Dark, velvety chairs line every inch of the theatre, the dark, carpeted stairs lit by twinkling lights on either side that hover in place, as if guiding their guests to their seat. The seats seem to wrap around the entire room, which is so massive Isabelle can't even see where is ends, each individual chair facing the rectangular stage in the room's centre.

There's two people on the stage already, wands slashing through the air here and there, jets of light zooming in every direction. Sometimes the spells miss their opponent and go flying out into the audience, but they're absorbed by an invisible barrier that stops them from hitting anyone in the chairs.

There's a panel of serious-faced judges next to the spotlighted stage, watching the duellers and making a note here and there on a piece of parchment in front of each of them. The rest of the audience is leaning forwards in their chairs, happy-faced and bright-eyed, excited to be watching the best of the best right in front of their very eyes. Isabelle glances around at the audience for a moment, just catching the hint of a grin and the glimpse of a twinkling eye here and there before the onlookers fade into the starry, sparkling ceiling way above her.

Maisie stands in front of the French girl, her hair the length of her collarbone and made up of messy blonde and brown waves. She glances back at Isabelle behind her, flashing the golden-haired girl a grin, before turning back around to face the two duellers on stage.

They're very good, Isabelle will give them that. They're also both the seconds, however. Each dueller has a second, you see, and every time they face off, their opponent has to defeat both them and their second, in order to win. The wizards in front of Isabelle have defeated both the initial duellers, and now their seconds are facing off, so whoever wins this, wins overall.

If Isabelle's being honest, she reckons these seconds are better at duelling than the originals. Sometimes that happens — a duellers can decide whether they want their second to be better or worse than them. It can work either way — if the initial duller's better, then most of the time they'll be able to defeat both their opponent and their opponent's second, and their own second won't need to be used — or, if their second's better, then they can see how far they can get by themselves, maybe defeating one of their two opponents, before having faith that the strength of their second will secure their victory.

Maisie claims that second option is exactly what's going to happen with them tonight — she reckons she might defeat the main opponent if she's lucky, but then she'll be defeated and Isabelle will have to face off their opponent's second, and take the victory for them both. Isabelle doesn't know what's going to happen, if she's being honest, but she's actually really excited.

It took a bit of convincing on Maisie's part to even let Isabelle be her second in the first place, because normally only registered duellers are allowed to compete, and Isabelle's not qualified. But Maisie managed to pull it off, most likely by exaggerating Isabelle's abilities, and here she is, with Ollie, Noah and Charlie somewhere in the audience, ready to give them a show.

The thousands of seats around them erupt into cheers: one dueller has gained victory over the other. Isabelle claps along with everyone else, the two victorious wizards beaming as the judges officially crown them as the winners and they move on to the next round.

There's four rounds in total, and this is the first round, with sixteen pairs going head to head against each other. Obviously, only eight teams are victorious, and they move on to the second round, where they face off different opponents. Four are then victorious from that, and they move on to the semi-finals, before the two victorious pairs of that duel move on to the finals, where only one team will be victorious. Maisie seems to be under the impression that her and Isabelle will win the entire competition. Isabelle kind of hopes she's right. That would be pretty cool.

"Duellers, please take the stage," one of the judges' voices booms out, echoing around the room as though magically magnified. Which, it probably is, Isabelle reminds herself.

The crowd quietens as Maisie and her opponent take the stage, Isabelle and the opponent's second staying put, watching intently, ready to step in if need be. Maisie bows to the dark-haired witch in front of her, who returns it, and they both make their way to one end of the stage, where they get into their duelling stance.

"Begin," the amplified judge's voice rings out, and before Isabelle has time to blink, they're off, Maisie and her opponent firing spells at each other almost faster than Isabelle's eyes can keep up.

Before she even registers it, the second by her side has disappeared, taking the place of his opponent, now fighting Maisie instead. Only seconds before, Maisie had defeated her opponent, and now she's already into the second.

The crowd erupts into cheers and boos and Isabelle immediately knows Maisie's won. She beams from her position just off the stage as the judges crown Maisie the winner and let her move onto the next round.

"That was brilliant, Maisie!" Isabelle exclaims as the wavy-haired girl bounds back down to her. "I 'ave never seen you fight like that before!"

"Well, once you train for years you pick up a thing or two," Maisie chuckles, grinning broadly. "Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I think I'm one of the best here. Reckon it'll be fairly smooth-sailing until the final. Then I might need to use my secret weapon." She winks at Isabelle as the next duellers take the stage.

Isabelle finds herself shaking her head. "Oh, I do not think I am good enough to fight. I barely even registered what was 'appening when you were up there duelling with that man. You were moving way too fast."

"Hey, don't worry about it, ok?" Maisie says, still grinning, not seeming concerned in the slightest. "Once you're up there everything seems to move more slowly and your focus seems to sharpen heaps. You'll see what I mean when you get up there, trust me. I was like that too when I was just starting out."

Still not entirely convinced, Isabelle just nods her head and goes back to watching the other pairs duel.

The next two rounds go much the same as the first. Isabelle watches on in awe and disbelief as Maisie completely thrashes both her opponents and their seconds, securing them a place in the finals. This is when the nerves start to hit Isabelle properly. Up until now, Maisie hasn't needed to use her at all, but Isabelle knows that's not going to be the case with this round. She'll definitely be fighting.

"Duellers please take the stage," the judge's voice echoes around the room, sounding resoundingly loud in the silence of the theatre, everyone on the edge of their seats to watch the final.

Maisie and her opponent — a large wizard with blond hair so light it's almost white — bow to each other, before taking their positions at the opposite ends of the stage.

"Begin."

Maisie and the wizard launch into their fight, Maisie somehow moving even faster and more precise than she had all the other rounds. But even though she's showing more skill than ever before, she still seems to be struggling. Struggling to keep up with her opponent, who, despite his size, is extremely agile and almost vicious in his movements. Isabelle watches them as best as she can, her eyes straining as she follows every movement extremely carefully, trying not to blink in order to keep up with what's going on.

Even as Isabelle launches towards the stage, she doesn't know how she knew to move. Her brain's still processing what's happening as her feet fly towards Maisie, standing in front of her with her wand already out. The big blond opponent struck Maisie, but at the same time that she struck him, both of them falling, and both the seconds taking their places.

Isabelle's now on the stage, in front of thousands of people, her wand pointed at this thin, nimble and reedy man with dark eyes eyes and hair to match. With a jolt, before they even start to duel, Isabelle seems to realise that this person she's facing now, is even better than his blond counterpart. She doesn't know how she knows, but she knows.

Without warning, before she can even blink, before her heart even has a chance to beat its next beat, he strikes out, a flash of purple hurling from his wand through the air, straight towards her chest.

Something seems to click in Isabelle's brain, and everything except for the reedy man in front of her disappears. Time seems to move in slow motion as the purple light speeds towards her, and Isabelle takes in everything about the wizard in front of her — every detail of his stance, the way he holds himself, which leg bears his weight, predicting what he's about to do.

And then she begins.

Holy mother of Merlin, she begins.

The man in front of her fights exceptionally, but even he can't hide the visible shock on his face as Isabelle seems to move into the fight, becoming the spells she throws his way. She soundlessly encases her body in a transparent, shimmering shield that wraps around her, as if giving every inch of her a tight hug, just a shimmer of silver on her skin visible here and there as she moves. Her opponent's spells can hit her all they want, but they simply get absorbed into the shimmering shield, each spell seeming to give her more strength as it drains him.

The reedy man barely has time to react as spell after spell gets hurtled his way by her, all of them coming out of her wand without her ever uttering a word, so he has no idea what he needs to prepare for. Isabelle seems to move fluidly, almost dancing as she dodges some of his jinxes, her wand slicing through the air like a whip, releasing several different spells at once, all of them hurtling towards the dark-haired man in a blur of merged colours.

There's resounding silence in the colosseum, the entire audience staring at Isabelle fight, mouths hanging open, their eyes wide. Even the judges seem beyond impressed, as though they've never seen anything like it before.

The reedy man, having kept up with her torrent of spells for a while, sending a few her way himself, quickly starts to wear out, resorting to putting all his strength into a shield charm that lays itself out in front of him in a protective barrier.

Isabelle starts to smile, knowing she's won, and her eyes sparkle more than ever as she spins around faster than the wizard's eyes can see, the shield encompassing her own body disappearing, heading straight for his own shield.

On impact, all the spells and jinxes Isabelle's shield absorbed burst into the man's shield, hitting him hard, exploding his shield in a burst of colour, the force of Isabelle's flying shield sending his whole body flying backwards.

The reedy man lands on the ground, face up, breathing deeply, gasping as he opens his eyes, looking directly up into the twinkling ceiling.

What in Merlin's name...?

He pushes himself up into a sitting position, staring at Isabelle's petite frame with shock plastered over his face.

How the fuck did she do that?

The reedy man stands up as the crowd erupts into applause, cheering and whooping for the golden-haired girl they've never seen before that just stole away victory with a fantastic performance. Isabelle just smiles and nods her head respectfully towards him, before she's tackled into a massive hug by Maisie, who's beaming so much Isabelle's scared her face is going to split in two.

"Congratulations Maisie Jones and Isabelle Leblanc, the winners of the 1993 Duelling Championship!" one of the judges' voices rings out over the thunderous applause from the crowd, only making Isabelle and Maisie beam all the more, their faces stretching almost painfully as an elderly wizard comes up to the stage, presenting them both with a massive golden trophy that magically moves around in their grasp, Isabelle and Maisie holding it up above their heads in triumph.

Isabelle doesn't know how long the applause lasts for, but she certainly feels tired by the time she's finally ushered off the stage and out the back, where all the other competitors are, her face sore from smiling so much. All the same, Isabelle spies the reedy-looking wizard she faced off, heading over to him.

"I am sorry if I 'urt you during that," she says. "I did not mean to."

"Oh, no, not at all," the man says immediately, grinning down at her. "That was rather exceptional, actually — I've never seen anything like it before. Where did you learn to duel like that?"

Isabelle blinks in surprise as several people crowd around her, including Maisie, who's somehow still managing to grin.

"I learnt at school, actually," Isabelle replies. "At Beauxbatons. They 'ad duelling as an extracurricular. I was in the extension class — I 'ad private lessons with the duelling professor there. 'E taught me a thing or two."

"I can see that," the reedy man says in awe, and Isabelle smiles slightly.

"Are you a Dueller, then?" a witch asks, leaning forward as if trying to get closer to Isabelle.

"Oh, non, I am a Dragonologist. Maisie 'ere is my friend from school and thought that I should try a duelling competition, at least once," Isabelle explains.

"And I was right, wasn't I?" Maisie grins. "You were awesome and it was fun, right?"

"Right," Isabelle agrees, grinning in response, just as Charlie, Noah and Ollie burst into the room, spotting both Maisie and Isabelle and engulfing them in a massive group hug, making Isabelle laugh in delight.