Julian woke up feeling refreshed after a long sleep. He felt much more comfortable in this bed than he had ever felt before, he even needed to be shaken awake by one of his roommates to make it in time for breakfast. He expected to be led back to the Hall where they had had dinner the night before, but instead followed the rest of his roommates into another corridor that led off from the common room to a large room with long tables. The rest of the house had grouped up with their friends, all of them chatting through breakfast.

He figured he should sit down in front of the many plates of food spread around. Luckily, Ellie had thought along the same lines as she was already sitting munching on a piece of toast, casually waving to Julian as he sat.

'They really keep the food coming, don't they?' He commented. 'Not that I'm complaining' he added, piling hash browns onto his plate.

'Neither.' Ellie spoke muffled through more food. Just a moment later a timetable on a small bit of parchment was dropped onto both of their laps by a prefect.

They took a moment to look over them.

Friday

Charms
Magical Theory

Recess
Transfiguration
Lunch

Defensive Magic (Double).

It had just occurred to Julian that even though he'd read some of his textbooks he hadn't been clear on what classes they were doing. Regardless, he was eager to see different kinds of magic. Although, the theory did not look appealing to him at all. He was most looking forward to Defensive magic, assuming that it'd be practical, which to him sounded the most fun.

He was about to ask Ellie what she was looking forward to when a bell rang. Freezing the entire house in the midst of their breakfast. Instantly, the entire house started wolfing down their food and cleared the dining hall.

'Why's everyone freaking out?' Ellie asked, 'You'd think something's wrong.'

Julian shrugged as they strolling out of the Terrascale dining hall. Just then a short figure with straight black hair rushed past them.

'Far from class. That is why.' Yuko shouted back to the two of them. Julian and Ellie exchanged a glance.

Two minutes later, the two of them were rushing out of the maze to the ground floor of the school. It was lucky the path they took the previous night was easy to remember. If they had taken any other way they probably would've been lost until dinner. That was the easy part however, as neither of them knew where the Charms classrooms were.

Fortunately, they did remember the prefect James mentioning that most classes were in the north block. Naturally, that's where they headed.

Eventually a helpful painting, pointed them to a classroom on the third floor. Ellie had expected Julian to be more surprised at this. Strangely, he wasn't. He was launching into how common computers and phones were when he noticed that they were being stared at by their entire Charms class. The teacher had already started a lecture being taught by the woman from last night's dinner; Ms Creed.

Eventually, she noticed all of her students staring at the doorway rounded on Julian and Ellie.

'I suppose you are the last two on the roll.' Her beady eyes giving the impression that she was not impressed in the slightest.

'Uh yes. We got a bit lost on the way.' He tried to sound as polite as possible.

She sighed and walked back to a chalkboard at the front of the classroom. 'You should both arrive earlier next time. I suggest waking up earlier.'

As the class laughed, Ms Creed motioned over to a table at the front of the class which no one had wanted to sit in.

'Oh and by the way, when you talk to me, you end with miss. You will find muggle habits won't do you good here.' She sternly eyed the two of them, before turning back to the board.

The class turned their eyes to Julian, 'Right… miss.' It sounded strange; in primary school he'd never been told off like that in front of a whole class, unless he'd done something bad. He stared a hole through the desk as he sat down, hearing snickering behind him.

There was only so long Julian could dwell on it, he had to focus on the class eventually. Ms Creed appeared to be teaching them a spell to create a light on the end of their wands. A vague memory from one of the books coming to him as she explained. The aim of the class seemed to be whether they could perform the spell. In Julian's opinion, it might have been a lot easier if Ms Creed was not conveniently placing herself near him and Ellie, harshly eyeing the two of them like she was waiting for them to try something mischievous.

By the end of the lesson, despite having practiced the motion for what seemed like a million times, he had only created a dim light on the end of his wand. Ellie, having found it incredibly easy was even trying to coach him through it, interjecting tips every few seconds.

Soon after, the bell rang and they had to rush off to Magical Theory, after which made Julian felt like he could have learned more off staring at a blank wall. It ended up being a series of information on how to cast spells the "correct way", which while useful had nothing to do with actually using magic. He spent the class slouching back in his chair, wishing he could fall asleep the way Ellie had next to him, but changed his mind after Ellie fell off her chair after being woken by the bell.

Transfiguration was taught by Mr Bottler, a short man who simply left the students to their own devices, while doing their work. The lesson ended up turning into most of the students casually chatting as they attempted to turn their strings into toothpicks. Although it was difficult, he found the relaxed atmosphere allowed him to create a few more toothpicks than his classmates by the time lunch rolled around.

The two of them headed into the main hall ready for lunch. They sat at the same table with their housemates the same as the previous night. Julian started absentmindedly eating the top of his pile of sandwiches while looking around the hall, trying to peer through the mass of gold robes on the other side.

'What'cha looking at?' Ellie asked, bringing his mind back to the table.

'Uh, nothing.' He replied, Ellie made a face at him.

'You probably won't see your friend over there. There're too many people in that house.' She said nonchalantly, reaching for another sandwich in front of her. Julian was going to reply when she interrupted him.

'Hey Julian, am I missing any?' She asked him, pointing to her plate. With a small sandwich on it.

'Dunno.' He replied, hadn't she gotten plenty to eat so far?

'It's strange, I thought I had two more sandwiches left.' She frowned.

Julian slouched forward, watching his housemates around the table. Scanning over Nick Henderson and Connor Xu who were talking excitedly about Quidditch and a group of three girls who he hadn't picked up the names of. Eventually he noticed Yuko Watanabe sitting there, munching on a sandwich looking up suspiciously as she ate.

He figured he'd best leave this one alone. Something told him Ellie wouldn't enjoy someone taking her food.

After lunch the Terrascales found themselves standing outside the classroom for Defensive Magic. Waiting for the class that Julian had been looking forward to all day. Interestingly they had been the first house to arrive. But soon after a mass of red robes appeared and lined up beside them, all of them looking excited. He had heard it from an older student that people from Defanon were all about duelling, so it made sense that they were excited for the class.

Right at that moment, the teacher appeared out of the classroom. She was blonde haired and looked much younger than the teachers they'd had so far, not that they'd had many. 'Come in.' She announced. Leading them into a wide, open classroom with no desks set up and several soft mats spread across the floor.

'Good Afternoon, class, I'm Ms Halliday and welcome to Defensive magic.' The teacher called from the front.

'Good Afternoon, Ms Halliday.' The class chorused. After they'd settled, Julian noticed a very clear divide between the red ad blue houses.

'I'm sure you've realised already, but this class will be quite different from what you've taken so far.' Ms Halliday began, 'I don't intend for you to read off of a textbook or a board and leave it to you to perform my spells. Instead, you will come into my class ready to practice what you've learned from those books.'

Julian heard this and grinned. This was exactly what he was hoping for.

'I think, I'll start you off with something easy, the Knockback Jinx.' She paused for a moment looking over the crowd. 'How about you?' Ms Halliday pointed to a blonde boy from Terrascale, who nervously walked up towards her.

'What's your name?' She asked directly.

'Cassius Graham.' He gulped, looking around sheepishly.

'It seems I'll have to demonstrate on you.' She told him.

'Alrig-' He started to say but was interrupted, for as soon as Cassius had spoken, Ms Halliday had whipped out her wand, as quickly as if she'd had it out the whole time and yelled 'Flipendo'

After a loud bang, Cassius had instantly fell to the ground with a yell. The class laughed, but Julian felt he heard more from Defanon. Cassius still hadn't gotten up from the ground, Julian, who had been close enough to the front stepped forward to help him up but was stopped by Halliday.

'Stop, he should get up on his own.' She told Julian. He didn't want to stop, but with how sudden Halliday had knocked Cassius to the ground, he didn't want the same. He dug his fingernails in his hands, watching as Cassius pulled himself off the ground.

'Group up, class. I want you to keep practicing the spell until I tell you to stop.'

Soon after the entire room was deafened by the rest of the class's attempts at the spell. Julian had grouped up with Ellie and Cassius. No one had seemed to partner up with him after the demonstration, Julian felt he would have wanted the same if he were in Cassius' shoes.

Julian found himself getting the hang of the spell pretty easily. But then again so was everyone else. After a while, he swapped with Cassius to have a turn at trying the spell on Ellie. He thought he'd sit on the ground lazily watching Ellie start knocking Cassius on the ground, he didn't seem too good with it.

'You'll want to move your wand like this.' He heard Halliday instruct not far from him. She had gone up to a Defanon student and was instructing her in wand movements that seemed quite different from the spell she had just shown them. The girl from Defanon moved her wand in a sideways motion away from her centre, as if pushing a curtain out of the way. He was trying to inch closer to hear Halliday and the other student better when something collided with him.

Cassius had fallen on top of him after getting hit by Ellie's spell.

'Sorry, Julian.' He stammered as he got off Julian. 'I didn't mean it really.'

'It's fine.' Julian gritted his teeth, he looked back at Halliday and saw he missed his chance, now she was talking to another Defanon student.

'Maybe we should swap again.' Cassius said. 'I'm no good at this spell.'

'That's for sure,' A confident looking Ellie said as she stood next to Julian. 'So that's why you're swapping with me, Julian.'

Why did she have to choose now to swap?

'Fine.' He sighed. 'Just keep trying, Cassius.' He moved to try and get Cassius to practice against him. He spent the better part of half an hour trying to help Cassius better, even instructing him on the movement. All the while he tried watching Halliday. He was sure she was up to something; he wasn't sure but he was almost convinced that he hadn't seen her talk so a single Terrascale since they'd started practicing.

Eventually, even Cassius had started improving, the last few tries even had Julian stumble to the floor. Strangely, Julian was happy to see him better.

'Keep it up, I reckon you got it in you.' He told Cassius. Just as he was about the try once more, Halliday announced out the class for them to finish.

She stood smiling in the centre of all the matts, the class standing around her in a circle. 'Alright, I'm sure you all have got some practice in you. I saw plenty of you were doing quite well.'

Some better than others, Julian thought.

'I think we should try a contest. Something I like to do every now and then. Think of it as a one-on-one, Terrascale versus Defanon.'

The Defanon's grinned at each other. They looked like they'd won a prize.

'I'll call out one student from each house at a time, the first to be knocked out of the circle-' Halliday gestured to the circle of students that she stood in the centre of. '-will be out, giving the winner one point. The house with the most points will win twenty points for their house.' She finished.

Most of the other students started talking excitedly, even he couldn't help getting in the spirit. It seemed fun and if he could win points doing it even better. Ellie seemed to share this thought as she grinned, feeling the same.

The students widened the circle a bit and as the crowds moved, he glimpsed Yuko on the other side of the circle frowning. But he paid it no mind, it didn't seem to take her much to wear that expression.

Halliday moved off to one side of the circle standing in front of the crowd of students. Right away, she called out Janet Simpkin from Terrascale against Felix Brenning.

The two of them moved into the middle of the circle facing against one another. Both waiting for the proper signal. Halliday began counting down. As she did so, he noticed many of the Defanons wore grins, like they knew something the rest of them didn't.

'GO.'

Janet jumped to the side, assuming Felix would throw the jinx straight away, she was right. She threw the jinx at Felix. It landed but wasn't powerful enough to knock him over completely. Felix was only pushed a few steps back. As soon as he regained his footing, he shot another spell at Janet. But Janet was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet and was ready to side step the spell, she must have been athletic.

Felix was close to being pushed out by the Janet's pressure. He was half a metre from the edge of the circle, one more jinx and he'd be thrown out. Janet got closer, making sure she wasn't going to miss and shouted 'Flipendo.'

But as soon she cast the spell, Julian saw Felix begin to move his wand the same way Halliday had been teaching that girl earlier right, at the moment the spell hit his wand the spell was carried by the motion and was deflected to the side, knocking some of the crowd over.

Janet stood stunned, as did the rest of the Terrascales. She had to snap herself out of shock, but it was too late. Felix used the opportunity to keep putting pressure onto Janet with the spell until she was pushed out the other side of the ring.

'Well done, Felix.' Halliday clapped soon followed by the rest of the class. Felix high-fived a friend, looking very pleased with himself. Somehow, no one from Defanon looked too fazed by what Felix had done in the duel and Julian could guess why.

Halliday started calling out the next pair of students to duel, while everyone was watching he turned to Ellie.

'Did you see how he did that?' He whispered.

'Yeah, I wish I knew it.' She frowned.

'You've been magic for your whole life and you don't know?'

'Isn't that what we're here for?' She retorted, 'besides, it's not like my parents could teach me how to duel before I got a wand.'

'Right.' Julian watched the next set of duellists in the middle of the circle. The girl from Defanon was the same one Julian had seen with Halliday earlier, she was completely dominating the fight,

'She taught her that.' He told Ellie, he briefly explained how he saw Halliday demonstrating the wand movements.

'That girl? You sure?' She asked quickly, pointing at the third duel now, where another boy was repeating the movement.

Julian understood in that moment that it meant one thing, Halliday had taught all of the Defanon students how to deflect spells but not any of the Terrascales. He stared at Halliday, watching her satisfied expression when watching another Defanon winning a duel. Why was she playing favourites? That wasn't exactly in the spirit of being fair, was it?

'You're right. She's only taught them, hasn't she?' Ellie asked him.

'Seems like it,' he said with a grimace. 'Know any other spells?'

'What do you think?' She said with a shrug.

'Perfect.' Julian sighed.

He sat in silence watching as Aaron Knox, one of Julian's roommates was in the circle and seemed to be winning, he constantly kept up the pressure and was just short of winning before the Defanon girl got close enough to push him over onto the ground without magic. She then fired Knockback Jinxes at him so quickly it looked as if Aaron was being pushed by a single spell.

'And that's not cheating?' Ellie asked no one in particular.

Julian glanced at Halliday, she was ignoring the Defanon girl who'd won and instead simply moved onto the next contestants. 'She's been playing favourites with that deflecting spell, I just wish we knew, even the playing field.'

'It's not hard.' Piped up an accent from behind him, Julian and Ellie jumped.

Julian turned to see Yuko. 'What is?'

'What do you call it? Deflecting?' She answered, 'I know how.'

'I don't know about you but we haven't been taught that.' Ellie told her.

At that moment Halliday called out the next pair of duellers. 'Yuko Watanabe and Katrina Lonsdale.'

'Watch me.' Yuko said over her shoulder as she headed into the middle of the crowd of students. Julian and Ellie moved to the very centre of the circle to watch Yuko's duel clearly.

Yuko and Katrina stood facing each other waiting for Halliday to give the signal to start, Katrina was twirling her wand through her fingers confidently, all Yuko did was stand at the ready.

Halliday called out to begin the duel. Instantly, Katrina threw a small jet of red at Yuko. Anticipating it, Yuko used her wand to catch the spell moved her arm quickly enough that the spell was flicked back towards Katrina. She had good reflexes and was just able to dodge it. As she jumped, she sent a spell at Yuko. Like the first spell she deflected it back towards Katrina. But Katrina was ready for it, she used her wand to deflect the spell to Yuko, using her own idea against her.

Yuko used her trick to start to deflect the spell again. However, Yuko hadn't had the foresight to imagine that Katrina would fire another knockback spell after the first one. She was launched to the ground, managing to quickly get on her feet, but it was too late. Katrina hadn't stopped moving when Yuko hit the ground, she had been working her way towards Yuko the whole time. Yuko could only watch as Katrina shot her to edge of the crowd barrelling into Julian and Ellie.

'Katrina wins!' Halliday announced to the class, her voice lost among the Defanons cheering. She continued talking but Julian and Ellie tuned her out.

'What did you want us to watch? You getting wrecked by her?' Ellie asked. Julian helped Yuko off the ground.

Yuko said something in a language Julian didn't understand, but he got the feeling whatever it was it wasn't nice. She was about to retort at Ellie, before Julian interrupted a fight much different than the one going on in the middle of the crowd.

'I got what you meant Yuko. You just kind of catch it with your wand, right?' Julian asked.

She nodded.

'Alright, I'll go tell the next person up when she calls them.' And left it at that.

The three of them tuned back in to listen to Halliday's voice. 'Oh, look at the time.' She pointed at the clock.

'Looks like we only have enough time for one more duel. Since Defanon has been winning all these matches I think we can make it more interesting. If the next Terrascale can win this match, then I'll grant the house thirty points, if they lose, well it's only fair Defanon gets thirty points.'

She clapped her hands, 'How does that sound?' She paused as she moved her hand ready to point at the next pair. Julian dreaded who she would end up pointing to.

Eventually she settled on one. 'Malcom Peckering. And also…' She did the same for the Terrascales. 'You there, Julian Vital. Come up.' She waved him over.

Julian turned to Ellie and Yuko. 'Well, guess I won't have to tell the next person.' He said before moving forward.

Ellie thumped him on the back. 'Good luck.'

Julian arrived in the centre. Facing opposite Malcolm Peckering, a boy with black hair and an arrogant smirk. As if he was confident that he couldn't lose. Something about it made Julian dig his nails into his palm.

Halliday called to the two of them. 'On the count of three, you two can start.'

'One.' Julian shifted the grip on his wand, how could he win against them, he'd never deflected a spell before. How could he beat someone who'd been given an unfair advantage by his own teacher?

'Two.' Malcolm, and all of his housemates were leering at him, they seemed quite eager to win a free thirty points for their house. Julian looked at their greedy faces, wanting to wipe it straight off, you can't throw people around just because you've got it better.

'Three.'

Julian stood still, waiting for Malcolm to throw the first spell. He hoped the other boy would run out of patience. He did. Malcolm shot a small jet of red that was ready to knock Julian to the floor. Julian thought back to Yuko's duel, maybe he could deflect it, to Julian the spell looked like it was in slow motion, he moved his wand to catch it.

It didn't work, the spell wasn't caught by his wand and instead knocked his arm so far back Julian felt a pain in his shoulder. He instinctively touched his shoulder with his left hand but stopped when he saw Malcolm following up with the next spell.

His right arm was lagging behind, his shoulder hurt when he moved it. He swapped his wand to his left hand hoping to use his wand to deflect the next spell. It would still work in his left hand surely?

He moved his wand in the way he'd seen all the Defanons and Yuko do it, hoping to deflect the spell in time.

But what if it didn't work? The last one hadn't worked, he still wasn't experienced with magic in the slightest, compared to everyone else here. Maybe you just had to be better to deflect spells like that. Would he still be able to do it?

Julian quickly ducked to the ground, the light missing him by a couple centimetres. He would just have to win it this way.

He got back up, Malcolm fired another spell at him, he stepped to the right moving a little forward. Malcolm shot a second light, Julian sidestepped to the left, firing his own jinx at Malcolm who deflected it with ease. He must not have been good enough to deflect it back at Julian as it careened off knocking a Defanon girl at the front of the circle. Malcolm growled.

Julian stepped forward sending another spell at Malcolm, waiting until he was in the middle of deflecting and then throwing another spell at him. Julian knew two at once was harder to deal with, Yuko had learnt that the hard way.

He sent a third jinx at Malcolm hoping to get him off balance, but Malcolm used his wand to catch not just the second one but the third at the same time. Normally the spell went by so quick you could only deflect one, but Malcolm seemed to work around that by constantly moving his wand around, keeping the momentum going. He quickly moved his wand in a wide arc to point straight at Julian, reflecting three spells right back at Julian.

Julian started angling his body to avoid them, trying to avoid the first at his leg, the second aimed at his head. He managed to move his body out of the way both times, but the third went straight for his chest.

It took the wind right out of him, Julian landed flat on his back. His whole torso felt numb from the jinx and the fall. He was completely out of breath. He tried to get up when Malcolm walked a little closer to Julian so that there was no way to miss this time.

Julian had got on to his knees when Malcolm was up close to him, his wand right in front of Julian's face. He could see the grin of the Defanon up above him, looking as superior as he probably thought of himself. He watched Malcolm open his mouth to cast the spell.

But in that brief moment, Malcolm had forgotten one thing about his opponent. He wasn't fighting a regular wizard, he was fighting someone who'd been without magic his whole life. There was no way he'd be prepared for that.

Julian dropped his wand and using all of his strength pushed Malcolm's arm out of the way just as the spell came out of his wand. Julian's shoulder ached with the sharp movement but he ignored it.

Malcolm shouted. Julian knew he wasn't used to this sort of fighting. This was the sort of upbringing only a muggle school could give you. Julian stood using both his hands wrapped around Malcolm's arm to twist it until Malcolm started yelling in pain. It might be immature to do a burn at age eleven but Julian was acting on instinct.

Malcolm tried to shake Julian's hands off his wand arm. But it was too late, Julian let go and instantly used the weight of his whole body to push Malcolm to the ground, right to the shoes of the Defanon students behind him. Malcolm scrambled to get up onto his feet just in time to see Julian with his wand point directly at him, not able to react to the jet of red that sent Malcolm out of the ring and bowling into his housemates.

The classroom stood stunned in silence for a moment. But right then, half the class erupted in yells and cheers. Ellie with Yuko right behind her had rushed forward to Julian to cheer him on. He was getting high-fives from Ellie and Cassius. He even had Nick Henderson and Connor Xu trying to pick him up on their shoulders but were too weak to do it. Somehow, they had won.

Who cared about what those older kids said last night?

A loud voice cut through the cheering, 'Well, what an interesting victory.' Halliday said. 'I believe I haven't seen a fight like that in some time.'

Julian and the rest of Terrascale were brought down to earth, for there was a whole other half to the class and a teacher who didn't look happy in the slightest.

She paused. 'Unfortunately, I don't believe I can let Terrascale win this contest.'

There were a chorus of shouts from the group of Terrascales, Nick and Connor even shouted, 'How come?'

'How come miss' she repeated back to them coldly. 'The reason is simple. No student of mine will be fighting like muggles.' She turned her stare at Julian, a pair of irritated grey eyes were peering down at him as if she was trying to burn him by sight alone.

'Julian Vital, you are disqualified from the contest. Which then by default makes Defanon the winners. Defanon receives forty points.' Instantly the opposite side of the classroom erupted into cheers and yells, which drowned out the groans of disappointment from Julian and his house.

Julian and his housemates stared at her open-mouthed. 'Miss, didn't you say thirty before?' Janet Simpkin called out once the class became quiet.

'I did, Ms Simpkin, however, I'm awarding Malcolm for not having to resort to muggle fighting, for the same reason, I also see fit to deduct twenty points from Terrascale.' The sounds of the Defanon students' cheers became louder and started turning into jeers at the Terrascales.

The Terrascales watched Halliday surrounded by the group of Defanons, looking pleased with herself. It was so stupid. He could have sworn he'd seen her favourites break her stupid rules in earlier duels. Why did she favour Defanon so much?

At the moment before Julian could apologise to his housemates the bell rang signalling the end of the day.

'Let's go.' Julian said to Ellie

'Right behind you.' She agreed.

The two of them were soon followed by the rest of the house out of the classroom. Once they were a few metres away Julian looked back at the room noticing that Yuko had stopped a little outside the classroom, she had been avoiding Julian since Halliday had announced he'd lost.

He turned to Ellie, 'hold on a second I'll be right behind you.'

He jogged back to Yuko, 'Hey… uh… why aren't you coming back to the common room?'

She was looking through the window into the class, the Defanons were listening to Halliday giving a talk. 'Hey what are you doing?' He asked her.

She looked back at him, her brown eyes frustrated. 'I teach you to deflect, then after you don't.'

He couldn't explain to her, he hadn't felt like much of a wizard during that fight, he just hadn't been able to make himself use the technique.

'I thought when you won, it was ok, but you lost, we all lost.' She started walking away.

'It's not like I knew we'd lose cause of that.' He started, walking fast to catch up. 'Besides, she cheated, teaching all those guys in there without teaching us.'

She kept walking, 'Next time, try fighting like one of us.'

He stopped. She wouldn't listen, it wasn't like he could think of anything to say to her anyway. He stopped outside the door to the classroom.

What was her deal? When he'd won, she'd been happy, cheering him on even. Who cared how he did it? It only went bad cause of stupid rules. In a real fight who cared how you won? Did people think that if you were getting attacked it mattered if you hit them with a spell or a fist?

He took another glance at Halliday's classroom. The Defanon students had now crowded around Halliday listening intently to whatever it was she was saying. As he looked in, he noticed Malcolm Peckering with a self-satisfied grin on his face look out the window at him for a moment and mouth, 'muggle.'

Feeling his face go red, Julian glared back at Peckering, noticing just how stupid his face looked and thinking to himself how much better would look once Julian punched it.

It took him only a second to realise how much people like Yuko would want to do the same to him if he went through with it. It was this thought that cooled him down. He kicked the ground, beginning to walk away.

Something caught his eye however; a plaque placed to the right of the door to the classroom. He took a quick glance over it before heading off to the common room, it read:

Defensive Magic Classroom One

Office of Susan Halliday:

Second Year Co-ordinator
Head of The Department of Defensive magic
Head of Defanon House

Even after an hour, his hands didn't stop hurting.