Chapter 7 – Dueling Club
The entire frenzy got the students into exchanging talismans, protective devices and what not. As far as Vergil was concerned it was useless, but as long as it calmed the panicking students down even if only a bit it wasn't too bad. It was during one of his strolls to the Great Hall that he saw Neville.
"Hey," Vergil raised his hand to a shoulder level as he grinned at the boy.
"H-Hello," Neville was still as timid as he was when they first met.
"You sure armed yourself," Vergil said as he noticed a green onion, purple crystal and a rotting newt tail.
"Everyone known I'm almost a Squib," Neville muttered, looking to the side as he did so.
"You know, if it was that easy to get protected surely some of the professors would have told us," Vergil pointed out with a good natured, though small, smile on his face.
"Well, yeah, but… you know, precaution," the boy seemed embarrassed.
"Right. Better safe than sorry," Vergil kind of had a soft spot for the boy, he wasn't sure why, he just did.
"Yeah. Say, Vergil?" Neville waited for Vergil to correct him.
Vergil realized Neville still expected him to say something like 'Leonidas, not Vergil,' or whatever similar to that. "Hmm?" the correction never came though and that gave the Gryffindor a bit of will to continue.
"Are you going to the Great Hall as well?" he asked as they passed by a group of Ravenclaw students.
"Yeah. Want to tag along?" Vergil invited him.
"I'd like that," Neville mumbled and suddenly found floor to be much more interesting.
"Loosen up a bit. Just because we're in different houses it doesn't mean I'm against talking to you," Vergil assured him.
"You mean it?" the question slightly took Vergil aback.
Why wouldn't he mean it? "Of course," he still confirmed it as they approached the Great Hall; it was already half full as students ate their breakfast.
"I'll see you later than," Neville still didn't meet Vergil's eye but the Halfling still grinned.
"Yeah," they went to their respective house tables and Vergil sat down on his usual spot next to Draco.
"Seriously Vergil, first Granger now Longbottom?" Draco immediately hissed.
"Good morning to you too. And yes, I don't see anything wrong with that," Vergil said as he poured water into his cup. He wasn't going to touch pumpkin juice, no matter how hard he tried he just didn't like the taste.
"She's a Mudblood and he's brainless," Draco expressed his thoughts on the two.
"Hermione is also my friend and Neville is a good person," that was about all Vergil felt he needed to say on the matter.
"Mate, you've got a fascination with Gryffindors and it's got to stop," Zabini commented making Vergil stop just before he brought a piece of bacon to his mouth.
Vergil rolled his eye at that. "There's life after Hogwarts, you know? What's wrong with having friends that aren't green and silver?"
Draco looked at him like he had grown a second head. "You do know they are Potter's friends, right?"
"And that Granger is a mudblood," Zabini added.
Vergil was feeling a headache slowly starting. "Don't care," he looked towards Hermione. "Especially when it comes to her, so," he turned to Draco, "do me a favor and stop insulting her for no reason."
Red eye clashed with grey eyes, for a moment those who were paying attention to the two thought a fight would break out. It was the first time Vergil openly challenged Draco about the way he insulted Hermione. The tension was slowly getting higher and it looked like Draco was searching for something in Vergil's eye.
"Why care so much about her? You are a Slytherin, that's not how you're supposed to act," Draco demanded, his voice just a tiny bit shaky, insecure and only Vergil picked it up.
Vergil reached up and touched his bandages. "I don't want to lose someone I care about ever again. So I'm going to do all I can to stop whoever is behind these attacks," he already lost his people, his father's kind, he couldn't lose someone else, not this quickly.
Tension seemed to drop a bit as silence took its place. What would follow over the next few days would be the exaggerated story of what Vergil said. Stories that went as far as saying he took his bandages of and showed them he was missing half of his face. It all remained within the Slytherin house, but the warped version of the story spread like wildfire.
Draco however never responded and Vergil never gave him any indication he wanted an answer. At that moment he just turned back to his breakfast and began eating.
~X~
Hermione's heart was racing like she just finished sprinting from King's Cross all the way to Hogwarts. This was a bad idea, a very, very bad, against the rules in more ways than she could count, idea. What if it didn't work, what if professor Snape saw her, what if someone else saw her. But who could? They'll all be distracted, right?
She stirred her potion and as subtly as she could glanced at the Slytherins. It would have to work. Surely none of them would pay attention to professor Snape's cabinet. 'All right, Hermione, remember just the bicorn horn and the boomslang skin. That's all we need. Nothing else…'
Professor Snape turned his attention to Neville and Hermione saw Harry looking at her, this was their chance. Taking a deep breath she nodded and time seemed to slow down as Harry ducked behind his cauldron. In a few seconds she would need to act. Fred's Filibuster firework fizzed and sputtered as Harry threw it right into Goyle's cauldron. The potion exploded, and Hermione took another deep breath before slipping into professor's office.
She heard professor Snape yelling at the students as she began looking around. She didn't have time, quickly scanning the room she grabbed the bicorn horn and the boomslang skin, stuffed it under her robes and sneaked out of the office. She did it. She actually did it just as about half of the class lumbered up to professor Snape's desk. Two students that were supposed to be up in the front of the row were missing. And her eyes widened in slight fear when she realized that Vergil and Draco weren't hit by the potion. 'Of course he somehow reacted in time,' Hermione closed her eyes and hoped the white haired Slytherin didn't notice her.
"If I ever find out who threw this," professor Snape whispered, but it felt like he was yelling at the top of his voice to Hermione, "I shall make sure that person is expelled," oh he was definitely going to keep that promise.
Yet no one said a thing, not even Vergil. Maybe he didn't notice her after all.
Ten minutes passed and the bell rang; for the first time in her life Hermione was glad to hear it. She got out of the classroom and quickly made her way to Myrtle's bathroom. Hastily she threw the missing ingredients into the cauldron and began stirring. It worked out, everything was fine. No one caught them, no one knew. "It'll be ready in two weeks," she was happy, not just because of how well things turned out to be but also how close the day they would know for sure who the identity of the heir of Slytherin was.
"What will?"
Her heart stopped. No way. She must be hearing things; she must be paranoid. They locked the door, right?
"Leonidas?!" Ron jumped back, nearly bumping into her and she could see Harry taking out his wand.
They didn't lock the doors.
"Hermione? What do you think you're doing? Causing mayhem in class, brewing," he paused as approached and leaned over her to look at the cauldron. "Polyjuice Potion?!"
Oh they were in so much trouble right now.
"Get out Leonidas, I'm warning you," Harry was actually pointing his wand at Vergil.
"And you better not tell anyone," Ron joined him quickly.
Vergil merely sat down next to her and looked her in the eyes. "I know you haven't gone deaf, or mute. What are you doing Hermione?" he put an emphasis on 'are' and she knew it.
"Bloody hell, he's acting like we're not even here!" Ron complained and she vaguely heard Harry agreeing with him.
Hermione looked Vergil in the eye, that cold red eye. He was sitting cross-legged, slightly hunched forward with his hands resting limply on his legs. He was more curious than anything. "You saw me?"
Vergil nodded. "I also saw Potter throwing that thing in Goyle's cauldron."
"No way he's telling the truth!" Ron accused though it really looked like his words were just bouncing off of Vergil. "You could have told Snape and get us into trouble if you really saw it!"
"Ron's right, you're Malfoy's best friend," Harry added, though with just as much accusation he didn't raise his voice.
Vergil just kept looking at her though. "I guess you have a good reason to do it. I'd rather hear it from you before I decide what to do."
It made sense, at least to Hermione. "We want to know who is threatening the Muggleborns," she just said it, plain and simple and Vergil nodded.
"So you figured you could use Polyjuice Potion to transform into someone and get information?" he guessed it, but that much was obvious given the potion in front of her.
"We did. Until you walked in ruining everything," Harry leaned against the wall, huffing, annoyed that there was probably nothing they could do to stop Vergil from telling someone.
"Hermione think of something, something to wipe his memories or I don't know keep his mouth shut," Ron suggested and while Hermione was aware of some memory charms she knew they were completely at Vergil's mercy here.
Vergil however, just looked at the potion. "You know, if Snape wasn't so prejudiced against you we probably would be taking extra potions together. You did a good job."
Despite the situation Hermione blushed a bit at the praise. After all, Vergil was the only student she accepted was better than her at potions. "It was very difficult and it's the most complex potion I've ever seen, of course, but we need it."
Vergil turned his attention back to her. "You're wasting time. The heir isn't someone from Slytherin house."
The words struck her, and she was sure Harry and Ron as well, like lightning. "What?" all three of them said at nearly the same time.
"Draco was digging around; he wants to help the heir of Slytherin 'purge the school' or something; damn fool has no idea what he's talking about," he stood up and went to the doors. "Whoever he talked to doesn't know a thing. The only thing we know is that it was opened before and it was fifty years ago. Lucius Malfoy knows and that's it, no one else as far as I'm aware."
Hermione was stunned, not even sure how to process what was going on.
"How do we know you aren't lying?" Harry demanded and for the first time Vergil actually looked him in the eyes.
"Because whoever is behind these attacks is doing a wrong thing and because," he glanced back at Hermione, "there's someone I care about that's in danger. So keep your head low, forget the potion and I'll try to get you some information."
Vergil just walked out. He closed the door behind him and left them.
"There's no way he's telling the truth, right?" Ron questioned and it was obvious he was asking her. "Since when are you two even close to begin with?"
"Since the beginning," Harry noticed it, he always noticed. Ron didn't but it didn't stop Harry from noticing. "He's still Malfoy's best friend."
Hermione stood up. "He's also my friend. I, I think he is saying the truth. Vergil is blunt, a bit rude, but he's honest," she explained.
"Yeah, an honest Slytherin, that'll be a miracle," Ron muttered into his chin and Hermione pretended she didn't hear it.
"I'll still finish the potion, better safe than sorry," she decided, though she did have some faith in Vergil to get the information needed.
~X~
Get the information? That was easier said than done. No one knew anything, absolutely no one that would actually tell him anything. So despite what Vergil promised less than half an hour ago he really had no idea where to start.
He opened the curtains on his bed and sat down on it. Where could he go next? Students were about as useful as a broken flashlight. Snape? No way he would say anything. Dumbledore? That was even less plausible. But surely they knew, after all how many creatures could actually petrify people and animals? Dumbledore especially had to know what was behind the attacks, he was a teacher back when it was opened fifty years ago.
"It's not like the old bastard is going to just tell me a story about it," Vergil muttered into his chin and sighed. Lucius also knew, but how to get to him?
"Hey," Draco's voice nearly made Vergil jump out of his skin. Immediately upon noticing Vergil's startled reaction Draco laughed.
"Hey?" Vergil raised an eyebrow and then realized it wasn't exactly having a desired effect if his other eyebrow was behind his bandages.
Draco sat down on his bed, right in front of Vergil. "Thanks for today, for looking out for me," Draco grinned though it was a bit too obvious that he wanted to talk about something else.
"Don't mention it," Vergil grinned back, not really feeling like forcing Draco to get to the real point of their talk.
Though, it seemed like Draco wasn't going to beat around the bush. If the way he swallowed the lump that formed in his throat was any indication. "Say, Vergil, mind if I ask you something?"
"Of course I don't, we're friends, you can ask me anything," Vergil assured him.
"Why don't you know whether your parents were wizards?" there were so many times Draco could have asked that and Vergil knew the boy was curious about it. He never asked though, he figured it was probably a sensitive subject and Vergil wasn't exactly an open book as far as his past was concerned.
Vergil's face remained fairly blank, there was no indication of any negative emotion, no anger, or even sorrow, that one he knew how to keep to himself for the most part. "I didn't get to spend much time with my mother. Never got a chance to ask, really. As for Acharon, the damn provider of half of my genes, well, he's definitely not a wizard."
Draco looked a bit taken aback by the words Vergil used to describe Acharon, but he quickly figured that wasn't something Vergil would talk about just yet. "You lost your mom?"
Vergil nodded, not trusting his voice to say it calmly.
"Anyone else?" Draco asked, almost timidly, almost like he was afraid to ask.
Vergil looked up, towards the lake and sighed. "I came from a war-torn place. War… took everyone I cared about, family I had left, my friends," his voice trembled as he said the last few words and he just kept his mouth shut, not really used to talking about it.
"Sorry," Draco mumbled, clearly not used to these kinds of situations.
Vergil offered him a weak smile. "Don't be," his voice was low, barely louder than a whisper and he took a slow, deep breath.
"Come with me when the holidays start. Father knows about the Chamber; we'll get him to tell us," Draco suddenly said and Vergil's eye widened.
"You hate muggleborns, why would you even offer something like that?" to say that Vergil was surprised would have been an understatement of the decade.
Draco sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, not really comfortable with how things were going. "You care about that Mudblood for some reason. I don't agree with it, but we stick together," Slytherins stick together, that's something Draco told Vergil and here it was, being proven in practice to him. "But don't say you want to stop it."
Vergil chuckled. "Don't worry about that," he grinned, feeling surprisingly happy. "Hey, Draco, I owe you one."
Draco smirked, clearly he understood that whatever weight was formed by the topic of their conversation disappeared. "Of course you do."
~X~
A week passed without anything significant happening and things were starting to fall back into the usual routine with the addition of threat of being petrified looming in the air.
"Dueling Club?" Vergil repeated once Zabini told him what he read.
"Right. The first meeting is tonight. Will you go?" Zabini asked him.
"It could be interesting to see, as long as it's not the most competent professor of all times teaching us," Vergil smirked, though he had a bad feeling he might just be jinxing himself with that hope.
~X~
At eight o'clock he entered the Great Hall, which now looked quite different, a golden stage that went along one wall was lit by thousands of candles floating overhead. Most of the school seemed to be present as well and they all carried their wands.
That was the moment Vergil should have learnt how to keep his mouth shut. As the one who entered the hall with intention to teach them was none other than Lockhart.
The fact that Snape was also there eased Vergil's mind a bit, this wouldn't be a complete waste of time.
Lockhart waved an arm for silence. "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," he boasted to the students, how he still had students that believed him was beyond Vergil's brain capabilities.
"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," Lockhart flashed them 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!"
"Like you stand a chance," Vergil felt oddly frustrated. He did relax a bit when he saw the way Snape looked at Lockhart, a knowing smirk appeared on Cambion's face. With Snape looking like that anyone sane or at least somewhat observant would at least seek shelter preferably at least as far as the dark side of the Moon.
"This is ridiculous," Draco muttered and Zabini wholeheartedly agreed.
Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and Lockhart bowed; Snape just 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."
Snape bared his teeth, clearly annoyed by the man in front of him.
"One, two, three…"
The two swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at one another.
Snape was the first to make a move. "Expelliarmus!" a dazzling flash of scarlet light hit Lockhart and blasted him off his feet. The man flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, slid down and sprawled on the floor.
"All right!" Vergil couldn't suppress his cheer as he grinned at Snape. He wasn't the only one, his fellow Slytherins were cheering as well.
Lockhart unfortunately began getting up. The absence of his hat and the wavy hair standing on end was a bit of a satisfaction though.
He tottered back to the platform. "Well, there you have it! That was a Disarming Charm, as you see, I've lost my wand," He received it back from one of the Gryffindor females. "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…" he probably stopped because of the murderous look on Snape's face.
Although a menacing red eye that promised pain near Snape probably added a bit of sweat. How could a child have that much killing intent in his eye was beyond Lockhart.
"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," Lockhart requested and began teaming up students.
"See you later, I'm going to go closer to Potter," Draco told them and went over to the other side.
Snape paired up Weasley with Finningan, Potter with Draco and Hermione with Bulstrode. He then proceeded to approach Vergil who was standing near Zabini. "Leonidas, Zabini," that was all he needed to say and the two boys grinned at one another.
"Don't go crazy," Zabini teased.
"Right back at you." Vergil's grin turned into a smirk.
"Face your partners!" called Lockhart who was back on the platform. "And bow!"
Vergil and Zabini bowed to one another.
"Wands at the ready! 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!" Lockhart instructed.
"Expelliarmus!" Vergil was the first one to act, only a few milliseconds earlier than Zabini.
"Expelliarmus!" Zabini cried out and the two spells collided.
Vergil stood, wide open.
"I told you not to go crazy. Expelliarmus! Not to underestimate me," Zabini reminded him, the spell ricocheted toward Vergil, assuring Zabini that he had won.
Yet the white haired boy jumped to the side just in the nick of time. "I never underestimate my opponents," Vergil assured him, skidding rapidly from side to side, catching the fellow Slytherin off guard by the quick movement. "Expelliarmus!" the spell hit Zabini and sent him flying back.
The boy fell down and coughed a bit as he tried to catch his breath.
"Power is useless if you don't know how to use it," Vergil walked up to him and offered his hand.
"Are you sure you weren't going crazy?" Zabini smirked at him.
"Maybe a bit," Vergil turned to look around them, most duels were also over. He shook his head slightly when he saw Bulstrode having Hermione in a headlock. The bushy haired Gryffindor was clearly whimpering in pain. 'Oh, hell no.'
"All right, cut it out Bulstrode," Vergil put a stop to the headlock before the girl could do any damage and pulled her off. He wasn't too rough, but he wasn't gentle either.
Hermione coughed as she slowly got back up and Potter ran up to her.
"Are you okay?" Potter asked her.
"Y-Yes. Thank you," Hermione turned to Vergil with a smile on her face.
"Anytime," Vergil grinned and went back to the where he was beforehand.
"I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells," Lockhart, who was standing flustered in the midst of the hall said. Looking at Snape he saw that the man's black eyes glinted, thus he quickly looked away. "Let's have a volunteer pair; Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you-"
"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart." Snape interrupted him. "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. How about Leonidas and Potter?" suggested Snape with a bit of a not so pleasent smile on his face.
"Excellent idea!" agreed Lockhart. He proceeded to gesture Vergil and Potter into the middle of the hall as the crowd backed away to give them enough space.
Vergil grinned at Snape. "You really want me to knock Potter down, don't you?" he guessed and Snape merely smirked a bit.
"Wouldn't cross my mind," he replied though it was dripping with so much sarcasm Vergil was tempted to look at the floor to see if it got wet.
"Right, of course," Vergil played along. "So, how serious do you want me to take it?"
Snape's smirk widened a bit. "As humanly serious as possible."
Well that gave him an answer he needed, as long as he wasn't using his devil powers everything was fair game.
"Scared Potter?!" Draco shouted from the crowd, clearly loving the idea of Vergil beating Potter just as much as Snape did.
"Of your lackey? You wish," Potter's words caused a bit of a gasp from some students.
'All right, now he made it personal,' Vergil smirked wickedly. "Mind repeating that, Potter?" Vergil's tone promised a duel with no mercy. If there was even a small part of him that wanted to go easy it vanished into thin air.
"Professor, could you show me that blocking thing again?" Potter whispered, unaware that Vergil could still hear him, it looked like there was a bit of worry after all.
Lockhart just patted Potter on the shoulder. "Just do what I did, Harry!"
"What, drop my wand?"
Vergil had to smirk at that, it was a nice burn, one that Lockhart probably didn't even register, but it was nice one none the less.
"Three — two — one — go!" Lockhart shouted.
And go they did, or at least Vergil did. "Aguamenti," he pointed his wand at the floor in front of water and a jet of water made a moderately sized puddle.
Potter raised an eyebrow, not sure what that was for. "Expelliarmus!" Potter went for a quick finish.
As he did with Zabini, Vergil jumped to the side. "Flipendo!" Potter dodged as quickly as he could and Vergil smirked, if only a bit. "Carpe Retractum!" a rope tied itself around Potter's right arm and Vergil pulled him forward. Right into the puddle. "Glacius!" he quickly froze the water making Potter slip and stumble forward much to the amusement of the present Slytherins.
"Harry!" Vergil heard Hermione and Weasley shouting, obviously worried.
Potter regained his balance, and pointed his wand at Vergil. "Immobulus!"
"Finite," Vergil flicked his wand, terminating all spell effects in his vicinity. Including Potter's spell. "That's not the kind of spell you should just throw out randomly, Potter," Vergil began walking forward, just casually making his way towards his opponent. "How about you give up?"
Potter narrowed his eyes, gripped his wand a bit tighter and stood his ground. "Never!"
Vergil smirked, he had to give it to Potter, he didn't know when to quit. "Well then-" he raised his wand up in the air.
"Vergil stop!" Gemma shouted from the crowd and Vergil's eyes widened. It was the first time she spoke to him and he looked to his left, to where she was standing. "You're stronger so just cut it out, that's enough," her voice was firm.
Vergil lowered his wand. "It's a duel, Gemma. He didn't give up," Vergil argued, more fueled by Potter's comment than anything else.
And if his arguments weren't enough Potter chose that exact moment to speak up as well. "We aren't done, come on," he actually challenged Vergil, dared him to continue.
"Harry, don't! Vergil, please, at least take it easy!" Hermione's shout reached them both, but it only fueled Potter's determination to keep fighting, to not lose against Vergil.
Potter took a step back and looked around himself. "Fumos!" he formed smoke around himself and moved as it began spreading.
Vergil closed his eye and waited, wand ready, more importantly he was ready to jump out of the way.
"Rictusempra!" Potter's voice came from his left, the side he could see it coming from if his eye was open.
Instead of countering the spell, Vergil jumped back, avoiding the impact and skidding across the floor. "Diffindo!" he sent the slashing spell towards Potter, his eye opened again now that the smoke from Fumos was disappearing. Potter rolled to the side and left the remaining smoke.
"Expelliarmus!" Potter tried again.
"Verdimillious!" green lightning collided with Potter's spell and the air cracked slightly as a few sparks nearly reached Potter. At the moment Vergil's spells were just a bit stronger. It still forced Potter to halt in his advances and gave Vergil just enough chance to land a solid hit. "Everte Statum!" Potter was pushed through the air and landed on his back.
Vergil walked over to Potter and pointed a wand up. "Incendio," a small torrent of fire came out of his wand. "This could have been pointed at you, guess you lost this one," Vergil said.
Slytherins cheered but other houses weren't so happy about the outcome. As the cheers got swallowed by whistles and other sounds of protest Vergil put his wand away and walked out. His eye quickly met with Hermione's and he could see she wasn't happy with him.
Aside from a bit of pain Potter would be fine in a matter of minutes. This was a duel and he wasn't going to hold back, no matter what.
And that's chapter 7. Slowly but surely we're approaching the end of the second book. There are a few more things to deal with but we're getting there. Now, there are a few elephants in the room in this chapter, I do have a reasoning for what I did, but I would really like to hear your thoughts on what happened in this chapter before I try to explain myself.
Answers on reviews:
Badger12 – Well, this one definitely got out quicker than the previous one.
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PinkFluffySoftijs – That's definitely a bit of a coincidence, but I guess it was about time.
Guest – Thank you.
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