𝖇𝖆𝖉 𝖇𝖑𝖔𝖔𝖉 || ᴘᴊᴏ x ʜᴘ

27 - 𝕳𝖊𝖗 𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖙𝖑𝖊 𝖓𝖊𝖒𝖊𝖘𝖎𝖘

Even when things started looking up for Holly, it was ridiculous to expect everything to get better. For one, Holly should've known that the second she stepped into Lockhart's class that Friday morning, she wouldn't come out unscathed.

While her classmates were all goggle eyed, staring around the newly decorated classroom, Holly immediately found a seat and piled all seven of Lockhart's books on the table.

She tried to look enthusiastic, of course. Her aunt always said first impressions are everything, but it was hard to channel inner goodness when everything's been going bad since the moment she woke up.

Once everyone had settled down, the door to the office on top of the stairs burst open. And as if he's been rehearsing it for a while, the golden haired man strode down the steps, with his long, thick blue cloak billowing.

"Gilderoy Lockhart," he announced loudly to the room. "Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award but I don't talk about that."

He paused as he reached the bottom steps, then he turned to face the students with his hand on his hip. "I didn't get rid of Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!"

He extended his arm out, waiting for the kids to laugh but none did. Some of the Hufflepuff's clapped awkwardly, but Lockhart didn't let it get to him.

Instead, he strode up to his desk at the front and made a show of looking around. "Now, does everyone have their books? You do? Well done!" He grabbed a stack of papers from a drawer, lifted it in the air and let it hover as he began his explanation. "I thought we'd start today with a little quiz- as I've done with your classmates. Nothing to worry about, it's not grades, just a little something to heck how much you've read the books and stuff-"

The papers started floating up to student's, they caught it and laid it flat on their table with the back facing up.

"You have thirty minutes, you may begin...now!"

Holly turned the paper over and the moment she saw the first question, she knew she was in for a headache.

1. What is Gilderoy Lock­hart 's favourite col­our?

2. What is Gilderoy Lock­hart's se­cret am­bi­tion?

3. What, in your opin­ion, is Gilderoy Lock­hart's great­est achieve­ment to date?

On and on it went, over three sheets of paper, right down to:

54. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?

Somewhere between the half hour, Holly gave up entirely on guessing. Lockhart collected all the papers and rifled through them in front of the class, tutting and muttering under his breath.

"You all must read Wandering with Werewolves more carefully- many people get this wrong, you see, but I stated there in Chapter twelve that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony between all magic and non-magic people- though an audience with the Minister wouldn't hurt. He was quite impressed after presenting me a medal of honour last-"

"When do we start learning?" Holly muttered to Daphne, unaware that her take on a whisper turned out to be a little louder since everyone was sitting silently in class. Holly was sure half of them were already asleep.

"Something to say, miss..."

Holly sat up, clearing her throat awkwardly. "Black, sir. Holly Black."

Lockhart rifled through the papers until he found her name and then he tutted again, "Unfortunate for you Miss Black, no marks on your paper. I advise you to do more reading and pay more attention to class now."