I step into the lower coliseum to see Sis, and Auntie in the crowd. I wave at them as I turn to my opponent. He is someone I saw duel yesterday. He won both matches with only a few spells so I don't know how good he is but he must at least be competent.

I smile and approach my opponent before we go up "Hey, I'm Soren, I hope we have a good duel." I extend a hand to shake.

He raises his nose at me with a disgusted expression. "It will be a short duel."

My smile falls "I'll make sure of that."

I turn and walk away as I think to myself 'This man just earned himself an, up down left right a b start.' I sigh as I reach Flitwick and face the kid again 'At least he looks 15 or 16 and not 30 like the last one.'

I watch the current fight as two skilled duelists exchange spells, I still feel frustrated that everyone in my bracket seems so talented. Nothing I can do about it though. The fight quickly ends as he misjudges the opponent's spell and gets flung off the stage.

The new referee raises his left arm "The winner is Petro Boyko." The winner quickly walks off the stage with a smug smile.

The referee nods "Next duelists may come up."

Flitwick pats my back "Good luck, Mr. Black." He says with a jolly smile.

I return his smile as I nod and walk up the stairs to the stage eyeing my opponent as I do. He is pretty tall for his age around 170 centimeters, with middle eastern features, tan skin. The only stand-out thing about him is that he is skinny and VERY lanky.

We both get up to the stage and stand across from each other. I give him a dull look as I turn my gaze to the referee gesturing for him to get on with it.

The referee looks between the two of us "Are you both ready?" He asks with a judging look over the both of us.

We both nod our heads and he continues "All spells are allowed except the unforgivable ones, you know the drill. Wands Ready!" We both ready our wands glaring at each other.

"Turn and step 15 paces." We both do as we are told and step heel to toe 15 paces stopping on the 15th step.

Seeing us both stop the referee yells "BEGIN!" Both of us turn but I'm quicker.

Not wanting to show mercy I instantly start casting. "Confringo! Stupify! Baubillious!" I chain three spells together causing him to step back further and further nearly falling off the edge as he blocks the yellow lightning.

My max chain is four spells but I don't want to show that off until the last rounds of the tournament. Perhaps I could have won right there had I pushed it. But this guy was rude to me so I will make sure it is quick either way.

"Confringo! Confingo!" He casts twice as I charge forward chantlessly blocking both pointing my wand at the ground with a grin.

"Glacius Duo!' I feel my body strain as the powerful ray of ice leaves my wand. With the ray, I paint a path towards the arrogant string bean. His eyes widen as he casts a Protego so powerful you can see the sheen from the shield it produces.

Frost covered his shield creating a half-sphere in front of him. I grin seeing that my plan worked. Now that he could no longer see me with the ice in his way I again chain my spells.

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"Expulso, expulso, expulso." Three explosions ring out nearly simultaneously causing ice to be sent out like shrapnel in all directions. Once the smoke clears I see the string bean laying on the ground unconscious and a grin grows on my face.

The referee raises his arm "Soren Black wins the first round. Check your schedule for the next round."

I smirk as I walk off the stage to Flitwick who is happily clapping. "Excellently done young Soren."

I smile wider, this was actually pretty fun and semi-challenging "Thanks, it was a quick fight but he was actually pretty strong." I say as we begin to walk up the stairs into the stands where Sis and Auntie are.

Auntie grabs me first "Great job Soren. Where did you get so strong?"

Sis chimes in "Yeah, where did you get so good at magic?"

I give a small chuckle with a wry smile "Lots of practice."

Sis rolls her eyes "Uh-huh." My words are more true than she will ever know, so many sleepless nights have passed with me practicing till dawn.

"Anyway, let's go see if Cedric and Leon are done yet," I say changing the subject.

They nod and we all head over to the second stage since it's the closest. We see Cedric and his opponent are still fighting so we find an open seat and sit down. Classic Cedric is casually blocking and deflecting everything sent at him only retaliating when open.

His opponent looks slightly younger but is doing really well at chaining spells together. "Stupify, stupify."

Cedric reflects one into the air and then another right back to him. He is caught off guard and falls backward as he is barely able to block it.

"Immobulus." Cedric casts as he is still trying to get up catching him. "Expelliarmus." Cedirc hits the now defenseless opponent causing his wand to fly off the stage.

The referee raises his arm "The winner is Cedric Digory, he will advance to the next stage of the competition."

Mr. Hilton pats Cedric's back as we cheer for him, as I'm about to go down and congratulate him I hear a voice behind me "Looks like we are too late." I turn to see Leon coming out of the tunnel to my back right.

"So did you win?" I ask in a sarcastic tone.

Leon rolls his eyes "Of course, who do you think I am?" He says with a confident smile.

I turn back to the stage to see Cedric coming our way. We both wave at him "Looks like I'm the only one left to pass the stage."

Cedric laughs as Leon speaks up "You did win your round right?"

I take up a haughty tone as I puff out my chest "Who do you think I am?" I say putting on a fake German accent.

He laughs as Cedric looks confused. "I won pretty quickly, I used brute force at that."

"When's your next round?" Cedric asks as everyone begins to group around us.

"3:30." I turn to Auntie and the coaches "Do you guys wanna go to lunch?"

They look at each other and shrug.

****

After going out to lunch we came back for my final match. I stood at the bottom of the stage waiting for 3:30 with Professor Flitwick. 3:25 came around and my opponent still wasn't here. I looked at the referee but he looked like he could care less.

Waiting another five minutes he still didn't show up, I walked onto the stage while waiting. "So what happens if he doesn't show up?" I ask the referee.

He sighs "He has a five-minute grace period, if he still isn't here then you will win by default."

My eyes narrow, "How anticlimactic."

Sure enough, five minutes pass and he doesn't show up. "The winner of this match by elimination is Soren Black, you will move on to the next stage of the competition."

I walk off the stage with a dull look unhappy with the outcome. Leon and Cedric who are standing behind Flitwick look bored from waiting as well.

"Looks like I scared him off," I say with a cheeky grin.

They smirk at my joke "Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, it's a free win." Leon adds.

"So are you returning today or tomorrow?" I ask Leon.

"Today. My family will want to see me and celebrate my win together." He says a bit exhausted.

I look at Flitwick "Are we going back today?"

He shakes his head "We will be returning tomorrow morning." as he finished his words Auntie and Sis made their way to us.

"Good, because we have things to discuss," Auntie says with a slightly serious face.

I gulp 'What did I do? I killed someone… but that was two days ago I doubt she would just now get mad at me.'

Cedric nods as well seemingly knowing something I don't. "Fuck.' My thoughts go wild on the possibilities.

****

[Later that night in Soren's Room]

Auntie Dromeda, Sis Dora, and Cedric sit in a semicircle around Soren.

Auntie is the one to speak first, she points at my neck with a serious expression "What is that?"