Chapter 118 Duel Club (1)
Della had not originally planned to go to the Dueling Club opened by Lockhart on Wednesday night, but Snape, whom she always used as an excuse, was the assistant of the club, so she could only reluctantly follow Draco to the hall and participate in this nonsense at 8 o'clock in the evening.
The long dining tables in the auditorium disappeared, replaced by a large gilded stage along the wall. The stars on the ceiling also disappeared, and hundreds of floating candles illuminated the excited faces of the students below the stage.
Almost all the students in the school came, because the students had already spread the gossip about the club's instructors, Gilderoy Lockhart and Severus Snape. The names of these two people were enough to attract the nerdiest students in their own colleges.
As for Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, even if they were not so well-informed, they had enough nature to participate in this club voluntarily.
Besides, considering the current atmosphere where everyone is in danger, it is not a bad thing to participate in a group activity.
Because there were so many people, everyone was chattering and the place was very noisy. Even when Draco, who was next to Della, spoke to her, they had to shout a little to communicate. After saying a few words, both of them gave up the conversation and looked around casually.
As she looked at the magnificent gilded stage, Della noticed a focused gaze getting closer and closer to her, but she did not move until her shoulder was gently touched, then she turned her head to look.
It was a senior with black hair and black eyes, Trevor Ewing, a sixth-year Slytherin. Maggie was sitting on his shoulders.
"I think I have to bring him over to the host's house to say hello," Trevor pointed at Maggie on his shoulder, a smile on his pretty face, "Thank you so much for bringing him in, Della."
"I am also very grateful for taking care of him. Maggie is much more energetic now than when I was raising him alone." It was not the first time Della spoke to this gentle senior, and she greeted him very skillfully.
"I really admire you. Even though you are so outstanding, you are still so low-key and polite," said Trevor.
Hearing this, Della knew that the news of her using wandless magic in the Potions class last week had slowly spread. Although she was only in the second year, it was no exaggeration to say that she was already a well-known figure in Slytherin.
In her first year, she entered the most racially discriminatory college because she was from an orphanage. She was a victim of vicious bullying, a survivor in the Forbidden Forest, and one of the contributors to helping Slytherin retain the House Cup.
By the second year, the helpless orphan had become the dean's adopted daughter. As her status soared, people began to pay more attention to her excellent grades. Now, she had begun to master wandless magic at such a young age.
Doesn't it sound tortuous and legendary? No matter how you think about it, the comments that are spread should be positive.
This was indeed the case on the surface, but Della knew that some people were speculating about her in a different way. She had met them a few times by chance, but Della didn't care much about them. After all, they were all unrelated people and would not have much interaction with them in the future.
"Dean Snape taught very well. I always felt it was a pity. If he had been the teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts, he would have been able to teach the students more." Della said with a hint of regret.
"I didn't think teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts was a good job, but now that you mention it, I feel sorry for it." As he was speaking, Trevor saw his roommate waving at him. He immediately raised his head in response, then bowed his head and said goodbye to Della. "My roommate called me. I look forward to communicating with you next time, Della."
"Okay, senior." Della responded obediently. She looked at Trevor's eyebrows which were slightly frowned because of anxiety, and felt a little familiar, but couldn't put her finger on it. But then she thought, the wizarding world is not big, and many families have portraits of several people who appear forever in books.
Moreover, intermarriage is very common within the wizarding world. If you really want to talk about it, everyone is a relative if you look at a few generations, and seeing familiar noses and eyes is really a very common thing.
So Della put the matter aside and continued to look at the exquisite but over-stacked decorations on the stage. The arrangement here must have been designed by Lockhart, as exaggerated as he was. Just as she was thinking about it, Della saw Lockhart, who was wearing a purple robe and was dazzling, walk onto the stage.
"Come here, come here!" Lockhart shouted while waving his hands, and the people in the audience immediately crowded outside the stage like a tide. Della felt her shoulders being squeezed by several people, but Draco protected her a little, so she could still breathe. They slowly squeezed to the front of the stage.
Lockhart introduced the reason for establishing this duel club - to train everyone in self-defense. Della was very skeptical about this, but for Professor Snape behind Lockhart, she still had a little expectation.
This little bit of expectation was fully satisfied when she saw Snape use the Disarming Charm to knock Lockhart off the stage. Della immediately applauded with Draco beside her.
There were quite a few people applauding from the audience, probably because they were praising Dean Snape for his skillful disarming spell.
"Yes, very good, Professor Snape, but your intention is too obvious. It would be easy for me to stop you, so I want to show them this..." Lockhart said as he staggered onto the stage. After seeing Snape's visible murderous aura, he immediately changed the subject.
"That's the end of the demonstration! I'll come over to you now and divide you into groups of two. Professor Snape, if you're willing to help me..."
It was not an easy task to move through the gathered crowd. Anyway, the two professors only paired up the first and second graders, and let the rest form their own teams. Not surprisingly, Della was in the same group with Draco.
"Are we going to hex each other?" Draco asked.
"The Disarming Spell is not a curse. Generally speaking, it will just make the wand fly away from your hand," Della replied. "You can think that Professor Snape just brought some personal emotions with him."
"Are you going to cast a spell on me right now with your personal feelings?" Draco blinked.
"Do you want me to do this?" Della knew he was going to make another joke, so she blinked her eyes like him.
"Don't keep kicking the ball back like that." Draco muttered with a smile.
They were originally very close to each other, but as they talked, they moved a few steps away from each other. However, both of them smiled at each other. They followed Lockhart's instructions and bowed to each other. When they looked up, their two little faces became serious at the same time.
"Wands up, ready!" Lockhart shouted. "On the count of three, cast your spell to disarm him - just disarm him - we want no accidents. One - two - three -"
After Lockhart finished counting, Della and Draco, who were facing him, also raised their wands forward, but amid the sound of spells hitting and screams, neither of them cast any spells. They looked at each other and laughed again.
"Why don't you cast the spell?" Amid the chaotic noise, Draco walked towards Della.
"Why don't you cast a spell?" Della asked back, not caring at all about the practical significance of this club.
"I want to say I'm reluctant, but you'll definitely refute me. Even a look of rebuttal counts as a rebuttal, Della."
Draco walked to Della's side in two or three steps and said, "So I want to say that we have disarmed the opponent without using any spells."
"Do you think this is what I think too?" Della laughed softly.
"It must be!" Draco said with rare strength, and held Della's hand with a red face.
Della shook Draco's warm hand in return. Even though she agreed to Draco's words, her face was a little red, but overall she looked as calm and composed as usual.
So Draco always felt it was a pity that he seemed to have never seen Della being particularly shy. Although he was very happy that Della had never been shy because of others, he was no longer so satisfied with just seeing a small and suggestive blush on his girlfriend's face.
Draco was just about to make further efforts and say something nice to make Della's face blush more, when he heard Lockhart, who had stepped onto the stage at some point, shouting again, "I have to teach you how to stop unfriendly magic. Now please volunteer a pair - Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, what do you think?"
"That's a bad idea, Professor Lockhart," Snape retorted. He said a few more words and then turned his attention to the students in the hall. "If I were to recommend it -"
Snape's gaze first fell on Della, and after seeing his adopted daughter's slightly widened eyes in response, he subtly understood that "are you serious" expression. Well, indeed, now letting Della duel with seniors would be considered bullying by Della.
Snape didn't want to choose a few other senior students in the academy who performed well. Although he knew that if the seniors were paired up, students from all academies would perform well, he didn't want to embarrass the initiator of the duel club.
Well, after all, we have to choose them. Snape grinned. He looked at Harry who was in a state of distraction and suggested loudly, "Malfoy and Potter, what do you think?"
"Excellent!" said Lockhart, motioning Harry and Draco to take centre stage.
Draco reluctantly let go of Della's hand, and when he saw Harry's black hair swaying as he walked, he started walking quickly again excitedly.
This is a rare opportunity to embarrass that damn savior in front of Della, he must seize it!