Gale spent a good amount of the following days, sequestered inside the library. Book sat in piles, forming large walls around him as he navigated the pages, hoping for some sort of information on the possible culprit behind petrifying Mrs. Norris, and recently, Colin Creevey.
He knew the others had locked onto Draco, even though there was little evidence against him. Gale understood that Draco wasn't always that nice, but he was not a Death Eater like his father, who claimed he wasn't.
Placing his fiftieth book off to the side, Gale lifted his arms up, allowing his back top pop slightly. He was stiff, and tired. Slowly he replaced his many books upon their shelves before leaving the Library.
The halls were quiet, with only a few students milling about. Gale gave those he passed a small smile, but stayed as isolated as he could. When he finally passed the entrance hall, He noticed a group near the notice board.
Curious, he moved up to see what had captured their interest.
There was new piece of parchment inviting students from all houses to join the new dueling club. Below that was the time, scheduled for that evening at eight o'clock.
Sending a cursory look over the words, Gale nodded. He was not a proficient dueler; his talents lay more in Potions and Charms, so he was definitely going to at least the first meeting, if not all of them.
Gale slipped into the Hall and sat down beside Hermione. She was alone at the table, with what appeared to be an essay spread out before her. Humming to himself, Gale pulled out his own essay and extended it out to her.
"Shall we proofread?"
Hermione sent him a relieved grin, and took his parchment. The two sat their in comfortable silence, only occasionally breaking it to ask the other questions.
They hastily tucked away their work when the others joined them for dinner.
Gale left the group, heading up to the Ravenclaw tower to check up on Alexa, Then, he hurried back down to wait outside the Great Hall.
He pulled out his journal on Lycanthropy and it's known aids, just to do something while he waited.
When a large group of students passed him, Gale took that as a sign that it was time, so he slid his book away and stood. Dusting himself off, he took a few calming breaths, it was only the first day, so it couldn't go that bad.
Entering the Hall felt like a new experience. The long house tables were no where to be seen, and a large golden stage had been set up along one wall. The large space felt cramped, as many students had come to see what the dueling club was all about.
Gale glanced around, spotting Nova with the others. He beelined straight to them.
"Do you know who's going to be running this?" He asked, conversationally.
Nova huffed, then turned to look at him.
"No." Was her curt response.
With a deep sigh, Gale tugged her closer. He leaned in and muttered quietly to her.
"What did I do?"
Nova bit her lip, "I'm being an idiot."
"What?" Gale was confused, "How does that explain why you are acting so oddly?"
"Your too nice, Gale." She snapped, "I don't understand why you are so willing to defend Malfoy when he has done nothing but bully us."
With a shake of his head, Gale responded, "He is just following what his father would do… like me."
"Your dad would run from adventure?"
"Yeah, if he could." Gale glanced back to the others, "Are we fine?"
"Yeah."
The two moved back to Harry, Ron and Hermione.
"Someone told me Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was young - maybe it'll be him." said Hermione, conversationally.
"As long as it's not -" Harry started, then cut himself off with a moan of despair.
Everyone followed his eyeline to a confident Gilderoy Lockhart, donned in deep plum robes, with Snape accompanying him.
Lockhart waved an arm, catching the chatting students' attention.
"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 below his breath.
Snape was looking peeved as always, in fact it was astonishing that Lockhart was still up there. If Snape had sent that look at any of his student's they would have fled.
The two Teachers turned to face each other, then gave a bow. Well, Lockhart gave a flourishing dip, whereas Snape jerked his head in a facsimile of a bow.
"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, causing Nova to giggle.
"One - two - three -"
Each swung their wands above their heads, before pointing them at their opponent.
Snape let out a cry of, "Expelliarmus!"
There was a blinding flash of scarlet light, and Lockhart was sent into the wall. He slid to the floor, and a large amount of the Slytherins cheered.
Hermione anxiously peered over the surrounding students, "Do you think he's all right?"
"Who cares?" said Harry and Ron in unison.
Lockhart got unsteadily to his feet. Slowly he straightened his robes, ignoring the mess of his wavy hair.
"Well, there you have it!" he said, tottering back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm - as you see, I've lost my wand - 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 . . ."
Every word that came out of Lockhart's mouth caused Snape to look more and more murderous, and Lockhart must have noticed, because he quickly changed topics.
"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 slowly moved through the crowd and partnered everyone up. Harry was forced to fight Draco, and Ron was partnered with Finnigan.
Snape turned to look at Gale and Nova, "Lupin, you will be with Mr. Goyle…"
Gale felt himself shrink, as he looked to the larger boy. He knew Crabbe and Goyle were not the best magic users, not many second years were, but they were large and willing to use their size against others.
"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 -"
Gale was quick, muttering, "Expelliarmus."
His spell sent the larger boy to the floor, less because of its power, but because of it's disorienting nature. Hesitantly, Gale took a few steps forward and offered Goyle a hand.
"Stop! Stop!"
Gale jerked, Hand snapping back. He raised his head to look towards Lockhart.
That was the wrong thing to do, as Goyle charged him, sending them to the floor. His head blossomed with pain, as his head collided with the floor of the Hall. Gale let out a startled yelp, that quickly became a moan of pain.
He struggled desperately against the Slytherin, but was unable to escape.
Suddenly, Goyle went flying across the room. Gale curled up, looking overt to see who had cast the spell. Nova was there, her wand outstretched with an angry glare directed at the offending Slytherin.
She took in a shaky inhale, then offered Gale a hand. With ease he was lifted to his feet beside her, but he stumbled into her, as his head ached. It wasn't to bad, but he would like to at least check in with Madam Pomfrey later.
Lockhart wandered out amongst the sea of chaos, helping up a few of the students.
"I think Id better teach you how to block unfriendly spells," said Lockhart, looking quite flustered. He sent a glance to Snape, "Let's have a volunteer pair - Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you -"
"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart," said Snape, gliding over to stand by Lockhart. "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." Snape's eyes swept over the hall, until they landed on Harry. "How about Malfoy and Potter?"
"Excellent idea!" Lockhart exclaimed, gesturing for the two to get on stage.
Harry sent Gale and Nova pleading looks, but followed the blonde Slytherin onto the stage. Lockhart got close to Harry and gave him some instructions, dropping his wand in the process.
"I hate him." Nova commented. Gale nodded; eyes focused entirely on Harry.
Lockhart walked away, standing on the edge of the stage, then shouted, "Three - two - one - go!"
Draco was the first to raise his wand shouting out, "Serpensortia!"
From the end of his wand sprang a long black serpent. It fell to the floor, heavily, and raised itself as if to strike. The nearby onlookers screamed, backpedaling as fast as they could.
"Don't move, Potter," Snape stated, rising with a small smirk, "I'll get rid of it..."
"Allow me!" shouted Lockhart.
Without pausing to think, Lockhart brandished his wand at the snake, causing a loud bang to erupt. Instead of vanishing, the snake was lifted about ten feet into the air then it fell back to the floor. Enraged the snake hissed, and slithered straight for the nearest student.
Harry moved forward, and loud unfamiliar hiss escaped his mouth. His hissing caused the snake to turn and regard him, no longer angered.
Harry looked to the student the snake had poised to attack.
"What do you think you're playing at?"
Gale's mouth went dry, and he glanced at his friends. They all looked surprised at Harry's new talent.
Nova bolted over to get him, while the other three went straight to the Gryffindor common room. They only had to wait a few minutes for Nova to enter, dragging along a very confused Harry. Gale patiently waited for Harry to sit down, before he jumped right in,
"You're a Parselmouth."
"I'm a what?" said Harry.
"A Parselmouth!" Ron repeated. "You can talk to snakes!"
Harry shifted, "I know, I mean, that's only the second time I've ever done it. I accidentally set a boa constrictor on my cousin Dudley at the zoo once - long story - but it was telling me it had never seen Brazil and I sort of set it free without meaning to that was before I knew I was a wizard -"
"A boa constrictor told you it had never seen Brazil?" Ron repeated faintly.
"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 gaped at him, "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. Nova was pensively staring at the burning fire, while Ron and Hermione looked terrified.
"D'you want to tell me what's wrong with stopping a massive snake biting off Justin's head?" Harry demanded. "What does it matter how I did it as long as Justin doesn't have to join the Headless Hunt?"
"It matters, because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. Nova murmured, finally looking at Harry. "That's why the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent."
"Exactly," said Ron. "And now the whole school's going to think you're his great-great-great-great-grandson or something -"
"But I'm not," Harry squeaked.
"You'll find that hard to prove," said Hermione. "He lived about a thousand years ago; for all we know, you could be."
Gale finally spoke up, "Except I'm pretty sure that the Potter line can be traced back to Godric Gryffindor." He looked to Hermione, "Heroes of the Magical World, Volume II."
"Either way, people are still going to talk." Nova said, standing. "Gale, shall we head off to bed?"
Gale hesitantly nodded, but he sent Harry a comforting look as he stood.
"Even if you were related to Salazar, blood does not determine your worth, you do." With a decisive nod, Gale linked arms with Nova and left.
As they began towards the Ravenclaw tower, his head let out a sharp pain. He winced and brought up a hand to lightly pet at the sore spot.
"Can we go to the Hospital wing instead?"
Nova's eyes went wide, then they darkened. She gave him a sharp nod but stayed quiet.
Only a day later, in the midst of Transfiguration, was there more alarms raised.
"ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAACK!"
The class stumbled to their feet, and Gale found himself shoved to the side.
He ended up stuck in the back and could barely see past the chaos in the hall. Harry was standing, eye wide just before the unmoving form of a Hufflepuff boy, and only feet away was the floating form of Nearly Headless Nick. Both had expressions of fear painted across their faces.
"Caught in the act!" Shouted a nearby Hufflepuff, pointing directly at Harry.
Nova shoved past him, to observe the scene.
"That will do, Macmillan!" said Professor McGonagall sharply. She moved forward to check out the student on the ground. While they were examining them, Peeves broke into song:
"Oh, Potter, you rotter, oh, what have you done,
You're killing off' students, you think it's good fun -"
"That's enough Peeves!" barked Professor McGonagall, Peeves zoomed away, with a farewell raspberry to Harry.
Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinistra of the Astronomy department moved the Hufflepuff student, while the other puzzled out what to do with the stiff ghost. In the end, Professor McGonagall conjured a large fan, which she gave to the accusing Hufflepuff with instructions to fan Nearly Headless Nick up the stairs. Most of the students followed those two groups, but Nova, Gale and Harry were left standing with Professor McGonagall.
"Mr. Lupin, Miss Lestrange head back to class." She turned to Harry, "This way, Potter," she said.
"Professor, I swear I didn't -" Harry tried.
"This is out of my hands, Potter," said Professor McGonagall curtly.
Nova opened her mouth as if to argue, but Gale jabbed her with his elbow.
"Don't." He hissed, quietly.
She growled, irritably, but stayed quiet as Harry and the Professor left them. Gale carefully linked arms with her, then pulled her into an unused classroom.
"We need to figure out who is doing this." Gale stated.
Nova rolled her eyes, "And we have. It's obviously Malfoy."
"Draco should be in Defense right now."
"So." Nova snapped, "We have no idea how this Slytherin horror works, for all we know he just gives it a weekly itinerary."
Gale paused; Salazar Slytherin could talk to snakes. He froze as an epiphany struck him.
"Nova, I'll be in the Library, I think I have figured it out."
He didn't let her respond, as he bolted out the door and down the hall. He raced past some Slytherins, only to be sent sprawling across the floor.
Gale simply glared, as he pushed himself back up, and walking the rest of the way to the library.
He easily navigated the shelves, looking for the book on snakes. Flipping through the pages he engulfed himself into the notes on magical serpents. He went through quite a few pages before he found the one he thought it had to be.
A Basilisk. Sure, a direct look from one of the great beasts could kill someone, but the others had only seen it though something. Mrs. Norris saw it through the water Moaning Myrtle had left. The Gryffindor boy had seen it through his camera, and the Hufflepuff had seen it through a ghost.
It even explained the spiders that Hermione had seen.
Gale let out a noise of triumph, only to be shushed by Madam Pince. He ducked his head and muttered a soft apology, then slipped his books back where they belonged.
He had to glance out the window to try and figure out the time. He nodded when he took in the evening light, and glanced down to check to make sure his books then sent a brief look back to the window.
Then Gale noticed something reflecting in the glass that made chills run down his spine. There were large golden eyes peering at him through the glass, and the dark form of a serpent.
Everything seemed to freeze, and for a brief moment he could feel himself falling, before everything went dark.