Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord" story for your enjoyment. Sorry for being a bit late with the update - had some trouble with free time because of my magistracy exams.

* Review response:
obsessivegirl73, Thaumologist, Evci, it was fun (though the menu was definitely lacking meat). We were even allowed to shoot from the real anti-tank cannon (rifles and pistols too, of course).
kazikamikaze24, YoungDarkPegasus, Victorules, Evil E. Evil, Hanzo of the Salamander, Penny is wise, Still Not Dead Yet, thank you, folks!
Highvalour, don't forget that Basilius is a spoiled eleven years old child who never had to use slyness before. He will learn, eventually, how a Slytherin should work and live and breathe, but right no... As for Crabbe and Goyle - read the chapter.
The Sinful, I haven't decided about Lockhart. Yet. As for Harry and his rivals - Ron will be one from time to time, as will Basilius. Nott possibly will be the third one (they all will be acting independently). There might be others as well.
Reishin Amara, Draconica will 'report' that herself. In the fourth year...
Vukk, Basilius won't be the king of the hill for long. I promise.

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"
"wraith speech"
'human thoughts'
"spells / parseltongue"

This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.
Also, please notice that I made a small change to the timetable from the previous chapter. Nothing major, but I still think that you should be informed of this.

chapter 15: DADA and quidditch surprises

Friday came too soon, that was what Harry thought. First thing he had two potions with professor Snape that day, and now he there was Defense Against the Dark Arts with Lockhart... The green-eyed wizard still didn't think that the man was fit to teach. And the classroom did nothing to dissuade the young Potter: on every wall there were various photos of Lockhart – Quirrell, as bad teacher as he was with his constant fake stuttering, at least had pictures related to the subject he taught, not his portraits – and, of course, the new professor himself looked like he was there to show himself off and not teach children.

Once everyone was seated, Lockhart cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. Now, with the classroom silenced, he picked one of his books from Dean Thomas, who happened to be sitting right in front of the teacher's table, and held it up, to show everyone his own, winking portrait on the front cover.

"Me,.." The new DADA professor said, pointing at his portrait, while winking himself. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin third class, honorary member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming-Smile Award – but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!" Only few students smiled weakly at the man's joke. "I see you've all bought a complete set of my books – well done. But we will start today with a little quiz – nothing to worry about, just to check how well you've read the books..." With that Lockhart started handing out the test papers. With his hands, not magic. "You have thirty minutes. Start... now."

Harry turned his paper and the questions... All fifty four were about Lockhart, and none was about what could be taught as Defense... if there even was such a thing in the books... Still, the green-eyed Gryffindor tried to answer some questions – he didn't want the professor to pay him more attention than the man was already.

Half an hour later, Lockhart collected the test papers, again, not using magic, and riffled through them in front of the class, commenting from time to time on what he saw... As it turned out, only Hermione answered all questions correctly, thus, earning Gryffindor ten points.

Done with the tests, the man put them away into his table and then placed a large covered cage – it was hidden behind the table up to now – onto the tabletop.

"Now – be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You

may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm." Many students, mostly Gryffindors, leaned forward, interested in what could be in the cage. "I must ask you not to scream," said Lockhart in a low voice. "It might provoke them." As the most of the class held its breath, Lockhart whipped off the cover. "Yes,.." he said dramatically. "Freshly caught Cornish pixies. " Seamus Finnigan couldn't control himself. He let out a snort of laughter that even Lockhart couldn't mistake for a scream of terror. "Yes?" The DADA professor smiled at Seamus.

"Well, they're not – they're not very – dangerous, are they?" Seamus choked.

"Don't be so sure!" said Lockhart, waggling a finger annoyingly at Seamus. "Devilish tricky little blighters they can be!" Indeed, pixies were tricky little creatures and they also had poisonous little fangs, but you needed to be bitten dozens times to start feeling the effects of the poison. So all in all, they weren't dangerous... Unless you were Lockhart. "Right, then,.." The blond professor said loudly. "Let's see what you make of them!" And he opened the cage...

It was pandemonium. The pixies shot in every direction like rockets. Several shot straight through the window, showering the back row with broken glass. The rest proceeded to wreck the classroom more effectively than a rampaging rhino. They grabbed ink bottles and sprayed the class with them, shredded books and papers, tore pictures from the walls, up-ended the waste basket, grabbed bags and books and threw them out of the smashed window. Within a couple of minutes the whole class was hiding under the desks...

"Come on now – round them up, round them up, they're only pixies!" Lockhart shouted. He rolled up his sleeves, brandished his wand, and bellowed, "Peskipiksi Pesternomi!" It had absolutely no effect on the little beasts. Instead one of them seized his wand and threw it out of the window, too. Lockhart gulped and dived under his own desk, and then made a run to his private office, when the pixies picked another victim to torment.

Seeing that their professor fled with his tail between his legs, Harry knew that dealing with the pixies was now their task. But what could they do? Even with his self-study, he didn't have any spells that could be used against the little beasts. Or did he? He remembered from somewhere that pixies and their cousins doxies relied a lot on their hearing, so this was something he could use... Hoping for the better, the young Potter created a loud banging sound, causing pixies to stop their current mischief and head towards the source of the sound – him... He was saved from being attacked by another bang, coming from the opposite side of the classroom: apparently Draconica had understood how loud sounds could be used in the situation... Well, Hermione had understood that too, the green-eyed wizard was sure, but she was sitting too close to him to be able to use this.

When the pixies got close to the blond, Harry used his wand to create another bang, causing the pixies to return their attention onto him. Meanwhile, the students started getting from under the desks, and many of them started attacking the pests with random spells they had learned during Quirrell's lessons, or, like Crabbe and Goyle, simply using Lockhart's books to hit them hard...

Eventually, all pixies were neutralized and locked in the cage. And as soon as the students were done with the pests, Lockhart returned into the classroom, looking as narcissistic as always, and was about to say something – mostly likely something along the lines how well they applied the spell he had showed them – but the ball rang, saving the students from whatever the blond man had 'planned' next...

~/ *** \~

The Saturday for Harry didn't start much better than the Friday afternoon ended: Oliver Wood was the reason. The quidditch fanatic decided that the team should start training for the season as soon as possible – at six in the morning on the first day of the first weekend of the school year. And last till lunch... At very least he had the elves of the castle bring some food and drinks for the team, when they were having a half an hour long break in the training session...

As the team was returning to the castle for some (late) lunch after a tiresome seven hours long training session, where Wood had them doing just basics all over again, they passed by another team, heading to the pitch. The Slytherin team to be exact, and they had a new player among them (and brand new Nimbus 2001 brooms for everyone, which was probably the reason for the new player being there). And the said player was exactly what got Harry's attention: it was Draconica. He looked into her eyes, as if asking a silent question of what she was doing there as he had never seen her as someone who was even remotely interested in the game... The blond witch looked back at him, telling him with just her eyes that she would answer his unspoken question later.

~/ *** \~

Monday's DADA were just as bad as the Friday one was: after the pixie incident, Lockhart decided that they will be role-playing the scenes from his books - "Year with the Yeti" for today... At least Harry managed not to end as the one, whom the professor had assisting him, and he was very thankful for that.

Sometime in the middle of the second DADA lesson, Harry was trying to look like he was at least somewhat interested in whatever Lockhart was playing up while reading the normal defense textbook – hidden from professors view by a stack of his novels – a paper plane suddenly landed on his table. Quickly picking the plane up, the young Gryffindor unfolded it and read the message:

Meet me in the library tonight at six, and bring your friends with you as well: there are things needed to be discussed.

The message wasn't signed, but Harry had no doubts about who sent it to him: it was both Slytherin-ish in its style and written in muggle pen. Draconica was the only one who could have sent it... Folding the letter, the green-eyed wizard put in into the inner pocket of his school robe and returned to reading the Defense textbook: he will 'organize' the requested meeting later.

~/ *** \~

A little before six in the evening, Harry, Hermione and Neville entered the library, and they weren't surprised to find that the blond Slytherin witch was already there, sitting in the far corner of the reading room with an unidentified book – there was no title on the cover – in front of her.

"Longbottom, Potter, Granger." Draconica greeted them as they approached her table. "As you might have guessed, I asked you to come here, because, to be frank, our Defense professor is useless..." Harry had an idea that whatever the Slytherin witch wanted to talk about was related to DADA, but he hadn't shared this with his friends as this was a mere guess... Still, all three Gryffindors nodded. Even if Hermione was arguing that Lockhart was a great mage to accomplish all the things he wrote about. "And with professor Quirrell barely teaching us anything the previous year, we will need to do a lot self-studying if we want to successfully pass our DADA exam for OWLs."

"Yeah, we already needed to study Defense on our own the previous year to get A's." Harry said, with Neville agreeing with him and Hermione being hesitant as she still had some of her 'adults in power are always right' philosophy rooted in her mind.

"So, what I propose is that we organize some kind of a self-study club for those who wish to learn Defense. And since none of us is good enough to teach on his or her own, the club should be working like this: those who have something useful share it with the others." Draconica said. She made a small pause, before adding: "Don't think that I'm proposing this out of the goodness of my heart: should something happen to wizarding Britain, we will need aurors, and if the situation with the DADA doesn't change soon, there will be no wizards and witches qualified for that kind work. Thus, there will be no one to protect us."

"I like the idea, but... will it work?.. with everyone from different houses, I mean." Harry asked while pondering on his ...acquaintance's idea.

"I personally feel that the house rivalry goes a bit too far, as it is. But since not everyone feels like this... it will be their loss. We will be working only with those who wish to work with us." The blond witch replied.

"Well, I'm all for the club: we need to prepare for the life outside Hogwarts' walls on our own, if the school fails to prepare us." Harry said.

"I'm in too." Neville agreed with his friend.

"Me too." Hermione said. No surprise there, since the girl, it seemed, would never miss a chance to learn something.

"Very well. For now we need more members for the club, so ask your housemates and, if you can, Hufflepuffs in our year, if they want to join. I will ask my own house and Ravens." The blond witch said. "There is only half an hour before dinner, so it would be better if you go now: we're supposed to be rivals, and it wouldn't do us any good if we're seen leaving the library together... And I have some reading I need to finish before the library closes tonight." The 'golden trio' nodded and was about to leave, when Draconica stopped their unofficial 'leader'. "Potter, I know that you have some things you want to ask me... You can ask me now." She finished in a much softer tone, compared to the official one she started with. Harry nodded to his friends, telling them to continue without him, and returned to his seat across from his Slytherin friend. But words didn't want to come out of him, so he just sat there... Draconica, meanwhile, continued reading the book, looking up at him from time to time. Finally, after what felt like hours – but in reality was only a couple of minutes – Harry spoke:

"This last Saturday I saw you among the Slytherin quidditch team... I never thought you even like the game..." This wasn't coming out as a question, but Draconica understood perfectly well what he wanted to ask her.

"I never thought like that either." She replied, dropping her mask for a moment to allow a small smile... She didn't understand why she did this, but it didn't felt wrong to show (some) emotions when alone with ...Potter. "But my father decided that I have to earn some more glory to the house Malfoy... At least I was allowed to pick the position I will be playing. I'm a chaser – the safest position out there... So don't be afraid, I'm not after your status of the best seeker around." The Gryffindor wizard chuckled.

"Just don't expect me to tell you the strategies Wood creates for the Gryffindor team..." He replied, catching his acquaintance's attention. "I never remember them myself..." Draconica allowed herself to smile again.

"I wouldn't dream of that: the rumors about us being more then we are might start spreading otherwise." Oh, yes, they still were 'just associates'. "And you should probably return to your friends now, Potter. It's almost dinner time." Nodding, Harry stood up and, after a quick 'see you later' left the reading room...

~/ *** \~

Meanwhile, down in the dungeons of the Slytherin house another student was scheming. Theodore Nott wasn't happy with the youngest Malfoy replacing him as the unofficial leader of the Slytherin. The only thing, beside the arrogance, the little brat possessed was politically and economically powerful father: no one in the house wanted to have house Malfoy as their enemy...

Still, Basilius was poor leader and, in Theodore's eyes, would no doubt cause a lot of troubles to the Slytherin with his almost Gryffindor-stupid behavior. No, Slytherin needed someone who had both cunning and political power to be its leader. Someone like him – even if house Nott's political power wasn't that great, compared to other noble houses.

So, the young Nott started thinking of getting his position from the previous year back. And since he couldn't take it directly from Basilius, he would have to have the brat removed by the house. Once the brat will be a threat no more, he would just have to take his place. The fact that he had already being a leader of his year one and had performed this role adequately would only be helping him. All that he needed was to make the Malfoy heir make a fool of himself...

~/ *** \~

The next couple of day the 'golden trio' and Draconica spent asking their classmates, whether or not they wished to join the club. Of course, they were doing this a bit on the sly, not wanting to get extra attention to what they were doing.

Out of the Gryffindor house only Parvati Patil wanted to join the club – other than the 'golden trio' of course. The other either didn't want to do extra studying or didn't want to spend more time in the same room with the 'slimy Slytherins' than was absolutely necessary.

Hufflepuffs, on the other hand were quite interested in joining the club. Other than Ernie Macmillan, who didn't like Harry for some reason, only Justin Finch-Fletchley (he was being lazy) and Zacharias Smith (for the same reason) said that they won't be coming.

From what information Draconica had passed onto her ...associates, Ravenclaws were also very interested in the idea of the club and only one of the 'claws – Michael Corner – decided against joining. Slytherins, much like Gryffindors, though, had only four students who will be the members of the club: Tracey Davis, Theodore Nott, Daphne Greengrass and Draconica herself.

Now, with the members of the club known, the four met again; in the library, just several hours before their Astronomy lesson. After some debates, it was decided that the club's meetings will be held there, in the reading room of the library, on Thursdays in the afternoon, starting with the next week. And the name of the club was to be decided during the first meeting. 'The four' just hoped that the idea worked and they and everyone interested in this will get a chance to learn how to defend themselves in this cruel cruel world.

That's all, folks!
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