Gilderoy Lockhart was striding toward them, his turquoise robes swirling behind him. "Who's giving out signed photos?"
Harry started to speak but he was cut short as Lockhart flung an arm around his and Violet's shoulders , "Shouldn't have asked! We meet again, Potters!"
Pinned to Lockhart's side and burning with humiliation, Harry saw Malfoy slide, smirking, back into the crowd.
"Come on then, Mr. Creevey," said Lockhart, beaming at Colin. "A triple portrait and we'll all sign it for you." Colin fumbled for his camera and took the picture as the bell rang behind them, signaling the start of afternoon classes.
"Off you go, move along there," Lockhart called to the crowd as he set off back to the castle with Harry and Violet still stuck to his side.
"A word to the wise, Harry and Violet," said Lockhart as they entered the building through a side door. "I covered up for you back there with young Creevey. If he was photographing me too, your schoolmates won't think you're setting yourself up so much..."
"Let me just say that handing out signed pictures at this stage of your career isn't sensible. It looks a bit bigheaded to be frank. There may well come a time when, like me, you'll need to keep a stack handy wherever you go, but," he gave a little chuckle, "I don't think you're quite there yet."
They had reached Lockhart's classroom and he let Harry go in last. Harry yanked his robes straight and headed for a seat at the very back of the class, where he busied himself with piling all seven of Lockhart's books in front of him, so that he could avoid looking at the real thing.
Violet hid her head in her hands. Embarrassed that Gilderoy Lockhart had just barged into the confrontation and pulled her and Harry away. Exactly what Draco had wanted.
The rest of the class came clattering in, and Ron and Hermione sat down on either side of the two.
"You could've fried an egg on your face" said Ron to Violet, then to Harry he said "You'd better hope Creevey doesn't meet Ginny, or they'll be starting a Harry Potter fan club."
"Shut up," snapped Harry. The last thing he needed was for Lockhart to hear the phrase "Harry Potter fan club."
When the whole class was seated, Lockhart cleared his throat loudly and silence fell. He reached forward, picked up Neville Longbottom's copy of Travels with Trolls , and held it up to show his own, winking portrait on the front.
"Me," he said, pointing at it and winking as well. "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 the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!"
He waited for them to laugh; a few people smiled weakly, Hermione laughed. Ron groaned to himself.
"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."
When he had handed out the test papers he returned to the front of the class and said, "You have thirty minutes. Start. . .now!"
Violet looked down at her paper and read:
1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?
2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?
3. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?
On and on it went, over three sides of paper, right down to:
54. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?
