It was a hot spring day, and I was in Hogsmeade with my friends. Finally, a free day! We were headed to get some ice cream when I was stopped by Aleisa Chapman. For some reason, she had something against me, ever since the first day of school.
"Hey Daugherty, wanna duel?" she teased me, knowing I would be too scared to say yes. She asks me this every time I see her. I think she does it to make me feel weak.
"You know that's against school rules, right?" I replied, trying to avoid answering her question directly.
She laughed. "Like I care."
I know, I know, I should have ended it there. But, for some reason, I wanted to stand up to her for once. I was tired of hiding in the shadows. "You know what? Let's do it."
A flash of shock crossed Aleisa's face. "Seriously?"
"Why not?" I retorted. "How about an hour from now, at the Shrieking Shack?"
"S-sure." I was glad to see her worrying, but wasn't so sure that I made the right decision.
An hour later, true to her word, Aleisa was standing out front of the Shrieking Shack. I had come to an agreement with myself. I would go through with the duel, but aim to avoid harm instead of causing it. I hated Aleisa Chapman, but couldn't bring myself to hurt even her.
"How's it going?" I asked Aleisa as I approached her.
"No small talk Daugherty. Let's get this started." Well, if she was going to act that way, I guess I would be that way too.
"Aren't you excited," I said sarcastically. "Chapman." We walked into the Shrieking Shack without another word.
We started the duel the way we were taught, and immediately she tried to disarm me.
"Expelliarmus!"
"Protego!" I had a shield up half a second before the spell would have hit me. That was close. I almost changed my plan, but decided against it. I couldn't hurt her.
Aleisa seemed shocked by my fast reaction. I took advantage of that and set a distraction. The Verdimillious Charm worked perfectly to give me a second to think.
"Verdimilious!" As the sparks shot out of my wand, I thought of what to do. My diversion must have worked to well on me, because when I looked up from thinking, Aleisa was running towards me. My instinct was to flee, so I ran up a set of rotted out stairs. Somehow, I made it up to the second story without breaking any of the stairs, but I then had to face the unsupportive floorboards. In some places, all that was left were the beams, most likely rotted to the core. I took my chances and sprinted across the closest beam.
I had almost made it when the beam gave way and I started to fall. Aleisa was close behind me, but stopped just in time to save herself from falling. Quickly, I pulled out my wand and cast the Spongify Charm everywhere around me. Apparently it worked well on the soft, decaying wood, because I fell to the floor with a slight bounce and regained my footing. I checked myself for broken bones, but I didn't even have a scratch. I quickly ran out of the Shrieking Shack and was greeted by my friends.
"Well?" one asked.
"All I can say is this," I replied. "I never knew first year spells could be so useful."