Chapter 212: DA Files: First-Day Duels (1/2)
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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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.