As the fireworks charged towards him, Cedric barely noticed in time that the sparkling animals could change their direction slightly to follow him and singed his left hand slightly. Seeing the effectiveness of this weapon, Harry released the two in his hand and immediately pulled out two more. He'd only have another four remaining, but if they could end the duel quickly, all the better for him.
To his surprise, Cedric reacted completely differently seeing four of the beasts charging at him. He grinned and threw an extremely powerful wind charm, immediately extinguishing all four of the animals and throwing Harry off balance as well. He followed up immediately with a much more powerful stunner less than a second later. It struck Harry right in the chest, and he was knocked backwards. Thankfully, he didn't fall off the stage, but he did notice the shield charms on both layers of his robes had been cracked. Alright, I guess Sirius was right. One stunner that broke through two layers of shields, he realized. Reading Cedric again, he was surprised again to sense the number twenty-nine, but managed to catch an image of shattering rock. At that instant, Cedric followed up with a massive reductor spell. Without thinking, Harry grabbed the first thing his hand could reach and tossed it in the path of the spell. It was a packet of Instant Darkness Powder, which exploded mid-air, blocking the champions' views of each other. Cedric immediately stopped his attack.
Darn, thought Harry. I should have saved that for later. He's casting spells without an incantation? It was one of the experimental items that the twins had yet to perfect, and he only allotted one dose per duel. He had intended to use the powder when Cedric was pinned down at one of the narrow ends of the duelling oval, not have it explode right in the middle and cut off his legilimency. Still, it bought him some time and he wasn't going to let it go to waste. He pulled a bag from his waist belt and started tossing them in the general direction of Cedric. He clapped his hands, setting off the Clap Traps, which had various effects. Some were sticky, some released a mild stinging hex, while others released itching powder or stink powder. Harry was sure Cedric would be sufficiently distracted by the little devices until the darkness powder dissipated. To his surprise, Cedric came charging through the darkness powder. Harry was glad to see a few of the sticky Clap Traps were attached to him, impeding his movement, and he looked extremely uncomfortable, trying to resist scratching himself.
Harry didn't have much time to celebrate, though, as Cedric launched five stunners in a row so quickly it looked like a long stream of spells instead of five individual ones. Harry managed to dodge three of them and let his hat absorb the last two, destroying its shields. Harry knew he was now defenceless, and began throwing everything he had at Cedric. First, he pulled his last few Bursting Beasties while running through the cloud of darkness powder. Cedric reacted the same as last time, using a strong wind spell to blow away the beasties and at the same time removing the darkness, itching, and stink powders from the arena. Harry wasn't done. He started lobbing his immolation vials, dividing his side of the field and Cedric's with a wall of flame. He now had much more room to move than Cedric did. Oddly enough, Cedric didn't halt the flames with a simple flame-freezing charm as Harry expected, but just watched Harry's next move. Harry pulled out the extra-potent Whiz-bangs, which tossed out simple fireballs and sparks straight at Cedric.
Just as the fireball was about to hit Cedric, he burst into action again. This time he cast a very powerful jet of water that cut straight through the fireball and the flames burning on the ground, running towards Harry. In response, Harry tossed an Avalanche-in-a-Tube at Cedric, which contained some sand and engorgement solution. When they mixed mid-air, the sand grew to the size of pebbles and burst through the vial, showering Cedric with stone. He used this time to read Cedric again, and he was now thinking Six along with an image of the boulders flying away, and at that moment Cedric cast a powerful banisher that sent the rocks back towards Harry. Ducking and shielding himself with one arm, he lobbed another two of the bottles along with his remaining immolation vials and a Portable Swamp at Cedric, who banished the vials but missed the swamp. Stumbling waist-deep in muddy water, he met Harry's eyes for a second. Harry saw Four and an image of himself flying away. Harry immediately smashed a vial of sticking solution and adhered himself to the floor just as Cedric cast an extremely powerful banishing charm. He felt the banisher grow stronger, and then suddenly cut off. He was expecting Cedric to finish him with the next spell since he could no longer move, but nothing came. Harry looked at Cedric, who stared straight back at him. Cedric looked like he was about to admit defeat, but he shouted, "You have anything left, Harry?"
Harry searched his belts and pockets with his free hand. He was almost completely empty. There was only one thing he could hit Cedric with at this range, a Watermelon Seed-shot. It really wasn't a useful tool for a duel, little more than a distraction. Harry put it in his mouth and immediately began spitting watermelon seeds at high speed at Cedric, who was more annoyed than anything. "Is that all you've got?" he laughed.
"Why don't you come a little closer?" Harry shouted back at him. He had a few doses of Flaming Hot Pepper-mints. He popped one in his mouth and spewed a thick stream of fire towards Cedric. Unfortunately, it flames barely made it halfway. "Did that get you?"
"No," came the reply.
The referee immediately ended the duel, and to his chagrin, had to unbind Harry from his own sticking solution. He declared the duel a draw and the two of them received their wands again. Cedric walked off stage, still scratching himself from the itching powder as he repeatedly cast the scouring charm to rid himself of the Clap Traps. "So, you got some help from the Weasley Twins, eh?" he asked Harry.
"Yeah, I did. Why did you stop? I was almost out of things to throw at you," Harry asked in reply.
"I was completely out of spells to throw at you," Cedric shrugged in reply. "I should have had a back-up solution. I guess I'm stuck with what I have for now, though." It was only then that Harry noticed the jewels on Cedric's gauntlet weren't nearly as shiny as when the duel started. So that's why Cedric was counting down the entire duel. He wanted to find out more about that gauntlet, but before he could ask, the two of them were ushered into their separate tents.
Sitting in a tent all alone was extremely boring. The first few minutes were full of excitement, with the referee first asking Harry how to dispel the swamp. He didn't know, so he directed the man to the Weasley twins. Afterwards, the mediwitches chatted with him, congratulating him on his win, and so did the girl that brought him his lunch. After that, however, he was alone for an entire hour. He wanted Hermione to help analyze his performance and tell him what he was doing wrong. Or right. Or how to prepare for the next opponent. Then again, her advice last time only helped a little bit last time. Maybe he should just go with gut instinct this time. Still, it would have been nice for her to be there for moral support. He slowly reloaded all his belts and changed into another set of shielded robes.
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