Okay, Sinead couldn't help but get a little bit annoyed as Natalie ducked the rebound, then cast another shield in defence against the next spell. What did she have to do to score a hit? She really hoped Professor Hirsch was watching, at least, because she was pretty sure her spell work had been perfect- and she wanted to get something out of this duel, at least.

In her irritation, she was preparing to cast another offensive spell, not really sure what- when she suddenly became aware that Natalie had just cast something else, and she needed to dodge it, or do something to defend, but she hesitated in deciding what, and next thing she knew-

Her legs bowed out from beneath her and she crumpled onto the floor.

NO. Absolutely NO WAY. This was NOT ALLOWED TO HAPPEN.

Except it had. She, Sinead Dance, self-professed best witch in the year, had just taken the first hit in a duel. She was never going to be able to hold her head up in Defence class again.

Unless she could hit back harder... it seemed like at this point, that might be her only option. Luckily the jelly-legs jinx wasn't a powerful spell and after a moment of indignity on the floor, her muscles returned to her control and Sinead scrambled back onto her feet. She knew duels were supposed to be friendly, just for practice, it didn't matter who won, etc... but everyone, including Hirsch, knew that was a total lie and nobody would enter the competition if they didn't want to win. And anyway, this was just embarrassing. She'd been taken down by a first-year jinx!

Angry now, she hardly even thought about what she cast next, her wand moving as soon as she was on her feet and her mouth speaking an incantation which apparently matched, although she wasn't entirely sure what- still, she could see it had worked because next thing she knew, a wall of blue flames was roaring across the room towards Natalie. Oops. In truth, she hadn't even know bluebell flames could get that big... hopefully that wasn't any more accidental magic. She really needed to shake that habit. Anyway, it wasn't like she could really hurt Natalie, was it? Everything was fine. It looked worse than it was.