Mamie's face fell as the headmaster dismissed her answer. She was still skeptical, the wand sounded like it was encouraging people to fight over it. That just didn't seem like a good thing.

She walked over to an older student who looked like they didn't have any partner yet for the dueling. She was nervous, but if she had to duel, then she might as well choose her own partner. "Do-do you want to be my partner?" she asked. "I'm Mamie."

Fortunately, with the pairs taking turns to duel, that meant she could watch other groups first and maybe at least know the incantations for some useful spells. Whether just saying them would work, that was a different matter and one she couldn't do much about.

Claudine said nothing further but just stood there silently loathing Trent even further. It was now obvious that she was indeed going to detention. Did she regret her decision? No. Now standing beside Heath again, she continued to listen to Trent as they moved on with the lesson. She neither cared for his words about how cruel the real world was. Yes, humans were far down on her list of favourite things about the world but not all humans were the way Trent was making them out to be.

Was it possible that the fourth year could hate Trent more? Yes, yes it was. And as she stood there, Claudine realised two things: DADA was not her strong suit and Trent’s abysmal teaching methods were doing nothing to help her. Also, what a stupid activity. They got to keep their opponents wand if they won and vice versa? How about someone take Trent’s away and not giver back? Ever.

Scowling, Claudine turned to Heath, tilting back her head to look up at him as usual. “Partners again? If you’re not tired of me, that is.’’ Irritated. Claudine was irritated but not with the Ravenclaw and she hoped he knew it.

Aboli's smirk did NOT fade, instead she bowed her head at the headmaster and nodded. "Of course. 1500 words. I understand, sir," she said simply before standing up straight again, inwardly...seething.

This term would NOT give, would it? The badge had been the only brightness to it thus far - Valencia was being weird, she realized she was SUPER interested into her very taken male best friend, Royse and she were on horrible terms, and her gloves.....wearing gloves was taking a toll on her mental psyche. She felt incredibly close to exploding. But now, however, in class, and with TRENT, was not the time or place.

So she would write her essay. It might even be good for her head, to be busy like that. Perhaps her anger at Upstead was unfounded, then, but even so, it was nice to direct her anger at someone besides Trent. She truly thought he had gotten worse over the summer. At least last year, she had respected him. Like the sands in an hourglass, though, it was growing smaller and smaller...

She did not like the rules of the duel. She did not want someone else's wand. She didn't even know who she wanted to duel. She undid the spell on Bernie with a simple wave and muttered words and sighed because her heart was not into this. So she crossed her arms and waited for someone to approach her. And if no one did...well.......

She'd just not duel? Get in more trouble? Who knew. Her gloved hands were stretching and wringing...her eyes narrowed at Trent.

The Headman wasn't impressing Phoebe very much today. His answer and subsequent was non-sensical - he was the one who had urged so much caution last term, and here he was telling them to fight each other TO ThE DEATH. Or something very much like it, at least.

And now they had to duel and force someone not to take part in lessons for a week, or else give up the right to take part themselves. This was starting to feel like France all over again, like there was no good option and you couldn't help but keep running afoul of some bad tempered big wig on a power trip. Yuck.

"Here, I'll be your partner," Phoebe waved down Aboli, who was having an even worse class than she was. "I don't actually mind not being able to do classwork for a week, to be perfectly honest."

Did she listen to everything her mother and wandmaker say? ”No. I only met the wandmaker once.” So how was she supposed to listen to EVERYTHING he said? ”But I always listen to my mum. She knows everything.” And she was always right too.

.........

Wait ……………… What?

Kizzy’s eyes grew big. Dueling? But she didn’t know any spells. And she wasn’t supposed to give her wand away, it was special and hers. Kiz immediately looked to Fifi, but she was already working with someone and now Kiz had NO one.

What if she didn’t want to give up her wand? Everything was awful and now it was her turn to step up.

Aboli turned towards the voice, uncrossing her arms to let them hang at her side. "Sureeee. Phoebe, right?" she thought so anyway. "That doesn't mean to not give it your all." She sighed in a 'I could care less at this point' kind of way and took a few steps backward from Phoebe. "I wouldn't want YOU to be stuck in detention, too, so...let's just...get this over with," she said, cracking her knuckles and raising her wand to point at Phoebe. It almost seemed unfair because she was two years above the girl. That was two years more experience. But if she was hearing anything from Trent today, it was that life was unfair, and sometimes to stay afloat in life, you had to cause harm to someone else.

It was the complete opposite of everything her mother had instilled in her over the years. Kindness and sincerity was NOT weakness, and she hadn't thought Trent disagreed with that until...now. Hmm. Her brain was going at 23349389359375 kilometres a minute.

"Expelliarmus!" she cried, quite obviously and not very creatively, pointing her wand right at Phoebe.

SPOILER!!: pre-activity stuff bc the post got long whoops

Nem catching Song's glare was more by chance than really seeking her out, but there it was, a sort of beacon of hostility. They just smiled and shrugged in return. Hard to say yet, whether damage control would be necessary, but they had something ready if the opportunity arose.

Well, well, well. Look who appreciated lovely little Nemesis Upstead now. This was new. The Headsman generally hid himself behind his veil of professionalism, and beyond that, Nem had never perceived anymore than a grudging acceptance of their presence. Usually it was maybe closer to exasperation.

Then again, this was the first time he'd really given the class an activity that Nem had been willing to throw themselves into with gusto, and last year all that memory stuff had muddied the waters of perception a little bit.

"Thanks, sir." Cash reward would have been preferable, but whatever. Squirming their way into the Big Man's good books might turn out to be even more useful than either points or money. Or... points, definitely. He had the measure of the rest of them too but... that was also sort of jarring.

Huh.

Whatever. Don't care.

But would you look at that. The Headsman singing Nem's praises, more or less. Certainly more than ever before. They simply grinned, and kept the laughter firmly at bay and their eyes off of their fellow students. Another name? No hesitation. "Avalon Sinclair."

When the Headsman moved on and continued the class, Nem glanced from him to the other students, trying to gauge the feeling in the room. Still listening though, still thinking on that Elder Wand. Who wasn't to say they wouldn't be the perfect owner for it? The fact that Nem already had a wand made of elder in their hand right now might not actually be proof of that, but it certainly gave credence to the idea in their mind. Admittedly, they were not overly fond of the prospect of their own death, and maybe it was one of those things that was as close to a fear as they could recall feeling, but it was more because it was the biggest inconvenience possible than because it scared them. Nem would accept that road and the associated risk in exchange for the wand, the power. The thrill.

Of course, this was all hypothetical. A rabbit hole for a later date.

Right now, there was another activity. Similar guidelines, the chance to fight dirty with no repurcussions (except social ones, which were really nothing major at this point). High stakes too. Nem certainly didn't want to go wandless for a week, and anyone in here with two brain cells to rub together wouldn't either. They had to pick a partner carefully, and keep in mind that others might be keeping a look out to get back at them. Also, no easy targets. Some morally uptight do-gooders would remember and it would require more effort than Nem was willing to exert in order to fix it.

They weaved subtly through the students while some other pair was up duelling, and before long they saw just the person.

Lucas Dakest. Older brother of Nem's little brother's ~best and oldest friend~ or something. Older and with a better arsenal of spells, not necessarily an easy target, but definitely someone Nem could take down without too many problems. Plus, it was all a matter of coincidence, but may as well continue the trend of targeting prefects.

They were supposed to go one at a time, but the Headsman himself had said about fighting dirty, and about how the real world works. Real duels often sprung up almost spontaneously. If Nem could get the wand off of Dakest now and it counted as a win... there wouldn't necessarily be a proper duel for it, which would be a shame, but they'd still have got the thing by any means necessary. If Dakest kept hold of his wand and caught them, Nem could call it a throwing down of the gauntlet, a challenge, and do it properly. If they succeeded but the Big Man caught them and demanded an actual display, that was fine too. Nem could handle any of the consequences. What was it again? They did not let this dampen their ambition.

Decision made - in a matter of seconds - Nem pointed their wand discreetly at Dakest from a short distance away. After a brief mental back-and-forth between Disarming and Summoning, Nem decided to go for the former and hope that Dakest was smart enough to have his wand ready in the middle of a Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson.

"Expelliarmus."

Gauntlet thrown, at the very least.

Oh, they were just starting like that? Cool. Cool cool cool. Phoebe managed to get her wand out of her holster and she leaaaaaaaned out of the path of the spell. It wasn't a very dignified move, nor was it probably legal in the eyes of GrumpyfaceTrent, but it did it's job. She still had her wand.

Plus, reflexes like a cat, right?

Phoebe's wand came up, and it occurred to her for the first time that she was going to have to TRY to DUEL with a sixth year. Prefect. Probably a super good dueller, and Phoebe was going to have to make it look pretty good or else get herself caught out not even trying. Ugh. Effort at things she wasn't already good at.... that was not on the list of things Phoebe wanted to do today. "Incarcerous."

Bernie had found her way to a chair, miraculously, that did not appear to be occupied by anyone else? The chairs were back, right? I did my best to catch up. This was a huge feat for someone who felt rather like a troll at the moment, and possibly looked like one too. (She was feeling rather slack-jawed, you see.)

Anyway, she hadn't turned in any sacks, even though she had at least one in her boot, because she was still jelly brained for most of the post-sack attacks, and also VERY jelly-brained for the Elder Wand discussion. Finally though, her brain seemed to come back to her (thanks, Aboli Parmigiano) and Bernie blinked rapidly to try to catch up with the class. What was this now? They were duelling? And she was next?

She stepped up to face whoever it was there... OH HO HO. Little Gryffindor girl, was it? Wasn't she uh, somebody's sister? No matter. Bernie didn't like to lose anything, but especially not duels in front of her the Headmaster.

"Ready?" she asked the little girl, wand in hand, eyes SHARP and FOCUSED this time.

Bernie had missed the instructions about finders-keepers-losers-weepers, by the way. Thought you oughta know.

Did Phoebe not want to do this either? Was Aboli catching the feeling just from her mannerisms, her facial expressions? She was glad they were at least feeling similarly currently. She did notice that Phoebe hadn't used a shield charm to deflect, but simply moved out of the way. HUUUHHH. Interesting.

Aboli quickly put up a shield for herself and held it there in case Phoebe shot a quickfire one at her again, but nope. This was a pretty clean fight, actually. Should she take it up a notch? Try to get this over with quickly? There was actually NO way she was going to let a fourth year win, and Phoebe had all but said she didn't MIND losing, so she didn't feel AS bad about...you know..................winning.

Aboli then shot three different spells, in succession at the fourth year. Hopefully one of them would make contact. "Tarantallegra! Steleus! LEVICORPUS!"

... "I also would pay you to just give your wand, you know," she said after twirling her wand and giving it a blow from her lips, as if it had grown hot from the three spells. "That way..........I feel less terrible. For eventually defeating you!"

Kinsay knew her odds weren't good to begin with, but then a FOURTH year stepped up to battle her. It was all over. Might as well give up her wand now and save herself the embarrassment. Only she wouldn't do that because Kinsays liked to win and though she was feeling kind of hopeless, she was going to try her very best. Her wand was SPECIAL and she didn't want anyone to take it. Also, she was a Gryffindor and mummy was an AUROR. So she could do this. Probably. Maybe.

"Ready," she replied quietly, but with confidence that she didn't entirely feel.

Gripping her wand as TIGHTLY as possible, Kizzy waited to put her plan into action. She bounced up and down on her toes. It would be lots easier if she knew spells, but she knew how to box AND do gymnastics. Those had to count for something!!

Sorry in advance to this kid. She seemed nice but it would be good for her to get a taste of disappointment, rejection, detention, etc. The earlier you got used to Hogwarts, the better, right?

Right. Speaking from experience here, always.

"Expelliarmus!" Bernie cast confidentally, straight at Kinsay. And just in case the first year got any ideas or had any training from whomever was her sister, Bernie resulted back to her comfort spell, casting it too in a softer voice: "Protego."

This was a terrible class. Defense Against the Dark Arts was supposed to be FUN. But Kizzy didn't learn anything! It was so very terrible. She'd ask Phoebe and Teddy to teach her spells so that next time she didn't look stupid. That's how she felt right now. Really, really dumb.

Kinsay was not ready, bouncing on her toes so that the moment the older Gryffindor raised her wand, she took off RUNNING. Where was she running to? Who knows. She was just dodging the spell. AND it worked! For the first one. She didn't know what the second spell did, but she wasn't going to wait to find out. Instead she ran all sorts of zig-zags and loop-de-loops. And ultimately, she decided the best trick of them all! Running into the sea of other people who were watching the duel.

She couldn't make a shield with her wand because she didn't know the spell yet. BUT she could use other people as a shield! Everyone was so tall that it made it easy to hide. She tried her best to hide behind everyone. So sneaky. So, so sneaky. Momma would be so proud.

....and I'm off to the races, cases, of Quidditch chasers, chasing her all over town....

This plan of Kinsay's was actually a better idea than just standing and fighting??! Yeah. It totally was. Color Bernie IMPRESSED for the moment. But if she was going to be a big bad auror one day, as opposed to just a big bad fourth year wannabe, she knew she couldn't just LET BAD GUYS (or gals) GET AWAY LIKE THAT!

So she took off after the little girl, firing off a good ol' spell as she did, and not at all minding who it hit. "Colloshoo! COLLOSHOO! COLLOSHOO!" Surely one of those, or the six others that followed, would hit LiL James the Duel Dodger.

Avalon's jaw dropped at the mention of her name from none other than Nemesis Upstead. Seriously? SERIOUSLY?!! Had she ever done anything to them?! They said it so quickly too, like there was no hesitation as to who they wanted to select next. And now, just like that, she had received her first ever detention at Hogwarts? How was that even fair, to let students give other students detention? She was absolutely appalled. At Nem, at Trent, at pretty much everything. She shot a glare of daggers at the Slytherin before crossing her arms with a huff. Perhaps she should have asked for Nem as a dueling partner. Then she could have showed them a piece of her mind.

Alas, she didn't have much time to pout, as a first year was approaching her. Even better. How was she going to properly duel someone who barely knew any spells? She would feel too bad about sending any magic her way, because the poor Hufflepuff probably had no way to defend it. But if she just stood around dawdling, Trent would certainly call her out. Avalon didn't seem to have any choice in the matter. Already on thin ice, the Ravenclaw plastered on a smile as she stuck her hand out to her opponent. "Hey Mamie. I'm Avalon." She didn't want the first year to think she was in a rotten mood. After all, she was still a prefect. Had to make a good first impression on the first years.

When it was their turn, she faced the young Hufflepuff, her wand at the ready. With a nod to signal that she was ready, she debated waiting for the newbie to make the first move or jumping on the offensive. But she remembered that Trent's eyes were on them, and it would look way too obvious that she was stalling. If this spell worked, it wouldn't be much a duel. But dueling didn't seem like the point of the exercise -- disarming was.

A small part of her hoped that the first year could fend off the spell. It was so unprefect-like to cast it on an unsuspecting firstie. Everything about today's lesson just felt wrong. Avalon made a mental note to apologize to Mamie after class as she raised her wand.

"Expelliarmus!"

Oh? Minjae was very pleased that the girl had not given up without a fight. He watched as she dodged his disarming spell and continued to watch her movements even when the ropes tightened around her arms, making her look like a funny little T-rex to him. The wand movement of the jelly fingers hex had not gone unnoticed and he lazily casted an "Protego" charm to defend himself but when she casted an petrificus totalus, he had to focus more on his shield.

In the mmorpg world, he would have send his guild members to take care of this, but this wasn't a computer simulation, this was real life.

It did take more than a petrificus totalus to take him out though. When the first year started hopping towards him, Minjae tried his best not to laugh. Come on! That sight was pretty funny. Now, his plan had been to trap her with boulders. One behind her and two next to her so that she couldn't easily jump out of the way and he had a clear target but that would be too extreme for a first year. Instead, he raised his wand and started plan b. "Aguamenti" he said, pointing his wand at her feet and followed it with an "Glacius!" to turn it into ice and trap her. And even if that had failed to do so, the ground by her would be very slippery by now. He wasn't done yet though, with another quick wave of his wand he casted an "Anteoculatia!" at her head just for the lolz. Actually no, the antlers spell had been part of his plan c but who said he couldn't combine them?

Yes. Yes? All that and just a....yes?! Feeling like he had really made a sort of connection there with accepting death, the wand core, and loyalty of the wand itself...Josh was more than a little crestfallen by the response but...oh well?

Oh well.

Don't stick your nose up at the hand that feeds you? Was that how that expression went?

There wasn't much else to be done about it since now he needed to find himself a partner to duel this time. Duel and potentially keep their wand for the remainder of the WEEK?! Wait...wait...keep and then do whatever they wanted with it, right? Because...how the hay were they suppose do their lessons without a wand? Well, okay, SOMEWHAT rhetorical considering they had survived almost all of last year going through lessons without wands and magic, but that was also because everyone was on an even playing field of no magic and no wand. This was...this was a little ridiculous, even for an activity and lesson for teaching the so-called advantages of having the Elder Wand.

...this was just...weird.

But...he needed a partner...so............................any takers?

Ashley only managed to dodge the second spell. Consequently, she now had antlers, and there was a lot of water. She somehow contrived to remain standing, but the water slid her way backwards over the floor. Good thing she was a surfer, huh? Using the brief respite to get free of the ropes, Ashley had thought of another plan. "Coloshoo! Coloshoo!" she said, because it would be easier to take someone's wand when they were stuck to the floor. "Petrificus Totalus!" Ashley wondered what she was doing. The hufflepuff was supposed to be winning easily, but Ashley had promised she would try, and she took promises seriously. "Hey, are these antlers temporary or can I keep them?" Because, she didn't know why he gave her antlers, but they looked cute. Probably would be impractical though.

Mamie tried to watch and remember all the spells the pairs before her used in her duel, but when it was her and Avalon's turn and the older student raised her wand, all the spells she had heard went straight out of her brain. Nope. Magic wasn't going to be helpful.

She dropped to the ground.

Expelliarmus? Is that what Avalon had said? From the ground, Mamie raised her wand. She had no clue what this spell did. Hopefully it would do something. "Expelliarmus!" she shouted, waving her wand above her head in Avalon's general direction. Was that right?

SPOILER!!: Claudine <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Claudine said nothing further but just stood there silently loathing Trent even further. It was now obvious that she was indeed going to detention. Did she regret her decision? No. Now standing beside Heath again, she continued to listen to Trent as they moved on with the lesson. She neither cared for his words about how cruel the real world was. Yes, humans were far down on her list of favourite things about the world but not all humans were the way Trent was making them out to be.

Was it possible that the fourth year could hate Trent more? Yes, yes it was. And as she stood there, Claudine realised two things: DADA was not her strong suit and Trent’s abysmal teaching methods were doing nothing to help her. Also, what a stupid activity. They got to keep their opponents wand if they won and vice versa? How about someone take Trent’s away and not giver back? Ever.

Scowling, Claudine turned to Heath, tilting back her head to look up at him as usual. “Partners again? If you’re not tired of me, that is.’’ Irritated. Claudine was irritated but not with the Ravenclaw and she hoped he knew it.

Heath showed no sign of reaction to the barrage of disapproval his answer received. Was he surprised? Not in the slightest. He knew that was a trick question all along; he’d only failed to guess how it was meant to trick him. It didn’t matter what he thought of the elder wand anyway. What were the odds that he’d ever find himself in a position to potentially master it? And even in the extremely unlikely event that happened, he wouldn’t want it, and no amount of harsh words from the headmaster could change his mind! That kind of power changed people, as Headmaster Trent had shown them all this lesson.

Up until now, Heath had been willing to give Trent the benefit of the doubt, but every word out of his mouth made it harder to excuse his newfound heartlessness. He no longer cared why he was acting this way; off day, emotional trauma, or otherwise, nothing justified that! Ugh, of course he would praise Upchuck over there… probably the only person in the room as ruthless as himself. It was all Heath could do to keep up his stoic facade and not roll his eyes. Just when he thought he couldn’t be any more appalled, the headmaster said that sentence: It's not bullies who come after you, it is wizards of equal ambition. As far as Heath was concerned, the only people who would think that either are fortunate enough to never have experienced bullying or are bullies themselves.

His trust in the headmaster now all but gone, Heath listened to the instructions for the next activity… and of course there was another cruel twist to it. He was past the point of being surprised by it. Resigned to the fact that he would probably be going without his wand, he looked around the room for a potential partner. Whatever, he would survive. He grew up mostly in the muggle world, so he was used to doing things without magic. At least that was better than having to take someone else’s wand, especially…

Heath’s heart sank when Claudine asked to be partners again. Truth be told, he would have rather partnered with someone else this time, not because of her or anything she’d done, but because he did not want to be responsible for taking her wand, especially after he’d already caused her so much trouble this class! Still, he hadn’t the heart to reject her. I could never be tired of you, he thought, but no way in Hoth was he saying that out loud, not with the headmaster in close proximity! Instead, he replied with a small nod.

This time, he didn’t try to establish any ground rules, He would abide by the same ones from the last activity, but Claudine was free to do whatever she wanted. Whatever she did to him, he probably deserved it for trying to play the hero and getting them both into trouble. He was not making that mistake again! This time, he would hold his own until either she got his wand or time ran out. “Expelliarmus,” he said, aiming his wand. Come on, block it! He thought. You can do it, Claudine!

The Gryffindor was only half-paying attention to whatever it was that Trent was talking about. Something about power and ambition and-

...........

Uhhhhhhhhhh??????????

Lucas immediately snapped out of his thoughts and stared at the Headmaster. Did the man say that they were duelling? AGAIN?! It wasn't a choice this time, they had to duel otherwise, uh, it was probably another detention. And they had to duel in front of eVERYONE. Did he know how embarrassing this was going to be? To make matters worse, the winner of the duel would be keeping the other person's wAND?! For a wEEK?!

CUE INTERNAL SCREAMING.

He was done. He was dead. He was going to lOSE, he was sure of it. It was the reason why he was almost cradling his wand to his chest. The last thing he needed was to attend his other lessons without a wand and make his life more difficult than it needed to be.

Unless........ maybe he could pair up with someone he was close to. Someone who was a friend - which didn't leave a lot of options - and could give his wand back to him after the lesson was over. Trent didn't need to know, did he? No. Even if this would likely make him lose his badge as well.

Lucas started scanning the room to try and find someone he felt comfortable around. Someone who didn't have a partner and would probably not mind being a liiiiittle bit rebellious. But people were partnering up already and his options were becoming very very small. Maybe he'd need to choose someone else. Someone he wasn't close to but was still nice enough to give him his wand back. Someone like-

......... uhhhhhh????????

His search for a partner came to a sudden stop when he felt something....... funny? In his hand? Like a force was tugging his wand away. Confused, Lucas looked down at his hand, only to notice that the wand he was cradling was tugging away from his hand. It was enough to loosen his grip on the wand, causing it to suddenly shoot upwards and out of his hand. Instinctively, he tried to grab at it as best as he could before something even worse happened. Because he wasn't going wandless for a week. He wasn't.

"NOOOOO! NO NO NO! STOP IIIIIT!"

WORST.

DEFENCE LESSON.

EVER!

Kinsay didn't have much of a plan outside of the dodge and escape thing, but it was working for the moment. The zig-zagging was helping her avoid spells that were thrown her way, as was weaving through the crowd. She could hear her dueling opponent casting spells still and Kiz had NO idea what 'colloshoo' did, but it didn't sound good. Kiz didn't want to be coolshoed!!! She liked her shoes! Mummy bought them for her! But, um, she was also smart enough to know that she probably couldn't get away with running around the whole time.

It was quite the predicament.

Which obviously meant the best plan was to find the BEST human shield in the whole classroom. That just so happened to be Headmaster Trent because he was the tallest and also the biggest! So Kizzy did what any smart, first year with absolutely no spell casting experience would do! She made a beeline for her Headmaster, trying to hide behind his legs so as to shield herself from oncoming spells. Hopefully the Headmaster would protect her. It was the best plan ever......... And the only plan ever.

Bernie was chasing after Kinsay like a huntin' dog chasing down a fox. All this scene needed was someone making WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF sounds. (If you're reading this, then you know Bernie was tempted to do that for herself.)

Alas, all she could do was continue firing the Stickfast hex everywhere and at everyone without regard for who got hit by it. "Colloshoo! COLLOSHOO! COLLOSHOOOO!!! COLLOSHOO! COLLOSHOO! COLLOSHOO! COLLOSHOO!!!"

Did she notice that Kinsay was now hiding behind the headman? Of course not, not even after the seventh Colloshoo. But when she DID notice, she loudly stated, "Come on, only cowards hide from a fight! Come out and duel me like a Gryffindor!"

The Headmaster would agree. Bernie wasn't even worried if he'd gotten stuck to his desk or whatever. He'd understand.

Direct hit.

Panicking Dakest.

All Nem had to do now was catch the wand and maybe that would count as a win. A boring win but a win nonetheless, depending what the Big Man had to say about it of course. And, you know, even if he put his foot down and Nem duelled Dakest again for real and somehow lost, they figured they could just steal the wand back at some point. It would be in the spirit of this Elder Wand business, at least.

But anyway.

Focusing.

Airborne wand.

Nem was ready to catch the thing, but Dakest was still making a desperate grab for it, and if there was one thing he had that Nem didn't, it was the height advantage. The guy was just unnecessarily tall. Nem had a split second - not even that - to make a decision on what to do next; cast at Dakest, or cast at the wand. Unless they had a stab at both.

And what was Nem if not ambitious?

Might as well.

"Stupefy!" The Stunner they cast at Dakest. Unlucky guy, if it hit its mark; Nem had instantly chosen it because of its snappy incantation... and maybe some other factors as well. They didn't wait to see if it worked or how well, and instead raised their wand upwards and brandished at Dakest's before someone else could swoop in for it. Risky on a moving target, but the risk was what made it interesting.

"Carpe Retractum!" No use sneaking now.

"You have talent for dueling" he complimented as Ashley slid over the floor, an amused expression on his face. His amusement vanished when he realized that the ropes around her arms had loosened though and he could see it on her face that she was planning another attack.

Ashley's colloshoo spells were dodged but a stray spell from one of the other students (Bernie) had hit his feet while he was busy dodging . He had not seen that coming. Shoes stuck to the floor, Minjae tried to move but it was no use. Now, he could simply use a finite but this would give the little first year a bit of chance. not really

"I honestly don't know" he called as if nothing was wrong and he used a shield charm to protect himself from the full body-bind curse again."I just wanted to see if i could do it. Basically, you were guinea pig" he said and waved his wand after pointing them to the antlers and set them on fire with an "Incendio" as a scare tactic and followed it up with another "Expelliarmus!"