"Granger is absolutely right. This was truly a memorable practical lesson."
Seamus Finnigan, hearing Hermione's words, also came over, saying with lingering fear.
"I had no idea these creatures were so strong—"
He rubbed his ears as he spoke, unable to suppress a hissing sound.
Not long ago, he had been lifted into the air by two pixies grabbing both his ears and hung from the chandelier for quite some time.
It was very painful, as one could imagine.
His good friend Dean Thomas couldn't help but say.
"Hey, buddy, do you think it's because you mocked Lockhart earlier that he deliberately—"
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
Before Seamus could answer, Hermione had already interrupted. "Professor Lockhart is not that kind of person!"
If this had been before, everyone would have scoffed at Hermione's statement.
But after experiencing this first Defense Against the Dark Arts class, everyone felt they couldn't quite figure this person out.
If you said this professor was competent, well, his speech was flowery, his behavior ostentatious, and in the first test class, he had created those ridiculous questions that made people laugh.
If it weren't for the last few questions providing some cover, Defense Against the Dark Arts might as well have been renamed Lockhart Studies.
But if you said he was incompetent, the XXX-level pixies that the young wizards had looked down upon had indeed given this group of young wizards a harsh lesson, just as he had said.
More importantly, although he seemed unable to control the situation at first, in the second half, he had genuinely protected the students.
All wizards who were willing to approach him voluntarily remained unharmed.
So how to put it?
Very confusing!
At this moment, everyone turned their gaze to Sherlock.
Although only a year had passed, for the young Gryffindor lions, this had become an established convention.
When facing problems that required thinking.
Choose Sherlock if available; choose Hermione if Sherlock isn't available.
With the Lion King here, why would anyone else need to think?
That would be redundant!
Under everyone's expectant gazes, Sherlock gave his assessment.
"Interesting."
"Sherlock, what exactly do you find interesting?"
This wasn't the first time Sherlock had made such an evaluation of Professor Lockhart.
He had said the same thing before class started, and when Harry and Ron were about to inquire, they were interrupted.
Now that Sherlock had said it again, Ron simply asked once more.
"I'm referring to Professor Lockhart's behavior being interesting. As for the man himself, he's very contradictory."
"Contradictory? How so?"
Hearing Sherlock begin to analyze Professor Lockhart, not only the young lions but also the young eagles gathered around.
Sherlock pondered for a moment, gently tapping the desk with his slender fingers. "Did you notice the spell he cast first when the pixies appeared?"
Hearing Sherlock's words, the onlookers all looked at each other, then shook their heads.
The classroom had been in complete chaos at that time—who had the presence of mind to pay attention to that?
Not just them, even Hermione, the academic achiever, hadn't noticed.
"Sherlock, stop keeping us in suspense and just tell us! The smile at the corner of your mouth has completely given you away!"
Hearing Hermione say this, Sherlock chuckled lightly and then explained directly.
"He said 'Peskipiksi Pesternomi.'"
Everyone looked at each other in confusion.
After a moment of bewilderment, someone couldn't help but ask. "So, what does that mean?"
Sherlock looked at Hermione.
Although she didn't know why, Hermione understood what Sherlock meant.
She then began trying to analyze.
"On the surface, it doesn't seem to mean anything, but it feels like it could be analyzed and understood.
However, I can only see that 'pester' means annoying, and this doesn't really explain anything—"
Hermione said somewhat helplessly.
"Hermione, you've found the key point."
Sherlock nodded and continued.
"I think you should remember the Mirror of Erised?"
Seeing Hermione nod, Sherlock continued.
"Actually, what Professor Lockhart just said can be rearranged like the Mirror of Erised's inscription, just without the trouble of reversing the order."
Harry and Ron exchanged glances, then looked at Sherlock blankly, completely unable to understand what he was saying.
The others didn't even know about the Mirror of Erised and were even more confused.
What, what, what—what is all this about!
Only Hermione followed Sherlock's line of thinking. After a moment's consideration, her eyes lit up.
"I know!"
She waved her wand and directly rearranged the letters.
"Professor Lockhart wasn't saying Peskipiksi Pesternomi, but rather. Pesky pixies, pester no me!
'Pesky' means annoying, 'pester' also means to annoy, 'pixies' are the pixies—put them together and it's.
Annoying pixies, don't bother me!"
Hermione excitedly announced her deduced answer.
"Hermione, you do have a talent for summarizing and concluding."
Sherlock looked at her with satisfaction. "This kind of cobbled-together incantation—let's call it an incantation for now.
Although I don't know why Professor Lockhart used it, it obviously didn't achieve the effect he wanted.
After that, he used the simpler but more practical Freezing Charm.
However, you might not have noticed that when he cast the spell, his expression was hesitant and his movements stiff.
This actually represents an unwilling, even resistant attitude."
"But the spell was very successful—why would he feel this way?"
The young wizards looked at each other in confusion.
Successfully proving one's ability and solving these "annoying pixies"—wasn't that good?
Why would he resist it?
"This is exactly what I mean by contradictory.
His words, his actions, even all his behaviors are contradictory.
It's not difficult to deduce that he would have preferred his earlier meaningless incantation to work rather than the Freezing Charm that actually proved effective.
Additionally, there's one more thing—"
Sherlock paused, then said under the amazed gazes of the young wizards.
"When he discovered his books being torn to shreds by the pixies, he showed obvious pleasure."
"Pleasure?"
Hearing Sherlock's words, everyone was even more confused.
No normal person would be happy when their works were torn to pieces, right?
What was this professor thinking?
Indeed, Sherlock was absolutely right.
This new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was far too contradictory, or rather, too peculiar.
But regardless, at least one thing was certain.
He did have real ability.
When the young wizards learned from Hermione that Sherlock had made this assessment early on, they once again admired him completely.
Their Lion King was not only brave but also intelligent.
This was truly rare!
Unexpectedly, during the evening Astronomy class, Sherlock once again surprised the entire class.
Compared to other courses, Astronomy was more like a class offered in Muggle schools, as this course required no magic whatsoever.
In this respect, it was similar to History of Magic.
But unlike History of Magic, which was purely theoretical, this course required practical work in addition to learning theory.
Professor Aurora Sinistra, the Astronomy teacher, just like last year, still required all new students to observe the night sky through telescopes. In addition to learning the names of different stars, they also had to chart the orbital paths of planets.
This placed considerable demands on the young wizards' drawing abilities.
Obviously, when drawing the same star chart, some people's results were simply better-looking than others.
"Let me test you first to see if you've forgotten everything from last year over the summer holidays."
Upon hearing this, all the young wizards' faces immediately turned sour.
Was this some kind of joke? In just one afternoon, had Professor Lockhart's teaching methods already spread?
How could even someone as honest-looking as you start conducting pre-class tests?
Professor Sinistra ignored the young wizards' resentful expressions and began questioning directly.
"Name the nine planets of the solar system in order from closest to farthest from the sun."
In fact, she had already asked this question last year, and Hermione had successfully answered it then.
A year later, she was asking the same question again, just with an additional condition.
Without question, Hermione was still the first to raise her hand high.
Well, also the only one.
Seeing this situation, Professor Sinistra frowned slightly.
Her gaze swept over all the students in the class.
All the young wizards she looked at either lowered their heads, averted their gaze, or stared blankly, all afraid of being called upon by Professor Sinistra.
Finally, Professor Sinistra's gaze passed over Hermione and stopped on Sherlock beside her.
"Mr. Holmes, please answer this question."
Hearing Professor Sinistra call on Sherlock, all the classmates were startled.
They still clearly remembered that in the first Astronomy class of their first year, Professor Sinistra had chosen Sherlock and Hermione to answer questions.
The reason was that they both came from Muggle families and had performed excellently in all subjects since the beginning of school.
Hermione had indeed been consistently excellent and correctly answered Professor Sinistra's question.
But unexpectedly, Sherlock had given them a surprise.
Only knowing such basic knowledge as the Earth revolving around the sun was simply speechless!
Unexpectedly, a year later, Professor Sinistra had called on Sherlock again.
Was this some kind of targeting?
In fact, they had guessed correctly.
Professor Sinistra was indeed deliberately calling on Sherlock.
In last year's final exams for the seven required subjects, Sherlock had received "Outstanding" grades in Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, and Herbology, with scores so high they even surpassed Hermione, the year's top student.
But in the other three subjects—Astronomy, History of Magic, and Defense Against the Dark Arts—he had only received "Acceptable" grades.
More infuriatingly, his scores in these three subjects had just barely reached the "Acceptable" threshold.
As if earning even one more point would be wasteful.
This naturally displeased the professors teaching these three subjects.
Of course, Quirrell didn't count since he had already left and would never return.
Originally, Professor Sinistra and Professor Binns had planned to have a talk with Sherlock, but they were stopped by Headmaster Dumbledore.
But now that the new year had begun, while Dumbledore wouldn't let them approach the student directly, giving him a lesson in class should be fine, right?
After all, as a woman, she was naturally petty by nature.
Even if Dumbledore knew about it, what could he do to her?
In any case, she wanted Sherlock to know that it wasn't just the four House Heads' subjects that were important.
Astronomy was equally important!
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