"I promise I'll take good care of 'em, Lex.", was the boy's thank you to the prefect for offering to lend him her books. Like his own personal defense library.

Cutty was now wearing an amused smile over Lex's advice to talk to his parents. It didn't sound like a negotiation, more like a request. Which only worked if one was spoilt. "Does that actually wehrk...on yer dad?" He asked almost as if he were expecting her to have been joshing. Could it be that Lex was actually rich AND spoiled beyond even what Cutty had imagined?

The Slytherin considered the aims of the possible test. Responsibility. Did Romanos like to see that? She struck Cutty as a pacifist. Even when her class was in chaos he'd long wait to see the day that she manhandled one of her students as did Bellaire. So, maybe smiles and a certain gentle air would go a long way with her. He aimed and fired at another dummy positioned away from Lex, feeling suddenly more energized. "Reducto!", he casted this time rendering the dummy into a fine powder.

Sweet. This was going well. At this rate, she'd be able to finish her homework and get out of there soon. All she had to do was practice, probably until she thought she'd had enough. Wasn't there a saying, like practice until you couldn't get it wrong? Something like that.

"Reducto." Hard flick to the right, and then to the left. The ray shot out of her wand and hit the dummy, causing it to explode. She liked when it did that. It was cool, and also meant her spell had worked.

Observing people was fun. Leah realized what her problem was. Swift flick of the wrist was the key. Pointing her wand at the dummy, she said, "Reducto!" with a sideways 'v'.

A blue beam of light appeared and went straight for the dummy. It was not strong enough to take the shield down but it hit it in the head. Yeah, success! The second year went to drink some water and got ready for another practice. She could do it now, it was only a matter of time and practice.

Oh how sneaky. Trying to get him back in to that...place... If he wasn't so curious and driven to find things out he would have ignored that comment. But he really wanted to learn that Tarantula spell so he made a mental note to visit the Library again. There was just one problem.

"Not sure if the Librarian is so happy to see me, he was really reluctant giving these dueling books to me" He chuckled at the memory of the man holding his precious books close to him when Kevin had been at the Library.

It seemed that the Professor was unaware of the dummy racing towards him and the Gryffindor tried to keep a normal expression, but at the same time he was laughing on the inside. 'Please hit him...please hit hiiiim' YES!

Laughing really hard now, the twinkles in Kevin's eyes sparked when the Professor got hit by the dummy in between his shoulder blades and then he...bwahaha ... he actually lunge forward! THIS WAS PRICELESS! .....it would have been better if he actually fell down. The man had a really good balance despite having one arm tied.

He watched the green electrical sparks of light fly over him though and Kevin was a little sad that he had missed that but when the spell hit the back wall and exploded he was happy again. "Did you hear that BANG?!" Yeah he was quite proud of that. And totally wasn't thinking about what could have happened if it had hit a person instead of a wall...

The second year shrugged his shoulders. "It's not forbidden right? I see it as a new technique" he grinned. And even if it was forbidden in a duel, did he look like he cared? No.

Avis? This was another spell Kevin didn't know and he readied himself when the small flock of fat birds flew towards him. "Protego!" He shouted. A shield formed around him and he grinned again. But then the shield around him seemed to dissapear and his eyes widened as the birds flew right through his badly made shield.

"ow ow ow!" he cried as the birds poked their beaks against his head. Some even tucking at his hair. "oww..okay ..stop it" he said, actually to the birds than to the Professor as he tried to swat the birds away from his face.

"I know you will." Lex said with a firm nod and a glance at Cutty. "I reckon you'll take real good care of 'em. Not a scratch on 'em that Felix didn't put there when I get them back because you're smart." Smart enough to know what would happen if he'd marred any of her precious babies. When Lex used candy money to buy books things were all kinds of serious. Her dealer of all people should know this.

Lex took aim at another dummy but her wand lowered as she gave him a curious look over. Did what work? Telling his parents to find a new system? She couldn't see why it wouldn't. "Of course it does. It always has. If I don't like something I'll say it and we find something that does suit me. He likes me happy and I like me happy so compromise is easy to make." As it should be. Why so surprized?

"I imagine you'd just need a convincing enough argument or a little less compliance on your part. You can't bend when they want you to or they themselves won't need to bend for you." Got it?

Now where was she? Oh right. "Reducto!" The satisfaction of the explosion was heightened by the quality of the fine dust this one had made. Lovely, wasn't it?

Marigold cleared her throat and all that. She bounced lightly on her toes psyche herself up and did some jumping jacks to warm up. Then she pointed her wand directly at the dummy. "Reducto!" she said clearing, making the sideways v with her wand. She held her breath, then sighed it out. She had done the v the wrong way AGAIN even though she had just reviewed it. Sigh. She paced in front of the dummy, making the correct wand movement over and over to drill it into her mind.

Lucy thought: "if this attempt works .. I'll be satisfied!"
"Reducto!"
The spell had worked and Lucy smiled as the spell hit the dummy.

................... He was being stared at. He could FEEL it.

The fourteen year old furrowed his eyebrows before looking RIGHT over at the person doing the staring. A boy. An older looking boy. He watched him curiously for a couple of seconds, maybe even looking him up and down quickly. What exactly was he staring at? Was it him or his duelling abilities with this dummy? Either way, he gave the boy a short nod of acknowledgement. Hello.

Deciding to show the boy what he was made of, Grayson drew up to his fullest height and turned to the dummy again. Come on, just blast to smithereens already, mkay? He waited until it had reintegrated itself, maybe even twirling his wand around in his fingers as he did so. Just looking cool and waiting, no biggie.

"Reducto!"

And............. THERE went the head. Only the head, mind you, but it had blasted right off.

SMIRK.

"Of course I will, Cambridge. Like they were m'own babies." Cutty Mordaunt couldn't take care of babies! But these wouldn't be the first precious books left in his care that he'd handled with the utmost respect. They were sources of knowledge, afterall and an impervious charm went a long way.

Cutty held a blank face as he surveyed the situation around him and realized that Lex thought he was compliant toward the balancing act. He was half-tempted to let her continue thinking this, but she'd just called him smart and he could either lie and lose or win through admittance of sin. That latter seemed more feasible. At least with Cambridge.


"A convincing argument might work. I'm allowed to negotiate, but outright asking for something would confuse them and cause more severe bindings. I'm not actually going along with their wishes, but I'm trying to make it look that way. For their benefit. So that when they do start getting strict, I can remind them of this occasion. Also, they're divorced and I've started taking advantage of that situation, but it's sort of a balancing act. Because now they can communicate with one another and I'm not present to spy." Also, he worked alone and no extendable ear in the world was known to have worked over the distances he was talking. And that was really the half of it. "Also, they don't care if I'm happy." He added matter-of-factly.

It was all in sharp contrast to how violently he smithereened the now pulled-together defense dummy to a cosmetic-grade consistency with a "REDUCTO!"

A few more times should be good. Practice makes perfect. As soon as the dummy had regenerated itself, Hayden assumed what she thought would be a proper dueling stance. "Reducto," she shouted a little louder than she'd meant to. But her sharp flick to the right and back to the left insured that her spell worked. The dummy blew up again. She grinned and waited for it to come back.

Hayden was not very good at being patient, so she was glad the dummy didn't take too long to regenerate. As soon as it did she was ready to do the spell again. "Reducto." Right, then left, followed by the explosion of the dummy. She was getting good; blowing the dummy up very consistently.

"Reducto." Right. Left. Explosion. After a few more tries with no mistakes, Hayden figured she could be done practicing. She was very confident in her ability to blow things up. Now that she thought about it, teaching children how to blow things up was not a great idea. She shrugged and headed back to the common room.

It would a interesting discussion if Nigel missed and hit something he was not suppose to. But not going to worry about anything right now. He had an assignment thing he was almost done with, he thinks.

Nigel flung his wand behind his back and cast "Reducto"

He would have hit a kidney if a person would not move when a spell is cast. But that is just wishful thinking.

Maybe.

That was exactly what she wanted to hear, that he'd treat them like his own babies. The thought of this didn't worry her in the slightest. On the contrary, Cutty was the type to care things, one of the more thorough among the Hogwartians in that respect and it made it easy to promise her books to him. "You have to tell me exactly what you have in mind though, so I can know which ones to lend you."

The blank look didn't register with Lex who'd been too busy watching the dummy right itself in preparation for another blast but his words got her attention again...well..it was more like his explanation.

Divorce. That seemed where her father and step-mum were headed right about now but it hardly made a difference in how she'd be treated. The Gryffindor didn't think a thing like that would matter in the grand scheme of things. "Why do you want them thinking you do what they want?" It was a question asked out of genuine curiosity. Not for the life of her could she figure out why it'd be important to appear compliant in order to achieve an end. It just never seemed like the thing to do. "And if they don't care about your happiness then it's the perfect excuse to be selfish about it. Decide you'll make yourself happy if no one else will."

Yes, Cutty was proving to be an interesting one. Interesting family background really. A split family that didn't care whether he was happy or not yet he seemed so content. There was clearly something missing in this puzzle. A piece of the story she wasn't getting. Lex raised her wand again, momentarily pushing that thought from her mind so she could get in a clear shot. "Reducto!" Any less focus and that might have been a disappointing blast. See why focus was important? Sure the dust was fine, but it'd been finer with an earlier blast.

How could Lex not be a strategist? Surely, she'd know what he was doing with his parents...

"Maybe, something latent with coercion & spells for persuasion?" Wherever this plotting to help him get books of his own was going, he was probably going to need that.

...Surely, she'd been in a situation where someone didn't care a lick about her and had tried a taste of honey. If Mr. Cambridge was ambitious enough to have carved himself out the nice living that afford Lex sweets at her disposal, he was probably Slytherin. And if he was Slytherin, he was probably using a taste of honey on Lex even as they spoke. Give her this. Give her that. Give her anything she wants to assure peace and just enough co-operation that she isn't a problem. The thing of it was, though, Lex didn't strike him as a pet to be soothed and satiated. Ergo, this plan would only work for so long. Sooner or later, she'd want more. Avarice suited her well.

Why?...Because a well-stocked arsenal has many weapons. If you keep applying the same strategy to different problems, however effective they might be at first, eventually you'll run into diversity and it could be at a time most inconvenient to test problem-solving theories. No. Shorten it. "Because they aren't likely to bother me if they think nothing is wrong. It's a tip I got from a muggle virus when I was considering being a Healer." Many illnesses laid dormant until too late. The silent killers.

"And, heeey, I'm plenty selfish!" He said looking a bit hurt that she would think he'd not be considered selfish. He pointed his want and shot out a series of arrows, which whipped through the air and landed themselves in various parts of the dummy.

"Did you ever recover your candy bag?" He asked, wondering out loud.

Something latent with coercion & spells for persuasion?

Lex shifted her weight from one leg to the next, going through her list of books in her mind. There would be at least one that would give him the desired results though spells had never been necessary to get what she wanted, not from her father anyway and not even from her step-mother who never liked a bone in the Gryffindor's body. "Reckon I can find you one like that." At least one, but there could have been more.

It was definitely strange even after Cutty had tried explaining it to her. She supposed it made a world of sense to remain under radar so they wouldn't think there's a need to step in and muddle up plans but that didn't prevent the creasing of her brows or the way she suddenly looked like she was trying to solve an equation. "Uh-huh..." She began slowly, the gears in her head turning. "And what happens when the psuedo-compliance is unveiled for what it really is?" If they caught him in an act they never thought they would...did they just move on....? Would he be chastized...? She'd always thought it best to let others know her stance from the very beginning. It avoided misunderstandings later on. Or maybe she still wasn't understanding anything at all. Getting one's way never struck her as difficult and calculative.

She grinned at his protest, seeing the hurt at not being considered a full on member of the selfish club. "Alright alright, you're a selfish little beast that only cares about what happens to him." She said giving him a light jab to the forward. "Most people I know'd be offended if I called them selfish." For reasons she could never understand.

"And I did. Felix had hidden it for me knowing my memory'd gone all out of sorts so I wouldn't lose it myself." Her kneazle was dead useful, even more so than most could understand.

Maddie made her way into the dueling arena quietly and with hands dug deep into her pockets. Brown eyes scanned the place, noting any familiar faces before they rested on a set of dummies not currently being used. Those would do nicely for homework, she decided. And so the first year made her way over to them and let her bag slip from her shoulder, landing on the floor with a thud. Books spilled out from inside and she hasitly nudged them back with her foot, anxious to get started.

After making sure she had her wand at the ready and that no one was paying her much interest, she decided she was ready to give the spell a go. Professor Romanos had complimented her on her attempts in class but praise did little to satisfy Maddie's desire to get this spell perfectly. Wanted to add it to her bag of tricks, y'see. And she'd only be able to do THAT once she mastered it.

"Reducto...reducto...reducto...reducto."

It didn't help that these dummies weren't particularly menacing in the way the zombie pinata had been. She needed to use her imagination to fix that and after thinking up a particularly desireable target, she smiled a little and took a step back. NOW she was ready.

Narrowed eyes focused and the twelve year old took a deep breath before uttering the words, "Reducto." Her wand flicked to the right and then to the left and she watched as light, a blue shade, left her wand...

But that's all that happened, just light.

SIGH.

Was the other kid still watching? Was he?

HE'D BETTER BE.

Grayson twirled his wand around in his fingers -- or tried to -- while he waited for the dummy to reintegrate itself. It was kind of a surreal experience, watching as pieces of the head latched together and went back to its place again. Uh huh. Surreal and freaking weird. It was probably because of this that the boy found himself not being able to look away from the dummy.

He stopped twirling his wand around on his fingers once the dummy had re-attached itself. Pretending that the thing was a zombie had worked a lot better; it had added a certain sense of............ was it desperation? Whatever. There was something about pretending this thing was actually alive and ready to gnaw on his flesh that made him more motivated. Maybe it was the zombie part. MAYBE.

"Reducto!" Flick to the right and then flick to the left.

....................... Okay so that was closer to its heart than he had expected. Right below its neck wasn't BAD. It certainly made the head blast off again and most of the torso, leaving slightly larger chunks of its legs behind.

No, this meant that he needed to try AGAIN.

SPOILER!!: watch out for the magical bird poop? :3

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckyLinJi

Oh how sneaky. Trying to get him back in to that...place... If he wasn't so curious and driven to find things out he would have ignored that comment. But he really wanted to learn that Tarantula spell so he made a mental note to visit the Library again. There was just one problem.

"Not sure if the Librarian is so happy to see me, he was really reluctant giving these dueling books to me" He chuckled at the memory of the man holding his precious books close to him when Kevin had been at the Library.

It seemed that the Professor was unaware of the dummy racing towards him and the Gryffindor tried to keep a normal expression, but at the same time he was laughing on the inside. 'Please hit him...please hit hiiiim' YES!

Laughing really hard now, the twinkles in Kevin's eyes sparked when the Professor got hit by the dummy in between his shoulder blades and then he...bwahaha ... he actually lunge forward! THIS WAS PRICELESS! .....it would have been better if he actually fell down. The man had a really good balance despite having one arm tied.

He watched the green electrical sparks of light fly over him though and Kevin was a little sad that he had missed that but when the spell hit the back wall and exploded he was happy again. "Did you hear that BANG?!" Yeah he was quite proud of that. And totally wasn't thinking about what could have happened if it had hit a person instead of a wall...

The second year shrugged his shoulders. "It's not forbidden right? I see it as a new technique" he grinned. And even if it was forbidden in a duel, did he look like he cared? No.

Avis? This was another spell Kevin didn't know and he readied himself when the small flock of fat birds flew towards him. "Protego!" He shouted. A shield formed around him and he grinned again. But then the shield around him seemed to dissapear and his eyes widened as the birds flew right through his badly made shield.

"ow ow ow!" he cried as the birds poked their beaks against his head. Some even tucking at his hair. "oww..okay ..stop it" he said, actually to the birds than to the Professor as he tried to swat the birds away from his face.

Reluctant? To lend students books? Well, look who was being a party pooper librarian. Besides, it wasn't as though any of those spells in dueling texts were not listed in other subjects, especially in Defense Against the Dark Arts textbooks. Everything was just consolidated into one place for easy reference.

"You could always read the book IN the library and write down spells on parchment," he shrugged nonchalantly. True story. Wouldn't raise suspicions or concerns either.

Still stumbling about a little thanks to the dummy, but the BOOM behind him made him lose his balance once again. Airey's feet caught on one another and he ended up standing daaaaaaaangerously close to one side of the platform with his right foot. His left entirely left the platform and wiggled frantically in the air while the one hand that wasn't tied against his side waved and attempted to help him rebalance. Both feet eventually found their place back on the platform so he was facing the wall instead of the Gryffindor, butt stick way waaaaaay out as he leaned forward so far that his head could touch his forehead to his knees. But he WASN'T falling off.

Especially with Mr. Hirase being preoccupied with the birds. Very smart move on his behalf, if he said so himself. Heh.

And he did. HEH!

"WATCH OUT FOR THE MAGICAL POOP!" he taunted as he poised himself and returned to his starting position and adjusting his tie. Yep. All composed now. He honestly didn't believe that the birds would poop on him, especially seeing as they were conjured creatures and not something of the natural world. Hadn't ingested anything to make said bird poop either. He had only said it to push his opponents buttons some more.

Merlin. WHY was he thinking about magical bird droppings in the middle of a duel?

Deciding to put Mr. Hirase out of his misery, for now, he gave another wave of his wand and made the small flock of birds explode into a shower of feathers that began falling over the young man's head like downy snow. JUST feathers, mind you. No bird guts or anything. JUST feathers.

Cutty, satisfied with where the book conversation had gone, was lunging forward preparing to perform a binding spell when Lex asked another question about his strategy. He withdrew his weapon and considered how best to explain this. "That's the beauty of 'Pseudo' anything. Having one foot in and one foot out means it's hard to pin anything concrete on yer. It also never hurts to always make sure what yer doin' could be easily explained away as something else. It's not like I'm sneakin' out of m'house at night to go visit boys." Although, the moment he'd said it, Cutty thought about what an awesome idea that might be. Sneakin' around after dark. "Besides, I'm Slytherin. We don't get caught. And if we are caught, we get out of it." Just like that? Reeeaaaally, Mordaunt? Although, with Cassia Somerlad to follow in example there might have been some truth to his statement.

Looking very satisfied at having been included amongst the selfish, Cutty considered his binding spell once more. "What sort of cat is Felix again?"

"Incarcerous!" He said flinging the ropes from his wand tip around the dummy and capturing it in a tangled looking hold.

Practical parts of homework were always fun. They were ALWAYS better than writing essays. Blegh. The twelve year old made his way to the dueling area and looking at the familiar faces around - doing the exact same homework Professor Romanos had assigned.

Spotting the girl from yearbook, Noel walked forward to settle in beside her.

"Hello." He greeted before taking his wand out.

The dummies in front weren't the zombies they had to work in class, which was a shame really. He would have felt the same zest if the professor had charmed the dummies to be fake zombies too.

ANYWAY.

Aiming his wand, the Hufflepuff casted the spell: "REDUCTO!" the wand movement went right and then left. Eh. The dummy shifted a little, like really little but nothing else. So he tried again: "REDUCTO!"

Freaking dumb dummy just needed to blast itself into smithereens already.

How much time had passed since he was here? A lot. A lot a lot. Wasn't he only meant to do this for half an hour throughout the week? Not that he had anything useful to do and this WAS the best piece of homework he had received so far. Still. He didn't want to stay here ALL DAY LONG. He had other things he COULD be doing like annoying someone with Bertie Botts beans and smirks galore or figuring out more secrets about the castle.

MAN, he needed a hobby.

Later later. Right now, the dummy was back to its normal self and he needed to defeat this thing once and for all. It was a matter of ego, after all. And survival. If he was way up in the colder regions where those zombies stayed, the last thing he wanted to do was end up dying because he was not confident enough or didn't summon enough willpower for his spell. It was all or nothing up there and sooooo it was all or nothing over here too. Against this dummy.

Grayson rolled up his sleeves, glaring at the dummy as he did so. Intent and willpower and yeah yeah yeah. He HAD that. Plenty of willpower was inside of him. It was just a matter of aiming correctly at this point. "REDUCTO!" A blue light shot out of his wand and hit the dummy squarely at its chest and..........

................... it was blasted away. Into smithereens.

FREAKING. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEES. THAT was more like it.

Cue a whoop of victory from the Slytherin.

He was also going to ignore the fact that the dummy was re-integrating itself. Again. He didn't care.

Kevin decided to come back to the dueling arena to practise the Reducto spell again after two days of non-practise. He didn't really care about doing homework or not but he did wanted to perfect his spells so as the Gryffindor entered the room, he flicked his wrist and his wand fell out of its wrist holster.

He walked straight to the area with the dummies , ignoring the other students practising as well and with a wave of his wand he levitated a dummy to a corner. Yes he had practised Wingardium Leviosa and had finally mastered it completely. Setting the dummy down, away from the others, Kevin pointed his wand at it and made a V kind of slash to the right while saying; "Reducto!" Blue light shot out of his wand and he watched it hit the dummy.

The blast hadn't been hard enough to actually blow up the dummy as there was only a hole near it's stomach area. The boy groaned loudly, and blamed the stupid wand for this. Taking a deep breath, the young Gryffindor raised his wand to try again.

Maddie was mumbling threatening things to the practice dummies as someone came up beside her. She quickly ended her current statement and glanced to her side, eyebrows raised. Who DARE disturb her when she was in the middle of such important things, HM?

Ah yes, yearbook boy. The small brunette considered him for a minute or two before smiling slightly. "Hello to you too."

Noting that the boy seemed ready to begin, the twelve year old watched his first attempt curiously. Definite feeling behind his words but no real result. Much like her first attempt, actually. She shrugged and turned back to her own target, eyes narrowing once again.

Ahem.

"Reducto!" With a flick of the wand to the right and then left, the first year watched as the blue light emanated from the tip of her wand and shot out towards the dummy. Her brown eyes widened as the thing began to shake but it DIDN'T destroy it. Sigh...sigh sigh sigh.

She hated to fail, y'know? More so when there were people watching. No matter, she'd get it NEXT time. She was determined to, especially now that she had an audience in the form of a Hufflepuff boy.

Well. She was small but she was not SMALL SMALL, you know? She had that feisty thing going on - because by the looks of it, either she would make sure she got the spell right or destroy the dummy with her bare hands.

Noel didn't disturb her when she tried again to do the spell. But much like him she failed. Blegh.

"I don't understand what we are doing wrong," he mused - flicking his wand in practice from right to left like the professor had explained in the class. "Maybe we are not hating the dummy enough - " he added, before trying again.

"REDUCTO!"

Blegh. No response.

It was, as if the dummy was mocking him.

"REDUCTO! REDUCTOOO!"

Okay. Now he was feeling frustrated.

Not hating the dummy enough? "Sort of hard to hate an inanimate object." True, that was. "Besides, you don't look like the hating type." THAT was also true.

As the brunette listened to the older boy continue practicing his spell, she perfected the action. She made sure to be powerful in her flicking movements, to mean it when she did it. Then she straightened up nice and tall and cleared her throat. SHE was going to try now, okay?

"Maybe it's not so much about hating as it is about knowing exactly what you want to happen and believing that it WILL happen." Determination and all that. Didn't much matter how you felt about something if you knew you could destroy it regardless.

And Maddie? SHE was going to destroy this target RIGHT now. She COULD do this. She was Maddison Maddie Arabella Cooper and SHE was awesome. SO awesome, in fact, that she was part of a super secret CLUB. YUP. So destroying this dummy was going to be a THING and she could celebrate it LATER.

Brown eyes focused on the dummy's head and the first year focused all of her energy there. She could see what was going to happen clearly in her mind and she held on to that as she took a deep breath.

"Reducto!" With a flick to the right and then to the left, the small claw watched the blue light leave her wand and...

blow. the. head. right. off. the dummy.

Ashes.

There were ashes.

"Did you SEE that?" Never mind the torso part was still there. IT HAD NO HEAD!

He did not look like the hating type? Noel couldn't help but roll his eyes. She clearly didn't know him. Well. Technically, she really didn't. "What type do I look again?" he asked out of curiosity, and aiming at the dummy once again: "Reducto"

Huh.

And now she was making sense. What she said, Noel nodded at that. Determination. Check.

But before he went for another hit, he watched her. And his OF COURSE his eyes widened."YES I DID! HOLY MOLY THAT WAS SO FREAKIN' COOL."

Determined, and pumped up as ever - the twelve year old pointed at his own dummy, blocking everything else out and shouted the spell: REDUCTO! followed by the quick wand moment.

AND BLAST. It wasn't ashes like the girl beside her - but the dummy broke into large pieces. Waho.

"Can we do that .. to every dummy over here?" he asked, voice small in awe.