Chapter Twenty The Dueling Club
The news that Colin Creevey had been attacked and was now lying as though dead in the hospital wing had spread through the entire school by Monday morning. Ginny Weasley, who sat next to Colin Creevey in Charms, was distraught, but Harry felt that Fred and George were going the wrong way about cheering her up. They were taking turns covering themselves with fur or boils and jumping out at her from behind statues. Neville was afraid as everyone thinks he's almost a Squib. After potions that day "They're starting a Dueling Club!" said 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?" said Ron, but he, too, read the sign with interest. "Could be useful," he said to Harry and Hermione as they went into dinner. "Shall we go?" Harry and Hermione were all for it, 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. Harry was excited to learn some defense magic, he needed to be able to fight with magic if necessary.
"I wonder who'll be teaching us?" said Hermione. "As long as it's not " Harry began, but he ended on a groan Gilderoy Lockhart was walking onto the stage, accompanied by none other than Snape, 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 they finished each other off?" Ron muttered in Harry's ear. Harry laughed, 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."
"I wouldn't bet on that," Harry murmured
Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent "Expelliarmus!"Snape yelled, 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, "Do you think he's all right?" she squealed through her fingers. "Who cares?" Harry and Ron said together.
They were put into pairs. Hermione was paired up with Miss Bulstrode, Ron with Finnigan, Harry himself was teamed with Draco. Malfoy walked over, smirking. Behind him walked a Slytherin girl Hermione gave her a weak smile that she did not return.
"Face your partners!" called Lockhart, back on the platform. "And bow!"
Harry and Malfoy inclined their heads, not taking their eyes off 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 -"
Harry swung his wand high, but Malfoy had already started on "two": Harry moved out of the way. arry pointed his wand straight at Malfoy and shouted, "Rictusempra!" A jet of silver light hit Malfoy in the stomach and he doubled up, wheezing. "I said disarm only!" Lockhart shouted in alarm over the heads of the battling crowd, as Malfoy sank to his knees; Harry had hit him with a Tickling Charm, and he could barely move for laughing. Malfoy pointed his wand at Harry's knees, choked, "Tarantallegra!" and the next second Harry's legs began to jerk around out of his control in a kind of quickstep. "Stop! Stop!" screamed Lockhart, but 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. Harry saw Millicent had Hermione in a headlock and Hermione was whimpering in pain; both their wands lay forgotten on the floor. Harry rushed over and yanked Millicent off of Hermione and threw her off the stage. "Let's have a volunteer pair - Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you " Lockhart said. "How about Malfoy and Potter?" said Snape with a twisted smile.
"Excellent idea!" said Lockhart, gesturing Harry and Malfoy into the middle of the hall
"Now, Harry, when Draco points his wand at you, you do this." said Lockhart. He raised his own wand, attempted a 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. "Scared?" muttered Malfoy, so that Lockhart couldn't hear him. "You wish," said Harry out of the corner of his mouth.
"Three - two - one - go!" he shouted. Malfoy raised his wand quickly and shouted, "Serpensortia!" The end of his wand exploded. Harry watched,shocked, as a long black snake shot out of it, fell heavily onto the floor between them, and raised itself, ready to strike. There were screams as the crowd backed away, clearing the floor. Harry braced himself preparing to take it out. "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 raised his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang; the snake, into the air and fell back to the floor. Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.
Harry wasn't sure what made him do it. He wasn't even aware of deciding to do it. All he knew was that his legs were carrying him forward as though he was on casters and that he had shouted stupidly at the snake, "Leave him alone!" the snake slumped to the floor, docile as a thick, black garden hose, its eyes now on Harry. He knew the snake wouldn't attack anyone now, though how he knew it, he couldn't have explained. He looked up at Justin, grinning, expecting to see Justin looking relieved, not angry and scared. "What do you think you're playing at?" he shouted, 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.
"Come on," said Rons voice in his ear. "Move - come on -"
They bolted out of the hall, Hermione hurrying alongside them. As they went through the doors, the people on either side drew away as though they were frightened. Harry didn't have a clue what was going on, and neither Ron or Hermione explained anything until they had dragged him all the way up to the empty Gryffindor common room. Then Ron pushed Harry into an armchair and said, "You're a Parselmouth. Why didn't you tell us?
"I'm a what?" said Harry.
"A Parselmouth!" said Ron. "You can talk to snakes!"
"I know," said Harry. "I mean, that's only the time I've ever done it.
So?" said Harry. "I bet loads of people here can do it."
"Oh, no they can't," said Ron. "It's not a very common gift. Harry, this is bad."
"What's bad?" said Harry, starting to feel quite angry. "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?"
"What d'you mean? You were there - you heard me -"
"I heard you speaking Parseltongue," said Ron. "Snake language. 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 nodded. "I spoke a different language? But I didn't realize - how can I speak a language without knowing I can speak it?" Ron shook his head. Both he and Hermione were looking as though someone had died. Harry couldn't see what was so terrible, "this is pretty cool could I like make snakes attack my enemies," he wondered.
"D'you want to tell me what's wrong with stopping a massive snake biting off Justin's head?" he said. "What does it matter how I did it as long as Justin doesn't have to join the Headless Hunt?"
"It matters," said Hermione, speaking at last in a hushed voice, "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." Harry's jaw dropped. "Exactly," said Ron. "And now the whole school's going to think you're his great-great-great-great-grandson or something " Ron told him. "But I'm not," said Harry in anger "You'll find that hard to prove, He lived about a thousand years ago; for all we know, you could be." said Hermione. Harry sighed, "wow and I thought the Leaf had issues " he said.
Harry laid awake in bed not training for once. Could he be a descendant of Salazar Slytherin? He didn't know anything about his father's family, after all. Quietly, Harry tried to say something in Parseltongue. The words wouldn't come. He considered contacting Sakura her husband was the owner of the snake contract. He shot that idea down, he would not run to Sakura crying for help, the bitch would never let him live it down. Plus the chance Sasuke would wasted time helping him was low. The Sorting Hat wouldn't have put me in here if I had Slytherin blood. Harry turned over. He'd see Justin the next day in Herbology and he'd explain that he'd been calling the snake off, not egging it on, which any fool should have realized.
By next morning, however, the snow that had begun in the night had turned into a blizzard so thick that the last Herbology lesson of the term was canceled: Professor Sprout wanted to work on the Mandrakes, a tricky operation she would entrust to no one else, now that it was so important for the Mandrakes to grow quickly and revive Mrs. Norris and Colin Creevey. Harry fretted about this next to the fire in the Gryffindor common room, while Ron and Hermione used their time off to play a game of wizard chess. "For heaven's sake, Harry," said Hermione, exasperated, as one of Ron's bishops wrestled her knight off his horse and dragged him off the board. "Go and find Justin if it's so important to you." she complained Harry looked at her and sighed and shook his head, "No Im going to get the information from Draco. Ron looked at him, "Now" he asked, Harry nodded, Hermione and him nodded, as Harry looked at them, "I will be back" he said. Walking out of the common room.
Harry looked around and seeing no one was there he performed the transformation jutsu. Into Crabbe. He walked towards the dungeon. When he realized he didn't know the password and would have to use trial and error. He smied when he saw Draco Malfoy walking to him. He looked at Harry, "I've seen Peter Weasley sneaking around a lot lately. And I bet I know what he's up to. He thinks he's going to catch Slytherin's heir single-handed." he spat. Harry laughed, "those foolish blood traitors, I wish the dark lord had killed them back in the war" he told Draco. Malfoy paused by a stretch of bare, damp stone wall. "What's the new password again?" he said to Harry. "Oh, yeah -pure-blood!" said Malfoy, not listening, and a stone door concealed in the wall slid open. Malfoy marched through it, and Harry followed.
The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, and several Slytherins were silhouetted around it in high-backed chairs.
"Wait here," said Malfoy to Harry, motioning him to a pair of empty chairs set back from the fire. "I'll go and get it my father's just sent it to me " he said. Harry sat down, "I wonder what he is going to show me, god this is tiring" he thought. He had been holding the jutsu for over twenty minutes. Malfoy came back a minute later, holding what looked like a newspaper clipping. He thrust it under Harry's nose. "That'll give you a laugh," he said. Harry laughed It had been clipped out of the Daily Prophet, and it said:
INQUIRY AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC
Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, was today fined fifty Galleons for bewitching a Muggle car. During the summer his sons flew it over london. Muggles saw them. Mr. Lucius Malfoy, a governor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. called today for Mr. Weasley's resignation. "Weasley has brought the Ministry into disrepute," Mr. Malfoy told our reporter. "He is clearly unfit to draw up our laws and his ridiculous Muggle Protection Act should be scrapped immediately." Mr. Weasley was unavailable for comment, although his wife told reporters to clear off or she'd set the family ghoul on them.
"Well?" said Malfoy impatiently as Harry handed the clipping back to him. "Don't you think it's funny?
Harry laughed. "Arthur Weasley loves Muggles so much he should snap his wand in half and go and join them," said Malfoy scornfully. "You'd never know the Weasleys were pure-bloods, the way they behave." Harry nodded, "Redheads are known to be stupid, I hear the fool wants to meets potter's mudblood friend's parents" he said smiling. You know, I'm surprised the Daily Prophet hasn't reported all these attacks yet," he went on thoughtfully. "I suppose Dumbledore's trying to hush it all up. He'll be sacked if it doesn't stop soon. Father's always said old Dumbledore's the worst thing that's ever happened to this place. He loves Muggle-borns. A decent headmaster would never have let slime like that Creevey in." He said annoyed, Harry nodded, "Old man is a total dumbass: he said.
Malfoy started taking pictures with an imaginary camera and did a cruel but accurate impression of Colin: "`Potter, can I have your picture, Potter? Can I have your autograph? Can I lick your shoes, please, Potter?"' He dropped his hands and looked at Harry who laughed.
"Saint Potter, the Mudbloods' friend," said Malfoy slowly. "He's another one with no proper wizard feeling, or he wouldn't go around with that jumped up Granger Mudblood. And people think he's Slytherin's heir!" Harry nodded in agreement. Harry almost sighed, he had said terrible things Draco had to know something.
"You must have some idea who's behind it all" Harry asked. "You know I haven't, Goyle, how many times do I have to tell you?" snapped Malfoy. "And Father won't tell me anything about the last time the Chamber was opened either. Of course, it was fifty years ago, so it was before his time, but he knows all about it, and he says that it was all kept quiet and it'll look suspicious if I know too much about it. But I know one thing - last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, a Mudblood died. So I bet it's a matter of time before one of them's killed this time ... I hope it's Granger," he said. Harry forced himself to laugh, "that bastard got I want to beat his ass, must stay calm" he thought to himself, "It would be great if that mudblood bitch died" Harry said.
D'you know if the person who opened the Chamber last time was caught?"
"Oh, yeah ... whoever it was was expelled," said Malfoy. "They're probably still in Azkaban."
"Azkaban?" said Harry, puzzled. "Azkaban - the wizard prison, Goyle," said Malfoy, looking at him in disbelief "Honestly, if you were any slower, you'd be going backward." He shifted restlessly in his chair and said, "Father says to keep my head down and let the Heir of Slytherin get on with it. He says the school needs ridding of all the Mudblood filth, but not to get mixed up in it. Of course, he's got a lot on his plate at the moment. You know the Ministry of Magic raided our manor last week?"
"Yeah. . ." said Malfoy. "Luckily, they didn't find much. Father's got some very valuable Dark Arts stuff. But luckily, we've got our own secret chamber under the drawing-room floor " Harry smiled, "that's good" he said.
He looked at Draco, "I've got to use the bathroom" he said standing up. Draco nodded. Harry walked away and left the common room. He left the dungeons and dropped the transformation. He headed for the common room to tell Ron and Hermione what he learned.
Harry entered the common room and walked over to his friends. Ron looked at him,"how'd it go" he asked, Harry sighed, "He is not the heir hell he knows nothing, his dad is involved though" he explained. Harry looked at Hermione, "Never leave the common room alone, he mentioned the last time the chamber was opened a muggle born died" he explained. Hermione looked at him, "I can take care of myself" she reminded him, Harry nodded, "you're right but your target so you need to be careful" he told her. Hermione looked annoyed but did not disagree.
Christmas finally arrived, Harry awoke christmas morning to Ron's speaking, while he found no point in the holiday, he did make sure to get his two magical friends gifts this year. He had regretted not getting them anything the year before. Harry and Ron wondered down into the common room and found Hermione waiting for them.
Harry looked at them and spoke, "open mine first, I feel bad about last year" he told them. Ron opened his and he was happy to find a figure of Dragonmir Gorgovitch, "Harry mate this is great thank you" he said, Harry laughed. Harry looked at Hermione, "I'm sorry I didn't have time, to get you a gift in Diagon Alley, so I had to give you something from home" he told her, Hermione shook her head, "It's fine Harry I'm sure its still great even if it's not magical, dont forget im a muggle born" she told him opening her gift. In the box was a book she picked it up reading the title "Tales Of A Gutsy Ninja" Harry smiled "i'm not a big reader but that is my favorite book of all time" he told her before adding, "don't read the guy's other works, you won't like them" he told her. She looked at him, "thanks Harry it looks good" she turned to him, "my turn to give you a gift" he said. Harry took the box and opened it inside was a the book titled, "Flying With The Cannons" Harry looked it over, "thanks Ron this should help me with Quidditch" he thanked his friend. He looked at Hermione as she handed him his gift before she spoke, "fair warning I did the same as you, seems like something you would like to use at home" she said. Harry opened the box to find a set of books and movies all under the title Lord Of The Rings. He smiled, "these look good thank you" he said looking at them. He later found out she had gotten Ron a Quidditch and he had gotten her a book. The rest of the day followed normally he stunk of to training during his free time. It was not until sometime after break that another attack happened.
The trio was on there way back to their dorms after what Harry deemed as another worthless class. Harry came to a stop as he heard a door slam shut, "follow me" he told them. They were once again on the spot where Mrs. Norris had been attacked.. A great flood of water stretched over half the corridor, and it looked as though it was still seeping from under the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. they could hear Myrtle's wails echoing off the bathroom walls.
"Now what's up with her?" said Ron. "Let's go and see," said Harry, and holding their robes over their ankles they stepped through the great wash of water to the door bearing its OUT OF ORDER sign, ignored it as always, and entered. Moaning Myrtle was crying, Harry sighed god this woman was a pain.
What's up, Myrtle?" said Harry.
"Who's that?" glugged Myrtle miserably. "Come to throw something else at me?"
"Why would I throw something at you? I mean you've yet to piss me off to the point of hurting you" Harry asked.
"Don't ask me," Myrtle shouted, "Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me" she cried "But it can't hurt you if someone throws something at you," said Harry, reasonably. "I mean, it'd just go right through you, wouldn't it?" He had said the wrong thing. Myrtle puffed herself up and shrieked, "Let's all throw books at Myrtle, because she can't feel it! Ten points if you can get it through her stomach! Fifty points if it goes through her head! Well, ha, ha, ha! What a lovely game, I don't think!"
"Who threw it at you, anyway?" asked Harry.
"I don't know... I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death, and it fell right through the top of my head," said Myrtle, glaring at them. "It's over there, it got washed out" she told them.
Harry and Ron looked under the sink where Myrtle was pointing. A small, thin book lay there. Harry walked over and picked it up.
Harry saw at once that it was a diary, and the faded year on the cover told him it was fifty years old. He opened it eagerly. On the first page he could just make out the name "T M. Riddle" in smudged ink.
"I know that name ... T. M. Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago."
"How on earth d'you know that?" said Harry in amazement.
Ron smiled, "I heard my Dad mention hearing his name way back once"
Harry was shocked to see the pages were completely blank. No writing whats so ever. He wondered If he should ask for help Sarada specifically, he however was not sure it was even that kind of issue. Why would hogwarts have something akin to the stone tablet. Hermione leaned over,
"He must've been Muggle-born to have bought a diary from Vauxhall Road" Hermione said
"Well, it's not much use to you," Ron. He dropped his voice. "Fifty points if you can get it through Myrtle's nose. "Harry, however shook his head, "this could be helpful" he told Ron putting it in his pocket.
End Of Chapter Twenty The Dueling Club
Chapter Twenty One A Trip Down Memory Lane
Harry's gift to Hermione is great right! Tales Of A Gutsy Ninja is still read even today. Its of course a reference to Jiraiya's first book. I also had to add in the bits about not reading everything else. Even Hermione has books she won't read.