Goddess

The Duelling Club

Persephone walked that evening to the Great Hall with Rosella and Draco and stood at the back. She shifted uncomfortably as eyes stared at her and whispers arose.

Rosella squeezed her hand reassuringly and Draco glared fiercely at anyone who dared to point at her.

Harry watched the three Slytherins curiously. It was only then he understood how close the trio truly were. His sister never acted the way she did with anyone. And he'd never seen Malfoy defend someone like that.

Harry and Ron had a falling out last night, Ron had claimed it was Persephone who had done the petrifying and Harry had gotten mad. Hermione had assured them that they would find out who it was once Aries and her finished brewing the potion.

Aries had always been very smart, he researched quite a lot and knew almost as much as Hermione and more. He had brains to compare with Hermione's and Rosella's and had O's in every subject except herbology where he got an A.

All four of them would be staying at Hogwarts for Christmas because they wanted to use the polyjuice potion to worm information out of Malfoy since they heard the trio would be staying back too.

They had half finished the potion and stole the rest of the ingredients from Snape. After they added them only two weeks were left for the potion to be finished.

"I wonder who'll be teaching us?" said Hermione as they edged into the chattering crowd. "Someone told me Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was young — maybe it'll be him." 

"As long as it's not —" Harry began, but he ended on a groan: Gilderoy Lockhart was walking onto the stage, resplendent in robes of deep plum and accompanied by none other than Snape, wearing his usual black.

Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called, "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. "

"What is he, a publicist?" Aries scoffed, crossing his arms.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile. "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, never fear!"

"Yeah right. Snape'll finish him off with one spell. " Persephone snickered softly, a small smirk inching its way onto her face. 

Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Snape jerked his head irritably. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them. 

"As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart told the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Harry murmured, watching Snape baring his teeth. Persephone held barely held back a grin.

"One — 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. Malfoy and some of the other Slytherins cheered, Persephone smirked and Rosella buried her face in her hands to stop laughing.