The Chamber of Secrets Through Another's Eyes

Chapter 10: The Pixies Run Amok

The rest of that day was kind of boring, but that part was important so I told you. I'm going to skip to the first day of school.

Everything was normal, or as normal as wizarding classes could be. Everything was normal...until we got to Defense Against the Dark Arts. I was walking with Aura and Tess. I was right when I said I made friends. We've been hanging out ever since the train. Behind us I heard footsteps getting closer to us.

"What's up, Disgraceful Malfoy?" Morana walked to my right, right next to Aura.

"'Disgraceful Malfoy'?" Aura repeated with a frown. "Where did that nickname come from?"

"Easy," Morana shrugged. "You like Mudbloods and half-bloods, and you are a Malfoy. You are a disgrace to the Malfoy name. Your new nickname is Disgraceful Malfoy."

"What's my nickname?" Tess asked. "I mean, uhh...don't you think that's a little harsh?"

"I don't know," Morana shrugged again. "I don't know that much about you yet. And yeah, it's harsh." Morana smiled. "And Xenia...I have a nickname planned for you, but I don't know if you know what it means."

"We're here," I said, ignoring Morana's comment.

We walked through the doorway into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. I sat down in the second row in the front in a desk right next to Tess and on Tess's right Tess sat a Hufflepuff boy. I think his name is Justin Finch-Fletchley. Aura sat behind us, and Morana had no choice but to sit next to Aura. Morana's best friend Pansy was sitting with another Slytherin girl, so Morana had no where to sit. On Aura's right sat Parvati Patil from Gryffindor.

When the whole class sat down Professor Lockhart cleared his throat loudly and everyone was silent. He picked up Neville Longbottom's book 'Travel with Trolls' and held it up to show the cover, a picture of him winking.

"Me," Lockhart pointed to the picture and winked. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defensive 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 the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!" He waited a second. I turned around and saw that a few students were smiling weakly. "I see you've all bought a complete set of my books - well done. I thought we'd start today with a little quiz. Nothing to worry about - just to check how well you've read them, how much you've taken in -" Lockhart handed out test papers. When he went back to the front of the room he said, "You have thirty minutes - start - now!"

I looked down at the paper and read the first question. 'What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?'

"You have got to be kidding," I whispered.

"I know, right?" Tess whispered to me. "Just do fake answers. He'll think that you tried your hardest, but failed."

I wrote my name down on the paper and answered the first question: 'Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color is black.'

Then I read the next question: 'What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?' I answered: 'To destroy the world like You-Know-Who tried to do, but failed.' I kept answering the questions like that, and the last question was 'When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?' I answered: 'March 3rd, because obviously he likes the number three so much. Gilderoy Lockhart made his students do a test all about him that was THREE PAGES LONG. Gilderoy Lockhart's ideal gift would be to be punched in the face for being a horrible Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.'

When I finished the test Lockhart collected the papers and went through them in front of the class. "Tut, tut - hardly any of you remembered that my favorite color is lilac. I say so in 'Year with the Yeti'. And a few of you need to read 'Wanderings with Werewolves' more carefully - I clearly state in chapter twelve that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony between all magic and non-magic people - though I wouldn't say no to a large bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky!" Lockhart winked again.

I didn't pay attention to Lockhart until he said, "...but Miss Hermione Granger knew my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care potions - good girl! In fact -" Lockhart flipped Hermione's paper over. "- full marks! Where is Miss Hermione Granger?" I looked at Hermione, who raised a trembling hand. "Excellent!" Lockhart beamed. "Quite excellent! Take ten points for Gryffindor! And so - to business -"

Lockhart got a covered cage out from under his desk. "Now - be warned!" he began. "It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm."

Lockhart put a hand on the cover, then continued in a low voice, "I must ask you not to scream. It might provoke them." The whole class held their breath. Lockhart took the cover off of the cage. "Yes," Lockhart dramatically said. "Freshly caught Cornish pixies."

A boy from Gryffindor, Seamus Finnigan, started laughing.

"Yes?" Lockhart smiled at Seamus.

"Well, they're not - they're not very - dangerous, are they?" Seamus said.

"Don't be so sure!" Lockhart said. He wiggled a finger annoyingly at Seamus. "Devilish tricky little blighters they can be! Right then!" Lockhart spoke a little louder. "Let's see what you make of them!" Lockhart opened the cage.

If you read the Chamber of Secrets or seen the Muggle version of the movie then you know that it was a mess right after the pixies were out of their cage. Morana, Aura, Tess, and I decided to hide under our desks instead of doing anything else.

"What in the world was he thinking?!" Morana asked us.

"Come on now - round them up, round them up, they're only pixies," Lockhart shouted. He was silent for a second, then said, "Peskipiski Pesternomi!" I guess it was a spell. I didn't pay that much attention to what happened, but the bell rang and I heard a bunch of people run to the door.

"Well," Lockhart spoke again. "I'll ask you three to just nip the rest of them back into their cage." Then I heard him running and the door shutting.

"What do we do now?" Tess whispered.

"I have an idea," I said. I could hear Hermione, Ron, and Harry talking. I took my wand out of my bag and put it in my right hand. I aimed the wand at a pixie and whispered, "Immobulus." I did it on a lot of pixies, and it helped Harry, Ron, and Hermione get them in the cage faster, and so did the other three girls. Nothing else really happened.

At least, not for a while.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE PIXIES RUN AMOK~~~~~~~~~