Disclaimer: One Piece and Harry Potter does not belong to me, each belongs to their respective author. This fic is not intended to make money, but be a recreational way to practice English and develop creativity.
Challenge by TheBlackSeaReaper.
-.- Gilderoy Lockhart
Ace woke up the next morning calm but not enough to say that he had returned to his normal happy-easygoing self. There was a strange demon in his eyes that everyone that morning got quickly out of his way, until the boy came to the Gryffindor table where he sat down to eat his meal in complete silence; he remain silence when the twins came, as when Ron and Hermione sat opposite to him muttering a simple "Morning" as the girl spread her copy of Voyages with Vampires against a milk jug. He gave a look of recognition to Neville when he came to sit at the table, the atmosphere at the table told everybody enough of what the situation was.
Professor McGonagall stopped distributing the schedules to provide a brief glance to Ace, at which the boy retain as she handed him his schedule and deposited a bottle in front of him. Ace just gave a little growl to what the woman said with a firm. "Don't growl to me" and continued advancing distributing schedules.
Hermione took her schedule and after looking quickly muttered: "We have Herbology with Hufflepuff", as she watched Ace play with small bottle before storing it in his backpack.
Neville, Ron and Hermione left the castle followed by a bit less gloomy Ace, crossing the vegetable fields to the greenhouses. It seemed that during the summer Professor McGonagall had learned how to deal with the bad humor of Ace, which came so often, and more with the task of the medicine.
However, despite everything, It seems that Ace had developed some appreciation for the teacher, and the woman had earned his respect.
Herbology was an entertaining class for Ace, and he like it, but not as much as Neville who loved that class, the young pirate liked it because it demand a little more physical work than other classes; example of that, the activity of the class of that morning was transplanted Mandrakes, it sounded easy, but it was not; mandrake root was alive and kicking, crying and did everything possible to not be returned to the pots, which only meant for all the students to end filled with earth, sweaty and exhausted, well at least all but Ace, who after a little physical activity and struggle a little with its roots, his mood had improved; on the other hand, to everyone's surprise, Neville remained in a better condition that everyone else, sweaty and exhausted, but remained happy and excited.
"It help the training you gave me last year" said the boy to Ace "I continued practicing in the summer, I think it helped"
Livelier, and also a little proud they entered McGonagall class that after giving a quick glance at Ace and confirming that he was back to his usual self, she started the class.
It was followed by lunch where they ate with the twins, until Ron was asked what class was next. "Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Hermione, too fast for normal and perhaps overenthusiastic, and sidelong Ace could see the schedule of the girl.
"Is it me, or you have hearts surrounding Lockheart's classes?"
Upon hearing this, Ron took her schedule in complete surprise. "Don't tell me you like his" and completely flustered the girl snatched the schedule.
"I thought you wouldn't fall into something as empty as his hair" Ace muttered, and the girl gave him a dirty look before continued with her meal.
-.-
They went quickly to the classroom where they entered and took seats at the end of the hall. It was their first class of Defense Against the Dark Arts and the only excited was Hermione.
When the whole class was seated, Lockhart cleared his throat loudly and silence fell. He reached forward, picked up a copy of Travels with Trolls, and held it up to show his own, winking portrait on the front.
"Me," he said, pointing at it and winking as well. "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 smiling at her!" He waited for them to laugh; a few people smiled weakly.
"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…"
When he had handed out the test papers he returned to the front of the class and said, "You have thirty minutes… start… now!"
Ace looked down at his paper and read:
1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?
2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?
3. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?
On and on it went, over three sides of paper, right down to:
54. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?
He did not bother to answer, so he devoted himself to scribble on a sheet.
Half an hour later, Lockhart collected the papers and rifled through them in front of the class.
"Tut, tut… hardly any of you remembered that my favorite color is lilac. I say so in Year with the Yeti. And a few of you need to read Wanderings with Werewolves more carefully… I clearly state in chapter twelve that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony between all magic and non-magic peoples… though I wouldn't say no to a large bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky!"
He gave them another roguish wink. Ron was now staring at Lockhart with an expression of disbelief on his face; Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, who were sitting in front, were shaking with silent laughter. Hermione, on the other hand, was listening to Lockhart with rapt attention and gave a start when he mentioned her name.
". . . but Miss Hermione Granger knew my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care potions… good girl! In fact" …he flipped her paper over… "Full marks! Where's Miss Hermione Granger?"
Hermione raised a trembling hand.
"Excellent!" beamed Lockhart. "Quite excellent! Take ten points for Gryffindor! And so… to business…"
He 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 wizard kind! 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."
In spite of himself, Ace leaned for a better look at the cage, curious about what might have inside. Lockhart placed a hand on the cover. Dean and Seamus had stopped laughing now. Neville was cowering.
"I must ask you not to scream," said Lockhart in a low voice. "It might provoke them."
As the whole class held its breath, Lockhart whipped off the cover.
"Yes," he said dramatically. "Freshly caught Cornish pixies."
Seamus Finnigan couldn't control himself. He let out a snort of laughter that even Lockhart couldn't mistake for a scream of terror.
"Yes?" He smiled at Seamus.
"Well, they're not… they're not very… dangerous, are they?" Seamus choked.
"Don't be so sure!" said Lockhart, waggling a finger annoyingly at Seamus. "Devilish tricky little blighters they can be!"
The pixies were electric blue and about eight inches high, with pointed faces and voices so shrill it was like listening to a lot of budgies arguing. The moment the cover had been removed, they had started jabbering and rocketing around, rattling the bars and making bizarre faces at the people nearest them.
"Right, then," Lockhart said loudly. "Let's see what you make of them!" And he opened the cage.
It was pandemonium. The pixies shot in every direction like rockets. Two of them seized Neville by the ears and lifted him into the air. Several shot straight through the window, showering the back row with broken glass. The rest proceeded to wreck the classroom more effectively than a rampaging rhino. They grabbed ink bottles and sprayed the class with them, shredded books and papers, tore pictures from the walls, up-ended the waste basket, grabbed bags and books and threw them out of the smashed window; within minutes, half the class was sheltering under desks and Neville was swinging from the iron chandelier in the ceiling.
"Come on now… round them up, round them up, they're only pixies," Lockhart shouted.
He rolled up his sleeves, brandished his wand, and bellowed, "Peskipiksi Pesternomi!"
It had absolutely no effect; one of the pixies seized his wand and threw it out of the window, too. Lockhart gulped and dived under his own desk, narrowly avoiding being squashed by Neville, who fell a second later as the chandelier gave way.
The bell rang and there was a mad rush toward the exit. In the relative calm that followed, Lockhart straightened up, caught sight of Ace, Neville, Ron, and Hermione, who were almost at the door, and said, "Well, I'll ask you four to just nip the rest of them back into their cage." He swept past them and shut the door quickly behind him.
"Can you believe him?" roared Ron as one of the remaining pixies bit him painfully on the ear.
"He just wants to give us some hands-on experience," said Hermione, immobilizing two pixies at once with a clever Freezing Charm and stuffing them back into their cage.
"Hands on?" said Neville, who was trying to grab a pixie dancing out of reach with its tongue out. "Hermione, he didn't have a clue what he was doing…"
"Rubbish," said Hermione. "You've read his books… look at all those amazing things he's done…"
"He says he's done," Ace muttered, while from his hand drew little lights that floated around the room, attracting the pixies than happily grabbed the little fireflies "Hotarubi - Hidaruma".
-.-
They returned that afternoon to the common room, where they sat at a table in the corner, the twins were already there, with a parchment doing brainstorming, Ace reached to read: "Spade Wizards Pirates" and "Firebirds Pirates" in a list, nothing good could come of that idea.
Leaving his backpack on one side, he pulled a book from it, only to close the book again and put it in the bag; he didn´t want to read about pirates that day. Ironic, that what he liked and fill in his life, what he was and had wanted to be since he could remember; now the subject only reminded him of so many things that caused him nostalgia, and these boys who surrounded him now, had no idea what they said and what they provoked in him.
Suddenly he felt something, he was not expert in Haki, but felt a look on him, only to find a kid, staring at him two meters away from him, and seeing that Ace was looking at him, the kid smiled nervously and stood up to him .
"All right, Harry? I'm ... I'm Colin Creevey," he said breathlessly, Ace turned to lean against the chair.
"First recommendation, his name is Ace, Portgas D. Ace" said Ron, sit beside Ace.
"Oh, Sorry ... Ace" taking a tentative step forward. "I'm in Gryffindor, too. D 'you think... would it be all right if...? "But he didn't finished making his request, as the head of Ace dropped hard against the table, and Hermione let out a cry of surprise that caught the attention of everybody.
All the students from second year to seventh year said nothing, knowing that the boy had just had an attack of the strange disease he suffered, but those on first year did not know, and the twins knew that.
"Nobody move," Fred said as his twin pretended to study Ace "There has been a homicide"
It was fortunate that Percy was not there, and quietly those of second year to seventh agreed to remain silent, one or two supporting with comments and theories of who might have killed Ace, and silently all agreed that at least in the next six years, this would be the initiation of the first years of Gryffindor.
-.-
Author's Notes.
We are still looking for crew names, send me your name ideas of pirate crew, either for review or PM.