Students began returning on the Sunday before term resumed. The Ravenclaw common room filled with noise and warmth, trunks thudding against floors, voices overlapping. Rowan came down from the seventh floor that evening to find Iris by the fire, still in her traveling cloak, face flushed from the cold.
"You look different," she said, studying him.
"Different how?"
She considered this. "Settled. Like you found what you were looking for."
"Nine spells," he said. "Nonverbal. Some more reliable than others, but all functional."
Iris's eyebrows rose. "Nine. In two weeks."
"The expanded core made the difference. Even imprecise silent spells hit hard enough to be useful, so I could focus on building the pathways instead of worrying about power."
She asked sharp questions. Which spells, which ones gave him the most trouble, whether the curved Knockback worked silently. He answered each one, and she listened with her full attention, building a picture of the problem.
"So when dueling club comes back," she said eventually, "you're going to use it."
"If the opportunity comes up."
Iris gave him a look that said she knew exactly when the opportunity would come up, because they both knew Hecat. But she didn't press it. She just nodded.
Dueling club met on the first Tuesday back.
Rowan arrived early enough to watch the room fill. Sebastian claimed his usual spot against the far wall. A cluster of fifth-years talked about their holidays. Fourth-years practiced shield charms in the corner. The room didn't know anything had changed.
Hecat entered and conversations quieted. Students drifted toward the platform.
"Welcome back," she said, and ran through the usual opening. Rules, expectations, the reminder that Crossed Wands existed to make them better. Then she called for assessment matches.
Rowan fought twice in the opening round. The first opponent, a fourth-year Hufflepuff, fell to a verbal Stunner and Disarmer in under ten seconds. The second match took longer. A sixth-year Slytherin with solid defensive instincts forced Rowan to work for the opening, but when it came, the result was the same. Two matches, two wins, clean and unremarkable.
He was watching from the sideline when Hecat looked at him.
"Ashcroft. Platform. One more assessment."
The room's attention sharpened. Everyone remembered what assessment meant when Hecat said it to Rowan.
A seventh-year Ravenclaw stepped up. Marcus Webb, known for precise casting and tactical thinking. Five years in the club.
They bowed.
"Begin."
Rowan opened in silence. A Stunning Spell crossed the space between them with no incantation, just a wand movement and a flash of red light.
Webb's shield came up. "Protego!" His eyes widened fractionally when he realized he hadn't heard Rowan cast. He recovered quickly, firing back. "Stupefy! Expelliarmus!"
Rowan blocked the Stunner with a nonverbal shield and sidestepped the Disarmer. His silent counter forced Webb to dodge left, directly into a curved Knockback Jinx that caught the seventh-year in the ribs and drove him sideways.
Webb steadied himself. "Petrificus Totalus!" The Body-Bind came fast. Rowan's nonverbal shield caught it, and he pressed forward with a silent Disarmer that Webb barely deflected, then a feint with a Stunner that drew Webb's shield left. The follow-up came from the right. A silent Expelliarmus with the full weight of his expanded core behind it.
Webb's wand flew from his hand.
The room was quiet.
"Point to Ashcroft," Hecat said.
Webb retrieved his wand, breathing hard. "You didn't speak once."
"No."
Webb shook his head slowly. "That was excellent work."
When Rowan stepped down from the platform, the other students watched him with the careful attention you gave someone who'd just demonstrated a thing you didn't fully understand. Hecat ran through three more assessment matches, standard club work, then glanced at the clock.
"Good progress tonight. We're done. Everyone but Rowan out."
Students moved toward the exit. Webb paused in the doorway, one questioning look, then didn't linger. The door closed. The murmur of departing students faded.
They stood alone in the dueling club room.
"Platform," Hecat said.
Rowan stepped up. Hecat took position across from him, drawing her wand with the same economy she brought to everything.
"Full repertoire," she said. "Everything you learned over break. I want to see it."
"Begin."