28 Chapter 28

Chilling wind howled through the woods of Dartmoor forest, the trees bristling under its might. The night's darkness spread thickly— dominating the lands, bringing with it a silence that cannot be broken easily.

But deep within the forest, surrounded by dense thicket, there lay a large clearing—almost a kilometer wide— that seemed to defy this natural state of being.

Charred and smoking debris littered the clearing, its once-green grass now blacked, all of it blanketed by a thin layer of smoldering water. And amidst the pieces of wood and stone—large and small—four cloaked beings danced between a shower of spells.

The silence was the easiest to break. The unnatural whooshing and crackling sounds of their spells made sure that it had no room to exist.

The darkness on the other hand, while strong and dominating, was broken by multiple sources. One hung high in the sky, a bright ball of light that illuminated the entire clearing.

Second was a sparkling of colours that tore through the air, throwing their own hue of glow around that mixed with the sky light to defeat the darkness.

The spells that were cast—unleashing the said sparkles—came from only the three cloaked figures however. The three who moved together, fighting against their lone enemy that held strong against their relentless onslaught stubbornly.

That loner warrior was Harry Potter, and he produced the third source of brightness, and undoubtedly the strongest one.

A net of thin pointed rocks, like arrowheads made of stone—all alit with fire—hung around him like a globed shield, tightly bound under his control. They revolved around him slowly, blocking any incoming spells from his enemies, striking them down with pinpoint accuracy. The flaming arrowheads burnt with such intensity that their fierce radiance turned to be the final nail in the darkness' coffin, thoroughly vanquishing it from the area.

But that wasn't the only thing the arrows would be nailing tonight.

The team of three did their best to keep their enemy on the defensive, launching spells after spells, hoping to overwhelm him with their number, combined power, and skill.

And yet, they couldn't pierce through the sphere of fire and stone.

Harry dealt with all of their attacks whilst remaining immobile, his fiery stoneheads simply keeping pace with the enemy's casting as they struck down spells after spells, intercepting their paths with precision.

His Occlumency enabled him to divide his attention in two; one kept account of spells aimed at him, the other patrolled any spells wanting to change his environment. Transfigurations were denied to take effect, conjurations were pierced by dozens of arrowheads, and when the trio of dark wizards finally had had enough and decided to wash him over with their own brand of fire, he let go.

His control over magic wasn't great enough to manipulate the storm of flaming arrowheads while casting spells at the same time.

Thus, the moment one of his opponents stepped back to create their own inferno, he rained down death upon them.

Together as one unit, the arrowheads stopped circling around him and moved forward to form a wall at his front. Then, keeping the unity, they sped through the air for his enemies—bearing down upon them like glowing needles.

"Stick to the plan!" Screamed the woman, her spell disrupted as she took the leadership of their group.

A large blue shield materialized into being, curving around the group to cover them behind a small semi-spherical dome.

Two of the cloaked trio—the woman and Mathew—tied themselves into maintaining the shield, while the remaining member—Krafft the crippled—kept shooting annoying but quick spells to keep Harry busy.

The flaming arrows smashed against the blue shield in a loud crackling explosion, hiding it under their orange glow. He could already see thin splintering lines slowly forming along the shield's surface, increasing ever so slightly with every impact.

Harry decided to give it a final nudge and crack it open. He stepped forth—almost absently—letting the cripple's spell fly over his head. Without having to maintain the firestorm of stones, he was free to cast magic again.

A small dotted shield formed at the tip of his wand. When the next spell chased after him, he hit it right in the middle, sending it back to its caster who jumped behind his teammate's shield with a curse.

Now free of the annoyance, Harry let loose a quick half-assed Bombarda right in the middle of the splintering shield.

"Krafft!" The alarmed woman screamed a second before the spell struck.

The Bombarda exploded upon impact, its powerful flames mingling with the peppering of arrowheads to pop open their shield like a pinata—forcing it to dissipate in motes of blue light.

A second shield formed barely in time to block the last round of flaming arrows, but it was powered by a single wizard. And a wizard who'd just cauterized his recent dismemberment, no doubt still distracted by the bouts of pain. It was simple to conclude that no matter how good of an Occlumens he may be, Krafft wasn't at his finest.

And the attack the trio of dark wizards faced demanded their finest.

The newly formed shield strained against the onslaught, and Harry launched another shower of spells to break through it. Overpowered Bombardas, Confringos, and Reductors headed straight for the barely holding shield.

One thing he was certain about in this fight was thus; while all three of his enemies were strong duelers, no two of them could hope to be his match. As long as Harry managed to take down one single opponent completely, the tide of this battle will quickly turn to his side.

That did not come to pass however as at the last moment, the other male wizard shakily, and hurriedly, raised his wand and transfigured the ground in front of Krafft into an earth-wall, tenaciously hanging onto the battle.

The ground rose up to form a wall of mud and stone, hiding the rest of the scene from Harry's eyes. By the time his spells tore it down—Reductors cracking the wall open while the explosive spells completely smashed it away—Harry was revealed to the scene of a sorry bunch of wizards struggling to their feet, the last round of arrows having been successfully defended.

A sense of muted annoyance broke through his occlumency, welling up in a tight ball within him as his enemies straightened again—all three standing together now—their wands held ready with frustrated determination glinting in their eyes, looking like dark chitinous marbles in the night.

The fight hadn't gone for long yet, but to Harry—who was counting every second as being away from the people who needed him—it might as well have been a life time.

Then, they began casting. And for the first time, Harry faced the might of all three Auror-level opponents at once—this time properly.

The one-armed man started first, almost pettily stepping ahead of his peers, his wand slashing down with a sickly green glow. The other two joined him next. The woman gave birth to a firestorm again, big and powerful— though not quite what he'd witnessed from Dumbledore. The last one targeted Harry's surroundings, and he could sense a sharp command to change, within the spell.

Alone and outnumbered though he may be, this wasn't the first time he was facing such a situation. And he dealt with it as always—with the precision of a surgeon.

He slipped past Krafft's killing curse calmly, his wand shooting a powerful Depulso overhead—aiming towards the fire that had just finished taking form of a horned serpent. He didn't bother seeing the results, turning blithely to shoot two quick Reductos at the rapidly transfiguring stone. Which had just begun taking form of a lion.

The stone cracked, interrupting the magic; the fire scattered over his opponent—his Depulso strong enough to break the woman's control; and Harry calmly ducked under another killing curse from the cripple.

"Merlin take you!" The woman screamed—angered and frustrated—as she hastily shielded her group from her wild fire's reach.

But the other two were there to cover her guard, this time working in a much better tandem as they pinned him down under an onslaught of spells. The crippled one was noticeably slower than before, but he still cast faster than most people Harry knew.

The spells ranged from lethal Killing curses, Bone-breakers, and Entrails Expellers to the more mundane Stunners, and Disarmers. Harry danced through them adroitly, fast and dexterous enough to avoid or deflect most of them.

But the only attacks from his own side were the occasional enemy spells that he sent right back to them. He dared not shield against even a single volley, for he knew exactly what fate awaited him there. If he became a turtle against three highly skilled opponents, escape would be nigh impossible. Especially with the route to Apparate completely cut off.

Thus, he did his very best to put up a solid defense without his shield, even taking a page out of his enemies book to launch tiny pebbles at them before hitting them with Engorgio—turning pebbles to boulders and monoliths that deflected rounds and rounds of spells.

But the tide shifted thoroughly when the woman joined them. She was the best out of them three, Harry had no doubts of this. Her spells were quick and powerful, and she seemed to prefer bending the nature to her will when casting magic.

And she was adapting quickly. Just as he was.

In no time, he was facing the same boulders he'd launched earlier—only, now they were raging with fire.

The woman actually threw his own strategy back at him.

'Smart woman.' Harry frowned. 'But so very irritating.'

The two men were now casting non-lethal spells rapidly, intending to divert his attention from the approaching boulders. If he responded to them, he would be crushed alive underneath the heavy stones. If he responded to the stone though, he will be stunned and disarmed in no time.

He needed something to answer both the attacks.

So he ran.

Why? Because he had one more advantage no wizard would count on: his physique. Not only could he deal with both the attacks this way, should he somehow manage to close the distance and get his hands on them, the trio of wizards may just as well prove to be same as Malfoy and his group: Helpless children.

He skipped between the spells, occasionally smacking one or two back to their owners as he began closing the distance. The ground was wet, his boots splashing droplets of water around as he nimbly made his way towards his enemies.

The boulders were too heavy for the woman to direct properly—especially alit with fire as they were—and in no time his feet were running directly underneath the stones, letting them soar away overhead.

But just as he was about to duck underneath the last one, it shifted. It was sudden and jarring; too unnatural to be real. One moment it looked to follow after the monolith, the next it struck down—directly towards his head.

A pale shield popped into existence in an instance, blocking the flaming boulder from splattering and frying his brains all over the wet ground. And not necessarily in that order.

That slight moment of delay was all he needed to escape, diving away from his rapidly cracking shield, letting it fall to the ground.

The boulder slammed down with a deep thump, sending vibrations through the land that climbed up his feet, to his stomach and chest. The fire sizzled down from underneath it as it lay upon the sheen of water, releasing smoke and mist.

Harry had no time to taste success however, as a three way attack suddenly started streaming down at him.

He was alive and unharmed, successfully dealing with enemy attacks—but he'd lost his momentum. And the shower of spells reached him faster than sound, all aiming to tie up his movements.

There was no time for Harry to think, no chance of dodging.

So he shielded.

'Protego Maxima!' He bellowed in his mind, his wand cutting the air vertically to form a massive shield glowing with powerful blue intensity, stopping all three streams of spells at once with little to no trouble.

Knowing the risk, he tried dismissing the shield to get away, but there was no point. His enemies clamped upon his forced mistake and proceeded forward victoriously with brute force, all three attacking with feverish intensity. Their combined might made his hand shake slightly, needing all his attention in maintaining the shield.

Yet, slowly but surely, he pushed back as well.

Harry Potter may be trapped, but giving up was not in his veins.

'The boulder.' A sudden burst of inspiration whispered. 'Shift towards the boulder, then take cover behind it.'

A brief moment of respite was all he would need to get back in the battle. And hiding behind the boulder was as good a plan as any.

'No.'

With his Occlumency running strong, his mind quickly cracked through the plan. 'A simple push from that woman, and I'll be a pancake under the stone.'

He will constantly need to fight off her magic if he wished to make the round boulder his cover, which defeated the entire point of the plan.

Worse, if a combined Depulso from all three hit the boulder, he doubted anyone could help him from being crushed underneath it.

For the first time in this fight, Harry Potter was well and truly trapped, with no straight way out of it.

'Fine.' He readied himself for an arduous battle of will and power, setting his feet wide as he held against the tide strongly. 'A long struggle this shall be, but I'll come out the victor.'

It doesn't matter if he was trapped or not. Doesn't matter if he could attack or not. As long as he closed the distance between them, they were dead.

One moment. All he would need is one moment of distraction, and he could tear them apart bare handed.

And thus, he pushed. He pushed, pushed, and pushed further back. At first it was a struggle to take even a step, with three chains of spells bearing down upon his shield. He kept hoping one of them will be foolish enough to stop aiming at his shield—perhaps to distract him through transfiguration, perhaps through conjuration—yet it never came.

His enemies were smart. They knew he would need but a tiny room of space—a brief chance of respite—and combined with his inhuman dexterity, he could slip past this noose before it could tighten. And so, they continued their—what must be for them—a mind numbingly repeatable attack to crack apart his shield.

But he held on with an ever greater tenacity. Teeth gritting, hand shaking, and dripping with sweat—he held on. And pushed. One struggling step at a time, he pushed, gaining momentum as he covered the distance, until there was a mere 15 feet of gap between them.

Not that he was completely unaffected by their combined might. His knees were digging into the ground, his palms were sweaty as he held the wand with both hands, his breath was high and panting, his shield starting to form slight cracks….Yes indeed, he wasn't unaffected. Not by a long shot.

But his enemies did not know what awaited them, they did not know his plan. So they stood stationary.

Even still, for all his struggle forward, he was threading upon very thin ice right now. His hands were clammy and shaking, both gripping upon the wand as he moved. His knees were digging into the ground with every push. And the cracks on his shield were starting to widen slowly with each cycle of spells they blocked.

His Lumos maxima soon whisked out as his magic fully concentrated upon the shield, and the only sources of light that remained were the rapid spells from his enemies and the burning forest— the true victim of this battle.

Thoughts of despair tried wrecking his mind, and try though he might—with his occluded mind stretched thin to focus upon the struggle—he couldn't keep all from reaching him.

'Is this all I'll do in the war?' He gritted his teeth, his magic flickering, the cracks enlarging. 'Get stuck here, away from the true fight, struggling against three opponents who did not matter?'

What use was his knowledge? What use was his power?

'While the two who truly matters to me fight for their life, here I am—landing myself in a pit with no escape all on my own folly.'

This day was truly showing him exactly how much those two meant to him. He hadn't realized that until now, but he found himself accepting it completely.

Thus, he couldn't help but curse himself for being a fool. Why hadn't he simply taken Tonks' advice and joined Lily? Was he so desperate for vengeance that a couple of death eaters seemed equal to the lives of his loved ones?

Where was his strength now!? Where were his plans!?

He had felt so ready for this challenge, just this morning. His power was unquestionably higher than most Lvl 6 duelers, his knowledge—while still lacking in specific areas, was more than enough to debate any Hogwarts student. His physique was supreme, and his mind sharp as a razor.

He had been so confident that this will all work out. Now? Now it all felt like arrogance. Arrogance born out of ignorance.

And the only thing more dangerous than ignorance in the world is arrogance.

"Never again." He hissed out, spittle and sweat flying out of his mouth as he roared himself back to his feet, the flickering shield—while on the verge of collapse still—more than enough to guard his path forward.

The look of astonishment on his enemies would've been worth celebrating, had his entire world not depended upon the pale blue shield in front of him.

15 feet, 14 feet, 13, 12, 10…

'Almost there.' Victory clawed at his chest as his enemies desperately cast away, still rooted on their spot. They didn't know what he was about to do, but his eyes and roars must've shaken them badly enough to twist their faces into grimaces of trepidation.

'Almost ther—!?'

A streak of light flew past him like thunder suddenly, startling all four duelists. It was aimed at the female one, who ducked under it with a curse….

'What?' Harry blinked, stupefied.

And then came the true attack. A flaming phoenix made completely of fire glided over his head—across the horizon—warming the cool night in its lonesome.

His opponents didn't just stand there gaping like inexperienced children. They burst into a practical formation at once; the woman disengaging from the other two to defeat the Phoenix with a wave of gushing water.

This was his chance. With the woman —fastest caster of the three—gone, the pressure was let up considerably. He could try to dodge and roll away now, could try to escape his cage…

'Hold.' His mind whispered, the strategist coming out as it surveyed the situation.

And he waited.

Like a cracked glass being reverse-timed, the shield stopped flickering and the cracks healed themselves. With the woman not pressuring him, his magic was strong enough to defend against two opponents. Those two kept firing spells after spells with desperate zeal, but his magic stood as strong as ever.

'…Just a sec…'

The Phoenix was powerful, but the woman was skilled enough to distract its caster with an offhand spell in the middle as water and fire fought for supremacy. And as the Phoenix lost its constant supply of magic, water won—washing away the flames back where they came from.

'Now!'

The moment he was sure he wouldn't be caught up in the clash, he let go of the shield and with his Occlumency focused entirely on one single thing: he concentrated.

For one brief moment time almost seemed to slow down. He could see the woman now turning towards him—her wand raised to renew the pressure, he could see the succession of spells already heading towards him—the other two enemies not stopping one bit…

And he burst into motion.

His hand moved faster than they ever have, his wand dancing through the air like lightning. A small pointed shield at its tip took form once again and accurately struck back each of the incoming spells in three directions.

5 spells in total had headed his way, all were hit back towards his opponents as he leapt away from his position. Two headed for the woman, two headed for Mathew, and one for Krafft. The woman formed a shield in an instant, while Mathew threw himself to the ground with a startled yell, too close to Harry to do anything. Only Krafft—now much less dexterous than the two—was hit successfully, his wand leaping out of his fingers.

And as the one-handed wizard scrambled for his wand in alarm, Harry closed in on Mathew.

"Avada Kedavra!" Came Krafft's yell.

Harry picked up Mathew like a shield and faced the spell. The man gave a startled yell but could do nothing as certain death hit him right in the stomach.

Moving forward quickly, he threw the limp body towards Krafft, eliciting a squeak. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw his mysterious allies having closed the distance and taking advantage of the chaos, disarm the woman.

Harry surged forward, his hands clamping upon Krafft; one stopped his wand from rising and the other squeezed his throat.

Wide eyes stared at him in fear and breathlessness as he choked out. "Please..."

"You should've died way earlier." And with a twist of his wrist, Harry broke the man's neck, his body going slack in an instant.

With a bitter snort, he threw away the dead body, glancing to the last remaining member of the trio. She was quite pretty he realized; short shoulder-length hair and soft, perfectly oval face. Even on her knees, with hands tightly bound in heavy ropes and smudges of dirt marring her face, her beauty managed to shine through.

And yet, she was but a mere peasant compared to the breathtaking beauty standing beside her.

"We apologize for ze delay, Mr. Potter." Apolline Delacour said, her sinful voice a stark contrast between the destroyed lands.

Relief spread through his chest at the familiar voice, his tense body relaxing down as he took a breather.

Though along with relief mingled a hint of...annoyance.

Harry nodded, glancing up at her. "I guessed it would be you. I thought I told you to leave?"

"You will find Mr. Potter, zat we are quite a stubborn lot." The woman gave him a grin that at any other time would've looked the most beautiful thing he had ever witnessed.

As it was, he simply grew more irritated.

The grin died down slowly, growing uncertain and hesitant. "You…are not happy to see us."

No, he was not. Even knowing how stupidly irrational it was to delay here, he couldn't help but feel her timely help had made him fail.

'Couldn't even deal with three wizards on your own now, could you?' A dark voice gnawed inside him. 'And you think you can save them from Voldemort!?'

He closed his eyes, feeling stupid at his thoughts. Her help has just saved him a ton of time and extra effort. Could he have won the fight on his lonesome? Perhaps. Most likely. But there was also a chance of failure, and it would've no doubt taken more of his time.

A time he couldn't afford to waste. His pride and insecurity could wait.

"Thank you." He finally replied, opening his eyes to nod at the woman tiredly.

"It is no problem." The woman smiled again, though noticeably smaller. Perhaps he hadn't managed to hide his annoyance as well as he thought. "We would be true cowards to let you fight for us alone. Gabrielle, the small one, is at your safe house. But we had a duty to stay."

'We?' He mind clocked the word finally.

He stared further back, and there she was; a silver goddess, her platinum blonde hair swaying lightly from the wind. "Fleur."

Her face was drenched in sweat as she approached them slowly. Like a magnet upon metal, his voice attracted her attention with a sudden snap, and with a wide smile quite similar to Lily, she exclaimed, "Arry!"

With a chuckle, he faced back ahead, approaching the kneeling woman who was oddly silent—refusing to even look at him.

"Well then…let's talk." His hand clamped down upon her slender neck. She turned to him slowly, and he realized for the first time why she wouldn't look at him. Fear. Pure, unadulterated fear clawed in her eyes as she her eyes shakily met his.

"Everything you know." He smiled, white teeth gleaming under the fire's glare. "And make it quick."

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AN: And we are done! A really massive chapter this one, definitely the biggest for this story.

So, what are your thoughts? Hope Tonks pov wasn't too annoying. It was a lot of monologuing but hopefully it was interesting enough. And it had to be done, to improve upon her shallow character in the previous chapter. When I'd written that I hadn't known that Tonks was going to be a permanent addition. Now that she is though, she'll need some character development and depth.

Unfortunately, that takes away from action scenes. Though I do have to progress the story, so can't afford to write a full chapter worth of dueling anyway.

Now, the last chapter had pretty divided opinions, with many hating the fact that Harry didn't instantly demolish his opponents and had to struggle. Those people likely hated this chapter much more (considering Harry struggles even further) but I really couldn't give a shite. Him having his arse handed to him by Bella should've told you that it's not gonna be a god-like Harry fic. I'll sum up most of your complains into this one review given by Bostonette.

"Keeping with most of what other readers have noticed (thankfully)… this was an awful chapter from the point of leaving the Delacour family onward. "Smart, witty, veteran, and cruel harry"? I don't fucking think so. We now have a cocky, useless underpowered teenager playing the hero, and fighting against people he should be annihilating or at the minimum outmatching without much problem. Do not ruin this further by him being subservient or brow beaten by anyone in the future."

So, if you are still confused I'll spell it out for you: Fuck off...

Yeah, fuck off. Leave your 'Shitty chapter' comments and fuck off. Really can't deal with your BS. You don't want a competent Harry fic, you want an OP-Harry-from-the-start fic, and this ain't it.

.....

...

Now for those who are still here, I'll clarify some things about the last chapter's fight.

First, why didn't Harry just start attacking while he was hidden from his enemies? Because he knows there's a thing called Magical sensing that opponents at Auror level and above are pretty good at. A single missed spell and he would've lost his advantage. My first scene was actually like this: Harry giving into his old instincts of instantly killing his opponents and launching a spell, but instead gets detected, his spell blocked, and starts a full 1v3 match, with all three at their top shape. I eventually went with my version though cause this one just seemed bland.

It was my fault for not clarifying this in the last chapter, and I apologize if his decision seemed nonsense. I've now corrected the issue, though just know that magical sensing is going to soon become a massive thing for the story.

The only thing that Harry did which is utterly stupid in the last chapter was to prepare for a fair fight against Krafft. But whenever I write Harry's character I take Sly-Harry's passive one in the mix. So basically, if both the Harrys want something common, they're likely to try and get it. In this case, you have an experienced Harry who has improved a ton over a short amount of time, and has no idea how actually strong he is. Then you have Sly-Harry who is even more excited to test his strength, cause for him the current Harry is literally the strongest wizard he's ever witnessed personally.

Of course, I shouldn't have to spell it out here, and should've added this in the chapter, which is totally my fault. The thing is, I actually had a full monologue written for Harry's internal struggle, but it just seemed so out of place in a fight scene that I ended up scrapping the entire paragraph. Though I still should've clarified this better, and could've definitely fleshed it out more. And for that I apologize.

But you lot need to understand that I write every freaking chapter in 3 days time. I have two more stories on-going, and I update each one in rotation, forcing myself to write at least 2k words each day (most of the times even more). So expecting a perfect chapter from me is, I'm sorry to say, probably impossible. At least, not without doing some changes in my schedule.

Finally, for anyone who still has any doubts, this is a purely wish-fullfillmenty fic. But, I'm doing my best to weave it around an exciting plot and make it at least a bit realistic. But eventually, Harry will end up god-like, surpassing Voldemort by a mile, and he will end up banging most of the hot chicks in this world (smut will pick up a lot after world cup arc), just that it will be slow and unrushed (you should still expect him to be around Grindelwald's level by the end of his 4th year).

So if you're here to see him take down Grindelwald in this very arc, then this fic is not for you. But if you're here to see him progressing until he can juggle Grindelwald and Voldemort with one hand tied behind his back, then this is the fic for you. Oh, along with plenty of smut of course. Can't forget that.

Anyway, that's all for today. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you lot in the next one!

Till then, goodbye and take care!

My discord: discord .gg/9wpfysDGsz to discuss fics and chill.

My Pat reon: www. Pat reon com/ Robs511 (No spaces and a dot before com) for anyone who wants to read upto the next three chaps of all my fics.

P.S: Next chapter (for MS) is on 8th April, not 7th. And the next chapter for SOW will be released on 13th.