Genny brought her bag of candy with her into the dueling arena today. She had a series of duels she wanted to watch, particularly the one with professor Sokolov. It wasn't that she couldn't stand the man, but it would give her great satisfaction if professor Jordan handed him his loss on a golden plate. Or Genny could actually like the man and respect him if he turned out to be the better dueler.

Henry and Charlotte's duel came in second in importance to her. They both were her friends, except Char was sometimes annoying because she seemed to be too self-involved at times. But Genny still liked her. She liked Henry more, though, because he was such a great friend and even if he didn't seem the kind to win a duel easily (sorry), she was still going to root for him!

Frankie HAD to win his! He was their Head Boy and Genny secretly worshiped the floor he walked on because hey, what did he not have that she would ask for? Gryffindor? Check. Bravery? Check. Sense of Humour? Check. Humility? Check. Good looks? Eh, his hair could be a little darker but that was fine. So yeah! Frankie had to win.

Paige and Maggie's duel was expected to be the most intense. Genny was hardcore rooting for Paige, she did not know the girl's dueling skills (it was hard to imagine Paige willingly get into a duel tbh, what with the girl being a replica of a lovely butterfly) but also it made Genny respect her even more for doing this. So, not having anything against Maggie, the Gryffindor was cheering for the Hufflepuff with all her might.

Let the duels begin.

*pops an exploding bon-bon in*

Popcorn would have been great to have right at this moment. Noelle made her way into the stands, empty handed from popcorn to watch the duels. Her focus was on Henry and Char at the moment. They were both her friends. She was rooting for the underdog though. Henry.

Noelle had helped him practice, and she was hoping he would give Char a good run. Though, Noelle knew how good Char was. Char had won the match against herself. It had been a good match. Head to head for most of it, but Char was better. She was skilled that one. Noelle admired that.

Noelle wasnt participating in the duels this year though. She had wanted to, but her plate was too full. Animagus training too precedence over dueling right now. Hopefully, next term she would be able to equal out her time for both. She really loved dueling.

When a bon bon went off, Noelle looked over at who did that. That was the spirit. LET THE DUELS BEGIN!

Char was kicking Henry's butt so far. Genny would chuckle here and there because they were using funny spells. Then Noelle (she knew her name because common room was a thing) sat near her just as the bon bon exploded. Genny gave the fourth year a toothy grin. "Hullo."

Wasn't it more exciting than Gobstones? Definitely. But not nearly as exciting as Quidditch. "Who are you here watching?" Frankie?

The toothy grin Genny gave her was eye catching and contagious. Noelle returned one. "Hey Genny! How are you??" Scooting down so she was closer and they could talk better, Noelle offered a licorice wand.

Dueling was so much more exciting than Gobstones. She wasn't a fan of that. It wasn't exciting to her. She'd rather have dueling over anything else.

"Im here to see a few matches actually. First being Henry and Char. But my big sis is dueling her boyfriend. I wanted to see that one too." plus a few others, but those were the main ones. She didn't pay close enough attention to know whether or not Genny was in the dueling club. "Do you duel?"

Genny accepted the licorice wand happily, those pieces of candy reminded her of proefssor Viktor now but not in a bad way. Thanks to Tory, of course. "Me too! I'm here to see Char and Henry. It doesn't look like he's winning." She laughed and took a tug at the candy. "Really? Your sister? Who?" And who was she dueling?

"Yep. I'll be dueling Tak." Her voice tone suggested that she was not a fan of him. "What about you?"

Noelle nibbled on one of the ends of a licorice wand. Did she mention this was her FAVORITE candy? It was true. It was also true that Henry didnt look as if he was winning. "Poor Henry. He a fighter though. Char is an amazing dueler though. She won against me last term." But then again, Genny probably already knew that since Char had come in first and Noelle in second for their year.

Oh she'd introduced Hady as her sister. Well, they were sisters... but not by blood. "Hady. She's up against her boyfriend, Frankie. " Noelle wouldnt correct that she was really related to Hady. As far as they were concerned, they were sisters.

"I wish I was dueling this term, but I only have time for the challenges. Im in a few other things." They took up a lot of her time.

It was dueling time again and Natalia had decided to actually go and watch. She had brought her parchment and quill as well because any notes she could take from what she was seeing might be able to help close the gap even more. Professor Hirsch was really helping her with that as well and the practice room had become a regular place. She knew she was not ready to be part of the club though, but she had secretly set a goal for herself that maybe next year... maybe.

Walking in she looked around and found a seat. Her eyes went to the dueling arena as the duels were going on. She wasn't sure whether the professor one or a student one would be more beneficial or more entertaining. Knowing Hugo was dueling today she thought maybe she'd watch that one.

For now it could be the professor duel.

Henry had no issues with not moving on to the second round of dueling. He had a great time dueling against Charlotte and knew that she would likely be the winner, being the best dueler in their year. Not to mention this was only his first year in the club even if he had been practicing with Noelle.

Of course now that he was eliminated from the tournament, that left him free to watch his friends in the second round. And since he was rather interested in a couple of them, the fifteen year old headed to the stands to watch.

Spotting someone already there, Henry gave a smile to the sixth year as he took a seat near her. "Hi, Nat... taking notes?" His eyes fell on the parchment and quill in her hands. That was a little odd, though maybe it would have been more beneficial for him if he had thought of that before. Nah, he couldn't be bothered with that, he just wanted to watch!

And speaking of watching, Henry turned his eyes to the duel he wanted to watch the most - Char v. Owen - as they were just getting ready to start.

She had been studying the professors dueling so she had no clue anyone had come to sit near her. Not until she heard his voice. She looked up and gave a small smile. It probably was odd that she was taking notes during a duel, but she did have her reasons. " Yeah... I have been a bit behind on Defense and this term Professor Hirsch has been really helping me get caught up with my year. So watching and taking notes is one of the extra things I'm doing." She had been giving herself extra work in some lessons, but she really wanted to be able to do things normal seventeen year olds got to do.


Her eyes moved to the next duel it was people she had met but really didn't know. "Friends of yours?" He looked like he was going to be watching that one so she just assumed they were. She remembered he one in the puff robes being one of his housemates she sat with in class at the beginning of term, so yes they were friends. As the duel went on though she thought she heard a name... "Did he just say?"


Oh hell this was more then just a normal duel wasn't it? Her eyes moved to Henry wondering if he was going to be jumping into that duel to take out the boy. Hopefully a ref would be in the Puff common room later.

Henry pulled his eyes away from the duels for a moment, turning his attention to Nat as she spoke. Oh. He supposed that made sense, but honestly it just sounded like extra homework to him. He preferred hands-on learning to looking over notes any day. "Well, hopefully that helps you," he said with a smile. "This is just my first year in Dueling Club, actually. But I had been practicing when I could before the tournaments started." It had helped, but not enough to take him to round two. Not that he was complaining.

He simply nodded at Nat when she asked if he was watching his friends, and he turned his attention back to the duel between Charlotte and Owen, though he did also want to watch the Genny/Liv duel at some point too. It was just that this particular one was more interesting to him for reasons. And so far, he thought they were both pretty amazing duelers. Spells were flying so quickly that he could barely keep up, and he even chuckled at the snake with the little pumpkin on his head. This duel was at least entertaining...

What did he just say?

Though he was in the stands watching, Henry was sure he heard his name and he leaned forward to better hear what was being said. He knew that Owen had a little crush on Char and he never really felt like it threatened anything that he might have had with her. But.. was he actually trying to make a play for her? Now, in the middle of their duel, when he knew that Henry was likely watching?

It did not even occur to the fifteen year old that this might be a ploy to distract or gain the upper hand during the duel. It just wasn't cool to try anything like that, duel or no duel, okay? Especially after he said he wouldn't. Bros just didn't do that to each other. And he'd have thought it a bit underhanded anyway, had he thought it was just a distraction device.

Not trying to be rude, but he did ignore Nat as she was probably waiting for a response from him. And the snake hurtling up towards the stands was only a minor distraction for him. Henry was not a fan of snakes exactly, but it didn't land close enough for him to be too concerned and he figured Nat could probably take care of it. Nope, his sole focus was on this duel and the rising indignation he was feeling towards one Owen Montezor. In fact, his wand hand that was slowly tightening its curled fingers would have eagerly sent a hex towards the other boy, but he knew that would not be proper duel etiquette.

He did think Charlotte's response to Owen's confession and question of why they couldn't still snog even with Henry in the picture to be interesting. It appeared to him that she did seem to think that the other boy was trying to distract her as Henry thought she was almost taunting him with an offer of snogging. Because he didn't really think they'd start snogging in the middle of this duel... would they? Nope, no, they wouldn't... Henry wasn't even going to entertain that idea.

It was just too bad that he was so annoyed with Owen right now, because Henry would have to admit that this was one of the better duels he had seen with intense spells flying everywhere one after the next. And it wasn't even just because it featured Charlotte Kettleburn. But speaking of, had he ever mentioned how contagious her giggles were? Because they totally were. And so he couldn't help but to crack a smile at her kumquat ear and antler hair as she giggled. Why did she have to be so darn cute?

No smiles for you, though, Owen Montezor. But perhaps a chat later.

Nat did notice the snake, she did, but she didn't care much for it either. She liked snakes, she was a snake, but right now she was trying to get her badger friend's attention before the duel went from Char and Owen to Henry and Owen, but honestly he had every right to jump up and break his nose. Did the boy really think he could just say he wanted to snog her and honestly was Char saying he could? She was oblivious to the tactics that worked in with duels never doing one before, but the more she watched the more she started thinking that's what was going on.

Her focus moved to other tournaments, Liv was dueling someone she wasn't sure her name. It was a pretty good duel, but then she noticed that many of the duels going on were of younger students. Was she the only one that couldn't duel? She looked at her notes and wondered if she was just being a baby about duels, but she knew why she wouldn't do them to. She'd have to talk to Hirsch about it before term ended. She had made a goal and now she needed to achieve it.

"Henry..." She tried to be a bit quiet so to not disturb anyone else watching, but to get his attention.