Chapter Twenty-eight: A Lesson in Dueling

I do not own Harry Potter.

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I was right about the news spreading about Colin—the entire castle seemed to know by lunch time the next day. More students than ever were coming to my office for extra help with their Defense studies as the weeks went on. I often found myself hostess to fifteen students at a time, though most of them seemed to have also heard about Lockhart's accusations towards my being a threat. I couldn't tell if they came in groups because none of them wanted to come near me alone or because they were afraid that the monster would come for them next. Either way, my office was far too small to hold more than eight or so students comfortably.

"I have a small problem," I announced at the next staff meeting. "I'm afraid I'm in need of a bigger room to help tutor the students,"

"A bigger room? You're office is already larger than most because of your job and you need more room?" Snape asked sounding annoyed that I might receive a bigger office. "How many students need a tutor anyway?"

"With the recent events they all seem to feel that they need extra coaching in the Defense area," I replied. Snape didn't retort, but closed his mouth and gave a slight, understanding nod.

"Perhaps an unused classroom would suffice?" McGonagall suggested, turning to face Dumbledore.

"Perhaps," he agreed, nodding his head.

"Headmaster, I wonder if I were given the opportunity to show the students how to duel and defend themselves then maybe they would be inspired and no longer require extra assistance?" Lockhart interjected immediately. "At least not in Defense," he added.

"A dueling club?" Professor Sprout asked. "We've never really enforced that sort of behavior; rather we've gone against it,"

"Yes, but I'm rather against having anymore petrified students," Professor Vector said.

"But how would a dueling club stop the children from becoming petrified?" asked McGonagall. "Wouldn't it just add weapons to their currently limited arsenal?"

"That would be the point, Mickey, they need those extra chances," I answered. "It sounds like a good idea to me," I said leaning back and crossing my arms. "At least as long as I get to help demonstrate," I added. Dumbledore allowed me a small smile and nodded giving his consent.

"Severus, I would also like you to assist Gilderoy and Keena," Dumbledore stated. Snape looked as if he would have argued but I gave him a pointed look before nodding my head towards Lockhart. He paused and closed his mouth before he smirked and nodded. Perfect…now even if I don't get to attack Lockhart, Snape will…


The next week signs were put up informing the students about the dueling club. Snape and I stood in a shadowy corner as the students slowly began milling into the Great Hall for the club's first meeting.

"So what has Lockhart done to upset you?" Snape asked casually, watching the students come in.

"You mean you haven't heard?" I asked, tilting my head ever so slightly. "He informed the students of our 'violent' tendencies and he seems to think that he's here to protect the students from us," I could tell Snape was ruffled by the news; apparently the Slytherins didn't talk about much around their head.

"What do you suggest?"

"I was thinking that it wouldn't hurt to maybe prove him right, that we are a threat," I said, smiling. "I know you would like nothing better than to jinx him into oblivion, Severus," I added. He smirked.

"Yes, but then Dumbledore might fire me," he said. "Although we could suggest that any trouble caused happened while we were demonstrating,"

"But then only one of us gets to get him," I whined. "What if we suggested showing the students how to handle a group of people attacking, he's so full of pride I bet you he'd agree to it," I suggested.

"Probably, what house was he in anyway? Certainly not Slytherin,"

"Well, he's no Gryffindor either," I defended.

"I bet he was a Hufflepuff," Snape whispered as Lockhart took to the stage calling for attention.

"I'd like to introduce my assistants, Professor Snape and Professor McIntosh, both of whom have agreed to help me run this little club," Lockhart said grandly, gesturing to Snape and myself as we walked onto the stage. "Well, first I think we shall show you how to duel, Severus, would you like to have a go first?" Lockhart asked.

"Actually, I believe the phrase is ladies first, Gilderoy," Snape said oily.

"Better yet, why don't we show them how to deal with two attackers?" I suggested. "Severus and myself against you," I grinned.

"Yes, after all, it would be unfair for one of us to have the greatest wizard on our team," Snape agreed. Lockhart looked as if he were about to refuse but the whispers that had began when Lockhart had said he was going to duel had grown into cheers.

"Excellent suggestion," he said, grinning widely. "Yes, everybody, pay close attention,"

Coming to the middle of the stage Snape and I bowed to Lockhart. As one, we turned and walked to the other end of the stage.

"Let's make this last," I muttered.

"I was thinking along the same lines," he returned as we reached the opposite end of the stage.

We turned and Lockhart counted off. Letting Lockhart fire the first curse, I put up an invisible shield forcing Lockhart's spell to bounce back at him. He ducked and Snape fired the disarming spell as I fired off Levicorpus. As Lockhart hung in the air he let out a girly shriek. Instead of the usually bails of laughter that would have taken place the room was completely silent in shock. I looked over at Snape who snorted, shaking his head. I let Lockhart drop to the ground with a loud thunk.

"Some duel," I muttered, a little disappointed, as Lockhart regained himself and began making excuses for his behavior.

Lockhart decided that we would break the students up into pairs and allow them to disarm one another. As if that would ever work, especially since it seemed that no one was paired with a person from their own house.

The moment that Lockhart said 'begin' chaos ensued. It took several loud bangs from both mine and Snape's wands to get everybody to stop, except for Harry and Malfoy. They continued dueling fiercely no matter how many times I let off an explosion with my wand. Snape grew tired of the noise I was making and grabbed my arm.

"They're not going to listen, might as well wait for them to get it out of their systems," he muttered as the boys continued to duke it out.

"Serpensortia!" Malfoy shouted. The snake came flying out of his wand and immediately began hissing and spitting. I couldn't help but suppress a small grin.

"Remember him, Sev?" I asked quietly. He ignored me.

"I'll get rid of it," he said instead, moving to get rid of the snake.

"No need, Professor, I can handle it," Lockhart said. He spoke some nonsense words I had never heard before and a bang went off causing the snake to go flying through the air. It landed and began charging towards some of the students. It was about to attack a second-year Hufflepuff when Harry began hissing at it. The entire hall seemed to have frozen as if petrified as Harry and the snake hissed at one another. It began backing down from the student and Harry looked up grinning at him as Snape destroyed the snake.

"Stay away from me!" the student shouted bringing the entire crowd out of the trance. Whispers began spreading through the hall at a rapid pace. Quickly, I grabbed Harry's arm and dragged him out of the hall. As I passed Hermione I muttered to her to do some damage control before the rumors got impossible to handle.

"Keena, what's wrong? What just happened?" Harry asked as soon as we were out of the hall. I didn't stop walking, but led Harry to my office.

"It appears you have a very special gift, Harry," I said. We arrived in my office a minute later and I summoned two cups.

"This must be bad," Harry muttered. I stopped rummaging through my desk for a moment to look at him. "You hate tea," he said in response to my questioning look.

"That's why we're having hot chocolate, but I could get you some tea if you want," I said. "Ha, here it is," I added, pulling out the hot chocolate packets and pouring them into the cups. "Here," I said once I had added the hot water.

"Why did Justin react like that? What gift were you talking about?" Harry asked as soon as I had sat down.

"You're a Parselmouth," I said simply. "It means you can talk to snakes. You can't learn to be one, you just are," I added. "It's very rare; most people don't like to spread the fact if you know what I mean,"

"But—but if I hadn't gotten that snake to leave Justin alone…I mean…it wanted to eat him!" he sputtered out frustrated.

"But the problem is nobody could understand what it was that you were saying. It would be like if someone came up to you and started speaking—oh I dunno, Japanese or something. Point is that you wouldn't understand a word they said, good or bad, right?" he nodded. "The people who are most famous for being a Parselmouth weren't exactly the best people in the world, which is the main reason everyone began freaking out," I added.

"Who were they?" Harry asked.

"Salazar Slytherin is the most famous, that's why the symbol is a snake." I answered.

"Great, now everyone is going to think I'm the heir aren't they?" he groaned.

"Probably, but that doesn't matter, point is you aren't related," I said shrugging. "The Slytherin line was the best known pureblood line of its time. You're mother was a muggle-born, something Slytherin wouldn't have approved of and would have been sure to pass that disapproval down his line,"

"If it was the best known line of its time then wouldn't someone have kept a close watch on it and be able to tell us who the heir is?"

"The heir could be anyone whose third cousin three times removed had a single drop of blood belonging to Slytherin. There are few families that are pureblooded that aren't related now," I answered, shaking my head. "Besides if there were any daughters their names would have been lost in marriage,"

"Oh," he said, returning to his drink. We sat there drinking our hot chocolate before Harry looked up. "I think I'm going crazy," he said bluntly.

"Where did that come from?"

"Promise you won't tell anyone? Not even Remus?" Harry said before answering me.

"I won't tell a soul," I promised.

"Okay, well I've been hearing voices," he said quietly.

"What do they say?" I asked, knowing that he probably wouldn't want to tell me.

"They…it…it's always saying that it wants to kill, that it smells blood,"

"When do you hear this voice?" I persisted.

"Not too often," he replied, shifting in his seat.

"But often enough to make you feel crazy?" I said knowingly. He nodded. "Does anybody else hear the voice?" I knew the answer was 'no' but it hardly mattered. He shook his head and sighed. "Are you sure you don't want me to tell Dumbledore? I don't know any remedies for this sort of thing, Harry," I said, looking at him with concern. He shook his head violently. "Okay, but promise me you'll come to me if you hear this voice again, especially if it makes you feel threatened,"

"Thanks, Keena," he said.

"You're my godson, there's no need to thank me. How about I walk you back to Gryffindor Tower?" he nodded and I brought him up.


The next morning at breakfast I decided to sit next to Dumbledore. He looked over at me before glancing along the table and letting out a soft chuckle.

"I'm surprised to see Gilderoy is able to walk on two legs," he said in reply to my questioning look.

"Yeah, well lucky for him he screams like a little girl. Neither Severus nor myself could bring ourselves to continue the duel after that," I replied shaking my head. "It was really disappointing,"

"So there was little excitement after that?" he guessed.

"Well, we paired the students up into groups of two so that they could practice disarming spells with one another. It would have been fine had they all been paired with students from their own houses," I said.

"We are all one school, Keena, the houses shouldn't matter," he scolded, his blue eyes twinkling madly.

"I know it shouldn't matter, but tell that to two second years who detest one another," I replied.

"Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter, then?" he asked, knowingly. I nodded.

"It got to the point where everyone else had stopped dueling and just watched those two go at one another's throats, not literally," I added at Dumbledore's look.

Before I could continue to tell Dumbledore about Harry's being a Parselmouth, the hall went eerily silent. I looked up to see what had gotten the entire hall's attention only to see Harry, Ron, Hermione and Kailey entering. Harry's head immediately dropped to the ground as they walked towards the Gryffindor table. Hermione and Kailey, I could see, were whispering something to Harry, who was giving tiny nods. Ron glared at some of the students who had edged away from where they were sitting to make room for the four of them. Once they had sat down conversation around the hall began to rise back to its normal buzzing.

"What was that all about?" Dumbledore asked, turning back to face me.

"That was what I was going to tell you next," I said, still watching Harry, whose eyes were still boring into his plate. "Harry, as well as everyone who was there, discovered that he was a Parselmouth last night. It seems that the word has spread around and apparently the blame for Mrs. Norris and Colin being petrified has been given to Harry," I shook my head and looked at my own plate.

"Did you talk to him?"

"Of course! I explained the whole thing about Parselmouths to him; just not that Voldemort was one," I said. "I also told him that he is most definitely not the heir of Slytherin,"

"You do know that there is no way of proving that?" he asked.

"Maybe, but it doesn't hurt," I said shrugging.


Later that day I was helping a couple of second year Ravenclaws learn how to put up a shield. Their herbology lesson had been canceled and they wanted to learn more about Defense.

"That one was much better," I said as the wobbly shield faded. The brown-haired Ravenclaw raised an eyebrow. "Look, I know it wasn't perfect, but it was still really--" I paused as shouts came from the hallway. Taking out my own wand I headed to the door. "Stay here," I commanded, though I could hear them following me as I raced down the corridor.

"Out of the way!" McGonagall shouted at the crowd that was up ahead, for she too had heard the disturbance. The crowd parted revealing a petrified Justin as well as Nearly Headless Nick. There were some accusing shouts before McGonagall called for silence. "Everyone, back to your classrooms immediately. Mr. Macmillan, if you would be so kind," she said, handing him a fan and pointing at Nick.

The Ravenclaws I had been helping teetered nervously behind me. "I think we're done for now, keep practicing in your spare time, but don't neglect your other studies," I said, dismissing them from the scene. Peeves began singing as the other teachers looked over Justin. "It's obvious that he's been petrified," I said, standing upright.

"You seem awfully sure," Professor Sinistra said slowly.

"Well, considering that Defense is my specialty and that I used to be an Auror, I would hope I would realize a petrified person from a dead one," I fired back before she could think to continue her accusation. "Why don't you and Filius carry him up to the Hospital?" I suggested. They nodded and carried Justin away.

"Potter, you'll come with us," McGonagall stated.

"But Professor, I swear I didn't do anything! I found them there like that," Harry began defending immediately.

"It's alright, Harry," I said, though I cast McGonagall an unsure look. Does she really think he has anything to do with the chamber?

We walked silently to Dumbledore's office and McGonagall gave the password.

"Keena, I think it best if Mr. Potter were to speak to the headmaster on his own," she said pointedly.

"Minerva, I'm his godmother," I stated firmly, receiving a look of surprise from her over using her real name. "You have no right in this matter to tell me what I can and cannot do,"

"That will be for Albus to decide," she replied before walking away.

I frowned and turned to Harry, nodding towards the waiting staircase. We headed up and knocked on the door. There was no reply so I just opened the door and led him inside. Harry looked around with wonder and I took a seat.

"Something troubling you?" a voice asked suddenly, causing me to jump out of my seat. "The both of you seem a little out of sorts," the Sorting Hat stated airily and I sat back down. "Having doubts about your house placement, eh Potter? Yes, Slytherin most certainly would have served you well," the hat folded in on itself as it nodded.

Harry glared at the hat. "I would never be a Slytherin," he said, though I could hear the worry in his voice.

The hat ignored him. "And what of you Professor….McIntosh? My, my, your past did not turn out at all as you expected it to did it? You will be most glad when this is all over, won't you? Back into a world where you are certain of its happenings. You should not have grown so accustomed to it, it will betray you,"

I did my best to ignore the hat's warnings, but found it difficult when Harry glanced at me with a quick questioning look. "Hello, Fawkes," I said, trying to get the attention off of me and onto the sickly looking phoenix.

The bird replied with a soft, melancholy hum before making its way slowly onto my lap. I stroked the soft, warm feathers for a moment before the bird fled back to its perch, bursting into flames as soon as he landed. Harry let out a cry in shock.

"What—how?" Harry spluttered.

"Ah, two visitors, I see," we both looked up to see Dumbledore coming down from a spiral staircase that led to a small tower (a few Order meetings had been held up there).

"Professor, your bird, it just—it caught fire and—and…"

"Calm yourself, my dear boy, Fawkes is a phoenix," Harry just stared. "They are terribly beautiful birds; they burst into flame when it is time to die and are reborn from the ashes. Their tears hold the most powerful healing capabilities,"

"Not to mention the music they make," I added. "What did you think happened? I gave it a pet and then cursed it?" I asked laughing a little. Harry shrugged and nodded a little. I stopped laughing. "You didn't actually fall for that crap Lockhart said, did you?" I asked seriously.

"I am sure that Harry has more sense than that," Dumbledore replied. "Now, please explain to me why Professor McGonagall felt it necessary for me to see you immediately, Harry," Dumbledore asked, seating himself behind his desk.

"Because I found Justin Finch-Fletchey and Nearly Headless Nick petrified. She must think I'm the heir—everyone else does," he said, looking at the ground.

"Do you know why everyone seems to think that?" Dumbledore pressed on.

"Because I—I don't know," Harry muttered before shaking his head and looking, if possible, even more towards the ground.

"Are you sure you don't know?" Dumbledore asked, frowning and glancing at me. "There is nothing you wish to tell me?"

Harry hesitated before shaking his head. "No, sir, nothing,"

"Keena, do you have anything to add?" Dumbledore asked, sounding hopeful. Harry looked up at me with a pleading look in his eyes.

"No, sir, I have nothing," I said, quietly.

"Very well," Dumbledore sighed. "Keep safe, Harry," Dumbledore said, dismissing him. "Keena, would you stay for a moment?"

"Go ahead, Harry, I'll see you later," I said when Harry paused at the door. Once he was gone I set a silencing charm on the room. "What would you like, sir?"

"You will inform me of anything regarding Harry?" he asked.

"Anything that I see fit, yes," I said nodding. "Is there anything else, sir?"

"Yes," he said, looking as though he were being plagued by something. "Have you come up with a way to tell Harry of your upcoming (and possibly permanent) absence yet?"

I shook my head.

"You do realize that he seems to have become quite attached, don't you? Whatever you tell him will be quite damaging to his trust in adults," Dumbledore said in a near whisper.

"Yes, I realized that," I muttered. "But he'll still have Remus," I added, trying to down play the guilt I was feeling. "What shall I tell him?"

"Perhaps that you have taken a job abroad that will make you unable to communicate for the foreseeable future," Dumbledore suggested, stroking his long beard. "Then, when you are ready, you may tell him the truth,"

"I don't know if I'll ever be ready," I admitted.

"You forget that in your fifth year as Keena, Harry paid a visit and he seemed to know who you were," Dumbledore stated, turning to look at the baby Fawkes who had just produced a loud squawk. "Regardless of what you may think now, your old friends will accept you no matter what, just as James, Remus and Lily did,"

"As did Sirius and Peter," I added. Dumbledore nodded, though I knew he had left them out on purpose. It made me wonder why he would ever come to trust Sirius or Snape for that matter. Dumbledore really is a crazy, old loony…perhaps that's why so many people trust him…

I think that that is enough for this chapter! (I didn't remeber if Sinistra was a guy or girl so I made it into a her--tell me if I'm wrong please!) Next is 29! I hope you all enjoyed and will review!

:-D