Chapter 134 — Autographed Photo

Chapter 134: Chapter 134 — Autographed Photo

Chapter 134 — Autographed Photo

Professor Sprout’s favoritism toward Vesey earned Slytherin some extra points at the very beginning of the school year.

But not many people were jealous of Vesey, because they didn’t know about Professor Sprout’s particular preference.

Only Hermione understood what was going on.

Since she had stopped competing with Vesey for House Points, she had actually become rather fond of watching Vesey answer questions in class.

She thought Vesey looked absolutely radiant whenever she did.

Apart from asking Vesey those two questions, Professor Sprout spent the rest of the lesson teaching everyone how to repot young mandrake seedlings.

Although they were only seedlings, Vesey felt that by the end of the lesson, even she had to admit that Herbology was a subject that required a lot of hard work.

After class, they asked Harry what he had talked about with Lockhart.

Hermione was still somewhat excited.

Although she had thought Lockhart wasn’t very good before, after reading his books over the past few days, she had begun to wonder whether he might simply have misspoken.

After all, Lockhart had only said one sentence to Vesey that day, and after Vesey left, he had wisely chosen to remain silent.

It was only natural that Hermione had developed a bit of a favorable impression of him.

But when she heard Harry repeat Lockhart’s actual words, she became furious.

"What on earth is he talking about? Vesey made the headlines because she’s pretty? Does he have a brain at all? I don’t think he devoted all of his brains to writing books, did he?"

Hermione was absolutely livid.

Even so, she still admired Lockhart’s strength and writing ability.

She simply felt that, like some other wizards, Lockhart didn’t respect women.

Vesey was obviously an exceptionally capable witch, yet he thought she had only made the headlines because she was beautiful.

What a waste of his talent!

Because Hermione was so angry, she hugged Vesey for a while to comfort her.

This made Vesey look forward to Lockhart’s future at Hogwarts even more.

It would be wonderful if he could anger every beautiful witch at Hogwarts.

Then Vesey might have someone comforting her every single day.

Heh heh.

Unfortunately, hugs didn’t last forever.

Soon, it was time for Transfiguration.

A whole summer had passed, and everyone had almost forgotten what they had learned the previous year.

Professor McGonagall began by reviewing last year’s material.

She became so angry that she nearly cursed the entire class.

Ron was even more unfortunate.

His wand was broken.

Vesey cast a Repairing Charm on it.

The wand looked much better afterward, but it still wasn’t as responsive as before.

Although it didn’t produce the crackling noises or foul smell described in the original story, it was obvious that the wand was extremely difficult to use.

It had originally belonged to one of Ron’s older brothers, and now that it was damaged, it was even less compatible with him.

Every time he tried to use it, something went wrong.

He told it to transform something, and it exploded.

He told it to make something explode, and it transformed instead.

By the time class ended, he had already gone through two beetles.

Professor McGonagall was furious with him.

When Transfiguration finally ended, Ron looked utterly desperate.

"How am I supposed to survive this? It’s over. I’m definitely finished..."

He glared angrily at his wand.

"Why don’t you write home and ask them to buy you another one?"

Harry suggested.

Ron gave him a bitter smile.

"They’ll just scold me and say that I broke my own wand, so it’s my own fault. They’ll tell me I deserve it!"

Harry had nothing to say to that.

He had wanted to buy Ron a new wand himself.

But back when Ron was in first year, he had told Vesey that no matter how poor their family was, they would never accept a single Knut from anyone else.

Remembering that, Harry had abandoned the idea.

During lunch, Vesey used candy to make several little wand-shaped sweets.

They couldn’t actually be used as wands, but at least they could be eaten.

That cheered Ron up a little.

After lunch, they had Defense Against the Dark Arts.

This was Lockhart’s first lesson, and everyone was eagerly waiting to see what his teaching would be like.

Many of the female students had even drawn hearts around Lockhart’s class on their timetables.

Their eyes lit up whenever they talked about him.

To them, Lockhart was the most handsome man in the entire school.

Vesey...

Vesey reluctantly admitted that Lockhart really was handsome.

Especially at Hogwarts, where most of the boys were still immature, he did have a certain charm.

However, Vesey firmly believed that if she had transmigrated as a man, she would have been much more handsome than Lockhart.

Unfortunately, she was still a girl.

There was no hope of becoming a man!

Feeling depressed, she followed Harry and the others toward their Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

On the way, they encountered Colin Creevey.

Vesey had been secretly enjoying Harry’s misfortune while Colin was taking photographs of him, but Colin suddenly looked toward her.

"And Vesey! Yes, Vesey, you have to stand with Harry! You two are my favorite people!"

He shouted excitedly.

"Harry defeated the Dark Lord and even faced him when he was only in first year! I heard Quirrell was involved too. The back of Quirrell’s head... And I watched Vesey’s photo ball with the vampire wizards almost every day throughout the summer..."

Vesey was speechless.

Does this guy seriously have no idea what a sensitive subject that is?

Many people thought that what had happened in that photo ball was the last thing Vesey wanted to talk about.

Yet Colin had casually announced that he had watched it all summer.

Was he really not afraid of Harry and the others beating him up?

And it wasn’t just Harry and Ron who wanted to hit him.

Even the other students were looking at Colin strangely.

They deliberately avoided mentioning that incident in front of Vesey because they were afraid it would make her sad.

Yet this guy had brought it up so openly.

Unfortunately, Colin was far too excited to notice anyone else’s displeasure.

He happily looked between Vesey and Harry.

"So, you two should stand together and take a picture! If I get it developed, could you please sign it for me?"

"Oh my God! The Potter siblings are going to sell autographed photos! Who would actually buy them?"

Malfoy’s voice suddenly rang out.

He looked at Harry mockingly.

Ever since Vesey had punched him during the summer, Malfoy had stopped talking to her.

He had also stopped showing off his family’s wealth in front of her.

This made Vesey almost delighted.

She was a psychologically mature man on the inside.

She really didn’t want to watch another man constantly flaunt his wealth in front of her.

This was much better.

Keep your distance, kid.

"You’re jealous!"

Colin turned around and glared at Malfoy.

Malfoy laughed.

"Would I be jealous of Harry Potter? He’s a loser who needs a girl to save him. If it were me, I wouldn’t—"

Ron immediately lunged toward Malfoy.

He obviously intended to punch him.

But Harry and the others quickly grabbed him.

"Don’t! Don’t fight!"

If they got into another fight now, they might really be expelled.

Not to mention...

Lockhart suddenly walked over and asked excitedly,

"Children, aren’t you fighting?"

Malfoy immediately said,

"Harry Potter wants to sell autographed photographs!"

Lockhart immediately looked at Harry.

He pulled Harry into a hug.

"It’s all right! I can take a photograph with you, Harry. Come on!"

Colin hesitated for a moment.

Apparently, he thought Lockhart was another important celebrity.

He quickly raised his camera and pressed the shutter.

"..."

After taking a photograph of Harry and Lockhart, Colin wanted Vesey to stand with Harry too.

But Lockhart had already pulled Harry away.

He smiled and said to Harry,

"No need to ask, Harry. I know exactly what you’re doing. I helped you this time, but I hope I don’t see you doing it again. Otherwise, people might think you’re showing off..."

"Of course, there’s no need to thank me!"

After saying that, Lockhart calmly walked away.

Harry was left standing there in stunned silence.