"You're an idiot, Andy."
"Shut up, Jake."
"Like, this is insane."
"No, it's not."
"I can't believe you're doing this."
"Will you stop?" Andrew snapped, shooting Jacob an annoyed look.
"Mate, we don't think this is a good idea," Oliver stepped in.
Andrew let out a scoff. "There's no bloody way I'm backing out now. If she wants to duel, then that's what we're going to do."
"Actually, you're the one that proposed the idea," Violet pointed out.
"Uh, no, she brought it up. Twice."
Violet rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Either way, you're still an idiot for doing this."
Andrew rolled his eyes in irritation. "Look, if none of you want to come, then don't. I'll be totally fine with that."
"Oh, no, we're still coming," Eliza stated. "Right, guys?"
"Yeah," Jacob added. "If she kicks your arse, then I'd like to be there to see it."
Andrew, fed up with everyone, stopped in his tracks and turned around, facing his friends. "I'm not going to get my arse kicked by that stupid American. I can duel better than her, I know I can. Now, I need to go prepare for this duel. If you still want to come, then be at the Quidditch pitch at eleven." With that, Andrew motioned Eliza to go with him and the two walked away from the others.
Violet shook her head in disbelief. "He is mental."
Oliver shrugged his shoulders. "Well, we can't convince him to back out now."
Jacob chuckled. "I still think she's going to kick his arse."
*******
Frustrated, angry, determined.
That was what Mary was as soon as she stormed away from the others. She couldn't believe that she had gotten herself into this. A duel. It was honestly the last thing she wanted to do, especially right now.
Why are English people so aggravating? Mary thought. Well, except for that one Scottish person. Too bad his friends are rude, though.
Mary made it back quickly to the Slytherin Dungeon, muttering the password and entering the common room. She angrily plopped down on the couch, crossing her arms and starting into the fire.
"You okay there?" Blaise asked, raising his eyebrows from the armchair he was sitting in.
Mary jumped, sighing in relief once she saw him sitting there. "Blaise. I didn't even see you there."
"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you," he said. "But seriously, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she lied.
"You don't seem fine."
"Well, I am."
Blaise, huffing a sigh, got out of his chair and took a seat beside Mary. "It was those gits I told you about, wasn't it?"
She rolled her eyes at him. "What do you think?"
"I told you so."
"I don't even want to hear it."
"Too late," he teased. "So, you're going to just mope around here and not do anything about it?"
She scoffed. "Of course not. I have a duel with one of them tonight."
He widened his eyes. "Really? You haven't been here long and you've already been challenged to a duel? I'm impressed."
She gave him a soft smile. "Well, I wasn't trying to get into duels or impress anyone, really. I just wanted a normal school year."
"Well, here at Hogwarts, no one ever has a normal school year," he said, chuckling. "Especially not while Harry Potter is here."
Mary chuckled a little. "That must suck."
"I'm so over it already." He sighed, then continued. "Hopefully, we won't have to deal with him much longer."
Mary shot Blaise a confused look. "What's that supposed to mean?"
He gave her a smirk in response. "Nothing, Mary. Just something I heard from Draco." He got up from the couch. "I would join you to watch this duel, but I am very tired. Goodnight, Mary, and you better win."
Mary scoffed once more. "Oh, don't worry, I will."
*******
Oliver and Violet tried to study in the Ravenclaw Tower, wanting to distract themselves from tonight. Both of them thought the duel was one of the dumbest things Andrew ever came up with. For all he knew, Americans knew more than he did. She could definitely beat him for sure with that advantage.
"Do you really think she'll beat him?" Oliver asked Violet.
She shrugged her shoulders, still reading her textbook. "Maybe. I mean, girls can sure as hell put up a fight, which is why we're better than boys at dueling."
Oliver scoffed. "Okay, you keep thinking that," he teased.
"You can deny it all you want, Ollie, but it's a fact," she replied, smirking.
"Don't tell Jake that," he told her.
"Oh, I already have. He and I are going to duel one day."
Oliver let a smile creep up on his face. "Why haven't you guys done it yet?"
"Because he's too scared, that's why."
He snorted. "Of course he is."
Violet kept her smirk, then looked at the time on the clock. Her smirk went away. "It's almost eleven! We've got to go!"
And so Oliver and Violet hurriedly put their school things back in their rooms and left the Ravenclaw Tower. Oliver was getting more anxious by the minute as he and Violet made their way to the Quidditch pitch. On the way there, Jacob joined them.
"Someone please tell me why we're sneaking out and breaking curfew just to see Andy get his arse kicked by some American?" he questioned.
"That is exactly why we're sneaking out and breaking curfew," Violet said.
"Or we're just good friends that are going to support him," Oliver added.
Jacob and Violet shook their heads. "Nah, I like my reason better," he stated.
The three walked to the pitch in silence. When they got there, Andrew and Eliza were already there. Andrew was leaning against one of the goals while Eliza was standing by the wall, a worried look on her face. They walked towards her, ignoring Andrew completely.
"He's really going through with this," Oliver said.
Eliza nodded her head. "I've tried talking him out of it, but he refused. He eventually got tired of me and went up to his room." She huffed a sigh, shaking her head. "Seriously, this isn't going to end well. And if we get caught out here after curfew..."
"Let's hope that doesn't happen," Jacob added. "We'll surely be expelled for this if someone catches us."
"Hey, she's here," Violet said, pointing at Mary walking towards them. "Merlin, she looks like she's ready to take him down."
"You know what scares me?" Eliza inquired. "Andrew looks like he's ready to kill her."
"Let's hope he doesn't do that," Oliver said.
"Let's hope she doesn't kill him," Jacob added.
Andrew made eye contact with Mary, letting a smirk come across his face. "I didn't think you'd show up!" he shouted.
Mary smirked back at him. "It's funny how you thought I was going to back down from a duel!" she shouted back. She stopped walking when she was a few feet in front of him. "To be honest, I didn't think you'd show up."
Andrew scoffed. "You clearly don't know me at all."
"Well, I guess we're about to find out how good your dueling skills really are," she retorted. "Shall we?"
"Wait, shouldn't we have some rules or something?" Oliver spoke up, sounding a bit concerned. "I mean, we don't want anyone to die..."
"Stupefy!" Mary shouted, a blue light flying out of her wand. Luckily, Andrew blocked it just in time.
"Looks like she can be aggressive," Jacob stated, his eyes wide, along with his friends.
Andrew, with a mean look on his face, lifted his wand and shouted, "Locomotor Mortis!"
"The Leg-Locker Curse? Really, Andy?" Jacob yelled.
"Isn't that cheating?" Oliver asked. "She wouldn't have been able to move around from his spells."
"And that's why she's got a wand," Violet pointed out.
"Oh, is that really the best spell you've got?" Mary shouted, taunting Andrew. "It looks like Hogwarts...I mean, Hogwash...hasn't taught you a damn thing!"
"And Ilvermorny has taught you anything?" he retorted. "It doesn't look like it to me."
Mary's blood began to boil as she gripped her wand tighter. "Confringo!" she yelled as she pointed her wand at Andrew.
Not having enough time to get his wand, Andrew jumped out of the way, landing on the ground. He gave Mary daggers as he stood up from the ground. "You stupid American..." he said.
"Merlin, this is not going to end well," Eliza said, covering her face with her hands. "I don't think I can watch any more of this."
"Andy, that's enough!" Jacob shouted in a desperate tone. "Come on, this is pointless! Let's just go!"
"Go? I'm just getting started!" Andrew yelled, letting out almost an evil laugh, staring at Mary. "I don't think you'll be prepared for this next one, American!"
"Oh, really?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "Come on, then!"
Someone's gotta stop this, Oliver thought. He'll seriously hurt her if he keeps going on like this.
Andrew lifted his wand and began to shout a spell. "Sectumsem--"
Then, without blinking, Oliver pulled his wand out and pointed it towards his friend, shouting, "Expelliarmus!" Andrew's wand was knocked out of his hand, surprising everyone, including himself.
"Bloody hell, Ollie," Violet breathed out.
He looked around at all of his friends. "What?"
"That was...I don't even know how to describe it," Jacob added.
"Neither do I," a new voice said, making everyone jump and turn to see who it was.
"Damn," Eliza cursed under her breath.
"Let's go, all of you!" Snape demanded in a sharp tone.
"Well, that was the shortest duel ever," Jacob announced as he and his friends began to follow Snape back to the castle.
*******
All four Head of Houses had to come to Dumbledore's office that night. Dumbledore let the professors take their students from their Houses so that they could decide the punishments that best fit. For Oliver and Violet, they were given detention with Flitwick for two weeks. Jacob was also given detention for two weeks by Professor Sprout. Eliza was only given detention for two weeks, while Andrew had detention for a month, forbidden to try out for Quidditch, and lost his privileges to go to Hogsmeade for the rest of the year by Professor McGonagall.
"Well, this year is starting off great," Jacob stated sarcastically as the five were walking down the corridors.
"I wonder what punishment Snape gave the American," Eliza wondered out loud.
Andrew scoffed. "Probably nothing. I'm sure she got praised for picking a fight with a Gryffindor. If anything, he awarded Slytherin House a bunch of points."
"I bet she would've gotten a lot more if you had been Harry Potter," Violet added.
"That doesn't even matter," Eliza stated. "I can't believe you agreed to that stupid duel, Andrew..."
"I didn't say you had to come, Eliza," he snapped. "If you hadn't, then you wouldn't have gotten in trouble."
Oliver knew this argument was not going to end well. Whenever they didn't call each other by their nicknames, it meant they were upset with each other.
"I didn't want you to get hurt, which is why I went with you," she pointed out.
"Oh, really? I don't recall you doing anything other than standing on the sidelines and whispering to our friends," he retorted. "By the way, Oliver, thanks for totally ruining that duel for me. I really appreciate it."
Oliver rolled his eyes. "I didn't want anyone to get seriously injured. What was that spell, anyway?"
"What?"
"The spell you were about to fire at her. I've never heard of it before. What was it?"
Andrew furiously shook his head. "It was some spell that was written in Harry's Potions book. I saw him reading it today."
"So you cast a spell that you knew nothing about," Violet spoke up. "Well, you're a real genius," she added in a sarcastic tone.
"You know what? You guys just need to leave me alone, how about that?" Andrew stormed off, abandoning his friends.
Eliza groaned. "He's going to be in a pissy mood for the rest of the week."
Jacob sighed. "I'm looking forward to it," he stated in a blank tone, even though he was being sarcastic. "I'll see you guys later." He strolled away from the others, scratching the back of his head.
"I guess I should get going, too," Eliza said. "Hopefully, Andrew will calm down by tomorrow."
"He'll get over it. He always does," Oliver told her. "Don't worry about him."
She nodded her head, bidding the others goodbye before she walked down the corridors.
"Well, we should get a move on, too," Violet told Oliver.
As soon as they began to walk back, Oliver saw Mary coming their way. The three of them awkwardly stood there, waiting for someone to say anything to break the silence.
So Violet did just that. "Oliver, we better get back to the Ravenclaw Tower."
"You go ahead, I'll catch up," he replied, not even looking at Violet.
Confused, Violet obliged, anyway, and left the two alone.
Mary slowly walked towards Oliver, crossing her arms. "How much trouble did you get into?" she asked him.
"Just detention," he answered. "It won't be that bad. What about you?"
"Same. To be honest, I don't think Snape wanted to punish me."
Oliver chuckled. "He favors the Slytherins, so that's not surprising."
She shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I think he had to give me some kind of punishment."
"Yeah, it's only fair, I guess," he added, sighing.
"I'm glad I ran into you, actually," she admitted. "I wanted to say thank you for what you did for me. You didn't have to do that, you know."
"I know. But the duel was getting out of hand and someone had to end it."
She nodded her head in agreement. "I don't even know why I agreed to it. That was stupid of me."
"You've got guts, you know, standing up to Andrew like that," Oliver commented. "It was...I dunno...cool, I guess."
Mary chuckled. "Well, I'll see you around..." she trailed off, raising her eyebrows, trying to remember his name.
"Oliver," he said.
"Right. I'll see you around, Oliver." With that, she walked past him and went down the corridor.
Once she was out of sight, Oliver made his way back to the Ravenclaw Tower, a small smile on his face.
A/N: Heeeeeey!
So here's a new chapter! I hope y'all like this story so far!
Song above is This Means War by Nickelback.
Comment, vote, more to come!
-A