115 Chapter 112: 'Courting Death' at its finest

Today, is the day the Dueling Club starts. And by now my, everyone's began taking this Chamber of Secrets business quite seriously. And the a dueling club with Flitwick present in it causes them to think that the Dueling lessons might come in handy one of these days. 

So, I wasn't surprised when literally almost the whole student populace had showed up for the event. Most came for Flitwick, and there were many who decided to come just for the fun of it. Dueling always sounds fun and exciting. And almost all wizards are a bit Chuuni, thinking that they're hot shit and secretly very good at it due to all the practice they do in their head and in alone time.

Seriously, muggles get Chuunibyou without having any special powers. What do you think happens to wizard children who actually have magical powers and know that the tales of epic magics of Merlin are actually real? The number of Chuunis increase dramatically.

(Chūnibyō or Chuuni is a Japanese colloquial term typically used to describe early teens who have grandiose delusions, who desperately want to stand out, and who have convinced themselves that they have hidden knowledge or secret powers.)

So at eight o'clock that evening we had all hurried back to the Great Hall. The long dining tables had vanished and a golden stage had appeared along one wall, lit by thousands of candles floating overhead. The ceiling was velvety black once more and most of the school seemed to be packed beneath it, all carrying their wands and looking excited.

I also stood with Ravenclaw friends.

"I wonder if it'll be Flitwick who teaches us." I Padma as she looked at the door for the teacher's arrival.

"He never said he would. He said he's coming to observe." I said, just so that they don't get their hopes up.

Terry sighed. "Anyone other than Fraud-hart is fine. And if it's Fraud-hart, then I hope he loses to a student."

Anthony also agreed. "I've never seen him do any magic successfully. I hope the senior year students at Hogwarts have enough skills to beat him."

Sue Li also had angry expression. "We all saw the picture of him forcefully trying to mend Harry's leg bones and then completely Vanishing them instead. If he can't do it, why does he always try to show off with such confidence." She fumed. Sue Li is a bit of a righteous kind of girl. She always condemns morally wrong things outright while most of us are like, yeah it's wrong, but what's it got to do with me? By the way, I had obviously distributed the pictures of Lockhart's fraud magic to the whole school.

While we were talking, the door opened and Lockhart walked in, making all the students quite disappointed.

Most of the students began students began boo-ing loudly while the others made catcalls and jeering.

Lockhart seemed to ignore those voices like they didn't even exist and waved to the few of his fangirls who still refused to believe that the man was a fraud, claiming that the pictures must be fake about his crying without his front teeth. And he was only helping Harry by Vanishing his bones.

Lockhart climbed onto the stage, resplendent in robes of deep plum. He waved an arm for silence and called, "Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!"

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling 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—"

While he was speaking, the door opened yet again, and this time Professor Flitwick walked in. . . And the crowd went nuts while cheering.

I also joined in, "Yeeaaaaah! Flitwick! Flitwick! Flitwick!"

"Flitwick!"x10

"Flitwick!"x30

"Flitwick!"x100

.

.

"Flitwick" xEveryone

I looked at Lockhart whose face had gone stiff and his eyes twitching.

'Do you see the difference, you fraud?' I wondered.

Flitwick nodded at everyone and went to sit at a high chair that had been prepared for him. Once everyone had calmed down a bit, he spoke, "Today, I'm here only as an observer. Dueling is a dangerous art that needs strict supervision." he said, getting disappointed murmurs from all around.

Lockhart was still not discouraged. The guy was persistent in his annoying behavior. "As you can see professor Flitwick has kindly agreed to be my assistant for the day. He knows a bit about dueling from his earlier days." He said, making me want to punch him. Does this guy never learn? There should be a limit to how shameless you can be, right?

I had to convince myself not attack him because my curses were already doing the job. My curses on him are slowly taking affect. I couldn't curse him with something obvious, otherwise he'd have gone to St Mungo's or Madam Pomfrey. But the curses are the kind that it'll be too late untill he realizes he's cursed.

Lockhart was still going on and on. "Now, there's been a student who wasn't quite mentally sound at the moment and challenged me, the Order of Merlin, third class, is an Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League to a duel."

'Seriously?' I thought in my mind.

The crowd went ,"Oooohhhhhhh." and my friends all looked at me, knowing who he was talking about.

Lockhart raised up his hands to silence the crowd, as he nodded. "I know, I know... even I was quite shocked. Seriously, the fans these days really go to extreme lengths to get my attention. In fact, fearing my denial, the fan went so far as to offering his beautiful little pet dragon me if I won!"

"Damn!"

"Oooohhhhhhhhh!!!"

"Is he talking about Martin?"

"Who else has a pet dragon?"

"Shite, is he taking revenge for the punch and humiliation?"

Everyone started making noise while looking between me and Lockhart. Well, only I had a dragon, so of course he was talking about me.

"Che." I clicked my tongue.

I was usually quite easy going, but clowns and ants should know their place. So this time, I'm going to be a bit more heavy handed those who pity Lockhart might as well leave now. Because today, I'm not going to stop until he's destroyed.

***

General PoV:

Harry, Neville and Hermione were standing not far away from Chris's group.

"Serves him right," said Hermione, "He shouldn't have insulted a Professor in the first place." She added.

Harry looked at her, baffled, "Do you seriously think that Chris is going to lose to that clown? What do you think, Neville?"

Neville who had always been stuck in between the two arguing, had a complicated look on his face as he shook his head, "I just can't picture Chris ever losing..." he said honestly.

"...." x2 the other two couldn't disagree with that. Chris Martin, even if he never showed his full capabilities, always gave off a feeling of confidence that he could beat even the sixth and seventh years on his own.

"Well, I know him the best, and I have full confidence in him." concluded Harry, recalling Chris beating up even an adult man once with his wit and techniques and spending hours studing in the Potter Library. "He can learn to do more magic in his one and half years at Hogwarts than frauds like Lockhart will ever learn in their entire life."

...

Hannah and Susan were standing along with their fellow Hufflepuffs.

Hannah had her hands on her mouth as she fretted over what would happen next.

Susan patted Hannah's shoulder. "Don't worry, Han, Chris has learned a lot from his father. And didn't he tell us personally that he can beat Lockhart if they ever dueled?"

Hannah recalled that Chris did say it once in passing, like it was the most obvious thing in the a world.

"Besides, Fraud-hart can't take Nyxie like that. I'll write to my Aunt if he does! Then we'll see if he's still so full of himself." said Susan, as she looked at Nyxie.

...

Tracy Davis looked to the side at her friend Daphne Greengrass in worry, "Isn't this bad?! We'll lose Nyxie to that fraud if Chris loses. He won't accept the duel challenge, would he?"

Daphne still had a passive expression as her mind raced. She tried not to show any any care towards the outcome of the duel, but a knot of distress could still be seen between her eyebrows.

"It's better if he loses. I'll have my dad take Nyxie forcefully from the clown Lockhart then. Then we'll have Nyxie to ourselves."

Tracy was floored, "...You really are one spoiled and arrogant young mistress."

...

On the Ravenclaw side, Chris whispered something to his dragon and the small dragon licked his face a few times before flying to Susan and Hannah for the time being. He then slowly walked towards the stage with confidence, not looking a least bit bothered by the crowd's talking and murmuring.

Climbing onto the stage, he faced the crowd as said, "First of all, I'd like to make one thing clear to everyone! Don't believe a word this fraud is saying!" He said, pointing at Lockhart.

"Damn, he said it!"

"Right to his face."

"Woah, the bloke's got balls, gotta admit that."

Lockhart's smile diminished as he tried to salvage the situation, "Chris, maybe you're—"

"Silencio!"

"...."

The crowd couldn't see when, but Chris somehow already had his wand pointed at Lockhart as he silenced the man in without even looking at him.

This was something that was astonishing and surprising on many different levels.

"What the—"

"...Did the just..."

"Yeah, that's a fifth year spell. No doubt about it."

"Isn't he in like, in his second year?"

Though no one, not even Chris himself knew it, but his actions were being affected by his dragon pride right now, since he's been quite lowkey on his use of magic in public. though he was still acting within limit, since some second years can still use a fifth year spell if they practice a lot.

Chris lowered his wand as turned his head to glance at Lockhart who couldn't even make a sound right now, "Did I allow you to speak? Know your place, clown." He then faced the crowd again, "So, this fraud man tried to forcefully take my dragon on the first day and as you all know what happened next, he got a punch to his face. Now today... he's trying to take my dragon once again, by lying through his teeth in front of the whole Hogwarts and tricking me into a duel with him." said Chris, making the crowd throw boos and jeers at Lockhart.

Chris continued, "Usually, I'd take legal actions against him, and he'd then be judged by the French Ministry for trying to steal from the son of the head of French DMLE. But! Lowlife pretenders and swindlers like this person right here? I can handle these myself!"

"Ooohhhh!!!" x crowd

Facing the fraud, he said, "Gilderoy Lockhart, I accept your challenge to an Honor Duel. Professor Flitwick, could you please be the refree for the match?" he asked Professor Flitwick.

Flitwick nodded his head. As an experience teacher and duelist, he knew very well just how much of an incompetent man Gilderoy Lockhart was. And it was high time someone gave Gilderoy a reminder of that.

Flitwick got down from seat and went to the middle of the dueling circuit.

He first came to Chris and talked to him in low voice, "Chris, why did you add the 'Honor Duel' in your acceptance?! I can't interfere much until one side is in mortal danger!" he said worriedly.

'Oh that's exactly what I want, Professor.' Thought Chris thought inwardly. It would be a real pity to Chris if Flitwick stops him mid-way. Chris reassured Flitwick and convinced him after some time.

"Duelists, take position!" he said, and both Chris and Lockhart came to stand in front in each other. Chris was smirking at Lockhart knowingly. While things were going very bad for Lockhart.

Why? Because for some reason, the man couldn't undo the Silencing charm!

The poor guy had come here thinking that he'd teach that arrogant brat a lesson, get revenge, and also finally get that perfect miniature dragon that only someone like him, Gilderoy Lockhart deserves to have. But, things started going wrong from the second he saw the kid casting a fifth year spell.

Mind you, Gilderoy Lockhart isn't that incompetent. He can actually caste the counter spell to the Silencing charm. But... he can't do it non-verbally — And right now... he can't speak! That's the thing that Chris was smirking knowingly for. And even if he could indeed perform in non-verbally, he still wouldn't be able to undo the one Chris casted.

And right now, Gilderoy Lockhart can't even do what he does best: He can't use his words to prevent his embarrassment. Gilderoy Lockhart really has immense talent in keeping up his act even in the worst situations. In canon Dueling Club, the guy got disarmed in quite an embarrassing way by Professor Snape but he still got away with it quite smoothly. His words were:

"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 . . ."

This quality of his is what sets him apart from other villains in Chris's mind. It is so annoying and infuriating that he fears he might accidentally kill him too soon due to his dragon pride.

...

Both Chris and Lockhart took out their wands. The duel is about to begin and everyone is excited!

***

A.N.: Things are getting interesting. Wait for it! And, it really wasn't a cliffhanger on purpose! I just reached the word limit...

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