Chapter 38

The next day, Harry approached Professor Flitwick after his Charms class.

" Professor, I was wondering if you could help me learn duelling. I want to participate in the U-18 ICW

World Duelling Championship this summer in France. I have practised duelling with my cousin Nymphadora in my first and second year, but as she has graduated last year, I don't know what to do now. There is only so many new spells I can learn without practical experience in duels to aid my preparation. "

" Well, Mr. Potter you are an excellent student, but the ICW U-18 World Duelling championship is an entirely different matter. Come to my office after Dinner and we will have a duel and I will test your prowess in duelling as not everyone is suitable for duelling, despite how brilliant they may be. " Harry agreed readily and rushed to his next class.

Harry spent the rest of the day in a state of eager anticipation, waiting for dinner.

Padma noticed this and asked him during dinner, "Harry, why are you almost bouncing in excitement. You are usually very calm. "

" I will tell you tomorrow, Pads. I have a meeting with Professor Flitwick after dinner. By the time I return it will be late, so I tell you tomorrow morning. Now, I got to go, bye and good night. "

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flitwick's office:-

Harry knocked on the Professor's door and entered on receiving permission.

He looked from grading the assignments and smiled on seeing Harry, " good Mr. Potter, you have arrived. Let's go to an abandoned classroom and we will begin your testing. "

As both of them entered an abandoned classroom that used to be the Duelling Classroom when Duelling was an elective offered in Hogwarts, Harry with a flick of his wand cleared the Duelling platform of all the debris and dust and repaired the dueling platform.

Flitwick clapped his hands and said, " Excellent charm work Mr. Potter and it looks like you have a solid grasp on your non - verbal casting and point casting. Come, we will begin your testing. "

As both of them took their positions at opposite ends of the duelling platform, " First we bow to each other and then we cast, " Flitwick squeaked out and started casting at a tremendous speed.

Flitwick cast a spell chain consisting of five spells and Harry easily swayed out of the way of four of the spells and deflected the last spell which was a reducto curse back at Flitwick, which he easily evaded.

Harry returned fire with a spell chain consisting of stupefy, Incarcerous, jelly legs jinx, reducto and a cutting charm.

The Professor moved at astonishing speed and alacrity avoiding all the spells cast at him, and returned fire with a blistering barriage of stunning and reducto spells.

Seeing no way to evade all of them, Harry cast an emerald green shield around him which absorbed all the spells and with a flick of Harry's wand, it sent back all the absorbed magic in the form of an immense shockwave unbalancing the Professor who didn't expect Harry to know such an advanced shield charm. Harry had learnt it from Slytherin's Grimoire.

As soon as Harry saw that the Professor was unbalanced, Harry transfigured the Floor beneath the professor into quicksand and as he was Transfiguring it back to solid floor, Harry sent forth

a blistering barrage of stunning and disarming spells at him.

To Harry's shock , the Professor in a burst of blistering speed jumped into the air and conjured a large metal shield to block all of Harry's spells and then banished metal shield at Harry at high speed.

Harry transfigured the shield into killer vines and sent them back at the Professor, who turned them to ash with a burst of fire from his wand, and then sent all sorts of charms from household charms like Scourgify to severing charms at Harry, who barely managed to fend them off, through evasion , deflection or using shield charms. Harry finally conjured a granite wall to block of trio of blasting curses from Flitwick, the wall was reduced to rubble which Harry then banished at the Professor at high speed.

Flitwick conjured a large metal shield to block the rubble banished at him, when Harry suddenly transfigured the rubble just before it impacted the metal shield into five tigers willed them to attack Flitwick. He easily dispatched four of the tigers with precisely cast piercing cursescurses, but the last tiger caught him by surprise and he was sent rolling and Harry used this opportunity to send a colorless spell at the Professor as he got back up and dealt with the Tiger. As soon as he destroyed the tiger with an overpowered severity curse he was struck with by a wave of wave of intense sound waves making him extremely disoriented and Harry took this opportunity to disarm the professor and tie him up using the Incarcerous spell.

Harry then immediately dispelled his spells and moved to help the Professor stand up and returned his wand to him.

It took the Professor a few minutes to recover from the debilitating effects of Harry's sound spell.

When he recovered, he beamed at Harry and said, " That was brilliant Mr. Potter. You are better at your age than any seventh year I have known. I was obviously not using my full speed or spell repertoire, but you still performed brilliantly and managed to take me by surprise and defeat me. Good work indeed."

"You are indeed very skilled at Duelling, it would be an honour to train you and I will even sponsor you at the ICW U-18 Duelling championship as you need to represent a country or be sponsored by a Duelling Master to compete in them. I will gladly sponsor you and will train you to win them, not just participate in them. From now on we will train you thrice a week in this same class after dinner. Now, go back to your common room , it is already late and you have classes tomorrow. "

Just as Harry was about to leave, the Professor called out, " just to satisfy my curiosity, what was that spell you used that left me feeling dizzy and nauseous? I have never encountered such a spell. "

Harry grinned and said, " that is a personal invention of mine ,Professor. I created it based on a Muggle weapon called known as a concussion grenade. The spell produces a high frequency, loud sound and a bright flash causing the enemy to be disoriented, dizzy, temporary blindness and nausea. The incantation is concussione and the eand movement is just a point and cast. "

Internally smirking at the Professor's amazed expression, Harry left the Duelling classroom and returned to the Ravenclaw dorm.