Chapter 40: The Semi-finals
"Ladies and gentlemen! The time has come for something extraordinary. No, not the final yet, but something just as extraordinary. The semi-finals! Today we will see the four strongest duelists in each age group fight for their places in the final!"
The crowd around us erupted, and I stood with a barely visible smile on my face. Some of that applause was meant for me. And that felt good. Not that I had any intention of becoming a professional duelist exactly, but entering a tournament or two to make a name for myself wasn't a bad thing, and it was genuinely pleasant.
Fleur had a small smile on her face as well.
"Our first contender in the eleven-to-twelve age group! A dark horse put forward by multiple-time world champion Filius Flitwick himself, his personal apprentice... Draco Black! A Briton by origin..."
The crowd began to jeer and snicker, and I winced slightly.
"...and there is no need for that. It is rare indeed that a representative of that country performs at a genuinely worthy standard at this championship! Over the course of his bouts he has demonstrated exactly three spells, but can we truly blame him for that?"
There were considerably more spectators here now than there had been earlier in the tournament. Many of them didn't know the particulars, and an unexpected hush fell after those words.
"If he can handle his opponents with only three spells, that is nothing short of mastery, though word has reached me that the reason is not purely a desire to impress, but a certain wager he has made. Is that so? I am afraid we may never know, but it is delightfully intriguing!"
The crowd began to murmur, and eyes turned toward me with renewed interest.
"And now his opponent! A resident of Russia! Alexander Menshikov! He may not be of princely blood, but he is a powerful wizard, and last year he earned an honorable second place at this very tournament!"
The crowd simply erupted in welcome for a boy who was clearly a popular favorite. Not surprising, of course. The tournament was being held in Moscow, and he would have more supporters here than almost anyone. I wouldn't have been shocked to learn that every grade from his school had been brought along to cheer him on.
"Oh yes, you all know him well! And in this tournament he has shown remarkable variety in his spellwork..."
That was entirely true. He had applied fire, water, earth, and a number of standard spells such as Disarming and Binding Charms with considerable skill. Like me, he had not taken a single step during any of his bouts, and his spells were fast.
"...So let us see. Will Alexander Menshikov fight his way back to the final and claim the title that slipped from his grasp in the very last second last year? Or will our dark horse from Britain, Draco Black, fight his way through and challenge for the championship?!"
After those words, Alexander and I walked to the platform together. We were both checked, and then Alexander walked to the center of the platform and extended his hand. I was mildly surprised, but I mirrored the gesture and shook it firmly.
"May the most skillful prevail."
"May the strongest prevail."
We said it in Russian, and though my accent was dreadful, my opponent responded with a genuinely warm smile.
"Take your positions!"
We released each other's hands, turned, and walked to our respective marks. There we turned to face one another, and for the first time in the tournament I actually assumed something resembling a proper stance. My opponent took his stance as well, and we both went still, like strings drawn taut.
"Three, two, one, begin!"
The count ended, and instead of a shield my first move was a powerful Lumos Maxima that blazed directly in front of my opponent's face. Since I was ready for it, I had already shut my eyes and covered them with my free hand, and with my wand hand I loosed a Disarming Charm at him, which he avoided at the very last instant by throwing himself flat and rolling aside. I pressed the advantage immediately, sending several more Disarming and Paralyzing Charms in rapid succession.
A volley of area-effect spells came back at me, and I had to catch them on a shield I conjured a couple of meters in front of my body rather than around myself. Otherwise they would simply have angled past the edges.
I hit him with another Lumos Maxima, and before my opponent could recover he was blinded again. I aimed a powerful Petrificus Totalus not at him but at the platform beside his foot, and as he tried to roll clear, just barely making out the trajectory of the beam, it struck the platform and sent several small splinters driving into his leg, limiting his movement.
Another volley of area-effect spells came my way. He even broke through my shield, and for the first time I was forced to conjure several Protego Charms simultaneously, forming a sort of layered barrier. Even so, I could see that I had already won.
The boy still could not clear his vision and was beginning to lurch sideways almost at random, and I simply waited for the right moment and finally landed a Petrificus Totalus on him cleanly.
"The bout is over! Winner, Draco Black!"
The ovation that erupted from the spectators was enormously gratifying.
"Our dark horse advances to the final, having shown astonishing use of that most basic of spells, the simple Lumos! Even those who knew that this contender had been entered by champion Flitwick himself could not have expected him to perform so brilliantly at his very first tournament!"
I walked over to my opponent, caught his hand, and pulled him sharply upright to help him to his feet.
"Good fight."
"Apparently not good enough..."
His smile was slightly crooked. It was clear he was bitterly unhappy with the result, but he had shown himself to be a truly worthy opponent, and he hadn't made a scene like some of the duelists I'd watched earlier.
"That is not how I see it..."
I shook my head.
"...it was a genuinely good fight. The best one I've had here so far."
"Ha. You probably won't face anyone remarkable in the final. The defending champion from last year is competing in the next age group. I was the main contender. But if you do go ahead and challenge the winner of that group..."
"I will."
I gave a confident nod.
"I am very curious to find out what I am actually capable of here."
"Good luck to you, then."
Alexander smiled more openly this time.
"And to you."
I returned his nod.
"I hope we meet again next year..."
"We shall see."
We gave each other a nod, then I helped him turn to face the referee, and we both thanked him. Then we turned to face the spectators together, bowed, and left the platform. On his side of the platform, a rather attractive girl was already waiting to help him down. I made my way over to Fleur and took my place beside her.
"Good fight..."
Nymphadora, standing just behind me, mussed my hair, and I made a show of jerking my head away in a futile attempt to prevent further damage.
"I know."
"Tch, arrogant little so-and-so!"
"That is part of why you love me, sister dear."
"And how do you put up with him?"
"Oh, he is rather sweet."
Penny gave Nymphadora that answer, and a somewhat wider smile spread across my lips.
"You realize he is going to win the wager very soon?"
"Yes. But I've made my peace with it. I hoped to win, of course, but I figured it out after his first couple of bouts. And it would be foolish to want someone from Britain to lose."
"Well, then... he has gone and ruined the girl..."
Nymphadora said in a tone of exaggerated lamentation.
"Oh, come off it..."
I shook my head.
"They're just watching and having a good time. Look..."
I nodded toward the younger ones, who really were just enjoying themselves. Even when they spent time with me during the evening celebrations, or afterwards, they were full of energy and enthusiasm.
"And yet you keep looking for something to needle me about."
"If not me, then who? Penny Clearwater and Fleur have apparently already surrendered to the full force of your charm."
"Thank you, sister. You are very sweet yourself."
"I beg your pardon?"
She sounded genuinely astonished.
"Well, you just called me charming..."
"Pffft..."
Up until now, she had chosen not to participate in conversations unless the whole group was together and no outsiders were nearby, and she and the other members of my year group had, for some reason, preferred to avoid drawing my attention.
"Charming... right... more like an insufferably smug nuisance who draws far too much attention to himself..."
But the way she said it made it perfectly clear to everyone that she was not criticizing me at all. She was calling me charming and handsome, just without quite coming out and saying it.
"Heartbreaker..."
Nymphadora said with open mockery.
"Hey! To us he is just a friend!"
The Patil twins protested indignantly, and when I turned to look at them, I found them glaring at my sister with considerable heat.
"I do not think of him in romantic terms either..."
Hermione chose to weigh in.
"Brother! Did you hear that? You paid for their front-row seats! You covered their travel! And they're rejecting your feelings!"
Nymphadora was thoroughly enjoying herself.
Meanwhile, the second semi-final had concluded. My upcoming opponent was exactly what the other boy had predicted: nothing out of the ordinary. An average wizard who had simply been fortunate in the draw and ridden that luck all the way to the final. It was, frankly, a little disappointing.
"Good luck."
I smiled at Fleur, who stepped toward the platform with a small, expectant smile, waited for her opponent, and then stepped up onto it alongside her. They were both checked while the announcer showered both girls with praise. By his account they were beauties, champions in their own right, pioneers of the age, and both superb duelists... Not that I disagreed with most of what he said about Fleur and her opponent, but the impression was inescapable that the man simply liked the sound of his own voice. He said a great deal. The referee who had overseen my own bout clearly did not share this tendency toward verbal excess, delivering everything quickly and precisely.
"...Begin!"
And with that eagerly awaited word, nothing happened. Fleur watched her opponent closely. Her opponent watched her in return. Both girls simply raised shields.
One minute. Two minutes.
Fleur's opponent was the first to blink. She sent three spells in rapid succession that shattered against my friend's shield, and Fleur reinforced it immediately and went on the attack. Fire spells alternated with standard beam spells, all of them flying at her opponent with tremendous speed.
Spell after spell, both girls pressed their attacks. Their shields burst and were rebuilt and burst again, neither willing to yield, both hurling spells the moment they had a shield to stand behind again.
"Hmm..."
I was mildly taken aback by what I was seeing.
"...is this personal between them?"
"It rather looks like it..."
Nymphadora agreed, and the other girls clearly shared my assessment, because what I was watching were two duelists who were both far too wound up, considerably more than they had been in any previous bout.
"Wow..."
I shook my head as Fleur conjured an enormous fireball above her head and hurled it at her opponent, who barely had time to leap backward to the very edge of the permitted area and throw up five shields at once.
Meanwhile, with her opponent fully occupied defending herself, Fleur began tracing a complex but familiar pattern in the air with her wand.
"Firestorm!"
Fleur practically shouted the incantation, and a rolling wall of fire bore down on her opponent.
Her opponent didn't react in time and had to dive sideways off the platform entirely, rolling across the grass to avoid the worst of it.
"Winner. Fleur Delacour. France."
Fleur bowed to everyone present and came back to us.
"Hmm..."
"What?"
She looked at me in mild surprise.
"I just... was that personal?"
"What gave you that idea?"
"Well..."
I shrugged.
"...mainly the fact that you have not behaved that way with any of your other opponents, and your opponent today was considerably more aggressive than she had been in her previous bouts."
"You are mistaken."
"But..."
"I said you are mistaken."
All I could do was nod like a bobblehead doll and think quietly to myself: Fleur is ter-ri-fy-ing.
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4.Harry Potter: Reborn as Draco Black = CHAPTER 90
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