The next day had arrived and the quartet were in the girls bathroom as Hermione and Charlotte made the potion.
Harry and Charlotte had told them the events from last night and to say they were shocked would be a lie. Hermione asked as Lottie took her turn in stirring.
"Again? You mean that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened before?"
Harry and Charlotte nodded and Ron exclaimed whilst leaning on a sink.
"Of course! Don't you see? Lucius Malfoy must have opened it when he was at school here, and now he's told Malfoy to do it."
Charlotte looked at Ron and stated.
"Now, I'm not completely defending the Malfoy's. Yes, they're evil. However, I don't think they are that capable of doing something huge like this."
The boys looked at her with judging eyes but Hermione smirked and stated.
"Let's just see what we get out of this whole thing, we'll have to wait for the Polyjuice Potion to know for sure."
Ron crossed his arms and asked sassily.
"Enlighten me, Hermione. Why are we brewing this potion in broad daylight and in the middle of a girls lavatory? Don't you think we'll get caught?"
Charlotte shook her head as Hermione replied.
"No, no one ever comes in here."
Ron asked in confusion.
"Why?"
Hermione and Charlotte smirked and answered at the same time.
"Moaning Myrtle."
Ron's eyebrows furrowed and he went to ask who that was until Myrtle herself came out of her toilet and scared the living daylights out of the boys. She flew towards Ron and stopped when they were facing towards each other.
She screeched in that high pitched voice of hers.
"I'm Moaning Myrtle! I wouldn't expect you to know me, who would ever talk about fat, ugly, miserable, moping, moaning Myrtle?"
She sobbed loudly and then dived head first into her toilet, leaving a splash of water. Lottie giggled at the looks on the boys faces and Hermione smiled and stated.
"She's a little sensitive."
Ron shook his head and let out a deep breath.
Soon, it was time for duelling club, so they made the potion invisible and exited the girls lavatory. Luckily, no one saw the boys exiting as well.
⋆
Everyone was in the great hall standing around a stage, Professor Lockhart was stood on it and he was speaking loudly to them.
"Gather round! Gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me?"
No one really responded, they just nodded their heads. He smiled and continued.
"Excellent, in light of the dark events of recent weeks. Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little duelling club, to train you all up incase it ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasion's. For more details, see my published works."
Charlotte rolled her eyes and scoffed at him as he always finds a way to promote his books. Unbelievable.
A guy from Hufflepuff leans towards Harry and utters.
"That Lockhart's something, isn't he? Awfully brave chap."
They looked at him as he held out his hand for Harry to shake, he introduced himself.
"I'm Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hufflepuff."
Harry shook his hand and replied.
"Nice to meet you, I'm-"
Justin cut him off by speaking eagerly.
"I know who you are, we all do, even us Muggleborns."
Harry awkwardly smiled at him and looked away as Lockhart kept speaking.
"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape. He has kindly 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!"
Lottie snorted as Snape looked bored as hell. The professors faced each other and pointed their wands at each other. Lockhart continued.
"As you can see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position. On the count of three, we will cast our first spells, neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."
Harry let out a laugh and whispered into Charlotte's ear.
"I wouldn't bet on that."
Charlotte snickered slightly and playfully smacked his shoulder, they watched as Lockhart counted down and just before he was going to say a spell, Snape beat him to it and exclaimed.
"Expelliarmus!"
He drew back his wand and then did the spell, a spark erupted out of the wand and Lockhart went flying back and landed on his back, everyone laughed in joy and Lottie clapped excitedly. Hermione asked with worry.
"Do you think he'll be alright?"
Ron, Harry and Charlotte replied in unison as they stared at Lockhart as he tried to get up.
"Who cares?"
Lockhart finally got up and stated.
"Well, there you have it. That was a disarming charm. As you see, I've lost my wand."
He looked around for his wand and walked towards Lavender as she was excitedly waving it around. He thanked her and continued.
"Ah, thank you, Miss Brown. Yes, it was an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape. But if you don't mind me 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."
Charlotte scoffed at his ego and Snape sneered and mumbled.
"Perhaps it would be prudent to first teach the students to block unfriendly spells, Professor."
Lockhart smiled and replied.
"An excellent suggestion, Professor Snape. Let's have a volunteer pair, how about Potter and Weasley?"
Ron and Charlotte looked at each other, wondering which Weasley he meant. Luckily, Snape was here to save the day.
"Mr Weasley's wand causes devastation with the simplest spells whilst Miss Weasley would finish Mr Potter within a second, and as I would look forward to seeing that, it'd be too easy. Might I suggest someone from my own house? Malfoy, perhaps."
Draco made his way up to the stage and so did Harry, Charlotte patted him on the back for good luck. The tension between the two was thick and it may be because of their rivalry or because of Charlotte. Either so, the boys face each other and Lottie rolled her eyes as they taunted each other.
"Scared, Potter?"
"You wish."
Lockhart speaks as the boys walk to their places and glare at each other.
"Wands at the ready! When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponent. Only to disarm, we don't want any accidents. One, two-"
Lockhart is interrupted by Draco casting a spell and making Harry fly and land on his stomach. Charlotte winced and hoped that Harry is okay. Thankfully, Harry gets up and exclaims.
"Rictusempra!"
The spell makes Draco fly back and land on his crotch, everyone winces and there are several "ooh's" from the students. Lockhart let out a "Disarm only!" whilst Snape yanked Draco up and whispered into his ear. Draco smirks and casts his spell.
"Serpensortia!"
A black snake shoots out of his wand and slithers towards Harry, the students that were near the stage all stand back, afraid. Snape states.
"Don't move, Potter, I'll get rid of it for you."
He goes to point his wand at the snake, but Lockhart steps forward and does the same. He flicks his wand and the snake hisses and flies upwards, and instead of disappearing, it just slithers more in rage. It went towards Justin and Ron pulled Charlotte closer to him as she thought.
Is it just me or is Harry speaking Parseltongue?
The snake continued to slither towards Justin and Snape's eyes widened, so he got rid of the snake. Justin stared at Harry in shock before exclaiming out.
"What do you think you're playing at?!"
The hall was completely silent, that was until the bell went. Ron and Charlotte grabbed Harry's hands and pulled him off the stage, the four of them ran out of the hall and went to their common room. Once they got there, Ron asked in shock.
"You're a Parselmouth?! Why didn't you tell us?"
Harry looked kind of shook up, but nonetheless replied.
"I'm a what?"
Charlotte sighed and Hermione explained to him.
"You can talk to snakes."
Harry's eyes widened and he responded.
"I know- I mean, I accidentally set a boa constrictor on my cousin Dudley at the zoo once. But so what? I bet loads of people here can do it."
Charlotte shook her head and announced.
"No, they can't, it's not a very common gift. Harry, this is bad."
He sighed and stated.
"What's bad? If I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin-"
He got interrupted by Ron.
"Oh, that's what you said to it."
Harry looked at his friends wearily and replied.
"You were there, you heard me!"
Ron crossed his arms and responded.
"I heard you speaking Parseltongue, snake language."
Harry huffed and furrowed his eyebrows and asked.
"I spoke a different language? But I didn't realize- how can I speak a language without knowing I can?"
Charlotte shrugged her shoulders and Hermione muttered.
"I don't know, Harry. But it sounded like you were egging the snake on or something, it was creepy."
Harry looks to Lottie as to see if it was true and she nodded whilst avoiding eye contact, she then jumped when several students walked in and gave looks to Harry. They went up to their dorms and Hermione added.
"Harry, listen to me. There's a reason the symbol of Slytherin house is a serpent. Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth, he could talk to snakes too."
Ron and Charlotte piped up in unison.
"Exactly, and now the whole school will think that you're his great-great-great grandson or something."
Harry shuddered but replied.
"But I'm not, I-I can't be."
Hermione sighed and placed her hand on his shoulder.
"He lived a thousand years ago, for all we know, you could be.."
Hermione sighed and grabbed Charlotte's hand, dragging her off to their dorm, leaving the boys behind.