I still don't own any of the characters owned by anyone else.

Trista looked around the great hall with disappointment as well as a little fear. She wasn't sure if she should be amused with Gabrielle and Lenora or not, they had talked her into wearing one of the Weasley twin's enchanted costumes. It was still early in the morning on Halloween but there were only a few other children with any type of costume on. She had been on the receiving end of a number of odd looks on her way from her room. Not that she wasn't used to a certain number of hostile and odd looks due to the fact that she was a werewolf but apparently people were even less used to creative costumes. Though to be fair she supposed she would have to forgive the people sending her odd looks this morning, being that it looked like she had a flaming pumpkin for a head. She thought the costume was brilliant. She had been a little nervous about the price until her friends explained that it was publicity for a friend of theirs' shop.

She often wasn't sure what the deal was with her new friends. They were very open about certain things in their lives, sometimes too open, but they tended to change the subject at odd points in conversations. For example whenever the topic of conversation turned to include parents they all got rather vague and worked on changing the subject, same thing happened when she asked too many questions about the neighborhood where they grew up. Trista shook her head in disbelief as Gabrielle came gliding in. She hadn't thought Gabrielle was serious about her costume.

The students of Hogwarts were shocked to see Gabrielle dressed in a strange old-fashioned yet short icy blue dress. Sparkles of frost continuously fell from the dress as she danced into the great hall. Her ears had been charmed to make them more pronounced and elflike than normal. The large pixie wings growing out of her back completed the fairy look.

Rose winced as Malfoy walked toward the Gryffindor tables on his way to the Slytherin tables with a smug expression plastered to his face. She was sure he was behind the increase in verbal abuse the Slytherins had been plaguing Trista with the last few weeks. They couldn't exactly prove it to the teachers but they all knew that Malfoy had it in for them because of what had happened on the train.

Snape stifled a groan as he watched Malfoy head out of his way toward the Gryffindor table. He'd known Malfoy was a fool but he didn't think he was such a fool as to approach hostile ground with no backup. Snape figured he was assuming that none of the Gryffindors would do anything under the watchful eyes of the teachers.

Malfoy sneered as he stopped and inspected Trista's costume. "You do understand that only mudbloods dress up for Halloween?"

Trista swallowed the shiver of fear that ran up her spine whenever the larger sixth year was around. She tried to focus on her food and ignore him.

Malfoy frowned then whispered, "Hey I'm talking to you mudblood, pay attention when your betters talk to you."

Rose winced as she noticed Gabrielle's expression of glee.

Gabrielle's face lit up into a smile as she turned to look at Malfoy, "First of all you aren't her better, second of all I'm wearing a costume so does that make me a mudblood?"

Malfoy too self involved in his thoughts, didn't notice Snape approaching behind him. "You're at best a half blood whore that wouldn't know the proper way to act if it bit you in the ass."

Gabrielle having noted the professor's approach for a while just smiled grimly as Malfoy dug himself a grave.

Snape scowled, "Is there a problem here?"

Malfoy straightened his back, "No professor, I was just commenting on the Halloween costume being outside of the dress code."

Gabrielle shook her head, "Actually, he wasn't but beyond that he was slandering my heritage. I demand a wizard duel."

Rose winced, she had known that Gabrielle's dedication to wading through the old wizarding law books on her off time was going to cause problems.

Malfoy snorted before laughing. His laughter was cut short as Snape nodded. "I believe that can be arranged."

Malfoy looked at Snape in shock. "What?"

"If you had paid more attention in history of Magic you would know that slander of one's magical pedigree is a grievous offense worthy of being challenged to a duel. It is an old law, one that hasn't been enforced in years but laws are laws." He pressed on knowing that Malfoy was opening his mouth to deny having said what he himself had heard him say. "Sadly for you, I witnessed your idiotic remark." Snape turned to look at Gabrielle, "If you insist on this duel I will talk with Professor Dumbledore and your guardian about it Miss Rosenberg."

Gabrielle nodded, "I couldn't in good conscience not defend my family's honor."

"In that case I will discuss this matter with the headmaster and notify you both with the details. Come along Malfoy before you do yourself more harm." He dragged Malfoy with him as he headed toward the headmaster's office.

Whispers broke out all along the Gryffindor table.

Trista glanced over at Gabrielle, "You didn't have to do that."

Gabrielle shrugged, "I just wish I could challenge him to a duel because he is a jerk, rather than because of family honor."

One of the other girls in first year, "He's going to rip you apart in a duel. What were you thinking challenging him?"

"Even if he does beat me, it doesn't matter. If he wins than he is a sixth year that beat up a little first year. Not exactly something to be proud of. If he loses he is a sixth year that got beat by a first year. He will never live that down."

Lenora sighed, she knew Gabrielle meant well but she couldn't help but wonder if a public duel was such a great idea. She just hoped that her sister wouldn't get into too much trouble with her mother over the duel.

Xander grinned, he was having a lot of fun supervising building a small fort to replace the wreck of a house destroyed on this spot fifteen years ago to the day. He was happy that he wasn't having to move all of the stone blocks by himself. He was even almost used to seeing the oddly lumpy demonic dwarf like creatures that were the actual work force running around the place. He couldn't pronounce the demon species actual name but figured it didn't matter because after him butchering their proper name so badly so many times they had all stopped objecting when he called them demonic dwarves. They weren't the nicest of creatures but they did good work and they were fast and reliable. Cheap was something they weren't but Xander hadn't been expecting cheap as they were contacts of Anya's. Besides all he had to do was supervise and by that he meant stand around, look pretty and occasionally add input.

The basic design had started with a six towered keep with the towers spread around the outside of the keep as points of a star. Somewhere along the design phase everyone decided that having an extra two towers might be nice incase they needed the extra space down the line.

Thus the plans he was looking at now called for an eight sided shape with the towers serving as the points of the star. The interior of the keep was supposed to contain a large kitchen that would be a mix of magical and muggle appliances. He still needed to have someone reliable go over the kitchen ideas with Dobby. Well that's assuming that Dobby could be spared from Hogwarts and he could find someone to serve as the cook. He wanted to make sure the dinning room was large enough to hold a family gathering as well as a great number of family friends. He was working on the balance between the guest rooms on the first floor and the dinning area when Willow walked in holding a letter. He quickly moved the plans for the second floor master bedrooms off the chair next to him so that Willow had a place to sit. "You have that look on your face."

"Which one is that?"

"The same one Dawn had on her face when we destroyed Sunnydale but realized the mall was also destroyed."

She frowned as she fiddled with the letter. "It's from Dumbledore about Gabrielle."

Xander smirked, "So what did the little mischief maker do?"

"She challenged Malfoy to a magical duel of honor."

Xander frowned, "What did he do to deserve it? And are you going to let her fight him?"

"You know that he has been harassing her new friend since school started. Apparently the last straw was him calling her a mudblood."

"I say he deserves what he gets for calling Gaby a mudblood, besides she could use the practice against an opponent she hasn't had years of practice dueling. It would be nice to see her able to fight someone she is willing to go full out on. Besides from everything I've read about the guy he is an ass."

"That doesn't mean I would wish a pissed off Gabrielle on him."

Xander shrugged, "Sign the permission slip and let the professors handle it. Oh and make sure that Rose or Lenora or maybe Lillian get a magical recording of it."

Willow chuckled as she grabbed a pen and signed the scroll.

The professors announcement that there would be a wizarding duel right before the feast that night spawned a great deal of gossip, most of it centered around the idea that a first year had challenged a sixth year to a wizard duel. The students weren't sure why it was being given so public a venue or why it was even allowed in the first place but it was certainly adding to the excitement of the night. By the time lunch was over Rose had already filled half her notepad with bets with plans to fill the rest before the duel actually started. She grinned as she finished writing down a bet from a seventh year Ravenclaw that had placed three galleons on Malfoy. She frowned as a bulky Gryffindor seventh year and his friends walked up to her. "You the girl taking bets?"

"If you mean am I the girl saying Gabrielle will toast Malfoy then yeah I am. How much you going to wager big man?"

He frowned down at her notepad, "Five galleons if you can cover that."

Rose rolled her eyes, "Not much of a bettor are you? I could say cover ten galleons but I don't think you have the backbone to bet that much…"

He snarled and not wanting to look stupid in front of his friends he nodded, "Fine ten galleons."

Lenora glanced at her as she was sister writing down the bets. She knew that Rose had a nice allowance but she wasn't sure she actually had enough coin on hand to cover all of the bets in the notebook if something went wrong.

Rose grinned, she knew she would rake in a lot of galleons if her sister won the duel. Of course she was slightly worried about the number of galleons she would lose if her sister lost but that was the risk of betting. Mostly she was having fun setting up all of the bets and seeing what people's thoughts on the duels were. She was being careful not to take any bets from Gryffindor or Hufflepuff students that didn't look to be able to afford to lose. As for the Ravenclaw and Slytherin students, she figured they could take any loss they were stupid enough to bet.

For Gabrielle the day seemed to slide slowly along as she waited for her chance to duel Malfoy. As the feast approached she was having second thoughts about the dueling, not because she thought she was going to lose, though she admitted there was a chance, no the real reason she wasn't sure she wanted to duel him was that she would have to use magic much more impressive than the couple of spells the other first years had mastered. It would put an end to any chance of her ever being able to slink into the background again. She knew that this one simple act would forever change her Hogwarts experience. She sighed as a stern professor McGonagall lead her up the steps to the dueling platform that had been set up where the professors normally ate.

McGonagall had been against the public demonstration, she was quite shocked that Snape had advocated for the public duel. She would have expected him to want this type of thing dealt with in a less public manner. She couldn't even guess the reason Albus was allowing the duel in so public a fashion either. She glanced over at her fellow staff members before looking sternly at Gabrielle and whispering. "No one would think ill of you if you called off the duel."

Gabrielle shook her head, "I would." She turned to face Malfoy across the dueling platform.

On the outside of the platform Snape was giving Malfoy a similar whispered speech. "No one would think ill of you for admitting you were wrong and giving her a public apology and backing out of the duel. No one will respect you for beating a first year in a duel even if she started it."

Malfoy snorted as he whispered back, "It's not about respect, it's about causing the little bitch pain."

"So be it." Snape sighed even as he walked back to where the other professors were standing.

Dumbledore kept his face neutral as he gestured for quiet. "Tonight you will witness a wizard duel. I'm sure you have heard the ugly reasons behind this duel." He looked intently at Malfoy. "Normally I would have settled this by taking points from Malfoy's house and been done with it. However there is an old law that no matter how outdated, allows such challenges to a wizard's honor to be answered with a wizard's duel. So without further ado I'll let our own dueling champion professor Flitwick referee the match."

Professor Flitwick nodded, "Thank you Dumbledore. Let us set some ground rules. He glanced at Malfoy, "No illegal curses," then turned his attention toward Gabrielle, "Either one of you may forfeit the duel at any point. Do you both understand?"

Malfoy and Gabrielle both nodded.

"Then nod to your opponent and you may start."