Chapter 96: Emerald Wands

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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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18 November 1992, Hogwarts

Daphne Greengrass wasn't jealous. She really wasn't. Well, maybe a little bit. But that was justified. Who in Merlin's name is Luna Lovegood and why was Harry even hanging out with her? It wasn't fair. He barely even talked to the girl and now they were best friends.

It wasn't fair, and it was mostly because she could tell where this was going. Since Lovegood isn't a Slytherin, he was going to hang out outside the common room, and thus without them there. There was a strict policy of not having non house members in their common room, and that was pretty severely enforced. Slytherin matters stayed in Slytherins and not with outsiders. Harry was already barely hanging out with her since the beginning of the year, and this was a sign that he was drifting away from her.

From the start of the year, Harry barely stood still. It was maddening and somewhat concerning. There was this intensity and urgency in everything he did. The Greengrass scion honestly didn't know where it was coming from, but her friends and her decided to leave Harry be, and let it get out of his system. Only it never did.

This urgency got even worse after Filch was attacked and the Chamber of Secrets was presumably opened. Something in her gut told her that Harry knew more about the attacks than the rest, but she couldn't really confirm it. To her shame, for a fraction of a second, she thought that Harry might have done it, that he might be the heir of Slytherin, but he was with her during both the attack on Filch and the petrification of Dean Thomas. So, he, thankfully, wasn't a monster that petrified muggleborns with an ancient monster.

Desperate for an answer, Daphne ended up asking her mother for advice. It was shameful, but her mother was very intuitive about this stuff, and she had never steered her wrong before. Of course, the letter she got back was full of teasing that the younger Greengrass did not appreciate, but what she told her was to learn an interest of Harry's, involve herself in it, and they would end up spending a lot of time together.

She ended up choosing Dueling. Well, she chose it because she had no clue what Harry really did in his spare time and when she discreetly looked at his work, she didn't understand a word. For example, he once had a notebook out where he was writing some kind of essay about 'the benefits of using Orichalcum to accelerate the recharging of spell infused gems'. Seriously, it took two weeks for her to even understand the title, and it showed just how advanced Harry really was in terms of magic. This was post-NEWT research stuff, not something a Hogwarts student, let alone a second year one, needed to know.

So, yeah, her only choice was duelling. Her mother had given her some basic tutoring in self-defence, but she could only hope it would be enough to impress Harry. He did look impressed when he saw her use that ice hex on Mulciber when he harassed her that one time. Yeah, he was on another level altogether; his duel with Flitwick was just amazing, even if he lost in the end.

Anyway, this was why she was coming to Lockhart's new duelling club altogether. Harry was coming with Lovegood, for some reason, and she had joined them.

It was maddening how relaxed he started to act right after he met Ravenclaw. It was like the stress that was on his shoulders lessened a lot and it showed. It was unfair that Loony Lovegood of all people helped him in a way that Daphne herself couldn't. Well, that was a bit mean, but Daphne had to admit that the 'Loony' nickname was very well-earned. Lovegood was always looking in the air while humming innocently, while always badgering about made up creatures that her father's insane magazine kept talking about.

They arrived at the Great Hall and noticed that it was overhauled in the same way Flitwick did during their first duelling club meeting. The difference was that a quarter of the school was attending. It was mostly due to Lockhart's popularity, but also because it was listed more as an activity than a club and that meant that people who were already in other clubs could attend. Malfoy, in particular, kept claiming that he was some kind of duelling prodigy and that he was going to beat Longbottom and prove that the boy who lived wasn't that special.

Well, Longbottom wasn't special. Everyone knew that from the classes. He was mediocre in everything but Herbology and Defense, where he seemed to shine. But the unsatisfactory end of the past Quidditch match made everyone itchy to fire hexes at each other. Dean Thomas being attacked so soon after didn't help matters.

It showed in the uproarious chatter that permeated the air in the Great Hall that Daphne noticed the moment she entered the vast room with Harry and Lovegood at her side. If there was a way to describe the atmosphere, it would be that it was tense. Draco was already here, and so was Pansy. Crabbe and Goyle, or Draco's minions as Harry liked to call them, were also there. And so was Millicent, who had started to cling to Pansy for some reason at the start of the year. Daphne hoped that Pansy wouldn't rub off on her; she didn't spend a lot of time with her, but Millicent seemed like a nice girl. She tended to stick with Lily Moon and Theodore Nott but started to drift away recently.

Anyway, this entire thing was a disaster waiting to happen, and so, while waiting for Lockhart to show up, asked Harry, "What are we doing here, Harry? I doubt we're going to learn something here. We're already going to Flitwick's club."

Her friend gave her a slight smile, "Honestly, I'm here for the entertainment. I'm not planning on participating in anything, but you have to admit that seeing Malfoy duel Longbottom is going to be interesting. Plus, I have a feeling that something interesting is going to happen."

Harry's eyes twinkled with mischief a bit at the end. Damn, those green eyes were unfair.

However, the mood was ruined by Lovegood speaking up, "Yeah, there's a high possibility of Nargle infestations being there."

The Potter scion snorted in amusement, "Yeah, there's that too."

Stupid Lovegood and her stupid imaginary creatures, ruining everything…

She wanted to ask more about Harry's reason. Alas, Gilderoy Lockhart strolled onto the stage, resplendent in robes of deep plum. The absurd amount of light cast down upon him by the luminous candles seemed to reflect blindingly off of his teeth, creating a blur, somewhat marring the otherwise perfect image. In stark juxtaposition to Lockhart, Snape strode up wearing his usual black. Lockhart smiled brightly at all of the students as he waved merrily. Snape, in contrast, just looked bored.

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little duelling club to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions — for full details, see my published works." He winked and flashed all of them a charismatic smile. This was typical of him. Even in their classes, however competent he might be, the man certainly did have a flair for the dramatics. Daphne knew that Harry especially didn't like the classes and was still sure the man was a fraud of some sort.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape." Snape gave a curt nod, but no more than that. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about duelling himself and has agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin."

Yeah, Daphne's head of house didn't like the way Lockhart introduced him and judging by the glare that threatened to burn the celebrity alive, he was not going to go light on him.

Lockhart's competence did surprise Harry slightly, he was still wary of the man for some reason. Nevertheless, a duel between professionals should be interesting. Honestly, after Harry's duel with Flitwick, her expectations were high.

Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Snape jerked his head irritably. Finally, Lockhart triggered some sort of magic which caused the duelling wards around the stage to start a silent countdown. Seconds later, a resounding, ancient-sounding gong rang out through the hall.

Well, Lockhart did have a tendency to be dramatic but that was just insane. Anyway, the duel started at once. And if Daphne could explain it in a single word, it would be disappointing.

Sure, the students were applauding and cheering, but the art that could be seen in Harry's duel with Flitwick was just not there. Lockhart looked like he was fumbling slightly, had lost his footwork, and kept sending standard hexes and curses, and only used the Protego shield. He looked nervous and more than a little panicked, while Snape had a vicious smile on his face, like he was playing with his opponent, and hadn't moved an inch the entire duel. Of course, finally, Snape ended up surprising Lockhart with a shield breaker and an overpowered disarming charm that sent the ponce flying out.

Maybe Harry's suspicions about Lockhart were true because that was truly a subpar effort on his part. When she turned towards her friend, she realized that he had a vicious smile on his face, like he was being vindicated somehow. When their eyes met, he gave her a smug look, and she ended up elbowing him, "Fine, you might have a point. Don't let it get to your head. Tracy is going to be heartbroken when she hears about this."

The girl kept defending him all semester and lorded Harry's mistake over his head for weeks. Yet, Harry was sure that Lockhart wasn't who he said he was, that he didn't do the feats in his book and Daphne had to agree with him slightly. She and Blaise decided not to attend the meeting since they said that Flitwick was probably more experienced in duelling, and they already had enough work as it is.

The Professor stood up and gave them a startling smile, "That was a good showing, Professor Snape. Now, as you may have noticed, we both agreed beforehand to stick to OWL spells or less, since we didn't want to overwhelm you. Professor Snape did a good job with one of the most elementary yet underused pieces of magic, the Disarming charm. Of course, as your defence teacher, I know that I taught it to all of you, but what I hadn't taught you is how to chain that spell to a shield breaker. A truly vicious combination so let's start with that."

For the next hour, Lockhart made sure they mastered the disarming charm, the basic Contego shield, how to cast a shield breaker, and a small spell chain of spells they learnt the previous year.

Of course, by the end of the lesson, it was time for the sparring, which was strictly voluntary. The duels tended to end in less than a minute. Daphne herself fought against some third year Hufflepuff girl and won easily. Harry had given her a proud look afterwards.

Ron Weasley, who had gotten a new wand for the safety of the entire school, ended up getting easily defeated by Theo Nott. But Crabbe and Goyle both lost their duels with Goldstein and Boot. Anyway, while humorous, the duel between Granger and Millicent was a disaster, especially since it ended up as a physical fight, where the muggleborn ended up in a headlock and was whimpering in pain. The professors ended up disqualifying both of them since physical contact was illegal in duelling.

Neither Harry nor Lovegood decided to put their names forward, and it was noticed. Thankfully, Malfoy was too preoccupied with his coming duel with Longbottom to make a scene. When that particular duel was announced, he stood up straight and looked very focused for some reason. She didn't really understand why Harry was invested in this duel, but it felt like it was exactly what he came to the meeting for.

And if Harry is interested in something, the young Greengrass knew that it was worth keeping an eye on. So, as the duelling wards came down once more, and the boy who lived and the Malfoy scion prepared themselves, Daphne decided to see what got Harry to waste almost two hours of his precious time.

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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.