With a last flourish, the floor was restored to its original condition - or at least as much of its original condition as still existed. Kiri holstered her wand again and pulled out a tissue to blow her nose.

Stupid cold. After the adrenaline rush of the duel, her head was pounding. She'd probably end up having to stay in bed the following day or two, something Kiri really didn't want to do, considering the Quidditch season was about to start as well.

Stuffing the tissue into a robe pocket, Kiri focused on the girl again. "Is non-verbal magic hard to learn," she repeated in a musing sort of voice. She shrugged. "It depends, I guess. You need to be able to concentrate really hard... I can only do a few spells." She grinned crookedly. "The easier ones." Her hand still hurt. Kiri held it up for inspection. The splinter hadn't broken the skin, but a long, red scratch ran all along the back of it. When she flexed her fingers, the pain intensified.

Kiri let her arm drop to her side again. Not good. If they were about to duel with someone their own age next, she would almost certainly lose - she wasn't the most gifted dueller to begin with, and with an injury and a cold, complete with headache, she'd be even easier to beat.
She glanced around. Quite a few people were still fighting, spells and commands were flying back and forth, but some pairs had already finished.

Well, at least the kid didn't seem upset with him. Raiden gave her a grin. Him? Sneaky? Neeeeever.

"Well I am a Slytherin," he said with a wink. "Sneaky is something we're said to be, isn't it? I would think that would be a teenager thing in general though."

Standing up and brushing his hands off on his pants, he reholstered his wand and held his right one out to her.

"It was a pleasure to duel with you, Marie. If you ever need any help with it, let me know? I'm not the greatest at it, but I'd be glad to help." He rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand, a cross between a grimace and a smile on his face. "I'm just glad I didn't hurt you or anything."

Seeing that Kiri was hurt, she take the girls hand in hers. "Oh, I'm sorry. Do you think you should see someone?" Kay asked feeling really bad that she had hurt her. It was class not a real fight. "please make sure someone see that." She watched the other as they finished and wonder who else would be going to hospital.

She couldn't help but laugh when Raiden said Slytherin's were said to be sneaky. "Very true she said, you do our house proud then. I don't know about the teenager thing though, I'll let you know when I am one." Which was only 4 months away.

Taking his hand when he offered it to her she got up and looked for her wand. She must have dropped it when she was hanging upside down. Finding it laying on the floor she picked it up and put it back in its holster.

"It was a pleaseure to duel with you too Raiden. Thanks, I will let you know if I ever need your help" Again she had to giggle at his comment, "Yeah, I'm glad you didn't hurt me too."

"Thanks again for going easy on me, see you around," she said as she went off to find Evan. She wanted to make sure he was okay and didn't have to go to the healer.

Hokai.

This was ... rather odd?

How the HECK was Gold supposed to duel, when she felt this wasn't fair, to begin with? She wished she could be a bit more like Celandine, who seemed to have felt no guilt, when reducing a younger house-mate to bits. Had, in fact, been rather pleased with herself.

But the wish remained a wish. Gold just knew she wasn't like that, maybe never would be. She didn't even take advantage of the fact that Destiny was all busy in the spell-induced laughter and stuff. Couldn't, to be more precise. Because that would be wrong, no? A bit too sneaky, and --

-- and then she was hit.

Well, not exactly hit. Destiny shot the Body-Bind Curse at her, and Gold was jerked out of her sudden mini-reverie, a bit late. Her thoughts a mess, she tried to duck out of the way of harm -- and the spell ended up hitting only her arm. Nevertheless, she began to... well, freeze.

NUUU!

"Finite Incantatem," she cried, before she could go completely frozen and rigid, and then she had sort of flailed her wand a bit, and sent a Jelly-Legs Jinx at Destiny.

This was no laughing matter. Destiny needed to stop laughing..like five minutes ago.

Seeing her spell hit Gold, Destiny's eyes would have went wide, but it was hard to open your eyes when you were laughing. When Gold fixed her frozen arm, Destiny mentally slapped herself. Why hadn't she thought of that? Because she was laughing that's why. She pointed her wand at herself and through the laughter finally got the words out, 'Finite Incantatem.' Her mouth hurt. Too much laughter is not good for oneself.

Oh, wand flailing is not good. Not good at all. At first, Destiny thought Gold was going to throw her wand at her. Why would she do that?

Destiny would have preferred getting hit with the wand. She saw the spell coming toward her, like slow motion. 'Protego!' She was not fast enough, and the spell had hit her. Right on the leg. One jelly-leg and one normal leg. Laughing was better.

Now standing on only her right leg, since the other was useless at the moment, Destiny pointed her wand, 'Mobilicorpus.'

She was running out of spells over here.

Right. Destiny had fixed herself and gotten rid of the laughter. Gold thought her opponent should have done that sooner, to be honest, but she sort of got how hard it was.

To cast a spell when you were laughing, that is. Because she had been in that situation before -- and it hadn't been nice.

But Gold had other stuff to worry about, right now. Like how her spell had only been half successful. Or, more importantly, how Destiny had just hit another spell at her. Protego. Her shield charm was, thankfully, one of her strong points. Destiny's spell hit it, deflected, and crashed into a wall. Which didn't get damaged or anything. Good, eh?

But she needed to work on something to direct at Destiny, now. Not the usual spells. Because Destiny would probably block those with a shield charm, or something. But ... "Papilio!"

The butterflies that flew out of the tip of her wand were really, REALLY bright. Bright enough, in fact, to blind one, for a second or two. Hopefully, this would cause enough confusion to ensure that Destiny did not get to know her next spell. Because Gold couldn't really do this one, non-verbally. Even though she sort of wanted to.

"Obscuro!"

Patroclus smiled as his Sixth Year Gryffindor Partner, explained that she was not the best duelist - however Patroclus was well trianed for his age so he hoped they would still have a good duel.

"I am ready " he replied with a devlishly grin on his face, this was going to be fun. ripping his wand from his cloak pocket he cried; "OBSCURO" and as the blind fold shoot across Daphne's eyes he cried : "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS".

Cruuuuud.

Destiny's spell missed this time. She might have gotten a little big headed when her other spell hit Gold, but now her head was deflated and so was her confidence.

She didn't like duels, and she didn't like the next spell Gold cast. Butterflies? Really, really bright butterflies, too. Shielding her eyes from the BRIGHTNESS with her left arm, Destiny pointed her wand with her right, 'Avis! Oppugno!' Butterflies didn't like birds..right?

She slightly smiled when the birds went after the butterflies. In that instant, the smile disappeared, and Destiny couldn't see. Maybe she was a little dramatic, but it is sorta scary when you just lose your vision.

'I'm blind! I can't see!' she flailed and threw dropped her wand trying to remove the blindfold.

No one was watching her, right?

Kellen gave a hop to the side to dodge the disarming spell, and suddenly his legs popped free. Hey now! This was...a...good...thing?

He glanced down at his legs, which were starting a rather lethargic tap-dance. Irritated more than anything else, he let them do their own little bounce for a few steps while casting another spell at Arya, "Expelliarmus!"

Hey, it worked for Harry Potter. He scanned his brain for other spells he knew, then sent an extra-strength cheering charm at her legs and a colour-change spell at her head. Pink hair would be hilarious.

Oops.

Looked like her spell hadn't exactly ... done what she had wanted it to. Gold bit her lip when a little flock of birds erupted out of the end of Destiny's wand, and then there was the flap of wings, and the butterflies had scattered Merlin-knows-where.

A bird managed to peck her on the arm. Protego, Gold thought, eyes widening a bit. The shield charm had the effect of making the birds leave her in peace, and go after the butterflies, instead. Poor butterflies. But she couldn't worry about them, now.

Now, all of this happened in a matter of seconds. Gold quickly raised her wand again, glad that she was safe for the moment and ... and then she lowered it.

Because Destiny had just dropped hers, on the floor.

Ummm, what was this? Maybe she shouldn't have tried that last spell of hers? Obscuro and all. But what else could she have done? Duels were not supposed to be fair. Well, they were, but how could a duel between a fifth year and a SECOND year, be fair? That was just plain wicked. Which was exactly why Gold felt rather guilty, now.

"Are you okay?" she asked, picking up Destiny's wand as the girl attempted to remove the blindfold. Gold would have helped with that, but she did not because she could tell it would come off, any moment. Yeah, Destiny was doing well enough at that.

She sort of wanted to apologize, but she didn't think that would work out. Because this was a D-U-E-L duel, right?

Even if it wasn't a nice one.

Not one bit.

Was that blindfold glued to her head or something? Or did Gold cast a permeanent sticking charm to it?

Magic Mother of Merlin! Destiny was going to look like a superhero for the rest of her life! A stupid superhero that forgot to cut holes into her mask so she could see..

Oh.

It came off.

Destiny had to blink a few times to readjust to the rooms lighting, even though she was only 'blind' for a few seconds. What was the point of them dueling each other anyway? She didn't learn anything by it, except butterflies are afraid of birds. Not that that would help her any other time. Professor Durskurkurk was a strange man.

She gave Gold a smile when she asked if she was alright. 'Yep. I'm fine. Except my jelly leg.' But she could see, and that was good.

'Are you okay?'

Right.

This was pointless.

What was Professor Duskurk THINKING? Did he really feel they would learn something, through this? Well, okay, maybe they would; but ... oh, forget it. Her duelling skills were of no use.

At least as far as this lesson was concerned.

"Oh, that. It just needs a bit of Finite ... do you want me to do that, for you?" She asked because she knew Destiny could do that spell herself, too. Then Destiny asked if she was okay. Aww.

Gold nodded. "I am, now."

Sort of.

"It was Glisseo, its a charm, the same used on the staircases in the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw common rooms." Cela answered. "I'll show you some time if you like, Arya." Cela decided to ignore Raiden rather than explain exactly what she'd have done had her gambit not worked. Had Nico ever taught him anything? Cela had to guess not.

"Professor Kazimeriz taught us focused shielding. I can show you later, Tibi, when you feel better okay?" She looked down at him and actually stroked a bit of his hair off of his brow.

Cela had to smile. "I've done that before, when I was in third year I duelled a seventh year Gryffindor, Tobi Avalon? I pretended to be hurt and he was all like 'oh noes!' so it definitely can work." She totally approved of Neptune's tactics, obviously.

"My aim wasn't to disarm Tibi, it was to stun him, like Professor Duskurk said." Cel corrected, not bothering to deny the whole passion thing. Nobody needed to know that. Ever. Besides there were better spells to use to disable someone than the unforgiveables. She smiled sweetly at the little firstie.

Cela had to shoot a glance at Raiden when Professor Duskurk said he wouldn't reveal his strategies either. Honestly, you had to be stupid to announce your tricks to the world.

Though she would share them with him later if he asked, not that she thought he would.

She was finally hearing some good stuff from the Professor, though truly nothing she hadn't heard already. She listened attentively however and nodded, yes she would help take people to the hospital wing or help them out here if she was able.

And then? She made ick faces at the coupon but it didn't feel.... as bad as the other. She stared at it, obviously puzzled by something.

"... thank you sir." She mumbled. She didn't really want it... not really... for starters she HAD a sneakosco... hey. That was an idea. She barely even noticed Tibi move, she was apparently deep in thought. She shook herself when students started dueling around her and cast the blue aura shield they'd learned in transfiguration a few years ago around herself, then watched and waited in case she was needed.

Keeley looked up at the rather tall girl, her hair turning red with anxiety. Although she was polite, she would probably be able to destroy the small girl within minutes. But she seemed to be the kind of person who would give you an ice pack after the damage. "Alright. Hi, I'm Keeley."

"What-..." The girl was still worried about her hand? Kiri let her hand be examined while she continued watching the duels, all the while listening with one ear what Celandine, standing nearby, had to say. Kiri was always a little envious of her abilities which seemed to include every single subject in the school plus vast additional knowledge. Whatever she had to say about duelling would be useful to remember.

"Don't worry, it's really just a scratch," Kiri said gently, a little alarmed by the look of concern on the girl's face. "See, it's not even bleeding or anything." She could just imagine what Professor Duskurk was going to say if she asked him to go to the Hospital Wing with a scratch... Besides, she considered, tugging her hand out of the girl's grip, she was a Quidditch player, this was nothing compared to some of he injuries people sustained on the Pitch.

With a twitch of her arm, Kiri's robe slipped over the hand, hiding it. There, she thought to herself, no more excitement about it necessary.

"Goodo," Sarah grinned, slipping her wand out of it's holster and into her hand.Spinning round to face the younger girl, she bowed slightly and with a wink asked.."So, Keeley, it's nice to meet you...are you ready? I must admit to not being very good at duelling, so I doubt you'll need the hospital wing...."

Maybe taking the girl unawares would be a good start? She felt awful about having to do it, though.The kid seemed really nice, and here was Professor Duskurk wanting them to try and stun each other.Wrong, just wrong.But unless Sarah wanted detention...or worse...she had to try.Flinging her arm out in front of her, in what she was sure wasn't the right motion, she said the first spell that came into her head. "Impedimenta!"

The Prefect was hit in the face with the blind fold Jake had conjured and could not see at all! He did however get to see the birds attacking his partner.

Before he cast the spell the birds saved him some time and he pointed his want at his face and said, "Finite Incantartem" causing the blind fold to disappear, and restore his vision.

He then poitned his wand at the Ravenclaws bare feet and sent a non-verbal, Tripping Jinx.

Melanie stared at the girl in utter bemusement. She didn't know WHAT she was doing, but it was definitely working for her... And leaving Melanie in confusion. The Hufflepuff had decided to keep back, so she had more time to dodge the spells, and react. Unfortunately for her, it would probably give Ivory more time as well. It was the best she could do, though, for if she got hit by a spell that would immobilize her, and keep her from casting, Melanie was gone for.... And a first year would have beat her in a duel. That would be more than a small hit to her ego, even if the first year she was dueling with at the moment seemed to be quite smarter than the average eleven year old.

Both of Melanie's eyes darted back and forth, trying to keep up with the movement of the younger girl, watching her fall to the ground (not without guilt welling up in her stomach), and then hop to her feet once more. She didn't fail to spot her yelling ...and then speaking something...

Problem was, Melanie had absolutely no idea what she was doing... at first. She wasn't the best lip reader. However, though it took her a moment, Melanie recognized the wand movement she had only just used. It appeared the Ravenclaw was employing a shield charm.

Things are not always as they seem though. It was something Melanie should know by now...something she was learning, by dueling Ivory. She had only a split second to react to the beam of light flying toward her, and she took full advantage of that, flicking the shield she'd formed earlier up to protect her face and shoulders. She took another step backward, to find herself standing against a wall. Not good.

The shield flickered once more, disappearing moments after the curse hit it.

The spell hit her. It came through the shield, so it didn't hit directly, but it still hit Melanie. What was left of the spell bounced off her shield and flew back toward Ivory. Melanie's left shoulder was paralyzed by the fraction of the spell that hadn't been deflected by her flickering shield. She knew she would need to at least make an attempt at ending the duel soon or she would be letting Ivory take advantage of her, now passive, left shoulder. Thankfully, her legs still worked perfectly fine, and so did her wand hand.

She charged her, in order to make sure her aim was sufficient and in order to give Ivory a small time to react. "Expelliarmus!" she whispered, flicking her wand Ivory's wand hand, and then up slightly. Melanie didn't attempt to stun her. That way if Ivory really had cast a shield charm, the spell that bounced back at her wouldn't completely handicap her... Melanie spinned around, looping around Ivory so she was now standing behind her, and no longer up against the wall she'd backed herself into mere seconds earlier.

Dueling was proving to be more difficult than she could have imagined, but Melanie didn't mind one bit. She liked excitement, and if dueling wasn't an adrenaline rush she didn't know what was.

"Sorry. I just wanted to make sure you were ok." Kay said turning to watch the rest of the duelings. "Just thought the Professor wouldn't like blood all over." 'Wow way did people have to be so rude.' "Thank you for dueling with me." Kay gave a little bow and turned to walk back over to her bag. She turned and watch as the others duel.

OOC:Flashback to before duel...

"Really? Thanks Cela!"She beamed at the Ravenclaw. Charms were easy enough to learn, and she needed to learn more spells if they were going to be dueling in class. She listened to Cela speak to Tibi about the shield, she wondered if Cela would show her as well. Her shield wasn't very strong, it could only hold up against minute spells but that was all. "Could you help me with my shield charm too?"

OOC: Flash forward back to duel...

The disarming spell shattered her shield, leaving her open to be hit by the cheering charm. A big grin spread across her face as she started to giggle uncontrollably. She tried to stop the giggles but looking at Kellen tap dancing didn't help her situation. "Hehehehehehe..you--hehehe--you're a m-marviouls dancer!Hehehe..."Feeling another spell hit her she, but not feeling the effects she wondered what exactly he cast to her. It wasn't a spell she was familar with, but was sure she heard it cast before. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail so she couldn't see the bright pink color it had changed to.

With all her giggling she found it hard to cast spells his way. Taking a fighting stance, a whole new wave of giggles pored out of her lips as she struggled to point her wand at the boy."Oorchideousss, heheheehe!" suddenly Kellen was surounded by dozens of yellow daisys. giggling at the sight she cast another spell,"Hehehe,Obssscuuro!" before throwing back up her shield as she continued her fit of giggles.

Jake was still trying just to stay standing, which was proving very difficult since his bare feet were getting cold. 'maybe it wasn't such a good idea to blow up his stone shoes' he thought to himself. But he saw chris pointing his wand again, and before he could protect himself, jake lost balance and fell over.

Jake wasn't doing to well. He had to find a new approach. Still laying on the ground, he pointed his wand at Chris as descretely as possible and whispered "Expelliarmus"as quiet as he could possibly be.

Well atleast the kid could run he thought and mabe he could make this match a little more fair for him. See if he could block himself, but if he could not atleast do that Fred felt he would have to put an end to the duel. He waved his wand and said, "pertrificus totalus", concentrating on stopping the slytherin boys legs from moving hoping he would block and not just dodge.

Yes, Evan knew the boy wouldn't even care his hopeless attempt of leaving him wandless. Though he was glad the guy now used verbal spells. Now he could at least know when the spell was coming. "Protego!" he yelled. That shield should bounce the spell back, right? Still, just to be sure, he muttered "Stupefy." with a hope his mutter would not be heard over the noise in the class. Did he wish too much?

Oh! Gold was the bestest Prefect everrrr!! Besides the Slytherin ones of course, but Gold came in a close second.

'Sure, you can do it.' Because, well Destiny was tired of using magic at the moment. She balanced on one leg, the jelly leg just..jellyfied. Good thing that didn't happen to both her legs. She would not be standing if it had.

Phewww! Destiny was relieved that Gold was okay. Like Destiny could really hurt anyone..with magic that is. 'This class is.. interesting.' Too interesting in fact. She didn't even want to attend in the first place. Who knew what next class would be like!

Maybe she really wouldn't show up next time.