7 "Chasing the Ground"
Beck stood in the middle of the Transfiguration classroom, an identical wand grasped firmly in her off-hand. Both reflected spells had hit Jerrod. Lying face down on the floor, he instantly sprouted a large crown of horns, a pair of leathery wings ripped through his robes.
'Beck, you're a Dualist!' said Ms. Granger, walking quickly across the room. Beck just stared, horrified at Jerrod. She barely heard the door slam as she ran from the room. With a flick of the wrist, Jerrod's extra parts disappeared in a puff of thick purple smoke.
'Enervate!' Jerrod slowly came around. 'Are you alright Jerrod?' Ms. Granger was sitting over him.
'Yeah, what happened?' Jerrod rubbed his head, trying to restore some memory.
'You we're hit, by two transfiguration spells. You're lucky to resemble anything close to normal.'
'Beck?' he asked groggily, sitting up a little.
'She's gone. It was her that deflected the spells onto you.' Ms Granger helped Jerrod up, 'don't worry about my daughter, she'll be fine. Beck just needs time.'
Jerrod went down for the dinner feast, but couldn't see Beck anywhere. He even asked some other sixth-year Gryffindor girls, but they just giggled at him, and walked away, whispering. Then it hit him.
He climbed onto the roof of the tower, he saw Beck, sitting on the edge, her knees tucked underneath her chin. When she saw him, she gave a massive heaving sob.
'I'm sorry' was all she managed to say.
'I'm in one piece aren't I?' He sat down beside her, and watched as the Slytherin house team walked out to practise again. After a few minutes, the night-time cold had settled in.
'Come on, I'll take you back to your room, otherwise we'll freeze out here, and people will be really wondering what we get up to.' This brought a sad smile to Beck's lips. She began to stand up, with a hand from Jerrod. They stood hand in hand, for a minute, watching the green jumpers whirl about in the magical floodlights.
'What's a Dualist?' Jerrod asked, out of nowhere from halfway across the roof, 'I heard your mum shout it before I passed out.' Beck shivered a little.
'A Dualist wizard, or witch, is someone who can use two wands at the same time. It's not a very common gift. Usually only children of really gifted wizards end up with it, and not to a very strong degree.'
'So how long have you been able to?'
'Since I fourth-year, I found out when I was practising taking a friend's wand. I caught it, and without giving it back used the Summoning Charm again, and two books came at me. Since then, my friends thought I was a freak, and didn't talk to me much.' Beck's head drooped a little, and she stared at her feet. A whistle grew slowly in Jerrod's ears. Suddenly, he saw the red Quidditch ball, the quaffle, speeding toward Beck. Quick as he could, he raced back across the roof, and dived across in front of Beck, intercepting the quaffle. She could only watch in abject terror as Jerrod went tumbling off the edge.