Over the next few weeks Julian was forced to get used to a new routine. Every morning was an early start, practically inhaling his breakfast and rushing out of the underground maze to get to whatever class he had that morning and by the beginning of March, Julian was well underway in the different classes offered at the school.
Charms had well moved past from creating lights on the end of their wands to refining their use on the softening charm. Which Ellie would put to good use in the more hardbacked seats in the common room. Transfiguration was still intent on focusing on the theory behind how a change occurred. Mr Bottler would espouse detail on the process for imagining how the process would happen in the mind and would only move on to practically focused lessons when all the students described each step of the process from memory. For as much as Julian disliked this approach, it did leave him smiling when he looked at his fully transfigured needles.
The classes soon began assaulting homework from all directions, keeping him up well past his usual bedtime. Julian and Elie usually stayed in the common room until late finishing off homework. However, this usually led to Elie quickly copying Julian's work the morning after as she tended to fall asleep halfway through, looking embarrassed as she did it. Julian was baffled how one person could get so much sleep and envied her ability to do it with little effort, whether in the common room or out.
She didn't spend all her time sleeping however, she was quite adept at all kinds of games, their time after classes being used up playing Exploding Snap and Wizard's Chess.
Although he had played the muggle versions before and had always thought he was decent, he could never beat Ellie. He lost even harder when they played wizard card games such as Verto which swapped random body parts with the other player, slowly turning you back to normal whenever a hand was won. This was an experience that confused him to no end. 'It's just a short-range glamour, only the people close by can see the change.' She said after Julian panicked when they swapped hair. Even some of the other first years joined in the games, Connor Xu and Nick Henderson frequently did but everybody lost against Elie.
It was as if something turned into a game she became the smartest person in the world, whenever Julian saw that gleam in her eyes, he just knew he would lose.
Even though he would say they were close after a few weeks at Mornington he still felt there was some topics she avoided. Whenever Julian asked about her sister, who he had seen every now and then, Elie would clam up and mention what he already knew, that she was in Owlsight house and was pretty smart. Whenever he tried to ask anything more, she suddenly became interested in any other topic imaginable. He was beginning to wonder if the reason she didn't talk about her was the same reason he didn't like talking about Hannah.
Ever since the potions class, Hannah had barely looked in his general direction. Likewise, Julian couldn't bring himself to go over and try to make up with her. He just couldn't motivate himself to do so, especially when the last thing she said to him sounded like she hoped that he'd be killed in the maze. Because of this, every potions class was a challenge to see how long he could avoid looking in her general direction. Thinking that if enough time passed maybe one day, he could forget about her.
This plan was ruined as unfortunately, Ben Winde was too much of a decent person to avoid talking to them. Which normally wouldn't be a problem, but Julian was becoming very exhausted trying to think of what he could talk about with Ben.
Fortunately, he didn't have this problem with Jack Pip from Imphorn. Who despite not talking to Julian much since the sorting was always a fun person to talk to, even if he tended to carry conversations most of the time.
'Sports day's coming up.' Jack was saying during Transfiguration one Wednesday. 'Which one are you guys doing?'
'Uh… Duelling I think.' The students had to pick between three sports and compete for the entire day. Quidditch, Quodpot and Duelling. Julian knew nothing about Quidditch or Quodpot so the only remaining option was duelling.
'You sure you want to go through that again?' Jack asked, looking concerned.
'He's right, remember the first day?' Ellie said, shifting a look down the line of Terrascale to Yuko.
Julian sighed, annoyed at how many times he had to explain to her. 'I can't fly at all; I don't know how to do those other sports.' Every broom that Julian had a chance to fly in PE caused him to be hanging off of it metres off the ground a few minutes later. The only real option to avoid being laughed at was duelling, even with his lack of skill with it.
He really was starting to hate sports day; his primary school had done something similar and in his opinion it always sucked.
'At least I know how duelling works, you just have to beat the other guy…'
He paused for a second.
'Hang on, Jack, how'd you hear about the first day?'
Jack looked sheepish, 'yeah… uh… everyone did.'
Julian groaned, digging his nails into his palms.
'Sorry man, news travels fast. Especially with what you did, you don't punch someone in a wizard duel and get away with it.'
'But I didn't punch him!' Julian stopped himself, realising how loud he'd become. He took a deep breath.
'So, which one are you doing?'
'Quidditch. I've mostly done Aussie rules but I'll have to make do with UK ones.' Jack smiled.
'Well, good luck with it.' Julian left it at that.
He knew that in any duelling competition, his house would most likely be at a disadvantage. Especially considering the red elephant in the room, but at this point, he was starting to get fed up with trying.
The first class for Defensive magic had set the tone for the class since. The single length classes had a lecture on a spell, which they would then practice in the double. Usually culminating in a practice duel between houses at the end of which Terrascale never won. As the spells got harder and harder, he was starting to fall behind at the spells, an experience shared by the other Terrascales. Julian surmised this was most likely because of Halliday's extra training, of which he was all but sure of being given to the Defanons. At least the class wasn't too boring, he at least got a chance to vent his frustrations on the other house in the duels, despite losing every time.
'How lame do you have to be to play favourites with your house?' Ellie asked him as they practiced the disarming charm in Defence. Halliday had introduced the spell because the class had progressed so quickly. A fact that was only true of students from Defanon. Julian, Ellie and the other Terrascales had barely made progress.
'Not as lame as twisting an arm in a wizard duel.' He said glumly.
'Don't worry about that, at least you won. Not everyone can say that.'
She was right. The boy he'd beaten, Malcolm Peckering, had since proven to be every part of a bully since their first day. After every class, Julian could hear the boy bragging to his friends. And when Peckering felt particularly daring, he'd taken to calling Julian a muggle across the hallways. Of which Julian did his best to ignore, leaving his hands raw red afterwards.
The only that kept Julian from doing something rash was the thinking back to that victory. It was enough to put a smile on his face, but he could only ride that high for so long before it became sad. He wished he could find another way to wipe that stupid smirk of Peckering's face.
'I guess.' He droned, trying to hide his frustration.
He pointed his wand back at Ellie yelling 'Expelliarmus'. Her wand barely made a small jerk in her hand.
'Why are we learning this spell if none of us can do it?' He complained; it'd been the tenth time he tried.
'No clue.' Ellie replied, herself not even making his wand move. If she was as annoyed as he was, she did an amazing job of not showing it. 'Apparently, it got popular after this one famous wizard used it in that war twenty years ago.'
'Whoever it was I wish they hadn't.' Julian grumbled his mind out of it. He spotted Yuko not having anyone to practice with. It seemed out of everyone else she had gotten the spell all on her own. Whenever he saw her, Julian couldn't help but feel bad about his actions. Maybe she wouldn't feel so alone If he hadn't gone nuts during that first lesson.
Whatever, he barely knew her, who cared what she thought?
Irritated, he fired another disarming charm at Ellie, not surprised to see her wand stay in her hand.
Soon enough, the middle of March came by and with it the sports day that Julian desperately wanted to avoid. At least it was on a Friday, which meant three whole days without classes. A fact that him and his year mates were looking forward to, even if they didn't end up winning anything.
Only a small amount of the students had chosen to do Quidditch or Quodpot, there was only so many matches you could do when you had to have a minimum of fourteen. They sat eating breakfast in the main hall, which wasn't a usual occurrence.
'Feeling alright?' Ellie asked.
Julian hadn't realised he'd been hunched over his food and sat up a little.
'I'm just wishing I could sleep through it.' Realisation dawning on him that he'd be duelling other people in front of most of the school.
'It's only first years against first years.' Ellie said. 'They'll want us to watch the other years after, but once we're done, we can just go find somewhere to chill out.' Even though it was sunny, it wasn't as hot as it was in February, so this sounded appealing to Julian, who mumbled an agreement.
'We'll grab some of the other guys and go watch the Quidditch matches afterwards. Connor Xu said he found a hill that has a great view of the pitch.'
After breakfast, the majority of the school, who had picked duelling walked out of the castle to a large field, where a series of stands had been set up surrounding several circular platforms raised a metre above the ground.
Once they arrived, a teacher stepped onto a platform in the centre of the others, which Julian assumed was where the duelling would take place. It was Mr Hodge, who Julian hadn't seen since he was told he was a wizard a few months before. It occurred to him that he didn't know what class that Hodge taught, but if he were to hazard a guess, it would be sports related.
'Morning everyone, welcome to duelling!' He announced, projecting enthusiasm that the crowd lacked completely. 'We're going to get right into it, we have a lot to get through. Each of you will be paired with another member of your house and pitted against another pair from another house. The match will be best of three rounds. Once completed, each house will then duel against a pair from the other houses. We'll begin with a new set of pairs until each house's pair is finished. Years three and above will also be competing in solo duels.'
'How you perform in each of your matches will be assessed with points, which will be tallied.' He gestured to another figure next to him. 'These will be judged by our head of defence, Ms Halliday'
Of course it was.
This little announcement just made him feel like he wanted to sleep for the rest of the day.
'Alright, First years, you're up. Your prefects will announce your teams and then we'll get duelling!' Hodge finished triumphantly.
The older students walked over to the stands and began setting up decorations. Julian watched the banners that had been made by the other houses.
All the other houses had more elaborate and magical banners, Owlsight's floated in mid air above their part of the stands, with eyes that observed it all. Defanon was bright red and even combusted into flame leaving the name in front of them, only for it to reform back to the banner and repeat the process. Lioncrown's folded in on itself to create a spinning crown that shone brilliantly despite being fabric. Imphorn's was the most extravagant, with a long banner that was almost ten metres long being placed in front of their stands, it periodically twisted into imps made of ribbons and began fighting each other. When the last 'imp' was standing it jumped around and pieced the other imps back together and they all spelt the house's name using their bodies.
Unfortunately, Terrascale's was small and simply floated in front of their stands. Not really much creativity there, Julian thought.
Soon after, the sounds of talking and the wizarding wireless from the majority of the school was enough to deafen the first years, who were trying their best to hear the prefect's instructions.
'Ok guys!' Emily the prefect was forced to shout. 'I'm giving out your pairings, so listen up!
'First, Cassius Graham and Olivia Phan.'
Cassius looked like he was about to faint, he must not have thought he would be going first in front of the school. Olivia looked torn between two emotions, happy she would be done early or frustrated that she would be paired with who everyone knew by now to be the worst dueller of their house.
'Janet Simpkin and Aaron Knox.'
Julian felt a little sick, he tuned out the announcements, until he heard his name called it didn't matter anyway. He did notice Ellie and Nick Henderson being paired together, to which they high-fived. Maybe the Quidditch connection was stronger than he thought, because he hadn't seen them talk much. Right after that he heard his own name.
'Yuko Watanabe and Julian Vital.'
He groaned, why her? He was absolutely positive she hated him and he was no closer to understanding why than he was to patching things up with Hannah. He prayed he wouldn't be duelling against Hannah, as if that was what he needed.
The stupid fight wouldn't even be fair anyway, he knew Halliday or whoever else was there would have something against him.
'This is the order you'll be competing in, when the pair before you have finished then it'll be your turn. I'm not repeating this again so remember your groups and don't wander off.'
With that the prefects were finished, and they were dismissed. Julian started moving towards the stands, he was ready to just find the quietest spot on the Terrscale stands and engage in Ellie's favourite pastime when he saw a shorter girl stand in his way.
'Uh hi, Yuko.' Ellie said beside Julian, surprised herself. She looked between the other two. 'I'll just go to the stands. See you there.' She said catching up to Nick Henderson.
Yuko glared at Julian, he couldn't get a read on her, she must be angry being paired with him. He had to speak before she had a chance to start shouting at him again.
'Hey, looks like we'll be together on this.' Julian said, not able to think of anything else. Yuko just stood there silently. He just wanted to get out of there. He had to just go for it.
'I'll see you on the platform.' He said as quickly as possible, hoping she got the message.
He was so beyond caring about today.
The duels began instantly, but Julian looked anywhere else. As several pairs of first years duelled down on the platforms, Julian was enjoying himself with a sandwich given to him by Janet Simpkin. Her mother had mailed them from home to share with the Terrascale first years on sports day. It seemed to be common, at least among Terrascale, for the students to bring their own lunch for the day as they weren't allowed back into the castle.
'I've got loads more guys, so take however much you want.' She announced, and Julian had no reason say no. Julian and Ellie had nothing better to do, so they started a game of Verto.
After thirty minutes, Cassius Graham and Olivia Phan came back after their set of duels, looking exhausted. Janet Simpkin and Aaron Knox both left after a moment.
'How'd it go?' Connor Xu asked the two of them.
'Don't ask.' Olivia Phan said, dropping onto a bench, bumping into Ellie, almost letting go of the cards from in hand. Oliva saw the cards in Ellie's hand and leaned in to whisper to her.
'Wait stop, you're distracting me' Ellie said after a moment, but Olivia kept whispering. 'I know what I'm do…' But then she paused and narrowed her eyes at the cards. The gleam in her eyes appearing. 'That's actually better, thanks.'
A minute later Julian lost, Ellie looking proud as she munched on a sandwich.
'They're too good,' Cassius was saying. 'We couldn't get a single point on them. Lioncrown and Defanon especially.'
'Maybe you just went up against the good ones?' Julian suggested, trying to cheer him up.
'Doubt it, they're all the "good ones". Connor said, swapping with Julian to play against Ellie.
'They kept using the disarming charm, that deflecting thing that we never learnt and a few other things I don't even know.' Oliva admitted, 'we're gonna have a tough time.'
She moved over to where Janet Simpkin had been sitting. 'At least I'm all done.' She popped a sandwich in her mouth.
Julian got nervous, he couldn't even do the wand deflection Defanon had been using in class, he'd almost done it on their first day. But because it wasn't in the book, he had no way of knowing how to do it successfully. He wasn't even sure it was a proper spell, like the ones they'd been learning. It was starting to drive him nuts, he had to latch onto something else, like the game of Verto going on next to him.
'We have this in the muggle world, you know.' He said.
'Cards? I'd hope so.' Ellie replied, smiling.
He rolled his eyes. 'I think it's called Gin; it's got the same rules.'
'Huh, learn som-,' Ellie started before she realised Yuko was standing right next to her. She'd been sitting behind their row of seats up earlier but had now decided to move closer.
'Why not practicing?' She asked.
'Uhh, should we? You heard them.' Connor gestured with his card towards Olivia and Cassius.
'You can't duel with that.' She pointed to the cards.
'We're not gonna win, I'm good to just chill until it's my turn. Whatever happens happens.'
Julian silently agreed with Connor. He was dreading having to deal with her bossy attitude for the duel. He was just waiting for when they could go to watch the Quidditch rotations.
'We might win, if you practiced. You all just lose in class.' She was right, other than Julian, after the initial defence class, Yuko had been the only one of them to win occasionally. She was shaping up to be the best at defensive magic in their house, which wasn't saying much.
'Yuko, it's fine,' Julian started. He stood and walked up to her, hoping he could calm her down. 'Sit down, have some of Janet's food, it's pretty good.'
'No.'
He threw his hands up. 'Fine. I'll see you for the duel then.' He turned away from her and was about to sit back down when he felt a sharp yank on his robes.
Yuko had grabbed hold of his hood and with a surprising amount of strength for her size, began to drag him away.
'Guys, stop her.' Julian called out.
Some of them laughed, 'See you later Julian.' Ellie called out, focusing back to her game.
Julian yelped as he felt himself being dragged by his hood down the stands, the older Terrascales watching, confused. He even heard some wolf whistles, which would have made him want to gag, if Yuko hadn't been pulling the robes into his neck.
'Stop!' he was throwing his arms wildly to get hers off of him. They had just now gone behind the stands, where there was some shade, there was no one out where they were now. Julian supposed it was too early for people to be bored enough to walk around. Even though no one was around, the houses were as loud as they'd been in the stands.
At least there was no one to see him.
Yuko had stopped walking but didn't let go. Julian lightly pushed at her arm.
'You can't do some spells; I have seen you in class. Come with me and learn.' She said plainly. As if it was simple logic.
Julian was stunned, he was pretty sure this was the most he'd heard her talk. Even more, he thought she hated him. What changed?
When he said nothing, she asked, 'you do not want to?'
'No, Yuko. I really don't.' They stood as silent as the world around them was loud. It wasn't true, he did want to win, he wanted Halliday to be mad, he wanted Peckering to be pissed. But maybe the effort wasn't worth it, there was too much left to chance. He could put hours and hours into it for to all be for nothing. He almost couldn't even see the point in it.
Maybe Ellie had been rubbing off on him too much.
He sighed, 'I'll just lose again. It doesn't matter how much I learn.'
'It does.' She said resolutely. 'We can win.'
'We only have a few hours.' He started to argue, not really much fight in it.
'That's enough time, you know it is.' She let go and pulled her wand out, stepping away from him into a duelling stance.
Was she for real?
He sighed and did the same, the two of them moved away from each other until they were two metres apart. The defence class had taught them the proper form by now. They raised their wand in a salute and moved into a stance.
Julian went first, 'Flip-'
But his wand was gone. It had happened fast enough that Julian hadn't noticed Yuko having already disarmed him. Now holding his wand in her hand, she shook her head.
'Again.' She threw it back. They saluted again.
'Expelliarmus.' Only noticing the red light heading to him the second before it happened. He at least noticed his wand leaving his hand this time.
'I know you can do it, but isn't the point that I learn the spell?' Julian complained.
She said something in Japanese. He knew for sure she was insulting him.
'Could you not do that?'
She grew silent, throwing his wand back at him with a little too much force than was necessary. 'Again.'
They both saluted for the third time.
Julian would be ready this time, he focused all his attention on her body. If she made even the slightest movement out of the ordinary, he would see it.
He took a breath and waited. He would react to her and dodge, he just needed to know where she was going to aim.
They stood there for over ten seconds, trying their best to read each other. Julian was wondering which of them would run out of patience first, Yuko or himself. He was getting antsy.
Her wand stabbed forward, aiming at his chest. He had no thoughts, he jumped to the right. The red light barely missing his arm.
'Expelliarmus.' He yelled, sending his own light back in kind.
It made contact, but did nothing, her wand still in her hand.
She sent another spell, the knock-back jinx at him, aimed right at his feet. He moved his feet to the side, dodging it.
He tried the disarming charm again, once again aiming for Yuko's chest. She didn't dodge it, but it didn't hit her either. As right before it made contact, she had used her wand to deflect it, sending it down to the ground.
His surprise at her using the deflection was enough of a chance that she needed to follow up with her own disarming charm. Causing his want to fly out of his hand and onto the ground in front of them.
He cursed, knowing his mum would chew his ear out. But he didn't care.
'What is your deal?' Julian exclaimed. 'I clearly don't know how to do the stupid spell properly.'
He moved to pick up his wand. It was a mistake to practice with her, he was just going to tire himself out more than he needed to today. Before he grabbed it, she snatched it up, faster than he could realise.
'You can't just say the spell.' She frowned. 'Think of my wand moving out of my hand.'
'I am.' He growled through closed teeth.
'You're not.'
Yes, he was. This was nuts, her attitude was getting on his nerves. He was about to leave, just as he had turned around, he heard her.
'Wait.'
He turned around.
'Look.' She pointed at her wand, her eyes scrunched up, concentrating for a moment.
She muttered something in Japanese. A moment later, two red strings appeared out of the end. He was surprised, it looked so advanced, he didn't think anyone his age could do something like that. As she held the two strings, Julian thought he saw her cheeks go red. But before he realised it, it was gone.
She tied the string around her wand and then wrapped it around her hand. She then tied the second string around his wand motioned for him to come closer. When he did, she tied the second string around his wrist.
'They're connected, see?' She said, 'When I disarm you. I think of this being pulled.' She gave him his wand and moved backwards, stretching the string. 'It pulls and pulls, until… you snap it.' Cutting the thread as she said it with her wand.
'You try.'
She walked back to him and gave him her wand, it felt strange to hold it. But he did as she said. He walked backwards slowly until stretching the string. When it was taut, he used a cutting spell, as Yuko had done moments ago. The string split, Julian held Yuko's wand. He hated to admit it, but it did make sense.
He unwound the string around his hand and Yuko's wand and gave it back to her, Yuko did the same.
'Where did you learn how to make that?' Julian asked.
Yuko took a moment before answering. 'My mother told me. At home. She told me how our wands are connected to us.'
'In Australia?'
She shook her head.
Julian frowned, tilting his head. 'You still live in Japan?'
She nodded. Julian was surprised, if her family was there, why was she going to school in Australia? He'd barely learnt about wizards in Australia so he had no idea what it was like in another country. But he'd be stupid to assume they didn't have magic schools in other countries. If a country as young as Australia had one then surely Japan did. He had just assumed she'd immigrated, but he wasn't sure that was the case anymore. As rude as it was, he couldn't stop himself from asking.
'Why are you at this school? If you're already good at magic, don't they have schools way better than this one?'
Yuko's face became stone. Her posture shifting to be more defensive. 'Not important.'
A silence spread over them. He wished he hadn't asked her now; it must not be a question she liked to think about.
'Never mind, sorry.' He scratched his neck, looking away. Hoping she wouldn't get mad at him.
This seemed to allow her to relax and she nodded. Julian took that as her accepting his apology. 'Thanks… Let's go again then.'
Their wands moved in the same salute.
The two stood there, waiting for the first spell. He wasn't thinking twice. He watched Yuko's wand, imagining the connection between it and her hand. He took a breath.
Julian lunged forward, 'Expelliarmus!'
Yuko's wand few out of her hand, across the gap between them towards Julian and fell at his feet.
Yuko smiled, to Julian it looked genuine. In that moment, he realised he'd only seen her scowl since he met her, not that they knew each other well anyway.
'Good.' She fidgeted, looking embarrassed, 'give my wand back.'
Julian picked it up, 'Please,' he grinned.
She glared at him with a look that, showed her annoyance. Rolling her eyes at him, she replied, 'please.'
He tossed it back to her.
'Let's go again.' Announced Julian.
After almost two hours Julian felt that their duels were lasting much longer. No longer ending in the first ten seconds like at the beginning. It was encouraging to say the least and allowed Julian to feel like he was succeeding at something.
Julian had disarmed Yuko again in their latest duel when someone else joined them.
'Nice one.' Ellie had walked around to the back of the stands and was now watching as Julian picked up Yuko's wand. 'Looks like you got it.'
'Yeah, Yuko helped me get it.'
Ellie nodded, not sure how to deal with Yuko, the few interactions they'd had not being great.
'You've been down here for a while. Come back up.' Ellie said, 'Janet's brought out some brownies, they're so good, Julian.'
She gestured to Yuko, 'You can come too. More the merrier.'
'We're still practicing.' Yuko crossed her arms.
'Really? It's been hours, you guys have probably done plenty,' Ellie raised her eyebrows.
'Can always practice more.' Yuko said.
Julian felt this wasn't gonna end well. 'We should all probably go up, we might miss our turn, Yuko.'
This gave Yuko pause, she gave in, 'alright.'
She followed behind Julian and Ellie all the way back to the Terrascale stands.
Ellie whispered to him, 'What happened? I was worried she'd cursed you or something.'
'Just came to an agreement.' He whispered back. 'Plus, I'll need her help for the duel anyway.'
'Sure.' She dragged the sound out. 'Did she curse you?'
'Shut up,' He rolled his eyes.
They arrived back to the Terrascale stands with the other first years. Julian suddenly noticed how tired he was, all that duelling caught up to him. Desperately needing food and drink he went straight for Janet's stash. Ellie had been right they were good.
'You could have asked me first.' Janet had said, after he'd wolfed a couple.
'Sorry,' he said downing some water. 'But they're really good.'
'Oh,' She looked embarrassed, looking away. 'It's fine, Julian.'
Julian, Ellie and Yuko had just sat down when the latest pair had arrived. Connor Xu and Laura Marotti. 'Do well?' Someone asked.
'Nah,' Said Connor, sitting down 'we did almost get those guys from Owlsight though.'
Without any hesitation, Laura looked at Ellie and pointed 'Your turn.'
She groaned, 'wish me luck.' She looked at Julian and Yuko.
'Good luck.' Only Julian said. After she walked away with Nick Henderson, he turned to Yuko, noticing her silence.
'That wasn't nice you know.'
'I do know.' She said simply.
They sat in silence, to which Julian was glad. Since he would be next after Ellie, they'd need all their strength. So, he was glad to rest for a bit. He was hoping he could use that disarming spell again. Using it against Yuko was one thing, but in an actual duel, he wasn't sure. Especially if he had to duel someone from Defanon again. Those guys were trained different, you had to be above your best in order to beat them. When the time came, he hoped he could do well.
Pretty soon though, he'd already started getting restless again.
'Stop it.' Yuko said.
'What?'
'Your leg.'
Without even realising it, he'd been bouncing it out of nervousness. 'Sorry.'
Julian knew that if he didn't want to keep annoying her, he would occupy himself.
'Hey, let's just go down and watch. I need to do something.'
He stood to go down to the duelling, he wasn't expecting Yuko but noticed she was following him as he turned to wave to his other housemates.
The duelling platforms were not far once you left the stands, in fact it wasn't hard to see them from where they'd been sitting. The reason they had to go close however, was the large crowd of people swarming between the stands and the platforms. The platforms were circular and raised off the ground by a metre, all of them segmented into their own section.
Julian and Yuko were able to ask a teacher, who turned out to be Mr Hodge, if they were allowed in.
'We're just about to duel after this group right now, sir.'
'That's fine, I can let you in early.'
As they walked through the crowd, Hodge talked to Julian loudly, having to speak over the noise.
'How are you adjusting?'
'Um, I'm doing alright sir.'
Hodge nodded, 'it can tough to adjust to it, being muggleborn and all.'
Julian's breath hitched, once again reminded of his position.
'I'm sure it is, but I'm doing my best.'
'That's good to hear,' Hodge said encouragingly as they arrived at the barrier to the platforms, 'If you need anything, you can ask during PE.'
'Sure, thanks again.' Julian placated, not sure if he really wanted to.
Once they were inside the duelling area, it became a little easier to see around him. He and Yuko scanned all the duelling platforms, looking for the first-year section. Unfortunately, it was a little more difficult than expected, as the first and second years were duelling at the same time.
'There' Yuko pointed from behind him. Noticing Ellie duelling against a pair of first years from Owl Sight.
The two of them headed over to watch.
Despite her great skill in games, it was plain to see that she was not up to duelling. She was just too slow to react to her opponents. Julian was also questioning her ability to work in a team. In the time Julian was watching, she and Nick Henderson had almost tripped over each other a few times. This was in part due to their opponent's strategy however. The pair from Owlsight were using less-damaging spells, forcing Ellie and Nick into close contact around the edge of the arena not giving them much space to dodge effectively.
It meant that from where the Owlsight team was standing, all they had to do was push a little and Ellie would lose the ground beneath her feet, literally.
Which is exactly what happened.
Nick had been knocked out of the ring by a knockback jinx, leaving the two Owlsights to double the offensive on Ellie, forcing her to dodge. Unfortunately, in the direction she'd chosen there was no platform.
She landed on the ground outside the arena, to the sound of a whistle. The Owlsight pair had won. For a brief moment, she looked dejected, lacking all of her usual cheer.
'Terrascales, your next match Is against Defanon on platform 8.' The referee announced.
Ellie turned around and stopped when she saw Julian and Yuko.
'Hey!' She said quickly, too quickly, 'Come to watch me fail, have you? Probably didn't look too great, falling on my face.' She laughed.
Yuko stayed silent, watching her carefully.
'What are you looking at?' Ellie asked.
Yuko turned her head away, not responding, she mustn't have expected to be addressed.
'You ok?' Julian asked, taking Ellie's attention away from Yuko.
'I'm fine,' Ellie said, looking back to her normal self.
He observed her carefully, but Julian knew he couldn't dwell on it. 'Last match, right?' He asked.
'Yeah.'
'Let's go then.' Julian announced to Ellie and Nick, leading the way towards the platform that had the number 8 on it.
'I thought you'd be better, since you beat me at games all the time.' He joked; it seemed like the only way to reply to her. For some reason, he never wanted to see her like he just had.
'Oh, it's like that is it?' Ellie smirked. 'Watch me on the next one then, I promise I'll wipe the floor with them.'
'Looking forward to it.' He smiled, patting her shoulder, he wasn't so used to physical affection as she seemed to be. Despite that, she seemed to have cheered up a little.
They arrived at the platform, Ellie and Nick's opponents arrived right at the same exact moment. The red robes standing out from their surroundings. But what stood out, was a girl wearing a different colour.
Go away, Julian thought. Hannah stood casually in front of him, looking like she had every right to be there.
Which she did, but Julian wished she it weren't the case.
'Hi,' Ben Winde said, having arrived just after her. 'Fancy running into you guys again.' He frowned in confusion for a second, finally noticing the size of their group. 'Which one of you guys are next?'
'Me.' Ellie put up her hand in a wave, Nick followed suite. 'We're against Defanon.'
'Ah,' Ben nodded, a hint of disappointment in his eyes. 'We're actually on a bye right now, good luck!'
Ellie and Nick went up to stand on one side of the platform. At that moment, two Defanons also appeared on the other side. Julian vaguely remembered that their names were Felix Brenning and Amelia Swanton. He recognised Felix, he'd been there right next to Peckering at every moment. They were friends.
Back on the ground, Ben and Hannah did the unexpected and moved next to Julian and Yuko. Hannah made a point to stand on Ben's other side, away from Julian.
'Are you gonna watch?' Julian asked Ben. 'You're all done, right?'
Ben shrugged, though for some reason Julian could feel it was much less casual than Ben wanted it to be. 'Might as well.'
Julian wondered how practiced his response was, what was his real reason for staying? Without any way to answer that question, Julian couldn't argue with it. Maybe he was just bored, that was as good a reason as any.
Julian felt he could do without that girl shadowing him.
Hannah glared over Ben towards Yuko, 'Sorry what was your name again.' She said suddenly.
Yuko looked surprised that she was being asked, 'Yuko.'
Hannah smirked slightly. 'Is that other gir-'
'Hello students.'
A blonde-haired woman walked came into view from the other side of the platform. It was Halliday, there was no referee in sight.
'I'll be overseeing your match today. I'm hoping we can have a nice clean due-.' She paused, noticing Julian and Yuko.
'Mr Vital and Ms Watanabe, I don't believe your match is on right now.'
Of course, she singled him out, and not the two gold robes to his left.
'Ms we're both on right after this duel.' Julian disputed, 'besides, I would like to watch my friend.'
She looked them both over, her eyes narrowing for a moment. He thought he imagined it, but a flash of a smile appeared on her face, before returning to its stern expression. 'Fine, then.'
'Julian.' Ellie announced, 'remember what I just promised? I'll do it, you know.' She grinned.
Julian smiled, 'Go for it, Ellie.'
'Are both teams ready?' Halliday announced. Both teams nodded.
'Right. Salute.' The Defanons and Terrascales did so, both teams moving into a duelling stance instantly after. Ellie and Nick's looking amateur and less refined compared to the Defanons.
'Ready, set.' Halliday paused.
'Go!'
Ellie fired off instantly, shooting a series of knockback jinxes straight at Amelia. She expertly dodged most of them, however, the last one hit her arm, knocking it back. Amelia yelped in pain, before shouting 'Trahere'. Julian didn't recognise that spell and he guessed Ellie didn't either.
Ellie dodged, right into the same spell fired from Felix's wand.
Ellie was flung straight towards Felix, yelping as she was knocked to the ground in the middle of the platform. He had taken advantage of Ellie only focusing on Amelia, swapping targets away from Nick for only a moment before engaging him again.
'Expelliarmus'. Nick aimed at Felix, in an attempt to stop them from ganging up on Ellie. The spell was simply deflected with his wand, ricocheting the red light into Ellie who had just gotten up in time to be hit. Her wand flew off the stage knocking her out of the round. Leaving two opponents for Nick.
It was no match, Felix and Amelia were too in sync. Without words the two of them were firing spells right after one another. All of them caught him off guard and sent him falling off the stage.
'Winner, Defanon.' Halliday called; the statement refined after many victories.
Julian ran and helped Nick stand up, giving him a pat on the shoulder in the process. He went over to Ellie's wand on the grass and picked it up.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could feel Hannah's eyes on him, glaring into the back of his robe.
He threw it up towards Ellie, who gave him a thumbs up in return. Behind her however, he noticed Halliday walking over to the Defanons, she bent down slight and talked in a quiet voice. He didn't like it one bit.
'You can do it, guys!' He cheered up to them. Ellie didn't respond, looking only at her opponents, who were whispering as Halliday walked away.
Once Nick had climbed back onto the platform, Halliday spoke.
'That's one to Defanon, one more and they win. Ready.'
Felix and Amelia were.
'Go'
The red robed pair moved like the same person, shouting at the same time.
'Trahere' Felix yelled.
'Expelliarmus' Amelia shouted.
In one swift motion, Felix had pulled Nick towards himself into the centre of the arena. While Amelia had disarmed him sending his wand flying off the platform. Nick kicked the ground angrily and walked off the platform. He'd been knocked out immediately, leaving only one left.
Ellie was frantic, she was attempting to dodge every hit thrown at her and promptly failing almost every time. All they were doing was pushing and pulling her, toying with her like hunters to their prey.
Soon, the spells became targeted, the Defanons aimed at parts of Ellie's body with precision.
'Tarrantallegra' Amelia shot a small jet of white light at Ellie's legs, causing them to dance to spasm, away from her control. Ellie sounded as panicked as her legs looked; she was unable to move. Julian could notice a smirk from Felix, he was enjoying it. Julian's fingernails were digging into his palms before he realised.
As they were casting, Felix and Amelia circled around the arena in opposite directions. Stopping once they were on either side of Ellie.
They started bombarding Ellie with spells, mainly knockback and pulling jinxes. So frequent and numerous, that even Julian as having a hard time telling who was saying what.
But the effect was immediate, they'd targeted Ellie's arms specifically. Pushing and pulling them in multiple directions. Until suddenly, there was a click, and Ellie's left arm went limp.
All Julian could hear was her screams.
Instantly, Ellie's wand was disarmed and caught by Felix. Winning them the duel. Felix looking satisfied with herself. Despite their synergy in the duel, Amelia was not on the same wavelength, looking distraught. No one moved except for Felix, who came to the edge of the platform.
'Vital, right?,' he called down to him, 'this one's for you.'
Ellie's wand was thrown at him with surprising force, he managed to leave his shock behind fast enough to catch it. As soon as he had, Felix had walked away.
'See you.'
Amelia followed him, quickly apologising to Ellie as he did.
Julian climbed as fast as he could to Ellie, followed by Nick and even Yuko. Ben even followed them from a small distance.
'Ellie!' He yelled. 'Are you ok?'
She sobbed, her right arm was holding her left shoulder, which looked wrong, jutting forward like it was out of position.
Her legs were still moving, although less so now. Halliday pulled out her wand and cast, 'Finite Incantatem'. Ellie's legs stopped moving and were back to normal. She collapsed to the ground.
'Miss,' Julian asked, 'That's not right, those two hurt her, they have to be disqualified.'
Halliday sighed. 'I understand, but they followed the magical guidelines for duelling. I cannot. Besides, it's only a dislocation I believe, it can be fixed up quickly.'
'Only a dislocati- Look at her!' Julian yelled.
'I am, Vital. If it's any consolation, there is a healing tent over there.' Halliday pointed in the direction. At least she gave them that kindness. Even though Julian wanted to kick her head in.
'However, I have to go to my next duel. Good luck with yours.' Halliday left them there on the platform. The fact that she wished them luck was the most farcical thing he'd ever heard.
Julian and Nick helped Ellie get on her feet. As they dropped from the platform, they passed Ben and Hannah. 'She should be fine; they can fix that in a moment.' Ben said as he followed. 'I can go with you guys.'
'Just gonna take her to the healer.' Julian replied. 'Thanks. We should be good though.'
Ben nodded, understanding. 'No worries, get better soon.' He walked off with a wave. Despite being glad for his support, Julian felt he was a little detached from the event. At least he had said something. More than he could say about his supposed old friend, Hannah. For a brief moment, they made eye contact as they walked away, her expression blank.
The Terrascales took Ellie to the tent, even though only her arm was injured every step was enough to make her whimper in pain.
When they arrived at the tent Mr Callahan, the head of the healing department, took one look at her and knew what was wrong.
'Your shoulder has been dislocated, but don't worry, we can mend that in just a moment.'
He told Ellie to sit on a bed and called over another medi-witch to examine her, the witch pulled the curtains around the two of them, for Ellie's privacy.
Julian sat on the ground with his head in his hands, before realising he still held Ellie's wand. He could do nothing else but fidget with it and close his eyes. As much as he wanted to take the blame out on his defence teacher, on the defanons, he even wanted to yell at Nick for being so bad at duelling and letting it happen. He even blamed himself, maybe if he'd gotten Ellie to practice duelling as well. Maybe if he'd never hurt Peckering on their first day, maybe Felix wouldn't have wanted revenge. There were a million things that caused Ellie's pain today and Julian wished he could undo every one of them, undo being a wizard even. But what good could it even do? The wizarding world hated him it seemed.
'Julian.' Yuko tapped his shoulder, 'we have to go to the matches.'
He stayed still.
'I'm sorry, Yuko, but who cares now. This duelling stuff… it sucks, it's a bunch of crap that just makes those guys get bigger heads.'
'We can stop them from getting bigger heads.' Yuko said, her English broken again, but it made sense to him. He looked up and opened his eyes, ready to retort but stopped.
She stood in front of him, determined, he'd been expecting her to feel sad and part of her probably was. But despite that, he couldn't find rage deep enough in him to yell at her.
But he realised he didn't want to do so. None of it was her fault. He decided something different; he would share her conviction. Now he knew exactly who he wanted to turn on, his rage was turned on all those other houses.
'She'll be fine, Julian.' Nick said. 'They said themselves, she'll heal in no time.'
Julian sighed, cooling down. 'Thanks.'
'No worries. I'll make sure she gets back to the house alright, leave no one behind, right?' Nick smiled.
Julian nodded. Glad that someone was staying behind at least.
Yuko left the tent; he would catch up to her soon. But first-
Julian walked over towards where they were treating Ellie.
'Hi, can I come in?' He asked the Medi-witch.
'No, I am still treating her shoulder, no one else is allowed.'
He frowned. Not thinking about the consequences, he just did what was right.
He closed his eyes and holding Ellie's wand, pushed his arm through a gap in the curtain. The Medi-witch protesting.
'Here's your wand, Ellie. If I have it during my duels, it might break.'
He held it up, hoping she would take it soon, it was getting awkward standing there with his eyes closed.
He could hear Ellie, her breaths showing her pain, but much better than a few minutes ago. She spent moments that felt like days without speaking.
'You hold onto it for a bit' He could hear her holding her sobs back. 'I don't want it right now.'
'You sure?'
'Yeah.'
He paused for a moment. It didn't feel right to hold onto someone else wand, it was like having someone's arm in your pocket. It was too heavy.
But still, if it was what she wanted.
'OK.' Julian said sadly, looking away. He placing her wand in his robe pocket, right next to his own.