Excellent? Well then...excellent.

Smirk.

Eying the group of people that stood in front of her, she sighed quietly and walked up the steps to the stage instead of hopping up the short way; taking out her wand as she did so. Although, was it bad that she felt uncomfortable standing near Shorty McShortShorty? And it wasn't because he was a dueling champion for how many years...

o.O

One hand straight in the air, Aiden excitingly, but darkly provide her answer. "No harmful spells," she says with a smirk on her face. Not all harmful spells are the Dark Arts, aren't they? Like the Blasting Curse, for example.

Victoria thought about all the possible answers. She had never been to a dueling club meeting before, though she decided to try it this time. The name interested her...dueling...it may come in handy some day.

"Be fair...and be respectful even it if is a duel." replied Victoria. She know that a Slytherin shouldn't say this but... "Give mercy to the...loosing opponent." said Victoria. "There is no need to kill."

Kennedy sat there, listening to his classmates answers and thought of some that have not been mentioned. He raised his hand and said, "Once one of the opponents are disarmed the duel is over," he said. Kennedy was pretty sure that was one of the rules.

A standard rule of dueling or the difference between a formal and an informal duel? Hm... Vashti was certain she knew what the difference between the two types of duels was, but for whatever reason the answer wouldn't come. It was surely in her notes somewhere, but she didn't feel like getting them out just yet. So she'd just have to go with what she did know.

With her hand raised, she answered, "Wands are necessary for dueling, sir. Performing wandless magic - like Apparating - isn't allowed."

Eino had returned to the room to practice, so he had noticed the board with the standard dueling rules. Alas, by the time it was his turn all of the rules he remembered were pointed out, but all of the sudden another came to his mind. "Potion effects are not allowed." He said with his hand high in the air. He supposed Wit Sharpening Potions and a variety of others could be very helpful in duels, but it wouldn't be fair.

He wasn't precisely late, but he wasn't there when Mr. Spenser (yes, the dude no longer goes by 'dwarf') had started, so, he had no other choice but to sit quietly and listen to what people were saying...and...why was Evelyn joining Mr. Spenser over there, eh?

She was going to hex them all, he had a feeling that's what she was going to do. She had that look on her face...or some other kind of look he didn't recognize, but yeah, at least it wasn't him up there. All good.

The Prefect actually moved seats to be near Arya and remained quiet. Was there something else he could mention? Nothing came to mind at the moment.

Kourtney waved towards Kurumi as she saw the prefect enter the room. Before long, the meeting was called to order and the instructor explained what they would be covering today. Healing Spells...awesome! Those would definitely come in handy.

A number of students were answering the rules to standard dueling so Kourtney decided to answer the second part of the instructors question. Raising a hand, she spoke. "Sir, formal duels have a set of rules, the standard dueling rules, and they take place in tournaments or when one wizard challenges another. Informal duels do not respect the standard dueling rules, instead the duelists agree on a set a different rules."

louise walked into the great hall. she was told a class was in here, she looking around, she listening to the teacher and the other students

Jonathan looked at the professor when he asked the first question. He was at the first meeting so he could recap most of the rules. And the rules were easy anyway. Even if you weren't in the first meeting you would still know. Standard procedures as always. It's not that hard.

"No physical contact whatsoever to your opponents. We have wands to do the work already" he smiled. Well, it would be unfair to punch someone in the face right. So yeah, no physical contact. If you win, you win. If you lose, you lose.

Raven raised her hand and answer the question.

"We must use our wand. Non verbal spell, using potion, using curse, transform become an animagus is strictly prohibited. Am I right?" said her

Er, rules? Sarah couldn't think of any in her excitement. "Hm, we mustn't have any physical contact with our opponents" Lame one. Sheesh. "We should not use any illegal or highly fatal spells or unforgivable curses in our duel" she spoke again.

"Correct. No Dark Magic is allowed, especially the Unforgivable Curses. Those three will lead you straight to Azkaban. However, not all spells categorized as curses are prohibited. Petrifying Curse, Blasting Curse, Conjunctivitis Curse, Curse of the Bogies, and some examples of curses that are allowed."

"Not necessarily. While the purpose is to disarm your opponent and not injure him or her, harming is inevitable in a duel. Some wizards won't surrender their wands until they are unconscious, so it quite common for injuries to occur. But, Dark Magic is never allowed."

"Very good, young Slytherin! Always respect your opponent and yourself."

"Yes. The duel ends when one wizard can no longer duel, and since physical contact is prohibited that means the duel ends when one wizard is disarmed. Very good."

"Correct. The wand is all a wizard has during a duel, which is why it's so important to know your wand's strengths."

"Precisely! In some duels, a Nullifying Solution is consumed by both duelists just to assure that they aren't cheating."

"Excellent, young Gryffindor! Nicely put, too. Formal duels respect the standard dueling rules and informal duels do not."

"Exactly! Wands do the work, so when you lose yours, you're out of luck."

"Non verbal spells are acceptable and more common than verbal spells. It helps conceal the spell you are casting from your opponent so it gives you an advantage. But at your age, you're better off casting spells verbally."

"Can't stress that one enough." This was probably the one rule Gnaeus was most concerned with. "No physical contact! Very good."

Gnaeus looked up at the Head Girl and contemplated shrinking her to his size for a moment, but decided not to in the end. "Now, for our demonstration." He spoke to the students, then retracted a few steps and he pulled out his wand. "Ready, Miss Flores?" He asked the girl as he raised his hand and pointed his wand directly at her. Then, the old man flicked his wand a red light shot from the end of his wand, making its way directly at the Head Girl.

Miss Flores for demonstration.

Shooting a quick glance at the Slytherin girl, Josh quickly turned his head to the other side to avoid seeing her. He had been having a nice day until he had heard the name and now he felt like quitting the club. Was not there any way to protect himself from the feeling? Maybe he was supposed to focus on everything BUT her.

So, he focused his dark brown eyes on Cassie and Marilyn instead, just listening to the duelling champion man. It sounded like 'the demonstration' was about to begin. Too bad he was not going to watch it. Nevertheless, when the old but cool man asked the girl if she was ready, the Gryffindor could not help staring at that direction...

...only to see a fast ray of red light coming towards the girl.

O_O

''NO!'' he yelled before he could know what he was doing and threw himself forward to the red light.

Cassie listened as the others recapped the last meeting. She nodded approvingly at the answers, but did not for a second miss Josh trying to ignore Evelyn. Well that wouldn't be easy.

She sighed and looked back at the professor as he prepared to get started. The next thing she knew Josh was yelling and diving forward. She made a desperate grab for him to pull him back from the light.

"Joshua have you lost your bloody mind?"

Arya shook her head at Josh, not at all surprised by his action and completely amused. Gryffindors. Did he really think that Evelyn couldn't defend herself from the spell? She briefly glanced over at her co-prefect when he joined the meeting, turning her attention then to her other Puff friend who was attempting to stop Josh. There really was no stopping Gryffindors when they set their minds to something crazy.

Louisa just nodded her head at every answer her classmates had said. She knew all of them but was too distracted by the 'dragon-chandeliers' to raise her own. Her attention went quickly toward the dwarf when he addressed Head Girl for demonstration...

...or tried to when that Gryffindor threw himself forward.

Louisa sucked a breath of surprise at this sudden action but then scoffed. Was he really that immature to think that Mr. Perfect Duelist would harm a student? HEH. Gryffindors and their urges of 'saving' people.

What the???

She saw a silly gryffindor boy tried to save the Head Girl.

Is he mad? I know Evelyn is great at duelling. How.. silly a love was

She didn't like the look he was giving her. Aw well, that moment ended as quickly as it started. "Yes, of course." she nodded, raising her wand up and ready to put up a quick shield charm. This should be easy enough. Unless he was going to get all Dueling Champion at her and blast her off her feet. Tricky tricky...

Staring at Mr. Spenser, just as he made a movement other than walking or breathing, Evelyn gave a wave of her wand horizontally like practiced in the previous lesson, from right to left and back to the starting point, before saying, "Protego."

And then...

Then that happened.

What in Merlin's beard? What was he doing? She hadn't even seen him in the room until now...

Carson walked in the room. 'So this is the Dueling Club' he thought to himself.

Victoria beamed when Mr. Spenser replied to her. See...she's already catching up even for her absence from the last Dueling Club Meeting. Snakes slithers fast... But Victoria didn't like it much when the Dueling Champion called her 'young Slytherin'. O___o Victoria's fifteen, that's older than most of the students at Hogwarts!

Heehee...now that they're going to see the Slytherin Head Girl demonstrate a Protection Shield. Looks like it's quite a show time.

Carson had no idea what was going on, but he had his wand out, just in case

louise looking on at the demonstrate, she knew no magic so this would be good training for her, she put up her hand " sir do you want me to demonstrate with you"

Almost immediately after casting the spell Gnaeus heard a loud shout and an even louder thud. The red light barely hit the Gryffindor's boy head, but the spell was so powerful that it knocked him out as it continued to make its way towards the girl. Evelyn didn't let that distract her and she successfully bewitched a magical shield, shattering the red light into small pieces and nullifying the spell.

Noticing the ruckus, Gnaeus followed the students' eyes and found an unconscious Joshua lying on the floor by the stage. Joshua... a Gryffindor. No, Gnaeus wasn't surprise. He ignored the boy and turned his attention the the head girl. "Thank you, Miss Flores, that was an impeccable Shield Charm. You may return to your seat." He said and smiled. As the girl did so, Gnaeus levitated Joshua's body and left it dangling in the air.

"I've think we've had enough demonstrations for now, young Hufflepuff." Gnaeus said and winked.

Then he turned and addressed all of the students. "For those of you who are new, that was a perfect demonstration of the Shield Charm. Make note of it and remember to practice it when you have some free time."

"Now, that" he said glancing at the dangling body, "is a perfect demonstration of what not to do during a duel. But, we will be learning Counter Spells today, so let's look at this as an opportunity to learn." He then paused and lowered his voice. "Just don't tell your Headmaster I kept a student unconscious for this long." He said and winked.

"Back to the Shield Charm... It's extremely useful because most of the time you won't be able to identify a spell in time to use a specific Counter Spell, and the Shield Charm can protect against most spells, so it's the perfect go-to Counter Spell.

Now that you've seen the spell's effect," He said pointing at Joshua "who can tell me what spell I used? And let's talk about identifying spells in general. There three things that can help you identify a spell, what are they?"

Kita blinked. Okay, she usually admired the courage Gryffindor's showed but was that really the right move? Meh. Guess that just shows the power of feelings.

But anyways. Back to the professor. What spell did he use? Her eyes shifted between the professor, to the dangling boy and then back again. "Er... Professor?" she asked raising her hand, "Did you use the Stunning spell?" It usually projected a scarlet light... right?

... This was unusual for her. But was Kita going to stop? No.

Now onto the next question. "Is one of them the colour of the jet of light that is released from the wand after you've, er, said the spell?" she said, her hand still poised in the air. That should help identify a spell right?