8:00 p.m., school Great Hall
The long dining table disappeared, and in the center of the Great Hall stood a temporary square gilded stage, edged by three wooden steps.
Hundreds of candles floating in midair, the center of the Great Hall, decorated beautifully.
Harry, Ron hurried back to the Great Hall, the whole school is almost here, crowded, they are feverishly discussing. The two squeezed along the gap in the crowd towards the front, Harry inadvertently knocked off a first-year witch’s glasses, he hastily apologized “sorry”.
The witch took the glasses and put them back on her forehead, humming something softly that Harry didn’t hear.
The two of them went to the Gryffindor wizarding area, where Seamus, Dean, and Neville were all present, “Hey! Harry, this way.” They sighed with relief, “There are lots of people here.”
Neville Longbottom’s round face turned serious, “Almost all of them are here, it seems everyone is curious about the Duel Club.”
At that moment, Hermione came over from the other direction to rendezvous, and she is holding a newspaper in her hand.
“You’re a little late, where have you been?” Harry asked, while stretching his neck to look out of the corridor.
“I went to see Professor Hap first, then I ran into Professor McGonagall on the way back.”
“Something wrong?” Ron asked casually and didn’t wait for her answer when he suddenly let out a heavy sigh, and a number of other young wizards reacted the same way as he did, as they saw Professor Gilderoy Lockhart in his magnificent purple robes striding into the great hall.
Next to him is a stern-faced Severus Snape, and the two were a wonderful contrast – the former warm and welcoming, the latter downcast and solemn; the former brightly dressed, the latter covered in black.
Harry let out a groan, his two most hated professors will be teaching him dueling courses.
The peacock-like Professor Lockhart gave a graceful speech, starting with a ten-minute account of how he had “worked hard to convince Dumbledore to give everyone the chance to learn how to protect themselves,” interspersed with the familiar self-congratulatory and book-buying advice. -They have become immune to this rhetoric.
In the last thirty seconds, Lockhart made a rare introduction of his “assistant” Professor Snape.
“Professor Snape, who himself knows a little about dueling, has graciously agreed to assist me with a little demonstration before class – but don’t worry, I’ll get your Potion professor back to you in one piece.” He grinned widely.
Snape curled his upper lip and pulled out a courtesy smile that sent chills down Harry’s spine; if Snape had smiled at him like that, he would have long since scampered away.
In the meantime, the school nurse, Madam Pomfrey, stood impatiently at the edge of the field, carrying a white medicine box with her, and Professor Felix Hap also appeared quietly in the corner of the great hall.
He is quite interested in this so-called “dueling course”, and deep down he had some ideas, so he decided to come and take a look.
If Professor Lockhart messed up, maybe he could take over …
And from what he knew about this professor, the odds were great that he would flop.
It’s a test of his subconscious dissatisfaction with the mediocrity and chaos of the wizarding world and Hogwarts, but being prudent, he decided to wait and see first.
…
The dueling session began in less than three minutes, and Felix’s eyes twitched as he looked at Professor Lockhart, who had been knocked off his feet by the “Expelliarmus”, and stood up in confusion, his magnificent purple robe ripped open in a long gash.
You are still a rookie, can’t you have some self-awareness?
Professor Lockhart is assisted to his feet by several young wizards as he stumbles back to center stage, “Okay, everyone, see!” His wavy curly hair stood up at the roots under the magic spell, he looked rather comical, but it’s his next words are the most comical ones.
“This is what will happen if you got hit by Disarming Charm, I hope I just impressed you with my demonstration–” he glanced at Snape, “But don’t mind me saying this, your intention just now was obvious, if I wanted to stop you, it’s not going to take a lot of effort …”
“But the young wizards need to grow their insight, might as well show them …” Lockhart couldn’t go on anymore, Snape is looking at him with a murderous look on his face.
Lockhart wisely changed the subject and moved the lesson to the next stage. Without any specific teaching, he pulled out a dozen pairs of young wizards and had them stand in a small grid across the stage.
“This is the end of demonstration this time! Let’s see what you’ve learned, Professor Snape, if you’ll help me …”
What followed was a lousy battle, and Lockhart, wishing to avoid a head-to-head with Snape or giving specific magic instructions, shifted his task to critique and instruct, but he overestimated the level of spellcasting and discipline of the young Hogwarts wizards.
In particular, Snape intentionally or unintentionally arranged for his own house and the little lions to pair up, which is strange if they didn’t fight.
Although Lockhart repeatedly stressed that only the Disarming Charm can be used, which the young wizards have never learned – if you do not count Lockhart’s “demonstration” just now. So after a few ineffective incantations by both parties, a variety of small vicious jinx popular among the student community emerged.
From Felix’s point of view, Harry and Malfoy’s group was barely interesting, but the two basically had no concept of dueling, using a turn-based system, like here a Tickling Charm ” Rictusempra “, oh, then take this “Tarantallegra”, while the rest were just watching So, it’s a turn-based system.
The remaining wizards, Neville and Justin, were both on the ground, panting as if they had battled hard, but they hadn’t released a single spell from the beginning to the end.
Ron scratched the dead-faced Seamus and apologized repeatedly, his wand is still spewing green smoke.
And his own assistant side … their wands have long since lost, wrestling with each other, the Slytherin girl with a huge size advantage gained the upper hand, her arm clamped Hermione’s head, but Hermione also has one hand deadlocked on the opposite side’ hair … …
“Oh my god, oh my god!” Lockhart screamed, but he had no effect on the field, and Felix had to cross the crowd, waving his wand around to separate the young wizards a dozen times.
“Professor Hap …” Lockhart is a little flustered and still hesitant, but soon his mind is drawn to the tragic situation of the little wizards. “Miss Fawcett … press hard and pinch your nose, the bleeding will stop immediately, and your nose is broken, and…”
Madam Pomfrey stepped on stage and pulled Lockhart away as the distinguished school nurse madam quickly cast a spell and poured various coloured potions into the mouths of the young wizards. “Dumbledore should not have approved … it’s ridiculous, it’s just ridiculous … totally incompetent …”
Seamus took a sip of the green gooey stuff, his face turned even greener, and finally he burped and spewed out a cloud of green gas.
“Shame on the professor for letting little wizards engage in dangerous activities …” Pomfrey kept muttering under her breath, but she quickly solved the trouble and in less than five minutes back and forth, the little wizards were back on their feet.
Lockhart looked a little overwhelmed, “Well, ah …” he froze for a few seconds, “Let us thank Madam Pomfrey for her efforts, she is a strong support staff for our dueling classes… …and of course, Professor Hap.”
He stole a glance at Felix, who is standing on the stage with absolutely no intention of going down.
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