Felix carried the candy box towards classroom seven, his heart still recalling the question he had just asked Dumbledore.
Both he and Dumbledore are not easy to be persuaded. Hoping to convince them using a story, that Sirius is innocent, is not an easy task.
Both of them are the masters of Legilimency, although they rarely use it normally, but at the critical moment, there will be no hesitation.
The difference is that he is not familiar with Sirius, So he only read his surface thoughts and emotions, therefore he wanted to confirm it with Dumbledore.
Since he said Sirius is not good at Occlumency, that means he’s very credible.
…
Felix walked to a secluded corridor, opened the candy box, the shrunken Sirius sat on the candy pile as he reached out and pulled out a small piece of cake, and asked blankly: “We’re here?”
“Not yet – there is some preparation that needs to be done, you don’t want to run into Severus I suppose, and Harry has the sneakoscope with him to guard against you, all of which needs to be sorted out.”
” How are we going to fix that?”
Felix did not answer that, but he used his wand to touch several sweets in the box, and they transformed under the effect of magic into a set of full body armour, the style is very similar to the armour in Hogwarts castle, even the enclosed helmet.
“Quickly put these on.” He said to Sirius.
“I like your idea.” Sirius eagerly changed into the new armour and tried to move his body, “I feel like a real knight, but I’m still missing a knight’s sword.”
Felix complied with his request and transformed the licorice cane into a knight’s longsword.
Sirius wore a tightly covered armour, and dexterously swinging the longsword in his hand. If you ignore that he is only palm-sized, He truly looks like a classical medieval knight.
“This looks a lot like a knight golem, and I can introduce you to other professors. Next, I have to figure out how to mask you from the sneakoscope…”
The surface layer of armour on Sirius’ body began to glow with a magical glow. Finally, glowed in the location of the eyes in his helmet, Felix then let Sirius choose whether he wanted black or red, and he picked red.
So the knight’s eyes got covered with a layer of scarlet smoke, making him look a little more fierce and majestic.
9:40 am.
Felix walked into the seventh classroom, which is packed with hundreds of people gathered in a large and spacious open space, as they enthusiastically chattered.
The open space is artificially divided into seven grids, each with different terrains, categorized into Flatland, Forest, Hillside, Rocky Beach, Swamp, Winding Maze, and an Ice land.
On the east side where the best view, there stood a high spectator seating platform, the platform has a row of seats. Flitwick and Snape have arrived, in addition to the two regular professors of the dueling class, there are some other professors who came on their own initiatives, they conjured up their own chairs with a somewhat excited look.
Felix walked to the high platform, casually putting the palm knight on the table, as he greeted others warmly, “Filius, Severus … Professor Lupin, you also showed up?”
“I came to join in the fun,” said Lupin, ” When I was in school, there was no such a novelty.”
Snape said slowly, “But you also have a rich off-campus life, wandering east and west, causing trouble …”
Lupin said flatly, “Looking back at our younger selves, weren’t we all ignorant oafs?”
The Sirius moved around the table with his close-fitting armour with a ” clack, clack, clack” sound, as he swung his longsword around intensely as if he is protesting against Lupin’s statement.
Flitwick, who intended to change the topic, searched around and his eyes lit up when he saw the ‘knight’: “Felix, this golem of yours can move on its own?”
Felix smiled, ” Very early on, I tried to let them handle some simple tasks, well … to free my assistant from grading work, she doesn’t need to consolidate such a simple knowledge anymore.”
” Miss Granger?” Lupin asked with a smile, “She’s a very smart witch who does well in every class.”
Flitwick looked at the knight on the table, Sirius’ movements are all distorted, still, this makes it look more like a rusty metal puppet.
“Am I reading it wrong? How can I believe that I saw embarrassment in its movements …”
Felix took out some golems from the ring and distributed them to the professors, “I tried to make them understand some simple commands, the principle is similar to magic portraits, but the effect is not considered good, I need your opinions.”
He grabbed the ‘knight’ in his hand calmly, shaking it along the way, and in response to Flitwick’s puzzled expression, he explained, “This guy is not that smart …”
The time soon approached ten o’clock, Percy and Penelope stood in the middle of the open space, Percy acted so hyper that his vocal tone went off by two degrees, “Ladies and gentlemen, this dueling tournament is hosted by Hogwarts Student Body, and I, Percy Weasley, will be in charge of maintaining the order of the whole field with Penelope Clearwater.”
“Let’s start by providing some basic information: there are 218 participants, and they will be matched randomly on seven different fields. Seven games will be played at the same time, starting with the first year.”
Penelope Clearwater said, “The rules of the tournament are clear to you all, and I will say that the professors will comment on some exciting duels or will vocalize warnings regarding violations. Please be sure to follow the rules, especially the use of dark magic is strictly forbidden.”
She scanned the circle with a sense of authority, and Percy cleared his throat next to her, “That’s right, that’s it.”
“Those whose names are called will come to me and draw lots for terrain, and once the terrain is determined, your opponents will also be determined.”
The crowd erupted into booming cheers, Harry nervously gripped his wand, his heart is pounding crazily, The people around him looked even more nervous than he is, Ron’s lips were quivering and Hermione kept mumbling something. He took a step closer and heard her quickly reciting the dueling system essay she had just finished revising for the third time.
Opposite to Harry, Draco Malfoy looked paler than usual, and his two followers – Crabbe and Goyle – kept swallowing, and Goyle choked on his own saliva and coughed constantly.
Draco furrowed his brow and walked to the opposite side, his nervousness surprisingly calmed down when Harry appeared in his line of sight, and he smiled impishly – at least that’s what Harry thought.
He would gladly give Malfoy a good thrashing all over his face if he had a chance.
The game had officially begun.
The first-year competition is rather lacklustre, except for one student who managed to cast a nasty hex, which drew sparse applause, while most of the rest kept chanting spells with their eyes closed.
After only three rounds, it reached the final match, and a cute little girl won the first year’s championship.
Next came the second year’s competition, where Ginny simply used a stunning spell to knock out her opponent, followed by several more victories to win the title.
“Ginny’s already that good?” Ron asked in surprise.
“Yeah, actually it’s not that surprising, she’s been following us in our group activities,” Harry said.
Percy’s serious voice came through –
“There is a larger number of third years, fourteen in the first group, Millicent Bulstrode, Seamus Finnigan, Hermione Granger, Daphne Greengrass … Blaise Zabini, Justin Finch-Fletchley, these contestants, please come up to the stage.”
Hermione walked shakily to the front, almost tripping over Neville, she moved over to the draw and noticed to her surprise that the rest performed pretty much the same as her, the student whose family name is Zabini is light on his feet and he seems like he stepped on a ball of cotton.
Hermione drew a rocky beach terrain, she could not help but sigh with relief, if she picked the ice-based terrain, she can’t stand firm enough to fight.
After fourteen third-year students took their places, Percy announced in a long, drawn-out voice: “The duel begins–”
Daphne Greengrass stood opposite to Hermione, the two are old rivals, but their disputes are only limited to the golem, it is the first real duel between them.
“Expelliarmus!” Hermione shouted loudly, the words of the dueling system essay flashed quickly in her mind, I struck faster, she will dodge, and I have to use my advantage to …
But things didn’t go as she expected, Daphne, although she is a step slower than her, but she still insisted on casting a spell: “Stupefy!”
Hermione watched as her disarming charm hit Daphne, as her wand escaped her hand and spun towards her, but at the same time, a red spell grazed her hair and hit the stone behind her.
Hermione froze for a few seconds, as she subconsciously caught the flying wand, when she saw her exasperated face, she realized that she had won, but Hermione did not feel any joy in her victory, she could not help but go over and whisper: “Why you did not dodge? You should have ducked …”
Daphne glared at her, “Why should I hide?”
“But, but–” Hermione is filled with questions, “You’re not as fast as me, according to the reason–”
“Whose reasoning? You used the disarming charm, I used the stunning spell, if I hit you, I win.”
Hermione wanted to continue to retort that she made no sense in a real battle because it is too risky, but Percy had already reminded the students, who had finished the game, to leave as soon as possible, So she glared at Daphne and went down in a huff.
Back in the Gryffindor House crowd, Hermione still said indignantly, “She’s totally gambling on her luck, I can’t believe she would dare to do that in a real battle-”
Harry persuaded, “Actually, she is quite reasonable, under normal circumstances she simply can not possibly beat you, on the contrary, if her strategy succeeds-”
He meekly shut his mouth, because Hermione looked like a furious lion.
“Next, the second group whose names are called come forward – Draco Malfoy, Seamus Finnigan, Ron Weasley, Gregory Goyle …”
“Let’s watch the game,” Harry said, “it’s going to be my turn soon.”
But there is no Harry’s name in the second group, he can only wait patiently, in this group there is an accident, a young wizard pronounced the spell incorrectly, his opponent’s head sprouted with a couple of tentacles, the young wizard cried. ” What kind of spell are you trying to use?”
Madam Pomfrey came over quickly, then she observed for a moment and said, “It will take you at least three hours to recover, my boy.”
The young wizard touched the tentacles on his head, which didn’t look that bad: “Madame Pomfrey, can I stay here and watch the game? I don’t want to go to the hospital wing.”
Madam Pomfrey looked at him in wonder, “Yes, you can, but aren’t you afraid of being laughed at-”
“That’s not a problem.”
The boy sipped his potion and returned to his house with gusto, showing off his new hairstyle to his friends, as astonishment and envy erupted around him.
Ron also returned triumphantly, saying with satisfaction, “Actually, I failed my first spell, but I hid behind a rock and Goyle stood stupidly in the same place, and got tied like a dumpling by my next spell …”
“Next, the third group – Draco Malfoy, Dean Thomas … Neville Longbottom, Vincent Crabbe, Ernest Macmillan, Harry Potter.”
The dueling tournament proceeded as fast as it could, and by the time the third-year rematch session came around, even the upperclassmen couldn’t help but look serious.
“Who’s that little round face? He and Potter fought back and forth.”
“Not sure, he seems to have popped out of nowhere.”
“It should be Potter’s friend, look how happily they are laughing.”
“I kind of remember seeing him at Potter’s dueling study group …”
In the third year final, Harry looked surprised as he stared at Draco, “I never expected you to come to finals, Malfoy.” They drew the forest venue, with a dozen old trees spread around in a random pattern.
Draco grinned, “You should have seen how I taught that Weasley a lesson, with my newly learned magic.”
Harry glanced back at Ron, who sat dazedly on the ground with a blank expression that looked a little similar to Luna’s.
“The match begins-” He heard Penelope’s clear and calm voice, as Percy had grown a little tired.
Harry instinctively took a step to the side, a silent disarming charm flew out at the same time, this first charm is not that powerful, as he was trying to get a head start. Draco took a step back, he hid behind a sturdy-looking tree trunk, “Potter – Mimblewimble!”
Harry hurriedly jumped out of the way, the spell went a little awry. He gauged the distance and countered with an Incarcerous Spell, and a magically condensed rope flew past and wrapped tightly around the tree trunk. He heard Draco grunt, and he just wanted to step forward, his heart burst with a sense of crisis.
So he quickly cast a shield charm in front of him, “Protego!” He called out, and an invisible barrier formed before him, blocking Draco’s carefully prepared spell.
“Flipendo!”
“Dang!”
A heavy bell chime rang out, and Harry felt like he was hit by a sledgehammer so hard that the magical barrier cracked like a spider web. Even if he is hiding behind the shield charm, he is affected, his ears buzzing and trembling.
He endured the discomfort and stared at the opposite side with wide eyes, and after ten seconds or so, his vision became clear again.
‘Is this the spell that Ron endured? Even when it’s blocked, it still makes you briefly dizzy, like being hit by a pendulum in a clock tower.’
Harry looked at Draco, who is hiding behind a tree and did not come out, occasionally releasing the ‘Flipendo’ with a jerk, so he could not help but feel anxious. He quickly closed the distance between them, a red light flashed, slightly off, almost hitting him, Harry jumped in fright and flashed behind the tree, the field went quiet.
“Malfoy, didn’t you want me to see your new magic? I did see it, need a reminder, I just associated it with construction workers, who knock around with a sledgehammer in their hands …”
Harry half-crouched, waited two seconds, as he cast the shield charm in advance, and sure enough, a red light flew in and got stopped!
He didn’t even think about moving beyond the protection of the shield charm, Draco is peeking out, and an exaggerated red beam of light shot out from Harry’s wand which hit Draco straight on his chest.
Draco sent straight away and crashed into a tree, his eyes rolled back, and he passed out without saying a word.
“Win!”
Harry shouted out excitedly, this battle is much more difficult than he expected, the biggest reason is due to the terrain limitation, his spell is simply not powerful enough to destroy the three-foot diameter tree, his advantage is completely ineffective.
He thought of the instruction given to him by Professor Hap – mastering more spells meant that he could face different situations with ease. He couldn’t help but think: if he had mastered the Blasting Curse or the Fire-Making Spell, would he be able to finish the battle more simply?
Now he knew what he had to do next.
“Wonderful!”
The onlooking students held their breath and enjoyed the high-level duel until the result came out, only then they broke out in unison with loud applause and cheers.
Harry scratched his head and looked up at the judges’ seat, Lupin smiled at him, Snape looked at him with a stern and expressionless face, Professor Flitwick looked thrilled, Professor Hap smiled lightly as he rubbed his hand, and there is also an iron puppet waving its hand, no, sword, at him vigorously.
Is that the professor’s new golem?
Harry held back his inner joy, trying not to grin excessively, and waved similarly.
———-
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