Before dinner that day, Scott and his roommates discovered a new piece of parchment posted on the bulletin board in front of the auditorium.
“Duel Club?”
Eddie glanced at the content of the notification and couldn’t help laughing with gloating.
“What, Lockhart must be regretting it now!”
Roger also laughed out loud, “Oh! I really want to see Professor Lockhart’s expression.”
Contrary to what Lockhart expected, judging from the content of the notice in front of him, the founder of the Duel Club appointed by Dumbledore was Snape.
Lockhart, probably because of his “initiative”, only got the position of an assistant.
Even though the font of Lockhart’s signature on the parchment was several times larger than Snape’s signature, it did not change this fact.
Scott said: “I’m really looking forward to the two professors conducting a demonstration duel for us.”
After he finished speaking, several people laughed out loud.
It had been so long since school started, and everyone had already determined that Lockhart was a real idiot, and he would never be Snape’s opponent.
Even Rimbaud, who was standing on Scott’s shoulder, laughed.
At this time, more and more students gathered around.
They seemed interested in the dueling club’s activities.
“If only Snape hadn’t been the initiator.”
Scott heard more than one person say that.
Snape’s usual behavior made him very unpopular.
He has always been the most disliked professor at Hogwarts in the eyes of students in the other three houses except Slytherin.
Even the Ravenclaws felt that Professor Flitwick, who had won the duel competition, was the best candidate.
The Slytherins present clearly supported their Head of House.
They all showed proud expressions and glared viciously at those who were not optimistic about them.
“Oh! This is terrible!”
Scott heard Ron Weasley’s voice.
He turned his head and saw the other person facing the bulletin board with a horrified expression.
“This is terrible, Harry.” Ron Weasley said to Harry next to him with wide eyes, “Snape plus Lockhart? This is a disaster! A nightmare!”
Harry looked impressed.
“Don’t judge a professor like that!” Hermione Granger glared at the two boys angrily.
Scott looked away and asked his three roommates, “How is it going? Are you ready to participate?”
“I will participate!” Eddie said without thinking. “My intuition tells me that there will be something lively to watch at night.”
Roger and Milton nodded.
After dinner, they went their separate ways.
Scott went to the Owlhouse at Hogwarts and spent a handful of nuts to hire a school-raised public owl to deliver messages for him.
Of course, this owl cannot fly across the European continent and the Mediterranean Sea to distant Egypt.
The school’s public owl only provides short-distance delivery service.
Scott only entrusted the owl to deliver the letter and the fee to the owl post office in Hogsmeade Village, where there would be a dedicated long-distance mail service.
Scott arrived at the auditorium on time before eight o’clock in the evening.
At this time, the auditorium was already crowded, and it seemed that all the students in the school had arrived.
Scott stood on tiptoes and looked around.
The four long tables in the auditorium have disappeared, replaced by a gilded stage.
The hundreds of candles floating in the sky were still burning, but the ceiling that usually displayed the sky had turned into pitch black.
“Scott, here!”
In the crowd, Roger raised his hands high and waved.
Scott walked through the crowd.
Only when he got closer did he realize that Roger was standing with his girlfriend.
“Hello, Scott.”
The girl standing next to Roger took the initiative to say hello to him.
“I’m Caccinistrozzi, just call me Caccini.”
Caccini, who has long black hair, is an intellectual and generous-looking girl.
“Hello, Caccini.”
Scott smiled and nodded.
“Oh, Scott.” Eddie leaned over and said with a smile, “Look at Lockhart’s expression.”
Scott looked up and saw Lockhart, wearing a bright purple robe, standing next to the stage with Snape, who was wearing a black robe.
Snape remained as cold and silent as ever, not even looking at Lockhart, who had an extremely embarrassed smile on his face.
“How are they going to start?” Eddie said. “I’m really looking forward to giving us a demonstration like you said.”
At this time, Snape walked onto the stage as if gliding on the ground.
The auditorium suddenly became quiet.
Snape glanced around the crowd with his dark, empty eyes, and said in his unique silky tone: “The reason why the Duel Club is held is because there are too many troll-like students in Hogwarts. You can’t even wave a wand stupidly.”
At this point, he curled up his upper lip and sneered, “Not to mention understanding the ancient and elegant traditional project of wizard duel.”
“Yes Yes!”
Lockhart walked onto the stage with hurried steps and interrupted loudly.
“I will fully train you all in case you one day need to protect yourself using the methods I have used countless times!”
He grinned brightly and winked at a group of girls off the stage who were looking at him infatuatedly, causing them to let out a suppressed scream.
“For details on this, please see my published works.” He said playfully.
The girls screamed again.
“They are so courageous.” Milton said tremblingly.
Scott could see that Snape’s face had darkened several degrees visibly.
He suddenly let out a sneer that everyone could hear, and the screams of the “Lockhart girls” stopped immediately.
They were like a group of little hens whose necks were suddenly strangled, looking at Snape with wide eyes and horror.
“Deliberately disrupting public places and impolitely disturbing the professor’s speech.” Snape looked around the group of girls with cold eyes. “Gryffindor and Hufflepuff will each be deducted 30 points.”
Then he turned and looked at Lockhart with the same look.
The smile on Lockhart’s face had completely frozen.
“Thanks to my assistant, Professor Lockhart, for his remarks.”
Snape deliberately emphasized the word “assistant.”
“According to what he said, he is also very good at dueling. Now, I want to invite him to join me in giving a demonstration to everyone.”
Eddie said excitedly like a narrator: “Is it finally coming? Will Lockhart agree?”
“If I were him, I would definitely turn around and run away.” Milton looked at Snape who was feeling depressed on the stage from a distance, and his face turned pale with fear.
Scott said firmly: “I think he will agree.”
On the stage, Lockhart smiled as naturally as possible.
“Of course I can accept your invitation, Severus.”
Then, he turned to the stage and said loudly: “Don’t be afraid, I will return your Potions Professor intact!”
“Oh! Lockhart is really brave, isn’t he?” Eddie made a gloating voice, “Why isn’t he a Gryffindor?”
Everyone around him was amused by his words.
“Very good.” Snape smiled with an unknown meaning, “Let’s get started quickly.”
Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed to each other.
Or rather, Lockhart bowed, his hands moving in a colorful way.
Snape just nodded symbolically.
Then they all raised their wands to their chests.
“As you can see, we hold our wands in dueling positions,”
Lockhart spoke to the students again.
“On the next count of three, we will cast the first spell. Of course, neither of us will take the other’s life.”
Scott felt that Snape must want to take Lockhart’s life at this moment.
“One, two…” Snape shouted impatiently.
Lockhart stopped talking quickly and raised his wand over his shoulder.
“three!”
The two waved their wands almost simultaneously.
“Expelliarmus!”
A dazzling red light flew out from the tip of Snape’s wand, hitting Lockhart first.
Lockhart’s expression was blank.
His wand came out instantly, and his body flew backwards, across the stage, and hit the wall.
Then–
“…He slowly slid down like a chocolate frog that had been slapped against the wall, and curled up on the floor like a Philobian caterpillar that had been squeezed dry of its mucus!”
——Live commentary from Eddie.
…
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