Chapter 10: Dueling Club Pt. 1

The days passed and turned to weeks. They graduated from transfiguring matches into needles to transfiguring matchboxes into pin cushions. Professor Abott taught them the Color-Changing, Levitation, and, despite more than a few singed eyebrows and ruined robes, Fire-Making charms. Binns, Myles had stopped thinking of him as a Professor, had started covering the origins of the modern Wizarding world and he had started reading the matching section of the textbook, finding it fascinating in comparison. Professor Longbottom taught them elementary magical flora in Herbology, an engaging but simple class.

Professor Salem's extra credit club, a subject of both dread and excitement for not just the first-years but all grade-conscientious Hogwarts students turned out to be nothing more than a collection of wand-involved games, some like the one they'd played in their first class and some completely different. The common focus they all held, however, was practical use of magic, allowing the use of only one or two spells, which had been learned in either Charms or Defense.

The first game they played involved a thin metal pole with a half circle at the end (the shape of a cane but no longer than Myles's forearm) and colored rings. Each student was given one of these canes, each of which started out with two rings on the pole. Students were to use Wingardium Leviosa on their canes to make them fly and maneuver them to steal rings from other students' canes. The pole of the cane was indented where the half circle was, to make it easier to hold rings there. It didn't, however, stop the rings from flying off of everyone's poles when they first started levitating and moving them around the room.

The game was difficult just to play and the gap in skill from the best and worst players was too wide for fair games. Professor Salem split the first-years up in groups of five to ten based on skill, an approach he continued when they moved on to other games. To an extent, the groups reflected the students' abilities in the classroom, but there were a number of exceptions. Rose, for instance, easily had the best grade in the class, but didn't make the top two groups. Conversely, many of the Muggleborns, who often struggled in class because they'd never been exposed to the content before, performed much better than in class because they'd already learned the spell. Myles had also come into Hogwarts behind, but it rarely took him more than a few tries to learn a spell.

The group sizes changed by game and skill, Professor Salem would often make the less skilled groups smaller to make the games simpler and easier to play. Where the students were placed, however, was relatively consistent. Myles was always in group one or two, along with Cecilia, Lyla, the Malfoy twins, Sam, Thalia, Elias (who didn't perform well in class but excelled in Defence club), Sam, and Tor.

All of the first-years complained about the free time Professor Salem's Defence club cut into, but none of them complained about the club itself. The games were fun and winners of the games were rewarded with points (the students called them "Salem points") which could be redeemed for candy after class or club. The different skill groups meant that everyone had a chance to win and was motivated to play. They also appreciated the absence of homework (or, in Rose's case, bemoaned it).

Outside of class and Professor Salem's club Myles increasingly found himself in the library. He'd always seen the small collection of books in the Orphanage as a treasure trove, rare tidbits of knowledge about the outside and magic and an escape from the small island. The Hogwarts library, then, was a mountain of gold and diamond.

It was, he found, overwhelming. He decided to try and skim through the library, reading titles and the rare introduction if the title proved too interesting. The reality, however, was that there were a lot of interesting titles, and they often had interesting introductions, and suddenly he'd find himself still standing, but three chapters in. And when this happened, he'd look to where he started his tour of the library and realize he had only made a few feet.

Through this process of halting progress Myles realized it would take years to make a noticeable dent in the collection of books. This realization was both awe-inspiring and a bit daunting. How did one choose which book to read, when he might never get to read the other?

Outside of the library Myles learned and played decidedly one-sided games of chess with Rose and Kory, who also often joined him in the library. He joined them in practicing the schoolwork spells initially, but stopped shortly afterward. Kory was still struggling with magic and was embarrassed that Rose had to tutor him. Myles being there, with spells that tended to work on the first try even if they occasionally had explosive effects, clearly aggravated the situation.

Wanded magic, Myles felt, was bizarre. Without a wand, magic was vague, everywhere but so thin it was like grabbing smoke with his hands. Spurred by bouts of accidental magic at the Orphanage, Livian and Myles had experimented and explored magic. Once Livian had thought that hanging upside down for the tree for two hours would change the color of their hair, something that worked for Livian on occasion but never for Myles. Myles, on the other hand, had been convinced that three underwater flips and a spin would spell him to climb walls after falling into the sea, being thrown about by the waves, and climbing up the ward wall that ringed the Orphanage island. In attempting to replicate it, and nearly drowning again in the process, he was catapulted roughly back onto land.

He and Livian did eventually discover some small reproducible magic, though it was never consistent or easy. Performing even the smallest action, from turning a stone blue to unlocking a door, was a task of intense focus, concentration, and often teased out by blood. With a wand, however, a few motions and an incantation could do seemingly anything with the barest intent and focus. It felt like… cheating. Like it simply wasn't fair.

Though, Myles thought, if it took him as long as Kory to learn spells, he probably wouldn't feel that way. Despite not having touched a wand besides the makeshift one of Livian's hair only weeks ago, Myles competed at the top of the class in practical magic, though he was bested by those with both talent and training, such as the Malfoy twins and still had some trouble keeping up in Transfiguration. But, overall, Myles found wanded magic easy. He wondered if it was because he'd spent so long attempting, with partial success, magic without it in the Orphanage and if that was why he accidentally overpowered spells so often or if that was to blame on his unusual wand.

He attended the first Chess Club meeting with Rose and Kory but despite the encouragement, he couldn't help but feel that the animated discussion, the enthusiasm, about the game was a part of their world, one they fit neatly into and one in which he didn't belong.

The other club that Myles decided to attend was Dueling Club. He tried not to think about what drew him there, trying to avoid the guilt laden images of Ms. Lenore dueling in Lower Diagon Alley, exchanging spells and eventually collapsing under a building.

He tried, but he wasn't always successful. On his way to the first Dueling Club meeting for new members, Myles hand clenched subconsciously into a fist under his robes. His eyes were glued to the floor as he walked down to the club room, and he didn't notice as two figures approached him from the side.

One of them bumped into him hard in a blur of red and gold, and Myles jumped, letting out a sound that was definitely not a squeal. He looked up to see Lyla, already bent over laughing at him.

"You jumped like Scufy when he ate a chili powder flavored jelly bean! And what was that noise?" She teased, turning Myles's cheeks red. Cecilia, who was accompanying Lyla, smiled, not so much at Myles's embarrassment as at Lyla's antics.

"A squeal," came a condescending voice that didn't belong coming from an eleven year olds mouth.

"Though I was more startled by your laugh; I wondered if there was a dying hyena in the halls. How'd you get these otherwise sensible Ravenclaws to walk with you?" Tor asked, as he walked up behind them, completing his snide remarks with his cool and relaxed demeanor.

"Hello Tor," Cecilia responded, clearly unsurprised by the Slytherin boy's introduction. Tor was constantly stepping on the toes of the other House first-years with his sharp tongue. Occasionally he had the support of some of his housemates, but more often than not he was alone in his antagonism. Tor's aggravations were a constant whenever a professor turned their back. He was subtle enough to hide it from the professor and when his victim retaliated they often weren't. He had triggered a few under-powered skirmishes (few of the first-years knew spells that could do any harm) between Gryffindors, but he'd escaped the consequences every time.

"Come to duel Tor?" Lyla asked with a slight edge to her voice. Tor often targeted her but found little direct success against Lyla, who had a tough skin against both insults and pain, perhaps due in part to her childhood of playing hexem with older boys. Lyla had started to get frustrated, however, by Tor's casual, sometimes cruel, and often effective bullying of her friends and classmates.

"Don't be silly," Tor said dismissively. Lyla visibly grimaced and stamped her foot, annoyed that Tor was avoiding direct confrontation again. "We're first years, Flitwick and Longbottom will teach us some useless spell and pat our backs."

"Why are you here then?" Myles asked, his tone clearly stating "Leave." Tor reminded Myles of the worst of the other Orphanage children, only more snide and more, well, snakelike. Tor just shrugged and ignored him, content with annoying Lyla. He walked past them, Lyla glaring holes in the back of his robes.

"Where were you two anyways?" Myles asked, he'd never seen Lyla and Cecilia walking together.

"Detention," Lyla groaned. "I forgot to write the paper on the forms of Transfiguration and Professor Salem wasn't happy."

"And you, Cecilia?"

She blushed. "I got lost before curfew and Professor Calding found me. He gave me detention after leading me back to Ravenclaw."

Myles didn't quite buy Cecilia's innocent and mildly embarrassed blush. The Cecilia of Hogwarts wasn't the same bold and curious Cecilia he'd met in Knockturn Alley. She acted closer to the clueless girl she'd pretended to be when tricking her father to pay for Myles's wand. No one else seemed to notice the discrepancies in her behavior. Myles doubted he would have noticed had he not met what he thought of as the real Cecilia before.

She was a mystery, one that Myles didn't begin to understand. From the Sorting on Cecilia had maintained the facade of an innocent and, though talented, occasionally clueless girl. She listened eagerly to the infamous third-year Ravenclaw gossip Roslyn, shyly and tentatively raised her hand in class when Myles knew she knew the textbook response, and feigned a frailty that Myles thought might be real. On the occasions that he sat with her in the Great Hall she seemed more interested in moving her food around the plate than in eating it.

Myles had been surprised when she'd instantly switched personas in Diagon Alley but it had made sense; she had acted the way her father had seen her and for a goal. But here at Hogwarts the facade never stopped, only when they paired together in class did the other Cecilia show through, and there was no apparent goal. That Myles was the only she had allowed to see her other self only built her mystery and intrigue.

He suspected that, while he and Cecilia were very different people, the two of them were similarly separated from the rest of the first-years. The Hogwarts students were carefree. Their biggest worries consisted of their grades on yesterday's homework and the latest drama of their friends. Lectures on the dangers of magic and potential accidents were serious but, after all, no one had died at Hogwarts since the war. They were, Myles couldn't think of a better word to describe them, normal.

Cecilia pretended to be someone who fit in and she did it well. She was adored by the professors and well liked by the other students but none of that made her belong because it wasn't truly her. Myles, on the other hand, was like a misshapen puzzle piece. His unexplained past and conspicuously missing last name combined with the fact that all of Hogwarts had stared at him for several long silent minutes of Sorting made for jutted edges that didn't fit neatly in puzzle of Hogwarts.

He didn't know why Cecilia was different, her life seemed to fit the normal for the Wizarding world. Her mother had seemed a bit odd and perhaps her father was inattentive, but the two clearly cared for her. Myles didn't think it particularly involved them because Cecilia's father had believed the act; he seemed as ignorant about her as everyone else. Myles hadn't asked about her about it and he didn't plan to. He didn't want their tentative friendship, where Cecilia almost dropped her act around him, to fall apart.

"And we're here!" Lyla exclaimed, her annoyance at Tor disappearing completely as she hopped through the open door to the Dueling Club. Outside of the Great Hall, the room that hosted the Dueling Club was the largest room in Hogwarts and there were almost forty first-years inside.

Myles had found The Impact of the British Wizarding Wars in his search for books on modern history, which were rare in a library filled with books that were decades and hundreds of years old. It detailed in part the rise in the popularity of dueling, which it claimed was an after effect of the wars and modern rule changes. Dueling was now second only to Quidditch in popularity as a spectator sport and, unlike the House Quidditch teams, there was no limit to how many could join the Dueling club.

Only a few of the first-year Gryffindor students were missing, half of Slytherin was in was there, and well over a third of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were in attendance. The three of them walked into a fierce argument held by a mixed group of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors.

"The reforms destroyed the suspense of Quidditch!" Elias claimed adamantly. "The game could end any minute, both the players and the crowd were on edge the whole time!".

"The game could be over in a minute!" Sam argued back. "Thousands of spectators come to watch the game, not the Snitch happening to fly right by the Seeker!"

"I like it!" Lyla interjected, stepping forward into the argument. "Chaser is the best position and now even the Seeker gets to play Chaser!"

"The Snitch changes were necessary," the normally restrained Ambrosia Malfoy argued adamantly. "But they didn't need to make the Quaffle faster."

Myles looked to Cecilia, the question clear in his eyes. He was familiar with Quidditch but only knew so much about it.

"The way Quidditch used to be played, it would end when the Seeker caught the Snitch. And catching the Snitch earned the team 150 points, so the team with the better or luckier Seeker usually won."

"The 2008 and 2012 World Cup finals both ended in less than five minutes, and the 2004 finals took three days. It was a mess for the Ministries and the Quidditch fans that went to see the matches. The International Quidditch Committee came out with reforms in 2012 to standardize the game and make teams less reliant on the Seeker."

"The reforms made it so that the game ends on the third catch of the Snitch, and each catch gives 50 points. They also changed the Snitch enchantments; it's nearly impossible to catch right after it's release because it's both harder to see and much faster. But it becomes brighter and slower as the game progresses, after an hour it practically glows and is much slower than it was before the reforms."

"There are no rules restricting the Seeker from handling or scoring with the Quaffle, so most teams pull their Seeker in as a fourth Chaser for the first fifteen or twenty minutes. A lot of people hate the rule changes, a lot of people love them." Cecilia shrugged, showing that she didn't particularly care either way. "Most of us can barely remember Quidditch before the reforms. They're mostly repeating their parents' opinions."

The debate continued strong as the rest of the Dueling Club attendees looked up to the Professor stepping up on the platform. Surprisingly, it wasn't Professors Flitwick or Longbottom, but Assistant Professor Calding, the wiry young man that helped large classes and taught a few of his own.

The Quidditch debate, which sounded like it might go on forever, was finally cut to and end as Professor Calding cleared his throat with a magically amplified cough. The rest of the class turned to face him, and Myles's first Dueling Club began.

A/N: Dueling Club Pt. 2 coming out Sunday afternoon.