Neville Longbottom and the Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 11: The Dueling Club

When Tuesday evening rolled around, a few dozen students gathered in the Great Hall for the Dueling Club. The four long tables had been pushed together making a large platform and the benches had been removed. There was a lot of chatter and excitement over what Spells they might learn and who would be the Instructor. Some of the Ravenclaw students were bragging that it had to be Flitwick since he was a Dueling Champion before teaching at Hogwarts.

There were audible moans when Lockhart swept into the room and hopped onto the platform, but there were also coos of delight from several female students. He was wearing plum-colored robes with a cape draped over one shoulder.

"Gather 'round, people, gather 'round so everyone can see and hear me clearly," Lockhart enunciated with a gleaming smile. "Now, Dumbledore has approved for me to start this little Dueling Club in order to train you all in case you need to defend yourself as I have on many occasions - for details, see my collected works.

"Now, let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," Lockhart threw out his arm in a welcoming gesture, which also happened to flare out his cape in a dramatic way. "He has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration. But, don't worry, you will still have your Potions Master when we are done."

Snape ascended some stairs to the top of the platform, and walked to within about twenty meters of Lockhart. He was wearing his typical all black outfit, and did not look amused. They drew their Wands, bowed - Lockhart with a flourish and Snape with a head jerk - then raised their Wands before them as though they were swords.

"As you can see," Lockhart instructed, "we have shown proper respect with a bow, and now hold our Wands in an obviously combative position. On the count of three, we will Cast our first Spells - not to kill, of course."

Snape bared his teeth and shifted his weight onto his back foot as though he would spring forward, and Lockhart continued to grin at the audience. "One . . . two . . . three!"

Both flourished their Wands, and Snape said, "Expelliarmus!" A flash of red light struck Lockhart and threw him off his feet. He landed on the end of the platform and tumbled off onto the floor.

"Well, there you have it," Lockhart said as he staggered back to his feet and scrambled onto the platform. "Excellent use of the Disarming Charm, and a perfect example of the kind of Spells which are best suited for Dueling." He just realized that he didn't have his wand and began patting himself for it. Someone nearby handed it up to him, "Ah, thank you, Miss Brown. However, it was a pretty obvious choice, and would have been all too easy to counter it had I wanted to."

Lockhart straightened his cape and returned to the middle of the platform. "Now then, Professor Snape, if you could help me to pair up some of the students, we can have them practice."

Snape first called Harry and Malfoy up to be paired, and then called up Neville to be paired with Cedric Diggory. Neville crawled up onto the platform and felt exposed and scared - did they really expect him to Cast a Spell? His mind felt frozen, and he couldn't think of a single Spell to try, much less one that he had been able to Cast. Everything sounded muffled in his ears, and he looked around to see that the other pairs include Ron and Seamus, Luna and Lavender Brown, and Hermione and Millicent Bulstrode from Slytherin.

Vaguely he heard Lockhart instruct them to bow and ready their Wands, and as he counted to three Neville just tried to brace himself against the attack. Before Lockhart said 'three', Malfoy shouted "Flipendo" and Harry was hoisted head over heels. On 'three', several voices shouted different words. The one Neville heard most clearly was from Cedric, "Epoximise", and his feet clapped together causing him to fall over as he flailed his arms.