The Parselmouth and the Basilisk {Jade Book 2}

Chapter 5

Our Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons were anything but fun or interesting.

I had been right about Lockhart thinking he was the most important person in the universe – that became obvious from our very first lesson with him.

I was actually slightly worried about the classes, because I'd only read a little of Wanderings with Werewolves before I gave up. I had thought it looked the most interesting, so had decided to give it a try, but it didn't take long to find out that most of the book was taken up by descriptions of how heroic he was.

So when Lockhart said he was giving us a test to see how much we had picked up, I thought I was probably going to get a T or a D for it.

That was, until I read the test.

1.What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite colour?

The rest of the questions were of a similar fashion.

I guessed 'orange' as his favourite colour and made up the rest of the questions too.

At the end, we all received our tests back.

They were all graded.

I was sitting next to Anja and she received her test back first.

"What did you get?" I hissed to her.

She showed me the paper. O.

Smirking, she rolled it up and stuffed it into her bag.

"Anja! Did you actually read all the required reading books?"

She nodded. "What, you didn't?"

I shook my head. "No. Only half of Wandering with Werewolves."

She gasped, looking horrified. "Jade! How can you expect to get good marks in Defense Against the Dark Arts if you don't even read the required reading?"

"I don't expect good marks. Not with a teacher like this," I told her, nodding in Lockhart's general direction.

"What's so bad about him? He's just a little arrogant, that's –"

"A little?"

"Well, yes. After all, look at what he's done! He's defeated all these creatures..." she defended him.

I realised what was happening.

"You're just another fan of Lockhart! I don't believe it! My twin sister!" I glared at Anja.

"I mean, I don't like him that much as a person, but he has done some great things, you know," she said.

Right then, Lockhart called out, "Jade Evans?"

I raised my hand. He came over to me with a slightly disgusted expression on his face. "Here you are...oh, and very well done, Anja."

He smiled fondly at Anja.

I felt sick.

I took the quiz paper from him and glanced at the paper.

I almost laughed.

The mark wasn't an O or an EE, sure, it wasn't amazing.

But I'd been expecting a T or a D.

It was an A.

"How in the name of Merlin...?" I exclaimed, checking through the test.

Apparently, saying that Lockhart's greatest achievement was impossible to choose because all his achievements were so great was the right thing to say, because it was the only thing I had gotten 'right'.

Another time, he released Cornish pixies.

Most people simply ran out of the classroom because the pixies were stealing all of their stuff – Neville Longbottom was unlucky enough to get pulled up by his ears and hung on the chandelier.

Anja, Blaise and I hid under our desks. Other than us, Hermione, Ron and Harry were the only ones left in the classroom.

"I'll just leave you three to pop them back in their cages," Lockhart cheerfully told the three Gryffindors, clearly not noticing our presence, then ran off to go hide himself.

The six of us had already packed all our stuff in our bags so the pixies couldn't take it.

They began attacking us as a result.

I came out from under the desk. I grabbed my wand and shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!" I then Levitated one of the pixies back into its cage.

Unfortunately, the pixie just flew out again.

Anja followed me out from under the desk.

She cast a look of disdain at the Gryffindor trio, who were just running away and hiding from the pixies.

A highly ineffective method.

"How about the Freezing Charm? I'm not very good at it, but you are," she suggested. "Would that work?"

I nodded, then glanced over at Hermione.

She nodded back and raised her wand.

"One...Two...Three...Immobulus!" Hermione cast the Freezing Charm at the same time as me, so that all the Cornish pixies suddenly froze in midair.

We quickly put them all back in their cage, locked the door and hurried off to our next class.