Reviews:
magitech : Let's not waste time discussing what is wrong with Lockhart, we would be here all day.
NobodyOwens5 : Yes, get your own, you can't have mine.
ThR1992 : Thanks, I hope you continue to enjoy.
Chapter 12 -
"So, how good do you think this will be?" Lisa asked as she and Harry arrived at the duelling club, the two had both seen a poster advertising the club and had both agreed to check it out. In the centre was a big stage that stretched across the room, the stage was surrounded by a large amount of students from all four houses as pretty much everyone who is second year or above is allowed to attend. The Gryffindor's and Hufflepuff's stood on one side with the Ravenclaws and Slytherin's stood on the opposite side.
"I don't really know," Harry replied honestly as he adopted a thoughtful look. "I suppose it will just depend really. Like for example who is going to be teaching us, I mean I hope it is Professor Flitwick." Harry said
"Hmm, I can see why." Lisa said, she had been given permission to join Harry last year for his extra lessons and saw first hand how impressive the charms master was. "I hope so too."
"It would make sense for him to teach the club, he is pretty much one of the most liked teachers in the school, a charms genius and a former duelling champion." Harry said just as the noise from the students died down, Harry and Lisa looked up at the stage just as a voice called.
"Gather around." Professor Lockhart said as he walked on stage.
"Oh goddamn it," Harry said under his breath as Loki face palmed. "why did it have to be him of all people?"
"Can everyone see me?" Lockhart asked as he looked around. "Can everyone hear me? Yes? That is good. Now, I have spoken to the headmaster and after some convincing I have managed to get him to give me permission to start up this little club, with me today is my assistant Professor Snape." Lockhart gestured to Snape who rose up from the other side of the stage.
"Snape does not look happy," Lisa whispered to Harry. "probably did not like being called an assistant."
"Either that or he does not like working with Lockhart," Harry whispered back. "or maybe he is happy, or maybe that is just his normal look. I can't really tell, I mean I cannot tell for the life of me, the man always looks somewhere between angry and constipated, most of the time both."
"Do not fear," Lockhart said to the students with a big smile, showing off his white and sparkly teeth. "you will all have your potions professor when I am through with him."
"Damn." Harry said instantly, his voice was soft and quiet enough for Lisa to hear and she had to put a hand on her mouth to stop herself from giggling.
Lockhart and Snape met in the middle of the stage, both stood up straight with their chests puffed out and their eyes locked on their opponents. They raised their wands up so they were in front of their faces, they nodded to each other even though Snape only did the bare minimum for it to count as a nod. They brought their wand arms down before they turned, the two walked away from each other until they were a sufficient distance away.
They turned and looked at each other, Lockhart got into a rather fancy and showy looking duelling stance, but his stance did not really look like an effective or even good one, he smiled confidently despite this. Snape got into a much better duelling stance where he stood sideways so he could limit the target area while he also had his wand ready to strike within a moment's notice.
"Pay attention everybody, me and Professor Snape will begin on the count of three. One," Professor Lockhart began counting, everyone leaned forwards and watched with anticipation. "two...three!"
"Expelliarmus!" Snape yelled, using a disarming spell, a beam shot from his wand and hit Lockhart in the chest, Lockhart flew backwards with his wand dropping out of his hand, he landed hard on his back. Many people, mostly the female portion of Lockhart's fans, gasped upon seeing the 'Legendary and heroic Gilderoy Lockhart' be defeated by such a simple spell and by Snape of all people.
"Oh good god is that a smile?" Harry could not help but blurt out when he saw a smirk appear on Snape's face.
"Very good Professor Snape," Lockhart said as he stood up and walked onto the stage and picked up his wand. "although if you do not mind me saying, it was fairly obvious what you were about to do and if I had so wanted to then I would have easily stopped it."
"Perhaps...it would be prudent to first teach the students how to block unfriendly spells." Snape drawled while he glared at Lockhart.
"Oh...um...right," Lockhart said as he looked around. "Quite right Professor Snape," Lockhart said, quickly recovering. "how about a volunteer pair? Um...Potter, how about you and...Mr Weasley?"
"Weasley's wand causes chaos with even the simplest of spells," Snape interrupted before either of the boys could come up with a response. "we would be sending what is left of Potter to the hospital wing in a match box. Perhaps somebody else, perhaps somebody from my house, hmm...Malfoy perhaps?" Without waiting for an answer Snape turned and pointed to Malfoy who gladly got up on the stage.
"Okay, looks like I am doing this then." Harry shrugged before handing Loki off to Lisa. "Back in a minute." Harry said before he walked up to the stage and onto the opposite end. Harry and Draco walked forwards and stopped in front of each other, they raised their wands in front of their faces.
"Scared Potter?" Malfoy sneered.
"Of a guy who can't keep hold of his wand? Utterly terrified." Harry responded in a sarcastic voice, causing Malfoy's face to turn red in a combination of embarrassment and anger. "You are holding the wrong end of the wand by the way." Harry added in a bored tone. Malfoy blinked at that and looked down at his wand. "Wow you actually looked." Harry laughed, along with a few students who had heard the whole thing, this caused Malfoy to turn even more red as his anger and embarrassment increased.
Harry and Draco brought their wands down to their sides, they turned and walked away until they stopped at opposite ends of the stage. They turned to each other, Malfoy instantly adapted the same duelling stance that Professor Snape had used. Harry got into a duelling stance that Professor Flitwick had taught him, there were many different duelling stances with many of them focused on different things. For example some duelling stances focused on having a strong and unmovable foundation and that would usually work quite well for those with powerful defensive capabilities, Harry on the other hand preferred to stay light on his feet so he could dodge yet he was ready to switch to a solid stance the moment he needed to use a shield to protect himself. Harry's stance also reduced his target area just like Snape's and Malfoy's.
"On the count of three, I want you to both try and disarm your opponent, disarm only." Lockhart said, Harry did pay attention to the countdown but he was more focused on Malfoy. He knew that Malfoy was likely to make the first move, plus Malfoy was predictable enough to fire off a spell before the countdown was finished or the very second it finished so he could catch Harry by surprise. "Now, let's begin. One," Lockhart began counting. "two..."
"Everte Statum!" Malfoy yelled as he shot a spell at Harry, Harry side stepped before sending a stinging hex at Malfoy.
"Ow!" Malfoy yelped as he was hit in chest, his left hand rubbed his chest before he responded with his own stinging hex. Harry blocked it with a small shield and followed up with sneezing hex and a stinging hex to the nose. Malfoy began sneezing repeatedly while also rubbing his nose to alleviate the pain.
"I said disarm only!" Lockhart said.
Malfoy ignored Lockhart and fired a hex at Harry who ducked and fired a shrinking charm that hit Malfoy's trousers, Malfoy watched and saw that nothing had happened so he grinned as he thought that Harry's spell did not work. Malfoy shot a spell at Harry who simply ducked down and let the spell fly past his head. Harry stood up, Malfoy got ready to defend against an attack but Harry did not do anything.
"What are you doing Potter?" Malfoy asked, ignoring the irritation he was feeling around his trousers. Harry just smirked and pointed to Malfoy's trousers, Malfoy frowned before looking down, a tightening feeling on his trousers alerted him about a second before his eyes managed to process what he was seeing. He could now see his ankles, his waist was feeling uncomfortable as he felt the waistline tighten which caused Malfoy to bend over in discomfort.
Harry followed up with two spells, the first was a nipple twister and the second was one that gave Malfoy a wedgie. Everyone watched as Malfoy let out a high pitch yell as his hands went to his chest right before the wedgie activated. The Weasley twins were very appreciative of Harry's brand of humour. Harry smiled and stood up.
"So do I win?" Harry asked. Snape scowled before he waved his wand, cancelling Harry's prank spells. Snape whispered something into Malfoy's ear. Malfoy nodded before he aimed his wand at Harry.
"Serpensortia!" Malfoy yelled before firing shooting a king cobra out of his wand. Harry was about to respond when he heard Loki clapping, Harry looked to Loki who began making several noises while also making several hand gestures which ended with a middle finger.
"Are you sure I should do that?" Harry asked Loki, everyone looked between Harry and Loki, wondering what was happening. Loki nodded, Harry looked at him for several seconds before shrugging. Harry aimed his wand and the snake. "Alarte Ascendare!" Everyone watched as the snake flew up in the air and landed right next to Malfoy who jumped back in shock and fear, and tripped before falling on his butt, Harry quickly followed up with a disarming spell to Draco while also shooting another spell to vanish the snake. "Alright this time I have definitely won." Harry said. The hall began cheering or at least most of the hall did, the Slytherin's did not cheer but Harry was not really sure if that was because they liked Malfoy or simply because of house pride.
"W...well done Mr Potter." Lockhart said eventually, "Ten points to Ravenclaw." He added with a smile while Snape was once again looking, in Harry's opinion, like an angry man with constipation.
"Thanks." Harry shrugged before he walked off the platform and stopped by Lisa, Loki jumped off of her shoulders and onto his own before he began chattering in Harry's ear. "Yes, yes, your advice was brilliant." Harry said to him as he petted him.
Harry and Lisa had chosen not to reattend the duelling club, mostly because Lockhart was still the one in charge of the club and it was more of an excuse for Lockhart's fans to spend time with the man then it was to actually learn something. On the plus side Harry had found out that his reputation had increased since the duel he had with Malfoy, funnily enough Malfoy's reputation had gone down at the same time. Of course Malfoy was not very happy about that and made it clear by insulting Harry whenever he could, Harry of course did not respond verbally or physically, Harry, of course, also did not nick Malfoy's wand and leave it in a random location in the school where it would later be found by Professor Sprout who brought it all the way to charms class about ten minutes after Malfoy realised that he had lost it.
As of the moment Harry and Lisa were in the library, the two were doing homework while Loki sat on the table and played with a small Rubik's cube. Harry and Lisa were fine with not going to the duelling club, they were learning plenty from Professor Flitwick after all. As a matter of fact the cheery charms teacher was rather pleased with how Harry had performed in the duelling club and gladly continued to teach him and Lisa, he taught them a variety of things including spells that were a couple of years above what they should be learning for Harry while Lisa was being taught spells that were advanced for her year and spells that she should start learning next year.
"Ah, here they are." A voice said, Harry and Lisa looked up to see two of Ron's older brothers and Gryffindor beaters, the redheaded Weasley twins, sit on either side of Harry.
"We have been looking for you." The twin on Harry's left said.
"Finally found you here." The twin on Harry's right said.
"I suppose it makes sense though."
"How so?"
"He is a Ravenclaw."
"Ah yes, they are fond of their books aren't they?"
"That they are, plus a genius like him would of course be studying a lot."
"Can we help you?" Lisa asked, not liking how she had to constantly look from one twin to the other when they spoke.
"We have actually come here..." The twin on Harry's left started.
"To speak to young Mr Potter here." The twin on Harry's right finished.
"You see we were rather impressed with your duel with Malfoy."
"Very impressed dear brother."
"Indeed, we are also rather impressed by young Mr Potter's quidditch skills."
"Good look with the upcoming match against Slytherin by the way."
"Oh yeah, thrash them for us. Anyway, we are here for a reason."
"That we are."
"We would like it if you would work with us."
"Work with you?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Let's start with some introductions." The twin on the right said.
"Probably best," The left twin replied. "I am Fred, the smart one, I also go by Gred. Over here is my brother."
"I am George, also go by Forge, and I am the smart one."
"No you're not, I am the smart one."
"Oh right, oh I remember now, I am the good looking one."
"I think I am that one as well but we can discuss that later."
"You two said something about working together." Harry reminded them. "Perhaps you could explain more before it turns midnight." Harry said, letting them know that he would prefer it if they would hurry up.
"Right you are." Fred said. "Anyway, we would like to work with you."
"What do you think about pranks?" George asked.
In the dungeons Professor Severus Snape was busy grading the homework of his Slytherin's when suddenly he felt a shiver go through his body.
Dumbledore sat in his office, he was once again disappointed. He had allowed Lockhart the duelling club for a great many reasons, all of which would benefit him, however it did not all work as he had planned. One of the reasons that Dumbledore allowed the duelling club was because it would help show people how incompetent the man truly was and that would help Dumbledore later in the year if he needed to get rid of him, that part seemed to be working. Another reason why Dumbledore had allowed the duelling club to open was because it would keep Lockhart busy so he could not bother himself or the other teachers, that also seemed to be working so far.
Dumbledore's main reason for allowing the duelling club to open was Harry Potter, Dumbledore had hoped to use it to see what level of skill Harry was at. From his reports from Snape it was clear that the boy was very skilled, of course Dumbledore made sure to get reports from the paintings in the room as well as they unlike Snape were unbiased. From his reports Dumbledore had realised that Harry was clearly holding back when he duelled Malfoy.
That did not surprise Dumbledore too much as he knew that the boy was taking extra lessons from Filius plus he was a quidditch player with great reflexes. As a matter of fact Dumbledore had a bet with Snape that Ravenclaw would beat Slytherin on the upcoming quidditch game. Hopefully Harry would not let him down.
Dumbledore also wanted to use it to test the boy, Dumbledore was sure that the boy would have gained parsletounge from Voldemort's horcrux. Snape had been told to check if Harry could speak to snakes, apparently Harry did not even try to speak to it so Dumbledore could not confirm if Harry did speak parsletounge. Dumbledore was hoping that the boy would have shown his ability in front of everyone, the students would naturally react badly to it and Harry could spend the year learning to power through insults and learn to forgive the students.
Quite honestly Dumbledore would have also liked that to happen as it would not do for Harry's reputation to eventually eclipse his own yet Dumbledore did not want the boy's reputation to be ruined beyond all hope as the boy's fame could still be useful. Dumbledore was tempted to set something up for Harry but decided to leave it for this year, after all one year in peace for the boy would not ruin his plans, besides Dumbledore was rather busy.
He not only had to deal with paperwork regarding the school and Wizengamot but he also had to try and find the Dursley's, they were not at privet drive and Dumbledore had no idea where they had gone.