Almost everyone was reeling from the nightmare of a popquiz unleashed by the professor.
The moment Lockhart clapped his hands, I knew something idiotic was about to happen.
His grin had that special manic brightness that only appears in people entirely convinced of their own genius.
"Well!" he said, voice dripping with excitement. "That's quite enough quizzing for one morning. I think it's time for something… practical."
Across the room, Seamus Finnigan whispered to Dean,
"Bet he's gonna teach us how to fix our hair like his."
I smirked.
"That would require actual magic."
Lockhart, blissfully unaware—or pretending to be—strode toward the front of the classroom where he pulled out a covered cage before placing it rattling on the desk in front of us students.
The sound was high-pitched and incessant, like someone shaking a jar of marbles full of bees.
"Ah, yes," he said, patting the cloth. "Contained within are the subjects of today's demonstration! Fear not, my young defenders of light, for I—Gilderoy Lockhart—have subdued these creatures countless times."
Cho leaned close and murmured, "He can't even subdue his ego."
Daphne smirked. "I give it two minutes before something explodes."
"Know that so long as i am here, no harm will befall you in my class, i must ask you not to scream, it might provoke them."
With a flourish the covering was whipped off exposing the tiny blue creatures contained with the owl cage.
"Cornish Pixies?"
"Indeed they are!" he declared triumphantly, sweeping the cloth away with a theatrical flourish as it sailed across the room to the floor. "Freshly caught Cornish Pixies."
Dozens of tiny blue figures pressed against the bars, their wings beating frantically, sharp little faces twisted into malicious grins.
Plenty of tiny squibbling voices souded out all at once as the creatures seemed to be conversing and staring eagerly at the 'prey' before them.
More than a few boys in the audience, began to chuckle or laugh thinking Lockhearts previous warnings were just a joke.
"Laugh if you will Mr. Finnigan, Pixies can be devilish little blighters..."
Then in what can only be described as a lapse in judgement, he moved to pull the pin unlocking the cage.
"Let's see what you make of them!"
Then he threw open the cage.
Pandemonium.
Pixies erupted into the air like a storm of glittering knives.
Desks toppled, quills and parchment flew, and the air filled with shrieking laughter and splintering glass.
The students in the front row reacted quickly taking cover.
"MERLIN'S LEFT SOCK!" Seamus yelled as one yanked his hair.
Lockhart, to his credit, managed half a second of bravado before squealing and ducking under his desk.
"Cmon Cmon, their only pixies round them up!"
A pixie snatched his wand from his hand and zoomed away with a triumphant shriek.
"Give that back!" he cried, chasing it in circles.
Another swooped past carrying a lit candle, which immediately caught the end of his golden curls on fire.
The room went silent for a glorious heartbeat before Lockhart's voice rose in a panicked wail.
"My hair! My HAIR!"
Daphne doubled over laughing, tears streaming down her face under her desk.
protecting the cowering form, Cassius drew his wand and one after another shot simple spells causing pixies to begin falling from the air like flies.
Hermione had crawled to freedom from the front row, jumping up, to stand shoulder to shoulder with Cassius wand in hand, trying to follow the chaos going on around her.
"We should help him!"
I raised an eyebrow.
"Should we?"
She gave me a glare sharp enough to cut glass.
"Cassius!"
Fine.
The hero complex in her voice was impossible to resist, champion of justice and all that, still a trace of the golden trio lingered within her soul.
I flicked my wrist, murmuring a quiet aquamente.
Without water being present to manipulate Cassius drew upon the ink from students inkwells to bring forth a stream of inky blackness that sailed through the air before splashing Lockheart upon the head.
Putting out the flames still burning within his hair, but also turning him entirely black.
Seeing this Daphne just about burst into laughter once more, but having seen Hermione fighting next to Cassius had gathered her courage to join in the fight.
Daphne drew a neat circle in the air.
"You take left, I'll sweep right."
Three of the pixies darted toward us, tiny teeth bared.
At this point only the three Draconis members were actively resisting the pixies as spell after spell alighted from their wands.
Some striking the fast flying devils, others missing and causing damage to the classroom, and decorations thereabouts.
All the while Cassius could only chortle, thinking about how this was quite the effective training method, too bad most of the class had run off, or were hunkered down in fear pretending to be stones under their desks.
But the studious girl by his side, did not think this to be a simple training session any longer, her patience having worn thin long ago.
She paused her casting for a few seconds before her eyes snapped open, wand shout out, and her mouth opened preparing to shout.
"IMMOBULUS!" she cried.
The spell burst from her wand in a shimmering wave of silver, freezing the remaining pixies mid-air.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Papers in the air fluttered to the ground, and the pixies themselves simply floted as if they were in zero-gravity.
Huffing, Hermione placed her wand in the holster on her thigh.
Seeing the action was over, Cassius did a simple swipe with his own wand, and the floating pixies all wizzed until their were placed back into the cage that had fallen to the floor.
Followed by a second chantless swipe, where those who'd been petrified or immobilized thanks to other spells with their forms sprawled out on the floor, now raised up before joining their compatriots in pixie jail.
Striding forward he located the lock and resealed the cage before turning round ignoring the passed out professor upon the ground.
"Class Dismissed."
Hearing this those still within, raced to leave, but Cassius remained the last to leave, collecting a simple looking box from the back of the room before leaving with a wide smile plastered upon his face.
'Thank you for your incompetence professor.'