Duelling Club

The **Duelling Club** is a club at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*. The club was founded by Gilderoy Lockhart when he was the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor. His purpose was to teach students how to fight and defend themselves by duelling after the Chamber of Secrets was reopened. It is unknown what happened to the club when Lockhart left the school.

## History

### Founding

When the Chamber of Secrets was opened for the second time, Professor Lockhart was given permission by Professor Dumbledore to found a Duelling Club, which took place in the Great Hall. For lessons, the dining tables were taken out and replaced with a long, golden stage near a wall.

### First lesson

The first lesson was at 8pm in December. Lockhart asked Professor Snape to help. They showed the students how formal duelling worked. They were face-to-face, raised their wands in the correct combat position, and then used their first spell. Snape used a Disarming Charm which was very powerful, causing Lockhart to fly and hit a wall before falling into a sprawl. Slytherin students in attendance cheered. Lockhart stood up and tried to save face by telling everyone he let Snape defeat him to show the students how the spell worked.

Lockhart put everyone into pairs. Snape wouldn't let Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger duel together. He put Harry with Draco, Ron with Seamus Finnigan and Hermione with Millicent Bulstrode. They were supposed to use the Disarming Charm but a lot of the students used different, unfriendlier spells instead. Harry used the Tickling Charm and Draco used Tarantallegra. Neville Longbottom and Justin Finch-Fletchley ended up falling down, Ron's broken wand left Seamus ash-faced, Millicent put Hermione in a head-lock, Ernie Macmillan had to be helped up and Miss Fawcett was bleeding.

Lockhart then decided to show everyone a defensive spell instead and asked for a volunteer pair. He wanted Neville and Justin but Snape told him that Neville struggled with using simple spells and sent Harry and Draco up. They took center stage where Lockhart showed Harry what to do but dropped his wand in the process. During the duel, Draco used the spell "Serpensortia" and conjured a snake. Snape tried to get rid of it but Lockhart intervened using a stupid spell which caused the snake to fly up in the sky about ten feet up before landing back on the stage. The snake slithered towards Justin and was poised to strike when Harry began speaking Parseltongue to stop it. This shocked everyone in the club. Snape vanished the snake, while Justin thought Harry was really telling the snake to attack and shouted at him.

### Later history

It's unknown what happened to the club after the first lesson. If there were further lessons, it was possibly disbanded at the end of the school year when Professor Lockhart had to leave the school. During their duel, Hermione took a piece of hair off Millicent Bulstrode's robe. She thought it was Millicent's hair so she put it in a Polyjuice Potion. She discovered it was actually her cat's hair.

## Known students

Harry PotterRonald WeasleyHermione GrangerNeville Longbottom
* Seamus Finnigan
* Terry Boot
* Ernie Macmillan
* Justin Finch-Fletchley
* Miss Fawcett
* Draco Malfoy
* Millicent Bulstrode
* Lavender Brown

## Notes and sources

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, Chapter 11
2. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, Chapter 12