"Are you ready?" Su asked excitedly for the 5th time. It was the day that they would be going to the ministry for their Auror training program, and Su still kept trying to get him to move faster with getting ready so they could leave, ignoring the fact that it wasn't even time to go anyway.
Still she seemed to look at him with expectant eyes, and he finally declared after stuffing the granola bars into his bag that he was ready.
"Let's go," she told him, grabbing his hand and leading him off to where Amelia was.
"Come on Madame Bones," Su told her after she found her.
Grinning at the girl's obvious impatience, she said what he had already said, "its still not time to go Su, they won't be ready for us if we show up early."
Su huffed at having to wait, causing both him and Amelia to laugh.
"All right how about while we wait I give you a few things," Amelia told them, reaching behind her back and pulling out a couple of books, handing one of each to both of them."
"These are just some of my old auror training manuals," Amelia told them, "I figured you might find a use for them."
As Harry looked through his, he found that it was rather informative on how to handle various situations that an auror might find themselves in.
After looking through it a bit, he swapped with Su to find out if hers was any different, and he found that hers detailed some of the spells that an auror could legally use.
"I figured you could share," Amelia explained.
"You weren't going to leave without saying goodbye were you?" Susan asked each of them, coming into the room with Pansy. They would not be coming with them, but they also wanted to make sure they said goodbye even though they would be back at the end of each day that the program went on.
"Of course he wasn't," Pansy said, quickly giving both him and Su hugs.
"Now is it time to go?" Su asked Amelia again.
Amelia glanced at her watch before nodding.
"Then let's go," Su said, still behaving like a child going to an amusement park.
With both of them then grabbing onto Amelia, and one final goodbye to Susan and Pansy, they apparated out and then into the ministry atrium.
Following Amelia, they made their way back to the auror department they had already seen, and approached the front desk.
"Madame Bones," the secretary said respectfully.
"I'm here to see Scrimgeour," Amelia informed her.
"Of course, he told me to expect you and to let you right into his office, he'll be in shortly," the secretary said, allowing the 3 of them to enter Scrimgeour's office.
While they waited Harry looked around the office, noticing that it was the sort of office that seemed to perform solely function, no pictures on the walls, everything neat and organized, there was absolutely nothing that didn't seem to fulfill an actual purpose.
"Scrimgeour can be a bit dull, but he's dedicated and keeps everyone in line," Madame Bones explained to them.
"Madame Bones," a tall dark haired man said to her, then entering the room, "on time as usual."
"Hello Scrimgeour, I'm here to drop off the students that are part of the auror-in-training program, this is Harry Potter, and his fiancee Su."
Scrimgeour shook both of their hands, first Su, and then him, and as he did so looked into his eyes, "well I certainly wasn't expecting to see you here so soon Mr. Potter, although I guessed you'd become an auror one day, just seemed like you were always meant to."
"Come now Scrimgeour, Harry is still young and I'm sure hasn't entirely decided yet what he's going to do as far as his career," Amelia chided.
"Of course," Scrimgeour agreed, "although I would be less than honest in saying that I'd like to try my best to recruit him."
"Harry is still only a 11 not even quite 12 year old boy, and I would highly recommend you at least let him grow up a bit first and seen his potential in becoming an auror before you start handing out job offers," Amelia told him.
Scrimgeour was quick to apologize but none of them were fooled when Scrimgeour's motives were already so plainly seen. As far as Harry felt himself, while it was nice to already have someone with a potential job offer for him already, he'd prefer to be judged for his actual prowess, not simply because he was the boy who lived.
"If you want to leave them with me Madame Bones, I'll take care of them, and you can pick them up at the end of the day," Scrimgeour told her.
"Are you going to be alright?" Madame Bones asked the two of them.
"We'll be fine," Su answered, and Harry nodded as well.
"Very well, I'll pick you up when I get done with work," she told them before leaving.
"Now then," Scrimgeour said, reaching onto the top of his desk and handing each of them a small booklet, "this is what you will be covering over the course of the training, usually we have older applicants so it may be a bit advanced for you. We might have to adjust it."
"Give us the best you've got," Su declared, "I'm sure we can handle anything you throw at us."
Scrimgeour actually beamed at this remark and said, "all right, why don't each of you take a look at your booklets on the way down to the obstacle course room. You'll be trained by different aurors each day, but I've taken time out of my schedule to handle today for you."
They nodded and he led them down to the room that Amelia had already shown them.
"The obstacle course room is designed to change based off of the level of difficulty we want it to be, I've elected to keep it at the most basic level," Scrimgeour told them, "you will be required to go through each obstacle and hit the training dummies along the way before moving on. You may begin when ready."
Su looked over at Harry and he knew exactly what she was thinking, she had given him this look many a time while duel training and exercising. She wanted to race him.
He nodded, giving her the signal for them to start at the same time.
Each of them went off like a shot, jumping over the first obstacle, a wooden log before moving on through a barrel, and then on and on, having to hit various training dummies, that because of being at such a low level simply sat there and were at point blank range. Personally Harry thought this obstacle course rather easy, but he supposed they had to start somewhere and there was no real way for Scrimgeour to know where they were at.
Still neck and neck they rushed through it finally finishing out of breath, with Su putting on one last big burst of speed to edge him out.
"Fantastic job!" Scrimgeour declared as they came to a halt in front of him, "I wouldn't have expected you to do so well being only just barely done with first year."
"We've already had a lot of training," Harry explained to him.
"Madame Bones mentioned that but I couldn't be sure until I saw for myself," Scrimgeour said.
Scrimgeour appeared to now be looking at both of them now, seeming to already thinking of recruiting them when Su asked, "what's next?"
Scrimgeour was about to reply when someone from the opposite end of the room called them by name.
"Harry! Su!" the voice called, and as they spun to look at them they noticed that it was Tonks.
"Hey Tonks," Harry greeted her, noticing the new auror badge on her chest, "I see you got the job."
"Yep I sure did," she answered, "someone mentioned that you two were down here right now training and I just had to see you for a bit."
Then as she looked over at Scrimgeour who seemed to be looking at her as if she was wasting valuable time spent elsewhere she amended that for him.
"Also because Robards wanted to talk to you about the new body armor that just arrived," Tonks told him.
"Excellent, about time they got here," Scrimgeour said, "very well why don't you watch these kids until I return."
Tonks nodded as Scrimgeour left while they got into a conversation of just what the training would be like as Tonks had already gone through it multiple times when she was younger.
"I'm actually hoping they'll have me train alongside you sometimes," Tonks confessed.
"We hope so too," Su answered.
When Scrimgeour finally came back, however, Tonks was forced to take her leave and they went back to training.
DUELDUELDUEL
Over the course of the next several weeks, Harry and Su were continually trained and on occasion with Tonks, going through the obstacle course as well as learned various spells and how to act as an auror, learning the spells that aurors often used, but were still at a level of ability that they could do. Scrimgeour and most of the aurors were certainly impressed with whatever they managed to accomplish, even going so far as to claim them as prodigies. Harry wasn't sure if he would go that far, but he was beginning to realize that he really did have a knack for this sort of work.
The only exception to the constant praise they both received was from Auror Moody, who instead of constant praise was all about constant vigilance, the guy seemed totally paranoid but he was assured by Madame Bones and the rest of the aurors that he was the best.
Indeed he seemed to push them both harder than even they themselves realized they could go, something that they had learned to enjoy, pushing themselves even harder.
Moody usually wouldn't praise them, but they knew that he had gained respect for them, as they found out from Scrimgeour that Moody had requested to take the time to train them even more.
At the very last day of the training, Moody decided to surprise them and really test them.
"I've decided to have you do the obstacle course at its highest setting," Moody declared, "Scrimgeour might think it would be too difficult or dangerous for you, but I believe different, you've got to be prepared and you've got to really be tested or you'll never reach your potential."
Lining up with Su, he got ready at the starting line and they both started out.
The first obstacle was a hoop of fire that they had to jump through and he did so, followed quickly by Su, both of them recognizing that this was no time for games or trying to win a race, this obstacle course was dangerous and needed their full concentration.
Next they were forced to enter a snake pit, which he doubted were actually venomous but could still cause some harm.
Firing incendio spells near the snakes to keep them away from them, they continued forward past them before moving on to a rock wall that they had to climb, only to discover there was no rope and the walls too slippery for them to scale.
"Let me levitate you over," Harry told Su and she nodded as he pointed his wand at her, allowing her to be lifted on top of the wall before she did the same from her vantage point, careful not to lose her balance in the process.
Moving on, they continued through the obstacle course and made their way through the various obstacles, finally finishing after having to take down half a dozen training dummies that were firing spells at them.
"Good work," Moody said as he stopped his stopwatch, the first time he had ever actually praised them, "but you'll have to do better than that if you want to be an auror, we don't just let anyone in you know."
Privately he figured that was true but not in the way Moody was thinking, Scrimgeour wouldn't just let anyone in, he would however let him in.
At that moment, Amelia showed up to collect them.
"Are you ready to go?" she asked.
"Yes," Harry answered her.
As she glanced around she noticed the still up obstacle course.
"Moody tell me you didn't use the maximum setting obstacle course on them?" she demanded of him
"They needed to be prepared," Moody said simply.
"They can be prepared without being put in such danger," she answered, not amused, "I'd imagine you weren't planning on telling me."
"If it makes you feel any better they passed it without so much as a scratch on them," he told her.
"It really wasn't that bad," Su told her, "it was actually kind of fun."
"I think I have a good idea of just what your idea of fun is by now and that's what I'm afraid of," Amelia replied.
Still upset that Moody had done that, she took them home.
As soon as they arrived, Susan and Pansy were there to welcome them back, giving them both big hugs.
"Take it easy," Harry said as he felt like he was in danger of being crushed by Susan.
"We just missed you that's all," she informed him.
"We were only gone for the day," he answered.
"Yes but we've been bored all day, in fact most of the time you haven't been here, it'll be nice to finally have you back," she responded.
"Well I hate to burst your bubble but we'll be leaving to go to the duel tournament next week," he said.
"All of us will be going to that however, and Susan and Pansy can stay with you for most of that," Amelia replied.
"That'll be fun if only to watch," Pansy said.
"It'll be fun to participate too," Su said, stabbing her wand as if it was a sword and no doubt imagining dueling there.
"I'm hoping that it'll also be a learning opportunity for each of you to get to know wizards from other countries and their various cultures," reminded Amelia.
"Where is it being held again?" Pansy asked.
"Panama," she informed her.
"Right, I always seem to forget the name, kind of strange as a a name," Pansy admitted.
"That's because its foreign," Susan said, as if this was all the explanation needed.
"Well at any rate it will certainly be a grand adventure," Amelia told them, "I've taken the liberty of purchasing language lozenges for each of you in Spanish so you'll at least understand the language of the host country."
"Language lozenge?" Harry queried.
"Its a kind of candy that causes you to automatically learn a different language," Amelia explained, "its what has allowed some wizards to learn literally hundreds of languages. The only downside to them is that they are difficult to get as the ministry highly regulates their use, probably another attempt to keep us more isolated and ignorant of other countries in my opinion but I've simply been too busy with other things to work on getting it opened up more to the public. At the very least I managed to get them."
After setting down their things, they each took one.
"I don't feel any different," Pansy said, "I don't think I still know a single Spanish word."
"That's because it only works when someone speaks Spanish to you, and then your brain will translate it into English for you. For example como esta?"
Harry's mind heard the Spanish words but then also heard it as English.
"Weird," he said, but what really came out was what he guessed was the Spanish equivalent for it.
"You see," Amelia said, switching back to English, as long as you hear Spanish you'll be able to reply back in that language.
"You wouldn't happen to have any other languages would you?" Pansy asked.
"I did manage to get some french and Mandarin Chinese if you'd like them," admitted Amelia, "I figured they might come in handy as well. I couldn't take too many as even for me its still highly regulated."
"That would probably be beneficial," Harry answered.
"We can practice using Mandarin," Su said, "I know that language already from my time living in China."
After taking the two additional lozenges each, they spent the rest of the night speaking in Mandarin to each other. It was weird but also fun at the same time.
DUELDUELDUEL
They had to take a Muggle airplane to get to Panama, as it was too far for them to apparate. It was the first time that Harry, Susan, or Pansy had flown in an airplane, and both Susan and Pansy were rather skeptical that the plane could actually be trusted to fly without any magic.
Still the plane lifted off and flew without any problems, except a slight amount of turbulence which freaked out Pansy, but he reminded her that flying a broom you experienced much worse from strong gusts of wind.
Upon arriving, Amelia managed to get a local wizard to take them the rest of the way to the tournament by riding a flying horse cart, that had been turned invisible so Muggles wouldn't notice as they traveled over various cities and villages, most of which looked rather poor quality in comparison to what they were used to. However they also traveled over lush jungle that looked beautiful from up above. When they finally got to their destination they went to a hotel room that Amelia had reserved for their use, and as they looked around the room, they noticed that it was a really nice room in definite comparison to what they had seen before flying over Panama.
"Won't the muggles notice a major tournament going on?" Susan asked.
"No, this is actually an all wizard area," Amelia explained, "the Panamanian wizards cut a deal with the Muggle government, and they agreed to allow wizards their own area to live in that would be safe from Muggle influence. The whole area is sectioned off and cloaked with various spells to prevent Muggles from ever being able to get in here."
This probably also explained why the city here looked far nicer and cleaner than what they had seen before as magic tended to make a lot of things easier.
"I believe I made sure that Flitwick got the room right next to ours," Amelia informed them, "you're welcome to check."
"Let's go see," Su said, grabbing Harry's arm and once again displaying her impatient side.
They went to the door next door and knocked on it.
It was immediately opened by a grinning Flitwick.
"Hello children, I was wondering when you would arrive," he said.
"We just got here Professor," Harry said.
Flitwick nodded, "well at least now I can finally take you to check out the competition."
After going back to tell Amelia just where they were going and asking if Pansy and Susan would like to come, both of which declined, opting to take a nap after the long trip there.
They left just the two of them then, heading through the hotel to see all the various obviously foreign wizards from various countries.
"This is the world dueling championship," Flitwick explained, "so wizards from every conceivable country will be represented, and includes some of the ones that are purely magical."
"There are magical countries?" Harry asked.
"Yes, several in fact although they aren't actually generally known about by Muggles, they prefer it that way. The country of Atlantis for example has been cloaked in various spells to prevent muggles from ever actually finding it. Its caused some problems actually sometimes messing with various muggle instruments and the like, but they've been getting better at avoiding that."
"So who are going to be our stiffest competition do you think?" Su asked, "I'm guessing the Chinese for one, they were really well known there. Lao Feng the current reigning world champion in our age group is from there."
"China is definitely the biggest threat, they tend to sweep a great deal of the tournament, they'll be hard to beat," Flitwick admitted, "the United States typically tend to do pretty well as well."
"How has Britain typically fared?" Harry asked.
"We actually haven't had too many people compete in recent years," Flitwick said sadly, "not since the dueling class was canceled, we haven't gotten past the first round in over a decade in any age bracket and that's assuming we even had someone try for it. Normally I would have a competition at Hogwarts to see who would be allowed to go as each country is only allowed one boy and one girl, or one man and one woman to compete in each age bracket, but of course under the circumstances with no one else applying you both automatically qualified."
"How do you know we'll do okay then?" Harry asked, now worried, who knew what kind of competition they could be facing?
"I can honestly say that you are the best duelists I have ever had the pleasure to teach," Flitwick said, "I expect you both to go far."
Glad at the confidence that Flitwick placed with them, they left the hotel and were about to walk down the street when they saw several people just coming in.
That was when Harry saw perhaps the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
She was a few years older than him with silvery blonde waist length hair and a very curvy figure that would have gotten any boy's attention. She was in a word, gorgeous.
However much he couldn't help but be entranced by the girl, he also noticed her two companions, a younger girl who looked even younger than him with the same silvery-blonde waist length hair and a older man who looked to be both of the girls' father. He seemed to recognize Flitwick however.
"Flitwick!" the man said, bending over and embracing their Charms Professor.
Flitwick evidently knew him too because he returned the hug.
"Harry and Su this is Jean Delacour one of the best students I ever trained in dueling before he decided to move back to France," introduced Flitwick to them.
Both of them nodded at him.
"I wasn't expecting to see you here Jean," Flitwick said as they pulled apart, "I heard that you already retired years ago."
"I'm here for my daughters," Jean said pointing to the two girls, "that's one reason why I chose to retire so I could train them."
Flitwick's eyebrows rose, "I never would have guessed you would end up being a dueling instructor yourself, but good for you!"
"They won me over after I saw the potential they had, I first started with my oldest Fleur and just this last year my youngest Gabrielle was finally old enough to compete," explained Jean, "but what about you? Couldn't stay away from the dueling scene?"
"I finally found some new talent," Flitwick praised, "I think they'd even give you a run for your money back when you were younger."
"Are these them then?" Jean asked.
"Yes, this is Su Li, and Harry Potter," Flitwick announced.
All 3 Delacours eyebrows rose, surprised at hearing his name, evidently it was known even outside of Britain.
"I'm pleased to meet you," Jean said, shaking their hands, "these are my daughters Fleur and Gabrielle."
Harry could only nod at both the girls, but Su said in English to the younger one, "I'm pleased to meet you."
When the girl seemed confused, Su realized she probably only spoke French or not enough English to understand her and so said it again in French, and this time the girl responded back with the French equivalent.
"You speak French?" the older girl asked in French.
"We both do," Harry said, surprising even himself in responding to her. He was fully aware that his act of staring had certainly caught the attention of both the girls, and Su who would no doubt tease him about it later, but it seemed that he was regaining his voice.
The girl seemed equally surprised for some reason, but she didn't say why.
"So you two are from Britain?" Gabrielle then asked, also in French.
"Yes," Su answered, "your father mentioned that you would be competing but aren't you a little young?"
Su wasn't all that tactful but Gabrielle didn't seem to take offense and said, "I'm actually 11 almost 12 but I'm a veela so we tend to look much younger until we hit puberty."
"What's a veela?" Harry asked, "I was raised outside of the wizarding world."
"Its a type of magical being," Fleur explained, "we're only a quarter veela but we got the genes for it. We tend to be very beautiful women and have an allure that causes men to be insatiably attracted to us. I'm a little surprised you held yourself together so well around me, but I just assumed you weren't old enough to like girls yet."
"Believe me he definitely likes girls," Su answered for him.
"Well in any case its nice to have an actual conversation for once," Fleur replied, "its gotten rather annoying to be honest."
"So what do you think about the competition? Su asked, instantly sparking a conversation as they debated who would win, and what would be the best duels to watch.
Harry found it kind of nice to have other people to talk with besides Su about it who also seemed to know what they were talking about. Fleur and Gabrielle even were nice enough to give them some advice, to which they reciprocated.
"When is your first duel?" Fleur asked eventually.
"Ours isn't for another couple of days," Harry answered.
"Gabrielle's is tomorrow," Fleur informed them, "you want to go practice with us right now?"
"Wouldn't that be giving away trade secrets or something?" Su asked.
"We don't mind if you don't," Gabrielle said, "besides Fleur isn't even in our age bracket, and I know that Britain and France have totally opposite brackets as well so we shouldn't face each other until the finals if we even manage to go that far. Of course by then you'll have had a chance to see how I duel anyway fighting my competition."
That did seem to make sense, Harry thought.
"All right, where is it?" he asked, choosing to leave the still animatedly talking Flitwick and Jean Delacour, hoping that they wouldn't mind terribly if they left to go somewhere.
They led him over to a building that he supposed must have been erected from the tournament because it looked brand new and as he entered it, its walls were lined with rooms with dueling platforms.
After finally finding one that was empty, they went inside.
"You want to duel me Harry?" Fleur asked.
"Then after wards I'll duel you," Gabrielle announced to Su.
With all of them agreeing, Harry got ready opposite of Fleur and began the duel.
She launched a stunner at him immediately and he was forced to leap out of the way, but in so doing launched a spell of his own, something that Flitwick had taught him, when being attacked, if possible always counterattack to keep them also on the defensive.
She continued firing spells and he quickly realized what her strategy and her strength lay in: charms.
Almost every spell she used was a different kind of charm, some designed to hit him, and others to keep him distracted.
There was no question she was the better duelist, although he liked to think it was because of her greater experience. If anything however, he realized he was holding his own at least.
He very nearly caught her with a disarming spell but she managed to avoid it just in time, even though her wand nearly came out of her hand anyway.
She seemed determined however not to let him win, and when he finally got hit with a disarming spell he wasn't too upset.
"You did really well, much better than I would have ever thought," she told him.
"The same to you, I knew you would win," he told her.
"I merely got lucky," she said, blowing off the praise, "my father is a good teacher but he would always say that Flitwick taught him everything he knows. It appears Flitwick did just as good a job teaching you."
"I put a lot of practice in," he told her.
"I want to see if Su is just as good," Gabrielle announced.
"Better," Harry said.
"In physical combat definitely, but magical Harry I'd say is better by now," Su said.
"We'll see," Gabrielle said.
"Gabby is better than I ever was at her age, I wouldn't be surprised if she wins the whole tournament," Fleur then praised her sister before looking over at the two of them, "although she might have some competition."
"Stop it," Gabrielle said, blushing, "I don't think I'm that good."
As she and Su began dueling however he had to concede that Fleur just might have a point. Gabrielle still looked like she was 8 and looked incredibly small and young to be a duelist, but she really knew her stuff, and just how powerful her spells could be was amazing to believe they could come from such a small person.
Yet he had learned long ago from dueling Su that size simply did not matter, if anything it only made you a smaller, less easy to hit target.
As they continued to duel, circling each other even as they did he realized that even Su seemed to be challenged by the young French girl.
"Seuderomi," Gabrielle yelled out as a burst of magic leaped from her wand.
Harry was perplexed as the spell seemed very poorly aimed fired over 5 feet to the right of Su, and then dissipated on its own. He couldn't see why someone with Gabrielle's obvious skill would have had such poor aim.
Su seemed confused as well but chose not to question it as she launched a spell of her own which Gabrielle dodged.
That's when Gabrielle fired a spell at Su's left shoulder, which caused Su to move to the right, before firing yet another also forcing her to move to the right again, and that's when her spell's delayed reaction struck, causing Su to immediately drop onto the ground unconscious.
"What did you do to her?" Harry asked Gabrielle.
"Delayed reaction spell, it hovers invisibly in the air for a bit. If you can get someone to move into it before it goes away it'll knock them out," Gabrielle explained.
Harry nodded, as Fleur was nice enough to bring Su back to consciousness.
Dazedly she grinned and said, "Harry I think we've got some competition."