It was that girl from the street. "It's Tiberius, actually. The door closed in my..."

Cut off again. Tibi shut his mouth as soon as he heard Duskurk utter his name. Shrugging apologetically at the girl, he made his way over to where the man was standing. At least Cela was going too?

Oh. But what if he had those coupons? Tibi looked nervously at Cela and then up at Duskurk. What had he gotten himself into now.

Time to be taught by Mister Evil.

Gold stepped into the classroom, and nodded to the professor. "Good day, sir." Then she brushed a bright red bang of hair behind one ear. She was pretty sure they were going to learn something freaky, today.

Oh well.

If it was anything like the last class, she could deal. Because she knew she didn't possess the hate to cast something nasty.

Ivory let her hand hang limply to her side. If that's the way it was going to be so be it.

Choosing to go stand with her friends she gave Allison a small reassuring smile and stared determinedly straight ahead. She was going to learn even if it killed her....although hopefully not in the literal sense.

Dylan moved closer to Gold, as she entered. He took hold of her hand. He didn't want her to be scared. Yep that was it. Not that he was terrified himself. He didn't want to cast an unforgivable. Nope never again.

"Yes sir." Celandine peeked at Tibi and then walked up to stand with Professor Duskurk, she adjusted the strap on her wrist holster, wondering what they were to do.

DADA finally YAY! There was no way he could miss this one so as if something on the way would prevent him coming to the classroom, Josh ran all the distance from Gryffindor Common Room to DADA Classroom. He even did not know who was teaching this class, actually he had heard about him but he had not seen him before.

''Hello, professor!'' he yelled happily once he safely stepped into the class and...*blink**blink* There were no desks which meant :NO NOTE TAKING and MORE ACTION!!! YAY!!! Even though it had no started yet Josh could not think of a better class than this one.

"Nooooo..." Jake groaned as Tiberius was called up to the front. Bad. BAAAAD.

Jake was without his best friend now... and, knowing Duskurk, that might be... permanent.

...

Wibble.

"Two points from Gryffindor. There will be no yelling in my class. If you are injured you may go up and yell in the Hospital Wing," Professor Duskurk chided the loudmouth and then began class.

"Today we will practice our dueling technique. Dueling is the number one occupation of those wishing to rise in the world of the dark arts. If you get caught in the crossfire and do not know how to handle yourself, then you are what we refer to as 'canon fodder'. This is a muggle term, but an apt one. Question One for your homework is: What is cannon fodder and what can you do to avoid becoming it?

"Now, my two assistants will duel. I will assume since you are not first years that you know how to do so and what the rules are. You will duel and when one of you has been stunned the duel will be won. I will revive the loser and as long as you are both able-bodied at the end you will be in charge of escorting your fellows to the Hospital Wing when it is their turn to be injured."

Professor Duskurk stepped back to give the two students some room. "You may begin when ready."

She had to duel Tibi?

Cela blinked once and gave Tibi a slightly apologetic look. Not that she'd go easy. She moved the standard distance away, flicked her wrist so that her wand flew from holster to hand, and saluted Tibi. It was only until knock out right? And with a defensive focus?

Okie dokie. She gave him an almost feral and obviously eager grin then shot off a quick one two. "Stupefy! Reducto!" Her wand twisted around, arcing through the air to accomodate both wand movements and of course she held her wand precisely the way Professor Kazimeriz had taught her.

Duel Cela?? CELA? Drawing his wand from his hip holster, Tibi looked over at Jake, hoping for some moral support.

Tibi's hand trembled as he paced away and saluted. Cela knew infinitely more spells than he did. And she was good. He remembered watching her practice last term in the dueling arena when Lawson taught him the shield charm.

He was dead. Going home to his mum in a matchbox.

He was busy thinking about all the ways he could possibly not survive this class when Cela cast not one, but two spells. TWO!

In a panic, Tibi thought to cast his shield charm, but for whatever reason instead, the word that popped out of his mouth was not protego.

It was papilio.

As the butterflies burst out of his wand, Tiberius' breath caught in his chest. Butterflies? BUTTERFLIES? But his shock at himself dissipated as one fell to his feet, stunned, and another exploding, showering those nearby with butterfly guts.

Wiping the goo from his face, Tibi tried to refocus. Right. Actually dueling, not just casting random spells. This was... not at all like having dueled Lawson that once.

Taking a cue from her opening casts, Tiberius decided to respond with more than one spell, as well.

"Expelliarmus!" Tiberius twisted his wand around, aiming for Cela's wand hand. And then, with a quick flick at her feet, "Deprimo!"

Who was making sure the spectators weren't getting hurt?

Ohhh poor butterflies.

Cela didn't spend too much time feeling bad though, she just made a mental note that butterfly dueling was useful. She was pleased to see Tibi rock out a couple of spells, but a nicely focused shield about the size of a dinner plate flicked away both of them.

Expelliarmus, her brother always said, was the cowards spell. She wouldn't be using it. She dropped to one knee as she cast at the ground, a non verbal glisseo. The floor grew glossy and slippery from the point in front of where Cela was kneeling, spreading out towards Tiberius. She chased it up.

"Incarcerous!" Ropes sprang out of her wand towards Tibi's legs and Celandine was on her feet once more, wand ready, expression gleeful.

Tiberius squinted across the distance between them, frowning at the deflected spells. He knew he couldn't win this... it was just a matter of not embarrassing himself completely at this point, he figured.

As Cela bent down, Tibi cocked his head to the side, gripping his wand and wondering what she was doing. But he stopped thinking as soon as he heard the incantation. Rather than shield, he thought to simply side-step the ropes.

But as soon as he did, his feet slid out from under him and he landed on his back with a thud. "Ow." Tiberius groaned. Though he'd avoided the ropes, he was still down and exposed.

Rolling to his side with a grimace, he cast from the floor back at Cela. "Locomotor Mortis!" She'd deflect it, for sure, but it would give him some time to get up.

"Protego," he whispered, flicking his wand, providing himself with a shield as he rose to his feet, rolling his shoulders, trying to loosen up again.

Professor Duskurk watched and then turned his back on the duel so he could address the rest of the class. "Observe and critique. What is working and what isn't? What would you do differently if the object was to maim or kill instead of just knocking each other out?"

Cela made a face as she deflected the attack. Not because of the attack, but because she felt bad about making Tibi fall over.

He had a nice shield up now but because he was shielding his whole self it wouldn't be as strong so Cela threw out some little stinging hexes to weaken it then used the slipperly floor to her advantage, launching herself towards Tibi, feet flat, knees bent, centre of gravity low and a firm, "Stupefy!" coming from the end of her wand as she hurtled towards him.

Trying her hardest not to snicker, chuckle, or show any amusement towards Gryffindor losing points, since the professor DID take them from Josh *totallynotglaringaththeProfessor!*, she set her bag down and leaned against the wall, crossing her arms as she listened to the Professor speak.

What is a cannon fodder and what can you do to avoid becoming it? Seriously? Sighing, she scooted down the wall until she was sitting on the cold floor and took out her notebook, quill and ink. Might as well take notes since she wasn't one of the people dueling. LUCKY people. BUT she had her wand very close by and in easy access range in case one of their spells accidentally came her way. And when she meant accidentally, just in case Freak Face had any stupid bright ideas...

That is, if he even had time to think up an idea. The Ravenclaw girl seemed quick. And, if Evelyn were to admit it, she could learn a lot from watching an older student duel...though eh. They could always be quicker...Attack and defend, in her opinion just didn't work. Attack attack attack!

This teacher was making them duel each other? Hopefully they all didn't have to participate, Destiny barely knew any spells. Unless the other person would be defeated by using cleaning spells.

Slowly raising her hand, Destiny took a deep breath. It was scary talking to this man, 'Well, she is using non verbal spells. And he isn't?' That was obvious. 'And if they wanted to..kill each other, they would use different spells.' Like ones that should never ever ever be taught.

Destiny did not like where this was headed.

Even though she knew that Professor Duskurk was speaking she had no intention of removing her eyes from the duel between Tibi and Cela. As much as she loved Cela, the girl was wiping the boy all over the floor. Literally. She didn't wish for any such public humiliation--although Allison could admit that the second year could hold his own. Shaking her head at the boy's fall, she took a deep cleansing breath and hoped she would never have to duel any of her friend's that way. Because she was a first year however, she was taking mental note on the spells being used before her. She would have to check out the spells later, perhaps the library held answers. Tilting her head she did a mental scratch, the library HAD all the answers.

When the question was asked on what was working and what wasn't, Allison rose her hand and spoke--not aware that she had stepped out of her hiding behind Arya and Ivory, "Professor Duskurk, in my opinion it would all work much better on either part if they were doing only nonverbal spells. Because Tibi is saying them out loud, Cela can think fast on her feet and block them. As we just saw, Cela did something to the floor," a sort of something that Allison was not familiar with, "and well Tibi didn't know what exactly she had done, so he fell right into that trap."

Lowering her arm she thought of the next question, and the thoughts that ran through her head were not very pleasant. And for a girl with so much imagination she knew that what she was thinking was not something she wished to say out loud.

"Straight to the jugular" was all that she murmured.

Nicoletta stared at him in disbelief. Did he seriously just ask that!?! she thought. These teachers were nuts. Well, professor crazy, if I were trying to hurt or kill someone, I'd use a spell that would hurt or kill them! Nicoletta said to the invisible teacher in her head.

Okay, spells I would actually use if I needed to...
Confringo
Confundo
Petrificus Totalus (once paralyzed I would then step on their face)
Densaugio (haha, like I'd be able to do that)
Expulso


Besides those, Nicoletta couldn't think of any more other than the illegal ones which were, illegal (pretty self-explanitory).

Raiden had stood silently, watching the duel with a frown on his face. Sure, the point of dueling was to win. But Cela wasn't pulling any punches, even for an adversary that was four years younger than she. Surely that was... too much.

It was almost bullying.

...scratch that almost. Raiden stared, almost disgusted, at Cela's antics.

"Professor, isn't it a bad idea to get as close to your adversary as she is?" Raiden asked, hand raised slightly. "It leaves much less room for error, and if she misses, she'd be fully open for an attack."

And for Tibi to kick her. Because if he were actually in a duel for his life... kicking was not ruled out.

Maim or kill what?

Tibi's ears perked at the professor's statement as he held his shield, though he felt it wane as a series of spells hit it. Trying to concentrate on holding it, Tibi's eyes grew wide as he looked up to see Celandine hurtling at him. In that moment, the little boy had lost his resolve.

The spell hit, the shield flickered and dissolved, allowing it to pass through. The last thing Tibi saw was Cela coming ever closer. And then?

Darkness.

The spell had hit him dead center. And though he wouldn't have any recollection of it, his arms flew out to the side as he fell backward, like one might drop into the snow to make an angel.

But the floor was hard. Tibi might not remember falling backward. But he would certainly feel it later.

Cela slid past him, like she'd been jousting or something, reholstered her wand and dropped to her knees to check if Tibi was ok.

Eeek.

If it wasn't Duskurk, Cela'd have conjured a cushioning charm for Tibi, but as it was she just checked he was okay and stood up again, looking to the Professor expectantly.

What was with this man and killing? Honestly she wished he would just chill with all the killing, it was begining to depress her. But doing as instructed she carefull watched as the two Ravenclaws dueled. Cela was obvilously the better dueler, what with her being older and a prefect. But Tibi seemed to be holding his own, and quite well for a second year she thought.

Her mind drifted back to when she would watch her brother duel his friends, and sometimes his dad. It was fun, almost like watching a deadly dance. Foucusing back to the duel she began to critique. "It seems that useing two spells at once works. As well as non-vebals."She thought back to the butterflys...poor things."And having some sort of distraction like the butterflys helped Tibi. Standing still doesn't work, you have to keep moving and be lite on your feet."Without awnsering the latter she continued to watch the two duel.

Grumbling, Daphne flicked her wand in a half circle, casting a very brief shield charm. Enough to keep the butterfly remains off her person. This entire duel was, to Daphne, a bit pointless. The outcome was obvious and she felt a little sorry for the boy. Surely, he knew he wouldn't win either. He was trying really hard though and Daphne couldn't help to grin in his direction.

Silently, she wished him luck. "The boy's attacks are weak," commented Daphne, hands behind her back. "Maybe he should focus on strengthening his defense instead. Try to read her moves." Daphne tilted her head, as she observed Celandine.

She was fast. They way she was shooting one spell after the other, Daphne could only imagine the panic the boy was feeling. It barely left enough room the breathe. He was already cornered though. Daphne wasn't sure what else she could say.

"In a duel to the death, there are no rules," she murmured. "Everything's fair game." And the boy was down. Hard. Wincing, Daphne took a step forward. Would it be okay to check on him? Worried, she shot a glance at Raiden.

He was Prefect, right? He'd check on him too...?

Patroclus, watching the duel unfold before him, rasied his arm and adressed the Professors question.

"Well, first with no offence to Tiberius, I dont believe Papillo is the best Defensive Spell Sir, and of course the most usefull and effective spells would be nonVerbal ones, so catch the Opponent off gaurd.
And to kill would require much more focus and purpose, and a deep set desire to Hurt"
feeling a tad uncomfortable to being discussing how to kill others.

"I wouldn't want to hurt him." Cela pointed out. "Not... properly."

Trying to balance on her feet, Cela drew her wand again and cast finite on the slippery floor.