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six // apparently, she's bilingual
winter, 1992 !
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐃𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐀𝐑𝐀 𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍—only slightly less crowded than it always was during meals. Good, then, that the dining tables had been removed, replaced instead by a golden stage in the middle. Countless candles floated above it, casting the room into warm yellow light, and it looked like nearly everyone in the whole school had shown up to participate.
Gilderoy Lockhart was beaming beneath his perfectly coiffed golden curls, his robes as purple as a plum, and barely a few steps behind him was Severus Snape, looking like his usual overgrown bat of a self.
At the back of the crowd, a couple people actually turned on their heels and left.
Lockhart waved an arm imperiously at the students, and their murmurs fell into silence. "Gather round, gather round!" he called. "Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!"
Harry, Chiara, Ron, Hermione were small enough to push to the front; there were only about one or two rows of bodies back from the stage, staring up the school's two most hated teachers in trepidation anticipation.
"I wish Ginny was here," she mumbled to Ron who nonchalantly nodded, "she's way more fun than you three."
"We can be fun," Hermione protested, and then lowered her gaze, "I think."
"Now," Lockhart went on, "Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little duelling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions. (For full details, please see my published works.)"
If Chiara's eyes rolled any harder, they would surely explode.
"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," Lockhart said with a smile, as if there were a single soul in the school who did not recognize the potions master on sight. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about duelling himself—" Snape's glare, of course, implied that he's said no such humble thing. "—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!"
"But will we still have our defence professor, though?" Chiara asked softly, and her statement earned a few laughs. Although Lockhart was not impressed, Snape cast her an impressed look, rather approving of that snarky comment — there's a first for everything.
