What Harry forgot was Sirius and Remus along with his parents fought the Death Eaters on numerous occasions. For all that they were only a few years out of Hogwarts, the Marauders and Lily were potent fighters against the Voldemort's forces. In addition, Sirius received the training required of the scion of the Black Family. That gave the dog animagus a large variety of decidedly grey spells to choose from in a fight. Remus, as the scholar of the Marauders, was also well-read with a deep if not as dangerous spell selection. However, he also had the strength and endurance of a werewolf to counter Harry's own natural advantages.
Harry found that the sessions were enjoyable and he was learning a lot. By the time the First Task came around, Harry was disappointed to be ending the duelling sessions with the Marauders.
....
The Quidditch stands were used for the First Task due to the large number of people that wanted to attend. The duelling platforms were set up on the pitch and the stands were expanded to handle the greater numbers. It wasn't nearly as large as the Quidditch stands for the World Cup, but it was still rather impressive. Professor Flitwick also placed a dome over the arena that blocked the wind and kept the area comfortable enough that no one would freeze in the cold December Scottish day.
To Harry's combined relief and irritation, the two commentators from the Wizarding Wireless mostly ignored Harry's presence during the matches. They only asked him questions between matches and then it was mostly about how the students felt about the Tournament.
For his part, Harry was just glad not to be in the Tournament. The Durmstang students were ruthless in their fighting style. It was very similar to the Black style Sirius used but rougher, not as refined. The Beauxbaton students went for polished and graceful displays of power. If Durmstrang was a battle axe, Beauxbatons was a rapier.
The three Hogwarts students didn't really have a 'style' to speak of. Cedric and Roger were rather flexible with a good range of spells but did not seem to have any underlying strategy in their approach. Their tactics were reactionary and only dealt with the immediate threats of their opponent. Harry wondered if it was because of the revolving door of Defence professor Hogwarts had experienced. Harry suspected the Hogwarts champions had received some training over the past few weeks from Professor Moody much as Harry had from the Marauders.
As to Malfoy, Harry almost felt sorry for the brat.
Almost
....
It was the fifth match of the Task when Draco Malfoy first appeared in the stadium.
"Ah, I see our next participant, Draco Malfoy, now approaching the platform," commented William Blowhard, one of the commentators.
"Yes, it is," confirmed his co-commentator Shelia Gale. "He looks very smart and confident in those fitted duelling robes. I understand the young Mr Malfoy is considered the top Defence student in the lower half of the current Hogwarts students. He'll need that to hold his own considering the skill levels already seen in the previous matches."
Harry was laughing inside at the comment about Malfoy's Defence scores so he missed the question at first. The pair of commentators had for the most part ignored Harry's presence since the duels started (and he was just as happy with that), so he was a bit surprised when they turned to him and asked his opinion.
"Excuse me?" Harry responded in surprise.
"Come now, Mr Potter," Shelia smiled condescendingly. "You are in the same year as Mr Malfoy. Surely you have some insight into his prowess with a wand."
With a sincere smile he learnt from Sirius, Harry answered, "Well, I will say I've seen Draco Malfoy do things with a wand I've never seen another student duplicate. He obviously takes after his father's magical talent."
"Well said, Mr Potter," William stated with an approving nod. The pair then moved on to other comments once again ignoring Harry.
Cedric and Roger were the first champions to duel. They put on a nice display of power and talent. Cedric pulled out the win and the two English commentators were prolific with their positive comments for both champions.
Then it was Durmstrang's turn. Sarah Dimitriova fought August Penev in a quick brutal display. Their spells were powerful, silent, and nasty. Harry recognized many of the spells from the books Sirius provided from the Black family library as being barely legal in most parts of the world. Penev was eventually flung from the duelling platform with a smashed knee. The commentators were now rather negative on the poor sportsmanship of the Durmstrang duelists' spells. No one asked Harry but he rather doubted Roger or Cedric would have been able to defend against many of the spells.
The Beauxbatons duel was a rapier to the Durmstrang hammer. It was graceful, almost a dance, with a skill neither of the other two schools had evinced so far. Fleur won by forcing Michele Desmarais to surrender her wand. Now the commentators slyly suggested either Michele was a coward or taking a dive for the part-human Fleur.
Then Krum came out to defeat Sarah Dimitriova with only two spells. If her spells were powerful in the first fight, Krum must have thrown a good chunk of his magical core into his spells. Even the commentators were stunned as they expected the Seeker to go for grace and skill over power. Harry thought it was like watching the Death Star taking out Alderaan.
Now, it was Draco and Roger's turn on the platform.
.....
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