This wasn't Chloe's first duel nor was it the first time a spell had come at her, but the fact that the younger boy jumped right in made her smile. He was eager and that was cool, she liked that, but her wand was up and she easily did the movements, "Protego"

Sorry kid, she wasn't going to make it that super duper easy for him. At least not the first go. She had to give him some things to work towards, she wouldn't be a good older student if she just laid down her wand and let him win on the first shot.

Her wand quickly moved again, "Expelliarmus" she said with ease and confidence sending it toward Blake. She hoped he was ready because she didn't want to see him lose quickly either.

Salazar was not entirely sure that he trusted this Trent fellow. Actually, no...he was positively sure he didn't trust him. So his visit to the defense lesson today was two-fold. One - he was going to see how these students fared in a duelling situation. Two - he wanted to see how Trent commanded his student body. It should hopefully give him lots of insight in to how helpful the man was.

Aside from the sound of his footsteps and the sound of the door opening, Salazar didn't make a peep as he walked into the class, heading straight up to the front of the room. "Duelling...smart lesson choice. Very smart," he commented to the Headmaster as he took a spot next to him, crossing his arms and looking thoughtfully out at the groups as they worked in their pairs. As always, Salazar acted like he belonged there without question, standing tall and confident.

Obviously, he was here to help. Encourage. All that stuff. But he wasn't going to be stretching and making a fool of himself like Trent.

Nina did not mind the stretching, in fact, she preferred it to some of the other physical activities they did in this class. She was quite flexible as well, so it really took no toll on her. Though she did notice that Eiji wasn't too keen. If they weren't in a lesson, she would have laughed at his reluctance.

Nina was still looking at their Headmaster when Eiji smacked her hand. "You don't have to--" the sentiment was cut short, however, when Carsyn Rose decided to wrongfully interrupt. "He was talking to me," she clarified whilst refraining from rolling her eyes. Nina wasn't fond of this one. It had started because of something she couldn't quite justify, but since then the prefect had given her actual reasons. Anyway, Nina looked back over at Eiji expectantly....

Until her attention was drawn towards........ SALAZAR SLYTHERIN???????????????

Nina's jaw just about dropped. First Godric Gryffindor, and now this? There had to be some reasonable explanation. He couldn't be real. Um?? Headmaster Trent? Hello?

It was probably a good thing that Minjae's back was turned to the front of the class because if he had noticed Salazar Slytherin standing right there he might have been distacted. After their previous encounter it had been very clear to him that the Founder did not like him and Minjae did not like the Founder as well. Telling Minjae to bow before him...HA!

The Hufflepuff had been ready as he had kind of expected the Gryffindor to attack the moment they had bowed instead of answering his question. Gryffindors could be so chaotic yet so predictable at times.

"Protego!" he said as he waved his wand, putting a pretty good defensive shield in front of him. He was a fourth year so he wasn't going to lose that easily. "Expelliarmus! he too casted the disarming charm right after using his shield, watching the scarlet light as it went towards the second year .

Tom was worried now, he didn't really know many of the other students and the few he knew already seemed to have a partner, so he started to look around when he saw Slytherin, so did Gryffindor find him or not? He wanted to ask but he daren't because he knew how mad the headmaster had got before.

"Good. Keep it up. Watch the stance, you don't want to trip." Malachi gave tips as he walked around watching the students. Some seemed a lot more capable now that they were fighting each other and not....buffed up dummies. There was a part of him that hoped after seeing this, they would find renewed confidence to take on the actual duels later on.

One could hope.

"Keep it going. First....one to.....wand....arm....dis...."

O_____O

Much like Castillo's jaw had dropped, the Headmaster's mouth fell somewhat agape. He stood, stunned as Salazar Slytherin walked into his lesson, calm as all get out like he belonged there. Commending him on his lesson? It was the first run in the man had had with any of the founders, despite his efforts and briefly...not gonna lie....he was floored and chilled and everything else.

There was no escaping the shiver that ran down his spine, not dissimilar to what muggles relayed when they thought they'd seen a ghost.

"K-Keep," Trent paused to clear his throat, trying to shake himself from the shock. He had a class to maintain and a situation to control. There. That was better. "Keeping working. We'll be moving on momentarily." Grey eyes moved over to Slytherin. "What are you doing here?" Whether he meant in his lesson or the castle may have been unclear but the Headmaster now had Q U E S T I O N S.

He was waiting impatiently for Nina to turn towards him and accept his proposal when all of a sudden one of the Gryffindor prefects was looking at him. And talking to him. And saying 'sure'.

.......why?

Eiji's gaze shifted to her, utterly perplexed for far long that was necessary because he could honestly not figure out why she was saying that to him. Clouded by his own intent, it wasn't until Nina had spoken up that it all feel together. "I was," he stated flatly, his rejection of her 'sure, why not' laced between his concise but poignant words. "Nina, come o---"

His eyes narrowed...and then widened...and then he groaned and rolled his eyes so hard it was a wonder they hadn't rolled right out of his head and across the floor to the very subject to elicit the movement's feet.

".....you have got to be joking."

He moved closer to Nina and whispered to her. "How does the headmaster expect us to just...keep working with THAT in the arena."

'The inevitable.' The way the Headmaster referred to the duels would've made Catherine more nervous than she'd already be if she had decided to duel that year. She gave the man a long look and listened as he gave out another set of instructions.

.....Why were they partnering up? This wasn't going to be so he got everyone to duel that day, was it? Because Catherine was not there to duel, she was there to watch a duel. Or more than one, hopefully. The pairing up thing definitely made her nervous and she was already holding her breath when the man confirmed it. He wasn't saying it, but they were practising the exact thing they had to do to end a duel. 'A proper but limited duel'. So, a duel.

>__>

Pursing her lips, the girl only exhaled when Cecelia spoke to her. She wasn't happy to duel when she had made a point about not wanting to duel that year - had that not been clear when she didn't sign up for the duels?? - but she was happy to help her best friend when she knew the Gryffindor was indeed going to duel through the year, even on that very day. "Sure. But only because you will be practising for a duel. Not me." She said with a firm nod, taking a few steps back as she took her wand from its holster, holding it up in front of her face for a brief second before having it at the ready.

The first year kept her fixed gaze upon Cecelia and managed to zone out from their surrounding for now to focus intently on when her best friend would 'attack'.

Blake was happy to see she easily deflected the spell. He wanted a chance to show he could dodge it as well. So unlike last time with the dummies Blake did not let his guard down he was ready with his wand when this time the spell was aimed at him. "Protego" He said with a HUGE grin. He did it!!!!!!!!!! He wanted with all his might to a victory dance, but there was still a duel to go ... and then out of the corner of his eye he saw Slytherin waltz into the room. His founder ....

Blake dropped his wand, mouth wide open ... ummm... and that's the last thing he remembered ... Blake's eyes glassed over and he fell in a dead faint....

It was a huge relief when Claudine showed that she was okay with working with him. She could just as easily have declined in favour for parterning with another slytherin. But she bowed back in acceptance so they we're good to go. Grinning back at her, Cole returned. "Okay, but only if you give it your best shot too." It'd be more fun if they both went into it whole-heartedly, but within reason of course. The objective was to disarm not harm. Claudine's shield charm must be strong since his spell had no visible effect on her wand. "Protego!" Cole quickly casted a split second after Claudine casted the disarming spell at him. He felt a very brief flutter in his wand but it stayed secure in his hand. He didn't hestitate to continue the duel onwards. "Expelliarmus!" he casted again. It was then that he noticed with jaw dropping wonder as a guy entered the arena and took up poisition next to Headmaster Trent. Was that really Salazar Slytherin? To Claudine he asked with a wave of his free hand. "Is that really your houses founder in the flesh?"

Ewan was about to come back with a joke of his own in response to Minjae’s terrible joke but he couldn’t help but be distracted by the sudden appearance of Salazar Slytherin. What was it with these founders and their sudden appearances throughout the school? Ewan watched him carefully with slight distrust, unsure exactly why the founder was here. Well, not exactly why but how? This still baffled the Ravenclaw prefect and, to his surprise, so was Trent. He had just assumed that the headmaster would have known this was going to happen. He would have even gone as far to say that the head had planned it somehow but obviously not judging from the look of shock on his face. Would he have prefered to meet the founder of his own house? Sure but he still could learn so much from any of the founders that he didn't mind too much.

Doing his best to stay focused, he looked around the room in hope that there was at least one student who was free and needed a partner. “Uhh…does anyone need a partner?” He didn’t exactly mind partnering with Headmaster Trent but being shown up in front of the class? Not exactly on his list of things to do.

Blake was on it and she smiled as he easily took protection from her spell. "Very good" she nodded at him and was about to lift her wand to get ready for his next attack when someone caught her eye. Who was... Wow, could that be? She had known they were wondering the castle, she heard people talking and saw her own founder on the seventh floor, but seeing Slytherin, the Slytherin, made her stomach flip a bit.

She had read things about the man, things that intimidated her for sure and now he was watching them duel or well she thought she would be watched, but soon she was running. Running over to her partner and kneeling down near him.

"Headmaster, Headmaster something happened to Blake. He just fell to the ground." She honestly didn't even see what had happened before her eyes were on the Slytherin founder.

Did a spell hit him?

"BLAKE!"

It was activity time and they had to pair up. Of course they did. There were no dummies today, so they had to practice with each other. Naya spent a little too long watching the organized chaos of partner searching. Before she knew it, most of the students had partnered up and she was standing alone and unpaired.

Fortunately, there appeared to be another straggler looking alone. The Ravenclaw prefect. Naya was not intimidated. Nope, not one bit. She went over to the somewhat older student and made her pitch. “Hi. I’m Naya. Soooo you need a partner? Lucky for you, I’m available.” She was joking of course and flashed a smile to make that clear. “So what do you say? Want to be my partner?” Hopefully he said yes because their options were rather limited.

Oh for the love of— small person. He was not in the mood to be some prepubescent whirlwind's babysitter. Alas, Alessandro took a cursory glance around the room and came to the conclusion that no one was coming to save him.

He dug deep, waaaaaay deep down, for that reflex of politeness that kept him from scowling every moment of every day and even managed to offer the small person a smile. "I'm Alessandro," he introduced himself. "It's nice to meet you, Phoebe." It was not. It was decidedly unnice to meet her. SIGH.

He asked the question he was fairly certain he already had the answer to with a thin line for a mouth, "Have you ever dueled before?" Al doubted it.

Cecelia took a few steps back too, booooowing to Catherine after slipping her wand from its holster. It was only when she straightened that the second year noticed Salazar Slytherin was in attendance. That was...that was just...huh?

The blonde scratched her head with her wand free hand, so confused. "Psssst. Catherine! Before we start, is that who I think it is?" She TRIED to casually gesture in Salazar Slytherin's direction, but Cecelia had never been the subtle sort.

...and then Blake fainted. FAINTED! But they'd only just started to duel!

This was unfair. She was FAR too susceptible to distractions for her to successfully practice anything right now.

...and then it was time to pair up. Isla looked around the room, noticing that most people had already started to partner up. Then she heard what Trent added to that--HE would partner up with whoever didn't have a partner. Umm...that was a big ole bag of NOPE for her. The last...VERY LAST...thing she wanted to do was partner up with the HEADMASTER for a duel. Thanks, but no thanks. She'd like to live to see her twelfth birthday (and hopefully a lot more after that).

Then, to add to her fear, the same, strange man from the dungeon corridor strolled on in the room and took his place at the front. Isla only spared him a small glance before turning her gaze back to the room as a whole. 'SOMEBODY PARTNER WITH ME! Save me from dueling TRENT!' her look seemed to say.

"Somebody volunteer to DUEL ME! QUICK!" she said. Not too sound like she was desperate or anything...

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckyLinJi

It was probably a good thing that Minjae's back was turned to the front of the class because if he had noticed Salazar Slytherin standing right there he might have been distacted. After their previous encounter it had been very clear to him that the Founder did not like him and Minjae did not like the Founder as well. Telling Minjae to bow before him...HA!

The Hufflepuff had been ready as he had kind of expected the Gryffindor to attack the moment they had bowed instead of answering his question. Gryffindors could be so chaotic yet so predictable at times.

"Protego!" he said as he waved his wand, putting a pretty good defensive shield in front of him. He was a fourth year so he wasn't going to lose that easily. "Expelliarmus! he too casted the disarming charm right after using his shield, watching the scarlet light as it went towards the second year .

Aww, man! He blocked her spell. Fortunately, Bernie's shield charm was holding up too, because all of a sudden, EVERYWHERE ELSE IN THE ROOM was more exciting than duelling.

"Hang on, hang on, LOOK!" Bernie pointed behind Minjae with her free hand. "Salazar Slytherin is here and the Headmaster is super freaked out about it!!!!"

Meanwhile, while (or if) he turned around, she cast a very, very soft, "Expelliarmus!"

She liked that the Headmaster looked appropriately freaked out. SEE! See how magical and incredible and LIFE LIKE these founders were?! It was apparently enough to knock Blake out! Gosh, he was always so dramatic in class.

Why were there no explosive sounds harking from the dueling arena this day? Was this Trent fellow not holding a dueling lesson?

Sorely disappointed and tsking as he stomped towards the arena once more, Godric vowed that this time he would have his due. This arena, this school, HIS school, was destined for GREATNESS and Merlin be damned if he let some soft man pretending to wear headmaster's robes thwart that destiny!

THROWING open the door and having it SLAM the wall behind it as it swung valiantly on its hinges, what greeted Godric's esteemed entrance was nothing but a scene of sore disappointments. Perhaps the biggest being that Salazar was already here. Though what came next TICKLED the fiery haired man and he caressed his mane along his chin with a sly smirk.

There was a Slytherin student on the ground. Unconscious.

"WELL WELL WELL, Salazar!" he roared as he strut over towards the fallen young one. "Looks like we see where the faint of heart dwell and were they doth not." His chest puffed out and he roared in amusement.

Something that Claudine always wondered about Cole is why in the world was he always so happy and always smiling or grinning. How did he do it? Didn’t others annoy him with their constant babbling as they did her? She would never understand Cole- or anyone like him- in that way. What she was displeased about in that moment was that her attempt at Disarming the Gryffindor had failed. The Slytherin gripped her wand a little tighter, ready to defend herself. She felt pretty good about her chances up until Cole mentioned her House’s Founder.

“What?’’ she asked in disbelief and at the same time her wand shot from her hand. Claudine barely noticed where the Hungarian Horntail heartstring wand went. Salazar Slytherin was there? Indeed it was- or someone looking like him- standing next to Trent. And Trent seemed to be loosing it. Unfortunately, the man wasn’t the only one. Blake had outright fainted. That came as no surprise and Claudine was unimpressed by the boy’s reaction.

Then the door to the Arena was being thrown open which made her jump slightly. Claudine stared, her gaze following the newcomer. “And… and that’s your Head of House.’’ she whispered to Cole as she moved closer to him, all thoughts of their duel driven from her mind. “But it can’t be. They’re both dead.’’ Two someones must have transfigured themselves to look like the Founders.

It was apparent that Slytherin and Gryffindor still were determined to keep their feud going. Gryffindor’s laugh only made Claudine angry. “Slytherins are not faint of heart,’’ she snapped loudly.

Oh. This was ... embarrassing to say the least. Also, for the record, Carsyn had no idea why Nina wasn't fond of her?? She got the boy, yes? Was that what all this was about?

"I'll just ... okay then..." Leave them and just as she was about to snag Ewan as a partner, he too got grabbed up. Please don't let her be with a first year except it would be an easier duel, but she had the distinct feeling that these weren't dueling partners and she didn't want to be practicing with a first year.

Except just then, Salazar Slytherin walked in. Um. o.O

She was half tempted to disarm him because she didn't need him trying to decapitate all the Gryffindor students. Wait, did Salazar have any weapons? Just his wand? Do they still have working wands after centuries of being dead?

Before she could ponder too long though, there was her founder, back again. "Godric! Sorrrry I lost ya before." Surely he'd understand; responsibilities and all. Can she partner with him? He'd teach her anything she needed to know.



Except then there was one of her peers asking for a partner and it was just the sort she didn't want to partner with. Except she also knew as prefect, she was supposed to work with anyone of all ages and this was no exception.

Eh, why not? Impress Godric and Salazar by showing them that Gryffindors and Slytherins still dueled against each other? Even if there was an age gap, maybe this one wouldn't be sooooo bad.

"Sure. Uh... do you know the two spells?" She was pretty sure it was safe to assume she'd never dueled before.

Ever dueled before? Phoebe grinned that huge, sweet, terrible grin of hers and took up her position. Even this little muffin of a Gryffindor could figure that much out. "Nope, not with wands. But if you ever want to meet my fists of fury, I'm pretty good at combat." She put up her tiny fists and growled at him. Purred like a kitten, really.

But just kidding. She could take this seriously, Mr. Seventh Year. Phoebe bowed and raised her wand. "How 'bout I just shoot at you and you practice increasingly fancy shields? I think that's better than you knocking me down and knocking me out on your first shot."

...and in walked "Godric Gryffindor," or some really strange likeness of him. Isla tried to block him out. Him and that Salazar Slytherin look-a-like. They were creeping her out, and having them in here when she was already been faced with something she was terrified of (dueling), was almost too much. This got her to thinking...what if one of them got a little too duel-happy and decided to join in on the fun? NO. FREAKING. WAY. No way at all...was she dueling a look-a-like dead person.

See...this is why she was terrified of dueling!

Then from out of nowhere, one of the prefects took her up on her offer. A prefect was almost as bad as dueling the headmaster, but she'd take it a thousand times over if it meant avoiding one of those dead people asking her to duel. "Thanks," she said, trying to mask her fear with fake confidence. She nodded. "I know them enough." That was as true of a statement as she could make about it. She'd probably still get her tail kicked in this duel, but she knew enough to get them through the lesson.

It had absolutely nothing to do with the boy, Carsyn. Though maybe it did at first, just a little bit. But that was a moot point now.

She looked from Eiji to Carsyn Rose, pleased that she wouldn't be left without a partner and that Eiji wouldn't abandon her out of pity for the Prefect. "I don't--" before she could finish the sentiment, however, another very peculiar thing happened. Godric Gryffindor. And someone fainted. But Nina hadn't noticed that yet, as she was very much fixated on the two house founders.

"........... Eiji.........? Her jaw was no longer dropped, but instead she was feeling an onset of sudden nerves. "What's going on?" she asked her friend quietly, and in a tone laced with worry. This? Wasn't normal. Were they going to fight?

So much for continuing on with their work. While some students had managed (with quite a bit of success to the point it seemed they hadn't noticed at all) to ignore Slytherin, there were others who were now clearly and heavily distracted.

Like Ryan.

"Remain calm, McCarthy. Give him some room and he should be fine so long as he's breathing." Fainting on sight, it was as if all the defense classes had taught the boy nothing. "Do keep an eye on him though. If he's not up in 3 minutes, we'll get the Healer." Honestly, Ryan. As if the rest of the lesson wasn't threatening to fall all around them. This was no time to lose consciousness.

"Just a few more minutes to get some casting in before we move on. If you haven't already, get to it--"

And then the door slammed open.

And then Gryffindor walked in.

And then Malachi Trent was seeing near red again, the image of his arena suddenly coming back to mind. "YOU." No comment on the faint of heart. Despite Blaze's protest, Ryan had done that all on his own. He'd literally fainted. It was open and shut. No. What the Headmaster focused on was the madman who had children destroy his arena.

"You've got some nerve showing up after what you did." Not a trace of guilt. No apology. "We're not apologizing to Gryffindor, Rose." He reminded mildly. "We're barely letting him stay." Further formalities were unnecessary. "You should instead be apologizing for allowing young students to run off with him and not reporting it at any point." And a pointed look there. Yes, he'd heard about it all after. She was still a Prefect. She...did remember that, yes?

"Perhaps you men would prefer to take this back to my office. I can meet you there after the lesson is--hang on." While he spoke, a thought suddenly occurred to him. Malachi looked from the men to the door to the men again. They'd certainly proven one theory correct but... "How did you get through my door?" The Headmaster had long ago ruled out polyjuice for the fact that anyone who wanted to infiltrate the castle for nefarious reasons wouldn't be so overt and would choose disguises that didn't so obviously stand out. NOW they'd crossed his door that was charmed to attack any human that walked through. That door proved they weren't alive, not in any sense that the charms he set would recognize. Add that a few of the portraits were also acting wonky and the man had a fair idea of what was going on. It was proving inconvenient, to say the least.

He looked to the students. "Focus is key in a duel. You'll keep your focus and ignoring them is good practice in doing so." He had this, they had work to do.

OOC: Hey all, still another 24 hrs to get in some practice with your partner before we move on. Feel free to carry on or interact with the founders in distracted fashion lol. I'll be back to move this class once the time is up.

Was she for real?

Did she really expect him to lose focus just by saying that one of the Founders of Hogwarts was behind him? HA!

....yeah it worked.

The Hufflepuff turned his head to look over his shoulder. Normally he wouldn't have been distracted by such an absurd attempt but he had personally spoken to Salazar Slytherin before so him walking in wasn't that surprising. And he was curious to know why he was here.

He felt a sting in his hand as the disarming charm hit him and he dropped his wand on to the floor with a gasp. Shaking his hand a little, the fourteen year bend down to grab it at the same time when the door SLAMMED open and he jumped. Literally. Forgetting about dueling for the moment, Minjae looked over as Gryffindor entered the room as well and he watched as he marched towards the fainted Slytherin kid.

"Blaze is right! The Slytherin's here aren't faint at heart!" he shouted as well, ignoring the Headmaster telling them to continue to focus on the lesson. Nah man, this was way more exciting. "NOW, Slytherin IS. He gets REALLY sensitive when you talk back to him"

Heh!

Oh right, Bernadette.... The Hufflepuff turned back to face her. "Second round starts now. You didn't win yet that was just pure luck" except that it wasn't and she had won fair and square but he didn't want to lose that easily to a second year. He bowed and in his bow he send a quiet "Expelliarmus" her way.