LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 13: Duelling Club (U)
A/N: The U in the brackets stands for unedited. I will come back and some point and edit it properly. Till then just bear with errors.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“W-what do you mean Luna? What are you talking about?” Ginny tried to sound oblivious and failed miserably. She was utterly unprepared to deal with this mysterious little girl, whose thoughts even she found hard to fathom.
Luna stared at Ginny for a long while, before she said, “Your Nargles - no, Magic - it’s very different. It’s much more… intense than before.”
“Its magical growth?” she replied weakly. She really had no way to avoid Luna’s overpowered senses. While it was not nearly as diverse as her own Magical Perception, her bullshit ability to detect the state of an individual’s emotions through their magic made it nigh impossible to hide from her. The only way to hide from her was to completely detach from her emotions; which Ginny found to be utterly disgusting.
Luna stared at her for a while. Before she said seriously, “You don’t have to lie. I understand there are things that you would rather keep secret. Everyone has something they wish to hide. But please, don’t do anything dangerous.”
Ginny winced at her friend’s sincerity. One thing she realised about herself was that she had a very hard time lying to her friends and family. Oh, she could do it very convincingly, thanks to Riddle and her own rather excellent acting skills. But everytime she lied to someone she cared for who - she knew - also cared for her deeply, the guilt ate at her from the inside. It left her feeling slightly lesser everytime she did. This was one of the reasons she kept to herself for the week after her transmigration; despite being incredibly excited about being in the Wizarding World.
Luna sat down next to her and fixed her gaze on the Great Lake, “It worries me.”
Ginny’s heart took a blow from that sincere statement.
“... Thank you.” She expressed her heartfelt gratitude. It made her happy, but it also put a heavier weight on her, that she would have to lie to another person who cared for her. She could not tell anyone about her transmigration situation. She felt eerily certain that it would not end well for anyone; neither the person she told it to nor herself.
They stayed next to each other: one sitting, one lying down, watching Aileen get her arse handed to her over and over by Gwen. Aileen stood up bravely every time, with irrational hope that she might win this time; while Gwen was having the time of her life destroying her.
Ginny slowly extended her Magical Perception as far as she could, checking to see if someone was around. When she found no one in eavesdropping range, she turned to Luna who had sensed something odd about her companion and was looking at her.
“Don’t look into the Headmaster’s or Snape’s eyes. Ever.” she said firmly. “Promise me.”
Luna was silent for a while, during which Ginny did not shift her gaze away. Being a Raven, she could immediately guess what this was about. She nodded seriously, “Okay.”
“Thank you.” she felt grateful that Luna would agree so easily. There was no way she would allow Dumbledore or Snape to get any idea of her peculiarities. She would even resort to means she was hated.
Another long pause ensued, which was broken by Aileen, who was fed up with being thrashed by Gwen and decided to challenge Ginny to a snowball fight.
Fighting to keep the sinister smile off her face she accepted.
-x-x-x-
Aileen was moodily stabbing at her food as if venting her frustration on it, while ignoring Ginny who was trying to coax her into forgiving her. Ginny felt rather helpless. She had gotten rather carried away and utterly decimated the poor girl in the snowball fights by relying on her physical superiority, to the point that she felt she might even have given the poor girl trauma of snow battles.
Gwen, who had witnessed the massacre from the side, wisely chose not to play against Ginny. While Luna… she just looked the other way. So Aileen was the only one who was beaten to the point she was almost tearing up.
Thus here she was, begging for forgiveness.
She ended up forgiving her but not before vehemently declaring, “I will definitely defeat you someday!” Her chipmunk face was so serious, Ginny nearly died from the cuteness overload.
But she did not dare to say anything other than, “Of course, I look forward to it!” with an enthusiastic face. She did not want her efforts to go down the drain, after all.
After which the conversion turned to the first session of Duelling Club, which would be this evening, with Gwen still harbouring hopes that Lockhart was actually competent and Aileen was lamenting that it was not a quidditch meet of some sort.
While Ginny had mixed feelings. On one hand, two of her least favourite professors at the same time in the same room was already a massive point of distaste for her, but what she was even more miffed about was that duelling - the only wizarding sport that she found interesting - was about to be ‘taught’ by possibly the most incompetent and unqualified wizard of all time.
She really pitied the fact that Dumbledore had to stoop to this level just to find someone for the position of the DADA. The old goat had it hard too.
However, she also looked forward to it, she looked forward to Lockhart dissing Snape and Snape literally blowing away the pompous prat away with an Expelliarmus. Oof! That was some juicy stuff right there!
-x-x-x-
That evening in the Great Hall, the house tables had been replaced by a large stage, about a foot high. On top of which was a cheery Gilderoy Lockhart and a very irritated Severus Snape. Ginny would not be surprised if he were to slip something nasty in Lockhart’s pumpkin juice the next morning!
“Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can everyone hear me? Excellent!” he clapped.
“Now, the Headmaster has granted me permission to restart the Duelling Club, to train you all up in case you ever find yourself facing a powerful creature that you need to defend yourself against! Just like the many, many times I have - you can refer to my published works for more details!
“Let me introduce you to my assistant, Professor Snape,” said Lockhart flashing his wide smile exposing his brilliant white teeth. “He knows a teensy bit about duelling you see…”
Ginny looked on in awe as Lockhart dug his grave deeper and deeper. She almost admired the man for his monumental bravery and phenomenal stupidity.
The sheer malevolence in Snape’s glare made Ginny shudder. Both with fear and happiness. It was a very strange feeling even for an experienced person like her.
She observed a moment of silence for Lockhart before excitedly staring at the two who were now bowing - well Lockhart was. Snape just jerked his head. Voldemort would sooner renounce the Dark Arts and turn to the light side than Snape bow to Lockhart, of all people.
“Expelliarmus!” bellowed Snape while Lockhart tried to do something weird and failed miserably.
As expected, Lockhart was blasted off his feet, slammed into the wall and slid down until his sorry arse hit the floor. His normally perfectly made wavy blonde hair now dishevelled. His expensive hat nowhere to be seen.
Some Slytherins cheered and so did Ginny, while the fangirls screamed and squealed, terribly worried about their idol’s health. Ginny ignored the strange looks from her roommates and edged towards one of the fangirls.
She watched in amusement as Lockhart tottered back on to the platform, slightly unsteady unlike his usual confident and pompous gait, “An excellent choice, Professor, to show them the Disarming Charm. But it would’ve been only too easy to stop you, had I not wanted to demonstrate to the students... Now where is my wand? Ah, thank you, Ms. Weasley.”
Ginny, who had confounded Lavender Brown, snatched Lockhart’s wand from her and walked over to Lockhart, did her best fangirl impression and pleadingly asked, “Professor, can we please see a real duel? I have always been a huge fan of duelling and an even bigger fan of yours!” She dragged out two fangirls she’d randomly caught on her way here to return his wand, who did their jobs and nodded vigorously in admiration. “It would also be such a great learning opportunity for us to see such a powerful wizard such as yourself in action! I’m sure all of us would agree!”
Ginny had made sure to speak loudly, drawing a lot of attention. Lockhart, looking increasingly pale, was about to say something, when Snape chipped in, “Weasley makes a valid point, Professor.” a malevolent sneer carving itself out on his face. “A proper duel would be the best learning experience for the students, would it not? Surely, you would not refuse? You are their DADA professor, after all.”
“Yes, Yes! It would be wicked to see you duel!” Ginny’s fangirl act intensified so much, she almost believed what she was saying! Snape looked at her strangely. If he had not seen her cheering after he’d blasted the pompous prat into the wall, he would have actually believed in her act.
She moved closer to Lockhart and whispered, “You should teach him a nice lesson with your skills, professor! He’s always so mean and unfair to us non-slytherin students.” Lowering her voice further, she spoke conspiratorially, “Besides, I heard he really, really wants the professor for the DADA position. None of the previous professors lasted for a full year! There are rumours about how he fed them nasty potions and sent them packing at the end of the year, most not in good health. So, you should use this chance to defeat and show him that no one but you is deserving of this position!”
Lockhart was so pale, he looked like he was about to faint. At the moment, he was cursing. ‘Dammit, if I really was awesome as in the books, I would not have come here in the first place! The meagre salary isn’t half of the royalty I get from one of my books!’
“Haha, Ms. Weasley, while you are indeed quite right, that it would be a great learning experience for you and your fellow students, I believe that actually having sufficient experience in the Art of Duelling and then watching me perform would be of greater help! That way you can understand what you did wrong and learn quicker!” Somehow the fella managed to come up with a valid excuse to avoid it.
She wanted to say something to put him on the spot once again, but Lockhart did not give her the chance and announced, “Now enough of that! I’m now going to put you all in pairs. Professor Snape, if you would…”
‘Tsk, he escaped.’ She actually felt a sort of grudging admiration for how slippery he was. But Ginny Weasley did not back down from a challenge. A sinister smile appeared on her face, almost scaring the two fangirls into tears. ‘Hehe, let’s see, let’s see~ How many times can you run from me~?’
She somehow ended up paired up with a second-year Slytherin girl. Snape gave the excuse that since she thought that she was so much better than the rest of her classmates, she should pair up with a higher-year. She could not hold back the urge to roll her eyes and lost 5 points. She did a double take when she heard the girl’s name though - Daphne Greengrass.
‘Well, well. If it isn’t the Child of Fanon.’ She evaluated the girl in slight surprise.
Daphne Greengrass. The older sister of her classmate, Astoria Greengrass. And probably the most popular love interest in fanfiction. She was described as a cold, beautiful ice-queen who was also extremely motivated to save her sister from her blood curse that plagued the Greengrasses every few generations. She was also described as a tsundere sometimes.
In fact, this character was so overused in fanfiction, that Ginny's previous incarnation had almost believed that he remembered the series wrong. It wasn’t until he’d re-read the books and re-watched the movies that he realised that she did not, in fact, have any role.
The girl in question looked rather dissatisfied that she was paired with a lower year. And apparently, did not think much of her opponent and looked very relaxed, casually chatting with her friend Tracey Davis, who was also a Slytherin.
Ginny just rolled her eyes, she would not take offence at a 12-year-old brat that didn’t know better… - Like Hell! She would definitely teach this proud girl who was boss! She was Ginny Weasley and no one underestimated her! Not even one of her favourite characters from fanon!
“Now, everyone! Face your partners and bow!” Lockharts voice reached them.
“Wands at the ready! On the count of three, cast your charm - only the Disarming Charm! One - two - three!”
Upon hitting three, Ginny saw the girl performing the wand movements for the charm, while her mouth made the required movements for the incantation ‘Expelliarmus’ causing a bright flash of red light to burst out of her wand and travel towards her. The thing was, all of this was painfully slow - Ginny could see where the spell was aimed before Daphne even cast it - allowing her to easily sidestep the spell and return one of her own, knocking the girl a few steps back, while her wand drew a beautiful arc into Ginny’s left hand.
The girl stood there for a few moments, utterly stunned at how effortlessly she seemed to have been defeated.
“Excellent, Ms. Weasley! That was a perfect Disarming Charm! 10 points to Gryffindor!” Lockhart’s excited voice travelled across the hall, drawing a lot of attention.
Greengrass on the other hand, completely ignored the auto-sycophantic maniac, and fixed Ginny with an intense stare. “Again.”
Despite being somewhat startled by her intense gaze, she nodded and tossed the wand back to her.
“Very good, Ms Greengrass! One must never back down after a defeat! Such is the spirit of duelling! Of course, I wouldn’t know as I never…” The waste of space started licking his own arse with such stupendous vigour, Ginny nearly died from the cringe.
Greengrass was still ignoring him, her gaze fixated on her opponent. Lockhart must have sensed her disregard as he announced, “Time for a rematch! Now, wands at the ready. On three. One - two - three!”
This time, Ginny did not wait for the other side to act. Immediately stepping to the side - just in case, she cast her spell before poor Daphne even had a chance to react. Thus, once again, her wand flew out of her hands and landed on Ginny’s outstretched hand.
A large number of Gryffindor’s cheered, while the Slytherins were looking depressed, a few giving Daphne distasteful looks.
“Well done, Ms. Weasley! 5 points to Gryffindor!”
After the cheering subsided, Snape decided to take his anger out on Harry, leading to the same events as in canon. The difference was that, because there was no basilisk or Heir of Slytherin running around, the impact was much lesser. Though, there were still rumours about Harry being a Dark Lord in the making.
At the end of the duelling session, she tried to get Lockhart to promise that he would duel Snape. But the fellow turned out to be incredibly slippery and managed to avoid her.
‘Tsk.’ she clicked her tongue, ‘How long do you think you can escape me?’