"Not once," Sirius smiled. "Your mother was amazing with charms and shields. I know people have already told you so. But I have never met a faster caster than her. Her knowledge of what her opponent was about to do was instinctive. She always had the right counter at hand. Professor Flitwick tried to get her into duelling, but she always said that she had no interest in fighting." He tapered off. "Maybe ... maybe if we had been more insistent, maybe she could have done more than just ... just dying."