The House Cup

Live House Points after First Year Tournament

Slytherin: 23 --> 30 (5 points from 1st place, 3 points from top ten placement, {1 point for every place in the top 10, but not in the top 3} a loss of one from the Slytherin who spoke out of turn)

Hufflepuff: 20 --> 22 (1 point for a good question, 1 point for top ten placement)

Ravenclaw: 17 --> 21 (3 points from 2nd place, 1 point from top ten placement)

Gryffindor: 3 --> 7 (2 points from 3rd place, 2 points from top ten placement)

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After the first-year tournament, the battered and bruised first years were ushered out of the dueling hall, and the slightly nervous second years were ushered in to begin their tournament. This tournament followed a similar pattern to the first-year tournament, with exception being that all pure-blooded students dominated the competition. The 'purest' purebloods, having gone through a year of magical education finally began to prove why they are considered the 'most noble.' It should be noted that they still lag behind the 'lesser' purebloods overall. Muggle-borns continue beat out the Half-bloods.

The fighting in the second-year tournament involved more spell work, but the students with martial ability still placed well, however, it is becoming obvious that magical power matters more at this stage.

Second-Year Preliminary Ranking

1. Leslie Shacklebolt (Ravenclaw)-Pureblood

2. Zera Love (Ravenclaw)-Half-blood

3. Jacob Yaxley (Slytherin)-Pureblood

4. Stephen Wilkes (Slytherin)-Pureblood

5. Kendall Ramos (Gryffindor)-Half-blood

6. Margaret Tripe (Ravenclaw)-Pureblood

7. Lesley Heptinstall (Slytherin)-Half-blood

8. Darell Hoffman (Gryffindor)-Muggle-born

9. Harper Crutchley (Hufflepuff)-Pureblood

10. Tiffany Douglas (Gryffindor)-Half-blood

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148. Braun Plythe (Gryffindor)-Half-blood

149. Geoffrey Valentine (Hufflepuff)-Muggle-born

150. Liam Hall (Hufflepuff)-Half-blood

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I watched as the second-year students, looking as if they had been to war, shuffled out of the dueling hall. 

"They look terrible, don't they Marcus." I said to my friend Marcus Flint.

"Yeah, truly terrible." He said as he stared at a second-year boy who was missing half of his shirt, had two black eyes, and several missing teeth.

"I wonder what happened to him." He said as he nodded his head towards the poor second year.

"Dunno, he probably said something he shouldn't have and got extra beat up during the duel for it." Gemma said as she glanced in disdain.

As the last second year filed out of the hall, Professor Flitwick stepped out and called us into the dueling hall, where he repeated the rules that we had already heard multiple time before he separated us into groups. My group, including me, had two Gryffindors, two Ravenclaws, and a Hufflepuff. 

To my relief, nobody in my group was a threat. I swiftly dispatched one of the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuff. One of the Gryffindors decided it would be smart to taunt me, so I took extra time reminding him to respect his betters. 

The other Ravenclaw was surprisingly adept at the shield charm, but they were all defense and no offense, so I dispatched them with relative ease, it just took a bit of time. 

My last opponent, Jasper Lewin from Gryffindor, gave me a bit of a fight, and I actually had to use a spell chain to defeat him. I decided to remember his name out of respect.

After the first set of round robins were completed, the professors split us up into our final groups.

This new group had:

Griffin Sprocket, a pureblood from Gryffindor.

Braden Glitchell, a muggle-born from Hufflepuff.

Daniel Travers, a pureblood from Slytherin.

Freya Olafsdottir, a pureblood from Ravenclaw.

Jeffrey Jackson, a half-blood from Gryffindor.

And myself.

The main threats, to me, in this group were Jeffrey Jackson with his water magic, Freya Olafsdottir with her ice magic, and Braden Glitchell, whose unnatural movements and small frame make him hard to hit with spells.

Daniel Travers, while powerful, is too conceited to be a threat, and Griffin is too straight forward, he will fall for any deception.

My first bout was against Daniel, who 'politely' let me cast the first spell. I obliged him by casting a four-spell spell chain, Diffindo-Expelliarmus-Bombarda-Expelliarmus. Which swiftly blasted him off the dueling platform resulting in my fastest win yet.

I then watched as Freya beat Jeffrey due to having the elemental advantage. Let's just say Jeffrey provided the water that Freya froze and beat him with. That match was followed by Griffin beating Braden, which took me by surprise. Griffin's large build allowed him to beat the smaller Braden in close combat. Something Braden allowed to happen, I suspect Braden may not have any powerful spells in his repertoire, so as long as I keep him at a distance it will be my win.

My second bout pitted me and Jeffrey against one another. This bout was much more even, but I unfortunately lost, as he eventually flooded the field with water limiting my movement space, something I could not overcome, yet. The bout marked my first loss of the tournament, but as long as I win the rest, I should still make the top 10.

After my loss, I watched as Freya dispatched Braden, it is hard to run around on ice. Griffin, then, lost to Daniel, who showed the power of what is expected of a Travers.

My third bout pitted me against Braden. Of the remaining opponents, he was the one that I was worried the least about. Griffin and Freya had exposed his flaws as a one trick pony.

I started the match by casting a Bombarda at the ground, which caused the dueling platform to become ununiform and hard to move around on. Nevertheless, Braden still attempted to approach me, but I continued to cast Bombarda on the ground around me causing a rift in the dueling platform that Braden would be unable to cross without jumping. This rift caused the duel to become a mid-to-long ranged one, which I had the advantage in. It was still difficult to hit him, but after several Bombardas and draining 60% of my remaining magic, I successfully limited the area he could move in. Eventually, he lost his footing while dodging my spell chains which caused him to lose.

After that exhausting victory, I had a serious conundrum to deal with, my magic would not be sufficient to fight at full strength for two bouts. If I am lucky, the other bouts will take a long time allowing me to recover a little.

The bout that followed mine was Freya v Griffin. To my surprise, and I think Professor McGonagall's as well, Freya forfeited the match. She, clearly, did not want to test her magic reserves against Griffin's excellent defense. 

The next bout was Jeffrey v Daniel. This bout was very exciting, as Daniel cast many 'gray' spells, which made it so that Jeffrey could not cast water spells and instead had to focus on evasion and defense. Admirably, Jeffrey was able to withstand Daniel's onslaught for 10 minutes, before attempting a do-or-die water blast, which knocked Daniel to the edge of the platform, but not out. Once he saw that his water blast failed, Jeffrey forfeited the match. 

This gave me the idea to try something similar against Griffin, as he has proven to be too strong once he gets his defenses set up, and I was lower on magic than I would like to be with two bouts left.

With that thought in mind, I took the stage against Griffin. I planned on using 40% of my remaining magic to cast a five-spell spell chain (the strongest in my repertoire) at the very start. If it fails, I plan to forfeit and focus on my match against Freya, since 8-2, if fast enough, might be enough to just barely eke into the top ten.

So, as soon as the professor announced the start of the match, I immediately cast Expelliarmus-Confringo-Expelliarmus-Diffindo-Stupefy. Griffin hastily cast a protego to block the expelliarmus. However, the confringo, which I aimed at the ground in front of him, knocked him backwards. The second expelliarmus dissipated his protego, and the diffindo, severed his arm, while the stupefy knocked him unconscious, winning me the bout in just under 10 seconds. 

Healer Pye quickly came over and reattached Griffin's arm, gave him a wiggenwald potion, and he was good to go for the last bout.

The following bout, saw Daniel, yet again, give the woman (Freya) a free spell, which she used to freeze Daniel's entire body, ending the bout quickly.

Then, Jeffrey faced off against Braden, who surprised me by how bad he ended up being. Safe to say, Jeffrey immediately flooded the area around him making it impossible for Braden to get close, effectively winning him the match. 

It was then time for my last bout, which was against Freya. I planned use lots of confringos, bombardas, and incendios in attempt to limit her ability to control ice.

As the bout started, it became clear to me that I had more magic. I knew that as long as I drew the duel out, I would win. So, that is exactly what I did. I focused on sending out confringos, while ensuring that I had protego ready. After nearly 10 minutes, I saw that her magic power was nearly depleted, so I decided to spend 85% of my remaining magic to cast the same four-spell spell chain I cast against Daniel in my first bout. She only had enough magic to block diffindo and the first expelliarmus before the bombarda blasted her out of the ring.

The penultimate bout in my group pitted Braden against Daniel. Daniel, clearly disdainful of Braden's muggle-born status, did not take Braden seriously, which allowed Braden to get in close and win the fight through martial ability. 

The last bout of the group then saw Jeffrey fight Griffin. The match ended up being surprisingly quick. Griffin's defensive fighting style was a bad match up against Jeffrey's control style. This forced Griffin to go on the offensive, which clearly wasn't his strong suit. His offensive left his legs open to attack, which Jeffrey swiftly capitalized on by tripping him with water and then blasting him off the platform.

Just like that, my group ended with me coming in out on top once again.

Group Standings: Overall record in parentheses

Me: 4-1 (9-1)

Freya: 3-2 (8-2) Note that Freya won her 3 duels faster than Jeffrey, so she is ranked above him.

Jeffrey: 3-2 (8-2)

Daniel: 2-3 (6-4) Note that Daniel won his 2 duels faster than Griffin. Also, Griffin and Daniel came into the second grouping with one loss.

Griffin: 2-3 (6-4)

Braden: 1-4 (6-4) Note that while Braden was the worst in the group, he will be ranked higher than Griffin overall, because Griffin takes a long time to win, as he focuses on wearing the opponents down before winning.

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Third-Year Preliminary Ranking (Note for this year and the sixths year I will add records as well, furthermore I will only be showing named characters.

1. Gemma Farley (Slytherin)-Pureblood {10-0}

2. Justin Gage (Hufflepuff)-Pureblood {10-0}

3. Wesley Jacobs (Gryffindor)-Half-blood {10-0}

4. Gabriel Gamble (Slytherin)-Half-blood {9-1}

5. Gerald Anderson (Ravenclaw)-Half-blood {9-1}

6. Brenda Gage (Slytherin)-Pureblood {9-1}

7. Esmond Miller (Gryffindor)-Half-blood {9-1}

8. Alison Harris (Ravenclaw)-Muggle-born {9-1}

9. Baldwin Ferguson (Gryffindor)-Half-blood {9-1}

10. Melody Townsend (Hufflepuff)-Muggle-born {9-1}

(Author's note, 8-2 was not enough to make it into the top ten)

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15. Freya Olafsdottir (Ravenclaw)-Pureblood {8-2}

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18. Jeffrey Jackson (Gryffindor)-Half-blood {8-2}

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46. Daniel Travers (Slytherin)-Pureblood {6-4}

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49. Braden Glitchell (Hufflepuff)-Muggle-born {6-4}

50. Marcus Flint (Slytherin)-Pureblood {6-4}

51. Griffin Sprocket (Gryffindor)-Pureblood {6-4}

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74. Jasper Lewin (Gryffindor)-Muggle-born {5-5}

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148. Digby Sherman (Gryffindor)-Muggle-born {0-10}

149. Elbert Stokes (Ravenclaw)-Half-blood {0-10}

150. Lucy Lynch (Hufflepuff)-Half-blood {0-10}

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Live House Standings after second- and third-year tournaments

Slytherin: 30 --> 41 (2 from third place {2nd year}, 5 from first place {3rd year}, 4 from top ten placements outside the top three {2 2nd years and 2 3rd years})

Ravenclaw: 21 --> 32 (5 from first place {2nd year}, 3 from second place {2nd year}, 3 from top ten placements outside the top three {1 2nd year and 2 3rd years})

Hufflepuff: 22 --> 27 (3 from second place {3rd year}, 2 from top ten placements outside the top three {1 2nd year and 1 3rd year})

Gryffindor: 7 --> 14 (2 from third place {3rd year}, 5 from top ten placements {3 2nd years and 2 3rd years})