"Heh, just wait till you get beaten senseless," Davies said, cracking his knuckles and eyeing George and the others with clear ill intent. "So what if you won a championship? You don't stop bragging about it for a single day!"
"Exactly!"
A Gryffindor stepped forward, bristling with indignation.
"George and Fred even reenacted it dozens of times in the common room, acting out how they accepted the professor's praise after winning the championship!"
"No we didn't!" George shot back loudly, though his voice quickly faltered. "It was only about twenty times…"
"Only?!"
The students erupted, ready to settle things the Muggle way without even pulling out their wands.
As the Weasley twins shot desperate looks for help, Tver waved both hands, releasing a gentle surge of magic that pushed the crowd apart.
"Alright, alright. If you're going to fight, at least wait until I say start."
"..."
Catching the teasing note in the professor's voice, George and Fred's expressions instantly shifted from delight to pure misery.
"That's the point of this practical exercise. The weak will band together, and the strong are very likely to be targeted."
"But strength is always relative. Once the strongest are eliminated, a new balance of strength and weakness will emerge among the rest."
"So whether you choose to form alliances or fight alone is entirely up to your team. The advantages and disadvantages are something you'll need to think through yourselves!"
Tver clapped his hands sharply, and thick white mist surged out and swallowed the arena, cutting visibility down to barely five feet.
"Line up by team and follow me. Stay close. If you fall behind, that's on you."
Guided by his magical perception, he led the students unerringly to the edge of the arena.
"Other than Dark Magic and highly destructive spells, you may use any techniques you've learned over the past few years."
"When the white mist disappears, the match begins. Each team will set off from here and make its way toward the center. Yes, toward the trophy."
"The first team to claim the trophy, by any means, will be the champion of this match and receive a special reward I've prepared."
As he laid out the rules, Tver placed each team evenly along the perimeter, until only Cedric and the Weasley twins remained.
"I expect you'll be under quite a bit of pressure this time, so I'll give you a small hint."
Tver flashed Cedric a knowing smile.
"Remember, you're not required to defeat every opponent. In fact, it's entirely possible to win without fighting a single battle at all…"
With that, both his voice and figure faded into the mist.
"What does that mean?" George asked blankly.
"Does the professor want us to sneak around and feel our way to the trophy?" Fred guessed, lowering his head in thought.
"The professor is probably telling us to be selective about our fights," Cedric said calmly as the fog slowly began to thin. "Avoiding combat entirely may not help us, but meaningless fights will definitely hurt us."
"But the problem is, we're everyone's target now!" George groaned.
The match had officially begun, and he could almost picture their once-friendly classmates shouting and combing the arena for them.
"So our first move is to hide," Cedric said, taking stock of their position. "Everyone's arranged in an oval around the arena. If they come searching, they'll move along the edge."
Steadying themselves with Cedric's calm, George and Fred took a deep breath.
"Then we move forward for a bit, change direction, and circle back to the edge!" George said firmly.
"Right," Fred chimed in. "They won't find us. They might even start fighting each other!"
Cedric didn't hesitate. He immediately took the lead and headed forward.
"I can already sense movement. We need to leave this place quickly."
"Movement?" George hurriedly tugged Fred along. "Why didn't I hear anything?"
"Not hear," Fred said, rapping his brother on the head. "It's probably magic or something like that. Remember how the professor glanced at Cedric before leaving? He must've noticed Cedric pulling some small trick."
Cedric immediately broke into a smug smile.
The moment he realized they were likely to be targeted, he had already started thinking about how to stack as many advantages as possible in their favor, even before the match officially began.
"The professor probably wanted to give us a hand, too. Otherwise, he wouldn't have noticed the detection magic I set on every team, or left us for last."
"Looks like the professor really has us in his heart!" George went into full dramatics, pretending to be so moved that he was on the verge of tears.
His acting was so terrible that Fred couldn't stand it and smacked him on the head instead.
"Still, it'd be even better if we could set up some guidance right at the center."
Cedric glanced back at them, raising an eyebrow. The smile on his face looked even more striking under the dappled sunlight.
"How do you know there isn't?"
"Good grief, you're vicious," George said, then grinned. "But we like that!"*2
The three of them walked on in relaxed spirits for a while before choosing a direction and doubling back again.
"At this point, there are definitely other teams charging straight toward the center. If we rush over to join them, we'll just land ourselves in trouble."
"So the fastest approach isn't blindly pushing forward. We wait for a bit, until the reckless teams in front are worn out and the cautious ones behind haven't caught up yet. That's when we speed up."
"But there have to be teams thinking the same way we are, right? Like Roger Davies. I know his sneaky mindset way too well."
George said disdainfully, completely unaware that they were doing exactly the same thing.
"You scared of them?" Fred shot back.
"Hah! Who would be scared of them?" George lifted his chin arrogantly. "Last time in the finals, we wiped the floor with him!"
"To be precise, Cedric carried the two of us dead weights and wiped the floor with them," Fred said mercilessly.
Even though he and George had made huge improvements in spellcasting, their talent for actual combat was still lacking. Compared to Cedric and Davies, they could only be considered slightly above average.
After all, their talents and attention lay elsewhere. If it weren't for Professor Fawley, they probably still wouldn't even know how to duel properly.
"Oh? I hear someone talking about wiping us out?"
Davies stepped out from behind a tree, two companions following behind him, both wearing cold smiles.
Cedric stopped short in surprise, his grip on his wand tightening instinctively.
"How did you end up here?"
"You didn't think you were the only one who could leave a bit of magic behind, did you?" Davies said smugly, twirling his wand between his fingers.
In truth, he'd noticed Cedric's little trick and decided to copy it.
But that kind of bragging was better saved for after class~
"While I was working out a perfect plan, I ran it in reverse as well. Just as I expected, you chose the exact same approach we did!"
"Come on, George, Fred. Let me see how much you've improved over the summer!"
"Why didn't you mention Cedric?" George asked curiously.
"Uh…"
Davies felt a stab of bitterness in his chest.
If he could beat Cedric, he would've been mocking him ages ago, alright!