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The further lesson turned into a mess as soon as Lockhart released the "freshly picked" Cornish pixies from the cage. These little lilac besties made a real mess. They stole and threw Lockhart's wand out of the window, drove him under the table, and then kicked him out of the office altogether. Pixies tugged Neville by the ears, threw books at the guys, doused Malfoy with some nasty stuff, and these are just their most harmless pranks. Hermione and I took refuge under Protego Totalus, forming a typical dome for two. Surprisingly, the picture of total chaos and disorder only spurred our imagination, allowing us to build a pretty decent dome that does not lend itself to pixies, nor books, nor inkpots.
"It will be difficult for me to play admiration," Hermione watched Lockhart, hiding in her office, with a displeased look.
"With your memory, you really need to visit the section. I just can't remember everything alone."
Just a few minutes later, Hermione got tired of this chaos.
"Hold the shield, please."
I nodded and redoubled my focus on the spell. It was given to me with some difficulty. And why weren't these protective charms in those dreams? When I completely took control of the defense, Hermione freely pulled out her wand and gave a short and quick series of swings.
"Impedimenta Spacis," the verbal formula ended with a wave outlining the space, and everything around seemed to be stuck in liquid jelly: people, objects, pixies.
I "let go" of Protego and also waved my wand, pointing to the cage.
"Insemantis Pixie."
All the pixies were forced into the cage as if they were being sucked there, like into a funnel. Now I calmly walked over and locked the cage. The students in the class stopped squealing and squealing indignantly and stared at me. The silence was broken by Neville's fall from the chandelier where the pixies had thrown him.
"A wonderful lesson," I remarked with a smile, returning to my seat.
"It's really going to be difficult," Hermione sighed as we packed our things.
"Twenty points to Gryffindor!" exclaimed Lockhart, leaning out of the doorway of his office, and proudly walked up to his desk. "A beautiful enchantment demonstrated by Mr. Knight and Miss Granger! Just great! You have completed a real challenge."
However, the students were extremely skeptical, but some of the girls breathed in admiration for Lockhart ... I don't know what they admire there when they see such "stars."
I had some concerns about Snape. According to the canon, he was friends with Lucius, and at the moment, he could well be aware of Malfoy Sr.'s plans about me. But he absolutely did not show any emotions about me. He, as always, was pestered by the fact of Potter's existence on this sinful land, and he did not miss the opportunity to remind him and Ron of the full extent of their mental retardation.
Surprisingly, instead of raising their knowledge to an acceptable level, the Golden Duo only spit on potions even more. At one time, in a past life, I studied at a music school. A very strict and mischievous piano teacher, the red-haired version of Snape, rarely spoke flatteringly about my skills. Oh, I was offended, yes, but not much. Much more, I tried to prove her wrong about me, so I tried to be the best. It is not for the sake of praise, but simply to learn to play better than others and better than her. At the final exam, I played so that the guys, teachers, and parents applauded, almost standing up. There was no longer that touchy seven-year-old that came to class but a fourteen-year-old teenager. Did I want to scream: "Ha! What do you say now?" for the whole hall? A little bit. But I was more grateful for that rude but challenging approach. But with these two, such a thing will definitely not work.
Lockhart's failure on the first lesson was a topic of the discussion gradually supplanting Potter and Ron's antics. I bet that if it were not for Lockhart, they would have been procrastinating on this topic for another two months. As I learned, Lockhart failed not only in our class but also in other classes and quickly changed his teaching tactics. No more living magical creatures - now we have more theatrical scenes! It was Potter, who had the dubious honor of playing the role of some kind of monster that Lockhart heroically copes with, not forgetting to mention the color and style of the outfit, the wind blowing lush blonde hair, and so on. Both had a theatrical talent, so it turned out, completely useless from the educational process's point of view, but very funny as an entertainment event.
Hermione and I, with incredible tenacity, pretended to be loyal Lockhart fans, which made the professor incredibly happy and irritated the rest of the guys who liked and disliked him. And almost all the boys didn't like him because the girls liked him.
In addition to the male part of Hogwarts' student population, Lockhart managed to get tired of him of almost all teachers with his inappropriate advice and recommendations. The most interesting thing is that his advice was half efficient as if he grabbed complex matters at the top and is now actively pushing his opinion and position to the masses. He strongly reminded me of a couple of my acquaintances from a past life. They knew a lot about cars, but only from rumors or text, never driving or repairing specific cars. They may have been able to impress some ignorant person with their versatile knowledge. Still, for those people who are directly familiar with the topic under discussion, this couple caused only irritation, laughter, or disdain. Lockhart is the same.