𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡'𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫 || 𝘛𝘰𝘮 𝘙𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘦

The duel | 8

Nyx sat at the Great Hall with Caelum eating beside her and was later joined by Zayn taking a seat opposite them. The two boys chattered together whilst she only listened to their conversation. The Great Hall was soon filled with loud talking from the number of students coming down to eat breakfast and was later followed by the loud flapping sound of wings. The usual owls came to deliver letters to their victims and sometimes earn a treat for their work. But today, a blackbird could be seen flying above the tables amongst all the brown owls. This brought a wide grin to her face when the outcast finally landed in front of her, knocking over Caelum's pumpkin goblet to his displeasure. Ravenous hopped towards her and stood there waiting for something she might give to him. She quickly searched through her robe's pockets and pulled out a few bird treats. He ate the treats from her hands happily and after he was done, he flew off to wherever he pleased.

"You have a crow as a pet?" Questioned Zayn with wide eyes, impressed.

"He's a raven actually and I wouldn't really consider him as a pet but you could consider him that way."

It was normal for Ravenous to turn up at Hogwarts on a random day, she didn't mind. As long as he turned up in the end.

Zayn continued on talking about pets he has always wanted to keep. He listed off snakes, ferrets, tarantulas, peacocks, sugar gliders, and even capybaras. Capybaras are cute though, she thought.

Caelum could see Zayn already warming up to Nyx and was quite happy. Zayn was usually always awkward around new people, it was a surprise he became confident around Nyx, out of all the people, rather quickly.

Zayn continued to talk about a lot of things until it was five minutes before class started. She and Caelum said their goodbyes and headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

When they arrived, most of the class had already assembled. The two of them quickly walked over to two desks at the back of the class and took out their books and quills. Professor Merrythought later entered the class and started the lesson by pairing students together to duel. It was the usual routine of hers every first two weeks of term. It was for the professor to determine each of the students' skills but deep down, Nyx felt like it was merely amusement for the professor to watch a dueling contest.

For the past five years, she has never yet to lose in a duel which she hoped to continue the streak.

She listened to the names called out.

"Rosaline Black, Penelope Parkinson."

"Abraxas Malfoy, Donovan Mulciber." The two boys smirked at each other.

"Caelum Black," he gripped Nyx's arm for comfort and crossed his fingers hoping it was someone terrible at dueling.

"Noah Nott." The grip on her arm loosened and the boy next to her let out a relief sigh. "He's not too skilled, right?" She shrugged and the list of names continued.

"Tom Riddle,"

"Henry Grooves." She watched the two boys exchange weird looks. Suddenly, something rang a bell. Grooves. That was Hunter's last name. Could they be related she thought. Henry Grooves did resemble Hunter a lot. They were possibly twins she assumed.

"Aiden Rosier, Nyx Rivers." He turned to look at the blonde-haired boy and he gave her a smirk.

Finally, the list of students ended and Professor Merrythought waved her wand in the air and the desks cleared to the side of the classroom. Three pairs dueled at the same time and when one of the pairs finished, another pair would step in. Caelum had already stepped onto the dueling space and dueled Nott. Nott was slow on his feet but knew a lot of spells that seemed to have caught Caelum by surprise. But in the end, Caelum won because Nott could not cast the protection shield in time and received a hard blow to his chest making him stumble backwards, hit a wall hard, and yield.

At last, it was hers and Rosier's turn to duel. Caelum gave her a supporting thumbs up and watched them from the sidelines.

The two bowed their heads slightly to one another and the duel began. She shot a spell first but he easily blocked it with a simple protego. She didn't let that affect her though, when he let down his shield, she would immediately send another spell hurtling his way, forcing him to put up another shield. It was then obvious who was the attacker and who was the defender. Rosier had tried to cast stupefy and incarcerous multiple times when given the chance but she easily blocked them with a wave of her wand and without speaking out loud, (nonverbal.)

At last, it was only her, Rosier, Riddle, and Grooves dueling.

The duel was taking a lot of her energy, much to her surprise. She had to end it quickly. She observed her opponent's strategy and pattern. The boy was starting to weaken his shield and cast his shield slower, it was obvious that the duel was draining his energy.

This time, when he casted another shield to protect himself from a violent attack from her, she didn't wait for the shield to disappear but instead, she shot two to three spells quickly at him, easily breaking the shield and having Rosier jump aside to avoid the spell. His eyes widened and shot two spells back. It was a fruitless attempt. She shielded herself quickly and sent an incendio his way. "Aguamenti!" The fire went out but suddenly, a large rope found its way onto the blonde boy's wrist and tied around it. Rosier's eyes widened in shock and tried to cast a diffindo on the ropes with a struggling hand but Nyx was too quick for him. "Expelliarmus" his wand shot out of his hand and onto the floor. She had won.

Rosier groaned in defeat but gave her a genuine smile and shook her hand.

Caelum beamed at her whilst she smiled back at him. She then turned her attention to the last pair. Riddle and Grooves.

Grooves was putting on a show. He was sending spells at Riddle without a pause. It was like Riddle had killed his entire family and he wanted to avenge them.

"Riddle won in a minute but Grooves wanted a rematch so here we are," Caelum whispered to her while they watched the two shooting spells at each other.

It was obvious to her that Riddle was holding back. It was like he was teasing Grooves into thinking he might actually win and then get his hopes down by suddenly casting spells to his full potential. She watched the duel and watched as Grooves expression from frustration, anxiety and to panic while Riddle's face was the same blank expression she couldn't read but it was probably a bored face. Finally, Riddle seemed to have gotten tired of keeping the duel up so he casted a final spell, expelliarmus, when Grooves was lowering his hand from the tiresome duel. The wand flew out of his hand like the time Nyx disarmed Rosier and the duel ended. Grooves, however, did not show any friendliness after the duel but stomped away grumpily while muttering a few curses here and there and the lesson ended.

She was collecting her things ready to head to her next class when she was approached by Riddle. He was taller than her so he leaned down and whispered in her ear, "Meet me on the seventh floor, tonight at ten pm, don't be late." She gave him a quizzical look but he only smirked at her.

How she wished she could wipe that stupid smirk off of his face.