Lindsey stood in front of Lux's desk in the Hufflepuff study hall, the two of them the only individuals there this late at night. He had hoped he could practice some of his magic without people noticing, but he was finding it difficult to have some alone time. He would make sure to ask Headmaster Blas if there was a room he could have for some private sessions, after all, they did invest pretty heavily in him already.

"So your parents just randomly decided they had more money?" Lindsey asked suspiciously.

"It wasn't random, Lindsey, they just had some savings they dipped into for my education."

"And they didn't do that at first because...?"

"I don't know man, they just didn't."

The school had given him a very big increase in budget. He tried virtually every wand available to finally find one that responded slightly better than his current one. It was still an English Oak, which didn't surprise Lux, but the core was made of heartstring from an Ice Dragon. The length was similar, but this improvement in the core was fairly noticeable to Lux, even if his wand spells were still inferior to the rest of his class. He also got a backpack that was smaller, could fit more items, and it looked much nicer.

"So they found enough money to get you a new wand, new backpack, and all the latest textbooks with author cliff notes... right," she said, unbelieving. "Or, hear me out, you scored crazy high on your aptitude test and now you're the favorite pet wizard of the school."

Lux grabbed his wand and cast Lumos, the light still weaker than Lindsey's same spell by a fair margin.

"I put everything I had into that. Still think I scored high?" he asked, putting his wand down and trying to continue his essay titled 'Stances for Beginners' for his Battle-Magic class.

"So what do your parents do that allows them to discover mounds of disposable income?"

Lux sighed frustratedly, "I've told you. They work for the UW, and it's classified."

"I've never heard of a classified UW position."

Lux laughed. "That's because it's classified. Would defeat the purpose if people knew about it, don't ya think?"

She scoffed. "Touche."

Lindsey stared at him, hands on her hips, trying to think of the next line of questions. Lux pretended he didn't notice and continued his essay. She debated about bringing up her trump card. They were about done with their second week of school, and her heritage still hadn't been brought up by him. Every single student she had met so far had mentioned her parents, whether aggressively or in passing conversation. Everyone, that is, except him. If he really was muggle-born, which from everything she had seen so far seemed to point in that direction, did she really want to out him? She always tried to do it privately, never in front of people. And she thought he considered her a friend or at least a budding friendship, but he revealed nothing and was always vague. She should just let it go and enjoy the fact someone could talk to her for her, without the politics associated with her family, but her curiosity was too great.

"Do you know who I am?" She asked.

"Yeah, Lindsey Jones, 1st year Hufflepuff and a pain in my ass. Also, part of the reason I won't finish this essay on time."

She clicked her tongue, "No stupid. Like... me, the Jones family."

Shit, Lux thought. Do I say no and feign ignorance or say yes and hope she doesn't ask more questions? Lux only had to think for a moment. It's Lindsey. Of course, she would ask more questions.

"Nope." he said, writing his essay and trying to play it cool.

"Nope?"

"That's what I said."

She crossed her arms. "I don't believe you..." she said, her eyebrows raised.

"That's nice."

She let out a chortle, "You're frustrating." she teased.

He looked up at her, his expression was priceless. "ME?" he laughed loudly for a few seconds.

"Look, I'm just trying to get to know you. You're so secretive about yourself, and it just isn't making sense."

He looked at her, trying to decide what to do. She hadn't been overly aggressive, even if she had been nosy. She was curious, and besides Caleb, the person he talked to the most so far. He had to admit he felt the beginnings of a friendship with her, her sarcastic attitude was fun to be around. She didn't take life super seriously, and with the weight of being a Sorcerer on his shoulders in addition to everything else, the fun atmosphere was a welcoming change.

"Everything I have said so far, Lindsey, has been for a reason. We are classmates, basically roommates, and I enjoy hangin' out with you. If this is all I'm saying to you, it's because it's all I want to say right now. Can you respect that? Or do I need to go somewhere else to study?"

His aggressiveness caught Lindsey off-guard, and she felt herself backing off immediately. At this point, he all but said he was muggle-born, or at least was unique in some way. That was the most he had ever said about why he was dodging her questions, and he also admitted that their interactions meant something to him. If she didn't want to lose him as a friend, she needed to back off for a bit.

She sat down at the desk across from him and took out a piece of parchment, words filling the front and back of the long piece of paper. "Want to compare notes?"

By the end of the third week, Lux, Lindsey, and Caleb sat together for most of their classes. Lindsey took a minute to warm-up to Caleb, but when she realized she could tease him mercilessly and he wouldn't ever think of a good comeback, or he would take her teasing literally, which made her laugh even harder, she realized he was good for their group dynamic. He wouldn't ever be a friend she could share emotions with or relate to, like the potential with Lux, but she started to develop a unique feeling of protection with him. She started to see why Lux was so defensive about him.

"Now that we are entering our fourth week of class," their Battle-Magic professor Brianna Temple began to speak, the class had just finished their day's lesson on different stunning charms and their applications. "It's time we start preparing for the mid-semester pre-tournament."

This got the class's attention, all of the student's eyes widening and focus directly on her next words.

"The mid-semester tournament provides a gauge to your capabilities in relation to your classmates. Each win will earn your house extra points, while losses do nothing. Double-elimination, just like the of semester and end of year tournaments. Some of you are aware of the stories about particular brutal fighting and some extraordinary prizes. For the first concern, no one has died since we started using the Arena, so although I can't say you'll experience no pain unless you forfeit early..." she trailed off, her words on forfeit like a bitter taste in her mouth, making it clear her thoughts on bowing out early. "You won't die. I want to make that clear. The Arena always stops any spell or fall that could cause death. For the second point, prizes for first years are usually tamer in comparison to the later years, as we typically get bigger sponsors for those classes as they are about to graduate and are being pursued by a variety of suitors. However, I will say one winner of the first-years end of year tournament received his or her choice of a new broom and a 500 galleon prize purse."

The created a huge buzz in the room, and even Lux had to balk at the sheer size. If there was truly no limit to a broom purchase, that alone could be worth 1,000-1,500 galleons, in addition to the coin purse. He wasn't exactly sure of the dollar to galleon ratio, but based on the few snacks and essentials he had seen in the shops, it was about 8 dollars for a galleon. Over 15,000 dollars in prizes, which for a first-year in school, was nothing to sneeze at. Especially for Lux, who even with his increase in budget, only had about 500 galleons to last him the whole year, which was plenty since the school supplemented virtually everything else.

"No chance Lux is winning with his pitiful spell casting." Lindsey teased.

"I agree, Lux is by far our worst-performing student in this class." Caleb said, straight-faced.

"Damn Caleb, I expected insults from Lindsey. I thought you would, at least, be a little more forgiving."

Caleb cocked his head in question, "So I should have lied just then? I thought friends don't lie to each other."

Lindsey looked at Lux with a giant smirk on her face, "Yeah Lux. We wouldn't want to lie to you."

"Right, yeah... thanks then, I guess." Caleb looked confused at the interaction but looked at Lindsey who gave him a thumbs-up, which squashed any of his worries that he handled the situation wrong.

"He was my friend first." Lux joked.

"Yeah, but who wants to be friends with the 'worst-performing student of our class'" she said, lowering her voice and imitating Caleb's inflection.

"Is that what I sound like?" Caleb asked.

"I mean, you don't not sound like that." Lindsey teased.

"She's poking fun at you Caleb, and insulting me at the same time. It's fine, she shows friendship like a ten-year-old boy." Lux explained, looking back up to the professor who had cleared her throat to regain the class's attention.

"Your face is a ten-year-old boy..." she murmured under her breath.

"Anyways," the professor said, regaining the attention of the class, "the mid-semester tournament is one month away. Two weeks from now, names will be drawn and you will see who you'll face off against. I urge you to practice as much as you can in your offtime, as these tournaments are open to the public, and you might catch an eye of a future employer. Dismissed."

As the class began to walk away and the three of them began to discuss their plans for lunch, they overheard some chatter behind them.

"I hope I get Lux. He can't even disarm his opponent yet."

"Or maybe the weird one, he probably will freeze up with everyone looking at him!"

"I'd like to show the princess my skills if you know what I mean."

The group of students continued on like this, talking quite loudly behind the three, clearly trying to get a rise out of the group.

Lux looked over his shoulder and stared at the five students behind them, snickering and looking away as he looked back. Three Gryffindors, a Ravenclaw, and a Slytherin.

"Friends of yours?" Lux asked Lindsey. "They seem fond of you, calling you princess and everything."

"I didn't know you were a princess." Caleb said, surprised.

"Ugh Caleb, I'm not, they were just insulting us. We really need to work on your social ques."

Caleb nodded. "I agree, it's not my strongest attribute."

This made Lux and Lindsey laugh, to Caleb's surprise, and they just ignored the group who eventually turned in another direction and left them alone. He knew exactly who the five were, they were the loudest and usually most obnoxious group in each class. For as many points as they earned for their house with intelligence, which admittedly they were, they also had points taken away plenty of times for being disrespectful or circumventing rules.

He hated people like that, and although he couldn't use his powers as he wanted, he did read over the rules of the tournament and smiled to himself. He couldn't wait to practice some of his magic tonight. He had a few ideas.