Note: Harry Potter was created by J. K. Rowling and is a film series owned by Warner Bros.

Most of Hogwarts' students were waking up and getting ready for school, early. This was a very rare event, but there was a special reason for the students wanting to show up to class, at the correct time. The current Professor of the Dark Arts, Gilderoy Lockhart, had something special planned. Although he didn't give any details, he said his classroom will be turned into something incredible. The students at Hogwarts were used to classrooms being boring, so they got excited, about the thought of having a fun classroom.

As Hermione Granger moved around the hallways of Hogwarts, she saw her classmates running around and hurrying to class. Hermione was usually early, during each and every school day. She was Hogwarts' most dedicated and rule-obsessed students, so she wasn't that her classmates only showed up to class on-time, when they were promised something fun. She wished that her classmates were more mature, but maturity was something Hogwarts barely had.

Hermione found Harry Potter. She was thankful, that he was one of the rare students, who wasn't running around and bonking into hallways. She said, "Hi Harry. It's good to see you."

Harry replied, "Hi Hermione."

Hermione asked, "What's up?"

Harry pointed up. Hermione looked and saw that Fred and George were running on the ceiling. She had a confused look on her face, while asking, "How is that possible?"

Harry answered, "If you try hard enough, you can find a spell for anything."

Hermione asked, "Have you seen Ron?"

Harry asked, "Which Ron?"

Hermione said, "The one you care about the most."

Harry asked, "Ron Perlman?"

Hermione sighed and said, "Ron Weasley."

A moment later, Harry and Hermione found Ron. He was roaming the hallways, while having a sneaky smile on his face. After his friends walked up to him, he tried to look more friendly. He said, "Hermione and Harry, it's good to see you."

Harry wasn't used to Ron giving him a friendly greetings. He could already tell something was up. He asked, "How are you?"

Ron smiled and answered, "I'm doing great. The beautiful weather symbolizes this beautiful day, don't you think?"

Hermione sighed and said, "Tell us what's going on."

Ron replied, "Okay then." He grabbed a wallet, out of his pocket, and said, "Neville accidentally dropped his wallet on the ground, so I took it."

Hermione said, "Ron, you should be ashamed of yourself."

Ron asked, "Why?"

Hermione said, "Neville needs his wallet. You can't just keep it, you sneaky troublemaker."

Ron replied, "I'll return the wallet. However, I lost the money that was in it." Harry and Hermione facepalmed.

Hermione, Harry, and Ron, along with their fellow classmates walked into Professor Lockhart's office. However, it no longer looked like an office. Instead, it looked like a casino. There was a table, for making bets and there were several gambling-machines.

Professor Lockhart had an excited smile on his face, while saying, "Greetings, my students. Welcome to the greatest and most-fun classroom there's ever been."

Hermione raised her hand and replied, "I don't mean to be rude, but this isn't a classroom. You turned this place, into a casino. No offense, but why would you do such a thing?"

Professor Lockhart paced around the students, while saying, "This is what Hogwarts needed. There are several types of magic, which my fellow teachers have never taught. One of those lessons is the magic of gambling. Gambling has been a controversial form of magic, but I assure you, that it can be really rewarding."

Hermione asked, "What are you going to be teaching? I don't see what can be learned, from gambling money."

Professor Lockhart replied, "Life's a gamble, in general. Depending on how things go, you could end-up being a rich, charming millionaire or you could be swimming in garbage-dumps. Gambling money reflects on how your decisions in life are all gambles, that can either ruin or positively-impact your life."

Hermione wanted to have respect for Lockhart, since he was one of her superiors. However, Harry was suspicious about the casino. He thought that Lockhart's real reason for having a casino, was to trick his classmates into giving their money to him. Harry said, "I'm not fond of speaking out of line, but I'm not falling for your scam."

Professor Lockhart tried to look offended, while saying, "Scam? Harry, that's a rough thing, to accuse me of."

Hermione nudged Harry and said, "I know that Professor Lockhart isn't as professional, as our other teachers, but we need to respect him."

Harry replied, "Respecting teachers is usually a good thing, but not when they're trying to take our money away."

Professor Lockhart responded, "I'm not trying to do that. My desire is to teach and help my students. There's nothing a teacher likes more, than being a good and respectable role-model, for their students." He walked closer to Harry and said, "Your interruptions are very disrespectful, you hairy kitchen-pot. If you want to avoid detentions, I'd suggesting listening to me."

Harry frowned and asked, "How could I trust you? You look like a younger version of Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor."

Professor Lockhart replied, "And you look like a younger version of a guy, stuck in a never-ending marathon of detentions. In fact, that might be your future, if you continue your shady behavior."

Draco Malfoy was delighted, that Harry was being treated like a bad student. Draco laughed and said, "You can't trust Harry. Ever since we started going to Hogwarts, he's been accusing me of things and has been a jerk to me." Draco was sitting next to Ron, so he whispered, "If you want to be considered cool, you'll mock Harry."

Ron was desperate, to earn the respect of his fellow students, so he said, "I'm only friends with Harry, because he blackmails me. He's always been a shady scoundrel." Draco high-fived Ron.

Professor Lockhart looked around and saw several students booing Harry. He smiled and said, "I'm used to my students arguing with each other and never coming to an understanding. It appears we've finally found something we agree on: Harry's a bad student." He grabbed some papers, out of the recycling-bin, and threw them at Harry. Several students did the same thing. Even Ron threw papers at him, which hurt Harry's feelings.

Hermione looked at Harry, while feeling concerned about him. It seemed like the whole class was against him. She wondered what she should do. If she didn't side with Harry, she'd win the respect of Lockhart and the others. However, Hermione didn't have the heart, to betray her friend.

Harry said, "You know what? Since you guys hate me and since I'm already going to get plenty of detentions, I might as well leave." He stepped out of the classroom.

Hermione looked at Lockhart and asked, "Can I go bring him back?"

Professor Lockhart answered, "Of course you can. I suggest slapping him, for walking out of class." Hermione was to mad at Lockhart, to respond to that.

Ron grinned and asked, "Can we start gambling?"

Professor Lockhart looked excited, while saying, "Of course you can. Run to the machines and start gambling. In fact, whichever five-students gamble the most, will get extra credit-points." The students started heading towards the machines, while Lockhart did an evil laugh.

Hermione went into the hallway and after a few minutes of looking around, she found Harry. She tapped his shoulder and asked, "Are you okay?"

Harry asked, "How could I be? I'm the most hated person, that classroom has ever seen. Frankly, I think they'd give Voldemort more respect."

Hermione replied, "I know you had the best of intentions, but you can't argue with what the teacher says."

Harry responded, "Hermione, I'm not talking about arguing with a teacher for petty reasons, like for giving out too much homework or something like that. Professor Lockhart made this casino, so he can scam his students. He's a sneaky person, you know that. Do you really think he made the casino, because he wants to teach his students?"

Hermione thought about it and realized how suspicious Lockhart's plan seemed. She looked at Harry and said, "I want to have faith in Lockhart, but I have some doubts about his intentions. Harry, you need to come back to class."

Harry replied, "I'd rather not. I don't want to deal with everybody hating me. Even Ron was making fun of me. Can you believe that? Nobody around here cares about me?"

Hermione put her arm around Harry and said, "I care about you and I know having only one student care about you isn't much, but it's better than nothing. I could of sided with Lockhart and made everybody like me, but I've decided to be your side."

Harry asked, "You'd rather stand-up for me, than win the respect of Lockhart and the others?"

Hermione answered, "Of course."

Harry smiled and said, "You're the best."

Hermione replied, "I know you're mad at our classmates and I can't blame you. However, I believe the right thing is to do is to save them, from gambling their money away."

Harry responded, "You're right, Hermione. I think we'll need to hurry." Hermione nodded. They started running back to class.

Meanwhile, several students started gambling. Ron put a hundred-dollars into the machine, but he didn't win anything. He kept putting bills into the machine, but no money came out.

Neville walked up to him and said, "Harry told me, that you found my wallet."

Ron had forgotten about the wallet, until Neville reminded him about it. He pulled the wallet out of his pocket and said, "There you go."

Neville looked inside of it and said, "The money's gone."

Ron considered offering him an apology and paying him back. However, Draco was watching him and Ron wanted to earn his approval, so Ron looked at Neville and said, "You shouldn't of dropped your wallet on the ground. All blame goes to you. In fact, I'm glad I lost your money."

Neville replied, "Sheesh Ron, I didn't know you were so harsh." Neville sighed and walked away.

Draco patted Ron's shoulder and kept putting money into the machine. After losing thousands of dollars, he started throwing a fit. He even punched the machine.

Professor Lockhart ran up to him and said, "If you break the machine, you'll have to pay for it."

Draco replied, "I've already lost thousands of dollars. If I try to explain to my father what happened, he'll probably shorten my allowance. What am I supposed to do?"

Professor Lockhart signaled for Draco to walk to a different machine. Lockhart pointed to the machine, while saying, "This machine is the most special, out of all of them."

Draco snobbishly asked, "What's so special about it?"

Professor Lockhart answered, "The other machines just accept money, but this machine is magical, so it has different rules. Instead of just putting bills in, you can put in other objects."

Draco asked, "Like what?"

Professor Lockhart said, "Anything of value." Draco started putting his textbooks in the machine, which made Lockhart facepalm.

Harry and Hermione walked back to the class. Hermione asked, "How are we going to find out, if Lockhart's casino is a scam?"

Harry said, "Let's go around the classroom and find out if any of our classmates have won anything."

Harry and Hermione walked up to Luna Lovegood. Luna waved to them and said, "Hi guys. Everybody thinks you snuck out of class, so you could flirt with each other."

Hermione blushed and replied, "That's not what's going on."

Luna responded, "You shouldn't feel bad about that. After all, I sneak out of class, so I can gaze at the moon."

Harry said, "Luna, have you won anything, by gambling?"

Luna answered, "I'm afraid not. I lost all my money, including my lunch-money. I'll have to go another day without lunch."

Harry and Hermione walked up to Ron. Ron pretended like he wasn't glad to see them, so he could win the respect of his classmates. He frowned at Harry and said, "It's the menace of Hogwarts. Why are you ruining my class-time, with your repulsive presence? There's nobody in Hogwarts, who's more annoying than you. I wish you didn't go to this school." Draco was so happy to hear those words, that he started dancing.

Harry wasn't happy about his classmates hating him, but he was particularly hurt about Ron mocking him, since they were such close-friends. Hermione noticed that Harry was sad, so he hugged him and said, "It's going to be okay."

Ron whined, "What do you nerds want?"

Hermione said, "We want you to start acting like a true friend. However, we also want to know if you've won any money."

Ron replied, "Not yet."

Hermione asked, "How many bills have you put in the machine?"

Ron answered, "Seventy-five."

Hermione folded her arms and said, "Most gambling-machines eventually lead to money coming-out. If you'll look around, you'll see that no money has poured out of the machines, not even a dollar. You and the others are going to lose all of your money, if you keep this up."

Ron replied, "We've lost more than that. There's machine that accepts any kind of item, so Draco and I gambled our textbooks, homework, gym-clothes, combs, backpacks, and lunchboxes."

Harry said, "Lockhart programmed these machines to accept money and never give it, to any of the gamblers. After this session of gambling is over, Lockhart's planning on opening the machines and taking his students' money. This isn't gambling. This is a scam."

Hermione walked up to Lockhart. She usually tried to respect her teachers, but Lockhart was an exception. She said, "You should be ashamed of yourself. You're trying to con the students, into giving away their money."

Professor Lockhart faced his students and said, "It appears that Hermione has joined Harry, when it comes to being disrespectful and harsh. This may seem surprising, considering how loyal Hermione has been to the rules. However, her bestie, Hairy Kitchen-Pot, corrupted her mind. I feel sorry for Hermione, but since she has joined Harry's side, we must be her enemies."

Hermione replied, "Give me a break." She faced her classmates and said, "Let me ask you a important question. Has a single student won any money?" The students asked each-other about it and realized that nobody had won a dollar, despite being dozens of bills into the machine.

Harry pointed his wand at Lockhart and said, "I think it's time you admit the truth."

Professor Lockhart replied, "Actually, it's time for me to become rich." He grabbed one of the machines and started running out. However, he tripped over some dollar-bills, and fell to the ground. The machine fell on Lockhart, which made him pass out.

The students finally realized that Harry was right, the entire time. They felt bad about distrusting him. Ron walked up to Harry and said, "I'm sorry, bro. Instead of keeping my friendship with my most reliable buddy, I was obsessed with winning Draco's approval. He might be more popular than you, but you're still cooler." He hugged Harry.

Harry replied, "Thank you."

Hermione looked at Harry and asked, "Are you glad the students don't hate you anymore?"

Harry answered, "I am. I'm also glad that you never hated me."

Hermione smiled and said, "I could never hate you. You should know I'll always love you."

Harry shyly asked, "Love?"

Hermione blushed and answered, "You know what I mean."

Harry said, "I'll always love you too." Harry was worried about being Hogwarts' most hated student, but thanks to Hermione, he never felt that way again.