Setting: During Book 2, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Disclaimer: All characters from Harry Potters series are the property of JK Rowling and used without permission. In the Dueling Club scene, direct quotes were used for Professor Lockhart and Professor Snape from Book 2, Harry Potter and the Secret of Chambers, used without permission.

Reason for this Fanfic: I have often wondered what other students from a different year and different house thought, did, and viewed the events surrounding Harry Potter. This is a short fanfiction dealing with that issue, with the main characters of my own creation.

New Characters: Chayne and Simone Fischer (twins), Nevin Reed, Ira Thurlow, Brianna Cruise, and Oliver Penn of Ravenclaw; Kyle Meir, Dextra Blackstone, and Darren Eaton of Slytherin; Parker of Hufflepuff; and Walter Bardolph a retired DADA professor were all created by Jacquelyn Fisher and will probably be found in other HP fanfictions by me.

Date Written: 2002

Date Revised: 14 August 2007

The Dueling Club

Part 1: The Notice

The Ravenclaw common room was unusually empty with almost all of the house girls not there. The wintry afternoon sun streamed merrily through the tall, arched windows framed with last night's snow giving the spacious room an even airier feel and causing the blue and white décor to appear refine. The few, mostly male, occupants left in the common room were busy with studies, chess, exploding snap, or other things. At one of the tables by the windows were four fifth year students and the table was covered with books, scrolls, and quills as they worked on their Defense Against the Dark Arts assignment.

One of the students, a prefect, was ignoring her collection of books as she scanned the common room.

"Where is everybody?" Simone Fischer asked exasperated. She noticed that besides Feodora Raine, a brunette seventh year winning a chess match against a sixth year, she was the only girl in the common room. "Did I mess a memo or something?"

Nevin Reed, who was sitting next to her at the table, looked up from his book and removed the end of his sugar quill from his mouth to answer. "All of the girls went down to the library awhile ago. Something about Goldilocks signing books and giving out photos of himself."

"Lockhart is a joke." Simone snorted her contempt for the newest Hogwarts professor. "He knows nothing at all about the dark arts. Even Quirrel was better!"

"Eh, but Quirrel's st-st-stuttering dr-dr-drove me in-in-insane," Chayne Fischer, her twin, interrupted with a grin. He gave a shrug of his shoulders. "And I happen to find Lockhart amusing."

"Pathetic is a better word." Ira Thurlow looked up from Magical Me, Lockhart's autobiography, and grimaced. "I have tried to ask Brianna out almost a hundred times already, but every time I get her alone, she chatters non-stopped about him."

He jerked his thumb at the smiling and waving book cover. Gilderoy Lockhart, dressed in frilly lilac robes, gazed up at the four Ravenclaws, flashing his award-winning smile. Ira raised his voice to a higher pitch, mimicking Brianna. "Oh, Ira, Lockhart looked at me in class today and he smiled at me! Susie says...And on and on and on. Will the madness ever stop?"

"I wonder what spell Goldilocks uses to attract all the girls? I would never be short of dates if I had what he has. I would have to beat girls off with a stick!" Nevin pondered aloud. Simone hit his arm with her copy of Magical Me, and Lockhart's likeness disappeared from the cover to fix his smashed nose.

"Ow! That hurt!"

"If any of you ever turn into the likes of him," Simone warned in a low voice, "I will personally transfigure you into a picture frame!"

"Ah, Simone, I was only joking," Nevin defended himself as he rubbed his bruised arm. He gave Chayne a pleading look, but her twin was trying to surpress his own laughter.

"What I want to know," Chayne said a moment later after regaining his composure, "is what's up with this assignment?"

He picked up his scroll and cleared his throat.

"'Explain, in great detail, how I, Gilderoy Lockhart, defeated werewolves in Wanderings with Werewolves and other methods which I, Gilderoy Lockhart, refrained, at the risk of a most painful death, from using to save and protect the lives of the innocent villagers.'"

"I just bet that smiling freak defeated werewolves," Ira mumbled unhappily from his place beside Chayne.

"Stuffed werewolves from the London Museum of Wizardry, maybe," Simone commented dryly, "but certainly not real, live ones."

The three boys laughed.

"I can just see it now." Chayne raised his wand and wrote a headline in the air. "Daily Prophet-The Great Defender Against the Dark Arts and Winner of Most Charming Smile, Gilderoy Lockhart, Saves London from Biting Museum Displays. Children are Once Again Safe in London Town."

Suddenly the entrance to the common room opened, and Chayne flicked his wrist. The writing vanished quickly, and the foursome looked to see who had entered. A crowd of Ravenclaw girls, from first to seventh years, came piling in two at a time, chattering noisily and clutching books or photos to their bosoms.

"He signed my bag!"

"Can you believe Hogwarts convinced him to be our teacher?"

"He is so dreamy-"

"-won Most Charming Smile-"

"-all his books and now he signed them!"

Ira shut his own book with a loud slam, and abruptly stood. "There is Brianna. Attempt two hundred and forty-seven begins now. See you guys later."

He weaved his way through the girls towards a particular red-head holding a newly signed photograph of a waving Lockhart.

"If I ever get that girly, please, please, please put a reality spell on me," Simone pleaded with her twin. Chayne gave a lopsided grin and reached across the table to playfully tug her blond hair.

"Whatever you say, sis."

"You know, a love potion-"

"Nevin!" Simone exclaimed in exasperation.

"Okay, so I get the point." Nevin feigned a pathetic expression of dejection while Simone flipped through her book, refusing to ook at him. "Hey, Penn just posted something on the board."

"Let's go have a look see before those Lock-a-holics notice and crowd it," Chayne advised.

Nevin stood and offered his hand to Simone, who swiftly swatted it away. He shrugged with an amused grin on his face, and the three of them walked across the common room to the board.

Every available inch of the board was covered with parchment notices: from class schedules to Quidditch schedules, from school rules to common room rules, club announcements, lost and found, and much more. Oliver Penn, the currant Head Boy, was an obsessive organizer, and in his fourth year he had devised a simple, practical way for Ravenclaws to stay well informed about Hogwarts events. The board was a muggle bulletin board charmed to self-organize the notices attached to it, color-code them according to subject, and remove those that were no longer needed. It was quite a handy board to have around, and it was one of the reasons Ravenclaws always seemed to be 'on-top-of-things' compared to the other Houses.

The newest notice was glowing yellow and was located in the center of the board. The Fischer twins quickly read the small parchment's long, flowing script.

"What?!" Simone and Chayne exclaimed in unison, disbelief evident on their shocked faces.

"A dueling club-"

"-with Goldilocks?"

Nevin leaned between the twins and read the notice aloud.

"'In light of the recent terrifying events occurring in our very halls, I, Gilderoy Lockhart, have finally been granted permission to reinstate the Hogwarts dueling club to refine students' defenses against dark wizardry. The first meeting will be held tonight at 8 o'clock in the grand hall.' "

"What is that bugger up to now?" Simone demanded with a moan. "From what the second years tell me, he could not even handle Cornish Pixies – fled right out of the room leaving some Gryffindors to round them up!"

"I wonder if Snape bullied him into it." Chayne pondered aloud. "I was passing the teacher's lounge yesterday and I heard their voices. Goldilocks was going on about how he has made thousands of mandrake potions and could whip up some for the... petrified ...in the hospital wing. Snape did not seem to believe him."

"I don't either," his twin stated bitterly with a curt nod of her head.

"Well, you guys going to come or not?" Nevin demanded with his hands in his pockets.

"You're going?" Simone said, her voice full of shock and disapproval.

He smiled. "Of course! Why would anyone miss an opportunity to see Goldilocks make a fool of himself and get to make some Slytherins eat slugs? It will almost be as grand as a holiday."

"Count me in," Chayne agreed as he draped his arm on Nevin's shoulders. He looked down at his sister. "What about it, Simone?"

"It won't be anything like Professor Bardolph's dueling club," she hesitated.

Walther Bardolph had been the Dark Arts teacher for their first two years at Hogwarts, and Quirrel had replaced him after he retired. Unfortunately the dueling club had ended with Bardolph's retirement, as Quirrel fainted during his first meeting when his volunteer had merely pointed her wand at him.

"Of course not, sis. This is one big bloody joke!" Chayne laughed. "Well?"

She threw her hands up in the air. "Alright! I will go." Her watch chimed and she glanced down. The little hand slowly shifted from free time to Potions. "We should be going."

"Right-o. I left my books on the table," Nevin agreed.

At that moment, a few girls came thundering down the stairwell from the dormitories, chattering and giggling loudly. Simone rolled her eyes. "Goldilock's fan-club is giving me a major headache. Honestly! How thick can you get? He's a fraud!"

The fifth year prefect turned on her heels and strode back to the table to gather her books. Her agitation was visible in the way she walked. Chayne shook his head, blond hair bouncing on his forehead.

"Someone is a bit touché."

Nevin raised his hands innocently. "Don't look at me. She is your twin."

Chayne rolled his eyes.

"By the by, did you read the Potion's assignment?"

The other fifth year Ravenclaw prefect snorted. "Of course. But I am not whispering you the instructions again. Snape nearly caught us last time, and how would it look if one of the Ravenclaw prefects was found cheating? Not good."

"Yeah. They might take away your chances at being Head Boy, and then Simone will be one up on you," Nevin teased. Chayne boxed him in the arm. "Hey! Simone already bruised that arm! Becareful, I'm tender."

"Come off it, you wimp."

They chuckled and crossed the common room for their things. Simone was waiting, watching the other Ravenclaws with a sad yet superior look on her face. Ira had finally managed to get a word in between Brianna's Lockhart rant, and he was actually smiling as they talked over by the scuplture of Rowena Ravenclaw. The Fischer twins and Nevin decided to leave him in the common room, and they left for potions.