Elizabeth loked over at Plymouth sympathetically as he talked about how he didn't like dueling. "Not everyone can, or even needs to actually want to do any of this," she said quietly. "I mean, it helps to be able to protect yourself, but it's not a bad thing to think this isn't for you." It was an assignment. Granted, it turned into one of the more interesting assignments she had ever done, but it was an assignment. And she hadn't meant to cause Plymouth to almost have a heart attack.

When he offered his hand to help her stand up again, she took it, then jumped down from the platform. "Jonathan's not really scary," she replied, grinning at the idea of scary older brother syndrome. "Not unless you're playing Quidditch against him. But he is really good at coming up with spells." She smiled at Plymouth as he shrugged. "I'm sure you can find someone to be like your younger sister around here," she commented as she headed over to collect her school bag again. When he suggested they go, she glanced at him for a second. "Don't we have to sign the logbook or something?"

"I'd much rather be hanging out in the Greenhouses or brewing up something Professor Headman Bontecou. It doesn't help at ALL that THIS teacher, Defense dude, is COMPLETELY barking, up the wall, out of his MIND with an orange juice soda -- CRAZY." Plymouth laughed and made sure she made it down from the platform alright. He nodded at her chatter about her brother. Like Cela, he had a feeling THIS girl also was way, way sweet on her brother. It made Plymouth appreciate Copernicus. He had someone to be crazy protective over now too, though he wasn't a sister. Or little. Still, though.

"Allow me to sign it for us. Let me sign away how I lost - massively - to you. Maybe you'll get extra points." Plymouth grinned and went to sign the book for them.

"Player? I'm not a player! Unless you count the fact that I'm a Quidditch player--I'm the best Quidditch player in the wholeeeeee world!" Cale chuckled gleefully. He pulled his wand out and shouted "Protego!" and watched as the Expelliarmus spell bounced away off his shield and disappeared.

Slowly, his brain was starting to kick in, and he was very horrified at the words coming out of his mouth. "Did you know someone had the audacity to start a rumor saying that IIII, Cale Newell, had a WIG? Who would do such a thing?" he ranted. Ohmigosh, shut up shut UP!!!! he brain yelled. But he couldn't. His mouth had a mind of its own, and there was no stopping it till the spell wore off. "I'm sure you've heard it of course...OHMIGOSH you're never going to believe what happened! Reese got dared by one of her silly, immature girlfriends to tug on my hair to see if it was real, in front of all of Hogsmeade! Then I started getting angry and she started crying and I felt reallllllly bad. Hey, you don't happen to have any jelly slugs on you, do you? Oh, it's alright if you don't, I'll just go eat after this. I wonder what I want for dinner tonight--I hope chicken is an option. Oh, and I should start eating too...maybe a salad."

"UGGGGH I have this atrocious boy band song stuck in my head," he informed her a moment later. It was like his mouth was a train bouncing up and down on a curvy railroad track. He couldn't keep his attention on ANYTHING, let alone his duel. "You know, it's a shame I never learned to play the guitar, I bet I would do reallllllly nicely in a boy band. But I'm kind of scared of it, after I nearly fell out the window playing air guitar that one time--DIFFINDO!" he shouted, his mouth switching gears once again as he willed himself to send another spell her way.

"Oh, yeah? Well last time I checked, Quidditch players didn't have the hots for their professors!" Anna remarked. "They had the hots for their girlfriend!" Anna playfully stuck her tongue out at her boyfriend. She didn't really care that Cale thought their Herbology professor was cute. I mean, it wasn't like Anna was totally innocent in that department either. Hello. Professor. Truebridge. "Arggghhhhh!" Anna called out, frustrated that Cale had just blocked another of her spells. Cale couldn't be that great of a dueling partner for her, could he? He was bound to fail at one point or another.

As Cale started babbling once again, Anna giggled at the hilarious words coming out of his mouth. "Yeah, as a matter of fact, I did hear the rumors. The difference between me and the others that have heard the rumor, though, is the fact that I've ran my fingers through your hair. "I know firsthand that it's all real," she said, winking at her dueling partner. In her moment of silliness, Anna slipped and landed on the floor of the arena with a soft thud. Her eyes wide with the fear of getting hit by Cale's spell, Anna scrambled to her feet, calling out "Protego!" just in time. "Stop babbling, Cale! You're distracting me!" Anna said. "Confundo!"

Cale wasn't even taking in half of the nice things Anna was saying to him. He frowned as she dodged her spell. "Anna! Why are you doing so well? Can't you at least miss one and make me look good?" he asked her with a pout. "I've got to have an ego boost every once in a while you know!"

"I can't help it! You did this to me, you know! You're the one making me babble like this. It's your fault Anna!" he paused as the gears in his voice box changed once again. "You know who I think fancies me? Professor Lupa! She was stuffing cake in my mouth when we went to visit her and did you notice she seemed awfully jealous of you? Tee hee, a professor is jealous of youuuu!" he chuckled, nearly falling down himself as he started to giggle uncontrollably.

"ANNA! MAKE IT STOP!" he exclaimed before she sent the next spell his way. Confundo? He reminded himself that that was a VERY bad spell that he did NOT want to get hit by, and yelled "Protego!" once again, smiling with glee as it bounced off of him. "Impedimenta!" he yelled as he cast a spell at her once more.

"I'm doing so well, because I'm Anna Greingoth," she replied. "I was born to shine!" Of course she really wasn't that conceited. She just enjoyed carrying on in such a joking manner with her boyfriend. She knew he'd always come back with some sort of hilarious line that would make her laugh and laugh. "How's this for an ego boost? I love you, Cale Markus...., and I think your hair is absolutely hot!"

"Oh, fine!" Anna said, playfully rolling her eyes. She pointed her wand towards Cale and called out, "Finite Incantatem!" There, that should stop the constant babbling coming from her boyfriend's mouth. Besides that, Anna was getting a tiny bit irritated and jealous with all the talk of professors having the hots for her boyfiend. "Is that better?" she asked, smirking at Cale. "Now maybe you can cast a decent spell at me!"

With an evil glint in her eye, Anna dropped her wand at the sound of Cale's "Impedimenta." Oh this was going to be so, so good.. Slightly ducking out of the way of the spell, but pretending she'd been hit, Anna dropped to the floor. Regardless of what the spell that had been casted at her was meant to do, Anna allowed herself to just lie lifeless-like on the floor of the arena. As Slytherin as this little move was, hopefully it'd be her little moment of glory in this duel.

Cale grinned as she finally lifted the babbling curse. WOOT! It felt so good to be able to have control over his mouth again. "Oh, you want a decent spell? Maybe YOU should send a decent spell my way instead of the Babbling Curse. I know you can do better than THAT!"

As soon as she spoke, he blinked in shock as Anna fell to the ground after being hit by his spell. Weird, he could have sworn he actually missed but--she looked pretty hurt. In fact, she was hardly moving. OHMIGOSH OHMIGOSH OHMIGOSH he had killed her! Oh noes! He killed his girlfriend! He didn't know his spells were THAT powerful!

"Anna! Anna! Speak to me!" he cried as he hurried over to her side, dropping down to the floor to check her pulse. Oh thank god, she had a pulse! Praise Merlin! "Anna! Wake up!"

From her spot on the floor, Anna could hear poor Cale going on and on about what he considered to be a "decent spell." Listening to him, Anna started to feel slightly guilty for what she was currently doing. There within lied the problem with dueling someone you were in love with---you had mixed feelings about hitting them with spells and often times felt bad when they didn't win. That in mind, Anna nearly jumped up off the floor, revealed her little charade, and then let the duel run its course. She didn't, though. She'd come too far with her little evil deed to turn back now.

It literally broke Anna's heart to hear the sound of Cale's footsteps coming closer and closer, indicating that he was rushing to her side. She imagined what she would do if the roles were switched, and she'd casted a spell that caused her boyfriend to appear lifeless on the floor of some dueling ground. She imagined herself feeling literally sick at the thought of hurting Cale that much. She shouldn't have done this...it was too late now, though. Right there on the floor of the dueling arena, though, she made herself a promise to never trick Cale with possible deaths or serious injuries again---it hurt both of them too much.

Nevertheless, she needed to at least give her little stunt an appropriate end. She nearly smirked when she heard Cale urge her to wake up. "Okay," Anna nonchalantly said, sitting straight up, pointing her wand at Cale, and casting the jelly-legs jinx right at him.

Before he even realized what was happening, he was hit. Staggering backwards, Cale's mouth fell open in horror. "ANNNNNNNNNNA! What the--?" his sentence was cut off, however, as his legs started flailing out of control, making it nearly impossible for him to stand up. He tried to take a step forward and ended up kicking his leg up so high, that he kicked himself in the face.

Falling to the floor, he reached for his discarded wand and pointed at his legs. "Finite!" he cried, watching in delight as the spell actually worked and his legs stopped moving. Turning as fast as he could he pointed his wand at Anna again. "Expelliarmus!" he exclaimed, hoping he could at least hit her to get back at her for what she had just done.

"Cale? Cale, are you okay?" Anna asked, pushing herself up off the floor and fighting the urge to run to his side. This whole "dueling against your boyfriend" situation just wasn't working for her. She just had way too many feelings for Cale to put either one of them through this again. She stayed put, though, for she knew that if given the chance, Cale would bounce back up and hit her quite hard with a spell. Anna giggled as she watched Cale flail about, dancing around and around due to the effects of her spell. At least now she knew that he wasn't too hurt. When Cale casted "Finite" and ended the spell placed on his legs, Anna's eyes widened, and she raised her wand once again. Boyfriend or not, it was time to concentrate on what Cale could possibly send flying back at her.

With all her might, Anna pointed her wand directly at Cale and blocked his spell with a good, strong "Protego!" She wasn't going to waste any time now. She'd been trying to hit him with the same spell throughout the duel, but so far he'd been able to worm his way out of all of them. She had to make this next one count, because if she didn't, Cale just might get the upper hand and beat her once and for all. With a swish and a flick, Anna called out, "Tarantallegra!!!"

Cale whipped his curly head around to try and protect himself from her spell, but it wasn't fast enough. The spell hit him again, causing his legs to go haywire once more. In the process, he dropped his wand and his left foot kicked it clear across the room.

"Stop! STOP! I surrendor!" he cried, grinning in spite of himself. Anna had just beaten him BAD, and his ego was going to take a serious hit later, but the whole situation seemed hilarious to him at the moment. "You win! You win! Just take the spell off!" he begged with a chuckle.

Miranda was learning a lot from watching the other students duel. She only hoped she could take what she had been observing and use it in practice. Hopefully, someone would underestimate her due to being so young and small.

Twilight was also watching the other in the dueling arena. As she didn't have a partner it was kind of hard to practice, though much to the distress of her miniowl Eveningstar she had concentrated on making a shield at shoulder height with a firm "protego" and he had flown straight into it and had bounced off rather hard. Where owls suppose to do that or had she done something wrong?

Pfft. Rematch. It was going to be Jake VS. Cam and Cam was a bit scared really since it was possibly his friend of his was going to use that finger-removing spell again. What if the nurse had to put it all over again and use surgery and icky stuff. His poking finger shouldn't disappeared and his poking finger was only the finger that he poked with unless poking wasn't the day for poking finger day. It was as simple as that. Stepping into the Dueling Arena, he tried putting a smirk on his face and stepped to one side of the room.

He was waiting for Jake and quickly took out his green wand and stared at it as though it was some sort of a green taffy. Oh gulpin' gargoyles, there was some sort of candy in everything so far. Maybe he would even eat something like a pillow. Well it was possible, it was so fluffy sometimes that it reminded him of some mutated cotton candy.

"Reaaadeehhhhh?"

With that, he started doing boxing punches through the air to get ready and stretching his arms out forward. Maybe he would lose his wand or something so he was going to try his cool karatay moves on Jake possibly. Ha.

Jake stood watching Cameron do his usual crazy routine.

I could let the boy get it out of his system... he thought to himself. Or I could do this.

Whilst Cameron was distracted by his distorted mind, Jake raised his wand and tilted his head. "Morsus," he aimed a stinging hex straight at Cameron's right ankle, watching the boy to see how he'd react.

Jake's mind had been totally elsewhere recently, and very soon he was becoming distracted by his own thoughts.

Tobi wandered into the dueling arena. To say he was apprehensive was perhaps the biggest understatement... EVER.

The idea of dueling was never something he was comfortable with, and Dueling Cela? Between Copernicus' need to keep her all safe and stuff, and the fact that he was so much older than her, this was not boding well. But then, Tobi was not at all good with spells and hexes, so he didn't really qualify as experience or competition for his little sorta-sister. What was posed the greatest danger of all to her, was Tobi's inexperience. When he pointed his wand at things, those things tended to go BOOM!

Tobi really didn't want Cela to go BOOM. Copernicus would be well within his rights to hit him back for that. Or Plymouth, or whoever she ended up with.

Dear Merlin, what would her REAL brothers do to him?

Celandine stood right behind Tobi and piped up, "I've been watching and taking lots of notes on people's techniques and which combinations work well and stuff. And which hexes and jinxes and charms and curses take the most energy, and which are easier to shield against and... are you ready Tobi?" she asked cheerfully, thankful for the distraction and the opportunity to do some homework.

Distractions ftw.

Tobi gulped. Ready? Ready to blow up my sorta-sister? Ready to die a slow painful death when they find me at the scene of the crime? NO!

"Uh, okay."

WHAT?

"Okay!" Celandine did the whole salute and pace and la-de-da, offering a commentary to Tobi in a firm voice as she did so, "Respect and stuff right? And we practice the focused shielding and I guess you are going to be all honourable and Gryffindorish and go easy on me? Well you shouldn't becau..." Cela interrupted herself and whirled around, flicking her wand at Tobi, "Glisseo!" Cela directed the charm at the ground beneath Tobi's feet to make it slippery, "Tarantallegra!" She followed it up quickly and danced to one side as if she were the one hit with the spell, her excitement obvious.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Celandine

"Okay!" Celandine did the whole salute and pace and la-de-da, offering a commentary to Tobi in a firm voice as she did so, "Respect and stuff right? And we practice the focused shielding and I guess you are going to be all honourable and Gryffindorish and go easy on me? Well you shouldn't becau..." Cela interrupted herself and whirled around, flicking her wand at Tobi, "Glisseo!" Cela directed the charm at the ground beneath Tobi's feet to make it slippery, "Tarantallegra!" She followed it up quickly and danced to one side as if she were the one hit with the spell, her excitement obvious.

Tobi bowed. Okay, haven't caused any property damage. Good...

He straightened, assumed the position, sorta, listening to Cela's commentary, well sorta.

He wasn't quick enough to do anything about the slide charm. And not co-ordinated enough stand on it.

"WHOA!" He flailed as he kicked his feet futilely, trying, but failing to remain upright. Well, he could do this from the floor, he'd meant to do that. Really.

He didn't wait for a curse, and it was a good thing, because as he said "Protego!" Cela cast her curse

He immediately focused his thinking, concentrating so very hard on Cela's twisted little mind, WHAT HAD SHE LEARNED from her brothers anyhow!? the blast coming from her wand. It was a good little shield, and Tobi was thankful for it.

Ooooh, Tobi had a good shield! Celandine flicked her wand, "Ferula!"

Had... had Cela just cast a splint and bandage charm? She had! And she'd aimed it at Tobi's leg.

Following it up quickly, Cela cast "Incendio!" Not at Tobi... exactly...

... actually at the very dry and flammable splint and bandage.

"You have a really good shield Tobi!" Cela informed him, bouncing all over the place and wondering why he hadn't cast against her yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Celandine

Ooooh, Tobi had a good shield! Celandine flicked her wand, "Ferula!"

Had... had Cela just cast a splint and bandage charm? She had! And she'd aimed it at Tobi's leg.

Following it up quickly, Cela cast "Incendio!" Not at Tobi... exactly...

... actually at the very dry and flammable splint and bandage.

"You have a really good shield Tobi!" Cela informed him, bouncing all over the place and wondering why he hadn't cast against her yet.

Oh this is getting ridiculous, thought Tobi, as he tried for the third time, and failed for the third time, to get up from the floor.

He pointed his wand at the slip and slide. "Finite Incantatem!" he barked.

In so doing, the floor lost its ice-skating rink like quality, but Tobi was also distracted.

He suddenly found himself in possession of... a cast? "Cela?" he asked, "what's this about?" How long had I spent trying to stand?

Her idea of an answer was trying to set him on fire.

FIRE!!!

"PROTEGO!" Tobi cast another spell, I don't want to be Tobi-flambé! The flame was headed for his right leg, the one in the cast, and that was the one that his shield was covering too. The flames fizzeled out as they hit the shield.

Tobi heaved a deep sigh of relief.

Quickly, and carefully, he ran his wand down the cast, saying, "Diffindo." It sliced open and fell to the floor. He didn't want Cela trying to burn it off again.

Tobi wasn't anything with charms and jinxes like Cela was, so he thought he would start simply, and if he got the chance, work his way up so he fired a basic Jelly-Legs Curse at her and hoped for the best.

Cela looked askance at Tobi and cast again, "Incendio!" The flames slipped harmlessly past him... apparently...

... but they hit the discarded bandages, which burned cheerfully on the ground behind him. Eeeep! Cela did not manage to get her shield up quickly enough and her legs began to wobble like a freshly birthed farm animal.

Cela fell on her butt and stretched out her arm, casting, "Wingardium Leviosa!" apparently missing Tobi again but actually levitating the flaming bandages above Tobi's head.

"Ouch... Tobi... Cela pointed at her legs, which were still wobbling alarmingly, she pouted at him for good measure, her wand still extended.

Ruby walked back into the Dueling arena and sighed she had lost last time she was in here but she needed to finish her DADA homework she looked around for someone to Duel with.

Freya entered the room and looked around, she hadn't been here in ages, since she and Chris had last dueled. 'This looks promising.' She walked over to a younger student. "Finishing homework as well? Care to have a duel?" Freya grinned a little bit, she simply couldn't help herself.