AN: The next few chapters will probably feel a little rushed, but I want to finish the second year before chapter 90. Writing this it taking too much time from me at the moment and I've chosen to finish most plotlines by the end of year 3. After that it will be a 'and they lived happily ever after, except for...'
I might come back to tell a story about a graduated Talion, but I kind of doubt it. By the end of year three, most of Harry Potter canon will be dealt with because I accelerated Talion's rate of improvement a little too much. Something I learned that I value greatly for future and current projects.
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That week, the dueling lesson was about to be held at the insistence of quite a few students. Being good at fighting seemed to be a man's romance as several older male students heavily petitioned to their heads of house to get lessons in dueling.
The start of it all, I learned from the Weasley twins, was my own resounding win at the international tournament.
Slytherins out of hubris and pride, Gryffindors out of fool-hardiness and dumb bravery, Hufflepuffs out of determination and curiosity, and Ravenclaws out of scholarly interest and thirst for knowledge about me wanted to find out how hard dueling truly was. Some mocked it as a sport that anybody could become good at. Some mocked it as a hobby for those who were too stupid to play Quidditch. Most of them were ignorant about how hard dueling was on a higher level.
And sadly, neither Flitwick nor I could disillusion them of that notion.
Somehow, the board of governors decided that we were 'too bloodthirsty' and would 'trample those beneath our higher skill ceiling, so that nobody would learn and instead be discouraged'. It had Malfoy written all of it.
Flitwick, when he heard that decision, openly mocked Dumbledore in front of me when an elf came with the missive to inform the professor. My mentor had petitioned to be allowed to teach dueling for over a decade and was banned from doing so each and every time. The professor had admitted to me that he was also not really on speaking terms with the headmaster at the moment because of how Flitwick berated the headmaster at the start of the school year.
When he came with me to the office of Dumbledore that one time after I cleared the first horcrux and spat on Snape's shoes was the first, and since then, last time the two talked.
Lupin, on the other hand, told me about his frustration that he couldn't rely on both Flitwick and I to increase the quality of the few lessons that were planned. He also dreaded having to fight Snape as a show... the greasy asshole seemed even more displeased with everyone than usual.
It might have been my open accusation - or, it was the fact that Slughorn was back in the castle and undermining the current head of house's authority.
I was glad that I was no longer made to attend those lessons with the dungeon bat.
So, instead of attending the event, Flitwick and I prepared for the upcoming Apparition lessons I would get from a ministry worker together with the O.W.L. level students.
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[POV Isobel MacDougal]
A few months ago during the first school year, Talion had shown us a glimpse of what a dueling champion could do. When he decided to train us a little after our insistence around Beltane, he was so amused with our exasperation at his methods that he had allowed us to pelt him with spells.
I still think about how he dodged a vast majority of spells coming from half a dozen witches like a bored dancer from time to time. Or how he was put through the wringer by Professor Flitwick after that to show us Talion's limit.
I was sure that despite Professor Lupin actually being good at his job, nothing good would come from these dueling lessons. After all, both Talion and Professor Flitwick were not allowed to attend. The board had robbed us of an opportunity to learn from the best.
Ah, yes. 'The best'. Natalie and Isodora told me with massive eyerolls that the older students kept insisting that Snape was the better dueler anyway, and there was no need for the has-been half-blood to teach them anything. Ignorant fools.
They had never seen Professor Flitwick in action. From how he made Talion, who grew up in the muggle world, into a champion beating the best the purebloods could offer at three years his senior in an international tournament all the way to being an almost undefeated champion himself... Professor Flitwick's qualifications blew Snape's out of the water by a lot.
Back when Harry and Talion were still on good terms instead of that cordial enduring of each other that they were doing now, Harry took us all from the library to a tower on the third floor overlooking an abandoned courtyard once. In there, Flitwick and Talion had let loose just before the school year ended.
Well, at least Talion did - and it was glorious to watch.
"Hello, first, second, third, and fourth years. I'm quite surprised how many of you signed up for these extra lessons," Lupin greeted with his usual welcoming smile after rearranging the tables in the Great Hall with the help of the house elves.
Snape wasn't here yet. Some Slytherin students that I knew for sure were coming weren't here yet also, but it was already time for the lesson to start.
"Now, quite a few students have asked me to teach them dueling tactics and spells since the start of the school year after reading about what our resident champion had accomplished over the summer. I took your curiosity and wishes seriously and asked the headmaster to arrange for this little event," the professor's smile turned a little wry as he continued, "Of course... I am still saddened by the fact that Mister Macnair and his mentor, Professor Flitwick, were not allowed to attend. To me, that is a huge lost opportunity. But we will make do. The professor was courteous enough to brush up my own rusty skills and incomplete knowledge these past two weeks, and I would like to thank him for allowing me to benefit from his teachings once more."
A small applause that I joined quickly rang through the non-Slytherin students.
"Now, since Professor Snape is not yet here, I want to make sure that each and every one of you knows the two spells that are the absolute cornerstones of fair and safe dueling: Protego, the shielding charm and Expelliarmus, the disarming charm. I know for a fact that my fourth years and most of my third years are already familiar with those two spells, so please help me in passing on your knowledge to the younger students."
Just as the profesor had instructed those of us who knew the spell - which most of us girls from Ravenclaw were thanks to Talion - the door banged open and Snape walked in with a group of students behind him.
Instead of saying things like 'please excuse my tardiness, it will not happen again', Snape walked over to Lupin and silently started observing whatever was happening.
I rolled my eyes a little, but at least our potions professor didn't interrupt us.
An hour later, most first years were familiar with one of the two spells. Or familiar enough to cast it half the time. Us second years were a little better in that regard, and only a scant few third years were not able to perform both spells.
During that time, Snape taught nobody and just glared at people, while Lupin ran around correcting stances and wand movements.
When the hour was over, Snape coughed into his hand, which seemed to be a signal the two professors had discussed prior. Lupin disenganged from the group he was teaching near me and Hermione and once more stood up on the tables.
"Now, doing these two spells seems boring to some of you. Don't deny, I saw it on your faces," Lupin quipped with an easy-going smile. "So we will go on to the next part of the lesson: exhibition matches. Professor Snape and I will start to show you how a magical duel could look when performed by someone who finished the school curriculum, which means no advanced battle transfiguration, particularly niche dark curses, or elemental spells. Elemental spells are simply too destructive for us here. Oh, but we will use what Talion, I mean Mister Macnair, showed himself particularly proficient in using during the tournament he won: spell deflection. I must admit he is better at that than even me from what I've seen. For added value, both of us will refrain from doing silent casting so that you are better able to follow along."
I saw that Snape allowed himself to show a shallow smile as he stood there with both hands behind his back, and the two did their customary dueling greetings before standing roughly fifty feet or fifteen meters apart.
The duel of the two went on for three minutes. With the restrictions the two set up, neither was able to clinch out a win. Instead, they fired spells at each other with increasing ferocity and decreasing finesse.
Anybody who watched this with a bit of emotional intelligence could see that Snape had a bone to pick with our DADA professor. The more Professor Lupin managed to deflect the curses that Snape shot at him, the faster Snape began firing them off. The urgency Snape eventually reached was a little disturbing to watch.
But the potion master seemed to realise it, too, as he stopped casting spells and put his arms to the side. And it seemed that, too, was a signal for something as both stopped casting spells.
"I hope you enjoyed this little display," Lupin jovially announced while slightly panting. It seemed he was glad it was over, though I got the feeling by the way his wand was at the correct spot before he cast a counter spell each time that the professor had held back quite a bit. "Now, who wants to be the first student to show us his prowess?"
Snape's eyes shot to Malfoy as the potion professor nodded at his godson, and the blonde idiot immediately swaggered onto the platform created out of tables.
"Alright, it seems the second year Draco Malfoy seems to be eager. Anybody?"
Lupin's open invitation saw a few students hold up their hands. Even third and fourth years, but the professor still picked a second year in the end, Michael Corner from Gryffindor.
Since the pompous prick seemed to badmouth Talion every chance he got, I had a very low opinion of the Gryffindor. I hoped both would lose somehow.
In the end, Malfoy won the duel without ever being pushed to show his limits. His face was a little flushed because Corner went on the offensive from the getgo with no real strategy, but the difference in skill was very easy to tell.
Not that any of the two came even close to Talion's level.
"Do you want to continue, Mister Malfoy?" Lupin asked with a small tinge of worry after Snape stopped the man from helping Malfoy get rid of the aftereffects from the two jinxes Corner managed to hit the blonde with.
Snape did it himself with a curiously disappointed frown.
In the end, Theodore Nott was allowed to step forward but was disqualified by Snape at the fifth spell because the silent boy used a skin-vanishing curse on Malfoy that the git was barely able to shield himself from. I should ask Natalie and Isodora later to learn where that bad blood came from.
Snape didn't seem surprised, and Nott merely walked out of the Great Hall after jumping off the table without any points deducted or detentions issued.
With some difficulty, Malfoy then managed to beat a third year from Hufflepuff that Snape had picked, and I saw some awe appear on the students sitting around me. This felt oddly theatrical at that point - especially when he beat a clumsy witch from Slytherin's fourth year roster.
After that match, it seemed Lupin wanted to dismiss Malfoy to allow others a chance to shine, but Snape instead ordered Harry to come down.
Reluctantly, the boy-who-lived accepted the forced invitation and made his way to the tables under the scrutinizing stare of Professor Lupin. Talion had informed me that Lupin used to be in the same tight-knit group as Harry's father James Potter, Lord Black, and the traitorous rat animagus Peter Pettigrew. So the concern he showed for the boy was warranted.
The duel started off explosively as Malfoy shot an ink conjuring charm at Harry's face, who scattered everywhere when the boy used a gale jinx that blasted it away. It looked like Lupin wanted to stop the duel right there because Harry used an elemental spell that I wanted to know where he learned it from, but Snape stopped him.
Jinxes and curses were then shot back and forth between the two until Draco couldn't take it anymore. The previous battles seemed to have put an understandable strain on him.
"Serpensortia!" Malfoy angrily screeched when nothing had worked. He seemed way too frustrated that Harry seemed to be able to hold his own. The boy-who-lived didn't seem particularly winded even minutes later. Probably courtesy of Talion teaching him last year and Professor Flitwick allowing the boy to tag along for physical exercise training. Maybe Lord Black trained him a little over the summer, too.
Yet, when I thought Harry would simply end the snake Malfoy had summoned with a 'Diffindo' or something similar, Harry used the gale jinx again to blast the snake at his opponent.
Malfoy was completely caught off-guard and yelped as he dodged to the side to jump off the table. He still managed to push the snake away to the side with a wave of his wand hand.
Before Malfoy could screech for his father, to have Harry expelled or disqualified for his use of elemental magic, screams came from the stacked tables we used as temporary stands near me.
The snake had landed near Lisa, the Patil twins, that Weasley girl and Lavender. With a distraught frown, Harry jumped down from the table instead of relishing in his apparent win and with his wand still drawn, he wanted to come to his girlfriend's aid. But he didn't seem to know any spells to deal with it without hitting anybody else in the crossfire.
Instead, an angry hiss suddenly came from Harry's lips, and the snake immediately stopped in its tracks.
Positioning himself between the snake and Lisa, Harry hissed at the snake some more, his wand still pointed at it. That was until Snape came over and vanished the snake before reprimanding, "Thirty points from Ravenclaw for your cheek. To dare break the rules we set up to not cast elemental spells twice in a duel against an exhausted opponent. It seems you have inherited your father's arrogance and disregard for rules after all."
Nobody really seemed to listen to Snape as everyone was still reeling from the realisation that Harry was a Parselmouth.
[POV Talion Macnair an hour after the dueling event]
Ah, sitting here with a cocoa and a good book in the common room as the bad kind of attention was focused on somebody who wasn't me felt great. There was no Chamber of Secrets that was opened, no heir of Slytherin threatening all the 'mudbloods', and no students petrified, so I didn't really get where all the immediate hate for Harry the Parselmouth came from. But I secretly relished him getting trashtalked for once instead of me.
Last year, in preparation for things that might come, I had researched the complete history of the snake language and confirmed what little information I already knew about it. All to defend my good friend Harry. Obviously, the two of us were no longer good friends, so he can research that stuff himself and get others to be his mouthpiece as they try to shatter all the misconceptions Magical Britain held for the infamous magical ability.
Believed to have originated in India well before the time of Christ, 'parselmagic' was originally a result of a variant curse of Malediction - the magical infliction that, when left untreated, would force you to become an animal for the rest of your life.
Coincidentally, one of the first families hit with that curse by an enemy tribe seemed unrivaled in spellcrafting. They derived Parseltongue from an ancient form of the buddhist language Pali, which was closely related to Prakrit, a language that in itself was in some form related to 'modern' Sanskrit. The book didn't go much into detail about all those possibly extinct languages, only that it was buddhist in origin.
And, that was also why the author of the book, where I learned about the magic's origin, believed that parselmagic focused so heavily on healing. That fact alone should disprove anyone's belief that parselmouths were inherently evil. At least anyone who knew anything about buddhism, a religion focused on self-actualisation, benelovence and karma, and truth and enlightenment. It was naive to think that there were no evil buddhists. Right and wrong in itself were constructs of each and everyone, and buddhists could come to a path that others thought to be evil when they themselves think themselves saints, but that was neither here nor there.
The fact remained that parselmagic focused heavily on healing - a way to end suffering. It was sadly also for that reason that quite a few nasty curses were created with the language. The vocabulary and intent were all there, ready to be twisted. Not everyone who was blessed by magic to be a parselmouth had been a benevolent buddhist, after all.
For example, Medusa and the gorgons, part of the greek mythology for muggles, turned out to be a retelling of magical events that did indeed happen, though by different means and different circumstances in 'truth'. The Greek pantheon didn't exist at the time Medusa had been alive in this world - which might or might not be true as I knew thanks to me knowing about the Isu.
Instead, Medusa was cursed by a parselmouth who turned her into what she was in mythology. The three gorgons, much more mishapen forms of what Medusa was said to be, were cursed by another parselmouth according to the book I read - this one by someone I had suspected to be a Parselmouth.
In this world, Paracelsus, one of the most celebrated healers to have ever existed, had been a parselmouth and he was the one to curse three sisters to become the Gorgons after the three witches started to conduct ghastly blood rituals. That was not the act of an evil wizard, and still, Paracelsus made those three witches suffer for centuries before they devoured themselves after losing their minds.
After their transformation, they couldn't extract a single drop of blood from anyone. It all turned to dust or stone the moment they went for another kill. Allegedly, though there were only rumors, Herpo the Foul had taken those three in when he, too, was shunned by the magicals of Ancient Greece. They had given him the inspiration to create basilisks, or so the book had said. And he was also the reason they lost more and more of their minds after their prolonged lives.