A Simple Change of Mind - Chapter 18

Sorry and thank you are all I am going to say.

Please take care of your mental health, and if you're feeling down and experiencing depression, don't hesitate to talk to someone. Trust me, from someone who has suffered through it the last whole year, talking helps so much.

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Pin-drop silence.

That’s the only thing you could hear right now in the big stadium, standing on the grounds of Hogwarts.

The massive stadium was built this year for the sole purpose of hosting the Triwizard tournaments and, more specifically, for the duelling competition.

And on this day, the first battle between the UK's own Hogwarts and the French's Beauxbaton was held on the grandest of scales.

Already, the fights between the two prestigious schools had been everything—even more than anyone expected them to be.

Each and every single fight has kept the fans on the edge of their seats, and by the end, it made them leap up on their feet after each finishing blow.

Both teams have some of the best under-21 fighters in the world, and one by one, they all have shown their talent to the world today.

But the talented fighters from Hogwarts seemed to have proven to be the better ones, as they have defeated almost every opponent of theirs, and now only one line fighter from Beauxbaton was left standing alone.

And this last was none other than the captain herself, Fleur Delacour. Which showed that even though Hogwarts, with their three fighters still left, may look like they have this battle in their hands, they still can't grab it until they beat her.

Fleur's selection as captain was not without merit, as she not only held the title of being the top student in her school but also advanced to the semifinals of the U-21 World Duelling Championship last year.

That was precisely why the captain of Hogwarts, Harry Potter himself, has chosen to step on the field and finish this battle.

He may not have the proven achievements of his opponent, but everyone knows there was a reason he was chosen as the captain of his team, despite being three years younger than the oldest one.

Also, being chosen by the Gauntlet as the Hogwarts champion has quite literally proved that despite his age, Harry was maybe the most dangerous dueller in all three schools.

And today he would prove that as well.

Every seated fan leaned forward in the thrilling anticipation as they waited for what appeared to be the final fight of these wonderful battles between the two schools, creating a lush silence in the stadium.

On the rocky terrain down there, the two captains stood opposite each other and gazed at each other with such intensity that it felt like two titans were facing off.

The fiery, confident, intense gaze of Fleur Delacour clashed with the cool, calm, and collected one of Harry Potter.

There was much more on the line than just this duelling match, as both have something to prove to each other.

For Fleur, it was to prove that she wasn’t a weak-willed girl whose only identity was being a Veela and using her gifts to capture men in lust with her, like everyone else assumed of her race.

No, she wanted to prove to everyone, and especially to Harry, that she was a girl who could beat any boy of her age in a fight and was more than just a pretty face.

Why it was so important for her to prove to Harry wasn't that much important to her right now in her mind.

As for Harry, this fight was his first chance to show the world what he was capable of. It was time to prove he wasn’t just the boy who was lucky enough to survive the killing curse when he was nothing but a toddler.

He was going to prove that he was much more than that and nothing like the mythical hero he has been portrayed as in everyone’s eyes for his whole childhood with false storybooks.

Today he would take the first step to earn the respect and make himself a new image that would be built on true tales witnessed by everyone here in this giant stadium and all over the world.

In the booth up above the battle terrain, Ludo Bagman stood with his hands clasped tightly around his wand as he eyed the two fighters with a brimming excitement.

He has commented on every fight today with equal enthusiasm, with one fight after another bringing him to an elation that he hasn’t felt since he retired from his Quidditch-playing career.

And yet this fight was different. He could just tell by looking between the fighters that there was more at stake here than most would think. His gut was screaming that these two were about to give the best show he had ever seen.

Glancing at Dumbledore's nod from the side of his eye, he knew the time was now, and he took a deep breath before beginning what looked like a Titans clash.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have been here in this lovely stadium for what seems like ages and have been witnesses to fights that have kept us barely in our seats.”

A cheer went around the stadium as everyone voiced their agreement loudly.

But now that only one fighter from the Beauxbaton team remains, it appears that this terrifying battle may be coming to an end.

“Thought be sure that this last fighter is not one to be foolishly underestimated because the French have saved their best for the last. Now then, please, can I hear your support for Fleur Delacour!!”

The French students jumped to their feet and cheered loudly, showing their support for their remaining hope. They had full confidence that their school champion and best fighter wouldn’t go down without taking at least one of the opponent fighters.

Fleur, who literally felt more than heard the loud support from her fellow schoolmate, smirked in confidence and arrogance at her black-haired rival.

“But it might now be as easy for her because the Hogwarts captain has also decided to finally step forward and face the opposing captain himself. It’s time for us to finally cheer for our Hogwarts favourite, Harrryyyy POTTER!”

If the cheer for Fleur was supposed to be loud, it paled in comparison to the deafening roar that struck the stadium as home school profusely showed their sort of their own.

The French captain's smirk wavered as the cheering students shook the ground. Her usual confidence felt a stutter, and she felt a bit nervous before she quashed it and looked toward her opponent, expecting to see him gloat at the difference between their support.

But what she did see left her shocked.

Instead of smirking and smiling while fuelling the crowd like she expected him to, Harry was stoic with his stance, ready to fight, and his whole attention was only on her.

It dawned on her at that moment that Harry Potter was not someone who enjoyed or thrived on the overwhelming support he was receiving from his school. Unlike anyone else who would be gloating over their opponent, he was solely focused on her, muting the support around him.

This simple action showed her that he didn’t care about the huge home advantage he had; for him, he wanted to defeat her not because there were more people cheering but because he was capable enough to do it himself.

And that ignited a fire in Fleur Delacour's eyes as she shifted herself into her stance, with all the marks of a smile gone from her face as it turned into a focused expression.

Also, she didn’t know it at that moment, but looking at Harry’s focused stare built the already burning fire inside her for him brighter than before. And no, this fire was in a part much lower than her eyes, and this fire will explode that night when she will be alone in her bed with her finger and some very spicy imagination of Harry making it happen.

When the crowd finally went silent after screaming so much that it almost hurt their throats, Bagman finally decided to start what looked like the final fight of the day.

“Thank you for showing your support, my very eager attendance, but it seems like both the fighters are very eager to start fighting.” Both the French and British schools cheered again for their fighter, seeing the intense look on both of their faces.

“So let’s not make them and us wait any longer and have some serious action to finish this epic battle between the two schools.” Bagman roared, and the small form of Professor Flitwick, who was the official referee of the fight, hopped on the stage.

The talented and renowned many-time duelling champion himself looked at the focused fighters before he decided to interrupt their intense starting contest.

“Captains, I want a nice, clean fight without harming each other too gravely. Every spell except the unforgivable and some of the restricted ones are allowed. Do you understand?”

There was no movement from both the fighters to even know if they heard the charms master or not, but there was a small nod of their head at the same time, which was enough for the former duelling champion.

“Good then, now before we start, as a show of respect for each other and for the spirit of fight, I want both of you to bow to each other.”

For a second, Flitwick felt that both of them might not do as he said, but he was proven wrong when they relaxed from their stance and bowed respectfully at each other.

Both of the captains might have had some heated rivalry between them, but they both also had much respect for each other.

Once they were done, their heads rose up, and with their eyes connecting back, they went back to their stance, impatiently ready for their fight.

Flitwick, seeing that, had a small smirk on his face, and his body also felt a shiver of eagerness to start this fight, which he could tell was about to be very fun.

"Get your wands ready, and let the fight begin."

With that shout, the small professor hopped back off the stage as everyone went silent and inched forward in their seats to witness potentially the best fight of the day.

Every single human being in the stadium waited without blinking in anticipation to see who would be the first to attack.

A couple of minutes passed, and yet the two captains stood still just where they were from the start as they both stared at each other with their posture ready to attack at any notice.

As the nerve-wracking silence stretched, it became clear that both fighters were waiting for the other to blink first.

In the eyes of impatient students, the patience game between the two looked like a waste of time as their frustration bubbled with the continued non-action. But for the experienced and powerful older wizards and witches, it was fascinating to see two young fighters with such patience and counteracting fighting styles.

But someone had to raise their wand to attack and start the fight, so Harry decided to be the one to start the exchange and test his gorgeous opponent.

Flicking his wand in one single motion from down to up without even moving, he chained three spells together and sent them flying one after another.

All of these happened in a blink of an eye, and the slight widening of Fleur's eyes was the only indication of her shock at the speed of Harry’s before she sprang to defend herself.

Seeing the red stupefy coming at her, she sidestepped it calmly and then used a translucent shield to defend against the bludgeoning spell (percutere).

But what she didn’t expect was the power behind the spell. Her trusty shield shattered like a mirror, and she was pushed a couple of feet back by the sheer power Harry put in his spell.

Not trying to test the power of the third and last spell, she simply chose to roll and avoid the sizzling red Reducio which left a crater behind her.

And just like that, the battle between the captains began.

Harry, not wanting his opponent to take a breather, pounced on the attack, and with the grace of a warrior swinging his sword, he began raining spells and curses.

From a simple leg-locking to the dangerous ones like bone breaker spells, he let it all fly.

However, Fleur Delacour wasn’t the best dueller of her school for no reason.

With a swan-like grace, the French beauty moved around the field like a dancer, dodging and shielding herself from the barrages of attack with a profound efficiency.

Not one spell made it close to causing harm to her, but the field around her showed the destructive power of Harry’s barrages of spells.

The terrain that used to be flat now looked like a war ground with many craters and debris all around, and it only made it harder for Fleur to move around without losing her step.

Still, she did not let it bother her, and she kept her patience and continued defending seamlessly.

Even though none of his spells were hitting the mark, Harry was not panicking, as it was not to score the first blood that he was attacking so relentlessly.

No, what he wanted was to break the calm façade of Fleur and force her to attack him rather than being on the back foot.

And when he saw the huge golden shield produced by his opponent, he knew he had to go through her.

The golden shield was the strongest shield Fleur had in her locker and covered her from all directions. It was strong enough to hold any spell attacks—except for the unforgivable, obviously—without her maintaining it.

Which was precisely what she needed as she released a breath for the first time in the fight. Then, deciding to show her rival what she was capable of, she spread her wand around slowly while muttering some words so quietly that no one heard.

On the opposite side, Harry raised an eyebrow in interest as he slowed his attack for a second as his spells were facing a forceful resistance by the golden shield.

Although he did believe he could’ve broken it with three overpowered spells, he didn’t want to, simply because he was curious to see what his blonde competitor had planned.

It took Fleur three seconds to finish the spell, and once she was done, she smirked and took her shield down.

Seeing her action and confident look, Harry knew it was a challenge to him from her to attack her.

For a second he was confused, as he was sure she had used some long vocal spell, and yet he couldn’t see or feel anything on or around him to know what the spell did.

However, for the time being, he set that aside, decided to play along with the French captain, and unleashed a powerful spell chain.

It was one of his best chains of attack, but once again Fleur defended herself easily. But this time she decided to attack back with her spells.

For the first time in the match, it was Harry's way that a flying spell chain was coming. But seeing the simple and low-powered spells, Harry scoffed and decided to not even use his wand to defend himself.

Though, as soon as he took a step to dodge the coming attack, Harry realised, with a start, that something was wrong.

If there was one thing Harry Potter prided himself on, it was his speed.

Also, his cock and bedroom skills that his girlfriend loved so much, but that isn’t relevant right now.

From the time he touched the broom and took to the sky, or even when he was a little kid playing football, he always knew he was very fast.

Whether he was on the ground or even in the air atop a Quidditch broom, he was always the fastest.

But for the first time in his life, as he barely dodged the flying spells, he felt slow.

In fact, no, it wasn’t that he was slow; instead, all his senses and his body felt sluggish.

He moved his arm in a circle to create a wind vortex, but to his surprise, it moved so slowly that Fleur easily countered his spell, blasted it apart, and then retaliated in a deadly way by firing a cutting curse in his direction.

Seeing the pink spell fly toward his face, Harry tried to move his body around, but again, he felt his body react late, and the curse left a mark on his cheek.

First blood was drawn, and it was Fleur Delacour who proudly did that.

The slight tinge from the cut finally snapped everything in Harry’s brain.

The vocal spell he had seen Fleur use earlier was not a spell to attack him directly; in fact, it was a wide-area charm that had changed the surroundings around him.

The charm made it possible that it distorted the areas surrounding him and made it feel like he was fighting underwater.

Which was why every movement of his was so slow and sluggish, and yet the most interesting part of it was that it was restricted to him only, as the spell from Fleur was flying at the same speed, completely unburdened by the charm.

It was simply genius charm work, and only accomplished and talented people can do it.

Fleur Delacour has just proven herself to be one of them.

Harry was really impressed, and if he wasn’t in the situation that he was in, he would have clapped. But seeing his doom flying towards him in the form of a fire whip produced by Fleur, he instead went to break this charm.

Now normally if you knew what the spell was and had studied it, you would know about the counter to this charm.

But since Harry didn’t, he decided to use the next best way, and that was by using pure brute strength.

After all, if you can’t open a door, then just break it.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, and then, reaching deep inside himself, he released the breath and pushed his arms out.

Suddenly a strong magical wave burst from him and completely crushed the wide area charm.

The powerful, sheer magic rolled around him in waves, and such was its power that even the fire whip from Fleur disappeared with a single touch.

The French captain was in complete disbelief at the power of her opposite captain.

To think that a boy three years younger than her hoarded such power in him was simply mind-blowing. She has seen and faced some of the best under-21 duellers, possibly in the whole world, and yet none of them could claim to be as powerful as Harry Potter.

She has even sparred with her father, who was one of France’s best, and she wasn’t sure if he could match the powerhouse this British boy was.

But Fleur Delacour didn’t let the show of power deter her because, as her father has told her many times, a fight isn’t always won by power.

In a duelling field, skills and talents will always triumph over pure strength.

And Fleur was determined to prove that as she narrowed her eyes and, with a swing of her wand, lifted all the debris around the whole ground and fired it like a meteor shower toward her opponent.

Harry, who finally opened his eyes, looked at the incoming projectiles and knew this fight was now at its highest level, so the gloves had to come off.

Stabbing his wand towards the ground and swinging it over his head, Harry erupted a dome from the ground bigger than him that covered him completely from the front.

The rock-solid dome faced the incoming attacks head-on and stood tall as the debris bounced off it.

But Harry didn’t stay still behind it as he sprinted away to make some distance, but Fleur was ready as she quickly reanimated her attack direction toward him.

Once again, when the attack was close to reaching him, Harry created another dome, and again he ran away with Fleur following him nonstop.

This cat-and-mouse game kept going for minutes, as Fleur and the students in the crowd grew confused at Harry’s strange, cowardly-looking behaviour.

However, it was evident to the experienced adults that the Beauxbatons captain was skilfully crafting her own trap.

Once Harry had done a complete lap around the whole fighting terrain, he stopped as he built one last dome.

Fleur, seeing her opportunity and full of frustration after the annoying chase, grunted loudly, and her heavy attack, which now resembled an angry eagle, barged into the dome.

The dome, while magically compelling, couldn’t withstand the sheer destructive power of the beautifully ferocious Veela’s rage and turned into a big sandy mushroom after breaking.

Fleur, breathing a little heavily, waited to see her enemy in cuts and bruises, but what she saw when the dust cleared was just a pile of rocks and no sign of Harry Potter.

Turning around, she looked all around her, and with a gasp, she realised her mistake.

In her sheer stupidity to chase her running opponent and crush him, she lost sight of her surroundings and didn’t realise Harry’s plan.

As she made a full circle, she noticed that 7-foot-long pillar-like domes covered the entire ground, and what worried her most was that she had no idea where her Black-haired rival might be hiding.

She was caught in a trap where she didn’t even know what attack and from where it would come.

And she was proven right as she heard a roar from her, and when she turned left with her wand raised, she saw a pride of transfigured lions prowling toward her.

Once the magical, transfigured, growling lions saw her notice them, they swiftly pounced on her. Fleur in that moment was glad that she had her wand raised on instinct as she hastily used an overpowered banishing spell.

But the spell, despite being packed with power, was only able to destroy half of the attacking lions, and she was forced to use multiple banishing spells to deal with the other halves of the pride.

Unfortunately for her, that was just the beginning, as the trap Harry had set for her continued to launch successive attacks.

On one side, a dome in front of her eyes turned into a pack of wolves, while on the other side, a nest of stone snakes slithered toward her.

It was bad, and things were looking to get only worse for Fleur. She was trapped between a rock and a hard situation, and she could feel how Harry looked to have the victory in his hand.

Which would mean a loss for her and her school. And Fleur Delacour won’t let that.

With a resolute stare, she flicked her wand at the incoming pack of wolves and screamed with her whole might.

“BOMBARDA MAXIMA”

The white blinding spell collided with the pack of wolves, triggering a massive explosion that mercilessly destroyed the transfigured wolves.

With one problem solved, Fleur didn’t waste any time. She twirled her wand around her, and this time she showed her transfiguration skills.

Just because she was almost master level at charms—something she was rightfully prideful of—didn’t mean that she wasn’t proficient at other magical areas.

Although she didn’t think she could say she was as good as her opponent after seeing his seemingly endless transfigured animals, she still was competent enough to fight.

Which she proved as she conjured a flock of ravens who then flew toward the slithering snakes and dove down to catch the whole nest in their beaks, one by one.

She then added her charm finesse to her spell as she swung her wand down, and all the ravens exploded, destroying her second problem with them as well.

Taking a breather, she admired her wand work, but her opponent didn’t even let her have that.

Feeling the hair on the back of her neck rising in alarm, she sensed the rise of magic and turned around to surprisingly see her rival finally out of his hiding spot.

Shifting into her stance, she got ready to defend as she saw Harry throw his wand and pull it back towards him.

For a couple of seconds, nothing happened, and Fleur was confused if he was playing with her. But then she heard a whooshing sound with a searing pain on her left shoulder, and she realised her mistake.

Only because of her reflexes honed by her father for years was she able to duck and roll around, swallowing a wince as her injured shoulder screamed in pain.

But that pain felt insignificant when she saw how close she was to getting crushed by the mountain of rocks that attacked her from the back.

She felt so stupid that she had forgotten she was in a trap made by Harry, where he could use any means all around her to attack her.

What she had thought was just a useless free and pull motion by Harry was actually to accio the debris from behind her. She had let her guard down, and now her bleeding shoulder was paying for that.

Cursing herself, she stood up quickly, wanting to be ready for Harry’s next move, but what happened next was something she could never be prepared for.

She had thought Harry Potter was surprisingly excellent at transfiguration, much more than even a seventh-year student should be. But now she didn’t know if anyone else apart from the accomplished master of this subject could be as good as him.

Waving his wand like a conductor directing an orchestra, he brought the whole rubble from the ground and transfigured the mass pile into a truly gigantic monster.

It had human legs and a torso with wolf arms that had claws like fingers that looked like they could cut through anything like butter. From the back of it, a pair of eagle's wings sprouted out, with the head of a lion on his shoulder.

It looked almost like the mythical creature chimaera that parents use in their made-up stories to scare their children. And looking at it now, anyone can understand why; the monster was truly nightmarish, and yet there was a certain majestic beauty to it.

Both of the fighters didn’t know it, but since the start of their fight, the crowd have been going wild at every move of theirs. But now there was a complete silence spreading right through the whole stadium, with every single eye wide open in shock.

Many of the spectators were off their seats in complete disbelief at what they were seeing with their own eyes. Only Albus Dumbledore was unsurprised by his student's prowess; after all, it was he who had taught Harry this magic, which was not just transfiguration but battle magic.

But even he was surprised to see Harry actually use this successfully since it had been only a few weeks ago that the headmaster of Hogwarts had taught him that spell.

The Hogwarts transfiguration professor, McGonagall, herself was in a stupor but overflowing with pride for her student, whom she considered as her grandson.

Since the first time she has seen him, she has noticed her former students in him so much.

But she had never seen Harry’s parents in him as she did now, with him standing tall and proud, showing the world who he was.

On the other side of her, one of her colleagues was hunching over his staff as both of his eyes—the original one and the magical one—were fixed on the Potter boy.

At that moment, Barty Crouch Jr finally realised why his master had wanted to kill the boy when he was nothing but a toddler. He has to go tell his master everything as soon as possible after this fight.

His master needed to know about this fight and take Harry Potter more seriously because he clearly wasn’t just a simple boy.

Down at the battlefield, the stone monster opened its eyes, and Fleur gasped when she saw pure emerald green light from it that looked like its master's eyes.

A shiver went through her body when the creature looked toward her with its glowing eyes. Every single nerve in her body screamed at her to move, and Fleur thankfully listened to it as she jumped as far as she could.

Strong wind blew past her, almost making her fall before she saw the state of the ground where she had just been standing a few seconds before.

A single swipe of the monster's hand left four six-foot-wide and deep slashes in the ground.

Just thinking about what would have happened to her if she hadn’t moved made Fleur’s legs take off in a full sprint as the magically created creature chased after her.

Another right-time jump saved her from getting stamped by the massive foot of the creature that left a huge crater behind.

As the lion-headed creature went to attack her again, Fleur decided to stop acting like she was defenceless and use her wand.

Her powerful and best golden-coloured shield covered her again, but she was left speechless when her shield shattered into pieces by a single punch from the monster.

The punch was so strong that the wind it created from its follow-through threw her off her feet, causing the Beauxbatons champion to slide 10 metres away.

Bruised and bloodied but thankfully without any immobile limb, Fleur pushed herself off and rolled away from another swing of monster claws.

With frustration building inside her, Fleur decided that if she couldn't defend herself, she would simply cut this monster down.

Taking a deep breath, she held her wand tightly at her waist and then drew it like a sword. A 10-foot-long wind-sharpened blade emerged from her wand and shot straight to the creature.

Sectione Vulnus was the most powerfully cutting curse she knew that could cut through a 10-foot-wide boulder with ease.

However, Fleur's hopes of victory were dashed when the wind blade cutter only left a scratch on the monster's torso, treating it as if it were a simple scratch.

It dawned on her that not only did this monster have mammoth strength but also looked to be magic resistant. Or at the very least, it was very difficult to deal damage to it, and Fleur didn’t know if she had any spell that could cut through the nightmare in front of her.

Hearing a flapping sound, she looked up and saw the magical creature literally flying using his rock wings. She didn't even question the capabilities of those wings, but now, terrified by the sight of the lion-headed creature preparing to attack her, she searched her mind for a solution.

But no matter what, she couldn’t find anything, and the monster didn’t even give her a chance as the eagle wings did a full swing touching each other, and it blew a truly humongous wind vortex.

Conjuring three 20-foot walls in front of her just in time, Fleur still saw in horror as the wall crumbled like paper against the sheer power of wind attack.

Despite her walls taking the brunt of the attack, Fleur still found herself flung atop the ground like a rag doll.

Only because of her quick thinking was she able to use a cushioning charm on the ground just before she landed on it, and yet the whole breath got knocked out of her body with her mind jumping between conscious and unconscious states.

When the wind finally died down, Fleur forced herself to her knees with all her remaining strength. Her body was in a sorry state; her right leg felt completely unresponsive, and her left shoulder—which was already in pain—was so bad that she couldn’t even feel it, and there were bruises and cuts all over her body.

Yet she pushed herself up on her feet, leaning heavily on her left foot, and looked up to see the chimera-looking magical behemoth walking toward her.

The pain, the fatigue, the depleted magical core, and the helplessness—all of this snapped something in Fleur Delacour.

And instead of doing the logical thing, which would be forfeiting seeing the assuring losing position she was in, the Beauxbaton captain fuelled in her rage and decided not to go out without swinging back.

A simmering heat started oozing from the French beauty whose features began turning avian with prey eyes, a bleak nose and even some feathers began sprouting out of her arms.

The top of her wand turned red, and looking up at the monster a few feet away from Fleur, she embraced her blood and launched her most lethal attack with an ear-busting screech.

A huge, bright red, almost black, colour fireball shot out of her wand and straight to Harry’s transfigured guardian.

Harry, who was watching from a safe distance, was mesmerised by his opponent's last standoff. He knew, obviously, that Fleur was a Veela, and after his summer experience and tour of the Bulgarian Veela enclave, he knew all about how intended they were magically to fire.

It has been known throughout history that you can’t beat a Veela with a fire attack. Fire was there, and the mastery they have over it was so impressive that full-blooded Veela could easily throw fireballs wandless without any effort.

However, it didn't mean that others who were not full-blooded Veela were weaker, especially if they were as skilled as Fleur Delacour was. Despite not being a full-blooded Veela, Fleur was so talented that she could embrace the trait her blood has gifted her to a truly astonishing level.

And with this attack, she proved that.

The fireball was so hot that Harry was sure if there was not a barrier around the battleground, the whole stadium would have suffered through the heat from the blistering attack.

It was only because of the shield around him that Harry had created that he was safe, or else he would have suffered the heat burns all over his body.

That attack was truly devastating, and if it had been anyone else but him, Fleur would have won despite being on her last step.

Unfortunately for her, she was facing him.

With her eyes barely open and her knees barely holding her weight, Fleur forced herself to look up at the destruction of her attack.

Once the mushroom of smoke finally dissipated, her heart sank when she found the creature still standing on its feet but without its right arm and wings.

She should have known that the monster wouldn’t be taken by that alone, but it was still disappointing for her final attack to fail to complete the job.

A tip of a wand pressed against her neck, and Fleur knew who it was.

Knowing she had lost and that too seemingly easily by someone who was three years younger than her made her do something she never wanted to and something she would regret after.

As it is always known, desperation makes people do stupid things.

And that was why Fleur released her control over her Veela power and blasted her full allure.

Now if it weren’t for the barrier, her allure would have affected at least half the stadium, and all the males would be drooling and making fools of themselves.

However, thankfully for them, they were safe, but the same couldn’t be said for Harry Potter, who faced the full brunt of the Veela allure.

With her body screaming in pain and exhaustion, Fleur turned around when she felt the wand freeze and looked back to her opponent, who would be in a very embarrassing position right now.

But what she found was not a starry-eyed, drooling Hogwarts champion like she expected; no, what she saw was Harry’s green glowing eyes, and she found no effect of her allure at all in them.

With her consciousness slipping, Fleur didn’t even get the chance to express her shock one last time before everything went black.

Harry caught the falling blonde and carefully laid her bruised and bleeding body down. Taking her wand away—which, surprisingly, was still in her hand—he lifted it up and showed the proof of his victory.

The stadium erupted into a booming cheer, and he only caught some of what Bagman was shouting in his joy.

“…. HARRY POTTER HAS DEFEATED THE BEAUXBATON CAPTAIN FLEUR DELACOUR AND WON THIS MATCH FOR HOGWARTS!!!”

Zoning him out, Harry took Fleur in a bridal carry and jogged carefully to the healer running toward them. He gently handed the beautiful girl in his arms to the healer, who gratefully took her away.

He then found himself turned around forcefully with a wand poking all over his body, and he heard the fretful voice of his favourite healer in his ear.

"I always knew that you were insane, just like your father and his friends." Merlin, here I thought you were only reckless on your broom, but no, somehow you’re even worse on the field with a wand in your hands. Who uses such powerful spells like that, huh? Do you have no concern of your own, Mr Potter? How many times will I have to tell you to be careful?”

Listening to her worry for him, Harry chuckled softly and shook his head fondly.

“I am sorry; I can’t help not doing reckless things like you say, as it always brings me to my favourite healer, and you know how much I love you, Poppy,” he replied cheekily.

Madam Pomfrey tried her best to hide her smile, but the slight twitch of her lips gave it away. Seeing him laughing at her, the matron huffed and poked her wand in his stomach after healing the cut on his cheeks, which was the only visible injury from the fight.

Clutching his stomach Harry fake-pouted in pain at the healer who just snorted, looking at his theatrics, and hit his shoulder.

“Stop acting; you can’t fool me.” Pomfrey said fondly. “Luckily, you don’t seem to be injured and only have a slightly depleted magical core, which will heal in just a few hours, so there is nothing to worry about.”

Looking over his shoulder, she smirked. “Now I think I have held you long enough, young man. It looks like your girlfriends are dieting to meet you.”

With that final remark, the Hogwarts healer patted his cheek and left him alone.

Harry turned around when she left, and his eyes widened when he saw four missiles leaping straight to him. Or, well, three missiles jumping while one was still walking mildly fast, which for someone like Daphne Greengrass may very well be known as running.

After all, a Slytherin never runs in an undignified manner, in her words.

His three leaping and one almost running girlfriend jumped at him, making him fall down with them on top of him.

With his breath knocked out and his whole body smothered with his girls, he felt almost closer to death due to lack of oxygen.

But feeling all four girls soft, fluffy curves, and especially with his face in Susan’s huge soft pillows, Harry didn’t think he could find a better way to die.

P.S.: Hope you loved the complete, action-filled chapter. Do tell me what you think about the fight and if there is anything you would like me to add to make it better. The upcoming chapter will be filled with suspense, as sweet Padma finally gets the chance to spend some intense time with our hero, and she might not be the only one.

The next update will be of a new chapter of A Different Yet the Same World.  And to not feel like a liar again, I have already written the chapter, and it will be out on Friday.