Three days later, Eric was ready to surrender. The entire school was mapped out and every corridor was checked. There was no room in any of the castle walls for there to be a chamber of any size which could house a monster of any reasonable threat without suffocating it. Besides, there would have to be an access point, or some other kind of door. In the few locations that could be considered the least bit suspicious, there was no way in or out.
He wrote a letter to Fred and George, explaining that while he couldn't find the chamber, a deal was a deal. The maps would be available for them to take notes whenever they wished, and a hearty good luck to their mischief. Eric made good use of the research himself, figuring that one never knew when it would be useful, and at least the time wouldn't be a total waste.
As he returned to a more common schedule of classes and study, a posting for a new dueling club caught his eye. Perhaps he needed a diversion from his recent activities. Besides, few things were more amusing than seeing a room full of students fumbling about trying to knock each other over.
Amusement passed slightly into concern, however, when the afternoon came and Eric noted Naomi in with the crowd of students. Actually, there was a crowd in the room, with a small void of space wherever she went. Apparently, her social skills weren't improving, or she had begun to gather a bad reputation. Either way, Eric didn't feel right seeing her alone, and made his way to join her. Whether or not she noticed was uncertain.
Eric's prime reason for attending, however, was greatly re-enforced when the instructor for the club arrived. By this time, pretty much every student in Ravenclaw had figured out that Gilderoy Lockhart was the worst kind of fraud, and it was delightful to see that his reputation wouldn't be patched today. Although Professor Lockhart boasted his prowess up and down the hall, having the Dark Arts Defense teacher be flattened by the Potions master in a wand duel was, at the least, uninspiring. At the worst, it was demoralizing. Eric couldn't imagine how a room full of learners could possibly develop skills needed to defend themselves with an instructor who couldn't keep on his feet, though he was deviously waiting to watch them try.
Sure enough, having embarrassed himself before the gathered crowd, Gilderoy turned everyone's attention away from the sudden failure to their own efforts. Pairing off the students, they were all invited to disarm one another with spells. Eric's partner was a Hufflepuff named Ernie; full of earnest energy, but a little more portly than tall. Eric thought of being sporting, but something in him couldn't give up the chance to be just a little terrifying. The count from Lockhart came down. "… two, … one, … go!"
"Angreasia!" Eric found Ernie's speed quite impressive as his own wand suddenly took to sliding through his fingers, almost dropping to the floor. His embarrassment for being outdone was made worse by Ernie's smug laugh.
What Ernie didn't count for, however, was that all the handiwork he did made Eric ambidextrous. Although his wand slipped from it's pose, he caught it with his offhand and immediately countered. "Enlevirumrax!" Ernie's wand tore itself from his hand and shot to the ceiling, lost from sight in the ever-present illusion that blanketed the main hall. As Eric turned back to him with a glare of satisfaction, he could see Ernie turn white as a sheet.
Spinning his wand back to it's sheath, he looked about at the chaos that had erupted. Naomi's opponent, a Slytherin first-year, was plastered to the wall with something that resembled tar. Eric made his way through the chaos to her side; making a dramatic scene of looking at her, her ensnared opponent, back to her, down to the wand that was glued to the floor, then back to her again.
"He said to disarm her. It's safe to say that she's not holding her wand now."
Not knowing how else to respond, he offered her a dramatic bow and guided her away from her victim. He could disenchant her out of the tar later – maybe. For now, watching Professor Lockhart sort out the duelists was far more entertaining. More so was Ernie, who was looking forlornly at the ceiling, straining his eyes to find his wand. In a mixture of pity and mischief, Eric dismissed his spell, timing it carefully so that the wand would drop from the ceiling smoothly – striking Ernie square in the forehead with it's handle.
Naomi turned slightly to look up at him. "That was saintly of you." Eric blushed at Naomi's chiding, but as he looked down to her face, he couldn't tell from her expression if she disapproved or not.
The rest of the class was gathering back to the center of the hall. Professor Snape had called out Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter to demonstrate defense against hostile spells. Eric couldn't help thinking there was at least one student in the room wishing that Professor Lockhart would pick up on teaching things in the right order, not counting Ms. Stuckonthewall. However, the proud Professor kept Eric's amusements to it's heights by over dramatizing a simple shield cast, only to drop his wand.
Draco, however, was clearly not in the mood to join the jocularity, summoning a rather deadly blacksnake. Eric's first thoughts were to the spell itself. The conjuration of physical form, especially a live one, was extremely difficult and hazardous. Control of the newly created beast was practically impossible, and it's serpent-nature made it particularly deadly. Eric wondered exactly how much dark magic Draco knew, and how much he had been using recently.
As Professor Snape stepped forward, Eric actually felt a wave of relief that, no matter how unpleasant he might be, at least a competent wizard was taking the matter in hand. This was short-lived, however, as Gilderoy stepped up, unwilling to be upstaged. His efforts, however, exasperated the problem when his casting failed to dispel the snake, rather sending it sailing into the air and allowing it to land, fairly unharmed but rather perturbed for it's sudden travels.
But it was Harry Potter who calmed the matter. Facing off against the irritated serpent, Eric could clearly hear him commanding it. "Leave him alone!" Eric thought he was being rather melodramatic, what with the sibilant edge he was wheezing out. It seemed to impress the snake, though, who curled up in front of him, seeming to settle down briefly, allowing it's intended victim to flee while Snape dispelled the threat. Harry's friends dragged him out of the room, while everyone started to mutter – something about parseltongue, Harry, and Slytherin's Heir.
The more Eric picked up on, the more he became uncomfortably aware of the situation. Harry was a parselmouth; everyone thought this was clear evidence that he was Slytherin's Heir, and that he had opened the Chamber of Secrets. Eric was also disturbingly aware of the fact that he understood every word that Harry had said.