The pair made their way to the large dueling platform that was set up in the center of the room, and took to the dueling stance, Lockhart making sure to properly describe it. Despite Harry's dislike of the men on the platform, Harry could find no faults with their stances. The pair began their duel, with Snape immediately casting the disarming charm that Harry had been working on. It worked to a resounding success, managing to knock Lockhart's wand from his hand, and send the older man into the wall with a solid thud. Harry for once, was glad that Professor Snape was present.
"Well done Professor Snape! A perfectly executed disarming charm. Now obviously I could have blocked it, but this is a great lesson in showing how to graciously accept defeat." Lockhart said, which caused a deeper scowl than normal to appear on Professor Snape's face. He did however, wordlessly accept Lockhart's bow, and then turn to the audience.
"Professor Lockhart and I have decided that the best way to start this class will be to pair up and have you take turns disarming each other. I will give a slower, more deliberate display of the spell, and you will do your best to copy it. We will both be going around the room and assisting with your technique. I will give out your pairs after my demonstration." Snape said in his normal monotone voice. Harry paid close attention to the Professor's demonstration, while he didn't like Snape as a person very much, he could not deny that the man was an exceptional wizard.
The pairings however had not been nice to Harry, with all of the Sphinx Club members being separated, and his partner being his arch-rival, Draco Malfoy.
"Ha, bet you hadn't even heard of the disarming charm before today Potter." Malfoy said, his words conveying the same 'better-than-thou' tone they always did.
"I've been practicing it for about a week. Professor Flitwick showed it to me." Harry said, keeping his tone neutral. Daphne had given him many tips on how to deal with Malfoy, but the foremost among them had been to never let him get under your skin.
"Ah, yes, the old Potter special treatment. Oh well, let's begin. I'll go first. Expelliarmus!" Draco said, pointing his wand towards Harry and thrusting forward. Harry's wand did not leave his grasp.
"I think you're thrusting too much. Try it slightly lighter." Harry said, unsure as to why exactly he was giving advice to his enemy, but feeling it necessary. "Expelliarmus." Harry encanted with a light push forward. Draco's wand shot out of his hand and into Harry's.
"Lucky shot Potter." Malfoy said, as Harry offered his wand back to him.
To Malfoy's credit, that was the last time he messed the spell up, and the pair traded disarming charms back and forth for the remainder of the time allotted.
"Wonderful! Marvelous! Magnificent!" Lockhart cried, his voice filling the room. "I've seen a lot of improvement in each of you! Now, to end our class, I believe we shall have two of you duel. Severus, how about each of us pick a student from our houses while we were here at Hogwarts?"
"I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with what house you were in, but from my own Slytherin I'll choose Draco Malfoy." Snape said evenly.
"I was a Ravenclaw, so I'll choose Harry Potter." Lockhart said, gesturing to Harry.
'Wonderful' was the sarcastic thought that ran through Harry's mind. He'd have to duel his arch rival in front of the entirety of their year. Harry hoped that his training with Flitwick would give him the edge he needed, since he was unsure of how much experience Draco had. Draco's class performance and not knowing of the disarming charm boded well, but it was entirely possible that Lucius had instructed his son in some powerful magic.
"Scared Potter?" Malfoy asked as he made his way to the platform.
"Not overly, I suppose this can be a rescheduling of the duel we were supposed to have last year." Harry said, keeping his tone as even and pleasant as he could muster. Harry wasn't scared, although he was nervous. He however trusted Lockhart's desire to not have a student's death on his hands enough that he'd call the match before things got too bad.
Harry and Draco bowed to each other and took their positions on each end of the platform. With the sound firing from Lockhart's wand, the two started.
Harry fired a knockback jinx, before crouching forward and firing a tripping curse below it. Malfoy dodged to the side before firing back a disarming charm, but whiffed the casting by thrusting too much. Harry reclaimed and fired another knockback jinx, which Draco just barely stepped out of the way of.
"Serpensortia!" Draco called out, and Harry was briefly taken aback as a large snake shot forth from Malfoy's wand and toward him. Harry jumped back and fired a disarming charm at Draco, it connected, sending the blond boy's wand away from his grasp.
"Good show, I'll handle that." Lockhart said, as he caused the snake to rise up into the air. The snake, however, disliked it's new vertical movement and managed to wrench itself free of the spell. Now angered, it set it's eyes on the nearest target, Justin Finch-Fletchley and began to close the distance to strike.
"Stop!" cried out Harry, as the snake turned to look at him.
"Speaker?" the snake hissed, stopping swiftly.
"I guess, can you not hurt him? He didn't put you in the air." Harry said, not noticing the many eyes in the room that were falling on him.
"I will not then. Please release me from this stone room." The snake said, before it was violently vanished by Snape.
"Harry, what was that?" Hermione's voice came from his right. Turning to look at her, Harry noticed an emotion he never wanted to see on anyone's face…. Fear.
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