Year Two: The Secret of Slytherin

Part 6

Anne stifled a groan when she and her friends entered the classroom for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Standing at the front of the class was Gilderoy Lockhart.

"Let me introduce you to your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher....me! Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-times 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!"

Lockhart laughed at his own personal joke. Some students smiled weakly. "I thought we'd start off today with a little quiz. Nothing to worry about. Just to check to see how well you've read my works, how much you have taken in." He started passing out papers around the room.

Anne glanced at the questions. All of the questions were about him!

What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color? What is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date? When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday and what would his ideal gift be?

What kind of questions are those? she thought disgusted. I barely know half the answers to those questions about that idiot!

"You have thirty minutes. Begin!"

After thirty minutes were up, Lockhart rifled through the papers. He looked disappointed by everyone's responses. "Tut, tut. Hardly any of you remembered my favorite color is lilac. Yet only one person knew that my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair care potions. Well done, Miss Granger!"

Hermione beamed. Anne rolled her eyes. She had better things to do then to listen to this imbecile! She couldn't understand what Hermione liked about him!

Lockhart's expression became very serious. "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'm here. I must ask you not to scream, It might provoke them!"

He then whipped off the cover of a cage on his desk. Inside the cage were several electric blue creatures. About eight inches tall 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 making bizarre faces.

"Cornish pixies!" laughed Seamus.

"Laugh if you will, Mr. Finnigan, but pixies can be devilish tricky little blighters. Let's see what you make of them!" Lockhart opened the cage.

It was pandemonium. The pixies shot in every direction like rockets. They grabbed ink bottles, and sprayed the class with them, shredded books and papers; within minutes half the class was sheltering under desks. Two seized Neville by the ears and lifted him into the air.

"Come on now----round them up, round them up, they're only pixies!" Lockhart shouted. He brandished his wand. "Peskipiksi Pesternomi!"

It had absolutely no effect, one of the pixies seized his wand and tossed it out a window. "Well, I'll ask you four to just nip the rest of them into their cage," he said to Harry, Anne, Ron, and Hermione before retreating to his office.

"What do we do now?" Ron shouted swatting a pixie away from him.

Anne stood up from under her desk and whipped out her wand. "Immobilus!" All the pixies froze and were left floating around the classroom.

"Why is it always me?" asked Neville who was dangling from an iron chandeliar.