Stupefy, Reducto, Levicorpus, Fiendfyre, Lightning Storm...
The combo Draco had rehearsed a thousand times in his head finally came together with both his hands on the stone slab.
Hufflepuff's health kept dropping, while the animals that had doubled back kept gnawing away at Slytherin's health.
At that moment, Draco already knew the outcome.
He would lose.
Because of his hesitation and early setbacks, his health had already fallen beyond saving. This combo couldn't instantly kill a nearly full-health Hufflepuff, even with Slytherin's damage bonus.
Only one ending awaited him.
Hufflepuff calmly got up after falling to the ground. She unhurriedly cast a Hurricane Charm, working with the animals to take the last sliver of Slytherin's health.
The match was over.
Draco wasn't dejected. On the contrary, if both his hands hadn't been on the stone slab, he would definitely have turned around to high-five Director Lorne.
Even better than winning was landing a combo with numbers attached.
The people behind him no longer questioned the game's balance, either. They all knew that although Hufflepuff had still won, there were ways to counter her.
"So that's how you deal with it. Amazing."
"That combo was so cool. He almost turned it around."
"The recovery from constantly casting Summoning Charms is too long, but releasing just a few animals doesn't do enough damage. Looks like Hufflepuff needs other playstyles developed."
Sains, sitting on the right, also turned to look at Lorne. He said in surprise, "It's you, the referee with the not-quite-standard pronunciation."
Lorne: "..."
"I need to clear something up. I was calling for quiet, not saying your name."
Sains scratched his nose. "Really? I thought you knew me..."
"Well, I do now," Lorne said, showing his social skills. "Your understanding of Hufflepuff is second to none."
"You're the impressive one," Sains said, beginning a round of mutual flattery. "You spotted my weakness at a glance and came up with a counter."
Lorne shook his head with the air of a master. "I just got to play Street Wizard Fighter before you did."
With one match over, Draco still hadn't had enough and wanted another round with Sains.
Sains agreed.
But this time, instead of using the bladder build, he changed tactics, using water spells to cover the ground and summoning a profusion of plants for a control build. Whenever Draco wanted to cast Incendio, Sains interrupted him first with Aguamenti.
Draco wanted to copy the previous round and simply walk over, but the Biting Cabbages hit hard, and the other plants had all sorts of effects that either controlled him or drained his mana.
This time, he lost with his opponent still at high health.
The two exchanged a look and tacitly called a truce, then, with even greater coordination, began looking for Lorne together.
Both wanted to get some pointers from Lorne.
But in the interest of fairness, Lorne naturally taught neither of them.
Everyone was training hard for the tournament. Poor Draco, hoping to get through the draw smoothly on tournament day, stayed away from the shop for several days straight, holing up in his room to study the different characters.
He had come around. He really did need to know himself and his enemies to win every battle. He would study every character's special attributes and spell combinations to find a sure-win move for Slytherin.
August 8.
Lorne had built up plenty of hype, and even some wizards who had never played Street Wizard Fighter came to watch outside the shop.
Incidentally, the doors, display cabinets, and street-facing exterior wall of the Magic Mobile Phone Official Flagship Store were all made of glass. The shop was clean and bright inside, the exact opposite of gloomy Knockturn Alley.
People could see the large screen inside the shop while sitting out on the street.
Quirrell had made this large screen. Lorne's invention had inspired him too, and, taking reference from the "Deluminator" mentioned in books, he had made a machine that could store light with a delay.
But it was actually very awkward to use. Not only was the picture blurry and the delay long, but someone also had to operate it at all times.
Quirrell also felt he really had no talent in this area. Lorne offered him a little comfort and decided to bring it out for the finals.
A small screen would suffice for the rest of the time.
Come on, with hundreds of people competing, how could they possibly project every match? A dozen or so people could stand in front of each machine. Wouldn't moving around to watch matches be a better experience?
As for how many passersby the tournament's celebrity appeal could attract to play the game, Lorne really didn't care. His Magic Mobile Phone would become famous throughout the Wizarding World sooner or later. It was only a matter of time before those passersby became his loyal users.
Holding the draw bucket, Lorne stopped in front of each machine and began calling numbers under everyone's expectant gaze.
"Number twenty-three," Lorne paused, then drew another slip, "versus number one hundred and fifty-one."
Quirrell was responsible for collecting the winners' number tags and putting them into another bucket.
The place was extremely noisy, with cheers and groans ringing out endlessly, but the wizards were generally very well behaved. No one cheated or deceived anyone. Those who lost quietly left or went to watch other matches without a care.
Lorne had cleared a patrol route for himself ahead of time to ensure he could move freely through the shop. Otherwise, with today's crowds, he would probably have needed a Levitation Charm to call out the numbers at each machine.
"Number one," Lorne said, somewhat surprised, "versus number seventy."
Sains, who had been waiting in the staging area for a long time, immediately raised his hand. "I'm here!"
Draco had already made it through the opening round and advanced to the next stage. Small as he was, he could only get jostled about in the crowd, but when he saw Sains stand up, he couldn't resist squeezing over.
Crabbe and Goyle wanted to follow too, but Draco stopped them.
"Don't follow me, or people will think I'm as bad as you two, getting beaten without landing a hit like some Troll."
Crabbe and Goyle scratched their heads. Their matches were over too, and their dismal results had earned them a long bout of ridicule.
The bustling scene at the Magic Mobile Phone Official Flagship Store was unprecedented in Diagon Alley. At least, no other day had ever seen the rest of its streets emptied out like this.
The other shops began racking their brains. If only their own shops could hold an event too. But apart from clearance sales, they couldn't think of anything that would draw people in.
All they could say was that a genius had come to Diagon Alley, and his posters were flying overhead.
With each match taking only a few minutes, the first round was soon over. Lorne checked the time. There were still two hours until lunch, enough for another elimination round to determine the top sixty-four.
The rest could wait until the afternoon.
He could also use the lunch break to make a sixty-four-player tournament bracket, letting the contestants know in advance who their future opponents might be.
Tournament formats in later years had actually developed to a very advanced level. Just the ones Lorne knew included group round robins, single elimination, double elimination, Swiss rounds, and more. This format, which cut sixty-four down to thirty-two and continued round by round, was actually the simplest and most intuitive.
Its drawback might have been that none of the placings except first truly reflected ability.
But that didn't matter. Apart from first place, everyone's rewards were about the same anyway.
Lorne couldn't help looking forward to it. Just how far had these experts taken the game he had developed?