Who: Dora and Open! Any one who wants to observe or participate or thread among themselves is welcome When: Friday February 3rd, mid to late afternoon? Where: Field somewhere around Hogsmeade (with wards for dueling practice) What: Dora had arranged for dueling practice with Flitwick and an apprentice; it turned out to be a few more people, and a workshop of sorts after. Warnings: constrained violence, probably language, tbd
Dora had been looking forward to this all week. Hell, since before she'd even had a firm date for it. It had been nearly a month since she'd seen Filius, what with the holidays and the start of school again, and over that since she'd last gotten to spar with him. The fact that she'd get to play with more than just him was just a bonus.
And then she'd get to have dinner with two of her favorite people -- Ewan and Filius. Well, she was reasonably certain Ewan had agreed to dinner. She wasn't as sure if he'd come to the dueling portion or not, but she wasn't goign to push that. She knew how he felt about protecting her; she also knew that she loved the sport and even if she couldn't duel professionally right now, she didn't want to give it up completely.
And part of her wanted to show off for him, it was true. They'd dueled together back in school and she'd loved it.
Though she'd woken up feeling off and tired, she'd ended up catching an unintended nap during her lunch break and then she'd skived off early to come here. Well, her aunt had actually agreed, so it wasn't skiving, precisely, but the sentiment was still felt. The rules weren't high level competition; there were set limits on the sorts of things you could cast, and everyone agreed to them and how to tap out and everything beforehand. All very professional and congenial. Everyone was there for a good time.
And she was having a grand time. It wasn't the fact that there was a bit of an audience but the fact that she got to match wands against people again. She and Filius went up against each other four times in short bouts, and he landed her on her arse twice (once she just sat there and laughed because he'd got her good and she knew it, and she rose and dusted herself off before hugging him) and she bested him twice and they called it even.
She made a wise decision to step out of the dueling when her scars started to ache and her stamina started to flag. Slightly before everyone except the apprentice, but none of them gave her a truly hard time about it, though there was teasing. She took it with a decent dose of grace, growling ony a little. She lasted longer than she'd expected though, and she was going to participate with the staves at the end since she was one of only three of them who could use them who were present to play.
Staves required more raw power and more concentration to control it, and she found them a terrible lot of fun. Thrilling, really. It also took a good deal of physicality when you actually fought with them, and she found it nicely challenging though she was breathing quite hard by the end of it. She'd won her bout, though, and then bowed out to Filius because she didn't think she could go another.
The fighting settled her even better than running did, and though she felt tired, she was also content and for the first time in a while, not nearly as anxious about anything.