“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.”
-- Gilderoy Lockhart (CS11)
The Duelling Club was a student organization, started by Gilderoy Lockhart, which met during the 1992-1993 school year. Lockhart had received permission from Dumbledore to form the club. He led the group himself, with the assistance of Snape.
- Gilderoy Lockhart implied that he was the leader of Duelling Club and Professor Snape was his "assistant," but given that Lockhart bent the truth on a daily basis it was more likely that Dumbledore told Snape to make sure Harry and the others learned some duelling skills.
- Lockhart taught Harry to bow before your opponent and some other tricks, but his "foolish wand-waving" was of no help to Harry or even himself - Snape easily disarmed Lockhart in a demonstration and blasted him backwards with the Disarming Charm "Expelliarmus." That became the one spell Harry remembered years later when he used it to defeat Voldemort in the Little Hangleton graveyard (GF34). It became Harry's signature spell, so well-known that Lupin chided him for using it during the Battle of the Seven Potters because Voldemort recognized him (DH5). In Fifth Year, Harry taught the Disarming Charm to Dumbledore's Army (OP18), and it was the spell he used to vanquish Voldemort in their final duel (DH36).
- During the Duelling Club, Draco used the Serpensortia spell to shoot a snake at Harry. Snape was about to deal with the creature when Lockhart unfortunately sent the snake soaring "ten feet up in the air" only to come back down one angry snake. When the creature turned towards Justin Finch-Fletchly and seemed about to strike him, Harry instinctively told the snake to stop in Parseltongue, outing him as a Parselmouth and causing other students to fear that Harry was the "Heir of Slytherin" (CS11).
- Other spells attempted during the Duelling Club were the Tickling Charm used by Harry on Draco, and the Dancing-Feet Charm used by Draco on Harry.
- The aftermath of the Duelling Club: Ron's broken wand turned Seamus Dean's face "ashen," Neville and Justin merely lay on the floor, and Hermione and Millicent Bulstrode were wrestling in hand-to-hand combat (CS11).
Commentary
Notes
In some ways, this Duelling Club was a forerunner of the DA in Harry's fifth year. Harry was a much better teacher than Lockhart.
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