Marcus circled Celandine and Cedric as they dueled watching them both very carefully. Toussaint, was impressive as usual and Ced was...

Whaaat was that??? "Mr Leone, either block the spells or get out of the way. But do not use 'Finite' while in battle. If you were competing in a competition you would be disqualified. I want you to shield or use a another spell as an offensive. Think outside the box." Okay he had to remember the kid was only a third year but if he wanted to learn then he needed to be creative.

Cela's eyes widened when Cedric used completely the wrong spell and she quickly followed up with an Impediment jinx to slow down her own spells enough so that the stupefy wouldn't knock Cedric off of his feet and she could dissolve the conjured ropes she'd shot at him too.

THAT had taken a fast bit of wandwork and instead of blocking the disarming charm, Cela just side-stepped it and peeked at Lawson.

"You can do it Cedric." Cela encouraged him after hearing Professor Lawson tell him off. "I'll be easy and only cast one offensive spell at a time, I promise."

She smiled at him and added, "Finite only cancels spell effects, it won't stop a hex or a jinx or a curse that is coming at you, only those that have already taken effect."

Tiberius wandered into the arena with a bit of trepidation. After his DADA class, he was really afraid of people casting spells at him and Professor Lawson had said he could teach Tibi to protect himself.

He gave a half-wave at Copernicus and Celandine who were both dueling with other people. Walking up to Professor Lawson, Tibi stammered. "Umm.. hi Professor. I'm here for my.. uh.. lesson."

"I'm sure." Ethan answered, saluting Copernicus with his wand.

He glanced over at Celandine and Cedric, shot a quick look at Axe and avoided glancing in the direction that he knew Kazimeriz was lurking unseen.

Ah and another student.

Truebridge nodded briefly at Tiberius before turning his attention back to Copernicus.

"We'll take it slow. Begin when you are ready."

Feeling confident that Celandine, will help Cedric out during their duel, Marcus spotted young Tiberius walking into the arena. He gave Celandine and Cedric one last look and moved towards the Ravenclaw.

He gave the boy a reassuring smile, "Don't be nervous Tibi, we will go a nice easy pace for you." Marcus, assessed the boy for a moment and realised that they wouldn't be doing any sort of dueling. Not today at least. "Okay, why don't we start with the disarming spell? You can practice disarming me, I won't defend myself because I want to get a feel of how strong your casts are first."

Tibi smiled at Lawson and nodded. They'd done that spell in class and he'd managed it quite well... well, at least when he wasn't in a panic about his shoes or that homework with the giant pixies. For whatever reason, he wasn't nervous about practicing on a professor; Lawson could take care of himself, right? This was a new feeling for Tibi - schoolwork usually wasn't scary and so he did well. But here? Scary. And so, despite maybe being able to do well, his fear got the best of him.

After walking a few paces away from Lawson, Tibi turned to face him again. "Ready?" he asked, taking a deep breath. Tibi closed his eyes briefly, imagining the wand leaving Lawson's hand. I can do this. I can do this.

Open his eyes again, Tibi raised his wand and making that tight little d they'd practiced in class, he yelled "Expelliarmus!"

It was good to see that the boy wasn't nervous about going up against his Professor. Marcus, released his wand from its holster and held it loosely at his side as he watched the concentration on Tibi's face. He couldn't help but grin as he remembered what it had been like when he had been eleven and was trying to perform a spell. His face had looked exactly the same as Tiberius' did right now.

He merely nodded to show that he was ready and he tensed only slightly when the boy raised his wand. It was just the disarming spell. Nothing bad was going to happen. Right?

The flash of light sped towards him and his wand wobbled momentarily in his hand before being yanked away and headed over to Tiberius. Marcus, gave him around of applause, "Well done Tiberius. Well done. I think we will try that one more time though. It just wasn't quite strong enough. My wand had to think about leaving my hand before it actually did. Focus your intentions, okay?"

Tibi smiled as he caught Lawson's wand and then tossed it back to him. "Thanks," he said as Lawson applauded him. He ran his empty hand through his hair, brushing it away from his eyes.

Focus more? Tibi bit the inside of his lip as he listened to Lawson; he'd thought he was pretty focused before. He wrinkled his nose and gripped his wand tighter. He still thought it was too big and unwieldy, but he was making do; or at least he thought so.

His eyes trailed to Lawson's wand and he blinked as his vision focused solely on it. Brow furrowed, Tibi thought about how much he wanted it to come to him. Forget that he's a professor, Tibi thought to himself. You want that wand.

With a deep breath, he cast again. "Expelliarmus!"

Catching his wand, Marcus gave the boy an encouraging smile. He waited while Tiberius got his thoughts together and idly tapped his wand against his leg.

This time he had done it. There was a flash of light and Lawson's wand immediately left his hand and sped straight over to Tiberius. "Much, much better. Excellent work Tiberius."

Now to move on and this is where it started to get a little more hairy. "Okay let's try the leg locker curse next." Marcus shook his head but there was a smile on his face. Ah the things he did for these kids.

"Professor," Copernicus protested with a half-smile. "If I need you to take it slow, then I don't belong here." Of course, he realized what the professor actually meant, but the point remained... Copernicus should be better as a seventh year than he had thus far proven to be.

He glanced once at Cela to witness her lecturing some poor underclassman who probably deserved it, and then his attention was back on Truebs. He pointed his wand and backed up to take position.

"Avis Oppugno," Cope flicked the wand, and it fought him for a moment. Not. His. Wand. "Yes, alright. Not my wand," he muttered to himself. "Be friendly, Michelle."

He flicked the wand again and was pleased to see a full flock of birds shoot from it. The birds were a distraction, and Cope followed it up with an immediate Babbling Hex.

"Incendio!" A sluggish flame made its way from the tip of his borrowed wand and Ethan had to direct more of his will into it that he'd normally find necessary before a rush of flame threw itself at the birds.

Fried chicken.

The babbling hex hit him full force. Honestly it did. It was just that Ethan Truebridge babbling consisted of:

"You know, I really don't like pie."

...

Hmm?

Oh wait, here it comes.

"I was right about Less. When she attempted to coerce me into having pie with her...which I don't like anyway... I could of sworn she had this look on her face like she was going to eat me. I try to ignore that look most of the time... Women are frightening... but it made a strange sort of sense when I found out about her condition... and what the heck was with that assembly anyway? Maybe, if more of the staff were informed, such as myself and Annie... I love her red hair... maybe things wouldn't have gone completely wrong. At least no students were hurt, that was my main concern. Bontecou brought it on himself... obviously he had too much of Alessia's pie to think straight..."

Ethan, alarmed in an obvious sort of way, pointed the cherry wand at himself and non-verbally casted finite, having to concentrate quite hard to do so.

He cleared his throat and glanced around the arena, again purposely not looking in the direction where he was sure Krazimeriz was.

Copernicus's face went oddly blank, which wasn't a huge change from careful solemnity he wore during dueling. But this was a slackening of his face, quickly replaced by a fierce look.

"They have to go, Professor. I knew you were with us."

He lifted the wand again, aiming a blasting charm right in front of the professor and a Conjunctivitis curse to the spot Truebridge would hopefully step to avoid that blast.

What now?

With who and where was who going?

Rather than query that, Ethan brought the cherry wand to bear, casting a heavy shield to meet the onslaught of the blasting charm. There was almost a tangible crash as the two spells met and while Ethan's shield held, he slid back over the ground almost a metre from the sheer force of Copernicus Kettleburn's blasting spell. Another spell flashed past him to one side and Ethan, with the wand in his right hand, flicked a series of fast stunning spells back at Copernicus, non-verbally. He followed it up with a gouging spell and a knee reversal hex.

It was taking far more effort to concentrate on non-verbals with this wand. He could do it and the wand was reasonably willing, but it almost diluted Ethan's natural abilities.

Tibi smiled broadly as Lawson praised him. "That was great!" He tossed the wand back to Lawson and again prepared to cast. The leg-locker this time? He'd had some trouble with it before, be he was feeling good.

Tiberius was momentarily distracted by the birds bursting out of Copernicus' wand and he chuckled softly. But at the professor's babbling and the mention of Professor Lupa, his brain felt a little fuzzy and the smiled dropped from his face. Blinking hard, he felt a ball of heat growing in his belly. He looked to Copernicus, nodding slowly as the older boy spoke.

Copernicus was right, of course. They had to go. And Tiberius needed to learn. To protect himself. To protect his school.

With a determination he hadn't known before, and a steely look in his eye, he turned on Professor Lawson not quite acknowledging who he was; only thinking about what he needed to do about the... problem. Jabbing his wand with conviction, he uttered the incantation coldly. "Locomotor mortis."

Cope smiled slightly, well pleased with how this wand was performing. And the Professor was bringing some heat! Awesome!

The stunners weren't hard to dodge, so Cope kept his wand down and merely sidestepped the onslaught. It was the following spells he was more concerned about. Cope cast a shield, his attention on the thickness and breadth of it. It was solid and covered him, which was more than his shield had done earlier. Both the gouging spell and knee-reversal bounced, heading generally in the Professor's direction.

He followed it with several short stinging hexes at Truebridge. And for fun, he shot a Rictumsempra... because he needed more interesting photos for his collection.

"Better." Ethan murmured, dissolving his spells as they bounced back at him.

"How does it feel?" He asked, curious to hear Copernicus' response.

One of the stinging hexes got through, Ethan's shield was sluggish to respond to his casting of it. The rictumsempra broke through it, hit the professor and...

He made a face of discomfort.

"I'm not particularly ticklish." He murmured and responded with a blast of icy air at Copernicus and a reductor curse before pointing his wand at the ground.

"Herbivicus!" Ethan had to put a draining amount of energy into his cast, and in response the roots which had remained dormant beneath Cope's feat, blasted out of the stonework clinging onto whatever they could reach to grow up and up, the knotted and dark wood climbing and twisting as it buckled the ground and came up around Copernicus on all sides.

"It feels like I could actually pass a NEWT," Copernicus grinned, even as the cold air blew his hair back. What was... BRRR. His teeth started to chatter. "I guess my wand needs re-replacing?"

Cope stopped the reductor with a non-verbal Immobulus, even taking a moment to admire how the spell stopped completely mid-air. Even at the top of his game, he'd never been able to stop a flying spell completely. He tossed off an Impedimenta before the was completely entwined in knotting roots.

Okay... so that was a new one.

"I believe you are correct. Perhaps one similar to Michelle. It isn't always easy to use another person's wand, but I suppose we have spent enough time together that Michelle does not find you completely alien." Truebridge spoke of his wand as if it were sentient.

He flicked the cherry wand and vanished the tangle of roots encasing the 7th year.

"Now I expect you to tell me what you learned." Of course. It wasn't just the duel itself, it was important to see that Copernicus took away something more.

Copernicus thoughtfully let the wand spin in his hand for a moment. It was going to be hard to give it back, to be honest, but if one had a wand that worked well, why give it up?

"Some people get a wand as a child and it grows with them over time, but I think that some people must change enough that their wand no longer suits. And that's probably what happened to me. This wand," he nodded to the one Truebridge held. "This wand works well enough, but it probably works well enough for lots of people."

He shrugged and offered the wand back to Truebridge. "I think I need a new wand."

"I am surprised that my wand works well for you actually. It is a fairly unique specialised sort of wand." Which was true of all his wands really, they were never standard issue.

"Be sure," Ethan ventured quietly, "Be very sure to oil it regularly or the wood will cause blisters to erupt on your hand."

He gave Copernicus a quietly calm look and holstered the cherry wand in his wrist holster.

"Aside from the wand aspect of the duel, what else did you learn?" He encouraged.

Copernicus wasn't exactly sure what had transpired, but he holstered the wand anyway. Hey. NEWTs were just around the corner and any assistance he could get would be taken full advantage of.

"The force of the spell depends on my own magical ability, my familiarity to the spell, but also on how my wand responds to me," Cope mused. "And also that I shouldn't forget about the, for lack of a better word, roots that may have been laid earlier in the duel. I've never seen that spell before."

Thus.. teachittomeplease?

As Marcus waited for Tibi to get himself together, he steeled a glance at Ethan and Copernicus' duel.

He threw Ethan a reproachful look as he watched him fry those poor birds. "Typical. Zan, you can be such a show off at times" he chuckled as he turned back to the young Ravenclaw.


While he was looking over at Ethan and Cope, Marcus missed the change that appeared on Tibi's face after he looked at Cope. So by the time he turned back to face him, he merely thought the kid was concentrating really hard.

The tone of his voice took him a little by surprise but he thought that he was using a little conviction in his voice. His legs snapped together instantly and such was the force of the spell that Marcus almost lost his balance and fell. He flailed his arms for a moment before quickly casting a non-verbal 'Finite' and righted himself once again.

"Excellent again Tiberius. I think you're really getting the hang of it now. What spell would you like to try now?" Obviously he'd not had enough it seemed, he was definitely treading in dangerous waters letting a student pick the spell.

"Right." Ethan answered and gestured for Copernicus to follow him to one side and sit down.

"What did you notice about the roots?"


Truebridge shot a glance up at Axe when he spoke, a puzzled expression on his face.

Show off? What had he done? Genuinely unaware, he turned back to Copernicus and gestured at him to speak.

The tension left Tibi's face and he blinked rapidly, shaking his head to clear it. He felt a little... funny. "Wow..." he whispered to himself as he watched Lawson nearly topple. He'd done that?

Grinning and back to himself, he walked over to Lawson. "Thanks for letting me practice on you!" Now, what spell did he want to try... Tibi wiggled his toes in his shoes, as he often did as he thought.

Shoes. Right. The reason he was here in the first place.

"Well, Professor," he hazarded a suggestion. "I was wondering if you could teach me something defensive..." He paused. "Well, beside ducking, that is. I can do that pretty well." He chuckled, remembering his old school. Yes. Ducking he could manage.

"That's quite okay Tiberius, all in the name of education as they say" he chuckled but then grimaced slightly from the spasm in his back. Next time he let a student practice the full body bind he would have to remember to place a few cushions down to break his fall.

"There is nothing wrong with ducking. Sometimes it can be quicker to get out of the way then to raise your wand and utter an incantation. Well until you are experienced in wand work that is." Marcus, twirled his wand in his hand and then grinned, "So I guess you're going to need to learn how to produce a shield. We can do that Tiberius, but you need to remember that it takes a lot of concentration and focus to produce a shield. The incantation is 'Protego' and it is a simple upward flick of your wand. Like so."

Marcus gave his wand an upward flick and said, "Protego." His shield went up immediately. "Now try and walk towards me Tibi."