Colin Creevey was attacked. Colin Creevey was attacked. Colin Creevey was attacked. Colin Creevey was attacked.

That's what all the whispers said.

First-year little Colin Creevey was attacked by the beast. The heir of Slytherin beast. He was a Gryffindor, Tori noticed he was the one with the camera at the quidditch.

It happened the night of the quidditch match. While Tori was hanging out with her friends, laughing, and joking about, little Colin was being attacked.

Ginny, who had sat next to the boy in Charms class, was in distraught. She was in tears constantly and seemed rather pale. Fred and George tried to cheer her up by covering themselves in fur or boils and jumping out from places.

It didn't help.

The whispers had only gotten worse. To the point where Cedric had to threaten to take house points from prying eyes in the library, Fred and George had to glare at others to look away, or Angelina had to stand up and threaten to fight someone while Lee offered to narrate it.

Somewhere just giving Tori uneasy glances. Others were more direct about it.

"Who's next?" They'd ask her while she was sitting outside by the lake. "Why Colin? He's just a first-year." They'd demand while she sat at the table in the great hall.

Tori had become very good friends with her bed.

She was sitting in the Three Broomsticks across from Katie and Alicia. It was the first Hogsmeade trip of the year, and Katie's first time in the quiet village. The boys came to join them later, covered in snow and shopping bags filled to the brim with joke supplies.

"Scoot over," Fred told Tori, sitting on the outside. She noticed his wary glance at a few students who peeked over their butterbeers. "Who's buying?" Lee asked, dragging their attention back to the table.

"Thank you so much for offering, Lee." Angelina smiled at him sarcastically. Lee wanted to protest, but Madam Rosmerta appeared ready to take their order. "Seven butterbeers, please," Alicia told the woman, who nodded.

"Now I'm glad I didn't buy that Tiny-Teacup set from Zonko's," Lee muttered, digging through his pockets to find a few silver coins. Madam Rosmerta returned with seven large glasses filled with the delicious golden liquid. The group thanked her, taking one for themselves.

"It's so good," Tori told Katie, George gasped. "This is your first butterbeer here! Sometimes I forget you're younger than us." Katie shrugged, laughing a bit.

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

The group was happily enjoying their butterbeer when Alicia mentioned the dueling club. "Did you guys hear about the new dueling club? It's starting back up again. They're supposed to be teaching us how to defend ourselves."

"That sounds cool," Tori admitted. She really wanted to learn some new spells that could help her fight, especially with some evil beast possibly roaming the castle. "We should go!" Alicia grinned.

"Who's running it?" Fred asked, taking a deep gulp of his drink. "Professor Lockhart." Both Fred and Lee choke on their drinks while George responded with a "You're joking,"

"Yeah, never mind," Tori replied. There was no way she was going to learn spells from Lockhart. Alicia glared at the boys before turning her attention to Tori. "What? Why not?"

"He can't even perform his own spells correctly, and now he wants to teach us? You saw what he did to Harry's arm. He removed thirty-three bones, Alicia! Thirty-three!"

"He's a teacher, Tori. Mistakes happen!" Alicia sighed, wiping whip cream off her mouth. Tori looked at her friend, not buying it one bit. "I dunno, Alicia. I'll only go if everyone else goes."

"You think I'm going to miss Lockhart teaching us? I just want to swoon over his manliness!" Fred put his hand against his forehead, leaning against Tori.

"Oh, get off." She laughed, pushing him away.

✧    ✦    ✧

"The dueling club is now in session!"

Professor Lockhart strolled onto the stage, waving his arm around for silence. Fred mocked their teacher's dramatic entrance, causing Tori to stifle a giggle.

"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent! Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions — for full details, see my published works..."

"If he offers more signed copies of Magical, Me, I'm going to lose my mind," Tori whispered to the twins. "Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," Lockhart flashed a wide grin, causing a few girls to seem like they were about to faint.

"He tells me he knows a tiny bit about dueling 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!"

"Five gallons Snape kills him," Fred whispered to Tori. She smirked, "Ten if Alicia burst into tears."

"You are becoming more wicked by the minute."

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 in front of their face.

"As you can see, we're both holding out wands in the appropriate dueling position. On the count of three, we will cast out first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill of course."

"Is he sure about that?" Lee muttered, running his hands through his dreaded hair. Snape had a wicked smirk upon his face, while Lockhart began his countdown.

"Three— two— one—"

Both of them swung their arms over their head, but Snape struck first. "Expelliarmus!" There was a bright flash of green light and Lockhart went tumbling backward.

"Is he okay?!" Alicia asked, peering over other students. "Who cares?" Lee asked her, narrowing his eyes.

"Well, there you have it!" Lockhart 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 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 it..."

Snape didn't like what he was saying. At all. He looked murderously at Lockhart who started pairing the students up. Tori was instructed up a platform with Angelina, both told to start practicing the disarming charm.

"Now! Say it!"

Tori held her wand out, standing her ground. "Expelliarmus!" She shouted, a now scarlet light flying towards Angelina. Her wand went up in the air and back down to her hands.

Angelina grinned at Tori, who stared at her wand in amazement.

They took turns for a little over ten minutes until things got out of a little hand for some second years. Lockhart had them all step down, instructing for Harry to rise up for another example.

Tori could tell he really didn't want to do it, and she felt bad for him. Draco Malfoy stepped into the platform, facing Harry as Lockhart and Snape had done.

Draco seemed to be saying something that was getting on Harry's nerves. The two boys faced each other, pointing their wands. Draco struck first. "Sepensortia!"

A long black snake shout out, slithering toward the crowd. Katie, who was standing closest to the platform, jumped away immediately.

"No, allow me!" Lockhart pointed his wand at the creature, but instead of disappearing, the snake flew ten feet in the air, causing more screams.

Tori pushed away, hoping the snake wouldn't land on anyone. It didn't, but it didn't seem happy either. It got ready to strike, raising its self at a second-year Hufflepuff.

Harry began speaking, but not any language anyone would recognize. Tori gasped shocked. Harry was talking to that snake! Harry was a parseltongue?

The twins seemed as shocked as she was, standing there frozen. Harry stopped, glancing up at the Hufflepuff boy who shouted, "What do you think you're playing at?" and stormed away.

Ron and Hermione pulled Harry away, leaving everyone in question. Tori looked after them, trying to process what just happened.

Harry spoke to snakes. Something Salazar Slytherin could do. Harry couldn't be the heir of Slytherin... right?

this entire book is chaotic and we love it

also happy fourth to my fellow americans!