When Charley sat in on the women's duels this summer, she was baffled by their performances. Everything seemed so orderly to her, so civilized. It was nothing like the way she had been taught to fight, with her words first and then her fists. Then came the wand, and the urchin had never used hers in the way she witnessed fully-grown witches doing. She couldn't imagine being so polite or clean in a real duel.

The wand kept the urchin from running headlong into the horsefaced girl and knocking her to the ground, but only just. When the shield went up, it was expected but still left her feeling deprived. She had to be faster next time, maybe even waiting first. Like her next spell had been, one that Charley didn't think was exactly a spell that would hurt anyone in a duel. Not one that she'd copied from Mrs. Mann, who still wanted her to do all the grueling work manually around the shop.

It was, however, going to make things wet.

"Aqua eructo!"

Charley was actually surprised to see the flick of the wand again from the Slytherin girl, whose muffled spell careened toward her just as the jet of water erupted from her own wand. The two forces hit in a spray of magic and water, and whatever spell had been coming her way was dampened —literally— by the urchin's own.

"That's bleedin' rude, castin' two in a row!" she cried, scrunching together the freckles and splashed water on her face into a blurry, orange mess. Nevermind that the older girl was doing exactly what Charley herself had decided was a better play in a real, scrappy, on-the-streets duel. "Diffindo!"

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