Spells and Visions

Chapter 7: Duels and Attacks

After the lessons, the five of us hurried back to Moaning Myrtle's place. Hermione added the ingredients and told us the potion was almost ready.

A few days later, in the common room, I was just reading a bit, when Fred and George plopped down on either side of me.
"So, have you got any more news?" Fred asked. I had almost forgotten I'd tell them.
"No, I didn't have any visions," I said. "But we are making a Polyjuice Potion to find out if Malfoy is the heir of Slytherin. We've suspected him, you know, but we've got nothing to prove it with."
"Polyjuice Potion?" George said with wide eyes. "I never dreamed of using that one. Smart choice."
"Shh," I said. "No one else needs to know."
"Not a word," Fred said, fake-zipping his lips. "You didn't give us away in the summer, so we'll retun the favor."
"Thanks," I smiled.

The next week, there was a poster on the noticeboard about a Duelling Club.
"Could be useful," Neville told me. "Maybe I'll learn to use a few spells that will keep me from being killed."
"I'll go too," I said. "May be useful indeed."
Harry, Ron and Hermione had come as well.
While we were wondering who would be teaching us, Lockhart showed up, along with Snape.
Lockhart called for silence and began his speech.
"Professor Dumbledore gave me permission to start this little Duelling Club, to train you in case you need to defend yourself. Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape, who knows a bit about duelling himself. He has agreed to do a little demonstration with me first."
They turned towards each other, bowed and raised their wands. Then they walked away from each other, while Lockhart explained some more.
"On the count of three, we cast our spells, but there will be no killing, of course."
"Wouldn't bet on that," Harry murmured. Snape looked ready to kill. I grinned. Would've been great if they did.
After Lockhart counted to three, Snape shouted: "Expelliarmus!" after which Lockhart flew off the stage and crashed into a wall. The Slytherins were cheering and I smirked at Neville.
Slowly, Lockhart came back on stage, coming up with excuses that made absolutely no sense, and when he saw Snape's angry face, he called everyone to demonstrate in pairs.

We didn't get to choose our partner, so Neville ended up with Justin Finch-Fletchley. Hermione ended up with a Slytherin girl who she looked no match for, and Harry and Ron were split by Snape. Ron got Seamus and Harry Malfoy. I got to partner Lavender, who was a girl from my dormroom. We bowed, raised our wands, and walked to opposite sides, and on Lockhart's sign, we turned.
"Flipendo!" I yelled, and Lavender yanked backwards in an instant. She got up quickly, though, and cried "Expelliarmus!" what made me lose my balance and my wand fly off the stage.
"Nice one," I smirked, and ran to get it back. When we stood at the ready again, Lavender used 'Flipendo' on me while I used 'Rictusempra' on her. I flew through the air and landed on my back. After the dizziness had stopped I saw the effect of my spell. I had used the Tickling Charm on Lavender.
I also saw Harry and Draco duelling with everything they had. Then Snape called 'Finite Incantatem' and everything stopped moving. Everyone was exhausted from the spells.

"I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells," Lockhart said. "Let's have a volunteer pair. How about Black and Finch-Fletchley?"
He pointed at Neville and his duelling partner. They both laid on the floor and were drained of their energy.
"Bad idea," Snape told him. "Black causes destruction with even the simplest spells. We would have to be sending Finch-Fletchley home in a matchbox. Neville's face turned red and I pressed my lips together, trying hard not to laugh. He wasn't wrong.
"What about Potter and Malfoy?"
"Excellent!" Lockhart answered, and we all made place for them on the stage.
"One, two, three, go!"
"Serpensortia!" Malfoy yelled.
Out of his wand came a long snake, that got ready to attack. People backed away from the stage, but I kept standing where I was. Snape told them he'd get rid of it, but Lockhart was faster. Once again, he threw a spell that I never heard of before, and the snake flew through the air and landed hard on the stage again, facing Justin Finch-Fletchley, and again, ready to attack.
Then something strange happened. Harry turned to the snake and started whispering things in a strange language, as if he told the snake to attack. But instead, the snake backed away. No one must have noticed that, because Justin looked just as terrified as the rest of the room.
"What do you think you're playing at?" Justin said, and as fast as he could, left the place. Snape made the snake disappear with a simple spell, and looked strangely at Harry. I too, didn't know Harry was a Parselmouth.