Arch Mage, the Path of Magic Chapter 21 (Patreon)

Hey friends and fans, Kairomaru is here with another chapter of Arch Mage, the Path of Magic! Second Year ends quietly, and Harry heads back home for the summer. Of course, there’s the Junior Dueling League to participate in, but also other things that Harry will want to work on. The prodigious Spellcrafter always has a few ongoing projects after all.

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So, without further delay, please enjoy.

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Chapter 21 – Second Year End, Summertime Fun

Harry nodded to himself as he looked over his cultivars in the Herbology greenhouse. The seedlings that he’d planted were all growing well, and he’d just finished repotting all of them into bigger containers. Already, some were showing better traits than others, both in their physical growth as well as in their Magical development to his ever-improving Mage Sight spell.

“Number six, number eleven, number twenty-three, number thirty-nine, number forty-four, and number fifty are doing the best.” Harry blinked as he deactivated his Mage Sight spell. “Definitely going to take them back home with me.” The Spellcrafter grinned at his first cultivars. Neville had been absolutely correct about planting them all separately. There was quite a lot of disparity between each individual plant and their development, even when given the same soil, water, and sunlight. “If I can successfully combine the beneficial traits together that each of my best cultivars display, I might just be able to produce the Potions result I want.”

It would truly be something new in the field of Potions, but if it all worked out as Harry intended, his result wouldn’t even be a potion, but something entirely different.

-June-

“Ugh…” Daphne groaned and held her head. “Does it get worse the longer you defend?” She grumbled at Harry.

“Sort of, you are just letting me continuously attack your defense.” Harry explained as the group of four practiced their Occlumency (and Legilimency for Harry).

“So how do I kick you out?” Daphne questioned him as her slight headache began to fade.

“That requires you to defend first, then be able to muster up the magical and mental fortitude to reverse the Legilimency.” Harry started as he spoke to Luna and Hermione as well, making it a general lesson. “Doing so will throw their own Legilimency back at them, but may also cause you to inadvertently see into their mind as well.”

“What if we don’t want to see into their mind?” Hermione was the first to ask a question, curious as she always was about Magic.

“That’s a matter of control.” Harry answered his best friend with a smile. “After you push back the Legilimency, you have to stop your own mind.”

“Stop our mind?” Daphne looked confused by the odd phrase.

Harry nodded to her with a grin. “Yes, you have to return to the ‘empty mind’ state right after pushing back the attacker’s magic.”

“That sounds hard.” Luna spoke up, her head tilted cutely.

“The Mind Arts are a difficult Branch of Magic for a reason.” Harry affectionately patted Luna’s head.

“So we go from defense to neutral in an instant?” Hermione thought over the concept, nibbling her lip a little in the process as she tried to work out just how to do such a thing.

Harry chuckled lightly at Hermione’s quick understanding. “That’s the idea. Mental flexibility is just as important in the Mind Arts as mental fortitude.”

“I suddenly feel like we haven’t made as much progress as we thought.” Daphne looked between Luna and Hermione.

“Agreed.” Hermione looked a little put out by the idea.

“We’ll get better if we keep practicing.” Luna smiled at both of them brightly.

-June 14th-

“I’ve not done anything!” Gilderoy Lockhart cried out as he was marched through the halls of Hogwarts by a group of four red-robed Aurors, headed for the Headmaster’s Office. The pompous man was already in shackles and seemed to be getting on the Aurors’ nerves with his constant denials of guilt.

Many students were peeking around corners to watch the spectacle of the sham Professor being manhandled along. No one knew what he was being arrested for, though many also didn’t much care. Having to deal with the man for the past school year had worn off any ‘prestige’ he may have had at the beginning.

“I demand my barrister!” Lockhart’s voice rose as he was nearly shoved onto the spiraling staircase up to the Headmaster’s Office.

-June 15th-

Famous Author, Gilderoy Lockhart, a Fraud?

The title was on the first page of the Daily Prophet the morning after he’d been escorted out of Hogwarts. The article was large and took up a good deal of space on the front page.

Reading through it, Harry could only sigh at what was revealed. “Looks like you were right, Hermione.”

“How could he do that to people?” Hermione was nearly glaring at the newspaper. “Listening to their stories and then Obliviating them; despicable.”

The fact that there were dozens of counts of illegal Obliviation from people he’d stolen accomplishments from was already going to see Lockhart going to Azkaban. But the crimes didn’t stop there either. Lockhart had been charged with forgery, theft, coercion, fraud (multiple types), and was even under suspicion of further cases of illegal Obliviation. The article even ‘speculated’ that some Hogwarts students may have had their memories altered or erased by the man during his time at the school.

“I don’t think he’s coming back next year.” Luna mentioned after finishing the article.

“He’ll be lucky if he leaves Azkaban if some of these ‘speculations’ are accurate.” Daphne nearly scoffed as she set her copy of the Prophet down. Normally she wouldn’t be sitting at the Ravenclaw table, but breakfast had been extended while the rest of the Professors had to respond and investigate the ‘speculations’ raised against Lockhart in the Daily Prophet. Quite a few students had already been called out of the Great Hall to be checked…which was pretty much any student that had been in Lockhart’s company outside of classes.

“Good riddance.” Tracy waved off the loss of Lockhart easily from beside Daphne. “Not like we really learned anything from him.”

“True.” Hermione admitted with a grimace. “Most of us had to study the course material on our own.” While she was happy with all the study groups that they’d had, it shouldn’t have been required just to pass the end of year exams.

“I liked learning from Harry more anyway.” Luna smiled happily at her big brother.

“Thank you, Luna.” Harry patted her head fondly, making Luna giggle.

-End of Year Feast-

“…and finally, with four-hundred-eighty-two points, Hufflepuff House!” Dumbledore smiled as the table of yellow and black erupted into cheers. “Which makes them the winners of this year’s House Cup!” He waved his arms and all of the drapes and banners in the Great Hall switched to Hufflepuff’s colors and badger emblem. “Well done, Hufflepuff!” The cheering was still loud and his voice was barely heard over the celebrations of the students. The Badgers had worked very hard to earn points this year and it had paid off for them now.

“It’s nice to see Hufflepuff so excited.” Hermione smiled as she finished applauding for their well-earned win. “I’m pretty sure that Ravenclaw would’ve won if a certain someone participated more in classes.”

Harry looked at Hermione for a moment before responding. “Possibly, but we’d have to find this ‘someone’ and tell them to start being more active in class.”

Hermione rolled her eyes playfully at Harry’s retort. “Prat.”

“Who? Me?” Harry chuckled as he levitated a dish loaded with mashed potatoes over to himself and Luna.

“Harry, you forgot the gravy.” Luna mentioned as she placed her first large spoonful of mashed potatoes onto her plate.

“Silly me.” Harry smiled at his surrogate little sister and the gravy boat a bit further away lifted into the air before heading towards them.

-July 1st-

Harry stretched as he woke up in his bedroom on his first day back from Hogwarts. He got out of bed and with barely a thought had his chest of drawers open and clothing fly into his hands. He headed for the bathroom with a yawn, already smelling breakfast downstairs.

At breakfast, the whole family chatted and talked about their plans for the day. Ted and Tonks both had work. Andromeda was planning to do some shopping in Diagon Alley later. Sirius was planning to spend the day with Remus since the full moon was in two days. The werewolf always felt horrible the day before and the day after the full moon from the forced transformation. Harry was planning to check on the six cultivars that he’d brought with him from Hogwarts and that had been placed in Andromeda’s greenhouse last evening; then spend the day working on a few of his other ideas.

“Nerd~” Tonks laughed at Harry doing studies over the summer (not that she expected anything else from him).

“Says the one that lost our last little tussle.” Harry replied with a smug little smirk.

Tonks’s hair changed to an annoyed orange color. “Cheeky brat.” Harry just smiled pleasantly.

“Planning to get another Mastery this summer, Harry?” Ted chuckled jokingly at his surrogate nephew.

“I mean, I might be able to, if I could get an appointment with the Ministry.” Harry shrugged nonchalantly, as if he was talking about a simple visit to the seat of government to turn in a form.

“Would anyone be the least bit surprised?” Sirius laughed and patted Harry’s shoulder with a bright smile. “What kind of Magic are you working on that requires Herbology?”

“Potions.” Harry smiled, always happy that his family were so interested in his projects. “If I can figure out the process for what I want to do, it’ll be a breakthrough in Potions. I’ve only read about similar things in folklore and myths from other regions. Half-truth and half-embellishment, so it’s hard to actually know if the things that I want to make actually existed at all.”

“Don’t do anything too crazy in my greenhouse, Harry.” Andromeda smiled at him, though the warning was real. She’d taken quite a lot of time and effort to make her greenhouse just as she liked it after all.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Auntie.” Harry returned the smile with one of his own. Andromeda laughed slightly at his response. It was such a ‘Harry’ thing that she’d just gotten used to over the years.

Tonks put her elbow on the table and rested her cheek against her palm, her hair now a shade of mint green. “So…what exactly are you trying to make, Harrikins?”

“That would be telling, Nym.” Harry mimicked her posture, but mirrored so he could look at her. “You’ll see what it is when I’m done.”

“You’re no fun.” Tonks stuck her tongue out at him.

“Says you.” Harry retorted, maturely sticking his tongue out at her too.

“Children.” Andromeda’s voice had both Harry and Tonks sitting properly at the table a second later. The mother nodding to each of them in turn, now that their manners had been corrected.

“So, should we be expecting a Potions Mastery this time?” Ted easily lightened up the situation with a warm chuckle.

“Oh!” Sirius perked up at the idea. “You should absolutely get a Potions Mastery soon, Harry! Snivellus got his two years after graduating Hogwarts! If you got yours while you were still in Hogwarts then you’d be the new ‘youngest Potions Master’ in history!” He chortled at the look that he imagined would be on Snape’s face at seeing Harry outdo him in his own field of expertise!

“Must you?” Andromeda sighed at Sirius.

“Absolutely.” Sirius nodded resolutely, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Prek!” A barn owl landed lightly on the window sill of the kitchen window that had been opened for both fresh air and Owl Post. Ted stood up and retrieved the mail, glancing over it for a second as the owl took off again.

“For you, Harry.” Ted handed his nephew the letter.

Harry accepted it the letter and looked it over. “Thanks, Uncle Ted. The Junior Dueling League… I guess this is the summer schedule?” He opened it up and pulled out the parchment inside. Reading over it confirmed what he thought. “Huh, looks like the first meetup is this Saturday, the third.”

“I’ll put it on the calendar.” Sirius was already moving over to the calendar hanging on the wall next to the entrance of the kitchen.

“They’re having a meetup every weekend until the big tournament at the end of the summer.” Harry walked over to Sirius and showed him the schedule. Sirius looked at the various dates and started writing them down.

-Next Day-

“Principle Motion… Aspect is Stillness… refined to Sleep.” Harry slowly built up a spell as he went through the Principles and Aspects that he wanted. His Magic responded, but even as he watched the spell form with his Mage Sight spell, it didn’t look right. “No, this is just a different version of Stupefy.” He grimaced and let the spell fade away. “I don’t want to knock people unconscious. I want them to nod off without realizing anything is amiss.” Harry thought over his idea for a Sleeping spell that could affect any target; human, animal, Magical Creature, etc. but was still coming up short each time.

Stupefy was a good spell, if you needed someone unconscious quickly. But it was a very rough spell on the one it hit. Using more than one on a person was potentially harmful. The chance of harm increased the greater the disparity in magical power, and even things like age and health could impact how much harm the Stunning spell could do.

Harry’s goal was to make a spell that could mimic or surpass the effects of a Sleeping Draught. A spell that could be cast on a single target or be made widespread to cover an area, putting everyone in the vicinity to sleep peacefully and without harm. So far though, he was having very little luck in his endeavor. All he’d gotten so far were spells that were, at best, slight variations of the Stunning spell.

“I know there’s a Sleeping Charm…but neither version seems to last long at all.” Harry hummed as he thought about his research into this particular spell. “One of them only makes a single person sleep for roughly three to five seconds. The other can make even a dragon fall asleep if you aim for a soft spot, but it also wears off at differing rates depending on the person or creature in question. Both are also single target spells.” He mused aloud as he leaned back against his bed and went over what he knew and if he’d perhaps missed something in his attempts. “Hmm, maybe I need to add in something to the spell’s creation?”

-First Junior League Meetup-

Susan Bones smiled at Harry as they were paired up for a match. “I’ve been practicing, Harry.” She warned him with a grin.

“Interesting…” Harry smiled at Susan. “So have I.”

“Begin!” The referee started the Duel.

“Lumos Solem!” Susan cast the variant of the standard Lumos Charm. A bright light, not unlike the sun, blinded everyone looking at the Duel. “Impedimenta! Incarcerous! Petrificus Totalus! Immobulus!” She chained one spell after another to overwhelm Harry while he was blinded.

“So, I still can’t do anything about conjurations, huh?” Harry mused as everyone got their sight back. He was wrapped up in three constricting ropes from Susan’s spell.

“She landed a spell!” Zacharias Smith called out in surprise.

“Susan is unable to continue!” The referee announced and everyone saw Susan frozen in place, standing straight with her legs together and her arms at her sides.

“A good combo, Susan.” Harry breathed on the ropes holding him and they vanished. He undid the spells holding Susan with a wave of his hand.

“How?!” Susan’s first word was probably louder than she wanted, considering she covered her mouth a second later.

Harry raised an eyebrow at her question. “How what?”

“You threw my spells back at me!” Susan stated, much to the confusion of the other young Duelists. “How’d you do that?”

“Not all of them, your Incarcerous got through.” Harry sighed at his failure to deal with her spell. “As for how I did it? I just gave the spells an easier path to follow.” He smiled and for just a second Susan saw the air (or was it the light) distort between her and Harry, like a thread that was invisible unless it moved.

“What is that?” Susan blinked at what she’d only seen for a second.

Harry grinned at the redhead. “That would be telling, Susan.”

“Aww, come one, Harry, you can tell me.” Susan nearly pouted at him.

“Just think of it as a thread of magic.” Harry laughed as he hopped off the Dueling platform.

Susan hopped down after him. “Magic thread? What does that mean?” Harry only laughed as the girl wanted to know how she’d been defeated by her own spells.

-July 5th-

“Hoo.” Hedwig landed on her perch in Harry’s room, a letter tied to her leg, which she held out to Harry.

“From Fleur?” Harry asked, even though he knew it was. He removed the envelope from Hedwig’s leg and gave her gentle pets and scritches in thanks before leaving her to rest. “I wonder what topic she wants to talk about this time?” He opened the envelope and pulled out the parchment inside.

Harry,

I hope that you’ve been well since my last letter.

Your description of your last ‘scuffle’ with Tonks was quite entertaining. I only wish I had a Pensieve so that I could watch the memory directly.

Knowing you, I’m sure you’ve already come up with more thoughts on spells and combinations. I’ve also been hard at work on my Dueling, so I hope you don’t think that you’ll be winning the Junior Dueling League Tournament again this year.

I was interested in that new spell of yours that you described as the Shot Spell. How exactly does it track a target? Is it a preset part of the spell that you have to adjust upon each cast, or is it able to be freely altered after casting? Be aware that I’ll be on the lookout for that spell when we next meet on the Dueling platform!

Other than Dueling, my schoolwork has been going well, the end of year exams weren’t difficult and my grades reflected that.

Gabby has been an excitable handful, as usual. But she’s always so cute that it’s hard to stay mad at her. She quite enjoys small shows of Magic, and is vey interested in meeting you again. I’ve talked about your prowess in Magic and explained to her the Titles that you’ve earned. Naturally she wants to see you do Magic now too.

I await your next letter eagerly and hope to hear more about what you’ve been up to.

Your friend,

Fleur Delacour

Harry smiled at the letter after he finished reading. “I’m glad that she’s doing well. Gabby sounds like she’s a ball of fun too.” He chuckled at Fleur’s description of her little sister. “Fleur’s interest in Magic is always nice. I could answer her questions about how the Shot spell targets, I suppose. It could be interesting if she’s able to get a version of it working by the time we Duel again.” The Spellcrafter laughed a bit at the idea of dealing with his own spell. He pulled a piece of parchment in front of him as he sat at his desk. Grabbing a pen, he began to write his reply to Fleur with a smile.

-Harry’s Birthday-

Sirius smiled at seeing Harry surrounded by his friends from Hogwarts on his birthday. He’d done everything that he could to protect Harry growing up; but he sometimes felt as though he may have isolated his godson a bit too much. “Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case.” He mumbled lowly to himself as Andromeda brought the cake out and set it in front of Harry, thirteen candles were placed on it, all lit and ready for Harry to blow out.

The entire house was filled with people and festive cheer. The kids were playing Magical games, and some Muggle games that Ted had introduced to them. The parents of Harry’s various friends had also been invited to celebrate with them. The non-magical among them clearly surprised, interested, or in some cases, shocked by the displays of Magic. The Grangers were quite inquisitive though and were so happy to see their daughter with so many friends.

“Tooth-Flossing String Mints… I’ve been a fan ever since Hermione sent us a package in not too long after she started Hogwarts.” Wendell Granger chuckled as he spoke with Arthur Weasley off to the side of the room.

“Have you tried Pepper Imps?” Arthur joked with the dentist. “Not too much sugar, but the effect is fun.”

“The ones that make you breathe fire?” Wendell shook his head with a laugh. “You wanted to know about Dentistry a bit, right?”

“Oh yes, I’m fascinated by how the non-magical use technology to solve the various issues of day-to-day life.” Arthur’s eyes lit up as the topic shifted again to something he would love to discuss.

Like her husband, Monic Granger was enjoying chatting with the Wizards and Witches at the party. At the moment she was chatting with Appoline Delacour on the sofa in the sitting room “We visit France in the summer fairly often; the beaches are lovely.”

“If you are in France, please let us know, we’d be happy to give you a tour around the Magical District in Paris.” Appoline offered with a smile. “You and your husband work together?”

“Yes, we do. We met in university while pursuing our Dental Degrees.” Monica recalled the time with a fond smile. “We started dating, and once we graduated, we opened our own practice. Not too long afterwards we were married, and then our Hermione came along.”

The kids were all enjoying the cake after Harry had blown out the candles. Gabrielle proved her sweet tooth was strong; eagerly eating her own slice before eyeing up the remaining cake as well. Fleur rolled her eyes before giving her little sister some of the candy that was set out for everyone.

After cake, Gabrielle went over to Harry and smiled up at him brightly. “Magic?”

“You want to see something fun?” Harry chuckled at the six-year-old. The eager nodding from Gabrielle was all the answer that Harry needed. “Glow.” He whispered and a soft yellow light formed on his fingertip, larger than a standard Lumos Charm. Unlike a Lumos Charm, it floated away from Harry’s fingertip and stayed lit up. A second ball of light was made on another of Harry’s fingers, this one blue in color. It floated over to join the yellow light and then both passed through each other, becoming green when they overlapped. Before separating back into yellow and blue. A red ball of light was made to join the other two. Soon a myriad of colors was in the air and Harry even pretended to juggle them for Gabrielle’s amusement.

“Plus, plus!” Gabrielle cheered in French, loving the light show.

“Blue plus yellow equals green.” Harry made the blue and yellow spheres of light touch and overlap again. “Red and yellow makes orange!” The yellow sphere and red sphere combined to make an orange sphere. “Blue and red make purple!” The blue sphere rose up to meet the newly separated red light, both overlapping and becoming purple.

Even Harry’s friends were enjoying the little light show, wondering how Harry had made this seeming variant of the Lumos Charm.

Gabrielle giggled brightly as a string of multi-colored light spheres circled her neck like an oversized necklace. Luna smiled as a similar ring of light orbs sat upon her head like a crown. Both Hermione and Daphne got necklaces like Gabrielle’s. Astoria preened as she got a crown like Luna’s, clearly being spoiled just like the other girl.

“Oh, a gift, Harry?” Fleur laughed, a warm sound that made Harry smile as he placed a necklace of lights around her neck too.

Tonks pretended to pout as she snuck up behind Harry and pulled him into an overdramatic hug. “Wotcher, birthday boy! Where is my jewelry?”

“Yes, yes, Nym.” Harry jokingly sighed at her. In a flood of lights, Tonks was decked out with a crown, necklace, bracelets, and even a cape of the glowing spheres of light. “Can’t have you feeling left out, can we?”

“Exactly, Harrikins!” Tonks nodded with a laugh, posing proudly in her new regalia.

“The same, Harry!” Fred and George laughed together. Both twins were flooded with orbs of light and came out with what vaguely looked like jester outfits with the multi-colored strips and the hats with multiple points atop their heads.

This naturally got a burst of laughter from the kids in the room.

“Maman! Maman!” Gabrielle giggled brightly as she ran out of the room and into the sitting room to show her mother the magical lights sitting around her neck. “Harry’s Magic!”

“Did Harry give you a pretty necklace?” Appoline smiled as she kissed her daughter’s forehead.

“Oui!” Gabrielle giggled and then ran back to the group of older kids to continue enjoying Harry’s impromptu Magic Show.

“That was nice of him.” Monica smiled at the adorable little girl.

Appoline agreed even as she looked thoughtful. “I do wonder how he did that though. Lumos Charms can’t leave the place they’re cast, usually the tip of the wand. But not only were they able to move, they didn’t disappear when Harry lost sight of them.”

“Is that not normal?” Monica questioned, not being very familiar with Magic at all. She would soon learn just how prodigious Harry was as a Wizard.

-Mid-August ~ Junior Dueling League Tournament-

Harry smiled as he was up against the oldest member of the Netherlands team, Luca Meijer. The other teen kept his eyes on Harry, clearly not wanting to miss any subtle Magic that Harry would cast. The two met in the middle of the Dueling Platform and saluted, as was tradition. They turned to walk to their designated starting positions and took up their preferred stances.

“Begin!” The referee swung his arm down to start the match.

“Conteram Obice Maxima! Immobulus Maxima! Lapifors!” Luca’s opening chain was designed to shatter any Shield Charm, immobilize the opponent, and then turn them into a rabbit. It was a powerful and quick way to end a Duel in his favor.

A Barrier appeared between Harry and the spells, all three of them slamming into the unmoving wall and doing nothing. Harry tapped the Dueling Platform with his foot and the space between him and Luca began to split into sections, each section violently jerking into a forty-five-degree angle to either the left or the right.

“Finite Maxima!” Luca canceled the Transfiguration with a jab of his wand.

“Expelliarmus.” Harry targeted the outstretched wand directly.

Luca’s arm wrenched backwards painfully as his wand rocketed behind him and straight off the Dueling platform. It landed upon the softened ground (done ahead of time for safety) quietly and the sixteen-year-old looked at it in shock even as he held his arm that still stung with pain.

“Disarmed!” The referee announced the end of the Duel. “The winner is Harry Potter!”

The audience applauded for the victor and the Duel they’d just witnessed.

“With this victory, Britain will face France in the finals!” The referee declared, getting cheers from the parents of both teams.

“It seems we’ll be facing each other soon enough, Harry.” Fleur’s note came in the form of a paper airplane charmed to fly over to him.

Harry flipped the parchment over and wrote on the back. “Looking forward to it, Fleur.” And then redid the same Charm that had been on it previously. He watched it fly back to Fleur. She opened the airplane and then gave him a challenging look after reading his response.

-Later-

“The final Duel is between Fleur Delacour and Harry Potter!” The referee announced loudly with his voice amplified by the Sonorus Charm. “This is for victory in the tournament overall!”

“This feels familiar.” Harry joked at being in this same position facing Fleur.

“Only this time, you’ll lose.” Fleur smiled at Harry.

The pre-Duel chat over, the two turned away from each other and headed towards their positions at opposite ends of the platform.

“Begin!” The referee started the Duel quickly.

“Inclinis Stupefy Tria Maxima! Inclinis Stupefy Tria Maxima! Inclinis Stupefy Tria Maxima! Inclinis Stupefy Tria Maxima! Inclinis Stupefy Tria Maxima!” Fleur nearly filled the air with empowered and modified red jets of light, all of them curving at odd angles to strike at Harry from the front, sided, behind, and above simultaneously. She wasn’t done though, knowing that giving Harry any time to think was a fast track to defeat. “Duro Maxima!” She pointed her wand and hardened the platform, making using Transfiguration on it much more difficult. “Protego Totalum Tria Maxima! Salvio Hexia Tria!” Fleur cast a triple layered, empowered Protego Totalum and then a tripled Hex Deflection Charm on top of it to make it harder for Harry to try and undo her defenses.

“Careful now, Fleur.” Harry had surrounded himself with a spherical Barrier to block all of the empowered and curving Stunning spells. “I might think that you’re trying to hurt me.” He grinned at the Veela girl as his eyes glowed, analyzing the layers of protection around her. “Shot.” The crackling yellow spell appeared in front of Harry and was slamming into the outermost of Fleur’s shields before most people realized it had moved. The small spell shot backwards and then forwards again, striking a different part of the layered shield. This repeated over and over again, the crackling spell bouncing around all over the surface of the shield, trying to find some way to get to Fleur.

“I’m sure this will look familiar, Harry.” Fleur grinned back at him as she spun her wand in a triplet of loops. “Vigilem Sagittam Tria.” From her wand three glowing orbs of white light floated into the air above her, but still within the safety of her multi-layered shield.

The familiar spell put a grin on Harry’s face, remembering that she’d used this same spell last year. The orb on the far right shot a small arrow of the same white light at Harry.  His Barrier nullified it, of course, but then the other two orbs began to fire as well, peppering his Barrier with sustained shots.

“Praesidium.” Fleur cast, her wand pointed at herself. The teen glowed with a faint green light for just a moment. “Maior Potestas.” This time her body was enveloped in a golden glow that just as quickly faded away. “Conscientia.” A light yellow glow this time. “Maior Scutum.” A diamond-like refraction of light covered Fleur’s body before fading away.

“I still want to learn those spells, you know.” Harry reminded Fleur with a chuckle. “Empowerment is such a lacking Branch of Magic; most can only temporarily enchant themselves to the maximum of their current self.” The High Sorcerer had gone through many, many tomes looking for a hint on empowering beyond normal limits, but had yet to find anything about it. Well, beyond the expected: ‘It’s impossible’ that so many Witches and Wizards had written after giving up on it themselves.

“And I still can’t teach them to you.” Fleur felt her enchantments giving her a bit of a boost after she’d already expended so much of her magic to stall Harry and defend herself. “Flamma Annulum!” From Fleur’s left hand, Veela fire burst forth, the orange-red and purple-tinted flames crossing the distance between her and Harry in a blink and forming a burning ring around Harry’s Barrier. “Don’t drop that Barrier of yours, Harry, you’ll burn.” Fleur warned him, her strategy to lock him down and force him to give up as the heat became too much finally came to fruition. ‘His Barrier blocks both Magic and physical objects. But if he can talk to me from within it, then his voice has to be traveling through the air, meaning that air is passing into the Barrier. That means heat should be getting carried inside with the air now.’ Fleur had reasoned this out after watching Harry’s duels. ‘If I can’t beat him directly, then I’ll use strategy to win!’

“Well…this was quite well thought out.” Harry felt the heat with a grin, even as he began to sweat. “But you cast self-sustaining protection spells, and empowered ones at that. You’re probably running a bit low on magic right about now, I’d guess.” He deduced while looking at Fleur through the flames. “So… Let’s see who falls first, shall we?” The air inside Harry’s spherical Barrier started to spin as he imbued it with the Aspect of Dispersion. “De-Spell!” He canceled his Barrier and let his second spell blast the Veela fire away, removing the Magic that fueled it. The incoming arrows from the three floating orbs that Fleur had conjured all vanished as soon as they came in contact with the wind as well. “Shot.” Harry conjured another crackling yellow spark of magic. “Ten-fold.” The one crackling spell became ten. In the blink of an eye, all ten of the spells were slamming into Fleur’s multi-layered shield from all directions.

“Finite!” Fleur cast, but the Shot wasn’t there we her spell reached the space she’d targeted. “Finite! Finite!” She tried two more times, but she could never hit the spells to cancel them out; they simply moved far too fast. “Lata Finite!” Fleur modified her next attempt, widening the area of effect of her spell. She still only managed to cancel out a single of the ten crackling spells that were rapidly pelting her outermost shield, steadily weakening it with constant attacks.

Harry held out his hand, palm facing upwards. A flame appeared in his hand, then Harry changed it. ‘Principle Time… Aspect is Agelessness…’ The flame shivered and then began to burn as if in slow motion. The small bit of flame still got everyone watching the Duel to take notice. The Flame of Creation lightly pulled on all of the Magic close to it. The spark of it that Harry held in his hand was only felt by the referee near the edge of the powerful Shield Charms that separated the platform from the audience, but no one that had read about Harry would mistake what he currently held.

“So, he’s just going to invalidate Fleur’s spells, huh?” Sirius mumbled out, only Andromeda sitting next to him able to hear.

“He’d better be careful. Fleur has already used up a lot of her magic.” Andromeda didn’t want the nice girl that was now a family friend to suffer Magical Exhaustion.

Harry controlled the small flame of Primal Fire, letting it float over to Fleur’s layered shields. Fleur noticeably perked up, seemingly sensing the Magical Fire. The instant the flame touched her outermost shield it spread like it had just touched gasoline. Fleur could only stare as her shields were consumed, leaving her surrounded in a dome of Primal Fire.

“Aaahhh~” Fleur let out a very unladylike moan as she felt the diffused Magic that the Primal Fire created as a byproduct of combusting other magics. It was invigorating for fire-aligned creatures, suffusing them in what could be called an essence of fire. The energy she was surrounded by felt amazing on multiple levels, and the sheer pleasure had gotten to Fleur.

Outside the large dome of Primal Fire, Harry carefully controlled his conjuration with Magic Manipulation. He knew where Fleur was within the conflagration, thanks to his Mage Sight spell, so he guided a tongue of the Primal Flame to lash at Fleur.

“Ooohh~” Fleur moaned again, louder this time as the Flame of Creation caressed her body, consuming her enchantments near instantly. The touch of the flame didn’t harm her, only bathed her in more fire essence. The Veela was feeling things that she’d never experienced before, and felt her energy welling up from the diffused Magic.

“One more should do it.” Harry couldn’t hear anything going on inside of the swirling flames, he was only able to see where Fleur’s magic was. Therefore, he had absolutely no idea what his spell was doing to his friend. A second tongue of flame lashed out and struck Fleur from the opposite side.

“Aaah…” Fleur’s moan went silent as the pleasure became too much. Her entire body trembled as she reached her peak and crashed over the edge harder than she’d ever managed by herself. She collapsed, the intensity too much for her to handle. Her Magic had been consumed, but the well of energy that had built up within wasn’t going anywhere.

“Now…come back.” Harry whispered, focusing on the mass of Primal Fire as he used Magic Manipulation to pull the excess Magic from within the flames. The flames shrank noticeably. Growing smaller and smaller before the eyes of the audience, until all that remained was the equivalent of a candle flame in Harry’s palm again. With a thought it was snuffed out and Harry waited for the referee to stop being shocked.

It took a very long moment.

“W-Winner, Harry Potter! The British Team wins!” The referee declared after finally gathering his wits.

The clapping started from Sirius and Andromeda, but then grew from there until the entire audience was cheering for the amazing spectacle that they’d gotten to witness firsthand. The Shield Charms surrounding the area around the platform were lowered and two Healers approached the downed Fleur, both female for obvious reasons.

“It should just be a bit of Magical Exhaustion.” Harry stood near Fleur wondering about the little smile on the unconscious Veela’s lips as she slept.

The two Healers pointed their wands at Fleur and Harry nearly smiled when he heard their spells. “Persentio.” After they’d scanned Fleur both Healers agreed with Harry and gave Fleur a small does of Pepper-Up Potion, which woke her up a few moments later.

“Mmm…” Fleur groaned in satisfaction before opening her eyes. “Huh?” She looked at the two Healers as they helped her sit up and then looked at Harry. Fleur felt the warmth built up in her body (which was causing pleasant sensations) but also knew what had happened to leave her unconscious. Her cheeks went pink, easily noticeable on her light complexion. Nevertheless, she diverted her eyes from Harry and stood up. “Thank you for the Duel, Harry.”

“Thank you for the Duel, Fleur.” Harry returned the traditional end-of-duel thanks. He did wonder why Fleur took a second to look at him, but put it out of his mind as his team came rushing towards him.

From there it was a whirlwind of activity, various papers from the four different countries taking photos, interviews with all of the young Duelists, Harry getting more questions than he cared to deal with. Sirius had quickly put a stop to that when he saw his godson being nearly harassed. The various reporters quickly cleared away from Harry when Sirius suddenly became ‘Lord Black’ and started demanding names and companies so that he knew who to have his barrister file legal action against.

“Thanks, dad.” Harry smiled at Sirius.

“No problem, Harry.” Sirius pulled him into a one-armed hug as they headed over to the Delacours to congratulate Fleur on her performance.

Appoline seemed rather…giggly as they chatted, and Fleur was noticeably either looking at Harry, or looking at everything except Harry.

It wouldn’t be until the next time he and Fleur exchanged letters that he found out the result of allowing a Veela to bathe (even briefly) in such a large amount of Primal Fire.

-End Chapter-

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Woo!

Lockart is arrested upon the Aurors finding out that the large packet of discrepancies that was sent in were all pointing to criminal use of the Obliviate Charm. With certain other ‘speculations’ made by the Daily Prophet (one guess who) he’s probably not going to see the outside of an Azkaban cell for the rest of his life.

Harry’s birthday was fun, and the Junior Dueling League Tournament was quite the show too!

Fleur certainly enjoyed the last part! *Hehehehe~*

Winning can mean different things after all. Kek!

Third Year is about to begin!

What happens for Harry and friends?

Keep reading to find out!

Until I get your reviews, later!