Chapter 80: Dueling Test

I decided to change things up a bit and alter the schedule slightly. From now on, I'm uploading a chapter every Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

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.

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

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26 September 1992, Hogwarts

"Mr Finnigan, whatever gave you the illusion that Harry Potter didn't pass the test last year. He did, and he was the best student at his level. The only reason that I chose to make him stay is because you are his year mates and the competitions, that I'll be signing you in, will be often based on age, so it would complicate things. But if it's a demonstration you desire, then it will be one you will get. Mr Potter, how about we have a little practice duel to show your classmates what they should expect to learn? I always like to start these things with a little demonstration."

Harry didn't like to be put on the spot especially when something else was on his mind. He liked things to be organized, scheduled, with enough room for randomness. He didn't think that he would be fighting Professor Flitwick for the first time in front of his classmates and from a look at the professor, the Potter scion knew didn't really have a choice in declining.

And so, he simply nodded and walked up to the platform. He couldn't hold back in this test, not really. Flitwick would know immediately and punish him for it. And honestly, for all his prowess in duelling, Harry wasn't really a violent person. He was an academic and that's where he shined the most. Truth be told, he would have declined the invitation to join this club if it wasn't an easy way to get away from Quirrell the previous year, but he grew to like the art aspect of it.

There was just something about analyzing and tactically countering spells that were mystifying to Harry and that was what he liked about dueling. Everyone else either wants it as an easy way to get gold and fame, which considering how pitiful most of the British duelling roster was in the international scene, was fairly possible. The other just like fighting opponents but Harry never really liked the idea of violence all that much.

Oh, he understood that it had its uses, but only as a show of power or as a last resort. Just responding to everything with a curse or a hex was just impractical and an easy way to make enemies. Still, for an entire semester, Harry had asked the professor for an opportunity at fighting him, not because he wanted to prove something, but to see how high the bar was. Oh, the half-goblin was obviously taking it easy on everyone, even the seventh years, but there was something that motivated Harry into being the first that would make the Professor sweat, even if it was a long way away.

So, yeah, while Harry was miles ahead of most senior students in Runes, magical theory, Advanced Arithmancy, and Spell Crafting, it didn't really translate to duelling skills. So even if everyone knew that Harry was above all others in terms of magical knowledge, it wouldn't be suspicious to take this seriously.

But damn, people were going to be very annoying. At least the rumours would stop anyone from pestering him.

Harry bowed to his professor who did the same and he took a balanced stance, not knowing what Flitwick was doing. The stance that the Professor was using was weird, but it seemed to work for him. From the angle of his wand and how his legs were bent, he could tell that it was an attacking one to compensate for his lack of height while taking advantage of his enhanced reflexes that came with the Goblin blood.

It didn't take long for the professor to cast the first spell. He was fast, that was certain, and so were his spells somehow. Harry stopped pondering about what could affect a spell's speed and chose to simply conjure a repelling shield, angling the spell towards the one following it, before sending in a disarming charm the half-goblin ducked under.

The professor gave him a mocking smile and Harry responded with a spell chain, three basic casts followed by a Flipendo and a Descendo. The idea was of straining a potential shield and flip the opponent over before pulling him down. Of course, the professor countered these spells in a fraction of a second, making them fade into nothing. It was amazing to his Arcane hearing. It was like the man was somehow untying them like knots. It was strangely beautiful.

Still, with the duel still continuing, the Professor used his first large scale charm. It seems like the prodding portion of the duel was over. The man conjured a boulder and sent it at Harry, who, with a wave of his wand cut it cleanly in half. Harry levitated one of the half boulders and sent it back at the professor and used that as a distraction to point his wand at the duelling platform, making it go up and down like it was made of rubber before sending it towards to professor hoping the wave would push him off.

What Harry didn't expect was the professor to use the coming wave to propel himself over the boulder and send a stunning charm at Harry. The Potter scion was barely able to duck under the spell and responded by summoning the boulder from behind the professor.

Alas, the professor sensed the coming threat and waved his wand behind him without even looking and the boulder turned into a swarm of butterflies with metallic wings, who suddenly flew aggressively towards Harry, who in his panic yelled out, "IGNIS!"

The flamethrower charm or Ignis, wasn't that difficult to cast, but the scale that Harry used it was impressive. The wave of fire consumed the coming insects and came towards the professor who didn't shield against them. Yeah, flame resistant charms could easily protect against this spell. Harry decided not to risk his vision by casting a wave of wind to dissipate the flames and maybe take the professor by surprise.

Unsurprisingly, the half-goblin stood there unperturbed with a slightly proud smile on his face. Of course, Harry decided not to let himself be distracted by it, the man was awfully tricky, and it was the right decision since the professor's speed doubled suddenly and the man started sending spells as if he was a machine gun.

Harry tried to counter a few of them but it was just too fast, and Harry hid behind a Protego shield hoping to weather the storm. In duelling, hiding behind a shield was a last resort, it meant that you were on your last legs and Harry knew that in theory, but the practical part was a lot different than he envisioned.

He'd never been in this position before and he needed a plan quickly enough. Harry looked at the variables around him and a small plan formed around him. The shield he was using was a Protego shield, which is usually taught to OWL students. Layered shielding was pretty useful in certain professions, but not really in duelling, and there were a lot of layered shields out there that were combined with the Protego one. Harry slowly morphed the inside of the shield into a smaller layer and slowly charmed it to absorb a fraction of each attacking spell. Around a minute later, the outer layer of the shield started fracturing, and Harry created a third layer, a repelling one, just above the absorbing layer and let the outer shell break.

It started a cascading effect, the power in the absorbing layer was sent to the repelling one, who was overcharged enough to create a giant blast of telekinetic and magic repelling shield, that sent the entire barrage of spells as well as a telekinetic force towards Harry's opponent.

Harry saw how the professor had to shield against the attack and used this distraction to create another one. He made an illusion of himself and made it look like he was charging for a lightning spell, while his invisible self, sent in a shield breaker and a disarming charm, followed by an overcharged banishing charm. Surprisingly enough it worked slightly, the shield breaker worked but the disarming charm was countered. The banishing charm seemed to have been countered but only partially and the professor looked like he had been pushed slightly.

The trick with the illusion had distracted the man enough to land a hit, even if he saw through it in seconds, it was enough for Harry. The half-goblin looked at Harry in disbelief before grinning. The man then animated two ropes that Harry hadn't seen, and which made him try to banish them. Of course, the professor used this distraction to disarm Harry and banish him away, making him the loser of the duel.

Flitwick then slowly walked towards Harry and gave him a wide smile, "An Excellent showing, Mr Potter. But remember to watch your surrounding and not freeze up. The moment you started your plan, you were so focused that you didn't notice a discreet attack coming your way. A skilled opponent uses more than one attack at a time, preferably in different mediums. And try not to overcomplicate your plans. Simple strategies are known to work better than complex ones because of their flexibility. Outside of that, I have to say that you have exceeded my already high expectations I had of your skill. Good job."

Harry smiled slightly, "Thank you, Professor."

The Potter scion knew that the man was still holding back a lot in their fight, but he hadn't let the spell hit him. Holding back or not, Harry scored a hit, even a partial one, and that was an achievement and a half.

Slowly, Harry got up and stiffened when he noticed his classmate's stares. He had forgotten entirely about them while he was fighting. Yeah, Seamus Finnigan was so pale that he looked sick, but the rest just kept gaping at him. They had probably never seen this kind of magical combat before. It must have grated them how much Harry was holding back whenever they confront him.

Damn, there were going to be rumours about this, especially with Parvati Patil being there. Still, that should prevent idiots from trying to provoke him too much. So, Harry decided to ignore them all and just towards his friends instead.

They were gaping as well, but the moment he walked towards them, he was met with a gushing Daphne, "Harry, that was amazing. I didn't know you could fight like that."

That seemed to wake everyone out of their funk for a few minutes, while Harry decided to answer, "You can learn all of this if you dedicate yourself to these sessions. As long as you take it seriously, there's no reason why you can't do the same in a semester or two."

Professor Flitwick nodded, "That's absolutely correct, even if Mr. Potter is very talented in the field, with enough time and dedication, there is no reason you cannot reach his level. And now that you know what you have to beat, it's time for me to explain to you how our sessions will work. This semester will be mostly focused on theory. You will not duel each other. Instead, what we'll be doing is learning duelling stances, the rules and regulations, a few necessary spells, and improving your aim and dodging as much as possible. The faster you learn, the more I will be willing to teach you. Before the winter holidays, I will arrange a little tournament between you, with a few special prizes for the top 3 winners."

"So, we need to win to get admitted to the second semester?" Padma Patil asked.

"No. The top 3 will be immediately admitted, of course, but even if you lose in a single spell but show that you work hard enough, you can still be admitted. It depends entirely on you. As I said, this isn't a competition between you with a limited amount of space, each one of you will need to prove himself to have some potential and enough dedication to be accepted, nothing more."

Seeing that there weren't any questions, the Professor continued, "One last thing before you leave. Our sessions will be weekly starting from today, if I give you homework, I will expect it to be done for the following session. And if I find out that any of you used a spell, I taught you here to harm another student, I will personally kick you out of the club. There will not be a second warning, do you understand?"

They all nodded, and the half-goblin dismissed them. Overall, it was a nice break from the usual stress. After the duel, Harry felt strangely lighter, like he needed the release really. He felt like he was exhausted but in a good way. His mind was clearer than ever, and he could tell that it was time to begin making progress in dealing with the Diary.

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