Arnold's Wizarding World

Chapter 5: The Dueling Club

Midterms are coming up everyone, ugh, I got two of them left, my hardest is next week, but we can pull through. By the way, I really enjoyed writing this chapter, this is where the story starts developing! I really want to hear your thoughts after you finish reading it so please leave a review or PM me when you're finished! Enjoy!

If I thought people comparing me to that Harry Potter guy was bad before, well, let's just say it's gotten worse.

Apparently my performances in Potions, Muggle Studies, and my Charms classes made me the talk of the school.

"And he brewed a perfect potion!" I heard a girl whisper. "On the first day! With Draco Malfoy as the Professor!"

"Professor Snape is probably shaking, wherever he is right now," another girl said.

"He won 250 points for Gryffindor in Muggle Studies, can you believe that? Muggle Studies!" a boy in his fifth year exclaimed.

"I heard Professor Flitwick telling the other Professors during breakfast that we've probably found ourselves a new Harry Potter. His magic is really advanced!"

"Blimey! Do you think they could be related?"

Gerald, Phoebe and I walked by everyone, and I automatically felt uncomfortable. I knew everyone was staring, and I knew all the whispers going on around me were about me.

"Oi, Arnold! Wait up!"

I turned and noticed Hagrid approach me, as well as Ginny Weasley.

"Oh, hello Hagrid," I smiled, remembering how kind the man was to me when I had woken up from my attack.

"I wanted to invite you and your friends to my cottage for lunch, if you're up for it," he offered.

I looked at Gerald and Phoebe, who nodded happily.

"Yeah! We'll go!" I exclaimed.

"Very well, come along then," he exclaimed as he turned and began walking toward the exit of the castle.

Ginny sent us a smile before walking along beside him, we then followed.

"You really do have his eyes," Ginny giggled as I looked over at her, a half eaten sandwich in my mouth. "The same shade, the same brightness, except his were full of more sadness, considering the loss of his parents."

I swallowed my food, "Harry Potter lost his parents?"

I related. I related a little bit too much.

"Lily and James Potter," Hagrid sighed as he filled my goblet with pumpkin juice. "A tragedy, no doubt. Voldemort held no mercy when he killed them."

I gasped, "His parents were…"

"Yes Arnold," Ginny answered sadly. "It haunted Harry for years! My brother Ron would tell me stories of having to wake up Harry in the middle of the night because of the awful nightmares he'd get about that night."

"I think I feel his pain. I lost my parents too, for the longest time. They left when I was only a baby, on a mission to save an endangered civilization. They never came back, and for the longest time, I thought they were… gone…"

Ginny and Hagrid listened intently, and Gerald and Phoebe put down their goblets to also listen.

"I recently found them, a few months ago. But even then, the nightmares wouldn't go away. I'd dream of finding them, only for them to leave on another mission; it took a whole summer for the same dream to die down. Heck, there are times where I still get the same dream…"

Gerald placed a hand on my shoulder, allowing me to continue.

"But recently, they disappeared again, and I have no clue as to where they could be. And the suspense hurts, because I don't know if they're alright, they could be hurt… or worse…"

Ginny walked over to me and placed a hand over my shoulder, "You know, I think you and Harry should talk at some point, listening to each other would do both of you some good."

"Ginny and I are close friends of Harry's," Hagrid informed. "We actually know him in person. He'd really like ya Arnold."

"And he'd be able to give you some advice about your parents. There's still the possibility that your parents could be alive. Harry on the other hand lost his parents, so he can give you some pointers on how to cope with the hole in your heart," Ginny advised. "I'll tell him about you the next time I see him."

"Hey man," Gerald stuttered. "If you need help finding your parents, you know I've got your back."

"You can count on me too," Phoebe smiled.

"And us, if we can offer any help," Ginny added, receiving a nod from Hagrid.

"Thanks everyone," I answered, suddenly feeling better [and less lonely] about the predicament I was put in.

Our Defence Against the Dark Arts class was told to meet inside a large room. There was a large rectangular platform placed in between all of us. Boris stood in the middle of the platform, eyeing all of us with amusement. He stood proud with his legs spit, and his wand held to his side like a sword.

"Seven years ago, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart tried to teach this class in this format, but unfortunately, as your older colleagues will probably tell you, his narcissism did not contribute much to the success of his students."

He began walking around, "Today, all four houses will be placed in a Dueling competition, measuring your skills with the Knockback Jinx and the Disarming Charm. We will only be using these two, so if you know more, keep them to yourselves until later."

I turned to look at Gerald, who shrugged.

"To help me demonstrate, your Potions Professor, Draco Malfoy, has agreed to assist me."

We all turned and watched as Professor Malfoy stepped onto the platform.

"A bit of deja vu don't you think Draco?" Boris chuckled, amused. "Just seven years ago you were standing in that very spot, only you were competing against Harry Potter."

Professor Malfoy huffed, "Don't bring up Potter. Just get on with it."

Boris shrugged and the two of them stood in front of each other, holding their wands up vertically before shifting them down and walking to both ends of the platform, respectively.

I shifted my eyes towards Helga, who was crossing her arms and scowling. Sean must have noticed me look at her, because he placed an arm around her shoulder, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

I looked away, trying not to let it get to me.

"Who said you could touch me!?" I heard her exclaim, followed by an 'ouch' from the former.

"FLIPENDO!" yelled Boris, waking us up from our stupor.

A blue light flew towards Professor Malfoy.

"Protego!" he exclaimed, blocking the attack.

Boris blinked, "Professor Malfoy, I don't think the children are ready to learn the Shield Charm."

"It may be complicated," Professor Malfoy reasoned. "But Potter was able to learn it at fourteen, maybe someone in here—"

He stopped and looked at me, "Is equally gifted."

I gulped.

"So you think it's best if we teach them the Shield Charm as well?"

"I believe so, it's like Severus once said, perhaps it would be prudent to first teach the students to block unfriendly spells."

Boris froze, glaring at Professor Malfoy, who was smiling smugly.

"Very well then," Boris said. "EXPELLIARMUS!"

Professor Malfoy seemed to be prepared, however, and easily blocked the Disarming Charm.

The Slytherins cheered, and Sean whistled loudly.

"FLIPENDO!" Professor Malfoy yelled as the jinx hit Boris, causing him to fly back and fall to the ground.

"Professor!" I exclaimed, running towards him quickly. "Are you okay?"

"Yes Arnold I'm fine, don't worry," he answered, patting my head.

I looked over at Professor Malfoy, who was raising an eyebrow at me, clearly unimpressed.

"You should be more careful!" I exclaimed. "You could have hurt him."

Professor Malfoy blinked, "Pardon?"

I stepped onto the platform, "You may act mean, but that doesn't mean you should actually be mean. You know what? I bet there's a real nice person deep inside you, maybe you should show it more."

The room was silent, no one dared to utter a single word. But I didn't care, I wanted to get my point across.

Professor Malfoy's bewildered expression soon crinkled into one of anger and bitterness. "Think you're so high and mighty, don't you, Potter. Let's have you go first then. If you think it's so easy to tame a knockback jinx to not hurt someone, let's see you do it. Scheck, up here."

Sean smiled smugly and stepped onto the platform, his wand already out and prepared for battle.

Uh oh.

I swallowed inaudibly, letting out a shaky breath.

"C'mon Arnold!" I heard Gerald call out. "You can do it man!"

"You got this Arnold!" Sid exclaimed.

"Take him down, and pound him!" Harold added.

"I reckon he's a goner."

"Stinky!"

"What?"

I made eye contact with Helga, who was eyeing me with concern, but it only lasted for a second before she turned away and scowled.

"Ehrm," Boris started. "Wands up…"

Sean pointed his wand up, but I froze. I didn't want to do this! I didn't want to hurt someone if I didn't have to! It's not me!

"WANDS UP, POTTER!" Professor Malfoy demanded, a malicious look plastered on his face.

"My name isn't Potter," I argued. "It's Arnold."

"Like I give a damn, WANDS UP!"

I hesitantly brought my wand up, trying to tame my violent shaking.

Sean snickered, "You're going down, might as well surrender."

"I can surrender?" I asked hopefully.

"No," Professor Malfoy spat viciously.

"Professor Malfoy, maybe we should—"

"No Boris, if the boy thinks he's the new Harry Potter, he's gotta act like it. Let him bloody prove himself!"

"I don't think I'm the new Harry Potter!" I exclaimed. "I never said that! I'm just Arnold Shortman! I'm me, and no one else!"

"GET INTO POSITIONS!" Professor Malfoy yelled, leading Sean to turn and walk back to his end of the platform.

Realizing that trying to get out of this mess was futile, I dragged myself back to my own end.

"Just hit him with the Knockback Jinx," Boris advised in a hushed whisper. "Your power is advanced, you'd take him down in a second."

"I don't want to hurt him Boris!"

"Wands ready!"

Sean positioned himself, and I followed suit, sighing immensely.

"FLIPENDO!" he yelled, throwing a spell at me.

"PROTEGO!" I cried, covering my eyes and blocking the spell.

The room gasped, and I heard hushed whispers.

I flickered my eyes opened and realized that I was still in one piece. Phew.

Sean seemed stunned and so did Helga, whose mouth was opening and closing like a fish.

Looking at Helga was probably not a good idea at the moment.

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

I suddenly felt pain on my arm, causing me to release my wand.

"Arnold!" I heard Gerald cry.

"FLIPENDO!"

I watched with widened eyes as the bright blue light hit me in the chest, causing me to fly back and hit my head.

My vision became blurry, and I vaguely heard Seymour and a few of Sean's other friends cheering.

"You okay, man?" Gerald asked as he and Phoebe hovered over me.

"I'm fine," I answered dryly.

Boris helped me stand, and I felt my head pound.

I made eye contact with Professor Malfoy, who was glaring at me challengingly. "Not so mighty now, are you, Shortman?"

A few students laughed, and Sean was giving high fives to many of the friends in his house.

"At least he was able to use the Shield Charm, for someone whose only a first year."

The room silenced and we all turned towards Helga, who was glaring at Professor Malfoy. "Like c'mon, I doubt that any of the morons in this room would be able to do it even if they tried."

"Helga, what are you doing?" Sean asked, sending her a silencing look.

Helga shrugged, looking away from the people staring at her, especially me.

Professor Malfoy huffed, "Yes I suppose you're right, I'll give you some credit Shortman, you did manage to do a Shield Charm. Though that doesn't excuse you from losing."

I chose to say nothing, and only wished Helga would look at me so that I can give her a thankful smile. I knew she wasn't all bad.

I've always known she wasn't all bad.

"We have to do what?" I asked, widening my eyes as Gerald handed me a broom.

"It's our Flying class, don't you want to learn how to fly?"

On my parent's plane, maybe, yeah. But not on a broomstick!

I didn't say that out loud though. This fake world gets weirder and weirder everyday.

I think Gerald must have noticed my horrified expression though, because he shrugged and grabbed his own broom, "Well, I've been looking forward to this class all week. Come on Arnold, it shouldn't be too bad."

I sighed and followed him out into the courtyard, where our Professor asked us to line up and place our brooms on the floor.

"To fly we first need to get our brooms to listen to us. Everyone step to the left side of their broomsticks, then stick your right hand over the broom, and say up."

"Up," I said unenthusiastically, only for the broom to quickly obey and land on my hand.

"Woah!" Sid exclaimed, who had also attempted, but failed. "How'd you do that?"

"Mr. Berman!" the Professor exclaimed. "Don't eat the broom!"

"But I'm hungry!" Harold exclaimed, hovering his mouth over the bottom of the broom.

"Up!" Gerald exclaimed, and the broom obeyed him too.

Helga and Sean also managed to get their brooms to obey with ease.

"Good, now, we are going to mount them," she instructed, explaining the proper technique as we followed suit.

"Now kick up, and fly," she ordered as she blew on her whistle.

I widened my eyes as I found myself floating from the ground, "Woah…"

"It's cool huh?" Gerald exclaimed.

Yeah, it was cool! I wonder if this is how liberated Pigeon Man felt when he flew off into the sunset with his pigeons.

After practicing with our technique and positioning for a little more, the Professor had us do a few races around the courtyard.

And the feeling was phenomenal!

I've always wondered what it'd be like to fly, and now I was doing it! And I loved it! I watched the wind blow on my corn blonde hair as I raced around with Gerald, who was laughing behind me. The adrenaline I felt at that moment, it was like so… inexplicable.

Until Sean von Scheck decided to ruin the moment.

"Hey Sean! You should race against the Harry Potter wannabe!"

"Yeah! Kick his arse twice in one day!"

"Yo Arnold!"

I turned on my broom and eyed Sean, who flew toward me. "Wanna race?"

"I-I don't know Sean."

"It's all in good fun!" he justified.

"Just a race?" I asked.

"Yeah, just a race."

I looked over at Gerald, who shrugged, "Only if you want to my brother. It's up to you."

"Okay Sean, I'll race you."

"On your mark," Gerald started, allowing us to get into position. "Get set. GO!"

I sprinted ahead, feeling the wind pound against my cheeks, which were probably now pink from the cold.

What I was not aware of though, was that Draco Malfoy was watching us from inside the castle, noticing Sean's frustration as I flew a little ahead of him.

"Kind of reminds me of two certain boys that were in that same position eight years ago."

Draco jumped, almost spilling his tea onto his robe. "Bloody hell Ginevra! Don't walk in on me like that!"

Ginny raised her hands innocently, "In my defense, I knocked."

Draco grunted and turned around, wondering if she'd leave if he just ignored her.

She didn't.

Instead, she too watched us race around the courtyard. Both of us were on our third lap, and I was still ahead of Sean by a few feet.

"He reminds you of Harry, that's why you hate him."

"I don't bloody hate him Ginevra," Draco spat. "And contrary to popular belief, I don't think he's anything like Potter. Potter has a dark side that he never shows. Shortman does not."

"How do you know? He may just be better at hiding it."

Draco said nothing and continued watching our race, which I had won by a few seconds.

Sean was not happy, to say the least.

All of my friends were congratulating me and cheering me on, encouraging me to try out for the quidditch team.

"Try out with me, Arnold!" Gerald exclaimed.

"Not so fast buckos!"

Helga approached me with a mischievous glint in her eye. "I want the football head to race me first!"

Uh oh.

"Helga, I'm not so sure—"

"What? Are you scared?"

"No, I just—"

"Then come on!" she exclaimed, hovering over me.

The Slytherins began to cheer Helga on, and I hovered with her.

"On your mark, get set, go!"

We flew ahead, and Helga immediately got a head start, man, she was good!

"My Dad taught me how to fly!" she exclaimed from in front of me. "He wants me to become a quidditch star! My sister Olga chose to be a Prefect, so she chose to boss other kids around instead of quidditch, so he wants me to try out!"

"You should!" I called from behind. "You're really good!"

"Hey! Who said you could compliment me?" she scolded, but I knew she didn't mean it. "If you think that complimenting me is going to distract me, you got another thing coming football head!"

I'm much wiser now on the subject of Helga than I was before.

"Whatever you say, Helga," I answered.

I don't know what went wrong, but she froze completely when I said that. And it wasn't just her.

The students were no longer cheering, the Professor was no longer scribbling in her scroll, Helga was no longer moving.

The world was frozen.

I blinked and hovered in front of Helga, waving my hand in her face. "Helga?"

She flickered, like a video game that was glitching.

I gasped, "HELGA!?"

Suddenly, I was back in Hillwood, standing in pouring rain.

I had my regular clothes back on, and I wasn't on the broomstick anymore.

I looked around and realized that I was in front of PS 118, with the lightning crackling behind the school.

Was I back? Did the Green Eyes manage to bring me back?

I touched my chest and pinched myself, testing my authenticity.

I gasped and ran as fast as I could to the boarding house. "Grandma, Grandpa! I'm back!"

As I approached the boarding house, I stopped and noticed Eduardo walk in with his suitcases. He had probably just arrived from San Lorenzo to tell the good news to my family!

"EDUARDO!"

Eduardo jumped and looked at me, widening his eyes as I ran toward him.

"Arnold?"

"Eduardo! It's me!"

"Arnold! Look out!" Eduardo cried.

I turned around and came face to face with a cloaked figure holding a wand over my head.

I heard Eduardo call for me and run toward me, but it was too late, because the next thing I saw before closing my eyes was a bright light.

And when I opened my eyes again—

I was back at Hogwarts.

Draco: Psst, hey, you, with the football shaped head

Arnold: Chloe told me not to talk to you while she's studying for her college midterms

Draco: Not even if I have a simple, harmless question?

Arnold: *sighs* What is it?

Draco: What is this? *points*

Arnold: A computer

Draco: Is it true that you can buy plane tickets from a computer?

Arnold: Well, yeah. Why?

Draco: Well, a friend of mine really wants to buy a plane ticket back to London but a pathetic excuse for an authoress does not let him and is keeping him confined in a house full of muggles and feeding him poison, and he asked me to get the ticket for him, but I don't know how to work this… computer

Arnold: Oh no, your friend must be suffering!

Draco: Oh, he is child, he is. So, will you help me?

Chloe: Ugh, I hate game theo— what are you doing?

Arnold: Oh, Draco's friend—MMF

Draco: *keeps hands over Arnold's mouth* —Misses me, and I wanted to send them a postcard

Chloe: Since when do you have friends? I thought Pansy and Blaise ditched you, and Crabbe and Goyle don't even talk to you anymore

Draco: *growls* I still talk to Blaise! Sometimes…

Chloe: You were trying to get Arnold to buy you a plane ticket back to London, huh?

Draco: Blast all!

Arnold: Uh… review everyone?