Hogwarts: Starting as a Serpent Demon

Witt turned around, only to find that Snape had already entered the headmaster's office, leaving him with only a fleeting glimpse of his back.

I think I must have encountered a ghost.

Witt walked down the stairs, his mind filled with questions.

Chapter 94 Witt: Facing a wizard as powerful as Lockhart, I simply cannot hold back.

This year's Hogwarts is a little different from previous years.

Since becoming a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Lockhart has always been eager to show off. He boasts about his shallow knowledge of herbs to the Herbalism professor, sings of his great adventures to the Charms professor, and displays what he thinks is a charming smile to the Transfiguration professor.

The most troublesome thing is that he was also promoting his upcoming hair care potion line in front of the Potions professor.

In just one day, Lockhart had already incurred the disgust of all the professors at Hogwarts.

Snape, who had been in a good mood, turned even more gloomy than usual, and he was unwilling to even maintain the most basic politeness in front of Lockhart.

His tone was full of disgust and sarcasm.

But Lockhart didn't care at all.

Or rather, he believed his reputation was enough to cover everything up.

Soon, it was time for class.

Defense Against the Dark Arts.

After last year's Quirrell debacle, most students lost even the most basic fondness for the course, but Lockhart's reputation has made it a hot topic again.

Most students at Hogwarts looked forward to this class.

Hermione even drew a heart icon on Lockhart's class schedule.

Ron was greatly surprised by this and began to harbor hostility towards Lockhart.

"Have you noticed?" Ron, who had been dragged to the classroom early by Hermione before class started, whispered, "Neville is different from last year."

"Really?" Harry asked doubtfully, as he didn't sense any change in Neville.

"Professor McGonagall gave him an extra point last class, didn't you hear?" Ron couldn't believe that Harry hadn't noticed something so important.

"Really?" Harry asked doubtfully.

He went crazy having fun during the summer vacation, and he forgot all the knowledge he learned last year from his Hogwarts professors. During Transfiguration class, his brain was completely blank, and he was busy fighting with the beetle that was running around. He had no mind to pay attention to anything else.

“Of course,” Ron said exaggeratedly. “Neville turned a beetle into a button in class, second only to Witt and Hermione in speed. Although the button still had the beetle pattern on it, Professor McGonagall was still very happy and gave him an extra point.”

“I now seriously suspect that Neville underwent evil and despicable tutoring during the summer.”

"This is a betrayal of our friendship."

We promised to have fun together during the summer vacation, but you secretly went to tutoring classes. Ron couldn't accept this at all; his heart ached more than yesterday's toothache.

"Shut up." Hermione nudged Ron speechlessly. "You didn't study during the summer vacation, and you still have the nerve to blame Neville? I'm ashamed for you."

"I bet you didn't open a single book the entire summer."

Ron stared wide-eyed, muttering to himself, unable to utter a word. He now seriously suspected that Hermione had cast a surveillance spell on him.

Otherwise, how could he know so much?

“Nonsense, I definitely looked through the book, and more than once.” After three seconds of shame, Ron instinctively started to argue, and reached out to pull Harry over to testify.

As a result, they were left with nothing.

Without anyone noticing, Harry had quietly moved his chair away, lowered his head, and hunched over, striking a pose that was both unintentional and conspicuously eye-catching.

Not only Ron, but he didn't open a book at all this summer.

At the Dursleys' house, Harry's luggage was locked, so he couldn't even look at his books. At the Weasleys' house, there were just too many interesting things to do, so Harry didn't even have the thought of turning the pages.

So he was afraid Hermione would talk about him the way she talked about Ron.

As the saying goes, "better to die than to die," Harry naturally tried to stay as far away as possible to avoid being accidentally hurt by Hermione, minimizing his presence as much as possible.

"Harry, you're so disloyal."

Ron, enraged, tackled Harry to the ground and began to torture him severely, while also trying to avoid Hermione's torture.

"Stop fooling around, Professor Lockhart is here."

Hermione quickly pulled the two back, fearing it would affect Lockhart's impression of Hogwarts.

However, she obviously didn't know that Lockhart didn't care about such trivial matters at all. The first thing he did when he entered the classroom was to look at the books on the students' desks. After confirming that each student's desk was fully covered with the seven books he had written, Lockhart stepped down from the podium and stopped in front of Neville.

He picked up the book "Walking with Trolls" and showed all the students his charming smile on the cover.

“Me,” Lockhart said, pointing to himself with a confident smile, “Giddro Lockhart, Third Class of the Order of Merlin, Honorary Member of the Anti-Dark Magic League, five-time winner of the Wizarding Weekly’s Most Charming Smile Award, but I never talk about it. I don’t ward off female ghosts with my smile.”

Lockhart's boastful introduction made Witt so bored he wanted to yawn.

"I'm glad to see that you've all bought my complete works. I think we should start with a little quiz today."

“Professor.” Witt reached out to interrupt Lockhart’s preparation to hand out the papers; he had no desire to answer Lockhart’s narcissistic and pointless questions.

“I’ve heard that you are a dueling master and are planning to start a new dueling club at Hogwarts. I wonder if I would have the honor of having a match with you.”

“I know you won’t really fight a student,” Witt said quickly, cutting off Lockhart’s escape route. “But all of us students are eager to see you in battle.”

"Don't you agree?"

After Victor finished speaking, he deliberately led the applause, and the other wizards in the classroom joined in.

Those who are obsessed with fame will eventually be burdened by it.

The atmosphere had built up to this point, and Lockhart couldn't refuse even if he wanted to.

He could only take off his cloak and place it on the table, then said to the other young wizards, "Stand back a bit. I know you all want to get closer to me, but magic doesn't discriminate."

"Stay away, be careful not to get hurt."

“Don’t worry, Professor.” With a casual wave of his wand, Witt magically moved all the chairs and students in the classroom aside, and then a dueling table rose from the floor.

"I have made very thorough preparations to fight a strong opponent like you."

Lockhart's smile froze on his face.

He had assumed that Witt was just an ordinary second-year wizard, and that most second-year students only knew how to cast minor curses that wouldn't cause him any harm.

Only with the right atmosphere would he agree to duel with Witte.

But what's going on? How could a second-year wizard move all the classroom chairs and students in one instant and arrange them so neatly?

He can even summon such a huge dueling table with magic.

Most adult wizards probably don't have this level of skill. Lockhart had a vague bad feeling. Would he mess things up today?

“Professor Lockhart,” Witt asked cautiously, “could you let me make the first move? I’m afraid that if you make your move, I won’t have a chance to fight back.”

“Of course,” Lockhart said with a smile, agreeing to Witt’s request.

Despite feeling uneasy, the atmosphere was so conducive that he couldn't refuse.

Besides, judging from Witt's weak tone, he clearly lacked confidence in himself, and his worries just now might have been just his imagination.

A mere second-year wizard couldn't possibly defeat him instantly.

"Repel at full speed."

Lockhart's last memory was of a streak of light as fast as lightning.

He felt as if he had been hit at full speed by a Muggle-sized truck, his bones aching as if they were falling apart, his head spinning, and he could only see some blurry images.

He then lost consciousness.

"Professor, Professor Lockhart." After deliberately pausing for a moment after taking action, Witt hurriedly shouted, "Quick, go and fetch Mrs. Pomfrey."

"Professor, I didn't mean to. Why didn't you block it? If you had just blocked it lightly, this magic wouldn't have hurt you at all."

Witt knelt painfully beside Lockhart, his voice filled with anguish.

To make his performance more convincing, Witt forced out a single tear.

Those who are not familiar with him might actually think that Witte is sad.

“That’s quite surprising,” Ron said in a calm and composed tone. “The great Lockhart was defeated by his student in one, just one move.”

Then Ron asked Hermione, "Do you still believe him?"

“That was just an accident.” The wonderful impression built up by the seven books was obviously not something that could be easily shattered. Hermione defended Lockhart, saying, “Williams said that Professor Lockhart was just not prepared.”

“Not ready,” Ron said sarcastically. “I saw them bow to each other, take three steps back at the same time, and turn around at the same time. How come only Witt was ready?”

"Why, Hermione?"

Hermione couldn't answer Ron's question and could only glare at him angrily.

“I don’t think Professor Lockhart is very capable,” Neville said timidly from the side. Rowena told him that Lockhart’s usual body language and behavior were nothing like the combat prowess described in the books.

A true warrior would never adopt such a relaxed posture; he's just a complete noob.

Neville trusted Rowena completely; although they had only spent a day together, Neville felt as if they had known each other for ten years.

Without Rowena's help yesterday, Neville couldn't even imagine how he would have gotten a point in Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration class.

Transfiguration is notoriously difficult at Hogwarts, even more so than Potions.

Neville had never imagined he could get a point in the Transfiguration class.

Hearing Neville's words, Hermione became even angrier. She had successfully grasped Ron's feelings from yesterday—the feeling of being isolated.

Soon, Mrs. Pomfrey arrived and took the unconscious Lockhart away.

The professor was knocked unconscious, so the Defense Against the Dark Arts class was obviously canceled. Professor McGonagall arrived immediately, instructed the students to study on their own, and took Witt away.

Professor McGonagall's office.

“Knocking out a professor on the very first day of school, Witt.” McGonagall’s eyes seemed to be spitting fire: “Do you know what you’re doing?”

“It was a duel,” Witt argued. “All the students know that I was just asking Professor Lockhart how to conduct a duel.”

"You know how bad Quirrell's classes were last year. This year, I've finally met a powerful wizard with rich practical experience, so I'd like to ask Professor Lockhart for some advice."

“All students can testify for me.”

Witt's words extinguished most of McGonagall's anger. As soon as she entered the classroom, she saw Lockhart lying on the ground. All the students said that Witt did it, and Mrs. Pomfrey said that Lockhart was seriously injured.