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Every DA member watched in stunned silence at the duel happening in front of them. Except for three people in the Room of Requirements, none were expecting the duel to be like the one happening in front of them. In fact, their expectations were the exact opposite.
"LACARNUM INFLAMARI" — the wild smile on one Eddie Carmichael's face while casting spells was one every villain would approve.
Harry, who saw the fireball wildly spiraling towards him, frowned and gritted his teeth — "PROTEGO DUO" — the fireball met the invisible shield and violently rippled in response; it held its defensive integrity, but Harry could feel the heat from flames despite being behind the magical barrier.
"Come on, Potter," called Eddie laughing, "don't tell me this all you got!" — "DEFODIO" — the stone floor near Eddie's feet gouged out and bundled up into a sizable ball which he then flung towards like a heavy shotput.
Seeing the chunk of stone hurling towards him, Harry raised his wands with a frown — "DEPRIMO" — the leaf green spell flew into the stone ball, and green lightning arcs covered the stone before it exploded into pieces.
Harry exhaled heavily and stared at the dust cloud in front of him. This wasn't how he was expecting things to go, not in the slightest. All the upper hand he had in the start was gone, and now he was struggling against every spell from Eddie.
'How in the hell is this happening?' he thought.
On the sidelines, Ivy watched her brother struggling against Eddie Carmichael; she also thought this should've gone the opposite direction, but that didn't seem to be the case.
"Are you surprised?"
She turned towards the speaker, and Marcus Bebly was the one who had spoken. She nodded — why wouldn't she? It wasn't like Eddie Carmichael was famous for being a great caster.
"Well, to me, this is actually to be expected," said Marcus, chuckling, "Your brother is good, there's no doubt in that, but when you compete in magic with someone with an overwhelming difference in skill and power, one tends to adjust and improve accordingly."
"What do you mean?" asked Ivy.
"Eddie is ultra-competitive.. . it can be his best and worst quality; it depends on the situation," said Marcus. "Imagine what would happen if you for five years, on a regular basis, you challenged someone so much better at the magic that it isn't even funny.. . and despite never winning a single time in five years over thousands of challenges, you never give up and continue to challenge the much better opponent," — Marcus pointed his chin at Eddie —, "that's what Eddie has been doing with Quinn.. . he challenges Quinn at least three times a week on anything magic and always losses, but he has never given up.. . not once."
"Eddie wants to win, he loves to win, he craves victory.. . but Quinn hasn't given him a single glance of triumph.. . but because of Eddie's particular disposition, he works hard after every single defeat so that he could win the next one.. . in doing that, he eventually improved so much that the progress was something to behold."
".. . Even so, Carmichael's spells are hitting too heavily.. . they are almost unnaturally powerful," said Ivy in inquiry.
"One of the side-effects if a good portion of the challenges are duels against Quinn West," Marcus deeply sighed, thinking back to destruction and hazard caused in empty, unused classrooms as the aftermath of duels. "If you want to even have a chance to penetrate Quinn's defensive spells, you offensive spells better pack that extra punch and then go over that and have most power beyond that.. . because Quinn is just too good at magic — there have been times when he had let Eddie exhaust himself without against a simple Protego without moving an inch in retaliation.. . Eddie's magic or Eddie himself adapted to his 'daily' situation, and his spells got heavier and more impactful through the years — what you're seeing now is pure hard work on improving offensive spells."
"Come on, Potter. Put your back into your shields! It's like I'm throwing my spells at sheets of paper — TOTAL OVERKILL!" they heard Eddie shoutout while laughing semi-maniacally.
Ivy turned to Eddie, who cleared his throat in second-hand embarrassment, "That's one of his worse qualities."
Harry glared at Eddie, and magic flowed through holly wand — "ARGENTUM GLADIO" — a single silver rapier rippled into existence, exerting a threatening vibe and turned in the air above Harry's head to point at Eddie.
"That!" uttered Ivy in shock at Harry's spell. That wasn't a spell to be used against a fellow student. That was a spell taught to Harry by their father and was to be only used in emergencies.
"Now, that's more like it," grinned Eddie; his magic thrummed in excitement and thrill.
Harry slashed his wand vertically down, and the sword streaked with a silver trail, flying towards Eddie to cut him. Eddie's grin widened to this limit — "BOMBARDA.. . MAXIMA!"
A glowing white with streaks of magenta emitted from Eddie's blackthorn wand, carrying with it Eddie's heavy-hitting magical deposition.
"No, stop! Don't!" yelled Ivy, stepping forward, but her exclamations were of no use as the spells were already dispatched.
".. . Didn't I explicitly state that lethality wasn't allowed," was followed by a heavy sigh.
A yellow layer appeared right in the middle of Harry and Eddie, in the path of the silver sword and Explosion charm, and simultaneously took the brunt of both spells. The silver sword tried to pierce its way to Eddie but only ended up cracking after trying to breach the shield. The Explosion charm exploded against the shield but couldn't even put a fissure on the barrier.
When the chaos settled, Eddie and Harry glanced at the still-present yellow barrier layer and then at the caster.
"You know, I didn't expect someone to break the lethality rule so early in this group's existence, on the very first day, but it seemed I was wrong," said Quinn sighing, and swiped his fake wand to disable his casted magic. "But I should've expected this from both of you — one with a mouth that loves to rile people up and the other who get easily riled up."
He turned to Eddie, "Bombarda Maxima, really? That would have taken a chunk off him if it hit. How do you think that would have panned out if I had to take him to Madam Pomfrey with parts missing from his body," Eddie looked a bit embarrassed and turned his face away. — "And you," he turned to Harry, "that silver sword had some form of curse attached to it. I don't know if you are trained in the counter-course for that spell. Even if you do know, were you really going to launch that against him?"
"Both of you're IDIOTS!" said Quinn bluntly before turning to the entire group. "Listen up! Everyone! We don't have the leeway to get seriously injured in here and go to the hospital wing to get fixed — I, personally, can fix pretty much every fix you guys right here.. .. But! If things take a serious turn, and even if I can heal you back to health, it'll take time, and we can't hide in here for a chill two or three days without the Professors looking for us.. . So I will repeat this! Do not aim lethal spells at anyone in here — you just need to say the word, and practice dummies can be provided.. . be responsible and think carefully before you decide to cast."
Luna raised her hand in salute and spoke loudly, "Yes, sir!"
"At ease, soldier," said Quinn in reply and took the chance to break the tension and return the atmosphere to normal. "Alright, Eddie and Harry, take care that this doesn't happen," he said. "Now, who's the next one —"
"I will go," said Ivy, stepping forward.
Quinn smiled with a smooth nod and gestured her to step into the red circle as the part that Eddie gouged out fixed itself in real-time.
"And, who wants to take on the Potter Princess," asked Quinn.
It was once again Ivy who spoke up.
"I want to duel her," she said and pointed her red ebony wand with a core made from braided unicorn tail hairs.
Everyone looked in the direction she pointed and saw Daphne Greengrass standing at the end. The Ice Queen, as people had started to call her, stared back at Ivy for a moment before raising her chin slightly as she stepped forward. Daphne wordlessly stepped into the circle, placing herself opposite Ivy.
"We haven't competed in this, have we?" said Ivy to Daphne.
"No, we haven't," said Daphne as she took out her willow wand with a braided unicorn's tail hair as cores.
"Another thing we can cross today," said Ivy. She briefly glanced at Quinn before speaking back to Daphne, "I'm going to win this one."
Daphne noticed Ivy's quick glance towards Quinn, and her brows furrowed slightly. Daphne herself looked at Quinn; she couldn't lose in front of Quinn, so.. .
"I wonder where that baseless confidence of yours comes from," said Daphne. "Have you ever won against me ever?"
"Are you still stuck in the time when we were children because that's just sad. We are no longer children, Daphne.. . If—"
"Ladies," said Quinn interjecting, "if you want to compete, I'm all for it, but this is a magic club and not a debate, so less chit-chat and more magic, please. Let's get the duel moving."
The girls stared at each other for a moment before both took their positions at ready.
"Good," spoke Quinn and retreated out of the red circle.
One second passed, then two, and the red turned green on the third, signaling both participants that the duel had begun.
"PETRUM INDICIBUS" — Ivy's wand shone in an earthen glow, and out of the glowing wand came a volley of fist-sized rocks, rolling in the air towards Daphne.
Daphne swiped her wand in a circle — "IGNIS OFFII" — multitudes of crackling fire orbs lit up brightly and whistled towards the rock pellets blasting them on impacts, nullifying Ivy's attack.
"EXPELLIARMUS," chanted Daphne, and the scarlet jet passed right above Ivy, who ducked to dodge it.
Ivy didn't get up immediately and moved to immobilize Daphne — "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS" — the whitish-purple spell zoomed very close to the ground towards Daphne.
Daphne once again didn't move from her spot — "PROTEGO" — and effortlessly blocked Ivy's spell. She then immediately raised her wand up — "STUPEFY" — she aimed to finish the duel in one go.
Ivy rolled sideways and let the spell narrowly miss her.
Quinn's eyes shined as he watched Ivy and then at Harry. The twins had been trained in an important aspect of dueling.
"AVIS! AVIS! AVIS!" — chanted Ivy repeatedly, and a flock of small blue birds filled the space and rapidly flapped their wings to fly towards Daphne with their sharp talons and beaks.
"That's a NEWT level spell," said Marcus on the sideline, sounding impressed; he also could do it despite being in the sixth year, but casting it three times in rapid succession would be difficult for him.
"She practices magic more than anyone in Gryffindor," said Ron, "even more than Hermoine — which is bonkers."
The mass of blue startled Daphne a bit and skipped a beat and would have been in trouble if there would have been any more delay in her response — "CONFUNDO!" — and a pink vapor began spreading out from her wand.
Quinn nodded with his lower lip jutting out at her choice. The Confundus charm was a charm that caused confusion in a person or bewitched an object. It wasn't a choice he would have made, but he could see how it would have worked — if performed correctly, which couldn't be said in this case.
The pink vapor did its job in distracting two waves of conjured birds away from her, but she wasn't able to affect the last one; they swopped in and cut her arms and legs, tearing away at her robes and clothes.
"PROTEGO" — chanted Daphne loudly and covered herself in a shield to protect herself from the aggressive birds.
Ivy grinned — "OBICE CONFRACTUS" — and shot a generic shield breaking charm which did its job splendidly and broke the shield, but by now, Daphne's Confudus charm had done its job on the third wave, but Ivy was ready for that aND shot another spell — "EXPELLIARMUS" — and with Daphne's wand flying high into the air, the duel was over and.. .
"I win," said Ivy grinning.
Quinn stepped into the circle, and it turned red. He lazily waved his fake wand, and the conjured bird fizzled out into nothing. Then he walked to Daphne and watched the girl who had her head bowed down.
"Are you alright," he asked.
Daphne didn't look up but nodded, but from the part of her face that Quinn could see, he saw her face scrunched up in pain from all the cuts she had suffered.
"Let me see the cuts," said Quinn, sighing. He pulled up one of her arms and pulled the cut parts of her clothes away to reveal the wounds, "there's nothing to be ashamed of or be embarrassed about here, you know." He waved his fake wand, and light blue lights covered her wounds slowly but surely, knitting the skin-deep cuts together. "What you need to do is learn from what went off here and learn from it to never make the same mistake."
Daphne continued to keep her head down as Quinn continued to heal her wounds.
"If it's any consolation, Ivy's father is a Senior Auror; she simply picked up a thing or two from him which allowed her victory here," said Quinn before pausing a moment, "I liked your use of Confudus charm on the Avis-conjured birds, it was inspiring. If you perfect that spell, you would be able to send the birds back to their caster.. . turning their own spell against them, that's inspiring."
Daphne finally looked up at him.
"Really," she asked, "do you really think so?"
"Uh-huh, how about this? We will go through the spell together, and I will even show you what I would have in your position."
Daphne nodded, "I would like that."
When everyone was talking about the duel in the audience circle, Tracey leaned towards Eddie and spoke, "They look good together, don't they?"
"Yes, they do," said Eddie, nodding.
Tracey looked at Eddie, and after a slight pause, she asked, "Do you think.. . Quinn likes her?" She was Daphne's best friend, and who better to ask this question than to Quinn's best friend.
Eddie stared at Quinn and Daphne standing close to each other as Quinn healed Daphne's wound. As Tracey had said, those two did look good together, and ever since the Yule Ball last year, the two groups — (Quinn, Marcus, Eddie, and Luna) & (Daphne, Tracey, and Astoria) — had started to hang out with each other frequently.
In that time, Eddie had observed the girl named Daphne Greengrass and had come to know a lot about her. And in his mind, he could imagine a number of girls with Quinn, but if he was to set someone up with Quinn, it would definitely be Daphne Greengrass.
Furthermore.. .
"He hasn't said it to me directly, but I do think Quinn likes her," he said.
Tracey's eyes sparkled, "Really?!"
Eddie nodded, "He's comfortable around her. He doesn't control his smile around her and looks like he enjoys her company. It helps that she can actually hold a conversation with him without making bedroom eyes at him. And I haven't seen him this close to a girl that isn't Luna and well Astoria, but she sticks to him like glue."
"What about Fleur Delacour?"
"Nah, that was just him being.. . well, that was just a small stint," said Eddie; he wanted to say horny, but that wasn't fitting. "It's whatever Quinn has been saying; it was nothing."
That ticked another cross off the question list, and the answer was a good one.
"That's good, that's really good," said Tracey and then looked at Eddie. He had earned a reward, and so had she. "You wanna go on a date with me next Hogsmeade weekend?"
Eddie slowly turned to the girl beside him and profoundly nodded. There was no way in hell he would refuse this; there was not a single reason he could think for refusal.
"Good," said Tracey smiling, "wear something nice."
Eddie once again wordlessly nodded.
But what they didn't know was that someone was paying attention to their conversation. Hermione Granger had listened to the entire conversation and what she heard wasn't for HER best friend.
'Quinn likes Greengrass,' she thought, 'Oh, Ivy.. .'
The girl in question was standing in the red circle staring at Quinn and Daphne standing in front of her. Just a few moments ago, she was happy at defeating Daphne, but now all that happiness had evaporated. All she felt was envy.
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Quinn West - MC - Duel, duel, duel!
Eddie Carmichael - Heavy-Hitter - I've got a date, again!
Harry Potter - Unsatisfied - Wants a rematch.
Daphne Greengrass - Target of envy - Lost the duel.
Ivy Potter - Envious - Won the duel.
Tracey Davis - Best friend - Her day is going very well.
Hermione Granger - Best friend - Eavesdropper.
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