Oblivion - Sirius Black

Witches and Wizards, Let's duel

         "Who do you think will win?" Marlene whispers to Mary, her light green eyes filled with excitement. "I'm betting on Lily."

Mary tilts her head a bit, thinking. "Lily does study a lot. She must know more and-"

She's cut off by Alice. "That's true, but who knows? Poppy might be stronger than she lets on."

Marlene rolls her eyes, resting her arm on Alice's shoulder. "She's being tutored by Lily. Why would she be tutored if she was good?"

Mary smacks the back of Marlene's head, hard. "Don't be mean. Perhaps they're equally matched." Marlene snorts, but eventually quiets.

"Taking bets are we?" A voice calls from behind them. The girls look over their shoulders to glance at the marauders before pinning their eyes back to the scene.

"I bet Lily will win." James voices.

Remus scoffs. "No way, Poppy has some tricks under her sleeve."

"You're just saying that cause it's all about your Lily Flower." Sirius mocks James, pretending to swoon into his arms. He pushes him away, blushing a bit.

"No I'm not!" He crosses his arms. "Lily's top of most of her classes. She's going to destroy Poppy."

"Don't underestimate Poppy. She knows more than she lets on." Sirius defends.

Alice rolls her eyes. "Why in the world would Professor Sinter pair them up? He must've seen the tension."

"That's probably why they're paired up." Indi answers from beside them, making all of them jump.

"Where'd you come from?" James asks, throwing her a suspicious look.

She quirks an eyebrow. "I literally just walked up."

"Wait, you're not supposed to be in this class. Today's with Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs." Mary tilts her head to the side, lifting an eyebrow.

Indi has the decency to look a little ashamed. "I live for the drama, okay? How could I not come!"

"Silence!" The professor calls after hearing the chatter. "Please bow to your opponent."

Poppy and Lily stand twelve feet away from each other, wands pointing down as they bow to each other. Poppy's finally wearing her uniform correctly instead of throwing a sweater on top. Her hair's braided and tucked away, although some strands escape. Lily stands on the other side, her uniform pristine as always and her hair in a simple ponytail that was put up the moment she was paired.

Yep, Poppy and Lily are paired in a wizard's duel.

Poppy's quite nervous. She studied a lot the night before, but everything seemed to disappear the moment she was called up to the little duel stage that the teachers made. Her hands are sweaty and they shake ever so slightly. The stares are intense. It doesn't help that everyone has been waiting for the next time the red headed twins would fight again. Poppy sends a silent curse to whatever god that's listening.

Lily is nervous too. She's not worried that she'd lose the duel, more upset that she'd ruin their very slowly mending relationship. After Poppy's drunk episode they hadn't really hung out despite Lily's efforts. Poppy didn't seem to recall the night of the party.

Poppy does not want to make the first strike, but it seems that Lily'a too hesitant to go first. "Expelliarmus." Poppy murmurs softly, shooting at Lily. She blocks it easily, whispering the incantation under her breath. Lily attacks a second after. "Petrificus Totalus."

The duel continues, casting and blocking each other's spells. If someone was blindingly thinking Lily would win, they were rethinking their choices, the longer it went on. They started looking more tired after every spell, attempting to dodge spells more than magically stopping them.

In the end, Lily hits Poppy with a leg locking curse as Poppy hits Lily with a tickling one. Poppy's unable to move her legs and Lily's laughing too much to think coherently to fix it. The professor comes forward and with the wave of his wand, they're back to normal. Lily blushes, a bit embarrassed for laughing so much.

"Poppy wins the round." He announces with a gentle smile. He gives Lily a kind look. "But it was very close."

James begrudgingly hands over his coins to Sirius, as does the other betting students. Sirius grins, catching Poppy's eye. He gives her a thumbs up and she smiles.

*✶⋆*★

A/N: Sorry for the late updates and for this atrocity I call a chapter. I'm pretty stress at the moment and getting inspired to write this can be difficult. Please understand and love you all.

On another note. I've made the bad decision to start another story. This one is mostly for my entertainment andI got the idea in the middle of the night. I plan on updating that one more, but they'll be smaller chapters. It's kind of stupid, but whatever. If you're curious, it's still a marauders era. (the love interest is still undecided) 

It's called "Oopsie Birdie"

The plot is...

Once upon a time, the marauders managed to do the most impressive and stupidest thing in the world.

They turned a bird into a human girl.