Chapter 10 – Gilderoy Lockhart
It was quite pleasant last year, but Vergil had to admit riding the train to Hogwarts this year felt really good. Looking slightly back the first year was difficult to deal with, the devil side of him being a more dominant one and all. Which was to be expected as the only human he had contact with before coming here was his mother; even that wasn't for a very long time if he was being honest.
Slowly he was starting to feel more like a human than a devil. He could never be a human, but he didn't even consider reaching out to the devil powers he had over the course of summer vacation. He felt no need for them. He sort of slacked off a bit; while still being able to exercise and engage in somewhat of a scuffle he knew he couldn't put up much of a fight.
He was brought out of his thoughts by knocking. It was Granger. Vergil motioned for her to come in and she did.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" She asked.
"Why would I?" Vergil smirked slightly. "Shouldn't you be with Potter and Weasley though?"
"I can't find them, they surely didn't miss the train." Granger seemed to be saying that more so to assure herself.
The two fell into a bit of a silence, not in any way uncomfortable as Granger read 'Year with the Yeti' and Vergil kept looking through the window.
An hour later their comfortable silence was broken by none other than Draco, Crabbe and Goyle.
"What's she doing here?" Draco seemed annoyed by Granger's presence.
"Sitting, Draco. It's a common activity on trains." Vergil remarked making Granger look at him incredulously.
"I can see that!" Draco went a bit red at the obvious answer he received. "But why here? With you."
Vergil regarded Draco with a puzzled look as Granger seemed to be preparing to get up and leave, if closing her book was anything to go by.
"Is there any reason why she shouldn't sit here?" Vergil had to ask.
"She's a Mudblood!" Draco exclaimed. Granger, though unaware of the meaning of the word figured it was an insult.
"Malfoy…" Apparently so did Vergil. Draco froze slightly at the sudden reverting to the last name basis. "I'm guessing that's an insult. So get out before I get up." Vergil's voice was cold and he certainly seemed serious.
Crabbe and Goyle were ready to step in front of Draco but the boy stopped them.
"I didn't want to be in her company anyway." Draco spat and turned to leave.
A few moments passed before either Vergil or Granger said anything.
"So… Have we ever actually talked? Like a proper conversation?" Vergil blurted out suddenly, is a rather clumsy way as well.
"Well… I guess not." Granger said, now that their peace was disrupted they weren't sure how to go back to it.
"Would you like to try?"
There was a bit of hesitation.
"Sure." She finally responded and Vergil had to smirk.
"This is pathetic. 'Would you like to try?' Like I was talking about breaking every rule possible without getting caught and not just talking." The white haired boy felt quite idiotic for the way he approached the topic.
Granger seemed to relax a bit as well. "How do you like Hogwarts?" She began.
"It was hard to get used to it, but the more time passed the more I liked it. It's certainly not what I was used to before. You?" Vergil replied.
"Honestly, it's amazing. All the things we get to learn and everything about magic. I never imagined something like this would be real a year ago. Spending time with Harry and Ron, having friends I can relate to…" She had a bright smile on her face as she spoke about the school. "And we even won the House Cup." Granger pointed out.
"Don't get me started on how cheated I feel when it comes to that." Vergil had to tease.
"We won it fair and square." Granger pointed out, arguing with him just a little bit.
"You broke our hearts. We were celebrating our victory, the year was over and then you came in and took it." He was clearly teasing and she could see it on his face. Furthermore he sounded so melodramatic it could be the only possible explanation.
"Oh shut up."
"How will we keep talking then?"
The two chuckled a bit and kept chatting every now and then about small things to pass time.
That night Vergil lied on his bed waiting for Draco to come by. When the boy finally came, perhaps by some miracle on his own, Vergil sat up. "Mind telling me what a 'Mudblood' is?" Vergil requested.
"Granger. Filthy Muggle-born unworthy of learning magic." Draco said arrogantly.
Vergil's eye narrowed slightly. "She's better than anyone in our year. How is that unworthy? Blood isn't everything Draco."
"Yes it is." Draco argued.
Vergil wondered whether he should keep the argument going. He chose not to, for two simple reasons. While Granger was definitely not a random person he couldn't care less about she was still not quite important to him. Furthermore there was no point in arguing over this with Draco, he was stuck in belief that he was superior and that was the end of it.
Right now it would be like talking to a wall.
The next morning was moderately peaceful, the very first morning of the school year. Many owls had come to the Great Hall, some delivering letters, some forgotten things and one in particular brought forth a device that would turn moderately peaceful to extremely loud.
Vergil was in the middle of putting a bit of sausage into his mouth when the unpleasant surprise came.
"—STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE —"
Vergil bit down on his fork so hard it sent a shiver down his spine; he forced himself to swallow as the yells that shook the entire hall made his eardrums hurt.
"—LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU AND HARRY COULD BOTH HAVE DIED —ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED — YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME."
It seemed like the torture was over.
"The hell was that?" Vergil had to ask Draco who was sitting next to him.
"The Howler. I didn't know Weasleys could get any redder, just look at him." Draco relished in the moment.
Vergil sighed, perhaps there wasn't much he could do over the course of the next couple of years, but he'd still try to make small steps.
"Come on, let's just try to eat while our hearing is recovering." Vergil returned to his meal.
The first class of the year for Slytherin second years was Defense Against the Dark Arts, it was the moment of truth, would Lockhart be a narcissistic competent professor or merely a narcissistic professor.
Draco sat down next to Vergil who took the seat all the way back and took the books out.
Lockhart cleared his throat quite loudly before he reached out and took Parkinson's copy of 'Year with the Yeti', he held it up thus showing his portrait.
"Me." He winked. "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 but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smilingat her!"
He received absolutely no response from his new students, none of them laughed. All he got were the blank stares from most of the boys and dreamy looks from most of the girls.
"I see you've all bought a complete set of my books; well done. I thought we'd start today with a little quiz. Nothing to worry about, just to check how well you've read them, how much you've taken in." With that he began handing out the test papers. "You have thirty minutes, start… now!"
Vergil felt somewhat pleased with the approach Lockhart was taking, maybe this wouldn't be so bad. And then he saw the questions. "Kill me, please." He couldn't suppress himself.
"This guy is ridiculous." Draco said.
"For once we completely agree." Vergil had to admit. "Well… Let's do this." He took the quill and began writing.
"You actually know the answers?!" Draco hissed at him as silently as he possibly could.
"Take a better look." Vergil smirked.
'What is Gilderoy's favorite color?'
And underneath was the answer: 'A color he likes the most.'
Draco snickered at that and Vergil kept smirking with a strange sense of satisfaction.
'What is Gilderoy's Lockhart's secret ambition?'
'Something he wants to do the most.'
'What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?'
'Something he did.'
The questions went on and on.
'How many times has Gilderoy Lockhart won Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award?'
'A number of times.'
On and on until question 54 which was: 'When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday and what would his ideal gift be?'
The answer being: 'Every year on the same day. The ideal gift being something he wants.'
A few minutes later Lockhart collected the papers and rifled through them in front of the class.
Vergil ignored the man's constant rumbling about each and every question.
"But Mr. Leonidas-" At the sound of his last name Vergil had to look at the man. "-I must say though none of your answers are correct you certainly got guts. Take five points for Slytherin for pure effort to answer the questions." He made a small pause. "Of course I am sure you simply couldn't phantom that I would teach you and now your excitement got the better of you." The man beamed at him and even winked.
Vergil looked incredulous, was this guy joking around… "Ridiculous." He muttered as Draco tried to cover up his laughter.
"And now to business." He bet 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."
Vergil rolled his eyes. They were already facing horrors, of being taught by this man. On the other hand most of his classmates began taking this seriously.
"I must ask you not to scream." Lockhart requested in a low voice. "It might provoke them."
The half devil was barely interested as the professor whipped off the cover.
"Yes. Freshly caught Cornish pixies." Nope, there would be no surprises… "Devilish tricky little blighters they can be!" Electric blue pixies about eight inches long with pointed faces, yes, so very dangerous.
"To you." Vergil's comment drew a smirk back to Draco's face.
"Right, then," Lockhart said loudly. "Let's see what you make of them!" And he opened the cage.
Pixies shot in every direction like rockets. They shot through the window, showering the back row with glass, others began ripping books and spraying the ink around. They would charge at students that barely had time to jump out of the way as they screamed. All in all the classroom turned into small hell.
"He's mental!" Draco shouted to Vergil.
"And this is good opportunity to get rid of this." He showed Draco a copy of 'Break with a Banshee' and tore it in half. "This is a mess." He chunked the half of the book at pixie that went after Bulstrode, thus successfully making it sway a bit.
"Good one, now keep going!" Lockhart praised him.
Vergil's eye twitched as he turned and saw a pixie flying near Lockhart. Smirking he threw the other half of the book right at the teacher, exactly when a pixie was flying next to Lockhart. "Oops, I missed." He let the sarcasm slip through his voice as the thrown half struck the teacher right in the face. Next to him Draco seemed to enjoy himself.
"That does it." Lockhart grew a bit frustrated. He pulled out his wand. "Peskipiksi Pesternomi!" he bellowed and absolutely nothing happened.
"So useless." Vergil muttered as Lockhart's wand was thrown out by the pixie. The professor, being as competent as he was ducked under the table.
"Vergil…!" Draco cried out as three pixies flew right toward them.
"Verdimillious Duo." He shot the green sparks at the creatures, electrifying them in the process. "Hey, Professor! How about we deal with these pixies for let's say 50 points for Slytherin?" Vergil asked.
"Yes! Go ahead, I will happily present you with the points." Lockhart called out from his place under the table.
"Wands out! Let's show these troublemakers what Slytherin is made of!" Vergil exclaimed, riling up his classmates into action.
"You should have asked for more." Zabini smirked at him and was the first one to comply with the white haired boy who struck a few of the pixies with a simple Flipendo.
"Let's keep the game fair, we don't want to shut down all the hopes other houses have immediately." Vergil smirked back.
"You really are a Slytherin." Draco commented and followed Vergil's example by jinxing a pixie near them.
A minute later the ten Slytherin students worked as one to deal with the remaining pixies.
"There you have it professor, now 50 points please." Vergil smirked.
"Yes, of course. Take well-earned 50 points for Slytherin." Lockhart happily awarded them with the points.
Following Defense the Slytherins had their taste of Herbology in their new year with Ravenclaws. When they entered the greenhouse they saw about twenty pairs of ear muffs.
"We'll be repotting Mandrakes today. Now, who can tell me the properties of the Mandrake?" Nope, no one. "I see, unfortunate. Well, Mandrake, or Mandragora, is a powerful restorative that is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed to their original state. The Mandrake forms an essential part of most antidotes. It is also, however, dangerous. Who can tell me why?"
When she received no response yet again she granted them with an answer once more. "The cry of the Mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it. Now, the Mandrakes we have here are still very young."
She pointed to a row of deep trays as she spoke. A hundred or so tufty little plants, purplish green in color, were growing in rows.
"Everyone take a pair of earmuffs." Professor Sprout instructed them. "When I tell you to put them on, make sure your ears are completelycovered." Professor Sprout made sure she put emphasis on 'completely'. "When it is safe to remove them, I will give you the thumbs-up. Right, earmuffs on."
The earmuffs completely shut out the sounds around Vergil and the boy figured he'd like one of these for his classes with Lockhart. And perhaps even for some other times as well.
Professor Sprout put the earmuffs on as well, rolled up the sleeves of her robes and grasped one of the plants firmly. Much to the half devil's surprise she pulled hard and instead of roots he saw a small, muddy kind of ugly baby. It had pale green, mottled skin and was crying.
Professor Sprout took a large plant pot from under the table and plunged the Mandrake into it, burying it in dark, damp compost until only the tufted leaves were visible. She dusted off her hands, gave them all the thumbs-up, and removed her own earmuffs.
The students followed her example and took the earmuffs off.
"As our Mandrakes are only seedlings, their cries won't kill yet. However, they willknock you out for several hours, make sure your earmuffs are securely in place while you work. I will attract your attention when it is time to pack up. Now, four to a tray, there is a large supply of pots here, compost in the sacks over there, and be careful of the Venemous Tentacula, its teething." With the instructions being said Vergil was joined by Draco, Crabbe and Goyle and they began working.
In the end the task was harder than professor Sprout made it out to be. The Mandrakes weren't exactly clear on what they wanted, as they fought against being pulled out and pushed back into the ground.
"Make up your mind damn it." Vergil hissed at it as he pushed the squirming creature into the pot. It still kicked and flailed, it even gnashed its teeth making the task more difficult.
The fact that Slytherin house had almost 100 points on the first day left the students and Heads of other houses confused. Even with Granger receiving a whopping 20 points in Herbology alone Gryffindor was still behind the Slytherin house.
"Ah, it was the second year class. They took my lesson to heart and made an excellent progress. Of course if anyone else was teaching them they surely wouldn't be able to deal with Cornish pixies the way they did." Lockhart bragged.
While other houses were baffled the Slytherins were celebrating.
"Leonidas! Come here!" Farley, the Prefect that led him and his classmates to the Dungeons last year called him.
Vergil got up and went to her.
"We heard what you did. Amazing." She smirked at him, looking proud that her house was doing great in her final year at Hogwarts.
"Others are responsible as well, I initiated it, we all completed it." He grinned. Nonetheless he, Draco and Zabini, the trio most responsible for bringing down the pixies were suddenly lifted into the air by older students.
"Whoa…!" Vergil yelped as his housemates cheered. Draco was clearly enjoying himself, Zabini certainly wasn't complaining and the white haired boy had to laugh. The cold air that was normally in the house felt warm during the relentless celebration. The lake above them added to the effect of calming water clashing with the students excited to the point of making their Head of the House come in to see what was going on.
Snape stood there, slightly taken aback by the sight in front of him. His presence didn't go unnoticed as Vergil grinned and waved at him.
The commotion stopped right away and the students calmed down, though they still looked happy. Vergil sat down with his legs crossed on the green carpeted floor.
Snape approached him and his pitch black eyes clashed with Vergil's red eye. The Potions master had never seen the boy grinning so brightly.
"I expect you all to continue the year, as you have started." The statement surprised the students further, Snape had never praised them like this, in fact this was about as direct of praise as they collectively got, ever.
"Yes Sir!" the entire house exclaimed.
A few days later Vergil was in the common room reading a book on potions when Draco marched in looking more furious than ever before.
"Jealous?! How dare he?! What would I even be jealous of? A foul scar right across my head?!" He ranted furiously.
With a string of insults that concerned the Gryffindor trio Vergil had to sigh. Someone just had to push the wrong buttons and make Draco's annoyance with the trio even more personal on his side.
Two months passed and Halloween came by, which meant the feast. Unfortunately Hogwarts seemed to have a tradition of peace being disrupted on Halloween. This time though it was after the feast, while students were going back from it.
The chatter, the bustle, the noise died suddenly as the people in front spotted the hanging cat, Mrs. Norris, in the corridor. Furthermore Granger, Potter and Weasley were there, all alone.
Vergil looked at the cat from the side and then noticed writing on the wall illuminated by the torches.
'THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.
ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE'
The words were written by something red, perhaps paint.
Vergil turned his attention to the Gryffindor trio in the middle of this mess. This probably meant trouble for them.
"Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!" Draco's claim broke the silence as he pushed to the front of the crowd. He was grinning at the sight of the immobile cat.
His shout was probably what attracted Filch, the caretaker. "What's going on here? What's going on?" And then he saw her, his cat. He fell back, clutching his face in horror. "My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" He shrieked.
Vergil watched as the caretaker accused Potter of murdering the cat, promising to kill Potter because of it and finally being stopped by Dumbledore.
The matter was resolved by Dumbledore taking things into his own hands, he went to the closest office, which was Lockhart's along with Filch, Potter, Granger and Weasley, Lockhart, along with McGonagall and Snape followed.
Vergil looked at Draco who was getting more excited by seconds.
And that's it.
Answers on reviews:
Anime PJ – Thanks. I have a few ideas on what to do with the second year when it comes to friendships, as you saw in this chapter I'm slowly developing them. Hermione getting petrified will certainly get a reaction out of him, that much I can tell you.
i lovedifferentmixesup – Thanks.
josephguy217 – Thank you.
brit – Thank you. Well I hope you've enjoyed the way I made them interact.
Bobby Morningstar – Thank you.
Next Chapter – Dueling Club