Calamari (Mimosa, Squid Boy)

Squid Boy seemed a little off-balance, but managed to hold his own. Mercy wasn't bothered by this at all. The Impediment Jinx was the first thing she thought of, but she dismissed it as it seemed Squid Boy wasn't moving much anyway. He hadn't tried to dodge either of her spells, so she thought of something harder for him to deflect, analyzing his weaknesses.

She'd just made up her mind when he sent a stunner her way, and she leaped to the right to keep her wand arm facing him. Good thing too, she noted, as his second spell flew past her harmlessly.

"Wingardium Leviosa," she responded, with a swish and flick of her wand. If she managed to get him in the air, she'd immediately follow it with, "Orbis!"

Technically, you were supposed to have someone else doing the levitating in order for the ground swallowing jinx to take full effect, but she didn't need him to be entirely sucked into the ground. At this point, she was still probing to see how he reacted.

The crowd had grown, now that they were properly dueling. Students from all houses had gathered around, forming a sort of ring with their bodies as a few of them shouted encouragements, spurring the two of them on.

Squid Boy's knockback jinx actually did manage to clip Mercy in the shoulder, sending her back a few steps, but the bombardment flew wide and hit the ground, sending a shower of dirt into the gathered audience. She was surprised to see that the ground-swallowing spell had worked, at least partially, despite the fact that he had dodged her levitation charm. She'd immediately dropped the person she'd accidentally hit with it, then continued with the second spell anyway just for kicks.

And now it seemed she had the perfect opportunity as he tried to tear his feet free from the ground.

"Titillando," she struck, aiming for his chest. At this point, she was almost showing off. There were so many spells that she'd been itching to use in a real fight someday, and now was her chance to do so. Sure, the ones that seemed the most fun were the ones geared toward maximum destruction, so she couldn't use those right now - as much as she wanted to see Squid Boy hurt and humiliated, she didn't want to kill or even seriously injure him - but there were plenty of neat tricks they'd learned in DADA that were appropriate for the situation.

Mercy's eyes narrowed at the insult, but she couldn't help the smile the crept across her face in response to the laughter of the crowd. Squid Boy was in no position to be making demands - not if he couldn't get through them without laughing. At this point, it seemed he was thoroughly humiliated, but for some reason he still wouldn't shut up.

"Eat slugs, Squid Boy," she retorted, raising her wand to cast the slug vomiting charm. Before the incantation left her lips, a commotion stirred up in the audience behind her.

"STOP!" a voice shouted. Mercy turned just as the new charms professor shoved her way out of the crowd and into the center of the ring. Everyone froze, including the professor. She seemed to realize she had no idea what to do now that she had gotten their attention. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

Luckily, the crowd parted behind her once more and Grayson Hughes strode through.

"Wands down," he ordered, and Mercy lowered her wand. "And phones away," Grayson addressed the audience now, disappointment evident in his tone. Those who had been recording the fight slowly pocketed their mobile phones, and a few of them broke off from the crowd and shuffled away now that the excitement was over.

Grayson waved his hand and Mercy's tickling hex dispersed. With a more complicated motion, the ground encapsulating Squid Boy's ankles fell away, releasing him. The fight was over.

Mercy stowed her wand in her pocket, feeling awkward under the scrutiny of the professors, but ultimately justified in her actions. Professor Hughes cast his critical gaze over both of them.

"Miss Williams. Mr. Kessler. Would someone care to explain what's going on, or would you prefer to save it for the headmaster?"

Mercy glanced at Squid Boy. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she'd known they'd get in trouble - word spread fast, and dueling was against the rules - but in the moment that had seemed like a problem for later. As the crowd began to disperse, Mercy noticed a nervous-looking girl standing a little ways behind the two professors, looking at the ground. It was Squid Boy's Hufflepuff friend, the one from the train. She looked visibly upset.

"He was hurting Mimosa," Mercy explained simply. She felt that was a perfectly reasonable justification. She looked around for the younger Slytherin, trying to assess whether her friend was okay now that the fight was over.

As soon as the wands had come out, Mimosa knew the situation was out of hand. At first, Mercy had only punched Squid Boy, and it didn't even look like that bad of a punch. His long nose was only slightly broken and made no difference to his facial features and his eye would only began to shine hours later. But then he had been rude enough to pull out his wand and the only thing on the young brunette's mind was that this play fighting would end up hurting one or both of them. Despite the pain in her arm, she had bolted from the scene even as stupider people were starting to gather. Mimosa had always known she was the smartest person wherever she stood but some times that was downright inconvenient.

Her destination was Jake's office, he being the only adult in the absence of her family Mimosa could think to go to. He would fix everything like he always did. Her long spindly legs pounded on the stone floor as she rushed in the opposite direction to the stream of students heading for the doors. The child knocked and knocked until the knocker got tired and let out an annoyed
"take a hint kid, no one's home," making her sigh in frustration as she turned towards the stairs again.

Halfway done the stairs, she found the next best thing. "Sir!" she breathed, coming to a stop beside Professor Hughes and the new Charms teacher. Ignoring the woman completely, Mimosa spoke to the Librarian. "Mercy... Squid Boy are dueling... front lawn," she breathed heavily, making the older witch squeak. The next second, the female had disappeared while Professor Hughes gave her a moment to catch ehr breath and explain. He nodded curtly before leaving, his quick, large strides diminishing the distance between himself and the new professor at a remarkably quick pace.

Mimosa herself was not as quick to come down the rest of the way, realizing how much her ankles were hurting in addition to her hand. Still, she made it down just in time to see Professor Hughes marching both her friends away while his colleague did her best to disperse the crowd. Mimosa wanted to follow the Transfiguration Professor, wanted to explain that no one had done anything wrong but her legs were now almost on fire. Without realizing what she was doing, the teen sank into the grass, letting Ji Hyun and Charles swoop in to help her up, their own dates forgotten.

As the boys lifted her up and helped her into the Great Hall, Mimosa could only wonder hat had become of her two Friends.