Oakey was here...well sort of. He was lost in his thoughts contemplating why he agreed to duel Ella. They weren't exactly seeing eye-to-eye at the moment, and that bugged Oakey slightly. They were Neighbors for a good what 2-3 years now? Hell they'v belonged to the Same House for 5.
He sauntered over to Ella and pointed to the Dueling arena. "Let's go." He muttered, just wanting to get this done and over with.

He hopped up onto the Dueling Arena and took his place at one end. taking his stance instantly and waiting for Ella. No stretching, no wand practice. Nothing.

Sassy Oakey was sassy.

Ella was tempted to just straight up say no because she was still cross with the boy and the fact that he was still telling her what to do wasn't helping. Instead she gave him a curt nod and followed after him, mumbling things under her breath.

When she got into position, the blonde locked eyes with her housemate and bowed, waiting for him to do the same. This is how they were meant to start, yeah?

Bring it on, neighbor.

Oakey bowed back, but kept his eyes trained on Ella. Something told him this wasn't going to be some simple duel so they could practice spells. He could see in her eyes just how serious she was.

Not that Oakey wasn't serious either, truth be told. Dueling had always been fun for him. He had never really won an official duel, and this one was off the books too. He leaned back up, and waited for Ella to try something. Oakey was still chivalrous even if he was annoyed.

Why wasn't he doing anything? Ella just continued eyeing him, straightening her posture some so she'd be ready in case he cast a nonverbal spell. She wasn't great at those just yet and she knew he had the advantage there.

When another minute went by and nothing happened, the blonde narrowed her eyes slightly and concentrated. "Tarantallegra!" She called out clearly as she made the correct wand movement.

The blonde then watched and waited, wand at the ready just in case.

So Lex didn't want to name the dummy? Cassia nodded not really understanding what could go wrong but she didn't push it. Instead she paused a tiny second trying to think of a name. And her thinking of such think would take forever, that's why she had hoped that maybe Lex would have ideas and Cassia would either approve or suggest a familiar name. And because they didn't have much time or they did but it wasn't for naming dummies, it was for attacking dummies, ignoring how cruel that sounded, Cassia knew that she should postpone it. "I think it's a nameless dummy for now," Well, it somehow was a name. Nameless dummy.

That could work for now. Now back to the hexing.

Or it was her turn to shield. Hold on? She wasn't going to count. Whyyyy noooot! Counting is cool. Numbers were cool. Well, except for Arithmancy but aside from that why not count. Seriously. The snake didn't sound too bossy or annoying OR weak, so she just nodded non-happily at all. How was she supposed to know when Lex hexed. She was bad at body language she tried that in CoMC and failed. Though she tried that on a niffler. And Lex obviously wasn't a niffler. But..ummm..she still was bad.

So she raised her wand and looked closely at Lex and one second before Lex uttered the knocking hex, Cassia said, "Contego nameless dummy!" And look what we have here. A nameless dummy that didn't even stir. She nailed this spell. Apparently she had been casting it right when the hex hit it but now she was there before the hex. Oh she totally intended doing that. Mhhmm. No one could invade her mind and find out the truth now, could they?

"Now your turn to shield," She said to Lex. Did Lex want surprises? Oh she totally got one. "Aaaand....Flipendo!" She totally lingered on the 'Aaand' to give Lex time. See, she was awfully considerate. Pfffft, You're welcome.

There we go! "Protego!" Oakey yelped as he swished the shield in front of him in time to deflect Ella's spell. He took his stance back and instead of retaliating he thought rationally for a second. "Prehenso," Oakey then tapped his legs and wand hands. testing his footing first to make sure they were stuck to the arena floor properly. His grip was tight on his wand too. "Try again Ella Worm, I won't protect myself next time!" Oakey taunted his Captain and held his wand back out ready for her next move.

Ella was annoyed.

She was annoyed that he'd blocked her spell and she was annoyed that he wasn't retaliating. She was even annoyed he'd used her nickname. She wasn't happy with him right now and nicknames were reserved for happy times. The taunting? Yeah, that wasn't nice either. The blonde didn't respond.

Instead Ella focused on what she wanted to throw at him next. She took a deep breath and kept her eyes on the head boy, her wand itching to be used. "Rictusempra."

She nodded at Cassia's decision. The moment she named her homework chaos happened. Just look at Kevin, she named her then she got lost and Jeffery, named him then he died. Sniffs. Jeffery. He would make a fine black hole one day and eat a whole galaxy for her. "It''s cool if you want to name him though but it'd have to be something you can't really get attached to." Just a thought.

She waited to see the effect her jinx would have. This time, it had none--NONE??? Alexa blinked and stared down at her wand. Did it not work? Could she try again. It was kinda weird knowing a jinx she was capable of doing had no effect...until she remembered there was a shield charm put in place. Right. Technically it was meant to have no effect. She didn't like this one bit.

"You got it perfect this time!" She grinned, as annoyed as she was, her best friend had still done the spell right and that deserved some praise. She personally was over shield charms. SO over them.

This explained the scowl on her face, a scowl that grew deeper when Cassia suddenly decided to fire. Okay it wasn't all that sudden but she was still deciding whether or not she'd bother trying again. Ugh. No. She wanted to go back to practising Levicorpus. Enough of thiiiis--Eeep! She fired!!! "Contego training dummy!" This time it was worse than before. It slid several inches across the floor before holding firm.

-______-

"Expulso!" BOOM!

She pointed to another dummy. "I think I like that one better.Let's try it. Come on." She stepped over the broken dummy that was now fixing itself and went to the next. "Ready? On three again. OneTwoThree!! Flipendo!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by grangerfan8

"But if we all walked down together, I wouldn't have been first to get here." She grinned in return to Mo and his whole show when he arrived. Actually she didn't feel like waiting around for either of the boys, not when she had to fight Alice awake so that she could babysit Biter while she was getting antlers on her head. That took lots of time cause of all the resistance and bickering.

The usual when Alice was woken up against her will in the early hours.

Picking up the ends of her two braids, she waved them at Mo. "My head and I are excited about the soon-to-be new addition. How about you?" Her eyes flickered over to Aidan when he finally showed his face, yawning like Mo had.

It was as if the boys didn't know how to get a proper night's rest. "Ready for antlers, or ready to go back to sleep?" She dropped her braids and gave her wand a little twirl between her fingers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

"Not everything is a contest," Mo informed Dora helpfully as he did some light stretching. Very light... basically just hugging himself, bouncing on the tips of his toes, and doing four jumping jacks. Not more than four, though... he was tired and stuff.

But now they were here, so might as well get started. The sleepiness was fast departing to be replaced by excitement. They were going to get ANTLERS. And now that Alice didn't care about his face, Dora would hex him. Not that he didn't trust Aidan to hex him, but they could all hex each other senseless with no repercussions.

"So then," he put both feet on the ground again. "The incantation is Anteoculatia." See? He'd done his homework and stuff. "So... who wants to cast first? Aidan?"

"Antlers," he nodded, slowly getting excited. Although, those weren't HORNS, you know. Still. A glance was given to Mo. But maybe they could do antlers AND horns cause they were both COOL!!

...But him going first. "Err...," he hesitated, "Maybe you should since you know it and everything." And he could watch. Because...he wasn't so good at doing spells the first time...or second or third. He was more of a six-is-the-charm kind of kid. But watching and mimicking the older kids a bit first would help.

Plus he still needed some time to wake up.

Okay fine. He didn't feel like taunting anyways! They were upset, but at make a Duel feel like a duel. "Oh Geeze!" Only just heard the last bit of Ella's spell and attemped a late shield charm. The shield was weak do to the surprise and Oakey was hit. He grabbed at his sides as the tickling started and he began to laugh, "I-do-HAHAH-n't I don't want to-HAHAH-Laugh!" How dare Ella force laughter in this situation! Oakey dropped to his knees but quickly cast a silent Finite on himself. Taking a deep breathe and stayed on his knees. "Glisseo!" Oakey shot at the floor beneath Ella's feet, and then with a quick breath yelled "Flipendo!" if she didn't stop the slippery floor there was no way she'd block his next spell. You've been... "Haha" Where did that come from. Had he not undone the tickling charm? Nope he was not happy with that one trick at all, she should be happy he decided not to taunt again!

Ella couldn't help it, she GRINNED when Oakey erupted in laughter. The grin only lasted a second, though. She needed to stay focused. Especially since the head boy seemed less than pleased with her at the moment. Heh. She wasn't sorry. Nope.

O____O

He was quick but Ella was too and she quickly cast the shield charm, confusion written all over her face. Wasn't Glisseo for stairs? What was he trying to do with th-

Suddenly the blonde was on the floor. It felt like she'd been punched in the stomach and she groaned quietly, eyes on Oakey. Um...ouch. Yeah, she hadn't seen the jinx coming at all. She might have even been impressed by the boy's move if she wasn't so frustrated with herself.

The sixteen year old quickly stood up, ignoring the slight pain and shot back, "Expelliarmus!"

Lex seemed to have some experience in the department of naming homework. So, Cassia took her advise in consideration and kept in mind to be attached to whatever name she was going to choose. Sounded like a good piece of advice provided by the lioness.

Cassia grinned at Lex as her shielding spell was complimented. "Why thank you! She dramatically curtsied. Probably a move Lex wouldn't approve of. Oh well. "It's pretty easy. Just concentrate a lot," Which the Gryffindor wouldn't like. "And make sure your wand movement is a perfect upward zigzag," she said demonstrating. "You'll get it easily," She nodded knowingly. Lex was good at DADA.

Seeing the frown on Lex's face, the snake kinda regretted firing out of the blue. But like she got carried away in all this. Ehhh… hopefully, Lex won't be mad at her. Because this was the idea of training. It wouldn't really mean anything if they didn't surprise each other. Riiiiight. And she didn't look too ma---

O__o

Until she expulso'd it. Hopefully, she was alright now. The snake offered a weak smile. But like she didn't want to leave her nameless dummy. She liked that dummy. Fiiiiiiiiiine. She was gonna be the older girl and accept.

Also, the dummy fixing itself was kinda creepy. So mooooving along.

"okay, she said and walked over to the new dummy. She raised her hand and got ready. Good they were counting now. On three, the fourth-year shouted. "Contego dummy!" There was no need to shout though. The dummy tilted a bit. Talk about jinxing yourself. But it still worked.

Now to the hexing part. "I'll count too," She said focusing her eyes on the dummy. "Flip—" She paused then caught herself. " Oh sorry forgot to count" She muttered apologetically. ""One…Twoo.." she counted. "Threeeee! Fliiipendo!" Wait, wasn't the spark supposed to be blue. What the heck is this color.

She didn't know why Cassia was looking at her and the dummy like that. Yes, she'd blown it up, nothing out of the ordinary and they could move on. Frustration was a terrible thing but it made her spells so much nicer...the hexes and such anyway and now she was taking a moment to admire her exploded dummy. He would be fine.

On a positive note, she'd gotten rid of a good amount of the annoyance that she'd been storing up. Better the dummy than her best friend and she was sure Cassia would agree, no?

So they could move on. Lex nodded at her friend's instructions, not sure how to accept it. This was one of the last things she thought she'd ever need extra advice with, but there you had it, bloody shield charms. "Alright. I got it." And another nod to indicate she was ready. After Cassia's shield didn't work perfectly she was filled with new hope. Probably bad but ah well, she was pumped to try again. "Contego training dummy!" Her eyes remained fixed on the dummy. It didn't shift but it wasn't completely still. Improvement, but she wasn't impressed.

A bit more focus and just maybe she'd get it perfectly safe from the jinx. All it took was some more focus. Ugh. She couldn't wait 'til it was her turn to be casting the jinx again. Which was now!. YAY!

"Eh, I'll get it next time. You just focus on protecting it again. On three. Three. Flipendo!" Technically...that was counting.

So her hex wasn't the strongest but it still was a hex. She always tells herself that to feel better. Mhhhmm. And it actually works. Enough about her hexes though. Her lips curled up in a happy smile as Lex's shield showed huge and noticeable improvement. She knew it was the concentration part she wasn't working on very well. And shielding spells mostly depended on concentration. A fact that justified Lex liking hexing more. Cassia though didn't say that allowed. No need to blow up another dummy, okay? Okay. She just gave her friend a beaming smile. Supportive.

Now, enough smiling and beaming. It was her turn to shield the dummy from Lex's coming hex. How she had the feeling that she'd be hearing that sentence quite a lot in her life. Save the dummy part unfortunately. Her face composed, and her wand raised, Cassia's eyes were glued on the dummy. She had three seconds to---HOLD THAT THOUGHT! "ContegoDummy!" She blurted out her eyes widening because Miss Cambridge forgot her numbers. Seriously! She turned to look at the lioness and stared for like a minute. Lex didn't like staring without talking. The snake knew that very much. "Reminder. There actually are two numbers before three. They're called one and two. They're very sensitive and would feel sad if they're not included in the counting," Sarcasm was totally better than a dramatic reaction, no? After all they were in a dueling arena.

NOW HER turn to hex. Meh, she wasn't really keen on that. But this time she WAS going to try this charge up thing she had read about. She was hoping it wasn't her imagination. Couldn't be right. She didn't say anything. Not I'm going to count, not my turn, nothing. She just eyed the dummy and held her wand up waving it in the right movement but pausing a liiitle bit before speaking up the spell," Flipendo!" She needed to concentrate, surely Lex saw it coming as Cassia physically got ready and faced the dummy. She was watching her right? Hopefully. Shield that Lex.

She didn't come to the dueling arena to fail at protecting a dummy. She'd come because she wanted to learn another jinx. That was probably the most annoying part. She hadn't had enough time to prepare herself for the failure and now she wasn't handling it well.

Lex kept her eyes on the dummy. Cassia had gotten it to be protected again even when she wasn't ready but she was smiling so Alexa wasn't about to bring her down with scowling. She could be a big person too...even if Cassia was taller. Blink. "I'm well aware of those two numbers but I suppose I'm forever in your debt now for sharing?" One and two were overrated, DUUUUUH. Besides, she wanted to see how much Cassia could concentrate in a second's notice. Well done--

HEY WAIT WHAT????

STAAAAAAHP!!!

Lex's eyes widened as she watched the dummy flying in her general direction. The most she could do was yell a quick 'protego'. Better her than the dummy. Nuff said.

Speaking of the dummy, once it landed Lex gave it a few well placed kicks. "Bloody thing!" KICK.

On the bright side. It was still in once piece. "I've had enough of this. I'm done. Completely done. Let's go get some ice-cream or you can keep shooting at that thing but I. Am. DONE." Contego could go fall off a bridge with an anchor tied to it's non-existent waist.

-_______-

"No, this wasn't a contest." She watched him do his little stretching and wondered if he did that all that time. Was this a quidditch thing? "I just wanted to be here first." And she was. But she wasn't gonna do any stretching cause it WAS early, and she didn't need it for giving out antlers.

Dora knew the incantation. She was a Ravenclaw TOO, but there was no time to waste for making that point. Now was time for casting spells. She bounced on her toes excitedly and took a few steps away from both boys. "I'll cast first. On Mo, so Aidan won't be distracted while he's casting on one of us." He seemed a bit hesitant to go, and she was positive it wasn't because he was afraid to get them.

"Ready?" She waved Aidan off to the side, so he wouldn't get hit and could see her cast properly, then aimed her wand at her year mate. Dora was READY.

Dora was a touchy person. Mo was occasionally prone to put his feet in his mouth. There was a reason their friendship was a slow one to develop - mostly because they needed more time than normal to really understand each other and not get hurt feelings over nothing. It seemed to be working, though, and Mo was here letting Dora cast spells at him.

He nodded toward Aidan and gestured for the other boy to stand back. "Okay, I'm ready. Go ahead and give me antlers." He squeezed his eyes shut before opening them again. Nope. He was going to watch the whole time. This was all about experiencing something new, after all. "Go."

Damn! his first plan to make the floor slippery beneathe her feet failed, it was a good distraction though for his second incoming spell. The expression on his face did not change though. He was waiting for Ella to get up and fight back ready for whatever she'd throw at him.

The disarming charm? Had Ella completely forgotten the gripping charm Oakey had put on himself. That was what the earlier taunt was for. So that's what he did, he let this one hit him. He could feel a sting in his whole arm once the red stream hit him head on. The wand in his hand stayed put none-the-less. "Ow-ow-ow-ow" It hurt, and Oakey shook his hand ungripping his wand as it flailed stuck to his palm. Getting his composure back Oakey quickly shot "Expelliarmus!" back in Ella's direction.

She was up and just staring. Maybe...dueling Oakey hadn't been such a good idea.She'd hoped it'd help them fix whatever it was that was wrong between them, something she didn't even understand herself, but this wasn't working. She found that him casting spells on her was only making the situation worse.

She hadn't remembered the gripping charm and so as Oakey's wand didn't move but he still seemed in pain, the blonde's eyes widened slightly. That...was odd.

No time to gawk, though. The blonde threw up another shield charm but wasn't fast enough. Oakey's spell hit and her wand flew from her grasp, hitting the floor a ways behind her.

... ... "Guess this means you won." There wasn't any edge to her voice or anything. The blonde was simlpy stating facts with a rather blank expression. "Congratulations."

He won? Then why didn't he feel like celebrating? He never won duels. There was to much going on between them, and the win felt bitter sweet. "Thanks." Oakey said dryly. He undid the gripping charms on his feet and arms, moved behind Ella and picked up her wand for her and held it out. "Here." No change in his voice, but at least he was trying to be courteous now. He hopped down from the platform, and moved over to the door. "You know what...." Oakey said as he turned around again and faced Ella. "You want to practice your shield charm?" Not that it wasn't bad, but they needed to put whatever this was behind them. Move on and just work with each other.

"Welcome." ...Yeah. The blonde glanced at her feet and then around for her wand. Where did it go when he ha- Oh. "Thankyou." Ella grabbed her wand and avoided eye contact because she didn't really know why but she was feeling very uncomfortable at the moment. She didn't know why there was suddenly this wall of awful between them but it wasn't sitting well with her. She didn't exactly know how to fix it, though.

The sixteen year old watched the older boy moved towards the door and she turned her back to him before she frowned. Sigh. This was so stupid.

And then...he was speaking again. Ella turned around, head tilted to the side. "My shield charm?" Was he implying she was bad at that or? No...no he wasn't mean. "I...guess so. Sure."

Dora was watching Mo closely, an excited grin on her face. She wasn't even fully aware of Aidan moving away (though she was sure that he had, cause she didn't want to hit him just yet or anything) as he was not the current target for horns. That was Marcus Orion.

An eyes open Marcus Orion.

She waited til she was SURE he was ready, and until she was focused and not bouncing on her toes before her expression changed to a more serious one and her wand was aimed at him. Antlers was serious business.

Visualizing the type of antlers she wanted on him, Dora spoke the incantation clearly. "Anteoculatia." Her eyes followed the red light and waited for antlers to happen.

Dueling! Actual dueling!!! Lex had wanted to practice that spell again, that one she was trying to get the day she ended up practising with Cassia but it didn't seem like she'd be able to get it done today...unless she added it to her duel. That could work and it'd be good practice.

Alexa bounced into the dueling arena, Felix in step behind her. He was gonna be her supporter today, cheering for her and only her. That was how kneazle love worked.

After hopping to the centre she realized she'd gotten there first. Boo. She wanted to start nooooooow!!!! Where was that Snake??? She didn't have nearly as long a walk to walk in order to get here...er...unless she was somewhere out on the grounds making her way here? Lex didn't know and she didn't care. All she wanted was to get this thing started. She already knew some of the spells she would be using but for the most part, she'd be winging it.

Bouncing was happening again. She was eager.

Isabel purposely made her way into the dueling arena she would be lying if she said she wasn't almost jumping out her skin in anticipation. Glancing around she spotted the gryffindor, a smirked formed on her lips.

Oh this will be fun

She made her way over to the lion and addressed her.

"Hope i didn't keep you waiting" she said more in a sort of smug way, adrenaline was racing through her veins, She was pumped dueling was a favored past time of hers. She had been itching to more so after hearing about the dementor attack, oh what she would have done to be there.

"Ready when you are Cambridge" This was it she reached for her wand that had been occupying a space in her boots and went into a familiar stance.

THERE SHE WAS!!!!

Finally. The bouncing got worst. Now that her victim dueling partner was here, she could get started. This would be epic!!! Now that she thought about it, this was probably her first legit duel. Yeah she'd dueled with Will once but he was a cheater and she was a Firstie, those didn't go well.

Things were better now. Much more even. "Nah, I haven't been here all that long." If she had been waiting much longer the girl would have found her practising on some dummies while she waited. As it were, she and Felix had just gotten here. She watched him take a seat on a nearby bench, probably getting out of the line of fire. Good on him.

"Now here's how it's gonna work." Because she was calling the shots here. "We'll take ten steps away from each other before turning and shooting the first spell to come to our minds. You can cast any amount, I don't suspect it'll matter much. Duel ends when one of us is disarmed. Got it?"

She got it right? Good. Lex bowed quickly then gave a sharp turn and began counting out ten steps.