Chapter 29
It was an average Thursday, November twelve and the students were busy with their classes. Nothing changed in the school except now young Minerva Granger was harassed sometimes non stop by three of the houses as they claimed that she was the one behind the attacks. However, almost the entire Slytherin House was thinking highly of the girl as they thought that if she was truly the Voldemort's heir, she could finish her ancestor's job. However, usually Harry and Hermione found the girl in the company of Ginny and Luna who were trying to comfort the crying girl.
That Thursday, as Harry, Hermione and Draco were returning to their common room after their last class, they heard that people started running in one direction as if there was something interesting to investigate. "Shall we join them?" ask Harry and his friends and him ran with the rest of students to the destination they all were going.
However, as they approached the hall, the younger years were shocked while the rest of the student body tried to bring order back into their houses. Soon the Slytherin trio saw what had occurred- a couple of bodies laid on the floor motionless and they were in the same state as the cat that was petrified. "The Basilisk attacked them but how?" Harry wondered and looked at his friends. They were as clueless as him.
"Harry, I do not think that the students are deeply hurt, they were petrified by the snake, but they did not get killed as they did not absorb the full charge of the petrification" the girl quickly said and then pointed at the ghost that hang in the air. The ghost had numerous black spots on his body and hang in the air without any movements.
The Professors soon arrived and saw what happened. After a quick examination, the Head of the school looked at the students. "Prefects, please escort the other students to their rooms. Professor, please report to my office. Mr. Potter, please stay" The students followed their Prefects as Harry and his two friends approached the Headmaster.
"Professor?" asked confused Harry
"Mr. Potter, Miss Granger and Mr. Malfoy, I wanted to inform you that among other petrified students were your friends Miss Greengrass and Mr. Longbottom. Now, do you know anything about this attack?" he asked Harry
"No, Professor, if we knew anything knew we would tell you" replied Harry and then looked at a number of petrified bodies.
"Very well then, good luck with your classes" the aged Headmaster replied as he left the three Slytherins and went to his office.
"Harry, look, five students were petrified and three of them are Muggleborns!" exclaimed Hermione as she pointed at the students. The two other Slytherins noticed and then proceeded to go to their common room, noting that as they were leaving, Filch and Hagrid took the petrified students and carried them into the Hospital Wing.
The next day was very grey on emotional scale, as the students were both sad and afraid from what happened to other students. The first years especially were absolutely terrified to move between the classrooms and unless a Prefect or a Professor was present, they refused to exit the room they were in.
As the day passed by, Harry noticed that some of the students were talking about some "Dueling Club" that was supposed to start soon. Harry was happy that he would get more practice but Hermione was very nervous. "Harry, do you think I would duel well? I never dueled before and we only learned the basics, and I know we won't be tested on how much we remember from the book," the girl quickly told to her friend.
"Don't worry Hermione, if I know one thing, it is that you are a powerful witch and you would duel well" Harry reassured his friend and as a consequence received a large hug from his friend; Draco saw that and smirked.
At seven in the afternoon, the student body, which signed up for the club, assembled in the Great Hall, where all the tables were removed. As the students started to enter the Hall. They saw two Professors sitting in the room.
"Professor Dumbledore thought that this Dueling Club would be a good practical application for you. My assistant Professor Evans-Potter will help me to show what a wizarding duel is and then you will be broken into pairs and duel each other."
The two Professors looked at each other and then walked to the middle of the room, where they faced each other and then after bowing to eachother's walked to the two opposite sides of the room and prepared to duel. "Expelliarmus" shouted Professor Snape as he sent a red ray of light at his opponent.
"Protego" shouted the red haired Professor and then after pointing her wand at Professor Snape, shouted "Stupefy". However, the Defense Professor ducked and then sent a couple other spells at his former friend, but now all of them were sent wordlessly.
Soon, the duel started heating up and the two Professors were sending more and more powerful attacks at their opponents. Once, after Lily sent a Disarming charm at her childhood friend, the former Potions Professor levitated a chair he was previously sitting in and then threw it at the spell. The chair got destroyed but the spell did not hit its target. Snape then sent a couple of other spells that were stopped by a brick wall that was created from the room's floor that was at Lily's feet.
Snape sent "Reducto" and destroyed the wall but Lily Evans was ready and sent a couple new Disarming spells. The duel continues. A few students heard Professor Snape whispering "Levicorpus" and then the students saw that Lily Evans lifted in the air and was hanging in the air upside down. The Potion Professor smiled and some Slytherins laughed.
"Lumos Solem" shouted the Potion Professor and the bright light temporarily blinded the students as well as Professor Snape and he lost concentration as he sat on the ground trying to reverse the spell. He quickly recovered but after he looked at the place where Lily was floating previously in the air, he saw that she was nowhere to be seen. As he looked in the air that surrounded him, he heard two words and tried to duck but was unsuccessful.
"Petrificus Totalus" shouted Professor Evans- Potter as she sent her former friend on the ground. The Slytherins were extremely unhappy and the other houses cheered, especially the Gryffindor House as they saw as they later called " the Fall of the Terrible Dungeon Greasy Bat". Lily approached Snape and unbound him and the two bowed again at each other and looked at the other students.
"What you have just seen was a duel between two wizards. We do not expect you to duel like that any time soon but you should all at least try to successfully disarm your opponent." Lily Evans told to the students. The Professors then proceeded to put the students into groups.
"Potter, Granger. Weasley, Malfoy" before Professor Snape could continue, he heard annoying sound that was produced by Ronald Weasley.
"Not you, another Weasley" Snape pointed at Ginny and the two students prepared to duel. Harry saw that Luna got paired with Minerva and the Weasley twins with each other.
"Whom I should be dueling with?" asked Ron as he saw that he did not get a pair to duel with.
"You are dueling with me" told Professor Snape to the Gryffindor and smiled at the horrified expression of the boy. The dueling club continued for a couple more hours, during which Harry showed his proficiency at dueling. The boy decided to help his best friend improve her fighting style and gave her some advice that he heard from Professor Snape. The rest of the students dueled well too, with one of the most amusing duel being the duel between the twins, as the two Weasleys decided to use their pranking material on each other that soon resulted in different kind of explosions. But the most amusing duel was between Professor Snape and Ronald Weasley, as the Gryffindor boy was constantly running away from the scary Professor.
After the dueling club ended its first session, the students followed the Prefects of their houses and went to their dormitories. As the students were leaving, Snape saw that his former friend approached him and hit his cheek. "Severus Snape, never embarrass me in front of the students in such a manner again!" she yelled at him angrily and then left the Hall.
A/N: I hope you liked the duel between Severus Snape and Lily Evans. I tried to make it more interesting than it was in the book.
Next: Another Wave of petrifications. Winter holidays begin and Harry finds an interesting book.