Effervescence | h.p.

ii | xiii. dueling club

A week after the Potions incident, Lyra, Harry, Hermione, and Ron were walking across the entrance hall when they saw a small knot of people gathered around the notice board, reading a piece of parchment that had been pinned up.

"They're starting a Dueling Club!" said Seamus. "First meeting tonight! I wouldn't mind dueling lessons; they might come in handy one of theses days. . . . "

"What, you reckon Slytherin's monster can duel?" said Ron, but he, too, read the sign with interest.

"Could be useful," he said to Harry, Lyra, and Hermione as they went into dinner. "Shall we go?"

They were all for it, so at eight o'clock that night, they hurried back to the Great Hall. The tables had vanished and a golden stage appeared.

"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 — " Lyra began, but it ended with a groan: Gilderoy Lockhart was walking onto the stage, resplendent in robes of deep plum and accompanied by Snape, wearing his usual black.

"You have got to be kidding me," Lyra muttered annoyed.

Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called, "Gather round, gather round! Can everybody 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 up in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions — for full details, see my published works."

"Awfully brave chap, isn't he? Lockhart," said Justin, the Hufflepuff from Herbology to Lyra.

"He's . . . something all right," she said with a tight smile and a nod.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Lockhart. "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!"

"Wouldn't it be good if they just finished each other off?" Ron muttered to Harry, earning an elbow to his ribs from Lyra. "Ouch!"

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.

"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 and into the wall behind him.

"Do you think he's all right?" Hermione squealed through her fingers as she danced on tiptoes.

"Who cares?" said Lyra, Harry, and Ron all together.

Lockhart got to his feet unsteadily. "Well, there you have it!" he said. "That was a Disarming Charm — as you can see, I've lost my wand — ah, thank you, Miss Brown — yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying, it was quite obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you, it would have been only too easy — however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see. . . . "