Harry and Hermione had a slew of questions for me the next morning. Hermione wasn't supposed to overhear, but she had her way of eavesdropping inconspicuously. That is, until I'd mentioned sneaking out with Parvati. Then, she'd dropped her spoon with a loud clang in surprise.
"What were you doing with Parvati when Colin got attacked?" Harry asked.
"Why were you with Parvati?!" Hermione cried.
"You heard the voice again?" He said over her.
"Parvati, of all people?!" Hermione scoffed, undeterred.
"You think it attacks with it's eyes?"
"What do you mean you snuck out?!"
"Did Dumbledore say anything else?"
"And Dumbledore found you?!"
I could feel a migraine beginning to form. A few seats away, Parvati peacefully ate her breakfast, her hair in a messy bun at the nape of her neck. She smiled at me and I looked at her enviously, waving back.
"Parvati was there too," I said to Harry. "You could ask her y'know. She's been dying to talk to you—"
"You're the one with the dreams and the only other person that could hear the voice," Harry countered. "It seems that everything is centered around you for once."
I imagined Harry just wanted a reason not to talk to Parvati, but I didn't voice this aloud.
"Yeah, I'd also like to know why that is," I rolled my eyes. "I'm going to Dumbledore at some point. Hopefully he'll have some answers. Then again, I wasn't the one with a rogue Bludger after me."
Harry laughed drily. "Well, I've found the reason for that."
"Really?" Ron perked up, finally inserting himself into the conversation after calmly inhaling his breakfast. "Malfoy admitted it?"
"Not Malfoy," Harry shook his head. "Dobby."
"Dobby?!" Ron and I said, though I added, "who the hell is Dobby?"
Harry explained his interactions with the house elf, and I found this to be even more curious. Why was Harry in danger if the monster only went after Muggle born students? Why was Dobby so attached to Harry? Whose elf was he?
"What was this about a possible defense?" Hermione asked. Once she'd stopped being angry that I snuck out with Parvati (instead of her, which was the real reason she was upset I assumed), she began to actually absorb my explanation.
"Malfoy had circled a passage from the Gorgons." I said. "I thought that maybe if you didn't look directly into it's eyes, then you wouldn't be affected. But if Colin was looking through his camera, then that idea doesn't work."
"It could still be something," Hermione reassured me. "Don't discount it. If we find out Malfoy isn't the Heir, let's share that with the other Muggle born students. At least until we can figure out who the Heir could be."
I'd almost entirely forgotten about our plan to interrogate Malfoy, but on Friday morning, before our next double Potions block, we discussed our diversion plan.
"Thanks to Dean, we already have one," I explained. I pulled the firework out that Dean had given me the day before. "One of you two will throw it into Malfoy and I's cauldron. Then, Hermione can sneak into the supply closet while Snape is preoccupied with the mess. We're dealing with Swelling Solution — it'll be nasty."
Harry and Ron looked to each other nervously.
"I'll do it," Harry said finally.
Midway through Potions, I gave Dean the thumbs up. He nodded back at me. I'd have to keep Malfoy distracted.
"Is there a reason you kept that book over the summer?" I asked him. Malfoy looked at me as if I'd grown a second head. I hadn't spoken to him civilly in weeks, so it made sense that he was shocked. He quickly got over it, however.
"I'm sure you found the reason already," he told me.
"What's in the Chamber, Malfoy?" I asked, straightforward as ever. "You ought to know."
"Why would you assume that I know?" He replied, suddenly irritable.
"How else would you know to circle the Gorgons?" I countered. He fell silent.
"That's what made the most sense from what happened the first time it was opened," Malfoy explained, his voice low. "From what my father described.
"So he's the Heir?" I tried. Malfoy only smirked.
"If my father was the Heir I wouldn't be here," he said haughtily. "I'd be helping him."
"I doubt it," I told him. "You warned me."
"You're naive to think I wanted to help," Malfoy scoffed, though he averted his eyes to his textbook. "I was hoping you'd lead Potter and Weasel and Granger to it while trying to be heroes and that it would finish you all off."
"Right," I said, pursing my lips while trying not to laugh. He was sounding more and more ridiculous with each lie. "Malfoy, have you ever realized you might not be who you thought you were?"
He looked up at me from the pages, brow furrowed. "What?"
"Like you thought you were one thing and it turned out you were not," I explained. "Has that ever occurred to you?"
"I can't say it ever has." He rolled his eyes. "Are you having an identity crisis?"
I chuckled at how unaware he was. "Perhaps."
We were almost all of the way through class when Harry threw it into our cauldron. It fell in with a satisfying plop. Malfoy was still looking away but turned at the sound.
"Did you hear something?"
"No," I replied, giving him a convincingly perplexed stare. I looked around, as if searching for the source of the noise. "Let me go ask Dean if he saw something."
I walked away to Dean and Lavender's cauldron, crouching down to speak quietly to Dean.
"It's about to happen," I whispered to him gleefully.
"What is—" Lavender began to say, but then Dean shushed her.
"Don't worry, just get down," Dean got off his stool to squat behind his cauldron, as if he'd dropped something, and Lavender did the same.
There was sudden a bang and the liquid in my and Malfoy's cauldron splattered everywhere. Most of the potion hit Malfoy, and his head was currently the size of a watermelon. I grinned as Hermione slipped into the supply closet unnoticed. Professor Snape, however, was livid.
"If you've been splashed, come see me," Professor Snape said. "And if I find out who did this," he stared straight at Harry. "I'll ensure that they're expelled."
"He knew it was me!" Harry exclaimed after we'd left class.
"He blames you for everything, Harry," I reminded him. "Besides, we got what we needed and he has no proof against you."
We journeyed into the bathroom where the Polyjuice was brewing. Hermione put in the last ingredients and announced that the potion would be done in two weeks.
A week later, I woke up to see a notice pinned on the board in the common room. They were starting a Dueling Club. I scanned to see if the instructor was listed, but they weren't.
"What's this?" Dean asked.
"They're starting a Dueling Club, eh?" Seamus mused.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione came down as well, looking at the notice on the board.
"Reckon Slytherin's monster can duel?" Ron asked jokingly.
"It could be useful," Harry said. "Shall we go?"
The first meeting was supposed to be eight o' clock that night. We decided to go, as did nearly the entire school. After dinner, we returned to the Great Hall and waited excitedly.
"I wonder who will be teaching us," Harry said. I shrugged.
"Anybody would be good." I conceded. "As long as it's not— oh no."
Lockhart walked onto the stage, followed by none other that Professor Snape.
"Well, at least one of them knows what they're doing," I murmured to Dean.
Lockhart flamboyantly waved his hand for silence. "Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!"
"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions - for full details, see my published works."
I rolled my eyes.
"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Lockhart, flipping his hand towards Snape in a presenting sort of manner. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry — you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him!"
"Wouldn't it be good if they finished each other off?" Ron muttered to Harry. Dean stifled a laugh.
Lockhart and Snape faced each other to bow; rather, Lockhart bowed deeply, whereas Professor Snape nodded stiffly while giving Lockhart a rather menacing look. I sort of hoped he'd set him on fire. They raised their wands front of them.
"As you see, we are holding our wands in the basic combative position," Lockhart told us. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."
"Damn," Seamus cursed. "I was counting on that."
"One — two — three!"
Both of them moved their wands simultaneously, but only Professor Snape made a move.
"Expelliarmus!" He exclaimed. There was a jet of scarlet light and Lockhart was swept off his feet, flying backward off the stage and hitting the wall with a thud before sliding down to the floor. The Slytherins cheered.
"Do you think he's all right?" Hermione had been watching through her fingers.
"Who cares?" said Harry and Ron simultaneously. Despite their hatred of Snape, they were clapping.
Lockhart stood (with considerable difficulty) and made his way back to the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm. As you see, I've lost my wand - ah, thank you, Miss Brown - yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape. However, if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy - however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see."
Professor Snape's expression grew murderous.
"Enough demonstrating!" Lockhart exclaimed, seeming to notice this. "I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me. . ."
Professor Snape made a beeline for us. He immediately paired Ron off with Seamus and Dean off with a nearby Ravenclaw boy. Harry tried to move towards Hermione and I, but Snape sneered.
"I don't think so," he turned over his shoulder. "Mr. Malfoy, come over here. Let's see what you make of the famous Potter. Miss Granger — you can partner Miss Bulstrode. Miss Holmes—"
"I'll take her."
Oh God no.
"Ah yes, Miss Parkinson," Professor Snape nodded approvingly. Pansy sneered at me from behind his back and I fought every urge to glare at her until Professor Snape had walked away.
"Face your partners!" Lockhart called. "And bow."
Pansy and I did nothing of the sort.
"You know," she said to me quietly. "When Draco told me that Mudbloods were going to start being killed off, I was really hoping you'd be first."
"I have to say I'm honored to be that high on the list," I replied, keeping my irritation to a low simmer. "I'm always happy to hear I'm causing you great inconvenience."
"Well, at least here I can shut you up for once," she raised her wand, but I cut her off.
"Immobulus!" I exclaimed. I'd learned that one from Hermione freezing the Cornish pixies. Pansy Parkinson froze mid-incantation, the look on her face was priceless. I realized this was the perfect opportunity to collect hair for the Polyjuice potion. I walked closer to her.
"You should really consider growing out those bangs," I said. Her eyes followed me, but she couldn't move the rest of her body. I picked up her fringe with my finger and pulled gently, plucking a singular hair and walking behind her to pocket it so she couldn't see.
"Oh, sorry about that," I said. "I was going to offer to cut them for you, granted you continue to stay so still."
I looked around. The other duels were going a lot more chaotically. Some students were on the ground, others in the air even, and there was light flashing everywhere."I said disarm only!" Lockhart was shouting. "Stop! Stop!"
Professor Snape took charge. "Finite Incantatem!" he shouted. There was sudden stillness in the room. Pansy unfroze — she would have likely strangled me if it wasn't for Snape looking over at us.
"Dear, dear," said Lockhart. "I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells." He returned to the stage. "Let's have a volunteer pair - Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you?"
"Bad idea, Gilderoy," said Snape, striding over. "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox. How about Malfoy and Potter?"
"Excellent idea!" said Lockhart. He motioned for Harry and Malfoy to move into the center of the room.
"This should be interesting," I said to Pansy, who still looked like she wanted to murder me.
"Potter's dead," she said confidently. I snickered.
"Oh please. What's Malfoy going to do? Outbid him?"
"Now, Harry," said Lockhart. "When Draco points his wand at you, you do this."
Lockhart waved his wand around in a complicated motion and proceeded to drop it. "Whoops, my wand is a little overexcited—"
I noticed Snape whispering something in Malfoy's ear. I didn't like one thing about the matching smirks they shared. Lockhart patted Harry on the shoulder. "Just do what I did, Harry!"
"What, drop my wand?" Harry said snidely.
If Lockhart heard that, he didn't say anything. "Three . . . two . . . one . . . go!"
Malfoy immediately yelled, "Serpensortia!"
A large black snake shot out of Malfoy's wand, appearing ready to strike. People screamed and moved back. I watched with interest, remembering Dean's grandparent's garden snake. I wondered if this one would listen more easily.
"Don't move, Potter," said Snape serenely. "I'll get rid of it."
"Allow me!" shouted Lockhart. I cursed under my breath. He flared his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang; the snake flew across the room and hit the floor with a thud. It was now angrier than before, slithering straight towards Justin beside us.
Well, it was time to find out. I stepped in between Justin and the snake, pushing him behind me.
"Stop!" I told it. "Stay right there!" There were several gasps around me as the snake surprisingly went limp, falling to the floor as if it were asleep
When I looked up, Pansy was looking at me with something like fear in her eyes. Somehow, the sight wasn't as satisfying as I thought it would be.
"How'd you do that?" She whispered, breaking the silence, expression now more confused than anything. Other students began to whisper as well.
"Do what?" I asked her. "I told it to stop."
When I looked around at everyone else, the people in the Great Hall looked aghast; appalled even. Snape himself seemed pale, Lockhart thunderstruck. I didn't understand why.
"What do you think you're playing at?" Justin suddenly cried behind me before running out of the hall. I watched him go, perplexed. What was going on?
I suddenly felt a hand grab my wrist, but it wasn't Ron or Hermione's. Pansy Parkinson was pulling me away toward the doors to the Great Hall.
"Yeah, yeah," she said as she pushed through the crowd that parted for us. "Get out of my way, and mind your damn business."
I glanced at the trio, who looked just as flabbergasted as I felt. Harry looked plain confused, but Ron and Hermione were exchanging the same nervous looks the rest of the Great Hall seemed to have. Malfoy made no move to stop Pansy, and when he looked at me he almost seemed angry. I was taken aback by his reaction the most of everyone else's. As we passed, he quickly adjusted his tie and followed after us.
As if this couldn't get any worse.