"Not at all, Copernicus." Ethan answered. "Was there anything in particular you wanted to work on or just freeform dueling?"

Why was Kazimeriz in here? Truebridge looked around at his own thought/feeling but did not see the old man at all. Still, he trusted his instincts and they were pretty well connected to Krazimeriz. Wondering idly if Axe was aware, Ethan decided not to mention it or spend too long trying to figure out exactly where he was.

Maybe he'd toss out a revealing spell later or something.

Copernicus tried not to stare at Professor Lawson... and failed. What was he DOING? Clearly Cela's handywork.

He shook himself to pay attention to Truebridge. "Just dueling, sir. I feel like I'm losing my edge. I was quite a good dueler for a while, but now I'm just... average. You know average won't cut it next year."

"Or now actually." Ethan pointed out, "Not if you want to make a decent grade on your NEWTs exam. If you've lost your edge in dueling then likely your spellwork in general will be effected in the same way.

"Alright. Shall we begin?"

Ethan made sure they were well out of the way of Lawson's nap time and flicked his wand up in a neat salute.

Copernicus flicked his wrist to release his wand before raising his wand in a return salute. From there, he slid easily into a loose-limbed dueling-pose. His thoughts were on the duel ahead, although he frowned at the very thought of less than 'decent' grades on his NEWTs. Decent? He needed stellar grades.

It was unlikely he'd beat Truebridge, even with the man taking it easy on him, but he just hoped not to embarrass himself.

"Incarcerus."

With an artistic but functional flick of his wand, that echoed the style of a certain old man in quite an obvious way, Ethan threw up his shield, stopping the ropes in mid-air. They fell to the floor of the arena and he flicked his wand again, transfiguring them into heavy tree roots which immediately buried into the ground, causing the stonework underfoot to buckle as they grew -slowly- towards Copernicus, still under the ground.

"Fumos." Ethan conjured a thick dark smoke which spread from the tip of his wand, obscuring the air between himself and Copernicus.

At least those ropes has appeared, although they were slower and thinner than he would have liked. Copernicus sighed in exasperation at himself. He KNEW that spell like the back of his hand. It was basic defense stuff, mastered when he was a third year taking dueling tutoring lessons, and those were third year ropes.

Once the smoke appeared, Cope started moving, both to turn Truebridge's advantage into one he could use as well and to avoid those roots coming his way. He ducked sideways and went low to the ground, hoping that the smoke rose as well-behaved smoke should.

There! Were those legs through the smoke? He cast a nonverbal tripping jinx and rolled again.

Ethan stood motionless rather than start moving, considering anyone would be expected to move. He listened carefully catching the sound of a quiet foot fall and letting a light gust of air from his wand, push aside enough smoke around his feet that they'd be juuuust visible.

He knew Copernicus wielded his wand with his right hand and so it was fairly easy to guess which direction he'd move in, when he heard a slight brushing sound of cloth and the trip jinx Copernicus sent caught briefly on his ankle (he wasn't moving, so there was no tripping), Truebridge sliced his wand through the air, parting the smoke in a rush, almost a direct line to where the seventh year had rolled.

"Stupefy. Reducto." He tossed in a non-verbal blasting curse, aiming for the ground just to one side of Copernicus.

Odd. The boy was off form.

Truebridge was clever, and Copernicus knew that. He should have realized early on that the smoke didn't mean Truebs was going anywhere... and the better to hide that lack of motion. He saw his jinx hit... and do nothing. The man wasn't moving.

Avoiding Truebridge's return spells was more difficult. He paused in his current line of movement and managed to avoid Stupefication. Feeling confident he could hold his ground for the moment, Copernicus stopped and dug in.

Two terms ago, they'd spent ages perfecting the shield spell in various sizes and shapes. Cope had managed to throw up shields that were hardy and long-lasting consistently in class. Without hesitation, he threw up a strong shield that should repel the Reducto. In fact, it should send the spell back at Truebridge.

Instead, he fell back when the Reducto barely dinged the shield and spun lazily off toward the ceiling. The shield fell and the blasting curse sent Copernicus flying.

"Copernicus..." Ethan vanished the smoke and strode forward, carefully stepping over the roots that had broken up the ground. He frowned and offered his hand to help the Ravenclaw to his feet.

"This is not like you."

He hesitated.

"May I see your wand?"

Feeling like a sulky child, Copernicus thrust his wand at Professor Truebridge. "I don't have the luxury to suddenly be rubbish at casting, and yet... I'm totally rubbish."

He gladly gave up the wand and forced his eyes not to wander to wherever Celandine was. Had she just seen him get schooled so fast? And after he'd spent time recently playfully offering to 'help' her practice dueling. She probably thought he was a moron. And a liar.

"I'll practice harder."

"Hmm." Ethan holstered his own wand and took Copernicus' wand from him, examining it thoughtfully. "Cherry yes?" Of course it was.

He gave it a swish and conjured a few bubbles, flipped it to his other hand and popped each bubble with a series of flicks.

"When did you get this wand?"

"When?" Copernicus ran a hand through his hair, rumpling the waves and making the whole thing fluff outward. What was the Professor asking? What did it matter?

"When I was 12? Right after..." He shook his head. "When I was 12. Don't tell me these things expire." Bad joke? Yes?

"Not so much expire. But sometimes great change in your life can warrant a new wand." Or run ins with dragons, crazy old men or over eager young Egyptian women. "Would you say you have grown since then? Emotionally I mean, obviously you have grown in a physical sense."

"Sir. I got this wand right after my mother died It was almost the first wand the shopkeeper offered, and he chose it because I didn't want to be there and he knew this was a good wand that would work for just about anyone. And it always has."

Copernicus was certain he didn't want to talk about his mother's death, so he was surprised to discover it didn't hurt nearly as much as he'd expected. "I'm sure I've grown since then."

"I am confident that you have." Ethan answered. There was no sympathy in his tone but there was a sense of understanding about it. As if he had lost a loved one once upon a time too.

"Perhaps you might like to try my wand? He flicked it out of the holster and offered it hilt first.

"Poisonwood 12 1/2 inches, manticore hair core. She is quite rigid. Her name is Michelle."

Copernicus took the wand with a skeptical look. What exactly made a wand a good Michelle? As opposed to a Donna or even a Steve? Michelle?

As soon as his fingers closed on the wand, two things became clear to Cope. First, this was not his wand. It felt wrong in his hands, like wearing someone else's shoes. But it was the difference between wearing shoes that fit but were woefully insufficient and wearing shoes that didn't but had the promise of being perfect if only they did.

Cope flicked the wand and the shield it produced was strong and tightly woven. And fast. He let the shield fade, giving Truebridge a wide-eyed look. Whoa.

"Would you like to try again?" Ethan asked politely, running his fingers along the length of the cherry wand as if he were trying to feel the core directly.

"We will keep it simple, on the spot dueling. No moving, just a simple attack, block and counter cycle while you get the feel of it. If nothing else it will help you see how a different wand can provide subtle as well as some fairly marked changes."

And Ethan would use Copernicus' wand.

"Are you sure?" Copernicus held the wand reverently with both hands. It wasn't his, and both he and the wand seemed to know it. But it would be interesting to see what happened using someone else's wand... from a clinical perspective, of course.

He raised the wand in salute. Would this wand even cast on its owner? Weren't they supposed to reject that?

Seeing Copernicus get blasted back, it was all Cela could do not to run over and check if he was alright. An odd desire to tell Truebridge off for doing that to her Copey surfaced but she pushed it down in favour of taking notes on the dueling pairs in front of her. Or... one dueling pair.

"Professor Lawson? Squeak if you need help." Poor petrified professor. Maybe he wanted Cedric to free him?

"Hey Ced? You know how to let him out of that right?" Celandine beamed over at the Hufflepuff.

Cedric scrutinized Professor Lawson's petrified body. It was like that it would last for a long time. His steadfast determination did it. He petrified him to the fullest. But his concsience was bugging him. It was like, 'Free him Cedric! Do you like seeing your role-model petrified'
Because of that, Cedric must free him really soon. He was about to released Lawson from his curse but Professor Truebridge barged in.

"Hi Sir!" Cedric greeted politely as he smiled bashfully.

He has a doubt that Marcus was getting witnesses to witness how he warmed-up him. He must be careful then, he's pretty sure that once Marcus was warmed-up, Marcus would be the greatest dueler at the arena.

He followed Professor Truebridge's gaze. He was utterly puzzled of Marcus' odd behavior. "Err..Sir. he was petrified, by me" Cedric confessed shyly. He hoped that Truebridge wouldn't be mad at him cause it's like that Truebridge and Lawson are the best of friends.
Then another person barged into the arena, It was Copernicus, Cela's boy. What a shame? He turns to be shy when many people would watch his work. "Hey Copernicus! What's up dude?" Cedric asked, trying to hide his shyness from everyone.

He turned to Celandine in a moment or so. "Oh. yeah. sure sure!" Cedric said as he remembered that Marcus was still in his curse. He headed to Celandine first, "Can I borrow your Cam?" Cedric asked, smiling slyly, then he took Cela's Camera. Eventually, he walked towards to Professor Lawson, to check the severeness of his spell and to take a picture of him. It looks like that he was suffering for minutes. Poor cool dude! He clicked the camera, Nice Shot!

He's done so he just need to free him.

Cedric stepped backwards so he can fully focus his wand at Professor Lawson. Once he was far enough from Marcus, he pointed his wand to him. He flicked his wand in a moment, and great! Marcus was free!

Honestly!! Ethan Truebridge had the worst timing in the world. Why did he always have to catch Marcus had his worst? And as usual the man never questioned whether he needed help at all.

All he could do was blink at Celandine as she stood over him. Oh this day was just getting better and the kids were just getting funnier...NOT!!!

Marcus blinked rapidly as a flash went off in his face and he glared daggers at Cedric. The moment the kid FINALLY decided to remove the body bind, he jumped to his feet and took a couple of menacing steps towards Cedric.

Without taking his eyes off the boy, "Celandine, I need you to show Cedric how to duel." A smile spread across Lawson's face and he gave the boy a wink. "I'll hold the camera for you."

...

Celandine watched and took her camera back once Cedric was done with it and blinked at him.

"Oh sure Professor." Cela tossed the camera at the DADA professor and put her journal neatly to one side. She stood up and tied her hair back, her eyes flicking to Copernicus for a moment before she flicked her wand out of the holster and skip!bounced over to stand opposite Cedric.

Cedric sighed happily as Marcus turned to his normal self. He can't believe that he petrified him or maybe he didn't petrified Marcus at all. Maybe he was just pretending so he can feel great of what he has performed. But it seems like that it's all utterly TRUE.

Tee Hee! He's doing great. But er. What was going to happen next? Duel with Cela? sure sure!, but with Marcus holding the Cam? No No!

Cedric rolled his eyes as Cela trusted his muggle-made camera to Prof Lawson. Silly move! Now, he'll gonna taste Marcus' evil moves. He winced. He can't keep having an eye to eye contact with Prof Lawson; It will make him burst into laughter.
Cedric walked to Cela's opposite side, they were far away from each other, about 5 meters away from each other, great! so he can just jump and bounce whenever Cela fired a powerful spell for him.

Ugh. How come Cela trusted her camera to Professor Lawson. "That is a silly move of yours, Cela!" He stated sarcastically then he grinned. "You know, he can take pictures of us when we accidentally make some funny silly moves." He ventured.

Eventually, he took out his wand out of his own holster he'd bought. Wands ready! Cela's ready! Fight! "Densaugeo!" he flicked his wand and a glittering white rapid-running light came out of it. The light was very fast, it'll reach Cela really sooner and would not manage to avoid it. The spell he used would make people's front teeth grows grotesquely at an alarmingly rate. He's excited about the outcome.

"Protego." Celandine blocked easily and shot professor Lawson a doubtful look.

RLY?

"I'll still look good." Celandine informed Cedric confidently. She brought her wand up to bear and flicked it in Cedric's direction. "Incarcerous! Stupefy!" One spell right after the other.

Cedric smiled as Cela blocked it that easily. He was having a challenging duel with her.

He was about to answer that, 'Indeed. You're still gorgoeus' but Cela had already casted spells for him and now it was on his direction. "Finite Incantatem!" he stated. He's glad that he'd already know that spell as it was thought to them last year.

"Expelliarmus!" Cedric flicked his wand playfully. Another sort of light came out of his wand. The light was on Cela's direction rapidly. Will she manage to avoid that? hmm.