(CoS) CHAPTER NINETEEN: The Dueling Club
Tired of the same old spells you learn in class? Want to learn to properly defend yourself? Come to the Great Hall tomorrow night to the Dueling Club's first meeting!
"Wow," said Harry, scanning the flier with interest. "That's great, isn't it?"
They were on their way to lunch after an exceptionally terrible Defense Against the Dark Arts class with Lockhart. Dean was still avoiding Ellie like the Plague, and Seamus was with Dean, which meant he, too, was avoiding her, but Hermione, Ron, and Harry—who was back out of the hospital wing, fully healed—seemed to have no qualms with her.
"I wonder who's sponsoring it," said Hermione, scanning the flier thoughtfully.
"Dunno," said Ellie, "but it's great they're doing something about all these attacks. I know everyone's been really on edge lately."
"Speaking of which," said Harry, glancing at Ellie with a look of concern. "How are you doing?"
Ellie hadn't spoken with Harry one-on-one since borrowing his cloak. She had returned it to him, of course, and thanked him, but she'd been in no fit state to go into any of the details—not that she could, anyway, seeing as her father had apparently betrayed his.
"Fine," she lied, forcing a smile. She clocked Fred waiting for her at the entrance to the Great Hall and said, "Catch you later."
And she followed Fred to Hagrid's hut.
They had told George everything—at least, Fred had told George everything while Ellie stared down at her hands in shock—but had all agreed that George shouldn't come with them to Hagrid's so as not to alarm him.
"Remember," Fred said as he knocked on the door. "Gentle."
"Ah," said Hagrid easily when he saw them on the other side of his door. "What a nice surprise. Come in!"
Ellie, already feeling guilty about what she was about to say to him, stepped into the hut. Fred did the same behind her.
"Care for a spot o' tea?" Hagrid asked as he gestured for them to sit at the small table. "Harry, Ron, an' Hermione gonna be joining yeh? And what about… er… the other twin?"
Ellie chuckled slightly, realizing Hagrid, like most people, had no idea how to tell the twins apart. "Just me and Fred."
Hagrid nodded, not seeming particularly surprised by that, despite the fact that neither Fred nor Ellie had been given too many opportunities to bond with Hagrid in the past. "Righ'. Well, what can I help yeh with?"
"Well…" Ellie bit her lip. "We were in the library the other night, trying to figure out what we could learn about the last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened."
Hagrid froze in his tracks, then, seemingly wanting to cover, cleared his throat and asked, "The last time?"
"I sort of… overheard one of the teachers mentioning that it had happened before," Ellie explained carefully. "And then, when I was in the library, I read that the attacks were traced to… well.. a certain creature that…"
But she couldn't quite finish her sentence. The look on Hagrid's face was too heartbreaking.
"We aren't accusing you of anything, Hagrid," Fred told him quickly. "And we haven't told anyone. We just wanted to ask you about it."
"Hogwarts: A Darker History?" Hagrid asked Ellie grimly.
She nodded.
"Righ'. Author o' that was a petty student a few years below me at Hogwarts. Luckily, the book didn't get a wide release… but apparently you lot found it in the restricted section."
Ellie and Fred exchanged another guilty look at that.
"Nothin' was traced to Aragog," Hagrid said morosely. "They jus' wanted to pin it on something, and they picked him."
"Aragog," repeated Ellie. "What… is he, exactly?"
But Hagrid shook his head. "Yeh shouldn't be puttin' yer nose in any o' this," he said. "It's dangerous business."
"But you were innocent," Fred said. "Right? It wasn't really you or Aragog?"
"Well, o' course I was innocent! Aragog, too. Didn't stop them from expelling me, though, or from snappin' my wand."
Ellie sighed. "I'm really sorry, Hagrid. Do you have any idea what or who was responsible the last time?"
Something in Hagrid's gaze suggested that the answer might be yes, but he only shook his head again and said, "Like I said—too dangerous. Try an' focus on school—on friends. An' try an' forget what yeh learned about me."
It turned out to be none other than Gilderoy Lockhart himself who was sponsoring the Dueling Club.
Ellie could actually hear quite a few people groan as they stepped into the Great Hall and saw him. The twins just laughed; Harry and Ron pretended to puke. And then there was Oliver.
"Hey, beautiful," he greeted cheerfully as he came over to join her. "Fancy meeting you here."
"Hey, look, Ollie," said Fred. "Most of the school's here. Better kiss her against her will again."
Everyone within hearing range of them sniggered at that. Ellie could hardly believe Fred had the nerve to throw an insult like that at his Quidditch captain, joke or not.
"Against her will?" repeated Oliver, seeming to take it in stride. "Was that what it looked like to you? Certainly didn't feel like it." And with that, he winked at Ellie and slinked away.
"Remind me why we like him?" Fred grumbled to George.
"Because he let us on the team?" suggested George.
Before Ellie could chastise either of them, Lockhart took the stage—a long, narrow one clearly constructed for the purposes of dueling—and said, "Thank you all for being here today. 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."
The few girls in the crowd who still crushed on Lockhart swooned at that; everyone else continued to scowl.
"For this first meeting," continued Lockhart, "I have acquired a volunteer. Everyone, please welcome to the stage Professor Snape!"
The Slytherins in the audience cheered as Snape glided onto the stage. As always, Ellie wanted to disappear at the sight of the man who, unfortunately, was her uncle by blood.
"How's it been with him, by the way?" whispered Fred to her as if reading her mind. "You've barely mentioned Uncle Dearest this year."
Between her bizarre relationship with Dean, her drama with Oliver, and the mysteries surrounding her father, Ellie hadn't spared Snape many thoughts. He certainly didn't seem to spare her many thoughts, other than shooting her the occasional glare in class.
"Same, old, same old," she said. "I might hate him, but my money's on him."
"No deal," whispered George. "Lockhart's a joke."
Sure enough, their "demonstration" went exactly as Ellie had predicted: Snape disarmed Lockhart so powerfully, Lockhart was thrown against the back wall of the Hall.
They were split into pairs at that: Ron and Seamus; Hermione and Millicent Bulstrode; Harry and Ron; and…
"Prince and Thomas," sneered Snape with a look of amusement. "Ought to be fun."
Ellie was Prince, of course, and Thomas was Dean Thomas—also known as her very recent ex.
"Worst uncle ever," muttered Ellie under her breath as she left the twins' side to stand in front of Dean.
"Hey," she said hesitantly, offering him a weak smile. "How've you—"
"Let's just get this over with," he interrupted, lifting his wand.
"Dean, I don't—" But she stopped short when she saw him starting to move his wand hand. "Expelliarmus!" she shouted quickly, and his wand flew out of his hand before he had the chance to cast whatever spell he'd planned.
"Very good, Miss Prince!" exclaimed Lockhart appreciatively. "Class, that was—"
But he stopped short when he was crashed into by a wailing Millicent Bulstrode, who had just been crashed into by Hermione; apparently they had gone physical instead of magical with their duel.
As the chaos around them spread, Ellie took a few steps closer to Dean. "Look," she said. "You have every right to be mad. But I care about you, Dean, and—"
"Just tell me this," he interrupted. "Did you ever even like me? Did you ever even want to date me? Or were you just…"
His words made her heart ache. "I did like you, Dean. I thought you were sweet, funny, cute…"
"And, most importantly, your age," he finished for her. "Someone to bide your time with until you were old enough for Wood."
"Come on, Dean. That's not true or fair."
He sighed. "Look, Ellie—I know you didn't mean to hurt me. But you did, okay? You did. So just… give it some time."
It was better than nothing, she mused as Snape and Lockhart struggled to contain the chaos around them.
It was a start.
Having established that the dueling pairs were a bad idea, Snape and Lockhart had called a single pair of students to the stage: Harry and Draco.
"Now who's your money on?" Ellie whispered to the twins. "Say, two Sickles?"
"I'm sorry to say my money's on the blond," said George.
"Mine's on the Boy Who Lived," said Fred cheerfully. "If you can take You Know Who, you can take You Know Whose Daddy Bought His Way Onto the Quidditch Team."
Ellie cackled at that, then whispered, "Mine's on Option C. Neither wins and something odd plays out."
They watched intently as the wands were lifted. Draco performed his first spell a fraction of a second before Snape called it, uttering a spell Ellie had never heard before. A long, slithering snake shot out of his wand, directly towards Harry.
Everyone gasped and shrieked as the snake slithered across the stage. Ellie grabbed Fred's arm instinctively.
"I know just the spell!" said Lockhart happily before pointing his wand at the snake and uttering a spell that only seemed to toss it into the air and enrage it further.
When the snake landed, it turned its attention toward a new victim: Justin Finch-Fletchley, a Hufflepuff boy who Ellie had never particularly cared for.
Harry parted his lips to speak, and for a moment, Ellie thought he might have come up with a spell to stop the snake. But instead of words, a strange sort of hissing emerged from his lips—almost as if he was talking to the snake.
"Parseltongue," Fred whispered, sounding impressed. "Snake language."
The rest of the audience didn't look quite so impressed, though. They looked terrified.
Ellie extended a hand out to each twin and whispered, "Four Sickles, please."
Gotta love that Fred-Ollie tension, don't you? Fred's kinda sexy when he's mean like that... Anyway, review, review, review, and see you soon for the next!
