They continued with their Saturday practices. Hermione had found a few interesting curses for them to try, including the stunning spell stupefy, which knocked an opponent unconscious and reducto which could blast a solid object to pieces. They took turns practicing stupefy on each other, using cushions to fall on. It was towards the end of November that Hermione suggested they have practice duals—so far they had just used the spells, either aiming at a nearby tree as a target or, for spells like the leglocker, expelliarmus and stupefy, on each other.

"I don't think just casting them is enough," she had said. "We need to know how to use them properly. How to counter, dodge—that sort of thing. If we ever do face a Death Eater or Sirius Black, we need to know how to fight."

Dudley, Ron and Dean agreed with her. Neville looked uncertain.

"How about if we get injured?" he had asked.

"We'll limit the spells used," Hermione decided. "Nothing dangerous—so hexes like conjunctivitis and the bludgeoning curse are out."

Dean looked disappointed, he was better at the bludgeoning curse than anyone, even Hermione. But, he nodded in agreement.

"We'll draw names out of a hat to see who goes first," Hermione decided. She tore a piece of parchment into strips and wrote each of their names down. After mixing them up, she held the hat out to Dean who picked two out. "Dudley and Neville," he said.

The two took their positions. Neville looked anxious. Dudley confident, he felt certain he could beat Neville.

"Remember—harmless spells only!" she said. "Go on three."

Dudley raised his hand. So did Neville.

"One—two,"

Dudley bent his knees slightly.

"Three!"

Locomotor mortis!

Expelliarmus!

Neville's spell fired over Dudley's shoulder. Dudley's own hit Neville in the stomach who fell backwards as his legs locked together.

"St … stupefy!" Neville cried. The stunner fizzled out.

Dudley dashed forward and hurled himself on Neville, squashing him to the floor, he used one hand to force Neville's hand down and the wand away.

"Stop! Dudley—you win." Hermione called.

Dudley pushed himself to his feet and wiped his hair out of eyes. Ron and Dean applauded.

"Neville, nice try," Hermione said. "Dudley, good work—though, you let your guard down after your first spell. If Neville's stunner had worked you'd be in trouble."

Hermione cast the countercharm, freeing Neville and Dudley helped him to his feet.

Next up was Ron and Dean. Ron started off with a stunner, which Dean dodged by diving out of the way. Ron followed up with an attempted petrificus totalus which missed and was hit by a tarantallegra curse. As his legs went into a wild tap dance, he tripped over, causing Dean's follow up stupefy to go whizzing over his head. As he fell, Ron cast incarcerous, binding Dean in thick, brown ropes.

"Stop!" Hermione called. "Nice work," she said, approvingly.

Hermione's name was drew next, going up against Dudley.

For this contest, Ron was serving as the referee.

"One …"

Hermione looked calm and composed. She was stood sideway, her wand raised slightly, knees bent.

"Two …"

Dudley raised his hand.

"Three!"

"Locomotor mortis!"

Hermione was fast. She had dived to the side to avoid the leglocker curse and cast her own spell.

"Wingardium leviosa!"

Dudley's robes flew up over his head. As he struggled to throw them off so he could see again. He heard Hermione cry "expelliarmus!" a split-second later, his wand had flew out of his hand.

"Wow!" Dean said.

"Stop!" Ron cried.

Dudley swore, finally detaching himself from his robes. He was red-faced, his blond hair mussed. He glared at Hermione for a second before grinning. "Pretty good," he admitted.

It was their first time seeing Hermione dual. Her spellwork was fast and she thought outside the box—the levitation charm on Dudley's robes had been very unexpected.

The final weekend of November was the quidditch match between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Ravenclaw had won handily with a pretty girl called Cho Chang catching the snitch. So, Dudley and his friends did their dueling practice on the Sunday instead.

It was quickly emerging that both Ron and Hermione were the best duelers of the lot. Both of them could beat Dudley, Dean and Neville and when they faced off, it was always an even contest. Hermione's wandwork was faster and she tended to do the unexpected, whereas Ron had quicker reactions, aimed better and often switched up his tactics.

Dudley's own dueling style tended to be a mix of spell and brute strength. He used spells like leglocker, the ticking charm, expelliarmus and, taking a page from Hermione's book, wingardium leviosa to disorientate an opponent before using his size and strength to force them to the floor. He had even used his strength to beat Hermione for the first time, forcing her to duck a stunner before tackling her legs and dragging her to the ground. Ron, he had never managed to beat. When he faced Dean, they were both quite evenly matched.

Dean was a good Neville was the worst of the group, but tried hard and was improving.

Hermione approved of their progress. She said, during their session in the first week of December, that she thought they could all defend themselves adequately if ever attacked.