Published at 27th of May 2024 12:13 am

Chapter 195: Marooned

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26 February 1994, Hogwarts

Tracy watched Daphne walk away from the arena while feeling both envious and nervous. Daphne had won her duel, to the surprise of many. People just didn't expect the participants from the lower brackets to go through to the quarter-finals, and they would be right. The gap between OWL students and NEWT students in terms of power and control was immense.

Of course, Harry didn't count. She had to suppress bursting into laughter when she realized what he had done. Using something as childish and as obvious as pretending the headmaster was in trouble to distract Diggory was just hilarious. The fact that he got most of the audience with it just made it all so much better.

But even if he wasn't messing around, Harry could easily win the tournament, he just didn't want to. Daphne's win was just suspect. Angelina Johnson wasn't the best dueler out there, but she was miles better than a third-year had a right to be. Most of the duel was just Daphne and her being evenly matched until the Gryffindor chaser mistimed a reflection and got hit with a random curse.

It was a very anticlimactic end to what was a very impressive duel. Daphne had been holding her own with some weird curses that just bridged the gap in raw power between her and the older girl. They weren't illegal curses or anything, just some curses of slowness, curses that messed with wand movements, and the like. Daphne liked to curse parts of the platform and discreetly trick her opponents into stepping on them.

Slowly, Daphne neutralized her opponent's movement by slowly limiting the environment around her, forcing Johnson to shield more likely than not. She had literally held on until she brought down Johnson to a level that she could manage to fight. That's when the older girl blundered and mistimed a spell redirection, which ended the duel seconds later.

It wasn't something Daphne had done. The look of shock on Daphne's face showed that she was as surprised as she was. Tracy had looked towards Harry afterwards, only to see him frowning in the same way he did when he tried to solve a mystery of some sort. It probably wasn't him either. There was a chance that Johnson just made a mistake, but it was just unlikely. Someone interfered in the duel to make sure Daphne would win, and that meant that someone was sabotaging the matches. Wasn't that a worrying thought?

Still, either way, Daphne lucked out. And now, it was Tracy's turn to fight a girl far older and far more skilled than she was. Tracy didn't really get to show off in the preliminaries and Harry's words rang in her ears. She didn't have to win. She had to impress.

Nott lost in seconds just a few matches previously. He was unlucky enough to get Percy Weasley as an opponent, who just didn't play along and took him down as quickly as possible. Merlin, that guy had a stick up his bum the size of Mount Everest.

So, far, two candidates got through. Tracy only had to do better than Nott to qualify. She had to do enough to make up for the fact that politically, Nott was as big as anyone was going to get.

This was her time. This was her chance, the chance that Blaise had given her.

Tracy blushed slightly at the thought of her boyfriend. If she wasn't training with Harry, she spent most of her waking time just snogging Blaise. It definitely made Harry and Daphne uncomfortable, but the brunette ignored them. She would pay them back when the two of them stopped dancing around one another and got together.

But no, this was not the time to get distracted. She had to be focused. She had to be ready.

She was fighting one of the best duelers in Slytherin, and she had to prove her worth. Why the hell was she unlucky enough to end up with Gemma Farley of all people as her opponent? It just wasn't fair. The only good point was the fact that she knew that Farley was reasonable enough to let her shine.

To be fair, the organizers did their best to pair fighters of the same gender, and there were only three female competitors in the upper brackets. She was either going to end up with Gemma Farley, Angelina Johnson, or Penelope Clearwater.

Daphne was lucky enough to get Johnson, but Tracy thanked every possible god in existence that she didn't end up with Clearwater. Losing in seconds was already bad, but losing to a muggleborn would have been a death sentence to Tracy's dreams of joining the Court. As much as people liked to say that Slytherin wasn't a house of bigotry anymore, there was still this unconscious thought of muggleborns as lesser wizards and witches. Cho Chang had ended up against Clearwater and she was bound, gagged, disarmed and petrified in less than twenty seconds. It was just a merciless takedown that looked more like bullying than anything else.

Tracy could only hope that Farley would be a little more merciful with her.

Professor Flitwick's voice interrupted her musings, "Tracy Davis and Gemma Farley, please make your way to the arena for your duel."

The brunette stiffened slightly, finally realizing that her time was up. She stifled the nervousness in her gut and walked forward to the entrance. There she met her opponent who smiled down somewhat kindly at her, "So, are you ready?"

Tracy couldn't help but smile at the act, "As ready as I'm going to be. I don't think I could have done much to bridge a four-year gap of magical education."

The older girl giggled, "Maybe, but you've done well to get here. Most of the house is impressed, to say the least. You're the most promising year in a while. We didn't expect that half of the people who would qualify from your bracket would be third-year students."

"Yeah, but Harry doesn't count," she muttered to herself.

"Yeah, Potter is a little impressive, isn't he? There will be some grumbling about how he beat Diggory, though…"

"It's his way of protesting the whole forced participation thing. He didn't want to be involved at all."

Farley snickered, "Well, at least he's entertaining. Took us all by surprise in the first task, and now he's doing it again. At least he taught you enough to get by."

"He's an amazing teacher. Don't tell him I said that, but I'd take him over most of the Defense Professors we got saddled with. He has this way of explaining magic, of making you think that's just amazing. It's easy to take for granted until you try to learn on your own, without his input."

"Hmm, interesting. It's a shame that I didn't end up fighting him."

Tracy snorted unconsciously before her eyes widened in panic; she hadn't meant to do that.

The older girl raised an eyebrow, "So, what's so funny then?"

Damn. How was she supposed to answer that without being disrespectful? Maybe honesty would work, "Well, in a fight between the two of you, I have to say that I would bet on Harry."

"You would bet on a third year over me in a duel?" the older girl replied with an incredulous tone.

"You haven't seen Harry fight seriously. I don't think even I have. What Dumbledore said in the Summer, about Harry being as good as the Dark Lord, wasn't an exaggeration. If anything, it was watered down. He's playing around, right now, mostly to just mess with the headmaster and because he doesn't want to deal with the hassle of being recognized as the next Dumbledore or Dark Lord."

"Hmm, interesting. But if someone would force him to fight seriously…"

Tracy didn't bother stifling her chuckle this time, "I can't see that happen, but Harry can be unpredictable sometimes. I can see him respecting an opponent enough to put in an effort, out of curiosity more than anything else, but he's just as likely to just forfeit to avoid the headache."

"I suppose we'll probably fight in the next round."

"How do you know you're going to get past me?"

The older girl smiled, "I like you, Davis. Make this fight interesting, will you?"

"I'll do my best."

And just like that the two duelers arrived at the arena, bowed to each other, took their stances, and the duel began.

Tracy couldn't really afford to be on the defensive against someone like Farley. Harry spent over a week drilling her on the way to counter the older girl, and he had quickly concluded that taking a defensive approach was just inviting disaster.

She sent a few basic hexes and jinxes at her opponent, who just conjured a shield to redirect them. Tracy tried one of Harry's tactics of sending another volley of spells with a shield breaker hidden in between, but Farley saw through it easily and changed her shield charm, making the shield breaker entirely useless.

The older girl raised an unimpressed eyebrow, making Tracy grit her teeth. She didn't have the time to show her anger as Farley sent a fairly common duelling combination, a stunner, a cutting charm, and a disarming charm. Tracy dodged two of them and redirected the stunner back at her opponent who dodged it by just stepping aside effortlessly.

They kept going back and forth with mostly small charms. Tracy remembered Harry's biggest piece of advice about the duel. Farley was, without a doubt, her superior in every way. Tracy didn't have Harry's frankly insane magical strength and immense repertoire of spells. She couldn't change spells on a whim either. She was fast for her age, but her spells lacked the potency that Daphne's had. The way Tracy had a chance at winning against someone so much older and more experienced as her, was through surprise.

When she saw Farley up her game and visibly decide to stop playing around to end the duel, Tracy decided to implement one of the plans Harry taught her. She pretended she was being overwhelmed by a combination of spells, and she jumped back. Farley went for a finishing combination, but Tracy cast one of the most complicated spells that Harry taught her.

It was called the doppelganger charm. What it did was create an unmoving illusion of her and make her invisible at the same time. There was a variation where she could control it, but it was beyond her; maintaining both the illusion and the invisibility was already straining her control. Tracy walked forward, in an area where her opponent's volley of spells just wouldn't touch her. She did her best to maintain the illusion until the spells were about to hit the copy.

She dispelled the illusion, revealing her true location, and didn't let her opponent realize that she was tricked, by sending a lightning piercer at her. It wasn't the most dangerous spell in her arsenal, but it was the fastest. And in this trick, speed mattered more than damage.

Most students, even seventh years, would have fallen for that trick, but Farley showed her experience when she was barely able to conjure a shield to block the piercer, but she wasn't able to counter the full elemental aspect of the spell, electrocuting her as well.

Tracy didn't let up and stopped holding back. Farley wouldn't keep underestimating her anymore. She sent a wind-enhanced cutting charm, followed by two stunners. Unfortunately, her opponent was able to create a repelling shield to send her spells back.

The young Slytherin didn't let up her assault, and used a small trick Harry taught her. Apparently, an overpowered disarming charm could redirect spells mid-flight. And if anything, Tracy's advantages were both her speed and her accuracy. Just as she practised a hundred times with Harry, her disarming charm hit the stunning charm closing to the older girl and she could see her opponent's eyes widen as the stunning charm returned back at her.

Tracy didn't have time to relish the look on her face since she had to transfigure parts of the platform as a small hill, to intercept the spells being reflected back at her. With a smaller charm, she made the wooden hill act like a wave and move towards her opponent in an effort to throw her out of the platform, while she was dealing with her last trick.

The younger girl's eyes widened when the wooden wave split into two as she neared her opponent. Farley looked ragged and more than a little pissed off. It was a shame; Tracy was sure that her trick could have worked. Now, the older girl wasn't going to underestimate her anymore.

She was proven correctly, when, just like that, Farley's spells doubled in speed and tripled in power. Tracy was slowly getting overwhelmed just by defending. Damn it, this was exactly what she wanted to avoid.

As a hail Mary, Tracy cast a pulsing repelling shield, which already strained her magic channels. It was a very power-consuming spell that not only repelled spells but acted as an attack. Farley expertly cut through the force coming at her, but Tracy didn't plan on it working. She conjured a giant fireball towards her opponent and followed it with the strongest gust of wind she could manage.

She was running dry. Raw power wasn't really her strong suit. She could only hope that this would work somehow, even if she didn't have her hopes up. Tracy's hopes were dashed when chains were conjured out of nowhere and bound her legs, and somehow, Tracy's wand flew out of her hand.

The fire faded to reveal a slightly singed Gemma Farley holding her wand at her, with a small smile on her face, "You did well, kiddo. Very impressive. But that's the end of the line."

Tracy let out a bitter chuckle, "I thought I had you with that."

"You almost did. You did far better than anyone could have hoped. Now, are we going to make me stun you, or are you going to take the dignifying way out?"

Well, Harry did say that if Tracy didn't win, she had to impress them and show them what she could do. And it's not like she expected to defeat Farley anyway.

Now, she could only hope that the Court would be satisfied with her performance. Tracy raised her hands and spoke up the words that felt bitter in her mouth, "I forfeit."

The crowd roared, but Tracy ignored them. Instead, she looked towards a specific section of the stands where Harry, Daphne, and Blaise were cheering for her. She turned towards where her parents and the Greengrasses were also smiling at her, looking extremely proud. Her mouth unconsciously turned up at that. Yes, she might not have won, but this was more than enough for her.

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