Even Royalty Falters || Draco Malfoy

Chapter 12 - The Duel

"Why don't we have Pansy and..." his gaze landed on me. "Cress!" He announced too enthusiastically.

"It's Crescent, please," I corrected Lockhart, annoyed that he had picked on me and also using a nickname only my close friends and family called me.

"Now, now. That's your nickname isn't it? What if someone calls you by that, what are you going to do about it?" Lockahart challenged. "This is when dueling comes in. You've got to fight them, to show then you're not messing around," he puffed out his chest.

I rolled my eyes. Lockhart was literally the epitome of all talk and no action. I still did not and could not understand how Hermione and the other girls swooned over him like he was some hero. This was not what I was expecting when I signed up for the Dueling club. For once, I was all for Snape blasting him across the room.

I stepped up onto the platform and faced Pansy, her pug face sneering at me made me want to throw her out the window ten times more.

Without warning, Pansy attacked right away, "Stupefy!"

I cracked a smile. This one I knew too well. "Protego!" I looked past Pansy and Snape met my eyes, knowing I was thinking about the many times in the hallways Draco and I had gotten in trouble with our wands pointed at each other. "Flipendo!"

Pansy screamed and she flew backyard, arms flailing. When she landed, she scrambled back up, pointing her wand at me again.

"Accio," I said in a hushed tone and her wand flew at me. I caught it swiftly and pouted at Pansy. "What's wrong Parkinson? Missing something?"

The glare she gave me was fueled with fury, I'm surprised her eyes weren't burned through yet. She almost lunged at me if it weren't for Snape who pulled her back. "We have a clear winner. Although, in future matches, I think it is only fair that you cannot take your opponent's wand," he was not happy with giving me the victory but it was pretty clear.

My house cheered as I stepped off the platform. Our victorious celebration was cut short when Snape announced the next ones up were Harry and Draco.

True to his cunning character, Draco shot Harry back before they even counted down to one. I would've protested but Harry blasted Draco right back as he landed with a thud right in front of Snape. He caught me laughing at him and I hope he saw the amusement in my eyes. 

"Serpensortia," a small snake shot out of Draco's wand, landing in a daze in front of Harry. Lockhart stepped in to disintegrate it, but he did nothing more than spring it into the air just for it to drop down once more. Typical. However, instead of attacking Harry, it slithered towards us, it's small yet poisonous fangs gleaming. 

"SSSssss," Harry hissed suddenly. We all looked at him in shock as the snake paused to hiss back. "SSsss," Harry tried again, more forcefully, and this time the snake backed away only for Snape to whisk it away immediately.

"Harry, what was that?" Ron asked, clearly not realizing what this could mean. I exchanged a glance with Hermione. Parseltongue, she mouthed.

Yes, but how did Harry manage it? Only descendants of Salazar Slytherin could speak in parseltongue. Only heirs.

~~~

"Looks like Malfoy will be staying here for Christmas," I pointed to his name already scrawled onto the list.

"The Ministry must be busy this year if Malfoy isn't going home," Harry observed.

"Yea, at least we'll be able to use the Polyjuice potions now," I sighed. "Why do I have to be Pansy?" I whined, pouting at Hermione. The two month mark had hit and tonight we were going to take the chance to find out if Draco was the heir.