It was only the first day of classes and already, the castle was abuzz with students gossiping about the latest events that had transpired since their arrivals last night. Of course, one of the main topics was Harry and Ron's adventure and unique method of arrival which landed them in detention as soon as they stepped foot into the castle. However, the other thing people seemed to enjoy laughing about was Neville's fainting spell during their Herbology lesson earlier in the day.
And at the moment, it was what made a frown appear on Olivia's face as she sent a glare towards Justin, who along with a couple of his friends was teasing Neville as he passed by their desks. Poor Neville kept his head down, pretending not to notice them, but the frown on his face indicated the opposite. The sight of it made Liv rise up from her chair so Neville would notice her as she sent him a small smile.
"Don't worry about them Neville, today wasn't your fault." She said in an uplifting tone, hoping to cheer up the Gryffindor. "How are you feeling?" She added moments later. Because of his accident in Herbology, Neville had spent some time in the Hospital Wing and missed Transfiguration. Now that he was back, he was surely better. Madam Pomfrey wouldn't have let him out of bed if she had any doubts about his state.
"Thanks Olivia. I'm better, still some ringing in my ears though." Neville let a small smile appear on his face. Striking up a conversation with Olivia helped him better ignore the taunts of his peers, and he was grateful for it.
"Tell me about it. It's like those protective earmuffs were made of only a layer of silk, not actual protective material." Hope, who was occupying the same desk as Olivia let out a groan of irritation. "I would have fainted too if the Mandrakes were shut up any later." The Slytherin added on, smiling towards Neville who happily sent a smile back to her.
"I should go take my seat." Neville announced, finally noticing that almost all of the empty seats had by now been taken by the students coming into the classroom. He didn't want to cause more trouble by still scrambling around when Professor Lockhart came in. With Neville walking away, Liv lowered back down into her seat. She checked one last time she had all of her supplies, but Hope spoke up once more, making her eyes turn towards the wild haired girl.
"So are we going to address the elephant in the room?" Hope asked, her eyes almost wearily looking at their surroundings. It made Olivia's brows furrow in confusion. Aside from the teasing and rude boys, she had noticed nothing else that could be wrong, so she didn't understand what Hope could be referring to.
"The elephant in the room?"
"Lockhart! Why the bloody hell has he put up so many pictures of himself?" Hope asked with a frown, the question making laughter burst past Liv's lips. "It's creepy, he's not here but I still feel like I can't do something without getting caught."
While she found Hope's observations amusing, Olivia couldn't deny that it was a bit odd. Last year, the classroom looked quite different. A multitude of Professor Quirrel's trinkets, gathered on travels and bearing some importance to the class, were scattered across shelves and other surfaces. But now the classroom looked more like a shrine to the golden haired professor than it did a space for learning.
"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.
"He's mental." Hope shook her head. "Look at this! What is the name of Gilderoy Lockhart's old Hogwarts pet? How should I know that?" Hope grumbled to herself. As a student with some of the best marks, closely following behind Hermione herself, Hope was outraged with the thought of getting a bad mark because of a quiz foolish as this one.
Professor Lockhart spoke once more as he reached the front of the room, cutting off all conversation. "You have thirty minutes. Start... Now!"
"Kill me now." Hope muttered before she, along with everyone else, started on the quiz.
Olivia remembered his Hogwarts house; she remembered his greatest achievement (though there was a whole book on it, so she suspected everyone would know the answer to that one); she remembered something little about his work with Hags in the French mountains, and a couple of other things. And as she watched the professor look through the quizzes he had collected minutes ago, she hoped it was enough.
"Tut, tut. Hardly any of you remembered my favorite color is lilac. But Miss Hermione Granger knew that my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair care potions. Good girl." Professor Lockhart fixed Hermione with a smile of approval and Hermione seemed to melt at the praise. Just like many other girls in the room would have in her position. But Olivia still let out a small sigh.
"Oh Hermione, not you too."
"Now..." Lockhart called out, grasping everyone's attention as he suddenly turned serious, the smile completely gone as he pushed aside the quizzes and stood from his seat. "Be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizard kind! You may find yourself facing your own worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here..."
As he spoke, the Professor moved to stand beside a cage covered with a dark red cloth. He had brought it into the room sometime while they were taking the quiz, and so far, the cage remained silent. However, as he spoke Lockhart tapped his wand against it and suddenly, it rattled. That paired with the Professor's words made a couple of people pull back sceptically while others leaned closer in excitement.
"I must ask you not to scream. It might provoke them!" Lockhart exclaimed his warning, dramatically pulling back the cover to reveal a cage full of purple little creatures, their wings clapping around as they pushed against the bars of their cage.
"Cornish Pixies?" Seamus questioned, a small laugh pushing past his lips.
"They're so small and cute. Look at the faces they're making." Olivia couldn't help but wonder how dangerous these little things could actually be. Yeah, their teeth seemed a bit sharp, and they were slightly erratic, but they were in a cage! Surely it wasn't pleasant for them, being cramped up in there all together.
"Freshly caught Cornish pixies." Lockhart corrected, but it only brought Seamus to snort once more. "Laugh if you will, Mr. Finnegan, but pixies can be devilishly tricky little blighters. Best not to underestimate them Miss Hawthorne." The Professor warned. While Olivia considered him to be a bit too self-obsessed, Olivia took note of his words. He did, after all, have much more experience than she.
"Let's see what you make of them now!" With quick and unexpected movements, he released the Pixies from their cage, sending all of them whizzing through the room at a great speed and causing chaos. Olivia and Hope quickly ducked under their desk as multiple headed right for them.
"Crazy fu-"
"Don't swear!"
"But he is!"
Olivia sent Hope a reprimanding look, but instead of replying, she swung her book by the girl's head, swatting away one of the Pixies that was ready to fly right into the Slytherin's face. The force of the blow sent it flying back to the floor, and it landed with a loud thud.
"Sorry little guy!" Liv called after it. Maybe they were a bit nasty, but Olivia was sure they weren't meant to be swatting them away with thick books and hurting the poor little creatures. But alas, that was what most of the students did as they rushed for the door to escape the classroom.
"Well is he going to do something?!" Hope asked with a small growl as she moved around and turned, peeking her head above the desk to check on what their almighty Professor was doing at that moment as his classroom became a disaster. Olivia did the same, wondering what was taking him so long only to see the Professor failing at performing a spell she could not hear the incantation of. Along with that, her eyes were drawn to Neville who was now hanging off of the chandelier, obviously placed there by the Pixies. However, their abandonment of the protective desk proved to be a mistake as multiple Pixies ascended upon them.
"DO NOT! TOUCH! MY HAIR!" Hope yelled at the creatures, her book swinging with every exclamation as she struggled against the creatures pulling on her thick curls. Anyone who knew Hope knew that the worst thing to do was touch the girl's hair, and those Pixies had just made what may be their fatal mistake.
"I'll ask you five to just nip the rest of them back into their cage." Lockhart's voice reached over the commotion as he sent Harry, Hermione, Ron, Olivia and Hope one last pleading look before locking himself away in the safety of his office and leaving the rest of them to fend for themselves.
"Can I swear now?" Hope asked furiously.
"Go ahead." Olivia nodded her head, a few curse words coming to her mind as well as she pulled out her wand. With it in one hand and the thickest book she could find in the other, she swung blindly while trying to think of a spell which would solve their issues. And while she couldn't think of any, Hermione once more proved how smart she was.
"Immobilus!" The bushy haired brunette yelled out, her wand pointed into the air and soon enough all of the Pixies slowed down, moving at a snail's pace and stopping their hurricane of chaos.
"Oh I've never loved you more." Olivia let out a breath of relief as she sent Hermione a grateful look, the girl smiling back. Soon enough, their attention turned to the last predicament in the room. "Neville, you alright up there?" Olivia asked, she and Hope moving over to stand beside Hermione, Harry and Ron so they Neville wouldn't have to try turning around to talk to them.
"Why is it always me?" Neville questioned in despair. Olivia sent him a sympathetic smile just as one of the floating Pixies passed in front of her face, wiping the smile off of her face and replacing it with a small glare.
"I take it back, you're not cute."
Published: 11th July, 2020