Rulers Of Slytherin 》Draco Malfoy x Reader 》Year 2

Duelling Club - Chapter 11

     At eight o'clock I was in the great hall, accompanied by Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy and Daphne. It seemed like it could be a completely different room to the one we were in just a few hours earlier. The four house tables were gone, replaced by a long golden stage at the side of the room. The hall was lit by the usual floating candles that were above what looked to be most of the school, eagerly waiting for it to start. As the six of us chose a place to stand we each got out our wands in anticipation seeing as mostly everyone else had too.
     'Do you think it'll be Snape who's teaching us? I mean he has wanted to be the defence against the dark arts professor for years now, this must be the closest he's ever got.' I said as everyone in the hall excitedly waited for it to start, chatting to each other with a buzz.
     But before anyone could respond, none other than Gilderoy Lockhart had walked onto the golden stage infront of everyone. I sighed deeply and let my head roll back so I was looking straight up to the ceiling. It was pitch black with only a few tiny specs of light from the starts visible - it was definetely a better sight than him. Though, I didn't feel as bad when I looked back to the stage to see Snape there too, he was always extra kind to me as he was, afterall, the head of my house. That's why he's my favourite teacher.
     'Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me?'
     'Unfortunately.' I said under my breath so only my friends could hear me.
     'Can you all hear me?'
     'Unfortunately.' I whispered again, rolling my eyes and earning a few silent giggles from around me.
     'Excellent! Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little Duelling 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.' Lockhart gave a little wink to the crowd and Draco took this opportunity to say something quickly.
     'If he's teaching us how to defend ourselves we'll all be dead within a week.' I suppressed a giggle at this as to not draw attention to ourselves. Lockhart continued with an air of importance.
     'Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape, he tells me he knows a tiny little bit of duelling himself and had sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin.' Said Lockhart, motioning towards Snape who stood with his arms crossed, sneering at Lockhart from behind his back. '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!'
     Snape's lip curled in disgust at the thought of having to duel Lockhart, but stopped as they turned to face each other. Lockhart bowed deeply, twirling his hands as he did, Snape, however, simply just inclined his head before they each raised their wands and held them infront of their chests.
     'As you can see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position. On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill of course.' Lockhart announced to the crowd of expectant students infront of him. 'One - two - three -'
     It happened so quickly that if I blinked I would have missed it. Both Lockhart and Snape threw their arms over their heads but only Snape was successful.
     'Expelliarmus!' Exclaimed Snape, shooting a gleaming jet of scarlet light at Lockhart. He was knocked off his feet from the blast and thrown back off the stage into the wall before he slid down it into a heap on the floor. I couldn't help but cheer along with a few other Slytherins at Snape's success, I could even swear I saw the corner of his mouth twitch upwards a little as if he was smirking.
     Lockhart got slowly back onto his feet, using the wall he just slid down to support himself. His once pristine hair was messy and his hat had fallen off and lay a few feet away from him.
     'Well, there you have it! That was a Disarming Charm - as you see, I've lost my wand - ah, thank you, Miss Brown.' Lockhart said as he waddled back onto the stage, getting his wand back from Lavender Brown - she's completely obsessed with him it's ridiculous. '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 ...' It seems that Lockhart had caught onto the look Snape was giving him as his last sentence trailed off in what sounded like nervous laughter. '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 ...'
     Draco and I were hoping to be together as we thought we could have some competitive fun but Snape had other plans.
     'Mr Malfoy, come over here. Let's see what you make of the famous Potter.' Draco left me to go with Potter, not looking displeased with himself as he knew he'd be able to humiliate him easily. 'And you, Miss Granger- you can partner Miss Avery.' I followed behind Draco, seemingly having the same smug expression he had as I met Granger's gaze. She gulped as I stood infront of her, wand ready along with many spells floating around in my head, itching to be used.
     'Face your partners! And bow!' Lockhart shouted to all the partners, Granger bowed properly though I barely moved, not taking my eyes off her. 'Wands at the ready! When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponent - only to disarm them - we don't want any accidents.' I let out a slight chuckle at this, causing Granger to stiffen slightly from her nerves, her eyes darting around the room to look at everything but me. 'One ... two ... three ...'
     Out of the corner of my eyes I saw that Draco had already started on two but as Lockhart reached three I swung my wand over my shoulder, aimed it at Granger and a jet of red light hit her directly in her chest. She was thrown back a few feet, her wand flying out of her hand towards me. I caught it with ease and almost doubled over with laugher at the sight of her, she must have hit her head pretty hard when she fell because she wasn't moving. Or she was just pretending to be unconscious because she's too scared to get up. Yeah, I like that idea.
     However, I stopped almost instantly after I saw Potter hit Draco with the tickling charm - Rictusempra. I had forgotten Granger who was still on the floor feet away from me as I raised my wand, ready to hit Potter with a curse but Draco beat me to it. He just managed to shout 'Tarantallegra!' through his laughter, hitting Potter with the dancing feet spell.
     Lockhart tried to intervene, 'Stop! Stop!' but Snape had already took charge of the situation.
     'Finite Incantatem!' Snape shouted, Draco stopped laughing and Potter's feet stopped dancing.
     Lockhart pushed his way through the crowd of students. 'Dear, dear. Up you get, Macmillan ... careful there, Miss Fawcett ... pinch it hard, it'll stop bleeding in a second, Boot ... I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells. Let's have a volunteer pair - Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you?' Lockhart asked, the two boys seemed hesitant to accept before Snape interrupted.
     'A bad idea, Professor Lockhart, Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells.' Snape stated with a sneer towards Longbottom, undoubtedly one of his most disliked students. 'We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the Hospital wing in a matchbox.' I held in laughter at this as Longbottom's face turned a light shade of pink. 'How about Malfoy and Potter?' Snape added with deviant smile.
     'Excellent idea!' Lockhart announced as he gestured Draco and Potter to the centre of the hall, the crowd of students backing away to give them room. I pushed my way to the front, throwing Granger's wand onto the floor as she began to get up, rubbing the back of her head.
     'Now, Harry, when Draco points his wand at you, you do this.' Lockhart raised his wand, tried to do some sort of wiggling action with it and ended up dropping it. He ignored the few laughs from the Slytherins including my rather high pitched giggle. 'Whoops - my wand is a little over-excited.'
     Daphne patted me on the arm to get my attention, I turned towards her and Pansy. 'Don't you feel bad for people like him who just obviously don't belong here?' The three of us giggled in our little circle but I shook my head.
     'No way, if I did it would mean I'd have to feel sorry for Granger too.' The three of us giggle with each other a bit longer, but by the time we looked back up out our circle Lockhart was counting them down.
     'Three - two - one - go!'
     Draco was the first to strike, he roared 'Serpensortia!' From the end of his wand a long black snake appeared, shooting towards the floor and hissing at everyone around it. Most people screamed and backed away but I didnt, I couldn't help but watch.
     'Don't move Potter, I'll get rid of it ...' Snape said as he walked by Draco who looked incredibly pleased with himself.
     'Allow me!' Lockhart shouted, interrupting Snape. He poised his wand towards the snake, followed by a loud bang and the snake being sent into the air before it fell back down to the ground, landing with a thud on the floor. It was angered and slithered straight towards Finch-Fletchley, ready to strike. I coudln't help but smile, finding this whole situation rather amusing. Though my hungry expression dropped after I heard Potter speaking to the snake. Not in English but in parseltongue. The snake even responded! It turned away from Finch-Fletchley and faced Potter, now laying on the floor as if waiting for his commands.
     'What do you think you're playing at?' Was all Finch-Fletchley shouted before he stormed out of the great hall. Everyone, including myself, stared at Potter in confusion. Only people who are descendants of Salazar Slytherin can speak Parseltongue and there's no way Potter is, this must be some sort of trick.
     The stillness of the hall was interrupted by Snape stepping forward and waving his wand at the snake, making it disappear in a puff of black smoke. Granger and Weasley took him out of the hall, as everyone watched and parted to let them through as if they didnt want to touch or be near Potter.
     'Right then, I think it's best if you all head back to your dormitories now. I'll see if we can continue this next week. Off you go now.' Lockhart said as he ushered everyone out of the hall. Slowly, everyone exited the hall, gossiping about what just happened.
     I walked back down to the common room with Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy and Daphne. 'I'm not wrong in saying that there's no way Potter is a descendant of Salazar Slytherin am I? I mean he's in Gryffindor. Don't you think that if that was the case he'd be in Slytherin with us?' I said in a confused tone as we walked down the stairs that led to the dungeon.
     'You're right, Y/N, it doesn't make any sense.' Replied Pansy as she chewed on one of her fingernails thoughtfully.
     'Whatever the reason is,' Said Draco after being unusually silent on the way back down to the dungeons, 'it just makes him look more guilty than he already is.' We reached the damp stone wall that sealed the entrance to the Slytherin common room, Draco said the password, 'Pure blood.' and the wall slid open, leaving a large entrance into the dark common room. 'He's just digging himself into a deeper hole and we get to sit back and watch.' Draco continued as we all sat down on the two black leather sofas that faced each other infront of the fire. We sat there and talked for a while longer, doing a bit of homework as we did before we all went to bed.