THE LIGHTNING LORD

Chapter 26 : Summer of preparation

Harry dodged another spell. The Duelling room in Potter Castle was littered with paint, as a result of conjured paintballs to be exact, but Harry didn't care as none managed to land directly on him. Finally, after an hour of dodging spells, he took a break and sat down on the bench. "How did I do?" he asked.

Toby glanced at his notes and said "It was better this time Master Hadrian. Only two stray hits in the last hour, better than last time. But Toby thinks you need practice until you can dodge without getting hit even once."

Harry exhaled and nodded in agreement. He hadn't told anyone except Daphne that he going to take part in the Under-13 International Duelling Championship in Paris this summer. He wanted it to be a surprise to them, as everyone thought they were going to Paris for a vacation and nothing more. Harry was more than well trained in casting spells, so he spent all his time in perfecting his accuracy and dodging spells with the assistance of Toby.

It had been two weeks since he had come back from Hogwarts and within those two weeks, aside from training, he was hopping from Sirius to the Greengrasses. He had found out from Sirius that he had decided to not cut off all contact from Remus Lupin, but they had decided on a tentative friendship and see how things work out. Sirius also mentioned that they didn't discuss Harry; the less the nosey werewolf knew about Harry's activities, the less he could bark to Dumbledore (as Sirius politely put it). Harry was compelled to tell his godfather about Lupin showing Dumbledore the memory of the meeting but later decided against it for as long as Lupin didn't know what Harry was up to, it didn't matter. Besides, it's not like he confided in Sirius anyway, so his godfather could not accidently reveal information to the werewolf.

Finally, on July 27th, Harry, Sirius, Amelia and the four Greengrasses found themselves at the International Floo Terminal. The group entered the large fireplace and waited. After several seconds, there was an emerald fire and soon they found themselves in the Magical Customs office in Paris. Once they were all cleared, they took a portkey to the Greengrass home in the city.

Astoria was really excited so they went to the Magical Shopping district of Paris. Witches and Wizards didn't have a problem with languages as there were translation spells for reading and potions for speaking. Unfortunately, they didn't last too long, so people who travelled all the time on business or for education had to keep taking the potion. They all bought some souvenirs and ate at the best restaurants in the city.

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"Really?" asked Harry in wonder. "There are no magical hotels at all, anywhere in the world?"

"No, not really. People usually are content with spending their night in the local wizarding inn and carry on. There are restaurants of course, but not hotels like the ones you are talking about" said Cyrus.

Harry's mind was calculating at a furious pace. If he could start acquiring some properties in a few countries and start an International Wizarding Hotel with luxury amenities, a new industry could be created. He would definitely talk to Lord Rangok about this along with the other mirror business he had mentioned months ago.

The birthday party that was organised for Harry was a blast. Everyone had given gifts based on the boy's interests; Harry had gotten books and a state of the art duelling dummy from Daphne. He looked at Daphne with wide eyes. She just whispered that she hadn't told anyone about it, but she had told her parents that Harry enjoyed duelling. It was Sirius's gift that had surprised him again.

"Padfoot? How in Merlin's name did you know about this?" he asked in disbelief. In front of him was a box with seven luxury watches in them; one for every day of the week. Harry had been drooling over them ever since he saw them from outside the window of a shop in Muggle London. He found himself strangely obsessed with the number seven but didn't give it much thought into it.

"I have my ways. I've charmed them to be feather-light, unbreakable and there is a serious anti-theft charm on it too. What do you think?" he asked grinning smugly.

Harry went over and hugged his godfather. "I love it, thank you" he said.

When Harry went to bed that night, he felt his heart hammering in his chest. He knew he was mentioned in modern history books all over the world for being the only known survivor of the killing curse, so quite a few people were bound to recognise his name. Tomorrow was the championship, and he hoped that he wouldn't make a fool of himself.