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Chapter 53 - Thank You Beauxbatons And Good Night

Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 31stAugust 2001 AD
Country: France - Pic Du Thaume
Location: Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic - Great Hall.
Time: Morning

The next day at Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic all the students and teachers were assembled in the Great Hall; seven large duelling rings had been raised out of the floor, the Professors currently occupied the centre ring.

Professor Radcliffe stood by the door, waiting for their guest of honour as Olympe began to speak.

"Welcome everyone to the Duelling Competition," she greeted "As you know the annual competition that was due to be held earlier this year had to be cancelled, know we have the chance to hold the competition and to say a proper goodbye to our DAA Professor. Now allow me to introduce the Triwizard Champion of Beauxbatons and former Under Eighteens Duelling Champion, Fleur Delacour."

The students gave a huge cheer as the main doors swung open and Fleur walked in dressed in elegant female duelling robes.

Harry walked up beside her and offered her his arm which she took, much to the surprise of the students who didn't know they were together and much to the annoyance of the rest.

They walked through the rows of students and up the steps to the central platform.

"Thank you Madam Maxime." Smiled Fleur, putting on her best nobility voice "Hello Beauxbatons, it is wonderful to be back."

There was a short round of applause before she stepped back.

"We will be starting off with duels within your own year groups," Daniel explained "As you can see the room has been divided up into seven duelling circles, in each a year group will duel until we are down to fourteen people in the entire school when the duelling will move to this central ring which will allow everyone to be able to watch as the competition gets serious. You are allowed to move around in between duels as long as you are at your ring for your duels. Each duel will be refereed by the Professors and our guest of honour, two per duel, can each year now assemble at the ring where their head of year is now heading, they will be announcing the combatants for the first duels, begin when ready."

There was a hubbub as the students all shuffled towards their rings.

Fleur turned to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"See you later." She whispered before heading off to judge the fifth years, taking a breath he jumped off the side of the platform and moved in the direction of the forth years.

For the next three hours the teachers watched duel after duel as the numbers were slowly whittled down, at one point a forth year asked why he was not watching the older students as they were better duellists, to which he replied:

"I could be accused of cheating, of making weaker duellists go through to the finals so I could defeat them more easily. As it's probable that it will be sixth and seventh years going through to the finals so I can avoid any chances of being accused of cheating by judging the lower years, the same applied to Miss Delacour."

The numbers eventually made their way down to just fourteen and in Harry's opinion not a moment too soon as shortly after the previous question the students started asking him about his relationship with Fleur.

Moving to the central platform Harry was handed the list of students left, he was pleasantly surprised to see that the results were pretty much as he would have expected, Colleen and Monique were the two seventh years as expected, the sixth year was also as expected, the fifth year had proven his predictions incorrect, he had expected the twin Veela's in that year to have gone through but evidently some of the students had been doing research into their species and had discovered their dislike for water.

Delphine had explained that this was because of their bird nature and the fact that they were Fire Elementals, water being the opposite of fire made them dislike it in large quantities.

The students who had defeated them had turned the floor of the platform around the Veela into choppy water, distracting them long enough to stun them or (in the second fight) summon them into the water with no small amount of pleasure.

The forth, third and second years were also pretty much as expected, but the surprise was the joint first years and intro-years which was won by Gabrielle and another, this impressed Harry greatly as her Veela abilities were not fully developed so she could not use her fire as easily as some of the others did.

"Well done everyone," called Olympe as the students gathered around the central platform "We are down to fourteen, firstly lets have the two first and intro-year students."

Gabrielle and a redhead stepped up onto the stage, both looking rather nervous at the though of being in front of the entire school.

Harry saw Fleur go over to Gabrielle and whisper something motivational in her ear which obviously worked as Gabrielle's eyes flew wide with excitement and she took a confident duelling stance.

Thinking it only fair, Harry walked over to her opponent, kneeling down beside her he whispered.

"She may be a Veela, but she's still human, don't let her force you onto the defensive."

He then walked down next off of the platform and moved next to Fleur.

"What did you tell Gabby?" he asked.

"I told her my mate would sign her Limited Edition Harry Potter Chocolate Frog Card if she won."

Harry chuckled "Did you now, what makes you think he will sign it?"

She leaned in close to his ear and quietly whispered "I can be very....persuasive."

Harry had to blink away the erotic image that Fleur sent him as the combatants prepared to duel.

"Begin." Called Olympe, starting the match.

Gabrielle moved very quickly and launched a pair of stunners at her opponent, one of which grazed the redhead's wand arm making her cry out in pain, she never even got the chance to retaliate as a third stunner sent her to the ground.

"That was predictable." Smiled Fleur.

"Gabrielle Delacour wins." Announced Madam Maxime "Second years onto the platform please."
________________________________________________________________________

The next few battles were fairly interesting to watch but got more serious when the fifth years started, Gabrielle was knocked out by a third year, though this did not seem to console the two second years she had defeated in her previous matches.

Some people wandered around during these early battles, the younger students not being as skilled were not as entertaining to watch but by the time that Monique and Colleen walked onto the platform everyone was watching intently, some were even placing bets.

It was well known that Colleen had always wanted to be Head Girl and that they had been fierce competitors ever since the two first arrived, they were the best students at the school and especially the best student at duellists, when they duelled in class it was anyone's guess who would win.

The two bowed to each other before assuming duelling stances, their eyes were locked on each other.

"Whose your bet on?" he asked.

"Hard to tell," replied Fleur "Their rivalry is legendary, Monique is only just better at academic subjects, but Colleen is Half-Veela, that could make the difference, especially as she is allowed to use her powers during this competition."

"True." He nodded.

"What are you going to do against her if she wins and uses her Veela powers against you?" she asked.

"Let's just say," he grinned evilly "I have an ace up my sleeve."

She creased up her eyebrows, trying to figure out what he was planning but was distracted as the battle began.
________________________________________________________________________

Monique fired a cutting hex at Colleen, before spinning to the side as it bounced off of her opponents shield.

The next pair of curses passed each in mid air as both students spinning sideways to avoid them and entering a period of cursing and dodging.
________________________________________________________________________

"Care to take a guess at who is going to reveal their plan first?" asked Fleur.

"I have no idea, but I am certain Colleen's ancestry will give her greater endurance, Monique will have to move first."

"I think you're right, look."
________________________________________________________________________

After five minutes of curse exchanges Monique made her move.

Firing a flame extinguishing charm at Colleen she drenched the Veela in water, soaking her to the skin.

The crowd howled out their laughter at the sight of the drenched competitor.

Colleen's saw red as the crowd laughed at her predicament, growling she turned back to her opponent.

"You will pay for that."

Her skin rapidly became feathers as Colleen began to change, fury evident on her face.

Monique resumed her attack; drenching Colleen's newly revealed feathers in water, making her look like a drowned rat and inhibiting her ability to fly, eliciting more laughter from the crowd.

The Veela screeched her annoyance as steam began to rise from her talons.

"Prepare to die."

Gripping her wand in one talon she threw an incendio and a fireball at Monique, the flames blasting against the Head Girls rapidly raised shield.

Monique was forced back by the impact of the flames; her shield would not last long against more assaults like that, Colleen knew this and thusly did not stop.
________________________________________________________________________

"She can't survive that," Fleur said worriedly "Colleen is really angry, she wants revenge for all there years of academic humiliation, as soon as her shield falls Monique will be dead."

Harry didn't stop to hear more, drawing his wand he moved to leap up onto the stage when Fleur's hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Wait, look."
________________________________________________________________________

Monique was struggling, forcing almost all he strength into her shield, out of her peripheral vision she saw Professor Radcliffe moving towards the stage, preparing to stop the attack and that just would not do.

She would not let Colleen have the satisfaction of defeating her.

Summoning what strength she could spare from her shield, she held out her other arm, shouted her charm and preyed.

She was rewarded a second later when the constant fire from Colleen's wand ceased and the instrument in question came flying over the top of the remaining flames.

Dropping her shield she dodged the fireball fired at her and caught the wand out of the air and aimed both at the steaming and very angry bird, earning her a cheer from the crowd.

"Do you think this crowd is a little bit one sided." She smiled.

"It is irrelevant," snarled the bird "I am still going to defeat you."

"We shall see." She grinned "Incendio."

Colleen dived sideways as the flames soared towards her, singing her tail feathers, further removing her capacity for flight.

Colleen yelled out in pain as what remained of her tail smoked. She might not have been able to fly, but she could still jump.

Monique's eye flew open as her adversary leapt into the air, throwing continuous strings of fireballs as she went.

Monique dived sideways, skidding along the platform, only just stopping short of flying over the edge.

She rolled to the side just in time to see another fireball impact where her head had just been earning a gasp from the crowd.

Colleen WAS trying to kill her.

Rolling again she spun onto her back just in time to fire a Flame Freezing Charm at the fireball aimed at her head, the weight of the ice sending it plummeting to the ground, shattering at her feet. ________________________________________________________________________

"We've got to stop this." Said Harry "They're going to kill each other if we don't."

"We can't." replied Fleur, equally worried "Neither has given up or is incapacitated and neither have done anything outside the rules, there are no grounds for us to call off the match, that's what you get for not setting enough rules."

The Professors and most of the older students who weren't cheering on with the younger students were also watching worriedly as both the competitors threw fire and water at each other, both showing signs of weakening.
________________________________________________________________________

Monique dodged to the left as Colleen threw a blasting hex from her newly recovered wand.

Rolling to the ground she threw her own back, the now human Veela mimicking her movements, they couldn't keep this up for much longer, they must have been fighting for over twenty minutes and they were both half dead.

By this time the central platform was a wreck, the floor of the platform was broken with bits of wood sticking up at mad angles, parts of the floor had been turned to ice while others were lava, it was a disaster waiting to happen, if one of them took a wrong step they could either incinerate themselves in the flames or impale themselves on one of the pieces of ice or platform debris.

Monique fired the most powerful blasting hex she could at Colleen at the same time as another curse flew at her; the pair collided in mid air creating an explosion that threw both off their feet.
________________________________________________________________________

The audience watched intently, waiting for one of the girls to move.

Harry jumped up into the platform while Fleur ran up the steps.

"The first to move wins the match." Announced Madam Maxime, her voice was extremely tense, wanting to go to her students but as referee should could not "If neither can move within thirty seconds a draw will be declared."

Harry ran to Monique while Fleur ran to Colleen, drawing her wand Fleur muttered a series of diagnostic spells.

"No serious injuries. Many scratches, cuts and burns, but mainly just exhaustion."

Moving over to Monique she drew the same conclusion.

"The match is over, the result....a draw." Announced Madam Maxime as a pair of Healer's ran up onto the platform and began to treat the two "Will they be alright?"

"Oh yes," replied one of the Healer's "Give us a couple of hours and they will in a position that I will consider good enough to allow them to duel."

"Understood," she nodded before turning to the students "Assuming the competitors are well enough and want to continue I will let the competition resume in two hours when our former champion and our DAA teacher will duel, both the student contestants will go through to the finals."

The students began to filter out of the hall; a few of them remained out of concern for their friends, moving up on to the remains of the platform to be nearer to them.

Madam Maxime began making repairs on floor, walking up beside Daniel as she did.

"Do you think you can handle three opponents?" she asked.

"Why do you assume that I will win, there are going to be two Veela's battling you know."

"I doubt that you would enter into a competition like this without having a way of fighting against that ability, especially as it was a guarantee that you would have been fighting at least one Veela, plus I think that after this summer you will probably be a better dueller than Fleur, especially as she never uses her flight abilities in battle....So do you think you can win?"

Harry smiled and looked up at her.

"We shall see."
________________________________________________________________________

"Combatants onto the platform please." Called Madame Maxime.

Harry and Fleur walked up onto the platform and drew their wands.

"Contestants ready."

"Are you sure you want to do this Daniel," smiled Fleur "Remember what happened last time we duelled."

A grin spread on Daniels face.

"Don't worry; I'll go easy on you."

Fleur's eyes widened in surprise before narrowing.

You'll pay for that.

We will see.

"Begin."

Harry immediately fired off a cluster of spells before rolling to his right, dodging the same spells sent his way by Fleur.

Spinning to sideways he returned fire as a pair of spells passed close enough to his head to brush past his magically lengthened hair.

They traded spells for several minutes, both patiently waiting to implement their respective plans for victory, one of the advantages and disadvantages of training together under the same tutors for so long is that they both knew the others tactics.

Harry heard Fleur begin to whisper a curse that was familiar to him, ducking he launched himself to the left as the hail of flowers passed him before circling back around for another attack.

Ducking away from the swarm again he was luckily enough to dodge Fleur's next spell as well. With a roll he aimed his wand at the flowers and blaster them with flame burning them to ash within a second, much to the approval of his supporters among the students.

Not waiting for the ash to settle he fired a wind charm at the powder, sending it straight towards Fleur, engulfing her in a large black swirling cloud.

Harry heard coughing from inside the cloud and wasted no time in sending cords of silk in to finish the job.

After three seconds of nothing but coughing he banished the ash to reveal a neatly bound Fleur Delacour, her hands tied behind her back and her ankles tied together in such away as to make it very difficult for her to remain upright especially while trying to cough up half the cloud.

"Professor Radcliffe wins." announced Olympe with a certain amount of amusement.

Harry wasted no time in going over to Fleur and cancelling the spells upon her.

"Sorry about the cloud." He apologised handing over her wand which she had dropped when she was bound.

"It's ok Daniel," she smiled brightly, casting a cleaning charm to get rid of the rest of the ash "You did it Daniel....You defeated me."

"It was a dirty win though." He sighed "You couldn't see, I should have defeated you fairly."

"It was only dirty in the respect that my robes were covered in ash, it was a perfectly legal win, and a very quick and clever one if I may say so, well done."

Giving a quick kiss on the cheek she gave him a push towards the steps as Monique climbed onto the platform to duel Fleur.

"Go on, I have a Head Girl to defeat."

The next two battles were won by Fleur as she defeated Monique and then Colleen in short order, much to the annoyance of the latter. Harry then went on to defeat Monique until there was only two duals left, himself verses Colleen and then (if he won) against all three of them at once.

"Contestants ready." Said Olympe as Harry and Colleen prepared themselves "Begin."
________________________________________________________________________

Colleen began to bombard Harry with spells trying to get rid of him as quickly as possible, understanding that he was probably the better dueller, but much to her annoyance the Professor did not cast a single spell back.

"What are you waiting for?" She demanded loudly "Fight."

He did not answer; he just kept dodging her spells.

"Fight dam it!" she shouted hurling curse after curse at him, an occasional fire ball was thrown into the mix as well.
________________________________________________________________________

"Do you see what he's doing?" smiled Monique.

"Yes," replied Fleur "It's very clever, the same tactic you used."

"Yes, get her so angry that she makes a mistake. Do you think she will fall for it twice?"

"After all the embarrassment she has suffered in the last few hours I would say yes."

"Fine!" Yelled Colleen out of frustration, before snarling "Dodge this one."

The air around her began to swirl and her hair began to flutter as if in a breeze.

"Oh dear," sighed Monique "He's had it, he hasn't react fast enough, he's lost."
________________________________________________________________________

Colleen grinned as the Professor's face relaxed and began to stare at her dumbly, his wand falling to the ground beside him.

"You've lost Professor," she smiled before walking up to him. "Kneel."

She grinned widely as he dropped to his knees in front of her, looking up at her submissively much to the disappointment of the crowd.

She crouched down in front of him and leaned in to him so that her mouth was by his ear.

"This is what you get when you turn me down." She whispered "Next time I suggest you accept my offer."

"I don't think so."

Colleen's eyes went wide as she realised that she had been tricked, but all too late. ________________________________________________________________________

The entire audience watched astonished as the very non-entranced Professor wandlessly blasted Colleen to the other end of the platform, landing unconscious on the edge.

He had done it....he had overcome her Veela powers.

Harry looked down at the crowd who were watch him fascinated as he slowly stood and silently summoned both wands to him.

"Next time curse me when you have the chance." He told his unconscious opponent before turning to Olympe who like the rest was staring astonished, I don't think even she had expected him to not be affected by Veela power at all, she probably expected him to curse Colleen before she got the chance to use her powers. "I take it I won."

Shaking her head clear she announced "Professor Radcliffe wins."

There was utter silence for several seconds before Fleur began to clap, quickly followed by Monique and then the rest of the hall.

"Duellists on to the stage for the final round please." called Olympe while some of the other Professor's expanded the size of the platform "Professor Radcliffe versus our three champions."

Fleur and Monique climbed onto the platform as the Healers revived an extremely angry Colleen, her hands were smoking so much that Harry was worried how long it would be before her wand caught fire.

"Good luck dear." Smiled Fleur as she passed him.

"Good luck sir." Echoed Monique as they moved alongside Colleen.

"Contestants ready?" asked Olympe receiving nods from all "Begin."

Before the second letter had even left her lips Harry was already moving as a fireball and a pair of curses flew into the space he had previously been occupying.

He rolled and spun back around to the trio, two of whom where moving to surround him, firing a couple of stunners as distractions he moved so that he was on the edge of the platform closest to Fleur.

Raising a powerful shield he braised himself for the impact as three spells collided with his shield.

He watched as Fleur realised all too late that his shield was reflective as Colleen's bludgeoning hex rebounded and knocked her unconscious. Colleen was further away and had more time to react as Fleur's stunner sailed through the space she had previously been occupying.

Monique, not in a position to need worry about reflecting spells continued to bombard his shield, her explosive hexes sending vibrations through the platform.

Jumping to the left Harry dodged one of the incoming hexes before rolling to face Monique, ignoring Colleen as much as possible.
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Colleen was furious, he was ignoring her completely, only paying attention long enough to dodge her attacks, he was going to pay for all the humiliation he had put her through....He was going to pay.
________________________________________________________________________

Harry smiled to himself as he saw Colleen begin to change, her skin changing to feathers, it was all playing out exactly as he planned, now to implement one of Adam's first lessons.
________________________________________________________________________

The revived and injured Fleur watched from the sidelines as her mate continued with his plan.

While the Healers treated hers injuries she smiled to herself at how easily he was able to get Colleen to do what he wanted, he had planned this dual down to the last detail. Their only chance for success now was that Monique would see the attack coming.
________________________________________________________________________

As Colleen took to the air Harry put the last part of his plan into action.

Making sure he was exactly between his two opponents he conjured up a cloud of dust, before expanding it around himself and Monique.

Hearing the tell tale rush of air he ducked as a fireball flew over him.

Quickly muttering his spell he cast a shield over Monique, strong enough to prevent her injury but not so much as to stop the force behind the fireball from throwing her off of the platform and out of the competition, leaving just himself and Colleen, now for the most risky part of the duel he reached down the link.
________________________________________________________________________

Colleen screeched out as she saw Monique go flying out of the far side of the dust cloud.

She had had it, no more planning, no more attempts at tactics, she would burn him out of this competition if it was the last thing she did.

She began hurling fireball after fireball into the cloud, bombarding every square inch of the concealed platform.
________________________________________________________________________

The crowd watched transfixed as more and more fire was thrown into the cloud.

Was he still in there?

Was he unconscious?

Was he....dead?
________________________________________________________________________

Colleen finally stopped throwing fire as she dropped to the platform exhausted.

"G....Got you." She breathed heavily "I got you."

"Are you sure." Answered an all too familiar voice from the cloud.

"What...." she breathed "It's impossible, you can't...."

She never got the chance to finish as one of her own fireballs flew out of the cloud and threw her off the platform.
________________________________________________________________________

The audience stared speechless as the Professor calmly walked out of the dust cloud, completely intact with not so much as a singing sleeve.

"P...." attempted Olympe, equally astonished by what she had just seen "Professor Radcliffe....wins....wins the Duelling Competition."

There was another utter silence, no one quite believing what they had seen, how had he controlled Colleen's fire, he was human, he shouldn't have been able to do it.

Again it was left to Fleur to start the applauding, which rapidly increased to the level of a deafening roar.

Harry smiled widely as Fleur ran up onto the stage and embraced him, earning several wolf whistles from the crowd.

"You did it Daniel, you did it, you won." She beamed.

"I did....didn't I." he smiled before turning to the crowd.

"Thank you....thank you everyone." he called, raising his hands to quieten then "But I have a couple of surprises for you; it was originally one but now I have a second."

The crowd stood in silence, waiting for his response.

"Firstly I would like you to put your hands together for my replacement and your new DAA Professor; Monique Dominique."

Monique blushed and glared at him for embarrassing her as the hall applauded loudly.

"And secondly there is something I wish to show you."

The crowd fell silent again, curiously awaiting what ever it was he was going to show them.

Drawing his wand he aimed it at himself.
"Finite Incantatem."

He watched grinning as the crowd gasped when his glamour spells cancelled themselves.

Forty jaws hit the floor as the Boy-Who-Lived was revealed to them.

"This is Harry Potter signing off everyone, it's been a pleasure working with and teaching you." he beamed, taking Fleur's hand in his left and reaching for his portkey with his right.

"Thank you Beauxbatons and goodnight."

With that the pair vanished into thin air to the gasping of the students and teachers alike.



AUTHOR NOTES: I'm not happy with this chapter but I don't think I can get it any better.