Closed After The Duel

[Leia Hume]

Leia had been glad to beat Mary Lou, as she would've wanted to do with anyone. Leia put in a lot of time and effort into her duelling, since it was just something she'd gotten fairly good at. Winning a few years in a row had helped keep her interest in it, and the more she won, the longer she was undeafeted. She thought it would be pretty impressive if she managed to make it through all her schooling with that title, but there was no way she'd let herself relax or think she could walk into it. Had Mary Lou not lost at the moment she did Leia would've kept going, doing her usual spells and moves until she had either been beaten or won. Leia did however feel a little bad.

Leia had not exactly been friends with her back when she'd last been at the school, being a slytherin, wanting to fit in with other Slytherins and their harshness had put them at odds, though she knew that Luxen was not the only one to blame for her behaviour. So when the duel was declared over and Mary Lou was leaving Leia decided to sportsman like for once in her life and went after her. "Mary Lou, wait up," she called out, catching up to the girl. "That was a good duel," the words felt foreign and uncomfortable in her mouth, she wasn't usually that complimentary and certainly not always without it being more harsh, but she had to try harder to be more visible nice to Mary Lou. ​

 

[Mary Lou Layton]

There was a little embarrassment about how the duel went down in the end, but thankfully, Mary Lou wasn't all that phased about it. She was honestly used to ending up on her arse these days, whether it just be from tripping over, or from being hexed or spelled. Still, it was never a great feeling when there were spectators and she was still a-little upset about what Kia had said. Maybe it had just been in the heat of the moment, but she didn't really believe that. There were too many coincidences that happened around her for her to really believe Kia hadn't actually meant something by it. She looked over at Leia as she caught her and frowned, shaking her head. "For you maybe, it was a terrible duel for me." she wasn't much of a dueller though and this had definitely proved that. She wasn't exactly hoping to be known for her duelling prowess, but she still felt a bit useless. "Sorry I couldn't have been more of a fun fight for you. Was a bit boring, I know," she would need to head to the hospital wing later, but she wasn't terribly worried about her arm, it was really only a small cut from the diffindo.​

 

[Leia Hume]

Leia almost wanted to correct Mary Lou as she called the duel terrible for her. Leia hadn't had a terrible duel, she'd won, for now possibly still holding on to a title she always worked so hard for, but it hadn't been a challenge, it hadn't been a duel in her mind that was worthy of them, almost NEWT students. They knew so many spells, and so many ways to use them it seemed wild to her to not take advantage of some of them, win with style and flare and demonstrate all of the learning of the last few years. She was beyond her first ever duel, only really able to cast a stunning spell or a few low jinxes. "There will be other duels," Leia replied with a shrug, certainly not correcting Mary Lou, but trying at least to not have her feel bad on her behalf. "Did they have duelling at your other school?" though Leia didn't know if Mary lou had gone to another school, or if she'd been homeschooled, it was something that Leia was admittedly curious about. ​

 

[Mary Lou Layton]

"They did I imagine, but I didn't have much to do with it, I was never that interested. I just gave it a go this time because I was curious, I don't think you'll have to worry about a boring duel with me next year," she said with a shrug. If she was being perfectly honest, this had only done to persuade her it was not something she cared enough about to divert any time to. She preferred to do things she was interested in and clearly duelling was not part of that. There was still a lot she could do, sometime, all the time, hard to tell, but she definitely preferred the more finer arts to it all over the more aggressive ones, though she didn't stand opposed to anyone who did like it this way. "I think it's popular everywhere really, and some people definitely excel at it, but I'm very much not one of them - though that just means I could support you next time... maybe." she didn't know what her relationship was with Leia right now, though she assumed this was in aide of figuring that out.​

 

[Leia Hume]

Leia couldn't really understand how Mary Lou didn't seem to know if they had, and why she had been suddenly curious now. She didn't think people needed to commit to anything, but to have never shown an interest and then do it. Leia wasn't sure she could've done it, she'd always tried to be aware of what was happening, had done duelling when she'd first been able to, in part to get better at her spell casting in a setting in a high pressure environment, it had just ended up working out in that way where she was actually very good at it.

"Well, if you've never really been interested in it, then you've probably just not learned how to duel," Leia didn't think this was the right thing to do, but the words were stumbling out of her mouth before she could stop them really. "I could help you with that," she wasn't sure if she was just trying to make up for all the wrong she with Luxen had once done, but the offer had been made. She'd welcome the support of someone else, but she would much rather if Mary Lou was interesting in duelling that she be able to give it a fair go. ​

 

[Mary Lou Layton]

Mary Lou frowned slightly. Not out of any particular upset or aggravation, but more just thinking about what Leia had said. She hadn't thought about duelling as anything more than just that, duelling. What she'd learned from Kalif hadn't really been about duelling either, more than just kind of learning how to defend herself from people who wanted to hurt her. She'd been upset when she'd had to leave him. And then he'd had to leave New Zealand, so it had all kind of worked out in the end as it turned out. "I... I never thought much about it." She had never considered Leia to be a friend, but she didn't really dislike her either. It was more just about avoidance. "I won't say no outright, but... why do you want to help me?"​

 

[Leia Hume]

Leia wasn't sure that Mary Lou would want to do that, she had never been kind to Mary Lou but she hadn't ever too unkind, at least she didn't think so. She had been somewhat mean with her association with Luxen but that was about it really. at the question, Leia initial shrugged, unable to stop herself from doing so and then she knew there had to be a verbal answer. "I don't know," she said, more sharply than she wanted to or than was necessary. She had to give it some thought, and then settled a little on the answer.

"Partly because I wasn't always nice to you when we were younger," Leia wasn't apologising for it, but this was her way of doing something close. "And, I've won the duelling a lot, I can duel, and I'm thinking about doing it professionally, so I should also learn to teach?" she said, in her head, it made sense to, since she'd eventually have to stop competing, and she would be able to give advice and see what worked and didn't for her own duels. If someone could teach and see the mistakes in others, see how someone else would approach it, she would be a better duelist, at least that's what she thought. ​

 

[Mary Lou Layton]

Mary Lou laughed lightly, shaking her head at Leia. It seemed a sensible thing, not one she'd thought of, but it was something that it made sense to try. "I appreciate it, I would like to learn and I've always been curious about it. I wouldn't mind it, if you're willing."​