Chapter 144 The new professor is a bit unreliable
"Not bad, one step closer to being a battle pet." Aaron patted Abey's head with satisfaction, then placed the Mandrake seedling into a new flowerpot.
Perhaps because of Abey's intimidation, he didn't even have to do anything; the Mandrake seedling buried itself in the compost with its slender roots.
"Quite sensible."
Aaron was even more pleased and even considered buying this seedling from Professor Sprout.
But it was just a thought; raising one Dragon was tiring enough, and if he were to raise another magical plant with a certain lethality, life would be unbearable.
Professor Sprout diligently guided every student, trying her best to process all the Mandrake seedlings in the greenhouse, and her enthusiasm made Aaron momentarily think she was exploiting the students' labor.
When class ended, almost every student was sweating profusely and covered in dirt.
"I can't take it anymore, I must take a shower," Draco said wearily. "Aaron, are you going?"
"Me? I don't need to.
My physical fitness is slightly, just slightly, better than yours, so I'm not that tired.
Besides, the next class is Defense Against the Dark Arts Class, and I'm very interested in this new Professor." Aaronsmiled meaningfully, "I plan to thoroughly read his works before class."
"Professor Lockhart's… works?" Draco frowned slightly. "Aren't those textbooks?"
"You could say that!
Don't laugh, but I haven't even seen the covers of those books once."
"Alright! See you in the classroom this afternoon."
After lunch, Aaron returned to his dormitory, opened his suitcase, and took out a packaged cardboard box.
These were the Defense Against the Dark Arts Classtextbooks Gines had prepared for him about a month ago, but he hadn't had time to look at them.
After opening the box, Aaron took out Lockhart's seven works.
"Break with a Banshee", "Gadding with Ghouls", "Holidays with Hags", "Travels with Trolls", "Voyages with Vampires", "Wanderings with Werewolves", and "Year with the Yeti".
These books stacked together were almost two feet high.
Aaron opened one of them and skimmed through it, reading ten lines at a glance.
However, as Aaron read, his expression became peculiar. The protagonist in the book, Lockhart, had almost no flaws; he was a living, breathing positive character who outsmarted and outfought Dark creatures.
He wasn't surprised by this, as protagonists always come with a halo.
What surprised him was that the content of the book was particularly realistic, as if it had truly happened to him, even more realistic than the history Professor Binns taught.
"Did I guess wrong?" Aaron doubted himself for a moment, but he quickly cleared this doubt from his mind.
All doubts would be resolved after meeting the real person.
However, putting aside all conjectures and suspicions, Lockhart's writing ability had indeed reached its peak.
As class time drew nearer, Aaron picked up the seven books and hurried to the Defense Against the Dark Arts Classclassroom.
As soon as he opened the door, Aaron's mouth twitched involuntarily.
A large oil painting was placed on the podium, depicting Lockhart himself painting an oil painting of Lockhart.
And besides this oil painting, both sides of the classroom were also filled with Lockhart's photos, and each photo showed a smiling emoji, the kind that showed eight teeth.
A perfectly good Defense Against the Dark Arts Classclassroom was arranged to be full of festive cheer.
"Aaron, what took you so long?" Draco stepped forward to help him place the seven books on the desk. "Class is about to start."
"I'm not late, am I?" Aaron chuckled sheepishly, pointing at the photos in the classroom. "It seems our new Professor is really not just ordinarily narcissistic!"
"You can't say that," Hermione said.
Susan, next to her, also nodded with a serious face; it was clear she was also a devoted fan of Lockhart.
"Aaron, I agree with your point of view; I've never seen anyone so narcissistic.
But in this classroom, it's best not to say anything bad about Lockhart, because many people are his fans."
"That's good, not all students are…"
Before he could finish, Aaron felt a chill down his spine; about a third of the people in the classroom were looking at him angrily.
"You see, that's the celebrity effect." Draco shrugged and whispered, "Now I understand why my father wouldn't let me show hostility towards Harry Potter in public."
Aaron nodded in deep agreement, "Mr. Lucius is right."
At this moment, the classroom door suddenly opened, and Professor Lockhart, dressed in a particularly flashy golden Wizard robe, walked in.
"Allow me to introduce your new Defense Against the Dark Arts Class teacher, which is… myself, Gilderoy Lockhart." Lockhart walked up to his oil painting. "Third Class Order of Merlin, Honorary Member of the Anti-Dark Arts League, five times winner of the 'Most Charming Smile Award' from Witch Weekly.
But I am modest and never boast; I didn't drive away the Varlen Banshee with a smile."
Lockhart's self-introduction ended there. Fans like Hermione and Susan below the podium looked at Lockhartwith adoration, wishing they could immediately go up and ask for an autographed photo.
Students like Harry and Ron, who didn't blindly follow celebrities, looked at each other, not taking him seriously.
Aaron's eye twitched slightly. He felt he had underestimated Lockhart's narcissism. How could he keep saying things like "I am modest and never boast"?
Not boastful, yet he wrote seven autobiographies? What a joke!
"Suddenly, this Professor seems a bit unreliable!" Dracofrowned.
"Be confident, remove the 'a bit'," Aaron said. "Besides being unreliable, he's also a bit hypocritical."
"I can see that.
But if he's unreliable, then our Defense Against the Dark Arts Class exam this semester shouldn't be too difficult."
Aaron was stunned for a moment; it seemed to make sense.
If the teacher was unreliable, teaching accidents were inevitable, and then the exam scores might even be directly invalidated.
Thinking of this, Aaron suddenly found Lockhart much more pleasing to the eye.
He had inadvertently saved him time for one course, something he had dreamed of but couldn't achieve when he was attending cram school.
Lockhart walked to the podium, picked up a stack of test papers, "I see you've all bought my complete works. Before we officially begin class, let's have a small quiz.
Don't be afraid; I just want to see how much you've read and how much you've previewed."
The test papers were distributed to everyone, four full pages of answer sheets, but each page had only one question.
What is Lockhart's favorite color? What are his secret ambitions? What is his greatest achievement to date? What day is his birthday and what is his ideal birthday gift?
Aaron looked at these test questions, and his mind was reeling.
Eccentric! Lockhart was absolutely an eccentric in the teaching world.
No, describing him as a teacher was an insult to the sacred profession of teaching.
"Aaron, do you know the answers?" Draco asked anxiously and amusingly.
"Don't worry, I estimate that no one in the classroom, except for the fanatical fans, can answer these kinds of questions.
It's simply misleading students; just write whatever comes to mind."
Draco shrugged, "I know that, but he is a Professor after all, and correct answers will earn Slytherin points."
Aaron frowned, muttered 'trouble' to himself, then turned to Crabbe and Goyle and asked earnestly, "Do you want Slytherin to get points?"
Hearing the tempting voice, the two exchanged glances and nodded.
"Very good!" Aaron took their test papers, took a deep breath, and wrote down the answers to all the questions.
"I warn you, don't ever say these are the answers I gave you."
"You know the answers to these weird questions?" Dracosaid in surprise. "Don't tell me you're also a fanatical fan of Lockhart, that would instantly shatter my image of you."
Aaron shook his head helplessly, then pointed to his eyes, "Just a few hours ago, I flipped through our textbooks…"
"You finished them?"
"Of course not. Even with a photographic memory, it's impossible to read seven books in such a short time.
I just happened to see the answers."
"So that's how it is!" Draco suddenly understood, then looked at Crabbe and Goyle's test papers, a hint of hesitation in his eyes.
"I advise you not to do that," Aaron said with a meaningful smile. "Not everyone can withstand the praise of an eccentric teacher."
Draco swallowed, suddenly feeling that the test papers of his two cronies were a bit hot to handle. After giving them a sympathetic look, he scribbled randomly on his own test paper.
Aaron shrugged, looked at the test paper with some disdain, then glanced at Gilderoy Lockhart, who was smiling on the podium, and sneered inwardly.
He picked up his quill and wrote down his answers on all the answer sheets, then readily set the test paper aside, took a new blank sheet of paper, and tried to engrave a high-difficulty magic circle on it.
After all, time shouldn't be wasted; he had to find something meaningful to do.
He was far from being able to create a magic circle in an instant and apply it perfectly in practice, so he could only start with the simple ones first.
After finishing his answers, Draco curiously glanced at Aaron's test paper, and his pupils widened slightly. "Are you sure you want to write that?"