Extended Class A
Fiona flexed her fingers around her wand.
She made sure that her grip was not too tight, but still firm enough that her wand remained in her hand.
It wouldn’t be good if she lost it during the duel after all.
Her dueling robes were fitted to her nicely and would offer protection from any incoming spells that managed to break through her shields.
Fiona would have liked to think that her protegos were strong enough to block everything that was thrown at them. But Corvus was never one to play around when in a duel. She had seen him duel before and he had a deadly accurate aim.
She rolled her shoulders as she looked towards him from across the dueling room. He too was in dueling robes, but Corvus had some dragonhide armor as well. That stuff was nearly impenetrable, and he was wearing it across his torso, however, it did not cover his legs and arms.
She could use that to her advantage.
Corvus gave her a smile and a wink as he stepped into the dueling wards that Narcissa had constructed. They let him in with a snap and pulsed slightly as Corvus’ magic interacted with it. Something that everyone noticed, and Fiona took a calm breath before she too stepped through.
The dueling wards snapping into place felt more like a brush up against her magical core and the wards pulsed as she settled into the cordoned off space.
They were in the dueling room’s section specifically set aside for dueling and Narcissa’s wards were at the very edge of the space, giving them a very large area to have the practice duel in.
As much as there was lots of space however, Fiona felt slightly cramped. The wards radiated magic and acted as a barrier to prevent any spell escaping the ring and to block anyone from entering after the duel started.
Not that there was anyone dumb enough to try and break through the dueling wards.
Albert and Octavia were standing just outside of the dueling wards and next to Narcissa. Albert was her second and gave her a little wave and a nod. Octavia was Corvus’ second and had a stern expression on her face while her arms were crossed in front of her. Narcissa stood in the middle of the two of them and was the one to officiate the duel.
Corvus said that she should get used to how the real thing was going to feel like, and that she should get used to dealing with a crowd of people yelling while the duel was going on.
Fiona glanced from the corner of her eye that they did have a crowd.
A lot of the Hufflepuffs had come along to watch and cheer Fiona on, even though this was a practice duel they still had come. She hadn’t expected this many to come though, and there was nearly no space to stand on the outside of the dueling wards.
She also spotted not a few Slytherins amongst the crowd. They were there for Corvus, and to assess both of their dueling capabilities most likely. Fiona had never dueled at Hogwarts, but she had done some during that trip to France last summer.
Not that she had done great there, but she wasn’t completely hopeless.
Her attention was drawn from the crowd and back to the present when Narcissa cleared her throat.
“This is a formal practice duel. The combatants have agreed to Extended Class A rules in accordance with the guidelines established by the European Dueling Commission. For all of those present who are not knowledgeable on what that means, this duel will have no use of the unforgivables. There shall be no use of family magics or any spell that is not labeled in the official registry of spells. Do both combatants reaffirm to the use of Extended Class A rules?”
“Aye!” Corvus said with a smile.
“Aye.” Fiona said and she hated that her voice didn’t have as much confidence in it.
“Very well, I am Miss Narcissa Black, of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black, and I will act as official witness to today’s practice duel. All combatants have agreed to limit their spells in accordance with Extended Class A rules. When my conjured handkerchief hits the floor, the duel shall begin.”
With that Narcissa raised her wand into the air and everyone watched as a handkerchief shot out from the tip. It was silver and green with a snake design embroidered in the middle of it. It fluttered into the air before it started to descend towards the ground.
Everyone in the dueling room held their breath.
Fiona’s muscles were tense as her eyes tracked the handkerchief as it made its way towards the ground.
Corvus lowered himself so that his knees were bent, and his eyes were trained onto nothing but Fiona.
Anticipation filled the air and magic was positively flowing through the air.
She also noticed a camera or two from the crowd and she couldn’t do anything about it as the handkerchief was nearly on the ground.
Two wands were raised and poised to launch off spells.
When that flimsy piece of cloth finally hit the stone floor, two spells were sent flying towards two opponents, with one hitting a shield charm and the other hitting nothing but air.
Fiona cursed to herself as she watched as Corvus had thrown a spell at her and then immediately started running to his right. Fiona’s spell had missed him entirely and now she had to get moving less Corvus circled around and get her from behind.
She fired off a stupefy towards Corvus and threw up a shield behind her as a spell came flying towards her. The shield absorbed the spell and Fiona leaned around it to fire off another spell at Corvus, which missed him entirely as he was no longer where she had fired it at.
“Bombarda!”
Fiona threw herself out of the way as her shield charm shattered from Corvus’ spell. The blast had been so powerful that it had knocked her off her feet and she had to hastily scramble back up as another spell came flying at her.
“Confringo!”
Corvus through a shield charm of his own up and Fiona’s blasting curse bounced off it and did nothing to Corvus himself. He had a wild grin on his face as he waved away the shield charm with his free hand and pointed his wand at Fiona again.
“Petrificus Totalus!”
Fiona threw up another shield charm and when the spell bounced off of it, she bolted around and fired another stupefy at Corvus.
She threw another stupefy at him and followed it up immediately with an exploding curse.
Both of which Corvus dodged or blocked.
Damnit! She needed to get him while he was disorientated.
“Come on Fiona! Give me everything you got!” Corvus shouted.
Fiona felt like her legs were on fire and the back of her throat was burning.
A part of her heard the cheers coming from the crowd and Corvus sent her a wink before he sent another spell flying at her.
She instinctively threw up a shield charm and gritted her teeth as she severing charm came through and cut her on the shoulder. It stung and she noticed some blood coming from the wound straight away, but she had to focus on the duel less she take another hit.
“Incarcerous!”
“Avis!”
Corvus’ spell hit the flock of birds that Fiona had conjured, and the thick ropes wrapped around the birds and fell to the ground in a useless pile.
Fiona saw that Corvus looked surprised, and she took that moment to fire off another spell at him.
“Reducto!”
“Expelliarmus!”
The two spells collided in the air and a bright explosion burst from the contact. It was nearly blinding, and Fiona had to raise an arm over her eyes to try and see what was going on.
“Expulso!”
Fiona threw herself to the ground and felt as the spell went flying over her head. She then had to roll to the side as another spell hit the stone floor where she had just been. Corvus was advancing on her quickly and she threw up a shield charm to block his path.
Something which he slashed in half with his wand and kept coming at her. Corvus had a smile on his face, and he raised his wand slowly.
“Stupe-”
“Expelliarmus!”
Fiona got her spell off first and she watched triumphantly as Corvus was unable to get a shield charm up in time to block the spell. His wand went flying out of his hand and his eyes widened again.
But Narcissa didn’t call an end to the duel?
Fiona was expecting the duel to end and in that moment of hesitation Corvus raised his hand and threw a stinging hex at her.
He did it with his bare hand.
She took the hit on the shoulder and quickly threw up another shield charm and got herself off the ground.
Right… Extended Class A rules… which meant that the duel would only end with a yield or the incapacitation of the opponent.
Corvus didn’t yield.
Fiona cursed to herself that she had let that piece of information slip her mind and slashed her wand at Corvus.
He blocked everything she sent at him and not once had he gone to pick his wand back up.
How was he this good at wandless magic?!
“Bombarda!”
“Protego Maxima!”
Spell hit shield and the resulting explosion shook the dueling room itself it seemed.
But it did nothing to stop Corvus.
Fiona gritted her teeth and launched herself yet again, but this time right at him.
“Stupefy! Diffindo! Bombarda!”
She fired off three spells and Corvus blocked three spells, though his shield charm cracked from the Bombarda.
Progress! Now she just had to keep it up.
Though, in her excitement, she didn’t see the jet of water flying at her feet nor the lightning spell following it.
The pain shot through her entire body and her muscles were screaming at her.
She was just barely able to throw a blasting curse at the ground to throw up chunks of stone everywhere and break the arch of lightning off.
As a result, both of them were thrown off their feat and Fiona landed on her arse.
She looked towards Corvus, and he was already halfway to his feet.
Her fingers flexed around her wand, and she got to her feet again.
Fiona had to give it her all.
“She’s doing surprisingly well.”
“Or… Corvus is going easy on her.”
“He wouldn’t have let that disarming charm hit him like that. He could’ve yielded right then and there, but he didn’t.”
“You have a point there. But he could have ended this duel already.”
Diana got a look that was definitely a pout, and she knew she was right.
Corvus Black was doing some taunting and showboating during the practice duel, and he could have ended this already. But this was a practice duel, and Fiona Clearwater did need some practice.
Sophia Abbott pouted some more and received a pat on the arm by Valerie Bones. The two girls were still hanging around Diana whenever the three of them had any class together, and a part of Diana was grateful that they were there.
A flash from the dueling ring brought their attention back towards the two seventh years and Dianna watched as Corvus shot another spell from his hand. He still hadn’t gone back for his wand and was going through this duel with just wandless magic.
Which was an impressive feat, and one that Diana was sure that many of the spectators were taking note of.
“Do you guys know why Gryffindor lost so many points since last night?” Valerie asked.
“Someone broke curfew.” Diana said.
“But they lost eighty points. Isn’t that a little much for one person breaking curfew?”
“I heard that it was more than one.” Sophia said.
“It doesn’t really matter how many people it was. They broke curfew and got points taken as a result.” Diana said.
“Well, I did hear someone scream in the hallway when I was on patrol last night.” Valerie said.
“And you didn’t go to see who it was?” Sophia asked.
“It came from another floor. I had the rest of my route to finish anyway.” Valerie said.
“That’s a nice way of saying that you were snogging with Richardson.”
Diana raised an eyebrow at that, and Valerie blushed but didn’t deny anything.
“Deverell was covering our route anyway, so we didn’t do anything wrong.” Valerie said.
“That’s where you made the mistake. You indebted yourself to Deverell. She’s going to wring you of everything you got Valerie.” Sophia said with a sigh.
“Is she really like that?” Diana asked. She had maybe six interactions with the other girl ever since they all started fifth year.
“Oh yeah. The Deverell’s are ruthless. Her father is one the one who’s pushing a new Ministry Budget Proposal and apparently it has something to do with routing money away from the DMLE.” Sophia said.
“Isn’t that a bad thing to do? We need the aurors after all.” Valerie said.
“Yes, they are important. But Director Brax is under investigation for corruption. The last thing we need is to throw money at the DMLE.”
“We don’t know if those claims of corruption are true though. He could be innocent.”
“He’s been spending a lot of time with the German Ambassador.” Diana piped in. “They even came over to Blenheim during the Yule Ball we held.”
“See, he’s up to something with the Germans.” Sophia said triumphantly.
“I went to that Yule Ball too, and I saw several people talking to the ambassador and the director. Are you saying that everyone who spoke to them is also guilty of corruption?” Valerie asked.
“Obviously not, that would be ridiculous.” Diana said. “Its more likely that Director Brax really is corrupt. Kayce was talking about it when the news of the investigation starting hit the papers.”
“Kayce? Are you talking about Gerold Kayce?” Sophia asked.
“You mean Lyle Kayce’s brother?” Valerie asked.
“Gerold and Lyle are cousins.” Diana said. “And their uncle is one of the investigators into the corruption case.”
“Oh, I always thought they were brothers.” Sophia said.
“It’s a common mistake. They’re both sixth year students and they’re both in Ravenclaw, but they aren’t siblings.” Diana said.
There was another loud bang that came from within the dueling wards and a lot of dust and smoke filled the air. It was a little hard to see and Diana could just make out the outlines of Fiona and Corvus. Barely, but they were still there.
It seemed that Corvus had gotten his wand back and with a downward slash he cleared all the smoke away from him and in a flash, he had the end of it right under Fiona’s jaw.
Yep, the duel was over.
“Do you yield?”
Diana watched as Fiona’s shoulders slumped and she lowered her arms to her side.
“I yield.”
“Miss Fiona Clearwater has yielded the match to Mister Corvus Black. The practice duel is now over!” Narcissa said and waved her wand in a circle.
The dueling wards fell away into nothing and nearly everyone rushed out towards the two combatants. They were both bruised up and there was definitely some blood on them that needed checking out.
Diana and the two Hufflepuffs remained behind and let the older students to their thing.
“Clearwater did pretty well.” Valerie said.
“We weren’t even watching towards the end though.” Diana said.
“Well, she held her own for a pretty long time against Black. That has to mean something.” Sophia said.
Diana nodded along to that. Fiona did stand her ground against Corvus in the dueling ring.
Though, they had yet to see Umbridge actually duel, so it was still unknown if Fiona could win the honor duel.
Hopefully she did though.
The pink toad needed to be knocked down a peg or five.