Stacking the other desks against the side that Kurumi and Alyssa weren't doing, she'd rolled up the mats as well and placed them nearby. Keeping an eye on the two girls at the same time of course. There were still a ton of things to work out in this arena and she wanted to make sure nothing had gone wrong.

After Alyssa had left, Medea picked up her own burgundy mat and placed it in the middle of the room, a bit closer to the window and stream of sunlight. With a wave of her wand, the double door entrance shut with a few creeks, and then there was silence.

"You don't have to use a mat if you don't vont to." she said, sitting down on her own. "The floor is cold though."

Finishing up, Kurumi walked over to where Professor Romanos was sitting on her mat and jumped a bit when the door had closed shut. The silence was almost frightening for some reason, but the warm glow provided by the sun put the Gryffindor at ease.

Kurumi picked up her mat and set it a few feet away from the professor, not too far but not too close either. She then sat on her mat in perfect seiza position and looked over at the professor.

"Um...thank you again...for agreeing to offer me private lessons," she said with an obvious hint of shyness in her tone.

Crossing her legs in the lotus position, as she'd demonstrated in the first lesson she'd taught at this school, she smiled and nodded ever so slightly as she made herself comfortable. "Of course." she said, voice almost echoing in the arena regardless of being quieter than usual. "Company is alvays nice as vell."

Though made meditating a little harder to do. Always up for a challenge though.

"First thing to do, is your posture." She herself was sitting up straight, hands laying comfortably in her lap. "You can sit however you like, but you should be stable and comfortable." Falling over seemed to be the major problem with some people.

Nodding, Kurumi tried to get in the same position as Professor Romanos, but it just wasn't working. She wouldn't be able to focus this way. Shifting her position a bit more, Kurumi soon found herself in seiza and with both hands resting delicately on her knees and her back perfectly straight. That ought to do it, right?

Taking a few deep breaths to relax her shoulders a bit, Kurumi glanced over at the professor and waited for...whatever was coming next. "Do you...meditate often, professor?"

Closing her eyes, Medea waited patiently for Kurumi to get into whatever comfortable position she chose. Actually took less time than she expected. Raising a brow, she opened one eye and glanced towards the Gryffindor girl as a smile spread on her lips. "I try to. Usually most mornings or afternoons if I have the time."

Taking a deep breath, she relaxed a bit more as she usually practiced before speaking again. "The hardest part of meditating for most, is clearing your mind." she spoke slowly and quietly, just above a whisper. "Close your eyes. Stop any inner chatter. Just...relax. Completely...relax."

No wonder Professor Romanos was so poised. It must be all the meditating and yoga, which wasn't seeming like such a bad idea now that she herself was as far from that word as she had ever been. And that bit about the hardest part being the clearing of the mind? Understatement of the century.

That was like telling someone to not think about pink and green polka dotted dragons. Once you were told that, you couldn't NOT think about them. Kurumi closed her eyes, hoping that in doing so it would help her focus...but no such luck. Her mind was wandering all over the place. Maybe...focusing on ONE thing would help?

She was having inner chatter with herself, wasn't she? She needed to stop that. But HOW?! SEE! More inner chatter

Slowly...Kurumi took several deep breaths and, surprisingly, all the images that had been swimming around inside her subconscious faded in color and soon she was only left with a blank white image of...nothing? She sure hoped that is what it was.

To achieve this right away would have been a miracle in her opinion. She remembered quite well how long it too her to get even close to stopping the inner chatter once told to do so.

Opening her eyes, Medea turned her head to observe how Kurumi was doing so far. If the crease between her eyebrows gave any clue, she'd have guessed it was going exactly as planned. Inner chatter increased. Smiling somewhat, the dark haired woman went back to closing her eyes and working on her breathing while she patiently waited for a good few more minutes.

"Our minds are just large bundles of thoughts." she said in the same quiet, just above a whisper, voice. "Alvays coming to the surface. It is natural to have difficulty controlling them, so do not feel the need to be agitated about it if you do not achieve doing so right avay. Ve may receive many questions from them as they appear, both in our range of knowledge and out. The key is not to force them avay, but to rise above them."

"To rise above the limits of our minds, it is not to focus on halting inner chatter. It is to focus on our breathing. To observe our breathing. Just, observe. Don't breathe consciously or force it. Let it happen naturally, on it's own. You may slip back into avareness of your thoughts. Don't cling to them, or the questions that could arise. Come back to the breath. It is a challenge to keep focus, but...do not force it. Take your time. Let it all come naturally."

Kurumi was trying, she really was, but nothing was coming naturally like the professor suggested. In fact, the only thing that was natural at the moment was her breathing and even that was becoming a little irregular. Erm...

Her grandmother had been a shrine maiden at a Shinto shrine and could spend hours meditating in front of a fire doing whatever sort of meditation that was required for the event. Usually it was the burning of prayer papers written by the other priests and priestesses or, sometimes, the people who came to the shrine. Kurumi had been forced to meditate once in front of the fire...it hadn't gone over too well as the heat had gotten to her and she had nearly passed out.

At least there was no fire here?

How long had they been going at this? For a while now Kurumi reckoned and it was becoming harder and harder to focus with each passing moment. Frustrated with herself, Kurumi sighed heavily. This was supposed to help her keep her emotions in check, not make them go more crazy. Still, she kept plugging forward...hoping that focus and peace would come naturally as Professor Romanos had said it should.

Medea continued to sit quietly, not meditating herself, but focusing more on Kurumi's movements and sometimes breathing. After awhile of still sounding normal, she looked over to the Gryffindor girl once she heared the sigh. Smiling a little, she nodded to herself and let her legs stretch in front of her. "I think that's enough for today." she said, breaking the silence. "Trying for too long can make it even more difficult, especially for...first timers."

Standing up, she picked up her mat. "Though if you'd like, you can continue trying every night before you go to bed or in your free time. At least until the next time ve do this so you aren't diving back into the unknown."

Miss Puff prefect almost skipped into the dueling arena, eyes drifting around in interest. She hadn't been in this room since... well, a couple of years now it seemed. It looked different, or maybe it was just her that was different.

Either way she didn't dwell on the thoughts for long, instead started to focus on dueling, pulling out a hair tie to prepare while she waited for the professor and her friend.

Treyen followed after Arya, and...he really didn't need much time to prepare himself. His wand was...sigh. WHERE WAS HIS WAND?

OH! There it was! In his pocket. Why was it there??

CLEARLY, the Head Boy just needed to get ready mentally for this, then he could start their dueling. Finally. After a little over a year. Truth be told, he wished the dude from the Dueling Club had returned this term, because that was the most fun he had last year. Lesson-wise. And it wasn't even a mandatory lesson, really.

Anyway, where was he? Right. Clearing up his mind. Focusing. "Whenever you're ready."

Whenever she was ready, he'll bow and they'll begin. Okay?

Opening the doors to the arena, Medea waited until both the students had entered before closing it halfway behind her. Enough so it was open, but closed enough so hopefully the random passerby wouldn't be too curious.

She would just stay out of the way. Sitting on the bleachers was the better idea than the benches. Doing so, the woman sighed and kicked off her heels. Yes, much better. Whenever the two were ready now.

She had her wand in her wrist holster. Same place as always. With a small flick of her wrist, the dark polished wood was in her hand ready to be used for a fun duel. And so was SHE, the prefect had her hair in a ponytail and was still glancing around to observe her surroundings.

And it was only when the other two were in the room and settled did she take a few paces away from her friend, turn, and bow to him like the many times she'd practiced.

Her wand came up before she did, aimed at Treyen as she clearly spoke. "Stupefy."

Arya bowed, and so did he.

His eyes were on her. The Head Boy got mighty suspicious in a duel, it didn't matter that this was his best friend, she could start at any moment once the bowing had stopped...and smirks didn't help him with her. Those only seemed to work on Vashti.

There it was!

Didn't take her long to shoot a spell at him. Sabel would be proud. "Protego," he whispered to his wand, because he was cute like that. The shield was on him in time to deflect the jet of light that came his way. And he already had one spell in mind he'll be using against her...one of the many? Because his mind went blank after taking away his shield and saying, "Impedimenta!" as his wand was pointed towards her.

She side stepped to the right when a spell was sent her way, wand already moving through the air with practiced ease as she sent a knockback jinx his way.

It had been a while since she'd dueled him, and so harder to remember what tricks worked best against him. So the prefect was experimenting right now.

Her wand twisted again, and she cast a bat-bogey hex.

MIND YOU, Arya Lovegoods, this wasn't war.

They were just practicing. But she'd taken it too seriously, then? Or she really wanted to practice as if they were going to be fighting against the next Voldemortist, eh? Because he could do that. And the smirk was slowly making its way to his face.

Only to vanish entirely.

"Hey!" the first one ALMOST got him, if he hadn't moved. For the second he put his shield back up.

Both Obscuro and Incarcerous were directed her way once the shield went down. He'll try to rely more on his reflexes instead of his shield this next time.

Well... Arya didn't think they were waring either.

But this was their last not war and she was excited. Didn't he KNOW how she got when she was excited? Heh. The prefect to a kneeled forward, under his first spell and flicked her wand at the flying ropes, transfiguring them into snakes.

Then she sent them on him.

It was possible she was still excited. Only a bit now though.

"Tarantallegra." The prefect sent another spell at him, then moved to rise back to her feet.

Snakes. Ha.

But evil Arya was sending those things towards him. Fine. "Evanesco!" And for some reason that seemed familiar enough, as if he's done so before. Granted, he was pretty fond of that spell when he dueled with his best friend. She had a thing for sending animals at him.

It was his turn to fall somehow. As he did fall backwards in the hopes of letting the spell hit the wall behind him. He succeeded in falling, which also meant he succeeded in NOT getting hit by the most silly spell ever invented.

"Avis." Mind you, that was very 'Arya' of him. "Oppugno." They moved at an incredible speed when he pointed his wand at the Hufflepuff Prefect.