Of course, the Gryffindors started hexing the hell out of everything, missing half the shots. Harry didn't know why they thought that casting prank spells would help, but at least Hermione was smart enough to hit a couple of pixies with the Petrification hex.
Lockhart shook his head, "If they're too quick for you to hit with a conventional spell, either lay a trap or use spells that affect a wider area."
Still, Harry remained unmoved, his friends started standing up, still under his shield. Blaise gave him a wide smile, "That was close. Thanks mate."
"You're welcome," he responded.
"You're not attacking them," Daphne remarked.
"Yes, this is far more entertaining," Harry answered with a snort.
All four of them giggled at that, especially as Seamus Finnigan's wand was stolen by the pixies when he was still held up in a chandelier.
It was all fun and games until Weasley raised his wand, "Locomotor Wibbly."
Instead of the usual spell, an explosion occurred, hitting himself and his housemates in the process. Damn, Harry had forgotten about the boy's broken wand. Honestly, how he was able to pass his exams with a broken wand in the stories was just absurd. Seriously, it had to be some sort of mistake because this was pretty much like passing a driving exam without a car. It just didn't any sense.
Having had enough, Harry dispelled his shield and intoned, "Ventus!"
A strong gust of wind sent all of the pixies flying back towards the wall, where he used that disorientation to levitate them all at once, putting them back in their cage and locking it when they were all gone.
Everyone stared at Harry for a couple of seconds before Parvati Patil gasped and pointed at the Weasley boy, "Professor, something happened to Ron."
The blond professor walked towards the redhead who had weird spots and burns all over his body. Longbottom and Dean Thomas also shared a similar fate, although on a far smaller scale. Lockhart then levitated the students with a flick of his wand and address the class, "This lesson is over. I'll be taking these students to the infirmary. I want you all to write a small essay on what you've done wrong and how would you act differently this time. This is your homework due next week, as well as reading the first chapter of Wandering with Werewolves, the new chapter that is. Now, everyone, you're dismissed."
Harry slowly walked out of the room, still keeping his eye on Lockhart. Tracy skipped past him, "I told you he was the real deal, didn't I, Harry? Are you ready to eat your words now?"
The Potter scion shook his head, "No, he's somewhat competent and a little charismatic, but I still stand by what I said. He's a front, and act, and it shows. Mastering the second-year curriculum as an adult wizard is pretty easy. I'll reserve my judgement until I hear the opinion of the NEWT student."
"You're just stubborn because you can't stand the fact that you're wrong for once," Tracy retorted with a frown.
"I'm wrong all the time," Harry said, "but there's still something off with him. Something I just can't put my finger on."
Blaise rolled his eyes, "Just admit that you're wrong and we can just move on."
Harry, choosing not to escalate things into an actual fight, simply nodded, "I guess I was mistaken. As far as I can see today, he'll be an alright professor."
Tracy grinned, "Come on, he's just as amazing as the book described. Did you see how unflappable he stood when the pixies attacked? They didn't even come near him."
"Hey, Harry wasn't worried too," Daphne protested at his side.
"The pixies were harmless, but he shouldn't have let people cast whatever they wanted," Harry commented, "He should have specified rules so that people wouldn't get hurt. But even then, you heard him say that the books are romanticized versions of what happened, which means that they're pretty much made up. I am curious about what's different this time."
"Yeah, me too. We'll be the envy of his entire fanbase. Our copies would probably sell for hundreds of Galleons," Tracy exclaimed.
Yeah, the girl had a point. It wasn't good business sense to just leave these things out in the open. Lockhart is born with a persona, that he's invincible, that fighting dark creatures was some sort of heroic tale like the ones taught to children. He was selling a narrative, but if he showed a version of the events with blood and gore, his very premise would be irrelevant.
Still, the Potter scion was curious about what the updated books entailed. Was it really just another piece of fiction or was there any reality to it? After dinner, Harry decided to just stay in the common room and started reading Lockhart's books.
He started with the first one, and he just kept on going, until he had finished the entire collection. It was almost midnight by then, and what a read it was. But Harry could tell that whoever had written this wasn't really Lockhart. There were traces of the man's writing, but the theory, the confrontations, it was like someone else had written them; the writing style was just that different.
But the content was a goldmine. Yeah, he didn't wrestle with a werewolf, just stabbed it with a silver dagger. He didn't banish a banshee with some obscure spell, he simply added a basic ward in the village it attacked and used a laughing potion while the creature tried to break in to kill her from behind. Voyages with Vampires had nothing about vampire hunts, it was just an explanation of their society and so on. The only piece of action was just some rogue young vampires that tried to attack a village which he weakened using the Lumos Solem charm and beheaded using a cutting curse. It wouldn't have worked if they were older or more powerful, but luckily, they were barely turned a few months before the confrontation and hadn't gotten their bloodlust under control.
This was unexpected. No, this was more than unexpected. This was just too detailed and too close to the truth for it to not be at least reliable. Each method in the book could be found in a reference book or another. The spells used were explained in detail, down to the wand movements and the visualization aspect. It was suitable to be used as a textbook. But something was still nagging Harry.
If he was some hero, then why did he force people to buy all of his books? Exclusive or not, he still made an absurd amount of gold in this sale. And giving first years and NEWT students the same books was just illogical. They were worlds apart in terms of magical education. And that didn't explain Lockhart's obviously untrained magic, at least in terms of martial spells. Something was odd. Was he really a fraud? Or was there something else going on? Did Lockhart end up with the Diary back in July and that was the consequences of it? If it was any other artefact, Harry would have noticed it, but the diary was a tricky little bugger.
Speaking of the diary, he needed to start developing a way to survive the Basilisk's glare. It was mostly done out of precaution, but he would rather not risk it. After all, he loses nothing by being prepared.
.....
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