"I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" Lockhart said as the crowd cheered and clapped."Do they seriously not check their background before they hire someone to be a teacher?" Theodore said. Since he had been hanging around with Draco since he was young, he knew about Lockhart"s fake deeds and he wasn"t pleased hearing about someone so unqualified becoming a teacher.
"Well, if they did. We wouldn"t have idiots as our teachers." Draco said, "I think last year should prove it all."
Lockhart who had a sharp ear and a couple of nearby wizards heard them clearly since they didn"t bother to whisper to each other as they casually talked.
"Why don"t you show yourself?" Lockhart said walking towards Theodore and the hooded Draco. "Or can you only talk while hiding."
Draco rolling his eyes didn"t bother to talk back to him when suddenly Theodore pulled back his hood to reveal himself.
The witches and wizards there along with the reporters started going crazy as they snapped one picture after another and began crowding around him. Draco with his lips twitching looked at Theodore who just shrugged and avoided his gaze.
"Oh, how surprising, it"s the Prince." Lockhart said coming closer looking excited, "I will be glad to teach you this year."
As Lockhart began to come closer wanting to hug him for the camera, Draco couldn"t help but feel a rush of disgust and hate towards him as he took his wand out and used a spell pushing Lockhart back, throwing him towards the pile of his own book.
"Don"t touch me." Draco said as he pulled his hood back on and began walking away.
The reporters and the people there were surprised and didn"t follow him as they were too shocked to do so.
Theodore and the rest followed him out, wondering why he was so annoyed with Lockhart.
"I"m okay." Lockhart said standing up, even though no one asked him, he began explaining things to the crowd by making stuff up, "He might still be afraid due to the previous incident so he didn"t want me too close... As a teacher, I will make sure to help him through this incident, after all, he is just a child..."
Draco went out of the book store pushing everyone away when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulders. He looked back to find Arthur Weasley, looking at him with a bit of concern and confusion.
"What happened?" He asked.
"Nothing much." Draco said taking a deep breath, "Just something got onto me."
"Did Lockhart do something... I know he can be annoying but you shouldn"t have used magic in public."
"No worries." Draco shook his head, "This place is a wizard location so the tracking wouldn"t work with all these wizards around, as for Lockhart... it"s hard to explain but I don"t like him."
"Why not?" Theodore and the girls came out followed by Ron and Harry who were looking at them and listening to their conversation from the shop.
"You know why, don"t you?" Draco said annoyed, "Why"d you had to pull my hood off?"
"I thought, why not give him a taste of his own medicine." Theodore said, "Unlike him, your fame is real and even by standards you are still on a higher position than him."
"What are you talking about?" Pansy said, "What"s going on?"
"I am not in the mood anymore." Draco said, "I want to go back home, did you get your books?"
"We did." Daphne said coming closer, "Let"s go back then."
Looking at her face, Draco knew she was a bit afraid and concerned as he sighed.
"See you in Hogwarts then Hermione." Draco said turning back as Pansy and Daphne said their goodbyes as well and followed along leaving the dazed Hermione and the rest.
"Is he stronger than Lockhart, father?" Ginny who was silently looking all this time said.
"I don"t know." Arthur said, even though he had his doubts on Lockhart"s deeds, he still considered him a competent wizard, to say the least, "He should be, but I think the element of surprise played a huge part."
Hermione who didn"t know what suddenly got into Draco didn"t stay there much further as after a little talk with Harry and Ron, she returned back home as well.
-------------------------------------------------------
Draco, Theodore, Pansy, and Daphne returned back home with the floo network. Draco sighing opened his hood and sat on the couch trying to stay calm. Ever since the last incident where Draco got hold of that power, he started having less control of his emotions. The thing with Lockhart reminded him of Ryan, who had a fame-hungry nature of the same sort and due to him knowing Lockhart"s real face, he couldn"t control his anger.
Draco couldn"t figure if this was the side-effect of the wand or the side-effect of the potion that made him a part Veela but since the emotions he felt were similar to the one caused by the wand, Draco was 80% sure that the wand had something do with it.
In the past days, he had tried using his old ancestor"s wand again and not use the wand too much but it wasn"t much different, it felt like it didn"t matter if he had the wand with him or not, so to prevent future accidents from happening he started carrying his wand back again as he was used to it and due to its features.
"So want to tell me what"s going on?" Pansy asked as she stood in front of him, with her arms crossed.
"Sigh! Lockhart"s a fraud." Draco said getting straight to the point, "The way he kept pretending to be great, when he really isn"t, made me a bit angry especially when he tried to touch me."
"That can"t be." Daphne said, "You have read about his tales and stories, haven"t you?"
"But that"s all they are-- stories." Draco said, "Do you really expect me to believe that he did all those extraordinary stuff under the radar? Has one person ever come forward saying he or she saw Lockhart do all these events?"
Draco knew trying to explain these stuff to these girls would be hard since everyone has always been in awe in front of Lockhart"s lies to the point where there aren"t even that many wizards and witches who doubt him. For them, Lockhart is even bigger than some of the real-life heroes, and his so-called fans won"t even hesitate to put Lockhart in the same position as Dumbledore when needed. Feeding all these brainless idiotic wizards with nonsense, Lockhart had managed to come up at the top as a hero who is way too humble and kind.
"That"s true but that doesn"t mean he didn"t..." Daphne said as Pansy stopped her.
"It"s okay if you don"t believe me." Draco said standing up, he didn"t want to bother too much with Lockhart since he wasn"t even going to be in Hogwarts completely this year and he was sure for the next year, Lockhart would be gone due to the curse. So arguing with his friends about Lockhart seemed pointless, as long as they are smart enough, they can figure these things out on their own, after he starts teaching.
"It"s not that we don"t believe you or anything like that." Pansy said, "We just wanted to know the cause of your anger, even if Lockhart"s really is like how you describe him to be… that doesn"t make up for your actions of using magic in public openly."