Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Since Harry and Draco get along so well it's unlikely Professor Snape would choose them for a disastrous duelling presentation ... so ...

Chapter 11: The Duelling Club

Harry's new bones were fully grown the next morning, though it took a few days before he felt he could use his arm as well as before the attack by Dobby's bludger.

He was however fully restored by the time the duelling club was announced.

"I'm surprised the headmaster gave permission for something so dangerous!" Hermione gasped when she saw the notice.

"It must be safe, if the institute allows it," Harry said. "Do you think we should go?"

"Oh yes!" Ron exclaimed. "It'll be so cool!"

Hermione didn't quite agree that it was cool, but admitted that she was curious.

"It might be useful," Draco observed when they discussed it with their Slytherin friends. "You know, if the heir of Slytherin attacks again and we happen to see him."

"Do you really think any of us can out-duel someone who can petrify people and has a pet monster?" Hermione said doubtfully.

"Not in a fair duel," Draco conceded. "But we might get him from behind while he's sneaking up on someone. That's not cheating. It's rescuing someone."

"Well, let's see how the first meeting goes," Hermione decided. "If it seems dangerous we stop going after that."

"Or if it's boring," added Ron.

"It can't be boring. It's real fighting!" Gregory said, but he had to take that back when they realised that Professor Lockhart was in charge of the club.

Lockhart hadn't done anything at all interesting in class since the pixie disaster.

At least Professor Snape provided some entertainment by blasting Professor Lockhart into the wall with a disarming spell and matching up pairs that didn't get along. That stopped being all that much fun when Harry got hit with a painful hex he didn't even know, Ron's wand once again backfired and blasted him into Vincent and Hermione's partner, Millicent, actually attacked her with her fists.

Luckily Professor Snape once again proved himself master of the situation and cancelled all the hexes with a single spell.

Professor Lockhart then decided on another demonstration and called on Justin and his partner Theodore to show them how to block curses.

Poor Justin didn't look happy when the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor showed him a complicated wriggling movement and dropped his wand in the process. Harry felt sorry for him. He couldn't imagine how the spell was supposed to be cast after that instruction either.

Theodore was a lot luckier. He got whispered instructions from Professor Snape.

"Oh, that'll be good," Draco predicted giggling.

"But poor Justin," Harry said. "He doesn't have a fair chance."

"Professor Snape won't let him get seriously hurt," Draco assured him. "He wouldn't do anything to harm the institute."

Of course not. No teacher would do anything like that, but that hex had hurt anyway.

"Serpensortia!" Theodore shouted and a big black snake flew at Justin.

He wasn't nearly as big as the boa constrictor Harry had once met at the zoo, but was a lot scarier because he was angry after being flung through the air.

Justin shrieked and scrambled backwards causing the snake to rise cursing and threatening to bite him.

"Don't hurt him!" Harry shouted. "It's not his fault!"

The snake stopped cursing and tilted his head towards Harry.

"Just calm down. It won't happen again," Harry promised and the snake lowered himself back to the floor just before Professor Snape vanished him.

But the students around Harry were still backing away and shrieking. Justin's fellow Hufflepuffs surrounded their friend and pulled him out of the Great Hall hastily while Harry's own friends merely stared at him.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked them.

"You're a Parselmouth!" Draco gasped.

"A what?"

Their explanation left Harry more confused than before. Ron appeared to be horrified by Harry's newly discovered talent, while Hermione worried about the connection with Salazar Slytherin.

"It might make people think that you're Slytherin's heir," she explained.

His Slytherin friends on the other hand seemed torn between admiration and fear.

"But it is a really cool talent," Vincent assured him. "I wish I had a real Slytherin talent."

"I'm a Gryffindor, not a Slytherin," Harry pointed out. "I can't be Slytherin's heir."

But the other students didn't see it that way. Wherever Harry went over the next days he heard people whispering about him and what he might do to them. Even Justin who really ought to have remembered that Harry was from a Muggle institute himself was avoiding him.

Harry wanted to explain the snake-incident to Justin in Herbology, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to bad weather.

At Hermione's recommendation Harry went to find Justin anyway. He didn't need a lesson to talk to him after all. But all he found were more students gossiping about him and theorising about how he could tell what institutes children had come from.

"Well, it isn't that hard, is it?" he heard Ernie from Hufflepuff tell his friends in the library. "That first year, Colin, was in his own house and newly transferred this year. He probably asked a lot of questions about magical stuff. And Justin is in his Herbology group. I bet he told him something about his primary institute."

"He only needs to remember who was at the wizarding primary institute when he was," Hannah corrected. "That's even easier."

"But Harry wasn't at the wizarding primary institute at all," Susan argued.

"Yeah, but only because he was removed from the nursery institute after the attack by You-Know-Who," Ernie said. "I bet he's trying to get revenge for that now."

Harry stalked out of the library fuming. How dared Ernie imply that he hadn't liked his primary institute!

On the way back to Gryffindor tower he collided with Hagrid who was in almost as bad a mood as Harry himself. Apparently some horrid magical monster was attacking his chickens.

Harry commiserated with him for a little while and then they each went their separate ways, Hagrid to the headmaster's office and Harry on to Gryffindor tower to fetch his books for the next lesson.

He turned into another corridor and ... screamed in fright. There, on the floor, lay poor Justin, all petrified and next to him, grey and motionless, floated Nearly Headless Nick! Slytherin's monster had struck again.

For a moment Harry stood frozen with shock, then he remembered what he had to do. Professor McGonagall's classroom was only just around the corner.

Harry reached it in what was probably record time, threw open the door without knocking and ran to the teacher's desk.

"Professor! Professor!"

"Aww," mocked some student Harry didn't recognise. "It's wee little Harry!"

"Did the poor baby have a nightmare?" another laughed.

"Aw, run to nursey, baby!"

"Professor, Professor!" somebody aped. "How adorable!"

But Harry didn't even need to remind himself that good children ignore insults. He couldn't even find words to explain what he'd seen. So he simply grabbed hold of the teacher's arm and pulled urgently.

"Professor! Professor! Come quick!"

"Now, Harry," Professor McGonagall began. "What in the world has gotten into you? You can't just ..."

But at that moment Peeves' shrill shout rang through the corridors: "Attack! Another attack! Run for your lives!"

"That!" Harry shouted almost as shrilly, though a lot less coherently. "Come! Come!"

And finally the Professor got up and let him lead her to the site of the attack.