Still holding on to her wand for dear life, Mariel mirrored Nancy's rolling eyes and nodded in agreement to her comment about the DADA assignment. "I know, right? I'm ready to jump out of my skin at the smallest noise or tiniest movement." Of course the thought of hexing others sounded pretty awesome, it was just that she was afraid of someone doing it to her. And most of those jinxes and hexes did not sound pleasant. The memory of being on the wrong end of the Bat Bogey Hex in the dueling arena was a little too fresh in her mind, not to mention being the target dummy for her sisters to practice on too many times to mention. Of course the latter reason was probably why she had gotten quite good at a shield charm.

Talk of Quidditch relaxed her nerves slightly. Grinning back at Nancy as she hugged her, she said, "See, did I tell you that you'd make the team? You did awesome at tryouts." Beaming back at her, she added, "Yes, I'm sooo excited to play Keeper! Just, uh, don't hit any bludgers my way." The Ravenclaw girl was mostly joking, though, as she knew that was just a risk of the game. Besides, the Keepers usually weren't in much danger of being hit as they stayed at the end of the pitch.

Mariel frowned as the little Hufflepuff girl was able to deflect both hexes. She was pretty sure the girl was a first year, so how was it that she was able to cast such a durable shield? Mariel narrowed her eyes and watched the girl suspiciously. She glanced back at Nancy as the girl apologized and shrugged. Turning back to the younger girl, she said slowly, "Uh, no need to apologize. It is the assignment after all." Although being vigilant, then interrupted was getting annoying when trying to have a conversation. So the girl didn't seem like she wanted to take on both of them, but Mariel kept a suspicious eye on her just to be sure. No way was she letting her guard down.

Acquiring her malicious grin again, Mariel turned to Nancy. "You know," she said slowly, "Now would be the perfect time to get back at Mr. Cat-Kicker. You can hex him and not even get a detention. Blame it on the assignment." No sooner did she have that thought when Mariel heard footsteps yet again. This was starting to get irritating. Gripping her wand even tighter, she saw a Gryffidor boy that seemed kind of familiar come around the corner. "Nancy, look out!" she exclaimed as she saw the boy point his wand at her back. Now would be the perfect time to try the enlarged shield the professor taught her. Sweeping her wand upwards in Chris's direction, she added a horizontal shift ending with a flick and commanded, "Protego!" Instantly a shield appeared in front of her blocking all three girls from the hex the boy cast. She hadn't intentionally shielded the Huffie who just dared to hex her, but she was still in their vicinity so it worked out that way.