"Damn it!"
Parvati stood on the arena, filled with regret. She looked at the golden bracelet on her wrist. The red gem was a shade duller, a clear sign that the charm had been passively used to block the Petrificus Totalus.
Everyone in Gryffindor had focused on Ravenclaw's unique flying ability, completely forgetting about their clone magic and how it could be used for defense.
Parvati looked up at her sister, her mind racing, trying to figure out how to beat her.
In contrast to Parvati's tension, Padma, hovering in the air, seemed much more relaxed. She simply waved her wand and used the same Avis charm that Parvati had used on her earlier, summoning a flock of small birds.
"Immobulus!" Parvati cast the Freezing Charm before the birds could swarm her, dropping them all to the ground. She then cast a powerful Lumos Solem to buy herself some space and time, hoping to obscure Padma's vision.
But Padma just shielded her eyes with her hand. Peeking through her fingers, she cast a spell toward the brightest light source: "Petrificus Totalus!" This spell hit Parvati directly, causing her golden bracelet's defense to be depleted once again.
Parvati fell to the ground, confused. She couldn't understand how her sister could have found her while her vision was obstructed.
In reality, during the months of preparation, the Ravenclaws had been holding secret duels every day. Restrictive spells like Lumos Solem had been used so frequently that the young eagles had developed many countermeasures.
Casting a spell toward the brightest light source was one of the simplest. As for the others... how many of the young eagles in the stands had a pair of sunglasses in their mouths?
On the arena, Parvati fell to the ground, and Padma decided not to waste time trying to break through her sister's magical defenses. She created a clone and used Wingardium Leviosa to make it fly. The double then swooped down, wrapped its arms around Parvati, and safely carried her off the arena.
Ravenclaw successfully defended their arena, and Gryffindor failed to win.
The young eagles below high-fived and cheered while the lions looked dejected. The gap in skill was simply too big! Losing was one thing, but losing so helplessly was something they had not expected.
Parvati and Padma were both second-years, so the gap between their skills shouldn't have been that big. But the result was that Parvati had been suppressed from start to finish.
The plan they had spent months coming up with to counter Ravenclaw's flight seemed to be completely useless.
In truth, this result was completely normal. Parvati and Padma were both students who started at Hogwarts in 1991. Everyone knew how incompetent the Defense Against the Dark Arts professors had been for the past two years.
Without Victor, it would have been hard to say who would have won their duel. But with Victor's presence, the entire Ravenclaw House's dueling skills had been elevated to an incredibly high level.
As a result, Ravenclaw had suddenly become an overwhelmingly powerful "dark horse" in the tournament.
The scene shifted to the Hufflepuff arena, where everyone finally saw a member of the Fairy Tail Guild step up to compete.
Defender: Hannah Abbott.
Attacker: Sonia de Oliveira (Fairy Tail).
On the arena, Hannah watched Sonia, poised and ready. While both were in Hufflepuff, they weren't close. They would only nod at each other in the halls, never even saying hello.
During their preparation for the tournament, the Hufflepuffs had specifically gathered information on Sonia. To their surprise, they found that everyone's impression of the girl from their own House was a blank slate. Even her roommates didn't know much about her.
Sonia was very low-key at Hogwarts. She rarely interacted with others outside of class. The place she frequented the most was the library, and her demeanor was very similar to the young eagles of Ravenclaw.
So, for everyone, Sonia was an unknown factor. They could only try to guess her strength based on the limited information they had.
Sonia was a first-year, one year younger than Hannah.
First years at Hogwarts were usually just focused on the basics, with their studies limited to textbook theory. Their Defense Against the Dark Arts classes only covered the characteristics, weaknesses, and corresponding spells for various dark creatures, while Charms class only taught about 20 basic spells and their theories.
By all accounts, Sonia's skills should have been far inferior to Hannah's. But a consensus had formed throughout Hogwarts: when facing someone from the Fairy Tail Guild, you should never treat them like a normal young wizard. Their Guild Master was an incredibly powerful wizard, and no one knew the extent of his members' skills.
So, with a cautious attitude, Hannah raised her wand and said solemnly, "Sonia, let's begin."
"Let's," Sonia nodded, her face expressionless, and drew her own wand from her ice-blue robes. The two completed the traditional dueling etiquette, and the duel began.
"Stupefy!" Hannah was the first to strike.
But at the same time, Sonia had already cast her own spell. Her wand glowed with a pale blue light as a rolling white mist spread over half the arena. Hannah's spell disappeared into the fog, flying through to the other side without hitting anything. Sonia had also vanished.
The audience gasped in amazement and began to whisper.
"What is that magic? I've never seen it before!"
"What a beautiful mist, it's all shimmery! But it feels a bit cold!"
"We can't see what's happening in there at all!"
"Yeah, why is it so quiet?"
On the arena, Hannah nervously watched her surroundings.
The mist Sonia had created was actually a cold fog, reducing visibility to a minimum. One could only see the outline of one's own hands. To make things worse, the cold mist was constantly draining Hannah's body temperature, and she was already beginning to shiver.
Not willing to just stand there, Hannah raised her wand and cast a spell.
"Incendio!"
Countless fireballs shot out in different directions, carving paths through the cold fog. She was trying to hit Sonia with a wild guess. But after half a minute, Hannah found that it was still completely silent, and there was no sign of Sonia.
Then, a faint sound of footsteps came from behind her. Hannah whipped around and instinctively cast a spell. "Stupefy!"
The spell disappeared into the mist again, but Hannah instantly knew something was wrong. Sonia could have just cast a spell to take her down. There was no need to make a sound to get her attention.
As Hannah thought about diving to avoid a potential attack from behind, a slender, pale hand rested on her shoulder. A cool voice came from behind her. "Hannah, surrender."
Hannah's entire body tensed up. Her wand, held under her arm, pointed behind her. "Stupefy!" The spell missed again, and the hand on her shoulder slowly retreated into the mist.
Hannah spun around, looking for Sonia, but there was no trace of her. Frustrated, she decided to use her trump card.
She put on a thick pair of earmuffs, then took a Mandrake seedling out of her pocket. She pulled it out with all her might, and a piercing cry filled the entire stadium.
"What is that?!" The audience near the Hufflepuff arena cried out, covering their ears in agony.
"It's a Mandrake's cry," a young Hufflepuff said, covering his ears. "Professor Sprout gave every one of us who's competing a pot of it, along with other strange magical plants." With that, he fainted, his eyes rolling back in his head.
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