A week later, Craig, Lisa, and Jasmine found themselves at the notice board at the entrance hall, because Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan were standing there. There was a piece of parchment pinned up stating that a dueling club was starting.

There were footsteps and Seamus turned to the noise.

"They're starting a Dueling Club!" exclaimed Seamus. "First meeting tonight! I wouldn't mind dueling lessons; they might come in handy one of these days…"

"What, you reckon Slytherin's monster can duel?" asked Ron, but he read the notice, looking interested. As six second years went to the Great Hall, Ron said to them, "It could be useful. Shall we go?"

"If it's being taught by Lockhart, I'm out," Lisa said.

"It better be taught by Flitwick," Craig said. "He was a dueling champion when he was younger."

At eight, they walked in the Great Hall. In place of the long four tables, there was a long golden stage against one wall, lit by thousands of floating candles.

"Hopefully it's not—" Harry started, but groaned at the sight of Lockhart of standing on the stage, wearing deep plum-coloured robes. Snape was standing beside him wearing his usual black robes.

Lockart waved an arm for silence and called, "Gather round, gather round! Can anyone 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 have done on countless occasions—for full details, see my published books."

"I'm out," Lisa said walking out of the Great Hall. Jasmine looked after her friend and back at the stage.

"I don't blame her for leaving," Ron muttered.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Lockhart, smiling widely. "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!" Lockhart said.

Ron whispered something in Harry's ear and Jasmine considered leaving the Great Hall as well.

Snape's upper lip was curling and Jasmine wondered why Lockhart was smiling. If Snape looked at her like that, she would've been running in the opposite direction.

Lockhart and Snape turned to each other. Lockhart bowed with a lot of hand twirling and Snape jerked his head, as if irritated, not that Jasmine blamed him. The two adults raised their wands in front of them, like swords.

"As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart explained. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course." Snape had his teeth bared and Lockhart said, "One—two—three—"

Both of them swung their wands over their heads and pointed them at each other. Snape cried, "Expelliarmus!"

There was a flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet. He flew backwards down the stage, and hit the wall. He sprawled to the floor, while his wand flew into a crowd. Malfoy and some other Slytherins cheered.

"Do you think he's all right?" Hermione asked.

"Who cares?" Harry, Ron, Craig, and Jasmine asked at the same time.

Lockhart stood up unsteadily, his hat had fallen off, and his wavy hair was standing on end. He walked onto the platform, while saying, "Well, there you have it! That was a Disarming Charm—as you see, I've lost my wand—" a girl held out the wand to Lockhart. "—ah thank you Miss Brown—" Lockhart took the wand. "—yes, and 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 to easy—however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see…"

Craig coughed, probably hiding a laugh.

Snape was looking murderous and Lockhart must've 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—"

The two moved through the crowd, matching up partners. Lockhart team Neville with Justin Finch-Flecthley, but Snape reached the group first.

"Time to split up the dream team, I think," Snape sneered. "Weasley, you can partner Finnigan. Strange you can go partner up with Goyle. Miss Potter—" Jasmine looked Snape in the eye, who looked away towards a blonde girl. "Miss Greengrass, come over here." He turned to Hermione, "You, Miss Granger—you can partner Miss Bulstrode. You, Mr Potter, can partner up with Mr Malfoy." He looked over at Malfoy, "Let's see what you can make of one of the famous Potters." Jasmine watched Malfoy, strut over, smirking. Milicent and Daphne were walking behind him. Millicent looked like Crabbe wearing a brown wig.

Lockhart said, "Face your partners and bow!"

Jasmine looked at Daphne, who looked bored. Jasmine wondered how she can possibly get a few strands of Daphne's hair for the Polyjuice Potion.

Lockhart shouted, "wands at the ready!" Jasmine and Daphne held up their wands. "When I count to three, cast your charms to Disarm your opponents—only to disarm them—we don't want any accidents—one…two…"

Daphne used a spell that caused Jasmine to stumble back a few steps and Jasmine decided to rush at Daphne. She tried to put the blonde girl into some sort of choke-hold that she saw Dudley do a few times to other kids. Daphne struggled and tried grabbing at Jasmine's hair. Daphne managed to grab at a lock and pulled on it. Jasmine winced and removed the choke-hold. Daphne brought Jasmine to the ground, the blonde on top, and slapped at her.

"I said Disarm only!" Lockhart shouted and Jasmine grabbed at Daphne's hair. Daphne shook Jasmine's head, almost causing Jasmine's head to hit the floor. Lockhart shouted, "Stop! Stop!"

"Finite Incantatem!" Snape shouted and suddenly Daphne was off of Jasmine. Snape grabbed Jasmine's arm and heaved her to her feet. Jasmine felt slightly dizzy and the side of her heart hurt.

"She attacked me first, sir!" Daphne accused pointing at Jasmine.

Snape looked at Jasmine, "Five points from Ravenclaw." He continued on and Jasmine looked at Harry, who was trying to pull Millicent off of Hermione, who was stuck in a headlock.

Jasmine stuck her wand in her knee-high sock and ran over to help. She helped pulled Millicent off and Hermione pointed at Jasmine's robes.

"I see you already got some of Greengrass's hair," Hermione said. She opened a small vial and passed it to Jasmine. "Store the hair in there." Jasmine plucked the blonde hair off her robes, wrapped it in a knot, stuffed it in the vial and recapped it, before sticking the vial in her robes. Craig walked up and stood beside them.

"I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells." said Lockhart, standing flustered in the middle of the room. He glanced at Snape and looked away quickly. "Let's have a volunteer pair—Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you—"

"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart," interrupted Snape. He walked 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 pink face went pinker and Snape gave a twisted smile, "how about Malfoy and Mr Potter?"

Jasmine refrained from asking 'again' and looked at Harry, who looked annoyed at the thought of dueling Malfoy again.

"Excellent idea!" said Lockhart, gesturing for Harry and Malfoy to get onto the platform.

"Use the Full-Body Bind," Jasmine whispered to Harry, before he got on the platform.

Lockhart whispered in Harry's ear and did some wand twirling, that caused his wand to drop on the floor. "Whoops—my wand is a little overexcited—"

Craig snorted and Jasmine watched as Snape move closer to Malfoy. He bent down, and whispered something in his ear that caused Malfoy to smirk. Harry looked up at Lockhart.

Malfoy taunted, "Scared Potter?"

"You wish," Harry replied.

Lockhart cuffed Harry on the shoulder, "Just do what I did, Harry!"

"What? Drop my wand?" Harry asked confused.

Lockhart didn't listen as he shouted, "Three—two—one—go!"

Malfoy raised his wand quickly and bellowed, "Serpensortia!"

A long black snake came from the end of Malfoy's wand and fell heavily to the floor. It sounded like Hermione screamed and Jasmine backed up, right into Craig, almost falling to the floor.

"Don't move, Potter," Snape said in a lazy manner, as if enjoying the sight of Harry being eye-to-eye with an 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 flew ten feet in the air and landed on the floor with a smacking sound. Enraged, the snake went to Justin and raised itself, teeth bared, ready to strike.

Jasmine covered her eyes and heard hissing. She opened them to see Harry hissing at the snake, who looked back at Harry.

"What do you think you're playing at?" Justin shouted and ran out of the Great Hall.

"That…that's not good," Jasmine said to herself.

Snape walked up to the snake and waved his wand, causing the snake to disappear in a puff of black smoke. He turned to Harry.

Jasmine half-expected Snape to say something, but Ron grabbed at Harry's robes, leading him to the door, with Hermione following. People stepped away from them as if terrified that being a Parselmouth was contagious. Jasmine and Craig followed. If possible, they stepped away from her, too.

They followed the Gryffindors to an empty classroom.

"I'm a what?" Harry asked.

"A Parselmouth!" exclaimed Ron. "You can talk to snakes!"

"I know," said Harry. "I mean, that's the only second time I've ever done it. I accidentally set a boa constrictor on our cousin Dudley at the zoo once—long story—but it was telling me that it had never seen Brazil and I sort of set it free without meaning to—that was before we found out that Jasmine was a witch and I was an wizard—"

Jasmine wanted to say that Harry never set the boa constrictor on Dudley and Piers. Before she could tell them that, Ron said faintly, "a boa constrictor told you two that it had never seen Brazil?"

"So?" Harry said, "I bet loads of people here can do it."

Jasmine said. "It's—"

"It's not a common gift," Ron interrupted. "Harry, this is bad."

"What's bad?" Harry asked, looking irritated. "What's wrong with everyone? Listen, if I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin—"

"Oh, that's what you said to it?" Jasmine asked despite herself.

"What d'you mean?" Harry asked, "You were there—you heard me—"

"I heard you hissing," Jasmine said. "I'm not a Parselmouth."

Harry seemed confused, "We're twins. You have to be a Parselmouth, too."

"I don't think it works like that," Jasmine said.

"Like Ron said," Craig said. "Speaking Parseltongue is very uncommon and being twins means nothing. That's like one twin singing really well and the other being crap at it. Or one twin having a mental illness and the other doesn't." Jasmine nodded.

Harry was confused, "Parseltongue?"

"Snake language, Harry," Jasmine said. "You really need to read A History of Magic."

Ron said, "You could have been saying anything—no wonder Justin panicked, you sounded like you were egging the snake on or something—it was creepy, you know—"

Harry asked, "I spoke a different language? But—I didn't realize—how can I speak a language without knowing I can speak it?"

"I didn't know I was Yorkshire until I was in kindergarten," Craig explained, "Everyone laughed at me because I talked funny to them. My sister Emma didn't realize it either, but she just ignored everyone laughing at her."

Harry seemed even more irritated. "D'you want to tell me what's wrong with stopping a massive snake biting off Justin's head? What does it matter how I did it as long as Justin doesn't have to join the Headless Hunt?"

Craig was confused, "Headless Hunt? Is he talking about the Headless Horseman?"

Jasmine was now confused, "You mean the Dullahan?"

"What's that?" Craig asked confused

"It matters because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent," Hermione said in a hushed voice. She glared at the two Ravenclaws for going off-topic and Harry's jaw dropped.

Ron said, "Exactly. And now the whole school's going to think you and Jasmine are his great-great-great-great-great-grandkids or something—"

"They already do," Jasmine said. "Remember that kid Colin Creevey told Harry about in the hallway? Also why Justin run away from Harry in front of the library? Remember Mrs Norris getting attacked a few days after Filch got after Harry from tracking mud inside the castle? Or that Colin got attacked after annoying me and Harry by taking photos of Harry lying in the mud? Of course they now just have a whole good reason to think why we're Slytherin's descendants. I even heard Ernie and Justin talking about it. I was going to bring it up, but I just forgot."

"We're not Slytherin's descendants," Harry said fiercely.

"You'll find that hard to prove," said Hermione. "He lived about a thousand years ago; for all we know, you both could be."

"We don't even know our family-tree." Jasmine said, grabbing her light blue pointed crystal necklace. "All we know is Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, Aunt Marge, and our parents. That's how much we know about it. We could be." Harry looked stricken. "Now that we know you're a Parselmouth, we really could be." She grabbed Harry's hand. "I'll try to look into our family-tree tomorrow. At least on our dad's side, because you know Aunt Petunia and her issue with questions. I doubt she knows much about her family anyway."

The next morning brought on a blizzard and Herbology was cancelled. Professor Sprout wanted to fit socks and scarves on the Mandrakes, something that was so tricky that she didn't entrust on anyone else. It was now important for the Mandrakes to grow quickly and revive Mrs Norris and Colin Creevey.

Jasmine wanted to go to the library and try look into her family-tree, but she had Transfiguration at the time. She had Herbology next class, but she had to push it through.

They were learning how to transform goblets into badgers and as she got ready to change the goblet when there was a flash of light. She turned round to see that in Terry Boot's place was a badger. It looked like Roger Malone had turned Terry into a badger.

Professor McGonagall was livid at that. It was actually kind of scary to see. Jasmine wasn't sure who was scarier: Mrs Weasley or Professor McGonagall.

"Do-do you know what you just have done?" Professor McGonagall shouted at Roger. "Do you have any idea what the dangers of Human Transfiguration entail when you don't know what you're doing?"

"No," Roger said weakly. He pointed his wand at the badger, and Terry returned, but with black and white stripped hair.

Professor McGonagall shouted, "You're lucky that his mind wasn't fully turned into a badger! You're lucky that he even turned back into a human! That'll be one hundred points from Ravenclaw and take three months' detention! I'll let Professor Flitwick sort out your punishment!"

"Thank you for that, Malone!" Pansy shouted laughing. "Thanks for letting us get us ahead in the House Cup! It really means a lot!"

A few parchment balls flew at Roger and in a way, Jasmine felt bad for him. She once lost fifty points last term for being up at the one in the morning to send Norbert the Norwegian Dragon off, but one hundred points? Human Transfiguration sounded quite horrific the way Professor McGonagall was talking about it. Jasmine took down some notes about why it was bad.

With that, Professor McGonagall went back to talking about Transfiguration again. Jasmine turned her goblet into a badger and almost sighed.

"Attack! Attack! Another attack! No mortal or ghost is safe! Run for your live! Attack!" Peeves bellowed from above them and there was the sound of doors crashing open.

Jasmine, Craig, and Lisa looked at each other, before running after the rest of the class and Professor McGonagall. They ran upstairs and towards the corridor, which was oddly dark.

There were shouts, whispers, and murmurs among the students. Jasmine could spot someone lying on the floor, as if dead. She could've sworn it was Justin Finch-Fletchley.

"Is he dead?" someone from behind Jasmine asked.

"No, I think he's been Petrified," Jasmine responded.

A few bangs came from Professor McGonagall's wand and she ordered, "Everyone get back to class!"

Lisa and Craig turned Jasmine round and they started heading back to Transfiguration.

"Do you think Harry's going to be expelled?" Jasmine asked worried.

"Of course not. He's not actually attacking students," Lisa said.

"Yeah," Craig replied.

A/N: I apologize for putting this back on Hiatus again, but I decided to finish up The Calm Before the Storm: Year 2 before finishing this one.