150 Defeat pt.1

"Ready?" Pansy asked.

"Yup!" Draco said walking towards the quidditch ground which was now being used as a duel arena for today's match. Theodore, Daphne, and Pansy were with him as they began walking towards the field. "You should all go now."

"Good luck." Theodore and the rest nodded and left towards the stand to watch the match.

The news of their duel was leaked by none other than Draco himself. He wanted to kill two birds with one stone, one to make sure Ryan hears his new victory again and the other to humiliate Lockhart enough in the public to make sure he would never be able to release another book again. Unknown to Draco, Lockhart had the same idea as him and to humiliate Draco, he had sent letters about the duel to all the reporters he knew to get the maximum coverage over his glorified victory over the so-called genius.

This week had been a stressful one for all the professors, who had to barricade the school to prevent more letters from flooding in. Thousands of wizards and witches all over Europe wanted to see the match between the two of them. Several reporters wanted to get the view of the duel but Dumbledore and the board members decided against letting them in.

The fact that it was a duel between a teacher and a student made the so-called duel meaningless. The board members had already figured the fragile ego of both the parties and not wanting to hurt anyone they decided against it. But a certain reporter had managed to sneak herself in through her animagus form and was secretly hiding in the shadows.

In the stands, all the students of Hogwarts were sitting with excitement and anxiousness written all over their faces along with all the professors and the board members quietly watching the field waiting. The students were allowed to watch the duel, considering how they were going to find about it anyway and Lockhart himself started advertising the duel to the students, so the professor had a hard time telling no to them.

Hermione, Harry, and Ron sat together with all the Gryffindors with Hermione praying for Draco's win.

"Don't worry Hermione." Harry said looking at Hermione who hadn't spoken to them since the morning. She looked even more nervous than the people who were actually going to duel, "We all know what Lockhart is like, and we also know that Draco is good enough, so winning for him isn't that hard at all."

Hermione didn't say anything as she quietly nodded her head in response. Even if Lockhart was the same as everyone said he was, the fact that he was still an adult wizard was out there.

Harry sighed and looked at Ron who shrugged his shoulder not knowing what to say. In fact, Harry was excited about the duel as well, since he had never seen a proper one before and only heard about it. The only information he knew about dueling was connected with Draco who was known to be a very good duelist. Harry didn't know what was wrong with Lockhart to accept the duel proposal but when he thought about the arrogant Lockhart he wasn't actually surprised that Lockhart would accept it.

Dumbledore stood up from his stand and putting his wand on his throat he yelled, "SILENCE!!"

The whole crowd of people who were busy chattering became silent and looked towards Dumbledore.

"Today we are here to witness the duel between a fellow student and a known professor." Dumbledore said in his usual wise tone, "To be honest, in the history of Hogwarts this has never happened before and neither do I condone it but some issues have come along the way and this was the only way we could think of to solve it. But I do want you all to know that this is never the solution for this problem and after this event, such a thing will be forever banned from Hogwarts."

The student body remained silent, some didn't know why this was a serious matter but the rest knew. Dumbledore and the other professors wanted to use this opportunity to make sure these incidents do not happen in the future again.

A student challenging a professor to a duel every time they thought they were being treated unfairly would result in a devastating situation so after consulting with the board members all of the agreed on banning duels between a student and teacher in Hogwarts. Dumbledore was sure that this wouldn't happen in the future as most students weren't gutsy enough to do so but he wanted to prevent it in case an undeterminable factor like Draco pops up in the future again.

"Now that's done, let us enjoy today's duel." Dumbledore continued, "We wanted this duel to be private but since it's not, we hope you all learn something from it. As dueling isn't a part of our school's curriculum, some of you might have never even heard of it. So I hope you will take this as an opportunity to learn what a wizard dueling is. Learn the benefits and the dangers of it, but also keep in mind that the dangers outweighs the benefit..."

Giving his be good and righteous speech Dumbledore sat back down and then the old board member who was on the field got towards the center.

"Mr. Lockhart and Mr. Black, please come towards the arena!" he announced.

Lockhart and Draco both came from different sides walking towards the center arena which was prepared just for today. Lockhart was wearing a bright suit which was laced with different shiny pieces of jewelry all over the place. Whereas Draco, on the other hand, was in a plain dark wizarding suit. Cheers surrounded the place as both of them stood next to each other on the stage.

"Before we start the duel, let me give a brief summary of the rules in case any of you forgot." The old man said as the cheers died down, "First, since there are no seconds in this duel another party interfering with this duel is completely forbidden."

"Second, only magical means may be used to fight an opponent, and that there is to be no physical contact."

"Third, remember this isn't a duel to the death, so harming the other party seriously is forbidden."

"Since we are all done with the rules, let's begin the match."

"Wait!" Lockhart said, "He doesn't have a wand, does he?"

"We have allowed Mr. Black to use his ancestor's wand today for the duel." The old man replied.

Draco lazily took out his wand from his suit's pocket and waved it around. With the help of his father, he was able to use his actual wand in the fight by claiming it to be his ancestor's wand, which wasn't completely a lie.

Lockhart nodded righteously. Draco looked at him disgust wondering how can someone act constantly throughout their life to the point where it's even hard to separate the real them.

"Then let the match begin!" The old man announced and backed off.

"Good luck!" Hermione whispered from the stage.

The crowd went silent as now everyone clearly focused on the duel.

"You still have a chance to back off." Lockhart said coming closer, "You can beg for forgiveness, you know."

"Cut the crap!" Draco said doing the same.

Lockhart and Draco turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Draco jerked his head irritably. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them.

Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Draco cried: "Expelliarmus!" There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light which made people feel that Lockhart was done for when suddenly they heard Lockhart scream, "Protego"