Closed The Midnight Duel pv Finnegan

F I N N E G A Nx⳧xC O N N E R

☙ The Midnight Duel, September 2023 ❧

The corridors were eerily quiet at night, but for the soft snoring of the occasional portrait. Finnegan, tip-toed through the dimly lit hallways wearing a snug hoodie over his pajamas. He had learnt to keep his wand concealed behind his robes to avoid waking any of the portraits or kits of armor. Shoes were another mistake he'd made before, each creak of loose floorboards underfoot had made him wince and freeze, so he kept to socks this time around. The secret spell he had been practicing was too fascinating to resist, and this quiet night was the perfect opportunity to refine his skills.

As he approached the Astronomy Tower, the gentle breeze from an open window tousled his hair about. An owl perched in the window sill gave him a stern look and for a second he feared he'd walked into Professor Aarden @Gregor Aarden. Out of all the Professors he could run into though, the half-mad man wasn't the worst. Just a bit unpredictable, being strict one class and quite carefree the next. Thankfully, the owl's interest in him was short lived as it took off a moment later, hooting softly. Finnegan let out a sigh of relief under his breath.

Normally, he wouldn't go to such lengths just for some privacy during spell practice. The second-floor abandoned classroom had been his go-to spot, but he couldn't risk becoming too predictable. The last thing he needed was to become complacent and attract the wrong sort of attention.

As he reached the door of the Astronomy Classroom, the first thing he noticed was a sliver of light flooding the hallway. There was a faint smell too, the smell of something burning. When he drew closer he could almost taste ash on his mouth, and the soft crackling of a fire was unmistakeable. He froze at the far end of the hallway. This wasn't good, someone was already there, he should head back and forget about his secret practice.

But who was there?

I'm going to regret this, he thought to himself. "Nox," he whispered, and the hallway fell back into darkness but for light seeping through the door of the astronomy classroom. His small fingers tightened around his wand as he got closer and closer, trying to hear what was going on inside. Pressing his ear against the heavy door, he could hear fire, but there was a rustling noise too, like that of clothes being moved around. Slowly, silently he inched the door open just far enough to peek around the edge.

The sight before him was not at all what he had expected. A small boy dressed in short, vintage sportwear stood next to a flaming desk like it was the most normal thing. Had he walked in on some kind of ritual cloth burning? Was this some kind of dark magic that he'd yet to learn about? But when his eyes darted from the fire to the boy, he was certain it wasn't dark magic at all. Clark Baird was four feet of obnoxious terror, but he wasn't a dark wizard. At least, not yet.

He was however, incredibly annoying. Probably the only reason he hadn't been expelled was because his father taught at Hogwarts. What on earth posssessed Clark to barge into his father's classroom in the middle of the night to set a desk on fire was beyond him, but that hardly mattered.

What mattered was that Clark was all alone.


Finnegan stepped through the door and raised his wand, pointing it squarely at the little monster.

"You," Finnegan said. "What are you doing here?" He seized the most annoying Hufflepuff in existence up with his eyes. "Going for a run?"

Not tonight you aren't. Finnegan thought to himself. A petrified Clark Baird laying next to a burned-out desk would surely be cause enough for some Professor to give the boy another week's worth of detention. Truly, he'd be doing the entire school an enormous favor by doing so. But more than anything, he just really, really wanted to. Still, he wasn't going to let Clark burn alive, so his first spell was aimed at the desk. "Extinguo!"

No sooner than the classroom fell into darkness, but for the moonlight filtering through the windows, did he move to cast his second spell.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Stamina 10 ✶ Evasion 10 ✶ Strength 2 ✶ Wisdom 3 ✶ Arcane Power 5 ✶ Accuracy 10

NOTE: moves, spells and if they hit or miss were all pre-decided and agreed on by both Clark and I ahead of time.

The 'secret' spell Finnegan aimed to practice is the blue-bell flames, but this is of no further relevance to the story, only that I've established that Finnegan practices his prodigal DaDa spells by himself, typically at night, and continued that theme here.
@Clark Baird

Credit: img2go

What sucked was the fact that the door got open by the time he was putting on his shorts. However, he felt like it was normal. Pay no attention to anything and you could get out of places faster; for example: the forbidden forest. He wanted to leave now.

But hell, it was another rat in front of him. "Me? You mean the cute little goblin in front of you? Not the hideous witch you're referring to me as?" Hell, that made no sense at all. But again, what difference did it make? A solemn look struck his face as he attempted to fling another insult at him- since his last one seemed to be pathetic. "Ah, let me wash the stupid off of you." He paused, "Oh wait, it's not coming off." And smirked.

And the question about him running, well, yes. But he refused to answer that as it seemed it was a trick. Something inside him was telling him not to do so. Oh how boring. The extinguishing spell. "I wish you would just burn in hell." The Part-Goblin replied, a hint of venom in his words.

And he made the room dark again. "Oh just go die."

What's funny was Clark couldn't see anything in the dark, but he definitely heard the incantation to the spell he just learned towards the beginning of this school year.

"Oh fuck no." He said, throwing himself underneath the burnt desk. He dodged the full body-bind curse. There was no way he was going to be caught dead in this room until morning, wearing vintage sportswear. It was embarrassing. He could deal with Finnegan, he already hated his guts, but what was Finn going to do? Rat him out? Spread gossips?

Quietly whispering under his breath underneath the burnt desk, he made the wand movement for the knockback jinx. "Flipendo."

Stamina: 7 | Evasion: 10 | Strength: 0 | Wisdom: 7 | Arcane Power: 6 | Accuracy: 8

NOTE: moves, spells and if they hit or miss were all pre-decided and agreed on by both Finnegan and I ahead of time.

@Finnegan Conner

F I N N E G A Nx⳧xC O N N E R

☙ The Midnight Duel, September 2023 ❧

In hindsight it must have been the hesitation that did him in. The verbal diarrhea pouring out of Clark's mouth just didn't make a lick of sense and it had him blink stupidly at the small boy for a second, and that had been his mistake. His aim didn't usually let him down but the little turd was pretty fast and dodged. Pity, he wouldn't have minded looming over the petrified boy and spitting a few choice words in his face.

"Stupid? You're the one who set a desk on fire you dumb c-"

There was a flash of light and before he knew it, he was lifted off his feet and sent flying across the classroom. With a thud his back slammed into the far wall, then sagged down it. He gasped for air. Clark's spell had carried way more punch than he'd expected and perhaps worst of all, he hadn't even seen it coming. With a groan he tried to prop himself back up, clenching his wand. Any thought of keeping quiet, of turning away had been just been curb stomped. Only one, dazed, thought remained.

Revenge.

"Flipendo!" He aimed squarely at the part-goblin hiding under the burnt out desk. One advantage of having been knocked over was that he was close to the floor and could easily aim his spell between the chair legs and desks.

Not wanting to risk being caught off guard again, he followed up with a smokescreen that soon filled the room (and his lungs, unfortunately). "Fumos!"

Stamina 10 ✶ Evasion 10 ✶ Strength 2 ✶ Wisdom 3 ✶ Arcane Power 5 ✶ Accuracy 10

NOTE: moves, spells and if they hit or miss were all pre-decided and agreed on by both Clark and I ahead of time.

@Clark Baird

Hit with the dramatic words of his fallen opponent, he knew he needed to remain victorious, but how? How in the hell would he ensure such a victory that it would lead Finnegan to shut his mouth hopefully for all of eternity.

But smoke filled the room, and Clark felt it was not a great idea to be down on the ground- even though smoke rises and that would be the safest spot, he couldn't bring himself to even consider remaining where he was. It could prove to be harmful.

Well, as the flash of light spawned, and struck him in the dark with the added incentive of smoke obscuring and promising more darkness, he felt himself fly backward and hit the wall with a hard thud.

Almost as if it knocked the breath out of him, he had a deep grimace in his voice. "I hope you suffer with whatever is about to be done to you."

He took action by blindly looking for a desk, learning from the mistake he made in History of Magic with the new professor. "Serpensortia." He said vividly but softly, imagining a viper that he saw outside the other day, watching it gently. It was called the Asp Viper and it was mostly copper with a pattern of black along its back and a red line going through the black shapes. "If I were you, I would hurry the fuck up and get off the damn ground."

Stamina: 7 | Evasion: 10 | Strength: 0 | Wisdom: 7 | Arcane Power: 6 | Accuracy: 8

NOTE: moves, spells and if they hit or miss were all pre-decided and agreed on by both Finnegan and I ahead of time.

@Finnegan Conner

F I N N E G A Nx⳧xC O N N E R

☙ The Midnight Duel, September 2023 ❧

That had to be the weirdest threat anyone had ever flung at him, but by now he knew not to listen to anything Clark said except for the spells he incanted in that stupid, grating voice of his. Because no matter how small the boy was, getting hit by one of his spells was no joke.

Serpensortia He'd seen that before somewhere, read it or heard it, maybe Alma had mentioned it. But the harder he tried to remember, the more it seemed to slip away from him. That was, until he heard a low, menacing hiss. A snake. Baird had summoned a viper to attack him.

There was a soft, wet, squelching sound close by and through the smoke he could see something large slithering across the floor. Baird, annoyingly, was right. He'd better pick himself up fast, maybe clamber onto the teacher's desk. Kicking all the brass instruments off with his feet would make a right racket, but perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing if a prefect or Professor showed up. Baird was clearly out of his mind and had gone too far. His threats about "burning in hell" and "to just go die" had a far more sinister ring to them now that a bloody big snake was slithering around the astronomy classroom.

Just as he was about to jump to his feet, there was a blur of motion-

-toward his face and-

Sharp fangs cut into his forearm like a stapler. He cried out, flailed his arm - which he'd reflexively raised to shield his face - wildly, but the viper didn't let go. He stomped at its body once, twice, before he remembered through the blinding, searing pain that he still had his wand in his other hand. "INCENDIO!" He roared. He could scarcely see a thing through his bleary eyes, but it was impossible to miss at this distance.

Hissing violently the snake finally let go and with a mad swing of his arm, Finnegan threw the burning, coiling viper away from him. Acting on raw survival instinct, he kicked at the nearest desk's legs and with a sickening crunch, it toppled and crushed what remained of the snake.

But what didn't stop was the hissing. The poisonous bite hurt more than anything he'd ever experienced, like someone had set his arm on fire and kept it over the flames, because no matter how much he turned and twisted, the pain just got worse. Tears sprung to his eyes. Dying from snakebite in the astronomy classroom wasn't at all how he'd imagined the night to go.

He had to get out, had to get to the hospital wing. But would Clark let him get away? He doubted it. Besides, what was to stop the half-breed from summoning another snake?

Fate was finally on his side. Through the pain, the tears, the smoke, he sensed the murderous boy's presence. "EXPELLIARMUS!" his voice cracked with rage and hate. It was a blind shot, a lucky shot, but the clattering sound that followed the red flash from his spell told him he'd hit.

Now he had to get out.

Stamina 10 ✶ Evasion 10 ✶ Strength 2 ✶ Wisdom 3 ✶ Arcane Power 5 ✶ Accuracy 10

NOTE: moves, spells and if they hit or miss were all pre-decided and agreed on by both Clark and I ahead of time.

@Clark Baird

Okay, maybe it wasn't a good idea to summon such a violent snake. Perhaps he should've just casted incendio repeatedly rather than put someone else through the torture or to near death. What he did was a really bad action that should not be repeated at all no matter the situation or the cause.

It was time to put asides his difference and make him look as innocent as possible in terms of being 'apologetic.'

With a puppy dog look on his face as he approached Finnegan, he then felt his wand flying out of his hand and growled angrily. He tried to extend a helping hand to the damn boy in front of him, in pain, and in return he has to lose his wand.

A moment and fit of rage, Clark rushed up towards Finnegan and began to punch him. His first course of action though prior punching was to grab at his hair. His dark hair, further hidden by the shadow, was held in Clark's hands and he began to yank and try and prove that he was truly the one to be feared.

Was he fearful? That depended on who found a teddy bear to be scary. In other words, he wasn't. Did he look like someone who was acting crazy? Yes. Yes he did.

But that wasn't all, when he finally let go of the hair, he decided he would punch as hard as he could... towards the family jewels.

Stamina: 7 | Evasion: 10 | Strength: 0 | Wisdom: 7 | Arcane Power: 6 | Accuracy: 8

NOTE: moves, spells and if they hit or miss were all pre-decided and agreed on by both Finnegan and I ahead of time.

@Finnegan Conner

F I N N E G A Nx⳧xC O N N E R

☙ The Midnight Duel, September 2023 ❧

Venom burned its way into his system, the throbbing in his arm seemed to worse with every heartbeat. He'd tried to get up, tried to get away, but that little shit just wouldn't let him. Like a wrecking ball, four foot something worth of crazed anger crashed into him. The boy's clenched fists hammered away, striking everywhere they could. Just when he'd raised his arms to protect his face from being beat into paste, the wretched half-breed grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled.

He hardly had time to cry out, because the next blow made him double over in pain. A sharp pain rose up his abdomen, for a short while he couldn't feel a thing down there. It was a dirty move but an effective one, he should've expected that kind of low blow from Clark by now, yet he'd still been caught off guard.

Using the momentum from his bent-over posture, Finnegan lunged upwards, his fist connecting squarely with the underside Clark's chin, then punching through and up to his nose. The next blow came from the side, once he'd finally managed to shove the vicious Hufflepuff off. Blood red stained his knuckles when he pulled back his clenched fist.

Finnegan fired another spell at Clark, a crack of red-hot light whizzing past the Hufflepuff's ear. He staggered back, grit his teeth and made for the exit. The throb in his arm was only getting worse, he needed to get to the hospital wing and quickly too. Breathing heavily he ran down the corridors, disregarding the startled cries from the portraits in his wake.

Stamina 10 ✶ Evasion 10 ✶ Strength 2 ✶ Wisdom 3 ✶ Arcane Power 5 ✶ Accuracy 10

NOTE: moves, spells and if they hit or miss were all pre-decided and agreed on by both Clark and I ahead of time.

@Clark Baird

Finnegan has left the scene.