𝕓𝕣𝕒𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕪 // 𝕙. 𝕡𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕣

chapter 5: dueling club

your pov

i'm in the girls bathroom with harry, ron and hermione. im helping hermione brew the polyjuice potion while harry tells us about his encounter with dobby the house elf in the hospital wing last night.

"You mean the Chamber of Secrets has been opened before?" hermione asks him.

"Of course. Don't you see? Lucius Malfoy must have opened it when he was at school here. And now he's taught Draco how to do it." ron says. i'm still skeptical that it's draco..

"Maybe. We'll have to wait for the Polyjuice Potion to know for sure." i remind him.

"Enlighten me. Why are we brewing this potion in broad daylight, in the middle of a girl's lavatory? Don't you think we'll get caught?" ron says. hermione and i exchange a glance.

"Heh... No. No one ever comes in here." she says.

"Why?" ron asks.

"Moaning Myrtle." i say.

"Who?" he responds.

"Moaning Myrtle." hermione says.

"Who's Moaning Myrtle?" ron says. i look up at him. is he serious.. just then, a ghost girl with glasses flies down from the ceiling, right in front of ron.

"I'm Moaning Myrtle! I wouldn't expect you to know me! Who would ever talk about ugly, miserable, moping Moaning Myrtle? Huh?" myrtle shouts at ron before flying away.

"She's a little sensitive." i tell him.

~time skip~

i'm in the Great Hall, surrounded by other second years. i'm standing next to harry and ron, and hermione is next to them. it's set up for lockheart's "dueling Club" which i'm a little skeptical about, considering the teacher. then a hufflepuff boy in front of me turns around.

"hi! i'm justin finch-fletchly! what's your name?" he says cheerfully, sticking his hand out. i shake it, a little surprised.

"i'm (y/n) (l/n). it's nice to meet you." i reply with a smile. out of the corner of my eyes, i see harry and ron giving justin a dirty look. justin looks at them, his cheerful smile fading. he turns back around. i look at them.

"well? what was all that about?" i ask them. they both look away from me. justin was just trying to be nice, why were they acting so weird? suddenly, lockheart leaps up onto one of the tables.

"Gather 'round, gather 'round! Can everybody see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent! 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. Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape. 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." lock heart says. as if. snape steps up onto the table as well, wand at the ready.

"One, two, three." lockheart says.

"Expelliarmus!" snape casts, catching lockheart by surprise. i laugh as he flies back and his wand zips into snakes hand.

"Do you think he's all right?" hermione asks, concerned. i give her a look.

"Who cares?" ron replies.

"An excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind me saying, it was pretty obvious- ah- what you were about to do. And if I had wanted to stop you, it would have been only too easy." lockheart says. i roll my eyes.

"Perhaps it would be prudent to first teach the students to block unfriendly spells, Professor." snape says with a smirk.

"An excellent suggestion, Professor Snape! Ah... Let's have a volunteer pair! Um, Potter, Weasley, how about you?" lockheart says. ron eagerly walks up to the table, but is stopped by snape.

"Weasley's wand causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending Potter to the hospital wing in a matchbox. Might I suggest someone from my own house? Malfoy, perhaps?" snape says. lockheart nods and malfoy struts over to the table, a confident smirk on his face. harry looks at him, determined.

"Wands at the ready."  lockheart says.

"Scared, Potter?" malfoy says.

"You wish." harry replies as he glances at me. i give him  a reassuring smile.

"On the count of three, cast your charms to disarm your opponent- only to disarm. We don't want any accidents here. One, two--" lockheart says, but malfoy has already raised his wand.

"Everte statium!" he casts. harry flies backward. oh no, is he alright? i strain to see what's going on. i can hear crabbe laughing behind me. i turn and silence him with a glare.

"Rictusempra!" i turn around and see harry cast a spell at malfoy. then lockheart steps in between them.

"I said disarm only!" he shouts. draco steps around him.

"Serpensortia!" he yells. a snake flies from draco's wand.

"Don't move, Potter. I'll get rid of it for you." snape says, but before he can perform the spell, lockheart steps in front of him.

"Allow me, Professor Snape. Alarte ascendare!" the snake flies into the air and lands in front of justin. it hisses at him, and he backs up into me, stepping on my foot.

"ouch!" i say. harry looks at justin and i, then walks over to the snake.

"Sya- hassa- she. Sya- hasi- heth. Sya- hasi- heth." he says. it's like some strange language.. it looks like he's.. talking to the snake, trying to get to bite justin? no, harry wouldn't do that..

"Vipera evenesca." snape casts, and the snake vanishes. justin looks up at harry angrily.

"What are you playing at?" he asks. harry looks confused...

"ahem.. well, class dismissed.." lockheart says, and everyone starts to leave. once we're in the hallway, ron pulls us aside.

"You're a Parselmouth? Why didn't you tell us?" he asks harry.

"I'm a what?" harry says.

"You can talk to snakes." hermione replies.

"I know. I mean, I accidentally set a python on my cousin Dudley at the zoo once," hermione gives him a look. "Uh, once! But, so what? I bet loads of people here can do it."

"No, they can't. It's not a very common gift, Harry. This is bad." i tell him.

"What's bad? If I hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin-" harry starts to say.

"Oh, that's what you said to it!" ron says.

"You were there! You heard me!" harry responds.

"I heard you speaking Parseltongue. Snake language?" ron says.

"I spoke a different language? But- I didn't realize I- how can I speak a language without knowing I can?" harry says, confused.

"I don't know, Harry, but it sounded like you were egging the snake on, or something." i say.

"Harry, listen to me. There's a reason the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent. Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth. He could talk to snakes, too." hermione says.

"Exactly! Now the whole school's gonna think you're his great- greatgreat grandson, or something." ron adds.

"But I'm not... I can't be." harry says, looking at the ground. i grab his hand. he turns to me, sadly. i give him a reassuring look.

"He lived a thousand years ago; for all we know, you could be." hermione says.