Chapter 100  

A few days had passed since his interaction with Flitwick and as he was promised, he didn't have to attend detentions. He walked towards the great hall as he crumpled the letter that he had just read before burning it to ashes.

Upon entering, an expected view greeted his eyes as the long dining tables had vanished and a large golden stage had appeared along one wall. The hall was crowded with students from all years except the seventh.

Alex didn't have to wait too long as Lockhart appeared along with Snape and waved his hand to silence the group as he reached the center of the stage.

"Gather round, gather round everybody! Good. Professor Dumbledore gran-"

Alex's attention shifted to Harry, Malfoy, and then to Snape as he searched for clues regarding the incident a few days ago but got nothing.

'Maybe I should learn Legilimency sometime…', he thought as he rubbed his chin and nodded to himself before shifting his attention back to Lockhart, who, to his surprise was looking at him. He looked sideways and almost every single student was looking at him.

"Umm….? What's wrong?", he asked as he looked up at Lockhart, who gave his signature smile in return.

"I was simply thanking you for your generous contribution to the Dueling Club. Your duel board is a very great invention. All of you, give a big round of applause for this young man right here."

"….", Alex simply stood straight as he waited for the applause to end as he knew that there was more to come by the look on Lockhart's face.

"Silence, Silence. Good. Now Alex, can you make a duel board that can let more than a hundred people inside?"

"No. Also, it's called a Game board for your kind information, Professor Lockhart."

"That's a pity, really. So, it's called a game board, hmm? Pardon my mistake earlier.", he said and turned to face the crowd.

"Since we cannot use the game boards, we will have to settle on using the great hall. Me and my assistant, Professor Snape will be showing you the proper ways of dueling so you can all correct your mistakes in the future."

The whole crowd was clueless about the basilisk but they still wanted to learn more about dueling so that they could climb the ranks. Things happened just as he had expected them to happen as Lockhart crashed into the wall before announcing practice partners.

Most of the girls scurried over towards Lockhart leaving the guys to Snape who went straight for Harry, Ron, and Neville. It took him a few minutes to reach Alex, but he was greeted with a question when he did.

"Professor, earlier when you used the disarming charm, it pushed Professor Lockhart back along with disarming him. Did you use a second spell right after expelliarmus, professor?"

Snape looked down at Alex, his usual stoic face showing a slight smile which would be hard to notice unless someone paid close attention to his facial expressions.

"Not really. A proper disarming charm simply disarms a person without considering what type of weapon or thing he has been carrying. Magic is based on intent and it plays a huge role while you practice your spells. Most do not place any conscious intent and only think of the end result while practicing. 

While this end result can be counted as an intent, it is but a very weak one. Study the spells and their properties well before you begin practicing them so you can construct a suitable intent to go well with the spell.

My disarming spell had the intent of throwing him and it is comparatively a better version compared to the norm. Now, you can team up with… Crabbe.", he said and walked off after patting him on the back which in turn attracted bewildered stares from all directions.

Crabbe was extremely inconsistent as even Alex couldn't tell what type of spell that was going to come out of his wand. Sometimes sparks shot at him which were evaded; the rest of the time, there was absolutely nothing.

Alex and Crabbe stopped whatever they were doing when the whole crowd turned to look at Snape who had casted the finite incantem. The entire crowd fell silent as Lockhart smiled and raised his hand.

"Let's have two of you show the others, shall we?", he said as he looked at Alex before pointing at him.

"Alex! Why don't you come up on stage to be a volunteer for me?"

Nodding in response, he walked up to the stage and stood beside the two professors. Lockhart then looked at the crowd, "Anyone who would like to come up and showcase the shielding spell that I'll be teaching you in a couple of seconds? No one?" 

Half of the crowd shook their heads in sync which looked rather funny to Alex who smiled as he tried not to laugh.

Lockhart clasped his hands together as he looked at the crowd, "Alright, you. The boy with red hair who's always near Harry. Yes, you. Come up."

Ron grimaced as he glanced at Alex and walked up to stand next to Lockhart, who in turn was facing the crowd.

"First, we will have these two demonstrate the effects of spell clashes and then I'll pick another pair for the shielding charm.", He then looked at the two before taking a step towards Alex who was instead grabbed by Snape.

"I'll take care of this boy so why don't you teach the Weasley there?"

"Oh haha, okay. If you insist, assistant.", he smiled widely before grabbing Ron by the shoulders and leading him a few meters away from the two.

Snape simply bent down and whispered, "I'm sure you have your own spells so don't embarrass me, Alex."

"Sure, Professor.", he replied with a nod and faced Ron who was still chatting with Lockhart. Almost a minute later, Lockhart stepped back and announced.

"Are you both ready? Good. Release your spells in three… two… one…. And, go!"

"Expelliarmus!"

"Petrificus Tota-"

[A/N: 100 chapters... I never expected to reach this far. Anyways, from next week onwards, I will upload 3 chapters every week since I plan on working on an original soon. The chapter uploads will be done in bulk on Mondays.]