Alex was well aware that, if she so wished, she could just announce that there was a club where you got to fight the other kids with spells and a bunch of first years would immediately join up. But that was not what duelling club was about, and doing so would be… well, just not right. And so she was donating her Saturday morning towards trying to make sure that the duelling club would have members who wouldn't try and throttle each other if things went awry, which was almost guaranteed. But more to the point, she was trying to sell her club to the overly enthusiastic body of younger students, who seemed to make up almost the entirety of students present- except those at the booths, that was.

Which meant that for now, she was watching the multitude of younger students racing around like there was no tomorrow, flitting from one booth to the next. Hers wasn't the largest, nor the grandest, and certainly not the flashiest, but she thought that it was a pretty good effort. A large banner with the legend "DUELLING CLUB" across it in bold black lettering, and a pair of crossed wands directly beneath it, floated proudly above her head, and the table was covered in black cloth. On the table there was a neat stack of membership forms- which were a little inconclusive, all they asked for was the candidate's name, year, house, and desired starting level- as well as a number of quills which she had accumulated over the years and two ink pots intended for the purpose of writing out membership forms, placed neatly on the table. A pile of leaflets[1] detailing the rules of the club completed the somewhat stark arrangement. Maybe she should have gone for something more ostentatious after all.

Leaning back on her chair, she decided that following the example of many of the other booth occupants and yelling about her club wouldn't be a bad idea, and would at least serve to pass time, so she cleared her throat, and pitching her voice so that it would hopefully project above the noise of the crowd, called out, "Duelling Club is the best! Come and find out why!" Actually, yelling made her feel stupid and the hubbub of the crowd meant that she doubted whether or not anyone could hear her. Deciding that it was better to trust to her conspicuous sign to attract curious individuals, Alex leant forward and prepared to wait.

1.	I am currently using the old system of rules, detailed here

Zoe was looking forward to Dueling Club. She was really able to use it to improve her spellcasting and many of her abilities. Though she knew many of the younger students would probably want to join, there was no reason she shouldn't, and purposely made time for her to come and sign up at the club.

Finding the booth, Zoe saw Alexandra, a fellow Ravenclaw, running it. Listening to her sales pitch of sorts, the young witch greeted the Ravenclaw. "Hi Alexandra! Great to see the Dueling Club back again this year!" Taking a form and quill, Zoe quickly filled it out, giving herself an 'Intermediate' ranking. Her jinxes were pretty good, but she only knew a few hexes well. Charms were still her best wandwork. She had learned Protego over the summer for the very purpose of the club, but even that wasn't perfected yet.

"Here's my form," Zoe said while handing over the filled membership form. "I really hope this Dueling Club will be even better than last year's! Maybe we can even get some international students involved. That would be fun," the young witch commented brightly. She really did hope to take advantage of all the international students in every possible way, after all who knows when she'd have this chance again?

Blossom looked at the booth with naked envy.  He wanted to cross those few extra feet, to sign up for the club but he'd already been chewed out for unauthorized dueling.  What would Landis Morgan do if he/she heard that Blossom had joined the dueling club?

Maybe it could be passed off as an attempt to learn proper control and to give him an outlet for his aggression.  He might even be good at it.  After a moments hesitation, he approached.  "I hope I'm not going to get into trouble for this," he said.  "We can't get in trouble if we're doing it properly, right?"  The question was obviously far from rhetorical. 

He took a quill and carefully filled out the questions listed.  He paused when he hit the question about starting level.  "Is there anything below beginner?"

Dueling Club. Finally. After Slytherin Quidditch this was the most important club for Casey to sign up for. Casey was amongst the first to meet at the booth.

"Torret. Blossom." He may have well said 'Easy Targets.' He had a chuckle at Blossom's insecurities. "By magical ability, anything lower than Beginner would be Squib. Unless you like the term 'Novice.' And try to come up with more than plants when you're on the plinth. It's Dueling Club, not Herbology Club."

"I agree immensely with having the foreign students included." Casey handed over his own prepared form. "The members from Durmstrang are sure to be especially epic for their duels."

Zoe grimanced as Casey approached. She knew very well he'd sign up, but she didn't want to run into him at the booth. There was no chance of leaving now, she'd seem scared. When Casey 'greeted' her, by which barely greeting at all, the Ravenclaw gave no responce other than an straight-faced look.

When Casey chuckled at Blossom, who she felt bad for aquiring that name and landing in Slytherin, Zoe turned away to avoid the urge of giving him a look. However, when he made his comment about the names of plants she could no longer bare and her head whipped back towards him. In an amused tone she shot back, "Oh, and you wonder why I have it out for you!" It was true the young witch would be perfectly happy to jinx him on the spot, but she'd save that for the club.

The Ravenclaw seriously considered leaving at that moment, but she only waited for Casey's comeback, or Blossom's comeback to that remark. It was true she was better at verbal battles than ones which involved hexes and curses.

"I'll have to remember that," Blossom said.  "You remember who the plant expert is, when you mouth off to the wrong wizard and end up with the brains of a broccoli.   Give me time and we'll see who turns out to be the better duelist.  You're really good at picking on those weaker than you.  Tell me, how fast do you run when the big boys come out to play?"

Blossom's cheeks were slightly coloured, as if whatever made him blush had finally decided that it was too much work and had given up.  Blossom was also learning that he wasn't the powerful wizard he'd imagined himself to be.  He was a beginner.  It didn't stop him from running his mouth but it did stop him from trying to threaten people more powerful than he was.  He just used less specific threats now.

"Alright children, play nice or go sit in the corner." Nicholas said as he walked up to the dueling club booth.  He had only stopped by the Great Hall to sign up for one club, and he would find younger years crowding in front of the booth.  ""Scuse me, big boy coming through." He said as he passed between the two fourth years to grab a form.  "Hi Alex," He said as he bent down to fill in the form.  "Should be fun this year." He said with a smirk and a look over his shoulder, "I hate not being able to use magic over the summer, can't wait to sling some spells." 

Alex was pleased at the arrivals to her booth, and busied herself with slipping the sheets of parchment into her potions textbook instead of anywhere sensible, then looked up sharply at the aggressive turn the conversation had taken.

Deciding that she had had quite enough of the pathetic bickering, Alex cleared her throat loudly. "Since you've finished preening your feathers, I would like to remind you that Duelling club is supposed to be an enjoyable activity, and not a testosterone fuelled battleground." Alex glared at the two Slytherins- although frankly Zoe wasn't behaving any more civilly, holding their gaze for long enough to make her point, then smiled. "I suggest you look over the rules, Mr Rose, if you are concerned about receiving disciplinary action for misbehaviour within duelling club." She tapped the pile which detailed them to emphasise her point.

What could have been a tense moment was fortunately broken by the arrival of Nicholas, and Alex nodded her hello, "Nice to see you in the club Nick, I'm sure you'll be an excellent source of good humour- and hopefully some interesting duelling?" she asked, curious about the Gryffindor's duelling skill. He did indeed have what she considered a rather irritating habit of casually casting spells for no discernable reason, and she knew that generally his wand work was quite good, so it would be interesting to see if his duelling technique was as well. Reading his membership form upside down, she looked up as she remembered an earlier question.

"Oh, and Zoe, I'm hoping foreign students will join, but I can't promise anything. Certainly not epic prowess, although if they've been specially selected, they'll probably be better than most of us." She shrugged diplomatically, although she had been planning on getting at least one of them to come along somehow, probably through harassing them until they turned up.

Frankly, Zoe was surprised that Blossom had replied in such a fashion. Didn't he know Casey could have him begging for mercy? No, she wasn't afraid of Casey... well, sorta. "You might not want to do that Blossom," she warned, moments before another boy joined and Alexandra broke it up. The young witch inwardly smirked at Alexandra glaring at the two snakes, even though she knew that her comment had be rather sharp. Zoe couldn't have helped it! This was Casey she was talking about!

To the boy who just came Zoe smiled and gave a small greeting nod, for she didn't know his name. It was friendly enough for her. "There is nothing like casting a few spells, is there?" If they worked, that is. Which was her main concern. This club was for getting better and practice, but there was nothing more embarrasing in failure to do so.

Zoe turned to Alexandra as she was addressed, nodding to her answer. "I'm sure I can get at least one Beaxubaton girl intrested, I know a few. It is true that they'd probably be skilled." She herself probably would not fight one, or if she did get very badly beaten. Oh well, surely other Hogwarts students would want that chance.

"Goodness, really Torret? Hadn't noticed." Casey imagined the voices of those buzzing about him like mosquitos. "How quaint and affectionate."

Blossom was trying to earn his Slytherin notches as usual. "I know broccoli doesn't have brains. If that's a zinger to say you could incapacitate me with some sort of befuddlement, I highly doubt it. But here's what I do when the 'big boys' show up. They're merely larger targets to charge at."

Cue Large Target Bevans. Casey was so far unconcerned about meeting any of the current attendees along the dueling dais. He imagined several ways of beating all of them.

"So read up on the handbook," Casey smiled wickedly. "So you're prepared should the worst happen."

"I didn't say I'd do it, Casey,"  Blossom said.  "I said it would happen when you mouthed off to the wrong wizard.  Maybe you need your elf to do a better job of cleaning your ears."   He picked up the parchment that detailed the dueling rules, as well as the punishments that might accompany misbehaviour.   He wasn't about to start anything during the club meetings, so the punishments listed weren't likely to apply.

His concern was the likelihood of  Casey O'Doherty ambushing him in the common room and, on the extreme off chance that Blossom might somehow miraculously manage to hold his own, call in his house elf to perform cavalry duties.  There likely wasn't a student in the school that would be a match for a house elf.

"Are the dueling divisions going to be based on year or are you just going to go by experience level?"  He wasn't expecting to have to face Casey, not unless he got really good really quickly or unless Casey was one step above a squib.

Dessa stared longingly at the booth for the Duelling Club, but she couldn't quite bring herself to walk up to it. For starters, Rose was there, and after their admittedly stupid and melodramatic encounter at the Hogwart's Players booth, she was not in the mood for another altercation.

Secondly, and predominantly, there was the problem of her near complete lack of knowledge when it came to spells of any kind. Dessa was not deluded about her skills as a witch, and she knew that while it was likely that she would at some point gain more control, she was presently about as capable of self-defense as your garden-variety inanimate object. She could just picture herself fumbling pathetically with her wand before being knocked out by some big hulking seventh year.

Then again, if Rose could do it...

That decided it. Dessa stuck her chin in the air and tried to walk with purpose over to the booth. She deliberately avoided her fellow first year, and grabbed one of the membership forms that the others seemed to be filling out. She inked in the required information, pausing only briefly before writing "Complete beginner" on the line for "desired starting level".

Nicholas finished filling out the form, putting his name down as Cole and writing it much larger than he needed to and his desired starting level as advanced.  "Good humor, I don't know what you mean.  I take spell casting very seriously."  He said trying to keep a straight face but failing.  "And please don't call me Nick, I can't stand Nick.  And I'm going by Cole now." He said genially enough.  He tried not to make a big deal out of not being called Nick, but he really couldn't stand it, with a few exceptions for certain people.  "Interesting dueling though I should be able to provide.  Though I might need a primer in dueling protocol? or is it dueling etiquette?  I've never properly dueled before."  But he was very familiar with what his wand could do, and he used magic more often than most students.

"There is nothing like casting a few spells, is there?" He heard the younger girl say.  He turned to her, hopping up to sit on the table.  "Not really.  Have you learned the summoning charm yet? Best charm ever.  Especially when you want to get something from down the table at dinner.  Or steal the good food from another house." Nicholas laughed, "Though the professors tend to frown on food zipping across the great hall."

"I'd be more worried about her lobbing something down the table to one of her friends, rather than trying to nab something for herself,"  Blossom said with a chuckle.  "Unless some more of the first years sign up, it looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other's wands, Share."

He didn't have a problem with Dessa per se.  She just forced him to challenge many of the things he had been brought up to believe.  When he couldn't find an answer for her questions, it made him unsure about everything he'd been told.

Dessa glanced up from the form at the sound of her name, and momentarily recoiled when she realized it was coming from Rose's mouth. However, his tone was more amicable than malevolent. Perhaps he was trying to make up for his behavior at the Hogwarts Players booth. If that was the case, then she ought to do the same.

"I 'spose you're right about that, Rose," she responded, trying to sound friendly. "What do you think? Could you take me in a duel?"

She felt like she was treading on eggshells with this kid. Half the time he was the most pompous, high-strung, narrow-minded prat she'd ever met...and then he'd turn around and act decent. When he'd defended Nette in DADA, she'd even felt a pang of admiration for the Slytherin.