Hermione got the potion book the next morning and Evan ordered the herbs that afternoon.
That night, they gathered in the girl's bathroom on the third floor. There was no moaning and it was very peaceful. Moaning Myrtle was no longer present in the bathroom anymore, Evan looked around and saw a tiny snake on the side of a copper faucet.
"That faucet is broken."
Hermione turned the thick potion book to the page of the Polyjuice potion and checked the formula for the herbs she had just acquired.
"It's the most complicated potion I've ever seen." muttered Hermione, pointing to the ingredient list with her fingers, "Fluxweed, Knotgrass, Lacewing flies stewed for twenty-one days, Leeches, Horn of Bicorn, Lacewing fly boomslang skin and a piece of a person's hair you want to turn into."
"God, Evan, how much did you spend on these things, they aren't cheap!"
"300 Galleons, this is all the money the newspaper recently made." Shrugged Evan, "I was going to use the money to buy a Christmas present for everyone but there are more important things"
"You're saying all these herbs are worth 300 Galleons?" said Ron while being a little distressed over the price.
"Yes," Evan was also a little distressed.
"Well, we have everything we need for the potion except something from the person we want to turn into."
"What do you mean, something from the person? I will not drink it if it has Crabbe's toenails in it!"
Hermione seemed to not hear him.
Ron turned to Harry, speechless, and Harry's face was the same as his.
"The question now is, how long will it take to concoct the potion?" asked Evan.
"Well, you need to boil the Lacewing flies for 21 days."
"21 days! Malfoy will take out half of the muggle-born students by then," said Ron.
"Then do you have a better idea?" Hermione snapped the book and glared at Ron.
"What about the house elf that has been causing Harry trouble. What if we make Malfoy a horrible meal when he is at home for the holidays, that makes him stay at home for the entire term." Ron's voice was getting smaller and smaller as Hermione looked at Ron angrily.
"We aren't sure if it's Malfoy." said Evan as he shook his head, "Besides the herbs have already been bought, so there is no turning back."
"You're right Evan!"
Ron seeing Hermione about to argue with him, hastily agreed, "It is bad to waste Galleons, but please don't use toenails, okay."
The people discussed the plan once more, and after confirming that there were no omissions, they started preparing the materials according to the recipe.
Time gradually passed by; the atmosphere of the school was still a little grim.
Evan stopped by Lockhart's class during one of his classes.
He had been asked by Lockhart to act as a creature he wrote in one of his books, it was a new teaching activity recently created by Lockhart.
"Evan, your performance was marvellous"
"I'm happy to be of help, Professor."
"What else do you have for me to do? My next class is Professor McGonagall's transfiguration, I shouldn't be late," said Evan
"Is that so." said Lockhart while showing off his iconic smile, "I'm hoping to start a duelling club in the wake of the current events at the school."
"Duelling club?"
"Yes, you know I have more experience with dealing with magical creatures than the other professors." said Lockhart, "I'm not bragging but I don't mind imparting some of this experience on you to help you improve your fighting power."
"Excellent idea, what do you need me to do?"
"I'll put the message on the bulletin board, and you can advertise in the paper, that's about it," said Lockhart.
Lockhart wanted to put it on the front page, but he didn't want his name published, he said it was to keep it mysterious and give everyone a big surprise. Thinking about it made Evan have a wry smile.
"What can Lockhart teach us, how to get rid of bones?" thought Evan
But he readily consented to the other party's request, after thinking that there wasn't anything worth promoting. Perhaps it would be a chance to redeem the newspaper's ever-lowering sales with the duelling clubs influence.
'The school will start a duelling club' read the article.
In the latest issue of the newspaper, Evan paced a big question mark, following that was a list of possible teachers for the Duelling club, their strengths and past achievements. After a lot of publicity, this issue of the Hogwarts' Magic newspaper sold like it did before the second attack.
Under the wording of Evan's article, most people thought that the teacher would be Dumbledore.
It was shocking because Professor Dumbledore hadn't used magic in public for many years, he used it slightly before Voldemort's downfall.
Needless to say, it excited many young wizards, many adult wizards who ordered the paper wanted to come to school to have the opportunity to learn from the greatest wizard of the modern ages. It was exciting just thinking about it.
The editor of the Daily Prophet wrote him shortly after he heard the news of the duelling club. He wanted to send someone to interview the duelling club.
However, it was rejected which made students even more curious, most people thought it would be Dumbledore.
Because of Evan's propaganda, the duelling club which was originally supposed to be in a small area of the dungeon had to be moved to the great hall because of the number of students.
At eight o'clock in the evening on Wednesday, the students returned to the great hall after they rested in the common room after dinner. The long tables vanished and were replaced by a magnificent stage illuminated by hundreds of candles floating above.
Soon the ceiling once again became as dark as a moonless night.
Evan who knew the truth was dragged by Colin and Ginny from the library to the Great Hall. In their words, I hope Evan will guide them on defensive spells so that all the freshmen will know that Evan's spells are the best of his peers.
Everyone was squeezed together, each holding this wand while being excited.
"When is the headmaster coming, what do you think he will teach us?"
"Don't be silly Ron!"
Because of how loud the crowd was, Hermione had to raise her voice and shout, "It can't be, Professor Dumbledore hasn't taught in years. Besides if it was him there was no need to be mysterious, he is just a gimmick."
"Not Dumbledore."
"Wasn't Flitwick a duelling champion when he was young, maybe he will be the one to teach us," said Hermione while being unsure.
"Evan must know, he wrote the article."
Harry and Ron hurriedly went to Evan, who was near Colin and Ginny, Nevil also joined in with a look of anticipation.
"Don't look at me like that, I thought when you saw the article you could figure out who it was!"
"Wait a minute, you don't mean...…."
Before Harry's words finished, they turned into a groan as he saw Lockhart go onto the stage wearing a radiant purple robe.
"Yes, it's him!" said Evan, "And he seems to have brought a special guest with him."
The lively atmosphere of the great hall suddenly became a bit grim when they saw who was beside Lockhart.
It was Snape who was dressed in his usual black clothes.
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All the students were soon disappointed.
Lockhart was supposed to show them how to fight but he picked the wrong opponent.
After the count of three, Snape waved his wand, producing a dazzling red light. Lockhart was hit and was flung off the stage onto the wall and fell to the floor curling up into a ball.
Evan breathed in a breath of air and breathed out a heavy sigh.
After the girl's started screaming, Lockhart staggered to his feet and quickly regained his composure.
He jumped onto the stage with a wry smile after thinking what to say.
"I think everybody saw what happened, it was a disarming charm, as you can see, I have lost my wand."
"And crashed!" shouted the audience.
Everyone underestimated Lockhart's mindset. He treated the booing as compliments.
"Professor Snape it was an excellent idea to show the students what it is like to receive a disarming charm but I could have easily deflected it. I think the students should broaden their horizons, let them��…"
Seeing Snape's murderous face made Lockhart hastily say, "The demonstration is over. Now everyone will form a pair of two, Professor Snape, you can help me..."
They walked through the crowd and paired students up.
Lockhart made Neville and Justin a pair, and Snape walked towards Harry and Ron.
"The Dream team should be broken up, I think…!" Snape sneered and said, "Weasley you can be a pair with Mason, as for you Potter…."
Hearing his words made Harry subconsciously move closer to Hermione.
"I don't think so," said Snape with a smirk, "Come here Malfoy, let's see what the famous Harry Potter is made of. Miss Granger, you can pair up with Miss Millicent."
Malfoy arrogantly walked over with a smirk on his face.
He was followed by a tall and strong looking Slytherin girl. She stretched out her chin in a threating manner, Hermione reluctantly gave her a slight smile but the girl ignored her.
The next duel was a disaster, Lockhart had finished counting down.
Harry and Malfoy were struck by each other's spells Snape soon walked up to help them. Neville and Justin were both laying on the floor gasping. Hermione and Millicent were still in action, she gripped Hermione's hair which made Hermione shriek, their wands were both laying on the floor forgotten in their brawl.
Harry jumped up and pulled Millicent away.
The worst duel was Evan and Ron's, Evan let Ron destroy himself, Ron produced the same spell as Snape but instead of the intended result it was Ron flying away but it was less powerful than Snape's.
In the next second, something unexpected happened.
A dark blue light flew out from Ron's wand. It was a spell that Evan had never seen before, the glow made it seem like it is evil. This was not the killing curse but Evan felt the fear of death from it.
He loudly shouted "Protego"
The spell seemed to have worked, the dark blue light couldn't be bounced back by the spell but it did slow down.
It was like the spell was made of acid; Evan saw that the floor was corroding quickly which made all of the young wizard's gasp.
"God, Ron, what did you use?!" exclaimed Evan in fright.
"I don't know!" said Ron as if he had just awoken, "I just used it but I didn't know it would…."
Snape hurried over, he looked at the dark marks on the ground. He then stared at Ron with a peculiar look.
"Weasley did you go and peek at the books in the restricted section?" said Snape, you could tell by his tone it was more of a rhetorical question.
"No, no!" answered Ron while stuttering and looking suspicious, Ron remembered the potion book they had taken.
"It must be your broken wand," said Evan, Seeing Ron's face, Evan knew if Ron got questioned more he was going to give away that they were making the Polyjuice potion so he hastily shifted the subject, "Ron, I will never duel with you again until you change your wand."
"But the spell is…"
"Enough!" said Snape, "If you are allowed to duel with that empty head of yours, I will probably bury you tomorrow."
"That right, Professor Snape. I think it's best to teach them how to stop unfriendly spells like that." said Lockhart, "How about we have someone come up and demonstrate, how about Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley?"
"Not the best idea, Professor Lockhart" Snape quickly made it to Lockhart like a serpent, "Longbottom is just like Weasley. We would be sending Finch-Fletchley to the hospital wing in a matchbox."
This caused Neville to blush with embarrassment, Snape said: "What about Malfoy and Potter?"
"That's wonderful!" Lockhart motioned for Harry and Malfoy to come to the centre of the stage, People retreated to make room for them.
Harry and Malfoy were standing on opposite sides of the stage, Lockhart and Snape imparted some combat knowledge to their respective students. Lockhart didn't know what to say to Harry, he waved his wand and dropped it to the floor.
Next was as Evan remembered.
The long black snake came out of Malfoy's wand and landed on the stage with a loud thud it then raised its head and was prepared to attack.
The crowd screamed and stepped back.
Snape had intended to frighten Harry a bit but Lockhart had made it worse. He cast a spell which sent the snake high into the air which caused it to land in the crowd.
It was furious it went straight to the closest person which was Justin, it raised its head while exposing it fangs and got into an offensive posture.
Everyone then heard Harry speak to the snake in a hissing voice, this made everyone hold their breath and become motionless, the auditorium was deadly silent.
The snake stopped and Harry looked up at Justin while grinning.
After seeing his gaze, everyone took a step back. Justin's face was full of rage and horror.
"What are you playing at?" shouted Justin in horror with tears rolling down from his eyes, he then turned and ran out of the Great Hall.
Evan hurried up with Ron and dragged the confused Harry off the stage.