Hogwarts: Chill, I'm Not That Riddle

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Daphne watched Ariana with a grave expression. The girl looked completely at ease, as if this were just another casual sparring match. To Daphne, there had only ever been two opponents she truly dreaded facing head-on: Kamio and Ariana.

The two couldn’t have been more different. One was wrapped in mystery, never revealing her true strength. The other was powerful in the most direct way imaginable— Ariana Dumbledore was not only Grindelwald’s heir, but also an Obscurial. Her magical power was so immense it felt almost tangible, almost like a presence in the air itself.

Fortunately, Kamio had already been taken care of through the sacrifice of her boyfriend. That left Ariana—her greatest but only threat.

As for the other champions, they barely registered as competition.

Quinta had nearly been fried into roast chicken. Jauncey and Nassim had both been captured by the alchemical guardians and hauled off for treatment.

Then suddenly—

"Huh?!"

The ahoge atop Daphne’s head shot upright.

"Wait, that’s not right!" She suddenly shouted, startling Ariana, who had been on guard the whole time.

"We forgot about Fleur! What if the two of us finish fighting, and she shows up afterward to steal the victory?" Daphne smacked her forehead in annoyance.

How had she forgotten that half-Veela?

After being reminded, Ariana immediately became wary as well. "You’re right. Fleur’s been unusually low-key all day. After you reached the tower, did you see her anywhere?"

Daphne quickly shook her head, "No. It’s like she vanished."

"So what do we do now? Wait for her to show up?"

The two stared at each other.

Suddenly, neither knew what to do.

Should they wait for Fleur? Or continue their duel?

Just then, a gentle voice appeared out of nowhere, startling both of them. "Daphne, Ariana, don’t worry about that. Go ahead and settle your match. I’ll guard the entrance and keep Fleur out."

"Kamio? How did you get here so fast?" Daphne looked in surprise at the fox girl standing in the doorway.

She and Ariana had only reached the top floor a short while ago. Yet Kamio had already caught up. Didn’t that mean she had shaken off the alchemical guardians almost immediately after leaving?

"Hehe, I got lucky, Daph. I distracted the guardians and ran all the way into the safe zone," Kamio said with a tired smile.

"Wow! Your stamina is incredible. You actually kept up with us." Daphne couldn’t help but marvel.

Ariana’s expression became strange.

’Of course her stamina is excellent. She is a fox. A legendary nine-tailed fox.’

Ariana knew Kamio’s true identity and also knew about her relationship with Tom.

Seeing the excitement sparkling in the foxy girl’s eyes, Ariana couldn’t help thinking, ’She’s not here to help at all, is she? She came specifically to watch the show.’

"Daph, go on," Kamio called cheerfully, clasping her hands behind her back as she stood at the corner of the staircase. "I promise Fleur won’t interrupt."

"Okay~ Thanks, Kamio!" Daphne happily waved at her before turning back toward Ariana, "So... what do you think?"

"I don’t mind." Ariana nodded immediately.

And at last, the two entered a true dueling stance.

Ariana struck first.

A silent spell shot from the tip of her wand and raced toward Daphne, who appeared completely unprepared.

But Daphne was far from defenseless. With a graceful sweep of her wand, three rotating blue spheres instantly materialized behind her.

One of them flew forward.

The sphere intercepted Ariana’s spell with remarkable speed and precision. The two collided, cancelling each other out in a shower of dazzling sparks.

At the same time, another blue sphere appeared behind Daphne, restoring the total back to three.

Seeing the surprise on Ariana’s face, Daphne proudly lifted her chin. "Well? Pretty impressive, right? Tom taught it to me."

"It really is impressive." Ariana nodded, though her expression remained somewhat odd. "You can tell at a glance it’s an extremely advanced spell. How on earth did you manage to learn it?"

She recognized the magic immediately. It was an ancient defensive spell Andros had once taught Tom—though she remembered that Andros had spent half the lesson showing off how cool it was instead of actually teaching it.

This ancient spell was truly remarkable, continuously generating energy spheres behind the caster. And not only could they block physical spells, but they could also defend against invisible curses, dark magic, and other sinister attacks.

As long as the user possessed enough magic, the spheres could be generated indefinitely. The only limitation was the maximum number that could be maintained at once.

Back then, Andros had tried teaching the spell to Ariana as well. But she had spent ages practicing and still failed to master it.

Eventually, to avoid delaying her progress in other areas, she had no choice but to give up.

Still, even though Ariana considered herself fairly average among the people in the Study Space—maybe even the worst—she was surely still more gifted than Daphne, right?

So how had Tom managed to teach Daphne something this hard?

"..."

At Ariana’s question, Daphne’s expression became slightly awkward.

Instead of answering, she fired off two offensive spells.

After all, how was she supposed to explain it?

Was she really supposed to tell Ariana that every night while she slept, Tom dragged her into specially arranged study dreams?

From the start of summer vacation, she had endured his so-called special training.

The torment hadn’t ended until February of this year.

Just thinking about those months made Daphne want to burst into tears.

For all that time, she hadn’t enjoyed a single proper night’s sleep.

She had trained while she was awake and trained while she was asleep, which was exactly why she had to win this tournament.

Otherwise, all that suffering would have been for nothing.

...

Spells flew back and forth between the two girls.

At first glance, neither seemed to hold the advantage.

But the sight astonished countless spectators.

For the longest time, everyone’s impression of Daphne had been the same: A girl whose path had been carefully arranged by Tom Riddle from beginning to end.

Only now did people realize that, based on raw strength alone, she ranked among the very best of all the champions. Before, Daphne might have been placed third—after Kamio and Ariana—but that was only because of Tom’s Patronus, which she could summon. No one had imagined she could cast such powerful spells or possess such vast magical reserves.

Even Lady Greengrass was shocked.

Since when had her eldest daughter become this powerful?

...

Most remarkable of all was Daphne’s defense.

No matter what spell Ariana cast, even if Daphne herself failed to react in time, the energy spheres behind her would automatically intercept the attack.

It was a flawless defense. Not a single opening could be found.

And so Ariana came to a conclusion—defeating Daphne quickly with ordinary magic was impossible.

Unless she exhausted Daphne’s magical reserves first. But Daphne had spent years following Tom around and consuming who knew how many potions.

In terms of total magical power, she was still weaker than Ariana, both in quality and quantity, but not by enough to change the situation.

In that case... There was only one option left.

A strange black substance began drifting out from Ariana’s body.

The temperature in the arena plummeted instantly. Cold winds started swirling through the air.

Ever since subduing the dragon, Ariana had never used her Obscurus again during the tournament. But now, in the final match, she finally revealed her strongest weapon once more.

Meanwhile, Daphne refused to back down.

Focusing her mind, she loudly cast the Patronus Charm.

The moment Ariana saw the humanoid Patronus, her expression changed.

’Oh no. How did I forget about that again?’

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