The Dueling Club (chapter)

The chapter, The Dueling Club, is the eleventh chapter in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Summary
By the time Harry was out of the Hospital Wing, word had already spread of the attack on Colin Creevey. The trio were still working on the Polyjuice Potion so they could get into the Slytherin Common Room and prove Malfoy is the heir of Slytherin. During Lily's first few days of teaching, she had tested the students' knowledge with an exam to figure out how much they knew about the subject. Meanwhile, Lockhart's position had been reduced to an advisory role, and to regain some of the popularity he lost to her (especially the older students) he creates the Dueling Club for student to practice dueling and defense. After Lockhart and Snape duel, the students are split up and Harry duels Malfoy. During the duel, Harry suddenly has a flashback to his childhood on the night he and his family were attacked. When he regains his senses, he sees a snake Malfoy conjured, and turns to Hufflepuff student, Justin Finch-Fletchley, and Harry uses his parseltongue to stop it from attacking. Despite saving Justin, everyone in the room look at him in fear by this new revelation. Ron and Hermione tell him that parseltongue is a rare ability and that it was a famous trait of Salazar Slytherin, which would cause people to think Harry was Slytherin's heir. Harry went to speak with Lily, who relieved his fears, telling him that he was a good person, regardless if he was related to Slytherin or not. Harry told her about the memory he recalled in Dueling Club, and she writes to James with her concerns. James assures her the prophecy about Harry was probably completed when Harry faced Voldemort for the Philosopher's Stone.

Later, Harry goes looking to apologize to Justin, but he hears Ernie MacMillan spreading the rumor that Harry is Heir of Slytherin, and Harry attacks him in anger, until Hagrid breaks the fight up. On his way to the Common Room, Harry trips over Justin, who was petrified along with petrified Nearly Headless Nick. Peeves calls the school's attention to the scene and Harry is brought to Dumbledore's office.

Deviation from Canon

 * Harry doesn't learn the Shield Charm until his fourth year.
 * He did not have a flashback during the duel.
 * By this point in the AU, Harry already knows he's a parselmouth, while in canon, he learns this during the Dueling Club (even though he spoke to a snake in The Philosopher's Stone, at the time he was not aware he was speaking another language).
 * Harry doesn't have someone to relieve his fears about being a parselmouth after discovering it.
 * This is the first time in the series that the prophecy about Harry and Voldemort is brought up.