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The club members who had not been chosen shuffled out of the red rectangle, shifting to allow a better view of the duel. Alex glared at them, waiting for them to move stray toes from the yellow line before she turned to the four in the centre, her wand held loosely in her left hand, "Begin!"

It would be interesting to see how they coped with having someone else to worry about- being able to work efficiently with your team mate was more important than duelling ability for this, for that alone Alex pitied Raine who had the unenviable task of working with Casey. It wasn't impossible, but although Alex would like to see Faust beaten, she didn't especially want Raine to win.

A duel partnered with Almasy, who was one of the more annoying prefects because she paid attention. However, it was against someone from Durmstrang even if he was handicapped by Bog-Goyle.

As he took his place in his corner of the square he heard Hufflepuff's resident blabber mouth calling bets including "And another that we'll see something unnatural coming out of someone's nose." Very funny Sellaphix, snot isn't enough for you? Though Casey wasn't supposed to shoot at people outside the square.

He gave a measured look to Almasy. It wasn't like they had five minutes to brief strategy. When Carstairs began the match Casey was already ready with a spell. The main threat was from Faust although since this was a doubles duel he may as well spend most of his efforts with area and wide target spells. "Concusso!" Rather than an individual Shaking Jinx, Quasso, that should get them both shaking and stunned.

"Protego Duo!"

Casey was starting strong, with a spell that would have knocked both Heinrich and his partner down, if not out, had he not defended them.  Anyone watching the duel who had been keeping track of previous dueling encounters up to this point would have seen Heinrich fumble the difficult Protego spell half a dozen times in the past.  This time he cast off the much more sophisticated and much stronger version with an almost casual flick of his wrist.

Heinrich wasn't sure how long the shielding charm would last but he knew it would last long enough for him to see the expression on Casey's face as his opening volley was turned back against him when it reverberated off Heinrich's shield.