Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't mine. Unfortunately.
A/N: thanks for all the Favorite/Follows guys! But reviews might be nice too.
Chapter 11: The Dueling Club
The news about Colin had spread through the school like wildfire, causing the air to feel thick with rumor and suspicion, like a blanket that made everyone paranoid. The first years were all moving around the castle in groups, scared they would be attacked if they wandered alone.
Rose took to keeping a close eye on Astoria and Ginny since they were both in their own houses, she made sure that she and Luna walked them to where they needed to go or to a group from their own house so they weren't alone.
The Weasley twins tried to keep everyone's spirits up by making jokes and pulling more pranks than usual. But after the third time that they had jumped out from behind a statue covered in fur or boils, utterly frightening Ginny and the other girls, Rose had enough and went to complain to Percy, informing them that Ginny was only taking it worse and she was now having nightmares and was looking worse than normal. She watched as Percy turned an impressive shade of red and stalked out to find the twins, yelling that he was going to write their mother about their behavior and lecturing them on what was appropriate behavior for this situation.
Also making its rounds in the castle, under the noses of the teachers were a various amount of talismans, amulets, and other protective devices being sold to the students who fell for it. On one of the days that Rose spent with Neville, she stared at disbelief as he showed her everything that he bought, including a large, evil-smelling green onion, a pointed purple crystal, and a rotting newt tail.
"You know Neville, you don't have anything to worry about because you're a Pure-blood and really one of the last students to be attacked." She pointed out to him as she wrinkled her nose at the smell coming from the onion and newt tail.
"They went for Filch first," Neville said, his round face fearful. "And everyone knows I'm almost a Squib." Rose scoffed at this.
"You are not almost a squib Neville. You either are one, or you're not. You just haven't completely developed your magic. Once you become more confident you'll improve. It would probably also help once you get your own wand." She told him confidently, getting a thankful look from the boy.
"Thanks Rose, what do you want to work on today?" He asked her curiously as he sat down next to her. She hummed before shrugging.
"I don't know, why don't we go wallk around the lake, maybe I can try drawing you with a scenery instead of with a blank background." She suggested. "Or you can point out something or someone you want me to draw and I have to try it." She continued thoughtfully, she was getting better at drawing people and wanted to try drawing them while moving.
Neville nodded, "Alright, and there's no chance of us being attacked outside because all of the attacks have been inside." He added. Rose rolled her eyes but agreed.
"I still don't think we'll be attacked because of our background, but sounds good to me anyways." And the two packed their things up and walked out to sit by the lake, despite the cold weather and the snow, the two had fun. While they didn't actually end up doing any work or drawing, they did end up making snow angels and snow men. After a few hours, Luna, Astoria and Ginny joined them in trying to make the biggest snow man they could and ended up having Hagrid help them out which was a lot of fun and helped them all forget about what was happening around the castle at the moment.
When Professor McGonagall came around the Great Hall in the second week of December, Rose chose to sign up since she had no inclination to go back to the Dursleys for the Holidays. She was disappointed to find out that Astoria, Luna and Neville were all going to go home, but the fact that Ginny, her brothers, Rose's brother, and Hermione were staying made it worthwhile.
The last Herbology class Rose and Luna had before break, they shared with Ginny. Rose and Ginny spent most of the class figuring out what they were going to do over the break while Luna and Astoria were gone.
"What do you want to do first?" Rose asked as she sprinkled more mooncalf dung on the potted leaping toadstools. Ginny shrugged.
"I dunno, we need to have a snowball fight though." Rose nodded
"Alright, we should draw some too. We haven't had a chance to draw together since we got here." Ginny shrugged and nodded.
"Sure." Rose frowned and looked thoughtfully at Ginny.
"Hey, are you okay? You've been awfully pale and quiet all year." Ginny just stared determinedly down at the plant she was fertilizing.
"I'm fine. I just…" She trailed off as she looked troubled before shrugging. "I'm just nervous about this whole thing with the chamber and Colin, and I'm a little homesick." She said softly. Rose watched her closely, she got the feeling that Ginny was not telling her the whole truth but let it go. She didn't want to push her. While she knew Ginny was her friend, she didn't know how far she could push before Ginny got upset and pushed her away.
"Well, at least we don't have to put up with Lockheart here soon." That made Ginny smile, and they talked lightheartedly with Luna for the rest of the class. After the class was over the group was walking into the entrance hall where they saw a small group of people gathered around the notice board. Among the group was Astoria who noticed they came in and waved them over.
"Hey you three, look here, a Dueling Club is starting up and the first meeting is tonight. You guys want to go?" She asked them when they finally got to her. The three girls gave each other excited looks at the thought.
"Ohh, maybe we'll actually learn something!" Rose said, excited. "I hear that Professor Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was young so I bet he could do it. Even Professor Snape would be a good teacher, after all, he wanted the DADA position for forever. Or even the Headmaster, after all, he did defeat Grindiwald." Astoria rolled her eyes, but smiled at her enthusiasm.
"I'll never understand why you're so eager to learn. But yes, I'm looking forward to learning how to duel, aside from even protecting myself from the monster."
"Who care's about the monster? I just wanna learn something useful for defense. Lets go!" Rose said laughing, so at eight o'clock that evening they hurried back to the Great Hall. The long dining tables had vanished and a golden stage had appeared along one wall, lit by thousands of candles floating overhead. The ceiling was velvety black once more and most of the school seemed to be packed beneath it, all carrying their wands and looking excited.
Rose looked around as she bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet. Luna, stood to her left with her signature dreamy expression while Astoria stood to her right with a calm facade on her face, though Rose could tell by her bright eyes that she was excited. Rose looked around and saw Ginny standing over by some other Gryffindor girls and they caught each others gaze and smiled at each other.
"Okay, who is the teacher." Rose muttered under her breath. She looked around before groaning, "Oh noooo, not him!" She muttered.
Gilderoy Lockhart was walking onto the stage, resplendent in robes of deep plum and accompanied by none other than Snape, wearing his usual black.
"At least Professor Snape is here, so we might learn something." Astoria whispered to the other two girls. Even Luna looked skeptical about that, eyeing the two professors like they were going to turn rabid and leap out to eat everyone at any moment.
Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called "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 works. Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile. "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!"
"Wouldn't it be good if Professor Snape just demolished Lockheart?" Rose muttered as she watched Snape's upper lip curl. Roselyn wondered why Lockhart was still smiling; if Snape had been looking at her like that she definitely wouldn't be so eager to be facing him.
Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Snape jerked his head irritably. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them.
"As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart told the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."
"Yeah right." Astoria scoffed as everyone watched Snape bare his teeth in a malicious grin.
"One — two — three —"
Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Snape cried: "Expelliarmus!" There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet: He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.
Rosesilently cheered but she was quite disappointed to see Lockhart was getting unsteadily to his feet. His hat had fallen off and his wavy hair was standing on end.
"Well, there you have it!" he said, tottering back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm — as you 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 my 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 was looking murderous. Possibly Lockhart had noticed, because 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 —"
They moved through the crowd, matching up partners.
Rose was pleased when Professor Snape let her and Astoria stay paired up while Luna was paired with Callie Trent, much to the later girls displeasure.
"Face your partners!" called Lockhart, back on the platform. "And bow!"
Rose and Astoria bowed to each other while pointing their wands at each other.
"Wands at the ready!" shouted Lockhart. "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!" The two girls yelled, Rose dodged Astoria's spell and was pleased to see that her own spell hit, causing Astoria's wand to jump out of her hand towards Roselyn. Roselyn handed the other girl her spell and looked around. All around them spells were flying around haphazardly.
"Stop! Stop!" screamed Lockhart, but in the end, Snape took charge. "Finite Incantatem!" he shouted; Harry's feet stopped dancing, Malfoy stopped laughing, and they were able to look up.
A haze of greenish smoke was hovering over the scene. Both Neville and Justin were lying on the floor, panting; Ron was holding up an ashen-faced Seamus, apologizing for whatever his broken wand had done; but Hermione and Millicent Bulstrode were still moving; Millicent had Hermione in a headlock and Hermione was whimpering in pain; both their wands lay forgotten on the floor.
After a few moments, Harry and another second year Ravenclaw that Rose recognized as Terry Boot managed to pry the two brawling girls off each other.
"Dear, dear," said Lockhart, skittering through the crowd, looking at the aftermath of the duels. "Up you go, Macmillan…"
"Careful there, Miss Fawcett… Pinch it hard, it'll stop bleeding in a second,"
"I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells," said Lockhart, standing flustered in the midst of the hall. He glanced at Professor Snape, whose black eyes glinted, and looked quickly away. "Let's have a volunteer pair — Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you —"
"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart," said Professor Snape, gliding over like a large and malevolent bat. "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox." Neville's round, pink face went pinker. Roselyn pursed her lips together and glared at him. She did not like that comment about her friend, especially not in front of so many students.
"How about Malfoy and Potter?" said Professor Snape with a twisted smile. Roselyn closed her eyes, she just knew this was a bad idea, her thought was proved correct when Lockhart said,
"Excellent idea!" gesturing Harry and Malfoy into the middle of the hall as the crowd backed away to give them room.
"Now, Harry," said Lockhart. "When Draco points his wand at you, you do this."
He raised his own wand, attempted a complicated sort of wiggling action, and dropped it. Snape smirked as Lockhart quickly picked it up, saying, "Whoops— my wand is a little overexcited—"
Snape moved closer to Malfoy, bent down, and whispered something in his ear. Malfoy smirked, too. Amelia saw Harry look up nervously at Lockhart and say, "Professor, could you show me that blocking thing again?"
Lockhart cuffed Harry merrily on the shoulder. "Just do what I did, Harry!"
"What, drop my wand?" Rose took a deep breath and held it as she watched wide eyed.
"Three — two — one — go!" he shouted.
Malfoy raised his wand quickly and bellowed, "Serpensortia!"
The end of his wand exploded. Roselyn watched, aghast, as a long black snake shot out of it, fell heavily onto the floor between the two boys, and raised itself, ready to strike. There were screams as the crowd backed swiftly away, clearing the floor. Astoria and Luna were forced to grab ahold of Rose to keep her from bolting right then and even then, she whimpered wanting to close her eyes but not wanting to miss anything.
"Don't move, Potter," said Snape lazily, clearly enjoying the sight of Harry standing motionless, eye to eye with the angry snake. "I'll get rid of it…"
"Allow me!" shouted Lockhart.
He brandished his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang; the snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack. Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin Finch-Fletchley and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.
"Harry!" Rose called anxiously, she knew that he had talked to the snake in the zoo the previous year and hoped he would do so again. Roselyn had to fight the sudden urge to run screaming hysterically out of the hall, watching as Harry, as though in a slight trance walked towards the snake and shouted in some sort of hiss. Suddenly the snake slumped to the floor, docile as a thick, black garden hose, its eyes now on Harry. Rose sighed in a little relief as she knew the snake wouldn't attack anyone now, she didn't know what Harry said but she was glad for it.
When Harry looked up to Justin, the other boy shouted, "What do you think you're playing at?" and before Harry could say anything, Justin had turned and stormed out of the hall.
Snape stepped forward, waved his wand, and the snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke. Snape, too, was looking at Harry in an unexpected way: It was a shrewd and calculating look, and Rose didn't like it. She was also aware of an ominous muttering all around the walls. She saw Ron and Hermione go up and tug on his shirt and pull him out of the Great Hall.
As they went through the doors, the people on either side drew away as though they were frightened of catching something. Rosel didn't have a clue what was going on, she turned to Astoria with a frown on her face.
"Whats wrong? Why is everyone acting so weird?" several people turned to look at her funny, seeming to realize she was Harrys sister and several backed away from her nervously. Lockhart cleared his throat and said
"I think that will conclude todays lesson. Off to bed." The great hall emptied out, but Roselyn continued to stand there, looking at her friends, for Luna and Ginny had come over to join the other two.
"Harry's a Parselmouth." Astoria stated. Rose blinked in confusion.
"A what? Does that mean talk to snakes?" She asked. The four girls nodded
"Yeah, it's really rare and Salazar Slytherin was famous for it. Its why our house symbol is a serpent." Astoria explained. Rose swallowed and looked between the three, Luna was the only one who didn't look grave. Ginny, who was looking pale again, continued for Astoria.
" Now everyone's going to think you two are his great-great-grandchildren, which means you're the heir." Rose swallowed and looked between them. Suddenly she hopped that Mrs. Olgery wrote back with news about her family tree soon. She could already practically hear the rumors flying from this.
"I see. Let's go to bed." She said hastily changing the topic. Astoria and Ginny both gave her looks that she was unable to decipher at the moment before going off their separate ways.
Rose and Luna made their way up to their dorm in silence. Just before going to up to bed, Luna turned to her and said,
"I don't believe either you or Harry is Slytherin's Heir. Just because someone has an ability, it doesn't determine that they're good or bad. It's how they choose to use it that matters."." Before turning and going up to bed, leaving Rose to stare after her.
By the next morning it had started blizzarding and all outside classes had been cancelled, but the Blizzard had made it hard to concentrate on classes because everyone just wanted to sit by a fire to keep warm.
Luckily, Rose's other classes went quickly so that she and Luna were able to spend the day, curled up by the fire, playing wizards chess. It was shortly after they started up their third game that Artemis flew through the window with an official looking letter. Roselyn started and stared at her owl, that was now sitting on the table, closest to the fire to warm up from being out in the snow. Rose quickly grabbed the letter and stroked her owl gently.
"Thanks Artemis. You're a good bird. Why don't you go up to the owlery and stay warm, alright?" Artemis let out a soft hoot, giving her hand a light peck before flying out again.
"What is it?" Luna asked. Rose looked down to read it.
Dear Miss Potter,
I'm pleased to inform you that we would be more than happy to trace your family's lineage. However, it will take us several weeks to do so. In the meantime, I would suggest you look into any books about the Ancient houses
Sincerely,
Gena Olgery
Head of the Department of Geneology
Rose grinned and looked up to Luna
"Excellent. I'm going to go see if they have any books on this, do you want to come with me?" Luna stared at her thoughtfully for a moment before saying
"No, I think I shall go visit the house elves and drink some hot chocolate. It will be nice to visit with them before I go home." Rose nodded; she knew that Luna was very taken with the Kitchen's house elves.
"Then I'll be on my way." And the two girls parted ways. On her way to the library however she spotted Ginny curled up in a corner, her shoulders shaking, while crying. Rose paused, alarmed, before going over to her and crouching down.
"Ginny?" She asked quietly, Ginny gave a start, but continued to cry into her arms. "What's wrong Gin?" She tried again as she wrapped her arms around Ginny. Ginny just shook her head and continued to cry. After a few moments Ginny rubbed her eyes and sat up, forcing Rose to let go of her.
"I'm sorry Rose." She said quietly. Rose furrowed her eyebrows.
"For what?" Ginny shrugged and continued to sniffle. Rose pulled out one of her kerchiefs and handed it to her.
"Here, wipe your nose." Ginny took it with a quiet 'thanks' and wiped her tears away before wiping her nose and crinkling the kerchief in her fist. "Now, what's wrong? Do I need to hex someone for you?" Ginny laughed lightly and shook her head.
"No! you don't need to hex anyone. I just…" She trailed off, looking uncertain before shrugging again. "Don't worry about it Rose." Rose studied her for a moment before saying,
"I'm worried about you Ginny, you've been real pale lately and you haven't been like yourself. I know you said your homesick, but I think maybe that's not it, especially since most of your family is here." Ginny frowned and her eyes blazed for a moment.
"What do you care? You've been hanging out with Astoria and Luna more than me and off doing who know's what with Neville!" Rose's eyes widened in surprise and she watched as Ginny closed her eyes and breathed in and held it before releasing her breath and calming down.
"I'm sorry Gin. Neville and I are only doing homework and he lets me practice drawing him so I can get better, and I know I hang out with the other two a lot but, you've been pulling away from us for a while. You're really not acting like yourself. I'm sorry if you feel like I've been neglecting you but I haven't been trying." Ginny looked sullen and upset again.
"I'm sorry Rose, I didn't mean to snap at you, I just, I haven't been feeling quite right lately." Rose nodded slowly, thinking about it.
"It's alright." They were both silent for a few moments before Rose stood up and held out a hand to help Ginny up. "How about you come with me to the library to find these two books I'm looking for. Mrs. Olgry from the Genealogy department contacted me and suggested them while I wait for them to look up some of my family tree." Ginny hesitated before taking her hand.
"Uh, sure, it's better than sitting here, that's for sure." Rose smiled hesitantly at her before leading the way to the library. Hopefully this would take both of their minds off of their troubles for a while.