Draco Malfoy and the Chamber of Secrets (BOOK 2 of 7)

Chapter 8-The Dueling Club

"Gather around!"

Draco, along with Blaise, Theo, and Adrian, had signed up for the Dueling Club. Little did they know it was Lockhart who was running it.

"Can everybody see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!" Lockhart introduced the club, "In light of the dark events of recent weeks, 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."

He tore off his cape and threw it to a group of gasping and squealing girls.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape."

Said assistant stepped onto the other side of the large dueling platform that Lockhart was already standing on. "He has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration. 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."

Draco rolled his eyes - Snape was way better than Lockhart could ever be. In fact, most of the students in the Great Hall were probably better than Lockhart.

Snape walked to the middle to meet Lockhart. The two raised their wands, then lowered them, bowing. Next, they walked to opposite sides of the platform and took stance.

"One, two, three!" Lockhart said.

Then as deliberately as possible, Snape said, "Expelliarmus!" Lockhart's wand flew to Snape while the wand's owner flew back even though he had ample time to deflect the spell.

Trying to cover up for his failure, Lockhart walked back to Snape saying, "An excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind me saying, it was pretty obvious what you were about to do. And if I had wanted to stop you, it would have been only too easy."

"Yeah, right, maybe for the rest of us," Draco muttered and his friends chuckled.

"Perhaps," Snape started, "it would be prudent to first teach the students to block unfriendly spells, Professor."

"An excellent suggestion, Professor Snape! Ah... Let's have a volunteer pair! Um, Potter, Weasley, how about you?"

"Weasley's wand causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending Potter to the hospital wing in a matchbox."

The Slytherins snickered and Potter climbed onto the platform.

Snape continued, "Might I suggest someone from my own house? Malfoy, perhaps?"

Draco was stunned and barely had enough time to react before Snape spun around and motioned him onto the platform. Draco put on a sneer and walked to meet Potter in the middle.

"Wands at the ready!" Lockhart called.

"Scared, Potter?" Draco said.

"You wish," came the reply.

The two boys walked to their respective places and got in their positions.

"On the count of three," Lockhart instructed, "cast your charms to disarm your opponent - only to disarm. We don't want any accidents here."

With Snape watching, this would not only be easy, but also a good time to try out the spell he'd learned on an actual person.

"One, two-"

"Everte statum!" Draco yelled and Potter flew back. Draco grinned, satisfied, and Crabbe let out a large laugh.

Potter got right back up and fired back a spell. "Rictusempra!"

However, before the curse could reach Draco, the latter deflected it by saying, "Expelliarmus!"

Potter's wand flew straight to Draco who threw it right back to continue the duel.

"Serpensortia!" Draco yelled and a snake emerged from his wand.

"Don't move, Potter," Snape said. "I'll get rid of it for you."

"Allow me, Professor Snape," Lockhart said. "Alarte ascendare!"

This only threw the snake up and back down, therefore, not working at all. Suddenly, Potter started speaking to the snake...in Parseltongue!

Everyone looked astonished as the snake moved towards...was it Flinch-Fletchy? It almost attacked him and then Draco saw Potter shake his head ever so slightly at the snake and then it stopped.

"Vipera evenesca," said Snape, and the snake disappeared.

"What are you playing at?" the almost-victim said.

Draco looked at Potter and saw him looking very confused. He must've been trying to get the snake to leave the other student alone.

Back in the common room, Draco was discussing the events with Blaise, Theo, and Adrian.

"He's a Parselmouth?" Theo asked.

"I suppose so," Blaise said.

"He looked like he had no idea what was going on, though," Draco observed.

"Maybe he's never spoken to a snake before," Adrian suggested.

"Maybe," Blaise said, "but then why was he egging the snake on?"

"He wasn't."

The others turned to Draco who explained, "I saw him shake his head at the snake right before it stopped going at that Flinch-Fletchy bloke. He was trying to stop it."

"Who was trying to stop what?"

The four boys turned to look at Pansy Parkinson, who'd just spoken, and her friends Milicent Bulstrode and Daphne Greengrass.

"Lockhart was trying to stop the snake but he failed," Draco lied. Theo and Adrian looked at him curiously, but Blaise caught on immediately.

"Don't say that about him!" Pansy defended. "Professor Lockhart did his best."

"And Snape did better."

"Hmph!" She folded her arms and marched away, her two friends imitating her motions.

"Stuck-up thinks-she-knows-it-all," Draco muttered to his friends. "She like a dumb Granger."

The others laughed. "But seriously," Draco continued, "that's what I saw."

"You know what," Adrian said, "on the way here, I heard someone saying how Potter's the heir of Slytherin."

"What?" Draco said.

"Yeah, they think he is because he can talk to snakes. Since Slytherin could talk to snakes, only his heir could talk to snakes."

"Potter, the heir of Slytherin? That's complete rubbish!"

"I'm just relaying what I hear."

Draco was about to say that Potter couldn't be the true heir because the chamber had been opened before, but he remained quiet.

Just a minute! Couldn't Voldemort talk to snakes, too? Draco had heard his father mention it once. How old was Voldemort, anyway? Draco realized that he needed to see Dumbledore straight away. This information may or may not have crossed the old man's mind, but Draco had to make sure it did.

A/N: I encourage you all to share this book with your friends, comment, vote, and keep on reading! Thank you all so much!