"Maybe I'll mention that to her before Plymouth gets hurt," Cope offered. Really and truly his heart was in the right place, but Merlin, it was sore. "Just the part about how researching social issues doesn't mean you have to take part yourself and will always have an effect on those around you." He glanced at those dueling around them. "I appreciate your talking with me."

"Born ready to lose, Cale?" Anna asked, raising her eyebrows just once before heading over to the opposite end of the duelling arena. "My, my, my. That must be an awful realization for you to endure. My sympathies. I'll try and be easy on you then." Not taking her eyes off Cale for even a second, Anna drew her wand from her robes, pointing it directly at Cale but not casting a spell just yet. "You know...," she said, taking a few steps forward. "I say we make a little deal before we begin. I win, you owe me twenty-one chocolate frogs. You win, you owe me thirty-one chocolate frogs. It's a shame I'll have to settle for a mere twenty-one, but I'll deal with it...I suppose." When Anna felt as if she was an appropriate distance away from Cale, she stopped, assumed the correct stance, and then bowed. With a smirk, she then began talking once again. "You know, Cale, you're quite cute when you're nervous..."Tarantallegra!" she called out, feeling sort of guilty for casting that particular spell on a person who's prone to clumsiness. Maybe she should have duelled someone she didn't love so much...

Plymouth arrived just after Elizabeth. "Hey hey, LizzyBeth." Plymouth moved in and put his arm around her shoulders in a friendly sort of way. He watched Cale and Anna briefly, too. "That boy. Newell. Toupee. Did you know?"

Plymouth shrugged and then asked, "You ready to do this barbaric practice, me lady?"

Elizabeth looked over as Plymouth came in, smiling a little at his greeting. That was a new one. And when he started watching Cale and Anna, she laughed. "No, I can't say I did know that. Certainly is an interesting idea, though."

She stood up again as he shrugged, then slid her wand out of her bag before placing the bag on the floor near where she had been waiting. "Sure," she said, before grinning mischievously. "Locomotor Mortis!," she then cast, figuring she didn't want to show off with her nonverbal skills quite yet. And she figured he also needed to at least have warning of the first spell.

"Whoa woman!!!" Plymouth wasn't even done watching Anna.. He hadn't even got his WAND out yet! His legs snapped together and together they stayed. "No bowing? Merlin. I'm going to lose an appendage here today, huh?"


Plymouth made a big production of balancing with his legs so tight together and retrieving his wand. "Ahem. I don't usually like to hex the ladies, you know..." Plymouth chatted as he worked on the counter curse for his legs. "Finite. There. Much better." Plymouth stretched his legs, clearly begging to be cursed at again.

Elizabeth grinned again. "Just keeping you on your toes. And who's to say that was technically part of the duel. Maybe that was just a warning." She backed up a little, so she was the proper disatance away, then made a show of bowing. After she saw he had reversed the spell on his legs. Then she took her stance as she could tell he just wanted her to cast another spell. "You ready now?"

Thinking for a few seconds, she glanced over at Anna and Cale before settling on something a bit less dangerous. "Rictusempra!," she called out, then watched as the spell shot toward him.

Plymouth bowed, but clearly LizzyBeth had no qualms with hexing him. None whatsoever. "Protego!!" he shouted as the AWFUL awful tickling curse came at him again. "No way! Not that one again!" Plymouth had almost DIED from that one, so, clearly, his shield was good to go.

Plymouth took up dueling stance, the very "manly" hand on his hip. "Alright. Get ready!" He really didn't want to hex a girl. Really. "Petrificus Totalus!!" Plymouth shouted across the arena, with feeling AND intent.

Elizabeth couldn't help but feel a little cheated when he managed to block the last spell, but smiled anyway. "I can think of much worse that could be cast in your direction," she said vaguely, not as a threat or anything. But then she raised an eyebrow at his exaggerated dueling stance, and waited until he cast. "Protego!," she said forcefully, feeling her shield fly out of her wand. Watching the spell bounce off, she shifted position a little before casting again. "Langlock!"

Oh, Ian was just having too much fun with this!

He decided to bypass his office - his lesson wouldn't start for a few hours anyway - and took a detour down to the first floor. He snuck into the Dueling Arena and noticed a pair dueling. Both Ravenclaw...older students. A boy and a girl.

The silent-but-deadly jell-o jiggler threw himself to the ground and scooched on his stomach over to the pair, lying in wait.

When she least expected it (or so he hoped), Ian pointed his wand at the girl and silently mumbled "Garrio!"



OOC: Garrio means "babble" in Latin; i.e. this is the babbling curse.

Plymouth SHOULD have been ready for it. He really should have. But, you know, a large man on his belly scooting towards you.. No. Scratch that. A large PROFESSOR on his belly, slithering like a snake was distracting!


This is how Plymouth's tongue came to be glued to the roof of his mouth. This is also how he was unable to prevent Elizabeth from being attacked by another psycho teacher. He waved wildly at her.... "MMMNNNNOOOOOO" he hummed at her in warning.

Elizabeth thought she heard a weird scooting noise as she waited to see if the spell hit Plymouth, but didn't think anything of it until a couple things happened. The spell hit Plymouth, and he started waving wildly at her, and she looked down to see a curse flying at her. And Professor Ashby lying on the floor pointing his wand at her. With the curse having come from it.

Rolling her eyes, she jumped back a couple feet, before brandishing her wand. "Protego!," she called out, concentrating her shield on the curse speeding toward her. And she managed to get it out just in time, as the curse collided with the shield a split-second later, and she struggled to hold it. Somehow she managed to hold off the spell, and as it ricocheted off, she blinked as she was finally able to take a breath. She had almost forgotten the one part of the DADA assignment, and the fact she was wearing her badge.

With one last glance at the ground, hoping nothing else was going to happen down there, she looked back at Plymouth. Finite, she thought, leting him speak again.

Ian couldn't help but snort in laughter at this kid. The flailing arms, the gurgly humming noises. It was just too much. He rolled over in laughter.

Once he was able to regain his composure, Ian popped up off the ground. "Good job, Ms. Elizabeth, although I must say that I am a bit disappointed I wasn't able to hit you. Babbling curses are my favorite." He stuffed his wand back into his robe.

"Well...enjoy your duel!" he added, smiling.

His work here was done, so he turned around and skipped away. To the grounds! WOOSH!!!

Elizabeth had been watching the professor in surprise as he made his exit. In the back of her mind, she had thought that if he had asked Cayden, he would have known at least the Slytherin didn't think she needed to be hit by a Babbling Curse. And she had seen Plymouth moving his tongue around weirdly, so she at least knew she had successfully lifted the hex.

As she heard him speak again, she laughed. Turning back to him, she said, "Yep. He skipped. Protego!" She cast the charm in the middle of her thought, but managed to just get it up in time to avoid ending up with evil boils all over herself. Then she continued. "I didn't know someone his size could skip. Definitely a weird image."

Giving up her pretense of letting him know the spells she was casting, she silently gestured with her wand, thinking of Jonathan's spell. Chrysaetos Conjurus, she thought, then, as the golden eagle appeared, she added Oppugno!, sending the large bird flying at Plymouth.

"AHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Plymouth ran away, with no shame at all, from a BIG BIRD. "AHHHHH! HELP! Will a shield work on that thing?!?! AHHHHH!" After running around the arena like an idiot, Plymouth threw up a shield - but it was all the over place as he ran, "PROTEGOOOO AHHHHHH!!!"

Elizabeth's eyes widened as Plymouth started running around in a panic. "Um, it's an eagle. A shield might work. Or any sort of spell that would work on one of us," she said, before she rolled her eyes at his spastic shield. Finally, she took pity on him. "Impedimenta!," she called out, pointing her wand at the eagle. As it slowed down, she waved her wand again. "Finite"

As the eagle disappeared, she looked at Plymouth dubiously. "You do realize you were running away from the symbol of our house, right?," she asked, tapping her wand against her leg.

"Oh. Oh thank Merlin," Plymouth eased down to the mats and held his head. "That was HORRIFYING. You win. You win. I throw the towel in at setting wild animals loose on someone." Plymouth held his chest and breathed loudly.

"You're scary, LizzyBeth. No offense. But you're scary."

As much as Cale was ashamed to admit it, he had to run that deal through his head a couple of times before he truly realized what she was offering him. "Ah ah ah, NOT so fast, I'm not stupid you know," he teased her. Like he'd really agree to HER being the only winner in a bet. Funny jokeee! "You win, I'll buy you your thirty something chocolate frogs. But if IIIII win, you owe me thirty-one bags of jelly slugs," he told her with a smirk.

He bowed at the same time she did, pulling out his wand and getting ready to duel. A moment later, she had cast the spell, a lot faster than he anticipated. Still, that didn't stop him from being on guard. "Protego!" he yelled, flicking his wrist as they had been taught and watching as the shield went up, causing the spell to bounce away from him easily. He waved his wand again--he wasn't going to let up on her, noooooo way. He wasn't going to hurt her or anything of course but--he wanted to win. Badly.

"Petrificus Totalus!" he exclaimed, pointing his wand at her. It was officially ON!

Not blinking a bit, Anna stared at Cale, waiting to see if the spell she sent flying towards him would indeed hit him and give her the upper hand in this little battle. Still not taking her eyes off her boyfriend, Anna laughed when he caught on to the little candy deal she was trying to make. "Thirty-one bags, Cale? Do you know how much money that would cost?" she asked, her eyes widening a bit at the very thought. Why was she getting upset, though? It wasn't like she planned to lose. "Ahhh, well. It's a good thing I'll never actually have to buy them..."

Anna made a slight face when Cale successfully blocked her spell. She'd be counting on that one to hit, too. This just might turn out a little harder than she'd first thought. Was it bad, though, that a little part of her didn't want the spells to hit him? She really didn't want to hurt him... Yes, yes, that was very bad indeed, for Cale had been quick to send another spell flying right at her. With her future thirty-one chocolate frogs in mind, Anna growled a bit, raised her wand higher, and blocked the spell with a confident, "Protego!" HA! Blocked with ease... In the same breath, she raised her wand higher and sent the babbling curse flying in Cale's direction. "Come on, Cale! Hit your own girlfriend with your best shot!" she teased.

Cale was surprising himself--he was actually letting Anna get to him and get inside his head. Wrinkling his eyebrows in concentration, he smirked at her. "Oh, don't worry, you haven't seen anything yet!" he chuckled.

Unfortunately, he got a bit too distracted with planning his next spell that he forgot there was a spell coming his way. Before he knew it, he had been hit with the babbling spell. He staggered backwards, shaking his head before his mouth started taking over. "Annnnnnnnna! That wasn't nice! Why would you DO that to your boyfriend? Your gorgeous boyfriend, who happens to have really nice hair. Have you noticed my hair has looked less messy lately? See, don't tell Ezra, but I stole some of her hair gel a while back and it tames flyaways like crazy! It's fantastic! You should try it! Not that you need it or anything, but...oh, it's a lifesaver!"

"OH, and you know what I just remembered? That crazy Herbology professor, Bunbury, I noticed the other day that she's realllllllllly pretty, especially when she's angry. In fact, a lot of the female professors are pretty! Just like youuuuuuuu!" he chuckled.

"What am I supposed to be doing? Oh, yes! That's right! We're duelling! I want jellllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyy slugsssssssssss!" he cried before pointing his wand at her. "Expelliarmus!"

"Alright, well let's see what you have then," Anna said, getting back into that "stare at Cale and don't move from that position" mood. If she was successful, the spell should be hitting him...any...second...now...HA! Got him! A few seconds later, Anna's heart dropped to her toes, and she began to briefly panic. "Oh my gosh, Cale! Are you okay?" she asked, instinctively stepping forward to run check on him. She stopped herself just in time, though. She had to remember that this was a duel, and if her boyfriend got hurt, well then that was his jelly slug loss and her chocolate frog gain!

"Oh, don't you worry about your pretty little head of curls, Mister Newell," Anna said. "I haven't hit them...yet." Hand on hip, Anna watched, amused, as Cale babbled on and on. He was such a cutie---even when he made absolutely no sense! Wait...whaaaa? Pretty Herbology professor? "CALE!" Anna shrieked, her jaw dropping open. With a glare in her eyes, she raised her wand, shouted "Protego!" and blocked his disarming spell with ease. "Better luck next time, player!" she fussed. "Expelliarmus!"

"Might be a good idea" Kayla replied, "She's young and inexperienced in these things. I don't think she would intentionally hurt him." She hoped that she was explaining that right. Kayla looked at Cope, for a moment and although there was plenty else she wanted to say, she knew it was time to just keep her opinions to herself. "Anytime you feel the need, I'll always be here." She placed a hand gently on his arm, "Fate works in mysterious ways" Kayla gave him a smile before she walked over to the bench and picked up her bag, "Next time, I will kick your butt" she gave him a wink and made her way out of the arena.

Elizabeth's mouth dropped open in shock as Plymouth sat down and then gave up. "You do know that odds are you could have just blocked it, right? And it was just a conjured eagle. It's not like I smuggled a real eagle into the school," she said after a few seconds. Although now she had the thought that getting a real eagle into the school would be awesome.

"Come on. Breathe. The wild animals are gone. You're not missing any limbs, and nothing weird is growing out of your body parts. You're fine," she tried to convince him. But then she laughed a little. "Trust me. You're not the first to think that," she then said, sitting down on the edge of the platform, her legs hanging over. "But it was just a duel. For fun. And if you want to be scared of anyone, be scared of my older brother, since he's the one who came up with that spell." She grinned.

Plymouth was needing a hug. Maybe his mum, but at the very least, a hug. "This," he gestured around to the whole dueling arena, "is just not for me. I don't want to hex you, be hexed, or anything in between there." After making sure that he DID have all his appendages, Plymouth got up and walked over to LizzyBeth and offered a hand up. "That's becoming a trend around here - the scary older brother syndrome. I need a little sister, apparently." Plymouth gave her a sheepish grin and shrugged. "Let's get out of here."