A Second Chance

Chapter 12 : The First Task (Part 2)

A couple of hours after his last duel and he was preparing himself for the final duel of the first task. The previous 2 duels were between Fleur & Krum and Fleur & Cedric where unfortunately for her were won by both the male duellers. Cedric had gotten his second hint for the next task while Krum had received the first one. Fleur was a tad bit depressed and dejected as she hadn't recieved any hints and would have no idea what the task would be. Anyways, right now he was here, ready to get his third hint for the task and prove himself to all of the ferrets. Hermione had kept him company when he was told to rest and both of them had spent their time planning about retrieving the ring horcrux from the gaunt shack and other 'teenage activities'. (Use your imagination). Now he was called upon the stage for the final duel and Hermione had given him a good luck snog that had left him in a daze and with a goofy smile on his face he left the tent to face a crazy croud, cheering for him, surprisingly, including a trifle of Slytherin supporters of his age group.

'Here is something I never expected would happen', he thought. Nevertheless, he didn't want to pay too much attention on the crowd that was praying for him to die just before his last two duels.

'Well, at least they would leave me and Hermione on our own, now that they have seen me kicking the arses of the other champions', he thought smugly and with a bit of amusement.

Both of the duellers settled on their positions and were left glaring at each other. The intensity of Krum's glare was enough for Harry to know that he would have to use his full potential and kick him down, hard and cold. He personally didn't remember Krum being this cold towards him, the last time round.

'Maybe, because I stole his baby crush', he thought and snorted internally at calling Hermione a baby. Well, for Krum, a baby, definitely, not for him. He diverted his mind from these thoughts and focused on the countdown of Professor Flitwick. As soon as, it was over, Harry started firing with all his might and, this time non-verbally. Harry had discussed the situation with Hermione and she had allowed him to cast non-verbally for his last duel as his opponent was trained in dark arts and it wasn't a fair bet to let him know which spells he was using, by shouting or whispering the incantations of the spells.

Viktor was genuinely surprised by the feat achieved by this 14 year old boy. He was dodging and shielding his spells and firing back spells, holding a considerable amount of strength all of this without moving his lips. Additionally, he wasn't even exhausted and was adamant on casting with his normal speed and power even after 10 minutes. This would be interesting.

The crowd was stunned, as in, petrified, or put under a full body-bind after seeing the boy casting non-verbally and not even breaking a sweat. None of them, not even Dumbledore or the faux Moody twitched their fingers or blinked their eyes. Although, the faux Moody had a fair amount of sweat pouring down his face after witnessing the duelling ability of the boy, if he didn't know any better, he would have said that the boy would be able to hold his own against him, Barry Jr. Well, he didn't know how right he was.

Back to the duel, Harry fired off a chain of reducto, confringo, a stunner, a bludgeoning hex, a tripping jinx and the disarming spell. The long chain spell also shocked many of them including his opponent who lost his footing a bit due to the shock that he was able to chain fire six spells consecutively. Most of the adults could chain a maximum of three spells and would have broken into a stream of sweat and lost the fight. Yet, here was a mere teenage boy who had chained six spells and had the ability to do so again without collapsing as a boneless heap.

Viktor after receiving a dozens of scratches and a deep but harmless gash decided to end this nonsensical duel and put the boy in his rightful place. The boy was still going fast and had only a couple of scratches from his curses that were borderline dark and should have confirmed his stay in the hospital wing for almost a week. 'Well, now, he would be visiting it for a month', he thought. The use of dark arts had started from his side and the boy wouldn't dare to challenge him again in a duel. He couldn't be more wrong.