A Prophecy of Two Boys

Chapter 46

Chapter 46

Harry's Point of View

Annabeth and Luna did actually go canoeing in the Lake the following day. Draco, Blaise and Theo sat on the shore, dressed warmly against the slightly frosty air, yelling at us, and teasing us when we deliberately fell in. Laughing, we swam quickly through the water, splashing all three of them. Annabeth and Luna chuckled.

A few of Annabeth and Luna's friends had tagged along as well, shocked that their normally responsible friend would do something so reckless, and interested to meet the boy who had persuaded her to do so. Hopefully it wouldn't be unreasonable to say they weren't disappointed by (in Annabeth's words) how stupidly reckless and yet intriguingly persuasive we were.

School carried on the same way up to Christmas. We joked about with our friends, Iris-messaged camp regularly... Hermione bickered with us as we completed our transfiguration project. There were about three more attacks, much to the mortification of Alyssa. However, without any clues other than quite young and red haired girl. Despite our thoughts immediately leaping to young Ginny Weasley (her family were infamous for their red hair, just as the Malfoy's were for being blond, or the Potter's for our ridiculous messy black hair) we had discovered about five other red haired girls in First and Second year, none of which we knew very well.

We had also discovered that young Ginny Weasley was rather lonely herself this year. Before last year, she had spent most of her time with Ron - we'd seen it. They had been happy to have fun and mess around together. But since Ron had come to Hogwarts he had decided he was to cool for his younger sister, and so had dropped her in favour of our brother and Hermione. So the youngest Weasley was alone this year. Considering we only knew really one other girl her age, we introduced her to Annabeth and Luna. They weren't close friends, but we did see them round school together quite a bit, which was nice. At least Ginny had someone now, since her brother was so terribly neglectful of his little sister.

Two weeks before Christmas, flyers went up in every common room. Our oh-so-fabulous DADA teacher had decided to grace us with his so very superior knowledge and start a duelling club. Most of the Slytherins decided not to join in, having received some rather superior tutoring in duelling from our parents due to the ancient traditions around the act. Duelling was a challenge to defend honour, or settle feuds. It was a vital part of the ancient believes that so many pureblood families still followed. All the same, Draco, Blaise, Theo and we decided to join in, just to see what complete and utter mess would occur with Lockhart in charge. Apparently Severus had been coerced into joining as well, which was just going to make it better.

Despite it being the week before most people would be travelling home for the holidays, Lockhart hosted his first club meeting on Wednesday before term broke up for Christmas - or Yuletide (or indeed, just the winter holidays), depending on the religion of the student.

Anyway. The duelling club... I daresay you can imagine how hilarious it was to watch Lockhart being beaten by our godfather. It was amazing.

The four of us (five if you count Percy and me as two) arrived early, to get good views up at the front, where the dining tables had been pushed together and transfigured into a duelling platform. Lockhart was already up there, welcoming his adoring fans and basking in the attention as per normal. Finally, about fifteen minutes later, when the Hall was packed and the doors had finally swung shut, Lockhart was ready to begin.

"Welcome! Welcome! In light of recent events, the Headmaster has granted me permission to start this little duelling club, to make sure you are all prepared and ready for whatever might cross paths with you..." He announced dramatically, pulling at the strings holding his velvet green cloak on. "Now, if I may introduce my lovely assistant, Professor Snape, who has so kindly volunteered to help me demonstrate to you all the correct procedure for a duel."