The Intelligent Potter

*** A month later, Black Manor

Harry had enjoyed his time with his godfather and trainer quite a bit. Arcturus had taken to roping his grandson as well as his great grand-nephew into training and had taken great pride in Harry, who could almost duel the ex-auror to a standstill.

Harry enjoyed his duels with Sirius to compare his skills with that of a wartime auror, sadly he found himself somewhat lacking as Sirius seemed to be thinking far faster though Harry had more options to put down the auror due to his alchemy, runes and elemental magic.

Sirius struck hard and fast with the spells that he did know, going into spell-chains manufactured on the spot to both counter and return Harry's spells. While Sirius did not know elemental magic, he could counter water and fire easily enough by using creative techniques like conjuring blocks of marble or performing reversing spells or deflections, that were usually enough to destroy Harry's budding elemental magic, which Harry had hoping would be a trump card against his godfather.

Unfortunately for Sirius, alchemy could not be affected by normal magic, which meant that when Harry alchemically turned the ground underneath him into quicksand, Sirius had to levitate himself out and waste precious seconds in which Harry sent another barrage of spells as him, hoping to clip him with one, which Sirius was thankfully able to block and return.

All in all, Harry's advanced magic gave him the edge, but the sheer experience and familiarity that the strong auror had eventually won out against Harry, having more endurance than the teen boy to keep going strong even after Harry had begun to falter and take advantage of Harry's flaws that emerged when he didn't quite have the magic or energy to keep going with the duel.

Arcturus felt it was good training for Harry, because he himself defeated Harry long before Harry started to get tired and thus never really tested his endurance like Sirius did, and Arcturus thought that holding back was counter-productive while learning so never tried to not fight at his best so that Harry could feel some modic.u.m of success when there was none, though he would admit that the young Potter had come a long way from where he used to be and lasting almost half an hour against an experienced auror was quite a feat of achievement for a 13-year-old… the duelling competition would have another thing coming to it.

Harry had competed in the amateur season of the Quidditch British cup, and found many other good seekers, losing almost as often as winning and persevering with every match, in the way that got him through his training with Arcturus and Dumbledore.

The Catapults had gotten to the semis then lost out despite Harry catching the snitch, to Puddlemore, who went on to win the season.

Additionally, Harry had seen ads for the under-15 world-wide duelling competition and had conned his godfather into entering him, who had agreed only after duelling Harry for the first time.

Needless to say, Harry was one of the best duellers there, he got through the selection phase without breaking a sweat, becoming the one to represent England quite easily, only having a bit of difficulty to beat his own team member.

He was excited to play the USA and some of the Asian countries, which were said to have fierce training programs for their duellers as well, unlike most European countries, save maybe Bulgaria.

In the first round, Harry went flawless while almost all of his teammates lost out a few times, being knocked out of play for the second round, leaving only Harry and a soon-to-be sixth-year at Hogwarts who had only a few weeks before his birthday, Cedric Diggory who was a decent dueller as well, probably the best from the British Team if not for Harry.

In the second round, Harry had a few interesting matches, where he was forced to show his elemental magic to take the win.

Harry was playing a member of the Brazilian team, the only one to make it to the second round.

The girl was lithe and dangerous, ready to strike at any moment, she moved quickly and her spell-chains were simple but effective, a good strategy for the under-15s Harry thought, but not good enough to take him out.

Harry blocked her chain with a flick of his wrist before returning fire, increasing the intensity of the duel slowly as his opponent seemed to strain more and more, her movements becoming choppy and her defences becoming weaker but just as Harry was about to finish the duel with a simple stunner, the Brazilian struck hard, she sent a huge spell-chain at Harry before jumping closer, and sending conjured knives flying at Harry in a manoeuvre that would have taken out almost anybody else but Harry was quick enough to counter, with a quick instinctual flick of his hand, an ice-shield sprung up in front of him, taking the daggers and the spells.

Harry heard gasps at the elemental magic and cursed himself for showing his hand so early.

Harry melted the ice and sent the water hurtling at his unprepared opponent, knocking her out of the arena and winning the game in a split-second.

After that, his next match consisted of an opponent that simply threw up a block of marble every time Harry moved, for fear of an elemental attack.

Harry rolled his eyes, like he would even need that.

Harry depulso-d the marble back at the boy, slamming it into him like a truck and winning the game without breaking a sweat.

Harry's next few opponents were pretty easy too and he went through the second round with no faults and the other British competitor, Diggory made it through the second round with only a single loss, letting him continue to the next round.

Harry and Cedric struck up something of a friendship, being stuck in the same hotel suite along with the failed candidates, all of whom Harry and Cedric found to be annoying showoffs with no skill.

They were both duellists and Quidditch players, and Harry personally thought that he would be a good triwizard champion, Harry expected that he would actually be a competitor for the spot.

*** End of Chapter