Absolute worst case scenario, you have to reinstall Windows, and that’s really no harder than installing Linux in the first place. I don’t think there’s a situation where you’d wind up “stranded”

Seconding the person saying not to dual boot on a new partition. That was how I started with Linux like 10 years ago, and even then Windows would fuck up grub every time it updated and it took me ages to learn how to get boot into Linux again. Plus if you ever decide to ditch windows entirely, wiping that partition and adding it to the Linux one can be a pain in the ass.

If all you have is a laptop and a dream, maybe that’s the way. But if there are any other options…