CORNY QUIZ & CORNISH PIXIES
Today, Gilderoy Lockhart wore beige robes with a long white cape, and spoke mysteriously to us, "Let me introduce you to your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Me!" He laughed at his joke, thinking we were all impressed. Only the girls, besides me, were. I only found him utterly stupid and narcissistic. The boys didn't give a flying hoot about him.
Our new professor walked down the steps from his office to a large, fifteen-foot tall, eight-foot wide painting. It was a moving portrait of himself, only he was wearing Renaissance-themed blue and red robes and also painting a moving portrait of himself wearing seventeen-hundreds golden robes. There were many other pictures of himself plastered around the entire room.
He continued his grand speech, "Gilderoy Lockhart; Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award. But I don't talk about that, I didn't get rid of a Bandon Banshee by smiling at it." As he laughed again, all the girls giggled back and my face only grew more disgusted. All of the girls in the front two rows had their mouths hanging open onto the ground. They were all in awe of his charming-ness. The boys didn't fall for Gilderoy's antics so he stopped and continued with our lesson, "Now! I'd thought I would start the day by giving you a quiz just to see how much you have read your books. I trust most of you have. You have 30 minutes, GO!"
He flicked his wand and passed out a three-page quiz with fifty-four questions, all about himself:
1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?
14. Why did Gilderoy Lockhart win a prize for Most Outstanding Wizard of the Age?
19. When did Gilderoy Lockhart write his first book?
32. How did Gilderoy Lockhart fight the first Troll in Traveling with Trolls?
54. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would be his ideal gift?
These were some of the stupidest questions I had ever answered for a quiz, but I had only got one wrong. His secret ambition was to rid the world of evil and market his own range of hair-care products, which wasn't necessarily life-changing. When he wasn't looking, I took slips of papers, wrote down answers and passed them backwards to Daphne as she hadn't read a few of the books. Lockhart was most disappointed with most of the class's answers. Hermione was the only one who actually knew his secret ambition, so he awarded her ten points to Gryffindor.
Once he was done, he exclaimed, "To business!" Our professor walked behind his desk and pulled out a small bird cage. He set it on his desk and it started shaking, violently. Whatever it was, was concealed behind a maroon cage cover. And whatever was inside, was most eager to escape. It put a mysterious aura throughout the room. Lockhart informed us, "Now, be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizard-kind. You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. I must ask you not to scream..."
He pulled the cage cover off, "...It might provoke them!!!" The cover revealed ugly, blue, human-like animals with big black eyes and tiny wings. They squeaked and squealed, shaking the cage, desperate to get out.
"Cornish Pixies?" Seamus laughed.
"Freshly caught cornish pixies," Professor Lockhart informed. "Laugh if you will, Mr. Finnegan, but pixies can be devilish tricky, little blighters. Let's see what you make of them."
Highly unsafely, Lockhart lifted the door to the bird cage and out shot dozens of Pixies. They dove through the students and charged at the walls, grabbing everything in sight and destroying it to bits. Everyone started waving their hands around them trying to swat them like flies. The pixies started picking up books and throwing them, tearing pages out of books, and pulling the hair of every girl in the room.
Professor Lockhart did nothing and expected us to round them up, as if we knew anything about capturing pixies! The pixies were also surprisingly strong, despite their size and skinny arms. Two particular pixies started pulling up Neville by his ears and raising him up into the air. They dropped him onto the chandelier and hung from it by his robes' hood. I thought it would be best to hide under the desks, not getting my hair pulled and prodded, watching as everyone rushed out of the room.
Professor Lockhart rolled his eyes when he realized his lesson wasn't going to plan and shouted, "Peskipiksi Pesternomi!" Instead of the spell actually working, a pixie shot through the air grabbing his wand. It flew up to the ceiling and muttered something that made the chain holding the Hebridean dragon skeleton drop.
I managed to escape from under my desk to avoid the bone-dropping damage but as I stood up, I got hit in the face by a large hard-cover book. I fell backward crashing to the ground holding my nose. I removed it to discover blood on my hand. The pixies gave me a bloody, bloody nose!
Professor Lockhart rushed upstairs, cowardly and advised to the Gryffindor trio and I, "I'll ask you four to nip the rest of them back into their cage." He disappeared and cowardly locked himself in his office.
I got back on my feet to see Ron, Hermione, and Harry hitting the pixies with books trying to figure out what to do next. Hermione sparked an idea and shot her wand into the air, shouting, "Immobulus!" The pixies stopped moving immediately.
We managed to catch them all with the summoning charm, accio, and shove them back into their cage. After I slammed the cage shut, Ron scolded me. "Why are you hanging with Malfoy? You know he's an absolute git."
"Because he's a Slytherin and he's nice to me. Despite me being a muggle-born, he respects me enough to endure my presence," I answer.
"What about us? We're nice to you and we don't care about your blood," Harry shot back.
"While yes you're nice, you're really good friends, and I can still help you, but do you know what would happen if he or anybody in Slytherin found out I helped you guys?" I asked. "It would ruin my reputation and yours! It's embarrassing to know a Slytherin mudblood is helping 'ye ol' famous Harry Potter,' a Gryffindor, with his quests. No one would want to be my friend. Plus, I can help you get secrets from Slytherin, I can be like a spy or a connection! Do you really think you can ask Draco for a favor?" I explained.
"No," Hermione answered with a sigh. "But why do you treat us badly?"
"I haven't exactly treated any of you badly. But if I have, it's because if I don't, then the Slytherins will think something's up. A Slytherin doesn't meddle with a Gryffindor, especially a Gryffindor. I'm really sorry, but that's how you play the part. Plus, I like Draco as my best friend and you can hold that against me!" I cried.
"Alright," Harry compromised. "You can still be our friend. But you must promise us, you will help us while keeping up your image. Deal?" He held out his hand.
"Deal, but when it comes to the House Cup or Quidditch games, game on! We're not friends," I smiled wickedly.
"Agreed," Harry answered, equally grinning.
YOU ARE READING
The Slytherin Mudblood: Book 2
FantasyVictoria Haynes, a Slytherin house muggle-born, has just had her first run-in with The Dark Lord. As she moves into her Second Year at Hogwarts, she has to learn to balance her friendships with the trio and her fellow Slytherins and look out for the...
