Crucio - A love story

1. The king

"Levioso!" Eloise shouted as she waved around her blackthorn wand.

One thing Professor Fig hadn't mentioned was how hard it would be to keep your footing, what with the recoil from the force of the spell.

"Protego," The boy opposite her said, "Stupify!"

Quickly casting Protego again, she gave him a foul look.

"Disarming spells or Levioso only, mister Sallow!" Their greying professor Hecat scolded. For such a small lady, she sure was something to behold in their defense against the dark arts classes.

The boy by the last name of Sallow gave her an easy grin. "Sorry professor."

How Eloise had come to be in this predicament? Quite simple really.

Only a few months or so ago, she had received an owl with a strange letter. Coming from a magical school in another country. After much convincing on her part, her Belgian parents agreed to let her make the trip to a so-called professor Fig.

Eloise had taken rather quickly to the old man. Having been cooped up with him for weeks on end, catching up on no less than 4 years' worth of magical schoolwork. In the end, she was ecstatic to be given a chance such as this one. Frankly, she still couldn't believe that she could now light stuff on fire or make things float all by waving around a magical stick.

On her first day, she was sorted into Hufflepuff. Where she met the lovely Poppy Sweeting, who was one of her three roommates.

Her second day at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry started just about one and a half hours ago when her other roommate - Adelaide - nearly screamed her lungs out finding a spider crawling out from under her bed. And yes, there were many spiders throughout the castle from what she'd seen already.

Right now though, as mentioned before, she was standing in the classroom of Defence against the Dark Arts. Dueling a fifth-year Slytherin boy by using a levitation charm known as Levioso.

"Expeliarmus." Eloise flicked her wand, causing the opposing wand of the student to fly up in the air and away from the smug-looking Mister Sallow. "Levioso!"

This time, the charm did hit him. The grinning Slytherin was floating a few feet up in the air in a matter of seconds.

"Well done, Miss Jacobs!" Professor Hecat exclaimed. "Perhaps you could learn something from her focus, mister Sallow." The older witch suggested.

The class was dismissed shortly after, but before Eloise could make her way to charms, she was stopped by that very boy she'd just dueled minutes ago.

"You're the new fifth-year student, right?" He asked, smiling a charming lopsided smile. "That was some good wand work you showed off."

"Uhm, thanks." Eloise said, feeling slightly uncomfortable while trying to search for a way around the imposing student.

"Oh, my name's Sebastian by the way. Sebastion Sallow." he smiled

"I'm Eloise," She answered. "You seem to have some good combat skills yourself." She remarked, warming up to him slightly already.

"You know, I could teach you how to get a better stance," He suggested not unkindly. "I saw you recoil a bit from the drawback of the spell."

"That'd be very kind." Eloise smiled.

"Grand, there's this dueling club I think you could be interested in," He went on. "Just go to the clock tower and ask for Lucan. I'll meet you there and give you some pointers." Before Eloise could voice her agreement, he'd already turned toward the door.