The boys nodded, and did as they were told. Lucius spoke the trigger word, and Harry felt a gut-wrenching sensation as the portkey whisked them away.

Harry managed to stay on his feet as the portkey brought them to their destination. He couldn't help feeling proud at this new personal achievement. They were standing in the middle of a small circular chamber. The floor, walls, and ceiling were made from roughly hewn gray stone. A carpeted path ran from the center of the chamber towards the only point of egress – a Roman arch. Mr. Malfoy began walking along the path, and the boys followed suit.

"Where are we?" Harry whispered to Draco.

"Somewhere in London, I think."

"Draco's correct," Mr. Malfoy spoke, still looking ahead. "This is a ministry compound – typically used for law enforcement training. It is deep underground and heavily warded against magical damage, so it was selected as the venue for the event. Naturally, as a high ranking ministry employee I was given access to a private portkey arrival chamber."

Harry could see where Draco got his boastfulness from. The chamber they had portkeyed to opened into a much larger area. This one was packed with small groups of people, with more arriving by the minute. Many of them wore clothing distinctly different from anything Harry had seen in Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley. The majority seemed to be using the lengthy row of fireplaces built into the far wall. Others were apparating onto marked lanes. While the arrival area dominated most of the space, most groups were walking towards a large set of double doors on the left.

Mr. Malfoy led the trio towards the doors. "We should be just in time for Team"

"Team?" Harry questioned.

"It's the first event," Draco replied. "After that, there is Standard, and then there will be Freeform. In Team, three groups of three compete against each other. They won't know what the arena is like until the duel beings. It's my favorite event."

That did sound pretty cool to Harry. He had never seen people dueling in groups before. "That sounds fun. What is Standard?"

"One on one, official spell-list," replied Mr. Malfoy. "Standard happens to be my favorite."

"I think it ends too quickly."

"That may be, Draco, but the better duelist always wins in Standard. I admire cunning more than most, but there is something to be said for upholding the purity of the sport."

"What about Freeform?"

"Freeform is also one on one, but there are no rules," Draco replied.

"That's mostly correct. There are some rules of course. The main distinction is that the duelists are not limited to a predetermined list of spells."

They passed through the double doors just as Mr. Malfoy finished correcting Draco. A series of staircases wrapped in front of them like a fan. Mr. Malfoy picked one without breaking stride. That staircase led to another series of choices, and then another. By the time they had climbed the last set of stairs, Harry's legs were a little sore. On the bright side, the crowd of people around them had thinned out to the point that the trio were alone, with a single curtained entrance in front of them.

Mr. Malfoy swept aside the curtain, revealing a balcony. It was roughly the size of Harry's room at Hogwarts. An oval table occupied the center, with a handful of ornate chairs organized in a half circle facing the railing. As Harry stepped into the enclosure, he saw that the shelves pressed against the wall were stocked with snacks and beverages.

"I'm afraid I must excuse myself," Mr. Malfoy spoke. "Draco, I trust you remember how to activate the charm?" The blonde boy nodded, and Mr. Malfoy stepped back out through the curtain.

"What was that about?" Harry questioned.

"Father probably wants to mingle with his business acquaintances. There are people coming from all over the world today."

"Really?"

"It's the International Dueling Federation."

"Right. Who's in the Team event?"

"Let's check." Draco tapped a button on the railing. Harry nearly fell out of his chair as the railing – along with the floor – became transparent. All he could see beneath them was a vast cloud of black smoke.

"What the hell was that!"

"Relax, Potter." Draco had probably been planning this, the git. "There is a charm pre-built into the balcony that lets us see the entire arena below us. It also has standard ominocular functionality built into it."

Harry settled back into his chair, relieved to learn that he wouldn't be swallowed by the black cloud. "Why can't I see the arena?"

"They keep it hidden until the duel starts. I think it makes it more fun. This way, you're going into the duel just as clueless as the duelists themselves."

Harry nodded appreciatively. He turned around in his chair. While the front half and the floor of the oval shaped balcony were transparent, the shelves and curtain behind them were still visible.

"Can we take food from the shelf?"

Draco nodded, grinning. "Of course. It's all been paid for already." He took a bottle from the shelf as if to prove a point. A pair of cups materialized on the table. Draco poured a sizable amount into his cup, and then into Harry's.

"What's this?" Harry questioned, peering into his cup.

"Butterbeer. Try it, it's good."

"Should we be drinking beer?"

Draco made a face. "It's not like muggle beer, if that's what you mean. You would have to drink a bucket of butterbeer to get drunk. Unless you're a house elf..." Draco burst into laugher.

"What?"

"I just remembered the time I made Dobby get drunk."

"Who's Dobby?"

"One of our more useless house-elves. Forget about it. Are you going to try the butterbeer?"

"Can you try yours first?"

Draco rolled his eyes before taking a big gulp out of his cup. "Satisfied?"

Harry nodded with a grin before following suit. "This is really good."

"Of course it is," Draco drawled. "This is imported stuff, not the swill they serve in Hogsmeade."

"You've been to Hogsmeade?"

"Well no, but I doubt their butterbeer is any good."

The smoke beneath them began to change turn grayish. Draco put down his cup. "Oh good, the duel is going to start in a few minutes."

"Do you know who's playing," Harry reminded.

" I forgot I was going to check." Draco pressed another button, and a list momentarily materialized just above the railing. "it's America, Sclavenia, and Germania."

"Well, I've heard of America."

"Oh right. You probably don't know much about wizarding history."

"If Bins hasn't said it, it's safe to assume I don't know it. Unless it's about Goblins. I kinda read up on them after my first trip to Gringotts."

"Germania covers most of central Europe. Sclavenia spans from the Adriatic Sea to the Arctic. Their borders haven't really changed much in over a thousand years."

"What about all the muggle countries."

Draco shrugged. "It's not like wizards need to worry about muggle borders. We can apparate, portkey, or even just fly over them. Muggle wars don't particularly concern us either. Except for Grindelwald's War, but that's different."

Harry nodded slowly. Maybe he should paid more attention in History of Magic. The smoke beneath him began to dissipate, and almost immediately, he saw flashes of magic on one end of the arena.

"Oh look, it's starting."

The arena was covered with marshy ground. Large moss-covered rocks stuck out of the ground here and there. From his bird's eye position, Harry could see two different teams in separate corners of the triangular arena. Draco was on the edge of his seat, leaning towards the transparent railing.

"That's the Americans on the right in the blue uniforms. The Sclaves are on the left in the red. I'm not sure where the Germans are… they've probably disillusioned themselves."

The trio in blue were slowly advancing across the edge of the arena. They seemed to have picked a direction at random, and it was taking them towards the unoccupied corner where the Germans had started. The trio in red were staying put, although they were hard at work with their wands.

A minute passed by. The arena was roughly the size of a quidditch field, but the mucky ground seemed to be slowing the Americans down. They were almost at the corner when the mud started crawling up their legs. Draco tapped another button, and their view seemed to zoom in on the action.

In less than a second, the mud was nearly up to their chest. Meanwhile, a flurry of spells were cast at them from behind. Harry was sure the Americans were goners, but the spells collided with a dome that had shimmered into existence. Meanwhile, one of them was muttering a counter-spell, and the mud gradually receded. He was just in time, because the next barrage of spells shattered the dome.

Another one of the American duelists, a witch sporting a long braid, slashed her wand horizontally. A wave of muddy water was hurled in an arc that resembled a small tsunami. Harry wasn't sure what she was trying to do until he spotted a muddy outline in the vague shape of a person step behind a rock.

The witch shouted something to her team-mates, who were busy blocking spell-fire from a nearby outcrop. They let their shields drop and simultaneously pointed their wands at the rock concealing the muddy figure. It shattered into a hundred smaller rocks, all of them shredding through the space that had been occupied by the figure.

As soon as they had cast, the duo apparated by their teammate, narrowly dodging a couple of curses. They cast another pair of shields as they turned to face the rocky outcrop that was now sending spells their way.

"Risky…" muttered Draco. Harry turned to him raising his eyebrows.

"I've seen a team get wiped by a anti-apparation trap before."

Harry nearly cursed at Draco as the boy zoomed out their view, but caught himself when he spotted the red team pushing towards the position held by the blue-clad Americans. A giant lumbering monstrosity made of hardened mud was leading the way, brandishing a giant boulder like a shield.

"What is that?"

"Whatever it is, it looks like trouble," Draco replied, panning back to the Americans, who were now advancing on the rocky outcrop, undeterred by the multicolored spells coming their way. The braided witch was on point, raising columns of mud from the ground as a makeshift screen while they dashed from boulder to boulder.

Harry cried out as one of the blue duelists was struck by a spell. His teammate cast a screen of black ash from his wand, and battery of follow-up curses aimed at the downed player missed. Still, it seemed to be for naught as the prone American vanished a second later.

"Looks like the emergency portkey was activated," Draco commented. "Each of the duelists has one sewn into their robes. If they are injured to the point of incapacitation, it will pull them out of the duel and to the medics."

Harry nodded. The two remaining Americans had hunkered down behind a boulder. They were exchanging spells with their invisible opponents. One of them pointed their wand at the sky, and a torrent of black rain began to pour down over their portion of the arena. Harry could now make out the duo of disillusioned figures casting from behind the opposing rocky outcrop.

"Why don't they apparate behind the Americans?"

"I have no idea," answered Draco. "Maybe they can't do that and stay disillusioned at the same time?"

A roar echoed across the arena as the enchanted monster spotted the Americans. The creature burst forward with an unexpected display of speed, the red clad Sclaves struggling to keep up behind the cover it provided. The Americans were now casting at the mud monster, their blasting charms leaving hollow craters in the boulder it brandished.

The Germans chose that moment to re-enter the fray by sending a torrent of lilac fire at the Sclaves. By this point, the later team had advanced past the German position, and a pair of them now turned around to address the threat at their back.

One of the red-clad duelists raised a wall of water, but the fire blasted through, leaving a geyser of steam in it's place. The duo called out to their teammate, who was in position by the mud giant. In a split second, the monster wheeled about and hurled its boulder at the rocky outcrop held by the Germans. The lilac fire dissipated as they threw themselves out of the way.

Meanwhile, the American duo took the opportunity to apparate to another position before sending more spells at monster. Now that the boulder shield was gone, their blasting charms began to dent the monster itself. It seemed to be heavily resistant to their efforts, and they quickly gave up, instead apparating once more so that they placed themselves on the other side of the German team.

The yellow-clad Germans no longer bothered keeping up their disillusionment charms. They were busy sprinting in opposite directions, shielded by shimmering half-spheres of metal, as two of the Sclaves chased behind, firing curses as they ran.

The Americans joined the Germans in casting at the two Sclaves, who gave up their chase and fell back to a defensive position. Meanwhile, the two German duo went back to back – their metal half-shields now providing near complete protection, with just enough clear space for their wand arms.

"Looks like the Americans are trying to even the playing field," spoke Draco.

It did make sense. There were three Sclaves against two duos. If the Americans or the Germans fought each other, they would only set themselves up for worse odds when they had to face the red-clad team. One of the Sclaves was overwhelmed by no less than three simultaneous spells, and was whisked away by his emergency portkey.

Unfortunately, the German team seemed to have forgotten about the mud monster. A massive rock hurled by the creature crashed through their back-to-back formation, crumpling their metal shields like foil. One of the German players was immediately pulled away by his portkey, while the other attempted to banish the mangled mess of metal and rock pinning him down. He was incapacitated by a quick stunner from the Americans.

"That's what I like about the Team event," commented a grinning Draco. "All alliances are very much temporary."

The Sclaves and the Americans were now evenly matched. The red-clad duelist who had been chasing the Germans now apparated to join his teammate behind the monster. The creature charged forward towards the Americans.

Meanwhile the blue clad team stuck their wands into the marshy ground in unison. The muddy terrain beneath the monster swelled with water, quickly swallowing its heavy form.

The red clad player that had been following the monster for the duration of the duel – a grim looking witch – began casting for the first time. The trapped golem dissolved into mud.

"Do you think she was controlling it the entire time?"

"Looks like it," Draco replied, his eyes fixed on the duel. Meanwhile, the Sclave wizard apparated out of cover to a flanking position to the left of the Americans, while the with kept pressure on their opponents with fast barrage of curses. After the wizard had materialized at his destination, he seemed to just stop moving. A split second later, he was hit by a nasty looking spell and pulled out of the duel.

Draco quickly tapped a series of buttons, and a voice boomed through their balcony. "...wove it into the clever piece of transfiguration they used to neutralize the golem. What a stealthy use of an anti-apparation curse." Draco fiddled with the controls again, muting the announcer.

"I told you apparating is risky," he added with a smirk.

The two Americans now broke out of cover, banishing pieces of rock at the Sclave witch as they advanced on foot. She dived back down behind her cover, whirling her wand over her hand.

A massive lasso of bright red fire streamed out from the witches wand, forming a thick circle of flames around her position. The flames expanded into a protective dome, shielding her from view. The Americans seemed undettered, continuing to advance right up to the edges of the flames. The braided American witch pointed her wand at the edge of the circle, and the flames parted to create a clear lane.

The American wizard moved into the lane, fashioning a shield of hardened mud in front of his body. Draco panned their view so that they could look over his shoulder. The wizard cautiously advanced to the rock, only to find nobody behind it. He immediately whirled around just as the flame dome collapsed on him.

Draco quickly panned out just in time to catch the braided American witch struck from behind by a storm of rocky rubble. She was quickly whisked away by her emergency portkey. The red clad Sclave witch was standing a few meter behind her.

"Wow, looks like she apparated out of the dome, and somehow managed to bypass the anti-apparation curse." Draco zoomed in, and Harry could see that the witch was levitating a few centimeters above the ground. "Ha, that's clever."

By now, the flames had dissipated completely, leaving behind a dome of blackened mud where the American wizard had been. Harry leaned in, holding his breath. He jumped back in his seat as the dome exploded into a hundred fragments, all of which were sent flying at the Sclave witch.

She deflected the fragments with a sweep of her wand. The American wizard rolled away just as she sent the fragments at the space he had been occupying. He trust his wand forward as rose from his roll, and a loud sonic boom blasted through the arena.

The Sclave witch was thrown back a couple of meters, landing in the mud. She attempted to recover, but the American was already sending an exceptionally quick barrage of stunners her way, one of which hit home and put her out of the duel.

The American wizard pumped his fists into the air, collapsing to his knees. He stayed there for a couple of seconds, but then began to rise confusedly. Draco tapped a button on the panel, unmuting the announcer.

"… Merlin, he doesn't realize! I can't watch!"

The American wizard just stood there for a few seconds before an expression of epiphany swept over his face. He attempted to cast a spell, but was a split second too late. A red stunner struck him between the shoulder blades, taking him out of the duel.

A lone figure faded into view behind him, it's robe torn, muddy, and blood splattered - but undoubtedly yellow. The smiling German bowed at the waist, just as a black cloud of smoke obscured their vision.

"Germania wins! I haven't seen a turn like tha..." Draco pressed a button, muting the announcer.

"Why do you keep muting him," Harry asked.

"I can't stand Bagman voice," Draco answered with a frown. "It's bad enough hearing him announce quidditch matches, but somebody at the ministry felt it would be appropriate to hire him for this. So what did you think of the duel?"

"I'm still not sure what happened at the end there…"

Draco nodded pressing another button on the railing. Eight faces popped up, all of them corresponding to the duelists that had been defeated. "It looks like the first one to go down was one of the Americans." Draco gestured towards the face, and they blue clad duelist collapse after being struck by a spell, and get pulled out by his portkey.

Draco gestured to the side, and time seemed to run backwards. He stopped just before they shattered the rock where the lone dissilusioned figure had leapt. "Well, either that was an illusion or his injuries weren't serious enough to pull him out of the duel. "

"Maybe he just apparated out," Harry added, "I don't think the anti-apparation trap was up at that point."

Draco nodded. "Maybe. At any rate, splitting their team was a bold move for the Germans. We could always just ask him ourselves..."

"What do you mean?"

"There is a reception at the end of the day. It's mostly for politicians and distinguished guests, and father is obviously invited. I'm sure most of the duelists will be there – certainly the champions."

"Wow, that's terrific."

Draco grinned, and was about to add something when the smoke turned gray. "Looks like it's about to start."

The curtains swept aside behind them, and Mr. Malfoy stepped into the balcony. "Ah, I see I am just in time for Standard."

AN1: Sorry about the months long delay. I've been incredibly busy with school, but fortunately summer is nearly here.

AN2: I'd like to thank BrilliantLady for helping me out with some spelling/grammar corrections in the previous chapters.

AN3: What do you think about the dueling scene? Which countries do you want to see in Standard and Open?