Disastrous Defence Against Dark Magic Class

Although Mia knew Lockhart might be an incompetent fool, she had not expected his class to be such a disaster.

Draco understood his mother's advice well: if he wanted to make things right with Mia, he first had to reclaim his place at her side.

Draco looked at his seat with satisfaction. Perfect. He didn't dare compete with Theodore, whom Professor Snape had personally chosen as Mia's Potions partner, but Little Dragon was going to fight for every other place by her side.

"Allow me to introduce myself: your new Defence Against Dark Magic teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart." Unlike the gloomy classroom of the previous term, this term's classroom had been decorated by Lockhart to look like an exhibition devoted to himself, with his photographs hanging everywhere. Oh well, at least it was sunny.

"Order of Merlin, Third Class, honorary member of the Anti-Dark Magic League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award. But I never boast. I didn't get rid of the Wailing Widow by smiling." As he spoke, Lockhart wore a smile that left the young witches before him utterly dazzled.

"I see you've all bought my complete works. Excellent."

No, I didn't want to buy them at all, Mia silently grumbled.

"Today, let's start with a little quiz."

Mia exchanged a puzzled look with Draco.

"Don't worry. It's just to see whether you've read my books carefully."

As Lockhart handed out the papers, he didn't forget to flash charming looks at the young witches. Hermione silently squealed with excitement to the witch beside her. When he reached Mia and the others, Draco snatched the papers from him and glared at Lockhart for making eyes at Mia.

"Let's see how much of the books you've understood."

Mia opened the paper. What was Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color? What was Gilderoy Lockhart's ambition? What did you think Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date was? ...

"What is this stuff? Who would know?" Draco looked at the questions with disgust.

"Why would I want to know what some man likes?" Blaise couldn't understand it at all.

Daphne and Pansy were also displeased as they looked at their papers. What was this nonsense?

Mia fell silent. Theodore poked her. "What's wrong?"

"I know all the answers..." When Mia had read Lockhart's novels-yes, she had treated them as novels, and they had been rather interesting—her superior brain had remembered every detail perfectly. The answers had appeared in her mind as soon as she saw the questions.

"! You like him? That narcissist? No! I won't allow it!" Draco reacted most strongly, itching to write to his father and have Lockhart fired immediately.

"Well, your taste is a little... unique." Blaise chose his words carefully before giving his assessment.

"Could it be...? No, Mia must have her reasons for doing this. I'll take another look when I get back." Daphne looked hesitantly at Mia, but soon convinced herself that Mia had a reason for everything she did.

"I don't think that Lockhart can compare to Draco," Pansy said dismissively. She understood now that Draco's heart was entirely set on Mia, and Mia really was powerful and charming. It would undoubtedly be foolish to go against her. Pansy couldn't fail to get Draco and have him hate her too.

Theodore also looked at Mia hesitantly.

"No, I just have a good memory. I don't want to write down the correct answers at all. I have a feeling he'd be very smug about it."

Everyone nodded at that.

"You have thirty minutes. Now, begin!"

Mia hesitated for a long time, but still couldn't bring herself to praise him against her conscience. Oh well, she would just write whatever came to mind.

Lockhart collected and marked the papers, shaking his head regretfully. "Tsk, tsk, hardly anyone remembered that my favorite color is lilac. Only Miss Hermione Granger knew that my ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care potions."

That last part is the real point, isn't it? Besides, the Potter family has already taken up the lion's share of the Wizarding World's hair-care market.

"Good girl." Lockhart winked at Hermione, who was nearly falling in love with him.

"Now, pay attention. My duty is to teach you how to defend yourselves against the most evil creatures known to the Wizarding World. You will face the most terrifying things in this classroom, but with me here, you won't come to any harm."

Nearly an hour of class had been wasted, and Mia saw that they were finally getting to the point. Listening to Lockhart's description, she felt a little anticipation. Are we finally going to do something serious? Could Lockhart actually have some skills?

"Please don't scream. That will provoke them!" Lockhart pulled the red cloth off a cage containing a group of Cornish Pixies.

Mia was deeply disappointed. Cornish Pixies were small creatures that were extremely mischievous and liked playing all sorts of tricks and pranks.

The students present laughed dismissively. What danger could pixies like these pose?

Then Mia saw what Lockhart was doing. "He isn't going to let those pixies out, is he?"

Sure enough, Lockhart opened the cage. The pixies flew around the classroom wreaking havoc, tearing up books and tormenting the students, who fell into chaos.

"Watch out. Damn it, did that fellow just run off? I'm going to tell my father!" Draco carefully protected Mia and hid under a desk with Theodore and the others. Noticing Lockhart's figure as he fled in disarray after losing control of the situation and failing to cast a spell, Draco cursed under his breath.

Unlucky Neville was hung from the ceiling by the pixies, the dinosaur skeleton was knocked over, and the students were all being harassed by the pixies. Even Draco and the others were using books to drive them away. The classroom was a complete stew of chaos, ready to eat.

"Oh no! Freezing Charm!" "Immobulus!" Unable to stand it any longer, Mia and Hermione cast their spells at the same time, finally stopping the pixies from causing further destruction.

"Damn Lockhart." Draco, Theodore, and the others crawled out from under the desk.

"Harry, Hermione, Ron, are you all right?" Mia asked worriedly.

"We're fine." Harry shook his head.

"Lockhart ran away," Blaise said, his tone hostile as he looked at the empty lectern.

"He caused all this trouble and just ran away?" Ron could hardly believe it.

"Let's get Neville down first." Mia used a Levitation Charm to lower Neville, while Draco, Harry, and the others used their wands to put the pixies back in the cage.

"Thank you, Mia," Neville said gratefully, his eyes full of tears.

"It's all right. You're not hurt, are you?"

"No."

Looking at the damaged books, desks, and chairs everywhere, Mia cast another large-scale spell. "Reparo."

The classroom returned to its original state, and the damaged books were restored as well.

"Why go to all that trouble?" Draco asked, looking at Mia.

"It was no trouble." Not everyone knew the Mending Charm, and not every family could afford the high price of buying the books again.

"Lockhart's run off anyway, and class is almost over. Let's leave first," Mia suggested, looking at the nearly empty classroom.

Everyone agreed, of course.