A/N: Thanks for being patient with me! (Although, I did warn y'all) I hope you are enjoying the cheesy, cliché excuse of a fanfic so far! Please review! It means a lot to me! Enjoy, loves! ;)
Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC, Skylar Wolf, all else belongs to J.K. Rowling and other respective owners. :)
Word Count: 2,053
"Gather round! Gather round!" The blonde Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher yelled, "Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent. In light of the dark events of recent weeks, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little Dueling Club, to train you all up in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions - for full details, see my published works." Skylar rolled her eyes in disdain.
"Was this just an excuse for yet another self promotion?" She muttered, earning snorts and chuckles from her two male companions.
"That Lockhart's something, isn't he?" A brunette Hufflepuff commented.
"Oh, he's something alright." Skylar murmured.
"Awfully brave chap," The boy continued, obviously not hearing Skylar's snarky remarks, "Justin Finch-Fletchley. Hufflepuff." As if it wasn't obvious by the black and yellow crest on his robes. He held out his hand to Harry, mostly ignoring the other three.
"Nice to meet you," Harry shook Justin's hand, "I'm-"
"I know who you are," Justin interrupted, "We all do. Even us Muggle-borns." He grinned before turning back to watch the blonde professor.
"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," Skylar stifled a giggle as she watched said professor glowering, "He has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration," She could tell by Snape's expression that he hadn't willingly agreed, "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!"
"What's the fun in that?" Ron nudged Skylar playfully, who giggled in turn.
"Hey, it's not Snape we should be worried about." She gave him a pointed look. "He actually knows what he's doing." Both of them laughed at that. They turned back to watch as the DADA professor and Potions professor bowed to each other, like one would a griffin, before turning and walking ten paces. "Have you noticed that wizarding duels are just like Western showdowns?" She nudged Harry and Hermione jokingly who nodded in agreement. The professors spun around in defensive stances, wands poised like swords.
"As you can see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position."
"Way to take the fun out of it." Ron rolled his eyes.
"On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course." Gilderoy Lockhart explained reassuringly.
"I wouldn't bet on that." Harry muttered, eyeing Snape suspiciously.
"One...two...three-" Before he could even raise his wand, Snape shouted,
"Expelliarmus!" A jet of scarlet light hitting Lockhart straight in the chest and sending him flying backwards into the wall, his wand flying out of his outstretched hand.
"Do you think he's alright?" Hermione regarded the fallen professor with worry.
"Who cares?" Harry and Ron chimed. Skylar was doubled over with laughter, arms clutching her stomach as she let it all out.
"Well there you have it," Professor Lockhart rose from his crumpled position, one hand attempting to fix his perfect hairstyle, "That was a Disarming Charm. As you see, I've lost my wand." Hermione scurried over to the discarded wand, picking it up and returning it to its owner. "Ah, thank you, Miss Granger. Yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my 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…"
"Perhaps it would be prudent to first teach the students to block unfriendly spells, Professor." Snape interrupted Lockhart's attempt to redeem himself.
"An excellent suggestion, Professor Snape. Let's have a volunteer pair," Gilderoy scanned the sea of students before his gaze landed on his favorite child celebrity, "Potter, Weasley, how about you?"
"Weasley's wand causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending Potter to the hospital wing in a matchbox. Might I suggest someone from my own house. Malfoy, perhaps." Said blonde Slytherin stepped up to face Harry, both students glaring at each other with hatred. They grudgingly bowed to each other, mimicking their professors.
"Scared, Potter?" The blonde sneered.
"You wish." Harry retorted. They turned their backs on each other before walking ten paces and whirling around, wands poised.
"Wands at the ready!" Lockhart announced, "When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponent - only to disarm. We don't want any accidents," Skylar had a feeling that comment was directed towards a certain Slytherin, "One...two…" Before Professor Lockhart could finish his countdown, Malfoy attacked Harry, a bright white light shooting from the tip of his wand. Harry retaliated, quickly recovering from the blow.
"Rictumsempra!" He shouted, sending a silver burst of light into Draco's stomach. The blonde Slytherin sank to his knees, nearly unmoving. Skylar found it quite odd that Harry had used a Tickling Charm in their duel, especially considering their goal was only to disarm. She supposed it was only natural that this spell popped into his mind right off the bat since they had only learned it that year. While Skylar found Harry's tactics...interesting to say the least, they appeared quite effective. Although it was due to laughing, Draco was practically immobilized.
"I said disarm only!" Gilderoy Lockhart called out. Skylar had a feeling his tone would be a lot less friendly had it been directed towards Draco.
"Serpensortia!" Draco managed to cough out. The tip of his wand exploded into smoke, releasing a long, black snake. Skylar noticed Snape smiling out of the corner of her eye. Skylar wasn't unimpressed, Transfiguration spells were difficult to manage, especially summoning spells like that one. The only use of the spell she'd ever heard of was for "Snake Charmers" to appear successful in front of unwitting Muggles.
"Don't move, Potter," Snape sneered, "I'll get rid of it for you."
"Allow me!" Gilderoy Lockhart intercepted with a flourish of his wand, the movement sending the serpent into the air. This only angered the snake more, which hissed angrily, slithering towards Justin Finch-Fletchley with its head in the air and fangs bared.
"Leave him!" Harry commanded the snake in Parseltongue. Skylar began wringing her fingers together nervously. She could understand everything he was saying, but to the other students, it probably didn't look too good. The snake made eye contact with Harry for a moment before turning back to the Hufflepuff. "LEAVE HIM!" Harry demanded. The snake stared once more at the boy before falling limp to the floor, no longer in attack mode. Harry walked up to the frightened Hufflepuff and offered him a hand up.
"Wh-What are you playing at?" Justin asked shakily before backing away from the Gryffindor. Harry looked around to see a variety of faces, all sharing the same expression: fear. While Malfoy looked shocked, Seamus and Neville looked completely freaked out. The only ones unaffected were Snape and Skylar. Out of the corner of her eye, Skylar could see a flash of red as Ginny bolted out of the room. What had she been doing there? She wasn't a second year… Skylar shrugged it off and turned back to Harry. Ron had latched onto his arm and dragged him out of the classroom, Hermione and Skylar following closely behind.
"You're a Parselmouth!" Ron practically shouted as the four friends entered the Common Room, "Why didn't you tell us?"
"I'm a what?" Skylar couldn't help but giggle at her friend's perplexed expression.
"You can talk to snakes." Hermione sighed. She hadn't even bothered to give the book definition before dumbing it down for the boys.
"I know," Harry recovered, "I mean, I accidentally set a python on my cousin Dudley at the zoo once. But so what? I bet loads of people here can do it."
"No, they can't. It's not a very common gift, Harry," Hermione explained, "This is bad."
"Why? Skylar knows Parseltongue." Skylar blushed fiercely as Hermione and Ron turned to gape at her.
"Way to put me on the spot, Harry." She murmured.
"Maybe so," Hermione turned back to Harry, "But she didn't reveal it in front of the entire class. To everyone else, who don't understand Parseltongue, it looked like you were egging the snake on or something."
"It was creepy." Ron agreed. They attempted to ignore the glares of the other second years as they streamed into the Gryffindor Common Room. Harry looked hurt when Seamus, Neville, and Dean completely ignored him.
"Harry, listen to me," Hermione snapped him out of his daze, "There's a reason the symbol of the Slytherin house is a serpent. Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth."
"That means he could communicate with snakes as well." Skylar elaborated.
"Exactly," Ron crossed his arms over his chest, "And now the whole school's going to think you're his great-great-great grandson or something."
"But I'm not!" Harry protested, "I… I can't be."
"He lived a thousand years ago. For all we know… you could be."
It had been a few days since the… incident… and there had been another attack. Both Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick had been paralyzed. Students had begun to ignore Harry, but his closest friends had stuck by his side, loyal as Hufflepuffs.
"Make way for the Heir of Slytherin!" Fred announced, walking alongside Harry as many students began leaving for the holidays. "Seriously evil wizard coming through!" Fred mimed pushing people out of the way, a chuckling Ron following in his wake. Harry looked crestfallen as the other students stared at them.
"Oh, c'mon, Harry," Ron playfully nudged his best friend, "Fred's just having a laugh."
"He's the only one." Harry said sadly. Skylar gave him a sad smile to show her sympathy. She knew exactly what Fred was doing: he was attempting to ease the tension by making the accusations into a joke so that no one would take them seriously. He was just being a good friend.
"Okay, so half the school thinks you're nipping off to the Chamber of Secrets every night," Ron rolled his eyes, "Who cares?"
"Maybe they're right." Harry replied sullenly.
"Harry!" Hermione scolded him reproachfully.
"I didn't know I could speak Parseltongue," Harry responded with obvious frustration, "What else don't I know about myself? Maybe you can do something… even something horrible… and not know you do it."
"Like, if you were under the Imperius curse…" Skylar murmured to herself, eyes narrowed in concentration.
"You don't believe that, Harry, I know you don't," Hermione insisted, "And if it makes you feel better, I just heard Malfoy's staying over for holiday, too."
"Why would that make anyone feel better?" Ron snorted.
"Because, in a few days the Polyjuice Potions will be ready." Skylar explained.
"In a few days… we may truly know who is the Heir of Slytherin." Hermione finished.
"Oy, 'Mione!" Skylar called, running over to the Gryffindor table with a parcel in her hands. Snowflakes rained down from the ceiling, candles suspended by magic, lighting up the enchanted night sky. Red, green, and gold decorated the Great Hall for the Christmas Feast. Skylar even swore she spotted a sprig of mistletoe.
"What's that?" Ron peered over the table as Skylar unwrapped the brown paper.
"I baked some cakes-" She stopped to slap the redhead's outstretched arm, "Not for you, dolt!" She shook her head and giggled, "We're going to fill these guys with some Sleeping Draught and use them on Crabbe and Goyle so that they'll be out of the way while you guys interrogate Malfoy."
"I thought you weren't on board with this…" Hermione trailed off.
"Eh, I realized it was just like a prank," Skylar explained, "And I love pranks!"
"I think the twins are rubbing off on you." Ron groaned dramatically, earning a giggle from the redhead girl.
"Now, once Crabbe and Goyle are asleep, you two," Hermione pointed at the boys, "hide them in a broom cupboard and pull out a few of their hairs."
"What about you?" Harry asked the brunette.
"I've already got one," Hermione held up a small vial containing a single brown strand, "Pulled it off of Millicent Bulstrode robes."
"I think we girls should stay out of it," Skylar suggested, "I've got a bad feeling about this."
"What could go wrong?" Ron asked. Skylar raised a brow skeptically.
"Are you really going to ask that?"