Chapter 103: (Title at the end)
Gilderoy Lockhart was born a half blood child with his two other siblings turning out to be squibs. As an only child with magic he was raised with attention and treated as a genius. Thus, he grew up to have an obsession with attention and praise. He came to Hogwarts expecting VIP treatment. Turns out, he wasn't actually talented at magic, neither was he any good at Quidditch.
Thus, during his time at Hogwarts, after getting thoroughly jealous of the talented jocks, he did various absurd things to get attention, like begging the Headmaster to approve for a school newspaper (purely so he could see his own name in print), creating a spell that shot an image of his face into the sky akin to the Dark Mark, sending himself 800 Valentines (resulting in breakfast being cancelled due to the number of owl droppings and feathers in the porridge), and engraving his moniker into the Quidditch pitch; the latter example in particular resulted in him receiving a week's worth of detentions.
So, upto now he was nothing more a clown who was just there for my entertainment. I'd have just expose his fraudness at some point thus making this his worst year and end of his career. This was quite merciful considering his state in the canon. But... he helped me change my mind in the next few minutes.
"Hey Chris! Stay behind for a while. I have a few words to exchange to a with you."
I was already frowning when he addressed me in a tone that seemed to suggest we were old friends.
"Sir, I'd appreciate it if you just called me Mr. Martin. Chris is for people whom I'm acquainted with." I said expressionlessly.
He smiled showing all his teeth as came close and patted my shoulder, "Now, young man, no need to be so stiff. I know you might be nervous about meeting someone as famous me for the first time, but let me tell you, you don't need to!" He laughed for no apparent reason.
"I mean, I know I'm even more famous than your dad, but let me assure you, I'm much nicer than him."
"...."
Um...what the hell is he talking about?
He continued, "I know that you currently might feeling quite overwhelmed by my presence, since you're also trying to follow in my footsteps to fame, like playing Quidditch, then getting on the front page of the daily Prophet, and even getting a mini dragon to get noticed..." His eyes paused on Nyxie. "But you see, currently, you don't need to rush like this! When I was twelve, I was also nothing! And... look at me today 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!" He said, spreading his hands wide.
"So, since it will take years for even your father to reach to to my level, so, learn from him and don't be impatiently, young man." He patted my shoulders. Then he glanced at Nyxie. "And... you might as well give the dragon to me, for safe keeping. You're too young to keep it for now..." He said as he reached out his hand for Nyxie.
.
.
.
I grabbed the arm that about to touch Nyxie.
"Wait a second." I said, as I glanced behind, and regretfully, my friends were still there waiting for me.
Damn! I activated my occlumency to prevent my anger for exploding. This pride of the dragon thingy is gonna get me into trouble one day.
'I will not loose control again...I will not loose control again... killing him right here won't give me enough satisfaction... I'll instead only get me into trouble...' Updated from novelb(i)n.c(o)m
'...Well, it'll more fun to first destroy things he cherishes the most.'
'You could have had a disgraceful, but peaceful retirement, but now you've done it. Congrats, you've just ruined your life.'
I know I shouldn't be surprised, or angry. He said more annoying things to Harry in the Canon. And Harry was able to just take it, without saying anything in his defense. Harry was more embarrassed than angry after the Lockhart had given him his 'words of wise' as he called it.
But the thing is, I'm not Harry. I won't sacrifice myself for the greater good, neither will I tolerate such clowns belittling me and getting away scot-free.
Still gripping his arm, I activated the trigger, and casted a several spells on Lockhart. These were some rare spells that didn't show any immediate effect and needed direct contact i.e. the contact with the wand.
During the summer, I had found out the reason behind my mother's OP occlumency skills. My mother's family, the Laurants, were quite infamous for their Dark Magic.
That's the reason my reason my mother's Occlumency was so good. Cause it's a necessity if you're going to learn those Dark spells. And the ones I casted just now were a specialty: No visual effects, and they only take effect after some time or after you use some trigger spell.
"Yeah!"
"Yeah, how would you manage that?!"
"He should at be a little good, you know, being after so many years..."
"Fret not, I've got that covered. My dad's a world champion, remember? And let me remind you, Lockhart's a fraud. You ask Flitwick and McGonagall. From what I gathered, he failed his practicals at Hogwarts." This was actually true. Not sure how much improved after that, but who cares? Let him come.
At that time, Michael Corner came back with Flitwick following him. So that's where he was. The busybody had gone to rat everything to Flitwick. I've been thinking that since he's a kid, if I treated him alright, he'll not turn out the way I am thinking he'll turn out. But it seems I'd been infected by Dumble-cron virus. If I don't like him, just cut him off, why give him second, third, fourth, and fifth chances?
And thus, from this moment onwards, I'm declaring Micheal Corner Excommunicado. He's betrayed the high table.
Professor Flitwick came to my side and I stood up from my seat and calmly greeted him.
"Mr. Martin, Mr. Corner has been telling me quite absurd news regarding you, did you really physically attack Professor Lockhart?" Asked Flitwick. I had always been respectful to him, McGonagall, and Sprout,( so that I can get use their favour whenever I want). So he knows not to believe words of someone like Corner.
"Professor, I'm assuming he didn't tell you the whole thing, so, let me explain everything. You can confirm if I'm saying the truth through them. They were all present."
"So Professor, my dad investigated Lockhart after knowing about the... complications with the previous defense professor. And he found out that the guy performed very poorly in his practicals of NEWTS. And he never did take his exams ever again to renew his grades. So, technically, he's not qualified to be a teacher at Hogwarts. And... I have reasons to believe that he has mental problems. Please check out what he had us do in our first class." I took out the test paper which had all the questions related to Gilderoy Lockhart, and nothing related to the subject he was teaching. Then I explain what he taught for the rest of the class. He explained the first chapter in his book which was total nonsense. Good thing he didn't bring our the Cornish Pixies yet.
"So Professor. Please understand that Lockhart isn't qualified to be a teacher. I know you know this better than me because you've taught him personally. Thus, I don't think I've disrespected my teacher, because he definitely can't teach me anything related to the subject he's assigned. You can test him." Flitwick looked helpless. He and McGonagall had already complained to Dumbledore about Lockhart's inability to teach children anything, but Dumbledore hadn't listened.
"As for physically assaulting him, yes I did punch him in the face just once. He first insulted my father, he then accused me being an attention seeker, and finally, he tried to forcefully take Nyxie from me." I said as I showed him Nyxie. This got the Flitwick a bit angry as well. I showed him the cute and helpless Nyxie for the extra effect.
"Mew." Nyxie had learned the art of deception well from her daddy. That's my girl.
"Is that all true?" Flitwick asked the rest of my friends. They all nodded.
I continued, "Sir, but I accept that I still shouldn't have attacked him, even if it was for defending Nyxie. So I'm willing to take punishment. The only thing that can be done about that is detention, since my pureblood status, my family, and my new French wizard citizenship prevents any legal action to be taken against me for such a minor offense."
"If I'm given detention with Lockhart, I'd challenge him to a wizards duel and only take the detention if I lose. So, Professor, the best option is that, you give me detection. I'd be happy to bring Nyixe if my time with you me if my time with you is pleasant." I said I took Nyxie in my hands and showed her to Flitwick again.
Flitwick sighed and I knew I had him. I'm already quite experience in earning the teacher's favour and at escaping punishments. I know exactly which buttons to push and how much I can get away with. I would have cut Lockhart's arm if I could get away with it, but well, you can't have everything you want.
Anyway, this wasn't going to be a detention. I'll somehow get him to teach me good stuff during this time. If not, I'll at least have tea and biscuits with him while I read any books I bring with me.
....
Dear diary,
Today I finally got to try the Superman Punch on a live target! My fist got a bit hurt though. I didn't want to be seem like a total young master, so I purposefully got a detention which is not a detention. If Dumbledore calls, I'm threatening to quit. Anyway, I'm quite pleased with the curses I left on Lockhart's body.
xxx
Title: Respect!
A.N.: We've hit the century!!!
Drop the POWER STONES here!!!
Wanna read ahead? Go to: /Snollyoster
And a big THANK YOU to all those who are supporting me. It gives me motivation to improve my writing further.