BEGIN BEFORE THE END | WTM | R.A.B

41

“Good girl.” Walburga nodded while looking pleased at her granddaughter reaction.

“That Lockhart’s something, isn’t he?” A boy next to Harry said. “Awfully brave chap!” 

“He’s awfully something but sure let’s go with brave.” Ryan murmured to himself.

The boy struck out his arm.

“Justin Finch-Fletchley. Hufflepuff.” He introduced himself.

“Oh, nice to meet you.” Harry said shaking his hand. “I’m—”

“I know who you are. We all do. Even us muggleborns.” Justin said.

“Oh.” Lucius looked rather annoyed at the mention of Justin’s blood status. He wasn’t the only one either. Several purebloods looked smug and superior at the screen.

“Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape.”

“You have got to kidding me.” Severus looked at the screen in disbelief.

“Oh excellent.” Ryan smiled darkly.

“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.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll kill each other.” Ron whispered.

“Wouldn’t that be nice.” Peter sighed.

Professor Lockhart and Snape stepped to the center of the stage and flicked their wands to their faces. They bowed to each other briefly before they left to respective corners of the stage. When they arrive, they quickly turned to each other in a fighting stance.

“One,” Lockhart began counting, “two, three—”

Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Snape cried: “Expelliarmus!” There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet: He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.

“Ooh!” Several people winced at the thought of how much that hurt.

Malfoy and some of the other Slytherins cheered.

Hermione was dancing on tiptoes. “Do you think he’s all right?” she squealed through her fingers.

“Who cares?” laughed Ron.

“An excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape,” Lockhart said after getting back onto his and walking toward his ‘assistant’, “but if you don’t mind me saying, it was pretty obvious- ah- what you were about to do. And if I had wanted to stop you, it would have been only too easy.”

“Then why didn’t you?” James questioned.

Snape gritted his teeth but spoke to Lockhart in a controlled voice.

“Perhaps it would be prudent to first teach the students to block unfriendly spells, Professor.”

“An excellent suggestion, Professor Snape!” Lockhart agreed. He looked to the crowd of students. “Ah... Let’s have a volunteer pair! Um, Potter, Weasley, how about you?”

“Weasley’s wand causes devastation with the simplest spells. We’ll be sending Potter to the hospital wing in a matchbox.” Snape sneered. “Might I suggest someone from my own house? Malfoy, perhaps?”

Both Harry and Draco maneuvered through the students and climbed onto the stage. As Harry walked toward the center of the stage, Lockhart whispered to him: