Just after potions class ended, my friends and I were stopped in the hall by a professor. "Miss Schnee?"

"Professor. . . Uhh." I knew I'd met him before, but his name eluded me.

"Duelington. You're not in trouble, but I want you to come with me."

I looked at my friends, we all shrugged, then I broke off to go with the Professor. "Sooo. . ."

"I meant to talk to you yesterday, but I got a bit too excited with the return of my dueling class and forgot. Your sister sent me a letter about training you with your sword and the magic crystals in it before you do something stupid, like freeze Noir."

"That would be nice."

"I'm sure you'd like to, considering the way she's treating you."

"Wait, you know about what's going on?"

"I'll let you in on something, Weiss, as long as you promise to know nothing about it."

"Ooookay?"

He accepted my confused answer. "The way Noir treats you is no secret among the faculty. Even if we don't know the details, we know she's bullying you. We've seen the signs and patterns that have shown themselves before."

"Then why don't you do anything?"

"Noir is a. . . Tricky situation. Ordinarily, we would use standard disciplinary measures, but she's clearly the kind that would go and complain to her parents, and they hold enough sway and power among MACUSA officials to get them to come in and really shut us down like they've always tried to."

"Politics then?"

"Politics. Not my forte, but I can see how it would all come down, and it would not be pleasant."

I spent a good amount of time outside with Professor Duelington, practicing swordplay and experimenting with the Dust in the sword. Fire, ice, lightning, wind, and earth were pretty straightforward with their effects when I swung Myrtenaster in an arc. The gravity Dust, however, looked like it was just some kind of aftereffect, which was a letdown. As I used each crystal, I noticed them fade with just a little bit of gray. They were still fairly bright at the end, so I wasn't worried about them running dry.

I arrived at No-maj studies class with a smile and growing fondness for the sword. Plans started forming for a practice range with dummies that could be repaired. I also considered just using the quidditch arena, but I didn't feel like accidentally burning it down.

Laura sat down next to me and pulled me from my thoughts. "So, what did Professor Duelington want?"

"I was supposed to practice using my sword yesterday with him, but we both forgot about it. I'll show you what it can do later."

"Can I come too?" Phoebe asked as she sat down a second later.

"Sure. And Jack can come too, before he asks."

"What are we talking about?" Jack asked as he joined us.

"Sword stuff. I'll show you outside after lunch."

We met behind the castle, on the side with the Perseverantia and Virtus houses. Snow was falling, and the ground already had a crunchy layer over it. "So, did Professor Duelington teach you some sword techniques?" Phoebe asked. "That seems like the kind of thing he would do."

"Actually, we figured out something else the sword can do," I answered before stepping away from the castle. Once I had enough distance, I turned back and saw my friends in the line of fire. "Out of the way, everyone."

Once the way in front of me was clear, I pulled the hammer on Myrtenaster back two clicks, hitting the second click a few more times to get the ice Dust in place. I gave the sword a wide upward swing, pulling the trigger and creating a frosty sword beam that travelled along the ground before hitting the wall, leaving an ice trail on the ground and a frozen explosion of ice on the wall.

"Okay, that's cool," Jack said after fifteen or so seconds. Laura and Phoebe both smacked the back of his head for the pun.

"I can also do that with fire, lightning, earth, and wind." I didn't say anything about the gravity Dust since it was such a letdown. Even a sword beam of the stuff didn't seem to do so much as gently disturb the light snow on the ground. "It's awesome."

"It is. Maybe you could use that in a duel?"

"I bet Professor Duelington thought the same thing," Phoebe said. "He does like flashy spells, after all."

"It's not a spell," I clarified. "It's just the crystals in here." I held the hilt up for them to see, the ice one just a little dimmer than the rest. "I haven't tried any other moves, though."

"Do you think the crystals can affect spells?" Laura asked. "I don't know of any we can really test out here, though."

"Can you show us the fire one?" Jack interjected.

"If I must," I answered with a sigh. After cycling to the fire Dust, I performed the same move, hitting the ice I'd recently made. The impact split the ice in half, and it hung on for a moment before the two pieces fell off the wall, leaving only a rough layer of ice.

"That's awesome," Jack, Laura, and Phoebe said at the same time. All of them were correct.

In the time between my demonstration and spell class, I considered experimenting with the Dust in class to see what would happen. I decided against it in the end, mostly on the grounds that I couldn't come up with an alternate explanation for it, and more importantly, it could be a trick I could use against Noir in the future. I also needed to do some more experimentation with it.

We continued with the vision enhancement charm, working on seeing the other messages that were written on the walls. Once I got to where I could read them all, I tried to find Noir's message, just to see what had made her upset. I couldn't tell which one was for whom, but the one that said "Minions don't have the same staying power as actual friends" seemed about right.

The vision enhancement was also the basis for a visual translation charm, which sounded really useful. It wasn't a substitute for actually learning a new language, but it was good for something like a one off trip to a foreign country.

"Today, we're going to practice flying in formations," Professor Samuels opened class with. "The groups will be made of each house, so sort yourselves out." As we all started moving around, I did everything I could to put as many people between me and Noir. "We'll start with the basic V formation. Take a couple minutes to figure out who will lead each formation.

Surprising nobody, Noir nominated herself. "I will take the lead for Scientia."

I didn't feel like fighting her on that, so I let it happen. "Besides, if something bad happens, it's on her head, not mine."

Soon enough, the other houses had their leaders, none of whom I recognized. "Excellent. Everyone, start forming a V behind your leader. Even spacing is very important." I kept to the back of the Scientia V, which was a long, narrow one. "Mount your brooms." We all followed her direction. "Leaders, take off. Followers, you follow. Everyone, remember to keep pace with your own house."

It didn't take long to get into the air, and I kept my focus primarily on the student in front of me, but I also kept an eye on Noir to see where she would go. I didn't like her, but I wasn't about to go and get myself in trouble. "No, I'll let Noir lead this time. And if something happens, it'll fall on her head, even if I fall on mine."

Noir turned out to be a fairly competent formation leader, even though she didn't care much for flying. She even led us into a merge, putting our formation inside the wider Perseverantia one. Virtus, also with a wider formation, decided to get in front of Perseverantia while Callidus got behind us, making a thicker V formation.

For a while, our large group just flew around. Then, Professor Samuels, reclining on her broom with a book and flying backwards, showed up under us. "Excellent merge, everyone! Fifteen points to each house for getting ahead of the lesson on your own, and an extra five to Scientia for being the first ones to perform the merge! Class is dismissed early! If you want to keep flying, stay in formation! If you don't, then go up and let the flyers keep going!"

Most of the class peeled away and left to go back inside. Once they were out of the way, I broke off and went about flying solo, as I liked to do. It was a good way to clear my head and forget about the troubles I'd been going through, even if the act of flying on the broom was a reminder of them at the same time.