Sophie was glad Hady and Zeke were helping each other out - there was power in camaraderie and talking this kind of stuff out, she knew - and when a breathless girl came hurrying into the practice room, the prefect raised her eyebrows in surprise. Had she come for the patronus practice?

Considering how she was walking right over to Sophie, it seemed so.

The Ravenclaw offered the girl a welcoming smile and a nod as she came over and began talking quiet nervously, and tried to find a good way to stand that was friendly and reassuring that Sapphire didn't need to be so anxious. The Gryffindor's curiosity was endearing, though, and it made Sophie's smile grow even more.

"Well... unfortunately, m'not sure this is the kinda thing that y'can do quickly. Took me two years to be able to produce a full corporeal patronus. But... well, if you know the incantation - Expecto Patronum - and the wand movement, which is like this," she demonstrated with her own wand, waving it in a circular motion. "y'can go ahead and give it a try, just to see where you're at." Meaning... whether or not the kid could even get the tiniest of mist to come out. If not, that probably meant some self-reflection was in order. "Y'gotta make sure you find a memory, though - a memory so happy that it'll fill you up from head to toe. It's gotta fill your whole being, so... I'd start there."

That would be enough for Sapphire to start working, wouldn't it? "I'll be right here if y'need any help or have any questions," she reassured further with a smile.

Marsha didn’t really know how she was supposed to go about practising by herself… but she had heard a few of her housemates talking about the practise they did before Christmas on their defense work and she figured this room was a good place to start. Hopefully nothing would explode on her, and the room itself would be equipped to help her learn.

Or, that was the plan at least.

As she pushed the door open, she looked around and didn’t really see much of anything. She was too busy trying to look at everything all at once; whoops. Shaking her head slightly, she took more attention to look around. She noticed the other door which she had heard held the obstacle course but she wasn’t here for that… she was nowhere NEAR ready for that. Heh. Right now, she simply wanted to try some of the defense charms and jinxes that they had been trying before Christmas and that she had been reading about in her books.

Moving around the room until she found an area beside a dresser that wasn’t TOO high, Marsha but her book bag on the floor before setting her Defense textbook on the dresser with her wand next to it. Her fingers stroked the Griffin feather absentmindedly as she opened the book to the page about the smokescreen spell. They had been told it would be in their first class after Christmas… which had been mean, ‘cause she hadn’t been able to practise while she had been at home over Christmas and she didn’t want to be WORSE when she got back to class.

So.. here she was.

Attempting to make sure she got better. ”Okay, so this spell, when cast correctly will create a fog-like atmosphere which will make it harder to see through.” At least, it did if she had read the text properly. Nibbling on her bottom lip, she continued to read. ”The spell to say is fumos. I wonder if it is related to lumos?” She said aloud, to herself, wondering about where the two words had originated… until she realised that it didn’t matter RIGHT now, and she could ask Professor Dakest the next time she saw him out of class.

His sister had made a joke over the holidays about how Rooney wasn't as great with his wand as he was with his brain, and he had been so eager to prove her wrong that he'd edited his weekly schedule to include extra practice for every class. Every class that required him to use his wand and not be as bad as Lop said he was. Right now was DADA time. The pit of his stomach was eagerly unsettled by the idea that someone else might be there when he wanted to practice and it only got worse when he noticed one of his fellow first years there too. Instead of starting up himself, Rooney made his way towards the Gryffindor, his usual friendly smile on his face.

"Hello, Miss Marsha Hanover!" He peered over her shoulder to see what she was looking at although he didn't havew time to read, as she had spoken and almost outright told him.

"Do you know how to do that one properly?" Because he didn't. He bet his 'fog-like atmosphere' would look something like a gassy botty burp leaving his wand.

Looking over her shoulder at the voice, Marsha grinned back at the blonde-haired boy. ”Hi, Rooney. You can just call me Marsha or Sha - everyone else does.” BIIIIIIIIIG grin.

She took a step to the side so that he could see the textbook in front of her as well and she sighed a little. ”Well, I think I’ve got the general basis for it… my Dad was trying to show me over the break but he didn’t have much time….” Aka. He was busy working and keeping everyone safe that asked for it. ”But.. from where we are in the textbook, I think this could be coming up in the next few weeks. I just wanted to see if I could get any of it to work….

“Though, Cutty keeps telling me that your intention with spells and charms and stuff is as important as the way you say them and what you do with your wand…” Yup, he did. He’d told her that when he’d helped her to cast the ‘lumos’ charm correctly for the first time. She looked over to him, to see if he had any ideas on the smokescreen spell. ”Do you know how to cast it?”

"Yes, I know the incantation," Sapphire replied, then took her wand out and practiced the movement Sophie had done. She closed her eyes for a second and thought of the first happy thing that came to mind, her mum and dad hugging her at the train platform before the beginning of the school year. Opening her eyes again, with an obvious smile on her face, she said "Expecto patronum!"

Nothing.

"Well, I suppose it's always this way on the first try," she said half to herself and half to Sophie. "We all begin somewhere right?" She added cheerfully, not feeling the slightest bit discouraged. For now at least.

She headed to the tables and quickly picked a quill and some parchment. "Thanks for the goodies!" she called to Sophie as she took one cookie, eating it right up. Then Sapphire proceeded to one of the yoga mats nearby and started thinking of happy things.

"The time Mum and Dad got me Gwynneth! That was a super nice surprise," she thought aloud of her pet snowy owl she was so fond of. "If I write as many happy memories as I can each day, maybe that'll help me get a patronus sooner!" She looked to Sophie and smiled hopefully, then continued to add to her list.

Oh. So she wasn't much like Miss Clara Wilde.

Rooney nodded, anyway. "Marsha it is, Miss." If that was what she wanted to be called then he could do her a favour. The blonde stepped forward to stand by her side and too peered at the book some. "I don't think my Dad would even try to show me." Roo considered it, and reached into his back pocket for his notebook before making a note in a tiny space to ask Daddy Dex if they could look at things over the summer - that being the next time that Roo would be at home with his family.

Hopefully Calliope would have appreciated their education a little more by then and would take part.

"I don't, no.. But I bet we could work it out. I won't tell anyone if we mess it up." Like if something really went wrong. Rooney could do secrets, definitely. "So.. we should intend to do it correctly? Our wands won't just intend it themselves?"

Well, that was something. She had been sneaky, but she had also been expected, by an Auror, no less, so obviously she wasn't successful. She was wondering how she would even remotely be successful in the duel at all when Professor Dakest had a large advantage. He, being a professor, Auror, AND having years of dueling experience, definitely had the upper hand. Nevertheless, Evangeline felt confident in her own skills and would still do her best.

And THAT was a big fat subject change which meant he didn't want to talk about it. Boy, this guy just kept getting even more mysterious and interesting. As was custom, Evie bowed before Dakest as he did, her wand in her hand across the front of her body. She was slightly nervous and paused to see if he would strike first.

Or her? "Expelliarmus!" she said again, quickly swirling her wrist in the direction of his wand. She wanted it!

Marsha, yup. That’s right. Though, the Miss wasn’t really needed either - they were both first years after all… It wasn’t like she was older than him and it was said out of respect… she hadn’t earned any respect as far as she knew. She was just happy-go-luck and here to learn.

”Mine would, but he’s very busy with work so he doesn’t often have the time he would like to show me things… especially now that we have Alis to care for.” That was her baby sister, in case you didn’t know, yup. Cute, but a brat when she didn’t have a good night's sleep and clean nappies. Clean nappies were a must to get a good night's sleep. She had learnt that pretty early on.

Grinning Marsha nodded. Really? What could go wrong? Hehe. ”Right, we need to focus and intend for the charm or spell to work just like it should… I think one of the Professors mentioned that for the first year or so our wands can still be temperamental as they are still trying to get used to us and we are trying to get used to and working together as a pair... “ She thought. ”Besides… How hard can it be to get the spell fumos right?”

Rooney smiled, nodded and wholeheartedly agreed with Miss Marsha Hanover. "Mine works a lot, too. But so does Mama." Not that Roo had a problem with that because he knew nothing different. His mother had always worked as long as he could remember and so had Daddy Dex. "They're usually looking after Luca, Deacon and Teddy though. Brinlee looks after herself and Calliope is here with me." Had she needed to know all of that? Probably not. But Rooney enjoyed knowing more things about people and he supposed that her knowing this would be good in the long run.

She was going to be in school with him when Brinlee came here.

She'd probably witness his little sisters love for horses and the like.

Roo took his wand from it's holster and resisted the urge to wiggle it at her to show it off. He just wanted to not mess up. Because he was in front of someone else and because it would be beneficial to him to not do this catastrophically wrong. "Probably as hard as it is to get the simple spells wrong."

Hufflepuffs.

Marsha listened to Rooney and nodded. ”My Mam just works with the stables and our horses…” It was still a job, she just didn’t have to leave the grounds for it… though she was always up super early. The horses were generally spoilt and looked after as if they were the most precious creatures on earth. Personally, Marsha assumed that was where her love of animals came into it.

”How old are Brinlee and Calliope? I just have Alis… though she is about eighteen months old right now, so she’s far too young to look after herself.” Though, really that was kind of obvious. She could barely look after herself and she was twelve!

Marsha nodded at him, sighing and frowning. ”Agreed. My wand, or my magic or me… I’m not sure which is still very unstable.” She sighed, unhappy that she couldn’t do all the magic, perfectly. ”But sometimes this just don’t work for me even when they have in the past.” Sighsighsigh.

The excitement caught up on his face and Rooney beamed. "You have horses?!" He wished that they had horses, especially with how much Brinlee loved them. It wasn't something that his family needed though, Mama was always at one of her stores and Brinlee would be coming to Hogwarts in a few years also. (She was able to fart bubbles of colour now too!!!) "My sister looooooves horses." His younger brothers were terrified. But that was probably because the first time any of them saw Brin riding, they witnessed her fall and break her arm.

Which Rooney had found almost hysterical, ha!

"Calliope is our age. She's here too, y'know. She's my partner in a lot of classes. I'm the only one who can stop her gluing people to chairs." That, and their parents. Daddy Dex had this thing he did to Lop and she immediately stopped doing what she was doing. Power. "Brinlee is two years younger." And the boys were so much younger that it upset Rooney that they would still be children when he was an adult.

"I think you'll be fine, Miss Marsha. I think we'll be fine. Let's go see if we can get master this." He offered his hand to her after observing the textbook once more for a final check of what to do. He was pretty sure he knew how to do it, or at least the basis of it.

He was glad she didn't press the subject, even more glad when she started the duel without a hitch. Ambition, drive, concentration and good form. She was already making it difficult to find a reason not to provide a recommendation to the MLE, as much as he disliked the idea.

But for now, such thoughts and considerations were put on hold. They were backburner thoughts, quieted by the engagement he faced. The air that he lived and breathed, knew so well. Though he had to remind himself, as he twisted away from the spell rather than blocking it, that he couldn't be natural here. Here, in a learning environment with a student, he had to exercise restraint. Something that he found somewhat awkward.

As he completed his little turn away, Sabel flicked his wand in the direction of Shacklebolt's legs. "Locomotor Wibbly."

Did he mention how strange it was to use the incantation of a spell? Out of comfort zone, Ms. Shacklebolt. Far out of comfort zone.

Did she mention how much she didn't like these duels? They were stiff and predictable.

With a quick whip of he wand and a quiet mutter of the incantation, Evie produced a healthy shield charm and blocked his jinx from making her act and look a fool. Thank Merlin, too, because Evie did not enjoy looking like a fool. Without breaking her composure or her form, Evie huffed out a sigh.

"You know, I don't much like duels," she said casually, as if they were in conversation. "At least not the ones here." Suddenly, the Ravenclaw pointed her wand at the professor and shouted, "Langlock!" and shot the jinx at him. She was trying to catch him off guard, which was hard to do in a duel, which is why she was complaining.

Evie continued. "It's predictable. We take turns, we dodge the spells, we sweat over nothing, and we can't even use dangerous spells that might injure anyone-- Furnunculus!" They could, however, give professors pimples, probably. She was talking to distract him, not positive that it would work, but hoping Professor Dakest was polite enough to give her time to explain what she was saying. And to jinx him.

His lips were doing this strange thing. Something that was halfway between a smile and a grimace. And the problem? He couldn't help it. It was hard not to smile, or grimace for that matter, at Shacklebolt's sentiments. They mirrored his own so flawlessly.

Except on one minor detail. The first spell got a easy deflection, the second a quick reflection back towards her. "Who said anything about taking turns?" His own tone, equally as casual. "Or that you can't try to injure me."

Not like he could do the opposite. He'd get in trouble for that. Her on the other hand....

The grimace twisted up into more of a smile. "I won't expel you."

With that, he gave two quick flicks of his wand. The first was a simple flair of light, enough to give the eyes something to wonder about. It covered the quick, successive cast of the rope that snaked out towards her without preamble.

What was that? Was that a smile? It looked like a grumpy Slytherin's attempt at a smile, but it also looked like he was in pain. It was amusing, whatever it was. Evie knew he would be able to block her silly jinxes. She caught the reflection of her spell he sent back to her with a quick and easy shield charm. The jinx bounced off and didn't affect her.

You know, she liked this guy. And when he replied to her comments, she ended up liking him even more. Evie returned his smile (it looked like a normal-ish smile now) with her own rather devilish one. That meant she finally had an advantage over him. She could inflict PAIN on him and he couldn't. Honestly, it would only be fair if he could, but then her father would write a nasty letter to the Board and probably corner him in an alley or break into Hogwarts just to smash his face in. So... she would happily accept this advantage.

His advantage, however was that he could do wordless magic. Evie hadn't reached that level yet (although she was working on it). The flash of light confused her - which she realized a few seconds later was his intention. To be safe, she had cast a shield charm to protect herself, only to find out that it was a ruse to cover his next trick: the rope that she noticed flying at her. Although not terribly fast and conveniently, Evie caught onto his trick (which was a rather good one that she would have to pick up). Too late though, it started to wrap around her. Making sure at least her wand arm was free from the rope, Evie cast a severing charm to break its hold on her. Seemingly completely focused on the rope, she flicked her wand in the direction of Professor Dakest and muttered quietly to herself, "Petrificus Totalus." And then, as she tugged the rope away, lazily flicked her wand again at the man with an arrow-shooting spell, aimed for his right foot.

Usually, when students got caught up in a spell - and quite literally so - they didn't have the dexterity of mind or limb to cast another spell. It wasn't unnormal. Almost expected really. Except that Sabel personally knew the benefits and advantages that taking a spell to get off a spell could have. And he was very quickly learning that Shacklebolt had an unnerving amount of Auror-brain.

But it was her grin that told him to be prepared. Perhaps it was a breach of protocol to give a student such leway in a duel, but this wasn't so much a duel as it was an entrance exam. And if she didn't pass with flying colors, the older YATI's, let alone Rainey, would eat her up.

So while he didn't see or hear the spell cast, he did notice the pinch of light. The telltale zip of something unleashed even before Shacklebolt was free of her confines. Instead of a sheild, he twisted his body out of the line of fire, tossing off a knockback jinx over his shoulder and in her general direction as he did so.

Right foot became left foot and left foot suddenly became bolted to the ground. The sudden yank back on his heel caught him with such surprise that he nearly fell flat on his face. A glance over his shoulder had his eyes widening slightly. An arrow, stuck through the heel of his boot, just missing his actual heel, thanks to the shoes being slightly too big for him.

He blinked once, a noise between surprise and agreement leaving his throat in a grunt. Well, he had said she could hurt him, hadn't he? And that, would have really hurt.

"I'm beginning to suspect....you either want this really bad, or you really don't like me."

Of course, he saw it coming; Evie didn't expect any different. But it was fun to watch him him leap out of the way. Kicking away the remnants of his rope, Evie quickly blocked the jinx Professor Dakest shot at her. Her shield charms had been one of the first things Evie had mastered, so if nothing else, she could at least protect herself.

She watched him dance out of the way until the arrow pierced his shoe. Clearly, she missed his foot because he let out no cry or yelp. Either that or he had a wooden leg that nobody knew about. Evangeline held herself in good form still, wand at the ready with a smug grin across her face. "Take your pick," she replied pleasantly.

And for good measure, she muttered "Bombarda," with a point of her wand to the floor a foot or two in front of Dakest. The floor shook when the curse hit and caused a small explosion, sending chunks of flooring up a few feet into the air. Nothing that couldn't be easily fixed. Nothing that would cause TOO much damage.

"Did I pass? Or shall we see if I can cause some real damage?" She would be happy to try, honestly. It was his choice.

She was good, there was no denying it. But she was also over-confident, almost to a point of fault. Almost. But there were tests for that. Things that could be done.

At the moment, he was more preoccupied with the rather annoying hole in his shoe and stick pinning him to the ground. Take his pick. Well he could certainly do that, couldn't he? Might have had a mind to, too, had another spell not been coming his way.

The direction and location of the spell was answer enough. Another firm reminder that this wasn't the real world, that this was a duel of skill, not of survival. So Sabel ignored the arrow pinning his foot to the ground, ignored the need to dance out of the way. The shield that came up was quick and simple, reducing the projectiles to dust and the arrow at his heel to splinters. Dust and wood shavings which seemed to spread and grow into a cloud of dark grey smoke that spilled across the room, and around them. Fumos Duo, a spell which had caused him some trouble in other training exercises, but which he was curious to see Shacklebolt's response to.

"Pass?" His voice echoed off the stone wall, displaced in the room. "But we've only just started."

She was actually hoping for some more, so she was pleased when he continued. That pleasure lasted a short moment and hesitated when her opponent reduced her exploded materials and arrow to little tiny particles... and created a storm. A dust storm, lovely. That was new. The smokey cloud was making it harder to see Dakest, which meant it would be harder to deflect any spells he shot at her. "Protego Totalum," she said, drawing a small orb around her to protect herself from the dust and wood splinters that floated around her.

Honestly, she didn't think it was quite fair that he could do wordless magic, but she wasn't going to be a baby about it.

Still trying to pay close attention to what Dakest's next moves were, Evie waved her wand around the dust and the wood. "Incendio," she muttered, lighting the dust and wood on fire. Naturally, it made it smokier in the room and the fire only lasted a few seconds due to the pieces being so small, but it did burn most of it up and that was what she was going for.

"Ventus Duo!" she shouted next. A gust of wind shot from the end of her wand and violently blew all remaining particles and the cloud of smoke back to Professor Dakest. A good improvisation, if she said so herself.

The thing about casting a concealing spell, whether it be directly or by use of one's environment, was that it was never a wise idea to stay in one spot. That, and it was an almost equally bad idea to move up behind one's opponent. Why? Because it was expected.

The best moves, the best stratagem's were the unexpected. Of course, it was hard to tell how unexpected one was being when visibility was inhibited by the very thing that was meant to conceal oneself. For all Sabel knew, Shacklebolt could have turned about, or he could have already walked around back in front of her.

Needless to say, he didn't want a repeat of his tactics in dueling Lex at the Ministry. So, he moved slightly, to where he judged he would be in her peripheral vision. At first, he was glad he had done so, feeling the sudden heat and tasting the smoke of an ignition spell. That was one way to take care of the matter.

Given fire had come into play, Sabel quickly cast a flat jet of water up in front of himself, freezing it in place with a quick flick of his wand. No sooner had it solidified than the jetstream of wind rushed by, breaking off the edges of his ice-wall. One eyebrow went up as he considered the young woman on the other side of the foggy, cool glass. The wind blast, was another point of impressed interest. Kid had creativity, and resourcefulness. He had to give her that.

He was also fairly sure he knew the answer to the real question behind the duel. Not that it was one he particularly relished telling her, but there was no point in considering it further.

He drew his arm back, and then jerked it forward, as if throwing a ball overhand. "Bombardia maxima!"

The glass wall shuddered for a split second before bursting outward in a shower of icicles of varying sizes and shapes, tumbling through the air, skidding along the floor and a few thudding into the walls on either side of the dueling pair.