Flamel Family

The crowd broke up into murmurs and whispering. The cause of this was no doubt the announcement of a Flamel descendant participating in the duelling tournament.

The Flamels were very secretive, this is because of the Elixer of Life that Nicholas Flamel invented, giving him and his wife 'Immortality'. Essentially, it was a longer lifespan - not immortality, but to others, it would seem that it was.

The Flamels are recognised as an Ancient House - Nicholas Flamel, a Half-blood, belonged to a Minor House, House Flamel. With his achievements, notably the Sorcerer's stone, he had increased the prestige and reputation of his house.

Hadrian read up on the new members of House Flamel, nearly all of them became scholars in an attempt to best their many times' great grandfather. It seemed that the youngest Flamel child wasn't like the rest of his family, he was wearing a Beaxbatons duelling outfit, meaning he actually attended a Wizarding School. The rest of his family opted to self-study or homeschool, learning all they needed by themselves or with the very best tutors.

Flamel's descendants had gone on to work in obscure magical research, publishing thesis' on soul magic, magical theory, ward creation, spell creation, etc. Very rarely did the Flamels attend events such as this.

Hadrian had talked to Merlin, asking him about the Sorcerer's stone and how it could have been created. Merlin's answer was that it was an Artifact. All Artifacts were made by Alchemy and to learn Alchemy, one needed to have a suitable affinity and mastery on Potions and Transfiguration.

Hadrian hoped to one day be able to create his own Artifacts. Merlin's Artifacts were powerful, but they were not Hadrian's - they were not keyed to his magic, his blood, him. That was one of the reasons he felt pain when he assimilated with the Artifacts, they just weren't his. The only reason he was able to even assimilate with them and use them is that he was a Dragonlord, like Merlin.

Hadrian watched Antoine Flamel as he walked onto the platform, seemingly disregarding the whispering and murmuring in favor of staring down his opponent.

His opponent, Viktor Krum - looked at Antoine with mild curiosity, the same way a baby would look at a stranger in public.

They both bowed, before adopting their preferred stances.

The flare sounded, and both waited for the other to make the first move.

A few seconds of waiting passed until Viktor stabbed his wand in the air and shouted, "Rictusempra!".

Antoine flicked it away.

"Expelliarmus! Diffindo! Tarantallegra!", Victor began casting his chain.

Antoine raised his wand and shouted, "Protego!".

The spells slapped against Antoine's shield, dissipating once they connected. Antoine's shield wavered before he dropped it and began casting.

"Everte Statum!", he cried.

Victor rolled out of the way and swiftly raised to his feet, already beginning to cast his next spell.

"Flipendo! Diffindo! Diffindo!".

Antoine sidestepped the first spell and brought his shield up for the next two.

His shield rippled against the attacks and just as he was about to bring it down, Victor increased his rate of fire.

Antoine began sweating under the pressure of having to keep up his shield, dropped his shield.

A spell flew towards him, to which he twisted away from. Viktor quickly sent a knockback jinx to Antoine.

Antoine blocked it and replied with a Sponge-Knees Curse.

Victor's knees buckled, he remained upright but didn't move for fear of falling on his head. He blocked a disarming charm and sent one of his own.

Antoine jumped away from the spell, as he did so, he shouted, "Immobulus!".

Viktor was caught off guard, his body stood to a still. The struggling in his face was evident as Antoine threw a disarming charm at his wand. The wand rolled towards Antoine's feet. who bend down and picked it up, raising and waving it in the direction of the audience.

Wildly enthusiastic applause ensued immediately after, "Antoine Flamel is the winner of the last match! Give it up for the young duellists!".

The applause became even more loud and unanimous as the duellists went back to their area.

Antoine walked down the steps, as he did so - his eyes caught Hadrian's. He looked at Hadrian with obvious expectancy, a longing to fight.

Hadrian broke his staring contest when Angelica forcefully grabbed his shoulders, "We have to go back to our rooms! Come on.", she said as she grabbed his hand dragged him out of the arena through the tunnel they entered.

As Hadrian was being dragged, he felt the magic of two powerful people. Their magic felt old, refined and...withering.

He peered down the tunnel and saw a couple walking together, arms interlinked.

They looked young, in their early twenties.

Yet their magic felt old.

Hadrian looked at them confused, tracing them with his eyes as they passed him.

Angelica looked mildly perplexed, "Do you know them or something?".

"No, I've never seen them before.", Hadrian responded - shaking his head.

Just as Angelica was about to respond, Professor Anderson appeared around the corner.

"Professor!", Hadrian shouted, pointing at the man that had arrived.

Angelica swiveled her head and smiled widely, "Professor, did you see me out there! I mean you did, of course - but...how did I do? I know I could have done some things bet-".

"You did fine, Angelica.", Professor Andy replied, patting her head, "As did you.", he said as he turned to look at Hadrian.

Hadrian nodded and quickly dodged the hand that approached the top of his head.

"Pretty Dragon doesn't like getting his pretty hair touched, 'ey?", he chortled.

Hadrian set off to leave, not even choosing to deign him with a response.

He didn't get very far before Professor Andy said, "I see you have secrets of your own, Hadrian. I haven't seen a spell like that before."

Hadrian stopped to listen but when he didn't, he resumed his walking.

"Maybe in the future, you'll be the one teaching me.", Professor Andy said before Hadrian progressed any further. This made Hadrian stop abruptly once more.

"Stop doing that!", Hadrian shouted before stomping away.

On his way back to the dorm, Hadrian looked through the Training Areas, to see if any of his teammates were using theirs.

Hadrian was happy to see that Natalie was in there, practicing her casting with such vigor. You wouldn't think that she had just participated in a tournament with the way she was moving!

He left her to her training and made his way to his room to ponder on the strengths and weaknesses of his opponents.

'First, there was Ureyama Rai, she was good. Her main strength would have to be her agility, but even that isn't as good as Nkonkoni's.', Hadrian mused.

'There's also Althea and Din. Althea seemed pretty lackluster in comparison to the other duellists, especially Din. His parseltongue spellwork was really good.', If Hadrian had to pick one opponent to not face early on, it would have to be Din. Hadrian was convinced that the final round would be between him and Din...or Antoine Flamel.

'Flamel! That's a name you don't see often. I wonder if he knows more spells than the ones he'd already displayed...he seemed to have a larger spell repertoire than most...'

Throughout his musings, Hadrian had seemed to forgotten about Fleur Delacour! Even if Hadrian had remembered her, he would have dismissed her straight away. To Hadrian, she was the picture definition of snooty. With her head held high and nose looking down on everyone, he would rejoice if he had the honor of meeting her in the first round of the semis!

Hadrian retrieved Merlin from his trunk and propped him up against the wall.

"No...more! I hate that trunk, it stinks - I am Merlin! I do NOT get thrown in a trunk and left-...", He began.

Hadrian tuned him out and instead willed his grimoire to show.

He turned the page and saw that the next page was partially visible. It displayed the name of the next spell, but it didn't show the wand movements, or incantation. It was the 'Spell Duplication Spell'.

"Hey, Merlin. I can see the name of the next spell, but not the incantation or wand movements, what does that mean?", Hadrian asked.

Merlin stopped his tirade and replied, "It means you are close to mastering the spell. It doesn't mean that you have to completely master the spell, just sufficient enough for you to use the spell in battle without hindrance."

Hadrian nodded at the explanation and picked up Merlin's portrait.

"What are you doing?...NO! Don't do it! Do NOT...!-", Merlin shouted as Hadrian placed him back into the trunk and locked it.

Hadrian laughed as he made his way to Aunriton's training area.

He found that Natalie was still there, training hard. The only difference was that she was covered in sweat.

Hadrian stepped into the training area, causing Natalie to pause her training.

"Here to do some training?", she asked.

"Yeah, I want to brush up on some of my skills.", Hadrian replied.

Natalie looked at Hadrian before putting her wand into her holster.

"I'm going to try my hardest tomorrow, even when I'm facing you.", she said as she walked away.

'It's a competition, isn't that the least you have to expect from someone competing?', Hadrian thought as he started running through some spells.