Pre-Chapter A/N: Please do check out the first chapter of the novel I'm working on up on Patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)- it's completely free to access. What can I say except you're welcome? Here we go. Lovely to have you all here, and I hope you enjoy this one. If you do, feel free to head over to Patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) and read the next two chapters- I update there on a daily basis so there's always something for you to read.
One person had waited for her to strike first, and the other had struck before she could. I could pick either option, so I did what came naturally to me and I took a stance, a deep breath and waited. The timer counted up, taking account of the time we spent staring at each other.
"You're Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, right? They say you're a big deal" She said.
"Ye—" I'd just begun to reply when she struck. I smirked as I batted the piercing curses to the side. The bludgeoner she sent paused against my wand for a second for I pushed it back in her direction at double its power. She spun to the side, letting the spell bang against the wards with a silent explosion.
Where a lesser combatant would have taken a pause, she continued. Her wand was a blur of motion as piercer after piercer left her wand. Each one I slammed to the sides as I swung my wand around my odd so quickly that I felt I must have looked a blur to those watching. Not to me, though. Movements that should have been mere shadows were easy for me to track with my eyes now. I could see every spell as she formed it, and it felt like small eternities passed between a spell being called into being and it reaching me. I stabbed my wand forward, conjuring a block of granite that took the brunt of the next rush of spells.
I flicked my wand, banishing the granite at her, and she ran forwards before jumping over it, displaying athleticism that would have put most wizards to shame. At the apex of her jump, she sent two wicked lances of dark grey magic at me. I conjured another block of granite with one flick before transfiguring it into a wall with another. The spells hit and seemed to do nothing for a second before the stones began to explode. I banished the entire wall in his direction, forcing her to blow the whole thing up with a silent _confringo_. I twirled my wand and summoned a massive anaconda into being. A second twist transfigured its skin into stone. Her cutting curse scarred a long line along its body but failed to penetrate as I egged it on in parseltongue. I had none of Potter's shyness about using the gifts I had to my own advantage.
She turned her wand against the snake, but before she could use anything powerful, I lashed out with the first spell chain Flitwick had taught me, the Dueler's hello. Disarmer, knock back jinx, stunner and full-body bind. She levied a contemptuous sneer in my direction as she deflected the nuisance spells with ease. I spun my wand, executing another spell— _Gemino_, creating an identical snake next to the one creeping towards her.
She formed a massive mage shield that blocked my next salvo of spells and then stretched out her left hand, transferring control over to it ion an impressive display of magical control as she turned her attention to the snakes. She started by banishing them, sending them only a few feet backwards, which was made useless as I banished them right back at her. She twirled her wand and created a whip of bright blue flames. I narrowed my eyes. That wasn't a spell I was familiar with. Perhaps a darker variation of the standard fire whip?
Either way, when she turned it against the snakes, she cut through their stone skin with ease, leaving them in pieces. I barely managed to step backwards and to the side in time to dodge a massive spell that struck the wards with a gong. I flicked my wand, turning the snake pieces around her into birds that flew around her, harrying her and distracting.
The mage shield I dealt with by releasing a series of blasting curses. Each one flowed after the last. It managed to take three before collapsing against the fourth. She managed the magical backlash better than most and kept her wits about her as she set two of the birds on fire. She fired two spells off at me, even as two more birds swooped down on her. I flicked my wand, sending tooth growing hexes at each of them, forcing the spells to ricochet wildly at twice their initial speed. I deflected the one that came my way, fast as it was, my eyes could still track it. That as clearly one of the benefits of the ritual.
Jones, on the other hand, was much too busy cursing at and destroying a bird that had latched on to her hair to react in time. The tooth growing hex hit with instant effect, and her front teeth began to grow.
I sent another dueler's hello, she was forced to turn her attention into deflecting instead of fixing her teeth. They'd grown past her chin in a matter of seconds. She formed a larger shield, but I smiled and called out my incantation in warning. "Fulminis" It was a less powerful lightning spell than the fulgur I'd called against the Hellhound, but was still nothing to write off. She reinforced the shield and was still sent skidding backwards from the force of the spell. Her teeth had grown down to her waist now and were clearly beginning to affect her balance. She could tell I wasn't going to let her turn her wand on herself if she could help it, and turned two quick piercing curses in my direction. I nailed them almost right as they were leaving her wand with tooth growing hexes. The Densaugeo hex had something unique about its arithmetic structure that made it react that way when it came in contact with other offensive magic, and I took full advantage of it in this case— Flitwick had a memory where one duelist from France had used the same strategy so it wasn't something originally, but it worked.
The four spells flew in random directions. I dodged the two that came my way smoothly. Jones managed to dodge the second tooth growing hex to come her way, but the piercing curse nailed her in the shoulder, spearing straight through like a bullet.
"Blood" The other examiner called out, and the timer came to a halt. Three minutes fifty-five seconds, I noted.
"Oh they said you were good, Harry. But I didn't know how good" Jones said with a chuckle as she froze in place, about to send another spell at me.
"Thank you" I said with a hesitant smile, taken aback. She was good. Very good. Not as good as Flitwick, but definitely better than Sirius had been when we'd first started duelling. He was more familiar with my tricks, though, so he could have found ways around what I'd done here.
"Of course, not good enough to hold a candle to a Hit-witch going all out" She lifted her hand to flash a bracelet that lit with runes.
"Some kind of dampener?" I wondered.
"Yup" She popped the p and smiled easily.
"Makes me about half as fast and my magic more sluggish. Think of it like fighting after ten beers. Like sure, you could do but, but your sober self would kick your ass six ways to Sunday, and seven ways back again" I nodded.
"I'll take note of that then" I said, taking the warning she wasn't saying to heart. 'You're good, but not great. Not yet' her eyes seemed to say.
"I heard you want to go to Broekzele"
"Michelle" Her partner coughed.
"Oh. I have to finish these. Stick around so we can talk, Potter. I have something we should talk about. Don't worry, this lot isn't going to take any time." She said. I nodded, curious. Her smiling partner had lost his smile, but he said nothing else.
I stepped off the stage and took a seat on a conjured armchair. Nothing as ostentatious as what Dumbledore could do, but still impressive. Michelle Jones had been right, it seemed. Only one of the others managed to last longer than a minute. The longest was an Italian witch with a talent for shield spells and counter curses. Still, Jones found her way through the stalwart defenses in the end, seeming inevitable. As each person was defeated with little to no difficulty, the others that remained turned to give me assessing looks.
"So, what did you think?" She asked as she jumped down from the platform as the last man, an Argentinian fellow with a charming smile, limped away.
"About you or about them?" I smirked at her from my seat.
"Both, of course. I'll hear your thoughts about them first, though".
"Saving the best for last?"
"Undoubtedly" She winked.
"They weren't impressive. Most of them would probably get wiped out by the others in the Tri-Wizard tournament." I said. Even Cedric, the last impressive duelist of the lot, had shown better skill than this lot.
"Well, I understand the Tri-Wizard tournament is for the best schools in Europe to show off their best students. Not really a fair comparison" I shrugged, taking the point.
"There's nothing special about them"
"What?"
"You heard me. They aren't specially good, but they aren't specially bad either. They'll pass because of that. Not with an S like you of course, but they'll get solid Cs and move on to jobs in the Confederation pushing papers or whatever they do".
"You make that sound like a bad thing"
"Is it not? The people are weaker than they've ever been. No one bothers learning to fight anymore. Everyone who does so is looked as odd. The average witch sees nothing wrong with not being able to hold a shield charm for more than a few seconds— if they even manage to cast one".
"That sounds like something that really isn't my problem to consider. What do you want?"
"I'll get to that. Tell me what you thought of me first."
"You're good." I surmised.
"More" She urged with a snap of her fingers. "I'll hear your thoughts in full, Harry"
"You know it's odd to do that where I come from"
"Do what? Snap my fingers?" She snapped her fingers again.
"No. Using my first name. It's something reserved for friends."
"Then consider us friends and tell me what you think about me"
"All your movements. Every wand motion, every dodge, everything you did was technically perfect. Like you've drilled it over and over again until everything becomes second nature. And if you're telling the truth about the bracelet and what it does then you're even more impressive" I said.
"I'd never lie to you, Harry" She said, and to my immense shame, part of me even believed her. Damn teenage hormones and American knockers the size of melons.
"Well, you're something for sure. Is that what it means to be a Hit-witch for then ICW?"
"We're the best of the best. We make local aurors look like amateurs. We blow them out of the water because we have to. We hunt dark wizards and wannabe dark lords across the planet" She said, sounding smug.
"I read that Voldemort defeated two teams of you guys. Painted Diagon Alley with one guy's innards and cursed one woman so badly she went into retirement" I said. She went still. Why had I said that? What the fuck is wrong with you?, I wondered. A pretty girl is flirting with you, and there you go bringing up fucking Voldemort.
"Yeah, I heard that too. I wasn't in the force back then, but he was used as an example of what could happen if a Dark Wizard was allowed to grow too powerful in training all the time." She said.
"So, what did you want with me?" I asked, changing the topic.
"Nothing much. Just to talk about your future."
"My future?"
"Your results are causing a stir with the higher ups. S' in all the major courses, and As in all the rest. You're going to be the next prodigy out of Britain, and your nation seems to print them with more consistency than anyone else." She said.
"And that matters to you why?"
"One of your prodigies sat as a Schoolteacher and allowed Europe to burn until his old friend was at his border, and only then did he deign to confront him. Another presented such a great threat to the Statute of Secrecy that four different teams had been dispatched to deal with him during his reign, and none of them succeeded. Needless to say, no one wants another Dumbledore or Voldemort on their hands".
"Not another Dumbledore? Isn't he the Supreme Mugwump?"
"A mostly ceremonial position to remind him of the duties he owes the world. Wizard-kind everywhere are one. We are not no-majs. Antiquated concepts like borders and country of origins are things that we must eventually abandon if we are to move forward as a society".
"Sounds nice but what does this have to do with me?"
"You came here. To the ICW both to seek justice for your Godfather, and to take your Ordinary Wizarding Levels. You clearly see the value of the ICW as an institution. We just want you to know that your options are open."
"So this is what? An offer of employment?"
"Nothing so explicit. We just want you to keep us in mind when you move forward. Becoming an ICW Hit-wizard could open a lot of doors for you".
"I'm sure it could," I hummed non-commitedly.
"Did you duel professionally?" I asked. She looked taken aback by the change of subject but answered with that easy smile once she collected herself.
"You're talking to the 1990 U-17 Runner-up, and a 1989 U-17 Quarter Finalist." She sounded proud of herself. Was there anything to be proud of in coming second, I wondered.
"So that's why you asked about Broekzele"
"Indeed. As you stand now, you're probably good enough to maybe make it the Round of 16."
"I beat you" I reminder her, feeling some offense.
"I was hampered quite severely by the dampener, and beyond that, I was holding back the more interesting bits of my repertoire. The people who duel at Broekzele, they're something else. There's a saying that if you want to make a Champion Duelist start with his Grandfather. Trust me, the best ones there have had dueling in their blood for far more than three generations."
"Won't matter to me" I said confidently. I had full faith in my talent, experience and training routine. And if all that wasn't enough, I had the ace in a hole that was a fucking time turner. If I wasn't already going to be abusing the hell out of it, then I surely would right now. What really drove that point home was the fact that I wasn't good enough to conclusively beat a single Hit-witch while Voldemort had beaten eight of them without breaking a sweat. He hadn't just beaten them, he'd torn through them like they were made of paper— at least that was what the Daily Prophet had reported.
"If you say so. Do feel free to apply to our Summer training program" She said, as she stood up and began to leave. I could see it in her eyes with that hint of not-quite legilimency that had become second nature to me, the way I fell a notch in her eyes from my lack of what she would view as wisdom.
"Interested in making a wager?" I called out to her.
"What?"
"A wager. If I win, you owe me. If I lose, I owe you" I said.
"That's vague"
"We're magicals of our word, are we not?"
"I for sure am. Not so sure about you, Harry".
"Well, you'll have to take a leap of faith with me"
"Let's shake on it, then"
—
"Finally" Sirius jumped up with a whoop, rising from his position on the beach chair he'd been sunbathing on. I turned to look at him, lifting my head from Alekhine's Principles of Elemental Conjuration for the first time in hours and noted he was holding a copy of the Daily Prophet.
"What?" I asked, not even bothering to hide my irritation. He'd dragged me out for this and still wasn't letting me focus— that was a very good part.
"They finally arrested the bastard" he said, shoving it in my face. On the front page of the Daily Prophet was a picture of Snape in magic blocking chains, being led off by aurors. The headline read, 'Hogwarts Potions Master Arrested for Aiding At-Large Death Eater, Peter Pettigrew'.
"Oh, Dumbles is going to be pissed. You did this?" I asked when I saw the satisfaction on his face. It was too much for just schadenfreude.
"Yup. Fudge kept asking if there was anything he could do to make up for the whole Azkaban thing and lying on trial, and I said Snape's name. Guess he just needed some time to put things together".
"Shockingly efficient of him" I said, sharing his smirk. The Potions Master hadn't gotten much of a chance to be his usual self when it came to me because I never even bothered with attending his classes, but Harry had more than enough disdain for the both of us.
"Indeed. Come, let's go swimming" Sirius said with a laugh, running towards the Ionian. I sighed, looking back at the book.
"Come along Harry. Don't make me set something on fire" He called.
"Ugh" I said, before had to move the book away from an orange spell.
"Fine" I capitulated, putting down Alekhine's masterpiece and trodding over to join him in the sea. We must have looked a strange pair. We'd rented the beach house, paid in cash, and spent our days swimming, eating, relaxing, or trying our best to get laid— the latter being exclusively Sirius' domain. It was good to see him so happy, though. Even if I felt we were wasting time with this vacation.
A/N: And that's the chapter. Firstly, we get to meet a new character and some more stuff about how the rest of the world views Britain. It's kind of weird that Magical Britain could ge both Dumbledore and Voldemort in a single wizarding lifetime. if they'd been expansionist conquerors, then it would have been like having two Grindlewalds on their side. The rest of the world sees this, and if they get the chance to tempt the next one in that line away from Britain, then they'd take it— hence the offer to Harry here. We also get some more time with Sirius and see Snape getting some of his due. A good chapter, if I do say so myself. As always, the next two chapters are up on Patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga). If you just want to read complete chapters and not my work in real-time, then feel free to purchase this story as a collection on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) page so you get to read each chapter after I finish it and not necessarily the daily updates available with a regular patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) membership- nice way to support this story and me while you're at it. Enjoy!