"Ha ha, whose idea was that? It's brilliant!" Ron laughed helplessly at Lockhart's frozen expression.
In Lockhart's books, he might not have been invincible, but he was a clever man who reacted swiftly to danger, always handling it with some ingenious trick.
By now, though, Ron was certain that everything in Lockhart's books was pure boasting.
He was a complete and utter fraud.
Fred and George's suggestion had put him straight in the hot seat. If he agreed, he didn't have the ability to pull it off. If he refused now, wouldn't he lose all face?
"Harry, don't you think so?" Getting no response, Ron glanced to his left. Tris was leaning back in his chair, pretending to sleep.
So he looked the other way.
He was used to Tris refusing to play along. The boy never knew how to support his dear older brother's performance. But Harry, his brother from another mother-and father-was usually very enthusiastic about joining in.
What was going on today?
Puzzled, Ron looked over. He found Harry staring intently in one direction, but it didn't seem to be toward the central platform.
"Harry, what are you looking at?" Ron gave Harry a nudge.
"Ah, n-nothing." Harry snapped out of it and shook his head repeatedly. Even so, he couldn't help glancing in the same direction out of the corner of his eye.
Although the central platform was fairly large to accommodate practical magical sparring, the surrounding seats only needed to hold a few hundred people, so the distances within the classroom were still quite short. Harry could clearly see a pretty black-haired girl sitting diagonally opposite him, not far away.
He had never seen her before-or perhaps he had, but had never noticed her.
Now he had noticed her. She was really pretty.
Perhaps Harry's