Chapter 74: Chapter 74: An Unforgettable Lesson
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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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2 September 1992, Hogwarts
People started chuckling to which the man snorted, "You think this is funny then? Do you think that something looking as significant cannot hurt you? The magical world is full of hidden dangers. Now, let me show you how unprepared you are."
With a flick of his wand, the cage opened, and pandemonium followed.
The pixies were electric blue and about eight inches high, with pointed faces and voices so shrill it was like listening to a lot of budgies arguing. When they were caged, Harry noticed that they had started jabbering and rocketing around, rattling the bars and making bizarre faces at the people nearest them.
Yeah, Harry didn't know what the man expected when he just released them, but it was complete chaos. The pixies shot in every direction like rockets. Two of them seized Seamus Finnigan by the ears and lifted him into the air. Several shot straight through the window, showering the back row with broken glass. The rest proceeded to wreck the classroom more effectively than a rampaging rhino. They grabbed ink bottles and sprayed the class with them, shredded books and papers, tore pictures from the walls, up-ended the waste basket, grabbed bags and books and threw them out of the smashed window; within minutes, half the class was sheltering under desks and Finnigan was swinging from the iron chandelier in the ceiling.
The Potter scion would have been worried if it wasn't for the Contego shield that he cast the moment the creatures approached. The shield was somewhat competent when it came to physical protection, and the pixies weren't heavy or fast enough to get past the limited protection it provided.
Still, Harry only shielded himself and the table his friends were hiding under and didn't attack the pixies. He wanted to see where the man was going with his lesson. Lockhart seemed unconcerned with the destruction of his classrooms, and the pixies didn't attack him.
The blonde professor started speaking out, "Cornish Pixies are tough little buggers, they like to leave mischief and mayhem in their wake, but whatever mess they make is easy to clean up. No, what you need to worry about is their bites, which are venomous."
Lavender Brown started screaming as he did this, using one of Lockhart's books to hit the two pixies attacking her, "they're poisonous?"
"The wild ones, yes," the professor answered, unconcerned with the girl's distress, "However, you'll probably be alright after a few bites as the poison is not that potent. You would need to be bit at least a dozen times for you to be in any substantial amount of danger, and the poison is also easily treatable. However, lucky for you, I have defanged these little creatures, so you're not at any risk. Now, considering the way you've been reacting to the little creatures you laughed at just moments ago, are you still amused? Defence Against the Dark Arts is not a joke. It could easily save your life one day, and you need to take it seriously. Outside of Mr Potter, you all didn't even try to use your wands. Hell, you didn't even try to attack the pixies."
Suddenly everyone stared at Harry who was looking unconcerned with the Cornish Pixies battering his shield. The professor then continued, "Using a shield charm, any shield charm really, would have been an easy solution. Shielding spells always have a resistance to magical attacks as well as physical attacks. If this was a rampaging Graphorn or Acromantula, Mr Potter's shield wouldn't have held, and it would have been better to use a specialized shield that is primarily focused on stopping physical attacks, but right now, the pixies are small and not strong enough to make a dent."
The man had a good point and it grated Harry to acknowledge it so. There was still something off about him. The way he speaks, the way he walks, it just wasn't the way of a warrior that he described himself as. He had no scars, no cursed injuries, and that was just impossible. He was too clean, too civilian. It was also his magic, it felt pampered, like a fancy tune of nobility, not one marred with conflict and suffering. Harry remembered what Lucius Malfoy's magic felt like. It was smooth, filled with a sadistic streak, but it was obvious that it had experienced conflict. Lockhart's just wasn't and so, this unexpected competence was just wrong. Of course, he was teaching second year students, where the spell required could be cast by any wizard with a reasonable competence in magic.
But since it was different from the stories, it could be a clue. The Diary had disappeared near Lockhart, so could it be possible that the ponce was actually learning from the diary to be competent. It would explain the change from the stories, but it wouldn't really say anything about the hidden text in the books he sold, the one with the true story. This was too unknown, too unpredictable, but the Potter scion couldn't discount the possibility.
Everyone had frozen at the man's speech, even the pixies for a few moments. Of course, they returned causing chaos on the unsuspecting students seconds later. Pansy Parkinson, who was trying to shoo the attacking creatures for some reason, "What do we do, Professor?"
"Well, you still haven't attacked them. They aren't really that resistant to magic, any spell would attack them," the man responded with a mocking drawl.
Of course, the Gryffindors started hexing the hell out of everything, missing half the shots. Harry didn't know why they thought that casting prank spells would help, but at least Hermione was smart enough to hit a couple of pixies with the Petrification hex.
Lockhart shook his head, "If they're too quick for you to hit with a conventional spell, either lay a trap or use spells that affect a wider area."
Still, Harry remained unmoved, his friends started standing up, still under his shield. Blaise gave him a wide smile, "That was close. Thanks mate."
"You're welcome," he responded.
"You're not attacking them," Daphne remarked.
"Yes, this is far more entertaining," Harry answered with a snort.
All four of them giggled at that, especially as Seamus Finnigan's wand was stolen by the pixies when he was still held up in a chandelier.
It was all fun and games until Weasley raised his wand, "Locomotor Wibbly."
Instead of the usual spell, an explosion occurred, hitting himself and his housemates in the process. Damn, Harry had forgotten about the boy's broken wand. Honestly, how he was able to pass his exams with a broken wand in the stories was just absurd. Seriously, it had to be some sort of mistake because this was pretty much like passing a driving exam without a car. It just didn't any sense.
Having had enough, Harry dispelled his shield and intoned, "Ventus!"
A strong gust of wind sent all of the pixies flying back towards the wall, where he used that disorientation to levitate them all at once, putting them back in their cage and locking it when they were all gone.
Everyone stared at Harry for a couple of seconds before Parvati Patil gasped and pointed at the Weasley boy, "Professor, something happened to Ron."
The blond professor walked towards the redhead who had weird spots and burns all over his body. Longbottom and Dean Thomas also shared a similar fate, although on a far smaller scale. Lockhart then levitated the students with a flick of his wand and address the class, "This lesson is over. I'll be taking these students to the infirmary. I want you all to write a small essay on what you've done wrong and how would you act differently this time. This is your homework due next week, as well as reading the first chapter of Wandering with Werewolves, the new chapter that is. Now, everyone, you're dismissed."
Harry slowly walked out of the room, still keeping his eye on Lockhart. Tracy skipped past him, "I told you he was the real deal, didn't I, Harry? Are you ready to eat your words now?"
The Potter scion shook his head, "No, he's somewhat competent and a little charismatic, but I still stand by what I said. He's a front, and act, and it shows. Mastering the second-year curriculum as an adult wizard is pretty easy. I'll reserve my judgement until I hear the opinion of the NEWT student."
"You're just stubborn because you can't stand the fact that you're wrong for once," Tracy retorted with a frown.
"I'm wrong all the time," Harry said, "but there's still something off with him. Something I just can't put my finger on."
Blaise rolled his eyes, "Just admit that you're wrong and we can just move on."
Harry, choosing not to escalate things into an actual fight, simply nodded, "I guess I was mistaken. As far as I can see today, he'll be an alright professor."
Tracy grinned, "Come on, he's just as amazing as the book described. Did you see how unflappable he stood when the pixies attacked? They didn't even come near him."
"Hey, Harry wasn't worried too," Daphne protested at his side.
"The pixies were harmless, but he shouldn't have let people cast whatever they wanted," Harry commented, "He should have specified rules so that people wouldn't get hurt. But even then, you heard him say that the books are romanticized versions of what happened, which means that they're pretty much made up. I am curious about what's different this time."
"Yeah, me too. We'll be the envy of his entire fanbase. Our copies would probably sell for hundreds of Galleons," Tracy exclaimed.
Yeah, the girl had a point. It wasn't good business sense to just leave these things out in the open. Lockhart is born with a persona, that he's invincible, that fighting dark creatures was some sort of heroic tale like the ones taught to children. He was selling a narrative, but if he showed a version of the events with blood and gore, his very premise would be irrelevant.
Still, the Potter scion was curious about what the updated books entailed. Was it really just another piece of fiction or was there any reality to it? After dinner, Harry decided to just stay in the common room and started reading Lockhart's books.
He started with the first one, and he just kept on going, until he had finished the entire collection. It was almost midnight by then, and what a read it was. But Harry could tell that whoever had written this wasn't really Lockhart. There were traces of the man's writing, but the theory, the confrontations, it was like someone else had written them; the writing style was just that different.
But the content was a goldmine. Yeah, he didn't wrestle with a werewolf, just stabbed it with a silver dagger. He didn't banish a banshee with some obscure spell, he simply added a basic ward in the village it attacked and used a laughing potion while the creature tried to break in to kill her from behind. Voyages with Vampires had nothing about vampire hunts, it was just an explanation of their society and so on. The only piece of action was just some rogue young vampires that tried to attack a village which he weakened using the Lumos Solem charm and beheaded using a cutting curse. It wouldn't have worked if they were older or more powerful, but luckily, they were barely turned a few months before the confrontation and hadn't gotten their bloodlust under control.
This was unexpected. No, this was more than unexpected. This was just too detailed and too close to the truth for it to not be at least reliable. Each method in the book could be found in a reference book or another. The spells used were explained in detail, down to the wand movements and the visualization aspect. It was suitable to be used as a textbook. But something was still nagging Harry.
If he was some hero, then why did he force people to buy all of his books? Exclusive or not, he still made an absurd amount of gold in this sale. And giving first years and NEWT students the same books was just illogical. They were worlds apart in terms of magical education. And that didn't explain Lockhart's obviously untrained magic, at least in terms of martial spells. Something was odd. Was he really a fraud? Or was there something else going on? Did Lockhart end up with the Diary back in July and that was the consequences of it? If it was any other artefact, Harry would have noticed it, but the diary was a tricky little bugger.
Speaking of the diary, he needed to start developing a way to survive the Basilisk's glare. It was mostly done out of precaution, but he would rather not risk it. After all, he loses nothing by being prepared.
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