𝒄𝒐𝒐𝒍 𝒌𝒊𝒅𝒔 - pjo x hp

xiv. fuck the bludgers

"𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐋𝐅𝐒𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍?" 𝐑𝐀𝐘𝐀 𝐀𝐒𝐊𝐄𝐃.

After the incident with the Imps, Professor Lockhart seemed too embarrassed to do anymore live demonstrations. Now, he did dramatic retellings of his books in class. He used to ask for helpers, but after Thomas and Nathaniel refused to follow the script, he gave up on it.

Today, he was retelling Wanderings With Werewolves, explaining how he body slammed a full grown werewolf, and placed the Homorphus charm on him, turning the rabid animal human once more.

"What about the potion?" Lockhart asked, a little nervous.

Raya and his friends stuck true to their word, grilling him every chance they got. Since Raya had practically memorized Wanderings With Werewolves and a dozen other books on the lycanthropes, she took charge in asking the questions today.

"Well, you said that the man was a werewolf, right?" Raya asked.

"Yes," he answered. "That's how the Homorphus charm worked on him."

"Okay, but he wanted to be a werewolf," Raya said, remembering a line from his book. "You said he came from a clan of werewolves who lived peacefully in the caves nearby. But when they ran out of wolfsbane potion, that was when they began to get aggressive. Instead of using the Homorphus charm, you could've easily brewed some Wolfsbane potion. That way, the werewolves would be in their human mind during the transformation."

Lockhart nodded eagerly, "Yes, of course! I had thought of that, but when they ran out of potion, they would only harm the village people again. It had to be stopped."

"You stopped them by putting a temporary charm on them?" Raya tilted her head.

"Uh, what?"

"The Homorphus charm is temporary," Raya told him. "It only turns a werewolf into a human for a temporary amount of time."

Lockhart looked around the class, laughing nervously, "Where — where did you hear that?"

"It's in Werewolves Decoded," Raya told him. "By Ansel Adams. He's decoded many spells, and he's stated multiple times that the Homorphus charm is just temporary. They always transform on the next full moon."

"Perhaps he didn't do it right," Lockhart tried. "I know my charm worked perfectly — I'm quite good at charms, you see. Perhaps he didn't say the incantation with enough conviction."

"One of Hogwarts greatest alumni ever didn't say an incantation with enough conviction?" Raya repeated blandly. "Have you ever gone back to the village to check and make sure the werewolves stayed away?"

"I mean, you can't say the spell worked forever unless you went to check, right?" Thomas leaned forward.

Cierra nodded, "And you'd have to be checking in regularly. You don't know if the spell's held for really long, or if it's actually permanent."

"Yes, yes, of course," Lockhart began, but the students were on a roll now.

"But of course, you've gone so many places after that," Raya shrugged.

"Belgium, Tunisia, Spain, Egypt," Elias listed a few.

"I mean there's no way you could've spared some time to visit for at least... oh I don't even know how long," Raya tried to hide her grin.

"At least sixteen months," Nathaniel answered from somewhere behind her.

"Sixteen months without checking in on the village," Thomas muttered. "I don't know how well the spell would hold."