Winterfield Township*

On the day of the outing to the Winterfield township, Draco and his friends once again gathered in front of the Malfoy manor's main fireplace. Since everyone was already familiar with Draco's tutor Mr Rabbit, who would chaperone them during the trip, there were no introductions that needed to be carried out.

Five children and one old man portkeyed out of the house and reappeared at their destination.

Winterfield township was a small magical town located in East Lothian, not too far from Haddington. Draco's first impression of it was quite good.

As he looked around, he saw that many townhouses were done in different styles: some of them dated from Middle ages - layered with dark bricks and stones - appearing like miniature castles. While others seemed to be recently revamped and looked quite modern with their huge windows and bright paints. Draco could also see some distinct styles of muggle architecture, such as houses made of yellow sandstone, which reminded him of Edinburgh, as well as houses made of red sandstone, which looked similar to Glasgow's style.

However, what really amazed him was the people. As it was a magical community, there were almost no muggles, and those non-magicals who lived there were already aware of magic because their family members were witches or wizards. So the dressing styles of the residents were very different, and Draco started to understand why some people had difficulties when going to the muggle world.

As pureblood children belonging to old and famous families, Draco and his friends (as well as their parents) usually dressed in casual wizarding robes at home. If they were going out, they would also bring along cloaks, like they did right now. Not all of the wizarding robes were long - children tended to be dressed in short robes and pants for easier movement and to prevent them from tripping over the hems. Adults sometimes also liked the combination of pants and shirt, however, shirt always had to be a dress-shirt and there would always have to be a cloak worn on the outside. Older wizards usually didn't bother with new wizarding fashion and just wore robes.

However, outside a café, sitting under a huge umbrella, Draco could see a teenage girl, dressed in Victorian-style dress calmly chatting with her friend, who was dressed in muggle pants and shirt (they seemed to be in style in the muggle world right now, though Draco was no expert). Nearby, coming from the market, were a mother and a child, both holding groceries. Mother was dressed in fashionable robes with bright red witch's hat on her head, while her son wore eastern-style robes, fastened around the middle and embroidered with a blue dragon. The rest of the residents were also dressed in all kinds of fashions, Draco could even see an old man wearing a Roman white toga with a long beard tucked in under his belt!

Their group was portkeyed to the arrival place, which was near a big fountain displaying a dragon letting out fire. This was a central square, where the group of kids was treated to a variety of sights - magical performances were happening nearby, dying the street with multicolored sparkles and enchanting passerby's with heavenly music; magical duels seemed to be happening on the other side of the street, letting others witness the magicians' prowess; different magical pets could be seen being sold along one of the streets. And all of this was accompanied by loud cheering, clapping and bargaining.

All of these sights made the children feel absorbed in the bustling energy coming from this township, and they quickly separated to take a closer look at things which interested them the most.

"Susan, I see snufflepuffs! Come, come quicker!"

"Ah, wait, Hannah, we will go together to look..."

"Ah, Hannah, wait! There's Terry Drugel and Antonio Grandas dueling, I want to see it!"

"Alright! Theo, come see snufflepuffs!"

"No... Wait Susan! Theodore, don't go..."

"My father's birthday is next week, I need to look for a gift!"

"Wait, Daphne, don't wander off alone, we will look together later!"

It was chaos and Mr Rabbit was too occupied by other children and too flustered to notice when Draco, seemingly the calmest of them all, also wandered off.

Draco and his friends were all rather sheltered by their parents. They rarely left their houses and when they did, they usually visited other families. Before they were seven, they were almost never let out of their homes and were constantly monitored by house elves, who weren't the most exciting creatures in the world.

And even when they visited the magical zoo, they acted like side observers to magical creatures' lives and couldn't come close to them or touch them. So now, when they could become active participants in this magical scene which held a lot of new and never-seen things, they didn't hesitate to abandon their decorum, which their tutors managed to finally instill during the Etiquette classes, and ran off - each trying to pull a friend together or going off by themselves.

Draco followed each of his friends with his eyes and made sure that they wouldn't get lost. He rather agreed with Susan that the most exciting thing on the square was dueling, so he joined her in observing the two wizards, who were fighting on a platform.

"You seem to know them?" he asked when he got closer to his red-headed friend.

"Oh, Draco! I didn't notice you," Susan's blue eyes flashed briefly in his direction and quickly turned back to observing the duelists. "Yes, they are Britain's famous duelists, Terry Drugel and Antonio Grandas. I am really interested in dueling, so I know most of our competitors. It's really unbelievable to see them here like this!"

"Competitors?" repeated Draco. "They participate in dueling competitions?"

"Yes. Last year, in European Cup, Antonio took third place in Light-magic-only competition, while Terry was a second place winner of magic-and-weapons competition. When their magical power is taken into account, they are both at around the same level, so it's really exciting to see who will win!"

Susan was so excited that Draco was surprised she wasn't jumping up and down with all of the excess energy she had. He had never seen her like this. Usually Hannah was the most excitable of them all, but Draco supposed it was due to the blond girl's interest in magical creatures. When all of them gathered at Draco's house, they usually went to ride abraxans on Hannah's demand.

"Do you know the spells they are using? I don't recognize the incantations... They seem to be rather quick," the blond boy thoughtfully observed.

Both duelists were shouting out most of their spells, which Draco found a bit strange - wouldn't silent spells be better? This competition lasted for over ten minutes already and the boy was astounded by their tenacity. 'Well, professionals are indeed professionals,' he thought to himself.

"It's very hard to understand what spells they are using," replied Susan. "When dueling it is generally accepted that there's more chance to win when using silent spells. However, what if you master a silent spell and when casting this spell you shout out another incantation? Your opponent would be hit with a spell he wasn't prepared to defend against. The duelists have to carefully observe each other's movements - wand movements, spell colors and shapes as well as spell chains - to guess, what kind of spell their opponent is casting and decide how to block it. One wrong assumption and the duel is finished."

"Hold on, what spell chains?" Draco was unfamiliar with this phrase. In Harry Potter series it has never been mentioned before.

"I thought you would know," she said, looking a bit surprised at his question. "Basically, every spell, which is cast with a wand, requires a different wand movement. However, different spells can begin or end with similar movements. So, to cast the spells quicker, duelists create spell chains, where first spell's ending movement is second spell's starting movement and so on. This makes spell casting quicker. If you observe Terry and Antonio, you will notice that their wands are never still and their movements are very smooth as they transition from one spell to another."

"But how can I create a spell chain if I don't know which spells my opponent will use?"

"In dueling books you will find a lot of spell chains and their counters," replied Susan. "However, professional duelists usually create their own versions because any competent dueler would have read the books and would know how to deal with chains mentioned there. Of course, sometimes they still appear in competitions, there aren't that many spells you could use for protection, for example. So, after a known spell appears, it is usually not that hard to guess, which spell will be used next - it's not like there is an infinite number spells which can begin with same movement."

Truthfully, Draco previously thought that dueling involved knowing more spells or knowing more powerful spells and hitting the opponent with them as well as managing to dodge the coming magic. However, now it seemed that dueling was actually 80% mental work and 20% all of he above.

In the end, Terry Drugel, the second place champion of the magic-and-weapons competition, won the duel. Susan and Draco enthusiastically applauded along with the crowd.

After squeezing out of the surrounding group of people, both of them went to search for Theo and Hannah, who were admiring snufflepuffs. They didn't have to look for long as there weren't many people admiring the fluffy little creatures. Theo was standing by the side, looking bored, while Hannah was enthusiastically chatting with the owner who was displaying the little creatures for sale. The man seemed to be just as enthusiastic as the little girl and they were both discussing the merits of washing snufflepuffs with 'Madame Tilly's Strawberry Solution for Pets' when Susan and Draco approached the stand.

Theo visibly perked up when he saw his friends. "If I had to endure another minute of listening to this nonsense, I would have to Avada myself," were the boy's greeting words.

"I thought that you liked snufflepuffs, since you went to see them," joked Draco. Susan also giggled by the side. Out of all of them, she knew best how Hannah could be when it came to magical creatures.

"I was a bit interested the first two minutes, however, they just lay in their cages looking fluffy and cute, doing practically nothing. If they were bigger, I would buy myself one and use it in place of a pillow - I would at least get some decent sleep out of them," Theo unenthusiastically commented while poking an orange snufflepuff through a cage's bars with his finger.

Hannah and the seller looked affronted when they heard the dark-haired boy's comment.

After calming the girl and helping her select one light pink snufflepuff, Draco and his friends went to look for Daphne and Mr Rabbit, who was with her.

Draco found them in a shop selling magical amulets, where Daphne was trying to decide between a silver charm, which was enchanted to bring money to its owner, and amethyst cuff-links, which were enchanted to prevent sickness.

"Select the cuff-links," advised Draco, when he listened to Daphne's dilemma. "I know that your family is very business-oriented, however, I am sure that your father will appreciate your gift more if it shows your concern over his health."

Susan and Hannah agreed, though Draco barely heard Theo's quiet murmur of, 'I would want money more...'

Theo was decisively ignored and Mr Rabbit could finally sigh with relief when they exited the amulets shop and proceeded to the gallery, where magical artifacts were displayed, in an orderly manner.