Due to special circumstances, Neville Longbottom had grown up with his grandmother.
But as a member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight pure-blood families, for a long time, his family had believed he was a Squib—someone born into a wizarding family but lacking magical talent.
Of course, this was later proven to be false.
Neville was indeed a wizard.
However, after receiving his Hogwarts letter and entering the school, his performance was far from satisfactory.
Slow reactions, poor memory, introverted and timid.
For a long time, he suspected that the Sorting Hat had made a mistake and shouldn't have placed him in Gryffindor.
As for his performance at school, forget comparing himself to excellent students like Harry and Ron.
He wasn't even as good as ordinary students like Seamus and Dean.
His grades basically hovered around the passing line.
The only subject he could be proud of was Herbology.
Partly due to interest, partly due to talent.
So, he never imagined that someone like him would one day become a professor's favorite.
Even more incredible was that this professor was the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
As the class bell rang, Professor Lockhart began his standard triple routine.
First, he boasted about his adventures.
Then he tested their recitation of the text.
Finally came the classic scene recreation.
This lesson's content was mainly selected from the textbook "Travels with Trolls."
Professor Lockhart unhesitatingly chose Neville as his assistant to play the troll he had defeated in the book, according to the plot.
Neville was already extremely familiar with this.
Natural performance, no difficulty at all.
Once the performance ended, as the lead actor, he would earn a large number of house points for Gryffindor.
This made him revere Professor Lockhart like a god, becoming one of the few male students who, like those little witches, was a fanatical admirer.
After selecting Neville, Professor Lockhart also picked several Hufflepuff students to play supporting roles as bystanders.
What followed was about half an hour of stage drama, perfectly recreating the scenes he had described in his book.
"Oh no! The troll is about to attack the village!"
"What? Quick, go get Mr. Lockhart!"
"Don't worry, village chief. With me—Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award—here, a mere troll is nothing to worry about!"
"Wonderful, Mr. Lockhart! Having you in the village is truly wonderful!"
"Mr. Lockhart is so handsome!"
"Mr. Lockhart, I want to have your babies *ahem*(this was just in Lockhart's head)!"
Except for the young wizards playing roles on stage and Professor Lockhart's admirers, everyone else was either drowsy or speechless.
Lockhart seemed oblivious to this and nodded with satisfaction.
"Everyone did very well, extremely well. Every student who cooperated with me gets ten points, and Mr. Longbottom gets thirty points!"
Sparse applause arose, the perfunctory nature was all too obvious.
"Now, I'm going to demonstrate how I defeated the troll back then!"
Upon hearing Professor Lockhart's words, students who had been dozing immediately perked up.
Everyone in the class focused their attention on the platform.
Everyone knew this was the most essential part of Professor Lockhart's Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons.
It was also the fundamental reason why the young wizards were willing to cooperate with Professor Lockhart's antics and persist to the end.
Although this professor used most of each class to perform scenes from his novels, at the end of every lesson, he would teach the young wizards some real skills.
"Everyone pay attention! Although our Mr. Longbottom looks quite strong, compared to a real troll, there's still quite a distance!
So first, please have Mr. Longbottom cast a Shield Charm on himself!
I demonstrated this spell for you in the lesson on 'Wandering with Werewolves.'"
Hearing Professor Lockhart's words, Neville drew his wand and recited the incantation, casting a Shield Charm on himself.
Unfortunately, due to his insufficient mastery of the Shield Charm, he failed several times in succession.
"Tsk tsk, Mr. Longbottom, this won't do. If you were actually fighting a troll, you would have died countless times already."
Professor Lockhart shook his head while speaking in a regretful tone. "I already taught you all this in the last lesson. It seems you didn't review seriously after class, did you?"
"I'm... I'm sorry, Professor," Neville said with a crestfallen expression. "I... I really did study, but... but—"
"Alright, alright, don't make that innocent face.
Miss Abbott, who's standing over there playing a bystander, please come cast a Shield Charm on Mr. Longbottom."
"Ah? Oh! Yes... yes!"
Hannah Abbott hadn't expected that her role as an extra would have additional scenes. She was stunned for a moment before stepping forward and drawing her wand, pointing it at Neville.
Seeing this scene, Neville became even more nervous.
"Hannah... Hannah, please be gentle."
"Don't worry, Longbottom."
Hannah looked at Neville's nervous expression and comforted him. "I'll be responsible."
After saying this, she directly recited the incantation.
"Protego!"
The next moment, blue light emanated from Hannah's wand tip, shooting straight toward Neville.
Success in one shot!
"Excellent! Ten points to Hufflepuff!"
Professor Lockhart was very satisfied with Hannah Abbott's performance.
"Now, let me show you how I dealt with the troll back then!"
His gaze swept around as he spoke, slowly drawing his wand and pointing it at Neville.
At this moment, all the students in the class focused their attention on Professor Lockhart and Neville.
Students in the back rows even stood up, wanting to see Professor Lockhart's next actions clearly.
As for Neville, he was trembling even more violently.
Professor Lockhart was very satisfied with his performance, then drew his wand and cast a spell at him.
"Stupefy!"
Neville didn't collapse as expected.
Just as it was about to touch Neville's body, Professor Lockhart's Stunning Spell suddenly deflected and bounced to the side.
This was expected and was the purpose of having Hannah Abbott cast the Shield Charm on Neville.
From the current situation, Hannah had indeed been responsible, and the Shield Charm was confirmed effective.
But no one, including Professor Lockhart, had expected that this spell would bounce to the side and hit Hannah squarely.
With a flash of light, only a cry of "Ouch!" was heard as Hannah had no time to react before falling to the ground with a thud, falling into unconsciousness.
Dead silence.
Even Professor Lockhart was stunned.
This was too dramatic.
Completely beyond his expectations.
However, having been through many storms, he quickly recovered and began explaining.
"Did everyone see clearly? I intentionally lowered the spell's intensity just now.
This way, the Shield Charm cast by Miss Abbott could successfully defend against the spell.
Even so, my unfathomable magical power was still too overwhelming for you all, which is why Miss Abbott fell into slumber."
The students had long become accustomed to Professor Lockhart's tendency to boast whenever he had the chance.
But for the young witches, Professor Lockhart's performance just now was truly magnificent.
So, upon hearing this, they couldn't help but cheer enthusiastically.
Even amid such cheering, Hannah Abbott continued to lie on the platform, showing no signs of waking up.
Professor Lockhart was very satisfied with everyone's reaction. He coughed and continued.
"In fact, when you face a troll, the situation you'll encounter is quite similar to now.
Your own magical power isn't strong enough, while your opponent has a certain degree of magical resistance.
Hoping to defeat them with just a Stunning Spell isn't realistic. In such cases, you need to use more powerful spells.
When I cast the Stunning Spell at the troll back then, I encountered a similar situation. Incidentally, the invisible shield created by the Shield Charm doesn't naturally glow—the light you saw just now was formed by reflection when deflecting the Stunning Spell.
Of course, that's not the point. The point is that next, I'm going to show you—when facing such adversity, how I dealt with the troll."
After Professor Lockhart finished speaking, he first pointed his wand at Hannah lying on the ground.
"Rennervate!"
With a flash of red light, Hannah Abbott immediately opened her eyes and awoke from unconsciousness.
She stood up amid the class's exclamations, patted her robes, and quickly moved aside.
Too dangerous!
She didn't even know when she had fallen asleep.
Seeing that Hannah was in position, Professor Lockhart waved his wand again. "Accio desk!"
Neville's desk rose as if lifted by invisible hands, flying in front of him with a "whoosh," the wooden legs making a dull sound as they touched the floor.
"Students, I now ask you to remain quiet.
What comes next—is the moment to witness history!"
Lockhart drew out his words, slowly raising his wand.
His fingertip trembled slightly, as if gathering magical power.
Almost all the young wizards held their breath at this moment.
In an instant, he swung his wand down with the swift ferocity of a striking eagle, the incantation bursting forth with exaggerated momentum.
"Reducto!"
Professor Lockhart had always been dramatic in his gestures and full of emotion when casting spells, something the young wizards had long become familiar with.
But when they saw him use the Reductor Curse, the young wizards couldn't help but collectively gasp, the classroom instantly becoming so quiet that breathing could be heard.
This spell was far more aggressive than the Stunning Spell. As its name suggested, once successfully cast, even the most solid obstacles could be instantly destroyed.
Seeing this scene, Sherlock's eyes flickered.
Lockhart in the book had indeed used this spell to deal with the troll.
However, teaching this spell in class seemed somewhat beyond the curriculum.
Neville's face instantly became pale as paper, his lips trembling slightly.
He first stared in terror with wide eyes, then simply closed them tightly, his long eyelashes trembling uneasily.
Perhaps in a moment of quick thinking, while closing his eyes, he tremblingly raised his wand with his arm and stammered out.
"Protego!"
A faint blue light flashed from his wand tip, forming an invisible magical barrier in front of him.
It was an exceptional performance—he had successfully cast the Shield Charm.
Seeing this, Professor Lockhart's eyes flashed with a hint of surprise.
However, his hand didn't stop moving, and the Reductor Curse, wrapped in magical power, rushed toward Neville.
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