Harry had seen the magical flames and soul projections of several adult wizards. Professor McGonagall was the strongest among them, followed by Professor Flitwick. Snape was a little weaker, then came Professor Sprout. The school's other professors were all slightly weaker than those four Heads of House.
There was also one other person Harry was certain was very powerful, though he had never looked: Dumbledore. Given what had happened before, however, Harry had never quite dared to look at Dumbledore. In fact, after the incident with the black figure, Harry had hardly dared to use Magic Perception casually at all.
He had looked at Lockhart only because he was simply too curious about just how capable this professor, who portrayed himself as so brilliant and mighty in his books, actually was.
Harry had made some guesses about Lockhart beforehand. He thought there were two possibilities.
Either Lockhart really was strong, perhaps about as strong as Snape or Professor Sprout, or he was utterly useless, a braggart who might even be a little weaker than the school's young assistant instructors.
But when Harry saw for himself, the situation was rather hard to describe.
First of all, Lockhart's magical flame was huge!
The magic layer, like a blazing fire, extended dozens of meters outward, filling the entire classroom. By Harry's estimate, it seemed slightly smaller than Professor McGonagall's and Professor Flitwick's, but about the same size as Snape's, or perhaps even a tiny bit larger.
But that color...
Harry had seen two, or rather three, colors of magical flame.
First, there was his own and those of the school's students: white, with a faint hint of golden light. Harry thought this was probably because their magic was still too weak for the color to be distinct.
Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout,