Amelia Potter and the Chamber of Secrets PART 1

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'Yes,' he said dramatically. 'Freshly caught Cornish pixies.'

Seamus Finnigan couldn't control himself. He let out a snort of laughter which even Lockhart couldn't mistake for a scream of terror. Amelia yawned and straightened up in her seat. She was counting the minutes till class ended.

'Yes?' he smiled at Seamus.

'Well, they're not – they're not very – dangerous, are they?' Seamus choked.

'Don't be so sure!' said Lockhart, waggling a finger annoyingly at Seamus. 'Devilish tricky little blighters they can be!'

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. The moment the cover had been removed, they had started jabbering and rocketing around, rattling the bars and pulling bizarre faces at the people nearest them.

'Right then,' Lockhart said loudly. 'Let's see what you make of them!' And he opened the cage.

It was pandemonium. The pixies shot in every direction like rockets. Two of them seized Neville 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, upended the waste bin, grabbed bags and books and threw them out of the smashed window; within minutes, half the class was sheltering under desks and Neville was swinging from the candelabra in the ceiling.

'Come on now, round them up, round them up, they're only pixies ...' Lockhart shouted.

He rolled up his sleeves, brandished his wand and bellowed,

'Peskipiksi Pesternomi!'

It had absolutely no effect; one of the pixies seized Lockhart's wand and threw it out of the window, too. Lockhart gulped and dived under his own desk, narrowly avoiding being squashed by Neville, who fell a second later as the candelabra gave way.

The bell rang and there was a mad rush towards the exit. In the relative calm that followed, Lockhart straightened up, caught sight of Harry, Ron, Hermione and Amelia, who were almost at the door, and said, 'Well, I'll ask you four to just nip the rest of them back into their cage.' He swept past them and shut the door quickly behind him.

'Can you believe him?' roared Ron, as one of the remaining pixies bit him painfully on the ear.

'He just wants to give us some hands-on experience,' said Hermione, immobilising two pixies at once with a clever Freezing Charm and stuffing them back into their cage.

'then you can be the one to take down a goblin if he brings one into class!' Amelia let out a yelp of pain as the pixie she snatched out of the air bit her finger. 'Why you bitch!' Amelia threw the pixie out the window.

'Hands on?' said Harry, who was trying to grab a pixie dancing out of reach with its tongue out. 'Hermione, he didn't have a clue what he was doing.'

'Rubbish,' said Hermione. 'You've read his books – look at all those amazing things he's done ...'

'He says he's done,' Ron muttered.

Amelia turned around on her heel and grabbed Hermione the shoulders. 'Hermione, you are the smartest which I know,' Hermione smiled. 'So take off those damn rose-colored goggles you got on and wake up! That man is a lunatic and a moron!'