Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord", enjoy!

* Review response:
Naginator, what can I say: read and see for yourself.
obsessivegirl73, that's because I took a part from the book and was too lazy to fix the formatting properly.
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* 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, there will be no update next week - I need some time to adapt to my magistracy schedule. "Pyro" will be updated, though.

chapter 19: Dueling and Christmas

It actually took Draconica several days to realize the implications of what Harry told her: Malfoy house elves knew something about what was going on in Hogwarts this year. And since Dobby started trying to 'save' the young Potter back in June – the blond witch managed to get this much out of the elf – it appeared that the 'preparations' for the attacks started at about the same time...

Also, in June there weren't many visitors to the manor, and none of those were dark enough to propose releasing an unknown horror into the school full of children, and her father barely left his study at all, so, most likely, he was the one who initiated the whole thing. But her father wasn't stupid enough to unleash a monster that was supposed to be in Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, when there was a chance, no matter how small, that it could hurt his own children... In other words, whatever was causing the attacks, it wasn't something her father understood completely. This wasn't good. Not at all...

But she wasn't going to tell anybody about this. Yet. First, she wouldn't hurt her own family. And this information was useless anyway: it neither answered who or what was behind the attacks, nor how they were made, nor how to stop them.

~/ *** \~

Harry, Neville and Hermione, along with their yearmates and many other students entered the Great hall for the first meeting of the Dueling club. It was still not known, who will be leading the club, but almost entire school hoped that it would be professor Flitwick... Unfortunately, these hopes were crushed when one Gilderoy Lockhart walked onto the stage in robes of deep plum, accompanied by Severus Snape, who, unlike the DADA professor, didn't look like he enjoyed being here too much

"I think we can leave now. I doubt we will learn anything useful from him." Neville said, nodding towards Lockhart.

"That might be true..." The green-eyed wizard replied. "But they say, Snape is pretty good with his wand. We might still learn something today."

"Professor Snape, Harry." Hermione corrected him, but the raven-haired boy ignored her. Meanwhile, the current DADA professor was attracting attention to himself.

"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!" Lockhart said as he waived his arm for silence. "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." Lockhart continued talking, while flashing a wide smile. "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!" The look on Snape's face, though, was broadcasting man's desire to hurt the blond buffoon in front of him.

"Please note the way we are standing and how we are holding our wands: this is one of the officially accepted combative stances." The Hogwarts' potions master said, when he and Lockhart raised their wands like swords in front of them.

"On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course." Lockhart said to the silent crowd that was observing two duelers. Once again, the look on Snape's face was making it obvious that Lockhart was not walking away unharmed if it could be helped. "One... Two... Three..."

"Expelliarmus!" The potions master said in a flat tone that didn't betray his animosity towards the man in front of him, while a beam of scarlet light raced towards Lockhart. The spell hit the DADA professor on his chest and, ripping the wand out of his hands, sent him flying backwards and off the stage, where he smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor. This caused some students, mostly Slytherin ones, to cheer.

"Well, there you have it!" Lockhart said as he tottered back onto the platform. "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 would have been only too easy – however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see..." A murderous look from the Hogwarts' potions master caused Lockhart not to finish this phrase. Instead, the blond man said: "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..." Hermione got herself paired with Neville, while Harry's partner happened to be Su Li from Ravenclaw. ...Despite her normally shy attitude, the petite oriental girl was very skilled with her wand, and was going to be quite a good fighter in the future...

Lockhart counted to three, and students started practicing the disarming charm. Those who knew it already, meaning older years and the DS members, were dong it perfectly well, while everyone else seemed to have some problems. And Ron Weasley, who was still using a cracked wand, seemed to have more problems than anyone else, if an ashen-faced and almost unresponsive Seamus was of any indication... Seeing the results of the first round of practices, the blond DADA professor, decided that having the students learn the disarming charm might not have been the best idea.

"I think, I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells." He said. "But I would need a volunteer pair..." Snape's eyes suddenly had a gleam Harry didn't like...

"How about Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy?" The potions master suggested. Lockhart smiled.

"What an excellent idea!" He said, while gesturing the two named students onto the stage. When both were there, the DADA professor made the young Gryffindor look at him, while Snape was whispering something into Basilius's ear, making the boy smirk. "Now, Harry, when he points his wand at you, I want you to do this." The blond man said, before raising his wand at attempting a complicated sort wiggling action... And dropped his wand. "Whoops! My wand is a little overexcited..."

"Scared, Potter?" The still smirking young Malfoy asked so that only Harry could hear him.

"As if." Was what the Gryffindor 'golden boy' replied, just as loudly as his opponent. After all, it was not like Basilius could start throwing any powerful spells right now...

"Three..." Lockhart started counting. "Two... One... Go!" Harry immediately threw up a protego shield in front of him.

"Serpensortia!" The young Malfoy shouted, as a dark-brown viper of about eighteen inches in length appeared at the tip of his wand, before falling on the floor between him and Potter. There were screams as the crowd backed swiftly away, trying to get as far away from the venomous snake as possible.

"Don't move, Potter." The potions master said lazily, as if he hoped that the snake would bite the Gryffindor boy before he would vanish it. "I'll get rid of it." Meanwhile, using this distraction to his advantage, Basilius attacked his opponent:

"Rictumsempra!" The silvery light splashed harmlessly against Harry's shield that was still up. Seeing this, the young Malfoy tried again. "Tarantallegra!" The result was the same: Potter's shield successfully blocked the spell... Loud screaming, coming from the crowd, caused both 'duelers' to look there: apparently, Lockhart tried to vanish the snake, so right now it was only angrier and was slithering towards the nearest human being – Justin Finch-Fletchley.

"Petrificus totalus!" Harry shouted, dropping his shield to save a Hufflepuff boy. The spell hit the snake on its back, paralyzing it. Catching his opponent moving with his peripheral sight, the green-eyed wizard quickly moved to the side, barely avoiding being hit by Malfoy's disarming charm... Regaining a solid footing, Harry counterattacked with his own one. Basilius wasn't fast enough to avoid the spell, and lost his wand, while being sent flying backwards and almost off the stage. ...Seeing that the situation was getting out of control, Lockhart decided that he should finish the first meeting of the dueling club before anyone, or, worse, his reputation got hurt.

"Alright, everyone!" He said loudly. "I know that you all liked our little club..." Many were of a different opinion about the club, though: it was almost useless, especially for the upper years. "...But it is quite late already, and you all have lessons tomorrow, so I shouldn't keep you from preparing for the next day. See you in my dueling club..." Snape once again had a face like he wanted to murder the blond buffoon. "...in just one week." Students started walking out of the Great hall, heading back to their dormitories, discussing the events of the evening.

"I'm not going there there the next week." Harry said as the 'golden trio' and their housemates were returning to the Gryffindor tower. Neville and Hermione nodded in agreement: they could have spent this time with more use were they doing self-study...

~/ *** \~

November ticked away, as did the first two weeks of December, and right now the magnificent Hogwarts castle was buried under the thick blanket of snow. There were no attacks after the one on Thomas White, but everyone was still tense, expecting that the Slytherin's heir will reappear at any moment, unleashing the beast from the Chamber of Secrets onto those of impure blood... The patrols in the corridors, especially during the curfew were still reinforced, and the students were still recommended not to go anywhere alone, if they could help it.

At the same time, there also was only one more meetings of the Dueling club. Apparently, Lockhart understood that he couldn't run it, and decided to quit with the idea... Not like there was much he could teach to the students of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, especially the older ones.

The end of semester exams were mostly finished by now, and Harry was pleased to know that he and his friends – Draconica and Susan and Hannah included – all did well, even in DADA where their professor tried to make a test that was a cross between the one they had on their first lesson and what it actually should have been...

Even if the Slytherin's heir was not heard for over five weeks, not many wanted to stay at Hogwarts for holidays, and almost all seats on the Hogwarts express were booked by the students who wanted to spend Christmas at home... Hermione was going – she and her parents were going to be skying in the Swiss Alps – as was Neville, who was promised some rare plant for his greenhouse for Christmas. The Gryffindor chaser trio was leaving Hogwarts for holidays as well, though, Harry suspected that they were trying to avoid the repeat of all-day-long quidditch trainings with Oliver Wood (he too decided to go home for the holidays this year) they had the previous year...

In the end, Harry and the Weasley lot were the only Gryffindors that were going to stay at the castle for Christmas – and Percy was saying that he wasn't going home only because it was his duty as a prefect to help professors in these troubled times. Malfoys were staying (and, thus, Crabbe and Goyle too), as were some sixth and seventh year Ravenclaws and a single fifth year Hufflepuff, but that was all.

No matter how tense and uneasy the Hogwarts population was – like they were expecting the Slytherin's heir to attack that day – the Christmas dinner was really enjoyable. The Hogwarts stuff made the Great hall look magnificent: there was a dozen of frost-covered Christmas trees there, with the living fairies playing on their branches; thick streams of holly and mistletoe were crisscrossing under the ceiling... And Dumbledore made enchanted snow – warm and dry – falling, powdering the floor in hall, making it look like a some majestic magic glade...

Of course, the house elves that were working in the kitchens outdid themselves, preparing the feast, and everyone found it to be so delicious that they couldn't deny themselves a helping or two... or five, like a certain red-haired second year Gryffindor did.

~/ *** \~

The next morning Harry allowed himself to sleep in, and descended to the Gryffindor common room only half past eleven in the morning... Percy Weasley was there, sitting next to the fireplace, reading some tome on runes, while trying to keep an eye on the twins, who were obviously planning their next prank in the far corner of the room.

Like the previous year, there was a small stack of wrapped gifts, addressed to Harry, waiting for him under the Christmas tree. Picking them up, the green-eyed wizard sat in the nearest armchair and started opening them. Hagrid had sent him a large tin of treacle fudge, which the young Potter decided to soften by the fire before eating. A box of chocolates in a green and silver box was from Draconica (He had sent her a similar one, plus a normal spellbook for DADA second and third years). Several vials of quite expansive herbal extracts arrived from the Longbottom greenhouses – and Harry had sent several advanced Herbology and Botanic books to Neville. The Gryffindor chaser trio sent him a collective gift in the form of the current teams magical photo with their 'autographs' (their lipsticks' imprints on the back of the card – the girls were such teases...), and more sweets... Oliver Wood gifted him a snitch that was magically turned into a small storespace that only the rightful owner could access – apparently, the Gryffindor keeper was as good with charms as he was at keeping the rings safe, even if he mentioned somewhere in the 'instruction' that security charms would need a recharge every couple of months. Finally there was a postcard with the views of Alps, a book about wizarding geography and some Swiss chocolate from Hermione.

~/ *** \~

Hundreds miles away, a certain bushy-haired witch too was going over her presents. Her parents got her some 'book' money, as they couldn't go into the magical districts themselves, some sugarless sweets, and some books that would allow her not to fall too far behind her peers in the 'mundane' knowledge. Plus the trip itself was a gift too. ...If only the walls of the rented cottage were thicker, or her parents were not as loud the previous night, this would have been the ideal Christmas for Hermione...

Neville had sent her a tome on the common charms, with a good deal of theory (including Arithmancy) on the spells discussed. From Harry she got a book of fairy tales of the magical world and some Honeydukes sweets. Padma Patil – Hermione became good friends with the Ravenclaw girl during the DS meetings – gifted her some body oils from India with a postcard wishing her a merry Christmas. Another postcard was sent by Draconica, and even if there was nothing more to this gift, Hermione was still happy that her Slytherin 'associate' felicitated her.

~/ *** \~

Theodore Nott was pleased with how the things were going for him. First and foremost, no matter how he disliked Dumbledore's pro-muggle politics, he had to admit that the ancient headmaster made the holiday feasts at Hogwarts fantastic and enjoyable for everyone...

His father had gifted him several rather useful items that were borderline dark, and the young Nott couldn't wait to test them back at the castle. Maybe with those he could finally find enough power to overthrow that Malfoy brat. The 'disappearance' of the Slytherin's heir brought him back some supporters, but that was still not enough: he needed more to be sure that his positions as the leader of the Slytherin house would be unshakeable... Oh well, Basilius would get what was coming for him soon enough...

~/ *** \~

Tom Marvolo Riddle – just Tom – forced himself to continue playing that supportive kind-of-older-brother to the girl who was writing in his diary, comforting her from not being noticed by her crush – Harry Potter, the wonder boy that somehow destroyed the real him about eleven years ago. He wanted to know how mere toddler managed to defeat the greatest Dark Lord in the recent history (him), but being what he was right now, that had to wait...

Instead, Tom was plotting the next batch of attacks on the mudbloods and blood traitors. He was quiet for far too long, as it was... But the old fool knew that he was out there, so it couldn't hurt to be extra careful... He already had the list of desired victims in his mind, and only had to wait for the school break to end, so that he could continue purging Hogwarts from the taint of the dirty blood. The girl that he was possessing didn't need to know about his plans, of course...

That's all, folks!
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