HP: A New Life

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A few days later.

Paris.

Harry entered the underground chamber with Tonks, Rose and Charlie following behind him. The entire chamber is designed to replicate a gladiatorial arena as it is mostly made of stone with a circular battleground right at the centre.

Even before they got there Harry already saw their seats because they are in the VIP section and more importantly Black family crest is prominently displayed in their section.

Their seats are at the lowest level right in front of the ring. The seating in the chamber is like stone stairs rising from the ring where the higher you go the farther it is from the ring.

As they reached their seats Harry found Kreacher already waiting for them. The house-elf looks far different now with him wearing small butler clothes instead of a dirty rag. Kreacher also looks healthy and not crazy, serving the black family members who are not insane have worked wonders for the elf.

As Harry and the rest sat down, he couldn't help but be impressed with the chamber, this is not the work of a few wizards who just used Transfiguration to temporarily construct this chamber. The French ministry must have spent a lot of gold to make this chamber based on the authentic stone and marble architecture and all of the enchantments placed on the structure. Harry doesn't need to use his sight to see that the chamber is positively brimming with magic.

Harry turned to Tonks "So Lord Black is your connection. I am impressed you manage to build such a close relationship with your own grandfather Nymphadora. That must have been so hard for you" he said dryly.

But instead of the usual playful back and forth Tonks just sighed "I really tried to get them but they were all sold out"

Harry nodded "But what's with all the fanfare? "he asked looking at their luxurious seating arrangements.

"House Black is one of the biggest sponsors for the upcoming World Duelling Championship. All of this arrangement is for that" Tonks answered.

So that's why. All of this is just a trial run for the real championship. Harry was wondering why would the French ministry do all of this just for an underage tournament. It seems that the location of the upcoming world championship is already set.

As Harry and the others settled in, the first two levels of the arena started to fill up. The chamber can easily hold more than a hundred thousand people but today it seems that only about a thousand people are attending. But that's to be expected because only the most hardcore duelling circuit fans would come to an underage tournament when they can just watch it on their Mirror Tv in the comfort of their home.

So most of the people here today are either fans or the insiders of the circuit who are here scout any young talent that catches their eye. Harry never really cared about duelling circuits or championships but from what he heard these scenes are very competitive.

As the tournament finally started the giant four-sided mirror display floating above the central battleground lit up and started displaying all the information about the ten competitors.

The tournament before the finals was an elimination based tournament where if you win you move on to the next stage or get eliminated if you lose. But today it's going to be a ranking based competition among the top ten participants who made it this far.

Obviously, the first and second spots are for the two finalists who made it to this to finals without losing but rank 3 to 10 will be decided by a ranking tournament between the other 8 participants who made it to the top ten. As it's common for such tournaments the ranking matches will happen first before the final duel happens between the two undefeated finalists.

While Harry didn't care about the tournament Charlie, Rose and Tonks are reading the information appearing on the large mirror displays.

"All of them are 17" Charlie mumbled. Rose could help but roll her eyes at him "of course they are all 17. This is under 18 competition"

"I know that but I was hoping just one of them would be younger. You know close to our age" Charlie spoke.

"That's ridiculous. Did you even know how much of a difference a single year can play in underage tournaments? It's like asking a sixth or fifth year to duel a seventh year. It might be possible but the younger participants would at a huge disadvantage. At the world-class level where even the tiniest disadvantage can decide the match no one younger than 17 ever made it far into the tournament" Rose explained.

Charlie looks disappointed but accepted "Why is it that only the two finalists have the master of non-verbal magic listed in their profile? When other participants have been shown using non-verbal magic but they don't have that title" Charlie asked.

This time Tonks answered "Being able to perform non-verbal magic and to be a master of non-verbal magic are two different things. All wizards and witches at least know some spells that they can do non-verbally but for most people, their non-verbal spells are not as strong as when they use incantations. A master of non-verbal is a witch or wizard who has no need for incantations and the spells they cast are just as strong as when they use incantations. Such a master only needs to use incantations when performing powerful spells that require incantations to cast"

Charlie nodded "So like Harry they can just wave their wands and cast spells" then he turned to Harry "Does that mean you are also a master Harry?"

Harry smiled "Have you ever seen me use incantations, little brother?"