Chapter 111 -A boy, a con and a snake

A week later as Thomas, James, Michael, Adam, Daphne, and Tracey were walking towards the great hall after eating their breakfast, they saw the Gryffindor trio as well as quite a lot of students looking at the notice board.

Being quite curious about what all the fuss was about, Thomas and the others quickly made their way towards their friends and as soon as they reached, Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, two Gryffindors that Thomas didn't know all that well, shouted excitedly that a new club was being created.

"They're starting a Dueling Club!" Seamus shouted as hard as he could. "First meeting tonight! I wouldn't mind dueling lessons; they might come in handy one of these days…"

Dean nodded his head frantically, his eyes shining with excitement. He had always been fascinated by dueling and wanted to learn some cool spells and moves.

Thomas, however, chose not to bother with these two overly excited idiots as soon as he saw Harry, Ron, and even James joining them. Though that didn't mean he wasn't excited about this club, after all if it would really happen, he will be able to get even more practice since frankly fighting against shadows in his dreams with Bahamut wasn't going to work for too long. Mostly because those shadowy beings could improvise at all and will always fight the same way.

Just as he was about to say something to his friends, he felt a hand on him, and as soon as he turned his head, he saw Hermione looking at him with a smile on her face.

"I take you are also excited for this, right?"

Thomas only gave her a smile, knowing very well that she already knew the answer to that question.

At the same time, Daphne who was just a meter to his right side looked at Thomas, unsure of what that meant, so she decided to inquire about it.

"I don't want to sound rude or anything, but what does Hermione mean by that? Are you good at it?"

Both Hermione and Thomas facepalmed themselves, forgetting that even though Daphne and Tracey were their friends, the two Slytherin girls didn't know what Thomas had faced last year. Which to be fair was not a known knowledge thanks to the Ministry wanting to keep these kinds of things under the rug.

Hermione quickly recovered and said, "Oh, sorry, we didn't mean to confuse you. It's just that Thomas had a lot of experience with fighting than any of the current students. While the ministry is trying to keep things hidden from the rest of the wizards and witches, the truth is that Thomas fought against quite a few dangerous foes already, including the Troll rumor from last year."

Daphne and Tracey gasped in shock when they heard Hermione's words. Truth be told, not a lot of information was spread about how Thomas saved Draco's life, but for some reason unknown to them, someone spread those rumors, making the Slytherin blonde boy quite embarrassed.

"It's not that big of a deal, really. But I would lie if I were to say that I'm not interested in this club too. However, not for the same reason as the others."

Daphne didn't ask anymore about this, knowing very well that if it was something she needed to know, Thomas would have told her by now. "So, you think it would be worth our time?"

"Maybe, I mean, it won't hurt for you guys to learn how to throw a proper spell in a fight." Thomas said with a smile on his face.

Everyone was all for it, even Tracey who was not so keen on fighting anyone, but because James was going, she decided to join them too, so at eight o'clock that evening they 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. After all, who wouldn't be when one of the most known clubs was going to be remade for everyone to join?

"I wonder who'll be teaching us?" Hermione wondered as they edged into the chattering crowd.

"Well, from what Flitwick told us one evening, he was a dueling champion when he was young, so I pray to God that he will be the one teaching us. Heck, even Snape would not be a bad teacher." Thomas said while looking at the stage, already feeling a familiar but not welcome presence walking towards it.

"As long as it's not …" Harry began, but he ended on a groan as the famous and loved or so he thinks, Gilderoy Lockhart was walking onto the stage, resplendent in robes of deep plum and accompanied by none other than Snape, wearing his usual black. All the boys let out a sigh, especially Harry and Thomas, who were far from being happy to see this fake wizard being one of their instructors.

Looking at all of those excited students, Lockhart smiled brightly at them, thinking they came for him so without further ado, 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 and for full details, see my published works. You will definitely be excited to read them. Anyway, let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape."

Lockhart motioned at Snape, flashing a wide smile. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. 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!"

"Wouldn't it be good if they finished each other off?" Ron muttered to his friends thinking about something that he would love to happen.

But none of his friends said anything to him, choosing to watch what in Merlin's name was Lockhart about to do rather than fantasize about thing that would never happen.

Snape's upper lip was curling making everyone wonder just how can Lockhart smile in such situation, since if they were in his boots, they would have been long gone from that stage. 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. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them.

"As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart told the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Harry murmured, watching Snape baring his teeth.

"I second that, but I know for a fact, that our potion professor will not kill our beloved hero in public." Thomas shook his head while keeping his eyes on one of his favorite professors. But truth be told, watching Lockhart being hit by Snape was something he would good money to see.

"One — two — three —"

Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent and before Lochart could even comprehend what happened, Snape cried, "Expelliarmus!"

There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet and flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.

Malfoy, Thomas, his friends and some of the other Slytherins cheered while Hermione was dancing on tiptoes. "Do you think he's all right?" she squealed through her fingers.

"Who cares?" All of the boys answered at the same time, making her quite embarrassed.

Unfortunately, Thomas fears were true and Lockhart was still alive, albeit quite shaken, but with great effort he managed to on his shaking feet.

"Well, there you have it!" Lockhart could barely speak clearly as he drags his body back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm, as you see, I've lost my wand, ah, thank you, Miss Brown, 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 …"

As if that could happen, Thomas thought watching as Snape was ready to forget about everting and murder Lockhart on the stage. Maybe he saw that or his senses screamed at him to change the subject because not even a few seconds later Lochart continue with another topic. "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me …"

They moved through the crowd, matching up partners. Lockhart teamed Neville with Justin Finch-Fletchley, but Snape reached Harry and Ron first.

"Time to split up the dream team, I think," he sneered. "Weasley, you can partner Finnigan. Potter …"

Harry moved automatically toward Hermione.

"I don't think so," Snape said, smiling coldly. "Mr. MacKenzie, come over here. Let's see what you make of the famous Potter. And you, Miss Granger — you can partner Miss Greengrass. As for the rest of you… Mr. O'Sullivan you can partner Miss Davis while you Mr. Wood can partner with Mr. Dean."

Before he could turn towards Thomas, Lockhart, who for some bizarre reason, dashed forward put his hands on Thomas's shoulder before turning to Snape. "I think Mr. Grayson should partner with Mr. Malfoy. Two blonde boys fighting for a chance to look as dashing as me."

For a second all of Thomas's friends and even Snape could swear they saw Thomas reaching for his dagger, but instead of drawing blood, Thomas just resigned to his fate, letting Lockhart to drag him towards Draco, who didn't look all that happy to be put against such a monster.

"Face your partners!" called Lockhart, back on the platform. "And bow!"

Both boys did as order, surprising Thomas greatly since he thought that Draco would only smirk or ignore him and act all that mighty just because he could.

"Wands at the ready!" shouted Lockhart. "When I count to three, cast your charms to Disarm your opponents, only to disarm them, we don't want any accidents, one … two … three …"

As soon as Lockhart gave the signal, Thomas quickly cast a Disarming Charm at Draco, aiming for his wand. "Expelliarmus!" he shouted, sending a jet of red light towards his opponent.

Draco barely managed to dodge the spell, jumping to the side. He glared at Thomas and retaliated with his own Disarming Charm. "Expelliarmus!" he yelled, hoping to catch Thomas off guard.

But sadly, for him, Thomas easily blocked the spell with a Shield Charm, deflecting it back to Draco. "Protego!"

The crowd gasped and cheered, impressed by Thomas's skill and speed. They could see that he was clearly dominating the duel, and that Draco was struggling to keep up.

Thomas decided to up the ante, and cast a series of spells at Draco, varying his attacks and keeping him on his toes. He used Stinging Hexes, Stunning Spells, Impediment Jinxes, and even a Tickling Charm, aiming for different parts of Draco's body and making him squirm and flinch like some puppet in a child show.

Draco tried to block or dodge the spells, but he was no match for Thomas's attacks. He felt pain, shock, slowness, and laughter coursing through him, making him lose his focus and balance as he could hear the crowd laughing and jeering at him, mocking his poor performance. Making him angry, that he, Draco Malfoy couldn't even land a single hit on a bloody muggle. Feeling so humiliated and enraged, Draco wanted to make Thomas pay for embarrassing him in front of everyone, so no longer caring about anything, he decided to use a more powerful and dangerous spell, one that he had learned from his father, one that he hopes will be more than enough to scare or surprise the Ravenclaw freak.

"Serpensortia!"

A large snake burst out of the tip of his wand, landing on the floor between them. It was a black cobra, with red eyes and a hooded head hissing, menacingly at Thomas, coiling its body and preparing to strike.

The crowd screamed and backed away from the snake, fearing that it might attack them. While some even looked at Draco with horror and disgust, wondering how he could use such a dark and cruel spell against a fellow student. Then again, he was a Malfoy and that was more than an enough reason for many.

Lockhart also panicked, not knowing how to deal with the situation even though he tried to act brave and heroic, but he only made things worse. So, before the other, more experience and by all means more qualified professor could do anything, Lockhart pointed his wand at the snake. "Allow me! Vipera Evanesca!"

He cast a spell that he thought would make the snake vanish, but instead it made it fly into the air and then fall back down towards Thomas.

Thomas saw the snake flying towards him, but he did not flinch or move. He knew that he could handle it without any problem mostly because he was living with a stronger and meaner snake, not to mention that thanks to his sacred gear he had faced much bigger and scarier creatures than a mere cobra.

Thought that didn't meant he was foolish enough to let such a dangerous creature bite him.

'To hell with it.' Thomas thought as he decided to speak with the snake and maybe just maybe make it calm down.

"Wait, wait, wait! Can't we just talk about it?"

The cobra froze for a second before it replied in Parseltongue, "Talk? What do you want to talk about?"

"Well, for starters, why are you trying to bite me? I didn't do anything to you."

Almost as if the cobra was thinking about, it raised his tails and scratched its head. "That might be true. I'm too lazy to deal with a young wizard anyways, so … have a good day

After saying that, the cobra turned around and start making its way towards Draco ,who by now was watching in horror as his ultimate spell failed and instead it backfire at him.

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