An Apology, Now That We're Alone

Thud!

As Lockhart fell without cover or protection, hitting the ground with a thud, Kane stood there blankly for all of 0.01 seconds. So had Lockhart really used magic just now?

Honestly, that spell had felt less powerful than Lumos. At least Lumos could actually flash in his eyes.

Forget it. No point thinking about this nonsense.

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With that, he controlled his Shadow Armor into shattering and let out an exaggerated, theatrical cry of pain.

His whole body fell backward. He did not land on the mat, but on a dense mass of hands and arms.

The taller members of the Weasley family seemed not to trust the mat at all. They frantically caught Kane, steadily set him on the ground, and began checking whether he was injured.

"Don't worry, I really am fine... Lockhart held back."

Kane was not being entirely dishonest. Maybe Lockhart really had held back. Otherwise, how could the spell have been weaker than Lumos?

Unlike Kane's side, which had gotten through the incident without a hitch, Lockhart truly fell without cover or protection from a desk nearly eighty centimeters high, leaving him thoroughly disoriented.

Soon, amid his fans' anxious urging and just as a sixty-year-old witch was about to demonstrate mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, he finally woke up.

"Aha! What happened just now?" Lockhart nimbly climbed back onto the desk and looked around at the crowd.

"Your magic knocked that young wizard on the other side off the platform." A blonde, blue-eyed little witch with stars in her eyes spoke like a beautiful fool, her hands clasped at her chest as she looked at Lockhart with little less reverence than she would have given a pure gold statue.

"Aha, then I