Chapter 24: Returning Home, Dueling, and The Request

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Quinn de-boarded the Hogwarts Express and peered around the platform, searching for his family. After strolling a couple of steps, he saw a young woman waving her hand overhead with a smile on her face.

Seeing her made Quinn quicken his steps and dart towards her. With a similar smile on his face, Quinn set down his suitcase and hugged her.

"I missed you, Lia," spoke Quinn into the hug. He felt his sister tighten her hug around him and say, "Me too."

After a few seconds, they parted, and Quinn was widely smiling as he looked up at her. "Did grandfather come?"

Lia shook his head and answered, "He is waiting for you at home."

As the two walked to the apparition point, Lia asked Quinn to point out the people he knew.

"Okay, that is Eddie Carmichael, you know my roommate. Oh, there is Marcus Belby, my other roommate... See that girl over there, yeah, that is Katie Bell; I met her on the train..." Quinn sighed at a comment from Lia, "Yes, yes, she is my first friend... Moving on... There are Cho Chang and Marietta Edgecombe, also from Ravenclaw, but I don't talk to them much... Oh, those are the Weasley twins I told them about. I don't like them that much, but I guess they are fine. Other than those, hmm... Cedric Diggory, Roger Davies, Penelope Clearwater, Adrian Pucey... they are a year older than me."

Though Quinn pointed the people out, he didn't introduce them to Lia as he wasn't particularly close to any one of them. Quinn had spent most of his free time in the Library and Room Of Requirement. So, his interactions with people were not extensive. But Quinn had cultivated the reputation as the helpful guy among his acquaintances.

When they reached the Apparition point, Lia took Quinn's suitcase and placed a hand on his shoulder before apparating away from the platform.

After returning home, catching up with everyone, and resting for a couple of days, Quinn returned to learning magic full time. Now that he had possessed a wand and had his grandfather's permission to use it, Quinn made the hall where Lia practiced her magic during her school years his second home. He spent all day long in that hall, and by mid-July, Quinn had finally cultivated the level of magic-focus required to cast seventh-year level spells.

- (Scene Break) -

Quinn stood in the hall and took a deep breath. His magic core thrummed with magic. He looked at the empty space in front of him and concentrated, and the next second, things started appearing in front of him. Near the ground, a wooden base started forming, and seven feet above the ground, small gears, levers, and other delicate parts made from copper, aluminum, and steel popped into existence. With snappy speed, the wood structure built itself up from the ground, and metal parts appeared increasingly faster, assembling themselves to form an intricate mechanism.

Quinn smiled as he saw a longcase clock (grandfather clock) with a pendulum system stood in front of him with all its mechanical glory. A conjuration with so many moving parts; it required both magic and mental focus to conjure out of nothing. This was Quinn's best level of transfiguration/conjuration at the moment.

Feeling confident, Quinn spread his arms, and dozens of butterflies appeared in the air. Another wave of conjuration and dragonflies mingled with the butterflies. Quinn looked at the ground, and squirrels ran around the hall, climbing the clock in the middle of the room. Quinn still had to work on organic conjurations and could only conjure smaller animals.

When Quinn was admiring his work, he heard a knock on the door. When Quinn turned back and saw Elliot opening the door and entering the room with a pitcher of lemonade.

When Elliot looked inside the room, he saw nothing but Quinn standing in the middle of the room looking at him.

"Young master Quinn, it is quite hot today; please drink something," said Elliot as he poured a glass of lemonade for Quinn. Quinn received the glass from Elliot, "Thank you."

Elliot looked around the room and asked, "What are you doing, young master Quinn?"

While taking a sip from the glass, Quinn raised his fake wand and created a small block of ice on the floor. "Just practicing some charms." But then Quinn thought of something and excitedly asked, "Hey! Would you duel with me, please?!"

Elliot put on a thoughtful expression before saying, "Alright, but I have a few conditions."

"Do tell," said Quinn feeling good about convincing Elliot about having a duel with him.

"No lethal spells," said Elliot. Quinn nodded and replied, "Alright, let's specify a list of spells."

"Disarming spell," offered Elliot. Quinn nodded and added, "Sheild Charm."

"Full-Body bind." "Knockback jinx."

"Fire-making spell." "No, not happening" "Then how about Ice Jinx." "Agreed."

"Smokescreen spell?" "Only if we add Windy Charm to counter it."

"How about transfiguring ground into small objects to shoot it each other."

"Sounds fair, but no pointed objects. The same goes with Ice jinx, no pointed pieces of ice."

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Quinn and Elliot agreed upon a list of spells and then moved to the backyard for some room to move. They were alone in the house, George and Lia were out for work, Ms. Rosey had no interest in watching them fight, and Polly, the house-elf, was happy doing work around the manor.

Elliot and Quinn stood fifteen (15) meters apart, and both had wands in their hands; well, Quinn had his fake wand.

"Are you ready, young master Quinn?" asked Elliot as he pulled up his sleeves. Quinn nodded and jumped on his toes, "Yes, I am ready. What should be the signal for us to start?"

Elliot waved his wand, and a conjured feather appeared in his hand. "I will levitate this feather and then let it go. The moment the feather hits the ground, we start."

Quinn nodded and took a stance. Elliot levitated the feather to four (4) meters and then let it go. Both of them waited for the feather to touch the ground. Quinn started grinning in excitement as the feather got closer to the ground, and magic started to come to life in his body. Elliot stood calmly in his spot and followed the feather from his peripheral vision.

The moment the feather touched the ground, the two casted Stunning Spell as the first spell of choice. The flying jets of magic canceled each other. Quinn got ready to cast another spell but saw Elliot was one step ahead and had already casted a spell towards him.

"Oh shit!" Quinn used the Sheild Charm (Protego) to block against the spell. An invisible shield appeared in front of Quinn, but the moment Elliot's spell hit the shield, the impact made the shield visible with silverish tremors.

From his spot, Elliot kept on casting Stunning Spell towards Quinn and spoke, "Young master, isn't it a little too earlier for getting pushed to the backfoot? I heard that the young were aggressive."

Quinn gritted his teeth, and after a few seconds, canceled his shield, side-stepped the incoming spell, and casted a strong Knockback hex. That prompted Elliot to cast a Shield Charm of his own, but the moment the hex touched the shield, Elliot was skidded back a step.

"Oh ho, that was quite some power behind that young master, " Elliot spoke as he canceled his shields and deflected the upcoming spells with ease. The next opening Elliot saw, he casted a body-bind towards Quinn's feet, which Quinn dodged by jumping, and casted a Smokescreen spell to shroud the space between him and Elliot with dark mist.

Quinn moved to the right while casting multiple Smokescreens to thicken the shroud. He was waiting for Elliot to cast a Windy spell. The movement of the displaced mist would give Quinn an idea about Elliot's position.

But, as Quinn slowly moved, a jet of yellow and red shot out of the dark shroud and latched itself onto Quinn's hand like a rope, and it almost made Quinn's eyes pop in shock. It was the seize-and-pull charm (Carpe Retractum)

"What the-!" was all Quinn could say when the yellowish-red cord of light pulled Quinn into the dark mist.

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On the other side of the mist, Elliot was waiting for Quinn to appear on his side so he could disarm him, but what came out of the mist was a huge chunk of ice that headed right towards him. The huge chunk of ice made Elliot drop his seize-and-pull charm and cast a shield spell to protect himself.

Just behind the ice, Quinn got up from the ground. 'Whew! That was some quick thinking I did.' When Quinn was pulled, he used the ice hex to create a block of ice and shot it towards Elliot.

Quinn looked around and saw the mist disappearing and decided to get aggressive. He stepped outside of the disappearing mist, and the moment he saw Elliot, he casted a spell chain of Full-body Bind Curse (Petrificus Totalus), Stunning Spell (Stupefy), and Disarming Charm (Expelliarmus).

Elliot had just recovered from his surprise when he saw Quinn's spell chain; he side-stepped the Full-body Bind Curse, deflected the Stunning Spell, but the Disarming Charm caught him dead-on and forced the wand out of his hand.

Quinn was so happy to see the wand out of Elliot's hand that he cheered while jumping madly, "Woohoo!" Quinn had won his first duel, and it bought him a whole lot of joy. After jumping in joy, Quinn collapsed onto the ground, spread-eagle. He felt the adrenaline slowly leaving his body as his chest heaved up and down.

Elliot walked to Quinn after collecting his wand and said, "Congratulations, young master. That block of ice was masterfully placed."

Quinn looked up at Elliot from his position on the ground, "The Ice hex was just an impulsive action. I have to say, the seize-and-pull spell caught me by surprise. Can we do this every day? Because this was thrilling!"

Elliot sat beside Quinn and looked thoughtful. "Well, I see no harm if we take proper security measures, but just to be safe, let's ask your grandfather."

Quinn sat up and replied, "I will ask him when he gets home."

That evening, George gave Quinn and Elliot the permission to duel, though not after some stoic and silent consideration. He also talked with Elliot to make sure Quinn wasn't overdoing things, and he was to make sure Quinn wasn't injured.

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From that day on, Quinn would duel with Elliot every day for some time, getting used to casting spells on the move while looking out for Elliot's movements.

Elliot also helped out Quinn with his words of wisdom.

"Young master, I am no dueling champion, but I can point out some obvious things that are common knowledge while dueling," spoke Elliot as the two met in the backyard for their daily dueling sessions.

Elliot waved his wand in a pattern, and slowly, a substantial amount of ground transfigured itself into a real-life lion that roared at Quinn, causing him to flinch and back away a few steps. Just as the lion came to life, Elliot canceled the transfiguration, and the lion turned back to dirt.

"Transfiguration can be used in a duel to cause harm or buy time, but let's say I used this transfiguration in a duel. If I chose my opportunity, I could order the lion to attack my opponent, and it would at the very least serve as a distraction. But, what if I did this?"

With a much simpler wand movement, the same ground changed into a lion, but it was not a real lion; it was the ground in the shape of a lion. The mud lion roared all the same and once again caused Quinn to flinch.

When the lion collapsed back into dirt, Elliot asked, "Young master, did you notice something different?"

Quinn nodded and pointed at Elliot's wand and spoke, "The wand movement was much simpler," he pointed at the pile of dirt and continued, "and the mud lion came to shape much quicker than the real lion."

Elliot smiled at the answer, "Yes. While dueling someone, there isn't a place for flashy moves. If you can accomplish what you want to do with less, then learn to do it. Saving energy and quickly finishing the fight should be the aim. Get in ready and get out quickly."

Quinn nodded as it made sense when magic was involved; a single killing curse (Avada Kedavra) could end someone's life instantly. There was no merit to draw out fights when a single spell could seriously injure you, or worse, lead to death.

Sometimes, Quinn also dueled against Lia, and he had to say, dueling against Lia was much challenging than Elliot. But that was just because she enjoyed toying with him while Elliot made sure that Quinn was learning something.

But she did teach Quinn something of importance.

Quinn and Lia were dueling, and Lia was rapidly firing spells in his directions. Most of the spells were not even hitting Quinn and passed by his sides. But, it was the barrage of spells that restricted Quinn's movement; he was too busy evading and block the incoming spells to attack.

A solid attack from Lia didn't come in the form of a head-on spell but as a trap. Quin moved a couple of steps to the left when his left foot sank into the ground and stumbled to the ground. Immediately after that, he was hit by a Disarming Charm (Expelliarmus) from Lia and was stripped of his fake wand.

"Dammit!" Quinn pounded the ground as he stood up and removed his foot from the soft patch of land.

Lia giggled in victory as she walked to Quinn and casted a Cleaning Spell on his clothes. "Did you like that? It was clever, right?"

Quinn stared at the soft ground before looking at Lia, "All of those spells were just a cover-up for this trap." When Lia nodded, Quinn once again spoke, "What if I had gone to the right?"

Lia smirked while answering, "As long as you didn't go back, you would have still fallen for my trap. I set up multiple of these all around you." She casted at multiple patched of ground, and all of them sank. "See? Any direction, and you were toast."

Quinn groaned but also thought that disrupting the balance of the opponent was an excellent strategy. 'But, I could do it better,' thought Quinn while he walked towards his fake wand to retrieve it.

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In the first week of August, Quinn wrote a letter to Flitwick regarding a request. He wanted sole access to one of the empty rooms in the castle. He wanted a base of operations in Hogwarts; the common room was too much of commonplace, his dorm room was too small and had the same problem of being a shared place.

The Room Of Requirement was the perfect private place, and it catered to his every need, but he needed a place that could be accessible to anyone. The Room Of Requirements was his secret, and he would like it to remain as a secret as long as possible. He needed a personal place for himself, but he could invite people there without causing a problem.

Quinn was going to a service where he would help the students of Hogwarts for a price. He would take in requests and ask for something of equal value in exchange. Quinn had the plan for starting out small by helping out people with housework, then move up and take more important requests that would put people in his debt, and slowly he would cultivate a network of people who owed him.

The main objective of this service was to build connections with people in all four houses. The Potters were different in this world, and he needed to adapt to that change. He needed eyes and ears to know what was happening in Hogwarts and stay ahead of the curve. Quinn was going to use this service to accomplish that.

It was a week later when Flitwick replied with a letter. The response bought a smile to Quinn's face. In his letter, Flitwick agreed to provide Quinn sole access to a Fifth-floor room as long as he assured it was to be used professionally and no improper activities would take place in the room.

Quinn immediately replied with a stern promise that he won't misuse the room and would honor the trust Flitwick was placing on him.

Quinn eyed the letter and smiled, 'With this, I am one step closer to becoming the most influential student in Hogwarts.'

Now, he just needed to wait for the school year to start.

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Quinn West - MC - At Home - 3, 2, 1, Let it Rip!

Elliot Dalton - Butler - Dueling Partner - Ah, the youth.

Lia West - Elder sister - Messing with Quinn is fun.

Filius Flitwick - Hogwarts - Professor of Charms - New Session. Busy. Request Approved.

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