Alexandra Dursley {Golden Trio}

Chapter 13 - Gilderoy Lockhart

I'm baaaack. Really sorry about these waits and random update times, but thank you so much for sticking with me! Oh my goodness, so many of you are reading now!

 The remainder of Al's summer passed rather quietly. Her Ma and Pa had been quite angry at Harry's sudden disappearance but had got over it soon enough. They went to Diagon Alley to get her new school supplies, including a set of books that cost a bit too much for just one subject.

 When the three of them arrived at King's Cross on the first of September, Al's parents bid her goodbye before crossing through the barrier, as per usual and she soon found Draco with his Ma and Pa, "lovely to see you again, Alexandra," his Ma said with a smile. Between the two of them, she and Draco managed to get their trunks on the train and found a compartment. Soon Crabbe and Goyle had joined them and then Pansy, and soon after Theo.

 The train set off and the six of them chatted for a while. Daphne popped her head around for a moment to say hello before heading back to the other Slytherin second-years. The whole time, Al kept her eye out for a flash of ginger or black hair but nothing came. After two hours she got up and announced she was stretching her legs. The others nodded and she headed off down the train.

 She was looking in the compartments when she spied something in the sky out the window. Was it... a car? Flying? She sighed and nearly moved on when a thought occurred to her - was it the Weasley's car? It certainly looked like it. The car took a sudden turn and she hurried along the corridor, keeping one eye out the windows. She kept running until she collided with someone else, who caught her before she fell. She thanked them and brushed past, still keeping an eye on the car in the sky, but they held her back.

 "Woah there, easy tiger," the familiar voice said - it was the twins.

 "No, look! It's your car," she replied pointing and dragging them along the corridor.

 "So it is!" one of them said.

 "Well, Fred. I think we've found ikkle Ronnikins," George said.

 "What do you mean?" she asked, finally giving up on following the car, which was now out of sight.

 "Harry and Ron aren't on the train-" Fred started.

 "-they stole our Dad's car," George stated.

 "Will they not get in trouble?" she asked, leaning against a compartment door.

 "Oh yeah-" Fred said.

 "-especially once we've written to Mum," George finished with a grin.

 "Anyways, I'd better get back to my compartment. They'll be wondering where I've gone," she told them with a smile.

 "Oh alright then-" George said looking crestfallen.

 "See you at school," Fred finished with a wave.

*****

 The sorting was exceedingly boring and Al was getting really hungry. She turned to Draco, "How come you didn't write to me in the summer?" she asked leaning her head on her hand.

 "I did!" he whispered back, "but you didn't respond."

 Al shook her head, "I didn't get any of them." A prefect shushed them so she turned back round to face the sorting hat, but she was still quite bothered that she hadn't received any.

 As the feast began, Al peered over at the Gryffindor table. No Harry, no Ron. Hermione was busily chatting to Ron's younger red-headed younger sister. Fred and George were sat grinning and made eye contact with her. "Not here yet?" she mouthed. They shook their heads grinning and she smiled back at them. And then Professor Snape came in, his robes billowing behind him and what Al assumed could only be a smug grin on his face.

*****

 Al didn't bother to question Harry about the car incident. She decided that he was best left alone with his friends, while she stuck with her friends. Classes were slightly more difficult, but nothing she couldn't handle. Apart from Defence. Their new teacher was the dullest person alive, but he still managed to be full of himself. Needless to say, Al enjoyed giving him a hard time in their classes.

 "...and then, when the troll had me by the ankle, I took my wand, and cut straight through his flesh, and right through to the other side," Lockhart said with a triumphant smile.

 "So, what actually happened?" Al pushed without bothering to raise her hand.

 "Well, I just told you, my dear. If you'd been listening-"

 "Oh, I was listening. But everyone knows that a troll's skin repels most magic, including all cutting charms," she pointed out, having been taught it last year.

 "Well, I- uh," he said, stumbling on his words, "It must have been a very powerful cutting charm," he decided, looking smug.

 "Did you make the whole story up? Or just the bit where you actually defeated the troll?" she asked, outraged that someone could lie so much.

 "I beg your pardon? Miss?"

 "Dursley. And I think it's awful that you won't teach us properly. What if we come across a troll and try a cutting charm on it? It won't work, and then we'll be in a real pickle!"

 Lockhart seemed to pull himself together after this, "Detention Miss Dursley and twenty points from Slytherin. If you don't want to learn, then don't bother coming."

 "Fine." Al said, and she gathered her things up and left, leaving her books behind, taking a long look at the impressed faces of the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins in her class that disliked Lockhart as much as she did.

*****

 Al ended up doing her detention with Snape. Cutting Mandrake leaves for the first years. "Would you mind explaining to me," he began slowly, "why you stormed out of Professor Lockhart's class?"

 "He's a fraud!" she exclaimed slamming her knife down in anger. Snape raised his eyebrows. "He's a fraud," she repeated calmly, picking her knife back up, "He said he defeated a troll with a cutting curse. I mean, what a load of rubbish!"

 "Troll's skins repel cutting curses very well. That would be quite impossible," Snape said, agreeing with her.

 "That's what I said. And then he told me if I didn't want to learn from him, I shouldn't bother going. So I left." Al continued cutting the mandrake leaves.

 A few moments of silence passed in the dungeon before Snape spoke again. "300 curses for your enemy, Battles Between Beings, and The Best Ways To Take Down A Beast," he listed for her, writing them on a piece of parchment. "Go and take them out of the library now, and teach them to yourself. I'd recommend ordering them if you can."

 Al didn't really like Snape - he bullied the other houses - and this was clear favouritism. But she was grateful all the same, "Thank you," she said, and left to go to the library.