Defence Against the Dark Arts class began with its usual theatrical atmosphere.
After Dudley had hospitalised Lockhart for half a month during their last encounter, the professor refused to let him participate in any classroom demonstrations—not even as an inanimate prop.
On the contrary, Harry had gained Lockhart's favour. In almost every class, he would be invited by Lockhart to the platform to play a character from his books and then show everyone how he defeated the monster that Harry was portraying.
"Aha, let me see what content I should teach you today?" Lockhart showed his charming smile and said to the students below.
"Professor, there have been attacks in the castle. Could you teach us how to respond when we encounter danger?" a student immediately asked.
Lockhart's originally charming smile immediately stiffened somewhat.
"Ahem, currently, the school hasn't determined what danger we're facing, but I believe my books will always have the answers," Lockhart smoothly changed the subject.
"For example, this experience with vampires. Believe me, if you read this section carefully, when you encounter vampires, you'll definitely know how to deal with them."
Lockhart said with forced seriousness.
"Alright, let me see who should come up to play the vampire..." Lockhart winked at the crowd below, especially at Hermione and several other female students.
Swoosh!
Just then, Dudley raised his hand.
Seeing this scene, Lockhart's expression obviously became somewhat ugly.
However, he still maintained his smile and looked at others hopefully.
At this moment, as long as any other person raised their hand, Lockhart would choose that person.
Lockhart now deeply regretted why he had said those words about choosing someone. He should have directly appointed someone, not giving Dudley any chance.
This was mainly because since the last incident, Dudley had been very considerate and never raised his hand, but today Dudley didn't know what was wrong with him. He actually volunteered to play the vampire.
Last time, the "werewolf" had punched him flying with one blow.
This time, would the "vampire" really bite him?
Lockhart's heart rejected this possibility entirely.
"Anyone else? Let me see which lucky one wants to become my chosen 'vampire'?" Seeing no one else raise their hand, Lockhart proactively spoke.
However, after his words fell, the classroom remained silent as cicadas, with no one raising their hand except Dudley.
Lockhart's smile gradually became stiff.
He realised that after noticing Dudley had raised his hand, others wouldn't raise their hands to compete with Dudley for this opportunity.
"Professor, I think I can do it," Dudley spoke directly.
Now, Lockhart couldn't ignore Dudley anymore.
Everyone watched this scene with great interest.
Wouldn't they be staging another scene of Professor Lockhart being beaten up by Dudley today? That would be quite a show.
"Hahaha, Mr. Dursley is very active. Do you have any questions you don't understand?" Lockhart talked around the subject, completely not mentioning letting Dudley play the vampire anymore.
"Professor, there's a book I'd like to borrow from the library, but it requires faculty approval. I was told that demonstrating excellence in class might earn me that signature. Could you help?" Dudley asked with a smile.
"Signature! Hahaha, no problem. You've always been excellent. You don't need to deliberately show off. I'll sign it for you right now. How many do you need?" Hearing what Dudley said, Lockhart was overjoyed and quickly took out his treasured signature paper to sign for Dudley. He'd give however many were needed.
Any price was worth paying to avoid another 'demonstration' with Dudley.
"Well, I've already prepared it," Dudley took out the library request form for "Moste Potente Potions" that he had written beforehand.
"No problem at all," Lockhart quickly walked down from the platform, snatched the paper from Dudley's hand, and signed his name without even looking at it.
"Thank you, Professor," Dudley smiled as he took back the signature and sat down again.
"So next, the vampire..." Lockhart's gaze turned nervously, looking at Dudley once, afraid that Dudley would raise his hand again.
"Professor, I'll do it," Harry raised his hand immediately.
"Very good, Harry, you do it. You look most like a vampire among all the students. If I didn't know your identity, I'd suspect you have vampire blood," Lockhart showed his charming smile.
"To commend Harry, ten points to Gryffindor."
Dudley smiled and nodded to Professor Lockhart.
This Lockhart might be weak in ability, but he was really understanding.
Throughout the class, Lockhart used various pretexts to award Gryffindor a full thirty points.
After class ended, the students filed out with obvious amusement.
"Hahahaha, did you see Professor Lockhart's expression? When he saw Dudley raise his hand, he almost cried," Ron laughed so hard he couldn't straighten up.
"Dudley really left Professor Lockhart with psychological trauma. To prevent Dudley from raising his hand again, he actually gave me so many points," Harry also said with a laugh.
This Defence Against the Dark Arts class was simply the most interesting one they'd ever had.
"Professor Lockhart still has some real talent..." Hermione said uncertainly.
"If he has any actual talent, it's probably just creative writing," Dudley said with dry practicality.
"Regardless of everything else, he helped us out. Professor Lockhart deserves our thanks."
"Thank you, Professor Lockhart," Ron and Harry recited in unison.
Hermione shook her head with fond exasperation and quietly added: "Thank you, Professor Lockhart."
The four went straight to the library. This time, Madam Pince didn't stop them again, and Dudley successfully borrowed the book "Moste Potente Potions".
"Polyjuice Potion! Found it," Dudley flipped through the book and quickly found the content about Polyjuice Potion.
"So complicated. This is the most complex potion I've seen so far," Hermione said with a frown.
"And there are many precious materials in it. The student materials room doesn't have them. Only Snape's private storage room has them."
"You mean we have to go steal materials from Snape's private storage room?" Harry asked with an ugly expression.
"My god, if we get caught, Snape will definitely kill us," Ron said with a pale face.
He seemed to already see the miserable scene of himself going to steal materials and then getting caught.
"It should be okay," Hermione said after pondering for a moment.
Harry, Ron, and Dudley all looked at her simultaneously.
Was this still the Hermione they knew?
If someone had told them last year that Hermione would say stealing things from Snape's private storage room was no big deal, they would definitely have thought that person was crazy.
Hermione's face turned slightly red under their gaze. "I mean, Dudley should have a way to find the materials."