Chapter 22.6- Doom Days

My wand was held to my side, not even pointed at him, but when the whistle sounded, I was the first to move. The ground around him lifted in a hand of pure stone that tried to grab a hold of him. He jumped backwards, shattering it with a blasting curse that ended up being the only offensive spell he would successfully set off. The scattered rocks rose from the ground under my control as I spun them in a cycle, transfiguring them into foam with a twirl of my wand and then shooting them off at him like bullets.

Killing blows, or blows likely to kill were banned in these duels so the transfiguration was necessary to avoid disqualification. Too slow to react, Krum took a foam stone to the face while trying to bring his wand to bear. It snapped his head backwards and the rest of the foam projectiles hit then. He bent his body to protect his had even as he was forced backwards by the hits.

I spun my wand again, swishing it from left to right letting loose with a series of blasting curses that he was forced to drop to the floor to avoid. I audibly guffawed, making it even louder to grate at his nerves before I sharply slashed my wand upwards. Krum was sent flying upwards, into the air, and I hit him with a flipping jinx while he was mid air. He flew backwards until he hit the base of the stands with an audble crunch.

“Winner: Potter” The referee said somewhat unnecessarily.

The next duel to flash on the board was the one between Diggory and Krum. I watched Karkarov as he rose from his seat at the Judges podium with a smirk. He clearly intended to complain about the fixture but both Diggory and Krum had been forced to fight with little rest so his objections rung hollow on that account. The referree dismissed him and Krum was given the choice of fighting or forfeiting.

To his credit, he was too stubborn to cede the chance to win and came to field with an arm in a sling and a very noticeable limp. There was also a heavy set of bandages around his midsection.

He took the stage and Cedric joined him with only a slight limp to show for his troubles. A limp that was almost certainly exaggerated. Fleur got him good, but not that good. Cedric made the same mistake Fleur had. He allowed Krum the momentum.

The Bulgarian quidditch player struck out with a blasting curse so powerful it visibly sizzled in the air. Cedric hit the floor to dodge and was forced to roll out of the way of another one. His retaliatory stunner was shielded with a sneer as the Bulgarian lashed out again with a trio of very borderline curses- one of them, the shellshocker caused an audible gasp to fall from Hermione’s mouth.

Cedric dealt with them all well. He dodged out of the way of the first two then called forth a gleaming protego to absorb the shellshocker. His retaliatory series of curses failed to connect, but they were more a distraction than anything else. He tore up part of the duelling platform and used it to send another series of dogs at Krum. He seemed to like dogs a lot.

Krum seemed to take an instinctive step back from the snarling beasts and his left knee gave out with an audible crunch. Turns out the healing hadn’t had time to set in. He fell to his other knee and was barely able to lift his left hand in front of his face to block the first dog. It dug into said forearm with sharp teeth. The second slammed into Krum’s core, sending him falling backwards. The third went straight for Krum’s jewels and seemed about to take a healthy bite before the referee vanished it.

“Winner: Diggory” he announced.

I was all smiles at that. I didn’t even care that the crowd clearly loved Cedric beating Krum more than it had loved me doing the same. Of course, that smile died quickly when I realised there was only one duel remaining. Me versus Fleur.

A/N; Could I have Harry v Fleur in this chapter? Yes. WIll I? No