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Chapter 08: The Dueling Club

Rumors tended to fly quickly at Hogwarts and this was no exception, as people talked about the attack of Colin Creevey for several weeks, although what exactly happened got embellished and certain people added their own theories to the equation. Unfortunately, most of them pointed to Harry, which annoyed Harry and his friends to no end.

"Honestly, if they knew the facts, you were in the Hospital Wing on the night of the attack and then on Halloween, you were with us," said Hermione irritably to Harry one day as Theodore, Daphne, and Ginny had joined them in the library.

"People here for the most part will believe what is held to be true by the majority," said Harry darkly. "No one seems to want to think for themselves."

Theodore looked thoughtful for a second.

"Call me crazy, but I've got a theory," said Theodore.

"Okay, Crazy, what's your theory?" replied Daphne, smirking at him.

Theodore rolled his eyes at her, before talking.

"Consider this for a second but who in this school would gain the most for having Harry expelled," said Theodore. "Whose position in the Slytherin House has been diluted since Harry got sorted? Who did not get his little spot on the Quidditch Team because Harry was a better player?"

"You're talking about Malfoy, aren't you?" said Harry. He briefly considered the theory. Maybe Theodore had a point.

"Malfoy, the heir of Slytherin?" said Hermione skeptically.

"Yes, as entertaining as that thought sounds, I believe it would be implausible for one reason," said Daphne. "Malfoy is about as subtle as a beater bat to the head. He would be bragging up a storm if he had that kind of power at his hands."

"Just a thought," said Theodore dismissively. "It could be anyone, but unless they show their hand, I doubt we could find out any time soon."

Ginny remained quietly. She still had blank spots in memories, right around the time both attacks occurred and she thought about her overwhelming fear about the fact she may be doing these attacks. She wondered whether or not telling Harry may be the best. He could help, she knew he could but as she opened her mouth, a foreign presence extinguished this desire to tell Harry about the blanks in her memory.

The next few weeks were rather uneventful, unless you could count Ron Weasley attempting to sneak into Professor Snape's office to steal potions ingredients and getting caught. Snape was not too pleased about Weasley's attempting thievery and gave him a whole week's of detention. Harry had a theory about what Ron might had been stealing and he confirmed it when he had a conversation with the Twins, who Ron begged to help brew Polyjuice Potion to help bring to justice "that evil Slytherin snake" Potter. The twins of course laughed in Ron's face and Ron got all huffy at the twins, calling them Slytherin sympathizers and traitors. Suspiciously enough, Ron was the victim of a prank just hours later.

Harry's patience was the youngest Weasley boy was running extremely thin, as Ron seemed to want to poison Harry's reputation against the entire school. If Ron pushed Harry too much further, Harry would have to retaliate. Harry wondered what exactly it would take to make Ron see reason.

Lockhart seemed to be victim of getting many things toppled onto his head by the master of chaos, the duke of destruction, the poltergeist of pain, Peeves. Peeves had been creative enough but being subtle was something that was not a strong point of Peeves. Still, Lockhart had not quiet gotten the message and still conducted his classes in his egotistical manner, talking about his various achievements. There were times where Harry wished he were in control of whatever was in the Chamber of Secrets so he could set it on Lockhart.

It was now sometime in late November where the Theodore, Daphne, Hermione, Ginny, and Harry were walking through the halls, after a long day of classes. Ron had not talked to Ginny in almost a month but still seemed to want to spread vicious rumors about Harry. Hermione told Harry she was going to write to Mrs. Weasley again but Harry told Hermione to let it go, as it would only make things worse although Harry heard from Fred and George that if Ron acted up much more, Mrs. Weasley was going to pull Ron out of Hogwarts for the rest of the year.

"This is interesting, look here," said Daphne, pointing to a trail of spiders, which seemed to be leaving the school. "Have spiders have left in groups like that?

"Very strange," said Harry. "It's almost like they are afraid of something and something is causing them to leave from the school."

The five reached an announcement that was posted on select walls that drew the suspiciousness of the spiders out of their mind. Hermione pointed to it, looking excited as she read.

"Look here, it says a Dueling Club is going to start," said Hermione. "Maybe we should go, it could be an excellent opportunity to learn something new."

"Finally, something to do with dueling," said Theodore approvingly. "I wonder what made Dumbledore rethink his strong opposition of a dueling class."

"Who cares, it is good chance to polish our skills?" said Daphne excitedly. "Maybe we could pick up something useful to use against the monster."

"Count me in, when I can come that is," said Harry. "Flint seems to stepping up the Quidditch Practices once again and I may not have that many free nights."

"How about you, Ginny?" asked Hermione.

"Yes it might be interesting," said Ginny a bit distractedly. She had woken up again the night before, with rooster feathers all over her robes and more blank spots her memory. She had written to Tom but he seemed to not have any suggestions on what might have happened.

The first meeting of the Dueling club was the following Monday evening and Flint did not hold practice on that night, due to coming down with the flu. Flint did however promise he would work the team about ten times as hard once he recovered from his ailment. That gave Harry great anticipation for the next Quidditch Practice.

"I wonder who’s going to teach us in this club?" voiced Daphne with interest as the four Slytherins and Hermione arrived, joining the large group of students who had eagerly surrounded the stage where the dueling club was being held.

"I heard Professor Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was younger, maybe it's him," said Hermione.

"It can be anyone, as long as it's not..." started Harry before trailing off, his worst fears confirmed. He feared Dumbledore would not allow a dueling club run by a competent teacher and seeing Lockhart proved his theory.

"Well, I think all my enthusiasm for this dueling club just went down the drain," said Theodore groaning.

Lockhart walked up to the front of the stage, beaming at the students. Harry wanted to smack the look of Lockhart and it took every bit of self-control not to.

"Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen," said Lockhart brightly. "Excellent to see you all this evening and to see you all come out for the Dueling club. Now, introduce my assistant, a gentleman I am sure you are all familiar with, Professor Snape."

Snape walked to the stage, briefly acknowledging the polite applause from his Slytherin students and Hermione.

"Professor Snape has gladly allowed to assist me for this demonstration as he knows a bit about dueling," said Lockhart.

Those words from Lockhart as they pertained to Snape were the understatement of the century.

"More than a bit, knowing his history," said Daphne in an undertone to Theodore.

Harry looked pleased, Snape was going to duel Lockhart, and this should prove to be fun on several levels.

"Duelers shall bow of course," said Lockhart turning to Snape and bowing in a cartoonish manner. Snape returned with a short bow, but Harry could see the menacing glint in his eyes. "Now, on the count of three, three, two, one, begin."

Lockhart did not even raise his wand before Snape struck.

"Expelliarmarmus," said Snape in a bored tone of voice. The Potions Master felt he went easy on Lockhart with the lack of emotion in his voice but even then the spell had a great amount of power. Snape had not been one of the top students in his year at Defense Against the Dark Arts, just behind Remus Lupin for no reason.

The disarming curse blasted Lockhart backwards about ten feet, causing his wand to fly in the air off the stage.

"I hope he's okay," said Hermione worriedly.

"Who cares," said Theodore, Daphne, and Harry in unison as Ginny just nodded weakly. Ginny's recent condition had became more and more troubling to Harry as the days went on and he wondered if Ron was the whole problem, or something more sinister was afoot.

"An excellent curse to demonstrate Professor Snape," said Lockhart, pulling himself to his feet. "Of course, I could have stopped you if I wanted to but for demonstration purposes, I decided to let you disarm."

The cold look on Snape's face could freeze Death Valley and even Lockhart caught on.

"Right, enough demonstrating, shall we pair off," said Lockhart. "Professor Snape, if you will assist me."

Lockhart went around, pairing off the students in perhaps the most moronic way possible. He managed to pair Ron and Hermione up and it was hard to tell which student was less pleased with this arrangement. Of course, the next arrangement raised the level of stupidity by Lockhart.

"Harry, why don't you duel with Draco?" suggested Lockhart beaming.

Harry could see Malfoy gulping as he remembered what happened the last time Harry had held his wand on Malfoy. Harry pulled out his wand as Snape and Lockhart paired off the remainder of the students eventually.

"Duelers face each other, and bow," said Lockhart. "And begin. Remember to disarm only."

Malfoy and Harry turned to each other, bowing slightly. Harry knew it was very unwise to take his eyes off of an enemy, dangerous or otherwise, so he kept his eyes directly on Malfoy.

"Scared, Potter," said Malfoy in a low voice.

"Of you?” asked Harry in a mock insightful voice before he shook his head. “Hardly.”

"Ritusempra!" cried Malfoy, shooting the spell at Harry but Harry muttered "Protego" and the spell bounced off it harmlessly. Harry had just mastered the shield charm a few weeks ago and it was his first practical use of it.

"A tickling curse, Malfoy," said Harry in disbelief in a low voice. "Surely your Death Eater of a father could have taught you something a bit more interesting."

Malfoy glared at Harry, but Harry pulled out his wand and cursed Malfoy before Malfoy could have a snappy retort.

"Petrificus Totalus," cried Harry and Malfoy's arms and legs snapped together, yet again. Malfoy may have been cocky but Harry caught him off guard, again.

Lockhart looked around in horror, as the students seemed not to listen him.

"Stop, stop, I said disarm only," said Lockhart but to his dismay, the spells kept flying in the air.

Snape decided to take pity on Lockhart and gain some matter of control in the situation.

"Finite Incantatem," chanted Snape and all of the spells stopped.

Hermione looked at Ron with a bit of satisfaction. She had disarmed him four times in a row before he could even raise his wand and she hoped it would humble Weasley.

"Perhaps I should teach you to block unfriendly spells," said Lockhart. "A volunteer pair, perhaps Draco and Harry."

Harry rolled his eyes, he knew how to use a shield charm and he did not need this idiot to show him whatever way he had of blocking spells. After Lockhart showed Harry some kind of fancy twirling motion where the buffoon dropped his wand, Harry decided to go with his more preferred method of using a shield charm.

"Okay, Potter, you want something a bit more interesting, try this on for size, " said Malfoy with malice. "Serpensortia!"

The crowd around the two duelers gasped as a large snake burst from Malfoy's wand. The snake advanced on Harry, but Snape decided to step forward.

"Don't move Mr. Potter, I shall dispense of it," said Snape.

"Allow me," said Lockhart before raising his wand and blasting the snake to the side, where it landed in front of a second year Hufflepuff whom Harry didn't know.

The Hufflepuff seemed to back off in terror, as the snake advanced on it. No one seemed to know what to do and Harry sighed. Why was it always him who had to get in these dangerous situations?

"Back off," hissed Harry. Surprisingly the snake backed off.

Most of the participants in the dueling club gasped in horror. The Hufflepuff looked the most horrified of all the dueling club members, despite the fact that Harry had saved him from a grisly fate. Ron had a look of triumph in his eyes.

"I knew Potter was a dark wizard, and here's the proof," said Ron Weasley. "He can talk to snakes, he's a Parseltongue. If his head of house were smart, he would throw him out. He must have been..."

"Silencio," cried Hermione as the spell struck Ron silent before turning to Harry, Ginny, Theodore, and Daphne. "We need to get out of here."

The five friends walked off and Snape turned to Ron.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor for questioning my intelligence Weasley and a week of detention with Mr. Filch," said Snape coldly before walking off.

The five friends walked out of an earshot of everyone.

"You're a parselmouth," said Ginny weakly, but her eyes widened in horror.

"What difference does that make?" asked Harry challengingly.

"Well, none, because we know you would never do anything like that," said Ginny. "Still, it does look pretty suspicious with all that’s been going on."

"This is going to be a long next few months," said Daphne. "Especially when you think about how the rumors about Harry are going to be blown out of proportion now."

"Indeed, I just hope we can ride this out," said Theodore. "I just hope certain members of the Board of Governors do not get wind of this, or they might push for the closing of the school or at the very least, a new Headmaster who might be worse than Dumbledore at handling this school, who has Death Eater ties."

"You mean Lucius Malfoy, don't you," said Daphne. "He would love to see Dumbledore removed but like Dumbledore or not, the attacks will get more frequent if he is sacked as Headmaster."

"Not that he’s doing anything right at the moment," said Harry darkly before turning to Ginny. He needed to find out what was troubling his friend, as she had not looked well for quite some time. "Ginny, I want to talk to you, in private."

Ginny nodded but horrified thoughts filled her mind. She wondered if Harry had suspected something and maybe thought she was behind the attacks. The blank spots in her memory were troubling; as they seemed to occur just around the time the attacks happened. She followed Harry off into an empty classroom.

"Okay, Ginny, I can see you have not been feeling well for quite some time, but I am at a lost to understand why," said Harry frowning. "At first I thought it was Ron's little attitude problem but now I am not quite convinced. Are you sure everything is okay?"

Ginny looked at Harry. She wanted to tell him about the blank spots, because she was sure Harry could help, somehow but something was blocking her attempts to.

"No, Harry, I'm fine," said Ginny weakly.

"Are you sure, Ginny?" asked Harry desperately. "I mean, is there anything you can think of, anything at all, that might be causing you to look like hell."

Ginny frowned, but the weird stuff involving her had began to happen this year, around the time she got the diary. That was it, the diary. Ginny opened her mouth to say something but her desire to tell Harry about the diary and Tom had been extinguished once again by a foreign presence in her mind.

"Not anything I can think of, sorry Harry," said Ginny.

Harry frowned. Something still was not quite right but he could not understand what. In any event, Ginny seemed to be about as stubborn as Harry was sometimes, not that Harry would admit that little fact out loud.

"Okay, Ginny, but if you ever want to talk to me, I'll be glad to hear what you say," said Harry.

Ginny just nodded numbly.

"C'mon, let's go and join the others," said Harry.

The next few days went very badly for Harry. It seemed every time he walked into a corridor, groups of people scattered in all directions, almost as if these students were afraid of Harry would sprout fangs and attack them at any second.

Fred and George seemed to think the thought of Harry being behind the attacks was absolutely ludicrous. Hermione seemed to be on the point of disgust and she was on the verge of cursing several people.

"Honestly, people here are unable to think for themselves," said Hermione desperately to Harry one day.

Harry wondered privately if he did have a connection with Slytherin. He did not know anything about past ancestors on his father's side, as at his time at the Dursleys, they strictly forbidded questions and Harry did not know of anyone who had known his father at Hogwarts, other than Snape and from Harry knew, Snape and James did not get along at all. Also, Harry felt any possible Slytherin connection could not come from his mother's side, as she was Muggleborn.

Harry was walking around the school mindlessly, after having a conversation with Raph about the all the rumors. Raph offered to come up to the school and have a little chat with everyone about their attitude involving Harry but Harry knew Raph's idea of "having a chat" was beating people up, so Harry did not take Raph up on his offer. After all, Harry did not know how the majority of the school would take Harry knowing four giant humanoid turtles and a talking rat with their opinion on Harry as of late.

"Hello, Harry," said a booming voice. Harry looked up and saw Hagrid, who was carrying a dead rooster. "Haven' seen much of you all year, with Flint workin' ya hard in that Quidditch Practice? How have you been?"

"Fine, Hagrid," said Harry, but not sounding fine. "What's with the dead rooster, anyway?"

Hagrid looked at the rooster darkly, before responding.

"Somethin' has bin killin em all term, this is abou' the third time," said Hagrid. "It's either the foxes or the Bloodsucking Bugbear, and I need the Headmaster's permission to put a charm aroun' the hen coop."

Something in Harry's mind began to click. Spiders fleeing, roosters being killed, Harry vaguely remembered reading about a beast which caused spiders to flee and about the rooster's crow being fatal to it, but Harry could not quite remember off hand exactly what it was, only it was definitely was a serpent of some sort. Still, Harry did not want to act until he had all the facts at his disposal.

"Ya, sure you’re alright Harry, you look all troubled," said Hagrid, frowning.

"It's nothing, Hagrid," said Harry in what he hoped was a believable voice.

Hagrid just gruffly nodded as Harry walked a couple of more corridors before turning a corridor and seeing a gruesome sight. It was Nearly Headless Nick, floating in mid air, turned completely gray and looking as if he was petrified. This really unnerved Harry. This beast could harm ghosts and moving forward, Harry saw the second year Hufflepuff that looked horrified despite the fact Harry had saved him from the snake.

Harry turned around and saw people filing out of classes. They turned to Harry, looking from Harry to the two petrified victims.

"So, Potter, caught in the act," said Ron Weasley, looking pleased. "You will get Azkaban for this, Dark Wizard."

Harry looked around at all the horrified faces. Ginny looked particularly scared and was shaking madly.

"Enough, Weasley," said a cold voice. Professor Snape was walking up to survey the situation and he had an unreadable expression on his face.

"No, I don't want Harry to get expelled," said Ginny in a low voice with tears rolling down her cheeks. "Please, Professor Snape, this isn't what it looks like."

"Enough, Miss Weasley," said Snape shortly. "Mr. Potter, come to my office, I wish to have a discussion with you about the recent attacks."