Of course Celandine brought her wand with her, but aside from that she had a couple different holsters, her journal, a few quills, and a bunch of textbooks related to the dueling techniques she wanted to practice, all packed in her bag.

She arrived in the arena, took a quick look around and paused to tie her hair back, her eyes still flicking about. It was quiet.

...too quiet.

Lawson stood in the corner of the room, covered with a disillusionment charm and watched as Celandine entered the arena. At least she came prepared for this session.

Now to see how aware she was and how quick her reflexes were. Raising his wand he cast a non-verbal disarming spell at her. If she's quick enough and he knew that she was, the flash of light should give her ample time to defend herself. If it were any other student he probably wouldn't be making it this hard but he'd had the pleasure of dueling the Ravenclaw last year, so he knew what she was capable of.

Cela caught the flash and because her hands were still busy tying her hair back and she'd not manage to reach her wand quickly enough, she dropped to the floor, pressing her cheek to the ground as she felt the woosh of some kind of spell brushing over her back and pressing her even tighter against the ground.

She released her wand from her wrist holster and jabbed it in the general direction of where the flash had come from. "Homenum Revelio!" She hollered it loud, enunciating clearly and throwing as much intention behind it as possible. She didn't expect it would fully reveal professor Lawson, because it totally had to be him or another professor based on the strength of the spell that had been thrown at her, but it would at least be enough to show where he was. A brief flicker? A flash? That just depended on how strong her charm was compared to his.

And because they'd just been studying it in class, Celandine jabbed her wand again, at the wall behind the spot that the flash had come from.

"Deprimo!"

Oh very smart Miss Toussaint. Quickly strengthening the disillusionment charm over himself, Marcus moved away from the wall and just in time too as it exploded behind him. He lifted the charm and appeared on Celandine's left. "Nice to see you had learnt something in class Celandine." He chuckled as he raised his wand once again.

With a very fast jab at her feet, he cast 'Duro' at her shoes and then with a tight 'circle' motion of his wand he sent a stinging hex towards her chest and to finish it off he gave his wand a flick and sent the 'Confundo Charm' towards her for good measure. Marcus, waited on tenterhooks for her reply.

Cela had bounced to her feet and turned her head to the left, feeling a movement rather than seeing it.

She wasn't quick enough to avoid her shoes being turned to stone, but she did throw up her shield with a quick one two movement that protected her from whatever the professor was tossing at her non verbally. The second one packed enough heft that it knocked her backwards onto her butt.

She didn't bother answering her professor when he spoke, recognising a distraction technique when she was faced with one. Instead she concentrated hard on her left foot, flicked her wand at it and spoke the incantation for the feather light charm. As the weight of the stone lessened, Cela lifted her foot, used it to get her aim and line Lawson up and quite deliberately cast directly at the stone on her foot, being super careful not to aim at the foot itself.

"Engorgio! Deprimo!" The enlarged stone encasing her left foot exploded violently outward, blasting towards Professor Lawson, lots of little bits of shrapnel spreading out in a wide arc.

Cel shook the rubble off of her foot and tapped her other foot, the one still encased in stone. "Flexi!" The shoe returned to its original state and, since she'd just exploded the other one, she vanished it and bounced to her feet.

Bare feet.

Lovely.

He had to give her one thing. Celandine Toussaint was extremely creative. Using the 'Impedimentia' to slow down the bits of stone that was flying in his direction, Marcus gave his wand another flick and used the 'Banishing Charm' to send the pieces of rock to the far side of the arena.

Never taking his eyes of the young woman, Marcus moved to her right and deciding that he too would use the blasting spell. "Deprimo" he yelled pointing his wand at her feet, trying to unsettle her by saying the spell out loud. He moved once again for a different angle and sent the hurling hex towards her and then and then with a small sweep of his wand he sent some 'anti-gravity mist' to where she was. He moved again so that she would find it difficult to hit him if he kept moving.

Celandine was glad now for the lessons that Professor Kazimeriz had taught. Her wand reacted almost before her mind did, and she focused on shielding her feet. "Protego!"

She lifted her wand and instinctually shielded again, not even aware that she'd managed to do so non-verbally.

The golden mist caught her off guard and instantly it felt as if she were upside down and suspended from the ground which felt like the ceiling. Of course this was only the sensation and she actually had both her feet planted firmly on the ground. Celandine, had she not been a voracious reader and someone who studied for enjoyment, possibly would have freaked out a bit but she knew what it was in theory, even if she hadn't experienced it before so she just kept calm and walked slowly until she reached the edge of the mist and felt like she was on solid ground again. She kept her shield up and her attention on Professor Lawson.

"Incarcerous!" She aimed at his feet.

To say that he was impressed would have to be an understatement. Marcus, quickly cast a shield around him and as the ropes headed back towards Celandine, he pointed his wand at the ropes and transfigured them into half a dozen vipers.

And then he moved once again this time back to her left and cast a 'trip jinx' at her and then with another side step he threw the full body bind curse her way.

It had been a while since he had been in a good duel and he was enjoying himself immensely. Marcus, knew that not all the students were going to be this advanced so he was taking the opportunity while he could.

Vipers! Eeeeeek!

"Confringo!" Celandine used one of the other blasting charms, jabbing her wand at one group of vipers and cringing when they exploded into lots of little snakey bits. One of them avoided her curse and she took a step to one side to avoid it, and walked riiight into the professor's trip jinx. She fell flat on her face only a few hands widths from the viper which pulled back to strike...

Cela tapped it with her wand and concentrated really hard... "Bestiar head!"

The viper's head turned into a niiiice little fluffy bunny head.

Awwwww how cute, viperbunny!

It slither-hopped away in confusion and Cela felt another spell wooosh over her head, just barely missing her.

She jumped up again.

"Stupefy!" She flicked her wand at Lawson and followed it up in quick succession with a non-verbal impedimenta, which she again was unaware that she had casted non-verbally, and a burst of fire from her wand. "Incendio!"

Spinning away from the stunner she had cast, Marcus put up another shield to block both the other two spells she had cast. The impedimenta hit his shield and bounced away but the fire that had burst from her wand came at him with such force that it shattered his shield.

Having moved just in time, he was lucky that only his robes were singed at the bottom.

"Okay, okay Miss Toussaint let's just stop there for a moment so that we can go over your strengths and weaknesses. Is that alright with you?" His wand was held loosely by his side, he didn't think she was the under handed type but you never know. So he was still ready to move if he needed to.

"Yes sir." Cela answered and lowered her wand slowly. She blinked a few times in an attempt to get her mind out of that weird zone that it sort of found itself in when she was dueling.

"You aren't going to attack me if I put my wand away are you sir?" Cela asked, not entirely certain that Professor Lawson wasn't just 'testing' her somehow.

"Of course not Miss Toussaint, I wouldn't do that...not to a student anyway." And to prove his point, he re-holstered his wand and then promptly sat down on the floor. "You are an extremely gifted young witch Celandine. Your focus and concentration is excellent and you are able to apply what some people would call mundane spells into something useful showing that you are also creative. But I notice that you mostly use charms as your weapon." He paused for a moment and gave her a reassuring smile. "Which is good because as you have just demonstrated they are extremely useful. The only problem I can find with you Celandine, is that your hexes and jinxes are not very strong. Do you think you might know why that is?

Celandine reholstered her wand and joined Professor Lawson on the floor, tucking her bare feet under herself.

"Mostly charms." Cela agreed, "And conjuring and transfiguration spells. I don't know why they just make more sense inside me. Like, they click you know? I don't feel like I have to think about it when I cast them, and it isn't like its my wand doing the casting, its me. But like, with spells that hurt people? I can do them and I know I'm okay and at least up to standard for OWL level, but... its like me, my wand and the magic, not just me and the magic." Cela tried to explain.

She rested her chin in her hands and peered at professor Lawson.

Quietly she added, "The ones that I can do and do feel that connection with? We aren't supposed to do here."

On account of the dark thing? Yeah.

She pulled her wand out and looked at it thoughtfully.

Marcus listened as Cela explained her herself and nodded thoughtfully. "I can understand that, every person has a different strength in magic. It is more of an effort for me to produce a successful charm but transfiguration and defensive spells come a lot easier to me." He followed her gaze towards her hands. "What your wand is made out of has a lot to do with it also."

He raised an eyebrow at her and lent back onto his hands. "Oh yeah? Wanna tell me about them? I know a lot of the old school families have their own methods." And he knew quite a few of those families, including Celandine's.

"Ebony." Celandine answered immediately, "Unicorn hair core, ten inches and unyielding." A contradictory wand, really. The unicorn hair core was best suited to someone pure of heart while the Ebony wood was kind of ideal for dark magic. What that meant all together, Cela was trying to puzzle out for her essay that was due on that very subject.

Cela tipped her head to one side and considered Professor Lawson's question.
"Some of them. I can tell you some of them."

She looked at her wand again and gave it a little stroke.

"I can only do mice. Once I did a frog, but my brothers can all do people. Make them inside out." Cel peeked at professor Lawson, her expression making it quite clear that she'd seen such things being executed, then she continued, "there's one where you can dissolve the lining of a person's stomach, and one where the spine slowly curves in on itself until it snaps, one that makes your blood boil, and one where it feels like you are covered in fire ants, and one where all the water is leeched out of your body and another one where you go blind and all the blood in your body starts coming out of your tearducts, and one thats kind of like sectumsempra but it cuts with fire..." Cela trailed off.

It wasn't that SHE did those, most of them she'd never tried but she knew all the theory and had watched her brothers learn them and sometimes experience them and almost all of them were created by members of her family. She chewed on her lip furiously. It was never fun for her to acknowledge that stuff about her family but this term she was having to do so more and more. Perhaps knowing the theory behind how those sorts of dark spells worked made it easier for her to absorb the concepts of less horrific spells? Less complicated ones?

"Interesting" Marcus replied still looking at her wand, "No wonder charms is more your thing but you should also have no problems with the more...difficult spells." Yeah that was one way of putting it.

He listened quietly as she spoke and really he should be telling her that those kinds of spells are not good for such a young girl but what would be the point? She had obviously seen them done at home and who was he to interfere with what her family teach her. "Well that's quite a broad range of magic and that's only some of it you say?" He straightened back up and looked at her thoughtfully, "Every witch and wizard learn different brands of magic from different people, I guess it's how you use them and why that I think counts."

Marcus withdrew is wand from its holster and ran it through his fingers for a moment. "Auror's are trained to bring the bad guys into custody with as minimal damage as possible. In other words try not to use dark magic, but when you come against those who are quite willing to use it against you...well sometimes those rules need to be broken." He looked up at Celandine and gave her a faint smile. "It's always good to know these spells because you need to be prepared for what you could be up against one day. But like I said how and why you use these particular spells determines the kind of person you are."

With that said he stood up and turned towards the targets at the end of the arena. "Okay let's test out your aim and how quick you are."

"I don't use them... I just... know about them." Celandine answered in a hushed voice. She eyes Lawson's wand and listened carefully. "So you don't think that people that use or know stuff like that are necessarily bad?"
It was an important question to her, certainly her brothers weren't... bad people. After the discussions in History of Magic, Cela was having to face some truths about her family as they were perceived by others. It was hard.

"Okay." Celandine agreed and stood up, eyeing the targets confidently. Aim and speed were her skills, but she could only get better, right?

"Of course not Celandine" he answered quietly. "At some point in a witch or wizards life they are going to know about spells like the ones you explained to me and that does not make them bad. As for using them, well I guess that depends on what the person is using it for? Remember it is the intent behind the spell that determines whether someone is bad or not."

Marcus, stepped back and allowed her some room to move. "Show me your stuff Miss Toussaint."

Celandine screwed up her nose. She knew all that, sure thing but UGHhhhhhhhh?!? It was still one of those things that just didn't make sense. Okay. Okay. Targets.

She closed her eyes for a moment and just tried to relax a bit, then she opened them and, because they were targets and it made sense to have something to shoot at it she pointed her wand. "Shrowan!" An arrow flicked out the end and buried itself juuuust off centre.

"Incendio!" Cel cast at the arrow and it caught fire, she followed it up by conjuring a non-verbal blast of water, putting the fire out, yet again not noticing that she'd done it without saying anything.

Standing about ten feet away from Celandine, Marcus had his arms across his chest and watched the Ravenclaw's excellent wand skills. He turned away from the target and looked at her. "You really are very good Miss Toussaint." He flicked his wand at the target and it began to move from side to side.

"Now let's see how good you are at hitting the target when it is moving" he paused for a moment as he considered something. "And I want you to use non verbals."

Cela watched the target start moving and was about to go for it again when he added the non-verbal bit. Celandine whirled around to look at Professor Lawson.

"But... I don't know how to do non-verbals yet, sir." She stared at him. She didn't expect to start learning until her sixth year either.

Grinning at Celandine as he moved over to her, Marcus stood beside her and looked down at her his eyes twinkling. "Miss Toussaint, in the time that you have been here, you have pulled off three non-verbal spells. Twice while we were dueling and once just now when you put thee fire out."

He rubbed his hand over his goatee as he scrutinised her for a moment, "You obviously didn't realise that you had done it. No matter I have the utmost confidence in you." Marcus, gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder and reassuring smile. "Now hit the targets with any spell you can think of but I want you to do it without uttering the incantation."

Cela's jaw dropped. She had? How? She neeeeeded to know howwwww.

Cela rocked on her feet a bit when he patted her shoulder and stared at the target, not even slightly sure where to begin. Stupefy? She was good at that, right? No something stronger. A charm? A transfiguration? She could conjure another arrow...

She mentally repeated the incantation over and over in her head, her lips silently forming the word but not actually speaking it. Professor Kazimeriz would be super proud, wouldn't he? With that thought in mind, Celandine stared the target DOWN. ARROW was going through THE TARGET.

Cel looked down at her wand, following the line of it up the wood and up her arm, then back down again with her eyes. She could do it. She could. She had already done it apparently.

Cela flicked her wand at the target and watched an arrow come from the end of it, her eyes widening as it not only hit the target, but made a freakishly perfect bullseye.

After a few moments staring, Cel looked at professor Lawson suspiciously. Had he done that? Was it him? Felt like she did it but...


!

Chuckling at the look on her face, Marcus moved away from her once again to give her some room to move. He watched the concentration on her face and nodded his head in approval.

He gave her a round of applause when she not only successfully fired another arrow from her wand without saying the incantation but she had also hit a perfect bullseye. "Well done Celandine, I knew you could do it." He took in the surprised look on her face and burst out laughing, holding his hands up in the air. "Don't look at me I had nothing to do with it. It was all you. Congratulations."

He walked back over to her and smiled down at her. "Think you can practice on your own for a bit? The more you practice, the easier it will become. You'll be to able cast non-verbals without really having to think so hard about it."