The new professor of DADA turned out to be none other than Gilderoy Lockhart. Harry would have to endure him for a whole year before he left. As is well known, teachers in this profession did not usually stay longer than a year.
The first lesson with Lockhart was very "fun": he released pixies, which caused a huge commotion in the classroom, and Hermione had to sort everything out.
Otherwise, classes with other professors went as usual. Harry was really happy to learn and discover new things (except for Potions, but that wasn't because he didn't understand the subject, but because the professor sometimes went too far with his strictness, and you couldn't complain!). He always stood out for his thirst for knowledge. In his time, Barry Allen was distinguished by his good mind and extraordinary thinking. Many people bullied him for this, but nevertheless, Barry now understood perfectly well why this was happening; he saw a similar situation with Hermione. Although, of course, it cannot be said that she was directly hated for this, but there were moments when it seemed that way. "Harry" always tried to support her as much as possible.***
The duel began, supervised by Professor Snape and Lockhart, whom Barry would have preferred to get rid of. He had never felt this way about people before, and it couldn't be said that Barry hated him outright. It was just that he was more interested in showing off and admiring himself than teaching. Of course, it was logical that Snape defeated his opponent with a single wave of his wand in the demonstration battle.
"Well, of course, I immediately saw through your obvious trick," Professor Lockhart said, standing up and adjusting his hair. He smiled smugly, which caused some of the students to feel a little hostile. "If I had wanted to deflect it, it would have been very easy. Well, now let's see how our students fare. Potter, Allen, step forward!"
"I wouldn't call the second one," Severus objected suddenly. "They are friends, after all, and it's quite likely that they'll go easy on each other. I suggest taking someone from my faculty. Malfoy, for example."
There were no objections, so Harry entered the arena with Draco. According to the rules of a fair duel, they had to bow first and then step back to the required distance to begin the fight. They did all this, and then the process began. Harry and Draco exchanged spells, each receiving one from the other in turn. But then Malfoy used a spell to release a snake from his wand, which significantly changed the course of events. Everyone froze, waiting for Harry Potter's next move.
And then the snake slithered towards one of the Hufflepuff boys, hissed at him and frightened the youngster.
"Get away from him!" Barry shouted at the snake.
The snake stopped in a semi-upright position, looking back at Harry. He looked at her, she looked at him. Then the snake crawled towards him, and the boy took out his wand and pointed it at the reptile.
"Burn!" the boy shouted, and the snake's tail caught fire, gradually spreading to its entire body, and then the snake burned up.
The hall fell silent, all eyes were on the boy. And Harry looked at the Hufflepuff boy, who looked fearfully at the ashes and then at him. Then, with a gentle nod, he hid behind his classmates.
***
"Why didn't you say you could speak Parseltongue?" Ron asked when his friends entered the Gryffindor common room.
"Me?" Harry asked in surprise. "I didn't speak it!"
"But your voice sounded like hissing," Hermione objected.
"I just told the snake to get away from Justin, that's all.
"You may have said that," Barry interjected. "But it sounded like hissing. Snake language isn't very welcome among wizards."
"Salazar Slytherin spoke it," Hermione said quietly. "You-Know-Who spoke it.
"You don't mean to say I'm one of them, do you?
"I didn't even think of that, but the others might," Ron shrugged.
"What nonsense," said Harry, sitting down on the sofa and covering his forehead with his hand.
Then he remembered the events of the canon, in which Harry Potter could actually speak Parseltongue. At that moment, he remembered the incident at the zoo. The longer Barry stayed here, the harder it was for him to remember all the events from the books. He decided that in addition to a list of people he knew from his past life, he would also make a list of important events that would happen to him in this world.
***
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