A week passed, and soon the second-years once again found themselves in Defence Against the Dark Arts.
This time the atmosphere in the classroom was slightly different. A large iron cage sat on Lockhart's desk, completely covered with a cloth. Whatever was inside it was rattling the bars violently, making the entire cage shake.
Naturally, every student in the room was staring at it.
Lockhart stood beside the cage with his wand already in his hand, smiling as though he were about to perform on a stage.
"Now then, students," he said grandly. "Today I will demonstrate how a properly trained wizard handles dangerous magical creatures."
He tapped the covered cage with his wand.
Something inside slammed against the bars.
A few students leaned back nervously.
"You may very well face creatures like these one day," Lockhart continued dramatically. "But fear not. While I am here, none of you are in any danger."
He paused and raised a finger.
"I must ask that you do not scream. It might… provoke them."
With a flourish, Lockhart pulled the cloth away.
Inside the cage were dozens of small bright-blue creatures with pointed faces and fluttering wings.
Seamus squinted at them.
"Cornish pixies?"
Lockhart nodded proudly.
"Freshly caught Cornish pixies."
Seamus laughed.
"Laugh if you will, Mr. Finnigan," Lockhart said with theatrical seriousness, "but pixies can be devilishly tricky little blighters."
Then, without another word, he unlocked the cage.
The moment the door opened, the pixies burst out like tiny blue missiles.
Within seconds the classroom descended into chaos.
The creatures shot around the room shrieking, pulling books apart, knocking over bottles of ink, and tugging on students' hair and robes.
Two pixies grabbed Neville by the ears and lifted him straight into the air before dangling him helplessly from the chandelier.
"Please! Get me down!" Neville shouted desperately.
Students ducked under desks or tried to swat the creatures away as papers and quills flew through the air.
"Round them up! Round them up!" Lockhart called loudly over the noise. "They're only pixies!"
Unfortunately, Lockhart himself did absolutely nothing to stop them.
The classroom had descended into complete chaos. Pixies darted everywhere, shrieking with high-pitched laughter as they tore parchment into pieces, knocked over ink bottles, and tugged on robes and hair.
Victor watched the scene unfold with growing irritation.
One pixie had grabbed a fistful of Hermione's hair and was pulling it hard while cackling loudly.
Victor reached out and caught the creature mid-air with one hand.
The pixie squirmed and kicked in his grip.
"This professor is complete nonsense," Victor muttered.
Then he threw the pixie across the room like a baseball. The small blue creature slammed into another pixie, and both of them tumbled into a stack of books.
At the front of the room Lockhart finally tried to regain control. He raised his wand, clearly intending to capture the creatures again.
He never got the chance.
One pixie darted straight at him, snatched the wand from his hand, and kicked him squarely in the face before flying upward with a shrill laugh.
Lockhart stumbled backward in shock.
Several pixies immediately began tugging down the large framed photographs of him hanging on the walls. One of them ripped a portrait free and carried it into the air while others laughed hysterically.
Lockhart made a half-hearted attempt to retrieve it.
Then he lost his nerve completely.
"Right!" he said hurriedly. "Well—carry on, then!"
And with that he hurried out of the classroom toward his office, ducking as pixies zoomed past his head.
Victor watched him leave.
For a moment the classroom continued to descend into worse chaos. Neville still hung from the chandelier while several pixies circled him like excited birds.
Victor sighed and finally raised his wand.
"Immobulus."
A wave of pale blue magic spread through the air.
Instantly the pixies froze mid-flight.
Every single one of them stopped moving as if time itself had paused. The creatures hung suspended in the air, wings locked in place.
The classroom fell quiet.
Victor lowered his wand and made a simple guiding motion.
The immobilized pixies drifted slowly across the room toward the cage on Lockhart's desk. One by one they slid back inside.
With a final flick of his wand, the cage door slammed shut and locked.
The entire process took only a few seconds.
Neville, who had been hanging from the chandelier, looked down miserably at the rest of the class.
"Why is it always me?" Neville said helplessly, glancing at the others who had managed to avoid the worst of the chaos — Hermione, Harry, and Draco among them.
Draco gave a small shrug as if the answer were obvious.
"Because you're the easiest one to pick," he said.
Neville looked even more defeated after hearing that.
Victor raised his wand and performed a quick levitation charm, carefully guiding Neville down from the chandelier and lowering him safely to the floor.
Across the room Hermione still stood where the pixie had been pulling her hair. She looked shaken, her mouth slightly open as she stared at the cage full of immobilized pixies.
The professor whose books she admired so much had just fled his own classroom.
Victor noticed her expression and calmly reached over, gently pushing her chin upward to close her mouth.
"Didn't I tell you that you would soon see his true nature?" Victor said quietly.
He glanced toward the cage.
"This is it. He cannot even handle the creatures he himself released."
*****
A/N : 🔥 On Patreon, the story has already been updated up to Chapter 82🔥
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