Chapter 184: Rumbling Depths

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.

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

14 February 1994, Hogwarts

Harry sat in the spectator's lounge as a pathetic duel between Seamus Finnigan against Marietta Edgecombe occurred on the platform below him. Next to him, Daphne looked befuddled at the sight, "I know we're the youngest competitors in the tournament, but is it really that bad?"

Harry shrugged, "It's not really fair to compare them to you. They don't have a crest helping them, and they never really trained to duel before. This is probably their first time fighting an actual opponent. I have to admit that Edgecombe is particularly bad, all things considered. She's the one with more magical education and Finnigan isn't a strong opponent to bridge that gap."

The last Potter repressed a wince as the Gryffindor just threw explosions around like a madman with a sick grin on his face.

"Come on. Even you have to say that Finnigan has a knack when it comes to explosives," Daphne commented with a smirk.

"I never said anything else. Although it's a very specific skill. His magic might be naturally inclined to explosions, which would be extremely rare for someone without a long family history in Pyrotechnic magic. I'm not really familiar with Irish old families."

"Neither am I, to be honest. They're very secretive with their magic. Finnigan's mother might be one, for all I know. Or he could just enjoy watching things blow up."

Harry snorted, "He blew things up without even using proper spells. Remember our first year, where he literally caused explosions whenever he failed a charm or a transfiguration."

"You might have a point there. Oh, the match is over…"

Harry peered to the platform and suppressed the urge to cackle as the fifth-year Ravenclaw was groaning while lying back outside the platform, having been caught in one of Finnigan's explosions.

"I can't believe Finnigan of all people is going to the next round."

The structure of the tournament was fairly standardized. There were two main brackets, one containing the sixth and seventh years, and one containing the third, fourth, and fifth years. The lots were chosen 'randomly' to have relatively fair duels. Or at least, that was what Dumbledore spouted to the media. Harry was sure that Dumbledore had something in mind for him, for his duel which should be in a couple of hours.

The winner of each duel went to the next round, which should occur a couple of days later, and the loser was eliminated immediately. After three rounds for the younger bracket and two rounds for the older one, the remaining winners of each bracket faced against one another randomly, ignoring their age entirely. It was somewhat unfair to have wizards having attained their majority potentially fighting against third years, but the normal dueling tournaments weren't all that much better. The Under-17 brackets were very much the same and people didn't really complain about it.

Harry shrugged at her, "At least they didn't start the task with this duel. You have to admit that the duel between Diggory and Clearwater was an exciting one. It's a shame that Clearwater was eliminated this quickly. She's one of the most talented muggleborns to come out of this place in the past couple of years. She deserved her opportunity to shine."

"She shined plenty in the first task, and people will remember this duel. I think Dumbledore did her a favor since everyone was going to watch that first duel and she definitely impressed a lot of people."

"I guess," Harry admitted, before looking to his left, where Tracy and Blaise were in a deep conversation, discussing duelling tactics with one another, "I've never seen them so focused on anything. They didn't even take the whole Hogsmeade thing as seriously as this."

Daphne's answer was a pearly laughter, a sound that he had learned to enjoy over the years, "You don't know Tracy like I do. Ever since my mother told her about the Court of Slytherin, and how much it helped her when she set up her import business by calling in a favour or two, she's been dreaming about it."

"Really? That long. Does she want to open a business too or something?"

The blonde shrugged, "I have no idea. But Tracy is an ambitious girl. She's been like that for ages. She probably has her designs on a higher-up position in the ministry or something. Complete opposite of her mother, surprisingly."

"Really, she never spoke about her parents."

"What's to tell? Her mother is a recent pureblood. Her grandfather helped mine during the war or something, and he raised her and my mother as if they were sisters. But Tracy's mother never really amounted to much. She just chose to have a cushy job in the ministry and fell in love with a muggleborn when they were in Hogwarts. Her father was heartbroken when she told him about her engagement. Apparently, he wished for her to strive for more."

Harry gave her a slight smile, "Some people like the peace that comes with a simple life. Not everyone wants to rule the world. There's a certain purity to it, I suppose. And Blaise, what's his deal?"

Daphne's answer was just to give him a dry look, which he didn't get, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You're joking, right?" The blonde said with an incredulous tone.

"What do you mean, I'm joking? I asked a simple question…"

Harry didn't really hear what she said in response. She muttered to herself something about morons and boys. Before he could ask her more about it, she looked at him with a deadpan expression, "Blaise has a huge crush on Tracy. He has for years. Do you seriously think that he cares one bit about joining the Court of Slytherin? He's doing it for her, as well as all this duelling stuff. Not that Tracy is any better, swooning around in our dormitory like some lovestruck maiden. I bet they'll be dating by the end of the year."

Huh, that made a lot of sense. Blaise was always relatively apathetic to whatever happened around him. They were a lot closer in their first year, after which, they just kinda drifted apart slightly, with Harry being distracted with the Riddle thing. He must have gotten closer to Tracy at the time.

The last Potter released a deep sigh, "I'm horrible at that kind of stuff."

"Yeah, I noticed."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She shook her head, "Nothing. Just ignore it. Hey, looks like your opponent was announced…"

Choosing not to press further, Harry let her change the conversation. He turned and saw a floating piece of parchment with his name on it. He turned it over and grumbled, "No bias my arse."

"What is it?" Daphne asked.

"My opponent is Lucien Bole. You know that fifth year from our house, the beater in the Quidditch team."

The blonde grimaced, "You mean the same one that Flitwick kicked out of the duelling club for being too brutal and joined the Quidditch team instead."

Harry simply nodded. It was a well-known fact. Around a couple of years back, when Harry was still a first year, Bole was a member of Flitwick's Dueling Club. He was a pretty promising student, if a little too brutal in his takedowns. That was until he ended up almost blowing up one of his opponents to pieces after he had disarmed him. Flitwick was apparently enraged and kicked him out, causing the boy to just go to Flint and ask him for a position in the Quidditch team. 

The boy still entered duelling tournaments during the summer and had apparently gotten a tutor to help him whenever he wasn't in the castle. He didn't perform particularly well in the tournaments, but it was more than enough to put him above most of the students in the castle, who probably never fought a real opponent in their lives.

The green-eyed boy wasn't very concerned about it, "Yeah. I guess Dumbledore decided to stop trying to be subtle."

Daphne raised an eyebrow, "You do realize that you're probably going to have to show off a lot more than you planned, right?"

"Don't worry, I have a plan."

He didn't elaborate on what that plan was, but he didn't really need to. Over the years, Daphne learned to start trusting his decisions. It was one of the things he appreciated the most about her. She rarely ever doubted him and knew when to ask questions, and when to just follow along when he had no time to explain.

Because Harry loved explaining things. It was a bit of a flaw of his, maybe a way to show off his knowledge, or a remnant of his time in his first life as a teacher. This first life has been starting to fade away slightly. It didn't feel forced, but more like the natural way people forgot about stuff that happened fifteen years before. He could still remember, when he looked specifically for it, and most of his skills weren't affected. He wasn't particularly bothered though. Harry's previous life was one filled with hopelessness and misery. He much preferred to think about his current one, his true one…

But that was enough reminiscing of bad memories, he had a duel to win, after all. After watching a few disappointing duels, it was time for Harry to prepare for his own. He walked down to the competitor's room and put on the tournament uniform provided for him. He made sure, of course, that it wasn't sabotaged in any way using his Arcane Hearing.

He patiently waited for his turn when Professor Flitwick came to get him. The half-goblin looked slightly hesitant when he spoke to him, "Are you worried, Potter?"

"Not really."

The Charms Professor didn't look appeased by his answer. He probably knew that Dumbledore was planning something. Alas, this was the headmaster's castle, his domain, and Flitwick was just an employee here, "Don't underestimate, Bole. Before removing him from the club, I taught him myself. He was a very talented student and could easily take you off-guard."

With a shrug, Harry replied, "Thank you."

The half-goblin looked like he wanted to say something, but simply replied by saying, "Good luck."

When he stepped through the doorway, he found himself in the familiar duelling platform. It was far more crowded than it looked from the outside, and it was definitely a lot louder. From the other side, Lucien was looking at him with a threatening smile, which Harry ignored entirely.

They slowly walked to the middle of the platform. The scene must have been comical to the spectators. To the normal observer, Bole was intimidating. He was broad-shouldered, with a muscular build that spoke of rigorous training. His height, easily surpassing Harry's, allowed him to peer down with an air of superiority. His face, sharp and angular, was framed by slick, dark hair, neatly combed back to accentuate his steely grey eyes.

The professional duelling robes he wore clung to his form, enhancing his athletic physique. Were they even allowed to wear anything but the tournament robes? None of the other contestants wore something else. Bole's robes, a deep emerald green embroidered with silver threads, shimmered under the bright lights of the arena, reflecting his house colours with pride.

The older boy looked at Harry with a fake pitying expression, "Sorry about what happening, little Potter. I would have liked to see you progress, but you know, I don't want to lose. I'll try not to hurt you too much."

Harry gave him a blank look before stiffening, "Did you say something?"

The older boy's face reddened at the response. He obviously wanted to say something but was interrupted by the announcer, Ludo Bagman, "Ladies and Gentlemen. What a day we've had, and it's about to get even better. For our next match, we have Lucien Bole, a fifth-year Slytherin, and a known competitor in the under-17 national duelling tournament. He will go against his younger housemate, Harry Potter, a third-year, and the winner of the previous task of his tournament. Will Potter be able to use one of his tricks to win this tournament as well or will Bole's experience prevail? We'll find that out now."

Both duelers bowed to each other before turning back and raising their wands.

Harry looked at his competitor's stance. Huh, unsurprisingly attacking, which made sense considering his reputation. He probably wanted to end to duel quickly. From the look of the stance, it was probably a bone-breaking curse but that was a guess at best. Harry felt something change in the boy's magic using his Arcane Hearing. They were legal but pretty frowned upon.

Oh, isn't that interesting? He's shaping his magic to prepare a spell, definitely a bone-breaker, to be released without any wand movements. Harry was impressed; it was a pretty advanced duelling trick. From the wand's position, he was probably aiming at Harry's chest.

Why this hex, though? Oh, it's part of a famous spell chain that stopped counterattacks by shielding right after with a Protego. A good first bout, one that would take out most inexperienced opponents.

Too bad for him, Harry wasn't inexperienced.

As Bagman announced the start of a duel, Harry tilted to the left to dodge the impromptu bone-breaker and retaliated immediately, "Stupefy!"

To Bole, it probably looked like Harry was somewhat experienced, and he continued his chain to continue his shield charm.

Of course, Harry's spell surprisingly broke the shield as if it weren't there, and the older boy found himself unconscious from a single spell.

The crowd was silent in shock at the bout. Harry suppressed a smug grin and bowed to his unconscious opponent before leaving the room.

No one really expected the variation of the stunning charm, specifically designed to bypass the shield charm. It wasn't even an illegal spell, only not used since it was designed to break a standard Protego and had a weaker effect overall.

Harry ignored the loud cheers as he passed by the gob-smacked Charmed professor and said, "I told you I wasn't worried."

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

Alright, this was the first part of the duelling tournament. I wanted to ask your opinion about how I handled it so far, and if you had any suggestions.

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

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.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.