31: Pandemonium, and Offer

[3rd Pov]

As the afternoon sun shined through the windows, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom was slowly getting packed with students.

Having just arrived from his new workshop, Alaric joined the group of students entering the class.

Inside, he spotted Blaise and Theodore with a free chair on their left.

"Hey guys," greeted Alaric, sitting beside them on the middle-row table.

"Dude, where have you been?" Blaise asked.

They had been in the Quidditch field practicing for the tryouts coming next month, and they expected their silver-haired friend to join them.

"I'll tell you later," Alaric said, opening his parseltongue book. Silently, he casted an illusion, concealing the book as one of Lockhart's nonsense diaries. "For now... enjoy the show,"

Blaise and Theodore were confused, seeing the wide grin on Alaric's face.

Sometime later, after most students were sitting, the doors of the Professor's office swung open.

Clad in the same turquoise robes, Lockhart emerged from his office, and descend the stairs, his white teeth shining with one or two glamour charms.

However, his head was covered by a strange sailor's hat, the same color as his robes.

The man walked into the middle of the tables before he grabbed a book that was pilled on Hope's table.

"Me!" he said, pointing at the book's cover and winking at it before the image winked back. "Gilderoy Lockhart, 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 — your new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor!"

He waited for the students to react, but only a few people smiled weakly.

The next half an hour was spent doing a quiz, not about the subject, but about Lockhart himself. He would pace back and forth, from the front of the class to the back, sometimes peeking at one of the student's work.

Alaric didn't bother with buying Lockhart's books, even if they were mandatory for the class. He did, however, copy some of the answers from Hermione, as the girl appeared to know everything about the walking fraud.

He didn't want Lockhart to suspect him so early on. If he did, most of Alaric's plans would go down the drain, and he didn't want to resort to not-so-pleasant memory charms.

Another half an hour later, Lockhart collected the papers and rifled through them in front of the class.

"Oh dear, — hardly any of you remembered that my favorite color is lilac. I say so in Year with the Yeti," he said, giving the class another wink.

Alaric, at this point, had to resort to Occlumency to hide his ever-growing excitement. He could see the effects of the 'candies' he gave the man slowly taking effect.

Harry and Ron, who were sitting in the front row, could hardly contain their laughter. They were trembling, fiercely clutching the table, looking at Lockhart.

Some other students, including Hope, were snickering, covering their mouths, fearing they might be heard.

Hermione, who, a few seconds ago, was proud after being praised by Lockhart for being the only one to have full marks on the quiz, was pale, her face ashen, mouth wide open and her brows raised.

On the other hand, Lysandra was disinterested in the class, but seeing the state of the professor, she flashed a knowing smile to her brother, who responded in kind.

After finishing praising himself, Lockhart bent down behind his desk and lifted a large, covered cage onto it.

"Now — be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm,"

Lockhart placed a hand over the cover. Aside from the Grindelwald twins, most of the students held their breaths. In an instant, he whipped off the cloth, revealing the creatures inside.

"Freshly caught Cornish Pixies," he said dramatically, the cage shaking under his grasp. The pixies were electric blue, with black eyes, and the size of an adult's palm.

Their high-pitched voices sounded like a fork scratching a plate, making most students near their cage cover their ears.

"Let's see what you make of them!" Lockhart loudly said, opening the cage.

The pixies, the moment they were out, caused complete pandemonium. Lockhart tried to cast a spell, probably to stop them. However, they quickly seized his wand and threw him to the ground.

Seeing things getting out of hand, Alaric lifted his wand, silently casting a wide freezing charm, causing all the pixies to fall on the ground.

He swish his wand again, and they all flew inside the cage before it locked itself.

"W-Well done, Mr. Grindelwald. You reacted the same as I would — ten points to Slytherin!"

Cleaning some of the dust from his robes, Lockhart got up from the ground and turned to the class with the same smile he had all the time.

Before he said anything, he felt an unusual breeze on his crown. He touched the top of his head, expecting to find his precious golden wavy hair, which he had to cover before, because of the strange glow it was emanating.

"W-where..." he muttered trying to seek for any signals of his hair. His face was getting paler by the second, and the looks the students were giving him only caused more apprehension.

His hand shot to his back pocket, where he took a small mirror from. He rose the mirror to the front of his face and took a good look at his... bald head.

For a few seconds, Lockhart thought he was hallucinating. He caressed his now bald head for a moment, his expression completely blank.

"My precious hair," Lockhart sniffed, failing to hear the laughter of the students. "My precious, silky, smooth, golden hair — and my eyebrows too,"

At that point, every single student, including Alaric and Lysandra, was laughing at the man's misery.

Even Hermione and Daphne, the first a fan of the professor, the second constantly using Occlumency, had engaged with the class.

Slytherins and Gryffindors alike united under one — single — thing. Lockhart's suffering.

__________

[Alaric's Pov]

After Lockhart recomposed himself, he said that it was merely a fashion choice and that having a bald head was soon going to be the new sensation.

I couldn't hold myself back and used legilimency on the man. And to my surprise, he wasn't as distraught as I thought him to be.

He thought that he could easily fix such a thing. Poor fool.

I had, of course, placed a curse that, apart from causing hair loss, stopped any form of growing it back.

It wasn't permanent. At least for now.

He hadn't done something unforgivable to me. He was but a fraud, an ingenious one at that.

Searching his mind, I found out that he was quite gifted in the memory charm, having used it to steal other wizards' work, by erasing their memories of an event and claiming the glory to himself.

But why did Albus hire him? I doubted he didn't search some of his memories, mostly as a precaution. With shields this week, even someone with a few months of practice in legilimency could read his mind.

Was it to expose him? Maybe.

There's also the fact that the last DADA professor died... under mysterious circumstances. Because of it, few people were willing to take the job.

I'll think about it later. I still have his downfall to plan.

__________

For the next few days, I spent most of the time, either in my workshop or helping Blaise and Theo practice for the coming Quidditch tryouts.

The occasional tea sessions with my uncle helped me deepen my understanding of alchemy, with all the knowledge he had to give.

There was also the extra work I had to do for each subject, where most Professors had the liberty to give me whatever task they saw fit.

For Charms, Flitwick had me practice the creation of semi-automation in certain magical objects.

In Transfiguration, I had to continuously transfigure different elements into their different states.

Snape made me concoct a variety of different potions, from Winggenweld to Draught of the Living Dead.

Herbology and Astronomy had me making a chart for some plants and constellations, respectively.

Then... there was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Most of the work assigned by Lockhart was trivial quizzes about himself, not even his books.

I lost count of the times I had to search for Granger just to get some of the answers from her mind. For all of her knowledge and intelligence, she still thought that Lockhart was the real deal.

As payback, the 'unfortunate situations' Lockhart went through and the 'new fashion trends' he had increased exponentially.

Sometimes he would wake up and all of his wardrobe was gone, replaced by only nightwear. Other times he would eat something, and his teeth would instantly turn black. His hair also barely grew, leaving some bald spots on his head, something he desperately tried to cover.

If he, for instance, fell asleep in his office, he would wake up with a transfigured arm, its size the same as a baby's.

And the fool, for some reason, continued to accept whatever I gifted him. Were they suspicious candies or definitely cursed jewelry, he accepted them all, just to be affected by them the next day.

I started to make it obvious, mostly to see if he could notice it was me behind it all, but the man still thought I was one of his true fans!

"How's the practice going?" Daphne asked me, breaking me out of my thoughts.

We were just leaving the library after spending some time trying to decipher the book from the vault, of course, to no success.

"It's going well," I said. "I'm sure Blaise and Theo will make it, at least to the reserves,"

The warm sun was casting a soft glow on us, as we walked through the open corridors.

"I meant to ask about you," she said in a monotone, although I thought I saw her roll her eyes.

We walked together for a while in comfortable silence, while I tried to think about how to tell her that I didn't really need to practice, but before I could do any of that, I heard two voices from my side.

""Alaric Grindelwald,""

The two voices, in syntony, called my name, making me turn to them. There, Fred and George, the Weasley twins, were leaning against a wall, looking at me.

"Yes?" I asked. We got along, but weren't exactly friends, mostly because they were in Gryffindor.

"We would like to talk to you," Fred said. "Alone," George added, looking at Daphne.

Daphne, who barely knew the twins, grabbed my wrist, afraid they were going to do something to me.

I chuckled. They might not be bullies, but their pranks cause as much fear as they do to some students.

"Don't worry," I patted Daphne's hand, smiling at her. "I know them. Our mothers are friends,"

Nodding, Daphne tried to hide her worried expression using Occlumency, before leaving to the common room.

With us three finally, alone, the twins smirked at me.

"We've got to say Alaric,"

"We're very impressed with your work,"

Quickly realizing what they were referring to, I still feigned ignorance. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, don't pretend you don't know," George said, staring at me with a grin.

I tilted my head at them, curious about how they figured it was me behind the stuff that was happening to Lockhart.

"When it comes to stuff like this,"

"We can easily recognize it,"

"And you my friend,"

""Have a talent for it!""

I kept my confused facade for a while, before finally sighing. It seems, when it comes to pranks, I'm still an amateur compared to them.

"What do you want?" I said. "You're not someone who would want to snitch,"

They exchanged a glance, before looking at me with wide smirks.

"We would like,"

"For you,"

""To work with us!""

**********

A/N: Lockhart is in for a ride. And this is just the beginning!

Hope you enjoyed!