I'm now so far behind that I'm going to have to write 2k a day to win, and I only managed this today because my boss was away at work ...

Kai made his way through the castle safely, but he slowed as he approached the corridor which led to the Owlery. There was a whole host of things fighting for his attention: his frozen hand was starting to become painful and he had no idea if that was a good or a bad thing; the night time chill felt like it had infiltrated right to his core; and all of his bumps and grazes were throbbing. However, if there was one thing that he was best at, it was ignoring his body. So he didn't slow down as he approached the corridor because he was in pain. Quite the opposite; his mind was running this show and it was thinking tactically.

He hadn't seen the twins yet. If they were here at all, he thought that they would be waiting in this next corridor. It was an educated assumption that the two of them wouldn't be ambushing students in the Owlery itself, as the racket the owls would undoubtedly then cause would attract the caretaker.

He raised his wand. They weren't going to take him by surprise this time. He'd even discarded his shoes just outside the Gryffindor common room so that his footsteps wouldn't give him away. His feet were absolutely freezing, but again that would wait until later.

He took a noiseless step into the corridor. Every nerve in his body felt stretched to their breaking point. The last time he'd been this tense he'd just missed the Snitch in last year's House Cup and he'd been frantically racing the opposing Seeker to catch it.

The twins' voices roses in the darkness. Before the spell had left their wands, or even completely left their mouths, Kai had adjusted his grip on his wand a fraction and said "Protego." He didn't need to shout and bellow like them for the spell to work. Hell, he barely even needed to say the words, since he'd been practising non-verbal shielding ever since they had learnt it last year, but right now he wasn't leaving anything to chance.

Their spell, the Body Bind again, bounced harmlessly off his shield.

"Hi." He walked confidently down the corridor. A Stupefy and a Disarmament Charm richoted away from him. "That's not how you break through a shield, kids. That's how you accidentally Stun yourself."

"Fuck off." The boy. Chestnut. Dragon heartstring core, yes, that was it. Must be.

Kai shrugged. "Give me back my wand and I will."

They laughed in boisterous unison. It seemed very well-practised. Perhaps it was supposed to be creepy. "That's not how this works," the boy said in a very self-consciously menancing manner.

"Is it not?" He could tell that his confidence was starting to niggle at them. The girl (ebony and phoenix feather and he really, really still wanted that wand) was shooting quick little glances behind her. He could tell because of the way her hood was moving. It looked like she was wondering whether or not to make a break for it up the stairs. Weak point. "Ok. I'll take it back, then."

On 'take', he dropped his shield and fired off a wordless Disarmament at her. The wand she was holding spun high in the air before clattering onto the stone floor.

It was his wand.

This distracted him so much that he didn't bring his shield back up in time and so got clipped by a Stinging Hex from her brother.

Ouch, these were clearly the boy's speciality. His skin felt like lava crawling on his bones.

He strengthened his shield. His wand still lay between them.

"Take your stupid wand," the girl said harshly. Her hood had tipped back a bit and he could make out the white, pointed shape of her chin. "It's shit, anyway!"

That was probably meant as a goad to make him neglect his shield and grab for his wand, but instead it made Kai snort with laughter. He took stock of himself and mentally praised Max for all the shield-holding practise (ok, competitions) they had done this term. He had power to spare for a little while yet.

So he sat down. The cold stone was a relief to his burning skin. "You've not done this for that long, have you?"

They stayed silent. Glowering. Probably confused.

He could have cursed them both into immobility (why just Body-Bind when you can cast individual Jelly-Legs Curses for each limb?) and taken his wand, but he felt the need to somehow get it across to them that they were meddling in wandlore, something that they had no clue about, and also that they needed a better perspective of the illegality of stealing wands.

"The whole wand stealing thing. Acacia, ash, laurel, hornbeam … maybe a couple of others. Hm. Spruce, too. They either don't work for you unless you win them fairly, or they just don't work for anyone who isn't their original owner." He shifted to a more comfortable position. "Always take a hazel wand's owner by surprise because if they get emotional their wand reacts. Oh, and laurel is a massive problem. Please try to steal a laurel wand, it'll be really, really funny."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" the girl snarled. Defensive. Didn't like hearing a good bit of information.

He smirked. "What, you've suddenly gone deaf?"

They would never be any use in a duel, he could see their tells a mile away. He added a touch more power to his shield and braced. A Stupefy and, oh, more advanced, the girl had tried Confringo the Blasting Curse.

"Really?" he snapped once the spells had stopped ricocheting. "From this range you might have blasted me through the fucking castle wall."

"Good!" the boy called back.

Kai rolled his eyes. "No, not good. That would get you up on front of a court for intent to grievously harm someone by use of curses. Calm your little fourteen year-old selves down, for fuck's sake. Now, I appreciate I've spoiled your little game of hide, seek and steal, but use your tiny brains for five seconds, will you? If I don't get my wand back in two minutes, I'm alerting the teachers. When they get here, what will they find?"

They'd gone suddenly silent. He could almost see the cogs turning. He grinned like a shark.

"They'll find me, with spell damage," He lifted his clawed right hand, "and probably still suffering from this bloody Stinging Hex, well done chestnut." He didn't realise until the boy cocked his head that he had actually called him that out loud. "Because I've visibly been attacked, they'll investigate the people I say did it." The girl looked like she was about to open her mouth and say something defiant. "And you can say whatever you want to them, lie however you want. When they check our wands, they'll see that all I did was shield and all you've done is attack. And that will look fantastic, won't it?"

"I used your wand!" the girl said, like she thought she'd just won a point. Kai sighed.

"One, yes, that will support me saying you stole it, and two, they know I have this one." He spun the hornbeam around in his fingers and very nearly dropped it. Oops. Left hand wasn't as practised at tricks.

"Why do you even have that one?" the boy asked. Kai ignored the question.

"So now you're stalling, probably hoping to find a weak spot in my shield so that you can knock me out and take this one too. Which is really fucking stupid because I've just proven I can get you in serious shit for this."

They both scowled. There was no way out and they both knew it. Kai drew on his flagging energy and bolstered his shield a bit more. Cornered rats were the most dangerous kind.

To his surprise, they didn't try any dramatic showy curses to get past his shield. They didn't even kick him as they walked past (sometimes shields didn't work on physical assaults if they'd been coping only with spells for a while). They just stalked past him, hoods pulled hard over their heads as if he didn't already know exactly who they were. Probably thinking they were exuding menace and warning, but actually just looking like a couple of kicked stray dogs.

He waited for eighty three seconds after their footsteps had disappeared before finally giving in and releasing his shield. It had only been about five minutes but the high-intensity situation, blocking actual spells cast with harmful intent, meant it felt more like ten. The backlash hit him like the Knight Bus with a hangover, and he let himself sort of slither even further down the wall while he waited for the world to come back into focus and stop spinning.

That took longer than he thought, or possibly he had let the world just … pass him by for a moment or two. Possibly that one. Just a moment.

With a herculean effort he dragged himself to his feet. That hurt. Everything hurt. The Stinging Hex was the only thing keeping him awake right now.

He was absolutely clueless how he'd made it back to the dormitory, but an indeterminable time later, here he was, stood in front of the painting. He stared blearily at it. The Fat Lady was asleep.

"Wake up," he said hoarsely. She snorted and jerked awake.

"Well! Manners, young man … sorry, are you all right?" She came up to the edge of her frame and peered at him.

"Fine." He said the password, "frabjuously" and tried not to trip as he climbed through the hole.

Somehow he wasn't surprised to see Ray sat there, glaring at him in the dim light of the barely burning fire.

"About time!" Ray said, in the particular brand of hushed whisper Kai hated the most because it was more audible than speech.

"What?" It was supposed to be an irritated snap, but it had come out more like a sigh. Ray's look of annoyance and concern bled more to concern, and he got up from his seat.

"What happened?"

Kai really wanted to sit down, but he was pretty sure that if he did he would never get back up again. "Don't suppose you know any Stinging Hex counters?" It was a rhetorical question because Charms wasn't Ray's strong point, so he was actually surprised to see Ray pull a face and nod.

"Yes, boiled Gurdyroot is pretty good, but I've not got any on me." He nodded towards the stairs. "Shall I see if Max has any?"

Kai shook his head. He didn't want any more witnesses to his exhaustion.

"How come you got hit by a Stinging Hex, anyway?"

"Scaring some fourth years," he replied truthfully.

"O ...k."

Kai started to walk towards the stairs, but his numb feet had other ideas and tried to twist underneath him. Luckily Ray's trademark speed came in handy and he steadied himself on Ray's arm. So he physically felt Ray twitch and then bristle up. He followed his line of vision, and realised that Ray had just noticed Kai had two wands stuck in his belt.

The look of anger and disbelief hit Kai like a brand. Bring back that Stinging Hex. Hell, bring back being blasted through the castle wall; anything was better than seeing how quickly your friend thought the worst of you.

"They're both mine, you fucking shithead." He wriggled free of Ray, leaving him speechless and ashamed, and headed for the stairs. Pure fury was a good fuel. Definitely to be recommended.

Ok, but maybe not a long-lasting fuel. By the time he'd made it up the stairs to the dormitory he was sweating and shaking. He tried to open the door with his right hand, completely forgetting that the stupid fucking thing was still useless.

He'd never hated being the furthest from the door before. When he finally reached his bed, he collapsed onto it face-first and almost instantly felt sleep tugging and swirling at him.

All opinions welcome!

xIlbx