you be more interested in Ugandu magical school, or seeing America. Both will be touched in anyway but which would you rather see more of