Closed Combat, I'm Ready for Combat

[Celia Vu]

As soon as she heard his voice, she took off. Celia wasn't completely sure the voice actually belonged to Vex, but she wasn't about to take any chances. She rather liked her outfit today, and she had zero intention of getting it slimed. As Celia ran, she withdrew her wand, ready to unlock the first room that presented itself. She was starting to lose hope when she spotted a door up ahead. With a quick alohomora, she yanked the door open and all but threw herself inside.

Leaning against the door, Celia took a second to catch her breath. It was dark, but she could make out the shape of a window on the far wall. After some maneuvering, she was able to push the shades aside, allowing sunlight to filter in. One look at the place, and she almost wished she hadn't opened the shades. The room was filthy and clearly hadn't been used in years. Judging by the pile of broken dummies in the back, it may have once been used for DADA lessons or dueling training.

Celia surveyed the room, trying to look for a clean spot to sit while she waited for Vex (if it was really him) to go away. Her thoughts were interrupted by a noise outside the door, which she realized with a start that she'd forgotten to lock. But it was too late for that. Celia held her wand out, tip pointed at the door, ready to stun the poltergeist if it burst through.

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis had lost track of his mission to explore Hogwarts a bit last year, but he decided that his third year would be the time he would actually uncover some cool secrets. It felt like any moment he'd find some hidden dungeon or secret passageway if he just looked in the right places. He knew a bit of magic now, which was probably the key. It meant he could lock and unlock things, and anyone worth their salt would lock a cool hidden staircase or corridor away. It was probably to keep the silly firsties out of trouble, too.

He had been wandering the Sixth Floor corridor, occasionally trying to open random things that didn't seem to open. So far, he had no luck. But as he turned a corner he saw a door close, a door he was sure had been locked the last time he was here. Excited, he rushed forward and opened it. "Lumos." He said, using his wand to light up the room. He jumped at the sight of the dummies on the floor, his heart speeding up at the sight of what looked like body parts on the ground until he realized they were just dummies to practice spells on. He sighed in relief, only to notice Celia and jump again. "Merde!" He cursed, putting a hand on his heart. "What- were you trying to scare people?" He asked accusingly, now feeling embarrassed about his reaction.

 

[Celia Vu]

The door flew open. "Stupe-" Celia stopped, realizing that it was a person, not a poltergeist. Her wand buzzed angrily, but the red jet of light did not appear. She started to lower her wand when the newcomer's face was illuminated by the lumos spell, revealing that it was none other than Louis Alcott. The boy who had lucked his way into winning their duel last year. Celia froze, Sydney's words coming back to her. Other ways. Other ways to prove she should have won. Other ways like hexing him right here, right now. Just a few simple spells, and she could have the dueling "champion" on his knees, vomiting slugs.

But then what? What did she want from him? An apology? No, she wanted one of those from Alicastell. His title? She'd have to wait until next semester to get that. Acknowledgement that she should have won? Actually, yes, that would be nice to hear. Louis finally noticed her, his exclamation snapping her back to the present moment and causing her to flinch. "What? No! I thought you were Vex!" she shot back, a little put out by his accusatory tone. Realizing that she was still pointing the wand at him, Celia reluctantly lowered it but did not put it away. She crossed her arms. "What are you even doing here?"

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis hadn't even noticed Celia's wand was up, but when she nearly stunned him he quickly threw his hands up. "Don't shoot." He said, trying to sound casual and joking, though he was still a bit startled by this all. He frowned at the Slytherin, glancing between her and the dummies on the ground. Had Celia been practicing here? He remembered she had been a tough opponent in the duelling tournament. She couldn't possibly be practicing yet, could she?

When Celia said she thought he was Vex, Louis snorted and glanced down at himself and back up at her. "Vex? You need some glasses." He joked. "I look nothing like Vex." He hoped, at least. She asked him what he was doing here, and Louis frowned at her. "I should be asking you that, you were here first. Was that your doing?" He asked, pointing to the pile of broken dummies. Though, now that he looked closer, he saw a coating of dust on them that meant they had probably been here for years. "Or do you just hang out in empty classrooms by yourself?" He asked jokingly.

 

[Celia Vu]

He almost sounded scared... scared of her. It was a strangely satisfying thought. Celia arched an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that?" she asked, unsmiling. "The resemblance is uncanny." It was a mean comment and not at all true, but verbal barbs were all she had now that she'd decided not to hex him. It was probably for the best. Knowing her luck, Alicastell would find out if she ever hurt him, and then she'd get banned from the entire tournament.

Celia glanced at the broken dummies. "Obviously not." Anyone with a pair of eyes could see that this place hadn't been used in years. She cast Louis a withering look at his next joke, which hit a little too close to home. Hanging out in empty classrooms was in fact what she'd done for much of her first year after her attempt to run away, back when she'd been too scared to face her classmates and the troublemaking reputation she'd built for herself. "I told you," she started, though she really had not, "I thought I heard Vex, so I came here to wait him out." She frowned. "If you're not also trying to avoid him, then why are you here?"

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis couldn't help smiling slightly when Celia said the resemblance to Vex was uncanny. He snorted slightly. "Oh, thanks." He said sarcastically, but he didn't seem all that bothered by it. Louis knew he wasn't bad-looking and Celia was just teasing him. "I didn't know you had a sense of humor." He joked, raising his eyebrows slightly.

He knew he had been a bit silly to think Celia had broken the dummies, btu he shrugged. "You're ferocious enough for it." He told her. "That was a compliment, by the way." He added, before she could glare at him again. He nodded when she explained why she was here. But then she asked him, and Louis hesitated. "I came here because I've never seen this door open before." He admitted. "I was exploring, trying to find secrets. The castle is supposed to have loads." He looked around. "I suppose this is a secret, even if it's kind of a lame one."

 

[Celia Vu]

"It wasn't a joke," Celia shot back, her voice still serious. It was annoying that she couldn't even insult him properly. Louis seemed completely unbothered, and for some reason, that bothered her. She knew her frustration was misplaced — the outcome of their duel last year hadn't really been his fault — but that didn't stop her from feeling it.

His compliment caught her off guard, and for once, she didn't have a scornful remark to throw back at him. "...Thanks," she finally managed. Louis seemed sincere enough although she wasn't sure "ferocious" was the compliment he thought it was. Then again, there were much worse things to be called. She noted his hesitation at her question. "Secrets?" Celia repeated, clearly skeptical of the concept. "Like, secret passageways?" She did have to agree with his last statement though she wasn't sure why he'd expect anything else. "What were you expecting, a room filled with treasure?" she scoffed. "It's a school. Of course any 'secret' rooms are going to be lame. It's just a bunch of old classrooms and broom closets."

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis snorted when Celia insisted it wasn't a joke, he gestured at himself. "I mean, you could say I'm as annoying as Vex, but I know I don't look like him." He said with a confident grin. "Or you need your eyes checked." He added jokingly. When she questioned why he was looking for secrets, his grin melted a bit. He shrugged. "I mean, there was a huge hidden chamber in the original Hogwarts that had a huge deadly snake in it. That'd be cool to find." He said casually. "Who is to say there isn't treasure somewhere?" He said. "It'd be cool to be known for some cool discovery, even if it's just an empty room or corridor." he added with a shrug.

 

[Celia Vu]

"Well you're that, too," Celia replied after Louis suggested he might be as annoying as Vex. She rolled her eyes when he repeated his little joke, deciding it was useless to press the subject. Clearly his appearance was not a potential area of insecurity. She didn't know what was, but she was sure she could figure it out eventually.

Louis seemed to be fairly invested in this belief that the castle concealed something interesting. Celia could not say the same. "That's the original Hogwarts," she pointed out. "Their castle is hundreds of years old and is basically a historical monument. Of course they're going to have secrets. We go to the knock-off version. There's no treasure here." It annoyed her endlessly that her parents couldn't even enroll her at the original Hogwarts; instead she had to attend a branch. "I'd hardly call an empty room or corridor 'cool.' But by all means, feel free to brag to everyone about how you found an old classroom filled with broken dummies," she said, gesturing at their surroundings.

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis simply laughed when Celia said he was annoying. He didn't mind it much, he knew he was funny and charming as well. He figured Celia thought so too and was just too proud to admit it. Louis shrugged when Celia said there was no point in exploring this Hogwarts, as it wasn't as old as the original one. "I still think it's cool to just look around and find new places." He said with a shrug. "Why do you say this is the knock-off version, do you not like this school?" He asked her curiously. "I don't know a lot about the original Hogwarts, I'm from France where Beauxbatons is the one everyone goes to." He pulled a face to show his distaste for that school. "For some reason." Louis snorted when Celia said he could brag about finding this classroom and he gave her a mock bow. "Oh no, I wouldn't brag about your accomplishment." He said with a teasing smile. "Though if you want me to spread the word about the great Celia Vuong finding this amazing place, I could do it."

 

[Celia Vu]

Celia had to agree that finding new places was cool, though that was only true when you were exploring entire cities, not single buildings. "Because it literally is. Everything about this school was modeled after the original Hogwarts," she replied, ignoring the second part of his question. Answering that would inevitably lead to questions of why? and Celia didn't really feel like opening that can of worms. She gave Louis a curious look when he mentioned he was from France. "Why'd you come to HNZ then?"

It seemed like she would be here a while, and not just because she needed to wait until she was sure Vex was gone. She was genuinely curious why someone would choose Hogwarts New Zealand when Beauxbatons was an option. Celia shot a scourgify spell at a nearby desk, waiting for the spell to work its magic before taking a seat and pocketing her wand. "Please don't," she said, making a face at his offer to brag about her "accomplishment." "Besides, no one would believe you." She glanced around the room. "Dim, boring, filled with irritants — it would make much more sense that Louis Alcott found a place like this," she said, though there was no real hostility behind her words. She gave him a sharp smile. "It'd be fitting."

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis felt like he was slowly getting somewhere with Celia. She was still pretty grumpy but in a funny way. And she no longer seemed entirely annoyed with him. "Ha, you admit it is modeled after the original Hogwarts. Which means... it could have secrets, just like the original Hogwarts." He said with a grin. He shrugged at her question about France. "Because Beauxbatons is bad. Apparently. I do not know why. My dad doesn't like it." He admitted, not entirely sure why his dad disliked Beauxbatons so much. "Besides, I have family here. My uncle is a teacher." He said with a proud smile. "The upper-year History of Magic teacher. Kind of a nerdy guy with glasses."

He had to bite back a comment when Celia cleaned a desk before sitting down on it, as it seemed typical of her. He hopped on the desk next to it without taking such precautions, digging in his pocket. "Aw, alright. I won't brag for you then." He told her. He laughed when she tried to make fun of him, enjoying the way she did it. He raised his eyebrows. "Do you spend a lot of your free time coming up with comments like that?" He asked her. "It is fitting for me, though. With all those dummies." He grinned. "Duelling champion and all that." His grin quickly faltered, why had he brought that up? Now she might get all huffy again. "Not... that it was easy." He said quickly. "I bet you would've gotten far if the professor hadn't brought up that dumb rule. And if you were duelling someone else." He said, hoping he hadn't messed up by bringing it up at all. "Gum?" He quickly offered, pulling a packet out of his pocket and holding it out to her.

 

[Celia Vu]

Celia rolled her eyes. "Obviously they didn't copy the castle. Just the house system and classes." Replicating an entire castle would require a lot of powerful magic, and if they had that kind of magic at their disposal, then why couldn't do something useful with it, like renovate the dorms? "Compelling," she said dryly when Louis tried to explain why Hogwarts was better than Beauxbatons. His pride in having an uncle who was a teacher was a bit surprising. "Won't that be weird when you're a fifth year and taking his class?" Most of the teacher's kids she knew at her old school had done everything in their power to downplay their connection.

Louis seemed to be taking all her comments in stride, which was admittedly less annoying this time around. At his question, she replied loftily, "Don't need to. It's easy to come up with them when I'm talking to you." She was about to make a comment about the dummies when Louis brought up his stolen title. All the humor left her face, and she gave a bitter laugh. "Please. It couldn't have been easier for you. Alicastell literally handed you the win." It was gratifying to hear that he also thought Alicastell's ruling was dumb. Celia only wished he had protested the decision back when it had been made, though she couldn't really fault him for not doing so. She did have to scoff a little at his last comment. "I could've beaten you easily." She also shook her head at his offer of gum. "No, thanks. She didn't know if he'd done anything to the candy, but more importantly, taking it would feel a little like conceding something. And she wasn't ready to do that yet.

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis raised his eyebrows and started ticking on his fingers. "And the great hall, and the towers, and the forest, and probably stuff like the library..." He said, going by what he vaguely knew about the other castle. "I think so, anyway. I know that other one has a forest and also a lake at least." He told her. "I think it's the whole thing, mostly anyway." He said with a shrug. Why was Celia so determined not to have fun? He snorted when she asked about his uncle. "I don't know if I'll take his class, History is super boring." He admitted. "But maybe he'll get me an easy E or something." He added, though he sounded doubtful. His uncle was someone who always followed the rules, as far as he knew.

Louis had to admit her counter to his joke was funny, and he grinned slightly. But Celia's whole demeanor changed when they brought up the duelling tournament. He wondered if he had ruined the whole conversation just as it was starting to get kind of fun. He shrugged. "I mean, I admit that she handed me that win, though I don't agree that you could have beaten me easily." He said with a grin. "Maybe we'll see about that this year." He added, hoping she would still join the tournament. "But I had to win two more duels, you know. And both were against slytherins, which are the toughest opponents obviously." He told her, giving her a grin. He shrugged and popped a piece of gum into his own mouth instead.

 

[Celia Vu]

Celia scoffed. "Every castle is going to include a great hall, towers, and a library. And you can't seriously think they decided to plant an entire forest by the school only to forbid us from entering it." That would be an awful lot of work for nothing. No, most of the similarities in structure were just coincidences. "If they really copied the castle, then there would be a giant underground chamber with a snake," she pointed out. Obviously, that was ridiculous. Celia couldn't help but feel a little bitter when Louis suggested he might get better grades because of his uncle. "That seems fair," she said sarcastically. It was just another reminder of how little status, how little power she had at this school.

It wasn't a surprise that Louis disagreed with her assessment of their duel. She hadn't expected anything else from a boy as arrogant as him. At his reference to this year's tournament, Celia kept quiet, unsure whether she wanted to reveal her plans. Of course she was going to sign up for the tournament. But maybe she could lull him into a false sense of security if he thought she wouldn't. "Your duels were against Caleb and Rhys," she said, inadvertently revealing just how obsessively she had studied last year's brackets. Celia had been too upset after her disqualification last year to watch the rest of the duels, but she had tried to make up for it by studying the pairings, assessing every opponent she could possibly face this year. "I'd hardly call them tough opponents," she said dismissively. "I wouldn't be surprised if Caleb accidentally jinxed himself and Rhys got scared and forfeited."

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis nodded and grinned when Celia said there would be a giant chamber with a snake if they copied the castle exactly. He spread his hands. "Exactly, and how do you know there isn't? It took like, a thousand years to find it the first time." He said with a shrug. He sighed and grimaced a bit when she made a sarcastic comment about his uncle, deflating a bit. "Okay, he won't." He admitted. "He's not like that." Unfortunately.

Louis couldn't help a delighted grin when Celia insulted Caleb and Rhys, amused. "I mean, yeah." He said, laughing a bit. "It's true, they weren't that hard to beat." He laughed again, imagining Caleb's reaction to this. "I mean, Caleb's my friend, but you're right." He said with a shrug, pleased to apparently rank higher than these other two boys in Celia's esteem. "But they didn't do that bad, and I still beat them." He said with a shrug.

 

[Celia Vu]

There was clearly no reasoning with Louis, not if he genuinely believed the school housed a giant snake. Still, it wasn't exactly in Celia's nature to just let things go. "It's the 21st century. No one's going to be able to hide a giant monster in a school these days." Maybe the original Hogwarts founders could have gotten away from that in the year 1000 or whenever it was founded, but the idea of that happening now was laughable. Her opinion of the upper-levels History professor improved when Louis admitted that he wasn't prone to bouts of unfair favoritism.

Celia couldn't help but smile a little as Louis laughed at her comment. She gave him a smug look when he admitted that they hadn't been difficult opponents. It was interesting that he was so quick to agree with her negative opinion of Caleb, and she filed this piece of information away for later. "Sure," she said, drawing out the word when Louis tried to claim that they hadn't done that badly. "But if you really think they didn't do that badly, then maybe that says something about your own skills," she said lightly. It was both a challenge and an attempt to provoke him into providing more information about the duels. Though Celia was sure she could beat both Slytherins, she wasn't going to pass up a chance to get additional intel. "Do you think any of the Hufflepuffs will sign up again?"

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis grinned and shrugged as Celia said there was no way they could hide a giant monster in a school these days. "I'm sure they could if they wanted to." He teased, though he didn't actually think it was very likely. "If someone really wanted to." He pondered it for a moment. "It's what I would do if I made a school." He admitted with a slight grin.

He scoffed when Celia implied he wasn't a very good duelist. He smiled. "Are you saying you're the only worthy opponent in our year?" He asked, wondering if there was anyone else she respected. He chuckled at the mention of Hufflepuffs. "Probably. But I doubt they'll get past round one." He said, thinking of René with a stab of guilt. But it wasn't like he needed to know he had said that. He was trying to make Celia like him, and Louis got the feeling she enjoyed it when he said things like that.

 

[Celia Vu]

Celia gave Louis a look that clearly said she thought the possibility unlikely. It would be concerning if someone wanted that badly to hide a monster in a school. "Thank god you're not in charge of this one then," she snarked, though it wasn't like he (or anyone) could do much worse than Professor Alicastell.

She shrugged. "I didn't say it. You did," Celia said, keeping her light tone. She wouldn't go so far as to say she was the only worthy opponent in their year — at least not aloud — but she had been unimpressed by many of the names that had been on the bracket last year. What was someone like Charlie Helkovaara doing, signing up for a dueling tournament? "You're the one who made it to the end," she pointed out, ignoring how bitter the words tasted. "Who would you say is worthy?" It was interesting that he thought some of the Hufflepuffs would be back; Celia took that to mean Louis knew René would sign up again since they were friends. She smirked slightly. "Well, duh. That's pretty much a given." After all, none of the Hufflepuffs had made it past round one last year. Of course, she hadn't either, but her situation was different.