Part 2: Serpensortia
The grand hall was darker than it had been at dinner, and the long tables were completely gone. There was, however, a long golden stage against one of the walls. Mingling nervously on the open floor, students from each house waited for the first meeting of the dueling club to begin. The Fischer twins, Nevin, and Ira arrived shortly before eight. It seemed that the entire school had turned out for the event, but the foursome quickly noticed only half of the Ravenclaws were present (all of them seemed to be girls), and Simone surmised that the intelligent male Ravenclaws had decided that Lockhart was a fraud and not worth their time.
"At least there is a good Slytherin turn out. Hey, there's Kyle Meir and his cronies," Nevin announced in a low voice. "I hope I get paired off with one of them. I'll show them a thing or two."
"Eh, Nevin?" Simone asked with concern. "Are you sure you are ready for a dueling match with Meir?"
"Hey, I may not be as smart as you or your clone, but I have been studying some pretty good dueling spells."
The prefect gave Nevin a dubious look, and he just grinned confidently.
Ira was peering through the crowds trying to locate his new girlfriend, and finally he saw her red hair. "I am going to go stand with Brianna."
"Whatever," Chayne said as Ira walked away from them. His eyes were scanning the empty stage. "Is it eight yet?"
Simone glanced down at her watch, which now had a placed marked dueling. The little hand was just two hashes away from it. "In two minutes, but Goldilocks never starts anything on time."
It was five passed eight before Lockhart finally appeared, in ornate plum robes no less. Chayne nearly laughed when Lockhart's assistant came into the candlelight. Professor Snape seemed unusually happy that evening with his hands clasped behind his back. His dark eyes kept shifting to Lockhart, and his lips curled into a twisted smile every time.
Lockhart, smiling, waved his hand for silence.
"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."
Some of the girls giggled, and Simone rolled her eyes.
"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape! 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!"
"I'm more worried about Goldilocks," Chayne whispered to his twin and Nevin.
"I wonder if they will find all his pieces when Snape is through with him?" Nevin asked in a hushed voice.
Snape was now glaring at Lockhart, his lips curling into a confident sneer, as the two professors faced each other. Both smartly raised their wands like swords in a salute and Lockhart gave a flashy bow. Snape jerked his head. Lockhart was speaking the entire time, explaining what was going to happen.
"On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course. One-two-three-"
Both professors swung their wands from above their heads towards their opponent. Snape's voice could be heard clearly in the silence of the grand hall. "Expelliarmus!" Scarlet shot out of his wand and Lockhart was hurtled through the air, hit the far wall hard, and sprawled to the stone floor. Some of the Slytherins laughed and cheered their house patron, and though they despised Slytherins, the Ravenclaw trio couldn't help but share their excitement.
"Ouch!" Nevin hissed happily in the twins' ears. "That has got to hurt!"
"I think Snape has had more practice in dueling than Goldilocks knew," Chayne whispered. "He did not even miss a beat, and his form was perfect. Dad has a book on the art of dueling—"
"—and the disarming charm is one of the first it talks about," Simone finished her twin's train of thought.
They watched as Lockhart stumbled back onto the stage. His robes were slightly disheveled, but he managed a dry chuckle.
"An excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape," he was saying. "But if you don't mind me 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..."
"I bet he did, that liar!" Simone murmured under her breath. "There was no time to foresee that move."
Lockhart seemed very hesitant to continue his duel with Snape and was quick to organize the students into pairs. Snape moved quicker than Lockhart, partnering all of the students he disliked with someone from his own house. He reached the twins and Nevin, glaring coldly at them before summoning his fifth years.
"Mr. Meir, you will be partnered with Mr. Fischer," Snape ordered the tall, dark haired Slytherin. Kyle Meir's eyes narrowed as he moved in front of Chayne, his prefect badge reflecting some of the candlelight.
Snape glanced around. "Ms. Fischer, let' see how you do against Ms. Blackstone." Pale-faced Dextra Blackstone was expressionless as she faced Simone. "And Mr. Reed, you will face off against Mr. Eaton."
Tall, slender Darren Eaton smirked at Nevin. "You're going down, Ravenclaw."
"You first," the dark haired wizard shot back.
"Face your partners!" Lockhart shouted from the stage after everyone had been paired off. "And bow!"
Simone gave a short bow, though her eyes never left Dextra's round face, but her opponent did not even so much as incline her head. Chayne refused to bow to Kyle and simply gave a stiff nod that the Slytherin returned with a smirk. Nevin never moved, brown eyes focused on his taller adversary.
"Wands at the ready!" Lockhart hollered along with other instructions.
Simone brought her wand up above her head, left arm extended towards Dextra in the proper dueling form, and the Slytherin merely stood there with her wand pointed at Simone. Next to them, Chayne was poised in an identical position as his twin, and Kyle was as well. Nevin and Darren, however, just stood facing each other with their wands in front of them.
"One...two...three—"
Simone swung her wand around and cried out "Expelliarmus!" before Dextra even had time to blink. The Slytherin was knocked screaming backwards into the wall by a red jet of light from the prefect's wand.
Nevin and Darren were both sprawled on the floor; Nevin was burping up slugs from Darren's spell and Darren was as stiff as a board from Nevin's Freezing Charm spell. Simone suddenly ducked a rouge blast of red light as Kyle Meir's spell reflected off her twin's clever shielding charm. Unfortunately, a first year Hufflepuff was standing in the direct path of the reflected spell and was hit with the full blast directly in the chest. She cried out as her feet seemed to root themselves into the floor.
In a blink of an eye, the grand hall collapsed into madness.
"Stop! Stop!" Lockhart screamed, unable to control the students.
Most were lying on the floor from the affects of their opponents' spells, but there were a few others who were still casting spells. Chayne and Kyle were among the latter, as both knew how to block attacks well enough.
"Good match, Fischer," Kyle hissed at Chayne as they lowered their wands in unison. Then the Slytherin peered nonchalantly around the hall to see how others of his house had faired.
"Right back at you," the Ravenclaw prefect responded with difficulty. He spied Simone helping a shaking Nevin to his feet.
"Your Freezing Charm worked," Simone told Nevin proudly. A slimy slug dropped from the London wizard's mouth, and Nevin grimaced with disgust, his body shuddering.
"Bloody...Slytherin...went...before...three..." With each word, a slug splattered to the ground, and even Simone had to supress a shiver.
Snape stepped in and began to perform counter-spells to restore order. Nearly ten minutes later, everyone was back to his or her normal selves. Nevin kept swallowing and grimacing, as the taste of the slugs lingered in the back of his throat. The Potions master rounded on Lockhart. His dark eyes were almost gloating and the smirk on his pale face was clearly visible.
"I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells," Lockhart murmured helplessly. He was avoiding Snape's eyes, and he pointed at the closest pair—Gryffindor second years.
"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart," Snape quickly interrupted. "How about Malfoy and Potter?"
The hall fell deathly silent as the two second years were herded into the center of the large room. Simone glanced wearily at her twin, and Chayne shrugged his shoulders. As the crowd of students moved back, the three Ravenclaws edged closer. The blond Slytherin was receiving advice from Snape while Potter— Harry Potter –stared with wide eyes as Lockhart did a complicated wiggle with his wand and promptly dropped it.
"What is Snape playing it?" Simone whispered in Chayne's ear. "They are second years, for goodness' sake."
"I get the feeling Snape doesn't like Potter very much," her twin responded.
Nevin shook his head in disgust. "He doesn't like anyone who isn't in Slytherin. Poor Potter, he is a dead man for sure. He survived You-Know-Who only to be destroyed by the stupidity of a self-absorbed, most-charming-smile madman."
Then the dueling second years faced each other. Malfoy smirked, taunting his opponent. "Scared?"
Harry Potter's eyes narrowed. "You wish."
Lockhart gave the count down. On three, Malfoy cried out, "Serpensortia!"
His wand exploded and a long black snake landed just a few feet away from Potter. It raised itself up onto its coils and hissed angrily. The girls in the crowd screamed in horror, and Simone thought she saw someone in Gryffindor robes faint. Potter stood stiffly as the snake peered at him, it's tongue flickering in the air.
Snape pulled out his wand lazily. "Don't move, Potter. I'll get rid of it..."
"Allow me!" Lockhart suddenly interrupted.
He jabbed his wand at the serpent as if it were a sword. There was a tremendous sound and more students screamed, covering their ears. The snake was knocked high into the air, and the students ran back as it landed with a loud thud. It was larger than before and angrier. The snake slithered towards the closest victim, a Hufflepuff boy, before anyone could even blink.
Simone held her breath as the snake reared back to strike at the boy, standing no more than five feet to her left. Someone stepped backwards on to her foot in their haste to get away from the snake. Suddenly the Ravenclaw prefect found herself on the floor, pain shooting up her leg from being trampled on. Chayne and Nevin hulled her back to her feet just in time to see Potter race towards the snake. He opened his mouth and a deep, blood-chilling hiss came out.
The snake hesitated, turning towards the hissing boy. Then it dropped docilely to the floor, peering almost submissively at Potter. The shaking Hufflepuff was glaring at Potter. Then his quivering voice filled the awkward silence as he demanded, "What do you think you're playing at?"
He turned sharply on his heels and pushed his way through the crowd. The Hufflepuffs followed him after giving Potter angry glares. The boy who lived stood in the center of the grand hall with a look of total bewilderment on his face, as if he did not understand why the Hufflepuffs were so angry and the rest of the students were staring at him with fear in their eyes.
With a sharp look, Snape came forward with his wand and the snake vanished. Two other Gryffindors suddenly grabbed Potter by the arms, leading him through the crowd and out of the hall. All eyes followed them. There was a subdued hush on the crowd of students.
"Well. That was exciting," Lockhart said with a nervous laugh. "That will be all tonight. Yes, that will be all tonight."
Snape peered at the fidgeting professor with disdain. "Return to your dormitories at once," the Potions master ordered. "Any student found in the halls after ten will have ten points docked from their house. Prefects!"
"Ravenclaws!" Simone immediately called out as she raised her hand into the air.
The prefects of Slytherin and Gryffindor were already doing the same thing. The Ravenclaws present made their way over to where the Fischer twins and Nevin were standing. Their faces were long and, for once, the girls were not chattering.
"Follow us," Chayne ordered the Ravenclaws. Ira and Brianna were at the back of the group as the twins led the Ravenclaws out of the hall.
Nevin leaned in close to Simone. "I didn't know Potter was a parselmouth," he muttered.
The two prefects shrugged.
"I don't think anyone did," Simone answered quietly.
They entered the common room and were immediately bombarded with questions from those that had not attended the meeting. The girls found their voices again and began to retell the events. The twins, Nevin, Ira, and Brianna sat down at their usual table. The red head's eyes were very wide.
"Do you..." she began hesitantly. "Do you think Potter is the... the heir of Slytherin?"
"Could be, I guess." Chayne shrugged. "But then, so could anyone else. Salazar Slytherin lived one thousand years ago, you know."
"But parselmouth is not a common gift," Brianna countered. "Not just anyone can talk to snakes. Only dark wizards can."
"Oh, come off it, Brianna," Simone snapped impatiently. "I seriously doubt that famous Harry Potter is an evil dark wizard. He is just a second year, after all, and he comes from the Muggle world."
"How do you know that?" the red head demanded.
"I am a Prefect," the blond retorted sharply. "And the prefects from the different houses do have meetings, you know."
Brianna rolled her eyes and stood up. "Whatever." She walked off to join another group.
Ira was fuming. "Now what did you do that for?" he demanded from a startled Simone. "If she breaks up with me because of you, so help me, Simone, I'll...I'll..." He floundered for a convincing threat, eyes flashing.
"Turn her into a beetle and squash her?" Nevin offered off-handly with a smirk in Simone's direction.
"Yeah! I'll turn you into a beetle and squash you!" Ira stormed off to the boy's dormitory, and Simone glanced at her twin and Nevin.
"What did I do?"
"Never mind, sis," Chayne said with a hint of a smile on his lips.
Simone glanced at her twin then Nevin, raising her hands in confusion. "What? I just don't think that Potter is the heir of Slytherin. After all, wouldn't Salazar's heir be in the Slytherin house? Potter is in Gryffindor, for heaven's sake! Gryffindors are a lot of things, but I've never heard of a dark wizard that was from Gryffindor."
"Who is up for a game of exploding snap?" Nevin abruptly changed the subject. Chayne shook his head. "Alright then. Chess?"
"Chess it is," the blond prefect answered his friend. "And no cheating this time, Nevin."
The dark haired wizard gave Chayne a roguish grin. "But of course, my good fellow."
Simone stood.
"Where are you going?" her twin demanded.
"To do a bit of reading. I will see you boys in the morning."
But before she had even finished talking, the boys were involved with their chess match. Simone smiled and went down into the girls' dormitory. It was empty and quiet, and she sprawled out on her blue and white comforter with her chosen book—The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts.
THE END