Chapter 13 : Magic is emotion.

The dueling room. What was once a classroom, well two contiguous rooms to be more honest, is now a big room with an empty space which has the shape of a square where the floor was covered with a rug enchanted to high heaven to make it more soft as to prevent injuries when getting thrown to the ground. It was a nice battling space and it was more often than not in usage. Today though, it wasn't. Today was a special day and the teenagers were listening to a lecture from Professor Prince. While said lecture was interesting, it was more the charisma of the teacher that allowed it to enrapture the students.

Each word was articulated with strength and clarity, each sentence was chosen for the intent they carried and, at the end of it all, Thomas had to admit that unlike him, Severus Prince was someone that deserved to be followed and admired for he had the necessary charisma and knowledge. Sure, not everyone would like him, as he says what had to be said, but those that do, end up respecting him.

Thomas was at the dueling room because he was invited to allow the students to witness a real fight, used as they were to duels; it was a necessity for them to learn what a fight that wasn't codified would look like. Thus Thomas was invited and would fight the professor Prince with only two rules : the declared start and stop at first blood.

"It is most important that you all understand that even the declaration that a fight will happen, does not exist in a fight for your life. However, it is a necessity here as to avoid overreactions from either Professor Preacher or myself as it would be counterproductive to end up the fight in barely one spell that injures one of us." said Prince, then his eyes went to Thomas before resuming. "So, Professor Preacher, are you ready ?"

Thomas went to the dueling space and got his battlestaff ready before nodding to the stern looking Potion Master who got his wand. They looked at each other, beginning to circle while facing the other. Nothing was said, the eyes of Thomas suddenly went to the wall and with his free hand made a motion resembling that of one would make when pushing someone and the first spell that looked like a wave in a mass of air was blocked by a shield charm from the Professor Prince and using that spell as a distraction Thomas put his staff on the ground once before jumping and rolling out of the way of the disarming charm cast by his opponent.

Thomas put his staff on the ground a second time during the roll, hiding the act thanks to his swift dodge. He then casted a conjuration charm to call forth a rock that he transmuted into four gargoyle that went and began their tentative to punch or kick the Potion Master, it was as ineffective as the first spell simply because Severus was using destruction curses on the gargoyle at every opportunity.

Still circling around the sinister teacher, Thomas continued to put his staff on the ground at precise points, while casting basic jinxes and deflecting the hexes and curses of his opponent. Thankfully, there was Flitwick to ward the battleground, as the hexes and curses were not of the mild kind. Organ liquefying and bone breaking curses were flying around, blinding and binding hexes were thrown. While Thomas was only responding with pushing charm and tickling jinxes.

Once the staff touched the ground for the fifth time, completing the circle, the ground shook a little and mirrors appeared at the places where the ground was touched with their backs turned to Severus. Thomas smiled as he began using those mirrors as doors with all of them linked together.

Using these mirrors Thomas disappeared from one place going through the mirror and appearing at another through another mirror, casting spells each time he appeared at one place, overwhelming the teacher more and more until he began casting unknown spells… these were probably custom curses. Breaking one mirror and thus breaking the ritual, making all mirrors disappear and injuring Thomas lightly, thus putting an end to the fight.

Thomas was still fresh, only with a scratch on his cheek that was bleeding profusely, which was expected from an injury to the face. He seemed disappointed that the fight stopped here, at the first blood, as he was finally warmed up, which also seemed to be the case of his opponent, but they didn't go full force to avoid injuries and as such, stopping at the first blood was the obvious conclusion.

"Well… that was anticlimactic. Sadly, if we don't stop here : someone will end up badly injured and that is not the point of this demonstration. Still, this was a splendid show of ritual magic during a fight !" said Professor Flitwick.

"It was, and I do not recommend it. It is both dangerous and easy to break as illustrated. Thankfully this ritual that I did was one that did not have consequences as the use of a staff makes it either work or nothing happens, but as I explain times and again in class : ritual should not be used lightly and I used it here to show why it's the worst idea as to go and try to implement it in fight." was added by Thomas, he wanted to win against Severus, sure, but he also wanted to give valuable lessons to the students, so he went for the second best thing.

Following that he used a healing charm to close the scratch on his face through a fluid movement of his hand. His thumb simply followed the wound as if he simply wanted to clear the blood from it. He had a slight smile on his lips seeing the way the younger students were looking at him after this simple use of magic.

"It is important that all of you understand, casting powerful spells is important, but casting them fast is better. The more curses, hexes and jinxes fly around from your side of the fight and the more breathing room you have to expend on a winning plan. Don't believe fictions that speak about magical reserves and whatnot. They are merely that : fiction. Your teacher always explains to you what magic is from.

Magic comes from your emotions, not only their strength and the ease with which you feel them, but also the extent of the control over them you have. The more you cast and the more elated you'll feel, or to be more exact, the more feeling you'll have. The only thing that can happen is that you overdose on emotions, which lead to a temporary inability to cast. Said inability can last from ten minutes to two hours and can cause loss of consciousness, so always be careful in your casting, but don't hold back as it would be counter productive.

The more you cast, the more you know your limits after all."