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Breakfast With Hank
Author: Rolf Haaken
Date: 01-30-07 07:45
Rolf takes the last bite of his scrambled eggs then splits open the biscuit on his plate and layers his bacon and some cheese to make a sort of sandwich. From his right Hank asks, "That all you going to eat?"
"Yeah, I'm fairly stuffed," Rolf says to his half-brother.
Hank's own plate is piled high with a variety of food. He needlessly says, "I'm having thirds."
Rolf shrugs then says, "Just be sure not to eat so much that you can't function well for dueling."
"Good point," Hank says more agreeably than he usually sounds. "You going to watch all day?"
"Probably. I'll definately be there to support you," Rolf answers, knowing that's the think Hank most cares to know even though Hank wasn't visible in the dining hall last night when Rolf was competing in the Cauldron Clash.
As if reading his mind Hank says, "I watched last night, you know. I was in that back corner over there chatting up a couple of girls but I did see your potions session. Congrats on the winning sweep."
Rolf had indeed swept the event much to his surprise. He'd placed first in all three waves of the 17-18 age group of the Cauldron Clash and took the overall first place as well. For Wave One the second and third place finishers had been Durmstrang Institute's Mila Reznik and La Escuela de Hechiceria's Sancha Gonzales. The second and third places for Wave Two went to the two Watling's Wizarding Academy students, Cassandra Webb and Dee McCullough.
Wave Three's second place went to Beauxbatons Academy of Magic student Aurélie Morin and third place to Sydney's School of Sorcery's Jack Thorpe. Overall second was awarded to each of the three second place wave winners, Mila Reznik, Cassandra Webb, and Aurélie Morin with all three third place wave winners, Sancha Gonzales, Dee McCullough, and Jack Thorpe, getting third overall.
Rolf gets up, half his bacon cheese biscuit in hand. "I'm going to walk around for a little bit. See you when Dueling begins."
Hank grunts around a mouthful of food, more interested in the food and in winking at a girl at another table, then in Rolf exiting the dining hall.
Dueling
Author: Kissy Isuki
Date: 01-30-07 09:42
Immediately after the last of the breakfasters have finished eating, the Durmstrang dining hall is transformed into the Dueling venue for the next event of the SAT. Two stages have been erected with a screen blocking the view of each stage from the other. Each stage is also set up so that anything being said on one stage will not distract the duelers on the other. The audience seating is arranged so that spectators may watch the action on both stages.
When everything is ready for the first group to compete, the group of 11 to 12 year olds gather in seats set aside for the current grouping of competitors. Among them are Cora Fields and Olive Green from Hogwarts. Standing on a slightly raised, very small dias judge Oriata Temanava addressed the audience and the 11-12 year old age group waiting to begin. As with everything relating to the SAT events, all four official languages - English, German, French, and Spanish - are used.
"Welcome to the Scholastic Aptitude Tournament's Dueling event! I am Oriata Temanava, one of the judge's for duels taking place on stage 2. Judging those duels with me is Wolfgang Jones. On stage 1 are Marta Krupp and Xiang Fa and judges for the two final rounds for each grouping are Dzaya Cholon and Taare Tikao."
After applause for the judges has quieted Judge Temanave continues. "The Dueling competition is double elimination. Dueling partners have been determined by a blind draw. Unlike the other events first place finishers here will each earn 7 points, second place is 5 points, third place is 3, and fourth place finishers will each earn 1 point for their respective schools. Each duel will last 2 and one half minutes or until a participant is disarmed.
Scoring for those rounds going the full alotted time is based on difficulty and style. I will call up the students for the first two duels and announce who is next but after that, when a duel ends, a card with names will be held up so that any activity on the other stage is not interrupted; so competitors, do please pay attention. Do not get eliminated because you did not notice your name on the card to come up to duel."
Before officially beginning the event, Judge Temanave makes one other statement. "Because of the nature of this competition, audience members please do not distract on-stage competitors. Thank you."
Judge Temanave is handed two cards from Judge Fa. "Ralphie Young and Maite España report to stage 1; Olive Green and Niel Nazaire will follow on stage 1. Dálkr Metzger and Isabella Cacciatore to stage 2. Herman Hernandez and Maria Higuero will follow on that stage."
Within minutes, the dueling on both stages has begun.
Exploiting A Weakness (Olive)
Author: Emerald Green
Date: 01-30-07 17:48
Olive steps onto stage 2 for her third duel. She'd won the first one against Niel Nazaire of Beauxbatons on the judge's decision. Her second, against Maria Higuero of Walting's, was by disarmament about thirty seconds into the duel. Maria looked extremely shocked because she'd so easily won her own first duel against Herman Hernandez.
Olive's opponent this time is Marta Dietermeyer. Olive had been able to watch both of Marta's first two duels. Because of this she knows the Durmstrang girl tends to hesitate a microsecond when saying the spell and actually pointing her wand at her target. Olive thinks she can use this little flaw of Marta's to her own advantage, taking the Durmstrang student out of the competition since Marta lost her first duel against Cora Fields.
Olive wants to win. She wants to win badly. Exploiting an opponent's weakness to win, especially when it's done in what others would consider to be a fair, good sport way, is something Olive is entirely prepared to do. Also, Marta really needs to learn to fix the problem because in a real fight for your life situation, something like what she does would get her killed.
Marta and Olive take the starting positions opposite each other. Stage 2 judge Wolfgang Jones gives them the signal to begin and their clock starts running. Olive points her wand but doesn't make a move yet. Marta's wand is pointed but it's aimed more at the floor just in front of Olive. Marta exclaims something in German that Olive now knows is the equivalent of, "Stupify!"
As soon as Marta begins speaking Olive quickly fires off, "Expelliarmus!" her wand already properly aimed. Just as Marta's hand moves to direct her wand at Olive's chest, Marta's wand flies out of her hand. The stunning spell she'd thrown goes nowhere as Marta's wand sails out of her hand towards Olive.
Judge Oriata Temanava announces, "Winner by disarmament, Olive Green."
Leaving the stage feeling smug and confident, Olive makes the good sportsman's show of shaking Marta's hand and telling her, "Good effort."
Dueling
Author: Griet
Date: 01-30-07 19:46
After the winners were announced for the 11-12 year old participants (Olive Green of Hogwarts, Dálkr Metzger of Durmstrang, Maite España of La Escuela de Hechiceria and Cora Fields of Hogwarts rounding out the final four), the 12-13 were placed into groups. Cornelia found herself opposite Cara Darling of Sydney's School of Wizardry in the first wave of competition. The duel proved slightly more challenging than Cornelia originally anticipated, lasting nearly the entire two and a half minutes before Cornelia successfully disarmed Cara of her wand. Cornelia had always been a bit smug in her abilities, but had quickly come to realize that overconfidence could seriously jeopardize her chances of winning. She had to treat every opponent like a worthy adversary and not think she'd won the match even before it had even begun.
In round two, Cornelia battled Ahmad el Farouk of Okapi École de Sorcellerie. That duel lasted the entire time allotted for it, after which Cornelia was ruled the winner by Judges Krupp and Fa because she'd jinxed Ahmad and blocked his attacks more often than vice versa. She was, not surprisingly, pretty tired by the time she entered the next round of competition. Even for as short as two and a half minutes was, and although she'd had time for a quick breather, both previous duels had been hard work. Nevertheless, she'd survived till the end and proven that she was undeniably the best. Hopefully she could keep it up and be one of the final four, though Cornelia wanted nothing more than to be the very best. In fact, she could hardly settle for less than anything but being number one.
Cornelia moved her wand to her other hand to wipe her hand over her robes. She rolled her head between her shoulders, easing the muscles in her neck. She stood on Stage 1 with Oksana Yankovic, waiting for the duel to start.
A Spectator Now (Cora)
Author: Aaron Miller
Date: 01-31-07 07:52
Once again part of the audience, Cora sits back enjoying the rest of the dueling. She's tired, but in a good way, and pleased with how her portion of the competition went. Until the final rounds, Cora had lost only one match. It had been against French student Niel Nazaire.
Cora's opponent in the finals, Maite España, had also lost once. Maite and Cora dueled it out for 3rd and 4th place, going the entire 2 1/2 minutes alotted for the match. When it was over the judges deliberated a long time then awarded the 3rd place spot to Maite. Cora would have liked to have placed higher but with 4th getting a point and an award, she can't be too overly upset.
The match for 1st and 2nd was between Durmstrang student Dálkr Metzger and Hogwarts student Olive Green. Both were undefeated going into that final round. Cora isn't sure what the determining factors will be if the final four aren't as clearly divided as they had been for her group with two having a loss and two having no losses.
Olive's final round duel also went the entire 2 1/2 minutes. Against the judges took longer than the stage 1 and stage 2 judges had in announcing a match winner. Cora had thought Olive might have it but the person on her right thought it would be Dálkr. In the end, it was Olive afterall declared winner.
The duel on stage 1 ends just then and Cora gives her full attention to finding out who won. It was a match between Yves LaRoche from Beauxbatons and Catalina Vargas of La Escuela de Hechiceria. Yves and Catalina had dueled for the full 2 1/2 minutes, both throwing some excellent spells and each very nearly disarming the other at the exact same time.
Catalina is declared winner though to Cora it appeared as though the judges had difficulty reaching the decision. She's glad she's not having to judge because she would have called it a tie.
Cora's eyes shift to stage 2 then back again to stage 1 when the next two competitors begin another match. Eyes going back and forth watching the action on both stages, Cora settles into her seat even further, the better to enjoy the show.
Making It To The Final Round (Wiggy)
Author: Phinfilius
Date: 01-31-07 13:33
Wiggy wipes the sweat off his brow as he retakes his seat. The match he'd just had against Jaime Barreiro had gone the full 2 and one half minutes. The time had seemed much longer to Wiggy, probably because Jaime got a good, stinging shot in early on so that Wiggy spent the rest of the duel trying not to think about the pain on his wand arm. Even with that messing with his focus, Wiggy managed to do well enough to win by judges' decision.
Wiggy rubs the spot on his arm, wishing the pain would hurry up and go away. It's definately lessened but still stings a great deal. Wiggy sees his name come up for another match. He hurries to rise and get up on stage, thinking it would have been nice to have more of a breather before having to duel again.
Kali Gichinga gives Wiggy a curt nod and in return he smiles slightly and nods his head as well. Judge Temanava gives the signal to begin. Kali goes for the jugular immediately with a disarming spell but Wiggy deflects it, hating that he's on the defensive from the start. Kali follows instantly with another attempt. Wiggy lunges to the side this time instead of blocking and throws a jelly legs jinx, quickly followed by a jelly fingers jinx.
Kali, thrown off balance by the jelly legs, can't get aimed properly to deflect Wiggy's jelly fingers jinx. She drops her wand, frowning as she does so. This is Kali's second loss of the tournament, which means she's now eliminated.
Wiggy shakes Kali's hand as they return to the seating area. Kali reaches over a moment later to shake Wiggy's hand again when all but two rounds are left for their group and Wiggy's one of the ones who'll be competing. Wiggy isn't sure how he's done it but he'll be competing against Cornelia Vanderbilt for first place. Competing for the 3rd and 4th spots before Cornelia's and his match are Deondre Richardson and Aimée Martel.
Stage 2 is quickly moved out of the way and stage 1 is placed centrally. Aimée and Deondre step onto it, ready to get their duel underway. Wiggy wouldn't mind a little more time so that the rest of the sting in his arm is fully gone before he has to face Cornelia.
Getting the News
Author: Ron Weasley
Date: 01-31-07 16:28
Ron apparates into the yard at the Burrow, instantly regretting not having used the Floo. Pulling his clothes more tightly around him, Ron hustles to the kitchen door, anticipating the cozy warmth inside. Opening the door just barely enough so he can squeeze in without letting too much of the heated air inside escape out, Ron quickly shuts the door again.
A number of heads have turned to look his way and several greetings are called out. It's readily apparent that if he had Floo'd, Ron would have been shunted into one of the other fireplaces in the house because, as he'd hoped in that very short walk to the door, the kitchen fire is blazing.
Ron hastens over to the fireplace and holds his hands up to be warmed by the crackling flames then turns to warm his bum. Molly presses a cup of steaming tea into his hands as Arthur says, "Everyone's here now I believe."
"Sorry I wasn't here sooner," Ron starts only to have his father cut him off.
"Think nothing of it, Ron. You were all of half a minute behind Charlie and Hendrika."
Ron and his siblings and sisters-in-law are all wondering why Arthur and Molly asked them to come around today since it doesn't involve a family meal of some sort. They sense it's something important and even the children must sense something because all are extraordinarily quiet.
Arthur stands at the head of the long table, his expression sad. Molly, who'd been keeping a stiff upper lip all this time, now looks as though she'd like to cry. Arthur looks around at his large family.
Ron has just gotten the urge to give his father a verbal prod to get on with it when Arthur finally speaks. "I've got news and since there's no way to sugar coat it, I'll just come out with it. I've been sacked."
Mouths fall open as stunned silence fills the kitchen. When someone does say something, Ginny's the first. "Why would they fire you, Dad?"
"Minister Smythe-Jones says that as the anniversary of You-Know-Who's death approaches, people are wondering why a known vigilante is still allowed to work at the Ministry."
Ron says hotly, "Sounds along the lines of why Harry lost his job and probably can't ever work there again. Come to think of it, Hermione may have been fired for the same reason no matter what she was told."
As one the twins say, "We can always use a hand at the shops, Dad."
"I've got that new business to get going, Arthur. There would be plenty for you to do if you wish," Blossom adds.
Percy suddenly blurts out, "I'm surprised you weren't made redundent sooner over this vigilante business. The Order of the Phoenix hasn't done you any good and I'm surprised any of you continue to associated with that lot."
Charlie hits Percy on the back of the head. "Shut your gob, you twit."
Ron wishes he'd been the one close enough to hit Percy. Ron can tell by Bill's and Ginny's faces they do too. If he could see George's and Fred's, Ron would be willing to be 50 galleons they'd have loved nothing more than to be the one to give Percy a good smack.
Percy glowers at Charlie and starts to say something more when Athur says, "Thank you for the job offers. I was hoping you'd all feel that way."
Doing Well So Far
Author: Jared
Date: 02-01-07 14:11
Hogwarts has been doing well in the Dueling competition. Not only had first years place 1st and 4th but second years had taken both the 1st and 2nd place spots. Cornelia Vanderbilt had placed 1st to Wiggersmythe Hodfuffer's 2nd place finish with 3rd in that group going to Aimée Martel of Beauxbatons 4th to Deondre Richardson of Watling's.
Of the two Hogwarts third years competing, Anne Kendrick and John Worsley, John took 3rd place. Okapi's Simba St. James won 1st, 2nd went to Kameko Yamashita from the Australian school, and 4th to host Durmstrang's Ivan Zemlinsky.
Another 1st went to Hogwarts in the 14-15 group when Griet Vanderbilt defeated the African school's Mbulaeni Botha. The match for the 3rd and 4th place finishes was between Ragnhild Uhle of Durmstrang, who took 3rd, and Alejandro Rivera from South America.
Jared is on track to finish in a point awarded position but he can't let himself get cocky. He's undefeated but even one loss can move him out of competing for the two two spots. Even one loss can lead him into a match just to see who gets to compete for 3rd and 4th.
Having weekly dueling practice in Defense Against the Dark Arts has certainly helped Jared progress as well as he has. He doesn't feel the need to overly think what he's doing and he thinks his aim is better than it might be otherwise. When his group is done competing, Jared is going to be sure to say something to Professor Isuki to let her know he feels the work - though fun is the word he and his classmates call it at school - has paid off for him in this competition.
Jared's name comes up for a match on stage 1 against Isiyoshindika Dulani. If Isioshindika wins, it will be Jared's first lost. If Jared wins, Isioshindika is knocked out of the event. Jared has befriended the Okapi École de Sorcellerie student but this is a competition and Jared intends to win the match.
Just over one minute later Jared has done just that by capturing his opponent's wand. After shaking hands with Isioshindika, Jared exits the stage wondering who he'll be up against next.