A second-year like Joanna facing a fifth-year like Zach—unless she was some kind of prodigy, no one believed she could win.
And indeed, no miracle occurred. Zach secured the point.
However, the process was far from the quick and clean finish of a normal duel.
"Muddy Marsh!"
With the effect of the spell, the grass on the pitch turned into a patchwork of muddy pits.
"Lush Growth!"
The short grass—barely an inch tall—suddenly shot upward until it reached thigh height.
"Vera Verto!"
Joanna kicked off her shoes and used Transfiguration to turn them into two lively rabbits.
The rabbits immediately dashed into the tall grass.
"Rainbow Bubbles!"
More than a hundred basketball-sized bubbles floated about three feet in the air.
Their surfaces shimmered with rainbow colors, looking beautiful and almost dreamy.
Joanna cast four spells in quick succession.
Yet none of them were offensive.
The Quidditch pitch was roughly one and a half times the size of a football field.
Now, Joanna's side of the field looked like some strange and fantastical world.
"Incredible… you can actually fight like this?" Sean said in surprise.
The petite Joanna had disappeared into the tall grass in an instant.
With all those colorful bubbles floating in the air and obstructing the view, even spectators in the stands couldn't tell where she was.
"Yeah," Penelope explained from the side. "When the opponent is much stronger, the weaker side usually has no choice but to focus on defense and stall for time. Professor Flitwick mentioned this strategy in the meeting. Didn't you hear?"
Sean tried to recall Flitwick's strategy meetings.
Now that he thought about it, there had been one about the second event.
But at the time, Sean had been distracted, secretly calculating the magical framework for the Flying Charm.
"Oh right… I remember now," Sean said awkwardly.
Although Joanna's spells weren't advanced magic, they still consumed a lot of energy.
Given her magical reserves, Sean estimated she couldn't cast many more spells.
On the other hand, Zach held absolute advantage.
As the attacker, he felt no pressure facing Joanna's defensive tactics.
He strode toward Joanna's side of the field and stopped at the edge of the tall grass.
Raising his wand, he cast:
"Finite!"
A streak of white light shot forward.
But when it struck the grass, nothing happened.
"Not bad," Sean thought. "Zach even learned Finite… though he's using it in the wrong situation."
In the stands, Kurt watched the scene with clear disdain.
"What an idiot," he sneered. "I have no idea how he passed Charms class."
Finite was a spell normally taught in the second half of fifth year.
Zach must have learned it early from Professor Flitwick.
The spell consisted of seven magical frameworks and could cancel simple spells—those with fewer than seven frameworks.
It worked particularly well on sustained effects, such as petrification, confusion, burning, freezing, or even irritating hexes like tickling and sneezing charms.
Of course, its advanced combination form—"Finite Incantatem"—was far more powerful.
But Joanna's Lush Growth charm, although only composed of three magical frameworks, didn't fall within Finite's cancellation range.
"Gale Sweep!"
Zach cast another spell.
A strong wind surged forward, bending the grass and bursting more than half of the floating bubbles.
Wand raised, Zach cautiously stepped into the field.
Although the grass had been pushed down slightly, his visibility was still poor.
Suddenly, rustling sounds came from the grass.
Startled, Zach quickly cast a Petrification Charm toward the noise.
But he hit nothing.
"Classic diversion," Sean said. "Joanna's pretty clever."
The sound had been caused by the rabbits.
Soon the flattened grass began to grow upright again.
Zach looked around irritably and shouted:
"I've seen through your little tricks! Hiding won't help. If you don't come out, I'll set the whole place on fire!"
At that moment, rustling sounds came from three different directions.
Zach tensed.
This time, Joanna had to attack.
"Stupefy!"
A beam of light shot from the grass on the left.
Zach had no time to react.
The spell struck his left arm.
He staggered, nearly falling over.
But Joanna's Stunning Spell wasn't powerful enough.
And it had only struck his arm.
That wasn't enough to knock Zach unconscious.
His arm simply went numb, temporarily unusable.
Just like magical creatures, wizards possessed a certain level of magical resistance.
While nowhere near as strong, adult wizards could still endure weaker spells.
Joanna's attack had failed—and worse, it revealed her position.
Now it was Zach's turn to counterattack.
Three minutes had already passed.
At four and a half minutes, Zach finally cornered Joanna.
A Petrification Charm froze her in place.
Although Zach won the first round, his performance left Kurt dissatisfied.
"Embarrassing," Kurt said coldly. "Taking that long to beat a second-year. I don't know how Hufflepuff even chose their representative."
Back in the tent, the five teammates welcomed Zach back.
"Good job, Zach. A strong start," Charlie said first.
"Not bad," Sean joked. "Tough skin. Even a Stunning Spell didn't bring you down."
Zach grimaced.
"What do you mean 'not bad'? My arm's still numb! If she hadn't missed slightly, I would've embarrassed Hogwarts."
He shook his left arm.
Charlie quickly cast Finite to remove the lingering effect of the Stunning Spell.
"If even a second-year is this troublesome, I'm feeling a lot of pressure," Penelope said nervously.
"That only happens when the strength gap is huge," Charlie reassured her.
"Joanna had no choice. She knew she couldn't win in a direct fight, so she focused entirely on defense."
"Don't worry," Sean added. "They'll attack next time."
"They've already lost one round. If they keep hiding and stalling, the best they can achieve is a draw. That's terrible for them."
"Sean's right," Theo said. "You should prepare for a quick fight."
Ten minutes later, it was Penelope's turn.
Ilvermorny sent out Sam Winchester, also a third-year.
Seeing that her opponent was in the same year, Penelope felt a little less pressure.
This round turned into a textbook duel.
The two even exchanged polite dueling bows.
But because the arena was so large, some spells missed their targets, stretching the fight to nearly three minutes.
In the end, Sam used a Disarming Charm to knock Penelope's wand away.
The shy, reserved boy secured a point for Ilvermorny.
The score was now tied.
When Penelope returned to the tent, she looked both disappointed and guilty.
Percy comforted her briefly before stepping onto the field.
In the third round, Percy faced a fourth-year Ilvermorny student.
Like the previous duel, the battle was straightforward and direct.
This time, Percy had the slight edge.
He won the match, bringing the score to two to one.
With that, Hogwarts defeated Ilvermorny in the second event.
Tomorrow, Uagadou and Castelobruxo would compete in their second event match.
As for the third event—the team battle involving Sean and Charlie—
that wouldn't take place until the end of February next year.
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