Hogwarts: Undercover Death Eater Replaces the Dark Lord

Even if you don't learn anything new, it's still quite interesting to watch Lockhart's performance, which is full of showmanship.

……

Chapter 157 Duel Club

So, after Lycos and his friends finished their dinner, they stayed in the auditorium in groups of three or four.

When the clock struck eight in the evening, someone cast a spell and the four long dining tables disappeared from their original places in an instant. A gilded stage appeared along one wall, illuminated by thousands of candles floating in the sky.

The ceiling became dark as velvet again, and students came into the auditorium one by one. It seemed that everyone had come, and they were crowded together.

Everyone held their wand, their faces full of excitement, looking forward to a wonderful duel class.

"Lex, who do you think will come to the Duelling Club to teach us?" Draco said excitedly, "I bet it will be Professor Snape. My father once said that Professor Snape's duelling skills are outstanding."

Lycos was silent for a moment and patted Draco's shoulder.

"What if it's Professor Lockhart?" he asked dully.

"Impossible!" Draco said carelessly, "Given Lockhart's level, are we really going to let him come to the Duelling Club to teach us how to perform a play?"

However, Draco's voice was obviously a little loud, and a large group of little witches around him glared at him, and were very angry that Draco had slandered Professor Lockhart, whom they admired.

"What do you know? Professor Lockhart must have his reasons for bringing us to perform!"

"After a semester of acting training, I've memorized 'Sailing with Vampires,' 'Breaking with a Ghost Girl,' and 'Traveling with Ghouls' by heart! How dare you say that what Professor Lockhart taught me is useless?!"

"Professor Lockhart was able to write so many excellent works on Defense Against the Dark Arts, was able to deal with so many dangerous dark creatures, and even won the Order of Merlin, Third Class, and the Most Charming Smile Award. Can you do it?!"

"..."

Draco obviously underestimated the fighting power of Lockhart's fans. He was given a splitting headache by the noise of the little witches. He could only cover his ears and squat on the ground, pretending to be a turtle, and pushed Lycos to the front to take the lead.

Lycos had no choice but to stand in front of the excited little witches, put on an obviously fake smile on his face, and raised one hand.

"Everyone, give me some face and stop arguing. I'll help you teach Draco a lesson." He said with a fake smile, "Have you forgotten? I'm also a loyal fan of Professor Lockhart. I've always been the only one who performs seriously in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class!"

Having said that, Lycos turned his eyes around and suddenly pointed at one of the little witches.

"Oh, by the way, have you forgotten? You got Professor Lockhart's autograph from me before! And you, you also have a signed photo of Professor Lockhart, which I also gave you..."

In fact, they had bought those autographs from Lecos at a high price, but Lecos had changed a few words, making it seem as if he had given them away with good intentions.

But those little witches really fell for it.

With so many students signed by Professor Lockhart, who could be a bad person? And if they want an autograph again in the future, they might have to ask this young wizard who has obvious connections...

"Besides, I actually believe that Professor Lockhart will come and teach us how to duel..." Seeing that the heated atmosphere around him had eased a little, Lecos struck while the iron was hot and comforted him.

"We are all family, let's disperse!"

The little witches then turned around one by one, and for the sake of their "own" Lycos, they no longer paid attention to Draco who was squatting on the ground like a turtle.

After the atmosphere in the auditorium had completely returned to normal, Lecos kicked Draco angrily.

"Get up, it's okay." He said, "You really are good at causing me trouble... Don't you know how strong those Lockhart fans are?"

"I didn't expect that..." Draco rubbed his head, which had been kicked by someone in the chaos, and complained, "The hall was clearly in chaos just now. How could I have known that they would all hear it as soon as Lockhart's name was mentioned?"

He suddenly realized that he had mentioned Lockhart's name again. He was so scared that he quickly retracted his head into his clothes, his eyes scanning around vigilantly.

Fortunately, Draco's voice was not loud this time and did not attract any attention.

"But I still won't change my opinion." Draco was relieved to see that no one was paying attention to him. He lowered his voice and said, "Lockhart is a fool. He has no right to teach us how to duel."

"You really think so?" Lycos looked at him with a strange expression. "Want to bet?"

"Why should I be afraid of that?" Draco patted his chest confidently, but he still didn't dare to speak louder. "I bet ten Galleons that Lockhart will never come here to teach us how to duel..."

However, before he could finish his words, his eyes widened, and the unspoken words turned into a gasp.

Gilderoy Lockhart, whom Draco had been thinking about, walked onto the raised stage in the auditorium. He was wearing a bright purple robe and his hair was painted shiny, looking radiant.

Snape stood next to Lockhart, still wearing his usual black clothes, his hair greasy and stuck to his scalp, forming a sharp contrast with the peacock-like Lockhart.

Lockhart waved to the little wizards who had suddenly become noisy, first saying hello, then smugly pressed his palm down and asked everyone to be quiet.

"Come around, everybody, come around!" he yelled to the auditorium. "Can everyone see me? Can everyone hear me? Great!"

Lycos gave the distraught Draco a teasing look.

"Ten Galleons, don't even think about shirking your responsibility." He chuckled.

On the stage, Lockhart continued to introduce the Dueling Club:

"Well, because of the recent rumors about the Heir of Slytherin and the Chamber of Secrets, Professor Dumbledore has allowed me to start this little dueling club to fully train you in case you need to defend yourself one day."

"I will teach you to protect yourself in the same way I've used countless times—for details, please see my complete set of published works. Yes, I know you all have the complete set, but you can also buy some extras for your family!"

As he spoke, he did not forget to advertise his own work.

There was friendly laughter from the audience below the stage, but Lex and Draco had no idea what was so funny... Or maybe, in the eyes of Lockhart's fans, everything their idol said was funny?

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," Lockhart pointed at Snape again and grinned slightly.

"He told me he knew a thing or two about dueling himself, and he graciously agreed to assist me with a small demonstration before the class."

"I'm telling you, I don't want to make you little guys worry - after I'm done demonstrating to him, I'll return your Potions teacher to you intact, so don't be afraid!"

There was another burst of cheerful laughter from the audience.

This time the laughter was obviously more genuine than before, because many Gryffindor little wizards, led by Harry and Ron, were thinking about making sure that Lockhart and Snape both suffered losses.

"I think Lockhart is finished." Draco glanced at Snape's slowly curled upper lip, and no longer felt sorry for the ten Galleons he had just lost. Instead, he began to mourn for Lockhart.

Poor Lockhart, he had no idea how cruel things would happen soon...

This was the expression Snape had when he was angry. If any young wizards had noticed Snape looking at them with that look, they would have probably spread their legs and run desperately in the opposite direction.

While the young wizards in the audience were still arguing about who would win the demonstration duel - mainly Lockhart's fans arguing with other students - Lockhart and Snape had already turned to face each other and bowed to each other.

Lockhart bowed very gracefully, moving his hands in many different ways, which looked quite fancy and beautiful; while Snape just shook his head impatiently, causing the greasy hair sticking to his scalp to sway a bit.

Then, they held their wands upright in front of their chests -

"As you can see, we hold our wands in the normal dueling position," Lockhart said to the hushed crowd. "On the count of three, we'll cast our first spell."

"Of course, this is just a duel for sparring purposes. Neither of us will take the other's life..."

Obviously, the latter sentence was not said to the students, but to Snape, who already had a cold expression.

"one two Three……"

As Lockhart pronounced the number "three," they both jerked their wands over their shoulders.

Before Lockhart could react, or even think of what spell he was going to chant, Snape's voice suddenly rang out:

"Expelliarmus!"

A blinding red light flashed across the stage and slammed into Lockhart.

Lockhart was knocked flying off the stage, falling directly off the stage, hitting the solid wall of the auditorium, and then slid down the wall like a loach, curling up in pain on the floor.

Lockhart threw his wand high towards Snape, who tossed it aside.

"Professor Snape, well done!" Draco jumped up excitedly and cheered loudly.

A group of little witches glared at him fiercely.

But now they didn't have the energy to care whether Draco cheered or not, because many other Slytherin boys also started cheering... and they were more concerned about whether Lockhart was injured or beaten.

Lockhart didn't stay crouched for long.

For the sake of his own face, he endured the pain and staggered to his feet. However, his demeanor was far from as handsome as when he first appeared. His hat fell off his head, his wavy curls stood up, and even his face was stained with a few pieces of dust.

"Well, you all saw it!" He climbed back onto the stage unsteadily and said to everyone with forced calmness, "This is a disarming spell - as you can see, I have lost my wand."

At this moment, a little witch picked up Lockhart's wand from the ground, raised her hand high, and handed it back to Lockhart.

The little witch still had an excited look on her face, as if she was excited about having touched Lockhart's wand.

"Ah, thank you, Miss Brown..." Lockhart took the wand and bowed gracefully.

"Yes, Professor Snape, it's a great idea to show them this trick!" He took the wand and began to talk nonsense again. "But don't mind me saying this, your intention of doing this just now was very obvious."

"If I wanted to stop you, it would be easy. I thought it would be helpful to show them what it feels like to be hit by a Disarming Charm, just to teach them a lesson..."

Snape's face darkened and his eyes gradually became very dangerous.

Lockhart hesitated to continue.

He was afraid that the magic Snape would use next time would not be the Disarming Charm, but the Killing Curse.

Lockhart decisively changed the subject: "The professors' demonstration ends here! Now I will pick two young wizards to demonstrate. I will personally teach you how to duel..."

The little witches in the audience instantly became enthusiastic and raised their hands high.

They all wanted to get up close to Lockhart and be taught how to use spells by him...

"Ah, let me see, who would be more suitable?"

Lockhart's gaze passed directly over the admirers and turned towards the boy with round-framed glasses who was sitting in the middle of a group of Gryffindors wearing red scarves.

For Lockhart, choosing a celebrity is more cost-effective... He can write about this incident at Hogwarts in his new book after this Dueling Club class is over.

As a business book, of course it cannot miss any opportunity to ride on the popularity of celebrities... The more popular the celebrity, the better, and Harry is obviously the most famous celebrity in the British wizarding world!

"That's you, Harry. I think as a famous figure, you should be shown to everyone!"

Lockhart pointed at Harry in the audience, smiling broadly.

Harry had no choice but to climb onto the stage and stood stiffly under everyone's gaze, feeling like a circus monkey being watched.

"As for the other candidate, would Professor Snape like to choose one?" After calling Harry up, Lockhart said to Snape in a flattering tone.

Now that Harry's popularity has been taken advantage of, the other students are not that famous... It's better to give the opportunity of selecting people to Snape. Maybe it will make him happier and stop bothering himself.

"Okay." Snape squeezed out a word through gritted teeth.

From a distance, Lycos saw Snape's eyes looking at him.

"Draco, it's your turn." He patted Draco's shoulder, "Go ahead, don't embarrass Slytherin!"

However, just as Draco was about to go on stage and take this opportunity to beat Harry up, Snape's eyes suddenly turned -

"Come on up, Hayden."