A/N: None here.
Disclaimer: Harry doesn't belong to me, blah, blah, blah. I only own Amelia, Ebony-Crested Dragon snakes, Silecia, Mithra, and any and all Dark Woods harps, along with anything else you don't recognize from the books. Oh, and I do use some of the same techniques Rowling uses with some fun lines I always enjoyed, so please don't sue me! I need all the money I can get for my student ambassador trip!
Parseltongue will be "~...~"
Chapter 25: Dueling Club Disasters
-------------------------------------------
"Hey, Ginny? Could you help me with this?" asked the fellow first year Ravenclaw Obsidian Trentworth. Ginny looked up from where she had been reading on the couch and walked over to where he was sitting. It was a lazy Tuesday afternoon; classes were done, and she had quickly finished her homework.
"What do you need help on?" she asked. From what she knew of Obsidian, the blonde-haired boy had never needed help with anything. Not that they had really sat down and had a conversation; merely an observation. In fact, no one really knew anything about him since he kept to himself so much.
"I was wondering if you would be willing to help me with this potion?" he said, and pushed the book between them on the desk so she could see. It looked extremely complicated, this Polyjuice Potion, and extremely dangerous. She looked into mischevious grey eyes and frowned slightly.
"Why do you want my help, and why are you brewing this anyway?"
He looked towards the fireplace and around the empty common room, checking for any listeners. Of course, he was being paranois for no reason. The Ravenclaw common room was almost always empty or close to it, as most preferred to work in the library. He then turned back to his red-haired fellow and whispered, "I'm brewing this to see if that Harry Potter is that Heir of Slytherin from what was written on the wall at Halloween. I'm asking you because you're better at potions than me, and you know a bit about Harry's friends. What do you say? Are you in?"
--------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, a certain house founder was sulking around the darkened corridors of his old school, keeping to the shadows.
He was in an extremely bad mood. For the last week, his 'friend' (*humph!*) had forced him to search the school by night for the entrance to what he had dubbed "The Chamber of Secrets".
'Well, apparently it caught on, now didn't it?' he grinned, walking along an abandoned hallway in a forgotten part of the school. Or rather, it simply didn't have any use to the school anymore and had therefore been sealed off with a portrait. Lucky for Salazar, the portrait had been of one of his beloved snakes of long ago which upon hearing its old master again, gladly admitted him.
He looked around the large open space in front of him. This vast outside place had once been the training area, where older students could come and practice their magic for defence against aggressors. Of course, back then they had needed it. The world was a much more dangerous place then. Maybe the reason he had exiled himself so long from the world was because he couldn't stand the way it had progressed. Wizards nowadays relied completely on their wands. Wands were fine, and he did miss his own, but oh, what he would give to have his old athame back...
But of course Harry had it. Harry just thought it had been a gift from Blaise for his birthday, not to be taken as a magic tool but as a physical one. He was fine with that, but he wished Silecia would let him teach the boy how to properly use it. After all, any heir of theirs should learn the true power of the athame. Perhaps... yes, that IS coming up soon... maybe he could just meddle a little... and Silecia would never need to know until afterwards... and it _would_ be a good excuse for them to reveal themselves.
Grinning slightly to himself, Salazar left to explore a different path before he rambled more.
------------------------------------------------
"Potter! Pay attention!"
Harry sighed in annoyance as McGonagall came striding up to him from across the classroom. She stared down at him with glaring eyes, while Harry just met her gaze with his own even one.
"Is there a reason why you happen to not be paying attention to the lesson at hand?" she growled, while the Gryffindors just sniggered from behind their head of house. Only Hermione seemed to look disapproving of their behaviour. Draco grinned from beside Harry and his friend said quite simply, "Actually, their are two reasons I'm not paying attention, _professor_."
"And what would those be, Mr Potter?"
Twirling his raven feather quill, he continued, "Well, the first is because the Dueling Club's first meeting is tonight and I'm looking forward to stretching my magic muscles a bit. Secondly, because I've already learned the second year Tarnsfiguration course material outside of class, thanks to Lord Voldemort."
"Really, Mr Potter? You'd be willing to take the end of year tests then if I were to give it to you right now, then?" she said, not honestly expecting any sort of serious reply.
Harry looked up at her again and nodded, quite seriously. Slightly taken aback but not one to back down, she went back to her desk and brought back a few minutes later a large stack of parchment full of questions. She crossed her arms and said, "You may begin your test. You have two hours. Any questions?"
"Just one."
"What is is?"
"If I pass, will this become a free period for me?" he asked innocently, while the Slytherions laughed and the Gryffindors whispered. McGonagall continued, however, looking angrier than most had ever seen her.
"I suppose it would," she said and leaving Harry, who had begun filling out questions in rapid succession, she went back to teaching the class.
-
The end of class had come two hours later, and the Dark Heir was just finishing off the last question as his professor walked up in front of his desk, every eye in the room on the pair of them. Harry stacked the parchment neatly and handed them to McGonagall. She read through the pages, and from the students' perspective, she seemed to get more frustrated with every answer. Finally she turned to him, not meeting his eye.
"It looks like you needn't come here anymore, Potter. Run along, all of you."
And she left the classroom in a hurry as the Slytherins all cheered and whooped. Even Hermioine came over to let him know she wasn't giving up just yet on beating him in classes (good-naturedly of course). Blaise just pulled Draco and Harry out for dinner before they were late. After all, they wanted to be completely ready for tonight's Dueling Club.
------------------------------------------
"That's showing him, Professor!" yelled Harry, as he, Draco, Blaise, and Ginny cheered after watching their potions professor violently disarm that git Lockhart. The only person in their group that seemed to be worried about the blonde-haired professor was Hermione. Ginny's little friend Obsidian Trentworth who had come with her didn't voice a single thought on the matter.
"You know as well as I do he didn't need to put that much power behind a simple Expelliarmus," she grumbled, but the others ignored her. She had seemed a bit off all night.
"Now, we will be coming through the crowd and partnering up individuals to practice the Disarming spell," grinned the stupid idiot (a.k.a. Professor Lockhart), and he and Severus fanned out, pairing the most unlikely people together. Severus tried to reach Harry's party first, but unfortunately Lockhart caught them.
"Well, hello there! Let's see. Miss Zabini and Miss Weasley together, and Mr Malfoy and Mr Trentworth!" said the DADA professor. Hermione and Harry stepped together, but again the professor intervened.
"No, no! Miss Granger, over there with Mr Weasley. Mr Longbottom, you'll be paired up with Mr Potter!" Longbottom and Harry gave eachother looks of loathing while the rest of the students were dealt with. Finally, Severus got everyone's attention and he called, "You will now face your partners, performing all proper dueling procedures on your own, and aim to disarm on three. One!"
Harry and his partner bowed, and Harry grinned most cruelly at Longbottom when they righted themselves. This would be fun.
"Two!"
Wands were brought to their proper stance positions. Neville was slightly unnerved by the murderous look on Potter's face, but he would prove his father proud.
"Three!"
Before anyone could even move their wands, Harry had already shouted, "Caecus!" He grinned as he saw his opponent confused by being blinded so suddenly, and he was just about to do something a bit more interesting when a spell from his right came shooting by. Looking around the room, all the Gryffindors, excluding Hermione, were gathering in a circle around him, wands pointed directly at him, the rest of the Great Hall's occupants a writhing mass of bodies and spells. The two professors were shouting for everyone to stop at once, but they were ineffective. Ron closed in near the front.
"So, Potter, what are you going to do now? Surely You-Know-Who taught you something?" he sneered, and the rest snickered.
This was the opportunity Salazar had been waiting for, as he watched from above in the rafters, feet firmly planted, standing tall, arms crossed.
"Now, young heir, now is the time! Let your power awaken and summon magics unimaginable to them!" he whispered. He began reciting in the ancient Latin the incantation needed, growing louder and louder.
Meanwhile below, Harry became distracted which was a dangerous thing at the moment. Buying some time, he put up a shield around himself and looked for the source of that... familiar force. He closed his eyes and reopened them very slowly and deliberately, this action summoning the second field of vision. He locked shimmering eyes with the pair of violet ones of the figure in the rafters.
"There!" shouted Salazar, his eyes locked to the other's, the incantation now able to take effect. All around him, the illusionary sky began to draw together deep violet, silver, green, and red clouds. The entirety of the hall gazed on in trepidation and outright fear, stopped mid-motion, as deep thunder claps started sounding off as Salazar's Latin echoed through the room louder and louder. Finally, all the clouds let off a torrent of black lightning, all of which struck the Dark Heir at the same precise time...
---------------------------------------
A/N: I don't even know where to begin apologizing. Sorry the chapter's a bit short. It seemed a good place to stop. Otherwise it would be _very_ long, and it's a good place for an evil cliffie. I've had the worst case of writer's block ever since midterms ended. It hasn't helped that in the past week and a half, I've become a frickin' insomniac and not of free will. Not being able to get slep kills one's intelligence/writing factor, at least an extended period of it for me personally. Teachers haven't been giving anyone a break, either.
This chapter is dedicated to Shorty, whom everyone should thank. Thanks to her repeated insults and threats everyday and having to put up with constant questioning, I've finally been able to write again. Thank you, Lady Arkose (a.k.a. you, Shorty)!
I didn't think I'd get so much feedback on the idea of the spinoff. I tried writing the first chapter, and I've come to my decision. The spinoff will be posted after this one is done. The first chapter sucked because I had to explain what happened to everyone, and it became very awkward and boring.
Review responses:
Forgive me, everyone. I am so sleepy, and there are so many reviews, I must beg you to let me get off of answering reviews this chapter. I know, I'm a jerk, I'm sorry.
(January 17- February 3, 2004)
Disclaimer: Harry doesn't belong to me, blah, blah, blah. I only own Amelia, Ebony-Crested Dragon snakes, Silecia, Mithra, and any and all Dark Woods harps, along with anything else you don't recognize from the books. Oh, and I do use some of the same techniques Rowling uses with some fun lines I always enjoyed, so please don't sue me! I need all the money I can get for my student ambassador trip!
Parseltongue will be "~...~"
Chapter 25: Dueling Club Disasters
-------------------------------------------
"Hey, Ginny? Could you help me with this?" asked the fellow first year Ravenclaw Obsidian Trentworth. Ginny looked up from where she had been reading on the couch and walked over to where he was sitting. It was a lazy Tuesday afternoon; classes were done, and she had quickly finished her homework.
"What do you need help on?" she asked. From what she knew of Obsidian, the blonde-haired boy had never needed help with anything. Not that they had really sat down and had a conversation; merely an observation. In fact, no one really knew anything about him since he kept to himself so much.
"I was wondering if you would be willing to help me with this potion?" he said, and pushed the book between them on the desk so she could see. It looked extremely complicated, this Polyjuice Potion, and extremely dangerous. She looked into mischevious grey eyes and frowned slightly.
"Why do you want my help, and why are you brewing this anyway?"
He looked towards the fireplace and around the empty common room, checking for any listeners. Of course, he was being paranois for no reason. The Ravenclaw common room was almost always empty or close to it, as most preferred to work in the library. He then turned back to his red-haired fellow and whispered, "I'm brewing this to see if that Harry Potter is that Heir of Slytherin from what was written on the wall at Halloween. I'm asking you because you're better at potions than me, and you know a bit about Harry's friends. What do you say? Are you in?"
--------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, a certain house founder was sulking around the darkened corridors of his old school, keeping to the shadows.
He was in an extremely bad mood. For the last week, his 'friend' (*humph!*) had forced him to search the school by night for the entrance to what he had dubbed "The Chamber of Secrets".
'Well, apparently it caught on, now didn't it?' he grinned, walking along an abandoned hallway in a forgotten part of the school. Or rather, it simply didn't have any use to the school anymore and had therefore been sealed off with a portrait. Lucky for Salazar, the portrait had been of one of his beloved snakes of long ago which upon hearing its old master again, gladly admitted him.
He looked around the large open space in front of him. This vast outside place had once been the training area, where older students could come and practice their magic for defence against aggressors. Of course, back then they had needed it. The world was a much more dangerous place then. Maybe the reason he had exiled himself so long from the world was because he couldn't stand the way it had progressed. Wizards nowadays relied completely on their wands. Wands were fine, and he did miss his own, but oh, what he would give to have his old athame back...
But of course Harry had it. Harry just thought it had been a gift from Blaise for his birthday, not to be taken as a magic tool but as a physical one. He was fine with that, but he wished Silecia would let him teach the boy how to properly use it. After all, any heir of theirs should learn the true power of the athame. Perhaps... yes, that IS coming up soon... maybe he could just meddle a little... and Silecia would never need to know until afterwards... and it _would_ be a good excuse for them to reveal themselves.
Grinning slightly to himself, Salazar left to explore a different path before he rambled more.
------------------------------------------------
"Potter! Pay attention!"
Harry sighed in annoyance as McGonagall came striding up to him from across the classroom. She stared down at him with glaring eyes, while Harry just met her gaze with his own even one.
"Is there a reason why you happen to not be paying attention to the lesson at hand?" she growled, while the Gryffindors just sniggered from behind their head of house. Only Hermione seemed to look disapproving of their behaviour. Draco grinned from beside Harry and his friend said quite simply, "Actually, their are two reasons I'm not paying attention, _professor_."
"And what would those be, Mr Potter?"
Twirling his raven feather quill, he continued, "Well, the first is because the Dueling Club's first meeting is tonight and I'm looking forward to stretching my magic muscles a bit. Secondly, because I've already learned the second year Tarnsfiguration course material outside of class, thanks to Lord Voldemort."
"Really, Mr Potter? You'd be willing to take the end of year tests then if I were to give it to you right now, then?" she said, not honestly expecting any sort of serious reply.
Harry looked up at her again and nodded, quite seriously. Slightly taken aback but not one to back down, she went back to her desk and brought back a few minutes later a large stack of parchment full of questions. She crossed her arms and said, "You may begin your test. You have two hours. Any questions?"
"Just one."
"What is is?"
"If I pass, will this become a free period for me?" he asked innocently, while the Slytherions laughed and the Gryffindors whispered. McGonagall continued, however, looking angrier than most had ever seen her.
"I suppose it would," she said and leaving Harry, who had begun filling out questions in rapid succession, she went back to teaching the class.
-
The end of class had come two hours later, and the Dark Heir was just finishing off the last question as his professor walked up in front of his desk, every eye in the room on the pair of them. Harry stacked the parchment neatly and handed them to McGonagall. She read through the pages, and from the students' perspective, she seemed to get more frustrated with every answer. Finally she turned to him, not meeting his eye.
"It looks like you needn't come here anymore, Potter. Run along, all of you."
And she left the classroom in a hurry as the Slytherins all cheered and whooped. Even Hermioine came over to let him know she wasn't giving up just yet on beating him in classes (good-naturedly of course). Blaise just pulled Draco and Harry out for dinner before they were late. After all, they wanted to be completely ready for tonight's Dueling Club.
------------------------------------------
"That's showing him, Professor!" yelled Harry, as he, Draco, Blaise, and Ginny cheered after watching their potions professor violently disarm that git Lockhart. The only person in their group that seemed to be worried about the blonde-haired professor was Hermione. Ginny's little friend Obsidian Trentworth who had come with her didn't voice a single thought on the matter.
"You know as well as I do he didn't need to put that much power behind a simple Expelliarmus," she grumbled, but the others ignored her. She had seemed a bit off all night.
"Now, we will be coming through the crowd and partnering up individuals to practice the Disarming spell," grinned the stupid idiot (a.k.a. Professor Lockhart), and he and Severus fanned out, pairing the most unlikely people together. Severus tried to reach Harry's party first, but unfortunately Lockhart caught them.
"Well, hello there! Let's see. Miss Zabini and Miss Weasley together, and Mr Malfoy and Mr Trentworth!" said the DADA professor. Hermione and Harry stepped together, but again the professor intervened.
"No, no! Miss Granger, over there with Mr Weasley. Mr Longbottom, you'll be paired up with Mr Potter!" Longbottom and Harry gave eachother looks of loathing while the rest of the students were dealt with. Finally, Severus got everyone's attention and he called, "You will now face your partners, performing all proper dueling procedures on your own, and aim to disarm on three. One!"
Harry and his partner bowed, and Harry grinned most cruelly at Longbottom when they righted themselves. This would be fun.
"Two!"
Wands were brought to their proper stance positions. Neville was slightly unnerved by the murderous look on Potter's face, but he would prove his father proud.
"Three!"
Before anyone could even move their wands, Harry had already shouted, "Caecus!" He grinned as he saw his opponent confused by being blinded so suddenly, and he was just about to do something a bit more interesting when a spell from his right came shooting by. Looking around the room, all the Gryffindors, excluding Hermione, were gathering in a circle around him, wands pointed directly at him, the rest of the Great Hall's occupants a writhing mass of bodies and spells. The two professors were shouting for everyone to stop at once, but they were ineffective. Ron closed in near the front.
"So, Potter, what are you going to do now? Surely You-Know-Who taught you something?" he sneered, and the rest snickered.
This was the opportunity Salazar had been waiting for, as he watched from above in the rafters, feet firmly planted, standing tall, arms crossed.
"Now, young heir, now is the time! Let your power awaken and summon magics unimaginable to them!" he whispered. He began reciting in the ancient Latin the incantation needed, growing louder and louder.
Meanwhile below, Harry became distracted which was a dangerous thing at the moment. Buying some time, he put up a shield around himself and looked for the source of that... familiar force. He closed his eyes and reopened them very slowly and deliberately, this action summoning the second field of vision. He locked shimmering eyes with the pair of violet ones of the figure in the rafters.
"There!" shouted Salazar, his eyes locked to the other's, the incantation now able to take effect. All around him, the illusionary sky began to draw together deep violet, silver, green, and red clouds. The entirety of the hall gazed on in trepidation and outright fear, stopped mid-motion, as deep thunder claps started sounding off as Salazar's Latin echoed through the room louder and louder. Finally, all the clouds let off a torrent of black lightning, all of which struck the Dark Heir at the same precise time...
---------------------------------------
A/N: I don't even know where to begin apologizing. Sorry the chapter's a bit short. It seemed a good place to stop. Otherwise it would be _very_ long, and it's a good place for an evil cliffie. I've had the worst case of writer's block ever since midterms ended. It hasn't helped that in the past week and a half, I've become a frickin' insomniac and not of free will. Not being able to get slep kills one's intelligence/writing factor, at least an extended period of it for me personally. Teachers haven't been giving anyone a break, either.
This chapter is dedicated to Shorty, whom everyone should thank. Thanks to her repeated insults and threats everyday and having to put up with constant questioning, I've finally been able to write again. Thank you, Lady Arkose (a.k.a. you, Shorty)!
I didn't think I'd get so much feedback on the idea of the spinoff. I tried writing the first chapter, and I've come to my decision. The spinoff will be posted after this one is done. The first chapter sucked because I had to explain what happened to everyone, and it became very awkward and boring.
Review responses:
Forgive me, everyone. I am so sleepy, and there are so many reviews, I must beg you to let me get off of answering reviews this chapter. I know, I'm a jerk, I'm sorry.
(January 17- February 3, 2004)