Darius parried the spell back at him and he threw up a hasty shield with protego to barely stop the deflected stunner. Darius sent a stunner and a disarmer in quick succession. The shield held barely held against the second stunner but collapsed at the disarmer and the boy scrambled out of the way to dodge it. He sent back a binding hex, incarcerous, followed by a knockback jinx, flippendo. Darius burned the conjured ropes with an incendio and nimbly stepped out of the way of the knockback before sending a blasting curse, confringo at the floor to knock the boy off-balance and then fired of on overpowered disarmer that cause the boy’s wand to leap into his hands and the boy to blow backwards a few metres.

As Darius helped him up, he said, “Well done, Neville! You have got the hang of maintaining the battle-tempo. You are doing great. Now the next thing you need to learn is to disrupt the opponent while still maintaining your rhythm. You can use cantrips and charms like tripping hexes; wobbly-legs jinx; Locomotor Wibbly; Knockback jinx, Flippendoand many others. Practice with Susan while I go check on the others.”

It had been three months since Darius started the club and it was coming along amazingly well. All the people had quickly picked up advanced spells and were getting better at duelling by the week. Some of the spells were even 2-3 years ahead of their coursework!! But they stuck through it and he was proud to see the progress they had made.

Mione may not be the fastest around but she had the knack of picking the best spell in every situation and always cast the spells perfectly. Once she had grasped a spell properly, she could fire it off perfectly every time. It was only a matter of expanding her arsenal of spells further to make her an even more formidable duellist.

Harry was a natural at DADA. He just had to be taught some duelling techniques and he was already among the best. I had started teaching him some limited battlefield transfiguration, as he had skill in the area. He could cast some of the most overpowered spells amongst the students.

Neville had grown by leaps and bounds. All he had needed was some adequate support and some friends to help him along and voila. He stuck to charms more than transfiguration but he was damn good at it. He had even asked me about some of the Dark arts, not to use them, per se, but so that he knew what to look out for and to be able to defend against them.

Ginny was also a prodigy as far as offensive spells were concerned but despite that she put in more effort than most others. She must be still reeling from the after-effects of the possession and had a desire to be able to defend herself better. She was literally still a first-year but was already competent with a lot of 4th year spells. It was amazing!

Luna was beyond amazing at spell-chains. She could put together any sequence of spells smoothly and even I studied and practised a few of her spell-chains. She could design them to subdue- capture or even lethal force, all with a smile on her face. Her reputation had spread somewhat in the Ravenclaw tower and there was no more bullying towards her. The members of the club stuck together and many of them came to her defence when they found out her situation. She was still a slightly weird person but her smile was more genuine and she interacted better with the other members and helped them design spell-chains that suited them.

Cho was a decent duellist. Above average, certainly, but barely better than couple of first-years while herself being a 3rd year. At least she learned enough to defend herself for a time if the situation calls for it.

Susan and Hannah were excellent friends and moved ahead at the same pace. Susan Bones was the niece of Madam Amelia Bones, head of the DMLE and she had had some prior training to defend herself. She fell in pace with the rest of the class soon enough though. Hannah was a speed caster. She didn’t go for many elaborate spells, preferring speed over power. The two of them had also struck up a fast friendship with Neville and often practised together.

Daphne and Tracy were similarly good friends and very good at duelling. Tracy, like Luna, had excellent spell-chains which were quite tricky and unexpected. Daphne was the fastest caster in her year. She may not have raw power but she was a very quick and rather precise. She also knew quite a few spells in the grey area. She also taught him a few of them. Riddle may or may not have known them but it was helpful to actually learn spells from someone rather than learning them from a book and practising them.

Darius himself grew vastly better at duelling after practising in the RoR regularly and also learnt quite a few spells from the Soul Grimoire. He could cast fast enough for his hands to blur a bit and his power was halfway there to knocking down the seventh dummy. He had gotten a good grasp of parrying but the only people who were able to even begin doing it were Daphne, Hermione and Harry and even they only got it in one out of ten tries.

All this was still amazing progress and they would only get better. All the students had grown to be quite capable duellists. The students under the instruction of the Weasley twins as well as Lee also showed promise but weren’t as good as his group. Obviously, as he had taken away the best of them already.

“Alright everyone, gather around! All the groups please! Now, I will begin by saying how proud I am of all of you for coming this far in a mere three months. All of you have performed beyond expectations and have the ability to hold you own, at least for a while. But do not let that go to your heads, there are loads of people better than you and you need to practice regularly to maintain your current levels. To cap it off, today will be your last class for the term as the exams are nearing and you will need to devote more time to our assignments and studies in the near future. So, we will have a recap of everything we have learnt and a lesson in the Patronus charm, so that you can utilize what spare time you have to learn the spell later.”

I was rather adamant about as many students learning the spell as possible, especially considering dementors may arrive at the castle grounds next year. I had plans already for the coming summer break which would cause some changes in the future but it was better to be prepared.

“The Patronus is a kind of Anti-Dementor – a guardian which acts as a shield between you and the Dementor. It’s also a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon – hope, happiness, the desire to survive – but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the Dementors can’t hurt it.

There are two types of Patronuses; corporeal, which means a Patronus with a particular shape and form and uncorporeal Patronus. Uncorporeal Patronuses have no particular shape and do not actively protect against dementors the way corporeal Patronuses do.

The ability to cast a corporeal or non-corporeal Patronus is down to the skill of the witch or wizard. Each Patronus is unique to the witch or wizard who conjures it, and it’s possible, in some cases, for a Patronus to change.

To successfully cast the spell, one begins by mustering the happiest memory they can think of; the happier the memory, the better the charm will work. Alternatively, one could imagine a scenario that would make for a very happy memory. The next step is to begin drawing circles with their wand so as to increase the power of their spell. They must then say the incantation, Expecto Patronum; the Patronus will come from the tip of the wand and can be directed towards a target by pointing one's wand at said target.”

After giving a demonstration of my own Patronus, Darius let the students try the spell on their own. A few of them managed a thin silver vapour but the majority could do nothing at all. The eye-catching exceptions were Harry, Mione, Luna and Neville. All of them had started practising the spell long ago and were able to cast Corporeal Patronuses today. Harry’s was a stag, Mione got an otter, Luna a hare and Neville, who managed a corporeal for the first time, got a lion.

All the students stared in wide eyed wonder and redoubled their efforts. All four groups had gathered together today and were all trying to get the spell right. Darius had to literally force the students to rest after a few tries, as the spell was quite exhausting and could not possibly be performed several times in succession.

By the end of the class, no one else managed a Corporeal Patronus, and Daphne seemed mighty miffed at that. But more than three-quarters managed a non-corporeal and Darius was extremely pleased with that. All the students also promised to practice it when they had some free time so that they could get better at the spell.

All the students left after some heartfelt thanks towards the four instructors and the hall was locked for the term. They would host club meetings again the next year. In fact, there had been several requests from other students to join the club after it got out how good the classes were, but they rejected all the late comers and asked them to join them next year. Of course, they would have a tough time managing any more students but that wasn’t their concern. Lockhart would be gone by the end of the term, so Professors McGonagall and Flitwick could take over again or maybe Professor Lupin could continue the club.

He hadn’t spent the past few months just on duelling practice and club meetings. Due to the memory fortification spell, he was acing his classes and didn’t need to really focus on the theory and was already good enough at the practical. He spent the time tinkering with a runic gadget he was trying to create. Muggle already had handheld recorders but magical society had nothing of the sort. He had broken down the arithmantic equations of the sonorus and quietus spells to understand the spell weaves of sound-based spells and made major inroads after that.

He had managed to make the runic gadget just a week prior and it had passed all the tests he put it through. It was the size of a small match box. The recorder could be fed magic by any magician by placing their fingers on the underside and it would be stored in a small gemstone he had taken from the RoR. According to his research in the library, gemstones were the best magical conductors after magical substances like those used in wands. He had used a small topaz in it and found it more than adequate for his needs. Fashioning it after a muggle recorder, it had the record, play, pause and stop buttons but symbolised by their respective runes.

His plan was to get recordings of Parseltongue phrases from Harry and use it to enter the Chamber of Secrets as well as another target. Since it was finally done and tested, he got Harry to meet him in an abandoned classroom the next day.

“Thanks for coming over, Harry.”

“No problem, Darius. What do you need?”

“Do you remember the duelling fiasco with Lockhart when we discovered your parseltongue talent. Though I told you to keep quite about it, I need your help with it today.”

“Sure, Darius. I wouldn’t have been able to keep it an secret if not for you anyway.”

“Alright, I know you and Mione have been practising occlumency properly but the knowledge I have is something I would absolutely like to keep a secret, so can you help me out without too many questions. I promise what I’m doing will have no negative effects; in fact, it is a positive thing for the students of the castle.”

“Alright, I’ll trust you and help you out. What do you need me to do?”

Darius showed him the runic apparatus and said, “Since you were muggle-raised you should be familiar with the concept of recorders. What I have here is a magical equivalent of the same. I need you to say certain phrases or words, which I will record.

Since you are not practised at the skill, I will conjure a snake to help you get started and then you can help me record the needed phrases in parseltongue.”

Darius took the paper with the required phrases written on it and handed it to Harry.

He cast the snake conjuring spell, serpensortia.

Harry started missing and spitting inparseltongue though Darius couldn't make head or tails of it.

~Hey little snake! You can just play around; I’ll be saying some words, but no need to mind it, alright?~

~Open~

~Stairs~

~Close~

~Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four~

~Release; finish; complete; finite!~

“Alright, it's done. And just because you didn’t tell me doesn’t mean I don't get what's going on. You are going after the monster in the Chamber of Secrets, aren’t you? And judging by the parseltongue and the fact that it’s Slytherin’s monster, it is some snake monster.”

“Yes, Harry. It’s true. There is a dangerous snake monster in the Chamber of Secrets. I know where the chamber is and am going there to finish it off. I believe I can do it and already have a plan to do so. And before you can even think of asking, you can’t come along.”

“Alright, Alright! I get it. But stay safe, okay.”

“Thanks, Harry. I owe you one. And I’m so sorry for this. Confundus. Somnulus.”

Darius was not very comfortable doing this to a friend but letting the secret of the Chamber out could have even more damaging results. The two-fold effect of the confounding and sleeping charms will make it so that the happenings of today morning seem but a hazy dream. Darius then took a disillusioned Harry and wandlessly tool him to the Gryffindor tower. He had to avoid jumping into a few people but got there in the end and placed Harry in his bed.

Harry should wake up sometime soon with some extremely vague memories of a hazy dream involving snakes and parseltongue and me but nothing concrete. Darius had briefly considered obliviating him but couldn't do that to a friend. He was not a professional, so there was some risk of additional memory loss and he didn’t want to take a risk with Harry’s memories at stake.

He left silently and went to his dorm. He looked gleefully at the recorder and grinned. It was time to enter the Chamber of Secrets.