"Oooh I'm so scared. What are you going to do Jake huh? What are you going to do?" Marcus stopped his twirling action of his wand and gazed up at the boy hanging from the ceiling. Yeah he supposed he was being a little mean but Jake wanted to keep pushing the buttons.

He watched as the broken wand hit the floor and Marcus shook his head, how could someone treat their wand that way. "Well it doesn't look as though that it is your wand either" he replied dryly, nodding his head toward the wand fragments. "Mr Upstead, whether you like it or not you are going to have to use another wand. Yours is damaged beyond repair."

I'll tell! I'll bloody well tell!

Something told Jake that if he was to admit THAT, then he would just sound a lot younger than he actually was. Meh, still. Anyway, he just kept his mouth shut in this instance and tried not to let on that his eyes were becoming overly bright, and that they were burning with salty tears.

"It IS my wand," he argued, not understanding what Lawson was saying, thinking he was saying he'd stolen it or something. "I brought it. Me. It's mine. There's a sticker on one end of it, telling me which way around to hold it. Professor Ashby put it on there with a permanent sticking charm. It broke by accident. I couldn't help it," he added, miserably, keeping his sniffling to a minimal volume. I couldn't help it. That was turning out to be the story of his life.

Damaged beyond repair? "You don't say?" Jake snapped, sarcastically, letting a teeny tiny tear slide down his cheek. He didn't like to admit he could never use the wand again. It was... so very sad. He loved that thing, he wanted it back. He was going to keep the fragments forever... and just wish it went back together.

Oh would you look at that. The ickle little Huffie was going to cry. Well if he hadn't of been such a pain in the butt he wouldn't be hanging from the ceiling by his underpants and if Marcus wasn't so fed up he might have actually felt sorry for the kid. As it was he was pretty much over it and he wasn't feeling very sympathetic whatsoever.

"It's not yours anymore Jake or I should say it's of no use to you anymore. It doesn't matter where you put the sticker." He sighed deeply and ran his hand over his goatee, something he always did when he was totally frustrated. It seemed he was not going to be able to get through to the boy.

"Who will you speak to Jake? About what's bothering you I mean because I am happy to organise it. Just tell me and I will arrange it immediately." Marcus chose to ignore the boy's tone. He supposed he would be a little testy too if he had just lost his wand. Something he was rather proud of was the fact that after all these years and fights he had gotten into to, he still had his original wand and plenty of souvenirs.

"It belongs to me," Jake choked out. There, couldn't argue with that, could he? It was true... right? And... there was the fact that Lawson was actually right, but Jake didn't want to admit that. He had no problems usually... just... it was LAWSON! Jake couldn't remember disliking a professor this much, except Bunbury, and that was before he'd spoken to her... then she turned out okay. Hmmmmmm... ideas... ideas.

But... who would he speak to? Honestly... well, Professor Morgan was the first person that sprang to mind, but she'd seemed so distant lately and he was already having to spend alot of time down there, along with her just outright worrying about him... he didn't want to add to that.

Though he would be telling her about this.

Who else? Shackleton? No... no... she scared him after that little chat they'd had about his detentions. He didn't want her to know about any of this. So... who else did he speak to? Truebridge? Hmmm... as much as Jake liked the man, he'd never really spoken to him, and he was ultimately apprehensive about talking like this... even after that detention.

So... who? Kazi? Maybe... but, no. Jake was, once again, having to spend alot of time with him. Like, every evening... GROAN! But, really, out of the teachers he could think of, that left just one.

The one down there. Lawson. Maybe... maybe Jake thought he was alright? He usually played up for the people he thought were okay, so he didn't like them. Defence mechanisms and all that. But maybe, maybe after the christmas holidays when his dad had sorted out the potions he was meant to take, maybe he'd be calm enough to sit and talk properly. Truthfully. And... he wouldn't get angry.

"Can't I talk to you?" Jake asked, speaking quite quietly and looking forlornly down at the broken fragments of his wand.

Anna winced a little as she watched the army of little birds attack poor Cela at an alarmingly high speed. Just as soon as they'd hit her Shield Charm, they'd dove back in for more and more. It was actually a pretty freaky sight to see, and Anna was nearly to the point where she wanted to lift her wand and cast the birds away on her own. Before she could consider the matter any further, Cela had done just that. Ouch. Burned birds... The thought alone actually saddened Anna, and her face fell as she watched the birds and all their prettiness burn away.

"Incendio...but Cells, that one was pink," she half-fussed, pointing to the spot in the air where the birds once flew. That tiny little moment of distraction was all it took for Cela to cast a spell that would do Anna in for good. Anna moved to take a step back, but just as she did, the ropes surrounded her from the waist down, and during her stumble to the ground, her wand rolled a few feet away. It came to rest right at Cela's feet.

Boo.

Watching Jake, as he hung from the ceiling, Marcus felt a twinge of guilt for putting him up there in the first place. It was obvious from the amount of time it was taking Jake, to figure out who he wanted to talk to, that he must not have anyone he feels comfortable with.

As he stood beneath the young boy, an idea was forming in his mind and the more he thought on it, the more it seemed like a good idea. The only problem was being able to get Jake to go there.

But it seemed that problem was solved when Jake, finally spoke up and Marcus could not help but look at him surprised. "Of course you can Jake, I would like very much if you would talk to me." He moved out from underneath the Hufflepuff and pointed his wand at him. "I'm going to let you down now Jake and then how about we head down to Hogsmeade for a good talk?" He gave his wand a flick and brought Jake, gently back to the floor.

"OoOooh."

O_o

Had she just...?

Won a duel against Anna Greingoth?

O_o


She holstered her own wand and bent to pick up Anna's wand, offering her free hand to her friend. "Oh! Ropes!"

She drew her wand again and flicked it at Anna. "Finite." She reholstered her wand and offered her hand again. "Um... want to sit down and discuss and write up some notes?"

Geez, no need to look so surprised, dude. It's not like the kid is problematic around y-

...

...

Never mind.

WAIIIITTTTT!!!!! He was letting Jake come down. Fo realz?

It was hard work stopping himself from smiling, however, when Lawson said he could talk to him. In fact, he couldn't stop the smile. It was brief, but you could see that it was there. Oh yes you could. But then it was gone, oh yes it was. "Thank you, sir," Jake muttered uncomfortably, as he was set back down on the floor. The very first thing he did was pick up the halves of the wand and stare miserably at them... but he had to cast that thought aside...

For now.

"Erm... okay, Professor," he replied, in regards to the Hogsmeade thing.

Suspicious.

Oh would you look at that the kid could actually crack a smile. Marcus, gave him a reassuring smile in return and nodded at him. He watched as he picked up his broken wand, he wished he could something about but unfortunately the wand was snapped cleanly in two.

Hopefully his idea would make Jake, feel a little better. Marcus, raised his wand and sent his Chimaera patronus on its way and then turned to the young Hufflepuff. "Come on, let me shout you a butterbeer." He gestured for Jake, to head out of the dueling arena.

"Yes, Professor," Jake nodded, speaking quietly as he glanced up at the ceiling, then at the people still present in here, before finally looking back at Lawson. Feeling nervous, yet somehow calm, Jake nodded once more and headed out the door.

Bring.

It.

On.

In a nice way, of course.

*mumble...grumble...mumble*

Anna made her way out of the ropes and off the floor of the arena. "Good job, Toussaint. You got me there," she said, with a laugh. "Notes...sure. Wand back in hand first, please." Anna smiled and held her hand out for her wand. She trusted Cela, but in the wizarding world, it was never, ever cool to roam about without a wand...especially at Hogwarts. Some of the freakiest things could happen right here under the roof of this castle!

"That was a pretty cool duel, though. I definitely see where Fehu came into play," Anna said, as she made her way off to a corner of the room. She wanted to get out of the way in case anyone else wanting to duel entered the room. "You know...with the whole luck, abundance, increased wealth deal. I can't help but think about how lucky I was with that whole flower bouquet thing!" She laughed, remembering the hilarity of the situation. "I totally meant to cast the birds on you for that one, of course. I got lucky, though! Fehu lucky! I just happened to cast an abnormally huuuuge bouquet, and it ended up working perfectly!" She slid her wand back into her holster. There was really no use having it out now, for the duel was over and done with. "Oh, and those birds...I'm sure you remember how many there were. That was awesome...really awesome! That Fehu rune isn't kidding when it mentions abundance, now is it? The amount of water from that Aguamenti, too..." Anna trailed off on that last statement, though. She'd suddenly started thinking about how appropriate it was that Cela had won the duel with ropes, which tied in to that whole bondage deal associated with her rune.

Grace still didn't see many places of the castle, and dueling arena was one of them. She knew here was a fun place to check but she decided she'd better check here when she was at fourth year or something... When she was older! But here she was, not actually going to duel, but rather have fun without any detention. And if anyone wanted to duel... well she'd think about that part.

She walked in, taking every detail of the room and waited for her friends. Well, this was going to be fun.

Lyra walked towards the dueling arena and having already been in here for a few times she entered the room with no hesitation. Looking around quickly she saw that Grace was already there, excellent! She walked towards her with a smirk on her face. "hey hey" she greeted "is Sydney coming too or not?"

"I sent a note to her and I think she received it. But I didn't wait to get an answer... I run directly here!" Grace answered with the same smirk on her face as Lyra's. "Let's wait for a couple of minutes... Then we start." she added. She really couldn't wait for trying the spell out.

"oh ok" Lyra said and sat down on the platform and grabbed her wand out of her holster, twirling it around in her fingers. "you know , i can't wait till i know more spells so that i can duel for the first time" she said to Grace her eyes sparkling a bit, she wanted to duel so badly but thought it would be better to first practise spells.

Nice to know she wasn't the only one with that feeling. "I'm dying too!" Grace said, maybe a bit more enthusiastic than she should have sounded. "Oh... maybe we have a short duel while we wait Sydney here. I really wanna do, but I don't want a total stranger." she asked with a friendly smile covering an evil one. It was true that she didn't know many spells... But she knew some nice ones.

Lyra jumped up from the platform, looking at Grace big eyed. "you wanna duel, now?" yayayayah Lyra stepped on the platform "lets do it then," she said smiling and waited for grace to get up on the platform too.

Grace didn't think that Lyra'd accept. But she was dying to do! "Okay!" she said and jumped on the platform. She quickly bowed her head to start. She wasn't really sure how to start a duel, but bowing seemed nice to her, a show of respect.

'Lets bring out my Slytherin side' Lyra thought when she saw Grace stepping on to the platform, seeing how she bowed Lyra gave a little grin towards her and bowed too

'Okay, now, focus on her movements!' Grace thought as she watched Lyra bow too. 'Okay, start with something easy.'

"Aguamenti!" she yelled. She wouldn't want to be all wet, and she hoped this spell hit Lyra and surprised her.

'what the?...' Lyra thought when she saw the water flew towards her. She hadn't expect that!
While jumping out of the way to her left, she quickly moved her hand, her wand fell out of her wrist holster and in her hand, she pointed it Grace and shouted "Rictusempra"!

Grace didn't expected her spell to hit anyway, but a small hope... Lyra was too quick. With casting spells too! She didn't know what 'Rictusempra' was, nor did she care. All she knew was she had run away. Fast! Trying to remember the blocking spell, she threw herself to the right while shouting "Densaugeo!" Another tricky spell she had learnt from his dad's diaries which caused the opponent's teeth grow very fast.

'oh no oh no oh no! i know that spell! ok Lyra think fast!' "Protego!" she shouted waving her wand around. A small shield formed around her just in time , it wasn't anything powerful but still it had managed to stop the attack. Panting slightly she looked at Grace, 'where'd she learned that spell?' she thought.
Quickly pointing her wand, not at Grace, but at a dummy, she shouted "Accio Dummy!" the charm she learned from Sydney. Not waiting for it to fly towards her she began to ran towards it while the dummy flew to her, she ducked to the side the let the dummy pass her . She turned around facing Grace again and pointed her wand at it. "Augamenti!" she shouted. a burst of water hit the dummy and it flew, together with the water towards Grace.

'The shielding spell is protego, yes!' But it didn't help that she'd heard that spell from Lyra. Her attack was blocked again! 'Lyra is very good at this.' she thought, along with a spell to cast again. She was confused when Lyra pointed her wand to a dummy, what was her plan? She didn't know for now, so she merely aimed her wand and shouted "Tarantallegra!", trying to take advantage of her distraction with the dummy. But she was distracted by her own casting and she didn't see the water with dummy flying to her in the right time. It hit her hard, soaking her to bone. She made a face and tried to get up and see if her spell hit Lyra or not. At least she had time to cast a spell...

Hearing Grace shout a spell, Lyra quickly placed another Chield charm around her. She was so happy that her uncle learned her all these things. Looking up trying to see where Grace was she noticed just in time to see the water hit her.
'yesh!' she thought but then she remembered she had also blasted a dummy towards her, meaning if Grace was hit by the water, the dummy must have also hit...."oh no" she muttered. "Grace!! Grace!! are you alright?!" Lyra shouted from the other end of the platform ,worried she had hurt her.