Pre-Chapter A/N: More chapters on my patreon (https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)-- same username as here and link in bio.
What the actual fuck, I wondered to myself as I entered the arena for the next part of the task. It was red, and boiling. Even with my flame freezing charm, I could feel the heat of the place against my skin. It was a fucking erupting volcano. I slashed my wand to the side, redirecting a spurt of magma to the side, allowing it to roll down the ground to my side. Above the arena, there was a large stone platform that was basically at the centre of the volcano, floating above it. Around the platform raged a storm as winds that could be called hurricane-class buffeted the platform. I watched Krum and the girl by his side essentially stagger their way to the centre of the platform to place their hands against the stone altar at the centre and disappear in a blur of space-time.
I searched for the other champion, expecting to find Fleur on the ground, but had to abort when my search drew the attention of the creature defending this area. It was made of magma, shaped like a giant humanoid golem with a body that shifted and warped as it moved, displaying its malleable nature.
"Desole, 'Arry" I heard a voice scream out and watched as Fluer and her own hostage appeared from the air at the centre of the platform. They placed their hands on the platform and disappeared with a whirl as well. Fuck. Well, that was clearly third place for me. I noted the bolt of lightning that struck the ground to my right, but paid no more attention than that. All my attention was fixed on the creature in front of me.
"You know, I'm exhausted but seeing that just now? It made me mad." I said to the fire elemental like I was talking about the weather, purposefully keeping my tone cavalier as possible.
"Now, if I didn't spend so much time on that puzzle, I would have bothered trying to go around you or outsmart you in some way. But that's just not something I have the patience for. You see, my magic is back. And I won't leave until I har you scream" I said with a wide smile building on my face.
The elemental struck first, but I struck twice. It's arm stretched out, elongating beyond its usual dimensions to aim at me, but I sent two blasting curses straight into said arm, forcing lava to go flying everywhere. I slashed my wand through the air, casting a silent aqua eructo to bring a massive amount of water into being, and then sent it at the elemental. The creature's heat began to boil the water before it even reached it, but that was fine.
Aqua eructo kept me connected to the water I'd created, and I commanded it to cool itself with the same intention used in the freezing charm, without casting the spell itself. That left enough of my water intact to slam into the creature, pushing it to the side. It roared, a ghastly, noisy thing, before rising again and slamming its hand into the ground, right in front of him, a hole opened up and revealed a pool of magma that rose under its control.
The lava came at me like a tsunami and I stared at it unflinchingly. If this creature thought it could wield the element better than I then it chad inputer thing coming. I spun my wand in a tight circle, mentally reciting a long incantation and keeping my focus clear. The mini hurricane shot straight at the approaching tsunami, gathering it in its pull and allowing me to toss it to the side like a conductor before an orchestra.
"My turn" I said with a savage smile, but the creature clearly did not understand me as it attempted to attack instead. It turned, a giant tail moving in a horizontal arc in my direction. I slashed my wand in a sharp motion, bringing it down from above my head to pointing at the ground, sending a powerful Egyptian cutting curse from the Black library that separated the elemental from its tail with no difficulty and allowed the shortened stump to pass by without coming close to me. I twirled my wand, forcing the ground around me to raise two pillars that I transfigured into monkeys that jumped all around the elemental, forcing its attention away from me,
I weaved my wand from this way to that, thanking the heavens that half the prerequisites for the spell had already been created. The Yoruba people from Africa had legends of famous juju men who could beseech the gods to hold back the rain. Of course, those juju men had been nothing other than primitive magical with little inkling as to their true nature, and they had woven primitive magic to hold the rain back. What I was going to do here was the exact opposite of that.
"Ọ̀run ṣí, kí omi rò!
Ọ̀ya gbọ́, kí omi rò!
Òṣun mú ẹ̀bùn omi wá, kí omi rò!
Ṣàngó wẹ̀ ayé ní àrá, kí omi rò!
Kí Ilẹ̀ Ọba yìí lè tútù, kí omi rò!"
I sang more than I actually spoke as I weaved the ancient magic into being. When I pointed my wand at the sky, it was a single bolt of blue force that left it, and no sooner had that bolt hit the sky than the spell began to work its magic— literally. The thunderclouds darkened even further and then, with little warning, the sky began to weep with no end in sight. Rain fell, cooling through the ground and making everything loads more comfortable. The lava sizzled with every raindrop that attempted to repel them. The rain was getting more intense though, so I had no doubts that all would yield in time.
The elemental roared, irritated at the challenge to its control over the arena, mayhaps, or maybe it was just roaring because he'd finally managed to catch the second monkey in his grip. Its roar set the temperature soaring back again, and now the water evaporated before it even touched it. Its form seemed to shake, becoming more ethereal, and I remembered some of what I had read about elementals. They were an interesting middle ground when it came to magic— neither light nor dark, but oh so very useful. They had to be limited to a certain space, so the Egyptians had grown fond of using them to guard tombs until it was found that elementals were connected to their creator, taking power from said creator to keep them alive, and fading when said creator either died or willed it so. It had apparently caused an uproar in the ancient civilization when a robber managed to break into several tombs that relied on elementals whose creators were long dead.
Did that have anything to do with what was happening here? No. But it was funny to read about. The useful information here was that a summoned elemental was only ever as strong as its creator, and that meant that for most wizards they weren't worth the magical cost and also didn't present enough of a threat to challengers to justify their use. In this case, this elemental had clearly been summoned by either Dumbledore or someone not too far off from what I suspected his level to be.
I watched the tail twitch as the stump began to develop. Interesting. There was no spell or enchantment without a weakness, and as the Egyptians had found out to their humiliation, this spell's weakness was its caster. The regeneration was just slow enough to convince me that there was a viable path here. I just had to outlast and overpower one of the most powerful wizards in the world. How fun.
My choice was the good ol' piercing hex. I nailed the elemental right between the eyes, forcing its head to snap back from the force as the spell hit. Another one in its knee, another in an arm, one to centre-mass, another, another, another… I sent them as fast as I could make 'em, and I could make 'em pretty damn fast. It didn't matter where I aimed— this wasn't a human to be killed by hitting a vital area. What I had to do here was different. Overload the regeneration by giving it too many tings to heal and forcing it to stall in the end. Either Dumbledore would disconnect the spell or he would faint from overexertion. At least, that was what I expected until the creature roared again, this time forcing me to take a step backwards from the sheer force of the shout. The magma that made up its body had been sloughed off by my constant barrage, and that was just the beginning, I assured myself.
Before I could hit with the next spell, it squatted and breathed in my direction, sending a firestorm in my direction. I layered another flame freezing charm over myself before slashing my wand to create a shield spell. The fire washed over my position, spreading to my left and right, but failing to touch me. Well, piercing spells clearly weren't the way to go. They'd just taken off the magma, which I was forced to realise had been limiting it by making it move even slower than it was capable of. The fire elemental tore through the air after its fireball and crashed into my shield.
It felt like being shot with a rubber bullet, the impact of the hit. I rocked with it, and then it hit my shield again. This time, the shield didn't survive. It bore down on me, but I countered with an aqua eructo straight to the face. It evaporated all the water before it could even touch it, but that created steam that I seamlessly disillusioned myself and fell into, multiplying the mist and thickening it with a wave of my wand.
It roared its rage, sending fire in all directions. A shield charm would have given away my position. I bunkered down and took the force of the flames head on, trusting my layered flame freezing charms to see me through. I bit back a grunt of discomfort as the heat became briefly unmanageable, but then the fire passed. I could see its fiery form stalking through the steam, and I came up with my next plan. My blasting curse caught it right in the had. It snapped towards my direction as my silenced feet were padding on the floor, taking me away. It sent fire roaring through the space, but managed to achieve little with that. I was already gone. Behind it now, I took a deep breath and focused my intention.
I twirled my wand, commanding the steam to thicken until even the fire elemental, despite blazing like a bonfire, was gone from my view. Why? I didn't need the audience seeing this bit. I thought about Tom Riddle Senior, the man who had abandoned my mother and left her to her own devices because he was too ignorant to understand how she was better than he as even as a lowly squib. I thought of Vernon Dursley, the muggle who had dared lay hands on me at my most vulnerable. I thought of Reed Richards. My intent clocked into place and I whispered the words with my wand pointed carefully at centre-mass.
'Avada Kedavra'. Even at a whisper, there was something about the words that just commanded attention. The elemental did actually turn in time to see the spell heading its way. Too late to dodge, though. The killing curse hit, and the creature fell to the earth, fire snuffed out like a candle before a hurricane. I tore my wand to the side, commanding a gust of wind to blow the mists away. I stared at the final obstacle, making it up there, and just sighed.
At least this one was easy enough. I commanded the wind to lift me in its throes and take me where I needed to go.
—
From undisputed first place to tied for second, I thought as I did the math in my head. I scoffed and tossed the rodent on the floor. Whoever wanted could find Weasley and return him to his original form. They didn't say it, but it was clear the judges were punishing me for both stunning Diggory and using human transfiguration on Weasley.
The long rant I got from Dumbledore about the dangers of using transfiguration on a potioned subject need not be repeated, but I knew the scolding would find some way to be immortalized in memory. Of course, I'd known there could have been dangers. But what was I supposed to do? Lug him around like the dead weight he is? Besides, I reasoned that the judges would not have picked something likely to have side effects and I knew I was right, but the scolding came nonetheless.
With Dumbledore against me and me so clearly ahead of their champions it probably took only some mental gymnastics for Karkaroff and Maxime to rationalize following his example in giving zeros. Even Olawoyin, one of the ICW reps, had given me a two for my effort. In the end, my total score of ten meant I had fallen a point behind Fleur and was tied with Krum for second. Cedric, on the other hand, had earned himself a Did Not Finish, and five points for effort. He was more or less out of the competition by this point. Unless he had something massive to come up with for the third task, this was it for him, and it was clear that he knew it. The despair on his face when he glimpsed the new scoreboard would probably be the front page of a few French newspapers tomorrow.
__ I twirled my wand as I apparated from platform to platform. I dodged away from a stunner by turning on the spot and sent one of my own at my opponent, who also apparated to avoid it. I appeared behind the platform he'd chosen before he could even adapt, and fired a stunner straight ahead. My spell hit nothing but air and I felt myself be slapped into consciousness.
"You could have just used a renervate", I said with irritation beginning to mount.
"I could, but what would the fun have been in that?" Sirius asked, clearly having the time of his life. I shouldn't have let him talk me into this silly contest.
"What's the score now?" He asked next.
"You know what the sore is"
"Yes, but I want to hear you say it"
"Piss off, wanker" I pushed him off and rose to my feet.
"Is that a forfeit I smell coming?"
"Get up there let's go again. I almost had you just now" I said, and the way he laughed grated at me. I turned on the spot and appeared on one of the platforms, while keeping the next platform I was going to apparate to in my mind's eye.
This time, I was going to play the long game. Sirius didn't have as much magic as I did, and we'd already done eleven rounds— of which he'd won every single one. So I was going to let hum exhaust himself this time by focusing on avoidance rather than trying to attack him as well.
When the charmed buzzer rang, I turned on the spot and appeared on the platform to the left. He turned in time, sending another stunner my way and I apparated to one close to the middle of the room.
The room we were in was the villa's massive ballroom, but since neither of us were likely to be hosting a ball anytime soon, Sirius had taken up the passion project of putting his charms skills to good use. It wasn't something I'd hear much about, but Sirius was to charms what James was to transfiguration. He'd been the one to cast most of the enchantments on the marauder's map, after all. He'd turned that skill and genius into designing a course for getting better at using apparation in duels. Most duelling tournaments did not allow use of the skill, but the world championship did, and that was what my Godfather had gotten it into his silly head to train for.
I apparated left, and then to a platform to the right, and then to a platform right beneath the one I'd been standing on. There were about sixty-four platforms, each of them floating in place, at different heights and different positions in relation to the room. It meant that I had to be precise with where I wanted to go. In the beginning, I'd managed to apparate to space not covered by a platform a few times, but that had thankfully stopped happening on the fifth round— I still hadn't won a single one, but I was getting better.
I teleported upwards and to the left, before having to apparate a second later when I noted that I couldn't see Sirius on the platform he'd chosen anymore. This time, I felt the stunner hit me from behind. It had less power in it than Sirius knew he'd need to overcome my resistance, and I whirled around to find him with his hands on his knees, breathing heavily.
I wish I could say that honour and sportsmanship made me take the loss then and there rather than hitting the obviously exhausted man. That would have been a lie, though. The stunner I sent his way was so powerful that it sent him flying straight into the wall with a crack before his body fell to the cushioned floor.
It took two renervates to get him back to consciousness, and I was all smiles to see him blinking the grogginess away.
"That was definitely cheating", he said.
"Sucks to suck, doesn't it? But how the fuck were you doing that? Being able to tell where I'd be all the time" I asked. In that round where I hadn't even tried to attack, it should have been impossible for him to get the drop on me, and yet he did. For him to do that, he had to have some way of telling where I'd teleport to next.
"Legilimency?" I tried. He snorted in reply.
"Divination" he said instead.
A/N: And so the chappy ends. Second task done and dusted, and we get to move on to the next part of the year. Next two up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.