Closed dueling practice thread unofficial open to all

Attire: Usual schoolday attire: robes, shirt (buttons mismatched), tie (undone), kilt, neck ring, shoes. Nothing fancy!

Reducio

Colin skipped along the long stony corridors of Hogwarts. Every now and again, he'd stop to greet one of his favourite portraits. He played a game as went along, dodging under random arms thrust out with the intent to clothesline him or else slip gracefully between hulking upperclassmen.

"Hey! Wotcha! Silly Snake! Can't catch me! Off --- careful lads! Duelling champ extraordinaire coming through --- autographs after the match, laddies!" Such were the sorts of things he said as he made his way along. At last he came to the end of the long queues of students, and caught sight of the journey's end. He slipped from skip to all out run as he made the mad dash for the end of the corridor and the corner that would lead him to his destination: a disused classroom! He'd heard it advertised as "abandonned" from the reputable sources located at the Slytherin table he most certainly wasn't eavesdropping on earlier. No matter --- the adventure was worth the risk!

And so Colin tore along the last corridor, his undone tie flapping along behind him and he spotted the open door! Catching the heavy wooden door frame with his left hand, he careened into the room and skidded to a stop in the middle of a cleared space. His long tangle of blond hair, undyed today and by now interwoven with his tie, came to a rest in a heap around his chest and shoulders.

"Wicked," he said, going over towards one of the tables to drop off his satchel and robes. He sniffed. Someone was here. Someone he didn't know. He turned around and shookhimself like a dog then flipped his hair back over his shoulders. Apart from the cleared classroom only one boy could be seen.

"Heyo! I'm Colin!" He bowed quickly to the boy before exploring the room further. He headed over towards one of the tables and leapt up onto it, peeking around behind a nearby cabinet. "You just never know what strange beast or foe might be lurking in some cupboard or press, right?" He leapt off the table and scooted along the floor behind all the desks that had been shoved aside. After a moment, several thumps could be heard from a distant corner of the room. Colin's voice, somewhat muffled by all the furniture, cried out: "Oh, sweet!! Never know when these'll come in handy!" At last Colin reappeared, wriggling out from between two desks with a smile on his face.

He sat on the floor cross-legged, arranged his kilt, and sat back reading what was written on a battered and ancient packet of parchment that someone had inexpertly sewn together into a kind of book.

@Draven Mirador

When Avery heard the news amongst the murmurings of the Great Hall during lunch, the small boy was stunned. Absolutely taken-aback. Could it really be true? His steaming chicken pot pie, right before entering his open mouth, slipped from his fork and almost plopped neatly into his lap. He couldn't help but listen in shock as some students a few seats away discussed the latest gossip:

Draven Mirador had beef with somebody, and had invited them to that an abandoned classroom to take them out. The standoff was to occur that very afternoon, 15 minutes after class. In his threat, Draven had told them to bring their wand and wear clothes that that would very likely be soiled during their standoff.

Oh, no.

Avery sweated through his last class, wondering what to do. He glanced at his quidditch teammate sitting a few rows ahead, trying to catch his eye, but the boy was elusive. Heck, Draven acted like it was no big deal, taking careful notes as always. How was Draven Mirador so cool, when his life was on the line? When he had just challenged someone to a fight? To be sure, quidditch had made that boy tough. That's exactly what a brutal sport does to a kid.

After class, Avery sped back to the Snape Dorms to change out of his school robes, putting on some simple, loose-fitting khakis and a white t-shirt to beat the summer heat. He tucked his wand into his pocket and headed straight towards the abandoned classroom. Who had beef with Draven? What had happened? He didn't take Draven to be the type to get into trouble with people, and Avery knew him to be a reasonable and polite guy. Almost someone he would call a friend, especially after being Wargames teammates and quidditch teammates. Obviously, someone would've had to wronged Draven immensely for him to challenge them to a standoff. Who could be so knuckle-brained? Draven could certainly hold his own in a duel, Avery knew -- that boy was pretty good at casting a wide range of spells with above average arcane power and accuracy, but he had to investigate to make sure Draven would be okay.

Without pausing, Avery burst into the classroom, and saw that someone else was already there besides Draven, crouching upon the desks that had been pushed to the walls, then leaping to the floor to observe some old pieces of parchment. The way he moved -- like he was on the prowl -- the long hair and kilt-

"McCoire!" Avery hollered upon entering. Though he intended it to be accusatory and maybe startling, his little-boy voice hardly made it so. Instead, it sounded like he was alerting a classmate that they had dropped their quill. From what he knew, Colin McCoire was eccentric and energetic, but he and Avery hadn't interacted much. If Colin had upset Draven, he had probably done so by mistake or out of naivety. But, just to be safe, perhaps he ought to cast a spell to nullify any of Colin's actions before things got out of hand. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

"Wh-what kind of trouble did you get yourself into? What did you do?" he continued to berate his housemate in his high-pitched voice, questioning him in an accusatory but slightly concerned manner. He had to get to the bottom of what Colin did to upset Draven.

Quinn was walking in the hall, doing a bit of exploring before she had to go to her next class. Wearing her school robes, with some green to show her house.

She was looking at one of the suits of armor, trying to see if she could do anything with it she heard someone cast a spell. The levitation charm. If she remembered correctly. Curiosity got the best of her, and she went to see who had casted it and why.

When she reached the door where she was pretty sure she had heard the noise come from, Quinn had pushed it open to see three of her house mates. Two of which she knew. Draven which she had met, and Colin her best friend.

He was levitated in the air. The third boy who she did not know was asking him what he did to Draven. “What is going on here!?” Quinn had run up to her floating friend. Facing the boy who must have casted the charm.

Quinn had no clue what was going on, she just knew that her friend was in the air. “Put Colin down, or I will… I’ll beat the snot out of you!” She told him, she didn’t want to but if she had to she would.

WC: 217
@Colin McCoire @Avery Chen @Draven Mirador

She'd heard the rumors, of course. Word had been drifting around, something about putting their wands to good use and that had captured Elena's attention pretty quickly. It wasn't often the average student got to duel without running the risk of getting busted or perhaps it was the Gryffindor in her that had thought it would be a good investment. Sure, she had been in her fair share of scrapes and fights none of which had been her doing if you asked Elena but there was something in different in fighting out of necessity and sparring. The brunette thought it wouldn't have hurt to take a look at least as she'd noted the day and time wondering if this was a choice she'd come to regret or perhaps it would end up doing her well but still, the mutters had gotten to her so when the day of reckoning had come, Elena had grabbed her wand off her bed and hurried out of the common room.

She'd barely made it halfway to the ajar door when the raised voices were coming from it. Surely, they hadn't started already though at this rate, if they kept up the chaos that she could hear from a mile away, it wouldn't take long before a professor or someone would talke it upon themselves to investigate just what exactly in the name of Merlin was going on. Shaking her head, the girl pushed open the door slightly to survey exactly what was going on and stopped short at the classroom that had been turned into a battlefield as she surveyed the scene. The lot of them seemed like they were barely in their first or second year though her attention was directed to the boy who seemed to be hovering in the air, an unforunate victim of the Levitation Charm though what he had done to deserve a fate, Elena didn't even know if she wanted to know.

Her hand absentely traced the outline of her wand in her jean pockets raising an eyebrow as she glanced around. This was different, most of them were younger and were probably just getting the hang of things. The Gryffindor probably would have to hold back though from the looks of it, they were certainly bold though it hardly looked like a duel from where she stood. From where she stood, it looked they were simply hurling spells left and right and Elena decided perhaps against her better judgement to observe until someone took charge, she was not about to make herself a target of someeone who seemed a little too wand-happy if you asked her and that could be a problem, Elena knew. That would be something to watch out for.

Getting up Bailey felt like she had an unusual amount of energy. She decided to put it to good use, and go train. She was going to take her sword, and practice her Traditional and Weapon form for Taekwondo.
Bailey got up and dressed, pulling on her workout shirt, some black leggings and her shoes. The shoes were only to get her to the Rehearsal Room, as she trained barefoot.

Pulling her hair up into a high ponytail, Bailey grabbed her jacket and put it on. She slipped her wand in the pocket with her extendable bostaff.

Grabbing her sword and belt, Bailey walked downstairs to the Reversal room. But she stopped while passing a classroom. There seemed to be a meeting of sorts happening there. It appeared to be a duel of sorts, and Bailey thought she heard a familiar voice.
It was a voice of one of her friends, Draven Mirador. Bailey stood there, debating going in.

Bailey did not duel, but … she was curious. She wanted to know what was going on but she also did not want to get in trouble. She had almost gotten detention for just having the sword and if this was an unofficial duel, someone, a staff member or prefect, could show up and give the lot of them detention.

"CHEN!! What's your bloody problem!" Colin shouted from a couple feet above the floor of the classroom. Avery had just barged into the classroom, and without so much as a how do you do blasted Colin with a levitation charm!

Rather than answer, Avery began to interrogate him: "Wh-what kind of trouble did you get yourself into? What did you do?"

While, admittedly, it was kind of relaxing just floating in the air, Colin wasn't in the mood just now. "What a bloody liberty, Chen!" No sooner had he said that than his own wand was out with a shout of his own spell: "TARANTALLEGRA!!"

Tarantallegra: WDC 9
Cast Tarantallegra at Avery with Result of: 10+5 = 15 > 9
Colin's Accuracy: 20+5 = 25
Avery's Evasion: 12 + 7 = 19
25 > 19 --> Success!
Avery is struck by Colin's charm, causing him to dance a vigourous jig!

"Yeep!" Colin felt the force of gravity take over from the force of magic as he was instantly released from Avery's spellbinding hold and he fell to the floor! "Oof!" He picked up his parchment book and scrambled quick and was on his feet, wand in hand. He saw several other students had gathered while he was floating. Apart from Quinn, Bailey was there plus Kim's friend, Ridge, still looking the part of the haughty queen, and some older girl he didn't know.

Colin smiled at his friends. "Hey Bails! Quinn! What's going on here is dancing master Chen barged in here and hit me with a levitation charm! All I was doing was reading this ---" he showed them the parchment notebook, before slipping it into his pocket "--- waiting for everyone else to show up! I'd say, Quinn, if he tries anything clever like that again, feel free to beat all the snots out of him!"

Rolls in #bot-spam

@Avery Chen | @Quinn Root | @Bailey Glade || Mentions everyone else

Kim was intrigued.

From how Draven had been acting this afternoon and he wondered what he was up to.

The two of them had a very interesting relationship. They were not friends but they also were not strangers either. They were somewhere in between acquaintances and friends.

Close enough to not just be greeted with a nod and a brief hello. But distant enough to not be able to go over and whisper things to eachother about what had gone on in their lives. It was the type of relationship Kim loved, not too close but close enough to know the other person wanted to get to know you. And they weren't putting up a front about making it just seem that way to be polite. Perhaps as time passed their relationship would change between them later.

They might grow closer or further apart. Who knew what time would bring to people? Draven's little 'invitation' to others to come spar after classes was quite tempting, especially since Kim had recently been considering joining the dueling club. Unfortunately, he'd heard there was now a waitlist. So it would probably take some time to get accepted into it. Therefore, Draven's idea was like a sweet just sitting out there, waiting there to be picked up.

Why wouldn't you?

It was a taste of how things would be like in the dueling club for those who weren't in it.

Kim was currently dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt and black pants. Yes, even though it was rather warm, even hot out, he tended to choose fashion over comfort most times. He'd styled his hair and now wore a simple gold chain necklace and a pair of black opal earrings with rhinestones surrounding the gems. Kim had stuffed some chocolate frogs into his pockets and had of course brought his wand. Upon reaching the location, he paused outside.

A lot of people had already arrived and it was starting to get crowded. Kim hesitated, wondering if he should go inside or not. If he did, he might end up trapped in there. But at the same time, his insatiable curiosity wouldn't let him rest until he'd found out what Draven had planned. Stepping into the room, Kim glanced around him, taking note of the tables and chairs having been pushed off to the side. The first person he saw inside was Draven himself.

Kim nodded to him.

Draven was too far away for him to actually talk to him and there were others between them.

But what was even more strange was that Colin was levitating in the air and then he came down, after having cast a spell at Avery, who was also present. The latter's feet started to move very fast, the Dancing Feet Spell most likely, and Kim just stared at the two of them.

What on earth was going on? Could he have missed something? Could the dueling have already started? No, it didn't seem that way. Quinn, an older girl he didn't recognize Elena Jangleton, his childhood friend and Bailey of course were also there. Kim literally knew everyone in the room, with the exception of the older girl. "Yo." He said, raising a hand and nodded to everyone who met his gaze. It was his traditional greeting, one he used all the time.

Before Colin could respond to Avery's questions, Quinn Root came hurtling through the door, apparently appalled that Avery was levitating Colin. Avery blinked at her. Well, he sure wasn't blasting Colin with a Flipendo, was he? Or smiting him with an Incendio?

Either way, he was pretty impressed that Quinn would challenge him to a fight out of loyalty to her levitating friend. Not really eager to get the 'snot beat out of him' by Miss Root, Avery shrugged and considered putting Colin back down. Whatever, it wasn't really his fight, was it? It was Draven's fight, after all. He could simply ask his teammate what was the matter between him and Colin, if Colin wasn't eager to speak about his misdoings out of embarrassment, or shame, or whatever.

"TARANTALLEGRA!!" It was then that something hit him square in the stomach, neatly breaking his concentration.

Just as Colin fell to the floor, Avery's legs broke out into an uncontrollable, merry jig. His feet tapped away on the classroom floor, with more artistry than the small boy could've imagined, and with cheer that greatly contrasted with his frustration. Avery's face flushed with embarrassment, especially as he noticed that no less than three upperclasswomen came into the classroom to see his unwilling performance. At the corner of the room also stood Kim, his Potions partner. Why had everyone decided to show up in this abandoned classroom now? The timing was very unfortunate.

And here he was, being paraded by McCoire like some form of circus entertainment to everyone present. The blood within his veins boiled. The small boy didn't normally get angry, but this was testing his limits. He could see why Draven had beef with McCoire, now. Was this boy specifically looking to mess with the quidditch team, or something? Well, if he was, he was in for one hell of a butt-whooping.

"Oh go roll in some Devil's Snare, McCoire!" he spat back. "Stop trying to set Quinn on me. Why don't you show us what you've got, eh? Let's get this duel started. Anything goes. No one hold back, now. Everyone else can pick a side or go home," he turned to gaze at the newcomers with a challenging, mischievous smile upon his lips. Was this going to be social suicide for Avery, or the most epic and messy duel ever?

He aimed his wand swiftly at McCoire. "Mucus ad Nauseum!" Maybe Colin will get the snot shot out of him instead, with the Curse of the Bogies.