Lockhart's Three Virtues

After Transfiguration ended, he did not go straight to eat. Instead, he chased after Professor McGonagall and spent a full hour asking her questions about Transfiguration before finally leaving, still wanting more.

After all, every professor had to teach several years and was terribly busy. If he did not seize the gaps and ask more questions, he might not be able to find them at ordinary times.

That afternoon was Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Gilderoy Lockhart, dressed in lavender-purple robes, strutted flamboyantly into the classroom and stood at the lectern.

"I, Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, honorary member of the Defense Against the Dark Arts Alliance, five-time winner of Wizard Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award—but I don't go around talking about that. I didn't drive away the Wanlun Female Ghost with my smile!"

His self-styled humorous opening made the boys in the classroom exchange looks, while the girls ate it up and excitedly burst into applause.

"This guy really isn't bad-looking."

Looking at the wizard up there who had obtained a whole string of honors entirely through deception and fraud, George had to admit that the reason he had become wildly popular in the wizarding world and was adored by witches of different ages was not just because his books were well written.

More importantly, it was his handsome appearance and that shameless personality.

However, though this fellow did not have much real ability, he was still quite useful to George.

In any case, George summed Lockhart up as having three good points.

First, he was good for points. As long as you suited his tastes, he did not have as many scruples as other professors and would hand out points like mad.

Second, he was good for access. Only professors could sign slips allowing students to take books from the Restricted Section. If George built a good relationship with him, he could get slips for the Restricted Section from Lockhart.

Third, he was good at the Memory Charm. This fellow was a complete mess with other spells, but when it came to the Memory Charm, he had a level comparable to a top wizard. If George could learn the Memory Charm from Lockhart, it would be of great help to him in the Marvel Universe.

So for this class, he did not plan to slack off.

"I see you've all bought the complete set of my works. Very good.

"Then today, we'll begin with a little quiz.

"Don't be afraid—it's just to see how well you've read them, and how much you've understood..."

After Lockhart finished introducing himself, he took out a stack of papers and handed them out one by one to the young wizards in the classroom.

"You have thirty minutes. Now—begin!"

George picked up the paper and saw that it was filled with questions about Lockhart himself, so he had his Marvel main body quickly turn on the computer and look them up.

After Lockhart became the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, he had replaced all the Defense Against the Dark Arts textbooks from First Year to Seventh Year with his own seven books.

So George had naturally bought them as well. Likewise, he had also bought the Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook used by First Years in previous years—Dark Magic: A Self-Defense Guide.

In truth, he had read all seven of Lockhart's works. After all, setting aside the self-praise and boasting, many of the magical experiences were real experiences of fairly capable wizards.

It was just that those experiences had been plagiarized by Lockhart, who then used the Memory Charm he was skilled at to make those wizards forget them.

Half an hour later, Lockhart collected the papers and directly began flipping through and commenting on them at the lectern.

Most of the papers had only a few correct answers. Even those little witches who liked him could answer at most half of them correctly—until he turned to George's paper.

"Oh, who is this? George, I know you. Yesterday morning, you said you wanted to win the House Cup back for Slytherin. Very good, truly very good.

"Not only do you know my favorite color, you also know the birthday present I want most, as well as my great and noble ambition.

"You actually answered all my questions correctly. Twenty points. Twenty points to Slytherin!"

While marking George's paper, the smile on Lockhart's face never once disappeared.

In the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes he had taught over the past two days, aside from a little girl in Second Year Gryffindor named Hermione who had answered most of the questions correctly, very few others had managed more than half.

But now, there was actually a student who had answered every question correctly—and it was the Slytherin new student who had become quite famous over the past two days. How could that not make his vanity swell to bursting?

"Professor, I feel there are many magical experiences in your works that are worthy of in-depth study, so I read them repeatedly. They've already been deeply engraved in my mind."

George raised his hand and spoke.

And those words clearly struck right at Lockhart's heart. Very satisfied, he came over to George and laughed loudly.

"Don't worry. As long as you work hard, with magical talent almost approaching my own, one day in the future, you will certainly be able to succeed like me. I have high hopes for you."

"Even if I do succeed, I'll have to thank you for your guidance, Professor. I've always been someone who knows how to be grateful."

A smile with an implied meaning appeared on George's face. Lockhart's eyes immediately lit up, and the look he gave George became even kinder.

"Good. Next, we'll begin reading my work A Year with the Ghoul. This book has many introductions regarding ghouls. I'll ask questions at random, and anyone who answers correctly will receive points."

Just like that, by the time Defense Against the Dark Arts ended, George had earned another ten points for Slytherin.

So far, in just two days, he alone had already won a full ninety points for Slytherin, letting Slytherin take a huge lead right from the start.

Likewise, after class, he did not let Lockhart go either.

"Professor, I have some questions about magic that I'd like to ask you."

"No problem. Since we're the same kind of person, I can spare some of my precious break time to give you a little extra tutoring."

Lockhart did not refuse. Instead, he winked at George.

From George's actions yesterday morning, as well as his current performance, Lockhart had keenly sensed that the other party was the same as him: the kind of person obsessed with becoming famous.

But he did not dislike George, because George had already made it clear that he would engage in mutual benefit with him.

The more famous George became, the more famous he, Lockhart, would become as well. More importantly, he himself relied entirely on deception, while this George was clearly genuinely gifted.

A potential stock like this, just like Harry, was someone he could draw to his side in advance.

"Professor, I'm somewhat interested in the Memory Charm. I was wondering if you could..."

Seeing that Lockhart had agreed, George did not stand on ceremony and went straight to the point.

Lockhart had originally felt a little guilty and planned to fob George off with a few casual words, but the moment he heard that George wanted to ask about the Memory Charm—the one spell he was actually good at—he immediately puffed out his chest and replied airily:

"A mere Memory Charm? That's the spell I'm least skilled at. Still, compared with those fellows in the Ministry of Magic Memory Cancellation Department, I'm just a tiny bit better."

The Ministry of Magic Memory Cancellation Department belonged to the Ministry's Department of Magical Accidents and Disasters. Its main work was to use the Memory Charm to erase the memories of Muggles who had witnessed the existence of magic, and to use Reparo to repair buildings damaged in magical battles.

Therefore, the wizards in that department were among the very best masters of the Memory Charm and Reparo in the wizarding world.