Concentrate? Evan did know he had to concentrate, but under a killing teacher's gaze while he could barely keep his balance, that just didn't work. And he doubted the guy was capable of that too. He was relaxed there, perfectly laid back, because his opponent was inferior to him. Not fair! Though would he give up? Nah. Never. He was going back in the fight.

"PROTEGO!" There, this should do it. Now, to shoot out a spell back. "CONFUNDO!" Just as strong. Now what?

Apparently, none of her attempts to distract Gold had worked. Darn. But no problem! This duel was getting good anyways.

ACK! Her poor snake!! The prefect stunned...her snake! No one stuns her snakes! "Protego!" she said, holding her wand up in defense and blocking the spell aimed towards her and deciding to just GO FOR IT!

"Stupefy! Locomotor Mortis!" she said quickly, moving away from the little lake behind her now. Was there a spell to dry her off? Ugh, now she had to look that up as well as those dang cleaning spells. Time to go to the library again after class since she had a free period.

"Impedimenta!" Glancing down at the snake for a brief moment, she suddenly had a, really weird, yet a possibly good idea. Pointing her wand at the snake, although keeping her eyes on Gold at the same time..."Locomotor snake." she mumbled, watching the immobilized snake rise slightly off the ground. "Incendio." FIRE! Two of the best things in the world. Fire and snakes. And now they were just blended together. Fire-y snake!

With a flick of her wrist, she send it straight towards Gold, along with another spell just afterward. "Stupefy!" It still had yet to occur to her that she should use some of the other spells she created...and the fact that she was starting to get really tired. Spell work and no sleep. Great combination.

Right.

Evelyn had officially gone crazy.

Gold had been in tougher duels, before. Never one where her opponent had decided to throw every spell on the face of earth - one right after the other - at her, though.

But she couldn't say that was not a smart move, on Evelyn's part. In fact, it was quite an awesome strategy.

Protego, she thought quickly, drawing up her shield charm, and concentrating on it to keep off Evelyn's stunner. Which was quite a forceful one. Gold could totally tell defense was really important, at this stage, and that her shield charm was her real tool to survival, right now.

The leg-locker curse bounced off her shield, something Gold was glad of. She had already suffered a leg-locker, this lesson, and she was certainly not giving anyone a chance to get her with it, for the second time in one class! "Papilio!" she pointed her wand at Evelyn, and dozens of really shiny, really huge butterflies streamed out of her wand.

"Oppugno!" she directed the largish, totally sparkly butterflies at Evelyn, mostly in an attempt to make vision a thing of difficulty, for her opponent. But then Evelyn had sent that snake her way ... ANDDD she had coupled it with fire. Which totally distracted Gold because, of course, fire was shiny and all pretty.

"Arggh!" she said, as the snake came her way, a stunner at its heel. "Aguamenti! Impedimenta! Impedimenta!" Stay off, snake boy. Stay OFF! You too, stunner! Though her shield charm, which she quickly focused on again, would make sure she kept that stunner at bay and ... and then she totally lost control, and dropped her wand.

WHAT?!

Gold picked it up so fast, she felt like she was going to go all dizzy. GOSH! "Rictusempra! Stupefy!" she yelped out, trying to tighten her grip on her wand. "You want to call this duel a draw?!" Because how much longer could they go on?

Her head was all dizzy with spells, to be honest. She felt like she was going to go all breathless, in another moment.

Meh.

Becca was shocked at how "I don't know very many spells." turned into "I read the textbooks for next year too." Narrowly escaping boiled skin (ew that sounded wrong!) by saying "Protego!" in the nick of time.

Well, thought Becca. Better give her her money's worth.

"Relashio!" Becca shouted with most of her might.

What with the wet clothes, the stupid birds floating around her head, the ropes being in the way, and the slippery floor, it was really hard to keep concentration. And now there were butterflies...

Concentration = Zero!!

Plus the biggest and most shiniest of butterflies being all up in her face didn't help matters either. She knew she should've gotten rid of those birds the first chance she could get! "Incendio!" she yelled, pointing her wand at the butterfly and watching it shrivel to ash. Good, no more large sparkly butterfly distraction...well at least not THAT large sparkly butterfly distraction.

Of course, sparkly things always distracted her. Gold must've knew that...(). Hearing a clatter at the other side where Gold was, Evelyn whipped her head towards the prefect just in time to see the girl bend down to pick her wand back up. Aw! She was defenseless and Evelyn totally was too slow to take advantage of that! Dang...

Breathing heavily, since her soaked robes were really weighing her down, she held her wand up just in time, producing another shield as two jets of lights came towards her. "Protego!" she called out, watching the shield go up and blocking the first spell, and it somehow managed to block the second spell sent her way, but her shield was already extremely weak by then.

The force of the spell sent her flying backwards a little and she landed with a loud 'THUD' and 'SPLASH' on the ground...in the puddle. Stupid puddle. Hearing Gold calling a draw, she raised her hands up and gave her a thumbs up, not really being able to talk at the moment. The landing knocked some of the air out of her, and she was trying to breathe first...

A draw sounded good, though technically she being all not able to duel anymore, that would have meant that Gold had won. But the prefect was the one to call the draw first! She would take that!!

Mina smiled to the older 'claw. She would love the help with her tactics. She did look up to Cela after all. "I'd love that Cela. Thank you."

Stopping her bouncing around, she moved to the outskirts of the room to watch. One duel was enough for her, at least for today. Looking back to Raiden, she frowned a bit. She never intended to do that. "Sorry about that. Didn't expect that to happen. You okay?"

Note to self...rope can be VERY bad!

It would... probably be a brilliant idea to get out of the way. Yes. Especially since he was still kinda sitting on the floor, and people would trip over him or something. Getting on his feet, Raiden moved toward the wall, following Mina as he examined the rope burns. Most weren't that bad; he wouldn't have any on his side, at least. His shirt would've protected him from that. But his short sleeves had done nothing for his arm.

"Hmm?" He looked at Mina as he leaned against the wall and smiled. "It's fine, don't worry about it. They just rubbed a bit from me moving around, it's not your fault."

That spell was really... well it was supposed to be like that, to discourage the target from escaping the cords. At least it hadn't been both his arms. He'd look like a tiger, all stripey.

"It'll be fine." They stung a bit, though. The one just above his elbow was the one that was worst, he decided. Flicking his wand, a little bit of bandage tied over it, to keep the air from touching it. That was what made it stiiiiing. "Only two or three of them really broke the skin and drew blood, I think. It's my own fault." He looked at her and grinned. "I should've just let you win, maybe."

A quick sweep of the classroom brought to Raiden's attention that... Ivory had gotten stunned, and was on the floor. Shooting a glance at the girl she'd been dueling,he wondered momentarily if she needed help unstunning the young girl. Was she injured?

...well he definitely wasn't walking between Gold and the girl she was dueling to get there. Holy Merlin, that was a violent duel.

again, Nicoletta performed the muffaliato spell and renewed her sheild after another spell bounced off of it. Now how'd I do that non-verbal spell again? she thought. Let's see, swish wand aaaaand... Langlock! another jet of light flew out of her wand. YESSSSSSS!!!! "Sorry!" she said in response to Nancy (and also hoping it'd destract her....) Swish wand....Petrificus Totalus! she thought again, mid-sentance. "I couldn't think of anything and, well... it just kinda came out." that should keep her buisy. So Nancy didn't suspect anything she said, "Expelliarmus! Petrificus totalus!" happy dance.

Keeley smiled, her hair turning auburn and frizzy. She really wouldn't prefer to carry on, but she had to learn somehow. And Sarah looked overjoyed, which was nice. She dusted off her skirt, rubbed the huge bump on her head (knowing that it was still visible beneath her frizzy hair) and got in the same stance as her older friend. She thought of all the spells she knew, and which of them she could use without hurting her. Hurting= bad. She finally thought of one! "Ac- accio Sarah's wand!" She could've just disarmed her, but she couldn't let her go and scramble for it.

Mina nodded as she leaned against the wall and watched the duels around them. Everyone seemed to be holding their own quite well. She had even surprised herself with how she did. She did still feel a little bad about the rope, but Raiden was probably right. It wasn't like she really intended to do that much harm.

Let her win?!?! No that wouldn't have been fun at all. Shaking her head fericely she disagreed. "That wouldn't have been as much fun. I wouldn't have learned anything if you let me win." She did enjoy the challenge after all. She was actually looking forward to doing it again.

Turning her eyes back to the duels, she winced slightly as she saw the Gryffindor Prefect duelling the Slytherin she usually saw Josh with. She really was terrible with names but she did vaguely remember meeting her last year at a quidditch match with Marilyn. Either way, that duel was intense.

"I didn't mean let you win, as in take a dive or anything like that," he said with a laugh, unconsciously rubbing his wrist. "I meant I should've resigned after you got me tied up, and avoided getting my arm rubbed up like this. You're right though, it... was probably a bit of a learning experience, wasn't it. If anyone ever hits you with an Incarcerous just-" he held his right hand up over his head "shoot your wand arm up fast as you can so you can finish out."

Was that really a second year Gold was dueling? Raiden stared, surprised. She was using spells that... well he hadn't known them at 12 years old. And she was full-on attacking, something Raiden wouldn't even do now. Little kids were fierce apparently.

"I wonder how many more have yet to duel," he wondered aloud. There couldn't be that many, right?

Kay felt same of the hex get throught her sheild. She started to giggle and then put her hand over her month. What? "Oh, You think that...hehe ..will work." She said pointing her wand at Rex "STUPEFY!" She when started laughing "hahahahahaha....Oh this has to stop." turning her wand on hsrself "Finite."

Nina's thought train basically went, Hey it worked! (smile) Oh wow, looks like she didn't expect that! Ha! (nod) Aw man, she deflected it. (frown) Oh crap! (ahhhh!!). All in about 2 seconds... Interesting..

Nina was knocked backward. Splat on her back. But being the fighter that she was she searched her head for another spell she had heard of.

"Petrificus Totalus!" she shouted.

"That was wicked. I did concentrate as hard as I could. I hope I'll get better at holding my concentration with more practice." Sidney stands up and wipes off her seat. My rear end is a litte sore, but other than that I'm okay. Ready for another go?"

" Rex is almost confused. "Expelliarmus" Rex called out.

Becca smiled as her spell countered Nina's and then thought 'Dammit, she's coming back! Deciding to let this get closer to her before she blocked it, Becca quickly stepped in with it's counter curse, "Finite Incantatum!" and then fired out "Stupefy!!!", hoping to catch the girl off gaurd.

WHAT?!

Evelyn had BURNT up her big, shiny butterfly. Gold's bright, green eyes widened because, oh gosh, poor butterfly! She had meant to use the butterfly to her advantage, not to send the sparkly creature on a death journey.

But there were her other spells, even though Evelyn had her shield charm up in time and ... and then, well, it turned out that the shield charm wasn't that strong, by the time her second spell met it, and the younger girl was thrown backwards, right into the water.

Gold quickly stepped forward to check if Evelyn was okay, but the latter gave her a thumbs-up just then, which made the prefect's heartbeat return a little to normal. She really had thought she had hurt Evelyn, or something. Thankfully, she hadn't.

Though this new turn of events almost meant that she would have won, had she not just called out for a draw. But Gold didn't really think of that, right now. Because, as far as she was concerned, Evelyn had put up an awesome fight, and completely deserved not to lose.

"Are you okay?" she asked, offering a hand to help Evelyn up. "You were brilliant, Evelyn!" She beamed at the Slytherin, as she spoke. That had been one, terrific duel!

Rawrr.

Kay felt her wand pull out of her hand. She grabbed it with both hands to hold onto it. "Oh No you don't. Rex are you trying to let me win?" She asked looking at him. "That's not right. Come on now try. If I lose then I lose. But I want to do it fairly."

From the corner of her eye, she could see Gold walking towards her, making it hard for her to not roll her eyes or sigh in frustration. Of course she was fine! And NOT fine at the same time. She was laying in the middle of a puddle, with scratches on her arms and neck, soaked and humiliated! No, she wasn't fine...

But she put on a small smile anyway, hesitating to take the prefect's hand before taking it. She was tired, and would probably need a little help up since she was just getting her breathe back. "Yes..." she said breathlessly. "I'm fine."

Glancing at Gold for a moment when she said she was 'brilliant', Evelyn raised a brow since she had thought otherwise on the duel. She technically lost, and that was unacceptable in her book, but she did learn a few things from it. She would have to learn that one spell that Gold did to cause the birds to attack her. It would definitely come in handy for possible future events...

"You were really good too." she said, trying to sound happy and...perky-ish. Well of course she was! The prefect was...well what was she? A fifth year?...older and more experienced...that was for sure.

Now to just fix this 'soaked' problem since she didn't want Professor Duckfeet to be breathing down her neck for making water footprint trails through the room.

Gold raised an eyebrow, when Evelyn hesitated to take her hand. Come on, what was the matter?

"Thanks," she said, not too certainly, when Evelyn complimented her. To begin with, she hadn't been that good. She had allowed herself to get hit at least twice and, for someone who had a bit of experience with duels, that really wasn't acceptable.

Not to mention ... Evelyn hardly sounded like she meant what she was saying. Or maybe she did mean it, but was just faking that happy voice? Gold couldn't know any of this, but she did know there was something rather wrong with the way Evelyn spoke to her.

"Do you want me to dry your clothes?" she offered politely. Of course, she didn't expect Evelyn would say yes. There was just ... something wrong, here. Gold couldn't place her finger on it, though and, if you had told her Evelyn thought she had been humiliated, she would really have laughed out loud because she truly thought the younger girl had put up a great fight. Especially for her age.

Now ... did she get to dry up Evelyn's clothes? Because she liked being helpful.

Dry her clothes? Dry would be really nice at the moment. And her hair...ugh. she had it just the way she liked it when she came into class, and now it was going to be all messed up. Maybe Destiny had a hairband or something she could borrow until she could fix it later.

"Yes, thank you." she smiled sincerely this time. And, now she was able to learn a drying charm! She just...had to pay attention to what Gold was going to do to get it right.

But, going onto different matters, Evelyn stared at the prefect, debating whether or not to ask her question now, or later. But, what if she needed the spell today? Or tonight? It was likely! One never knew what would happen or what opportunities will take place in the near or far future. Unless, you were a seer. But that was different.

"What was the spell you used, to make the birds attack me? Just out of curiosity." she asked, not knowing that she was rubbing her arms with the little scratches. They didn't hurt, but they were annoying. Destiny knew healing spells too right? Though first she had to get over the fear of having someone heal her...

This was better. Gold relaxed a bit, and smiled at Evelyn. Then she pointed her wand at the younger girl, and performed a simple hot-air charm to dry her robes.

She was at it for a little while, and finally finished off by drying Evelyn's soaked shoes and hair.

There.

... and ooh, question for her! "That was Oppugno," Gold said cheerfully. "It causes conjured objects to attack a target." She showed Evelyn the wand movement, then added, "It's a very nifty spell, especially when combined with Avis."

Then she glanced down, and saw how Evelyn's arms were covered in scratches. Ouch, those must hurt! "Sorry about those," Gold said, apologetically. "Episkey."

There. That would heal most of them. Gold felt better, now. She really shouldn't have duplicated her flock of birds. Twice, too. Maybe that was a bit too much?

Sweet! One more spell now added to her growing list! That drying spell, would definitely come in handy some day, she was sure of it.

"Thank you." she said again, more quietly this time. Looking around, it seemed as if everyone was either done with their duels or just wrapping up. And her stuff still lay untouched over in the corner. Good. It should stay like that.

"Oppugno." she repeated, watching the wand movement Gold demonstrated for her. "So, it works on...any conjured object?" Forget about birds...Did that mean she could use it on the conjured snakes? Because that would be pretty cool. An army of snakes doing whatever you say without being a parselmouth.

She was so deep in thought about this that she didn't notice Gold already moving to heal her cuts until she felt the familiar sensation run up her arm. Tensing slightly, expecting the cuts to worsen, just as her memories, she relaxed after a few seconds, seeing as nothing but healing was done. "Thank you for that too." she mumbled, rubbing her arms. There were still a few cuts here and there, but the worse ones were mostly gone. "And no problem. At least now I learned a new trick."

Hmm, so Gold wasn't so bad. Even for a Gryffindor. Aw, her parents would be so disappointed with her thoughts right now. Not like she cared of course... hehe

"No problem," Gold said, politely. Since it was her fault, in the first place, that Evelyn was all wet.

"It does," she replied, with a nod. "If the conjured object is under your control, of course." That was what she had read, anyway. Though she wondered, now, if she could cause that spell to get something someone else had conjured, to attack. She would have to try that, later on. It might, after all, work.

"You're most welcome," she said, with a smile. It would be useless to say it was sort of her duty, because she had been the one to go crazy with duplication and stuff.

But at least the duel was over, now. Gold could feel herself relax, fall back into the calm that she was so used to... and this class hadn't been THAT bad, you know.

No Cruciatus curse, for one thing.

Thank God.

Sarah was ready, wand in hand, facing Keeley, waiting for whatever the second year could throw at her.She watched as the young girl prepared herself, and nodded to her to let her know she was up for it.Hopefully it would last a bit longer than the first time they tried.

A range of spells were going through her head.Keeley could have started with any of them, Sarah wasn't sure which ones she knew.But no.None of them were what she used.The Ravenclaw picked a spell that Sarah wasn't prepared for.A shield charm would be no good to keep out a spell that wanted to take your wand.

Mouth dropping open when she heard the words, Sarah gripped her wand tightly as she began to feel it tugging in Keeley's direction. "Wha--? Nooo....you....don't....." She uttered through gritted teeth, trying with all her might to keep hold of the thing in her hands.Eventually, after much struggling, the spell started to wear off and the tugging became less and less.Boy Keeley was actually quite strong at that one....

When she had control over herself and wand again, it was Sarah's turn to fire off a spell. "Rictusempra!!" she called out, watching with interest as the silver jet of light shot towards Keeley.