"True knowledge comes from practice, the demonstration ends here! Now I will come to you and divide you into groups of two. Professor Snape, if you are willing to help me … "Lockhart began to organize the students for a duel.
Snape leaned over with a murderous look on his face. He was so intimidating that many students instinctively leaned back when they saw him. Lockhart could defeat him, but that did not mean they could. They were not idiots.
Seamus and Justin formed a pair. Harry and Ron tried their best to lean towards Lockhart, but Snape still walked in front of them first. "The Dream Team should be broken up. I think," he sneered. "Weasley, you can form a pair with Finnegan. Potter — "He seemed to want to vent his anger at being defeated on them.
"Draco, I think the Savior will be a suitable opponent for you. Let us see what kind of person you can make the famous Potter into. As for you, Miss Granger. "Snape looked at Hermione.
"You will be paired with Pan Xi." Snape found a Slythrin student nearby.
Hermione heaved a sigh of relief. This way, she would have a chance to get close to Pan Xi. She had purposely taken a few steps in that direction and did not expect to succeed.
"Face your partners!" Lockhart returned to the stage and shouted. "Bow!"
The two of them walked up the stage slowly. Harry was extremely nervous. He still remembered Ron's miserable state in Hagrid's little house.
"Raise your wands and get ready!" Lockhart shouted. "When I count to three, cast a spell and disarm the opponent's weapon — just disarm the weapon — we don't want any accidents. One — two — three — "
The two of them raised their weapons above their shoulders. When they counted to three, the two of them turned around. Perhaps it was because of nervousness or something else, Harry attacked first. He raised his wand and pointed it at Malfoy. "Disarm you!"
A faint red light shot out. It was much dimmer than Snape's and its speed was much slower as well.
This spell was unquestionably deflected by Malfoy's armor spell.
"Berserk Python Entanglement!" Malfoy raised his wand and chanted quickly. Then, nothing came out of the wand.
"I said, I'm only disarming the weapon!" Lockhart looked at Malfoy with some dissatisfaction, but Malfoy smiled and said, "This spell is safer than the Disarm Charm."
"How is that possible!" Ron said angrily from below the stage. "If you break the rules, you should lose points."
"The incantation mentioned snakes?" Hermione's heart skipped a beat. These days, all the students had been nervous because of that snake monster that might or might not exist. There was a burst of whispers below the stage. Everyone heard the incantation about the snake.
Harry was waiting with rapt attention, but he noticed that Malfoy's wand didn't respond. But he wouldn't underestimate his opponent. He didn't believe that Malfoy would make such a low-level mistake.
Soon, Harry heard the exclamations from the audience. He lowered his head and saw a python wrapped around his waist, hissing and flicking its tongue. Its green eyes stared straight at him as it spiraled up his upper body. In addition to the initial moment of fear, Harry actually wanted to communicate with the snake. He felt that the snake could understand him.
"Can you let me go?" Harry asked, staring at the snake.
There was no effect.
"Hermione, what's wrong with Harry?" Ron asked. "Is Harry talking to the rope?"
"I don't know." Hermione shook her head. She was also puzzled, and she didn't understand what Harry was saying.
The students below the stage only saw a corner of Harry's robe begin to disintegrate into threads and reassemble into a rope. It wrapped tightly around Harry's body, as if to restrict his movements. Harry was spitting out some syllables that they didn't understand.
"Is he talking to the rope?" A Ravenclaw student asked. "Or is it another incantation to dispel the curse?"
Harry desperately searched for the words he knew and ordered the snake he saw. He didn't know why he was uttering those strange syllables, but his intuition told him that the snake could understand him. However, reality gave him a merciless blow. The snake's head had already wrapped around his neck. It was opening its bloody mouth, baring its fangs, and ferociously attacking his neck.
The students saw the rope wrap tightly around Harry's neck.
"Draco, you can end it now. The winner has been decided," Snape said, interrupting the duel.
"Of course, Professor." Malfoy's eyes were closed, as if he was very confident in his spell. He stood motionless in front of Harry, as if he was deep in thought. "Stop the curse!" He suddenly pointed his wand at Harry.
Harry saw the snake slowly retract from his body, and then disappear in the blink of an eye, as if it had never been there.
The students below the stage felt that the duel was very boring. It was far less exciting than the duels between teachers.
Instead, it was Lockhart who spoke, "What a wonderful spell. It reminds me of an ancient eastern proverb, 'What is it again without a fight?'"
"Subdue the enemy without a fight," a black-haired girl below the stage added.
"Yes, yes, yes, that's it. You all know that my dream is world peace. This spell really suits my taste. Ten points for Slytherin! "Lockhart raised his wand and said happily.
Harry was still staring blankly at the opposite side. Even though his opponent had already left the stage, he still hadn't recovered. He was now confused and didn't know what had happened. It was only when he heard Hermione and Ron's shouts that he came back to his senses. He had to give up his seat for the next opponent.
He walked down the stage numbly, the image of the snake still appearing in his mind.
"Oh, Harry, why are you in a daze? You could have torn that rope apart with your hands." Ron couldn't help but complain, because he felt that Harry's loss was too strange.
"Rope?" Harry looked at Ron in surprise.
"Did you see anything else?" Hermione asked. Her intuition told her that this spell wasn't that simple.
"I only saw a snake," Harry said slowly.
"It was obviously a rope. Everyone saw it." Ron looked at Harry in disbelief, but he believed that Harry wouldn't lie, so he couldn't understand it.
"He must have combined several spells to make people hallucinate, and at the same time, his robe disassembled and combined again," Hermione said.
"Well, then there's no other way." Ron sighed. He felt that if he had seen a spider during the duel, he wouldn't have done much better than Harry. For most people, snakes should be a creature worthy of fear.