Chapter 28 is here...Enjoy!

A small group of students had gathered around the notice board. They were all trying to squeeze in and read the latest announcement. Harry and Hermione had started walking towards the gathering when they saw Seamus and Dean coming from the opposite direction.

"What's up lads?" asked Harry.

"They're starting a duelling club," replied Seamus.

"Duelling club?" asked Harry surprised.

"Yeah, the first meet up is tonight, at 8," replied Dean.

"Thanks," replied Hermione as they continued walking towards the library.

"That should be fun," remarked Harry.

"I wonder who'd teach us," said Hermione.

At 8 PM that day, there was a large gathering at the great hall. Harry, Ron, Hermione had all been excited and looking forward to it. Even John had decided to come. A few minutes later the students were joined by Severus Snape and Professor Jane. The moment the trio saw Snape, they became agitated.

"Why did it have to be him?" said Ron.

Professor Jane spoke a few words about how they thought it was a good idea to teach the students about duelling. It was time for a demonstration once she was done talking.

"Professor Snape and I will now give you all a short demo on how a duel looks like. Though I must warn you, in a real duel, there won't be these formalities. You'd have to be on your feet," said Professor Jane.

The students were listening to her carefully.

"First, take out your wands and stand in the combative position of your choice. Remember that posture is everything. You should give yourselves room to move around, be flexible," she said pacing back and forth. She came to a halt and positioned herself facing sideways to the crowd, at one end of the hall. She gestured to Snape and he did the same.

"At the count of 3," she said. "1... 2... 3..."

The moment she said 3, Snape cried, "Expelliarmus" and swished his wand at Professor Jane's direction. There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light that flew of his wand.

At the same moment Snape cast his spell, Professor Jane whispered, "Protego" and the flash of scarlet light got blocked off by the shield conjured by Jane. Snape was visibly infuriated at what had happened. And even though nobody was looking at John, they'd have seen a proud brother.

Snape cast another spell at Jane, this time a jet of white light flew off his wand towards Jane and that got shielded as well. A series of back and forth went on between the pair of them. And finally, Professor Jane halted Snape.

"Professor Snape... a moment? I think the students have seen enough to know how a duel could look like," she said. Snape nodded unwillingly and walked back.

"Now... I want all of you to split into pairs. Do not... I repeat, do not use any dangerous spells," she said.

Harry paired up with Hermione, Ron had paired up with George, Fred with Lee, while John went and sat way behind on one of the tables. The duelling commenced and both Professor Jane and Professor Snape started walking around correcting students' stance, posture. A good 10 to 15 minutes had passed. Half the students who had joined the session had left by then. The ones who remained went on to different partners as they were enjoying what they were doing. As the numbers started to go down, Jane noticed John sitting at the back viewing the duels. It was finally time for her plan to commence. She walked over to John.

"Like what you see?" she asked.

"Good job against Severus," said John with a smile. First for him in a conversation with Jane since returning.

"Thanks," replied Jane, smiling back.

"I know what we should be doing. Training Harry" replied John. "He is terrible compared to... well, compared to you and Severus," he added focusing back on the duels.

"There's time for that," replied Jane.

"He is way too slow. His reflexes need work," said John, still focused on the duels.

"I got you something," said Jane and handed John his wand.

"Why?" asked John refusing to take his wand.

"I got special permission from Minerva. It's time for you to get back into action. At least for a night," replied Jane. John took the wand from her hand reluctantly and made his way towards the rest of the students.

John hardly took a few seconds to show his superiority. It was hardly a fair match. But that was about to change.

"Professor Snape, I have an idea," said Jane loudly, so that everyone could hear. "We have seen enough from everyone here, haven't we? Why don't we pair them up? It's time to spice up things," said Professor Jane. Snape nodded at her suggestion. The 2 professors started pairing the students to their choice. And the duelling commenced.

Jane had paired John with Hermione. The moment she said his name and then followed it up with Hermione's, John gave his sister the most vicious look possible. He had no idea why he was being put in this conundrum. Hermione, on the other hand, who knew John's secret, was ecstatic at being paired up against him. Their duel commenced. Hermione tried her best, but nothing could penetrate John's defences. John however had no plans of using any attacking spells against Hermione. He was happy defending. Jane noticed this and after a few minutes, she changed the pairings.

John was now paired up with a 4th year Hufflepuff boy. This gained her another angry glare from John. The duel commenced and once again John refused to use any attacking spells. He defended with ease. But this time, Jane didn't interfere. As the duel continued for a few minutes, Jane found what she was looking for. John was looking visibly tired. So much so that, a few seconds later, John's defences were breached and he fell back with a thud. The Hufflepuff boy gave John a hand and he got back to his feet.

"Thanks, Mr Smith and Mr Diggory," said Jane and moved on to the next pair. She hated herself for what she had done but she hated what she just saw even more. Whatever had happened to her brother, it had definitely made him weaker.

On the other side of the hall, Snape was having fun watching students going at each other. And then came the clash that made all the 2nd years stop what they were doing. A fairly decent crowd had gathered around Harry and Draco once their names were called out by Snape. Harry and Draco stood face to face wands at the ready.

Draco was the first one to get the upper hand as one of his spells hit Harry like a saucepan and he stumbled back.

Wasting no time, Harry screamed, "Rictumsempra," pointing the wand at Draco. Draco fell to the ground on his knees and started laughing.

Embarrassed at what had happened, Draco got back up to his feet as soon as he could and yelled, "Serpensortia," and out appeared a long black snake. The crowd gathered gave a yell and backed up a little.

Harry looked at the snake, not with panic but an air of calm, just like a random conversation with a stranger. He didn't know what came over him. He could see that the snake was moving towards him. He kept staring at the snake and instantly the snake took a detour and slithered towards the crowd. Justin, a 2nd-year boy from Hufflepuff was the one who was right in front of the approaching snake. Alarmed by where the snake was moving, Harry quickly told the snake to stop moving.

Severus pointed his wand and the snake vanished into a puff of black smoke.

"What were you playing at?" shouted Justin.

"What are you talking about? I told the snake to stop moving," replied Harry.

"That's all for today. Everybody, leave the hall," said Snape and looked at Harry curiously.

Ron quickly grabbed Harry and off they went as Hermione followed.

John, however, ran towards Jane, "your office, now," he whispered loudly and continued running.

By the time Jane reached her office, John was pacing there ferociously.

"John, what happened?" she asked alarmed the moment she entered.

"Did you know that Harry was a parselmouth?" he asked.

"No, I did not," replied Jane.

"I hate it... I hate it... I hate it when we don't know something we should be knowing... We should have been told about this," said John, still pacing hard.

"John... calm down... I don't know why you're so worked up," said Jane.

"Don't you see it? The chamber is real... the monster that the chamber houses is a snake. That's why Harry can hear it. Or rather, understand it. Because he's a fu... he's a parselmouth," replied John.

Jane sighed as she connected the dots herself. "Okay... let's say this theory is correct. What do we do now?"

"I don't know... but Harry is somehow going to help us find the chamber's opening. And open the chamber... I'll bet you anything, this is what's going to kill Ginny," replied John. He came to a halt and took a seat at Jane's couch.

"We have to think about this calmly," said Jane slowly.

"Calmly? This is the first lead we've gotten. We've to do something. Figuring out what type of snake it is, would be fairly simple. We've to figure out the person behind this. There has to be another parselmouth in this school who's behind this," said John.

"I'll talk to Minerva and Professor Dumbledore... we'll figure something out," said Jane.

"Talking of Minerva... what was that stunt you pulled today? Why give me the wand and pit me against Hermione, and then that 4th year? What were you trying to accomplish, Jane? Wanted empirical proof that I'm weak? Had your little chat with Dr Kristin, did you? I should have known that she'll spill the details," lashed out John.

"John... please... let me help you," said Jane and put her hand on his hair and ran her fingers through it. "I'm extremely sorry for what I did. I need you to tell me what you're going through. You are all I have got," she added, almost in tears. But John's anger knew no bounds and he jerked away instantly.

"This was a pathetic ruse, Jane... even for you," he said, threw his wand on the table and stormed out of Jane's office leaving her helpless and in tears.

PS - A short one to warm you all up for future...