You don't own me, Riddle

Chapter 9 - Halloween

Ari stood straight, her left hand placed behind her back. Her right hand was holding her wand, pointed at the boy before her. She smiled calmly, watching a drop of sweat trace down his forehead.

"Stupefy" The boy cried out, directing his wand towards Ari, to which she just responded with a silent flick of her wand, seemingly unaffected. The boy looked at her in horror.

"Remarkable" she heard her charms teacher, professor Virgilard Speltzer, silently praise. "Again" he commanded, gesturing towards Ari. She smiled at him sweetly and watched the scared blond boy in front of her. She decided to change his expression, feeling bad for the boy. 'Rictusempra' She thought to herself and pointed her wand towards him.

The boy, not knowing how to defend himself against the unknown non-verbal spell panicked. "Exp" He began, before breaking down in hysterical laughter, his arms clutching around his ribs.

As soon as he regained his stand, he pointed his wand towards her, this time with fury in his eyes. 'Expelliarmus' Ari quickly thought and flicked her wand. She watched his wand shoot out from his hand and instead land in hers.

Professor Speltzer started clapping his hands "Well done miss Coyet!" he said and placed his hand on her shoulder "Mr. Malfoy" he quickly added and nodded towards the boy.

Malfoy cursed under his breath, and tore his wand out from Ari's hand, before returning to his spot behind Tom.

Ari's eyes met Tom's and he smirked at her. She answered by shrugging her shoulder before walking towards Stella and Georgia, who were watching her in awe.

"How the hell did you do that" Georgia asked her. Once again she shrugged her shoulders. 

"I know you have a lot of dueling experience, but I did not expect this" Stella began while placing her hand on Ari's arm. "Non-verbal magic? Does everyone from Durmstrang know how to do it?" She continued.

Ari shook her head. "My grandfather " Ari started to say, but stopped herself, trying to formulate the sentence "It's kind of a family trait?" she tried, giving the girls an apologetic smile for not elaborating.

They seemed to understand and nodded while humming, and thankfully they dropped the subject. 

For now. 

Ari was not sure she was comfortable telling them about this part of her life just yet.

The girls watched as a few other students volunteered to duel, and Ari wondered when she would get the chance the next time. Maybe she should have dragged it out a bit more, she thought smiling to herself.

After class, the girls walked together towards the library, where they had decided to meet Kat before the Halloween feast taking place in the great hall later that day.

They instantly saw Kat who was standing at the entrance to the library waving at them. 

"Hi!" She squealed, embracing them one by one. 

"Kat, did you know our friend here is an expert at non-verbal magic?" Georgia said, gesturing towards Ari.

Kat stared at Ari wide-eyed. "You are?" She asked. 

Ari shook her head, earning a glare from Georgia, who had her arms folded over her chest. "I'm not, believe me, I have met experts and I'm not it" She clarified.

Georgia rolled her eyes and explained the event to Kat, who was so impressed that she started jumping up and down.

Ari started to wonder if it had been better to hide her talent but remembered her Grandfather's words.