This was it.

Sinead had signed up for dueling club as soon as she had seen the notice, keen to prove her obviously superior magical prowess against all of her contemporaries. To that end, she'd spent the last few weeks researching and practicing different spells, especially once she'd found out she'd been fighting Natalie- given they had all their classes together as housemates, it wasn't exactly difficult to guess whether or not she'd have already studied a particular spell. And any new spell would give Sinead an advantage, right?

She was so ready for this.

She didn't really feel nervous about the duel, but then she didn't tend to get nervous very easily. Anyway, it wasn't like anything about this could be dangerous, not with Hirsch standing right there; the worst that could happen was that she didn't win. And that was totally not going to happen.

She took up her position opposite Natalie with barely-checked anticipation, giving herself a final once-over just to be sure of everything: wand polished, tie tightened, robes straight and Slytherin-green trimmings proudly displayed. Okay- they were both from Slytherin, but that only gave them more of a chance to do their house proud. Once she was satisified she was ready, she gave a neat bow, eyes intent and focused as she thought about her plan. She knew she had to be adaptable- all the books she read were big on that, and to expect the unexpected- but it couldn't hurt to go in with an idea of what to start off with, could it?

As soon as Professor Hirsch signalled them to begin, Sinead tried out her dueling stance just like she'd seen in the textbooks and began casting without pause. The best defense was a good offense, right? That was going to be her model, anyway.
"Locomotor Wibbly," she muttered, under her breath. She couldn't do non-verbal spells, obviously, but all the books said you should use them in duels- so she would do the next best thing and just try to talk quietly. That was better than nothing, surely. It wasn't like it would affect her spells- all the mental intent was still there. No time to waste thinking about that, though- she needed to focus. Immobilise and then attack, was her plan, so:

"Serpensortia!" The second spell followed on the heels of the first, Sinead pausing only to draw breath in between the two. And this was literally a spell that summoned her house emblem. How could it not be one of the first she wanted to learn? She'd spent plenty of time honing it so she was triumphant but not surprised to see the snake burst from her wand and attack- just time to see how Natalie would retaliate, then.

Unlike her roommate, Natalie was ill-prepared. In her haste to sign up for ALL the school things when she arrived, the young slytherin had forgotten that she had signed up for dueling club and had almost forgotten that it was today. After hurrying and putting her uniform on and throwing her hair up into a lazy, messy ponytail, Natalie ran up the stairs and reached the dueling arena just in time and completely out of breath.

Whew. Now... to remember spells. She hadn't been practicing. Sinead seemed really smart. Natalie was probably doomed.

Standing across from Sinead, Natalie bowed to her opponent and then took her dueling stance (which wasn't much, really, since she had just come up with it). She took a deep breath and tried to focus, watching the girl very closely. She saw her lips move and braced herself.

"Protego!" she said with confidence and a wand wave. THAT spell she knew and she could handle and Sinead's spell deflected off of Natalie's protection charm. HA! She got it! And without practicing!

Her mental cheering soon stopped. Before she could react, there was a SNAKE flying out of the other girl's WAND.

WHAT.

Natalie jumped back and let out a little frightened scream. Why a SNAKE?! She hated animals and snakes were by far the worst. They were scary and slimy and POISONOUS. But she knew that she couldn't actually get hurt in a duel. Her professor would save her from impending snake doom.

She knew she had to act and actually get some points in this duel. Wracking her brain for spells, Natalie waved her wand and sent the arrow-shooting spell at the snake, hoping it would, err.. kill it? Was it even real?

Then, only waiting a second, Natalie pointed her wand at Sinead and shouted "Obscuro!" to blind her opponent.

Text Cut: points

Spells cast:
Protego: Creates a shield against MINOR spells (jinxes, hexes and curses),
Caster Points:
H: 0
M: -10
F: 0

Opponent Points:
H: 0
M: 0
F: 0

• Arrow-shooting spell: Shoots arrows from wand
  Incantation: [unknown]
  
  
  • Caster Points:
    • H: 0
    • M: -10
    • F: 0
  • Opponent Points:
    • H: -15
    • M: 0
    • F: 0
  • Additional Effects: Warning - while this spell can be used, there is NO tolerance for excessive violence or injury. Use it cleanly

Obscuro: Creates a blindfold over the target's eyes
Caster Points:
H: 0
M: -15
F: 0
Opponent Points:
H: -10
M: -15
F: 0

Affected by spells: N/A

Natalie's Points:
H: 100
M: 65
F: 15

Natalie's slightly dishevelled appearance had given Sinead hope that her spellwork would be similarly shoddy, but that sadly proved not to be the case. In truth, she'd had visions of herself polishing off every opponent in her first flurry of spells, but that had probably been a slight underestimation of her classmates. But she was still better, right?

She watched, filled with tension, as Natalie had a little freak out- what a baby- and then obviously caught herself and marshalled her thoughts. And then sent out an offensive spell at the snake itself, which was kind of unexpected. Another spell was obviously about to follow on its heels, as Natalie levelled her wand in Sinead's direction- so she followed in her opponent's footsteps and cast a quick shield, just like they'd practiced in Defence class. Using Fianto Duri was still a bit much for her to pull out in the middle of a duel, but she was pretty confident with Protego by now.

Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough to save her snake- RIP, it was a brave soldier- but she caught the obscuro, which was just as well, because she didn't feel ready to duel blind just yet. And it bounced right back off her shield and streaked towards Natalie.

They were on a bit of an even footing, for a minute, as the obscuro moved back across the room. Neither of them had managed to get an offensive spell to hit the other, and each of them had cast three times- what next, then? She felt like they were suspended in time for a minute as she thought furiously of what else she should try- oh, but of course. Another one of her favourite offensive spells that she'd found in the library. It would take a bit out of her to cast it, but no way could Natalie defend against both the reflected obscuro and this at once. Again, she tried to keep her voice low as she cast- maybe Natalie wouldn't know the spell anyway, but it couldn't do any harm.
"Immobulus!" she muttered, before backing away, giving herself a bit more space in case she needed to dodge some kind of retaliating attack.

Natalie braced herself for another spell, but she was caught off guard when Sinead shot her own spell back at her with her defense. With a little squeal, Natalie ducked and narrowly missed the blindfold that was heading towards her face. That was close.

Wand at the ready again, Natalie prepared for the next spell. Her eyes were wide and she was nervous. Sinead was really good. Obviously she had been practicing, but Natalie had not. At least she had her defensive charms down. She had no idea what spell Sinead was sending her way, but she could tell that she was sending SOMETHING. "Protego!" she shouted again, deflecting the spell. Whew. She was tired already. Luck had gotten her through the first two minutes and she wasn't sure how much longer it would carry her.

She needed to think of another spell. One she was confident in doing...

"Uhh... Oh! Locomotor Wibbly!" She said as if she had an epiphany, waved her wand and sent the jelly legs curse flying towards her dormmate. She was GOOD at that charm. It had been one of the first spells she had accidentally cast as a child. Her poor brother couldn't walk for a whole day.

Text Cut: points

Spells Cast
Protego: Creates a shield against MINOR spells (jinxes, hexes and curses),
Caster Points:
H: 0
M: -10
F: 0

Opponent Points:
H: 0
M: 0
F: 0

Jelly Legs Curse: Target's legs collapse as if they were made of jelly
Caster Points:
H: 0
M: -7
F: 0

Opponent Points:
H: -7
M: 0
F: -3

Affected by spells: NA
Physical actions: Duck (-5 F)

Natalie's Points:
H: 100
M: 48
F: 10

Okay, Sinead couldn't help but get a little bit annoyed as Natalie ducked the rebound, then cast another shield in defence against the next spell. What did she have to do to score a hit? She really hoped Professor Hirsch was watching, at least, because she was pretty sure her spell work had been perfect- and she wanted to get something out of this duel, at least.

In her irritation, she was preparing to cast another offensive spell, not really sure what- when she suddenly became aware that Natalie had just cast something else, and she needed to dodge it, or do something to defend, but she hesitated in deciding what, and next thing she knew-

Her legs bowed out from beneath her and she crumpled onto the floor.

NO. Absolutely NO WAY. This was NOT ALLOWED TO HAPPEN.

Except it had. She, Sinead Dance, self-professed best witch in the year, had just taken the first hit in a duel. She was never going to be able to hold her head up in Defence class again.

Unless she could hit back harder... it seemed like at this point, that might be her only option. Luckily the jelly-legs jinx wasn't a powerful spell and after a moment of indignity on the floor, her muscles returned to her control and Sinead scrambled back onto her feet. She knew duels were supposed to be friendly, just for practice, it didn't matter who won, etc... but everyone, including Hirsch, knew that was a total lie and nobody would enter the competition if they didn't want to win. And anyway, this was just embarrassing. She'd been taken down by a first-year jinx!

Angry now, she hardly even thought about what she cast next, her wand moving as soon as she was on her feet and her mouth speaking an incantation which apparently matched, although she wasn't entirely sure what- still, she could see it had worked because next thing she knew, a wall of blue flames was roaring across the room towards Natalie. Oops. In truth, she hadn't even know bluebell flames could get that big... hopefully that wasn't any more accidental magic. She really needed to shake that habit. Anyway, it wasn't like she could really hurt Natalie, was it? Everything was fine. It looked worse than it was.

Considering the fact that the two girls were both first year Slytherins, Hirsch couldn't help but be amused by how different they were. One had come in robes that looked as though they had been pressed especially for this occasion while the other was only running in at the last minute.

Yep. Amused.

But looks didn't say how competent someone was with duelling and so, the man didn't comment. He just gave Miss McKinley a smile and a nod of his head, indicating that it was fine. The duel was off before he knew it and, in all honesty, the man couldn't be happier. The spells weren't as simple as he expected them to be and both girls knew how to defend themselves, it seemed. Good.

And yes, both were completely safe because he knew how to handle snakes.

After a few checks of his watch, the Defence Professor cast a shield between the two duellers, saving Miss McKinley from the shot of bluebell flames. "I hope you weren't planning on setting Miss McKinley on fire, Miss Dance." Was he joking or was he being serious? She could decide. "Both of you have done really well. I'm glad that you know how to defend yourselves from an incoming attack." Really, he was proud. "However, by a very small margin, you, Miss Dance, have won this duel. Congratulations! And a very well done, Miss McKinley."


Stats:
Sinead Dance: 72%
Natalie McKinley: 71.56%