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Thomas went on the offensive with a tripping jinx which Harry rolled over, before Harry retaliated with a knockback jinx that connected with Thomas's chest. Thomas slid back a few inches, but wasn't knocked over by the spell. Regaining his composure, Thomas let loose a small gout of flame from his wand, forcing Harry to quickly counter with an Aquamenti charm to prevent himself from getting burned. Thomas then fired off a series of bright and flashy Green sparks spells, temporarily blinding Harry. More sparks followed, this time red ones, and Harry could feel the sting on his arms from the sparks. Peeking out a bit, Thomas seemed to be simply firing a barrage of the brightly colored spells, but was failing to aim them well, his wand movements to broad and boisterous. Harry took the opportunity created by this and used a summoning spell on Thomas' shoes, pulling them from under him and knocking him off balance, and Harry used that unbalance and cast a quick disarming charm, separating Thomas from his wand. With Harry's wand at his neck and no counterplay available, Thomas surrendered the match to Harry.
Harry could hear Andromeda's loud cheers in the stands, which to her credit were significantly louder than anyone else's. Harry let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. His first tournament match had resulted in his victory.
Harry watched the rest of the matches in the first round with interest, scoping out his opponents abilities, as well as trying to understand their styles. The French competitor, a young girl who was likely in her first year, was unable to handle the sheer amount of spells that her competitor, a boy Harry's age from Ireland, was throwing out, and surrendered. The other Ireland contestant, a young boy with bright red hair, was defeated by the Spanish representative, a girl roughly Harry's age who appeared to favor using fire spells. The final match of the first round was between the German and Bulgarian contestants, both boys Harry's age. The Bulgarian, Ivan Krum, was taller than Harry, nearly rivaling Terry Boot's height, and considerably more muscular than any of the other competitors. The German, Ben Weber, was average height, and seemed confident.
Ivan started off the duel aggressively, firing three spells in quick succession that Harry was aware of but hadn't learned yet, Stupefy. Ben managed to dodge out of the way of one and block the other two with a shield spell, but Ivan didn't let up. He marched forward firing another stupefy, before letting out a gout of flame from his wand. Ben was forced to keep his shield up as Ivan approached, before Ivan jammed his wand past Ben's wand tip and let out another Stupefy, which Ben was too close to dodge. Ben was knocked out, and the referee simply pulled him off the stage before enervating him. Ivan was declared the winner.
Harry could only stand in amazement at Ivan's display, while Harry believed he was capable of firing that many spells in succession himself, the sheer aggressiveness that Ivan showed was something Harry wasn't sure he could match. Flitwick hadn't given him any advice for how to handle different types of opponents, only telling him to trust his instincts. Harry surely hoped they'd be enough to see him through.
Harry was once more in the first match of the round, and this time he was up against the Irish boy who had knocked out the French girl. "Pleasure to meet you there Harry. Hope we'll have a good match." His competitor said, reaching out to shake his hand. Harry shook it, the two smiling at each other. "Now, let's show these chumps from the continent what a real wizard looks like."
Harry and the Irish boy got into position, and once the signal was given, the two began firing spells in quick succession. Harry believed that the best way to counter this boy's overwhelming spell usage was to simply stay aggressive and try to put him on the back foot. The Irish boy fired Red Sparks after Red Sparks, but Harry's dodging abilities as well as returning disarming charms kept the amount of spells being fired relatively low compared to the boy's prior match with the French girl. Unfortunately, the Irish boy seemed to have worn himself out with his dodging and intense spell usage, and Harry capitalized on it, hitting him with a knockback jinx that sent him over the edge of the platform. Harry was the winner, and the first finalist.
Ivan's duel with the Spanish girl however was not as close, he completely overwhelmed her fire based offense by using some kind of mist spell that shot from his wand like a garden hose. It doused her flames before she could get them started, and soaked her duelist armor straight through. Ivan then froze her armor, locking up her movements, before simply removing the wand from her hand. Ivan was the second finalist.
Up on the platform, Harry looked across to his opponent, trying to piece together a strategy. Ivan was bigger, and seemed to be more experienced. His spell repertoire seemed to be greater than Harry's and he was very aggressive in his duels. Harry reached out his hand for a handshake. "Hope we have a good match. You've been pretty impressive so far."
"I know I heff. I simply hope you are more of a challenge than the previous two." Ivan said, ignoring Harry's handshake. The two made their way to their ends of the platform and bowed, before readying their wands.
Once the official started the match, Harry was immediately put on the defensive. Ivan was throwing stunning spell after stunning spell at him, and it was all Harry could do to simply dodge them. Harry did notice something different about Ivan's strategy this time, he wasn't approaching Harry. Harry began to dodge toward Ivan, weaving in between the stunners as they fired and let out a Green Sparks spell, overpowering it slightly to create a bright flash. On cue, Ivan closed his eyes, and Harry attempted to summon his shoe, hoping to knock him off balance to end this, Ivan simply stomped his foot and wheeled around.