RP anyone? (Open)

It was only a few days since Hugo and Caster had returned to Hogwarts. Which meant it had been three days of Hugo's family members being less than polite with Caster. They weren't being nice to him, but they were very careful not to be outright rude either, since they knew they'd probably get into trouble about it from Hermione or another formidable family member, like Hugo's grandmother Molly. Molly Weasley took no nonsense and her grandchildren didn't dare disobey her.

So Hugo was on his way to meet Caster so they could head to a class together when a group rounded the corner. Slytherins, all of them, and people Hugo knew to be the relatives of death eaters. There was Crabbe's daughter, Goyle's son and a relative of the Lestranges, to name a few. These children had never liked Hugo, and he had tried to avoid them. They'd always seemed like they meant trouble to him and he had been able to escape their notice for quite a long time now because he was quieter than his relatives. But with some of his cousins and his sister leaving, they were clearly lookin for new targets.

Surely enough, the group spotted him and made a beeline for him. It didn't take long before he was surrounded. It was a boy, the one with Lestrange blood in him, who spoke first

"Granger-Weasley," the boy snarled "the name of a muggle-born know-it-all and a muggle-loving redhead. How nice of you to join us. We were looking for a little bit of entertainment. Who better to have a little fun with than the mudblood son of a couple of sidekicks?"

"Oh, right, I'm sorry," Hugo responded sarcastically "Are you trying to make fun of my family? Because I'm afraid my mudblood family is very well respected, unlike your pureblood one."

"Oh please, your parents represent everything wrong with wizardkind. Muggle-borns who try to pretend they can stand up to purebloods and good, pureblood families who squander their good reputation in favour of obsessing over muggles" chimed in the Crabbe girl.

"No, that would be you. Purebloods who think they're superior to everyone else," Hugo snarled

The Lestrange boy had whipped out his wand and shoved Hugo against the nearest wall, wand tip at the redhead's throat

"Don't test me, Granger-Weasley. I'll make you wish you had never been born. And you won't be able to run to that snivelling excuse for a Malfoy. He's not even good enough to be a Malfoy, the family who deserted the Dark Lord at the final battle. No, you two are in serious trouble. The filthiest families in the wizarding world will not be allowed to be friends."

Hugo looked over in shock when he saw his friend interrupting, wand drawn. It gave Hugo new courage and he found his wand, which he had been fumbling in his pocket to find for a few seconds, and drew it.

"What are you gonna do?" Hugo asked "Our families are very good at magic, and I know every defensive spell in the book. And a few fun jinxes for good measure. You still want to try it?"

"Okay, Granger-Weasley," the Lestrange boy snarled "If you and Malfoy are so clever, what's the counter-curse for the cruciatus curse? And what do you do when you're outnumbered? Shame that someone will be missing you in class if we have our fun now. We'll have to find you two when you have a free period."

"The cruciatus curse is illegal!" Hugo said in shock

The group just smiled as the Lestrange boy took his wand away from Hugo's throat and the group went off to whatever class they were due in next. Hugo turned to Caster.

"Thank you, Caster." Hugo said, breathless from the adrenaline of the experience "Thank God you came, I never would have drawn my wand in time with me pinned against the wall like that. You distracted him and probably scared them away as well. Too cowardly to fight more than one person, I imagine"

(Yeah I woke up with a moth on my arm and it won't leave my room. I am NOT going back to sleep)

"Yeah well even if we walk together they might pull something. If they actually have the guts to use the cruciatus curse, we would be in big trouble. But we'll see. They're only a bunch of teenagers after all" Hugo said, in as much of an effort to reassure him as to reassure Caster.

This was a dangerous group, Hugo knew. They'd picked on members of his family before, specifically Fred's little sister Roxanne and also some older cousins like Albus Potter. They'd even had a bit of a go at his sister. They were not to be taken lightly, and they were still fanatic about Voldemort, despite him already being dead. There could very well be a new dark wizard rising within that little group, and Hugo didn't particularly fancy finding out. The Lestrange boy was their ringleader, and he was as ruthless as his relative, Bellatrix.

"We should probably start heading in the direction of class, at least," Hugo suggested with a small smile. They didn't want to get into trouble. He didn't know what they'd say if someone asked why they were late.

(Haha thanks! I don't know, we'd have to be careful how we rp it if we did. What do you think?)

"Yeah," Hugo replied, flushing slightly "It's my only strong point, since I'm pretty much average in everything else. I love Defense Against the Dark Arts, but I keep quiet about it for shyness reasons. Anyway, there is no counter-curse for the cruciatus curse. Your only hope is to try to disarm them or use defensive spells. There isn't a spell specifically to protect you from the cruciatus curse. But, anyway, perhaps you and I should spend some free time in the library and in that abandoned classroom learning how to defend ourselves from general attacks."

He wasn't too concerned about the cruciatus curse just yet. The Lestrange boy just have been bluffing. And anyway, practising general defensive spells would help with any kind of attack, cruciatus curse or not. That was definitely the way to go with these children

(True true We can do that then)

"Yeah," Hugo nodded "It isn't always the easiest. But I love putting them into practice in fight situations, it's quite fun to have to think quickly. I guess I take more after my dad in that way. My mum was more of a theory person too. Anyway, some practice would definitely be in order. And it might help you with your Defense Against te Dark Arts classes if you feel more comfortable putting spells into practice. But in any fight situation you're best off using expelliarmus or stupefy. Those will be our best bet against an unforgiveable curse."

Hugo loved duels, having to think on his feet and produce the right spell at the right time. Defense Against the Dark Arts was the only class he was set to get an Oustanding in for his O.W.Ls.

(I don't know, thoughts?)

(Okay, agreed! Wanna start?)

Hugo had come in his fox form, just to avoid detection, but as he entered the meeting place he transformed back into his human form. Back as his normal human self, he scanned the room for Caster and saw him in dog form, settled under a large table.

"Hey, Caster," Hugo grinned "You ready to get started?"

He knew Caster was nervous, but he didn't need to be. Hugo understood his anxiety and he would go easy on him for the time being. Hugo just had plenty of practise from watching his overage relatives duelling playfully. James prided himself on almost being able to beat Harry, even though he was nowhere near as good in actuality, His family could be a lot of fun sometimes. He had apparently inherited some kind of ability for Defense Against the Dark Arts, even if he hadn't possessed any natural ability for anything else.

Hugo's wand was in his pocket, and he pulled it out.

"So, it's probably good to see what kind of reactions you have. I'm going to try and disarm you, and you're going to try and disarm me. We'll see who can do it faster." Hugo suggested

Hugo grinned too when he saw his friend. He missed Caster every second they weren't together. Hopefully this training would provide a chance for the two of then to spend even more time together. He could see that Caster seemed determined as he drew his wand in his human form. Caster found himself almost hoping that Caater would best him here, if only to give him some confidence for the upcoming lessons. Hugo found that the other boy lacked confidence in what Hugo was sure were excellent wand skills.

"Okay," Hugo began "I'll count us down from three. On one we use the disarming spell as fast as we can. Remember that this spell is one of the most useful because if enough power and force is behind the spell, it can cause your opponent to be knocked backwards. This means that you have not only disarmed your opponent but gained a bit of time, vital in a fight."

Hugo took his position in front of his friend, plenty of distance between them. This was like a duelling position. Hugo knew it wasn't representative of a real fight but for the moment this was the best they could do. After all, they were only here to practice the spells.

"Alright then. Three...two...one. Expelliarmus!"

Hugo cast the spell as fast as he could, wand aimed at the other male

Caster's wand was whipped out of his hand. Hugo thought this might be the case, he was thinking too hard about the spell. Hugo could feel it. So he headed over t Caster and returned his wand.

"Okay, well, we'll work on it. I think maybe you were thinking too hard about it, you were getting tense. Try to relax and clear your mind a little bit. Still visualise the spell in your mind, of course, but don't stress about it or focus too hard. Just let it come to you. In a fight, remember, there isn't time to think. We can try again if you want, or we can move on." Hugo smiled.

Hugo knew Caster would be getting himself stressed, probably thinking of all the reasons that spell went badly. He needed to keep it moving as best he could.

(Lol we both up early)

"You have to relax and clear your mind as much as possible so you're only focussed on the spell. If you're stressed of thinking too hard it isn't going to work" Hugo explained "So okay, we'll try it again, same rules. This tine don't tense up and don't think too hard about it. Magic is a natural ability, you don't need to force it. Okay, here we go."

The redhead took his position after Caster had his wand back and raised his own, really hoping the other boy could bea him this time. He was always a fast learner. Hugo took a deep breath and cleared his mind, feeling his body relax and move into a natural position. This was what Caster would have to do if he wanted to get this right. This was the first step to making Caster a master duellist. Hopefully Hugo would improve plenty too. He was good, but he was still just a schoolboy. He was only so skilled

"Three...two...one. Expelliarmus!"

Hugo cast his spell as fast as possible, unable to see who had cast first in the bright light fro the spell.

Hugo could tell that Caster was getting more and more disappointed with each try, but the redhead also noticed that he was gradually getting faster too. Finally, Hugo felt his wand go flying towards the other male, pulled out of his hand by the invisible force of the spell. So Caste had finally relaxed his mind. Hugo grinned.

"Amazing!" he beamed "I told you you could do it. Remember what you did, what it felt like to relax your mind. That's what you have to do for the best effect with spells. Alright, are you ready to move on now? We could go through some classic spells that might prove useful in a fight against these guys."

He was so proud of Caster, and as he approached the other male to retrieve his wand, he couldn't believe how happy he was for him. Hugo had never been so pleased to be beaten in his entire life. But then again, he had Weasley blood in him. And the Weasleys were competitive to say the least.

"Well, we need spells that we can use without harming them, since we'll be expelled if we harm them, whether they're threatening us with an unforgivable curse or not. I would recommend we practice stupefy, petrificus totalus and levicorpus. We can also practice the shield charm. I think we should practice stupefy first. You should practise it on me, think of me as your training dummy. Obviously it will render me unconscious but don't freak out when it does. Use revenerate to wake me up again, unless you want to wait for it to wear off on its own." Hugo suggested "Are you ready?"

Hugo was a bit nervous, having never been hit with this spell before, but he didn't see any alternative if they wanted to be ready for these bullies. Besides, he trusted Caster. He knew this spell didn't hurt and Caster could wake him up again immediately afterwards. There wasn't anything to be nervous about.

He took his position opposite Caster. This would be over in a heartbeat if done properly. Hugo had nothing to fear.

"Okay, then, Caster. Cast the spell"

Exactly as expected, the last thing Hugo saw before falling unconscious was a jet of red light from Caster's wand. He could feel himself falling but luckily he had made sure to pick a safe place to fall; Hugo's dad had plenty of experience with this spell and had warned Hugo about it before.

Moments later, Hugo's eyes opened again to see a very worried looking Caster kneeling over him. Hugo offered him a smile to show him he was okay.

"Jesus," Hugo joked as he stood up and dusted himself down "No need to look so alarmed. I'm fine. My dad did always say it's hard to control where you're falling when you're stunned. Anyway, that was really good. Uncle Harry says stupefy is a wizard's bread and butter. Figured we had better practise it. Sorry if I scared you."

He was feeling fine now, he had been a little woozy at first but that had worn off within moments.

"Okay, well, I think you have that spell down fine. That was the most unpleasant spell out of the way. I don't think we need to practise it again for a while. The next most unpleasant spell is petrificus totalus, the body-bind curse. I don't think we need to practise that one right now, we can save it for another time. We can do the most fun one next? Levicorpus?"