Sunday, mid-afternoon

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The Hogwarts Great Hall was a hubbub of excitement. Students in the Sunday afternoon, casual attire, were gathered in groups, chattering in loud voices. Some were discussing the latest result of the Appleby Arrows and Kenmare Kestrels game, which was still in progress in Appleby, but the majority were discussing what was to take place.

“I heard people died in the club when he took over.” Aoide Shacklebolt told other first years who would listen. One of the older students had spun her a yarn, and in her gullible and well-meaning way, she had swallowed it all.

“What do you reckon, expelliarmus?” Tim Pepper asked other older students who were trying to predict what might be taught. “I hope he keeps the first years out of the way. No offence, but they’re going to get clattered.”

The Deputy Headmaster had brought fresh reinforcements this year. The Head Healer of St Mungo’s, who happened also to be his wife, had warned him to take care when he had departed from Hogsmeade earlier. She was convinced death was only waiting round the corner since he had nearly gone earlier that year[1]. As much as Ignan Storm would dismiss his wife’s worries, it didn’t do to show weakness in front of the novices. The year Noriko Wakahisa had splinched his hand off had been bad enough. He could still hear Winifred Oliver’s yells.[2]

“The first years will disarm only,” he confirmed in a low tone to Professors Onuris and the Headmaster as the three of them swept into the Great Hall through the main doors. “I propose practice of one spell to the next, the syntax of movement and footwork for the majority of the intermediates, and a greater non-verbal emphasis for the most capable.” He had of course, run through this before when recruiting his fellow wizards, but it never harmed to reiterate.

He walked straight at the crowd, and ascended the steps to the raised platform which the students had gathered around. The students parted instinctively, and a hush fell in anticipation. Professor Storm did not have to raise his voice too far to be heard clearly. His precise, grave tone, tinged with the German accent he had grown up with, delivered instructions clearly.

“This is the first monthly meeting of the Hogwarts duelling club. Membership is a privilege and not a right. We abide by the code, and do not engage in illegal or dark curses. Anyone to do so will not only be cast out of the club but may find themselves expelled from Hogwarts altogether. That is understood.”

Without much pause, he turned first to Knox and then to Sylvain to introduce the Headmaster and Professor Onuris, and began to explain the division of students, and their focus. As he did, there was shuffling amongst the crowd, as individuals began to establish who might be considered capable of the challenges set.

“That said,” the Deputy Headmaster continued, “we shall all begin with revision of the disarming charm. Those of you familiar with it, should focus on precision, speed and non-verbal casting. Those of you who are new to it, pay especially close attention.”

1.	27th March, 2011 On thy Frame Fate too shall Fix her Seal
2.	19th February, 2009 in this legendary thread

"This is the first monthly meeting of the Hogwarts dueling club..."

Noriko listened with rapt attention as Professor Storm began to describe what would be expected of them.  When she'd first started at Hogwarts, she never would have imagined herself coming willingly to learn about hexes and curses.  Someone could get hurt!  But when Professor Storm had announced in Defense class that the dueling club was to start meeting again, she'd decided that she had to come.  They practiced some defensive spells in class, but everyone knew that that didn't really count.

Professor Storm introduced Professor Onuris, whom Noriko only knew because he'd been cruel and unfairly given Eirene detention back in September.  She eyed the foreign professor, sidling slightly away from him in the crowd of students so that she wouldn't accidentally catch his attention.  In her four years at Hogwarts, she'd managed to survive without losing her house any major points, and she didn't intend to start now.

They were going to start with Expelliarmus.  Noriko looked around uncomfortably, trying to determine which part of the group she should gravitate towards.  She was familiar with the spell, wasn't she?  She certainly wasn't new to it, since they'd been using the Disarming Charm since her first year.  But did she feel confident enough to pair with an older student?

Nervously, she poked at someone nearby.  "Do you want to practice?"

Wizards' Poker[1] was more Knox's speed. He'd tried dueling as a lad and had been superlatively mediocre and even more bored by it. He did continue to attend practice, however, eager to practice his bone-mending charms or administer dormitory-brewed stomach-settling tinctures. Nevertheless, the Headmaster took the invitation to assist from Professor Storm to be a kind acknowledgement, and it certainly never hurt to have another adult when the youth aimed wands at each other.

Aware that Professor Storm had the occasion well in-hand (and that Professor Onuris had become a cult favorite) Knox opted to reprise his role as Health & Safety.

Professor Storm ran through his plan with the trio of staff once more, and Knox waved his hand. "At your leave, Professor Storm. I'll leave this in your capable hands."

With that, Knox followed Professors Storms and Onuris dutifully, posted up nearby, crossed his arms and rested his bearded chin in his hand.

"They look quite bloodthirsty," he said quietly, but perhaps not quietly enough.

1.	Wizards' Poker

I hope he keeps the first years out of the way. No offence, but they’re going to get clattered," said Tim Pepper, and Zeta laughed.

" 'at's the spirit," she said.

Zeta had come to Dueling Club less to flash a wand (although she would because why not) but more to be party and observer to the antics, splinchings, tears, and other disruptions that might ensue. She was short on editorial cartoon fodder for the upcoming Hogwarts Howler. A first year getting clattered would be perfect. Or better yet, a first year blowing the eyebrows off an older student! She flipped her lime green cat-eye sunglasses down over her eyes and chomped her gum (which tasted of raspberries but smelled like rose).

She received a poke to her side and turned to see Noriko Wakahisa of all people, an intense 4th year Slytherin. Zeta looked around for someone more her size, but quickly shrugged.

"Sure, kid," she said. Chomp chomp.

Zeta stepped a few paces backward and got into a yoga 'tree' pose standing on one foot, and held her wand up.

"En garde."

Sylvain liked creatures. He liked taking care of them and learning about them and (obviously) teaching about them. He asked himself then, not for the first time, why he had volunteered to help with the Duelling Club. No answers were forthcoming. Possibly he was curious, possibly he wanted to see the Deputy Head in action. Possibly he needed less time on his hands.

            "They look quite bloodthirsty."

"Oui, when do they not?" Sylvain murmured as he passed by their Headmaster with one of his quiet smiles and looked into the crowd of eager pupils. "A demonstration then!" he glanced at Ignan cheerfully before addressing the young ones. "Once you have secured a partner, if you will please pay attention."

A disarming charm was simple, although he did not have to use it often in his previous line of work. Nobody needs to disarm an animal. Within reason; his gaze flicked over to Greyfriar and then back to the matter at hand.

"Remember, it is not only the spoken charm you must concentrate on," Sylvain said this as an aside to the first years among them, leaving the more experienced students to their defences teacher, "but also the movement of your wrist and your posture."

He turned to Professor Storm, drawing his wand and looking quite harmless in his jeans and wooly white jumper. In fact, he looked just the opposite of the older wizard, who was always dressed for a funeral (and very unlikely his own!). "You will disarm me, Professor?" Sylvain offered.

            "I heard people died in the club when he took over."

"No!" he gaped at Aoide as the professors entered the hall. "Professor Storm wouldn't kill... wouldn't kill any first years." Feliks hesitated because he had learned by now that Johann's cousin was in fact very dangerous and had no qualms about hanging children from the rafters if they irritated him. He would kill a fifth year, maybe. Or a very bad fourth year.

Feliks held his wand comfortably, looking around as others started pairing up. Expelliarmus! He can do that! They had learned that one in lessons. It was fun!

And they would be able to watch Professor Storm hex another teacher, which was very exciting. He had never seen actual adults duelling! Photographs did not count, not even moving ones.

"We can pair up?" he turned to the closest first year with a hopeful expression.

Contessa was very excited. She stood amongst the crowd, a grin lighting her face, and chatting away to various other firsties. Connie hadn't told anyone, but she had actually been preparing for this. The many sleepless nights she endured had actually come in handy in learning some extra spells, though she had yet to try out a vast amount of course, and practicing her duelling. To be fair, this practice had been against sofas and armchairs, but it was still practice. Besides, Contessa had even owled her eldest sister Celestine, an auror in training, as to what spells she ought to use. Celestine had been quick to reply with a detailed list of spells with explanations as to how and what they did, very useful, and the suggestion of 'chucking your wand aside and punching them in the face if you don't know what to do', not as useful.

Contessa overheard a fourth year a little way in front of her, talking with some other of the older students.
“What do you reckon, expelliarmus? I hope he keeps the first years out of the way. No offence, but they’re going to get clattered.”
She raised an eyebrow, this only serving to make her more excited. Contessa couldn't wait to prove them wrong, hexing the eyebrows of someone would be great fun.
She half listened to the care of magical creatures teacher, saluting him with a cheeky smile and feisty light to her amber eyes.
"Yes sir!" Contessa smiled.

But Contessa's attention was immediately drawn away by a fellow slytherin first year, Feliks, asking if they could be partners.
"Sure!" she grinned. "But I aint going easy on you."

"No one's died, there's no skeleton in the rafters," Sulwen tried to assure Aoide, pursing her mouth to keep from snickering at the image.

Sulwen stood on the edge of the group of first years, listening to the speculation all around them. Yes, she felt nervous, but she didn't appreciate the idea that she was going to get clattered because of her young age. She tilted her chin up. Feliks was right! Professor Storm wasn't about to lose his job by killing off the firsties. Not in front of the Headmaster.

When several of the first years paired up with each other, Sulwen was tempted to as well, but she hesitated. She'd already practiced with them in class. They knew her strengths and weaknesses and she knew theirs.

She liked Defense, and she was here to get better at it. She didn't absolutely love it like Potions or Flying, but that wasn't the point. The point was to improve.

Before she could lose her nerve, she tapped the fourth year Ravenclaw on the arm, the one who had worried about the first years earlier.

"Hello. Would you like to be partners?"

Sulwen spoke with stiff politeness, looking up at the student. Her grip tightened on her wand at her side.

Kelvin stood near the back of the group of students.  Dueling was not his thing.  But dueling club was good practice for Defense and just getting better at spell casting.  He hoped that it would also give him ideas for enchantments to try.  He snickered at Tim's comment.  He wouldn't have said it out loud. Of course, it wasn't exactly surprising when it was a Pepper who said it.

He listened politely as the Professors explained what was going to happen and then kept explaining the disarming charm.  Which he listened to even though he knew the spell.  He'd been able to do that spell for years.  And he was pretty sure that he'd be able to do it silently.  Though that wasn't exactly fair if he paired up with a younger student. Which was likely as he looked around and saw people pairing up.

As much as he wanted to be the good student and listen to the professors he started looking around, trying to find someone close to his own year that wasn't paired up.  And someone who would take it seriously.  Which seemed hard to find in any year.  He tapped a fifth year on the shoulder only to apologize when he realized she already had a partner.  Everyone near him already had a partner.

What if he didn't have one?  Would they assign him to a group?  How embarrassing would that be?  He looked around some more, and moved through the group a bit.  Oh Merlin.  What if Storm wanted him to duel him?  He was going to die.  A painful horrible death.  He kept scanning the room and his eyes feel onto the Creature's professor.  The bane of his existence and haunter of his wet dreams.  Please, Merlin, don't let him get paired with the gorgeous professor.

Dueling club. What a fantastic way to spend an afternoon. Kyson had been talking about it non stop ever since it had been announced. Afterall any Auror worth their salt knew how to duel. It was pretty much a prerequisite of the job. By now Kyson could disarm people in his sleep but it didn't hurt to get more practice in, especially the non verbal kind. He often found his mind was so busy that when he went the non verbal route his wand tried to do more than one spell at once.

He had been off to the side, behind some first years with his 'brothers' but when it came to pairing up, the Ravenclaw twins had chosen each other leaving him behind. For a moment he contemplated asking his 'sister' if she wanted to join him but Cole was engaged in a knot of little Slytherins and he didn't think Aunt Sheridan would forgive him if he got her hurt.

He looked around wildly and his face split into a wicked grin when he spotted another fellow sixth year looking paralyzed by the thought of interacting with others. Kyson bounded across the Great Hall and threw an arm around Kelvin's shoulders, "It's your lucky day Watkins! You get to try and hex me in the face!"

Cole had been tentative about the idea of Dueling Club. She had been performing rather well in Defense but wasn't sure if it was something she wanted to be spending her free time doing. The days leading up to the first meeting however had convinced her otherwise, as not only were her twin brothers attending but her cousin hadn't shut up about it. Once she learned that Feliks was planning to attend, her only real friend so far at Hogwarts, that cemented it for her.

She stood next to the other first year Slytherins listening intently to the Professor's speak and the students adding in their own thoughts. She had to agree with Feliks, Storm wouldn't intentionally harm one of the students but that didn't mean injuries weren't going to happen.

When it appeared that everyone was pairing up Cole turned to Feliks and opened her mouth but Connie had been faster. For a brief moment a sneer crossed her lips before she looked around at the others in her year, "Anyone else not have a partner yet?"

Harri had been looking forward to Dueling Club since the year first started and was beginning to think it wasn't going to happen when the first meeting was finally announced. Being a weekend Harri was wearing her typical casual wear - baggy jeans, a loose Jersey and her favourite Man U knit hat over her short brown hair - making her look like any of the other boys in her year.

She listened to the worries of the younger students and chuckled, adding in her deeper gravelly voice, "Just cause you ain't seen the bodies, doesn't mean there aren't any." She gave a wicked smirk to Feliks, who had loudly professed that Storm wouldn't kill any of them.

She watched raptly as Orunis and Storm prepared to showcase a duel for them, not bothering to try and find a partner yet. She could worry about that later or let someone come to her.

Frank Sellaphix surprised his housemates in Ravenclaw by being bouncingly eager to go out for Dueling Club. The practical part of Defense was not his strong suit, so Dueling Club seemed like an excellent opportunity to get some practice spell-casting from the hip. Half of Defense techniques was reacting quickly, almost as much as choosing a spell. Frank knew that dueling wasn't real-life, but you still had to think quick!

Despite Frank's interest in the meeting, he was still a bit out of his comfort zone. Nevermind that, he told himself. It will be fun. What's the worst that can happen? No. Don't ask that, Frank. Stick with, uh, it'll be fun. And you'll learn a thing or two.

People were pairing up as Professor Storm explained the first spell. Frank sighed a little haughtily; he already knew this one really well.

"That one's Expelliarmus. Doesn't just work on wands, actually," he said a little too loudly to the group nearby him.[1]

"Knives, forks, beater bats, maybe even an actually living bat. Anything you might wield. But works best on wands for some reason. Actually must be the magical core."

1.	Anyone who feels like being pestered.

“They look quite bloodthirsty,” the headmaster remarked, though his deputy couldn’t be sure if Greyfriar meant the students, or himself and Onuris. If anything the Frenchman was the opposite of bloodthirsty, and far too hug-thirsty.

“A demonstration then!” The overly-familiar creatures professor announced, grinning, and instructed the students to pair up. Ignan left his colleague to address the first years and addressed the wider student body.

“Those of you half-capable at the basics of this spell should practise fluency, accuracy and speed. You may only get one decent chance early on in combat to successfully disarm an opponent. Those most advanced pay heed to how to disguise the intent to use it, and the possibility of retrieving the wand or putting it out of reach.” All of these skills would be covered by those who completed a defence against the dark arts NEWT, and to an extent in the OWL, but today was an extra opportunity to practice, and to engage someone of higher or lower ability outside of the classroom.

“You will disarm me, Professor?”

Innocent, sickeningly happy Onuris offered himself as victim. Ignan’s wand hand twitched expectantly, and his internal monologue did its best impression of his wife Miranda, cautioning him not to inflict malicious damage on his colleague. It wasn’t a crime to pat Ignan Storm on the back with friendly affection, but it took a courageous soul or a complete idiot to do it.

“Be ready to catch him,” Professor Storm addressed the Headmaster, delivered in such a deadpan way it sounded a sure result. Only the raise of a silver eyebrow suggested otherwise. “In simplest form,” he raised his wand and intoned the incantation loudly as he twisted his wand expertly. Sylvain’s wand leapt from his hand like a bird had plucked it in mid-air from his hand.

This was not very different from spell demonstrations on level four, performed for the benefit of trainees. Only their audience today was significantly younger and his partner was a far cry from the friendly face of Balfour Spectre. No, he suddenly realised that Ignan was maybe très formidable when stood across as a duelling opponent.

Keeping his posture loose and wand poised, he smiled at the older wiza--

He felt a force shove his hand, wand being tugged away; Sylvain could not hold it tight enough and he stumbled backwards a few paces. Mon dieu! That was a firm casting! His smiled turned crooked, and he blushed involuntarily.

"Tres bien!" Sylvain clapped his hands together twice, playfully applauding Storm. "That is how it is done," he glanced at the watching students with bright eyes, "now let us see if you can do the same! Into your pairs, come!" Another clap, this time to hasten them into trying the spell with their duelling partners.

The Frenchman turned back to Ignan, stepping closer. "I was scared for a moment, eh?" he joked, happy. "We must duel in proper one day. You will find me a willing learner!"