Rose Petals and Shining Armour - A Harry Potter fanfiction I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it, (if I did I would just publish this as a book) J. does.

Chapter 2

It was still dark out when Leigh woke up. At home she always woke up this early to practice her duelling skills, and today would be no different. She quietly dressed, made way down the stairs and exited the common room. The duelling practice arena was adjacent to the actual arena on the 3rd floor. As she entered the practice arena, two suits of armour barred the way. "In order to train here you must be of a sufficient duelling level" one said. "Do you wished to be tested?" the second asked? "I do" she answered calmly. She knew that she could beat any test they would give her. "Please proceed to the first duelling area" one said as they unbarred the way. At the first duelling area a painting had been hung up, inside was an sleeping old wizard. "Excuse me, I would like to be tested" she said hesitantly not wanting to disturb the old man too much. "Your the second one already this morning" he said to her with a slightly irritated tone as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Let me see you duel the practice dummy and I will determine if you are skilled enough." Leigh readied herself for her attacker and without warning the first coloured bolt flew past her. The next five minutes were a blur as she twirled, dodged, and jumped around a rainbow of spells. Her shots were spot on, and she was dodging all of the shots until one came out of nowhere and knocked her to the ground. "Alright", the old man in painting said. "You are a remarkably good duelist" he continued. "What about the other tryout this morning?" she asked a little out of breath. "He spent 30 minutes dodging and deflecting everything we could test him with. I had to stop the test after he managed to destroy all ten test dummies" the old man said with a bemused smile on his face. "That was two hours ago. He is still here, at the other end of the arena practicing some advanced duel techniques." Leigh was now very curious as to who could be so good. She walked slowly towards the other end of the arena, but stopped when she saw who it was. His wand was showering sparks and he was continuously releasing a rainbow of coloured spells on a test dummy. The oddest part was that she could not hear him utter a single spell. "Care to dual" she said in an even voice hoping to catch him off guard. "I would love to" he said without even turning around.

George had hoped it would come down to this, nevertheless it was much sooner than he had anticipated. He had already been training for over two hours and was starting to feel the burn. Luckily he enjoyed duelling in this state since it forced him to the very edge of his abilities. There were times in his life that he would practice for days only stopping to eat and sleep. He would see how useful that training had been. Leigh was not the most challenging opponent he had ever faced but after seeing her qualification test he was convinced he would have to make an effort in order to win. He snapped back to reality, as he noticed the floor pattern had changed. They were both standing in the middle of a black and blue carpet. They shook hands and each walked to another end of the carpet. Every eighth of the carpet a moon had been painted and the further he moved away from the centre, the more it waxed. "Finally a real duelling area, not just some pen or row of trees" he thought happily. They turned, bowed, and wait for the signal from the referee.

The old man in the painting was the referee. Curiosity had gotten the better of him and he wanted to see this showdown with his own eyes. Leigh stood tensed wand at the ready aimed directly at George's chest hoping to catch him off guard. It looked like it could work since his wand was lowered and his eyes were closed. "3, ... 2, ... 1, ... Begin!" the old man shouted. Leigh shot a perfectly aimed stunning spell at George; time dropped down to crawl as she watched her spell travel the distance to where he stood. "Nearly there" she thought triumphantly. Any moment now she expected the full force of her spell to send him flying backwards. Just as that was about to happen, George's eyes popped open and with amazing speed used his wand to redirect her spell over his left shoulder, around the back of his neck, back over his right shoulder, and straight at her. Leigh had barely registered what had just happened before her spell hit her full force. She felt herself flung backwards towards the back wall. She braced for the hard impact. After several moments of waiting for the harsh landing she opened her eyes and noticed she was no longer moving, she was floating mid-air, slowly drifting to the ground.

After the old man had declared him the winner, since she was completely knocked off the duel area, he walked over to where she was sitting on a bed of air. "May I join you?" he asked in a quiet voice. She nodded and he sat down beside her though keeping a little distance. "I, ... that spell was right in front of you, a moment later you would have knocked off your feet" she said in disbelieve. He got to his feet, and helped her up as well. "Yes I would have" he said with an apprehensive look. The morning bell announcing breakfast rang as they exited the practice arena. "See you around, I hope" she said quietly and then ran off in the direction of Gryffindor tower. He made his made his way down to dungeons and thinking about that shocked look Leigh had had on her face as she was sent flying. Originally he planned to let the spell hit her and then walk off as he declared the winner but that look of utter helplessness convinced him to do otherwise. Just like his redirection spell, his levitation charm was perfectly timed. A moment of hesitation on his part would have caused her to ram into the wall. He entered the common room as many of Slytherin house exited to go have breakfast. Most of the ladies were wearing lightly colored dresses underneath the manditory black cape with the school emblem on it; the contrast was pleasant sight and he could tell that many of the Lords were enjoying the view. He knew that wearing a dress like that was impractical and served only one purpose, to remind everyone that they were from houses of nobility. Of course there were Ladies who did not come from any noble family and still entered but this was rare since their parents would usually need all the help they could get at their master's castle. "For anyone not from royalty or nobility, the 13th century was a harsh place " he thought. The thought struck him that as bad as it was for some in the Wizarding world, the muggle world must be much worse. "They do not even have proper tournaments" he thought amused as he disrobed to shower. The shower system at Hogwarts was already at least 200 years old but still worked like clockwork. Hogwarts was one of the only places in the world to have running water. Even the richest or most talented wizards had trouble getting a shower to work after the four Founders had managed the incredible feat here at Hogwarts. "They were a secretive bunch were they not" he thought wishing he could always have a shower whenever he wanted to. "Better enjoy while your here" a ghost said as only his head popped out of a far wall. "Trust me, I will".

Breakfast was a rather dull affair after the events of this morning. The image of him arcing her spell around him and back towards her was burned into her mind; that look of complete concentration as her burning red spell orbited him. She snapped out of it as a piece of parchment was handed to her. "Your class schedule, my dear" the elderly woman said smilingly slightly. She unrolled the parchment and was elated that the whole of today was reserved for Defence Against the Dark Arts. Tomorrow, "we have etiquette, flying lessons, and potions", one girl said looking rather disgruntled. "Etiquette and Potions in on one day does seem rather harsh" Leigh replied as she thought back to her mother's etiquette lessons. "History, Herbology, Muggle Studies does not seem like a bad day to me" another girl piped in. Everyone nodded in agreement. The bell signalled for everyone to head off to their respective classes and as she got up she caught a glimpse of him. George was dressed in robes that matched his eyes and he was wearing pants like a peasant would except these were a beautiful shade of pitch black, there was not a spot on them. Then he was gone, swallowed up by the crowd of people exiting the Great Hall.

End Chapter 2

Do not expect me to keep this pace, but found some rather good inspiration today to write so enjoy and I really appreciate your reviews! Thanks, ryutana