Chapter 212: DA Files: First-Day Duels
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Now that a leader was selected in Ivy, and after Blaise Zabini's suggestion of not putting anything in the meetings in writing, the jinxed list of names was placed up on the wall, everyone was on the same page, ready and excited to start.
"Right," said Quinn, "before we start, how about we see where every one of us stand when it comes to," he did air quotes, "dueling or just casting magic in general," — he smiled broadly — "to check that out, we are going to have some battles."
There was once again a murmur of activity among the group — some were excited about the prospect of dueling, while the others were a bit nervous about dueling in front of so many people.
"So, who is going to volunteer to come up to the front," said Quinn, and a wide circle of color red appeared on the floor with him in the center. "There's nothing to be shy about here; this will help you know where you were on the very first day, and when you look at your performance at the end of the year, you all will see how much you have progressed."
Quinn looked around the Room of Requirement and saw that no one was stepping up.
"Come on, people; don't make me call someone up. I want some active, willing participation," he looked around the group that stood around him in a circle.
"Alright, if no one is going to come up," said Quinn, "then I will choose. . . Tracey Davis and Padma Patil. . . come on you two, get inside the circle and show us what you got."
The Ravenclaw cheered as Padma stepped out of the bronze and blue group, took a spot in the circle with her wand out by her side, and raised her chin up a smidge in confidence. On the opposite side, Tracey smiled beamingly and threw her outer robe off(which Daphne had to catch)as she advanced into the circle with a hop in her step.
"Now, ladies," said Quinn smiling, "you can choose any spell you desire to defeat your opponent — but keep in mind that I don't want fatal injuries; a few scratches and bruises are permissible, but nothing that can't be treated on the spot. . . now, I will stop and let you two play. . . you may begin when the red below your feet turn green."
He stepped outside the circle, and the two girls stepped forward, facing each other with their wands pointed at each other in attention. Quinn glanced at the two girls, and with a thought, the red circle turned green.
The first one to move was the nimbler Padma, who flourished her wand and whipped a Disarming charm — "EXPELLIARMUS" — the scarlet spell zapped at Tracey. . . but Padma had misaimed as the spell light missed Tracey's arm and went over her shoulder, only able to push aside some hair.
Tracey stiffened as Padma frowned at her spell missing. Then Tracey saw Padma raise her wand again, so she finally let her held breath out and moved her wand as well.
"STUPEY," chanted Padma, but just at the end of the wand movement, — "CARPE RETRACTUM" — Padma's wand hand was caught in a reddish-yellow cord wrapping around her wrist.
Tracey cast one of the spells that she was most comfortable with and yanked. Padma felt her hand tugged forward, and with her aim disturbed, her Stunning spell zapped into the floor. Seeing that she had messed her opponent's balance, Tracey swung her hammer when the iron was hot — "EXPELLIARMUS" — Padma's wand slipped out her hand and dropped right beside her feet.
"Yes!" exclaimed Tracey raising both her hands up, "I won!"
Eddie immediately started clapping loudly, earning him a very pretty smile from Tracey — it made the boy very happy.
"Okay, that was decent for a starting point," said Quinn stepping back into the circle as it turned red, — "Padma, you need to improve your aim; you had excellent speed and job well done on gaining that initiative, but your aim ruined what could have been a one spell victory." He turned to Tracey, "Tracey, while your start was poor, your use of Seize-and-Pull charm was excellent; you made Padma lose balance, which allowed you to get that Disarming charm in for the finish — but your Disarming charm wasn't impressive, Padma's wand should have shot out of her hand, far away, not fall beside her feet."
Quinn turned to everyone, "If you're going to use the Disarming charm, then you'll have to perfect it to the point that either you can force the target's wand out to a substantial distance, or you can direct it right into YOUR hands."
Alicia Spinnet of Gryffindor raised her hand.
"That spell. . . Seize-and-Pull. Will we be learning that?" she asked.
"Yes, we will be going over Seize-and-Pull. It's a versatile spell you can use in a variety of ways, and it's one of my favorite spells," he said, "Alright, who's next? Who wants to duel to assert magical dominance?"
Two hands went up in perfect unison.
" "Us." "
A smile made its way to Quinn's face. He turned to the speakers.
"Weasley twins. . . will this be the day that everyone knows who's the better twins, the better half, the superior menace?"
"That was a never question," said Fred, smiling, "everyone knows I'm the better one."
"And that's exactly why I'm the better one," said George, smirking, "if you believe that everyone thinks that you're the better one — then you must be dumber than I imagined."
"Shut up, Gred." "Sod off, Forge."
Quinn rubbed his hands together as the Weasley twins entered the circle with confidence and swagger in their bodies. They took out their wands, and like many previous times, Quinn noticed that their wands were nothing alike — they didn't have twin cores as both wands were brought second-hand.
While it wasn't a common occurrence, neither was it rare, but there were times that magicals grew out of their wands, their preferences changed, and their magic no longer reacted to their wands as it used to before. Other times, the wand cores expired and lost the magical nature that allowed them to conduct magic.
When it was the former, many people chose to sell their old wands to wandmakers in return for a discount on their new wands. The wandmakers would then refurbish the old wands and sell them at a lower market price to people who couldn't afford new ones.
This was the case with Fred and George.
'Pity, it would've made an interesting case study for twin cores in the hands of identical twins,' thought Quinn.
"Alright, wands at ready!" announced Quinn with an uumph in his voice.
Fred and George raised their wands with grins on their faces. They stared at each other while their peripherals watched the circle below their feet. The moment red turned green, their magic thrummed into activity.
"INCARCEREOUS," yelled Fred, and braided ropes with weights at ends shot towards George.
George boisterous laughed and swiped his wand — "DIFFINDO!" — the ropes were cut right from the middle, and the weights pulled the cut ropes to either side.
"That's not how you cast Incarcerous, brother mine!" laughed George, "this is how you do it!" — "INCARCEREOUS!"
Unlike Fred's ropes, George produced a steel chain with just a minor alteration in the wand movement. Fred's eyes widened, but so did his grin; his magic surged through his wand — "FERRUM ROTA!"
A ripple of steel bubbled out from a point in front of Fred to form a disc.
Clang. . . sparks flew as steel met steel. The shield cracked on the impact, but it did its work as the steel chain lost its momentum, dropped to the ground, and both conjurations vanished the second they hit the floor.
" "EXPELLIARMUS!" "
Scarlet ripped from both brothers as a battle of attrition ensued. Both brothers exerted force as red versus red pushed each other for a few seconds.
"You're good, brother mine," said Fred smiling when the spell stopped.
"You're not bad," said George, laughing.
"Then, let's get this over with —" "— one spell is all we needed."
" "STUPEFY!" "
Two red spells burst out of the wands and zoomed through the air. In real life, things were never so perfect; the spells didn't meet in the middle and passed each other, missing each other by mere inches and hitting their targets squarely in their chests.
Fred and George stiffened for a moment before their kneed buckled, body swayed, and their bodies crumbled onto the ground simultaneously.
Quinn stepped into the circle, and it turned red. He stared at the unconscious twins for a while before turning to the crowd.
"Who can cast Reviving spell or Rennervate?" he asked.
A lot of hands went up.
"Good," said Quinn as he gazed through the crowd, "okay, Goldstein and Astoria, please step forward and give pointers to Maisy Reynolds and Dennis Creevey, who will then revive the brothers."
As the four people stepped out nervously and started to communicate with each other, Quinn addressed the group.
"As you saw there in the end," he said, pointing to the twins, "not every time will the spells meet each other — no, most of the times, the spells won't meet each other — it takes aim or luck to get spells to meet each other, so don't rely on canceling spells each other or on entering a contest of force because they won't go as you might think — there's a reason why defensive spells exits and of course, we will be learning them later."
Theodore Nott from Slytherin raised his hand.
"Shield charm, Protego. . . when this spell exists, why is there a need for other shield charms like. . ." he glanced at the unconscious twins, wondering who was who, ". . . one of the twins used. Is there an advantage?'
"Excellent question," said Quinn appreciatively, "Protego is a versatile spell with its variations, and it can be used to block a variety of attacks, but in its basic form, Protego is a defensive shield that works better for spells and charms, which lack the material aspect to them — as in the spells which don't conjure something. . . like, Stunning charm doesn't conjure something physical, but the Bluebell-Fire spell conjures a blue fire. . . if those two spells were shot at a Protego shield, the Bluebell-Fire would have a greater chance at breaching the shield than the Stunning spell's spell light. . . and that's why there exist a myriad of defensive shield spells: to defend against various offensive spells."
As Quinn answered the question, Dennis Creevey and Maisy Reynolds had fumbled through various Reviving spells and were able to wake the Weasley twins up.
"That was an entertaining showdown, twins," said Quinn, "but let's keep the talking to a minimum. There won't be much of that in the field, and if your opponent starts talking, then that means they won't be chanting, so get in a good hit while they are busy yapping their mouths."
" "Aye-aye, captain." "
Quinn turned to the four people who he had called out and spoke to the entire group.
"This is how we are going to do things here," he said, "those who know how to do something will teach those who don't. In that way, both sides will profit in the way that the teachers will consolidate their knowledge, and they will find their own faults, and the students will learn a new spell. . . so get ready to teach because everyone will be doing a lot of it."
"Good, then let's bring in the next pair," said Quinn, "who's up? Come on, get in here quickly. . . I want to cover as many people as I can today. Everyone here needs to know who they are going to learn from so they know who to approach."
It was Eddie who strutted into the circle with confidence(which looked like arrogance to many). And seeing that Eddie had stepped, Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, the one who had just fought the Dark Lord a few months back, all but hastily hopped into the circle.
Harry was excited. It was no secret that he and Eddie didn't get along — both of them were at each other's throats whenever they met. They both played Quidditch, but because they played different positions, they couldn't directly, and neither came out on top based on their performance.
Outside of Quidditch, whenever they met, Eddie would trash talk, and Harry couldn't really beat him with words(the little shit was just too good)
and no matter what Harry did, Eddie seemed unflappable. But when it came to magic, this was Harry's chance to shine and one-up Eddie. He was sure that he could soundly defeat Eddie 'fucking' Carmichael and finally wipe that arrogant look off his face.
"Oh-ho," said Eddie, smirking, "Potter, you seem to be in a hurry to get your arse whooped by yours truly. How about I make things easier for you — just stand still there, and I will hit you with a stunner and send you packing. You know, let's get the ball moving and let others show what they got."
"I'm going to beat you so bad today that you'll be crying for years. . . years," said Harry in scorn.
"We will see about that," Eddie reached into his robes and took out a matt pitch-black wand made from blackthorn having silver engravings going from the wand tip to the handle where a small shiny black pearl sat; powering the wand as a core was unicorn's mane hair.
'His wand is needlessly cool,' thought Quinn,
On the other hand, Harry took out his holly and phoenix feather wand, which had a handle that still resembled the raw bark of a branch. It wasn't as cool, but the history behind the wand made it special enough.
"Alright, you two," said Quinn, "get yourselves ready. . . I repeat that any lethal usage of magic is not permissible, and the moment I see any of you two stepping over that line, I promise a world of pain," he stepped outside the circle, "now. . . let's see what you got."
The first one to move when the circle turned green was Harry as he rapidly waved his wand — "EXPELLIARMUS" — the scarlet spell streaked through the air towards Eddie, who maneuvered his wand — "PROTEGO" — the invisible shield rippled in silver as the scarlet collided and fizzle against it.
Before Eddie could remove his shield and go on offense, Harry had already moved — "LIGNUM VIRGA" — five wooden rods manifested in front of him, started spinning along their length, and shot towards Eddie with speed.
Eddie's eyes widened, and he immediately jumped sideways just in time to avoid the wooden rods ripping the shield into oblivion. Eddie rolled on the floor, and the moment he stood up — "IMPENDIMENTA" — a turquoise jet passed through just under his ear.
"Stay still, Carmichael," said Harry laughing, "I will make it quick; let's get the ball moving and see what others got." — "STUPEY" — he ripped another spell towards Eddie.
"PROTEGO" — Eddie created a shield, but it was sloppy, and the stunner from Harry was physically able to push him back the shield and him with it a few steps back.
"Argh!" Eddie grunted in frustration. Since the duel had started, he had been targeted by four spells, and in turn, he had only cast two shield spells. It was starting to make him irritated.
"I can hit hard as well, Potter!" he shouted — "DEPULSO" — a yellow jet of the Banishing charm escaped the black wand.
Harry smirked and twirled his wand — "PROTEGO. . . DUO" — the invisible shield rippled in front of him, and with the change in the chant and wand movement, the variant Shield charm became stronger.
But Harry's eyes widened when he felt Eddie's Depulso collide against his shield.
Then everyone saw Harry all but fly away. The yellow jet of magic pushed the shield like a berserk bull; first, his feet skidded. . . then, he was being forced to step back repeatedly as the yellow spell still drilling against his shield. . . and before Harry knew it, he was off the ground and thrown back a couple feet.
Harry blinked and wondered how he was staring at the ceiling. He raised his neck and saw Eddie smirking down at him from a distance.
"Come on, Potter; feeling sleepy?" said Eddie with a shit-eating grin on his face.
Harry got up and loosened his tie. "That was a fluke," he said, "it's not going to happen again. . . so you can celebrate now because you're not going to do it anymore."
"Don't delude yourself, Potter," said Eddie laughing, "I have decided that you're going to be looking up at the ceiling time and time again until you give up."
Both raised their hands, their magic thrummed, and wands vibrated as the magic flowed.
"INCENDIO DUO" "AQUA ERECTO"
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Quinn West - MC - . . . Should I start a betting pool. . . no, but. . . yeah, no.
Tracey Davis - Slytherin - Throwing robes in style.
Padma Patil - Ravenclaw - The aim is to work on aim.
Fred Weasley - Forge/Gred - second-hand wand. . .
George Weasley - Gred/Forge - . . . first-rate magic.
Eddie Carmichael - Boy-Who-Cusses - "Get fucked!"
Harry Potter - Boy-Who-Lived - "I'm going to hit you. . . hard."
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