Ivory

[Chapter 6]

I couldn't keep the smile off my face as Professor Astra explained the rules of dueling in the Ivory Towers. Everything was allowed except unforgivable curses. The first duo went up and dueled. I could critique them on just about everything.

"You might just explode from excitement," Hermione said with a smile. 

"Well what do you expect from the Ivory Towers best duelist," said Sabrina coming out of nowhere. "It would be quite a big headline in the newspaper. 'Duelist Prodigy is beaten'. Oh, yeah, I can already see it." I rolled my eyes at her.

"Would you like to share something with the class, Mr. Orval?" Professor Astra asked. I shook my head. "Well, in that case, why don't you come up and show us why you think you're good enough to not pay attention in my class."

I smirked as I walked up. Professor Astra looked around the room before her eyes landed on Alex. "Ah, Mr. Willow," she said. He walked up to the other side of the platform. "We'll see how good the duelist prodigy really is."

We walked to the center, bowed, and raised our wands. "No hard feelings when I beat you right?" Alex said, smiling. I smirked.

"We'll see about that," I replied. We both turned and walked back to our respective sides. I smiled.

"Wands at the ready," Professor Astra said. "Duel!"

"Fiendfyre!" Alex commanded. A lion made of fire exploded out of his wand and ran towards me. I smiled. I raised my wand.

"Aquabestia!" I yelled. A wicked torrent of water shot out of my wand turning into the form of a wolf. The wolf instantly extinguished the flames and bounded towards Alex. His eyes widened.

 "Glacius!" Alex cried out. The wolf froze. Alex exhaled. I was about to prepare another curse when I heard the ice crack. I smirked. The wolf burst out of the ice and swallowed Alex.

"Stop!" I heard Professor Astra shout. "Kylan wins." I could tell it wasn't easy for her to say. I made the wolf spit Alex out. After that, the water wolf disappeared. It simply vanished.

I went to the other side and tried to help my soaking wet friend up. "Do you have any idea how long it takes to do my hair?" Alex exclaimed. He pointed his wand at himself. "Sicco!" 

He instantly dried. He extended a hand. "Good duel, man," he said. I smiled and shook his hand.

"It was a great duel," I corrected. "Apart from the fact that I absolutely destroyed you with one spell." Alex rolled his eyes.

"You know if I used my Elementine powers-"

"And if I used my Legilemency powers I'd know every spell you'd cast. But neither of us are allowed to use special abilities in dueling."

We both returned back into the sea of teenagers. The rest of our class was uneventful, apart from when Hermione had to duel Lewis. It was really interesting. Let me play it back for you.

"Wands at the ready," Professor Astra said. "Duel!"

"Incarcerous!" Hermione shouted. Thick ropes flew out of her wand at him. Lewis turned his wand into a sword and sliced through the ropes.

"Petrificus Totalis!" Lewis commanded. Hermione blocked it.

"Ventus!" she yelled. A gust of wind knocked Lewis into the wall. Lewis's eyes darted around the room for something. His eyes landed on a Venus flytrap on Professor Astra's desk.

"Herbivicus!" he screeched. The flytrap grew insanely big and snapped up Hermione. She was about to get enclosed when Professor Astra interrupted.

"Incendio!" Astra roared. A plume of fire flew towards the plant. The flytrap instantly incinerated. "Are you happy, Mr. Onem? You may have won the duel, but you cost me my favorite plant."

Lewis seemed to shrink as he muttered a weak apology. He and Hermione came back into the crowd. Hermione walked towards Harry Potter, who had won his duel against Neville Longbottom.

My gaze darted through the crowd of people until I found Lewis. His chocolate brown face was scarlet with embarrassment. I was about to greet him when I noticed his hand. Around his Veiled ring was a dark purple bruise.

"Lewis," I said. He looked at me quizzically. "Your hand." He looked down at his hand. Then he looked up and pointed at my hand.

"Yours too."

The bruise was much more noticeable against my pale skin. "You know what this means right," he continued. I nodded. "Someone suspects that we're part of The Veiled." Suddenly, it hit me.

"Hermione Granger," I said. "She noticed the ring on my finger. But I don't think she knows that we're in The Veiled. I don't think she even knows what The Veiled is. She just suspects that we're hiding something." Lewis looked at me skeptically. I rolled my eyes.

"You're questioning me, the Legilimens, on knowing what people are thinking? I'll say it. You're officially an idiot." 

Lewis just sighed and together we went to Herbology. This was the only subject that bored me a little bit. It was just so easy.

"Alright class," Professor Muraene said. "Today, we'll learn how to modify monkshood into a cure for lynanthropy. You'll also have to write a three page parchment on how to prepare Elder tree leaves to heal Acromantula venom." 

She droned on with the most boring lesson ever as I did what was instructed. I didn't even have to listen to Professor Muraene to know how to turn monkshood into a cure for lycanthropy. Lewis seemed to be struggling.

"Holy crap, Lewis," I said. "You only chop the roots off not the entire bottom half!" Alex blinked.

"Oh," he said simply. I sighed.

"You're hopeless," I told him.

"Oh, is that conflict I hear?" Sabrina asked from across the room.

"Shut up, Skeeter!" I barked back.

When we finished Herbology, the day was not any less boring. We learned about Merlin in Wizarding History and we learned what a telephone is in Muggle Studies. Even though the day was uneventful, I was still exhausted when I went into my room. Each class was two hours long.

As soon as I took off the charm that made the circles under my eyes disappear, Someone barged in. I cursed myself for not locking the door.

"Kylan!" It was Hermione. "We need to talk about that spell, Aquabestia. I don't see it anywhere in the spell books!" I turned to her. Her eyes widened.

"Oh my god, Kylan!" she exclaimed at the circles under my eyes. "You don't sleep do you." I shook my head.

"I can help you understand that spell, though," I replied. She nodded. She closed the door behind her.

We made our way to the sofa in my room. We sat beside each other.

"So, the reason you don't see Aquabestia in your books is because I invented the spell," I explained. Her eyes widened.

"What?" I asked, I looked at her shocked face. "It was my third year charms project to invent a spell." She just shook her head. She eventually just opened her book and kept reading. I chuckled and got a book of my own.

After an hour or so, I heard her breath start to slow down. Five minutes later, Her head was resting on my shoulder. Luckily she was asleep so she couldn't see my red face. I eventually calmed down, and against all odd, I managed to drift off to sleep. I haven't experienced the sleepy paradise for thirteen years.

If our housekeeper comes in early in the morning, I'm screwed. That was my last thought before I fell asleep.