The entire classroom muttered excitedly. Harry wasn't one of them. Sure, the pest section was annoying and boring, but Harry didn't really stand out in them, at least not as much as students like Hermione Granger who seemed to study very hard for every single one of them.
As far as Lockhart was concerned Harry just already knew how to deal with magical pests, probably from his presumed guardians. The other students caught up pretty fast since dealing with the pests wasn't that difficult. They weren't dangerous and Harry actually approved of having them in the curriculum just in case students ran into them by accident at home or in the castle. Things like Billywigs, Gnomes, Bundimuns, and Ghouls could just show up in a magical household and having children prepared to deal with them is generally a good idea.
Harry was curious as to what the man was going to do next. Defensive and Offensive spells could be classified in many ways.
Of course, the professor waved his hand to calm the class, "Now, don't get too enthusiastic. Before we can start casting spells at targets, you need to understand a bit about the theory. Don't worry, we'll be blasting each other pretty soon. Now, for the rest of the semester, we'll be focusing on what I like to call elemental spells. Now, for those of you who don't know what elemental magic is. It's the control of certain elements using magic. A master of the water element could sink cities with a thought. A master of the wind element could create tornadoes with a simple wave of their wand. You get the picture, and I know you're excited and everything, but you're not going to learn that."
Harry heard a few disappointed sounds around the room and stifled a giggle. These people were barely able to cast stinging hexes, and they wanted to be master elementals? But yeah, this wasn't a bad introduction and the young Slytherin could see where this was coming.
The professor continued, "Yes, I know, it's a bummer. But I never said that you were learning elemental magic, which takes decades to become proficient at it, let alone master it. I said we will be working on elemental spells, which are spells infused with a simple element. Spells like 'Incendio' which you learnt the previous year, are such spells. There are five main elements. There are other elements other of course, but you'll rarely see them, so for the time being, we'll pretend they don't exist.
"Back to the five main elements. There is fire, water, earth, wind, and lightning. Each element has an attribute, of sorts, and its own strength and weaknesses. If we just take these elements and make them fight, we see that some of them have advantages over others. Water is weak against Earth but strong against fire. Fire is weak against water and strong against wind, which is strong against lightning. Earth is strong against water but weak to lightning. So, if I send a fireball spell at you, it's better to counter with a water spell, which will actually not only cancel the element but will actually counter the very spell. It's also why you could counter large elemental attacks with less extensive spells if the elemental superiority is in your favour."
The class continued and Harry had to admit that even if he hated Riddle's guts on principle, he was shaping Lockhart to be an adequate teacher. Yeah, it irked him that the professor was under some sort of mind control, or possession, but the man was a fraud who could have sabotaged the education of hundreds of students, so Harry didn't feel that bad about it. The only issue is the level of access this gave Riddle. Like it or not, professors had a lot of perks in Hogwarts, and it allowed Riddle to move in the castle unrestrained and that was dangerous.
As horrible as having an incompetent professor might be, having one controlled by a younger version of the Dark Lord was just wrong. Harry had tried to see if he could find the enchantment the previous day when he used Legilimency on Lockhart. He could feel the sudden urges to do a few things, or sudden bursts of knowledge, but not their source. There had to be an anchor of sorts to allow these compulsions to work on the blonde ponce, and that anchor needed to be connected to the diary.
Getting the diary would get everything sorted out, but the person who had it remained a mystery. With an opponent as competent as Riddle, plots within plots were possible. He could have been invisible and camouflaged somehow in the train. If the diary could hide itself from Harry, there was no reason its user couldn't as well. Maybe his list of suspects was wrong in the first place? Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, even if improbable, must be the truth. But everything was possible with magic, thus what could he trust to make his conclusions?
His encounter with Riddle had really rattled him, but he needed to steel himself and continue his investigation. After all, the man had thrown the gauntlet, and Harry hadn't had a challenge in a long time. For all his reservations, the Potter knew one thing for certain. This year is definitely not going to be boring.
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