Fandom Challenges Most Foul

[Slaybian]

It was an incredibly sunny day in Scotland. A rarity, as usually the clouds loomed and the sky whispered promises of foul weather. Yet today the sky was a crystal clear blue. "Excellent." Whispered Axel, more to himself than the two friends who joined him in his compartment on the train. He adored weather like this. He didn't play Quidditch or anything in particular that good weather would enhance the experience of, but good weather on the way to Hogwarts was probably the best omen he could ever have gotten.

Axelanders three older brothers used to say that good weather on an important day had to mean something. They lived in a world of magic after all, coincidences are never just coincidences when the laws of nature are yours to bend to your will. And boy did he intend for this year to be a good one. Axel was not blind to the world around him. Albus Dumbledores death meant more than the loss of a great mind and the passing of the torch to Headmaster McGonagall. It meant the world was a much less safe place. The world cup disaster happened before his passing, who was to say what the Dark Lords followers would do now that the most firm beacon of the light had faded? His brother Daniel was a hit wizard, and Axels personal coach for dueling. While Axel knew Daniel was more than capable, the idea that his services may soon be called upon to face former Death Eaters and quell the inevitable blood feuds that would happen scared him somewhat. And who was to say how annoying the Slytherins would be this year. He overheard one of the ones a year his junior openly mocking the life of the deceased hero as he passed him on the platform. He would have raised a scene had it not been for the lads parent being right there. He instead chose to scheme a prank he would never forget. But that would come later. And now that Percy had graduated he might just be able to get away with more than he had in all his previous years combined! The ruddy carrot-top was gone! He was free!

But more importantly than all that, he was finally ready. In his fathers own words: "Axel you've been the best duelist at Hogwarts for two years now, and thought you may not have been a Ravenclaw like myself, I've never heard of a Gryffindor strive to not be the greatest. And I say this not as your father, but as an intellectual objectively assessing the prowess of a young man, you better enter the national tournament this year and wipe the floor with all of them, because you are ruddy scary." Axel chuckled internally at the memory. His father had silently walked in on him and Daniels duel in the basement and observed Axel soundly serve a fully grown hit wizard his arse on a silver platter.

"AXELANDER GRANT!" He heard as he was abruptly disturbed from his daydream of causing mischief and winning glory by the assertive sound of his friend Stacy shouting his name at near point blank range. He jolted with a fright and clutched his rapidly pumping heart. "Merlin, Morgana, and Arthur you damn near scared the life out of my you hag! AND DON'T USE MY FULL NAME!" He shouted back angrily, matching her glare. Her boyfriend and Axels longtime friend Conner pulled her back into his lap and shook his head with a grin. "Mate we've been calling your name for a solid minute and all you've done is grin like a git out the window at the sky. Can't blame her too much for shouting. You were acting like you were confounded or something." His grin matched his small Irish face, with brown buzzed hair lining his face, connecting with his stubble at his jaw. "Whats captured the attention of the ever aloof Axelander?" Stacy said, leaning back into her boyfriends broad chest. Stacy was a pretty girl, long curly brown hair and a very tanned body, her eyes a dull green and sharp. Axel looked at their cuddling with a slight wince of awkwardness. "Axelander is a dumb name. Why cant people just call me Axel?" He bemoaned as he ran his hands through is short, messy brown hair. His sharp grayish blue eyes, the same eyes all of his family members had, seemed to pierce through his fingers in an intense look at the couple before him. "First of all I am just thinking how dope this school year is gonna be. I mean yeah its not the greatest start, what with what happened over summer and all, but I have a couple plans. Prank some snakes, win nationals, and find a pretty girl to give my Hogsmeade weekends to. And hopefully I will be rewarded in turn for my efforts..." He said with a toothy grin. Stacy rolled her eyes as Conner chuckled and they went back to cuddling on their side of the compartment.

Axel was an attractive guy, and he was well aware of it. He had developed a small reputation as a womanizer, and his carefree attitude and poor marks in classes added to his bad boy repertoire. Axel wasn't one to kiss and tell, but among certain circles of the school it was well known he had a romantic roguish side. He was also seen as a bit of a bully, as he knew how to crack a joke at the expense of anybody, but especially Ravenclaws and Slytherins. He held no contempt for Ravenclaws, its just his whole family were bloody birds and he knew how to make them mad. Slytherins on the other hand... well he was a Gryffindor. That was enough justification for him.

He was by no means stupid, but he struggled tremendously with non practical magics. Transfiguration and potions in particular were always terrible subjects for him, as a sharp understanding of theory was important in both. because of this however many viewed him as a dud. That was simply because they had never been on the receiving end of his wand however. Axel was a damn genius of body language and offensive magic. He had gotten to the point where he could figure out what spell a wizard or witch was going to cast the second they moved their wand and lips. Short of silent, motionless spell casting Axel would know what was coming, and his extensive knowledge of fighting spells meant his counter was almost always effective. His own speed was near unmatched, and his countering due to his knowledge of body language always ensured he could stay on the offensive. On top of that the young man kept in good physical shape, allowing him to be agile on his feet, not having to waste time blocking every spell sent your way allowed his aggressive style of wandwork to flourish. Much like right now, he would think of battle strategy and different spell chains and counters while idle waiting for time to pass, and so Axel set to doing just that, and resumed his staring at the beautiful blue sky.

 

[xLotte]

Autumn had almost been late for the train, like every other year. Her parents always demanded on bringing her, but were never able to leave on time. Or no, that was incorrect. They did leave on time, but they had to go back because her mother had forgot to put her suitcase in the car. So when Autumn said goodbye to her parents it was in a very hasty and annoyed way. She had to run to catch the train, carrying two suitcases. For the first couple minutes of the journey she leaned against the door of an already filled compartiment, trying to catch her breath. Her face was red and for a second she felt a bit dizzy. Maybe she should have had more for breakfast, but she was never able to eat properly the day she went back to Hogwarts. She always felt nervously excited, she couldn't wait to be back.

"Autumn!" A friendly voice came closer to her and when Autumn turned her head, she looked right into the green eyes of her friend, Maren. "I really thought you were not going to make it this time." The two had met each other on their first day and since then always spent their journey to Hogwarts together. "Me too, dad drove like crazy so I could still make it." She laughed softly, even though it had not been quite fun when she was inside the car. She'd cursed her fathers drivingstyle more than once. Maren grabbed her hand. "Come on, let's see if we can still find an empty compartiment."

Every open door they passed Autumn heard talk of the passing of Albus Dumbledore. Even saw one blond girl crying while talking about it. Autumn was shocked when she heard about it, she'd always been fond of the Headmaster. She couldn't say she loved him, like so many wizards were saying. But she'd respected him and she would surely miss him. She had only spoken with him two times in all her years on Hogwarts. One time he had to warn her about expelling her, since she broke some pretty serious rules when she tried to help out a friend. While at the same time he'd seemed to compliment her about it. She remembered feeling quite confused when she left, but she never heard anyone about it again. Even McGonagall had left it alone. Autumn shook her head, thinking back about that time. The entire world of wizards was going to miss Albus Dumbledore. With the exception of the Dark Lord and his followers.

"It's all full." They had almost reached the end of the train. There were barely any spaces left, some were even sitting on each others lap. But Autumn doubted if that was because they had to. She didn't really understand the need to show that amount of affection to anyone, wasn't that something you did in private? But then again, she had only dated once. And that had been a complete disaster. Her parents always teased her with it, saying that when she found the 'right guy' she wouldn't be able to keep her hands off him. She hated it when they teased her, especially when it was about boys and relationships.

Maren and she decided to split up, or they would be obligated to spent the entire journey standing up. Autumn walked back to the front of the train and knocked on the door where she saw a familair Gryffindor face. Across from him was, yet again, a couple. She could barely see their faces, but she recognised the guy sitting alone. "Hi. Sorry, can I maybe sit here?" She looked at Axel, not expecting an answer from the couple. They only seemed to be interested in each other. "Everything is pretty much full." She didn't know why she explained herself. Maybe because she'd always felt a bit uncomfortable around Axel, while he had never really done anything to make her feel that way. He wasn't the only one she felt uncomfortable around, so she tried to ignore the feeling.

 

[Slaybian]

Axel turned his head towards the sound of the compartment door sliding open. His face split into a grin as he listened to her ask if she could sit with them. "Autumn right? I know we have talked a few times by now but I'm horrid with names..." He said with a sheepish smile. He rubbed the back of his head in a shameful way. "Yeah sure, seats yours. Dont mind those two, probably wont say a word to you anyway. It's like they dissolve into their own world when they get into a state lile that." He said with a lazy gesture towards his two interlocked friends. They really had no shame.

He took a moment to look her over. She was a very pretty girl, he was pretty sure she tended to keep to herself, as he didn't recall her at many of the parties in Gryffindor tower. Then again he could be way off the mark. For all of Axels observational abilities he tended to overlook those who blended in. He made a conscious effort to not disect everything when it was a casual setting, as staring at people so intently and surveying a room like a hawk tended to put people off. It was sorta something he could turn on or off.

He realized a tad too late that he was doing that to Autumn right now. She had a shine on her hairline, indicating very light perspiration. But her muscles in her arms laid heavy in her lap, meaning perhaps they had been through some work recently. She had downcast eyes, and her feet were pointed inward, indicating discomfort. His staring and evaluation was probably making her nervous. Or perhaps she was nervous around couples?

"Heya, you okay? You seem a little uncomfortable." He asked with a small smile and head tilt, looking at her with concern.

 

[xLotte]

Autumn nodded when Axel asked if remembered her name correctly. She sat down beside him, her head facing the couple. None of the two seemed to care about what was going on around them, they hadn't even bothered to look at her when she came inside. She really couldn't imagine being that involved in someone, to just forget the world around you. But she realised she had to stop judging every couple. Maybe the reason she felt so much resistance was because she was jealous.

Her face turned toward Axel when he spoke. She didn't know her discomfort was showing so much, which made her turn red even more. She did force a small smile, but she knew it wasn't very convincing. He was attractive to look at. His hair was a bit messy, but in a playful way. And his eyes.. Maren had a pretty bad crush on him last year, and she once said that Axel had eyes 'you could just drown in'. Autunn started to understand what she ment, even without having romantic feelings for him.
While staring at him, she noticed she wasn't the only one. She quickly looked away, she didn't want to give him the impression it as him who made her feel uncomfortable. At least, he wasn't the only reason she felt a bit uncomfortable. She always found herself to get insecure when being around someone you could consider 'popular', but she wasn't going to tell him that.

"Yes, sorry. I'm just not really good with.." Her eyes wondered off to the couple for a second and she nodded towards them. "I'm always a bit awkward around.. it." She didn't want to say it out loud to draw their attention to her, so she spoke a bit vague. Her body turned away from them, towards Axel. This time she smiled more convincing. "So how are you feeling about the upcoming year?"

 

[Slaybian]

Axel got a wide grin as she seemed to open up a little. He had always enjoyed making people smile and laugh so knowing he wasnt making her feel awkward anymore made him feel like he had a weight off of his chest.

"Hey I get whatcha mean. You didnt have to deal with that all summer I imagine. Wish I was spared the third wheeling in my own home on many occasions. Though most of my summer was training oriented. To answer your question I was actually thinking about it just before you walked in! I want to win nationals this year so badly. Now that I'm a seventh year I can compete in it, and I'm pumped. I think it was rather embarrassing for poor Damien to go represent Hogwarts when someone a year his junior didn't lose a single point to him in the Domestic tournament last year!" He barked out a laugh at the memory of his former teammate admitting that to him over a butterbeer at the three broomsticks. He looked over at her and widened his eyes. "Oh wait, I forgot because quidditch is so big nobody really thinks about the duelling club. Do you know anything about it? I've been captain for last year and this year. Theres some issues though. For some reason the national committee is really dragging their legs about revealing where itll be hosted. I wonder what that's about." He mumbled the last part, looking down at it in thought.

He raised his eyes and chuckled. "Sorry I know it doesnt seem like it but I can ramble alot when it comes to dueling. It's a huge part of my family. How about you? You got any plans this year?" He asked, staringninto her eyes, and avoiding looking at her body and overanalyzing everything again, or just outright ogling her.

 

[xLotte]

Autumn shrugged. "I wish, most of my friends are the same." She still had a couple muggle friends left and they weren't any different than her wizard friends. It seemed like they all had that in common on that age. She only saw her muggle friends during the vacations, and since she stayed at Hogwarts for most of them; she only saw them a couple times during the summer. It hadn't been that much fun, since they only seemed to care about being as close as possible to their boy or girlfriend. "Third wheeling at your home? Why, with your friends or your brothers or sisters?"

Autumn enjoyed watching Axel talking so enthusiastic about the duelling club. It gave her some time to really look at him, without any chance of getting accused of staring. She'd never really talk to him one on one, but he seemed pretty friendly. She somehow thought that because he was popular, it ment he wasn't a nice humanbeing to be around. But he'd seemed to prove her wrong. "To be completely honest with you, I just know the duelling club exist. A friend of mine went, but just once. Apparently she didn't like losing so much. She told me a bit about it." Maren wasn't the best or the strongest witch, she even was a bit below average. But she compensated by being an absolute star in everything that hadn't anything to do with magic, like history of magic.

"But I don't mind you .. rambling on about it, I can see how much you like it." Her smile brightened even more. She liked it when people could talk about something with so much enthousiasm. "Maybe I can even go and take a look, if that's possible. Or do I have to compete right away? I have barely done it and I guess it would hurt my ego if someone just whipped the floor with me on my first try." In some classes she'd have to duel, but she always stayed on the sidelines. She wasn't really good in attacking someone, but she did know how to defend herself pretty good.

"My plans.." She looked away from Axel for a second, looking through the window. "Do more exciting stuff?" She laughed softly. "I've spent most of my time at Hogwarts just studying, and I'd like to do some more memorable things." She wasn't sure about what she wanted to do just yet. "Get out of my comfortzone." Her eyes found Axel again, but she couldn't help to check him out. He was muscled, you could easily see that. But not in a extreme way.

 

[Slaybian]

Axel chuckled lightly at her question. "Well I don't have any sisters, but three older brothers means I definitely have been around their girlfriends more times than I can count. But on this occasion I mean more these two. Since all my older brothers have moved out I felt kinda lonely with just me and my dad in the house. I invited them over a few weekends and felt like I was intruding in my own bedroom. They weren't hesitant to use it at their will." He said with a hint of disgust and scowled at the memory. "Had my dad incendio my sheets after that. I mean hey, its not like i've never had that kinda stuff... occur. Especially if you listen to the rumors." He added a wink to the end of that sentence. "But not on my friends bed for Merlins sake! Also try not to listen to what you've heard about meif anything. Slytherins tend to exaggerate when they feel they've been slighted. Makes me out to be some brute. But I do appreciate how elaborate my pranks seem to be after their exaggerations to professor Snape!" He said all this with the ghost of a smile before breaking out into full blown laughter by the end. "Oh and yeah I have three older brothers. Eldest is Alric. Kind of a prick but hes an alchemist, they're all way too full of themselves. Second oldest is Daniel. Hes an Auror for the Ministry of Magic. Hit wizard to be specific. Not scary at all though, but then again i'm his brother and I wipe him up in our duels so his scariness factor is definitely lower in my eyes than it probably is in reality. The 3rd eldest's name was Vincent. He uh... well hes just not here anymore lets say that." Axel said immediately dropping his smile and pausing before recollecting his thoughts.

He forced a smile and looked her dead in the eyes, noticing that she had seemed to be more open and he didn't want to lose that. "Anyway enough of that mopey shit. You should totally drop by! If you are looking for adventure I can only think of a few other places that come close to the thrills you can get in dueling club. Trust me neither me nor Flitwick would put you up against anyone too experienced if you decided to step into the platform. We probably would only have you do spell chaining drills. And yeah I expected as much, most people pay all their attention to Quidditch. I don't blame them honestly. Wizard duels don't have as much flash, and they can be wicked complicated. Takes a lot of knowledge of the sport to really appreciate it, unlike Quidditch, which while hard to master and be good at is simple in its rule-set and flow of the game. Plus a lot of people think wizard fighting and dueling are the same, which its really not. Sure being a good duelist gives you more than just an advantage in a wizard fight, and the better duelist will usually win in a true fight, but the International Committee for the Sport of Wizard Dueling has rules in place that make it not so deadly in sport. Those rules go out the window in a fight. A duelist that specialized in a strong defense and can string protegos into their offense will find that wont help them much when the enemy slings an Avada Kedavra their way." He said, barely stopping to breathe. He clapped his hand to his mouth. "Sorry... I really really gotta stop that. I know you said you don't mind, which I appreciate but you are exception." He said with a blinding smile.

He gave her another appraising look. Her demeanor was disarming. She seemed to not mind his annoying habits of rambling about dueling. Then again most people saw him as the aloof Gryffindork. She was different though. She didn't seem to judge people off of a glance. Axel loved his house loads, but them and Slytherins tended to fall into habits of judging people before doing proper investigating, and for someone observant like him it bugged him to no end, especially when he knew he did the same thing sometimes. He tore his eyes from staring at her and ruffled his hair a bit. "You sound like Alric and Daniel. Those Ravens spent all 7 years here with their noses in books. So you wanna do more exciting things and get out of your comfort zone?" He said and gave her another look over. "Well I can help you out with that if you want." He said with a grin. He blinked twice upon realizing what that sounded like but rather than correcting it just let it stand and smirked looking out the window again. "Hogwarts is about 15 minutes away by my estimation. We should go change and stuff." With near inhumane speed he smacked Conners leg and stood next to the door. "Hey buddy lets go change into our robes and give the girls the room. Oh and Autumn?" He said turning to her. "You were carrying your trunk all over the place before you got here weren't you? Next time just get on the train with it and give it a featherweight charm. I know spells aren't allowed on the train but the second you step onto it the trace doesn't pick it up, so even at kings cross so long as you are on the train nobody will really care. Just watch out for prefects." He said and winked at her. "You know, in case you are going home for the holidays or anything." He added finally and stepped out of the compartment and grinned. Conner gave him a knowing look. "Piss off Conner." He said shoving him lightly.

 

[xLotte]

Autumn was suprised by how open Axel was about everything. He kept telling her stuff, talking to her like they'd known each other for some time. But it did make her feel more comfortable, like she hadn't intruded by joining them in their compartment. It felt like she was included, and that wasn't something she'd felt much before on Hogwarts. Even though she loved it there, most of her friends were from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. So she mostly felt like an outsider when she was with her own house.

She felt her cheeks warming up when Axel told her about 'stuff' occuring in his bedroom. How was she supposed to react to that? She had kissed with just one guy, and that was about it. All the other stuff was unknown to her, she'd just heard stories from her friends. A guy talking about it did make her feel a bit uncomfortable once again. Especially a guy who seemed experienced. She tucked her hair behind her ear, but it immediately fell back again. "It must have been nice to sleep next to them." She sounded sarcastic, but with somewhat of a grin on her face. Her cheeks were still red, but she tried to not pay any attention to it. The awkwardness turned into concern when Axel told her about Vincent. What did he mean by that? Did he mean he was dead, or that he turned over to the dark side? She decided not to ask about it, she just nodded. A lot of pure blood families had death eathers in them and she could imagine the shame that it brought them. But she didn't believe it defined them in any way. "Don't worry, I haven't heard thay many stories about you. At least, not from anyone from Slytherin." Ofcourse she'd heard some stories about him, about the pranks he did and about the girls he dated. She didn't like all his pranks, but some of them were very much deserved. But she barely communicated with anyone from Slyherin and she mostly tried to ignore them.

She couldn't help but let out a little laugh when Axel kept on talking about the Duelling Club. He really seemed fond of it. "Okay okay, you convinced me. I'll come and see it for myself. If it's really that awesome, it should be a good place to start for me to step out of my comfortzone. As long as I don't have to duel against you, I don't think you're the kind of person that will just let me win." Not that she minded losing, but she would be ashamed if it turned out she sucked at it. And since she was a seventh year, she did have pretty high expectations of herself.

Her cheeks were finally back to their normal color when Axel commented something about helping her out. Once again she turned red and she quickly looked away. Was that still about the duelling club? It didn't seem like it. Was she going to ask? Defenitely not. Because maybe somewhere she liked him saying that, in whatever way he ment it. "Well, I'm not sure you're quite up for that challenging task. Many tried and failed." Even though her face was deeply red, she did somehow manage to reply with a playful tone.

She got up when he managed it was time to get changed. She hadn't noticed they were already so close to Hogwarts. Finally the couple broke up their kissing and cuddling and the girl stood up from his lap. Autumn only now recognised Stacy, even though her had barely chatted during their time on Hogwarts. She was friendly, and Autumn defenitely didn't dislike her. They just had different friends. "Never thought of that, but I'll keep that in mind." She smiled. She wouldn't be suprised if tomorrow her muscles would feel sore from all the lifting and running with her trunk. She looked at Axel walking away, not noticing she was staring until she heard Stacy laugh behind her. She quickly turned around. "Quite the eyecandy, isn't he?" Stacy said, still grinning.

 

[Slaybian]

Conner and Axel waited a few minutes before reentering the compartment dressed in their own robes. Axel hid his disappointment at seeing the very unappealing robes covering the two attractive witches in the room quite well in his own opinion and barely had any time to strike up conversation before the whistle blew, indicating they were approaching the end of the line. With a shrug and grabbing Autumns carry on for her the group exited the train. As they got off Axel turned to Autumn and held out her bag. "Well I am sure you have some friends to go talk to and take a carriage to the castle with huh? I know you hang around a few people in the common room. You all should ah, come sit with us when you get the great hall. I'd like to meet the people in this house who hang out with the bookworm of our grade." He said with an eyebrow raise and a teasing smile. "I am sure they'd love to hear all about your ride with me. Train ride. Not... other ride." He said with a shake of his head. Axel wasn't usually this awkward but for some reason today he just couldn't keep the thoughts he had in his head. It was like someone turned on his mouth to overdrive.

Not giving her much of a chance to respond he jogged off and near leaped into a carriage Stacy and Conner were occupying. With a two fingered salute he closed the door and let the thestrals take them to the front gate. "Soooooo... mind telling us what that was about?" Stacy said with a playful smirk. Axel raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "No clue what you mean Stacy." He said putting his aloof mask back on. Conner simply shook his head and started to doze off. "I mean you and Autumn. Don't give me that. You and her hit it off pretty well there." She said leaning into Conner. "She seems far too innocent for you. If you corrupt a young witch with your stupid carefree ways Axel I swear..." Axel held up two fingers. "One, im surprised you were able to hear or focus on anything but yourself and the meat-head I call my friend. Two, contrary to popular belief I can speak with a girl and not be thinking about bedding her or something along those lines. She's.... nice. Really nice. That's all." He said and kicked his feet up, contemplating following in Conners stead and getting a nice 15 minute nap in. Stacy simply rolled her eyes.

A half hour later Axel found himself walking into the hall he called home with a brilliant smile on his face. He looked around and waved at a few of his dueling club friends and said hi to whoever came up to him. A few of the girls in his year were a tad too ecstatic to see him and Conner and Stacy nearly had to hiss them away. He usually would also be looking around to see anything different in peoples builds or body language, as to better prepare himself for anything new this year but there was a large decorated tower in front of the head table where the teachers sat. It was an incredibly curious addition, and drew the attention of many. He also noticed where a purple wizards hat and long white beard uses to be was a pointed chin and black witches hat. He wasn't sure if he'd ever get used to seeing McGonagall as headmaster. He scanned the table and waved to Flitwick, the teacher in charge of the dueling club. He also noticed two new faces, but one more familiar than new. "Holy hell. Is that Lupin?" He heard the youngest male Weasley say as he took a seat at the middle of the Gryffindor table where the most people sat. "I think you are right mate. Wait... does that mean?" He heard Harry Potter say. Axel looked over to the Gryffindor trio and decided to do a little silent digging. Potter was taller but thinner with slightly sunken and dark eyes than he had when he had left Hogwarts last year. It was no secret Dumbledore had taken a liking to the boy, and Harry had apparently taken his passing poorly. He also had his reserved stance which he had always had. Though Axel would never say it, he was quite sure Harry's home life was negligent at best. He seemed malnourished and way too reserved for a celebrity. He briefly looked over the other members of the golden trio, deciding Hermione seemed to be maturing far faster than her male counterparts. As McGonagall began to get ready for the pre-feast speech he looked at the door of the great hall, waiting for more people to file in and hopefully force Autumn and her friends to sit by him Conner and Stacy.

 

[xLotte]

Autumn and Stacy chatted while changing into their robes, but Axel and Connor were back too quick for them to get into any serious conversation. When getting out of the train, Autumn spotted Maren and Luna walking in front of them. She was about to turn to Axel and tell him goodbye, when he spoke first. Everytime she'd calmed down and got rid of the nerves, he said something new to make her uncomfortable. Her cheeks turned red and she shook her head. She wanted to reply, say something about him making pretty weird comments, but before she could he dissapeared. She kept shaking her head. He was unbelievable, but at the same time she found it appealing.

She sped up, until she was walking next to Luna. "Oh!" The blond tiny girl said as soon as she noticed Autumn, a slight smile appearing on her face. Luna was one of her dearest friends, they met during a quidditch match where Autumn had complimented the hat she had been wearing. Sometimes she could be a bit weird and Autumn didn't always understand what she was babbling on about, but she was very kind. And not to forget smart. She was about to ask about her holiday, when Maren came in between. "Did you just got out of the train with Axel?" It was almost some form of jealousy in her voice and Autumn wasn't sure how to reply. The three girls got into a carriage together, after Luna first petted one of thestrals. Or, at least, Autumn believed it was a thestral. She could not see them herself, but Luna told her all about them.

"Were you sitting with him?" Maren asked another question after Autumn just nodded. "Yeah? Hé, I thought you were over him. You said he wasn't worth it after he started dating.. what was her name again?" She looked towards Hogwarts. When they got out of the train it had looked so small, but now they got closer she remembered how big it was. She had still not seen everything, there were still so many undiscovered places inside. Maybe this year she would try to find some more hidden spots. "Well, I don't know. Maybe I thought I was?" Maren crossed her arms and frowned, her voice drawning Autumn's attention back to the conversation inside the carriage.

The whole ride Maren couldn't do anything else but talk about Axel, asking questions about him. While Luna just looked outside and sometimes commented on something she saw. Autumn admired how undisturbed she was, while she herself started to get slightly annoyed by Maren. She finally shutted her mouth when they arrived at Hogwarts, walking inside and directly going to the Great Hall. Some of her Ravenclaw friends shouted at her, waving when she walked by. She sometimes regretted her choice for Gryffindor, since most of her friends where in Ravenclaw. The Sorting Hat had asked her what she'd wanted, saying that she would fit in both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. But when she was a first year she'd barely known anything or anyone, she'd never heard about Hogwarts or the existence of wizards before she got her letter. She'd only read two books about Hogwarts, where Gryffindor was highly appraised.

She said goodbye to Luna with a quick hug, with the promise to really catch up next they spoke, and then walked to the Gryffindor table. Before she sat down, Maren poked her in her waist. "Look!" She pointed at the tables where all the teachers were. Autumn frowned, her eyes scanning the professors. It felt like it wasn't complete without Albus Dumbledore sitting in the middle, like something crucial was missing. She sighed, a sad expression appearing on her face. Although it dissapeared immediately when she finally saw what Maren was pointing at. "It's professor Lupin!" If there was one professor she respected, it had been him. He had been her favorite and she hated it when he had to leave Hogwarts. "Why would he be back?" Maren asked. They were not the only one talking about him, more students were pointing at him. He still looked the same, but maybe a bit more lean. He'd never look very healthy, but it was almost like it got worse. Autumn shrugged. "Maybe they need him now.. you know, now Dumbledore isn't here anymore." She whispered that last part, like she wasn't allowed to talk about Dumbledore's passing in public. After looking at Remus for a couple seconds, her eyes found the enormous decorated tower, though it would be hard to miss. She didn't pay attention to it for long, she expected professor McGonagall to tell them about it in her speech. Oh, wait. Headmaster McGonagall, not professor, she thought to herself.

Autumn scanned the people sitting at the table. There was enough space for Maren and her to sit together, but first she was looking for Axel and his friends. He did invite her to come sit with them, so why shouldn't she? They were a couple feet away. Connor and Stacy were sitting next to each other, but besides them holding hands they weren't very intimate. Good, it would be even more awkward if they continued their kissing in the Great Hall with literally everyone around them. She walked towards them, followed by Maren, who was a bit too eager. Before her friend could take up the empty space next to Axel, as she seemed to be planning to, Autumn sat down next to him. She saw immediately that this was not something Maren appreciated, but she recovered quickly. "Hi. I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Maren." She only introduced herself to Axel, ignoring the other two, before sitting down next to her friend. Autumn decided to leave it be, forced a small smile and then focused on McGonagall who was now standing up. McGonagall had always looked old in Autumn's eyes, but it looked like the woman had become much older in the last couple months. She looked tired, like the last time she got a good night sleep was from before Dumbledore's passing.

 

[Slaybian]

Axel politely smiled at the girl who exhuberantly introduced herself. While Axel usually would be ecstatic at this much attention from a girl his age he seemed oddly muted to the idea of entertaining someone at the moment. "Heya, I am Axel. And yeah I remember you from some classes." Axel said peering around the back of Autumn, looking as aloof as he always made himself to be when he hadn't opened up to someone. He glanced at Autumn to find her attention firmly on McGonagall, who appeared ready to speak. It was a testament to how shocking it was that it was her and not Dumbledore and to her own intimidation that her mere walking gathered the attention of the entirety of the great hall. "Let us begin, like always, with the sorting." She said simply before waving her wand as the great halls doors sprung open, showing startled 1st year faces behind it. Axel grinned and looked over at his friends. "Guess that's our headmaster's way of easing the tension." He said with a little chuckle. He sat and clapped politely as names were called and small children ran to their assigned house tables. His eyes were more fixated on the staff however. A gruff looking man had snuck in through the back left door that lead into the trophy room. He took a swig from his flask and shivered, quite unnatural for such a grizzled looking man to shudder at even a hard liquor. He noticed his eye whizzing around taking in the whole hall. Daniel had described an Auror like this once. Mad-eye Moody they had called him. Guess the name was literal. That being said his eye almost span uncontrolled in its socket. This struck Axel as rather odd since Daniel had said there was very little mad-eye didnt control in his life, and that included his movements. He had said his eyes was sharp and fast. The Mad-Eye before him seemed to have little of that accuracy. He mentally shrugged. Maybe the poor guy had another accident or a stroke. Who knows.

As the sorting ended McGonagall arose from her seat again and stood beside the ornate tower that had been placed into the hall. "The first order of business, I would like to share a moment with you all to remember the great Albus Dumbledore, former headmaster of this school. I promise to attempt to the best of my ability to fill his shoes, and make Hogwarts proud." Axel along with several others stood up and audibly cheered in the name of both Albus and their former head of house. McGonagall accepted her applause gracefully and allowed a few moments of silence after the noise died down before continuing, wiping a single tear from her eye. "I will be incredibly brief so that we may begin our feast. This year at Hogwarts will be a very exciting year like no other. To those who are not familiar," She waved her wand and the tower melted away to reveal a bejeweled but otherwise simple looking cup. "This is the Goblet of Fire. The lighting of this cup indicates that the triwizard tournament will be held." The roaring fire left no doubt in anyone's mind as gasps and a few shouts of excitement filled the room. "This year Beauxbatons Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry will be hosting the triwizard tournament! Here to explain the rules is the British representative for foreign relations, from the ministry of magic, Bartemus Crouch!" She said the first part with a wry smile. She could barely shout over the cheering and excitement that had filled the hall. Axel looked around at his table in shock. "Well dang... guess I gotta decide whether or not I should apply to this or try to go for nationals huh?" Axel said to the group near him. "Oh dont kid yourself, you are gonna try both man. And everyone here is gonna put their names in!" Conner said with a wide smile that dared anyone to contradict him.

Barry Crouch widened his hands and seemingly nervously began to speak. "As per the new rules, and due to the long time it has been since the tournament has been held, two announcements must be made. First, any student under the age of 17 will not be permitted to submit their name into the goblet." This was met with outcry from some of the younger students, the Weasley twins shouting 'THAT'S RUBBISH' as loudly as they could. McGonagall silenced thebhall again with a sonorous enchanted yell of "BEHAVE YOURSELVES". Axel simply shrugged and stared at his plate waiting for food, that was until the next rule was announced. "Secondly, there will be a grand total of three champions from each school to represent their academy, totaling 9 champions across all schools. Each champion will be allowed to bring one guest with them for permanent yearlong residence as the tournament progresses, while three more students will be selected by the staff to not only go as representatives of Hogwarts to this event, but as resources for their champions to utilize. The whole school will be there the week leading up to events as well. They will be accompanied by one staff member. Which I think concludes the ministries announcements. The floor is yours Headmaster." Crouch said bowing and backing away. McGonagall cleared her throat. "This leads to bbn our final announcement before we can all dig in. Please welcome two new, well, one new and one new in subject, professors. Remus Lupin has chosen to not only take up the role as Transfiguration professor but also has risen to the occasion to accompany our champions to Beauxbatons." This was met with a roar of applause, only the Slytherin table seemed to be at a normal volume. Axel himself had enjoyed Lupins teaching immensely and was very glad to see him back. "And lastly we welcome Alastor Moody to the staff, he will be your Defense teacher from here on out." The applause for him was significantly less so, and the Slytherin table mostly outright refused to clap politely, some of their relatives having been put away by the man who stood and waved with Lupin. "Well without further waiting, tuck in!" She proclaimed as food filled the plates of all.

Axel looked around and grabbed some food while thinking. "Well that sure is alot to digest. The information, not the food." He said with a smile. "I dont know about it. I'll have to ask Flitwock when and where nationals are. Then who knows?" He said with a shrug. "Oh come one Axel we all know you are gonna go for it regardless." Stacy said while ladling gravy into her plateful of mashed potatoes. Axel simply shrugged again and looked over at Autumn and... Maven? Martha? Oh Maren! "Whatchall think?" He asked with a chicken wing in his mouth.

 

[xLotte]

Autumn smiled to almost every new Gryffindor that passed by her. She could remember her Sorting ceremony like it was just yesterday. When she was sorted and walked to her new house, she'd tripped. Over nothing but her own feet. She'd been so ashamed, but at the same time had felt so welcome when three people came and help her. So now she still felt it was important to make al the new ones feel welcome and help them out wherever she could. The last couple years she'd helped several, mostly to find their way around Hogwarts. Or to get used to all the magic around them, which could come as shock for mostly muggle borns.

She clapped enthusiasticly when the Headmaster introduced Remus Lupin, but less when Alastor Moody was up. He looked a bit scary, if that was the right way to put it. Defenitely someone that fitted as a Defense teacher. She couldn't understand why most of the Slytherins didn't clap, but figured that he wasn't a new figure to them. Maybe an Auror?

It was after the speech was finished, Autumn let her thoughts wonder off to the triwizard tournament. She'd heard and read about it and it was always described as a dangerous event. Her parents would worry sick if she decided to apply, let alone get chosen. But she couldn't help but think what would happen if she did apply. Would she even stand a chance? She knew she had the brains, but would she actually be brave enough? What if she came eye to eye with some monster or wild animal? Autumn could write papers about caring for magical creatures, but that was just on paper. In real life she never had to do anything really dangerous.

She barely noticed the people around her, all talking with excitement in their voice. Before McGonagall's speech all they talked about was Albus Dumbledore, now most of them changed the subject to the triwizard tournament. Some were dissapointed because they were too young to apply, others were just excited in general. She chewed on a sweet potato, not really tasting it. It was Axel that made her get out of her thoughts again. She was about to open her mouth to answer, but Maren was quicker. "It's so awesome!" She shrieked. "I really think I'm going to apply, it must be so awesome to represent Hogwarts and I've always wanted to see Beauxbatons, this must be the perfect chance." Maren smiled from ear to ear, barely paying attention to her friend next to her. "I really do wonder what tasks there will be. I've once read about the triwizard tournaments, but it must be really dangerous. Wouldn't it? But I don't think McGonagall will allow anything too dangerous." Autumn decided to keep on eating while Maren spoke. "I think there'll be some sort of protection. Or I don't know. And I wonder if the three champions need to work together of it's just everyone for themselves.."

"I think it's nice to have professor Lupin back." Autumn finally said when there was a short silence. "I would want him with me if I get to be chosen."

 

[Slaybian]

Axel pondered his food for a moment, listening to the two girls speak. Marens voice pierced his ears and he winced slightly. He barely registered what she was saying, hence the lack of attention and the attention to his food. He smiled and nodded politely after she had finished her spiel. The only thing he really registered was her desire to see Beauxbatons and the idea of protection. As Autumn spoke in a much more delicate tone about Lupin he nodded. "Well I mean I guess that answers what sort of protections will be provided. Lupin used to teach defense, he cant be bad at things like the champions will be facing. I admire the guy too." Axel grimaced slightly. He had discovered the truth to Lupins condition very quickly last year. A side effect to his hyper attention to body language and such made it easy to tell. The mans eyes grew tight whenever sundown approached, and he had a sluggish and tense stature the night before a full moon every month. Anyone who could live a life like that and still manage to be an expert in his chosen field had his respect. He had thought about bringing it up to Dumbledore before Conner had wisely suggested that the brightest wizard of the century probably already knew, and had taken the proper precautions. It was good for Axel to have grounded person like Conner in his life to bring him back to earth. His ego would've run away long ago if he didn't have the Irishman as a best friend.

Axel bit into his chicken thoughtfully. Once he had cleared his mouth he looked over at Autumn. She was so reserved, and yet she had accepted his invitation to sit with him, where alot of attention would be on her, as their area of the table was always being visited by people. Side affect of both sitting next to the Qudditch team and having the captain of the Dueling club and captain of the Gobstones club sitting there. He never asked nor cared about Gobstones so overhearing Stacy talk to people about it when they came over had been a truly boring almost daily occurrence. Autumn either didn't care too much about others attention or she had overcome some form of anxiety by sitting with them. He couldn't tell, Maren was blocking his view of her body so he couldn't see if she was nervous with so many loud people around her.

"Well as for me, I am a little more concerned with who else will be coming with. I mean I know i'm a shoe in, but who else is gonna be coming with me under the Hogwarts banner?" He said with a wink at Maren and Autumn. He chuckled a bit and ran his hand through his hair. "And I wonder who is gonna be deemed by the professors to be student experts? That is gonna be interesting. Dang... I am fired up!" He said and almost stood up in excitement. Axel would never admit this out loud but he was very self aware of his need for external validation. Having a bunch of older brothers will do that. Praise both went to his head and made him almost giddy. The only thing he truly had a level head about was fighting and dueling. He gazed at the cup. "Wait a second... do you think... FLITWICK!" He shouted, not loud enough to be heard over the noise of the hall but loud enough to be heard by all in his general area. "He knew I bet! He knew the dueling committee wasn't announcing where it would be hosting nationals because its gonna be at Beuxbatons! And he didn't want me or anyone else digging into it and spoiling the surprise!" He said with an angry smile.

He brought himself out of his personal world and looked around to see Stacy giving him a raised eyebrow, her method of letting him know he was being an idiot. He sobered up but still had a lopsided grin as he turned his attention back to his two new... friends? He didn't know what to call them yet. He certainly wanted to call Autumn a friend, but they had barely had any conversations besides the one on the train. And Maren he had only just met basically. "Are you gonna join the rest of us and put your name in Autumn?" He asked peering around Maren.

 

[xLotte]

Autumn raised an eyebrow when she suddenly heard Axel shout. She could hear the exitement in his voice, but his shouting was unexpected. Though she didn't say anything about it, she never actually did when someone behaved in the not general 'normal' way. That was something she learned when she met Luna, she tried not to judge anyone even though in her eyes it could be weird.

"Wouldn't you like to be one of the students experts?" Maren really wanted to keep the conversation going and asked Axel another question. For a moment Autumn just focused on her food, eating the potatoes and getting some more salad. All the sounds around here sounded more like buzzing noises, she couldn't really hear much of anything. Maren's voice was pretty clear though, but that was about it. She chewed way too long on a bite of her salad, looking sideways. Her eyes met up with professor Lupin, or at least, she thought they did. He wasn't talking with any of the other professors, he was just sitting silently and eating. What would the other professors think about his return? She couldn't imagine they would all apprechiate it very much. Especially professor Snape.

Autumn was once again drawn back to the conversation when Axel said her name. "I think I will." She sounded doubtful, but then shook her head. "No, I'm joining. I told you on the train, I should do more out of my comfortzone. And what would be more perfect than the triwizard tournament?" Maybe she'd prefer to be a student expert, because she liked to help others. But that wasn't enough out of her comfortzone. "I hope I won't back down though, maybe I should put my name in directly so I won't be able to change my mind." She smiled. She knew herself all too well and knew she would try to talk herself out of it. "Maren?" The youngest Weasley called for the girl and waved for her to come. "Oh, I'll be right back." Maren got up, squeezed in Autumn's shoulder and then walked to Ginny. Autumn moved to the empty place her friend just left. "I'm sorry if Maren seems a bit.. Well, I don't know. She just gets weird when she's around attracti-" She immediately stopped talking when she realised what she was about to say. Maybe Axel would start to believe red was her natural color, because she felt her cheeks burning and knew she was blushing. For maybe the fourth or fifth time since they started talking. "She's just, uh - usually a lot more relaxed."

She looked away. It was not like Axel didn't know he was attractive, right? He knew he had a reputation and it never seemed like he minded it. But still, she felt pretty ashamed for saying it out loud. Or, saying it partly out loud. She took the last bite of her plate, but kept staring at it for a while. "So, your name." She suddenly shifted subjects. "It's isn't just Axel right? Almost everyone calls you that, but I remember that some of the professors used to call you Alexander? Or, wait. Axelander? Or am I not saying it right?"

 

[Slaybian]

Axel's eyes widened just as she cut herself off. Well this was interesting. He knew a lot of the girls in the school found him fanciable, but hearing it almost come out of Autumns mouth hit him in a different way. At first he thought perhaps she was saying that Maren thought he was attractive, but the blush on her face indicated it was more of a slip up on her part than her speaking for her friend. He inwardly smiled, Autumn blushed a fair amount, and it was ridiculously cute. He studied her face more as she explained how her friend was usually more mellowed out than she had been acting. "Huh, I will keep that in mind. All of it." He said with a wink, not outright telling her he caught her slip, but if she was as smart as he thought she was she would know he had caught it.

Axel glanced over at Conner who was talking to one of the other Dueling club members, while Stacy's eyes were glued to him and Autumn. Bollocks. Stacy belonged in Slytherin because there was no way she would hesitate to blackmail him using the information he was sure she was gathering. Especially since Axel's usual play after realizing someone thought he was physically appealing was to flirt until both of them couldn't contain themselves. But Autumn deserved better in his mind. She was modest about her attraction obviously, and to be frank the type he usually pursued weren't even close to as nice or smart as Autumn had made herself out to be. He made a silent vow to simultaneously not give Stacy a reason to castrate him for hurting Autumn, and to treat Autumn with as much respect as he could. Sure, she was cute and he would flirt with her, but at the risk of sounding too cliche, she wasn't like the other girls he spent time with.

When Autumn mentioned his name after a moment he frowned. "Sadly you are correct with your second guess. Merlin what id give to just have been named Alexander. Its so... posh. I am from a pureblood family so my parents had a disposition to naming their children names that made us sound like the biggest ponces around. Daniel got so bloody lucky." He groaned as his head hit the table. He ran both of his hands through his hair. "I mean come one. Alric, Axelander, Vin-..." He cut himself off as his eyes grew dark as he stared at his plate again. Before anything else could happen McGonagall stood from her seat and gave her end of meal announcements about how they would receive their schedules tomorrow, and warned us to sleep well, as this year mat be especially busy. Axel let out a breath of relief. He didn't want his awkwardness that inevitably came up after he mentioned his brother to stay longer than necessary.

"Well, lets head on back to the common room then I guess." He said standing up with the rest of the students. As they filed out he stared outside for a brief moment. Hogwarts was an escape for him. It meant youthful adventures and dedication to crafts. He hated it when he thought of his family at school. They passed byt their usual route to get the the Gryffindor common room. The head boy, a man name Dirk Messer told them all the password: Humility. He entered the room swiftly and paused before rushing upstairs. He figured he was being rather selfish. His mood shouldn't be a deterrent for socializing or at least saying goodnight to his new and old friends.

 

[xLotte]

The change in Axel's mood was sudden. One moment he was smiling and had this warm appearance, the next one he went completely cold. It was as if she'd say something wrong, terribly wrong. But he'd answered her question about his name in a normal way. Had it something to do with his brothers? She wanted to reach out and lay her hand on his arm, say something comforting. But before she could even think about what to say, headmaster McGonagall spoke again. And after that, Axel left quickly.

Maren accompanied Autumn when they went to leave the Great Hall. The girls didn't say much, as Autumn was thinking back to Axel's mood change. Somehow she felt a bit responsible, even though she couldn't tell how her question had effected him. And at the same time she was worried. They entered the Gryffindor common room together with a group, most of them third years, where Autumn paused. Should she say something to Axel? He was standing there, probably waiting for his friend Connor. "I'm sorry if I said something to offend you." She spoke quick and soft, not wanting to have other peope, besides Axel, hear her. Certainly not Maren.

She didn't wait for him to answer. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow." And after that she turned around and quickly walked up the stairs to the girls bedroom. As always her trunks were standing next to her bed, waiting for her to unpack them. She used to do that immediately, but now she wasn't in the mood. Most of the others would use a spell to do it, but she used her 'muggle' ways. She got rid of her robe and changed into her pyjamas. It was still too early for her to go to sleep, but she always felt more comfortable in her pyjamas. At home she'd loved to walk around in them all day. On Hogwarts she didn't, but she did like to crawl into bed early with a good book to read. Just like she did at that moment.

Maren came upstairs not long after her, but the girls didn't exchange much more besides a 'oof, how much I missed this bed' and a 'what book are you reading?' They didn't talk about the triwizard tournament or Axel. And Autumn was glad that Maren didn't bring up that second subject. She wasn't sure of what to think about it, why she became so insecure around him. It wasn't new to her that she became uncomfortable around people in general, but she never blushed this much. Autumn shook her head, softly mumbling to herself. "Stop thinking about it." She took a deep breath. Axel was just a friendly guy, who happend to be attractive. And she should stop to let her influence that so much. Instead she tried to focus on her book, until it was time to sleep.

 

[Slaybian]

As Autumn walked away he wanted to stop her. Shout out, grab her, do something. Anything to make her stop so he could explain that it wasn't anything she did. But instead, his body didn't respond. He stood there, rooted to the ground. Axel never was on to not take action, so when he finally did come to his senses he darted upstairs and into the bathroom as quickly as possible. He looked in the mirror and frowned at himself. Why didn't he say or do something. She had caught him off guard for sure, he never even considered that she might've blamed herself for that. He shook his head and turned on the shower, letting the water run over him for a minute, not moving, just letting his aches drift away with the hot water.

He got out of the shower and got into a pair of boxers, and yet it felt like his body was on auto-pilot. He couldn't stop thinking about how much Autumn had touched him over the span of just one day. "Man... I truly hang around some callous people if this amount of kindness rattles me this bad..." He muttered to himself. "Well yeah, you hang around duelists and Stacy. That lass is from a different world practically." He startled and looked up to see Conner standing there, still fully dressed. "Buddy, to be frank with ya, your idea of what most girls are like is kinda skewed. You have either had Stacy who is as headstrong as a wrestler, or a bunch of girls trying to pull you into a broom closet. And... I mean its been like 7 years since your mom died." He said walking over and placing a hand on Axels shoulder. "Your knowledge of womanly affection for all your experience is that of a preteens." He guffawed. Axel wanted to be mad, but deep down he knew Conner was right. Axel distracted himself with getting stronger, better, and satisfying very surface vices and needs. His emotional maturity outside of how to be a good friend and get a girl to want you was lacking.

It was a long time before Axel could fall asleep. He sat there and stared at a small light he had made in his four poster bed. It danced in front of his eyes soothingly, giving him something to look at while thinking. Tomorrow he would explain to her that she was fine. Not fine as in physically attractive fine but fine as in... even in his own bloody head he was stumbling over himself. This girl was making him feel like a blubbering mess. He awoke early the next day, casting a quick tempus charm to see it was 6am. He grabbed a pair of shorts and a tank top and dashed downstairs to an empty common room. He took this time in the morning to go for his daily run, as he had no idea what his schedule would be like this today or this year for that matter. Better to get it out of the way now and adjust later on.

The morning sun was creeping over the forbidden forest as he ran by the Black Lake. His breathing was heavy, and the gentle breeze helped him a lot as he took a small break. With another Tempus charm he realized he had spent far too much time on his run. He had lost track of time thanks to the endorphins in his brain. He sprinted back to the common room as quickly as he could, hearing a few of the first students going to breakfast as he passed the great hall. He got to the portrait of the fat lady and gasped out the password, scaring a pair of second year students as he almost knocked them over on his way inside. He looked around, still breathing heavily. He had hoped to catch Autumn before she managed to got to breakfast.

 

[xLotte]

At first Autumn had trouble concentrating on her book, but when she finally managed to focus, time flew by. When she finally put her book aside, all the other girls had already went to bed. She could see Maren, with her mouth slightly open, looking completely relaxed. One of the girls was snoring, but most of them were just quietly breathing. Autumn had to get used to all those sleeping sounds when she first arrived at Hogwarts, she was used to sleeping alone. But now she almost found it sort of peaceful listening to those sounds.

"Nox." She whispered. The light from her wand, that she has been using as a reading lamp, dissapeared. She put her wand on her book and went to lie down. Now that she didn't have anything to concentrate anymore, thoughts came back flying into her head. About the triwizard tournament mostly, but they kept coming to Axel aswell. Sometimes they were combined. Getting to be chosen together, her helping him out when he got chosen or the other way around. She cursed herself for not being to able to shut it off, and after awhile she decided to just let it be. Maybe when she stopped fighting her own thoughts, they would mellow down.

It took about an hour before she finally drifted away, dreaming about the triwizard tournament. She felt like she'd just fallen asleep when a sound near to her woke her. When Autumn opened her eyes, and after blinking a few times, she saw it was her friend that created the sound. Apparently she bumped her foot into the nightstand when getting dressed. "Oh, I'm so sorry to wake you!" Maren apologised when she saw her cursing had woken up her friend. "It's okay." She yawned and stretched her arms out in front of her. Maren always woke up early and always tended to make some sort of noise to wake everybody else up, but this time Autumn didn't really mind.

She got up and went into the bathroom. One benefit from getting up this early was that she could shower as long as she wanted to, which was what she did. She loved to just stand and feel the water running over her body, before she continued to wash herself. When she got back in the dormitory most of the girls were getting up and getting ready to go get breakfast. Autumn changed into her usual outfit, put on some make up and straightened her hair. She went downstairs to the common room alone, as Maren had already left to the Great Hall to get breakfast. When she arrived in the common room, Axel wasn't hard to miss. He was standing in shorts and a tank top, looking pretty sweaty. Pretty in different ways. It looked.. hot, how his tank top was sticking to his body. You could defenitely see how muscled he was.

Autumn almost scared herself with her own thoughts. Why for Merlin's sake was she thinking like that? She seriously had to stop it. Instead she forced a smile and nodded towards him, it was not like she could just ignore and walk past him. "Goodmorning." She tilted her head a bit to the side, focusing on his face. Either he was a very wild sleeper with heavy dreams, or he had just been outside running. She guessed the last one. A girl from another year walked passed them, defenitely checking Axel out, and giggling. Good, at least she didn't look that stupid, Autumn thought to herself. "I uh - I'll maybe see you at breakfast?" She said, while attempting to walk past him to leave the common room.

 

[Slaybian]

Axel sported her walking across the room after descending from the girls rooms. He flashed her a smile as she approached and took a few long breaths in an attempt to slow his beating heart. He imagined trying to apologize and explain would be alot harder if he was panting like a dog mid sentence. "Hey!" He lamely said as she got near enough to hear. After she bid him a good morning she started walking past him. He moved his body in the way of her path and grabbed one of her hands. "One sec. I just... I gotta say this then I'll be out of you hair and into the showers. I'm sure I look gross right now." He said with a small laugh. He looked deep into her eyes.

"I uh... I just wanted to say that last night wasnt your fault. Seriously. Sometimes I think about stuff and get all broody and mopey. It's a pretty bad habit. If you couldn't tell by now I have got plenty of those." He winked and smirked at the last one, running his free hand through his hair. "As a matter of fact I've been doing a bit of thinking and I think you should know about why I'm such a weirdo about my family. I promise I'll tell you sometime soon ok?" He said while moving to the side. "Well I'll let you go to breakfast now. I hope we get some classes together this year!" He said and ran off to the boy dormitory while giving her a small wave.

As he took a quick rinse and got dressed he thought about how awesome this year was shaping up to be. He was having a good time imagining himself standing on that first place pedestal on both the nationals and triwizard tournament. He wanted his friends to be there with him the whole time. He realized that all this work would leave little time for his usual routine of being a teenager having fun with members of the opposite sex in isolated areas of the school. He mentally shrugged. To be honest his priorities weren't the same as last year. If that had seemed likely as a concept one year ago he'd have been more than disappointed. But now he realized being with his close friends meant way more to him. Who knows? Maybe things would find their way to him anyway.

He went back down to the common room in his school robes feeling rather pleased with himself. He was approached by a fourth year about the first meeting of the dueling club but besides that made it to the great hall without pause. He scanned the tables and sat down in his usual spot, just before Flitwick came hobbling over. "Grant, I would like to talk to you in private at some point. But for now it can wait until after the first club meeting. I am thinking we kick the school year off right away! Let's have the first meeting tomorrow night. I trust the captain will find a way to get the word out?" He said with a small smile before running back up to the teachers table. Axel looked back at his friends and shrugged, flashing a smile. "Wanna come down to the dungeons tomorrow night?"

 

[xLotte]

Autumn was suprised when Axel grabber her hand and started talking about his mood change the previous night. In the end she slowly nodded. "You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to, it's okay." Ofcourse she was curious, she wanted to know what happend to him and his family. But she didn't want to make him feel like he had to tell her. A more sincere smile appeared on her face when he left, waving. After that she left the common room and went to join Maren in the Great Hall for breakfast.

Two days went by rather quick. Together with Maren she put in their names for the triwizard tournament, both feeling pretty nervous about it before actually doing it. But after Autumn realised there was only a slim chance of her actually being chosen, which put her nerves to bed. She forgot about it soon after, trying to focus on the lessons. The second day she stayed behind at Transfiguration, so she could talk to professor Lupin. Transfiguration was a pretty easy subject for her, but Defence Against the Dark Arts was one of the subjects she'd always struggle with. Since she hadn't felt comfortable around professor Moody, she had decided she would ask professor Lupin to help her out. "Do you still aspire to become an Auror, miss Hayes?" He asked when she approached his desk, looking up to her. They had talked about her wishes several times, as he had helped her out many times before. "I'm still not sure if I'm good enough." She sat down on the stool before his desk, crossing her arms. If she wanted to make a chance at all, she'd really have to improve in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Exactly the reason she was sitting there, wanting to ask professor Lupin. He smiled, sort off. "What is it that I can help you with?"

"If I want to get excepted into the programme, I'd have to exceed in Dark Arts. And that's still not going so well. I'm afraid I'll fail my N.E.W.T's." Or maybe not fail, but she had to at least get an outstanding, and that was long out of reach. Lupin seemed to think for awhile, and Autumn was already preparing for the question why she didn't go to professor Moody to help her. But instead he just nodded. "I'll help you. I won't always have a lot of time, with the triwizard tournament coming up. But let's see where we can get you." Autumn had to withheld the urge to jump up and hug the professor, she knew that would seem strange. But when he helped her before, her grades certainly went up. And she always had the need to thank people by hugging them.

After that she went to the library, skipping dinner. Maren brought her a plate, but Autumn barely touched it. They already had loads of homework to do, and she had promised Axel to come and join the duelling club for at least one time. She heard the first meeting was that night, and she decided she just had to get it over with. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad. But if she didn't want to get behind on her homework, she had a lot to do before the meeting started.

When it was almost time for the meeting to start, Autumn left the library. She didn't have time to bring her books back to the dorm, so she carried them around with her. She wasn't sure what the exact location was, so she ended up following two fourth year students who she overheard talking about the duelling club. She never really liked the dungeons, it always looked a bit creepy to her, so she walked closely behind the other students. They did lead her to a group of people, and she recognised Connor and some other Gryffindors. There was barely anyone from Slytherin, maybe just one? Autumn hid herself in the back and leaned with her back against the wall, looking at everyone around her. It felt like she didn't belong, all those people chatting and laughing with one another, while she was there completely by herself. Normally she would just leave, decide it was not for her. But for now she decided she would stick around for a bit.

 

[Slaybian]

Axel had already settled into his usual routine after the first day of classes. He would wake up, work out, and do his schedule with as little application as possible on his part. He would barely try in class, and his aloof demeanor would've caught him a lot of flack had it not been for his natural brilliance in charms. Every other class however he managed to get chewed out at least once a week for his lack of attention. He normally would spend his brainpower on fighting strategy and thinking about basically anything but what the teachers were talking about. Considering his new mentality he hardly ever flirted openly with anyone in class anymore, but he sometimes couldn't help but tease people. Especially Slytherins. He had annoyed a snake named Tamara to the point where she sat next to him in potions just so she could see a prank coming. At least thats what she said when he had asked. He had transfiguration with Maren and Autumn and had decided to sit close to them and send them eyes whenever there was a lull in class. He could tell Autumn cared and excelled in this class, which both impressed him and made him stop trying to distract her. He still would glance over a lot but never to get her attention outright, he imagined if someone had consistently tired to distract him in dueling he would be angry so doing that to her was not in his playbook.

After transfiguration he saw her hop up to professor Lupin and he shrugged. He walked out and down the stairs to the dungeons, getting there well before even Flitwick was able to. He sat there in the middle of the very wide and tall room, thinking of his lesson plan. He had asked Flitwick to let him kick the year off with a custom introduction. He set up some of the dummies and conjured the dueling platforms and waited in the shadows for the students to come, only to realize that he had two hours before they would arrive. "Your disillusionment charm could use some work, Grant." He heard Flitwick say as a stunner slammed into the wall where his head had just been. His body instinctively reacted by whipping around and casting a string of his own stunners and disarming spells. Flitwicks protego was strong, and held up against his onslaught until he gave the tell Axel was waiting for. His arm moved up and to the right, indicating he needed the wand movement as a catalyst to cast this spell. It would be strong, but it had provided an opening. As the professors arm hit the point where he could not react quickly enough to reinforce his shield, Axel silently and motionlessly cast a reducto and body bind hex, destroying the professors shield and wrapping him with an invisible magic to immobilize him. He stood still for a moment before releasing the hex and offered his hand to the teacher.

"And you are getting slow." Axel said with a brilliant smile. Flitiwick chuckled, taking his hand and brushing his robes. "No my boy, even in my age I haven't gotten slower, you simply are far faster than you were last year. Your summer was well spent. I will not be underestimating you next time." He said conjuring a chair for himself to sit in. Axel sat with his legs crossed across from Flitwick. Axel had grown very close to the teacher after his third year, when he had approached the professor about the dueling club, and his desperation to learn how to fight. Ever since that day they had talked, shared strategies, and sparred. Flitwick would often say that he had wished Axel was a Ravenclaw like the rest of his family, but his stubbornness and tendency to fly into situations head first prevented him from having all of the Grant children under his banner. "So, what is your plan for today? Please don't tell me you intend to put anyone new through a gauntlet." Flitwick said. "No, I did think that a small demonstration for the newer students would be good though. And then we can have the newer students run some drills." Axel said as he slipped back into the shadows, letting himself daydream as he waited for students to file in.

Soon enough the room had filled with all the faces Axel had expected, and some new ones, including Autumn. He wouldn't admit it, but his opening lesson plan was a good opportunity to show off. He had no clue why, but impressing Autumn the way she impressed him in transfiguration was a strong desire of his at the moment. He also spotted Tamara surprisingly. He stepped out of the shadows and shouted; "Alright ladies and gents lets get started!" He walked up to the front and stood on one of the dueling platforms so he could see everyone and they could see him. "Welcome to dueling club. Simply put in this room you will learn to use your wand to combat other wizards in a controlled environment. Some of you may be here to get stronger, some out of pure curiosity. All are welcome here. However, know that when you stand on this platform the outside world doesn't follow. It is you vs them. There is one victor one loser. Occasionally a draw but even then in the professional circuit the ref will judge who won." He said, trying to impress on the crowd that this was not a club that you could simply have fun in and hope to be successful. "That said the very second you hop off of this platform you are comrades. We build each other up here, there is no judgement, only constructive criticism. If you work hard enough, you can overcome all obstacles in your path. Now... who wants to duel me?" He asked with a smirk and stood in front of them all with his wand hanging loosely at his side. He stared at the silent classroom, relishing in how he had made them feel. He saw Conner and a few of the other veterans snicker and step off to the side a little.

 

[xLotte]

Everyone immediately stopped talking when Axel got on one of the platforms. Autumn could never really understand how people could be so relaxed when they were in the center of everyone's attention, but it looked easy when Axel did it. He didn't seem nervous, he wasn't shaking. Everytime Autumn had to speak before multiple people she'd stumble all over her words. Luckily she barely got put into that position.

No one said anything when Axel asked who wanted to duel him. People were looking at each other, or still looking at their duel leader in awe. Autumn cleared her throat and put away her books. "I will." She wasn't sure why she volunteered. It was not like she had any chance to win, she had only duelled two times before. In class. Against Maren, who was really bad at it. But her protection charm was complimented many times, so she knew she could at least defend herself for a little while. And maybe she hoped he would go easy on her. She'd seen him looking at her the last couple days, so at least he liked her in a friendly manner. And she could imagine that he wouldn't go easy on someone like Connor, or maybe even Stacy. But he'd only seen her innocent and shy side, so she hoped she could at least suprise him.

She took her wand steadily into her hand and walked up to Axel. It took a lot from her to remain calm, to not let any nerves surface. That was only getting harder when she saw the smirk on Connor's face. Where was she getting herself into? She took a deep breath and stepped onto the duelling platform. Just a moment ago she was thinking about how glad she was that she didn't have to be in the center of any attention, while now she felt how everyone was looking at her. She tried to block it, to just focus on Axel. "If you even dare to duel me, I mean." She said jokingly, with even a smile on her face. She heard some soft chuckling from the side, probably Connor.

Autumn walked to the other side of the platform, taking slow and steady steps. At the end she turned around, seemingly calm. The smile was still on her face, but now mixed with a concentrated look. Her mother had teached her how to meditate and Autumn had noticed a meditative state helped her when she was using complicated magic. She imagined filling her whole body with magic, feeling it everywhere. While at the same time looking to Axel, focused on every possible move he would make. She had already decided on a game plan, to just defend herself. She wasn't going to attack.

 

[Slaybian]

Axel's eyes were wide as can be as he saw Autumn step forward declaring she would. His mind went through an inner turmoil that he was entirely unprepared for. He looked at her blankly for a few moments. He had expected some hot blooded punk to step up and he could take him on with ease, but this complicated things. He wanted to show her how good he was, not make her feel it. This changed when she taunted him though. "Oh boy, when you said you wanted to get out of your comfort zone I never expected you to immediately start challenging people so boldly. Guess this is why you are a Gryffindor and not a Ravenclaw huh?" He whispered to her as he walked towards her and faced her in the middle of the platform. He glanced over at Flitwick, who had an amused gleam in his eye. "Well Autumn, you asked for it." He said and turned to go to his side of the platform.

He shifted mentally from his shock by observing her, putting his mind into his focused battle ready form. He decided that perhaps he could make this more fun than usual. He raised his voice tso all could hear him and spoke. "Ms. Autumn here has shown great courage by doing this, and no matter how this ends nobody is to belittle her." He said. He waited for Flitwick to begin the match and winked at her. Her body language was crystal clear, but after she had visibly calmed he was intrigued. She seemed to have a great deal of control over her emotions. "Begin." Flitwick said.

He observed her body and in less than a second had figured it out. She had a strong, defiant stance, and her wand was pointed at a diagonal angle, indicated she was ready to be reactive as opposed to pro-active. Her mouth didn't twitch, nor her eyes. She was going to wait for him to attack, and protect herself, possibly counter when she thought she had an opening. A very intelligent strategy, as she was new to this and was facing a more experienced opponent. He smiled mentally. Just as the last syllable was freed from Flitwicks mouth he knew what to do. If she intended to block then a direct attack was futile unless he wished to rip through her defenses, but she wasn't an enemy, or experienced enough to deal with his onslaught. He wasn't dealing with a hit wizard like his brother, or an ex dueling champion like Flitwick. He needed to reign himself in or he might actually hurt her. He simply flicked his wand and summoned a log behind her, that he then summoned to him, catching her in the back of knees and toppling her over. He then disarmed her quickly as she fell.

He looked down at her and sighed. She was gutsy as hell. He hoped with all of his might that this didn't bruise her ego too much. So instead of bowing, or treating it like an official duel, he got an evil plan. He turned to the crowd. "Well that was quick right? But heres the thing, if anyone here thinks they can do better I would like them to stand right now." He said as four people stood, three men and Tamara. "Wait for me over there on the other platform and discuss your strategy. You will all be taking me on as a group." He said, a dead silence filling the room. As they walked over to the other platform he turned to Autumn. "You are so cool you know that? None of these other people had the balls to go head to head with the captain. I'm very happy you did. And to be honest, I knew you were gonna try to defend with protegos. You have excellent control over your magic, and if I shot direct spells at you you would've blocked them easily. My point here is don't you dare get discouraged. And if you think you didn't last long, just watch what i do to those four ok?" He said with a smile and a thumbs up.

He ran over to the other platform, hoping that after he beat these guys people wouldn't look at Autumn any differently. He heard one of the guys chuckle and barely heard him say that 'they'll win this easily, he beat just one little girl.' That was when Axel decided to make a mockery out of these losers. Tamara was smirking at him. He was sure she was gonna use this opportunity to get back at him. As if hed let her. Flitwick had barely finished saying begin when two silent and motionless stunners shot out of his wand, incapacitating the first two guys. He saw Tamara ready a stupefy, judging by her aggressive posture and the movements of her wand, while the last guy stood there and spluttered out a weak disarming spell. He used a wind spell to knock Tamaras wand into the blubbering idiot and force her to accidentally stun her ally before almost shouting his own disarming spell, causing her wand to leave her hand so quickly and powerfully it made her lose balance. He bowed and turned to the audience. I had taken less time than it had to incapacitate Autumn. He smiled wide.

"Split off into pairs. Practice blocking stinging jinxes as quickly as you can. unless of course, anyone else wishes to try their luck?" He asked. When nobody responded he walked back over to Conner who was standing next to Autumn. "Hey Autumn, how ya feeling?" He said sheepishly.

 

[xLotte]

Autumn thought she was prepared for whatever was coming. But she made the mistake of just preparing for a direct attack. Before she knew what was happening she fell down pretty hard and let out a soft gasp for air. Black spots appeared in front of her eyes and it took a couple seconds for them to dissapear again. She blinked, barely listening to what Axel was saying. When he left to another platform, it was Connor who held out his hand to get her back on her feet again. She thankfully took it, glad no one besides Connor was paying attention to her anymore. "You weren't expecting him to go easy on you, right?" He grinned at her and she shrugged. "Maybe a bit? My mistake." They both looked at the group that going to duel Axel. Autumn wasn't sure if she would give them a chance, but she almost couldn't imagine that he would win from all of them. When he did though, she withheld the urge to clap. Some of the others did.

She rubbed her lower back. When she was a kid she'd taken some muggle defense lessons, so normally she would have been able to fall without hurting herself so much. But this time she didn't have any time to prepare herself for the fall. When Axel walked back to her and Connor, her eyes narrowed. Was she going to make him feel guilty about it? He didn't sound like his sure self. She crossed her arms, almost suprised that she still felt in control over her emotions. "I feel like I'll have a huge bruise on my back tomorrow morning." It did explain some of the bruises she'd seen on the arms of legs on other duelling club members. Autumn just never realised it would actually come from the duelling.

"And I defenitely feel like that's your fault." She couldn't help but smile when she said that, since she wasn't really being serious. It was more of an attempt to tease him. Ofcourse she could blame him for it, but it was her own decision to try and duel him. And she knew beforehand she would lose. She took off her robe and pulled up her blouse a bit. There was nothing much to see on her back, it only looked a bit swollen. "But don't worry. I'll let you make it up to me." She pulled her blouse down again and tucked it into her skirt, while looking directly at Axel. She wasn't sure why she made that ambiguous comment, but she liked how teasing it sounded. It sounded more like who she really was around her friends, just more flirtateous than usual.

She suddenly looked away, turning to Connor. She'd almost forget he was standing there with them. "Will you be my practice buddy? I'm not making the same mistake of trying on Axel." Not that he would have to practice, he would probably walk around and help others with their spells or position. Connor and her walked to an empty spot and decided he would attack first. He pointed his wand at her and as soon as a white light appeared at the top of his wand, she lifted her own. The white light bounced away on an invisible shield, hitting the ceiling. She didn't want to get hit by the stinging jinx, it looked pretty hurtful when someone wasn't able to block it, so it was motivation enough for her to completely focus on Connor's tries. He certainly felt like a strong wizard, but not nearly as strong as Axel.

 

[Slaybian]

It felt like the room had dropped 10 degrees as she spoke. It wasn't until she smiled tha the realized she was just messing with him. He grimaced when she lifted her blouse to see the light redness from where she had fallen. "Eh, I think you should be fine, just give it some time." He said dismissively. However, when she told him that he would make it up to her he almost fell over. Was she flirting with him? He looked her dead in the eyes, confidence was radiating from them. He could get used to this Autumn. Before he could make a proper retort and feed into her playfulness she and Conner had taken up a spot in the corner of the room and were practicing forms. He shook his head while still smiling. It was often a girl could best him in the game of being unexpected and flirtatious. He would have his chance to get back at her though later. He needed to tend to the club.

If Axel was being honest with himself, he was slightly bored. Ever since the previous years duelists had graduated nobody in the club could stand toe to toe with him. Flitwick and him would usually go about even, but tossing all humility out the door he realized Flitwick was right. He had gotten a lot faster. The closeness of their duels wouldn't be the same as last year. As he corrected stances, urged people to go faster, and occasionally demonstrated a better way to spell-chain he subconsciously began to think of ways to challenge himself. Perhaps Lupin would practice with him. Or Mad-Eye. When he made his way over to Tamara he watched closely. The earlier experience had clearly made her angry. Her long blonde hair and icy bblue eyes were whipping around quickly and gave the impression she was trying to dance more than cast accurately. Her form was sloppy and betrayed her lack of experience fighting. Her tenacity was there for sure, but she seemed out of her element. Her partner, a Hufflepuff he knew to be one of Cedrics close friends seemed to be having little trouble repelling her sloppy attacks. "Stop. Tamara. Look I... I know that what I do in classes is rude. Seriously I am a little more aware than I make myself out to be. I am sure its annoying to have your books close randomly or me make comments about your... night life we shall call it. And you have to also admit that you aren't sinless too." He said with a serious look in his eyes. "You've called my friends mudbloods and me a blood traitor, and I have pranked you alot. But this is a different area. You leave all your personal issues at the door. When you come in here its a meritocracy." He said. She looked him over, and for the first time in forever he thought she looked at him with something that wasn't disgust. "Fine Grant... Axel. Your house, your rules I guess." She said. He raised his eyebrows at her use of his first name and nodded.

He walked away and noticed that both of them were now having a much harder time dealing with eachother as Tamara had gained her self control back. He continued to look around until Flitwick approached him. "Grant. You should know that the committee has released the location of the national tournament. It will take place at Beuxbatons, a background to the Triwizard Tournament. I assume you will be putting your name into the Goblet?" He asked. Axel nodded. He, Conner, and Stacy had all put their names in the first day after classes. "Well if you are chosen you can do both obviously. But if you are not, I will submit your name to be one of the student experts on charms and defense. That way you will be able to stay at the tournament and test your mettle against non Hogwarts students." Flitwick said. "Do you know ligillimency professor? I was just thinking that I needed a new challenge." He said with a laugh. Flitwick simply smiled and put his wand to his throat. "It is now time for you all to head back to your dormitories. The next meeting will be next Monday. Talk to Axelander(Axel hissed and growled at the mention of his full name) if you have any questions. Dismissed!" Flitwick said and walked out of the dungeon.

Axel jogged over to Conner and Autumn and gave them both a very happy grin. "You two seem to be warming up to eachother. Should Stacy be worried?" He asked with a playful smirk. "On a more serious note, howd ya like it Autumn? I know it might not be your cup of tea you can be honest." He said with an endearing and eager stare.