Theo drew his wand from inside his robe, “Sectumsempra!”

A purple diagonal streak of light erupted from his wand as he slashed, traveling the distance between the two in just over two seconds. A bright light erupted in front of Kate as the spell hit some kind of shield without her saying a word.

“You really ought to practice your nonverbal casting, Theo.”

She waved her wand and whispered a spell lightly, Lux unable to hear her from the distance he stood.

Blue mist, very similar to the spell Robert had used, trickled out of her wand and settled onto her skin, slowly solidifying around her.

Theo started sprinting toward her as soon as he saw the mist, trying to close the distance and reduce her reaction time. From 30 meters away, she had ample opportunity to come up with a counter-defense, so whether he wanted to or not, he needed to get closer.

“Stupefy!” Theo shouted while continuing to run, the spell shooting just over her shoulder as she leaned to one side, his aim slightly off-center due to casting while running full speed.

The mist finished wrapping around her body and she waved her wand to disconnect from the spell. Unlike the spell Robert had used, however, her spell remained and it incased her entire body while allowed her to move freely.

“Expelliarmus.” Kate said rather casually and flicked her wand in Theo’s direction. Lux could have sworn the spell moved quicker than her opponent’s, but Theo was able to use the foliage to his advantage and baseball slid underneath the spell, popping up smoothly on the other side.

“Stupefy!” He yelled, now having closed the gap and in proper positioning, fired an accurate shot that hit Kate square in the chest. The light blue armor seemed to fade slightly in the spot the spell hit, but she stood tall and smiled; whatever effect the spell was supposed to have clearly didn’t.

“Look at you!” She said happily, laughing hysterically. “You’ve gotten better.” She said, smiling sinisterly. Kate was a unique individual. Although she loved to win, she liked the competition even more. She had been known to allow her opponent to heal rather grievous wounds in order to continue fighting. The few times she had lost over the years, usually to professors who would finally accept her invitation after weeks of insisting, she would study every spell either had used during the match. She poured over the information like a master chess player, replaying the match in her head with eyes closed, her hands moving to the mock duel in her head. Due to her accent and simple vocabulary, some people overlooked her in the beginning as being stupid or simple. She made sure people thought differently very quickly.

“You battle-crazed woman,” Theo said, shaking his head. “I would expect nothing less from Gryffindors.”

Kate let out a mock shiver. “Ooh, I’m right shakin’ in my boots over that insult, Theo.” She smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “Time to show the kiddies what they came for. Sorry, man.” She flicked her wand three times in rapid succession, not using any words for these spells. The first was dodged by Theo, while the other two blocked by a well-timed “Protego” charm. Her second and third spells, however, traveled at a slower speed than the rest. This gave Theo plenty of time to block, while Kate used his distraction to wave her wand over her head, a slow fire beginning to form in a vortex above her.

“Kate!” Gembol shouted from the side, stepping forward while reaching inside his robes. She responded by waving him off with her hand, never breaking her concentration. Gembol sighed, "Fine, but as soon as I see you lose control, I'm ending it. Understood?" he asked, to which she nodded.

The ball of flame landed in front of her, absorbing a spell from Theo that was shot her way, disappearing in the rising smoke and intense heat. The flames began to take shape... legs beginning to sprout from the center mass, a long tail formed at one end and a long snout at the other, with wings sprouting on it's back.

She just made a dragon out of the fire! Lux thought, astonished.

Kate’s eyebrows furrowed in concentration and Theo retreated a few meters back, positioning himself between a few boulders, trying to keep his distance from any large foliage.

The dragon began to slowly reduce in size, maybe two Kate’s in height and just a little longer in length.

She let out a sigh, the spell had taken a bit of a toll as she disconnected the spell. The dragon turned to look back at her, going to nuzzle her with affection.

“Woah there big boy.” She said, backing up a few steps. “You are a little too spicy for me, my friend. However,” she pointed toward Theo. “Theo loves spicy food.”

The dragon, and Lux swears he saw it, smiled slightly and leaped toward its new enemy, closing the distance quickly and leaving a trail of smoldering flames beneath the grass and fallen leaves.

“You’re crazy!!” Theo shouted, before ripping off a spell that shot a stream of water at the beast, the name of the spell lost in the screams of the fire-dragon.

The dragon shrieked as the jet of water hit it, which it answered back by hurling a ball of fire from its mouth straight at Leo, who dodged quickly behind the boulder where it splashed against it. The dragon leaped into the air, jumping right over the boulder and spreading its wings, giving it a slight lift in flight.

Another jet of water went from his spell at the animal, which took the hit, and tried another fireball at the man. Theo concentrated at the beast, seeing his impending doom loom toward him.

The first-year students looked on in horror at the fire seemingly engulfed the man, the dragon snarling in victory. If only the dragon had working ears because he would have heard a faint ‘pop’ a few meters above him.

The students saw him wave his wand in a swish and flick motion, suspending his fall momentarily.

“Unda Aqua!” Theo shouted, really reaching back with his wand before shooting his arm forward like throwing a baseball. A giant wave of water, much larger than anything he had used before, rushed toward the fire-dragon. A loud sizzle could be heard as the water fought the intense flames, the dragon falling from the sky, barely able to maintain it’s shape.

“Stupefy.”

A red beam shot from the ground, hitting Theo as he was distracted after finishing his powerful spell. His eyes opened wide for a moment before his body went rigid. He hung in the air for a moment before falling toward the ground, a death sentence at the height he was currently at.

Right before he landed on the ground, just mere cm before crashing, the arena’s four pillars shot white beams directly at Theo, encapsulating him in a cocoon of brilliant white light. The arena glowed as the smoke and environment disappeared in front of their eyes.

The cocoon opened to reveal Theo, soot covering most of his skin and his eyes still wide, but seemingly unharmed.

“Rennervate.” Headmaster Blas pointed his wand toward the stunned man, his limbs and eyes returning to life and he breathed heavily for a moment before standing. He looked toward Kate, who’s blue armor had dissipated, and she smiled.

“Harder when there are two things to worry about, huh?” she asked.

“You’re insane!” Theo yelled, showing more animation in his facial features than Lux had thought possible from the formal Head Boy. “That was Fiendfyre!”

“Sure was!” She said rather proudly, “I spent all summer tryin’ to get Mr. Dragon to a small enough size for me to manage, and I sure as shit did!”

“How??” Theo said, his anger mixed with bewilderment and, he would never admit it, fascination and respect. This spell was rarely used beyond the strongest of wizards and witches, and she managed it before starting her last year of school.

“I apparated into a desert and practiced every day.” She said, thinking back on the memory. “Had a few close calls, but, I can maintain Fluffy about sixty percent of the time now.”

“Sixty percent!?” Theo’s admiration diminishing quickly hearing the odds of just how close they might have been to Fiendfyre getting out of control.

“Oh, don’t get your panties in a bunch, Theo. Between the Headmaster and the arena’s defensive mechanisms, we would have been fine.”

“Oh yes,” Theo said, scoffing. “Just fine. Except we would have slowly burned and suffered until the arena’s ‘preserve life’ mechanisms kicked in and saved us. You forget, Katherine, there’s a lot of pain to be had before dying!”

She growled. “Do I need to summon another one to teach you to. Call. Me. Kate.” She raised her wand in the air, eyebrows raised.

“Okay, okay, I think that’s enough show for the students. Thank you, Theo, Kate.” The headmaster said, squashing the argument with a stern look toward the two of them.

Lux looked around at the other students, most of which were just as shocked as he was, which made him feel a bit better about not sticking out during this part because he was sure he had his mouth wide open the entire match.

With that done, the rest of the day was spent touring the grounds, led by the Headmaster and introducing us to the various professors that would be teaching the first-year students. His classes the first year were more or less set-in-stone, with each student only getting one elective class. There was only half a dozen or so to choose from, but one extra class stuck out to Lux as he glanced over the brief list.

“Magical Artifacts – The Basics. Taught by Professor Klatt.”

Since that was one of the main reasons Lux had focused on for even coming here after hearing about all the muggle-born mess, he figured that was a no brainer. He read over his other classes as well, including the schedule for them all.

Monday –

Charms, 1st period.

Battle-Magic, 2nd period.

Lunch

History of Magic, 3rd period

Elective, 4th period

Tuesday –

Herbology, 1st period

Potions, 2nd period

Lunch

Transfiguration, 3rd period

Off block

Wednesday –

Charms, 1st period.

Battle-Magic, 2nd period.

Lunch

History of Magic, 3rd period

Elective, 4th period

Thursday –

Herbology, 1st period

Potions, 2nd period

Lunch

Transfiguration, 3rd period

Off block

Friday –

Beginner’s Flying, 1st period.

Off block

Lunch

Elective, 3rd period

Off block

*Schedule subject to change at professor’s discretion*

Lux noticed Monday and Tuesday repeated the same schedule for Wednesday and Thursday, with Friday being a pretty light day with two off blocks. Robert had warned him the homework load is a little tedious, so he figured the off blocks would be used for any assignments or projects to be worked on, which enabled them to have somewhat of a lifestyle in the evenings.

Lux couldn’t even wrap his head around all the professors he had met, or magical things he had seen by the time the tour was over. From the Forbidden Forest to plants that could talk, and even a half-broken-down tree that would crush anything that approached it. Unless the students had older siblings and visited them, this was the first time the majority of students were seeing anything like this in person, so Lux got to actually enjoy the new wonders as he processed all the things magic could do.

To end the day, their house’s common room was shown to them by the two prefects of Hufflepuff, each of them 5th years. Apparently, there were prefects for the 6th and 7th year as well, but the newly anointed prefects of the 5th year received the short straw of showing the new students to their quarters.

The common room was from the same corridor as the kitchen, the aromas from dinner still lingering in the hallway. At one end of a dead-end hallway stood a pile of large barrels, stacked in a stone recess on the right-hand side of the corridor. The second barrel, middle of the second row, opened with a cadence of taps from the prefect, a secret code the changed every few weeks.

“Careful to not tap the wrong one, or to not forget the new tapping sequence,” the prefect, Percy, said while the passage inside the barrel began to open. “You’ll be drenched in vinegar or even worse, your eyelashes might burst into flames.”

This earned a few chuckles from the group, like that was just a common curse or spell that was okay to exist in their world.

Wizards are kind of crazy. Lux thought to himself, not for the first time.

The passageway opened into a round, low-ceiling room. Percy explained it was designed to mimic a badger’s home, their house’s mascot. The room was decorated in bee-like colors of yellow and black, honey-colored wood was used for the tables and doors. Two round doors at one end of the common room lead to the women and men’s dormitories.

Bright, colorful plants and flowers covered the common room, giving off an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. A giant portrait hung over the small fireplace in the center of the common room, which Percy pointed out was none other than Helga Hufflepuff, one of the four founders of the school and their house’s creator. She was animated, quite literally, as she moved in the picture like a scene from a movie, holding a golden cup in her hand while sipping the contents periodically.

Lux stood in the common room, everyone meeting each other more officially, the bonds of friendships beginning to form, and he smiled. He felt a feeling of purpose, something far greater than he had felt before. Farming, providing food for his country… at the time, it felt like it was all the purpose he needed. However, you don’t know what you don’t know, and now the Lux could see the bigger picture, his nerves gave way to true excitement and wonder, and he couldn’t wait to see where this adventure took him.

“The creation of the Dueling Arena was a great feat in Magical Engineering. The magical community now had a relatively safe method in practicing a no holds barred match between wizards. Although the price and time it takes to create such an artifact (at the time of writing this, only a few dozen exist in the word) is a roadblock for this to show itself in a private home anytime soon, the quality of aurors and bodyguards should increase tenfold.” – Felix Bagshot on the invention of the Dueling Arena, 2132 A.D.