Peter Kingsley was scared. It was his first year at Hogwarts and already something was out to kill students? His brother, Daniel, and his sister, Quinn, had both been at Hogwarts longer than he had. When he had confessed to them before the term started that he was scared that something would happen to him that year, they had promised that no one ever gets seriously hurt at Hogwarts.
But with the angry Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, Petrified and now one of his best friend, Colin Creevey Petrified as well, he was very scared. Although he was in Hufflepuff, he had become very good friends with a lot of Gryffindors. So when all the First Years had paired up to protect themselves from the monster, Peter and Colin had paired up. Now Peter was left without a buddy and no one wanted to pair up with him because they thought that he was disloyal for leaving Colin open to attack.
But how disloyal can Hufflepuff really be? It wasn't truly Peter's fault that Colin had been sneaking about at night by himself. But no one believed him. So he had to hang onto the other group's coattails as they trudged to and from their classes, staying close enough to them to feel safe, but far away enough from them so that they didn't notice that he was practically stalking them.
A week after Colin's Petrification there was a sign on the notice board that had caught everyone's attention. There would be a Dueling Club! He thought that this could be very useful to him. And maybe if he became the best dueler people would want to buddy up with him to feel protected. Maybe even his longtime crush, Grace Malcolm (with her beautiful wheat-colored long hair and pale blue eyes), would want to be with him.
So at eight o' clock that evening, he showed up (following closely behind his roommate, Brandon Gage, and his buddy, Norman Launder), feeling very brave. He was determined to be the best.
The Great Hall was packed so tightly that it was hard for Peter to move around or find anyone he knew. He could barely see above anyone's heads. But he could hear Lockhart's haughty, glorified voice above the chatter.
"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!" he said, getting up on the long, golden stage. Peter found himself next to Grace Malcolm and tried his hardest not to look at her and tried to seem very calm and collected. "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. 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!"
Peter didn't much like Snape and his cold, lifeless eyes, but he disliked Lockhart even more. He wished that Snape would do some serious damage.
The two professors turned to each other and bowed slightly. Then they raised their wands in front of them.
"As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart said. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."
The audience was completely silent as Lockhart counted to three. On three, Snape cried out "Expelliarmus!" and Lockhart was blasted off his feet and backwards and into a wall behind him. Peter heard Grace gasp in worry and he felt a pang of jealousy.
"Well, there you have it!" Lockhart said, standing unsteadily. "That was a Disarming charm - as you see, I've lost my wand - ah, thank you, Miss Brown - 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 only would have been too easy - however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see.." Peter rolled his eyes. Lockhart was such a shmooze. He noticed Snape's murderous look and saw Lockhart's face tinge red.
"Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me-"
Peter's heart swelled. Perhaps Lockhart would put him and Grace together. He instinctively moved towards Grace as Lockhart grew closer. And then, "Ah, well yes, you two," Lockhart said, pointing at Peter and Grace, "yes, you two pair up, and-"
"But Professor, can't I be with Cara?" Grace begged and Peter felt his ego deflate.
"No, no Miss Malcolm. There are no exceptions. Now pair up!" Lockhart instructed and Peter had never felt so much respect for him (although the bar was set pretty low prior to this encounter).
Grace turned toward Peter practically looking through him. "Weren't you the one that set off the firework in our common room the other day?" she said.
Peter smiled brilliantly, proud of himself. He had set off a firework in the Hufflepuff common room last week, the night of Colin's Petrification. "Why yes," he said, his chest swelling.
"Yes, well, I suppose it was a bit funny to see Professor Pomfrey's eyebrows after that," Grace replied stuffily. She was obviously just making small talk before the two were to fight, but Peter couldn't have been happier. All he heard was that she thought that he was funny. His head was swimming with whether or not she liked him.
Lockhart was back on the stage now. "Wands at the ready!" he instructed. "When I count to three, cast you charms to Disarm your opponents - only to disarm them - we don't want any accidents - one... two... three-"
The two First Years swung their wands high just as Lockhart had showed them. Grace shot first and hit Peter right in the arm. His wand flew from his hand and landed a foot in front of him on the ground. He huffed and picked it up as Grace held a smug smile on her face. Peter couldn't help but notice how her lips reminded him of strawberries.
"You're not too good at this are you?" Grace teased, leaning her weight to one hip and crossing her arms, her smug smile still in place. Peter rolled his eyes playfully, making her giggle. His face tinged pink and his pride was raised considerably.
The two barely even noticed the commotion around them. Other pairs had continued to duel, hurting each other, and causing chaos.
Lockhart called for silence and stopped the other pairs from fighting. "I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells. Let's have a volunteer pair - Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you-"
"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart," Snape said in a deep, dark voice. Peter had nightmares about Snape turning into a large bat and taking points away from Hufflepuff for his stupid mistakes. "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox. How about Malfoy and Potter?"
"Excellent idea!" Lockhart said, ushering the two Second Years up onto the stage. "Now, Harry, when Draco points his wand at you, you do this." Lockhart attempted to wiggle his wand and ended up dropping it. "Whoops - my wand is a little overexcited-" He picked up his wand. He then patted Harry on the back and said, "Just do what I did, Harry!"
Harry gave him a scathing look. "What, drop my wand?" This made Peter laugh. Lockhart ignored Harry and told the two of them to go at it.
Malfoy shouted "Serpensortia!" and a snake shot out of the tip of his wand. It moved towards Harry, poised to strike.
"Don't move, Potter," said Snape. His smile was slightly twisted. "I'll get rid of it..."
"Allow me!" interjected Lockhart. He pointed his wand at the serpent and, instead of disappearing, flew into the air and landed in the middle of the crowd. The snake was now furious as it slithered towards Justin Finch-Fletchley.
Then the crowd parted for Harry Potter, as he walked sternly towards the snake. He began to hiss at the snake, making it go limp.
Justin jumped back. "What do you think you're playing at?" he yelled angrily, turning and leaving the Great Hall quickly. Harry looked confused as Snape waved his wand and made the snake vanish.
Harry's redheaded friend ushered him out of the Great Hall, much to everyone's confusion. There were vague mutterings going around the Great Hall now.
Grace turned to Peter. "He just spoke Parseltongue, didn't he?" she said. "Isn't that Salazar Slytherin's trait? Do you think that Potter is the 'Heir of Slytherin?'" she whispered into his ear.
After that, Lockhart dismissed everyone. Peter doubted that there would be another Dueling Club meeting. This first one had proven to be a huge disaster.
"Grace!" Peter called after the blonde. "Hey Grace, can I buddy up with you to the common room?"
Grace's friend, Cara Werthing, shook her head. Grace smiled apologetically. "Sorry Peter," she said. "I already have a buddy."
"Oh," he said, deflating. "Oh, that's okay, I guess. It's just...I don't have a buddy anymore because Colin was Petrified and now no one else wants to be with me."
Grace looked conflicted. Cara was seething. "Well, okay," Grace said finally. "But just tonight." Peter smiled.
"That's fine, thank you so much!" he said. "It gives me plenty of time to tell you about my next prank!"
The trio walked out of the Great Hall together, much to Cara's chagrin.
Peter Kingsley everybody! One of my longer chapters. As you see, I've taken to updating every week just because school and sports are starting and it's harder for me to write as much. So sorry!
Please review :)