Guilderoy Lockhart
Lirum and Fred sat in a tense silence. The kind that always forms when two stubborn people are convinced they’re right. An unstoppable force and immovable object waiting for the other to cave. It was George who broke the silence. He entered the classroom like he always would, cheering and joking as he greeted the pair. Wether he could sense the hostility or not he squeezed in and claimed the seat between them.
“Oi, You alright you ran out during breakfast?” He asked, settling his things beneath his desk.
“I no longer wanted to be there, so I left, simple as that.” Lirum said with a huff. They didn’t feel like repeating what just happened.
“Oh, so you don’t want to argue with him, huh?” Fred pestered.
“Well I can’t very well go upsetting all my friends at once can I?” Lirum asked through gritted teeth.
“If you believe you’re right! you should have no problem-'' Fred started as the new professor stepped out drawing Lirum’s attention.
“Let me introduce you to the new defense against the dark arts teacher, me! Gilderoy Lockhart!” He said walking out of his office.
“Oh Rowena, is that Truly Gilderoy Lockhart.” Lirum asked, baffled , completely distracted from what had happened earlier. “Is this a dream or a nightmare.”
“Order of Merlin, third class, honorary member of the dark force defense league and five time winner of Witch weekly’s most charming smile award, but I didn’t talk about that.” He said walking down the stairs. His perfectly crafted golden locks bounced with each step as he decided the stairs.
“Really! Him!” Fred snapped, seemingly far more annoyed than earlier.”
“We’re losing them Fred now is not the time for this.” George said, looking back at his brother.
“I didn’t get rid of the bandon banshee by smiling at it.” Lockhart said with a grand and dazzling smile.
“You're not dreaming but this is a nightmare.” Fred grumbled reaching over and pinching a starstruck Lirum. “All he does is lie anyway. He’s clearly a fake , nothing special about him.”
“You could do better.” George chimed
“Fred! He’s an amazing writer! All my favorite books are Marauding monsters, travels with trolls, year with a yeti!” Lirum listened eagerly, earning eye rolls in return from both boys. “Even if you don’t think he really did those things, his writing is phenomenal!”
“You just like him cause you think he’s pretty.” Fred snapped bitterly.
“Then you’re just angry because he’s more attractive!” Lirum argued back, Fred turning a bright scarlet.
“He is not! He’s dressed in a silly all turquoise outfit! Matching hat and robes too if you find that attractive then maybe I don’t want you to find me so!” He said huffing. Looking as though smoke might start pouring from his ears.
“Why don’t we both take a second to cool off, yeah?” George said, leaning to block their line of sight.
“I’m glad to see you’ve all got a full set of my books! Wonderful!” Lockhart said with a clap. Gazing across the room, until his eyes met Fred and George. “Well almost everyone. Lucky you, the two of you found someone part with their clearly well loved set for class. Enjoy the read while you can. Maybe you’ll be able to get your own sets someday! For now you might need to fit in a little closer to see.” Lockhart cheered the malice present just under the surface.
“Hey don’t-“ Lirum started shooting up from their desk. A hand rested on theirs stopping them from continuing. Looking down confused they saw it was George’s.
“It’s not worth the detention Love.” He said with a soft look in his face as Lirum sat back in their seat.
“He shouldn’t have-“
“I know, and I appreciate you for it. We both do.” He said, running a soothing gentle thumb over their hand.
“All he does is lie, remember” Fred said taking a deep breath before looking over at Lirum.
“I thought we’d start today with a little quiz.” Lockhart started making his way around the classroom passing out sets of parchment. “Nothing to worry about. Just to check up on how much you’ve read and taken in.” He said with a wink
Before Fred could say anything his eyes darted towards their hand where his brothers still sat. Lirum’s eyes followed his confused blushing slightly when they realized. Before they could pull away though he had whispered something into George’s ear that earned an eye roll as he pulled back. He crossed his arms and faced Fred again.
“I was stopping them from getting detention on our behalf, you know.” George said already looking like he was done with this conversation.
“You could do that without touching them.” Fred snarled back.
“Oh and how would you have done that?” Fred was silent for a second angrily staring down Lockhart who passed out some quiz.
“You could have just pulled them back into their seat you didn’t have to hold them like that. If you aren’t careful you’ll be the one getting berated by Percy for inappropriate conduct and excessive physical contact.” Fred said, sinking angrily into his seat.
As Lockhart made it to their row he handed a paper to each of the twins. Fred snatched his up, looked at it and scoffed, while George put his head in his hands. Lirum watched confused until received their papers. They flipped it right way round to find a three page questionnaire all about Lockhart. Filled to the brim with questions like what is Lockhart’s favorite color, as well as his dreams and hobbies.
“A real genius, huh? Phenomenal writer?” George said teasingly as Lirum’s excitement turned to anger. “He sounds more like a narcissist.”
“Looks like the only thing we’ll be learning this year is how much of a self centered git he is.” Fred followed.
“Rub it in why don’t you.” Lirum said in a hushed tone.
“No talking during the quiz please. Unless it’s about me!” Lockhart joked. robes flowing behind him.
“I think I will actually” Fred said, flipping through the pages. “Fifty four questions all about himself. Not a single defense against the dark arts question to be seen.”
Lirum sighed as they filled out Lockhart’s “little” quiz. They were embarrassed they knew the answers after this display. Don’t meet your idols they thought, gritting their teeth. Making the whole class about himself instead of anything dark
After a few minutes Lockhart came around again collect them. Walking to the front of the class once more he began to read through everyone’s results.
“It seems hardly any of you knew that my favorite color is lilac, And only one of you knew my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my range of hair care products.” He said as he finished looking through the papers. “ah and a perfect score at that well done! A wonderful performance from one Lirum Ollivander!” He said before throwing the papers onto his desk.
Fred and George looked over at Lirum like they’d grown a second head. While Lirum on the other hand sunk down in their seat and wished they’d missed at least one question on purpose. But then they thought Percy would have been upset with them for purposefully doing poorly. Today would be their first study session of the year how could they tell him what’s happened. They where pulled from their thoughts by Lockhart cheering once more.
“10 points to Ravenclaw! I should expect no less from my very own house!” He cheered smugly.
Lirum refused to pay attention for the rest of his lecture. All he did was talk about himself and his adventures. Occasionally they noticed his version would be slightly different from what they’d read in the books. They thought to themselves perhaps he’d forgotten something when writing, embellished it for the class, or maybe Fred was write and they had a con man as a teacher. Soon enough it came to an end and they were able to escape back to the rest of their classes.
As the school day and class schedule drew to a close they hurried off to the library. The one thing they’d looked forward to all day was study time with Percy. As they made their way toward the library they heard a soft voice call to them.
“Lirum?” It called. It was Luna the odd little first year. “I’m glad I’ve found you. You ran out on breakfast early.”
“I’m sorry Luna. I’m not the biggest fan of screaming.” Lirum said hoping to run along and meet Percy. “I’m on my way to the library now actually, I’ve gotta dash.”
“I need to go to the library as we’ll actually if i could come?” Lune asked, falling in line behind them.
“Sure, I’ll guide you there. I’m meeting a friend to study though. So I won’t be able to help you once we’re inside.” Lirum said, keeping their stride.
“That’s alright! Who are you meeting?” She asked, skipping along behind the older Ravenclaw. “Is it that boy you like! Or the twins! Or Ginny”
“Oh so you’re on a first name basis with Ginny now but Percy, Fred, and George are still that guy you like and the twins!” Lirum joked while walking down the stairs.
“We do have classes together! She’s nice but looks rather sickly.” Luna said, hopping off the last stair and onto the Landing behind Lirum.
“She looks sickly, you said? I’ll ask Percy about it she seemed fine yesterday and the day before. Maybe she’s come down with something?” Lirum said, a little worried, turning down the final corridor before the library.
“So it’s Percy, the one you like. He’s the first person you thought of when something was wrong.” Luna smiled like she’d won a prize.
“Is there even anything wrong with Ginny, or where you using her as a way to get me to tell you?” Lirum inquired.
“Both.” Luna said straight faced accompanied by a nod.
“You’ll be the death of me you know that?” Lirum said pushing the large doors to the library open. “In you go, come on.”
After ushering Luna through the doors Lirum followed suit. Taking their first long breath of old leather bound books for the year. They looked toward their normal seat to find reliable Percy sitting in his seat watching the door. He’d organized his notes and books perfectly for easiest access when needed. All that was left was for Lirum to take their seat across the table.
“We’re you guiding that first year around?” Percy asked as Lirum grew closer.
“Yes? She’s rather taken to me.” Lirum joked. taking their seat across from him.
“You’ll do well as a prefect next year.” Percy said with a smile.
Prefect? You think I’ll be chosen as a prefect? But I’ve been in so much trouble last year?” Lirum asked, shocked. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m quite serious, positive even.” He said nodding. “I’m about as positive you’ll be prefect as I will be head boy. We’ll be riding in together in the prefects carriage next year.” He said taking his glasses off. The constellations of freckles across his face showing in their full glory.
“Don’t let Penelope hear you say that. Smoke will be pouring out of her ears, she’ll be so jealous.” Lirum joked.
“Why would Penny be jealous?” He asked as he began to clean his glass.
“You’d be giving your attention to someone other than the head girl herself, Penelope Clearwater.” Lirum said acting offended.
“I doubt Penny would be head girl.” Percy said, crossing his arms.
“Trouble in paradise?” Lirum asked secretly hoping he might say yes.
“No, she’s a wonderful girl. Everything I should want. She’s smart, kind, and hard working. I just don’t believe she’s cut out for being a head girl.” He explained.
“Do you think I would be?” They asked taking a moment to enjoy the brief moment they knew for a fact Percy had been thinking about spending time with them.
“Cut out for head girl? Well first I think you’d have to decide if you’d be head boy or girl. I don’t think you could be both. They could make an exception. Maybe they could bewitch the pin so it switched with you? How would they track it?…” He ranted looking a bit far off as he thought about the logistics.
“Is that a yes?” Lirum asked, a bit confused by his complicated yet frustratingly vague answer. Clearly snapping him back from the world he was building in his head.
“Well yes I believe you could be head…whatever you choose. Maybe they could call it head student if you didn’t want to be either. That’s beside the point.” He said, shaking his head. “I believe you’re currently on track to be a head and I plan to help you achieve that goal.”
“You set me a goal for my future? And you think it’s better than your girlfriends?” Lirum asked as a selfish smile crept onto their face.
“That’s beside the point we shouldn’t waist any more time.” Percy said, pulling some parchment and a quill out of his bag.
“Hey Perce, aren’t you going to use the quill I got you?” Lirum asked, wondering if he’d hidden it away somewhere or worse been forced to return it.
“It’s in my bag for safe keeping. I don’t want to waste it on things like this.” He said fiddling with his glasses again.
“Your scared to use it aren’t you.” Lirum said as they reached a hand across the table to stop his, gaining his full attention. “It’s yours Percy. Come on with handwriting as good as yours, it's definitely not a waste.”
“I am not scared!” Percy snapped but finished under his breath. “My handwriting still isn’t good enough for the ministry, and the quill is worth more than anything else I own, even the ink you bought was expensive.”
“Percy, it was a gift, and I want to see you enjoy it. Please at least write me something, it could be notes, or a note, anything.” Lirum begged. “Prove to me you didn’t go returning it or regifting it to your girlfriend.”
“I would never! It was a gift from you, of which I treasure dearly. Never suggest something like that again!” Percy said angrily.
“Well maybe it just wasn’t as sentimental as I thought it would be.” They started.
“Lirum…” Percy started threw gritted teeth.
“Or maybe you believed what I told your mother to get you out of that mess.” Lirum said, earning a full glaring from the ginger boy at the rotor table. Throwing open his bag to pull out his quill still wrapped in the tissue paper and twine. Grabbing what remained of a mostly used roll of parchment to write a note, before handing it over to Lirum.
Lirum, please keep this note with you for future reference. I quite clearly care for you far more than you’re willing to give yourself credit for. No one in my life has ever stood up for or to me in the ways that you have. So please, refrain from making anymore rubbish comments that undervalue your worth and the work you’ve put in, both as a student and as someone I hold dear, because I will not stand for them from you or anyone. And should you find yourself again thinking about saying something stupid please remember I will not stand for this.
~Percy I. Weasley