When Lockhart saw that everyone had fallen silent, he cleared his throat and said loudly, "Everyone, good evening, can you hear me? If you can't hear me, raise your hand." After a pause, he was relieved to see that no one raised their hand and said with satisfaction, "All right! That's right, after discussions with several deans and Professor Dumbledore... we decided to open this dueling club, in the hope that everyone can learn some practical skills, just like in my book."
After saying this, he lapsed into a brief silence, and as Lockhart's eyes swept over Snape, who was standing off to the side, he seemed to remember what to say.
"Allow me to introduce my assistant, Professor Snape, who is also an expert duellist, and I am honored to have him here today for a demonstration..."
On stage, Lockhart rambled on and on, while Snape kept his face expressionless and didn't say a word. Finally, Lockhart stopped speaking because it was too uncomfortable for him to talk to himself, and coughed, "Well, let's have a duel and a demonstration!"
"If Lockhart can send Snape to the school hospital, I'm willing to buy ten sets of his books." muttered Ron under his breath. Harry, next to him, was tempted to say, "You don't have that kind of money," but that would have broken their friendship, so he swallowed it.
"Hardly, my grandmother says Snape is at his best." Though Neville was speaking, his lips were tightly sealed.
The little wizards in the audience murmured, and Snape's eyes on the stage gradually became more dangerous. His fundamental purpose for appearing at this dueling club today was to monitor Lockhart, lest he cause any harm. As for the dormitory search, he thought Flitwick could do it for him. As for why not Dumbledore, it was because Snape didn't want a Gryffindor in the Slytherin common room.
Thus, the division of labor between the professors was clear. Lockhart and Snape were running the Dueling Club, Dumbledore was in the Great Dining Hall secretly keeping an eye on the students, Professors McGonagall and Sprout were checking the personal belongings of the young wizards in their Houses, and Professor Flitwick was checking both Slytherin and Ravenclaw alone, luckily neither House was too crowded.
Snape had decided that, although he was here today to spy on Lockhart, he would have no qualms about beating him up and admitting him to the school hospital if he could.
The duel was supposed to begin with a bow and wand raised like an arrow in front of his chest, and at that point the duel had theoretically begun. However, for a better demonstration, Lockhart also added a countdown.
The crowd was silent, everyone's eyes widened like saucers, they held their breath and waited in silence for the duel to begin.
Bow down, stand up.
"Three, two, one!"
Snape swiftly raised his wand over his shoulder, "Expelliarmus!" A bright red light flashed, only to be bounced back by a barrier that came out of nowhere. Snape frowned: he hadn't heard the incantation.
"A silent spell?" he thought, "No!" But he soon discovered the truth of the matter: Lockhart was wearing a very special bracelet, and a crystal ball in the bracelet had just ignited, releasing a Protego Charm, deflecting his Disarming Charm.
[Defensive Bracelet (3 stars): created by an Enchantment master and an apprentice alchemist, the bracelet contains 49 crystal balls, each of which can contain an activated defensive spell, only three of which are currently linked to the Protego Enchantment. The potential is enormous, and it may be able to rise a star after it is fully completed]
Snape looked at the crystal balls on the bracelet and felt his head spin: how many defensive spells must have been on it?
Besides, at least one of Flitwick and McGonagall had a hand in making this bracelet!
The fact that his spell was blocked, and the fact that he had frozen, gave Lockhart plenty of time to react.
Against a man as adept at dueling as Snape, there was no difference between the original Lockhart and the current one, both would have been taken down in one move. But if you add a little bit of equipment to the mix, the result is different.... The bracelet Lockhart wears cost Tom a lot of effort. It had a number of defensive spells engraved and attached to it. Now, it was time to strike back.
"[Sister]" A slender figure was summoned by Lockhart with a Summoning Charm.
Of course, Snape recognized the puppet, but he didn't think Lockhart would actually bring it out to fight him: this was no longer a duel between wizards!
At that, Snape's eyes glazed over. He pointed his wand at himself and wisps of wind were born around him, further quickening his movements. Sister]'s attacks came one after another, but Snape dodged them all. In the midst of his dodge, his lips opened and closed several times: "Serpensortia!". There was an explosion at the tip of his wand, and a five-foot-long, thick-armed black snake leapt from it, landing with a thud on the ground between him and [Sister]. The black snake raised its head, revealing its purple snake head and gleaming white fangs.
The young wizards, frightened by the snake's sudden appearance, screamed and quickly backed away, leaving a circular space around the stage. Lockhart also backed away quickly, distancing himself from Snape's black snake, leaving [Sister] between them.
As he backed away, he pulled out a handle with one hand and pointed the wand at Snape with the other, casting a spell.
But a spell of this magnitude was no match for Snape, and he deflected the attack with a light touch, using the Iron Armor spell.
"Diffindo!"
"Protego!"
"Bombarda!"
"Expelliarmus!"
The battle between the two was fierce as the two exchanged spells.
[Sister] slashed at the Black Serpent's body with her sword, but was also hit by Snape's Levitating Charm, losing control of herself and floating into the air.
Snape raised his wand, thinking he had a chance to win, but Lockhart threw several round balls, Snape had to move his wand, and moved away from his original position with agility.
He looked at the balls and thought they looked very familiar.
"Dungballs?!" Fred and George, who were on stage, recognized the orbs, they could tell only by the noise they made as they hit the ground.
The next thing they panicked, "Hold your nose!" Fred screamed at the top of his lungs, covering his mouth and nose as he tried to duck off the stage, but there were so many little wizards around that there was no way to escape.
Dung bombs, magical bombs that emitted a rotten smell. One was enough for Filch to put you on the "special interests" list, and one was enough for your great-aunt Muriel to disassociate herself from the Weasleys, and make a point of giving them nothing in her will, all because they threw a dung bomb under her chair during a family dinner!
Lockhart threw three at once, the latest version of Fred's modified dung bomb. Upon seeing the new dung bombs, they both learned the identity of the guy who had sent them the Muggle version of the entire Lockhart collection over the summer.
Because the lethality is too strong, they didn't sell this type of dung bombs, they only sent a few.
"chi, chi, chi!"
A visible stench filled the Great Dining Hall.
"Huh, huh, ahhh--" the young wizards standing in the front row yelped in pain as they felt the stench after taking a little inhale.
"It stinks!"
The ranged weapon could, naturally, hit Snape, but Lockhart himself was affected, and the two were left puffy-eyed and breathless in the center of the blast.
Snape held back the discomfort and used an incantation to clear the air of the stench, the stench in the air disappeared, but the odor in the nostrils and airways lingered, contaminating the air every time they inhaled it. Every time clean air is inhaled, when exhaled, it has an odor....
The smell of the stench was 360°, and Snape was furious, waving his wand, and a huge fire python emerged from the tip of his wand and rolled towards Lockhart. Lockhart smiled wryly and manipulated the [Sister], wrestling with Snape again.
The duel resumed!
...
"Major, why don't you go to the dueling club?"
Hermione was reading a book in the common room while Snape and Lockhart were fighting in the Great Dining Hall. A clear voice interrupted her thoughts, and she looked up to see that it was the student, Peggy.
"What's wrong, what's wrong?" Hermione lifted her head to look at that delicate little face, feeling a little excited: no one else dared to look like that, but you actually look like that!
"Nothing, I just didn't realize you weren't at the dueling club."
"You weren't either." Hermione laughed and continued reading her book. Peggy stopped talking, sat down across from Hermione, pulled out a book and read silently.
After a while, she closed the book again, "So, Major, is Hogwarts going to be closed? There have been so many Chamber of Secrets attacks in a row..."
"I don't think so, Hogwarts has been around for thousands of years, it hasn't been closed yet, but there are accounts of it almost being closed."
"Well, it's a good thing it's closed, so I can go home and spend more time with dad."
"They almost closed Hogwarts because someone died earlier."
Peggy: "..."
"Major, I have to go to the bathroom first." He got up and headed for the bathroom, Hermione continued to sit in her seat reading her book.
There was a gradual silence around them, even the sound of the wind outside the window had died down.
"Great spell, a modified version of the Soundproofing Charm?" said Hermione without looking up. "And lift the Invisibility Charm, you smell like a sewer rat, I can smell it from ten meters away."
The Muffliato Charm filled everyone's ears with an indistinguishable ringing, thus preventing the others from eavesdropping. However, the current Enchantment in the Ravenclaw common room was quite a bit more advanced than the Muffliato Charm. Had Hermione not been so attentive, she would not have been able to detect that the sound around her had been blocked.
With a splashing effect, a handsome young man appeared five meters in front of Hermione. The boy was much taller than Hermione, with shiny dark hair and the silver prefect badge on his chest gleamed.
Hermione was a little surprised, just looking at the boy's attire and temperament, he was something like Tom Yodel.
"The Soundproof Charm and the Disillusion Charm are a wonderful combination, and have been tried and tested. But I was surprised you noticed," the boy's voice was very calm and gentle.
"A soundproofing spell?"
"A funny little spell I invented to completely isolate this room from outside sound interaction, and I blocked the door in the process, so now the Ravenclaw common room, is also a..."
"A secret room!" The boy sketched a grin tinged with mischief.
"It's a bit indecent to have a man and a woman in the same room." Hermione shook her head, "Can you at least give me your name first?"
"You can call me Tom Sorvolo Riddle," he pulled a wand out of his pocket and waved it in the air a few times, three blood red words floated in the air, Tom Sorvolo Riddle, "But I'd rather you call me..." Riddle stirred the letters with his wand, and the letters changed places and became: I am Voldemort (I am Lord Voldemort).
"Voldemort! This name is my past, present and future..."
"According to grammar, it should be 'I'm' and not 'IAm'" Hermione corrected Riddle's grammatical error.
Riddle: "..."
"Slippery tongue!" Riddle was furious, the little witch in front of him was the first person who had ever dared to say such things in front of him, and he was determined to make her pay.
"So you didn't create this 'secret room' just to play Scrabble with me, did you?" Hermione still looked unconcerned, "Let me guess, you want to suck the life force out of me?"
Riddle paused for a moment, he hadn't expected his target to be seen at a glance. Nor did he expect the little witch in front of him to be so calm.
Her actions today, from the moment he was discovered, had gone in an unforeseen direction. But Riddle was not startled, for he recognized the identity of the little witch before him: the one who had confronted him in the Slytherin Chamber that day when she possessed Victoria.
A second-year witch, what could she do? Riddle was now more confident than ever, for after absorbing the life force from both Victoria and Cassandra, he had regained his full power, and though he is only Voldemort in student days, he was no match for the average student. What's more, he had more to prepare....
Riddle had decided it was okay to be discovered, just to suck the little witch dry right here!
But Hermione in front of him was grinning, "Riddle, tsk tsk..."
"Now that you've given your real name, I'm not going to hide my face..."
"Let's officially meet, I'm Tom Yodel."