Chapter 22.5- Doom Days

She batted the spell to the side with a flick of her wrist and returned fire with two dazzling pink bolts that forced him to hastily backtrack to dodge them. They fell like meteors, landing on the ground he had been standing on precious few seconds ago and seemingly doing nothing. He turned to her, at this level he was surely too smart to assume that she had failed her spell, but he struck regardless. There was an agression in his movements.

Blasting curses flowed from him like water from a tap and she was forced to hunker behind a shield after managing to deflect only two of them. He could smell the blood in the water. He smirked and marched forwards still sending lances of explosive energy at her. The change was immediate when he stepped over the part of the floor that her spell had hit. He froze. He stopped moving like he had been petrified and she tore down her shield before sending him flying off the duelling platform with a powerful disarming charm. She caught the wand that flew at her even as she collapsed to her knees before falling down to her arse.

The medical personell had to come in and retrieve the both of them. The next duel was announced even as that one had animated the crowd a fair deal.

Potter vs Krum, the screen red, showing a green dot next to each of our names to reflect our wins. I didn’t bother saying anything as I marched up to the platform.

The referree, a Greek wizard had already repaired the stage and removed Fleur’s enchantment with deft flicks of his wand. I stood and waited for Krum to complete the journey towards me as he took the long way around, raising his hand to cheers from what remained of the Durmstrang contingent. So bold of them. It had been their fellows who had been too weak to resist the foreigners who took their place. A traitorous part of my mind wondered if any of theirs had truly been killed. Karkarov said that those who were impersonated with polyjuice had been killed, but no one had seen any bodies, and would it be surprising that he would lie about something like that?

Either way, they were much too cheerful for people recovering from a tragedy. I let my wand slip down from my sleeve into my left hand and gripped it tightly as I stared down Krum’s approaching form. He jumped onto the stage before taking a stance. He was all agression in his bearing. He would aim to fire first and decide the tone of this engagement. I had two choices. I could weather his storm, outlast him, and then pick him apart, or I could start of swinging and tear him to shreds. Option One gave me the chance to more easily demonstrate my superiority, but Option Two was what made my blood sing. I wanted to punish him. Weathering his storm was good, but I could beat him at his own game. Choice made, I waited for the whistle.