Kane always got nervous when it came to dueling club, because for some reason, Hirsch always put him with an OLDER student (well, except for Derf. But he hadn't thought he'd beaten him THAT bad that it warranted all these SUPER DIFFICULT opponents!!)

If there was one thing he had learned from his last duels, it was this - come out swinging HARD, right away. Don't go easy on them, because they wouldn't go easy on HIM.

He was up first? Ok. Here it goes. He took a deep breath and posed himself for the beginning of the duel, bowing and then turning and taking a few steps before turning and holding out his wand. He had an idea of what he wanted to do. He had been practicing a few of the harder spells and felt fairly confident that he could pull them off.

"Flipendo Duo!" he exclaimed, deciding to do his #1 jinx right out of the gate. He held his breath, hoping it worked as well as he wanted it to...

Junia was calm and collected as she bowed and took her paces. She then turned to eye her opponent, her expression thoughtful. He was younger, so she had a year of dueling knowledge over him. She was also hard to read, something she'd practiced in the mirror countless times so that she could keep her expression neutral during duels. If she got stressed or caught off guard during their duel, he wouldn't be able to tell.

Standing with her wand at the ready, her gaze steady, the fourth year waited.

His first move was bold and the Slytherin reacted instinctively, her wand coming up as an extension of her hand as she uttered a "Protego," deflecting the spell back towards her opponent. Her next move seemed natural, the incantation flowing from her mouth without having to think about it. "Carpe Retractum." The sight of the rope was enough to reassure her and she moved her location, knowing that staying in one spot would give him more opportunity to hit his mark when the boy retaliated.

Kane stopped himself from frowning heavily as he watched Junia easily deflect his spell. DRAT. He'd been hoping that by coming right out of the gate with one of his best spells, he could catch her off guard maybe. Obviously that hadn't worked. She was older, and a Slytherin so of course she had the leg up on him (he LIVED with a Slytherin, so he would know).

Thankfully, by the time the spell hit him, it had been weakened significantly after bouncing off her protection spell. He stumbled back a bit - but unfortunately, that meant he was vulnerable to her next spell. He grunted as the rope she sent his way promptly wrapped itself tightly around him. He was still gripping his wand and was able to give it the smallest little flick with his wrist. "Finite!" he exclaimed, and watched as the rope fell to the floor and disappeared. He hadn't gotten dragged TOO far, thankfully, and was able to get back on his feet rather quickly.

Alright. So first turn was NOT as successful as anticipated.

His brain slowly started to work up what he wanted to do next. Hoping to overwhelm her this time, he aimed at the floor in front of her. His next spell was intended to startle her, soooo...here's hoping it worked! "Bombarda!" he exclaimed. After that, he switched his aim so he was pointing his wand at her, instead of the floor. "Obscuro!" he cried this time, hoping to not only startle her with the explosion, but also take away her sight.

The force of the explosion had caught the fourth year off guard, sending her back onto her bum and out of the way of the second spell sent her way, luckily. Still, her tailbone throbbed and the brunette winced as she raised her wand from her seated position. She needed to play some defense right now so she could get herself back up without exposing herself to any more incoming spells.

"Fumos!" The dark smoke filled the air almost immediately and Junia wrinkled her nose, hastily adding a, "Ventus!" Now the smoke was being pushed towards the younger boy, hopefully giving her a moment to scramble to her feet.

Fingers crossed!

Kane couldn't help but grin. Sure, he felt bad for making her fall on her bum like that - but he had learned last year that you couldn't let yourself feel bad in these situations. He was a bit disappointed that his blindfold spell didn't work, because that would have been the icing on top of the cake and a good way to get her in a more defenseless position, but the explosion had still done what he needed it to.

Then, HE was the one falling on his bum as a strong force of wind pushed him off his feet, and dark smoke began to cloud his vision. He quickly hopped up to his feet, rubbing his hip a bit since he fell on it at a funny angle. Still, he had only a small window of time before she bounced back, so he had to make this count.

He hadn't really done anything transfiguration related during this duel, and he HAD just read his book quite a bit in order to do his homework the other day. His attack strategy now was to throw so many at her, she wouldn't know what hit her - quite literally! "Melofers!" he exclaimed, pointing at...where he THOUGHT she was standing amongst all the smoke.

"Herbifors!" he exclaimed, waving his wand at the Botros girl. It was...a weird spell, to be sure, but he kind of wanted to see how it would work. He'd never used that one in a duel before. Plus, having flowers grow out of one's ears and nose was likely highly distracting! He just hoped it made it through the smoke...

OMG. If his pumpkin spell AND flower spell both hit...what would that even look like?!

Junia was surprised when the younger boy didn't immediately put an end to the smoke. Perhaps it was because the wind had distracted him from taking such a course, but the cloud of smoke served to protect both of them from their opponent and their spells, at least while the smoke continued to fill the air. It allowed Junia to avoid his and get back on her feet with a renewed sense of desire to win this duel.

Wand held firmly, the brunette said a quiet, "Finite." She needed to see him to ensure her spell was going to hit. Hopefully hit. She needed it to hit. "Immobulus!"

She waited, eyes trained on the Hufflepuff, hoping her spell had hit.

While yes, Miss Botros did have an unfair advantage over Mr Westwood, he strongly believed that a bit of a challenge would help the Hufflepuff.

And he wasn't wrong, was he?

A wide smile spread across the man's face as he watched the duel commence, silently glad for a number of reasons: for one, Miss Botros wasn't going easy on the boy and for another, Mr Westwood wasn't going down without a fight. Though, something he was taking note of was the fact that they really seemed to like their environmental-based spells. Ventus? Fumos? Even Flipendo could, kind of, fit into that category.

Speaking of Fumos, it was making it hard to see, wasn't it?

The man glanced down at his watch, even taking a moment to wipe at his glasses with the sleeve of his robes to make him see better. It didn't matter whether the two duellers knew what was going on or not because at that minute, the shield was struck up between the two of them, marking the end of the duel. And making that Immobulus charm useless. Sorry.

"Excellent!" he called, stepping out and making his way towards the pair. "I have to say, that was a great effort from both of you. I'm impressed with the level of skill that's been displayed here. Very well done!" Could they tell that he was pleased? "Miss Botros, you've taken the lead in this round and for that, I say congratulations. And well done on putting up an excellent fight, Mr Westwood."

And, now he was going to take away any lingering effects from any spells that might be in the air.


Stats:
Kane Westwood: 60.78%
Junia Botros: 82.17%