Flame of the West 2: The Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 5: Ruling Engagement

21st September 2006

"Don't worry; you'll still have your Potions professor when I'm done with him." Harry and his friends groaned. Lockhart, in an attempt to better prepare the students against whatever it was petrifying the students of the school, had obtained Dumbledore's permission to form a dueling club. Harry had asked the Headmaster about it at their weekly duel, and Albus had explained that the idea was to increase morale of the students because it most of them had become very nervous within the school because of it.

Harry had argued that Lockhart really couldn't do any real good, but Dumbledore had returned that the students really deserved to live a normal school life, and that there might really not be a necessity for worry anyway. He reasoned that it was a creature behind the attacks because of the magical intensity involved, which humans really couldn't readily achieve. That meant the petrification was a hunter's weapon, and that the hunter probably would not risk another outing so soon. Harry pointed out the flaw that there was no evidence the beast did not attempt to ingest or digest either of its victims yet, and that Mrs. Norris was certainly small enough to be swallowed whole.

Harry lost the duel, as was usual, but was flushed with success. Ever since Aurora had brought him McGonagall's book on free wielding, he'd been trying to learn through trial and error. The idea was that the user, Merlin and Morgan Lefay, shaped magic by their will and directed it to change and move through intent. Because he had used wandless magic before, like conjuring objects, and was familiar with blasting curses and hexes, shaping magic into a spear-like projectile came easily to him. This was proved when he accidentally blew a hole through an Oak tree while practicing.

What he succeeded in doing was to form a whip made of magic. He'd used it several times to shift Dumbledore's aim just before the spell left his wand, such that the spell always flew to his left or right, or didn't get off to begin with. That small success didn't last long because Harry's powers of concentration and focus quickly gave out and lost control of the duel. He'd soon left for his dormitory and gone to sleep, which landed him where he currently was, the Great Hall near a dueling platform.

Lockhart brandished his wand with a flourish, and took an unusual dueling stance. Snape simply profiled and pointed his wand straight out at Lockhart. The defense professor smiled a tad uneasily, quite possibly because of the way Snape was glaring at him, "On the count of three, we will begin. One! Two! Three!" Snape gave no quarter, "Expelliarmus!" Lockhart looked shocked that a spell actually came his way and didn't dodge. His wand flew the other way and landed neatly in Snape's hand. Harry sighed and looked to the ceiling while the Slytherians cheered for their Head of House. Lockhart got to his feet and retrieved his wand, "Capital idea, Severus, the disarming hex, a most useful spell." Snape looked ready to rip him limb from limb, but merely sneered instead.

Lockhart probably noticed the expression this time, and changed methods, "Alright, now we will pair you up and let you try dueling yourselves." Snape quickly put Padma with Lavender, a pretty but air headed Gryffindor in Harry's opinion. Harry stepped closer to his friends but Lockhart was nowhere nearby. "Time to split up the dream team." He said, and Harry got partnered with Blaise. Draco, unfortunately, was partnered with Su Li. Harry mentally pitied him.

Blaise, on the other hand, was the more dangerous opponent. Whereas Draco was more likely to lash out with a spell and Su Li held more powerful weapons, Blaise was more like Tokiya, calmly studying his opponent. Harry closed his eyes and stretched his neck, and drew his wand, aiming it at Blaise who did the same. Lockhart, on the platform, looked around to ensure everyone had a partner, "Ready? On the count of 3, try to disarm your opponent. Disarm only! Ready?" He glanced around once more, "One! Two! Three!" Chaos erupted. Draco began his swing on the 'Two' but Su was ready, and caught him in the belly with a disarming hex while his spell flew overhead and hit the ceiling. Blaise threw a dark yellow curse that Harry didn't catch the incantation of, but dodged it and returned a larista and threw up a shield.

Lockhart tried to intervene, "Stop! Stop I say! Stop!" but had minimal effect. Snape allowed the chaos to carry on for a few moments before releasing a cannon blast spell, causing everyone to halt their duels. Draco was fuming as he retrieved his wand and Hermione was breathing heavily against Alicia Spinnet, a Gryffindor Chaser. Lockhart gave an exaggerated sigh, "I think I had better teach you to block unfriendly spells instead. Lets have a pair. What about Mr. Longbottom and Mr. Finch-Fletchety?" Snape intervened again, "A bad idea, we'll be sending what's left of Mr. Finch-Fletchety to the Hospital Wing in a matchbox." Neville colored, but neither professor noticed, "I suggest Mr. Potter against, say, Mr. Malfoy?" He spun on his heel and gestured to Draco.

Harry stepped onto the platform opposite Draco and watched Snape whisper into the blond's ear. Lockhart leaned down to Harry, "Now, Harry, when Mr. Malfoy tries to disarm you, wave your wand like this." He gave his a quick twiddle and dropped it, "Oops, looks like my wand's a little jumpy today. Well, just do it." Harry raised a skeptical eyebrow, "What, drop my wand?" But he wasn't listening. Harry profiled and watched Draco, who smirked right back, "Ready to die, Potter?" Lockhart raised his hand and counted to three and dropped his hand. Immediately, Draco whirled his wand in a full body swing that took a full 2 seconds, ending in a not-so-perfect pentagon and stab. A dark blue curse sped toward Harry, who held his left had high in the air, glowing an emerald green. He brought it down just as the spell left Draco's hand, "Protegis Alarae!"

A shield, as green as its user's eyes, materialized from the point Harry's hand started, to the ground in a curve, across the entire platform. The spell met it, and dissolved, but Malfoy had already cast his second spell, "Serpensortia!" Harry glared at the blond and raised his wand, but Lockhart jumped onto the stage, "Let me!" He waved his wand in a none too discriminate manner, and a huge bang saw the snake fly through the air, landing in front of several scared Hufflepuffs, who backed away while the snake advanced. Harry growled and cast a binding hex at Lockhart, "You fool!" He marched toward the snake and students, "Relax, or it will only advance faster." All of them froze, and for a moment so did the snake. With a downward swish of his wand, Harry hissed, Be gone! and in a puff of red smoke, it disappeared.

Harry turned to Lockhart and fixed him with a glare, "Under international rules supported by the ICW, I could kill you for disrupting my duel. As it is, the Headmaster would be hard pressed to find someone to fill the Defense post. However." He banished Lockhart to the back of the hall and turned to his opponent, "Ready to continue?" But Draco had fainted dead away somewhere along the line, and Snape was studying Harry like he was an interesting potions experiment. Whispers and murmers swept the hall and his friends rushed him out, to an empty classroom, where they pushed him into a chair, "Why didn't you tell us?" Harry blinked, "Tell you?" Hermione sighed, "You're a parseltongue. You speak snake. Why didn't you tell us?"

Harry sighed, "I never had reason to. That and it would make things easier, as I'm sure you see." Su Li shrugged, "Not really, such things are uncommon but not unheard of where I come from." Padma frowned, "Not quite so head of here, but I agree, you're still our friend. I just worry about where this is going, it's like everything is precipitating to some eventuality." All worried at her grim prediction.

…

Unfortunately, Padma's forecast appeared to be accurate. Justin was attacked not long after the dueling debacle, and was found with Nearly Headless Nick. Both boy and ghost had been petrified, turning Nick solid to the touch, though still deathly cold. What was most frightening was that even ghosts could be petrified, almost like a second death. Both had similar expressions of shock, fear, and disbelief, but Hermione noted that Justin appeared to have been looking through Nick.

Knowing that when it came down to it, he'd be the one facing whatever was petrifying the students, Harry practiced harder than ever, finding he reliably could draw on his free wielding to move magic. He couldn't turn it into a water spout or bolts of lightning, but he knew he was getting closer. His friends had taken to practicing with him, and Luna was helping them along. Being the best connected, magically, she'd learned from Raven well and could use her magic to push and pull with impunity, as well as take different forms. Harry was particularly happy when he finally managed to change the magical flow through him and became a tiger and chased Luna's cat form around the room. He couldn't hold it for long though, and quickly reverted, flushed with success but wishing he'd turned into the dog he'd been trying to.

The Professors were getting into the act as well. Lockhart had them reenacting stories of his past glory ("still very much alive" he assured them) and had them guessing at what spells he used. Harry made it very clear where he stood on it the first time Lockhart had them performing when he suggested that their professor had stuck his wand somewhere nasty and screamed the "monster" to pieces. When Lockhart had blinked at that, Harry elaborated that a sonorous cast when he shoved the wand would amplify the curses, Lockhart finally cottoned on and dismissed the class.

McGonagall was more constructive and had them transfiguring objects from large to small and small to large. She explained that this particular transfiguration had many benefits to be gained, from bringing more things around with you to keeping a door closed, and demonstrated by stopping Ron Weasley from sneaking into her classroom late, with a conjured and enlarged rock. Harry hadn't had any trouble with it, so McGonagall decided to up the difficulty, and had him transfiguring size at top speed. It exhausted him, but Harry admitted it was probably a very important lesson in the end.

Flitwick insisted that having fun and keeping a positive attitude was the most important, so he provided blocks of wood and taught them the locomotion charm, telling them to have fun playing around with the blocks. Harry chuckled, enlarged his, split it in two, and had a duel with Su Li, blocking with one and attacking with the other, using both to defend, or both to attack. They had fun, enjoying it particularly when the blocks came together and made that funny crunching sound. Only Draco Malfoy didn't like the lesson and sat in his seat, sulking. Crabbe and Goyle sat there blinking blankly, but nobody paid attention to them.

Snape evidently felt better after humiliating Lockhart on the dueling platform, because he didn't spend the usual 10 minutes berating the class, and another 5 on Harry himself. Instead, he spent 5 minutes berating the class and ignored Harry totally, proceeding with the lesson by flicking the instructions onto the board, and returning to his chambers till the bell rang. Unfortunately that lasted just 1 lesson, and he returned to his usual mannerisms the next.

………

On their way to one of their classes one day though, Draco decided it was time to make his stand within Hogwarts, and true to his upbringing, fired a spell at Harry's back. Momentarily losing control of his temper, Harry swung round, his wand flying to his hand, and chaos erupted. Not a moment after finding the perpetrator, flames flew from his wand, barely evaded by the blond. Harry didn't let up, concussion and explosion curses flying fast and furious, gouging holes and craters in the walls and floor of the entrance hall, such was his pent up frustrations with Lockhart and Snape.

Into the confusion and chaos waded the headmaster himself. Waving his wand vaguely, he calmed the raging tide of magic and separated the surrounding students from the combatants, subduing both with another vague wave of his wand. His eyes flicked from one to the other, inspecting the damage done to the school, and released a sighed. He dismissed the surrounding students and instructed both students to follow him to his office. Lockhart was nowhere to be seen, but McGonagall was on hand to accompany then, and summon Snape and Flitwick before returning to her own class.

In his office, Dumbledore isolated Harry from Draco magically and had them explain their respective sides of the story. Harry was unapologetic for retaliating, but did express his regret as to the damage he caused, which was almost all of it. He appeared exhausted now that the adrenalin rush had abated and Dumbledore sent him to the Hospital Wing with his head of house while he questioned Draco. Flitwick made no comment on the engagement, except to express his hope that Harry would learn to curb his reactions, no matter the circumstances.

It was not till the later class that Harry realized he had something that didn't belong to him.