Vincent again continued to owl me near-daily, and we agreed on another date during my winter break. My mom was eager to meet him, and so invited him for Christmas despite me telling her we weren't even official. She brushed it off, saying we will be by that time.

As eleven o'clock approached we carefully made our way down to the empty potions classroom. We consisting of myself, June, Sarah, Lori, and Elio, who was mainly tagging along with us because of Lori. Initially, I was under the impression that Lori was the object of his short term affections, as Elio was a well known and established bachelor, but I was starting to second guess my assumption after seeing the hoops and hurdles he jumped through to gain her attention. The boy was practically drooling over her as she carelessly talked to us! Lori too, despite her flirtatious personality, seemed to be wholly enamoured by Elio and seemed to have no intentions of leaving him.

June despite not liking Lori at first, and describing her as "annoying" was the first to take her under her wing. It almost seemed like June considered her another one of her numerous younger siblings, although she would never admit it.

Sarah was delivering Snape a message to come and meet Dumbledore in his office for something, and so we followed her, trying to make sure we were not visible to anyone who might round a corner.

When we finally got to the classroom door, each one of us hid behind different knight armour stands that liked the entirety of the hallway. These armour plates seemed to be made for giants, or at least someone the size of Hagrid because hiding behind them took no effort on any of our parts.

Sarah politely knocked before entering. For a moment I didn't hear anything from behind the door, but it wasn't long before I heard Snape's muffled voice, conveying annoyance.

"You will escort me there." I heard very distinctly as Snape's heavy footsteps swiftly exited the classroom, followed by Sarah's light ones.

We waited for the sound of their footsteps to drift away, and only after they were out of earshot did we step out. Much to our delight, Snape left the potions door wide open, and we were granted easy access to his storage shelves.

I pulled a piece of parchment out of my pocket and looked it over.

Lacewing flies (stewed for 21 days)

Leeches

Powdered bicorn horn

Knotgrass

Fluxweed (picked at full moon)

Shredded Boomslang skin

A bit of the person one wants to turn into(typically hair)

I showed the list to the rest of the group.

"Oh, I know where all of this is!" Lori exclaimed. "Who has the extendable pockets again?"

"Me," June said, shoving her whole arm into a pocket in the front of her robes, and it seemingly disappearing into nothing.

"Alright, come here." She motions towards the shelves.

June stepped forward, and Lori grabbed all of the bottles and packages needed with a speed that was surprising, and slightly concerning. She quickly shoved them into June's pocket and smiled sweetly at Elio.

"How the bloody hell did you know where all of these are?" June gawked.

"All I'm going to say," Elio answered, "is that if you want to have a good smoke sesh, Lori is the woman to go to."

"No fucking way," it was my turn to gasp, "you?"

Lori nodded, giggling. "I don't actually deal, I just have stashes."

"Alright gang," Elio chuckled, wrapping his arm around Lori's shoulders. "As nice as hanging out with you here is, we should probably leave before Snape comes back.

"So how do you all feel about duel club at eight?" June asked.

We were all for it, and at eight were all gathered in the dining hall, alongside a plethora of other students.

The long dining tables had vanished and a golden stage had appeared along one wall, lit by thousands of candles floating overhead. The ceiling was velvety black once more and most of the school seemed to be packed beneath it, all carrying their wands and looking excited.

"Who do you bet will be the teacher?" June whispered to me.

"Five sickles it's Flitwick," I whispered back.

"Five sickles it's Dumbledore." She grinned.

Both of us groaned when we saw Gilderoy Lockhart walking onto the stage, resplendent in robes of deep plum and accompanied by none other than Snape, wearing his usual black.

Lockhart waved an arm for silence and called "Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!!"

I saw Oliver standing only five feet away from me, and we exchanged looks.

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little duelling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I have done on countless occasions - for full details, see my published works."

Lori let out a swooning sigh, and Elio furrowed his brows at her, causing June and I to chuckle.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about duelling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you, youngsters, to worry - you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

"I reckon it would be pretty cool if they just offer each other." June chuckled in my ear.

Snape's upper lip was curling. I wondered why Lockhart was so calm. If Snape was staring at me like that, I would be running in the opposite direction screaming for mercy. For a moment I thought maybe he was good enough to be unafraid.

Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Snape jerked his head irritably. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them.

"As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position," Lockhart told the silent crowd. "On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

"Somehow I doubt that." Elio snickered darkly.

"One - two - three--"

Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Snape cried: "Expelliarmus!" There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet: He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.

I heard a few Slytherin's whooping and cheering and craned my neck to see if Lockhart was even conscious.

Lockhart was getting unsteadily to his feet. His hat had fallen off and his wavy hair was standing on end.

"Well, there you have it!" he said, tottering back onto the platform. "That was a Disarming Charm - as you see, I've lost my wand - ah, thank you, Miss Brown - yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy - however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see..."

Snape was looking murderous. Possibly Lockhart had noticed, because he said, "Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me-"

They moved through the crowd, matching up partners. Lockhart seemingly avoided me, because despite Snape being further away from me and moving in the opposite direction got to me first. Much to my dismay, I was partnered with Oliver Wood.

Oliver and I both got on our mat and faced each other.

"I'll go easy on you-" He started, looking arrogantly over at me.

"Oh, that will hardly be necessary." I grinned.

"Face your partners!" called Lockhart, back on the platform. "And bow!"

I gave a courteous bow, as did Oliver.

"Wands at the ready!" shouted Lockhart. "When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents - only to disarm them - we don't want any accidents - one ... two ... three--"

I swung up my wand as fast as I possibly could and cast the first thing that came to mind.

"FLIPENDO!"

Oliver was clearly in the middle of casting his jinx, but I knocked him down before he could finish, and he flew back several feet, hitting the floor with a loud thud.

"Stop! Stop!" screamed Lockhart at a group a few mats down.

I looked over and saw Harry Potter wildly dancing while Draco Malfoy laughed wildly.

I looked at the rest of the groups.

A haze of greenish smoke was hovering over the scene. Two wimpy looking kids were lying on the floor, panting; Ron Weasley was holding up an ashen-faced boy in his year, apologizing for whatever his broken wand had done; but Hermione Granger and her Slytherin opponent were still moving; the girl had Hermione in a headlock and Hermione was whimpering in pain; both their wands lay forgotten on the floor. Harry Potter leapt forward and pulled the Slytherin off. It was difficult: She was a lot bigger than he was.

"Dear, dear," said Lockhart, skittering through the crowd, looking at the aftermath of the duels. "Up you go, Macmillan..."

"Careful there, Miss Fawcett... Pinch it hard, it'll stop bleeding in a second,"

"I think I'd better teach you how to block unfriendly spells," said Lockhart, standing flustered in the midst of the hall. He glanced at Snape, whose black eyes glinted, and looked quickly away. "Let's have a volunteer pair - Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you-"

"A bad idea, Professor Lockhart," said Snape, gliding over like a large and malevolent bat. "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox." Neville's round, pink face went pinker. "How about Malfoy and Potter?" said Snape with a smile.

"Excellent idea!" said Lockhart, gesturing Harry and Malfoy into the middle of the hall as the crowd backed away to give them room.

"Now, Harry," said Lockhart. "When Draco points his wand at you, you do this."

He raised his own wand, attempted a complicated sort of wiggling action, and dropped it. Snape smirked as Lockhart quickly picked it up, saying, "Whoops - my wand is a little overexcited-"

"Which one?" Asked June, motioning with her eyes to a bulge in Lockhart's pants.

"No fucking way this man got a boner right now." I wheezed.

Snape moved closer to Malfoy, bent down, and whispered something in his ear. Malfoy smirked, too. Harry looked up nervously at Lockhart and said, "Professor, could you show me that blocking thing again?"

Lockhart cuffed Harry merrily on the shoulder. "Just do what I did, Harry!"

"What, drop my wand?"

But Lockhart wasn't listening.

"Three - two - one - go!" he shouted.

Malfoy raised his wand quickly and bellowed, " Serpensortia!"

The end of his wand exploded. Harry watched, aghast, as a long black snake shot out of it, fell heavily onto the floor between them, and raised itself, ready to strike. There were screams as the crowd backed swiftly away, clearing the floor.

"Don't move, Potter," said Snape lazily, clearly enjoying the sight of Harry standing motionless, eye to eye with the angry snake. "I'll get rid of it..."

"Allow me!" shouted Lockhart. He brandished his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang; the snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack. Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin Finch-Fletchley and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.

I was expecting Snape to step forward at that point and subdue the beast, but rather, it was Harry who moved forward. He began to hiss loudly, almost as if talking to the snake. Harry looked up grinning at Justin, but all he got was a terrified reaction.

"What do you think you're playing at?" he shouted, and before Harry could say anything, Justin had turned and stormed out of the hall.

Snape stepped forward, waved his wand, and the snake vanished in a small puff of black smoke.

At this point, everyone left in the hall were looking at Harry. Oliver, who had long since stood up, was peering over my shoulder at him, and I couldn't help but notice his broad shoulders next to my head.

That warmth in the pit of my stomach again. Probably disgust.