It wasn't until she confronted Graham that Hexy remembered how much a of physical difference there was between them. Graham wasn't too much taller but he was strong. Very strong. It felt like he could rip her arm off.

She tried to hide the wince as he griped her wand arm, leaving the wand stuck pointing in a perpendicular direction. Salazar's Shiny Pate! Not again! And Graham was only a sixth year and not an eldritch abomination hiding in the basement.

"That hurt..." Hexy wheezed. She couldn't respond fast enough with magic. But she wasn't going to be so easily whipped this time. In one motion she lifted a leg and stomped with a golden toned boot at Graham's toes.

Rohan caught her arm, and twisted her wrist so the wand would fall to the ground.  With his other hand, he reached for her mask.  He just didn't expect to be stomped on.  Releasing his grip in shock, he had nothing to but kick her wand so it slid across the floor and out of sight. 

"Let's see who's behind this mask..."  He began, reaching once again.

"Ah!" Hexy didn't know what hurt worse. The wrist feeling like it had snapped with Graham disabled her of the wand or how her voice cracked during the cry of pain. She never experienced a physical altercation like this, disputes were usually settled with the violent end of the wand. Why did Graham keep reaching to rip her mask off? Why was she so worried if he did? Because...

The stomp bought her some time but she stumbled in her steps, catching the hem of the dress, still an unfamiliar garment. Where had the wand gone? She needed it to defeat Graham. She didn't have any of her other action gear from the Gwyllion Fae in this dress. Anything, even Tagger Paint to the eyes or a Sticky Trainer knocking Graham upside the head would have felled him enough to get away.

All that preparation, wasted. What was even the point of the secret meetings and advanced magic training if it couldn't help her in situations like this? Avialae could have even fared better, she knew how to wandlessly retrieve her wand[1] from line of sight, why couldn't...?

Wand. The new wand of pear that had popped out of the box at Ollivander's[2] when the wandmaker said the opposite, wands exhibiting shyness, was much more likely.

It all happened in a small fraction of time. Hexy stumbling after escaping Graham's grasp. Graham reaching out again at her face. And, when the fingers on her left hand twitched and curled, the wand was there (--having been kicked around, rolled, and turned around and pinwheeled into the waiting hand--) just as a desperate spell came to mind as she hiccuped over the incantation of a Stinging Hex...

Even with practice of dual wielding and getting a feel for the pair wand in the off hand, this hadn't been an optimal firing. The red light of the Stinging Hex exploded in a quaffle sized blast, the way Professor Trishna sometimes showed illusions of stars exploding in Astronomy. The spell not only hit Graham's outstretched hand but backfired on Hexy as well, stinging pain searing up her left arm to the shoulder. That arm took the brunt of the spell but her also had also been struck with wayward stings.

1.	Covert Coven - Nov 11
2.	New Dog, Old Tricks - Nov 15

Graham was satisfied with his disposing of the wand, but in the back of his head, he knew the resisting girl could certainly retrieve it, whether it was by using magic or simply tracking the small length of wood down.  It was hardly a major worry to him.  His fingers were nearly touching the mask.

Sure enough, the girl had gotten her biggest advantage back, and had used it within a split second.  Rohan had to give her credit, given her utter speed in attacking. 

It came as a surprise, her wand emitting an odd light before a pain unlike one he had experienced before hitting his hand like a miniature swarm of bees raising attack on his outstretched fingers and ascending up to his elbow.  He shook his hand instinctively, backing off.  He had nowhere to go, yet again. 

It was pointless to simply kick the wand from her hand, as she would be able to get it once more in her hands.  Enough of a scene had already been made out of a simple revealing of the disguised girl's face. 

He didn't want to run, afraid of the possibility for more than one reason.  Having his back turned on a wand-wielding, clearly frazzled witch wasn't the wisest idea, no matter the situation, and he knew that fleeing would show great cowardice on his part. 

Pulling a mental shrug, he stumbled forward yet again, his uninjured hand grabbing for the mask, but this time, rather than failing to grab her mask, Rohan outright failed a reaching for it.  He slipped on the floor below him and sprawled out on the floor, his wrist slamming on the ground. 

Hexy crumpled. Tripping on the hem of the dress, the force of the spell, trying to distance herself from Graham all lessened the probability of her remaining upright. She fell, hard on the hand that hurt the most from Graham's grip and the force of that Stinging Hex. There were bound to be bruises later. She had to take a bigger breath because all the air had gone away as she fell.

For a brief moment Hexy's limbs were splayed in all directions. The dress had also bunched up but as she had worn the slacks underneath the gown she wasn't self conscious about being exposed. All of her current emotions were dominated by adrenaline.

People were starting to notice. Time to flee. Utter shock stabbed her like a falling icicle as the older student, fallen to the ground himself, still reached out one last time to remove the mask but toppled over. She scrambled backwards, kicking with her legs.

Why? Why does he still want to know? Why do people want to know?

Getting up in a dignified or 'lady' fashion was not the critical issue as Hexy got to her feet with lurching steps. Escape. Disappear. Exit routes were popping into mind. Two twisty passages beyond the Great Hall to get outside, or maybe better a secret passage. Could the invisibility cloak be summoned from the storage case? Even disappearing by house elf, Dingy, though only once she was sure she wasn't seen. But that jolt of teleportation would make her feel far worse.

Any of those were options. Hexy was a figure disappearing in the crowd heading straight for the exit.