Chapter 86: You are watching a master at work
No sooner had I started resting, Camille rushed to me and hugged me.
"Oh honey, you were amazing! How did you do all that?"
I wondered about it, 'Should I say I learned from the grandma?'
Damn! First situation where I can't conveniently fall back on the grandma. I mean
I can't really sound convincing saying that an old grandma taught me rapid dodging of spells, doing flips, etc. The only picture picture that forms in my mind is of a hunched old lady leaning against her walking stick suddenly straightens ups and starts doing martial arts with her cane.
"Well, I've been practicing since I was 6. So, it is something that I've become able to do after a lot of hardwork. Ask dad."
Durant nodded seriously. "This will be the lesson for today." This is a lesson from the dueling champion. Though Fleur is the one who's learning directly, the other two women won't mind listening a word or two. That's why they usually just sit and chat. Usually, Monsieur Delacour is also here, but he was away on business.
Professor Deculien- no, Professor Durant continued with his lecture
"Dueling is not only about spell casting. It takes three main aspects for someone to be a good duelist.
- Good skills at magic casting is a given. And it has so much potential for improvement that people forget the other two.
- Good body to move around to dodge instead of wasting your precious few seconds and magic power in casting defensive magic. The things you saved in your defense can then be diverted to bolster your offense.
- Third, good reflexes and reaction times. These need a lot of hardwork and talent to train. Reflexes are actions that we take involuntarily. And reaction time deals with voluntary movements that you have to consciously make. Chris seems have already developed his reaction time and reflexes to a level that has surpassed even the professional duelists."
Damn, so I did overdo it earlier, huh? Welps, it can't be helped. That wasn't even 10% of my skills if the triggers and magic were to be counted.
The thing is, you can't dodge from people like Dumbledore and Voldemort if they don't want you to. If anyone could see their fight, they'll know what I'm talking about. These two Giants can easily fight in AoE spells rather than single target spells. Magic power deficiency? What is that? We have enough to burn a whole cavern of full of inferi in semi conscious state and bring down the wards of Hogwarts that had been bolstered multiple times with the magic of many powerful wizards with a wand that doesn't even recognize the caster as it's owner.
Dodging without supertrigger is only going to be used as just an auxiliary skill in those fights. I've only trained it dodging because—the unforgivables are single target spells and can be dodged. Anyways, showing off dodging, I hid my magic casting skills. Having good dodging skills can be attributed to my hard work over the years. Having good magic skills at my age would mean I've learned them all in a year of magical education at Hogwarts. Which would look quite monstrous.
While I was pondering all this, Durant's lecture was still continuing. Now only Fleur was listening with her full attention while the other two women were chatting among themselves.
Looking at the two women, I was a bit speechless.
What a good way to spend a Sunday. Merrily chatting with your friend while having the dueling world champion giving you his life's worth of teachings personally. You can listen to him whenever you feel interested and just go back to enjoyment right after.
...By the way, I was still sitting by Camille's side. She would ruffle my hair from time to time, as if she still couldn't believe I'm actually here and would once again become happy when she's confirmed my presence.
It's understandable. She suddenly got her son back after so many years. It's only been a few hours.
Even though she usually appears cheerful, after seeing her actions and reactions, I've found that she's actually quite an emotional person. But she's always cheerful to make up for Durant's over seriousness.
Ten years ago, Durant wasn't the only one who lost his parents and son. She, whose most of the family was already lost in the war against Grindelwald, also lost her son.
At that time they were left with this much land and money which would look worthless to them compared to what they had lost. While Durant had gone into emo Sasuke mode, Camille somehow managed to prevent him from just going and murdering some of the known death-eaters who had gotten amnesty after claiming being under imperius. And the corrupt British ministry happily let them free as 'honorary' members of the British wizarding world.
It is alright I guess, since I didn't want to come here, only to be told that my dad was locked up for murder.
But these two did try to find me, but the only thing they found out was that all prisoners and hostages were killed by the death Eaters to erase the evidence.
Now that I think about it, Durant just injuring or permanently disabling some of those death Eaters in duels is actually quite tame, in comparison to what I would have done if it were in his shoes. Correction: His reaction isn't the thing that's tame. HE has been tamed. By my mother. Like a dangerous beast put on a leash.
Really, people should stop underestimating women. Most of the disputes that have happened in the history are due to women. Most Kings didn't listen to their advisors, their ministers, and their main wife. instead—they'd always listen to that one concubine who has the king wrapped around her finger!
Anyways. I'm glad Dora isn't like that.
Soon, the classes of Professor Durant were over. So, Fleur and I went over to where Nyxie, Esmée and Gabrielle were playing.
A house elf was there, watching over them so that they don't hurt themselves while playing.
As we walked towards the distant place where the girls where playing, there was an uncomfortable silence between us.
Fleur has been ignoring me ever since the duel. She only looks at me whenever I'm not looking.
She's a prideful girl, and rightfully so. So It must have been hard to for her to accept her loss from a boy younger than her.
She's actually quite amazing at dueling, considering that she just finished her fourth year education at Beauxbatons. Which fourth year can have the same accuracy, fire rate and battle sense of aiming at difficult to dodge and areas at right timing as her? Plus, She's learning under a world champion.
There's no justification in judging her abilities based on her Tri-wizard Tournament 'scores'. Putting a dragon to sleep single handedly takes a lot more skill, magic, and talent than simple animated Transfiguration, or attacking dragons at their their weak points (eyes) with a dark spell. The scores were unfair and biased due to her veela heritage.
The second task was held in a terrain completely unsuitable for her and she was emotionally very unstable at that time due to her little sister being kidnapped.
The third task, she had been sneak attacked. Crouch wanted Harry to reach theTri-wizard cupso, to get the other champions out of the way, the guy used Moody's magical eye to locate Fleur in the maze and stun her.(it's true. not made up.)
So, she's quite talented actually. But the thing with being talented is, you can easily be hated if you show cocky behavior by those inferior to you. It happened to Fleur in Beauxbatons, and it's happening to me right now.
Anyway, I'm simply not the kind to let things be awkward. That's why I took the trouble of inheritance test once again to remove the awkwardness between Durant and me.
Thus, I decided to try and remove it here as well.
I know that giving out simple compliments or consolation would only make her feel much worse. It would look forced.
So, I decided to try a different approach.
Watch and learn. You're watching a master at work.
Looking at the girls playing in the distance, I said,
"Isn't Esmée cuter than Gabrielle?"
"!?!?"
The look she gave me...
Ooh la la, looks like someone's feathers are ruffled.
"Excuse me? Gabby is the most adorable thing in the world!"
Bingo! I hit the nail right on the head. I knew it!
"Is she? I only just met both of them, so I wouldn't know." I said regretfully.
Then I looked at her a bit hesitantly, "Can you tell me more about my sister? Isn't she best friends with your sister? So she should come over often at your home."
She can't say no to this, can she? That'd just be cruel and petty.
Fleur sighed a bit irritatedly, "Sigh... You shouldn't say compare their cuteness if you don't know them in the first place. Anyway, I guess I can tell you about your sister."
Fleur pondered about and said, "Well, your sister is a quiet girl. Gabby and her grew up together and they are also home-tutored together. So I guess she does come to our home often. Let's see, she's deligent with her studies... but they just play around most of the time. And, she likes macarons, though Gabby likes Crème brûlée more. Um... Is that enough?"
"That actually helps a lot. Merci infiniment, c'est très gentil de ta part, mademoiselle." I thanked her exaggeratedly in good humor.
(Thankyou very much, miss. It's very nice of you.)
Fleur also smiled a bit. "de rien, Monsieur."
(You're welcome, mister.)
"Anyway, I'm glad that at least my sister had a good childhood." I said, thinking of buying macrons for Esmée one of these days.
***
A.N.: I'll need POWER STONES for more. Cheer me up!
Upto """6""" chapters ahead on
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Posting more there as soon as I write them!!