Dare to Duel? Closed

Lisabetta's concentration was broken by a voice introducing themselves to her. She brought her attention towards the disturbance and saw the Ravenclaw boy she had seen when she had walked in. She hadn't taken the time to really study him before but she had to admit that he resembled her in a lot of ways with his light skin, dark hair, and bright blue eyes. 

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance Horace, my name is Lisabetta Medici. I would love to try a duel, but I must admit, I am very new to this." 

She said "very new" when she actually meant that this would be the very first time Lisabetta had ever been in a duel before. Duchesses did not have time for duels, nor is a common for one to ever need to be in one. That is what she had always been taught growing up, but she wanted more than that out of her life. She didn't want her future to be set in stone already, she wanted a chance to live her own life. She was happy with herself for not immediately declining the offer, and actually doing what she wanted and not what was expected of her. 

"How do we proceed?" 

Juliana grabbed her bag and dropped it at a corner of the room. She smiled at Rhea. "First things first. Let's review over the rules: No physical contact allowed, no help from others, the first one to get hurt badly and is not able to continue will be the loser, and this is absolutely not a 'whoever dies is the loser'. No one will die today. And obviously you are not allowed to use the unforgivable curses but I am pretty sure no one in this room has used them or mastered them before." Juliana walked in a circle as she listed the rules, but then she remembered about her healing spell that she learned in her first day when she came across a dying deer. "If you Dont remember any healing spells here are some: Episkey- used for minor injuries. Reparifors- heals minor magically-induced ailments like paralysis. Anapneo- clears the throat of a choking victim. And this one I'm not sure if you guys ever used this or practiced this so I reccomend you do not try this because it can go wrong: Tergeo- spell for clearing up dried blood from a bleeding wound" Juliana continued. She stopped and got into position.

Alexander would make his way to the dueling club, wondering if there were any duels going on that he could observe and study. In his arms he would hold three books. One being the dark forces: A guide to self-protection, another a book about dueling and the rules and tactics that were used in them and finally a book about household charms. 

As he entered he would notice the group that was gathered and catch a few words about them gathering. He would then sit down at a location where he could both observe people dueling whilst also being able to study. He would then sit down there and open his DADA book but also keeping a careful eye on the people. Analyzing those who he hadn't analyzed yet, observing their mannerisms and personality. He would also look interested at Lisabette and Horace, both seemed to be of pureblood houses as he had observed most pureblood having a certain set of mannerisms that were quite similar. Though Lisabette's mannerisms were clearly those of a pureblood it was quite different from most pureblood he had soon.

He would also study both for their dueling mannerisms he had read about in the book. It seemed that Horace was quite a duelist for his age but Lisabette did not seem to be much of a dweller. 

When he was finished with his observation Alex would look down to his book and study it for good competitive spells, for now studying the smokescreen spell which could be quite handy for stealth and subterfuge if he was ever sneaking around and someone caught him. 

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance Horace, my name is Lisabetta Medici. I would love to try a duel, but I must admit, I am very new to this." the girl replied Horace was taken aback it took a moment for him to process the information but he remembered her name 'Medici' though he never met any of her family nor did his parents but they still knew about them. 

Medici were Italian royalty one of the few people higher in status than his own family. "M'lady i am sorry if i disrespected you i didn't mean to...." he started blabbering as he thought he should for asking a duchess for a duel. "How do we proceed?" she added Horace was not sure about this now. "uh...um....are you sure?.....maybe another time.......how about i teach you some spells instead?" he did his best to avoid the situation he created. But half of him still wanted to test royal blood against his own but he wouldn't dare ask her again. 

But he was still struggling to find words as he somewhat wanted to duel her but what if he hurt her and her family came to knew about it he would be sent straight to the Italian gallows as much as he wanted to visit Italy but not this way.

Another girl had entered the room. It was, if Rhea remembered correctly, a girl names Lisabetta. They had met each other briefly in the Great Hall, but afterwards Rhea hadn't seen all that much of her. Rhea shot the brunette a smile. Horace decided to leave Puppet and herself to figure out the duel themselves while he went to go attempt a duel with Lisabetta. Rhea shrugged and turned her attention to Puppet.

Another boy entered the room, but Rhea paid no mind to him. He didn't approach neither group, and instead sat down in a corner and started to work, sometimes looking up at the two dueling groups. 

Rhea nodded as Puppet went over all the rules, before telling her the name of some healing spells. Rhea raised her eyebrow, surprised that Puppet was actually helping her with some spells. Granted, the redhead was glad, as she only knew a small amount of spells, but she was confused. Although Rhea had never been in an actual, "to the death!" kind of duel, she had practiced a lot with her nanny, Aida. Rhea knew more than enough spells to beat any average first year in a duel, but she knew not to underestimate Puppet. Rhea wouldn't be too surprised if the black-haired girl spent all her time practicing spells. 

As Puppet got into the correct dueling position, so did Rhea. Rhea bowed in Puppet's direction and then pulled out her wand. Her wand was at the ready, and various spells were running through her head. Now she just waited for Puppet to bow and they could begin the official duel.

Lisabetta noticed that Horace completely changed his demeanor when she had mentioned her last name. She immediately regretted doing it, being used to this kind of reaction, but never really liking it. She wracked her brain to try and figure out a way to get him to understand that she didn't take any offense to anything. She did the first thing that had popped into her head, something she rarely ever did, and especially never done to a complete stranger. She reached out, placing her hand on the side of his arm, and smiling at him, a real smile that reached her eyes. She rarely had a smile that met her eyes, but this time was sincere. 

"Please, call me Lisa, all my friends do. While I am here at Hogwarts, I am just another student." 

She removed her hand, not breaking eye contact with him. She realized that she would like to take him up on his offer to teach her new spells, seeing him as someone that she might actually become friends with, but that is not what she wanted to do right now. Right now she wanted to learn how to duel, because, yes, being a Duchess usually meant she would never need to know these kinds of things, but if history taught her anything, it is that Dark Wizards or Witches don't care about your royal blood when you are in the way of something they want. Why should she be denied the chance to learn how to protect herself? 

"I would enjoy the chance to study with you on a later date, but today I would really love it if you taught me how to duel." 

Horace was trying his best to not get himself killed for disrespecting a noble when suddenly Lisa reached out to him placing a hand on his shoulder which kind of stopped him from blabbering and then she smiled as she looked him into his eyes he smiled back for some reason its like her smile just took out all of his nervousness "Please, call me Lisa, all my friends do. While I am here at Hogwarts, I am just another student." she said and Horace gave a nod without complaining. 

Horace was kind off surprised to see her behavior because all his life his parents taught him to respect royalty or there will be consequences which he didn't quiet trust now but either way he wasn't gonna test her patience by doing something stupid. "I would enjoy the chance to study with you on a later date, but today I would really love it if you taught me how to duel." she said this made Horace kind of overjoyed even if he didn't let it show."Why not Lisa just stand on the opposite side and bow down then hold your wand up at the ready and prepare yourself you are gonna have the first duel of your life!" he said with a grin as he bowed standing in his position. "I will give you the first chance here not for your status but because you are new to this just cast any spell you see fit aim to disable me"

Lisabetta was so overjoyed when Horace agreed to teach her how to duel, even calling her by her nickname and treating her just like anyone else. She knew it sounded so cliche, but that is all she ever really wanted. No matter about anything else, she was still an 11 year old at their first at Hogwarts just like all the other first years, so she didn't think she deserved any special treatment. 

She did as he instructed, grinning at the irony of having to bow to someone, but did it without fail, holding her wand out in front of her. She searched his face to be sure she was doing everything correctly but couldn't see any indication that she was messing up, at least not enough to matter. She ran through her memory of all the spells she had rigorously studied from her books about dueling and offensive spells. She had practiced a few in private, never actually casting the spell but practicing the wand movement and incantations. She hoped that she didn't embarrass herself since Horace seemed to know what he was doing. She chose one that was a bit more difficult, but she was sure she had mastered. 

"Anteoculatia!" She said, pointing her wand at Horace as red light shot out from her wand at him.  She realized that it wasn't exactly a disarming spell, but she figured it would be a good enough distraction in the real world to help give her the advantage. She waited to see if it actually worked. 

Horace braced himself and waited to see what kind of spell would be coming his way. He was nervous actually as much as he was confident about his knowledge there was still the fact that this was his first actual duel not like the practice he did before. He was just thinking of all the defensive spells he could and prepared for the worst.

"Anteoculatia!" she said and there it came a red light came straight towards Horace. He didn't even have the time to think but he didn't even need to think for this one its just a usual hex the natural reflexes of Horace were enough for this one. "Protego!" he said in a commanding tone while waving his wand. The red buzzing spell came straight to him and bounced off to hit the walls.

"Its a start but you can do better. Just an advice 'distract and disable' thats how i win my duels. Let me show you" he said with a grin as he raised his wand. "Avis!" he said and some birds started shooting out of his wand heading straight towards Lisa. He didn't even wait for the spell to hit as this was not his real attack but a mere distraction. As the birds were almost there "Carpe Retractum!" he whispered as a rope shot out of his wand straight to snatch the wand away from lisa while she was busy stopping the birds.

Lisabetta didn't get to see if her spell worked or not, since Horace easily blocked it. She knew that he probably wouldn't be hit the spell, seeing as how he seemed to be a bit more knowledgeable about using defensive spells. She was happy with herself that the spell had actually gone off though and that she recognized and even knew the spell Horace had used to protect himself. Maybe she wouldn't do as badly as she thought. She didn't have a thought in her mind that she could win this duel, but knew that she would learn a lot. She readied herself for his attack and was a little shocked and confused when he used a simple charms spell to send birds at her. She had a feeling that there was no way this was his attack and when she did a quick glance at her opponent, noticed him whispering something. 

She pointed her wand at the birds quickly saying, "Repello!" She used the first spell that popped into her head. It was a charm that was not very well known, especially not in this format, and the only reason Lisabetta had even used it was because she had been so intently searching for more information on it just earlier that day. It pushed the birds away into a corner and held them there, but before Lisabetta could think of something else, the next spell hit her. It came at her like a whip, wrapping around her wand, and pulling it from her hand. 

She guess this meant she had lost the duel, which was exactly how she figured it would end. It was already beneficial, showing that the Repello charm did work, the birds still trapped in the corner that they had been pushed into. She also made a mental note of the spell Horace had just used on her as well, she could see how that could come in handy.