William was happy as he stood opposite of Nick in the dueling ring as the spring semester came to a close. Clark was officiating as she was graduating and the seventh graders were 'her class', Tall Elk watched with a smile as the two boys saluted and it was on. Nick much like Clark and William favored the relaxed position, and both he and William began to pace around the circle waiting for the other to slip up.
Nick's wrist twitched, and William let loose calling up a shield and shooting out a jinx right after. Of course Nick had thrown out his jinx and called up a shield right afterward. The jinxes rebounded off of the silver light surrounding the two duelists, as William broke into a full run to the right calling any hex that came to his head.
Nick had charged forward, summoning up shields and calling counter-jinxes that slammed into William's spells in mid-air. As Nick pivoted to look over at William, William let loose a flurry of spells at his friend who quickly parried them coming back with his own flurry. The match went on this way with exchanged shots for a solid few minutes, when William decided it was time to try at something a little different. William then realized that Nick hadn't seen his fight at the end of last semester and so called out, "Expelliarmus!" The jet of light came crashing into Nick, but as like last semester William just didn't quite have the hang of it and Nick held on to his wand though William saw that his grip was knuckle white.
Nick then whipped his wand about and called out a spell William was unfamiliar with. William just dove away as a number of ropes shot out of Nick's wand and tried to grasp at where William had been standing. William then swung back his wand and yelled, "Tagann!" And the blast of emerald light gripped around Nick and William flung his wand hard. Nick tumbled but landed with his shoulder on the ground calling out a spell through pain.
William got to his feet and called out another shield spell which blocked the light of Nick's jinx. Still in the flash Nick was on his feet, and both boy's locked eyes. Suddenly Nick and William yelled their spells at the same time. Nick went flying to the right and William rushed to where Nick had been standing while their wands flew out of their hands. They were both sprawled across the floor, wands clattered on the ground, when Tall Elk shouted, "Finished. The contest has been brought to a draw."
The whole dueling club clapped, as William and Nick stood and saluted before hazily stumbling out of the ring. Next the eighth graders started up but Clark still officiated as Tall Elk stepped up to the two boys. "Gentlemen, I must congratulate you on an impressive duel for boys of your age," He surveyed them both, "I'm also impressed at the resourcefulness of your final spell choices." Tall Elk sat down on the bench between them, "Of course I shouldn't be surprised William that you use spells with a Gaelic-base, especially when I consider how fond Clark is of you. That throwing curse was one of her favorites for a long time." He then turned toward Nick, and smiled, "And to see you use a standard spell of the Marshals is both inspiring and somewhat troubling. But I'm glad that while your illness has caused many troubles for you, that you have been able to draw some strength from it." He then smiled down at the two of them and said, "I cannot wait to see what you bring to the circle next year gentleman. Have a wonderful summer."
"Thank you, Dean Tall Elk," The two boys said in unison. The older man patted them on the shoulders and then rose to watch the rest of the matches. William smiled as it finally seemed like things had returned to normal.
Within a few days of the final dueling club meeting of the year, William was slowly packing up his trunk. Chris had already moved toward the train promising to save a compartment for everyone. William was not surprised when there was a knock on his open door and standing there was Clark, she smiled at William and said, "Hey there, squirt."
"Hello," William responded, "Ready to graduate?"
"You have no idea," Clark said as she stepped into the room and looked around it. She then paused and asked, "Do you guys keep it this clean all the time?"
William shrugged, "I don't know, I guess?"
"Boys are so weird," Clark murmured under her breath before turning to look at William, "Anyway, I came here to tell you that I'm pretty proud of you. I don't know what you did but you helped Nick get his head on straight and well, the two times you've sparred this year were pretty impressive." She looked down at William and then said, "I'm excited to see how you do in competition. I'm sure I'll be seeing you around of course."
"What are you doing now that you're graduated?" William asked, unsure of what it was wizards did after high school.
"Well, right now I have an offer from Tall Elk for a good word with the Marshals but I'm not sure I'm cut out for the whole fighting evil wizards thing. I'm planning on continuing to duel, hopefully semi-professionally and beyond that I don't know we'll see where the wind takes me," Clark responded, "I'm sure I'll find something to keep me occupied."
William nodded not quite sure what to make of her statement, "That's good I guess."
Clark laughed and then placed her hands around William, before giving him a hug, "Alright squirt, I wish you the best of luck. Oh and say hi to your sister for me."
"Alright," William said somewhat unsure of what to make of it all as Clark departed.
William soon found himself piling into the train with all of his friends. There was talk of summer plans, apparently Sarah's grandfather had invited them all to a quidditch game at everyone's earliest convenience, and Alexandria also suggested that they could meet up in Dragon's Plaza at some point at least before school letters came out. William smiled, for the first time since becoming a wizard he felt like he was doing what any kid his age would do: making plans with his friends.
As the train came to a halt in the secret platform of the train station, everyone piled out, but as they did Chris grabbed William's arm and said, "Hey hold back for a second, will you?"
William paused and looked at Chris, "What is it?"
"So I have an idea," Chris said, "I started looking into it after we found Nick's hiding place." William looked confused as Chris continued, "So only humans can contract lycanthropy."
"Right," William answered, "What's your point?"
"So if we weren't human, we wouldn't have to worry about Nick being a werewolf," Chris said and before William could ask he explained, "And we can use magic to transfigure ourselves into animals."
"You mean become an Animagi?" William asked, he had run across the term a few times in his transfiguration text and was vaguely familiar with the concept.
"Yes," Chris nearly shouted, "If we were animals we could travel around with Nick no problem. I'm not saying this is something we can do over the next month, but over the next few years, we could probably achieve our first transformation. Come on man." Chris had a huge grin on his face.
William frowned, unsure of how to respond, "I don't know, Chris..."
Chris's smile just grew wider as he said, "Oh come on, what's the worst that could happen?"