A/N Hi guys. Sorry I didn't post on Wednesday, I have had so many tests. I may just be posting on Sundays for a bit until I am caught up in school. And also I'm sorry, this chapter is a bit shorter but that's for two reasons. 1. It felt like the right place to end it and 2. I got like no reviews. Fix that and then we'll talk. Though I still love you guys. I hope you enjoy the chapter and follow/fave since my upload schedule will be a bit off.
"Emma?" Astoria's voice rang out into the hallway. "Emma? We have dueling club in an hour. If you want to come eat dinner, you should do it now. Emma? Where are you?" I lifted my head and checked my watch. How was it 6 already? I got up and opened the door to the classroom.
"Hey," I said.
"Emma! Did you talk to Ginn?" Astoria and I began the trek to the great hall.
"Yeah. She said she's alright but she looks a mess. Anyway, did you finish your work?" We sat down at the Gryffindor table next to where Grace was chatting with Jake Lowry, another Gryffindor first year.
"Most of it. I still have tomorrow before I have to hand all of it in on Monday." Astoria and I looked over at Grace who was giggling flirtatiously and I threw her a glance and a smile to which she beamed back.
"Tell me this dueling thing is going to start soon. I can't watch this," Astoria muttered to me. It was as if her wish came true because Dumbledore called, "Dinner is done! Please move outside of the hall so we can set up for Dueling Club. Be back in five minutes. Thank you."
Grace said goodbye to Jake who went back with all of the other Gryffindor first year boys. "He's so cute," Grace said, her eyes wide.
"Grace, he's the bottom of our year," Astoria said.
"So? That just means that he will have more time to spend with me instead of doing work." I rolled my eyes and turned my attention to Luna who had come up next to us.
"Are you excited?" I asked the small blond.
"Oh yes. I can't wait to learn to duel. It will help with all of the snakes." Luna began to hum to herself.
"What snakes? I thought we weren't allowed to have snakes at school."
"We're not." Luna wandered away and I stared after her, wondering if her words were true or not. I brushed them off and turned back to Astoria and Grace who were still arguing.
"Where's Ginny?" I asked. "She wasn't at dinner."
"I don't know," Grace said. "But I do know that blond hair is soooo much better than brown hair making Jake twenty times cuter than Danny will ever be."
Realizing that I wasn't going to get anywhere with these two, I said, "I'm going to go find her. Meet you guys inside." The two girl didn't respond and instead they continued to argue and I turned and made my way to Gryffindor Tower.
"Ginny?" I called as I walked inside. I found her curled up asleep in an armchair by the fire. The rest of the common room was deserted. I shook her sleeping form lightly. "Ginny. Wake up." Ginny turned her head and murmured something. I sighed, deciding to let my friend sleep and instead I went back downstairs to the great hall.
"Where's Ginny?" Astoria asked. Grace muttered something under her breath that I couldn't hear but Astoria rolled her eyes. I looked over at another group of students standing a bit farther down and saw Hermione talking to Harry and Ron.
"Have you guys still not made up?" Grace asked.
"I didn't do anything," I said. "He's the one who's being an overprotective idiot."
"Yes but you are also the more mature of the two of you," Astoria said.
"She's right. It's proven that girl are more mature than boys. Boys are more likely to have nargles floating around their head." Luna pulled her wand out of her hair that was tied up in a messy knot and started to make designs in the air with it.
"What's a nargle, Luna?" I asked.
"They're little creatures that fly around people and make their brains go all fuzzy." I nodded at her but Grace and Astoria looked extremely confused.
"So anyway, you never answered my question. Where's Ginny?" Astoria turned her attention back to me.
"Asleep. She seemed out of it this afternoon so I thought I would let her sleep some more instead of waking her up."
"Fair enough," Astoria said.
"Did it say who the instructor was going to be?" Grace asked.
"Maybe Flitwick," Astoria said. "He was a dueling master in his youth."
"Or McGonagall," I said. "She's pretty good with spells too."
"Or maybe Dumbledore," Grace said.
"Not Dumbledore. He's too busy with running his secret school to teach dueling," Luna said.
"What secret school?" Grace said.
"You know. THe one underneath this one." Luna's eyes lit up. "I heard it's only for fire creatures."
Before Grace could respond, the doors opened and in came…
"You have got to be kidding me," I said. Lockhart came strolling onto the stage with Snape by his side. The former was wearing deep plum robes and the latter had his usual black. Lockhart waved his hand, calling for silence.
"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent! Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions- for full details, see my published work.
"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor snape!" With a swish of his cloak, he held up a hand and pointed at the Professor in question. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry- you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!" He was being so dramatic that I couldn't help but roll my eyes as Grace fawned over how cute Jake and Lockhart were.
Snape's upper lip was curling ever so slightly and looked as if he was beyond ready to seriously hurt the DADA teacher.
The two professors turned towards each other and bowed, which Lockhart did with many twirls of his hands contrasting Snape who merely gave a tight jerk of his head. They raised their wands like I normally with my dagger. Speaking of which, I really am out of practice. I haven't been running or using my sword since I haven't had time.
"As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart said, speaking over the crowd who were entirely silent. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."
"I doubt that Snape is in the same frame of mind," Astoria muttered.
"Wouldn't it be just great if they both finished each other off and we could get two new professors?"
"Snape's not that bad," Astoria said.
"One," Lockhart called. "Two-Three-"
Both of them swung their wands around and Snape cried "Expelliarmus!". There was a flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was knocked off of his feet and onto his back. Most of the Slytherins began to cheer and Grace and some other girls were looking over at Lockhart with hands over their mouths. I couldn't help but grin a bit.
Lockhart got to his feet and I hears Astoria groan a bit next to me. I nudged her with my arm.
"Well, there you have it!" Lockhart got back up to the stage. "That was a Disarming Charm- as you can see, I've lost my wand- ah, thank you Miss Brown- yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind me saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you, it would have been only too easy- however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see…" Snape looked like he could actually kill someone. Lockhart must have noticed his look so he said, "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape if you'd like to help me-" I saw Snape go straight to Harry with Malfoy right behind him. I might have been mad at my brother but I wasn't going to sentence him to the cruel and unusual torture that would have come with being paired with being with Malfoy. I ran over before Snape could reach them and said, "Harry. Be my partner?"
Harry looked stunned but agreed, and I pulled him away before Snape could say anything. I saw Ron and Hermione pair up and Grace pair with Jake. Luna paired with Astoria, and Malfoy turned and paired with Millicent Bulstrode.
"Face your partner!" called Lockhart.
"Thanks," Harry said. I just nodded and turned to face him.
"And bow!" Lockhart continued.
Harry and I bowed to each other before getting into our dueling stance.
"Wands at the ready! When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents- only to disarm them- we don't want any accidents… one… two… three-"
"Expelliarmus!" I shouted as Harry did the same. I rolled out of the way and proceeded to cast "rictusempra!" Harry doubled over due to the tickling charm and I took that to my advantage. "Tarantallegra!". Harry's legs began to jerk out of control in some sort of quickstep. "Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted again and I once again dodged the spell and then shot my own bolt of red light at him. His wand went flying and I caught it before crying, "Finite Incantatem." Harry stopped laughing and dancing and then looked over at my smiling form.
"Feeling better now?" He asked holding out his hand for his wand.
"Much." I tossed his wand back to him and flipped my red hair over my shoulder.
"I hope this means I'm forgiven!" Harry cried after at me.
"We'll see about that," I said, feeling a hundred times better than what I did before.
"Gather round!" Lockhart had just finished dealing with all of the injured students. "I think we better teach you how to block unfriendly spells. I need a pair of volunteers… Ah! How about Potter and Potter."
"I think Malfoy and Potter might be a better pair," Snape said silkily.
"What, Severus. A little bit of sibling rivalry hasn't killed anyone yet. Up you come, you two." I rolled my eyes but stepped up on the stage all the same. I saw Harry do the same out of the corner of my eye.
"Severus, why don't you teach Emma and I will show Harry," Lockhart said, and honestly, I'm not sure who seemed more upset over the pairing.
"Potter. The spell is protego and the move-" Snape did a simple movement. "The real difficulty is the emotion you put in." As if realizing that he was being too civil, Snape added, "Try not to mess it up."
"Three…" Lockhart started. "Two… One-" "Expelliarmus!" both Harry and I bellowed. "Protego!" I cried and saw a glimmer of something shoot up. Harry's red spell bounced off the air and Harry himself got knocked off of his feet. I heard a voice from the crowd shout "Serpensortia!" and a giant black snake shot out and landed on the floor between Harry and I.
A/N Hope you liked it! I have a question for you to end this chapter (I might do this with all of them from now on). Who do you like better, Astoria or Grace? Thanks guys and love you!