It's OK, Omega is here! So. . . Been a while, huh? Right off the bat, I want to apologize for my sudden absense. I took that time to work on my actual novel that I'm hoping to get published soon. A lot of stuff I've read says you need to take at least a week between writing your book and editing it, so this is what I'm doing in the mean time. Probably going to get another chapter in the next few days.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
-OK-
Harry was having a very nice day, he really was. No petrification, no annoying Heir of Slytherin appearances, and no pop-up quizzes. Everything was just great. . . until this idiot showed up.
"Welcome, dear students, to Dueling 101 led by yours truly, Gilderoy Lockhart!"
Lockhart stood before all the second-year students, smiling like a moron. Harry had to give credit to whoever fixed his hair and teeth, they did good work. It's like Harry's conversation with him had never happened. Seeing Lockhart jump at his own shadow said otherwise.
"With all this unpleasantness going around the castle, it's high time you learn how to properly defend yourself. Now, you can't all whip out a pineapple and two coconuts then defeat a giant sea monster, like I did in my book, Cracking With the Kraken. But! I can teach you the finer points of dueling, along with my associate here, Professor Snape!"
Snape glared at the man like he was two-week-old gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe. For once, Harry agreed with the greasy bat.
"This is such a waste of time," Hermione said. Her arms were crossed and her hair looked especially poofy that day.
"Oh my, Hermione Granger calling a mandatory class a waste of time, I thought I'd never see the day!" Harry covered his mouth with his hands in faux-shock.
She glared at him. "I can and will throw you out a window, Potter."
Neville smiled and watched the two bicker at each other. Knowing that nothing would come from their threats. He does tap them on the shoulder once Snape and Lockhart get onto the dueling platform. Something told him that they wouldn't want to miss this.
Lockhart started babbling on about proper dueling etiquette. All the while wearing a horrendous purple outfit that Harry wouldn't steal on a dare.
"And begin!"
"Expelliarmus!" One second is all it takes for Snape to whip his wand out and blast Lockhart in the chest. The DADA teacher went flying, much to the joy of all the gathered students.
"I would have thought his hair would cushion the fall," Harry remarked with a smirk. "So much gel in there it could double as an airbag."
Once Lockhart got back on his feet, all the students were separated into one-on-one duels.
Hermione was paired up with Maleficent Bulstrode from Slytherin. Two years ago, Hermione would have recoiled at the thought of dueling a girl the size of Maleficent. But, after three-headed dogs and giant trolls, Hermione cracked her knuckles and glared.
They put Neville up against Blaise Zabini, the Italian boy with the black widow mother. Neville never had any problems with Zabini. He was one of the few Slytherins who didn't bother with mocking the other houses. Neville could respect that.
Finally, there was Harry and Draco, right in the middle of the room, wands in hand.
"Scared, Potter?" Draco asked, which was Draco-Speak for 'Want to have some fun?'
"Why would I be?" Harry returns, shifting his hat lower over his face. Harry-speak for 'Always.'
They squared off from each other. Lockhart's rule about only using disarming spells going over their heads completely. Smooth Criminal and S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W appeared over their users, ready and waiting.
"Begin!"
"Descendo!"
"Engorgio!"
Right off the bat, Harry and Draco fired off spells that were not definitely Expelliarmus. Both spells missed as the boys dodged at the same moment they attacked. The spells weren't important anyway. What was important was the invisible battle happening over their heads.
"Tor-RuRuRuRuRu!" Smooth Criminal's barrage of punches flew past Draco's Stand. It bent and twisted in ways that a human shouldn't be able to.
S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W bent over backward and moved between its own legs to slash at Smooth Criminal. It couldn't back away in time and Harry's robe had three new tears in its sleeve.
Harry and Draco's Stands separated. Their users grinned at each other, sweat already forming on their foreheads. The stuttering interjections of Lockhart went unheard by either of them.
They used spells and dodged around the arena to keep up appearances, but the real battle went unseen. Smooth Criminal and S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W slashed and punched at each other with wild abandon. Of course, since S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W didn't have access to its main weapon source, Smooth Criminal held back a little bit.
"Serpensortia!" Draco jabbed his wand in Harry's direction and out came a full-grown python. Hissing and scuttling its way towards Harry.
Half the hall stopped in their tracks, absolutely frozen. . . Except for one, Harry James Potter.
"Well, aren't you just one of the absolute cutest things," he said, cooing at the slithering animal. The second half of the hall froze once Harry started hissing at it. "What's your name, sweetheart?"
The snake tilted its head like a confused puppy. "Cecilia. . . Where am I?"
"You're in Hogwarts. Awww, come here." Harry opened his arms and the little snake slid right in. "The little blond jerk over there took you far away from home, huh?"
Cecilia nodded, enjoying the warmth of her new friend.
"Potter, please release the snake, so that I may get rid of it," Snape said, raising his wand.
Smooth Criminal appeared and Harry narrowed his eyes. "Define getting rid of it?"
"I will send it back to where it came from." Snape didn't know why he was answering Potter. It's not like Potter's childish glare did anything to affect him.
"The greasy man will send you home, okay?" Cecilia flicked her tongue out, then nodded.
Harry set her down on the floor and allowed Snape to send his new friend away.
"Well," Lockhart said, looking even more foolish than normal, "I think this is a perfect time to end class for the day. Ta-ta, students, have a lovely afternoon, goodbye!"
Before anyone could say a word, Hermione and Neville snatched Harry off the stage and ran away. None of the three noticed a pair of golden eyes glaring at them from the crowd.
Out in the hallway, Harry's friends rounded on him.
"You're a parseltongue!?"
"Why didn't you tell us!?"
Harry looked between the two of them with an eyebrow askew. "What are you two talking about?"
"You were talking to the snake, Harry, and not in English," Hermione said, eyes wide and frantic.
"Is that not something most people can do?" Harry remembered having chats with the garden snakes at Number Four Privet Drive. He considered them in the same vein of dogs and cats; cute pets.
". . . It's something Salazar Slytherin could do, as well as Voldemort. It's not something people like to talk about." Neville rubbed his arm, looking awkwardly off to the side.
"Huh. . . Something tells me this won't end well for me," Harry said.
Hermione and Neville couldn't find a reason to argue that.
-OK-
By the end of the day, the 'Harry Potter is the Heir of Slytherin' rumors were in full swing. Harry felt conflicted about the whole situation. On the one hand, seeing idiots jump over themselves to run away from him was very entertaining. On the other, everyone was staring, all the time.
All that attention made Harry's skin crawl.
Harry left the great hall early during dinner, hoping they'd all stay away from him for a little while. With the extra time, Harry decided on taking a walk through the castle. It'd been a while since he'd explored its winding halls.
His wanderings led him to a random corner of the castle. Near the bathroom, Hermione said she was brewing the mandrake potion. The sound of voices, or rather one voice, drew Harry closer.
"Tom, no! I don't want to do this anymore. . ." Harry thought it sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place a name to it.
"Come now, I can promise that it will all be worth it in the end, my dear." The voice changed, turning cold as ice yet also smooth as butter.
"Please, I just want it to stop. . ." She, whoever she was, sounded on the edge of tears. Harry picked up his pace towards the voice.
"It will stop soon enough, I can promise you that."
Harry stepped closer to where the voices were coming from. Right at the entrance to the abandoned bathroom. Gryffindor robes and a head of bright red hair greeted him there. The youngest Weasley, Harry realized, holding a pitch-black journal in her left hand.
"Hello there," Harry said.
Ginny jolted and shoved the journal deep into the folds of her robes. She turned around and flashed a smile that Harry could tell was fake.
"He-hey, Harry. . ." Her face turned a particularly bright color of red. Harry raised one eyebrow above the other. People don't actually stutter like that.
"You know, if I had a pound for every time I've heard someone lose an argument with themself, then I'd have three pounds." Harry laughed, watching as Ginny's expression morphed from blushing adoration to blazing anger. "Which isn't much I know, but I'm just shocked it's happened more than once, you know?"
"Didn't your mother tell you not to eavesdrop on people?"
Harry tipped his hat up, eyes wide. "Wow. . . Now that is a low blow. Didn't know you had it in you, Weasley."
"There are a lot of things you don't know about me," she said.
"Can't wait to find out." Harry dipped his hat back down, covering his eyes, but not his smirk.
Ginny shoved past him, despite the excess of room in the hall. Leaving Harry alone outside the girl's bathroom. He waited a moment or two, listening to Ginny's footsteps echoing off the stone floor, then he left.
"I need to find Hermione and Neville," Harry said. "I think we've got our first suspect."
-OK-
I just want to take this time to tell everyone to stay safe and healthy in this shit show that's going on nowadays. Keep your hands clean!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and I will see you all next time, OK is out!
