With Lewis's wand pointed at him from such close range, Snape knew there was no room to counterattack and stopped casting.
Seeing this, Lewis flicked his wand. The wildly growing vines immediately ceased moving and began to wither rapidly.
As dry vines fell to the ground at his feet, Snape's expression grew complicated.
"You hid seeds inside those ice shards, didn't you?" he asked.
"What do you think?" Lewis replied with a smile.
Snape snorted. "And that spell that made the vines grow?"
"You want to learn it? I can teach you."
Druid magic. Even if I told you, you wouldn't be able to use it.
Snape, unfortunately, wasn't the kind of person to bow his head just to learn a technique. He walked away with a dark expression.
In truth, Snape's defeat in this duel had been inevitable. On one hand, Lewis's strength was already sufficient, and with multiple classes combined, his techniques were endless. The vine ambush alone had been a layered attack: using Ice Storm to deliver seeds to Snape's feet, psionic influence to make him ignore subtle anomalies on the ground, followed by Druid spells Plant Growth and Command Plants. A three-class combination attack naturally caught Snape completely off guard.
As for Snape, being unable to use dark magic limited part of his combat strength. If both sides had fought without restraint, Lewis estimated it would have ended in a draw.
Seeing their Head of House defeated with their own eyes, the Slytherin students were pale. Students from other houses looked at Lewis with awe. The Chimera incident had only been heard about afterward, but this time, they had witnessed his power firsthand. His strength far exceeded that of adult wizards, and he was only in his second year. If nothing unexpected happened, he would undoubtedly become a wizard on par with Dumbledore.
"Well done, Mr. Green! Congratulations on winning the duel!" Lockhart hurried over enthusiastically, throwing an arm around Lewis's shoulders as if they were close friends, creating the illusion that Lewis was his student.
And why couldn't that be the case?
Lockhart had already decided that in his next book, he would add this episode, portraying himself as Lewis's favorite teacher. He would even write that Gilderoy Lockhart personally tutored Lewis for two hours every night. Perfect. Once Lewis became famous, his own reputation would rise along with him.
His ability to ride on others' fame had reached new heights.
"Next, let's have another student duel!" Lockhart quickly let go before Lewis could react and arranged the next match.
This time, it was Harry and Malfoy.
Snape approached Malfoy and whispered something in his ear, clearly venting his frustration from defeat through him. Malfoy's fear vanished, replaced by a smug grin.
Lockhart also attempted to coach Harry, but his flashy wand flourish—followed by losing his grip on it—was something Harry hoped never to replicate.
As a student duel, no one expected anything as impressive as Lewis and Snape's match. But unexpectedly, this duel had its own highlight.
"Serpensortia!"
Malfoy cast a spell no one had seen before. His wand exploded with a sharp crack, and a long black snake shot out, landing heavily between them. It raised its head, ready to strike.
The crowd screamed and scattered, clearing space. This was clearly a dark magic summoning spell, likely something Snape had taught privately.
"Don't move, Potter," Snape said lazily, clearly enjoying the situation. "I'll handle it…"
But he made no move, obviously intending to let Harry embarrass himself.
"Let me! I know a spell!" Lockhart shouted.
He waved his wand dramatically. With a loud bang, the snake didn't disappear—instead, it leapt higher and grew several times larger upon landing. It was now more like a black python.
Enraged, it hissed and slithered toward the nearest target—Justin Finch-Fletchley—raising its head and baring its fangs.
Harry instinctively stepped forward, making a strange hissing sound at the snake.
The snake immediately lost its aggression, collapsing onto the floor like a thick black hose, its eyes fixed on Harry.
Harry knew it wouldn't attack anyone.
But when he looked up at Justin, he saw only fear and anger.
"What do you think you're doing?" Justin shouted.
Before Harry could explain, Justin turned and ran from the hall as if fleeing for his life.
Snape stepped forward, flicked his wand, and the snake dissolved into black smoke. Then he looked at Harry with a calculating, almost predatory gaze. The other students' expressions also turned wary.
Only Lewis understood what Harry had said. Through Animal Speech, he could interpret it.
Harry had said, "Leave him alone."
But how could he explain that without exposing himself?
Ron acted first, dragging Harry away. As they left, students stepped aside, as if afraid to get too close.
The first session of the dueling club ended in chaos.
Malfoy, however, continued shouting angrily behind them. "Just because you can speak Parseltongue doesn't mean you're the Heir of Slytherin! There's no way Slytherin's heir would be a clumsy Gryffindor like you!"
His anger was mixed with jealousy—and a strange sense of satisfaction.
"I'd rather be a Squib than Slytherin's heir!" Harry shot back, then froze. "Wait… what did you call me?"
"Stop pretending!" Malfoy snapped, convinced Harry was showing off. He was about to continue when he saw Lewis and Hermione approaching and immediately turned away.
"He said you're a Parselmouth, Harry. You can talk to snakes," Ron explained.
"Harry, speaking Parseltongue is Salazar Slytherin's famous ability," Hermione added quietly. "That's why Slytherin's symbol is a snake."
"But I'm not his heir!" Harry panicked. "I'm not! I didn't! Don't say that!"
He was genuinely frightened. He couldn't explain how he had this ability, nor could he accept the possibility that he might be Slytherin's heir.
Out of old friendship, Lewis tried to reassure him. "Don't worry, Harry. Not all Parselmouths are Slytherin's heirs. The ability existed long before him. For example, Herpo the Foul was also a Parselmouth…"
Unfortunately, that only made things worse.
"So Parselmouths are dark wizards?!" Harry became even more anxious. "But I'm not a dark wizard!"
Lewis fell silent. After a moment, he awkwardly said, "Well… learning a new skill isn't a bad thing, right? You could treat it like learning a foreign language. Even Dumbledore can speak Mermish."
It didn't help.
Looking at Harry's expression, Lewis realized he was terrible at comforting people. If he kept talking, Harry might just climb the Astronomy Tower and jump.
Better to let him brood for a few days.
Fortunately, this era didn't have melancholic music apps.
Otherwise, Harry would already be looping sad songs all night.
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