ENIGMATIC • 𝐓𝐎𝐌 𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄

XXVIII. Dueling Club

I stand next to Draco and Hermione as we watch Lockhart jump onto the moon-patterned dueling platform.

"Gather round! Gather round!" Lockhart announces as he walks over to the other side of the platform.

"Can you all see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent." Lockhart yells before turning Towards everyone.

"In the light of the dark events of recent weeks, Professor dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club to train you all up in case you ever need to defend yourselves, as I myself have done on countless occasions. For full details, see my published works." He explains with a wink as he takes off his cape.

Three girls excitedly catch it as they stare at it as if they'll never let it go.

"Let me introduce my assistant... professor snape." Lockhart says as everyone glances towards snape who also walked up on the platform.

"He has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry. you'll still have your potions master when I'm through with him. Never fear." He smiles as I resist the urge to bang my head against a wall.

For Merlin's sake, how is one guy so fucking stupid?!

They draw their wands as they walk up to each other, bowing before turning around and walking back.

Once they were at their respective ends of the platform they got into position to fight.

"One, two... three." Lockhart says with a cocky grin.

"Expelliarmus!" Snape immediately casts, causing Lockhart to scream and get flung back violently.

"Yikes, that's gonna hurt in the morning." I mutter as nyx nods in agreement.

"An excellent idea to show them that, Professor snape, but if you don't mind me saying, it was pretty obvious what you were about to do. And if I had wanted to stop you, it would have been only too easy." Lockhart explains as I roll my eyes.

"Perhaps it would be prudent to first teach the students to block unfriendly spells, Professor." Snape states calmly with hint of venom lacing his voice as Lockhart looks down at the students for a second before glancing back up at snape.

"How much do you want to bet that snape only agreed so he could embarrass Lockhart?" I whisper to Hermione as she smiles and covers her mouth.

"Most definitely." She mutters back with a smile before we focus back at the professors.

"An excellent suggestion, Professor snape. Well.... Let's have a volunteer pair..." he trails off as he glances around the room.

"Potter, Weasley! How about you?" He asks while looking at my brother and his friend.

"Weasleys wand causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending potter to the hospital wing in a matchbox." Snape explains venomously as he glares at the Weasley boy before looking back at Lockhart as he continues, "Might I suggest someone from my own house?"

Lockhart puts his hands in his pockets as he looks at snape hesitantly.

"Malfoy, perhaps?" Snape says before turning around and gesturing fordeaco to walk on stage.

Draco walks on stage with a slight grin as Lockhart nervously walks up to potter.

"Good luck, potter." Lockhart says as he walks off the platform.

They walk towards each other as potter glares at Draco slightly.

"Wands, gentlemen!" Lockhart announces as they take out their wands.

"Scared, potter?" Draco questions with a grin as potter has a non-wavering look on his face.

"You wish." Potter says back monotonously as Draco scowls at the male.

They turn around and walk to each side of the platform as they get in a fighting position.

"On the count of three, cast your charms to disarm your opponent, only to disarm!" Lockhart adds the last bit quickly as he glares at the boys. "We don't want any accidents here."

"One. Two." Lockhart didn't get to finish as malfoy casts a spell.

"Everte statum!" Draco exclaims as potter goes flying back, I grimace slightly as I hear a bone crack brut say nothing.

Potter then quickly gets up as he glares at malfoy before shouting, "rictusempra!"

The force makes malfoy crash back as the students laugh at him.

Snape quickly grabs Draco by the back of his clothes, gets him up, then pushes him forward.

"I said disarm only!" Lockhart reminds nervously as nobody pays attention.

"Serpensortia!" Draco yells as a snake flies out of his wand, my eyes widen as I recognize the poisonous species.

I make my way over to where the snake way but get pushed back by student.

The snake glances around in confusion as it hisses at people close to it in defense. Potter backs away as he puts his wand down.

"Don't move, potter. I'll get rid of it for you." Snape says as he pushes past Draco and walks towards the snake.

"Allow me, Professor snape." Lockhart says as he walks forward, making snape pause.

"Alarte ascendare!" Lockhart yells as the snake gets thrown into the air before falling back down, it looks around as it hisses at others.

*Back away... don't hurt him.* Harry hisses in parseltongue as I quickly push others to make it towards the boy who the snake was facing.

*Stop!* I hiss as I stand infront of the snake before holding my hand out, Nyx looked partly-confused at the other snake.

*Please don't hurt anyone here, I promise I can send you back to where you were before. They don't mean any hostile intentions.* I explain as the snake backs up slightly before nodding and backing down.

*Alright...* it hisses reluctantly as it curls into a ball as it refuses to look at anyone.

"She won't hurt anyone, she was just scared... is there a spell to send her back?" I direct the last part towards snape as his eyes widen but he slowly nods.

"You can leave the snake with me, I can find the spell to send it back.." he mutters before turning away.