Shameless

After Transfiguration Class, everyone headed toward the Great Hall.

In the portraits on the walls, several wizards in ancient robes were arguing loudly. An old man in a pointed hat waved his cane at a woman in green robes. "How many times must I tell you? Merlin's beard isn't an actual beard. It's—"

Gavin missed the rest. His head was buzzing.

There were now two people wandering around in a daze.

Justin walked beside Gavin and Ernie without saying a word.

He had been like that since morning, his eyes unfocused and his steps unsteady, as though someone had pulled half his soul out through his head.

Gavin was hardly better. The theory he had discovered in Transfiguration Class kept circling through his mind, while the matter of Lockhart weighed on him. He nearly walked into a suit of armor in the corridor.

Every so often, Ernie steered them back in the right direction, like the only sober man looking after two drunks.

"Gavin!"

Cordelia came over from the long table with two sandwiches and called out to him. "Aren't we going to the Potions Resit Exam? We're going to be late."

Ernie froze beside them.

He looked as though he were trying to make sense of something absurd.

"You have to resit Potions?" Ernie asked incredulously. "Nobody fails Potions in first year. Even Potter got an A. Potter!"

Gavin finally snapped out of his thoughts.

"Has it occurred to you that Snape didn't pass them out of kindness—"

Gavin looked at Ernie. "Maybe he just didn't want young wizards wasting any more ingredients."

Ernie's mouth twitched. "Uh, don't ever let him hear you say that. I'm afraid he'd give you a T—a Troll."

"If you don't hurry, he really might give you a T."

Cordelia took hold of Gavin's