Everlasting ⁂ Harry Potter [1]

Chapter Twenty Eight

"Well what would you do now that you can't get caught?" Liv asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know? Jinx his chair so that every time he sits it sounds like he's farting. Fred and George mentioned there's a Muggle contraption that does that." Hope said in a thoughtful tone, but instead of laughing, Olivia sent her a slightly disapproving look. Maybe she should start monitoring what Fred and George said around Hope, they seemed to be giving her terrible ideas. "What?" Hope wondered, as if she couldn't see anything wrong with her idea.

Before Olivia could reply, however, the sound of the door of the Defence teacher's office opening made everyone quiet down, all eyes turning towards it to see the professor standing atop the staircase, looking down at the young students with a wide smile. Liv had to admit, the smile seemed a bit too wide in her opinion, and almost as if it were practiced to the point of utmost perfection in his eyes.

"Let me introduce you to your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher... Me!" He spoke with a tone of importance and moved with a high level of confidence as he started to descend down the short set of stairs, taking moments every so often to marvel at his own pictures while he spoke.

"Gilderoy Lockhart; Order of Merlin third class, honorary member of the Dark Force Defence League, and five times winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award." The man listed off proudly, earning himself admiring looks from almost each and every girl in the room, and even some of the boys. "But I don't talk about that."

"You just did." Hope whispered sarcastically, silently ensuring only Liv could hear her, and the Hufflepuff had to cover her mouth to keep in a small laugh because of it.

"I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!" The Professor added on, unaware of the silent comments shared between the students. He let out a laugh, his expectant eyes looked across the room, however, a few students only managed to send him meek smiles. If he was disappointed by the lack of amusement, Lockhart did not show it and instead, continued on with the lesson.

"I see you've all bought a complete set of my books. Well done. I thought we'd start today with a little quiz." He announced, and a couple of worried looks passed over the student's faces, Liv being one of them.

"A quiz? I wasn't expecting a quiz already." She worriedly whispered to Hope, who unlike her didn't seem too shaken.

"You've read the books though, I know you have." Hope pointed out optimistically.

"Well yes, but not with the intent of studying for a quiz. I did it more out of curiosity." Olivia replied, her frown slightly diminishing. She hoped that while she hadn't really studied, perhaps she would be able to remember most of what she had read and do alright.

"Nothing to worry about. Just to check how well you've read them, how much you've taken in..." Lockhart added on as he saw some of the concerned faces while he gathered the pieces of parchment which had so far been resting on his desk before continuing on to hand them out as he moved between rows of desks. He sent Olivia and Hope a smile as he passed by them and handed them two copies of the quiz, but neither paid it much mind as they took the parchment.

"Oh dear Salazar, please tell me this is some kind of a joke?" Hope let out a quiet wail of disbelief as she glanced at the quiz. Olivia's eyes widened. Was it really that difficult? With the question on her mind, her eyes quickly jumped to the page, looking over the questions.

"There are fifty four questions." Olivia flipped through the pages in shock. All of the questions were about him. Not about the class, not in any way related to Defence Against the Dark Arts. No, it was all questions about Gilderoy Lockhart.