Closed Lessons In Duelling

[Monty Pendleton]

To say Monty had reservations about this was putting it lightly. Why on earth had he ever agreed to duel Mary Lou? There were surely better ways to practice magical combat - ways which didn't involve endangering themselves. But even as he thought this, he knew he was wrong. The training dummy he had built her, while fantastic for stress relief, was no replacement for a human target. If she didn't take her practice to the next level, the only thing she would learn to defend her children from was an army of automatons. And what if, God forbid, somebody did attack her family, and Monty had refused to help her practice? Murder was a thing that happened to other people's families, until it wasn't. If any harm came to them which he might have prevented, he would never, ever, forgive himself.

They had cleared the old barn for the purpose. Bales of hay piled up against the rear wall would cushion Monty's landing if anything went terribly wrong - for he was the one most likely to get hurt. His condition for helping was that he would not fight back until he was confident Mary Lou could defend herself, which, given the many techniques he hoped to teach her, would be six months away at the soonest; and even then, he would restrict his spells to those most harmless. It would rather defeat the purpose of the exercise, after all, if he accidentally offed Mary Lou himself.

"All right," he said, returning from hanging his coat on a nearby hook. He transferred his dark walnut wand from left hand to right as he rolled up his sleeves. "Let's see what you know already. Don't worry about hurting me; I'll be fine." I hope, he added privately. All that auror training had been a very long time ago, and while he had kept up with the practice, a mother's instinct to protect her children was a powerful force. "I'm an intruder. I've just broken into your house. What are you going to do about it?"

He braced.

 

[Mary Lou Layton]

It's not that Mary Lou is angry, not at anyone in particular anyway, but the world is a horrifying place sometimes and honestly given none of her children seem to understand or know what sleep was despite her best efforts to try and teach them, Mary Lou had been practically running on empty for four years. The addition of a third child had not made that any easier and by merlin did she love her husband more than Apollo loved Cassandra but that didn't stop the fact that sometimes his very existence annoyed her. It was most definitely the hormones talking but one of the things she enjoyed about having been duelling with Monty is she wasn't going to upset him when she lashed out, because he understood. She had a lot of pent up frustration and anger towards a lot of people in her life, and since none of them were the people she loved the most (her husband and children) she simply couldn't risk them ever being the brunt of her ire. This, and many other reasons were why she chose duelling as her outlet.

Mary Lou didn't say a word. The moment his question hung in the air, her expression hardened, and her blue eyes narrowed with fierce determination. Her wand moved with a speed born of pure instinct and maternal ferocity. "Reducto!" Her wand aimed at him, intending to blast him back and disorient him. "Confringo!" The Blasting Curse erupted from her wand, aimed to cause significant damage and prevent any further threat. "Incendio!" Flames burst forth, her intent clear: eliminate the danger completely. Every movement was precise, every spell fueled by an unbreakable resolve to protect her family at all costs. No words, no hesitation, just relentless aggression and determination.​

 

[Monty Pendleton]

Monty saw those blue eyes harden and wondered, for a split second, if he’d made a mistake. Then he was throwing up shield charms, light exploding against the invisible wall in front of him. As he’d hoped, Mary Lou held nothing back, and between bursts of light he did his best to study her technique.

The last spell caught him off guard. There was a blinding flash of orange, and without thinking, he released a shield so strong it would have knocked someone standing a few metres closer off their feet. Flames jumped to his left and scattered. ”Stop! Stop, stop.” Several loose piles of hay strewn about the floor had begun to smoulder. ”Aguamenti.” The hay hissed as Monty’s controlled jet of water quenched it. He paused for a moment, one finger raised, until he was satisfied nothing else was smoking. “Impeccable fire charm - but perhaps let’s stick to the less combustible spells,” he said. “Wendall will have my head on a spike if anything happens to you. Right - carry on. Don’t stop this time; I want to show you something.” The force of his shield charm had reminded him of an important lesson, and the best way to teach it, he felt, was through practical demonstration.

He readied himself again.

 

[Mary Lou Layton]

Mary Lou grimaced internally at realising she may have gone just a tad overboard with her spells. Still, he'd directed her to think of him as an intruder, intruder meant bad, and if they were in her home then she did not trust them. She had to defend her children at all costs and that meant she wanted to take them out as soon as possible. She did not however, wish to take out Monty in the process as she felt that might be a bit of bad form. Not that she truly believed she could take him out, since he had far more formal training than she ever did. Still, she was quicker on her movements, and she liked to think she was a little more creative, though that wasn't true either. He was an inventor, he had spent literally years of his time dreaming things and then trying to make them a reality. Surely that made him the better creative between the pair of them right?

"Sorry, you said intruder in my house, my priority was to put you down and make sure you didn't get back up," she admitted, her cheeks burning. Apparently she could be quite violent if given half a chance, but then, could anyone really be surprised with all the pent up frustration and anger she'd been forced to keep bottled up for most of her life? Things were better now than they had been, but she definitely still had unresolved issues she was now mostly trying to resolve. She took up her stance again, facing him, and watched him. She pointed her wand at him, "Levicorpus!"

@Monty Pendleton ​