Open Duel me

[Lydia Drage]

Lydia was out the door early. Straddling her broomstick, she secured her bag to her shoulder and strapped on her goggles. A long time had passed since she’d been out for a proper fly. She was no Quidditch player, but she liked to vault up into the skies and zone out for a few hours. Lydia twisted her wand around her body, casting a Disillusionment Charm about herself and her broom so the No-Maj communities wouldn’t take notice of her on her journey.

The witch kicked off, grinning with the rush of adrenaline as she aimed upward. She settled just below the clouds and flew south. So far, she hadn’t traveled out of the Obsidian Harbour and Brightstone Village circle just at the bottom of the North Island. Without a job to tie her down, it was high time to explore.

Lydia had been thinking, and she’d decided to stop her job search for a while. She clearly needed more time to put herself together. Her mother’s death- rather, the agonizing year of watching her become a shadow of her former self- had torn Lydia to ribbons. She deserved a longer break. If that meant using up her savings, so be it.

Lydia gasped in wonder as she approached the Southern Alps. It was beautiful. She descended to an isolated spot with a small, crystal clear lake. The air here was so crisp and clean. Setting down her bag and broomstick, she took out her wand and got to work.

It took several minutes to set down the proper spells and charms for what she intended. She thought she was alone, but it was better to be safe than sorry. She created a boundary so that her magic was contained in the area. Next, she set down another Disillusionment Charm so any No-Maj- Muggle, she reminded herself- wandering by couldn’t really see what she was up to. Finally, she transfigured a rock into a solid cloth-and-wood dummy.

Lydia stood back and took a deep breath. Grounding herself, she waved her wand at the dummy and shouted, “Confringo!” She grinned with glee as the Blasting Curse tore into the dummy, shredding it from the inside out. Her heart pounding, she picked up another rock and hurried to transfigure another target. This was much better than trying to practice at home.

 

[Ford Zephyr]

Ford had been travelling now for over a year. A year he'd been sending letters to his sister who was still in America, but he had hopes that one day he'd get a chance to show her the places he'd visited, and the people he'd met. He was stood in the house that he'd been renting for the last few months, wanting to go somewhere else although he didn't really have a specific destination in mind. Instead he had to longingly look through the maps or at pictures of other people on holiday to even figure out where to go next. Getting there wasn't the hardest part, but living in different countries certainly came with its own set of challenges. He gave up looking through the pictures, laying back on his bed and closing his eyes, trying to just imagine what an ideal location would even look like. Probably something with a lot of space, a yet natural enough that he didn't feel like he was drowning in rules and guidelines. Somewhere he could use magic, of course, and be given chance to practise what he did best. The blonde had closed his eyes, picturing the location in his head, letting himself drift off into his own imagination. It was only when he heard a blast, and his eyes shot open to see a bit of wood flying over his head that he realised he'd managed to apparate at all.​

​

He sat up to realise that he was most definitely no longer in his room. Everything about his surroundings seemed to call to him, from the lake and trees and the fact that there was a woman in front of him who seemed to be attacking bit of a dummy. He pulled himself up off the floor, not too bothered about the state of his jeans and shirt although he of course did not want to make a bad impression. Honestly he hadn't even been sure he could apparate in the way he just had, although he was here now. "I've never been a fan of those either," he commented, warily taking a few steps forward.​

 

[Lydia Drage]

Lydia spun on her heel, shocked by her unexpected visitor. She instinctively raised her wand and pointed it straight at his chest. Moments later, sense got the better of her. Breathing heavily, she lowered her wand and felt the blood rush back to her head. She had several questions she wanted to ask the wizard. Who are you? What are you doing here? What do you think the dummy is for, exactly?

Instead, she asked, directly, “Are you hurt?” Lydia knew the first dummy had exploded in his general direction. She was convinced she’d used the correct spells and charms to magically “fence” off her casting area. However, the fact that a wizard had Apparated within the perimeter made it clear that she needed to brush up on protective measures.

Lydia was baffled not to have noticed the long-haired wizard from the outset. I need to be more careful, she thought to herself. She held the end of her wand just a little more tightly. Maybe it was the way she was raised- trust couldn’t come easily when members of your family were murdered in broad daylight. Even if she couldn’t remember their faces.

 

[Ford Zephyr]

Ford had been walking towards the woman but the second she realised she wasn't alone she was on guard. His own wand was quickly out of his pocket too, pointing it straight back at the brunette for a few seconds as he realised it was probably dumb for him to be approaching people out the blue without any type of precaution. Mara would have been furious to hear. He mirrored the woman's response, lowering his wand again as she did too, apparently it had just been instinct which was understandable although had woken Ford up considerably from the peace he'd been at moments before. "Yeah, I'm fine," his voice was a mix of Canadian and American, occasionally slipping between the two as he spoke. He glanced around more at his surrounding, pocketing his wand once more to see the shrapnel in the vicinity. He had half a smile on his face as he turned back to the woman with his eyebrows raised, wondering why she was out here by herself and trying to place things together. "Didn't mean to startle you, sorry," he added, taking a few more steps closer. "Are you..?" he tilted his head, pointing at the rocks in front of her and the bits of wood, the space, and her wand, all in one swift motion, "..what are you doing?" he asked. He supposed he wouldn't have apparated in front of a muggle but he still had to count his blessings.​

 

[Lydia Drage]

Lydia was relieved when the stranger lowered his wand. Things could have ended badly for them both if either of the two had been just a bit more impulsive. She nodded at the wizard’s apology.

The witch turned her attention back to the target rock. With a quick flourish, she transformed it into another dummy, this one made of leather and granite. She stepped back and deliberated about which curse or hex would be best to use on this one. Another Confringo mixed with stone could send her straight to St. Mungo’s.

Lydia looked back at the man. “Practicing,” she replied, and smirked, “wouldn’t do to blow up my cottage.” She tapped her wand at her side, thinking. Like her, the man was clearly a transplant to New Zealand. Or a traveler. He sounded American, but he had a lilt to his accent she couldn’t quite place.

“And what are you doing here? You apparated straight into my duelling ring.” Not that one-sided spell casting against dummies was truly a duel, but she had to start somewhere.

 

[Ford Zephyr]

Ford watched as the brunette cast a spell, transforming the rock into a dummy and honestly, he was pretty impressed. Not because of the action itself but because she made it look so easy. At the mention of him coming into his duelling ring, he hadn't realised that it was even possible to bypass enchantments like that, even with the ability to apparate. "Are you sure?" he asked, glancing around him once more, not that eyesight alone was going to help him much. "I was in my room but, I needed some space." It occurred to him then how perfect of a situation this really had been. "I'm a duelling teacher. Well, trying to be," He was still learning but it was what he wanted to do, and the odd clubs he held brought him a lot of satisfaction. "I teach adults to duel," he added with a shrug, maybe that was why his apparition had brought him here. "Um.. where are we?" he asked, not wanting to seem out of touch with his surroundings, but given that he hadn't intended to arrive in the first place, it was hard to pinpoint just by the scenery in the vicinity. ​

 

[Lydia Drage]

Lydia’s confusion turned to disbelief as the man indicated he hadn’t planned to travel here. From what she understood, Apparating without a clear destination in mind was dangerous. But reasonably, he appeared to be telling the truth. He certainly looked like he’d transported straight from his bedroom, dressed as casually as he was.

The witch sorted mentally through all of this new information. A duelling teacher? She didn’t know she’d needed one, but she certainly did. It seemed too unreal. Perhaps Lydia was smack-dab in the middle of a vivid dream, with gorgeous scenery and a figment of heart’s desire.

Lydia looked over her shoulder. “We’re in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Don’t ask me for exact coordinates, because I’m new here, too.” With a whip of her wand, she shouted, “Defodio!” and cast the Gouging Spell at her poor dummy. A circle of stone slid out of the dummy’s torso and tumbled to the ground. One could see straight through the disemboweled mannequin.

The witch turned to the wizard. “Seems I’m out of dummies. I need a new target.” She grinned, albeit wickedly.

 

[Ford Zephyr]

Ford was glad to hear that he was still in New Zealand. He didn't know how far apparition could have taken him, but he didn't feel as though travelling too far from his home would have helped. It still didn't make sense to him either that he'd managed to apparate within a protection shield, and with his wand still raised, he began to motion towards the space around them, just in case, casting his own. "Any particular reason you chose the Southern Alps?" he questioned, his back turned to the woman as he made sure there were no gaps in the magical wall. The blonde turned to face her as she suddenly shouted, half aware that it could have be directed at him, although Ford had an idea that if she was going to slice him in half she probably would have done it already. One could never be too careful. His eyes looked to the dummy to see its stomach drop out of its body; yeah, that was how he felt sometimes too. All of a sudden though, the woman's demeanour changed, and despite the playful look on her face he could help but be slightly more alarmed that he now had all of her attention. With his own wand still raised in his hand, pointing towards the witch he smirked back, "Really? I didn't think it was customary to practise on anything that.. " half way through his sentence, he flicked his own wrist, casting a non verbal spell in his head with the intention of disarming her entirely. Whether she'd been planning to cast a spell on him or not, step one of learning how to duel was to never underestimate your opponent. Even the smallest actions from another witch or wizard could result in fatality. ​

 

[Lydia Drage]

“Isolation. Privacy,” Lydia stated, pointedly. “Thought the chances of encountering another human out here were slim.” Not slim enough, of course. Lydia watched the wizard bolster her magical barrier out of the corner of the eye. She wondered what the weak spot in her defenses had been; what had she left out? That said, she didn’t ask, but she already felt like enough of a fool.

The witch was grounded in place. She gasped a little when her wand shot from her hands, rolling through the grass. That had to be a nonverbal Expelliarmus. She flushed in surprise but recovered quickly. Taking in a deep breath of mountain air, she used a quiet “Accio” to retrieve her wand.

Lydia needed to be more on guard than this if she was going to be worth her salt in a duel. She was decent at nonverbal magic, but not great. Another thing to work on. Putting her left hand behind her back, she shot back with Rictumsempra.