"What?"
"That fellow Gilderoy Lockhart got hit by a chandelier, had the back of his clothes ripped open, and ran around with his bare backside showing?"
"This is huge news!"
"Hahaha, that's hilarious! How is Professor Gilderoy Lockhart ever going to face anyone again?"
"How could this happen? The Professor Lockhart I admired made such a fool of himself?"
"What a coward!"
In the dining hall, word of Gilderoy Lockhart's bare-bottomed dash had spread, along with every last detail of what had happened in the classroom.
That included the incident in which Earth Spikes had sent the lectern flying.
"Does anyone have a photo of Lockhart running around naked? Give me a copy, please. I'll treasure it forever," called a scrawny fourth-year Slytherin student, looking rather sleazy.
Everyone turned to look at him.
Under their stares, he showed neither embarrassment nor fear. Instead, he wriggled about with an air of confidence and self-infatuation.
"Urgh!"
Ron Weasley, Harry, Neville, Seamus Finnigan, Andy, and the others all began to gag.
Of course, students from the other houses reacted just as Harry and his friends did.
"Merlin's underpants, how can there be a creep in this world who's even more vain and shameless than Lockhart?"
"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm..."
Someone muttered that complaint, and almost everyone voiced their agreement.
At the professors' table.
Professor McGonagall's reaction was rather strange.
The students below were making a nearly uncontrollable racket, yet the professors were smiling, showing no intention of objecting or putting a stop to it.
"Well, Lockhart's an unlucky poor sod. I reckon he won't be able to teach for a few days," Hagrid said with a hearty laugh, casting an amused look toward Harry and his friends.
Hagrid was absolutely certain that the lectern launched by Earth Spikes had been Harry and his