Lachland vs. King

"It's Lachlan," Lachlan was articulating clearly for once as he followed King into the duelling chamber.

Truth be told, the dialect Lachlan used at school was just another of the tiny rebellions against his parents. If he spoke that way at home, he'd sleep without supper at best. Adeline and Giles Strangways had always stressed the importance of correct incantation pronunciation to their children, not to mention sounding well spoken.

"Or, my baby sister used to call me Lochie if that's too hard for you," he offered. "But she's a first year now, so even she can say it correctly."

King was already lounging on the floor, something that brought a smile of equal amusement and scorn to Lachlan's lips.

"You must be very confident," he remarked.

He took his time aiming at James' face, it was only fair to give him a sporting chance, and uttered the incantation of the bat bogey hex.

He smiled as the shot wizzed by his head and he shot up to his feet drawing his own wand. "Bat Bogey's" He grumbled as he gripped his wand tight. He smiled as he circled around him "Nice attempt" he mumbled as he cracked his neck. This, this was Jame's element his woods he knew every inch by heart.

"Serpentsempra" He incantated loudly having performed the spell before but never with full effort only being able to conjure up more then a garner snake but this time he put as much force into it as possibleHqSLVqxI.

Lachlan had never really seen the point of that spell in duelling. So, you could conjure a snake. So what? Very few snakes were actively aggressive and unless you were a parselmouth, it wasn't going to help you much. Though perhaps someone as naturally aggressive as James, and a Gryffindor what's more, wouldn't know that. Gryffindors did seem to have an irrational fear of snakes; they probably assumed everyone did.

"Nice wand-work," he complimented King. Regardless of The Murphy's rant, there were ways to throw off your opponent without resorting to brute strength.

"Duro," he aimed at the snake.

Okay, they might not be that dangerous, but Lachlan didn't exactly want one slithering around underfoot. Besides, it might come in handy later.

"Fail" he grumbled to himself. He circled around him once more as he aimed his wand at him. He needed to thing of something quick or he was done. As he circled a thought so incredibly genius popped into his head. He dropped his wand and backed up. He stepped back once more and looked down to the ground.

"Hope this works" He mumbled before he aimed the wand at Lachlan again. He gave an evil smirk and thrusted his wand just barely above Lachlan's head. "Ascendio" He flew towards him his feet aimed at his gut.


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James circled round, clearly trying to use the woods to his advantage. Unfortunately, he gave himself away with that weird smile of his, right before he jumped. Even if Lachlan hadn't stepped out of the way, whatever James had been trying to do failed miserably and the boy crumpled on the ground.

Lachlan sighed.

"Get up," he said, backing off and giving the Gryffindor time to recover. If it had been any of his siblings, he'd already have kicked their wand across the room.

Feeling bad for the probably winded and embarrassed boy, Lachlan used a ridiculously exaggerated wand flourish to cast a cutting charm at him.

He smiled as he stood up and gripped his wand watching the spell miss. He clutched his stomach for a moment and caught his breath. He shook his head and smiled. "YOu're having worst luck than me" He says smiling as he aims his wand forcing himself to stand upright. James was as stubborn as an ox  when it came to fighting. 

With a flurry of his wand he launched the disarming charm. He was going to end this by making him chase his wand. FthJp1SN

Lachlan felt the tug on his wand and knew immediately what James was trying to do. For someone so keen to duel, he certainly got sick of it quickly.

He let the wand go, but because of James' weak spell, it barely drifted as it spun from his fingers. There was no missing what Lachlan had just done.

"Congratulations," he said. "You win."

"No" He said angrily, "Pick it up" He said smiling. If he wouldn't pick it p then he'd give it to him. "I don't accept forfeit as a win" HE stated plainly "If I lost fair so be it, if I win fair great, but I refuse taking a forfeit."

This was his motto. He lived his competitive lifestyle like this. "Pick up your fucking wand" He demanded. "You won't forfeit" He growls.

See, this was the difference between Slytherins and Gryffindors (one of many). A Slytherin might be annoyed at a forfeit, they might realise what you were doing, but there was no way they wouldn't accept it. A forfeit was a legit way to win.

It was weird, when you thought about it, because it was a kind of pride thing for both houses. Slytherins took their pride from appearances and maintaining standards (usually standards that had been maintained for thousands of years, leading to shit like blood supremacy) while Gryffindors were all about personal pride.

Whatever, Lachlan had made his point. He picked up his wand.

"Furnunculus."

He leaned to the side the jinx missing him just barely. "I don't even know why I dodged a fucking pimple hex" He grumbled. a pimple hex this guy really wanted to just mess with him. No matter James would just have to get this over with fairly.

Without a second thought he was prepared to launch his favorite spell. One that hopefully would catch Lachlan way off guard. With a flourish of his wand he shouted out the incantation at the top of his lungs aiming at Lachlan's chest "REDUCTO!" XJ_eMl0D

It wasn't that Lachlan was toying with the Gryffindor, not exactly. He just didn't want anyone to get hurt. Clearly, King didn't feel the same way, as he used what Lachlan guessed were the most powerful spells in his repertoire. That was possibly why his spells kept failing so spectacularly. He didn't have the experience to put enough strength behind them.

Not that Lachlan could talk. His spells might have been milder, but he hadn't exactly been aiming to miss.

"That's a bit extreme, don't you think?" he said, stunned. "I didn't realise you hated me that much."

To be honest, Lachlan still didn't think King hated him that much. He didn't give King that much credit in the brains department. It wasn't like he hadn't considered using that spell himself and bringing this duel to an early end. But he also knew that if the spell hit there was no guarantee that there would be enough of the other boy left over to take up to the Hospital Wing to be mended.

"Incendio," Lachlan fired back.

It was one of his favourite spells, and it was clear that James thought he could handle big kid spells.

James laughed as he rolled under the fire and around lachlan. "We seem to be having shitty luck today." He says when coming to his feet. Lachlan thought he was an idiot, his mistake. He smiled as he began to think of something a little more unorthodox.

With a flourish of his wand a long ribbon of flame ripped around his body as he flung the spell at Lachlan. It was time to end this and a spell like this wasn't deadly. It was merely a capture method. tUSATKP6

Luck. If only. Lachlan definitely felt like he wasn't up to his usual standard, though. He attempted to dodge King's return fire (ha) but the other boy was obviously more adept when it came to using spells he'd actually practised.

He could have shielded, but Lachlan decided to let the irritating hex hit. People like King forgot that duelling was more than half strategy, and this way he'd get another spell in. Although, from his "luck" so far, whether that helped at all was another matter.

For just a moment, Lachlan wondered whether the school had fallen far enough that he'd actually get away with it if he tried casting an unforgivable at James. Nothing very terrible, just the Imperius. And not to make him do anything awful, just to make him forfeit. Considering how he'd reacted when Lachlan tried it, he was almost sure it would make the other boy furious.

But no. Not yet, at least. Lachlan didn't want to be banned from duelling right off the bat. And, if he was honest, he had a reputation to maintain. He didn't want people knowing about the part of him that thought that way.

"Incarcerous," was what he went with instead.