CHAPTER 41
|THEORIES AND DUELS|
“You bastards!” Sirius cursed at Severus and Regulus.
The two boys ignored him and laughed along with the rest of the school.
“Oh god.” Marlene wiped away a tear. “I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard.
“I wish I could have seen that happen in person.” Mary said.
“No wonder you never told us this story.” James chuckled.
The screen followed Severus and Regulus as they ran through the corridors back to their common room. As they turned a corner, the scene shifted to Ryan and Neville walking toward the Great Hall. They stopped outside the doors to the Great Hall and saw a sign that said: DUELING CLUB MEETING.
“Shh!” Several people in the audience shushed those that were still laughing.
“I so glad that they’re doing this.” Neville said sounding relieved. “With Slytherin’s monster going around petrifying people, maybe we’ll be able to learn something about how to go about fighting it.”
“You reckon Slytherin’s monster can duel?” Ryan questioned.
“That’s a good question.” Regulus nodded.
Neville rolled his eyes and pulled Ryan into the Great Hall. They were one of the last students to arrive and observed that the entire hall was changed to create a sort of stage that had students gathered around it.
“Who do you think’ll be teaching us?” Neville asked.
“Well mum’s pregnant so maybe not her.” Ryan reasoned. “Best guess it’d probably be Professor McGonagall, or Snape. Ohh, I heard somewhere that Professor Flitwick was a retired dueling champion so him teaching us would make a lot of sense.”
Ryan and Neville finally arrive next to Ron, Hermione and Harry when Gilderoy Lockhart stepped onto the stage from one end.
“Then again this school isn’t known for making much sense.” Ryan said at the sight of Lockhart on the stage.
“You can say that again.” James nodded.
“Gather round, gather round!” Lockhart spoke in a loud voice. “Can everybody see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent! In 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’s just looking for any reason to self-advertise, isn’t it?” Fabian told his twin.
Lockhart threw took off his cloak and threw it toward a group of Slytherin girls. The cloak landed on Cassie Black who immediately threw it away to a group of Ravenclaw girls who all grabbed at it.
“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:
“Good luck, Potter.”
“Thank you, sir.” Harry said.
“Wands at the ready.” Lockhart said in a loud voice. Harry and Draco copied the same movements that Lockhart and Snape had done earlier.
“Scared, Potter?” Draco mocked.
“You wish.” Harry stated.
Harry and Draco walked over to the corners of the stage and took a fighting stance.
“On the count of three, cast your charms to disarm your opponent- only to disarm.” Lockhart told them. “We don’t want any accidents here. One, two—”
Draco already fired his first spell.
“Everte statium!” The spell sent Harry flying backward and landing on his back.
“He went on two!” James shouted.
“Oh!” Hermione gasped.
“Come on, Hazza!” Ryan cheered loudly while clapping his hands.
Harry wasted no time and stood up back onto his feet.
“Rictusempra!”
A jet of sliver light struck Draco on the chest and sent him flying backward and landing painfully on his bottom.
“Vengeance!” Fleamont declared.
“Ooh! He can’t seem to catch a break.” Ryan smiled.
Draco landed right in front of Snape who, after looking at him sharply, picked him up and threw him back toward Harry.
“I said disarm only!” Lockhart shouted in alarm.
Draco ignored him and cast another spell. “Serpensortia!”
A brown snake appeared from Draco’s spell and landed on the floor of the stage. The snake moved forward hissing at all the startled students. Harry stood transfixed at the serpent and didn’t seem to do anything.
“Come on, Harry.” James whispered to himself. “Do something!”
“Don’t move, Potter.” Snape rolled his eyes. “I’ll get rid of it for you.”
“Allow me, Professor Snape.” Lockhart said confidently. “Alarte ascendare!”
He brandished his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang; the snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack. Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin Finch-Fletchley and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.
“At this point I’m not even surprised.” Cathy commented.
Harry stepped forward to try to yell at the snake to stop. But instead of words, Harry let out several sounds that sounded much like he was mimicking a snake.
“The hell is that?”
“He’s talking to a snake again!”
The snake stopped moving toward Justin and turned to face Harry instead. Everyone in the Great Hall stared at Harry as he commanded the snake to leave the Hufflepuff student alone.
“Vipera evenesca.” Snape said quietly. The spell shot at the snake’s tail and turned it to ash.
As soon as the snake was killed, Harry’s eyes fluttered as he realized that he had forgotten to blink. Harry turned to see Justin glaring at him.
“What are you playing at?” he said angrily.
“What’s his problem?” Remus questioned.
The scene shifted immediately to Harry arriving at the Gryffindor common room. Hermione, Ron, Ryan and Neville came into the room almost as soon as he did.
“You’re a Parselmouth? Why didn’t you tell us?” Ron questioned.
Harry turned to face them. “I’m a what?”
“You can talk to snakes.” Hermione stated.
“I know. I mean, I accidentally set a python on my cousin Dudley at the zoo once.” Ron’s eyes widened in shock. “Uh, once! But, so what? I bet loads of people here can do it.”
“Can you talk to snakes?’ James asked his sister.
“No.” Cathy answered. “You?”
“Hmm-mm.” James shook his head.
“No, they can’t. It’s not a very common gift, Harry. This is bad.” Hermione told him.
“What’s bad? If I hadn’t told that snake not to attack Justin—”
“Oh, is that what you said to it?” Ryan sighed. “It looked very bad on our end though, Hazza. Very bad indeed.
Neville quietly nodded in agreement.
“You were there! You heard me!” Harry told them.
“We heard you speaking Parseltongue.” Ron stated. “Snake language?”
Harry gaped at him.
“I spoke a different language? But — I didn’t realize — how can I speak a language without knowing I can speak it?”
Ron shook his head. Everyone was looking as though someone had died. Harry couldn’t see what was so terrible.
“D’you want to tell me what’s wrong with stopping a massive snake biting off Justin’s head?” he said. “What does it matter how I did it as long as Justin doesn’t have to join the Headless Hunt?”
“It matters,” said Hermione, speaking at last in a hushed voice, “because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That’s why the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent.”
Harry’s mouth fell open.
“Exactly,” said Neville. “And now the whole school’s going to think you’re his great-great-great-great grandson or something.
“But I’m not,” said Harry, with a panic he couldn’t quite explain.
“You’ll find that hard to prove,” said Hermione. “He lived about a thousand years ago; for all we know, you could be.”
“And with how a lot of pureblood families are related there’s a strong chance that he’s at least a distant descendant or something.” Evan pointed out.
The camera zoomed in close to Harry’s troubled expression and faded away. The view focused again and this time Harry was sitting next to Ryan in the study Hall. Next to him was Ryan and across was Ron and Hermione and Neville.
Harry’s ears perked up at the sound of people whispering. He looked around and saw that there were several people who were giving him fearful looks. Whenever they made eye contact with him, they immediately looked away as if he were going to petrify them right there and then.
Harry looked back to his friends and saw that they were giving him pitiful looks.
“I’ll see you back in the common room.” Harry said gathering his things.
“Oh.” Euphemia felt so sorry for Harry.
Harry got up and walked out of the Study Hall. As soon as he was out of view several people began to talk among themselves. Harry stopped and tried to listen in on one of the conversations.
“So anyway,” a stout boy was saying, “I told Justin to hide up in our dormitory. I mean to say, if Potter’s marked him down as his next victim, it’s best if he keeps a low profile for a while. Of course, Justin’s been waiting for something like this to happen ever since he let slip to Potter he was Muggle-born. That’s not the kind of thing you bandy about with Slytherin’s heir on the loose, is it?”
“They think that he’s the Heir of Slytherin?” James said. “Rubbish!”
“But you can see why they’ve gotten to that conclusion.” Remus pointed out.
“Whose side are you on?” James said.
“Calm down, Prongs.” Sirius told James.
“You definitely think it is Potter, then, Ernie?” said a girl with blonde pigtails anxiously.
“Hannah,” said the stout boy solemnly, “he’s a Parselmouth. Everyone knows that’s the mark of a Dark wizard. Have you ever heard of a decent one who could talk to snakes? They called Slytherin himself Serpent-tongue."
There was some heavy murmuring at this, and Ernie went on, “Remember what was written on the wall? Enemies of the Heir, Beware. Potter had some sort of run-in with Filch. Next thing we know, Filch’s cat’s attacked. That first year, Creevey, was annoying Potter at the Quidditch match, taking pictures of him while he was lying in the mud. Next thing we know — Creevey’s been attacked.”
“Those are just coincidences.” James stated loudly.
“Can you shut up!” Cathy snapped at her brother. “We know that it was a coincidence.”
“He always seems so nice, though,” said Hannah uncertainly, “and, well, he’s the one who made You-Know-Who disappear. He can’t be all bad, can he?”
Ernie lowered his voice mysteriously, the Hufflepuffs bent closer, and Harry edged nearer so that he could catch Ernie’s words.
“No one knows how he survived that attack by You-Know-Who. I mean to say, he was only a baby when it happened. He should have been blasted into smithereens. Only a really powerful Dark wizard could have survived a curse like that.” He dropped his voice until it was barely more than a whisper, and said:
“That’s probably why You- Know-Who wanted to kill him in the first place. Didn’t want another Dark Lord competing…with…him.”
Ernie’s voice trailed off as he saw the expressions on the faces of those that were across the table from him. Hannah and the rest of them look as white as a sheet. Ernie turned around abruptly and found Ryan standing behind him looking down at him coldly.
“Uh-oh.” Peter gulped.
“No, no, don’t stop on my account.” Ryan told him. “Please go on. You were saying that Hazza’s parents, my uncle and aunt, were murdered in their home in cold blood because Hazza is the next Dark Lord, right?”
Ernie was quiet and looking pale as everyone in the Study Hall was silent and watching him and Ryan.
“Where, pray tell, did you get this theory from hmm?” Ryan sat down next to Ernie who looked around and saw that people were staring at him to answer. “Because Hazza defeating the Dark Lord is a fact. Him saving the world is a fact. His parents giving up their lives to protect him is a fact. Hell, even, Hazza being a Parselmouth is a fact.”
Ryan patted Ernie’s cheek softly.
“But everything you just said? Are those facts?” When Ernie didn’t answer Ryan’s expression turned dark. “Answer me.”
“N-No.” Ernie said in a quiet voice.
“Jesus Christ he’s scary.” Sirius said. “Reminds me of my mum.”
Walburga shot Sirius an annoyed look.
“Funny, I thought he reminded me of Cathy.” James told Sirius.
“That’s right.” Ryan said in a cheerful but still cold tone. “Now then,” Ryan stood up and looked at everyone that was listening to Ernie, “if you’re going to make up theories like that either keep it to yourselves or,” Ryan grabbed Ernie’s chin and pulled his face up, “grow some balls and come say it to his face!”
Ernie looked utterly scared and terrified. Ryan let go of his face and smirked confidently at everyone at Ernie and his table before he walked out of the Study Hall.
“I guess being scary is in his blood.” Marlene said.
When Ryan saw that Harry was standing near the exit listening in, he didn’t slow or falter in his walk. Instead, he threw his arm over Harry’s shoulder and made him walk at the same pace as him.
“Come on, Hazza, let’s bounce.” Ryan said.
Harry walked with his cousin with a small smile on his face.
“Thanks. For what you said back there.” Harry said.
“Don’t worry about it.” Ryan told him. “But if anyone ever accuses me of mass murder in the future, you are honor-bound to defend me.”
“Even if you did it?” Harry enquired.
“Especially if I did it.” Ryan laughed.
“Wait what about your books?”
“Did you not see my dramatic exit? I’m not going back in there. Ron or Neville will get it for me.” Ryan said