Chapter 38: The Unexpected Duel
All the students were soon disappointed.
Lockhart was supposed to show them how to fight but he picked the wrong opponent.
After the count of three, Snape waved his wand, producing a dazzling red light. Lockhart was hit and was flung off the stage onto the wall and fell to the floor curling up into a ball.
Evan breathed in a breath of air and breathed out a heavy sigh.
After the girl's started screaming, Lockhart staggered to his feet and quickly regained his composure.
He jumped onto the stage with a wry smile after thinking what to say.
"I think everybody saw what happened, it was a disarming charm, as you can see, I have lost my wand."
"And crashed!" shouted the audience.
Everyone underestimated Lockhart's mindset. He treated the booing as compliments.
"Professor Snape it was an excellent idea to show the students what it is like to receive a disarming charm but I could have easily deflected it. I think the students should broaden their horizons, let them��…"Seeing Snape's murderous face made Lockhart hastily say, "The demonstration is over. Now everyone will form a pair of two, Professor Snape, you can help me..."
They walked through the crowd and paired students up.
Lockhart made Neville and Justin a pair, and Snape walked towards Harry and Ron.
"The Dream team should be broken up, I think…!" Snape sneered and said, "Weasley you can be a pair with Mason, as for you Potter…."
Hearing his words made Harry subconsciously move closer to Hermione.
"I don't think so," said Snape with a smirk, "Come here Malfoy, let's see what the famous Harry Potter is made of. Miss Granger, you can pair up with Miss Millicent."
Malfoy arrogantly walked over with a smirk on his face.
He was followed by a tall and strong looking Slytherin girl. She stretched out her chin in a threating manner, Hermione reluctantly gave her a slight smile but the girl ignored her.
The next duel was a disaster, Lockhart had finished counting down.
Harry and Malfoy were struck by each other's spells Snape soon walked up to help them. Neville and Justin were both laying on the floor gasping. Hermione and Millicent were still in action, she gripped Hermione's hair which made Hermione shriek, their wands were both laying on the floor forgotten in their brawl.
Harry jumped up and pulled Millicent away.
The worst duel was Evan and Ron's, Evan let Ron destroy himself, Ron produced the same spell as Snape but instead of the intended result it was Ron flying away but it was less powerful than Snape's.
In the next second, something unexpected happened.
A dark blue light flew out from Ron's wand. It was a spell that Evan had never seen before, the glow made it seem like it is evil. This was not the killing curse but Evan felt the fear of death from it.
He loudly shouted "Protego"
The spell seemed to have worked, the dark blue light couldn't be bounced back by the spell but it did slow down.
It was like the spell was made of acid; Evan saw that the floor was corroding quickly which made all of the young wizard's gasp.
"God, Ron, what did you use?!" exclaimed Evan in fright.
"I don't know!" said Ron as if he had just awoken, "I just used it but I didn't know it would…."
Snape hurried over, he looked at the dark marks on the ground. He then stared at Ron with a peculiar look.
"Weasley did you go and peek at the books in the restricted section?" said Snape, you could tell by his tone it was more of a rhetorical question.
"No, no!" answered Ron while stuttering and looking suspicious, Ron remembered the potion book they had taken.
"It must be your broken wand," said Evan, Seeing Ron's face, Evan knew if Ron got questioned more he was going to give away that they were making the Polyjuice potion so he hastily shifted the subject, "Ron, I will never duel with you again until you change your wand."
"But the spell is…"
"Enough!" said Snape, "If you are allowed to duel with that empty head of yours, I will probably bury you tomorrow."
"That right, Professor Snape. I think it's best to teach them how to stop unfriendly spells like that." said Lockhart, "How about we have someone come up and demonstrate, how about Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley?"
"Not the best idea, Professor Lockhart" Snape quickly made it to Lockhart like a serpent, "Longbottom is just like Weasley. We would be sending Finch-Fletchley to the hospital wing in a matchbox."
This caused Neville to blush with embarrassment, Snape said: "What about Malfoy and Potter?"
"That's wonderful!" Lockhart motioned for Harry and Malfoy to come to the centre of the stage, People retreated to make room for them.
Harry and Malfoy were standing on opposite sides of the stage, Lockhart and Snape imparted some combat knowledge to their respective students. Lockhart didn't know what to say to Harry, he waved his wand and dropped it to the floor.
Next was as Evan remembered.
The long black snake came out of Malfoy's wand and landed on the stage with a loud thud it then raised its head and was prepared to attack.
The crowd screamed and stepped back.
Snape had intended to frighten Harry a bit but Lockhart had made it worse. He cast a spell which sent the snake high into the air which caused it to land in the crowd.
It was furious it went straight to the closest person which was Justin, it raised its head while exposing it fangs and got into an offensive posture.
Everyone then heard Harry speak to the snake in a hissing voice, this made everyone hold their breath and become motionless, the auditorium was deadly silent.
The snake stopped and Harry looked up at Justin while grinning.
After seeing his gaze, everyone took a step back. Justin's face was full of rage and horror.
"What are you playing at?" shouted Justin in horror with tears rolling down from his eyes, he then turned and ran out of the Great Hall.
Evan hurried up with Ron and dragged the confused Harry off the stage.