Chapter 24: Duelling Debut
When Demetri came back, he thought Hadrian and Angelica would be angry or ashamed at him. To his shock, he was greeted with smiles.
"Demetri, you were so cool! I can't believe you fought a ginormous snake, it must have been THIS high!", Angelica jumped as high as she could in an attempt to replicate the giant snakes' height.
"Yeah, that was pretty cool, huh...", Demetri replied, sheepishly scratching the back of his head.
Demetri then looked at Hadrian, who looked as though he was waiting for something.
"Hadrian, I'm s-"
The referee's call for the contestants interrupted Demetri. Hadrian followed the figure that was walking towards the platform with his eyes. It was a tall, blonde Beaxbatons student who Hadrian guessed was Aleksander.
"Tell me later. After I win.", Hadrian said as he walked past Demetri with a smile.
Hadrian saw that Aleksander was already on the platform, ready to fight and eager for Hadrian to arrive.
Hadrian slowly made his way up the steps, aware that the boy was getting annoyed, judging by his face.
"Alright! Now that we have both contestants ready, bow, and await my signal!", the Yakuza referee shouted, like he had done so this whole tournament.
Hadrian and Aleksander bowed to each other.
They both got into their stances and awaited the flare.
When the flare shot out, the pair instantly began peppering each other with spells.
Hadrian blocked and flicked away the spells easily, sending his own spells back at Aleksander who also easily flicked them away.
Aleksander proved very capable of defending and attacking. He pivoted on his foot and threw a knockback jinxes at Hadrian, targeting his limbs and chest in an attempt to either disorient him or knock him out.
Hadrian dodged the quick flipendos but managed to get caught on the shoulder, swinging him to the side. Hadrian took care to prevent himself from falling and quickly began chain casting.
Hadrian flicked his wand at Aleksander and shouted, "Lumos Solem!".
A white beam of light shot out of Hadrian's wand and fell on Aleksander's eyes, blinding him.
"Tarantallegra!", Hadrian continued, jerking Aleksander's legs so hard that he fell.
Aleksander fell on the floor and rolled instinctively, knowing that if he had gotten Hadrian on the floor, he would have been sending spells at him to end the match quickly.
He was right as Hadrian sent a chain of spells, which unfortunately for him, Aleksander maneuvered and flicked away from himself.
'Let's see if he can handle my Martial Arts Duelling combination, that I've been practicing', Hadrian thought as he narrowly dodged a cutting charm.
Hadrian began getting closer and closer to Aleksander, dodging and weaving acrobatically.
As Hadrian got closer, the spells became faster.
A flurry of knockback jinxes flew towards Hadrian's head, who stylishly dodged them by sliding on his knees.
Hadrian flicked the spell away and threw a disarming charm. Aleksander blocked and sidestepped the next spell before drawing a line of fire separating him and Hadrian with an 'Incendio'.
Hadrian ran through the fire, his armor protected him from burning, whilst doing nothing to appease the large heat.
Now that he was closer Hadrian threw another knockback jinx at Aleksander, who blocked it - and then realized it was a divisionary tactic as Hadrian began to cast the next spell.
Aleksander panicked and quickly swished his wand and said, "Everte Statum!"
Hadrian sidestepped the blue flash of light. As the spell passed, Hadrian shouted, "Extienis!". The passing spell was caught on the tip of Hadrian's wand, and with a turn of Hadrian's foot, using the momentum of the spell, Hadrian slung it back at Aleksander's stomach.
A resounding, "Ugh!", croaked from Aleksander.
Hadrian then deftly followed up with the full body bind curse, freezing a winded Aleksander.
The arena was quiet as Hadrian strolled toward Aleksander and pressed his wand lightly under his chin.
A bombardment of whistles, claps and praise showered the arena as the audience hollered and cheered like a congress of baboons.
"The winner is HADRIAN BLACK!!", the referee yelled, reinforcing the baboon army that had apparently taken over the audience.
Hadrian cast finite over Aleksander's body after the declaration. He then stuck out his hand, prompting his fallen opponent to take it.
Aleksander looked at Hadrian and then at his hand, debating on whether he should grasp it.
His inner battle was made irrelevant when Hadrian grabbed his hand forcefully and pulled him up.
"Good match, you duel very well. I didn't want to use that spell in the first round.", Hadrian said, smiling at Aleksander. 'I guess I got too excited...', he thought.
Aleksander nodded and replied, "You too."
Hadrian and Aleksander walked back towards the duellist's waiting area - as they were about to leave the last step, Aleksander pulled Hadrian to a stop.
"Hadrian...what school are you representing in this tournament? I don't recall seeing the Insignia you are wearing on the list of Wizarding Schools that participated in the past.", Aleksander asked.
"I'm from Aunriton Academy of the Arcane. It's probably because the only schools that come to this tournament are the ones that allow children from the ages of 11+.", Hadrian replied.
Aleksander's eyebrows raised, "Wait, you mean... you are younger than me? Same with the boy and the girl that were wearing the same clothes as you?".
"...Yes and no.", at Aleksander's puzzled expression, Hadrian continued, "Yes I am younger than you, but those two are older than me."
"You mean to tell me you are 9?", at Hadrian's nod, Aleksander sighed, "That just makes me feel worse - knocked out of the first stage by a 9-year-old."
Hadrian smirked, "It's alright, they don't know that.", Hadrian said, gesturing towards the audience.
"No, but they'll probably find out when you win.", Aleksander replied.
"Oh, such confidence in me - are you in love in Aleksander? Have I become your idol after handing you a beating?", Hadrian replied jokingly.
Aleksander laughed as he stepped off of the platform's stairs, "If it weren't you, it would have been me."
"Such arrogance for someone knocked out of the first stage by a 9-year-old.", Hadrian said, quoting Aleksander's previous words.
"When you're done at your nursery school, come to Beaxbatons.", Aleksander said over his shoulder as he walked away.
Hadrian shook his head and returned to see the awed faces of his fellow duellists.
"What was that spell?!", Angelica blurted out, which was met with nods from Demetri and the other two Aunriton duellists, Isaiah and Natalie.
"...Did Professor Andy teach you it?", Demetri asked, crestfallen that Professor Andy would teach Hadrian a spell and not him.
"No.", Hadrian replied as he sat back down.
The projection rune displayed once more and the yakuza referee's shout for the contestants to come up stopped any more interrogation from Hadrian's peers.
"Isaiah Dubois, Fleur Delacour!", he called.
Isaiah stood up and made his way to the platform after everyone had wished him luck. He was to duel a beautiful, silver-blonde haired girl from Beaxbatons.
She was exceptionally beautiful, her whole presence seemed so entrancing, so...alluring.
Hadrian watched Isaiah as he brandished his wand and settled into his stance. His face was the picturesque representation of determination, complete with a flushing visage.
As soon as the match started, the two began volleying spells back and forth. Fleur seemed like quite the adept duellist, Hadrian was not confident in Isaiah's duelling abilities. Natalie always seemed the better duellist out of the two.
"Locomotor Wibbly!", Isaiah shouted, sending the Jelly-Legs Curse at Fleur who dodged it swiftly.
"Ebublio!", Fleur responded, encasing Isaiah in a bubble.
Fleur waited for Isaiah to push free from it and when he did, began to throw her spells at him.
"Rictusempra! Flipendo! Expelliarmus!", she shouted, her first two spells were blocked. As Isaiah got ready to counter cast, his wand hand was hit with the disarming charm. His wand rolled on the floor, a few meters away from him.
Fleur took this as her chance to send a flurry of spells towards Isaiah. Just as he was about to regain his wand, Fleur hit Isaiah with a full-body bind followed by a knockback jinx. The result was Isaiah freezing up and getting flung off of the platform.
Hadrian scowled, 'There was no need to throw a knockback jinx.'
Shortly after, Fleur was announced the winner. She snootily walked off of the platform, as if she was expecting to win the whole tournament because she won the first round.
Angelica consoled Isaiah as he berated himself for losing so quickly, whilst his partner, Natalie, got ready for her pending duel.
She was up against a boy from Castelobruxo, the wizarding school in Brazil.
He had large curly hair and a skinny body.
They both bowed and began to cast after the familiar flare that was frequently fired, flew.
The boy from Castelobruxo, who's name was Altair Pires, let out a barrage of spells - giving Natalie no time to respond.
Every time Natalie attempted to return a spell of her own, another spell was being shot at her.
Natalie blocked as many as she could before she quickly began dodging and returning her own spells.
"Expelliarmus! Flipendo! Incendio! Lumos Solem!", She shouted after every dodge she performed.
It seemed that whilst Altair was good at rapid casting; his defensive abilities left quite a lot to be admired.
He was hit with the last two spells after he evaded the previous spells in Natalie's chain.
His hand was hit with the fire making charm whilst his eyes absorbed the blinding light of the lumos solem.
"Flipendo!", Natalie bellowed as the blue light flew towards Altair, knocking him on his derriere.
Mid-fall, Altair threw a disarming charm towards Natalie, who responded by a well-timed block.
"Petrifcus Totalus! Petrifucus Totalus!", she shouted, as Altair squirmed away from the spells.
"Tarantallegra! Ebublio!", Altair responded as he regained his bearings.
Natalie slipped away from both of the spells trajectory, flicking her wand as she said, "Petrificus Totalus!".
Altair stiffened up and fell, face planting the hard floor. Natalie briskly relieved Altair of his wand.
"Natalie Lyford is the winner!", The crowd cheered loudly, "We only have one more match left for today!".
The yakuza referee flicked his wand and the projection rune displayed itself once more, "The last match is with Viktor Krum and Antoine Flamel!
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
MIKK
MIKK The Philosopher's/Sorcerer's stone doesn't prevent them from having children, however their bodies do still age - albeit very,very,very slowly. Also, I think some people need to read more WBWL stories, Hadrian = Harry Arthur = OC , because people keep asking.
Also, I haven't chosen where Hadrian will be going yet, I'm kind of playing around with the different characters he'll build connections with IF he does go to one of their schools.
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https://discord.gg/xAwFaGr
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Ty for reading :)
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