The rest of the lunch passed with quiet chatter and small talk as we enjoyed the tea that we had ordered. It was then time for the final duel to take place and the crowd was excited, so much so that as soon as Fleur stepped out of the cafe a cheer rang out from around the square.
"Looks like you have impressed them with your skills," I said trailing behind the Delacour duo. The crowd parted to allow the 4 of us to reach the stage where Miss Kone was already waiting. The woman appeared to be meditating in the middle of the duelling ring where the strongest sun seemed to be located.
"Good luck my sweet," Roger said to his daughter while hugging her before continuing with, "Remember win or lose I shall be proud of you." Fleur had a small embarrassed blush on her face as she strode into the ring, the announcer not needing to call either up but instead hyped up the crowd with some insights into the duellists.
"If both contestants are ready to begin, I can start this final duel." The announcer stated while raising his wand. He received focused nods from both women and launched a shower of sparks into the ring commencing the duel.
Fleur started off with her go-to spell chain, trying to end the duel quickly, with a disarming charm, body-bind curse and stunner. However, unlike all the other duels she took part in, her speed did not catch Miss Kone off guard.
The African woman in fact seemed to anticipate what Fleur would cast and had already started dodging before the first spell left Fleur's wand. She also retaliated with a flick of her hand, which sent a geyser of water shooting towards Fleur. The geyser was then solidified by a second-hand motion before it had made it halfway, turning the water from an annoyance to a threat.
Full credit to Fleur that she adapted quickly to Miss Kone's attack style and managed to counter the icicle that was sailing towards her, she then decided to put my advice into action as she flicked her wand transfiguring a section of the floor where Miss Kone was going to step into quicksand.
This had its intended effect of destabilising Miss Kone as she had to quickly change where her foot was going to land. Sadly for Fleur, she didn't have the proficiency in transfiguration to change a larger area.
Miss Kone became much more aware of her surroundings after Fleur's fist trap leading to a more cautious dodging style which included wandless shield charms, this drained a lot more magic and stamina than her previous style. Miss Kone decided to stop being so passive as she sent a wandless spell chain towards Fleur consisting of two stunners with a disarming charm in the middle however due to how long it took for her spell chain to complete, Fleur was able to move out the way just in time.
The duel kept changing which woman had the advantage until Fleur was hit by a disarming charm when Miss Kone used a wandless push to make it hit, it is when victory seemed so close that Miss Kone lost the duel.
You see, Fleur pulled her wand back to her in a delightful bit of wandless magic before launching off a stunning spell towards the shocked African opponent. The woman attempted to dodge but found that Fleur had already blocked her escape routes before she had lost her wand, resulting in Miss Kone losing the duel and Fleur becoming champion of the Rouen Duelling Competition.
It was a long while before I removed the deafening charm from myself due to the amount of noise the crowd was making, they seemed to want the whole of France to hear about Fleur's victory. When everything had quietened down the announcer landed on the stage and presented the now awake Miss Kone with the second-place prize before giving Fleur hers.
Fleur's prize turned out to be a trophy with her name on it as well as 400 galleons. After being handed the bag of gold and trophy Fleur made her way back over to us 3 before handing the bag to her father while keeping the trophy, "Here you go, Papa"
Lord Delacour stored the bag of gold in an expanded pouch before hugging his daughter again and saying, "Well done, my sweet. Looks like I will have to take you on that shopping trip you wanted now." Roger's face appeared to be sorrowful due to having to take her clothes shopping but everyone could see the underlying pride that he feels over her winning.
"It was truly impressive," I said to the girl as we started to leave the square as the competition had finished. "Unless there is anything else, Lord Delacour, I will wish the pair of you good luck and leave you to go about your shopping trip."
With a last showing of pleasantries from everyone to everyone else, the pairs split away from each other. Lord Black spoke up after we had left Rouen in a new carriage, "Impressive girl she was and pretty too." He paused to gauge my reaction to what he had said before continuing, "She would make an excellent wife no?"
"She would indeed make a great wife in the future however I already have a great Fiancé who I love dearly and I wouldn't trade her for the world." Was my retort as I leaned my head back and shut my eyes to rest.
The topic was not brought up again and we made our way back to Paris and the French Ministry of Magic just as the sun was setting, luckily for us, the department that handles international travel is staffed 24 hours a day allowing us to acquire our portkey and head back to Britain.
What greeted us after the sunny weather in Rouen was typically British, rain pouring down so hard it was travelling sideways with scars of lightning and cracks of thunder, I love British weather.