Closed Clash of the Champions

[Professor Adorah Zumwalt]

oops

 

[Juniper Zumwalt]

Juniper had been enjoying the end of her fourth year. While they hadn’t come out on top in Quidditch, she was still proud of her performance, especially with how many hits she tended to get for it being her first year. The Ravenclaw was still riding the high from bearing the title of Fourth Year Dueling Champion. She had definitely come back with a vengeance towards Lysander with Ajax sort of being caught in the crossfire, but either way, she showed those boys that she did not mess around.

All in all, she was feeling pretty good about her success at Hogwarts, and while prefect promotions would happen over the break, Juniper wasn’t too concerned. It would be nice to have the title as proof that she was indeed pulling her weight, but she also knew that her fashion work was time consuming. And that was what fell at the top of the list. Thankfully, her parents had agreed to let her wander the Harbour in search of a few project additions. It helped that Adorah was staying nearby, and even though her parents were still weird about her sister, they knew she was responsible, even if they were less than a year apart. About to meet up with her fellow Ravenclaw, Juniper paused as she saw a glimmer coming from a nearby window. Admiring the trinkets, it took her a moment to see a familiar face nearby. “You would think as dueling champion, I would be used to fans stalking me by now,” she snarked towards the boy. “If you want lessons, you need only ask.”

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander, in the middle of minding his own business, had been strolling down the cobbled street of Obsidian Harbor, making a beeline for the docks. It was cold, too cold to swim around the shore as he would have liked, but he enjoyed watching some of the more impressive ships come in from their nautical adventures, and often imagined the kinds of sea creatures they must have encountered. If Hogwarts had a giant, golden serpent creature in the lake, there was no telling what lived out in the Earth's ocean. He slowed his pace, briefly wondering if Kas was loitering around the Menagerie again, if only to have a semi-friendly face to hang about the docks with. Instead, he managed to run into someone he wanted to see far, far less. Here Juniper was, still rubbing it in his face that she'd stolen his title, on his own turf. "What? I live here." He responded incredulously, pointing in the distance to where his house vaguely was. He couldn't believe the words he was hearing. Who did she think she was? "You're the one stalking me. Besides, everyone knows I'm the real champion. I still have two wins to your one. Next year, it'll be three." He fired back, brow furrowing in annoyance. The break from Hogwarts was also meant to include a break from the reminder that he'd lost one of his most coveted titles, and he couldn't even escape that.​

 

[Juniper Zumwalt]

Juniper popped her eyebrows in a sassy manner as she smirked at Lysander. She was only picking on the boy, but he seemed to be taking everything too seriously. "Wow, someone seems to be a little bitter," she replied, completely ignoring the fact that she had held a grudge on Lysander for a year. However, it proved to pay off as she usurped his place as champion. "This is in fact a public street. Since I have no reason to seek you out, it seems more likely you'd be coming to me." She took a few steps towards Lysander and gave him a big smile. "Even if you do beat me, you'll still always have to remember the year I was better than you. But - I have the upper hand next year. So, you better come to fight." Juniper wasn't going to let some Gryffindor boy who thought he was all that convince her this year was just a fluke. She had worked hard for that win by not only beating him but also Ajax. And she would have beat someone else if she needed to. The Ravenclaw wasn't one to let these things stand in her way.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander bitterly rolled his eyes at the suggestion he was bitter. "I have no reason to seek you out, either. My family runs a shop here. This is my home turf. I have a reason to be here, and it's not to follow you around." He copied her, taking his own step forward and standing a little straighter. He folded his arms across his slightly puffed out chest. "When I beat you, it won't matter that you won once. It doesn't even matter now. I...I just went easy on you, because you helped me with those dancing lessons. I can go a year not being the champion. It doesn't matter to me." He lied, doing his best to sound entirely uninterested, despite how obvious it was he cared for the title. "You should be the one coming to me for lessons. I've actually invented my own spell. Have you?" He taunted asked, intentionally leaving out the fact he had help. A lot of it. She didn't need to know that tiny little detail. Almost trivial, really.​

 

[Juniper Zumwalt]

Juniper couldn't help but laugh at Lysander's attempt at being threatening. "If you're not following me around, then why are you still talking to me, huh? You could have just left." The Ravenclaw started to feel herself become more and more angry as Lysander continued speaking. The fact that he thought he went easy on her basically invalidated the entire duel and made it seemed like he didn't even value her as a worthy competitor. And even though she could bring up the fact that he, in her opinion, completely bombed the dance lessons, she would never hold that against him. They weren't competiting then, and not everyone was good at dancing because it wasn't like they had to take a class on it. "You mean the spell that makes people's eyebrow hair grow?" she asked incredulously, her voice raising slightly as she took another step forward. She could see a few people staring out of the corner of her eye. "You're right. No, I haven't created a completely useless spell. You should have at least created something good." Juniper clenched her teeth, trying not to let the tears welling up inside show.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Juniper's whole attitude was so frustrating to Lysander, acting like she really was all that now that she'd beaten him. It was true, he could have walked away, but she'd started talking to him first, accusing him of things he wasn't even doing. He couldn't simply walk away from that and just let it slide without defending himself. He didn't want anyone within earshot thinking he was following her around either. They had to know that she was the weird jealous one here, not him. He totally wasn't jealous at all.

The Gryffindor's face fell when, rather than being impressed and awe-struck by his cool spell, Juniper instead mocked him for it, way more fired up than he'd expected her to get. He took a step back when she took one towards him, arms dropping to his sides. "It is good! You don't know what you're talking about. You're just mad that I made one and you haven't. Maybe I'll make another one for next time we duel. I could create tons of spells if I wanted." He bragged loudly, trying to reclaim the bravado she'd spooked out of him when she'd raised her voice.​

 

[Juniper Zumwalt]

Juniper's angst quickly lowered as she started to laugh at Lysander's response. Creating spells didn't make someone good at dueling. It just meant they were good at the behind the scenes work, which was not nearly as glamorous in her humble opinion. "Whatever, Lysander. I'm not mad about some eyebrow spell," she huffed at the boy, rolling her eyes and taking a few steps back. "You can waste your entire OWL year creating unimportant spells. Meanwhile, I'll be kicking your butt in quidditch and during the next tournament." Juniper flipped her hair back over her shoulder and eyed the Gryffindor once more. "Your shoe's untied," she said, not breaking eye contact until she turned around walked back down the alley. She hadn't even notice if Lysander actually had laces, but maybe she'd trip him up just a little by making him look down. She didn't understand why she felt the need to beat him at everything. Her competitive nature wasn't nearly as elevated with anyone else at school, but for some reason, Lysander just got under her skin.