Hydrus Black chapter 42 -

Chapter 42 -

Lockhart quietly gulped as he stood opposite Hydrus, maintaining the same stance as he had done previously in the 'mock' duel he had with Severus. He knew that it was one thing to be able to claim that you allowed a man who was older than you to win, but to claim the same of a child when you were supposed to actually defeat the child was a bit different. Lockhart did his best to keep his face void of fear or nervousness. The students were all staring at him, wanting to see a real duel. They all wanted to see the legend that he claimed to be. He knew that he needed to deliver; if not, then there'd be more doubts about his skills.

Taking in a deep breath, he calmed himself and did his best to think positively. Slowly, his body began relaxing as he reminded himself that Hydrus Black, no matter how talented and trained he was, was ultimately still just a child. Yes, a talented child, but a child nonetheless. Now that he thought about it, this was a perfect opportunity. He could defeat the young duelling champion while proving his skills to the rest of the students. Not to mention, if he does it quickly enough, then he could humble young Hydrus Black and have him truly understand just how great a wizard he was. That could then lead to a few lessons with the boy, maybe even a meeting or two with his mother. If things progressed smoothly, then one quick marriage later, and he'd be rich enough that he could take his new famous son and voluptuous wife to some far-off country until someone sorted out this horrid mess with he who must not be named.

'Yes,' Lockhart thought to himself. 'This is my moment! Come on, Gilderoy! You can do this, you handsome bastard! You can do this! Atta boy! You can do this! You can do this! Beat up the kid and then make love with his rich mum! Yes! I can do it!' He mentally chanted as a smile appeared on his face while he stared down Hydrus, who was looking decidedly unimpressed with him, so much so that the boy wasn't even bothering to get into a duelling stance. Lockhart couldn't help but smirk at his arrogance; it didn't matter to him. He'd show the child soon.

"On my mark," Snape's drawling voice cut in. "One...two...three!"

"EXPELLIARMUS!" Lockhart yelled, a cherry-red beam shot out of his wand and headed straight towards Hydrus, who didn't move a muscle, making Lockhart internally cheer as he deemed his victory to be all but done. 'I'm the best,' He mentally told himself just before the beam reached Hydrus.

Except, it didn't quite hit him.

A small burst of wind blew through Hydrus's hair as the beam missed him entirely and hit the wall behind him. If Hydrus had previously looked unimpressed, then now he looked almost offended at Lockhart's missed spell, especially since he hadn't moved at all and Lockhart still managed to miss. Lockhart himself had frozen as he realised just what had happened. He could feel every single gaze in the hall, every pair of eyes drilling into him like needles. His brain worked overtime, trying to think up a reasonable excuse for why his spell hadn't hit his target. He opened his mouth to spout off that very excuse when Hydrus raised his wand and aimed it at him.

A spell shot out from Hydrus's wand and hit Lockhart in the hand. Lockhart flinched before he blinked hard as he realised he wasn't in pain at all. A small smile appeared on his face. Hydrus Black's ineffective spell could be just what he needed to take the attention off of his missed one. A chuckle escaped from his lips.

"Nice try, my boy. But you need to work on our spellwork," He told him with a wink. "Your spell did nothing."

"You don't even know what it was," Hydrus drawled, his eye twitching with irritation. "It's a sticking charm."

"Huh?" Lockhart stared at him before looking down at the wand in his hand. He tried to let go of it, but it was stuck to his duelling glove. As he realised this, a small pair of ropes suddenly wrapped around his arm, preventing him from removing the glove. "What?" He looked back at Hydrus, who was supporting a very, very concerning grin.

"The duel doesn't stop until submission, falling off the platform or dropping your wand." Hydrus reminded him. "Now that we've removed at least one of those obstacles. Let's duel properly!"

(.)

"Hmm," Bellatrix said suddenly, sitting up a bit straighter.

"Hmm?" Andromeda repeated, sharing a confused look with her youngest sister, Naricssa, before they both looked at their eldest sister. They had gathered together to have tea and chat in Andromeda's house. Ted was off at work, and Tonks was up in her room, working on some forms she needed to fill out for her new job. "What is 'hmm'?" She asked, suddenly feeling slightly worried for some reason.

"I don't know," Bellatrix admitted, sounding a bit chipper. "I just have this overwhelming sense of pride suddenly." She revealed.

"Pride?" Narcissa asked, now also feeling the worry that Andromeda was.

"Yes, pride," Bellatrix confirmed with a pleased smile before taking a sip of her tea. "Hmm," She let out a thoughtful hum before a bright smile appeared on her face. "Oh, likely Hydrus has done something brilliant." She realised. "Yes, that makes perfect sense." She decided happily.

"Brilliant." Andromeda sighed deeply before turning to Narcissa, who let a sigh of her own.

"It's your turn," Narcissa told Andromeda.

"Doesn't mean I can't delegate." Andromeda decided. "Nymphadora," She called.

"Don't call me that!" Tonks's voice answered as expected. "What is it, Mum?" She called from upstairs.

"Contact the school, please," Andromeda requested.

"Huh, why?"

"Bellatrix is feeling happy."

"On it," Tonks replied immediately.

(.)

'I still hate the child, but I can admit, I like this. This is definitely one of his better moments.' Snape thought to himself as he and everyone continued to look at the duelling platform.

Snape knew that the buffoon Lockhart wouldn't purposely give up or quit, for the sake of his reputation at least. And Hydrus had removed his ability to lose his wand, meaning that Lockhart had to fight it out. Except this was less of a fight and more of an execution. Hydrus Black had hit him with several stinging hexes, hit him multiple times with a spell that would replicate being slapped and even hit him with a punching hex many times. One spell of his shaved Lockhart's hair down the middle, leaving the top of his head bald. Another spell had knocked out his bottom two front teeth, and the last spell that Hydrus had used had caused several spots to appear on Lockhart's face.

Hydrus hadn't stopped there and had chosen to forgo the use of his wand and tucked it away before he ran forwards and tackled Lockhart to the floor. At that point, many students had looked at Snape questioningly (at least those that weren't completely stunned) to see if he would stop the duel. Snape had simply shrugged his shoulders. While physical contact was not accepted in many duels, they hadn't specified it here, so he didn't see any reason to stop it, which is how they came to be in their current situation.

Lockhart was on his knees, his upper half was only wearing a shirt, while the duelling robes he had been wearing had been pulled over his head, so he couldn't see. Lockhart's top half was curled downwards as he tried valiantly to cover up. Meanwhile, Hydrus Black was standing in front of him and raining down slaps onto Lockhart's back, head and whatever else he could reach. Everyone in the hall collectively watched with stunned disbelief as the second-year student hit Lockhart with slap after slap.

"Why are you making me do this?!" Hydrus shouted after getting a good slap on the side of Lockhart's face. "Fight back!" He managed to get several slaps in before Lockhart pushed himself to his feet while also getting the duelling robes off his head.

"Ha-ha!" Lockhart said triumphantly. But he quickly regretted getting back up when Hydrus kicked him square between the legs. A rather unmanly groan escaped from Lockhart's mouth as he hunched over. Hydrus didn't appear to have any intention of giving him a break and tackled him onto his back and started throwing punch after punch at whatever he could reach.

"Fight back already!" Hydrus growled as he managed to get a very good punch in on Lockhart's face. Lockhart pushed him off and rolled to the side, unintentionally falling off the platform. He quickly got up to his feet and looked around wildly before he spotted Snape. Lockart rushed towards him and grabbed the man by the shoulder, with his one free hand.

"Severus!" Lockhart said desperately, taking in a deep breath. "You've got to stop him!

"Calm down, Gilderoy," Snape said with a small sigh as he pushed Lockhart's hand off of him. "Talented as Black may be, he is still just a child. Just beat him and end the duel already; it should be fairly simple for an adventurer such as yourself."

"But...but...I...wait, isn't the duel already over?!" Lockhart realised. "I'm off the platform!" He pointed out just before he heard a yell. He looked back at the platform in time to see Hydrus jump off it, dive towards and smash into him, sending them both to the ground.

"Oh yeah," Snape said thoughtfully before he looked down at Hydrus, who had raised his fist with punching intent. "Black," Snape called. "The duel's over, he's out of the ring."

"Fuck!"

"Indeed," Snape agreed. "Now, get off of him," Hydrus growled at Lockhart, who was covering his head with his arms. He spat on the man before he walked over to his friends, ignoring the rest of the hall staring at him.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm out of here. This is a waste of my time." Hydrus said before leaving the hall, not even surprised when all the Slytherins in his year started following him.

(.)

"Hey, Hydrus," Liv called as she and Hermione walked up to the group of Slytherins sitting in the library.

"Miss Cooper," Hydrus gave her a small smile as he looked up from his defence book. "And Miss Granger as well. How may we help you?"

After the mess with the club, Hydrus had headed over to Professor McGonagall's office and had stated that there was no way he was going to be spending the rest of his school year learning such a vital subject from such an incompetent professor, especially when Voldemort was on the run. It had been incredibly easy to get parental permission to drop out of his class, and soon all of his friends had done the same. Lockhart pretty much had no Slytherin's in his second year class, and if rumours were to be believed, then many students from all years and houses were also dropping out. If it were up to Hydrus, then Lockhart would be kicked out and replaced with a competent teacher. But apparently that wasn't possible as he hadn't done anything to violate his contract, which kept him here for a year.

Though thankfully, Theo had come up with the idea of filing a petition to have him removed by getting signatures from the other students. There had been one sent to each common room, and now they were just waiting to see how many would sign. It looked like there would be lots, given how stupid Lockhart looked at the duelling club. Most students seemed to realise that they could very well be in danger as soon as they leave the school grounds, and that means they needed to know how to defend themselves. It was doubly worse for OWL and NEWT year students as the exams that decided their futures were also in jeopardy. Therefore, the majority of the school was now conducting self-study when it came to defence against the dark arts.

"We were wondering if we could study with you," Liv answered honestly. "You're the best in defence and we want to pass our exams."

"Why don't you go and study with the other Gryffindors?" Pansy sneered at them.

"I don't recall anyone asking you, Parkinson," Hydrus sent a glare at Pansy, who quickly bowed her head, sending him an apologetic look. Hydrus ignored her and turned back to Liv and Hermione. "It's not a problem," He smiled warmly at them before looking past them, where he saw a couple of tables full of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws studying. "In fact, why don't you guys go and invite the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws over?" Hydrus suggested.

"Oh, like one big study group?" Hermione asked with an excited look in her eye.

"Exactly like that," Hydrus confirmed with a small nod. "If it's not a bother, would you please go and ask them, Miss Granger?"

"Of course," Hermione smiled at him before walking off to the other students.

"Alright, what's your play?" Liv asked him bluntly. Hydrus gave her a mock hurt look.

"No play, just trying to be friendly with potential allies.