Harry Potter and the Triwizard Tournament

Déjà vu

Two pairs of eyes bore into him with an unflinching intensity as he added yet another stroke of the line to the seven - breach transmutation circle.

Their apprehension, Harry could understand as this was magic almost beyond what the three of them could control. Harry was fairly certain that Nicholas Flamel expected a massive explosion to occur at any moment. Not that he could blame him though, the particular transmutation circle he was drawing was beyond complex and not to mention, extremely dangerous.

Its volatility was such that even atmospheric intervention could mean disaster, which was why Cam and Flamel had warded the alchemy lab in Flamel's Manor with the most potent and strongest protective charms they could come up with, almost making the laboratory a containment field.

Harry feared that even the wards can not stop an explosion from leveling the whole house yet he did not feel inclined to abandon the experiment.

He was already in the final stage of the competition. This should be where all his efforts, since the beginning of the tournament, should be intensified.

Harry reminisced at the nine other people he was competing with, five of them were already above 100 years and have been participating in the competition from the last three editions.

Two of them were more than fifty years old and has children even older than Harry. One was a graduate of Ilvermony Magical Academy, in America and the last two were students of  Beauxbatons.

Amongst all of his other competitors, Harry was most concerned about the two Beauxbatons students.

Both in their final year, Charles Emeline and Fleur Delacour showed a great mastery and deep understanding of Alchemy that made even Harry slightly jealous. They were both reckoned as Prodigies when it came to Alchemy and were strongly recommended by their headmistress.

The display of intricate knowledge and manipulations of Alchemy was such that Harry had never seen in anyone else except perhaps Flamel.

Fleur was able to transmute a broomstick to a statue if a man vomited an endless supply of firewhiskey without drawing a transmutation circle. Harry could not help but be fascinated with the way she made something immensely complex seem like a joke as she got the job done in a twinkling

Charles on the other hand intrigued them all with his theory of thirteen new ways to transmute mercury, using a few experiments to buttress his points.

Of course, they were also impressed by Harry's theories on Halogens and his transmutation of a matchstick to a flying broomstick which he did to show them that the law of chemical equivalence could be manipulated.

However, Fleur and Charles were still in the lead as first and second respectively with Harry being a close third.

Even though Harry was somewhat worried, he was not going to give up so easily, he would do his best to outperform them in this final round especially if he wanted to break a record and earn a mastership badge.

Not surprisingly, none of the competitors has made up to 90% which meant they were all quite far from earning a mastership badge which needs a score minimum of 97%. The highest so far was Fleur who managed to get 86%, earning herself a  badge of Professionalism, followed closely by Charles with 84% and a Grade 3 alchemist badge then Harry with 83%, and also with a Grade 3 alchemist badge.

This was probably why Harry was preparing for the final round as though that will be the last day of his life.

He had Nicholas bring in ancient volumes from his library, he was practicing transmutations at every opportunity he got to aid him more in the final round.