Welcome to Charming, where swirling petticoats, the language of flowers, and old-fashioned duels are only the beginning of what is lying underneath…
After a magical attempt on her life in 1877, Queen Victoria launched a crusade against magic that, while tidied up by the Ministry of Magic, saw the Wizarding community exiled to Hogsmeade, previously little more than a crossroad near the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the years that have passed since, Hogsmeade has suffered plagues, fires, and Victorian hypocrisy but is still standing firm.
Thethe year is now 1894. It’s time to join us and immerse yourself in scandal and drama interlaced with magic both light and dark.
January 4th, 1890 — Headquarters of the London Society for the Practice of Combative Magic
He had been out of Hogwarts too long to recall either of the faces before him, which was... a shock to the system, to be honest. Still, Tyb remembered the thrill of duelling as a student, though he had never gotten to duel anywhere outside the Great Hall in those days! He greeted the girls with a grin and skimmed over the boring part (the rules), and then bade Miss Fraser begin.
The Ravenclaw surveyed her opponent carefully, as if willing Lestrange's countenance to reveal the precise spell that would be the prefect's undoing. Surprising no one, she turned up nothing, but that didn't stop Idunn from calculating carefully.
She nodded politely at her opponent rather than dipping into a full curtsey (how unnecessary a formality for a duel!) before casting, "Silencio!"
Whatever Miss Fraser's tactics Gretchen was not inclined to underestimate the younger girl. She was odd and odd people were often surprising. Deciding she was better off going on the offensive from the beginning Gretchen cast a stinging hex aimed at the other girl's hand in retaliation.
The younger girl had it - though Tyb always appreciated someone trying to do anything other than a shield charm, whatever Miss Lestrange had been intending, it had no effect since her voice had gone halfway through the incantation, leaving her mouthing the words uselessly.
"Miss Fraser takes the first round," Tybalt told them, "but Miss Lestrange now has her chance to even the score!" With a murmured counter-charm (he hadn't quite mastered non-verbal casting either, if he were honest), he restored her voice so that she might begin the next round.
Gretchen made a mental note to make wordless magic a priority on her reading list and felt the bitter satisfaction of being right not to underestimate Miss Fraser. She wasn't fond of being beaten but she did respect another clever mind and decided to fuck with that immediately so send a confundus charm.
"Protego!" Idunn cast. While it was easy to be clever when on the offensive, the Ravenclaw knew better than to risk functionality for the sake of creativity.
And, as he had not-really-predicted, Miss Lestrange did even the score fairly decisively. It was, on the whole, rather difficult to cast a proper shield charm with such a muddled mind as that.
Casting finite first, Tybalt explained, "This round to Miss Lestrange... so Miss Fraser, if you would start our tiebreaker!"
Clever as Miss Fraser's spell was, it did not prevent Miss Lestrange's from squarely hitting its mark, so in the end the elder of the two had won out after all. A close won thing, though!