Auden woke up at five-thirty in the morning and went out to get some exercise for the day. He decided to go running around Hogwarts Castle before everyone got up, and to scope out the surroundings of the castle. After an hour of exercise, he managed to come back to his dorm to wash up and prepare himself for breakfast.
Since Dumbledore had postponed the introduction of the teachers to the next morning, Auden knew he had to reach the hall before the required time.
Plus, he was also waiting for a surprise he had stored for the Malfoy family.
As he got to the dining hall, he went and sat near Luna, who had an extra seat beside her.
"Good morning, Luna. How are you today?"
"Good morning, and still sane I suppose," she replied while taking food to eat.
Auden did not mind the greeting, as he felt it was fairly normal for Luna.
"What do you think our first class is going to be?" he asked.
"Penelope told me that the first class is going to be Potions for Ravenclaw, with the Hufflepuffs as partners," Luna said, while Auden scanned the entire room.
He was able to find the Golden Trio sitting together, discussing their punishment and the part where the pillar at the train station had blocked them from entering.
Auden listened intently, as he wanted to keep track of everything. Even though he had read a lot of fanfics, he only had the main parts of the timeline in his mind. Because many fanfics had an AU element, he couldn't be sure where he might go wrong.
Plus, even though he did not want to directly connect with the Golden Trio unless needed, it was better to keep track of them so that he would be prepared for any problems.
'Good thing they were idiotic enough to discuss all these things during breakfast. Why the hell had they never been caught while doing that?' Auden said in his mind, as he kept listening while making conversation with Luna.
He was glad that the first class was with the Hufflepuffs, who were considered mild-mannered among the four houses. But he was also a bit intrigued about the Potions class. Before being reincarnated, he had asked Jason about which version of Snape was present in this dimension. He was glad to learn that it was the movie version. Even though the book version sacrificed himself in the end, he was an asshole, while the movie version was many times more tolerable.
Plus, he was highly curious about potion-making and was hoping to get as much special advice as possible in this class. Because of his system, he was able to record anything instantly, so he would be able to learn it later when required.
'Plus, the book of the Half-Blood Prince—if I use my system in the right manner, I don't even need to access the book physically to get all the required spells.'
As he was thinking about this, Dumbledore came and greeted all the students, then began introducing Lockhart.
"And finally, I'm pleased to welcome the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart."
There was a round of polite applause, but it was drowned out by the particularly loud burst from the girls at the Ravenclaw table.
Auden's ears almost felt like they were bursting at the sudden loud noise. He was glad about the fact that Luna was not such a fan and was giving a polite clap while sitting near him.
'Damn, that's a weakness I didn't account for. Need to make plans to deal with that in the future,' he thought, as he felt his ears calm down once the applause was over.
He then saw Lockhart stand up on his feet and wave to the crowd with his trademark dazzling smile.
Auden began to get an aneurysm thinking about how he was going to survive Defence Against the Dark Arts class this year.
"Is he somehow annoying to you?" Luna suddenly asked.
"Why do you think that?"
"You had a few Scuttle Crab Flies flying near your head when you looked at him," Luna replied in a normal manner.
"Well, I'll tell you about it later," Auden replied. He had no bad feelings about revealing or telling anyone that Lockhart was a fraud, but he figured it was better not to do it at the table with the biggest number of Lockhart supporters in the school.
As the kids in the hall were talking, the owls started coming through the windows with the newspapers and other daily necessities.
Auden watched as the teachers all received the newspapers from their respective owls. He saw their expressions change as they read the headlines. Auden was also able to hear shocked murmurs from a few students who were diligent enough to order and read the newspaper in the morning.
He also saw the Golden Trio and Percy immediately moving toward Ginny.
Auden smiled as Hermes brought a Prophet to him as well.
On the front page, with a picture as proof, was the caption:
LUCIUS MALFOY GIVING DARK ART BOOKS TO HOGWARTS STUDENTS
The pictures were clear-cut, capturing every step he had taken—from taking the books from Ginny to adding another extra book with a black cover. There might be some people who would argue that it was a normal book with a cover.
But with the current Ministry's new policies about abolishing every Dark Art artifact, and with Arthur Weasley being one of the officers doubling down on pure-blood families...
People would interpret this as a way for Malfoy to incriminate the Weasley family.
"This is not true!!" Draco Malfoy shouted from his seat, clutching the paper shown to him by Pansy. Auden saw the teachers immediately get up and go toward Ginny.
From what Auden could hear, Ginny had not looked at the books that were bought, and the black book was still in her bag. McGonagall immediately took her to fetch the book from the dorm while the other teachers tried to calm the students.
'Let the games begin,' Auden thought with a smile.
A/N- hope you like it.