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Marianne continued flooding the area with water, gracefully dodging the various spells Harry kept sending her way. She contorted her body like a professional gymnast, and Harry briefly wondered if perhaps she was one.
"Glacius!" Marianne called, and soon the entire floor was covered in a thick sheet of ice.
Harry tried to take a step to the side, but realized very quickly that this new terrain would be incredibly difficult to move in. The floor was slippery, and Harry hadn't prepared for this… had this been an attempt at payback for Ivan freezing her last year?
With a wave of her wand, Marianne transfigured her dueling boots into ice skates, and began moving swiftly and gracefully around the arena. Harry was dumbfounded. Was this her plan? Eliminate his ability to move and keep herself so agile? The strategy was brilliant, Harry concluded.
"Flipendo!" Marianne called out, trying to knock Harry back with the spell. Harry brought up a shield to protect himself, and began to weigh his options.
He couldn't compete with Marianne on the ice, he had never ice-skated before, and even if he had he didn't know how to transfigure his shoes like Marianne did. Attempting to melt a path wouldn't work either, as the fire-making charm would leave him defenseless while he tried to use it. He needed to stop her movement superiority… but how?
Harry fired a few stunners in Marianne's direction, not expecting to hit her, but hopefully to keep her more focused on dodging than on making a counterattack. She had to have known he was more likely to run out of magical power than she was to run out of energy to skate. Performing this move at the end of a long tournament was really a stroke of genius. Physical wounds and tiredness could be offset by potions and spells, and that was what the tournament had done. Physically, both himself and Marianne were as fresh as they had been when they arrived this morning, but mentally and magically they were both starting to be worn thin.
Harry racked his brain, trying to think of some solution as he kept on the offensive, just trying to keep her suppressed from shooting spells at him. He was starting to flag though. Man what he'd kill for something soft to lay on and take a nap….
Wait… that was it.
Harry took aim a few paces ahead of where Marianne was skating and cast the softening charm on the ice in front of her. The now wobbly ice immediately caught her blades and sent her tumbling to the floor. Harry followed that up with a quick disarming charm and caught her wand from the air.
"And our champion has been crowned! Winner by disarming! Harry Potter of Hogwarts!" The announcer shouted, as the crowd roared.
Harry cast the flame making charm and began melting his way towards Marianne, who he helped up. "That was some strategy you had there. Really had me on the ropes." Harry said, smiling at her.
"Doesn't seem like it waz enough though. No matter. Congratulations Mr. Potter, on your first first place finish." Marianne said, as she kissed him on the cheek. Harry flushed red a bit. He was glad the girls weren't here, they might get jealous.
"Harry!" Andromeda said as she threw her arms around her son. "You did it! Oh, I'm so proud. I know James and Lily are too. Oh!" She squeezed him tight again, burying her face into his shoulder.
Harry flushed a bit, but hugged her back. "It's okay mom. It's just a tournament, not a big deal."
"Far from it my boy! You've done amazingly. You make me so proud as your instructor." Flitwick said, smiling at the young boy. "Now Andromeda, I believe you should let him go, he has to be awarded his trophy, and then we can go and celebrate. We should see if perhaps the Delacours would like to join us as well, Fleur also came first in her division, so we could do a big celebration for the pair of you."
"Sounds fun! I need to congratulate her." Harry said, as they moved to the podium where Harry received his trophy for winning.
The Delacours did join the group to celebrate Fleur and Harry's victories in the tournament, and Andromeda got some magical pictures of Harry and Fleur holding their trophies. Harry was very excited to tell all of his friends about his victory when he made it back to Hogwarts.
Whether or not a serial killer was after him or not, Harry was on top of the world.
The Sphinx Club had been riding high recently. With the back-to-back victories in the Buckbeak case, as well as Harry's victory in the dueling tournament, the Sphinx Club had elected to have one huge party, and they had decided that it would be after the end of their exams, as one final hurrah before they all left for the summer. Lavender and Parvati had taken to planning it as always, and had managed to acquire all the services of the Weasley twins, on the proviso that they got to join the fun as well. None of the Sphinx Club minded that very much, given that Ginny was a part of the Sphinx Club Lite that was the Griffon Club, and they were expected to attend.
With the party planning going on, alongside the continued dueling training that several members were doing, the Sphinx Club's schedule had been filled all the way through to the start of June. Leaving them ready for their finals, which was a foregone conclusion, they had studied far too hard to not pass them with flying colours.