GILDEROY LOCKHART
last. Harry yanked his robes straight and headed for a seat at the
very back of the class, where he busied himself with piling all seven
of Lockhart’s books in front of him, so that he could avoid looking
at the real thing.
The rest of the class came clattering in, and Ron and Hermione
sat down on either side of Harry.
“You could’ve fried an egg on your face,” said Ron. “You’d better
hope Creevey doesn’t meet Ginny, or they’ll be starting a Harry
Potter fan club.”
“Shut up,” snapped Harry. The last thing he needed was for
Lockhart to hear the phrase “Harry Potter fan club.”
When the whole class was seated, Lockhart cleared his throat
loudly and silence fell. He reached forward, picked up Neville
Longbottom’s 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!”
Harry looked down at his paper and read:
99