All Things MCYT

The Dueling Club - Hogwarts AU (Joel x Lizzie)

CW: blood
Type: fluff
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"Jimmy, hurry up!"

Jimmy shot Joel a glare. "I need to finish this essay for Potions! You know how Professor Snape gets about late work."

Joel groaned, slouching down in the armchair he was sitting in. The dueling club was due to start at 8:00 and it was already 7:45. At this rate, they would miss the entire beginning of the first meeting.

Just as Joel was losing all hope of making it to the dueling club on time, Jimmy lifted his quill from his parchment with a flourish. "Finished!"

"Finally!" Joel exclaimed, jumping to his feet. He grabbed Jimmy's arm and pulled him out of the Hufflepuff common room, practically dragging him down the corridors to the Great Hall.

The usual dining tables had disappeared, replaced with a golden stage along one wall. The Hall was almost bursting with the amount of students inside. As Joel scanned the crowd, his gaze caught on the face of one student in particular. It was a pink-haired girl that he had seen around but had never really noticed. Now that he looked at her, however, he had to admit she was pretty. Not just pretty. Gorgeous.

A sharp pain in his side brought Joel back to reality. "What was that for?" Joel asked, glaring at Jimmy who had elbowed him. "I was asking who you think is teaching the dueling club." Joel opened his mouth to respond right as he noticed Professor Lockhart walking onto the stage, accompanied by Professor Snape.

"Oh for goodness sake, why does it have to be him?" Joel complained. "He's so full of himself and he's always bragging about all of his accomplishments." "Funny, he sounds like someone else I know," Jimmy said with a smirk.

Professor Lockhart started speaking before Joel could reply to Jimmy's comment. "Gather round, gather round! Can everyone 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 in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions - for full details, see my published works."

Joel rolled his eyes. Did this guy ever stop talking about himself?

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," Lockhart continued with a grin. "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 go worry - you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

It was at this point that Joel stopped listening. He found his gaze drawn again to the pink-haired girl who was listening intently. He wondered which house she was in. She wasn't in Hufflepuff, he knew that.

Joel was startled out of his thoughts by a loud "Expelliarmus!" There was a brilliant flash of red light before Lockhart flew backward off the stage and smashed into the wall.

"Holy moly," Jimmy muttered under his breath. "It's not that impressive," Joel said. "It's just a disarming spell."

Lockhart struggled to his feet. "Well, there you have it!" he said as he walked back to the stage. "That was a Disarming Charm - as you 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 so, it was very 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..."

Snape was positively glaring at Lockhart now. Lockhart must've noticed because he said, "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me - "

As much as Joel hated Lockhart, he couldn't help but hope that he would come their way. Snape would be sure to split him and Jimmy up.

Sure enough, Snape had a satisfied smirk on his face as he walked towards them. "Well, let's see what we can do about this. Mr. Solidarity, you'll work with Miss Moon and Mr. Smallishbeans, you'll work with Miss Shadow."

At first, Joel was jealous of Jimmy for getting paired with Pearl. The Gryffindor was one of his best friends and a good dueler.

"Nice to meet you." Joel mentally prepared himself to deal with whoever his partner was before turning to face her.

Joel froze in place. The pink-haired girl was right in front of him. "My name is Lizzie Shadow," she continued with a smile.

Joel had to think for a moment before he could remember his own name. "Nice to meet you too. I'm Joel Smallishbeans."

Now that she was right in front of him, he could see the Slytherin crest embroidered on the front of her robes. Joel was surprised. Lizzie seemed much too nice to be a Slytherin.

"Face your partners!" Lockhart called, standing on the stage again. "And bow!"

Joel purposely did an over-the-top bow, smiling when he heard Lizzie giggle in response.

"Wands at the ready!" Lockhart yelled. "When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents - only to disarm them - we don't want any accidents - one...two...three - "

"Expelliarmus!" Joel shouted, but Lizzie easily blocked the charm before yelling, "Stupefy!" Joel moved to the side just in time.

They went back and forth a few times before Joel finally landed a hit, causing Lizzie to fall onto her back. Joel rushed over, worried that he might have hurt her. As he leaned over to help her up, however, she raised her wand. "Petrificus Totalus!"

Joel felt his body stiffen, his arms coming to his side and his legs snapping together. Lizzie rolled out out of the way just in time.

When Joel hit the floor, he heard a crack and knew he'd broken his nose. He heard Lizzie gasp and a moment later he felt the spell release. As he sat up, Lizzie put her arm around him, looking at his face to see the damage. "Oh geez, I'm so sorry," she said as she took in his broken and bleeding nose.

"It's fide" Joel replied, resisting the urge to wince when his voice came out congested.

The dueling all around them had stopped, and Joel noticed he wasn't the only one who was injured. Jimmy and Pearl seemed unhurt, fortunately, but the same couldn't be said for more than a few people.

"Dear, dear," Lockhart said, going around the hall to see the aftermath of the duels. "Up you go, Macmillan...Careful there, Miss Fawcett...Pinch it hard, it'll stop bleeding in a second, Boot."

"Oh, that's not good," Lockhart muttered as he kneeled down in front of Joel and Lizzie. "Miss Shadow, would you take Mr. Smallishbeans up to the hospital wing?" "Yes, of course," Lizzie replied, helping Joel to stand.

The two were quiet until Lizzie spoke halfway to the infirmary. "You're not mad at me are you?"

"Are you kiddig? Dat was awesobe!" Joel said. Lizzie smiled. "It's a shame I can barely understand your compliments," she responded. "Ad who's fault is dat?" Joel shot, mock-glaring at her.

They continued to joke all the way to the hospital wing. When they reached the doors, Lizzie seemed hesitant to leave. "I should probably go," she murmured, staying exactly where she was. "Right," Joel replied.

They stared at each other for a moment before Lizzie said, "I was thinking and I know Slytherins don't usually hang out with Hufflepuffs, well Slytherins don't usually hang out with anyone other than Slytherins - what I'm trying to say is, would you like to maybe study together tomorrow? Y'know, since we have OWLs coming up and everything."

Joel could hardly believe his ears. Lizzie wanted to hang out with him? "Yeah, I'd love to."

Lizzie smiled. "Really? That's great! I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah, see ya," Joel replied, waving to Lizzie as she walked down the corridor. A grin grew on his face as he pushed open the doors to the infirmary. He hoped he and Lizzie could be friends for a long time to come.