One of the things that Owen missed terribly when leaving Hogwarts for summers was the Dueling Club. He loved to duel because it has helped him practice his magic on a more proficient level and he was willing to aim for more. He may still be a tad slow with other spells, but not dueling ones. He'd been practicing.

His duel today was against Mason Winslow. Owen didn't really know him save for being a Ravenclaw. But the knowledge that his opponent was probably smarter wasn't going to stop him from winning this duel. Nope. So the 4th year Hufflepuff stepped into the arena with his wand. Deep breath. Then he took his bow.

And wasted no time in firing the first spell, "Ventus Duo!"

Owen Montezor was to be his first dueling opponent and other than knowing his name and vaguely remembering a face to it, he did not know much else. Mason was nervous for his first duel though. As an ex-Durmstrang student, he was not very good with Defensive magic but the talk he had had with his Head of House and after giving a list of spells he could practise, the Ravenclaw was determined to find out how much he had learned from self-practises.

Entering the arena from the other entry way and seeing Owen , who, memory getting slightly better now at seeing him in person, was a Hufflepuff. This was going to be easy. Or not…

The moment Mason had bowed as well, he tried to think of a spell to cast at him when his opponent cast the first one swiftly. He wanted to jump out of the way but was too late. The spell hit him right in the chest and he flew backwards due to the wind of the spell and fell on his back a few feet away.

Gasping as he had just got the wind knocked out of him, Mason set upright quickly. He didn’t compliment the other on his first hit but instead, pointed his own wand towards Owen and casted the Rose Growth spell.

Immediately, the rose bush grew rapidly at its attempt to trap the Hufflepuff inside its thorns and the Ravenclaw used this opportunity to get back up on his feet and ran to the other side of the room , trying to get behind the fourth year. There was nothing in the rules about not using your surroundings right?

Owen watched as his opponent literally flew a few feet away from his spell. Sorry, Mason, but this badger was a competitive one.

And upon seeing the rapidly growing roses trying to encircle him, Owen's reflex took over as he casted, "Incendio!", dousing the flowers in flames and effectively halting their growth. It still kept burning but Owen figured he could finite it later. There were more pressing matters at hand such as where was Mason...? Quickly pivoting, Owen just turned in time to see that, as expected, the Ravenclaw was trying to get around him. But Owen was not taking the risk to get hit or anything so he dove and fired Immobulus to his opponent's legs.

While Owen was dousing the roses in flames, like Mason had counted on him to do, the Ravenclaw lifted up his wand again after running to the other side of the room but before he could hit the hufflepuff with another spell, he saw a jet of light fly towards him.

Not thinking, Mason jumped sideways to dodge te spell that had been casted his way just in time to hear it collide with the wall behind him. Owen might have gotten him once but he wasn’t going to make it that easy twice.

Repointing his wand once again at the hufflepuff, the fifth year said “Levicorpus!” in his direction.

DAMMIT.

His spell hit the wall instead of the Ravenclaw. Mental note: work better on your aim. At this point, Owen was more determined to win this match. So when Mason shot a spell at him, he was quick to shield himself with a Protego spell. Nope. No levicorpus-ing for him.

And just before his shield charm wore off, the Hufflepuff was already aiming his next spell at his opponent, "Obscuro!" ... "Glacius Duo!" He yelled in swift succession.

Cursing under his breath as the spell missed the hufflepuff and making a mental note to practise more later, Mason lifted up his wand to cast another spell when something wrapped itself around his eyes, obscuring is sight. hearing te other spell casted his way as well, the fifth year quickly waved his wand in front of him and said "Protego!"

he heard rather than saw the spell bounce off the shield but with the black blindfold around his head it was difficult to pinpoint were Owen was at the moment. Not thinking much of it, the Ravenclaw pointed his wand at the place were he thought his opponent had been last and casted the homing spell. Surely this one would knock him down! unless he used magic to stop the speeding spell.

Now, how to get this bloody blindfold off...

Obscuro hit its mark. BOOYAH! But then...tsk! Mason was able to create a shield of his own just in time to protect himself from the freezing charm. Tsk, tsk, tsk. He wasted a lot of his energy on that spell too, expecting it to hit its target.

No matter. He was still in the game and he was determined to win this. He just had to let go of all distractions and focus on his strategy. His first element was already down. Now onto the next phase of his offense...

...ACK! A homing spell!

It was very hard to get away from those ones because they were like magnet that followed you everywhere so Owen hastily pulled the first thing he could grab from his breast pocket - a chocolate frog (what? sugar was a necessity) - and threw it against the incoming homing spell.

Sparks and smoke flew as it hit its target, and Owen stopped himself from coughing so his still blindfolded opponent would remain clueless to his position as he dashed around him and whipped his wand, muttering under his breath. "Incarcerous."

Surely he got Mason now.

Had his spell hit him?! He had definitely heard a bang! It was immensely frustrating not being able to see where Owen was and he didn't know any counterspell that could get rid of the blindfold that covered his eyes other than using his own hands.

But that meant lowering his guard as well which was something he did NOT want to. Still, when he heard the loud bang and being SURE his homing spell had hit its mark, Mason used this time to grab the blindfold and tucked at it.

Panicking slightly when he realised that the blindfold was tied to the back of his head, the ravenclaw went to untie it quickly but he was halfway done when something hit him.

He let out a yell as he lost balance and fell on the floor, the ropes of the incarcerous spell had wrapped around his body. He was finished,he knew that.

But was he giving up?! No Way!

"Emancipare!" he said, awkwardly shifting his wand so that it was pointing at the rope binding him and expecting it to fall loose. It did not. "Emancipare! Emancipare! Emanci----oh you stupid bloody spell, WORK!" loosing his temper as the Ravenclaw failed to cast the counterjinx, he looked up,still blindfolded."Get these bloody ropes off of me!" he had not wanted to snap but the feeling of having irritation that he was sure that he had lost the duel was too strong.

Owen watched in heightened concentration as Mason fell to the floor and ropes encircled him. He felt slightly bad at being aggressive with his spell casting but surely the Ravenclaw would understand that this was a duel. And that Owen was one determined dueler.

True to that, he was still relentless in making sure he didn't get caught up in any surprise attacks even as he could see that his opponent was failing to counter his previous spell. He would help him untie the ropes, but not yet. For now, the badger wanted to secure his win.

So with a deep intake of breath, Owen cast the patented daydream charm straight towards Mason.

And hoped that it was enough for him to feel better about himself.

After Mason had snapped at Owen to release him, the Ravenclaw felt instantly bad for doing so. No offence towards the Hufflepuff, he won fair and square but he always got a bit snappish when things did not go his way.

However, before he could say anything. Any apology at all, he felt a wave of magic go through him and he sat motionless on the ground. The blindfold that he had been busy with loosing slid down his eyes and half hang on his nose while the other still covered one eye.

His dark brown eyes were out of focus,staring at something only he could see. He was on top of a hippogriff, soaring through the sky. This feeling was amazing and he did not want it to end.

He did not even wipe the drool that was coming from the corner of his mouth.

.......someone had to drag him away cause he was not going anywhere.

.......... So this was an interesting duel, wasn't it?

Hirsch held quite a few expectations from Mr Winslow after their little chat, even if this was the boy's first duel in the club. The Ravenclaw, from what he'd gathered, was keen to practice defensive magic and learn how best to defend himself. So naturally, the man wanted to see if the boy had put any of the spells from the list to good practice.

And he did.

The eyebrows rose as the duel progressed further and further and the spells cast started to get more and more advanced. These were both fourth and fifth years, right? Because the magic cast seemed beyond their years. Frankly, he was very impressed. Curious, but very impressed.

When Winslow had the daydream charm cast on him, Hirsch let Montezor enjoy the small bit of victory before moving forward. "Very well done, I have to say," he said, smiling at the Hufflepuff, "Those were some remarkable spells cast." As for the Ravenclaw, he had to get an, er, awakening. Taking out his wand, he tilted his wand and flicked it to lift the effects of the spell.

"Good morning, Mr Winslow. Nice dream?"

Professors could have a sense of humour as well.