Chapter 24: 4th year and Lockheart

It was 11 soon enough and the students scrambled on to the train as it started moving. I waved goodbye to mum as the train left the station. I sat back and tied the note I had already prepared to Dusk's feet and cast a muggle notice-me-not charm before sending it off. Well, I did what I could; let's hope it works out.

Meanwhile, there was a knock and the door swung open. Hermione and Ginny stood at the door and peered in. They seemed to be looking for somebody, likely Harry and Ron.

'Hi Darius!', begun Hermione, 'Have you seen Harry and Ron by any chance? We have been searching all the compartments and haven't found them yet.'

'Hi Darius', Ginny also greeted me.

'Hi Ginny, Hermione! No, I haven't seen either of them. I did see all the Weasley's come on the platform at the last second but neither Harry nor Ron. I suspect they were late and couldn't get on the platform, so I sent them a letter just now.'

'Thanks Darius. That seems the likely option. But what letter did you send?'

'I just told them that I suspected they couldn't get on the platform for some reason and that they should not panic and do something stupid because of it. Can you imagine what would happen if Harry whipped out his broom and started flying; or they tried to apparate and splinched themselves. I told them to use Dusk to send a message to the school. Maybe one of the teachers could apparate them over.'

By this time Hermione couldn't hold it in and had to ask. 'You mentioned apparating twice. What is that? From the way you said it, it seems like some way of transportation.'

'Ginny spoke up to clarify it for her, 'Apparating is a wizarding way to travel. It involves the use of magic to instantaneously disappear from one place and appear in another. It is very difficult and many wizards don't bother with. They prefer brooms or floo travelling.'

'It is something akin to what muggles refer to as teleporting, Hermione', I added.

'Oh, this is so fascinating. I wish I could do that too. When do we learn to do that?'

'Calm down, Hermione! It is very difficult for the untrained. You will only start learning it in your 6th year. It is regulated by the ministry via licenses because of how dangerous it is if it goes wrong. Never try it on your own or you risk severe accidents or even death.'

This conversation did remind me about learning apparition though. It was an important skill and I wanted to learn it as soon as I could. I already know that 6th and 7th years learnt it for 12 weeks starting February every year from a ministry trainer. I wonder if I could somehow sneak into the lessons and learn it. I do know the disillusionment charm. Well, I'll think about it later.

Suddenly the door opened and a dazed looking blonde witch stepped in; it was Luna Lovegood. The eccentric witch sat next to Ginny and looked around.

'Hi Ginny! I was searching for you on the train.'

'Hi Luna! Everyone, this is Luna Lovegood. She and her dad live close to our house and I have known her since I was a child. And Luna, I'm sorry I didn't come find you. I was talking to these people and forgot about it.'

'It's alright.'

There was a knock on the door and I stepped up to open it. It was Neville Longbottom. He asked me to step out for a moment and I followed him. Neville seemed to be in high spirits and immediately hugged me.

'Thank you! Thank you so much! My gran told me you and your mother were the ones who cured my mum and dad. You can't possibly know how much that means to me. You have the word of Heir Longbottom, any request you have, you only need ask.'

'It's fine Neville. I did what any decent person would do. We in fact realised the remedy the night before we cured your parents and rushed over the next day to do so. The only thing I need you to do is to keep this knowledge to yourself, got it?'

'Yeah Darius!'

'Good! And keep up the confidence. Your parents waking up has done wonders to boost it. And I see you got a new wand; It's best that you did so. Using another's wand, in this case your fathers was holding you back; I look forward to see how well you can do with your own. Now, let's go inside and sit.'

The four of us joked round and enjoyed playing around till the trolley witch came along. I purchased as many sweets as possible and all of us settled down to enjoy them together. Even the twins popped over some time later and brought Lee over with them. We just sat and talked among ourselves the rest of the journey. The twins were particularly enthusiastic about the Owl Order Service, much to the chagrin of Hermione regarding their products. Another thing that I thought about over the summer were my feelings towards Ginny. I liked the girl as a sister, sure, but anything beyond that, not so sure. I did like the character in the canon series but this is not a book; we were in a real world and I would not let my earlier feelings colour the present. I had a nice talk with Hermione as well.

'Well Hermione, how was your summer?'

'It went fine, Darius. But I can't wait to get back to Hogwarts and learn more magic. Can you help me out this year as well. Of course, Hermione. I told you last year; feel free to drop by when you have doubts. I daresay I'm far ahead in studies than all the students in my year, or even the year above that.'

'Someday soon, I'll be able to say that. I'm going to spend a lot of time in the library this year.'

'Under no circumstances should you do that. I know you are a brilliant witch. But dissociating yourself from others will only cause you to be alienated. And your friends can help you with your studies as well. My friend Neville, here, is in your year and a prodigy, perhaps even a savant, as far as Herbology is considered. I have no doubt he would be willing to help you out in exchange for some help with potions.' Neville gave me a thankful smile and nodded vigorously towards Hermione. 'That's how you get ahead with your studies, Hermione. You take help and support others in turn.'

'Wow, I never thought about it like that. Did you do that as well?'

'I am a special case Hermione. I am so far ahead of the others that they couldn't help me even if they wanted. I'm not speaking out of arrogance, merely stating facts. I have been working on my magic and preparing for Hogwarts very early in life. That's not to say I don't need their companionship. Lee and the twins here were a great help in taking my mind of studies. This applies to you as well. You could hang out with Harry or some of the other girls in your year to de-stress, then get back to studying. Not only will this relax your mind, you will find it easier to concentrate after a short break.'

'Thanks for the advice, Darius. I'll try it out.'

We continued talking amongst ourselves until we finally reached Hogsmeade. We had changed into our school robes by then and trooped out of the train onto the platform. Making our way to the school on the Thestral carriages, the twins told me of their further plans for expansion. They first planned to buy out the Zonko's shop in Hogsmeade and then move on to open a store in Diagon Alley. The only thing stopping them was the initial seed money. I offered to invest further but they didn't want to burden me any further. Besides, according to their projected sales, they would have more than the required money in about 2 years.

Finally, we had reached the castle and all of us took our seats for the welcome feast. Harry was already sitting there waiting for us, though Ron was nowhere in sight. Good, that meant he got here in some other manner and didn't fly that wreck of a car. Ron might have panicked and flown it though, he never was one for thinking things through. Thank god Hermione has had a more positive effect on Harry.

Amazing what one change can do. The trio first bonded when they fought against the troll in their first year. However, when I consoled Hermione and thus stopped her from going to the toilet, I set changes in motion. The trio never truly bonded after that. Harry and Hermione got along swell, he even sat with us on some of our informal study sessions. He wasn't a dunderhead by any means, maybe not in Hermione's league but a bright kid nevertheless. He was just held back by that anchor around his neck called Ron Weasley. All Ron was interested in was playing chess, exploding snap, talking quidditch and eating. He even convinced Harry to take the two lousiest electives in their third year. At least according to me, unless you have a seer's gift, you have no business taking Divination. And Care of Magical Creatures is mainly for guys like Charlie Weasley who want to head off and actually work with Dangerous creatures. I'll make sure to talk to Hermione and Harry later about taking sensible electives.

'Thanks for the letter Darius. I had actually started panicking about not being able to get on the platform when the letter came to us. I just had to wait for a while before an Auror trainee called Tonks came over. She said there had been complaints from people on the platform not being able to get through the barrier and she was there to sort it out. After that fiasco was over, I told her about my problem and she brought me here by something called side-along apparition. But I'm a bit worried about Ron. He was panicked and took his dad' flying car to follow the train here. And he hasn't come yet. I think something went wrong midway.'

'I know the car you speak off. I had stayed over with the Weasleys last summer. We can only hope he gets here safely and without exposing himself to muggles. Anyway, he should be back soon. And some teacher or auror will be sent to find him if he doesn't. You made the right decision Harry. No point in flying in that death trap. Ron will probably give you a hard time for not going along with him; but you made the sensible decision.'

The first-years headed in after that and the sorting began. I could see Ginny in the middle of the line looking at the Gryffindor table and gave her a little wave. The sorting didn't take long and all the students got sorted soon enough. There was another familiar name a bit before the youngest Weasley though. Luna Lovegood took her place on the Ravenclaw table as per canon. She had had a rough time in her house due to all the bullying and pranking in canon but I'll make sure none of that stuff happens now. The poor girl might appear to be a ditz but she had a heart of gold and was quite a clever little witch. Also, I'd have to talk to her first, but I'm pretty sure she would be able to help me learn one of my family magics. I'll talk to her about it sometime later.

All the Gryffindors were headed to the tower when I heard Hermione, '...and he has done so many amazing things. Lockhart will be an amazing professor. I hope we learn a lot from him.' Crap! She is infatuated with that preening fool in this timeline as well. I'll have to set that record straight as soon as possible. That fraudster can't teach to save his own life. Maybe I should start the DA early and get the students learning some actual DADA.

The next morning, I woke up after my meditation and headed down for an early breakfast. Hermione was already down at the Great hall with a Lockhart book propped up against the water jug while she had her meal.

'Hi Hermione! Why are you reading that fraudster's book and wasting your time?'

'What do you mean fraudster? Lockhart is an exceptional wizard who has saved so many people from dangerous magical creatures. And Dumbledore must have seen something exceptional in him to choose him for the DADA post.'

'Don’t be fooled Hermione. Flophart, as I've take to call him, is a complete and utter fraudster. And Dumbledore chose him because most people believe the DADA post is cursed and he turned out to be the only person who applied.'

'But what about all the things he did. Saving so many people and fighting against all the dark creatures?'

'All the things he says he did! I know you consider books to be almost holy objects but the information in them is written by another ordinary person, just like us. And if the person wants to deceive the readers, well.... you get someone like Lockheart.'

'No, no, that can't be possible! He wrote so many things...', she was nearing a break down from all this talk. Well, the fact that someone falsified information in a book must be near scandalous to her. Let's go about this with a different approach. Logic should appeal to her.

'Look at these dates!', I said tossing two of Lockhart's books onto the table. 'See here.', Hermione turned to the book and I pointed at two sections, one in each book. 'He says he fought the yeti at the end of August in 1989 and in this one he says he wrestled that river troll during the Algerian flood. The Algerian flood was the last week of August in 1989! These two events can't possibly have happened at the same time! He lied!'

Hermione was stunned speechless at that. I don't know whether at the fact that someone lied in a book or that she didn't notice that first. Her face started going red from her anger at Flophart.

'Well the man is obviously incompetent but…he's written about these things! To use inaccurate information is one thing but to outright lie? In a book?! Oh, I wish I could give that man a piece of my mind!'

'It's fine, Hermione! Calm down! The fact that he can't teach us doesn't mean that we can't learn ourselves. There's no need to read those rags that he set as DADA textbooks. We can get our own books. And of course, you are free to ask me any doubts you may have.'

'Thanks, Darius! Though you may have calmed me down for now, there is no way I'm going to let that fraud get away with lying in books. I may not accuse him outright, the git would probably wriggle out of it in some way. But I'm going to ruin his reputation. I can't believe I didn't catch those errors in the books; I'm going to go through every one of these books with a fine-tooth comb and then compile all the errors and spread it throughout the school.'

'Damn Hermione! Remind me never to piss you off. But that is a good plan nonetheless. Do as you see fit.'

The hall filled up quickly after and we didn't talk much more on the subject. I did see Hermione talking to the others in the year though. I suspect she wanted to let them know about the fraudster in advance. Ron also came by and started shovelling food down his throat. He did get a standing ovation though. Our house really is full of reckless idiots; a standing ovation for nearly breaking the statute of secrecy and getting himself killed. I understand courage, not being foolhardy.

I had a pleasant morning in transfiguration class. McGonagall started us off with switching spells and as usual, I got the hang of it first. I still practised the spell non-verbal though. It's a pity Fred and George don't put in nearly as much effort as they should. They could have been brilliant if they tried harder. Well, to each his own.

And there it was, DADA with Lockheart in the afternoon. I was sincerely considering bunking the class but decided to go just to see the fraud make a fool of himself.

Lockheart was already standing there at the desk winking at one of the many portraits of himself on the walls; the narcissistic git. He was dressed in his usual garish robes, this time in a plum and gold combination and started speaking as we sat down, 'I am Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award.' Damn! His self-introduction itself made me wish I could hex him senseless.

He set that stupid test with all questions about him. I basically sat there and doodled my plans for rune constructs on a spare parchment for the next hour and handed in a blank paper at the end.

Almost none of the students put any effort into it save some of the fangirls. He made a big show of being disappointed by the class standards but we just ignored him. Realising we couldn't care less, he just ended up with a weak finish and sent us off. Useless git!