Dueling - Lesson 1 - All Years

Being back felt amazing. Being able to walk through the halls of Salem again was the best feeling; the only regret she held was being apart from Angelo. Now he was back, Lucelia vowed to herself to never let him slip through her fingers again, but she knew that if she wanted to keep her job she would have to leave to go back to the school. Still, her mother was the most kindhearted person she knew, and if she was going to be leaving Angelo with anyone, the 1/4 Veela was glad that it was her.

So, there she found herself, leaning up against her desk and waiting for the lesson to begin. Her long, dark locks were swept neatly to the side and her usual black pencil skirt was accompanied by a pale pink blouse. She looked over to the door, waiting to see it be pushed open to see the fresh-faced students that she so looked forward to teaching.

As per usual, the "dummies" she let the students practice on were in the arena-type area that was in front of all the desks and behind her there was a blackboard with her name written on in cursive but legible print. She hoped to teach the students the skills that had saved her life over a year ago now, and she hoped that they would have at least some fun learning them.

Yes, this was exactly what Lucelia loved doing.

Ares didn't really no why but he was being sort of drawn to Dueling. But when he really thought of it he knew why. He heard the lesson was going to have all years there and that just meant that Aphrodite and Apollo would be in there... well he thought. If they were than that meant he could mess with them when the Professor wasn't looking or tease them before class. Ares walked into the class and only saw a fellow Wormwood there along with the Professor. "Hello" he greeted.

Mary was happy that Dueling was back again and not just because it contributed to her training. She liked Professor Tsahira and was proud to be in her House. She was drinking a cup of coffee as she made her way up to the fourth floor and when she was done, she vanished the cup and walked in the classroom.

She smiled, amused, when she saw two other Wormwoods there, one of them being Victoria, of course. "Hello, Professor. Hi Victoria, Ares." the Head Girl greeted everyone with a small wave and sat down next to the younger girl. She had never really talked to the boy, but she has seen him around.

Michelle decided to take this year dueling since she needed to get know more about how to protect herself and stuff like that. So she soon walked into the classroom and saw there her fellow housemates, with who she really haven't talked before but have seen around, oh and professor of course. "Hello everyone," she said and took a seat somewhere in the class.

Carson yawned boredly as he walked into the dueling classroom. There was no doubt in his mind that they'd be using practice targets and wpuldn5 actually be dueling, which is what he'd expected when he signed up originally. But it was too late to back out of the class now. So he made me his way to the fourth floor classroom.

Immediately, as per his usual he gravitated towards the most attractive person in the room. Afterall birds of a feather and all that, and today it happened to be a young Wormwood girl sitting in the middle of the desk configuration. He took the seat next to her and gave her a smile of acknowlexgem4 as he got himself situated

Duelling was something Janique had never taken before, and she was interested by the notion of it all, seeing as offensive spells were what she loved doing. She just hoped that they would get to practise them more than learn about them. She noticed that the layout of this classroom was different, and her eyes lit up at the sight of the dummies, for it meant that this was going to be a hands-on class.

Moving to the chairs closest to the blackboard, she nodded towards the teacher. "Hello Professor Tsahara," she greeted politely, taking a seat.

It wasn't so much the attacking side of dueling that had appealed to Isabelle. No, she didn't really like bringing harm to anyone, but she figured that it would be useful in defensive situations. The door to the classroom was open and there were a few people she recognised instantly from her other classes, but a fair few of the attendees were much older than she was.

The layout of the classroom intrigued her; chairs arranged in a semi-circle and an arena, almost, in the front. She guessed that was where they would practice. She found a seat nearo a brown haired girl at the front and smiled across at her. From what she had already seen, the girl seemed to be very nice and just as upbeat as she. The Wormwood hoped that they could be friends at some point; it would be nice to have found someone who shared the values that she did.

The Norwegian was impressed by the turnout, and after taking a quick listen to make sure no-one else was hurrying down the corridor, the turned to the class to begin her lesson. She held her wand behind her back, ready to take the invisibility charm off the tables behind her as soon as she had everyone's attention. The brunette cleared her throat once and began to talk in a manner that was oozing presence and authority.

"Good morning, students," she began, flicking her wrist as tables full of weaponry were unveiled behind her, an array of swords, knives, spears, daggers, bows and arrows and maces. "Today, we will be studying something that the seventh years may have encountered briefly with me last year, but for the rest this will be something hopefully new. Behind me, as you can see, are three tables and an array of weapons that you will be learning to fight with." She stepped off to the side, heels clicking against the floor as she did so.

"The aim of this lesson is to show all of you that in dueling, you must be prepared to fight in the ways that muggles have mastered over the years. You will not be using your wands today. Come up and take a look," she instructed, her voice reverting to a calm and inviting manner. "But I must ask you not to pick up or use any of these just yet. There will be plenty of time to practice."

"Good morning, students,"

As the tables began to appear, Janique's eye went wide with surprise. Muggle weapons were neatly laid out on them. She recognized a few of them, like knives and daggers, but some were completely unfamiliar to her. Soon, the surprise turned into excitement. Victoria was the first to approach the tables, and Jani could see how hesitant the Wormwood was, rolling her eyes. Why would she take duelling if she was so afraid of weapons? She would never understand the girl, she thought, also walking up to the table.

Running her eyes over the different weapons, she tried to identify which she liked best. Knives and the like were common in kitchens, so they didn't really strike her as anything particularly interesting. As she scanned the table, her attention fell on a long stick, on the end of which was a round, spiky ball. "Impressive," she muttered, reaching out and gently touching one of the spikes to test its sharpness. After all, their instructions had been to not to pick up or use any of these just yet and she wasn't doing either of that. Running her hand along the wooden handle, she tried to picture how one could use it. Perhaps by swinging it really hard towards a target? Smiling broadly, she waited for further instructions, glad that she had chosen to take this class. It was going to be a very interesting lesson.

Weapons! Mary grinned excitedly. She didn't get a chance to really study them last year, but she was determined to do her best now. After the Professor was done talking, the Head Girl practically bounced off of her chair and walked over to the display.

She smiled to Victoria and then ran her fingers over the knives that were the closest to her. If she wanted to be the best or at least close to the best in dueling, she couldn't just depend on magic. She had to know everything there was about Muggle weapons and how to use them. This was the perfect opportunity and she was thinking about asking Jake to practice with these as well as with magic.

Maces attracted her gaze and she studied them without picking them up, like the Professor asked. She pictured herself swinging one of them and cringed at the idea of it going bad. No, if she would ever use a mace, she'd make sure she got a lot of practice before. There was another girl looking at maces, but Mary didn't think she knew her, so she didn't say anything.

Sword fighting always looked good in the movies, but Mary couldn't picture a serious wizarding fight with swords. It would just be ridiculous, but she still wanted to learn one day. It wasn't exactly one of her priorities, but it looked interesting enough.

Lucelia found herself grinning as some of the students rose to look at the weapons, and she moved around to the back of the tables to watch them carefully. One girl started to touch the spikes on the maces, which to be fair to her they hadn't been instructed to do. The Norwegian made her way over to Victoria, who looked to be a little bit intimidated by the objects before her, and she spoke in a soft, reassuring tone.

"There's nothing to worry about," she said, smiling widely. "And it's great to see that you're walking again, Victoria. Truely wonderful." Next, the woman addressed the rest of the class, most of whom were still looking from their seats. "Come on, don't be shy. You'll get pick of the lot if you're up here soon."

With that, the witch flicked her wrist again and brought the dummies scattered around the room to the arena. Lucelia liked them, mostly because they felt like actual people when they were being used. She just hoped that the younger and more innocent students didn't feel put off by the fake blood that would ooze out of puncture holes. Reassuring them would likely not be very easy.

"Now I will say this once and only once: for now, pick up one weapon each and make your way towards a practice dummy." She picked up her own weapon of choice for the occasion, a set of throwing knives, and summoned her own. "You will wait for me to tell you to begin." She positioned the knife in her hand and took a breath to calm herself, throwing it almost effortlessly as it soared towards the dummy and pierced it's neck.

"The blood you will see is completely fake, and is therefore only present to stimulate an actual fight. There is nothing to worry about here. I will show you all the proper techniques for your weapons unless, by some miracle, you already know. In which case, you have the chance to earn house points by impressing me. Understood?"

Michelle had seen before at least once all this weapons before but she really haven't used them for killing something or someone. So she listened quietly what teacher said and looked at this weapons. She took the knife, it looked safest one for you. She didn't know what to do exactly now. She saw what professor did.

To say that Carson was impressed with the lesson would be putting it lightly. When he'd assumed they'd be working with practice dummies, never in his life would he have guesses the lesson would involve honest tongoodness weapons. He hung around and watched as the other students gazes at the weapons; some with confidence others in awe.

The boy wasted little time in hopping to his feet and hurrying to the table looking over the choices. He gravitated toward a pair of knives that struck him as unusual. The blades were shorter that a dagger would be and the handle had a guard over it almost like a set of brass knuckles. He picked the knives up and twirled them in his hand deciding that he liked the feel of them.

A gentle snort escaped from his as he noticed his bro Jackson chattong up the pretty girl Carson was sitting by. He gave a wave over to his friend before heading towards a dummy awaiting the professor to show him how to best use this wonderful new decive he held.

Mary picked up a dagger, excited about this opportunity. She walked to one of the dummies, making sure she was standing a safe distance away and she was twirling the dagger in her hands like a villain in a comic book. This was so much fun.

She narrowed her eyes, trying to measure the distance and the force with which she should throw the dagger so that it would hit the target. She had a feeling taking Physics would come in handy right about now and she started to wonder why on Earth wizards were so narrow minded. Physics and other subjects Muggles took were very important and not just for people without magic. Wizarding subjects were obviously important as well, but it wouldn't do anybody any harm if they took Biology or Maths. Even just Literature would be good. That reminded her, now that she was Head Girl, she definitely needed to talk to the Headmistress about adding some literary books in the library. Or just convince the Librarian, she was sure Headmistress Finn was too busy for such things.

The witch caught herself thinking about everything else than dueling and she shook her head slightly. It wouldn't do, this was a very important opportunity and she wasn't going to miss it. She did, however, make a mental note to talk to the Librarian. It's silly, really, not to have any books for leisure.

She turned to the Professor for further instructions and demonstration of the skill.

"Now I will say this once and only once: for now, pick up one weapon each and make your way towards a practice dummy. You will wait for me to tell you to begin."

Turning away from the weapons, Janique watched their professor throw a single knife towards the dummy, striking it directly in the neck. "Merlin," she muttered, letting out a low whistle. Muggle weapons were amazing!

Going back to the table, she went over each and every single thing on the table, trying to figure out which she'd use. The one that had originally caught her attention was still on the top of her list, but after seeing what their Professor could do with a knife, she was tempted to use those. A few other students had already chosen and left for the dummies, Victoria among the first. That surprised Janique a bit, for she had thought her rather anti-violence. Of course, she had figured the girl's entire persona to be faked, so she just shrugged it away.

Finally deciding to stick with the stick-and-spike-ball - which is what she named it in her head for the time being - and picked it up carefully. It was slightly less heavy than she expected. Moving to the nearest dummy, she imagined swinging the ball straight into its head. Waiting for further instructions, she tested the weight of the stick, trying to work out how hard to swing it and at what angle.