17 Nov 2021, 22:52
A New Purpose
Soon to meet: @Opeila Winters
It had been a long day for Lizzy. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in the common room with a book. Still, she found herself wandering absentmindedly through the castle that evening. The Gryffindor Common Room always had an uplifting environment with laughter in the very air, but it wasn't the place to be if you wanted peace and quiet. Lizzy walked down the staircase slowly, getting off around the fourth floor, only one floor down from Gryffindor.
Lizzy had never really had many reasons to come to the fourth floor. As far as she knew there were just the bathrooms, ballroom, rehearsal room, and the duelling room. The ballroom had never been set foot in by Lizzy. She didn't dance, and besides there had been no balls at Hogwarts as long as she had been here. The rehearsal room she might have been tempted to go into before she found out it didn't lock, and anyone could come in. She would have been mortified if someone heard her sing or play piano.
The duelling room was a whole different story. Joining the duelling team appealed to the young student greatly. The broom sports sounded like a lot of fun, but the problem was she wasn't accustomed to being so far off the ground without a harness. Duelling, on the other hand, was right up Lizzy's alley. A sport that revolved around using your head to outsmart your opponent. A fast paced activity that had you use, not only your head, but also some athletic ability, dodging and evading spells shot in your direction.
The girl walked into the duelling room, as if an invisible string of curiosity had pulled her in. At the start of the year, Lizzy didn't know any spells, so she could hardly sign up. Now, however, she had gone to enough classes and learned enough spells where she could at least consider joining the duelling team. She wondered how one would go about joining the team. If there was a certain amount of spells you had to learn? If there was any prerequisites she had to meet? Lizzy ran her hand along the polished wood of the platform where the duellers, well, duelled. She wouldn't actually try out for the team, she was too introverted to ask how to, but it was fun to dream.
17 Jan 2022, 18:23
A New Purpose
@Lizzy Solace
With the new school year barely having started two months ago, Opeila was still full of motivation to hit everything off as good as she could. The first stage of duelling had been a great success, all the Vipers had managed to take the victory for their duel, making Slytherin the first in duelling right away. But that was no reason to sit back, no, now that the first house had been overrun by the new strength of the house of snakes, it was time to train more, harder, so the next opponents had no chance to catch up.
So on this wednesday, Opeila entered the duelling club early, dressed in a green and silver training suit she had only recently bought in Hogsmeade. The third year enjoyed the new possibility to go into town during the weekends a lot and she made use of it whenever she could. There she had also bought new supplies for her new hobby, which was carving candles into different shapes. There were already quite a few lying around in her dorm, and one couldn't deny that at this point the Slytherin was rapidly improving this skill. Now you could usually tell easily what her wax figurines were meant to be, which frankly had not been the case in the beginning.
Casting spells at a quick pace was no longer a challenge to Opeila either. Taking a spot in front of a dummy, she would go through her at this point quite big repertoire of duelling spells, most of them easily going off her hand. Soon, soon she would know even more, she knew that in year four they would learn the shield charm, which would surely be a blessing to know.
Jogging every morning had kept her fit to the point that she would say she was on the more athletic side in comparison to most of the kids in her year, but what spoke against getting a tool to help her evade spells, rather than only relying on dodging by moving quickly.
After about half an hour the Slytherin lowered her wand to catch her breath. Her cheeks were reddened and a thin layer of sweat had appeared on her forehead, due to the extreme concentration. Brushing back some hairs that had fallen out of the bun in her neck, Opeila took a look around and noticed that she was no longer alone. A little girl had entered the room, a first year by the looks of it.
Still a little out of breath, Opeila sent her a friendly smile and waved. "Hello! Are you interested in duelling?" The third year walked over to a bench near the entrance and picked up the waterbottle she had brought. "I'm Opeila Winters from the Slytherin team, it's quite fun." She screwed the lid off the bottle and drank a few sips before putting it down again. "We can practice together, if you want.", she finally offered.
22 Jan 2022, 17:19
A New Purpose
Interacting With @Opeila Winters
Admiring everything about the room was not hard for her. From the floating candles illuminating the room to the sporadically cracked tiles from duelling exercises, it all was a picture perfect setting for Lizzy. She found herself wishing more than ever that she could pluck up the courage to ask around. To find out how the duels worked and even perhaps details on how to join the Gryffindor team.
That was the moment in which Lizzy realized that the Duelling Room was already occupied. A girl, maybe one or two years older than Lizzy, was casting spell after spell at a dummy. Somehow, neither of them had noticed the other. Both had apparently been too busy with something else to notice that there was another person in the room. The girl was very skilled, hitting the dummy with a wide variety of spells, most of which Lizzy had never heard of.
Noticing that the older girl had waved and walked over to a bench near the entrance, next to where Lizzy currently resided, she walked the rest of the short distance over. "Yes," she admitted. "I am interested in duelling. I just--I wasn't sure how duels worked or how to join the Gryffindor team, so I decided to come in here and just watch I guess?" Her stutter had made her a little embarrassed, but now that she had asked, she would stick around for the answer. "I'm Lizzy Solace."
Opeila then offered for them to practice together. Lizzy's whole face lit up at the mention of it. "That would be amazing, but I know I'm nowhere as good as you. How did you get to be so good at that?" she asked, gesturing at the battered dummy.
7 Apr 2022, 22:28
A New Purpose
@Lizzy Solace
The first year girl walked over, seemingly less shy than many other children of her age. It wasn't like Opeila could blame any first year for being shy, she remembered herself during her first weeks. For someone who didn't grow up in a magical environment, Hogwarts could be extremely overwhelming, so maybe this girl was either very adaptable or perhaps knew about magic before Hogwarts?
Apparently the girl was a Gryffindor. "Oh, being a Slytherin, I am not entirely sure about the details of the Gryffindor Duelling Team, but one of the Captains is Alan Vanes, I believe. He's a fifth year with red hair, maybe you can ask him about it? He's nice." Frankly, she hadn't spoken with Alan since he had invited her to his 14th birthday- it felt like an eternity ago- but she was pretty sure that he had kept the goodhearted nature he had shown in his third year.
When the girl, Lizzy, asked Opeila how she got so good at duelling, Opeila had to think for a moment. "Well, it's not like there is much of a handbook, but if you practice regularly and pay attention in the spellcasting classes- those being Charms, Defense against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration- and sometimes also Herbology actually- you should be fine." Opeila walked backwards towards one of the practice dummies again, still facing the Gryffindor.
"For me it's practice since beginning of second year and of course, you learn a lot of useful spells when you graduate to higher years. I wouldn't have been able to do this in first year either, it's entirely normal. You'll get there.", she said, hoping that she sounded reassuring.