Chapter 17: Luna Lovegood (Edited)

The next day, the first years had Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

Lockhart's class became a joke after yesterday, but that didn't stop him from being loved by the girls. For example, Hermione was stubborn and said that Lockhart deliberately let the Cornish goblins out to give the students hands-on experience.

When Ivan arrived in class, he was not surprised that all the girls were sitting in the front row of the class.

After everyone was seated, Lockhart walked into the classroom and acted as if he was the brightest person in the world.

Lockhart, winking, said, "Hello everyone, I think you should all know who I am, but I'll still introduce myself, Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class; Honorary Member of the Dark Forces Defense League; and five-time winner of the Witch's Heart Most Charming Smile Award, but I never talk about this, I didn't get rid of the Banden Banshee by smiling at her."

So came the cliché, Ivan thought.

Lockhart said as he handed everyone the quizzes, "I see everyone bought my books, so I think I'm going to do a little quiz today, you probably all have some answers from your elders, but I regret to inform you that today's quiz is very different from yesterday. You have thirty minutes, start now!"

Ivan looked at the test sheet in his hands, it contained over fifty questions, including what Lockhart's favorite food was, Lockhart's greatest wish, Lockhart's greatest achievement to date, etc.

Ivan's head hurt to see so many stupid questions. Ivan didn't know the answer to a single question because he didn't buy Lockhart's books.

But it didn't matter, he took his pen and thought about it for a while and began to write on the paper.

He told Lockhart about the paper "Hogwarts Magic" and invited him to join, and of course, Ivan did it in a tone of absolute adoration.

Ivan tried to portray himself as an absolute fan.

Although Ivan wasn't even a fan, it was easy because so many people around him admired him, so he can simply refer to how they talk about him.

He tried to mimic Hermione's tone, and in his description, he said that the paper was dedicated to Lockhart and that Ivan intended to pass the paper around Hogwarts to expand Lockhart's influence.

Ivan spent a long time describing the benefits of Lockhart's incorporation and by the time he finished the parchment full of exaggerated compliments, thirty minutes had passed.

Lockhart then took the papers, looked at them and said, "I'm a little disappointed that there is no one in the first years like Miss Granger from second year, who answered all the questions, if you read the books carefully, everyone would have got everything right, for example in the book A Year with Yeti you would know my favorite food, and I also made it very clear in chapter four of Gadding with Ghouls."

Lockhart quickly skimmed through the text papers until he saw Ivan's.

Lockhart looked at the paper intently and whispered, "Here's an interesting test paper."

After reading the paper for a while, Lockhart looked excited and quickly said aloud, "Yes, that's something I've always wanted to do, expand my influence even more, and become the most admired wizard, it's very well written!"

All the students looked at Lockhart curiously.

People wondered what Lockhart was mumbling about, Vicky Frobisher, who was one of Ivan's roommates, tried to look at the contents of the paper.

Lockhart put the test paper down on his desk and looked at all the children in the room and said, "Yes, I will. one hundred percent! Where is Mr. Ivan Mason?"

Ivan stood up quickly and as soon as he did, everyone turned to him.

Lockhart looked at Ivan with a smile and said, "Great, Ivan! I'd love to share my stories with my most loyal fans."

Then Lockhart walked over to his desk and said, "Alright, point for Gryffindor!"

When Ivan sat down, Colin whispered to him, "Ivan, that was amazing, what did you write?"

Ivan said as he smiled, "Not much, I just invited him to pose for some pictures, get your camera ready, we don't have much time to take pictures after class."

After the lesson, the rest of the day was relatively somewhat boring.

Defense Against the Dark Arts had almost turned into a reading class, Lockhart asked the students to stand up and read their books aloud, and just as everyone was getting bored, it was time to end the class. All the students left the classroom in a hurry, except for Ivan, who dragged Colin to the podium.

Lockhart praised Ivan and told him that if anything went wrong during the preparation of the paper, he would help.

Knowing that the novels section had not yet received any manuscripts, Lockhart expressed a willingness to turn over some unpublished manuscripts.

Afterwards, Lockhart struck a variety of poses for Colin to photograph.

Ivan was amazed that no matter what angle he was at, Lockhart managed to reveal a charming smile.

Ivan could only admire this.

Because of Lockhart's enthusiasm, they were five minutes late for the next class, and when Ivan learned that the next class was transfiguration, his heart sank.

Unlike other professors, Professor McGonagall was very strict: all first-year students were warned not to keep her or Professor Snape waiting, as doing so usually ended badly.

Now that they were late for their first class, Ivan was afraid to go. By the time the two arrived outside the classroom, they saw a strange looking Ravenclaw girl standing outside.

She had dirty blonde, waist-length hair, very pale eyebrows, and bulging eyes that gave her a look of permanent surprise. She wore a piece of butterbeer cork as a necklace and a turnip-shaped earring in her ears.

Colin asked the Ravenclaw girl, "What are you doing? It's time to go to class."

The girl, stunned, with her eyes on the door of the transfiguration classroom, said, "I'm looking for traces of a Nargle."

Colin was confused and said, "I'm sorry, what are you looking for?"

The girl looked at Colin and said, "A Nargle."

The girl looked at Ivan and said, "You are Ivan Masson."

Ivan looked at the girl and said, "That's right, I am, who are you?"

The girl replied, "Luna Lovegood."

Luna looked at Colin and said, "But I don't know who you are."

Before Colin could introduce himself, the classroom door was opened from the inside by Professor McGonagall, who looked at the three of them with a serious look on her face.

Professor McGonagall's mouth was pursed tightly and she looked at the three of them and said, "Mr. Mason, Mr. Creevey and Mrs. Lovegood are late."

Ivan and Colin hurried into the classroom, and Luna followed and sat down next to them.

Colin walked over to Ivan and whispered, "Too bad, we met Luna. She's a new Ravenclaw, everyone calls her crazy, I heard she believes that Nargles and Wrinkly Horned Snorkack really exist."

Luna suddenly interrupted, "But they do exist!"

Colin immediately rebutted, "How can they? they'll just be imaginary...."

Ivan stopped his fight and said, "Keep your voice down Colin, don't comment on things you're not sure about!"

Luna in a very low tone: "Very wise choice. Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure."

Colin tried to say something, but he saw that Professor McGonagall was looking at him, so he shut his mouth hurriedly.

Professor McGonagall looked at everyone in the room and said, "Transfiguration is one of the most complex and dangerous spells you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone who plays in my class will leave and not return. You have been warned."

After that, Professor McGonagall turned her desk into a pig and demonstrated transfiguration again.

The students were amazed and began to learn immediately, but soon realized that it would take them a long time to accomplish a feat like turning furniture into an animal.

After writing many complicated notes, Professor McGonagall gave them each a match and began to have them try to transfigure it into a needle.

However, it was a challenge for a new student to pull it off. It wasn't until near the end of the class that Ivan was able to turn the head of the match into the tip of a needle, but he was still the fastest student in the class.

Ivan noticed that Professor McGonagall's mouth went a little slack.