Chapter 85 Tournament

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Harry turns to the arena as the two participants make their way to the ring from the opposite entrances. Both of them enter the ring with their wands already ready in their hands and take their proper positions.

Both the participants turn to each other and bow, as soon as they bow a circle lights up under their feet. These circles show the proper starting positions furthermore also provides the participants with a way to earn more points. If you can beat your opponent without moving out of the starting circle then you are awarded more points than just for a regular victory.

Harry looks at the two seventeen-year-olds standing inside the ring trying to remember if he knew any of them in the last timeline but even after using mind magic he still couldn't recall anything. But that is not surprising since Harry never really cared about the duelling circuits anyway.

The reason he never really got into professional duelling tournaments is pretty simple, Harry is far too used to real combat to ever be interested in this regulated and limited style of duelling.

Harry's way of combat is to be as efficient and as fast as possible, he is someone who deals with multiple scores of opponents with a single wave of his wand. But the entire professional duelling scene is designed to extend magical combat as long as possible since it's a spectator sport.

That's why such tournaments are often filled with unnecessary rules and regulations that offset magical combat. Some rules are obvious and necessary like not allowing the use of spells that cause permanent damage to their opponents, and then there are rules just meant to extend duels and make them look more flashy just for the entertainment of their audience.

This completely removes any type of tension from these duels, without tension, there is no motivation for the participants to truly push their limits and give their all. As someone who has been in constant life or death struggle for most of his childhood and young adult life, as such Harry couldn't really get into this highly regulated and limited type of magical combat.

But that's not to say that these tournaments are useless, these types of duels are very effective in order to improve your casting speed and spell work. While these underage tournaments only showcase a rudimentary level of duelling but the adult duelling circuits are truly a sight to see. Professional duellists competing on a global scale truly show the extremes of spell work and spell casting.

Professor Flitwick the former world duelling champion and still charms professor is one of the fastest spell casters in the entire world. The short professor's casting speed is only surpassed by monsters like Dumbledore, Voldemort and Harry.

This clearly shows why such type of duelling format is very popular in the wizarding world and even the law enforcement agencies all around the world use such duelling style to train their Aurors in spell work and spell casting.

While this is very entertaining for the general population with its flashy spells and quick exchange between the two participants but to anyone who has experienced real magical combat all of this is just style without enough substance. Real combat is not just two wizards constantly throwing spells at each other, it is so much more than that.

Harry watches the back and forth between the two participants exchanging spells with each other. It is just as he expected it to be, both of them are trying to target their opponent's weak spot all the while casting spells as fast as possible. This certainly looks very exciting with both of them simultaneously defending themselves and attacking their opponent, they would conjure a shield one moment and the very next moment cast a spell at their opponent.

This is exciting for everyone else but for Harry, this is becoming tedious because for him the duel would have been over with just a single spell. So Harry finds no excitement in this long exchange because in his mind he could have ended this duel even before it could properly start. Harry's mind can't help but keep track of all of the mistakes the participants are making and keeps coming up with ways that could have ended this duel long ago.

Harry turns to the people sitting next to him and sees that Charlie, Rose and Tonks are all too into the duel, even Kreacher the house-elf is watching the duel unfold with excitement as he constantly punches the air with his tiny fists.

Harry smiles seeing his family just enjoying themselves. He starts to look around trying to find anything interesting that can occupy his mind for a while because this is just the first duel of the night but he is already getting tired of this.

As he is looking around Harry sees that on the opposite side of the chamber there is a section filled with Beauxbatons students. They must be here to support the female finalist who is Beauxbatons student. The other finalist is a boy who didn't attend any magical school and is privately tutored.

No one from Hogwarts made it to the top ten in this underage tournament but that is to be expected since Hogwarts doesn't really have a dedicated duelling program like the other magically schools. There is an unofficial duelling club but is just run by a few students with no proper teacher so not much can be expected from that.

While he was thinking Harry's eyes couldn't help but fall on one Fleur Delacour as he was mesmerised by the familiar sliver blonde hair and those beautiful blue eyes, then he notices that Fleur is looking back at him.

Fleur looks beautiful and no different from how she looked during the tournament. This is due to her being a veela. Veelas maintain a small child-like form until they reach the age of 12-13 when they experience their maturity and their bodies quickly transform from a small child to a late teen.

Fleur continues to look directly at Harry before moving her head towards the exit near her.