[1990 Pt.14]

After the vote's results came in, there were a total of five people competing for the eighth and final spot in the gauntlet.

Philip and Hestia, after some deliberation, decided that they could hold the duels within the common room if they erected two shields for safety.

It took about ten minutes before an impromptu arena was created by the non-competing Puffs.

Alan looked towards Nathan who was standing with his wand in his hand and watching the first duel of the game with rapt attention. Alan was self-aware enough to acknowledge his impulsiveness, but he was also self-aware enough to tell when an idea of his would bite him in the butt.

Most of the time he did give his idea a go anyway. So when Nathan came asking for his vote so that he could compete in the gauntlet, his initial reaction had been to say something snarky about the idea. Nathan, of course like he normally did during their morning workouts, demolished through Alan's refusal and sarcasm and somehow convinced Alan to vote for him.

Jacob and Orion had also similarly been bullied into voting by Nathan. Their agreement allowed for Nathan's nomination due to the three-vote rule. Then Alan's fellow Hufflepuffs in the second year had surprised all of them and voted for Nathan too. They framed their votes as him deserving a chance if he believed that he could take on a seventh year. Alan was sure they just wanted Nathan to get a good thrashing so their insecurities about themselves were soothed.

Nathan was, after all, the best in the year when it came to wand work and magical theory.

Alan shook his head before he focused on the duel that seemed to be picking up pace in the arena.

[break]

Nathan observed the duel of the two students as they threw spells at each other. They were both fast and fierce as they shot spells at each other and shielded themselves in rapid succession.

Nathan's eyes narrowed as one of the two finally got frustrated with their stalemate and held his wand close to his mouth before breathing out. Nathan saw the ground in front of the caster immediately freeze over as a blizzard erupted from the tip of his wand. It was a strong spell and Nathan made a note to find out the spell for himself whenever he got the time in the future.

The spell's strength proved itself true when the other student attempted to turn the ground into a wall to protect himself but the wind interfered with the transfiguration and the student had to haphazardly jump back to protect himself from the blast of cold wind of the spell. The jump, however, also made the boy's position very awkward and gave his opponent the time to conjure a long and thick metallic wire.

Nathan started clapping even as the wire rushed towards the fallen student who was trying hard to scramble up to his feet even as he threw a bombarda at the animated wire.

The ground in front of the speeding wire exploded but the crouching wizard was disarmed with a simple expelliramus from his opponent who grinned at his opponent even as he basked in his victory. His opponent also offered the winner a weak smile as he stood up and went to pick up his wand off the ground.

As he clapped politely, Nathan turned his face towards his own opponent, who he had dubbed as Deadjack within his mind. This was the same boy who had belittled Nathan after he had spoken up to suggest that they vote for the positions. Normally, Nathan allowed most of the student body a lot of levy when it came to their behaviour because as an adult, he realized how twisted he himself was at that age and thus did not want to blame children for doing childish things.

That, however, went out of the window when said childish behaviour involved a seventeen-year-old mocking a twelve-year-old for trying to help.

As Nathan was thinking this as he looked at Deadjack, Deadjack also looked up and their eyes met. Nathan's face remained neutral even as Deadjack sent a malicious and smug smile towards Nathan that showed that the boy was not taking him seriously.

[break]

Nathan entered the arena along with Philip and Deadjack. Philip looked composed as he stood between them.

"All right, I know you have problems with each other," he lifted his hand as Deadjack was about to defend himself and said, "I don't want to hear whatever you have to say, Bronn. I am here to conduct duels to decide the allocation of the final spot for the Gauntlet and that is what I shall be doing."

Outlining the rules concisely, Philip emphasized the prohibition of lethal spells, dark magic, and urged the use of spells that could be healed with countercharms and healing spells. He humorously expressed his reluctance to explain injuries to Madam Pomfrey and warned against spells beyond their control. Nathan and Bronn affirmed their understanding.

With a nod, Philip declared, "Duel to disarm and stun only. The shields will be two inverted shield charms. Summoning for transfiguration is allowed, but steer clear of summoning any plants. I don't want Professor Sprout behind my hind. Clear?"

Once again, nods affirmed their comprehension. Philip took a step back, directing Nathan and Deadjack to their respective corners. "Grey to the left corner! Goodman to the right!" he commanded.

As both contenders assumed their positions, Philip confirmed their readiness. "Left corner ready?" he inquired, receiving a nod from Nathan. Turning to Deadjack, he asked, "Right corner ready?" Deadjack signalled his readiness.

With a decisive command, Philip announced, "Then BEGIN!

Both Bronn and Nathan raised their wand simultaneously. A wave of red light erupted confidently from the wand of Bronn rushing towards Nathan at breakneck speeds. Nathan's eyes narrowed and a large shield charm materialised in front of him just in time to intercept the arithmantically manipulated stunning charm.

The crackling wave of red swiftly hit the wall of blue and a hum of magic was felt due to the collision by all the magicals of the common room despite the two shields of magic.

Nathan dismissed his shield even as steam rose from where the two spells had collided.

He internally smiled as he saw that all the students in the common room, including Philip were looking at him in surprise.

'They really were expecting that I would go down in a single spell.'

He did not let his thoughts wander as he kept his eye on Deadjack Bronn who was looking as surprised as their audience.

"You must be really talented at Arithmancy to create your own specialization of a stunning charm. Why I--"

Nathan stopped speaking when Bronn summoned a chair from outside the arena and turned it into a small wooden horse that rushed towards Nathan who immediately blasted it to smithereens. Though Nathan destroyed it, five small balls of light left Bronn's wand. They did not move towards Nathan and simply floated around Bronn.

"Are they going to stop any spells I send your way? Or are they going to rush me the moment they get a chance?" Nathan asked, pointing at the balls of light.

Bronn paused the wand movement he was about to perform before saying, "Either," then he smirked and said, "Neither."

Nathan nodded despite the refusal and said, "I will have to find out for myself," as he said this, he silently summoned a table in the path of the spell that Bronn had flung after speaking himself. The table was destroyed, but Nathan immediately transfigured the wooden splinters into marble, which he then morphed into a coyote. Nathan flung two stunners even as the coyote rushed towards Bronn.

Bronn gave his wand a flourish and was pushed out of the path of both spells before he levelled his wand at the animated transfiguration and fired a blasting hex at it.

The spell sped towards the coyote but before it could strike its target, the coyote opened its jaws and screamed.

Nathan had found the spell in a book about intermediate transfigurations written by Quinn West. And thanks to his knowledge of the spell, Nathan had already cast a shield charm to protect himself from the noise blast.

Bronn Goodman, however, fortunately for Nathan, had no knowledge of the spell and the only thing that protected him from Nathan's spell were the bubbles of light that he had cast. All five of them rushed towards the spell and turned into..... Nathan wasn't even sure what the substance was. The closest thing Nathan remembered seeing in either of his lives to the substance would be spider silk.

The bubbles opened up into large webs and absorbed the sonic blast from the coyote which was subsequently destroyed by the blasting hex. The nets also concealed Bronn from Nathan.

Nathan decided to show off a little and gave a swat from his non-wand arm which wandlessly blew all five nets created by the spell away and presented a haggard-looking Bronn the Deadjack to his eyes.

As he looked at the seventh year who was panting, Nathan felt a little disappointed. He hadn't even used any of his self-created spells or stronger spells in the fight and wasn't even tired from the two transfigurations.

'No point in dragging this out when I have already proven my strength.' -- Nathan focused before he took a step and arrived in front of Bronn covering at least seven meters of distance in a single step.

Bronn's eyes widened in horror and confusion as his opponent appeared a little to his side and inside the range of his extended wand-arm which he was already trying to aim at Nathan. Unfortunately for Bronn, the awkward nature of the adjustment gave Nathan enough time to point his own wand at Bronn's chest and incanted, "Stupefy."

 ------------------------------Author Notes------------------------------------

This chapter was a nightmare to write because I wasn't sure how to make all these duels interesting as well as use them to show the clear difference in skill and power between normal students and Nathan. [Keep in mind that Nathan has been studying magic for about as long as these seventh years. And Nathan has a lot more motivation than passing an exam and getting a job.]

If you like the chapter and the duel, drop some powerstones so that others can read this fic. Any if you like my writing enough to want to support it? Check out my Pa-atreon where I go by the same name.

And finally and most importantly give me some ideas about duelling and things he could do.