177 Chapter 174
"Yes," a slightly pink-faced Flitwick squeaked out.
"That's right," Lockhart said, ambling over to where Professor Flitwick had put down the crate, "Now! I was supposed to teach you all spell-fighting, but in light of recent events, I have come to believe that our opponent is actually not human. And you won't expect the beast of Slytherin to take the time and duel with you, do you?"
A worried murmur spread across the Hall, and Lockhart continued.
"Slytherin's beast, from what we've seen so far, is fast, dangerous, and can easily hide in its surroundings to escape a wizard's attention, hence why we've been unable to catch it so far. What I have here in this box, while not Slytherin's beast itself, is a dangerous beast that something that I have encountered in my travels, that is a master of all that and more. A true danger to wizardkind. And today you youngsters will get to see it in action, all thanks to me, Gilderoy Lockhart." he said, flashing a grin, "Professor Flitwick, could you please open this up please?"
Harry watched curiously as the redness in the charms professor's face seemed to grow even more as he waved his wand, making the crate's lid fly off. Lockhart went in with both hands, and pulled out something that he gently nestled in the crook of his hand, patting it with another. It took a second for Harry to actually realize what it was.
A short silence passed over the hall, before a girl from the front row asked the question that was on all their minds.
"Professor. Is that…is that a duck?"
"Aha!" Lockhart victoriously exclaimed, "Got fooled by its clever natural disguise did you, Miss Clover? No. It is not a duck. But before I tell you what it is, have any of you heard of a Duck-billed platypus…Yes, Miss Bones."
Susan Bones blushed a bit at having been called, before answering, "They have the bill of a duck and the webbed feet of a duck don't they, Professor?"
"Indeed they do Miss Bones. Now, this," Lockhart said grandly, before he raised the white feathered yellow-billed duck in his arms for all of them to see, and magnanimously declared, "This is a Duck bodied platypus. This little guy is called Juan, and he was found in a deep long lost valley in Mongolia. He's the only one left of his kind. He can eat live wizards, and it will charge. So please, no sudden movements."
Half the hall, mostly the female part, oohed and aahed, clearly believing whatever bullshit the blond man was spewing. Harry looked at the beady-eyed bird in the man's hands. It looked like it was getting startled by Lockhart's teeth every time he smiled. Harry cast an Observe to check if it really was some sort of strange creature that Lockhart had managed to acquire.
Duck
Lv-2
HP:50/50
Str-3
Vit-3
Dex-5
Int-1
Wis-0
Luc-1
It's a duck, genius. For more information, read a kid's book. Oh and put your reality-bending powers to better use than observing ducks. Idiot.
Nope. Just a duck.
Lockhart started speaking again, and Harry waved away the screen before paying attention to whatever the fraud extraordinaire was rambling on about. He could feel his own Bullshitting skill grow just by being in the presence of this Merlin of bullshitting, and he didn't want to miss out on any free level ups.
"Believe it or not, this little guy is only a year old, and he will grow up to be about fifteen feet tall. You'll be surprised to know that an adult Duck bodied platypus can take down a full grown dragon, and has the bite force of an adult blue whale. Surprising isn't it?"
Ping!
Skill has leveled up twice due to being in the presence of a master!
Bullshitting Lv-7 (5%)
A combination of lying and the truth said in a very confident manner!
Harry raised an impressed eyebrow before waving away the screen and looking around himself, marveling at the fact that there were people, actual people that were believing this.
This was either sad, or just plain hilarious.
Harry ultimately decided that it was a bit of both, and joined Professor Flitwick in looking like a ripe constipated tomato.
Thankfully, the class didn't fully go down the drain, since about halfway through Lockhart's speech about Duck bodied platypuses, the duck decided to be a revolutionary example to all duckkind and sicced himself, wings flapping and webbed claws scratching, on the blond-haired Professor.
As a result of that, most of the school ended up completely believing in duck bodied platypuses, since no normal duck could have possibly taken down the legendary Gilderoy Lockhart. Even Dean had gained a bit of respect for the man. But the nicer thing that had happened as a result of that duck's revolutionary efforts was that Lockhart had gone off to the hospital wing to treat his scratches, and Professor Flitwick started teaching them some actual dueling, pairing them up and showing them how to hold their wands in a combative positions before firing off spells.
All in all, the latter half of the class had gone quite well, except for the one time Justin Finch Fletchley threw Theodore Nott a few meters across the room with an overpowered Expelliarmus.
While Harry and few others knew that Justin had hit Nott because he suspected him to be the Heir of Slytherin, there was no proof that it wasn't an accident. So Professor Flitwick simply split them up, and the class ended twenty minutes later.
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