Chapter 72: The Dueling Club

Just as Trig said at the self-inspection meeting, after obtaining new information, people's views on things will also change. After the meeting, Malfoy told Harry that he now started to suspect the diary again. But out of politeness between classmates, his suggestion was that if no new attacks occurred later, perhaps it didn't have to be pursued to the end.

Harry didn't express his opinion on this. He felt that a lot of very useful results had been investigated about the opener of the Chamber of Secrets, but under the mutual corroboration of these results, the entire event appeared even more confusing.

In Monday's Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Tang Tang Nade was still leading the students to run laps, learn sports skills, and then practice against each other. Harry felt that this class could even be renamed Wizard Physical Education Class.

Before the end of class, Tang Tang Nade clapped his hands to gather all the students and announced one thing: "Because Headmaster Dumbledore is a bit worried about the Chamber of Secrets, in order to avoid more students being attacked, the Dueling Club jointly organized by several teachers will be active at eight o'clock every Thursday night, and the location is the Great Hall. In principle, everyone is allowed to participate voluntarily, but I suggest that everyone had better come."

"Unless you would rather be helpless when attacked," Tang Tang Nade's tone was quite relaxed, even somewhat sloppy.

Harry was still very curious about this Dueling Club open to the whole school. At eight o'clock on Thursday night, he arrived at the Great Hall on time. The long dining tables were gone, replaced by a golden stage against the wall, with thousands of candles lit on it, and the ceiling was deep purple, as if the entire training class was wrapped underneath. They were all full of excitement, carrying wands.

"I want to know who is teaching us?" When they approached the chattering crowd, Luo En said, "Someone told me that Professor Flitwick was a fighting champion when he was young; maybe it's him."

"But his dueling skills might not be suitable for us," Harry commented objectively. After all, Professor Flitwick's height was very different from most students.

Then they saw Tang Tang Nade walk onto the stage, wearing a white shirt and red tie inside his robe, and beside him was Snape, wearing his usual black robe.

Tang Tang Nade waved his hand to signal people to be quiet, and then said loudly: "At the invitation of Professor Dumbledore, the Dueling Club is now open to all students. The significance of holding this club is to hope that everyone—even students without much talent—can have better self-defense capabilities, because the opportunities you need to use this knowledge in the future might be much more than you think."

"I am honored to invite Professor Snape to perform some demonstrations for the first class," Tang Tang Nade showed a big smile at Snape, but Snape just twitched his mouth coldly.

"Now we conduct the first demonstration; I will duel with Professor Snape using the most common spell techniques," Tang Tang Nade said, holding his wand in front of him like a sword, and Snape did the same.

The two bowed to each other and then started counting one, two, three.

"Expelliarmus!" Snape shouted, and a dazzling red light shot from his wand tip, while Tang Tang Nade slid to the left to dodge it.

"Protego," Snape put an Iron Shield Charm on himself, and then used his wand to flick away the Disarming Charm shot by Tang Tang Nade.

The two exchanged a few rounds of shooting at each other. Tang Tang Nade suddenly shouted: "That's enough, Professor Snape; I think the students have already understood."

Snape nodded coldly and put down the wand in his hand.

Harry could clearly see that Snape's spells were stronger; several times his Disarming Charm broke Tang Tang Nade's Iron Shield Charm directly, while Tang Tang Nade's spells needed two hits to break Snape's protective magic.

"Tang Tang Nade can't beat Snape," Harry whispered to Luo En. "If they keep fighting, he will lose."

"Alright, these are the two spells we need to teach everyone in the Dueling Club, Disarming Charm and Iron Shield Charm. Lower-grade students can practice Disarming Charm first, because the difficulty of casting Iron Shield Charm is a bit high," Tang Tang Nade said. "However, before starting practice, I want to invite Professor Snape to demonstrate to everyone what true self-defense is—no rules, the only goal is to defeat your opponent. Of course, in Hogwarts, I think the things we demonstrate shouldn't exceed those that children can learn in class."

"Can," Snape promised.

"You watch carefully, this is true fighting," Luo En whispered.

"Then, we count three numbers ourselves, and then start," after a slight pause, Tang Tang Nade put his wand into his sleeve.

Harry counted three numbers in his heart, and then he saw Tang Tang Nade's wizard robe suddenly fly forward, and at the same time, a red light flashed obscurely at his left hand.

Snape's lips moved quickly; he put an Iron Shield Charm on himself in a very short time, and then stared vigilantly at Tang Tang Nade's movements. When he discovered the red light shot from the left, he couldn't help but be startled and hurriedly used his wand to flick it away.

Tang Tang Nade's clothes quickly transformed into a sword, which he held in his right hand. He was like this, left hand wand, right hand sword, while shooting spells while rushing toward Snape.

Snape very calmly flicked away several Disarming Charms shot by Tang Tang Nade. Harry felt that anyone who saw a steel sword slashing at their head would be scared to death, and Snape didn't seem to be an exception; his movements appeared a trace of panic rarely.

But in fact, this sword slashed on Snape's Iron Shield Charm, only scaring him, and the two quickly exchanged a Disarming Charm. Harry could see Snape's spell broke Tang Tang Nade's Iron Shield Charm, but Tang Tang Nade only hit Snape's Iron Shield Charm to change color and couldn't break it completely.

The two who were almost face-to-face exchanged a Disarming Charm again. Tang Tang Nade's wand flew out of control, and Snape was only broken of his Iron Shield Charm.

When he saw the wand flying out, Harry almost felt that Snape had won. But soon he noticed that Tang Tang Nade's sword was placed on Snape's shoulder, and he had no Iron Shield Charm at this time.

"Professor Snape, may I ask you, do you think your spell is faster, or my sword is faster," he said with a smile.

"It is indeed you who are fast," Snape said with a gloomy face.

"Students, everyone must have noticed that Professor Snape's spell level is higher than mine," Tang Tang Nade didn't avoid admitting this point. "It is not that I defeated Professor Snape, but that the new unrestricted fighting concept defeated the original honorary dueling concept."

"Good physical fitness can help us make up for some lack of spell level," Tang Tang Nade picked up his wand, and the sword in his right hand also turned back into a wizard robe. "And holding two weapons in both hands will give you a great advantage in the duel of Disarming Charms."

Harry recalled that Quirrell used a Disarming Charm to hit his pistol last year, but Harry seized this opportunity and used his own wand to give him a Disarming Charm in return.

If I meet Voldemort, Harry thought secretly, I will use a Disarming Charm to break his Iron Shield Charm first, and then when he hits my wand, I will turn back and shoot his head.

"Alright, now everyone starts practicing in groups of two," Tang Tang Nade said while dividing the crowd.

"Speaking of which, this is a rare opportunity to resolve private grievances," he said with a bad smile and pushed Harry to Malfoy's side. "Let Luo En and Neville be a group."

"I don't think there is any grievance between us," Malfoy chuckled. "But I will defeat you, Harry."

"Then come on," Harry put both hands in front of him. He felt that Malfoy might not know Iron Shield Charm, so he prepared to fight a Disarming Charm and then rush up to exert his fighting advantage.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted, but Malfoy had expected it. He dodged the spell with a side step, and then backhanded a Tarantallegra.

This small jinx without a trajectory made Harry's legs dance tap dance uncontrollably, which made it difficult for him to move to dodge Malfoy's next spell.

"Expelli..." "Densaugeo!" Harry timely interrupted Malfoy's spell with a tooth-growing spell. He was now wearing two long front teeth and couldn't chant any spells for the time being.

But Malfoy didn't admit defeat. He used his Transfiguration, and a snake emerged from the tip of the wand. The thick and long black snake fell on the floor, propped up its body and spat its tongue. The girls on the side screamed immediately.

Harry was also startled by this trick. Seeing the snake revealing its fangs at him, Harry shouted without thinking: "Stay away from me!"

The snake seemed to understand and retreated obediently. Harry let out a sigh of relief and then said: "Too dangerous, Malfoy, hurry up and put this guy away."

Malfoy didn't speak but looked at him with confusion, muttering in his mouth: "What did you just say?"

"I said you put it away..."

"Not this sentence, the previous one," his expression turned from confusion to certainty. "What did you say to the snake?"

"I let it stay away from me," Harry also seemed to realize that something was wrong at this time.

"I think what you just said was Parseltongue," Hermione on the side said. "You made a very creepy hissing sound at the snake."

"You are a Parselmouth; you can talk to snakes," Malfoy frowned and said. "Perhaps there is more than one descendant of Slytherin."

Harry remembered that at the self-inspection meeting, they investigated and thought that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets was a Basilisk, and the opener of the Chamber of Secrets had the ability to talk to snakes.

"What's wrong, does this mean anything?" Hermione asked puzzled.

Harry himself was still confused, and Malfoy disdained to talk to her. For a time, Hermione was a bit embarrassed.

"This doesn't mean anything," perhaps also because he didn't want to cause panic, Malfoy said something irrelevant against his will, pretending not to care about Harry's Parseltongue at all. ===== CHAPTER 73 =====

"Right, this matter is not important." Perhaps because he didn't want to cause a panic, Ma Erfu said an inconsequential remark against his better judgment, pretending to be completely indifferent to Ha Li's Parseltongue.