Chapter Eleven
It was after a truly dreadful double potions lesson, where someone had blown up Crabbe and Goyle's potion covering them all in boils; they suspected Ronald. Then Harry had lost five points for laughing too much at Tracy Davis who was standing near the unfortunate cauldron and spent nearly ten minutes screaming about her face, when Harry was walking to the library, to try reading through yet another book when he was called over by Neville.
"Have you seen this?" he showed Harry a poster.
"They're starting a duelling club?" Harry said wrinkling his nose, "Not sure I'd trust even a tenth of this school to be shooting spells at me."
Neville laughed, "I'm sure it'll be controlled but you know what this means."
"Things are getting serious," Harry said.
Neville nodded, "If they think we need to learn how to duel… I think we should all go."
"Why?" Harry looked at him like he'd gone crazy, "Our parents were some of the best fighters on both sides of the last war, they'll teach us far better than this will."
Neville looked awkwardly, "Hermione's muggle born."
Harry sighed, "You're worried about her too then."
Neville nodded, "As a muggle born, she's in danger anyway but she's right in the thick of it like we are. That has to move her up the hit list."
"We'll go. Try and teach her as much as we can." Harry smiled, "Hopefully it'll give her a chance."
So a week later they all found themselves standing in the great hall. It was very busy, most of the school had arrived and were standing around in small groups talking in hushed tones. The four long tables that normally filled the main floor of the room were gone, replaced by one long walk way covered in black velvet.
"Did we ever find out who's teaching this?" Daphne asked standing on tiptoe to try and see what was happening.
"Professor Lockhart." Hermione squeaked, "I can't wait to see him do some actual magic."
Harry held back a groan and managed to move towards the back of their little group.
"I'm so glad Neville said you were all going. I've been wanting to learn how to duel but I'd never have been brave enough to come by myself." Hermione smiled.
Harry knew in that moment he'd made the right choice, however annoying Lockhart was.
Hermione smiled sadly, "Most of the other Gryffindors still don't like me; they think I should have been a Ravenclaw, I'm too much of a book worm."
Pansy gave her a hug, "You can come on a little strong sometimes and it's difficult not to be a little intimidated by your brain, you're easily the smartest girl in the school. However you've been an amazing friend. I think your biggest problem is being an enemy of the Weasleys who make up around 87% of Gryffindor. Their mother is a hamster."
Hermione laughed and they turned their attention to the footsteps walking up the steps to the walk way.
Gilderoy Lockhart strutted up the steps wearing yet another different outfit, resplendent robes of deep plum, Harry tried to think back to if he'd ever seen Lockhart wear the same thing twice.
"I'm sure I once heard that Flitwick was a duelling champion when he was younger; why couldn't it have been him?" Draco whispered to Harry.
Lockhart moved to the centre stage, "Hello. It is I! Gilderoy Lockhart!"
The room clapped for several minutes; Lockhart held his hands up soaking it in for a while before waving his arm dramatically for quiet.
"Welcome, welcome all of you!" He beamed, "I am very happy to be with you tonight! Gather round everyone can you all see me? Can you all hear me? Brilliant. Now Professor Dumbledore has given me permission to start up this little duelling club. Now I want to be very sure that none of you will worry; you'll all be perfectly safe with me around. I would first like to introduce my assistant, Professor Snape!" Lockhart gave a little clap as a rather annoyed Snape walked up next to him.
Lockhart gave a blinding smile, "Now Professor Snape tells me he knows a tiny little bit about duelling himself and wants to learn some more so he has rather sportingly volunteered to help me."
"Drawn the short straw is more likely." Pansy sniggered.
"But now children, don't worry, you'll still have your potions master when I'm finished with him! Never fear." Lockhart winked at a group of nearby sixth year girls who erupted into giggles and blushes. Snape glared at them until they were silent.
"Now we will give you a quick demonstration." Lockhart beamed, Snape looked rather less impressed.
Lockhart and Snape turned to look at one another and bowed. Snape, a small jerk of his head; Lockhart a long fancy bow with an awful lot of hand waving.
"I think if I was in a fight I would be a little less….over the top." Hermione frowned.
"Yeah in all the lesson Father has given me it was never like that." Draco said, rolling his eyes.
Lockhart and Snape then raised their wands like swords in front of them.
"Now as you can see, the way we're holding our wands is the common, accepted combative position." Lockhart told the crowd watching silently, "We will now, on the count of three, cast our spells. Of course nether of us will be aiming to kill!" he gave a small laugh.
Snape glared at him, "One...two….three!"
Both of them swung their wands up over their shoulders.
"Expelliarmus!" Snape shouted clearly. Lockhart flew backwards in a flash of scarlet red light. He smashed into the wall and slid down in a rather ungraceful heap, sprawled on the floor.
"Do you think he's all right?" Hermione said, standing on tiptoes trying to see over the heads of the people in front of her.
"I'm sure he's fine." Daphne said reassuringly, while Harry, Draco and Pansy cheered along with most of the Slytherins.
Lockhart got to his feet unsteadily and smoothed his hair, they wondered how it had managed to stay so perfect when he fell, although his hat had fallen off. He picked it up and gave it a brush off before shoving it back on his head, for the first time it was actually on straight. Lockhart walked back onto the platform and gave a rather tense smile to the crowd.
"Well there you have it!" he said, getting back into his stride, "That was, of course a disarming spell and a fairly well preformed one so well done there Professor, as you see I've lost my wand, Ah thank you Miss Brown, there it is. However Professor, if you don't mind me saying so it was very basic and obvious what you were going to do, therefore, if I had wanted I could have only to easily stopped you. A big part of duelling is thinking ahead and such."
Snape glared at him like he wanted to kill someone, Lockhart at least seemed to notice this and coughed loudly,
"Right well I think that demonstration was enough for you all, lets split you into pairs and get you practising." Lockhart coughed.
Snape and Lockhart made their way throughout the crowd pairing people up. Lockhart spotted them and walked over as quickly as he could.
"Well I am glad to see you here!" He smiled, "Right, well, lets split things up a bit, no fun just fighting with your friends after all and you can all help show the others."
Harry was about to disagree but it was to late. Lockhart scanned the room and gestured for several people to come over.
"Right Mr Malfoy how about you have a go with Mr Flinch-Fetchley here, Mr Longbottom can go with Miss Fawcett, Pansy how about you partner with Miss Bulstrode here. Daphne, ah you've already found Miss Granger, very good." He looked slightly annoyed that they'd gone off without him giving them the honour of teaming them with someone else, "And last Mr Potter, dear Harry, how about you have a go with little Miss Weasley here."
Harry looked over to see the small form of Ginny Weasley and gave a small smile. If he was honest it looked like even the smallest and gentlest of disarming spells would knock her flat. They moved off to a space and waited. Lockhart made his way back to the platform and stood looking over them all. Severus gave Harry a small smile of apology before turning his attention back to the room.
"Right now! Wands at the ready." Lockhart called out, "When I get to three I want you to disarm your opponent, do you hear, disarm only; we don't want any accidents do we? Now One….Two...Three..."
There was a murmur around the room, people weren't exactly sure what spell to use. Harry turned his focus back to Ginny, she wasn't even holding her wand correctly.
Harry put his own wand down and adjusted her grip, she blushed bright red to the roots of her ginger hair at his touch.
"You should find that grip a bit easier." Harry said getting back into position.
"Thank you." She said quietly, "I don't really want to send a spell at you."
Harry shrugged, "Don't worry just do the one Da… Professor Snape did, it's not hard and it wont do any damage if it goes wrong." he smiled.
Ginny firmed her stand and flicked her wand at him, calling out "Expelliarmus!"
Harry felt the spell hit and give him a slight nudge, he took a few steps back to show her it worked.
"Well done." he smiled at her, causing another blush.
She had a few more tries and in the end managed to get Harry to drop his wand.
"You haven't had a try." She said softly.
Harry shook his head, "It's OK. I'm happy to just keep helping you."
Ginny shook her head, "No. Please I want you to have a go as well. I insist."
Harry sighed, he pointed his wand and called out Expelliarmus as softly as he could but Ginny still flew backwards and hit the ground with a thud, her wand landing a short distance away.
She sat up as Harry retrieved her wand. He helped her to her feet and made sure she was OK, feeling terrible.
"I'm really sorry." Harry told her.
"It's OK, I'm fine." She said, pulling away from him and tucking a lock of hair behind her eye, "You're pretty good at that."
Harry smiled. He turned his attention to what was going on around him, several pairs for students were both bleeding; Lockhart was rushing between them trying, and failing, to keep everyone calm.
Daphne had taken a similar approach as Harry, teaching Hermione how to move her wand and letting her practice each spell several times, although it had to be said Hermione was nothing if not a fast learner.
Pansy and Millicent had resorted to full on attack spells.
"Rictusempra!" Pansy shouted leaving Millicent doubled over as the silver light hit her.
"I said disarm only!" Lockhart called over the heads of the students
Millicent laughed as the tickling spell subsided and Pansy stood over her triumphantly. Millicent managed to get to her feet and grabbed hold of Pansy wrapping a thick arm around Pansy's neck. Pansy dug her rather sharp nails into Millicent's arm, leaving little trickles of blood running down and Millicent howling in pain.
"That's enough!" Snape snapped walking over to them, "I expect better of you both as members of Slytherin." he glared at them both for a few moments, "Minus five points for you each."
Lockhart looked rather embarrassed at his lack of control over the students, "Right well I think I'd best teach you how to block unfriendly spells."
"What a wonderful idea." Snape hissed glaring at Lockhart as he made his way onto the platform next to Lockhart.
"Well, shall we have a volunteer pair?" Lockhart beamed, ignoring the icy looks he was getting from Snape, "How about Potter and Miss Weasley?"
"Not Ginny," A voice pipped up, Harry looked over and his heart fell, Ron stepped forward, "Little Sis hasn't been sleeping to well and Potter has already sent her flying once today."
Ginny looked embarrassed and mumbled something.
"I'll take her place though." Ron grinned nastily.
Severus was about to object but Lockhart got there first.
"Wonderful. How brave of you Mr Weasley. Five points to Gryffindor; house of the lions what! Now up you both come, that's it and face each other. Perfect."
Harry looked up and down Ron who was standing rather uncomfortably close. His wand was still broken, duck tape holding it together, which had Harry rather worried. Ron also had a large smudge of dirt on his nose that Harry had to bite his tongue not to laugh at.
"Scared to face someone who's not a little girl Potter?" Ron spat.
Harry rolled his eyes, "I'll let you know when the occasion calls."
"Right now!" Lockhart said "When Ron sends the spell you do this." He waved his wand intricately and dropped it earning a rumble of laughter from the room, "Sorry my wand is a little over excited. Understand what you need to do? Excellent! Well then on my count. One...Two...Three..."
Harry did know what to do but it had nothing to do with what Lockhart had just shown him but years of watching his family and friends parents practice.
Ron swooped his arm over his shoulder and shouted, "EXPELIARMUS!"
Harry threw up, as best as he could, the counter-curse but the spell never reached him. Instead a long trail of red light spun round between them hissing and spluttering loudly.
"What the..." Harry said taking a step back as the shape twisted and oozed around.
"You need a knew wand Mr Weasley." Severus drawled, "I'll get rid of it."
"No no. I'll do it." Lockhart said pushing in front of Severus. He pointed his wand and jabbed at the shape, Harry couldn't hear what he said over the hissing but whatever Lockhart said, it didn't work. Instead the red light's hissing grew louder as it shot towards the roof and the curled back down turning into a large bright red snake.
"Do not move Harry!" Severus ordered trying to get past Lockhart who was stood frozen at what he'd done.
The snake was not happy. It reared up and hissed at the nearby students. It small black eyes fixed on Justin Flinch-Fetchley who was standing nearby and it moved forward, fangs out to strike.
Harry panicked and took a few steps forward, "No!" he said firmly, "Leave him alone." he wasn't sure what made him want to talk to the snake and was fairly sure everyone would think he was crazy but then the snake stopped.
It turned it's attention away from Justin and lay down softly on the ground.
"That's it. No one needs to get hurt." Harry smiled, he felt rather drawn to the snake, now it had put it's fangs away and he was about to give it a small stroke when he caught sight of Justin. He'd expected some sort of relief or gratitude or something, instead he got hateful and scared.
"What the bloody hell do you think you're playing at?" Justin demanded, he gave Harry a final glare before stomping angrily from the hall.
"What?" Harry asked confused, everyone was staring at him. It was Hermione that climbed the platform and dragged him down. She lead him firmly from the hall, followed closely by Neville, Draco, Pansy and Daphne. Harry noticed as people parted for him like they were afraid he had the plague and whispers fell silent as they went past.
Hermione kept pulling him along until she found an empty classroom and pushed him inside.
"What happened?" Harry asked.
"You." Hermione said a little breathlessly, "You happened, you're a paselmouth."
Harry blinked a few times at her, the word sounded familiar but his head was to fussy and confused from people's reactions to think where he'd seen it.
"What's that?" Harry asked sitting down on the edge of a nearby desk.
"It's someone who can talk to snakes, right?" Daphne said.
Hermione nodded.
"Oh yeah I remember." Draco said, "Slytherin was one. That's why the crest is a snake."
"Has something like this ever happened before?" Pansy asked.
"I talked to a snake in a zoo once. Apparently it had never been to Brazil. I just thought I was imagining it; my brain melting from being around Dudley for too long." Harry gave a nervous laughed.
He looked around at the blank looks on his friends faces.
"Come on, I know it's not common but it can't be that rare surely." Harry said, trying not to get annoyed.
"It is Harry." Hermione said awkwardly, "It basically confined to the Slytherin family; at least in Britain and the last of the known branch Slytherin family is, well...You-Know-Who."
"And given this timing, it's not good Harry." Draco pointed out.
"Come on guys." Harry huffed, "You can't really think it's me."
"Well your father was a pure blood and Salazar Slytherin lived over a thousand years ago, there's no way we can be sure where all the different family lines ended up." Pansy said.
Harry rolled his eyes, "Well Danica loves reptiles so maybe it came down from mum's side." he said sarcastically.
"Harry stop it." Daphne pleaded, "Listen, this is important and it could be you."
"Look even if I am part of Slytherin's family tree I've not been setting any monsters free around the castle let alone sending them after people. I even stopped that snake attacking Justin." Harry pointed out.
"Well firstly we didn't know that's what you were saying, you were speaking in another language, it looked like you were telling it to attack Justin." Hermione said
"But I can't ever imagine you lying to us about setting a monster free." Pansy said.
"Maybe he doesn't mean to." Daphne suggested, "Maybe it's opened just by you or whoever it is just being in the school and the monster is on the loose just doing it's own thing."
"Then it can't be Harry." Pansy said, "It would have opened last year and we didn't have any issues last year," they all gave her a look. "Well not from people being petrified anyway."
"So if it is being opened by someone just being in the school then it must be a first year." Neville pointed out, "But I don't think that it can be just opened like that. It's not happened enough over the years. It really wouldn't be a myth if there were students being frozen every generation."
"It's not me." Harry said crossing his arms, "I can't be. Mum and Dad were both in Gryffindor."
"I don't think it's as simple as that but I don't think it's you." Hermione smiled, "We should get going before someone comes and finds us skulking in here."
They left the classroom and went their separate ways before they got caught by Filch who was still in an awful mood all of the time.