Son Of Riddle

Chapter Sixteen - The Dueling Club

James woke up to the sound of the other students scrambling to get ready. He got up and changed into the slytherin robes next to him. He didn't take much time leaving the dormitory, he had some spare time before Potions and he wanted to see if Charlotte was okay. She wasn't scared by the presence of the basilisk so maybe she was fine? However, because she wasn't scared of it, she wouldn't run away and there was no telling if the basilisk would harm her. He walked briskly to the girl's bathroom on the second floor through the secret passageways and stopped short when he heard a voice other than the ghost's. He ducked into a secret passageway two paintings away from the bathroom door.
"H-he was here yesterday." He heard the ghost's voice whimper.
"Do you know know why he was here, Myrtle? Can you tell us?" He heard a voice ask. Based on the sound of it, he guessed it was a prefect.
The ghost, apparently called Myrtle, was silent for a moment, aside from her constant crying. "I saw him come from over there." she wailed.
"Ok. Thank you Myrtle." a second voice said, also sounding like a prefect.
James walked backwards farther into the passageway as he heard the prefects emerge from the bathroom.
"Do you think he came to Hogwarts to continue his father's work?" He heard the first prefect ask.
"It's possible, we should go tell Professor McGonnagle."
While the prefects hurried down the stairs, James waited for a few moments before going into the bathroom. He poked his head through the doorway to make sure Myrtle was gone before he briskly walked in. He opened the chamber and jumped in. He heard the chamber close after him, leaving him in complete darkness. he stood in the darkness once he hit the ground and stayed there in silence for a few moments, listening for the sound of the bassilisk or Charlotte. After a few seconds, he heard a very faint clicking noise that could have been the sound of Charlotte's spindly spider legs.
"Lumos" he whispered. His index fingertip lit up and he ran towards the sound. He followed it through a maze of twists and turns until he finally saw little Charlotte scuttling across the floor. he ran over to her and picked her up. To his mild surprise, she struggled to get out of his arms and jumped onto the floor. She ran across the tunnel and James followed quite perplexed. Not only was she perfectly fine, but she didn't seem to be the least bit scared.
James stopped following her when he saw what she was running to. He backed up one step when he saw the bassilisk. However he could hear the bassilisk wasn't at all interested in eating him, he didn't even seem threatened by him. A sudden thought crossed his mind. He could speak parseltoungue, meaning he could most likely communicate with the bassilisk. He probably couldn't control it yet, but he could try to speak to it, to find out anything he could from it.
"Hello" he said to it. As a response, the bassilisk let out a bloodcurdling screech that was not distinguishable as any kind of language.
"of course the bassilisk couldn't talk yet, it only just hatched." He thought to himself, facepalming at his own mistake. However, considering the maturity rate of snakes, he could probably speak to it within the next couple months. In the meantime, he'd have to avoid all eye contact with it, as he would most likely have to stay here for the rest of the semester. He could find materials to make a mask for her, but he'd have to enchant it, otherwise he'd have to make her a new one every time she grew or shed her skin. he kept thinking about this for a while, until the sudden sound of the bell chiming outside startled him from his thoughts. He paled as he realized he was going to be late for his potions class.
He abruptly stood up and ran through the tunnels as fast as he could, he climbed up the wall and sprinted out of the bathroom, leaving Myrtle, who was now floating in the middle of the bathroom moping to herself, very confused and startled.
He took the secret passageway to the classroom near the dungeons where potions was currently being held, but even the quick secret passageway didn't save much time, it was quite a ways away, and just as he feared, the class had already started by the time he got there. He burst through the door and all the student's eyes shot to him and Professor Slughorn looked startled. He quickly got over the shock though, and walked towards James.
"Good of you to join us, Mister Riddle, though I don't suppose you need this class, what with your childhood?"
James rolled his eyes.
Before being trapped in the library of time, he had heard of Slughorn and all he did. He knew Slughorn would give any kind of flattery to have a famous (or infamous) wizard on his good side. Apparently, even after 30 years, he was still the same old attention hog.
"Don't try your flattery on me Professor, I know who you are." He sat down at the last available seat in the classroom. Several of the students near him scooted away from him.
Slughorn quickly changed his demeanor.
"Well, since you don't feel the need to show up on time, perhaps you can show the class how to make a simple truth potion?"
James smirked.
"Viritaserum, you mean?" He asked the professor.
Slughorn pursed his lips. "...Yes, that was the potion I was referring to."
James stood up and scowled at Slughorn. Viritaserum was not a first year potion at all, but Slughorn undoubtedly didn't mention this to the class because on the off-chance James couldn't complete the potion, he had hoped to humiliate him in front of the class for him not being able to complete such a "basic potion". Luckily, James had to make this potion almost on a daily basis before the library of time, so it should be a cinch. He walked to the front of the classroom to Slughorn"s cauldron and ingredients and started brewing the potion, telling the students how to do it, every step. After a while, the potion was finished and he poured a small portion of it into a small vial and gave it to Slughorn, who took it, grudgingly.
"By all means try it, make sure its made properly." James said with a look of mock innocence. "There should be enough there"
Slughorn went a shade whiter and and emptied the vial hesitantly, seeing himself backed into a corner.
Well, might as well have some fun with this. James thought. He turned to the class. "He will now answer any questions you have, truthfully. Ask him anything you want and he can't lie."
The class exchanged anxious glances, then looked back to Slughorn, eagerly. When the first student opened his mouth to speak, however, Slughorn waved his arms. "C-class dismissed!" He shouted nervously.
A series of groans came from the class, but not too many, as they now had an hour of free time before Defense Against The Dark Arts. While the class filed out, James walked up to Professor Slughorn.
"What do you want?" He asked James, still clearly aggravated.
"No need to act like a child, sir, I just need your help with something." James replied calmly.
"After you make me drink Viritaserum, you expect me to help you?!" Slughorn asked incredulously.
"The only reason I made you drink it was because you hoped to humiliate me by asking me to do a N.E.W.T level potion, thinking I couldn't do it, so I merely repaid you for it, so we do appear to be even now. And, frankly, you were asking for it."
Slughorn rolled his eyes and went back to cleaning up from the viritaserum so he could tech his next class.
"So will you help me?" James asked again.
Slughorn slumped his shoulders, no doubt thinking if the son of Lord Voldemort owed him a favor, it could put him in quite a position of power. He turned back to James "Alright Riddle...I'll help you." He said.
"Good." James said. "I need you to teach me how to do alchemy."
This caught Slughorn off guard. "Alchemy?!? My boy, do you know how difficult that is? Even an esteemed wizard such as myself has trouble with it."
James just nodded. "I am aware of the difficulty of it, however it is imperative that I learn how to do it."
Slughorn raised an eyebrow it him. "And what, pray tell, do you need it for?"
James hesitated. If he didn't tell Slughorn what he needed it for, he might not help him...there had to be a loophole somewhere... "I'm afraid that information is classified." James finally answered.
Slughorn stood up straighter. "Well then I'm afraid I cannot help you. " He turned back around and continued cleaning.
"You already gave me your word." James said suddenly. "It's too late to back down now."
Slughorn hesitated, no doubt looking for some kind of loophole on his side. After a while he sighed and slowly turned around. "Listen here, boy. Should I help you, in no way does this make me subservient to you. Understood?"
James nodded.
"Alright, what do you need me to do?" Slughorn asked.
"Once I gather the materials, I need you to teach me to use alchemy to put them together and enchant it." James answered.
Slughorn nodded."I can do that. But it wont be easy for you."
James nodded. "Again, I am aware of the difficulty of it. The question is, can you do it?"
Slughorn looked taken aback. "Of course I can, what do you take me for? Now go away so I can get back to this."
James bowed his head slightly and took his leave of him. He walked out of the classroom and took the secret passageway to the second floor where Defense Against The Dark Arts was being taught. He glanced out a window. The grey sky looked like it was falling as the rain came down in sheets. He glanced at the clock tower once he got to the second floor. There was a while before class so he meandered around the castle, memorizing the patterns of the stairs, finding the quickest secret passageways to the places he would most likely go most. After a long while, there was only a couple minutes before class started so he made his way towards the classroom. He peered inside the classroom, curious to see what they did to prepare the classroom. he raised an eyebrow as he watched, quite confused. He saw two redheads using magic to put a cat-walk in the middle of the classroom instead of where the desks and chairs would normally be. Do they always have these for Defense Against The Dark Arts? He wondered. He was still watching them by the time the bell rang, it was a wonder the two people he presumed were the teachers, didn't see him. When the students all filed in, he slipped in with them and it was like he was never there beforehand to begin with. This class seemed to be shared with the first years of all houses. He noticed the strange Hufflepuff girl who seemed so intent upon being friends with him, and he noticed the insolent slytherin boy, who had bandages on both his arms and small ones on his face from last night's...encounter.
The red-heads stood atop the cat-walk and seemed to be arguing, until one of them seemed fed up with the other.
"Students!" Yelled the shorter of the two, his wand put up to his throat to make his voice magnified.
The classroom instantly silenced.
"You'll have to forgive my brother for that abrupt interruption, he doesn't agree with my ideas." The taller one said.
"Casting muffiliato on the whole class is a pretty quick way to get you sacked." The other one said, forgetting to take his wand from his throat. The class nervously laughed.
"Anyhoo, we are Ron and George Weasley." The taller one said, pointing to the shorter one, then himself and bowing.
The class erupted in murmurs. Even James was a little surprised.
George flicked a speck of invisible dust off his robes. "I know I know, I'm pretty important, no need to make a fuss."
Ron rolled his eyes. James had heard of the Weasleys but he never imagined any of them teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, especially not two of them.
"Unfortunately you won't be able to be graced by my presence every day, only every other day, because I have other very important matters to attend to." George said.
Ron rolled his eyes again. "Making little pranks and gags at a little shop in Diagon Alley is hardly important."
"Hey, those 'Little pranks and gags' are gonna be the reason I get even richer and end up living in a mansion while you're still chasing your little villains and living in a tiny house."
Ron rubbed his temples, clearly trying to push away a headache, and not continue the argument.
"On a different note from all this, to the matter at hand," he glanced at George with an annoyed expression on his face. "You might be wondering, why is this giant cat-walk in the middle of the room, instead of the normal things in the classroom?"
"We're forming a dueling club conjoined with the normal class!" George interrupted.
A chorus of gasps erupted from the students.
"Yes, yes quite an extraordinary idea, I know." George said.
"Basically we're going to teach you how to duel properly and honorably. It's a good way to be taught spells and use them in a real world setting." Ron explained.
"So we're gonna show you how, then pick two of you randomly to duel each other with the spells you learned yesterday. Sound good?" George asked.
They didn't wait to hear the class' answer. They walked towards the middle of the catwalk. "First you face each other." They looked at each other and put their wands to their faces.
"Then you bow, formality is important." Ron said. They bowed, turned away from each other and walked six steps away from each other.
"Now...you duel." George said. They pointed their wands at each other.
"Expelliarmus!" Ron flicked his wand at George.
George was hit with the spell and his wand flew out of his hand. He ran after it and Ron blasted another spell. "Flippendo!"
George pivoted out of the way of the spell and grabbed for his wand.
"Rictusempra!" Ron fell backwards and started laughing uncontrollably.