Hogwarts: Becoming the White Lord from Breathing

Chapter 92 Changes for the Better and the Worse
With the release of the sprites, everything went into chaos.

They flew around like rockets, and two little elves flew towards Neville from the left and right, grabbing his long ears and about to pull him away from his spot—his ears were stretched to their limit, and he screamed in pain.

Damon drew his wand, ready to resolve the farce, but Lockhart held him down from behind:
"Aha, don't rush to make a move, Master White. Trust the children's wisdom—you won't blame me for missing such a chance to shine, will you?"

He winked at Damon with what he considered a gentlemanly gesture, flashing his signature wide grin.

"By the way, I'm your teacher now, so let's leave the way we're addressed outside the school. Would you mind if I called you Damon at school from now on?"

Lockhart remained somewhat reserved in his approach to this rising yet remarkably low-key 'master'.

"Do as you please." Damon, interrupted by Lockhart, simply withdrew his hand and looked at him with a half-smile. "But Professor, are you sure you want to make things worse?"

Neville was already being lifted off the ground when the other elves started wreaking havoc in the classroom—they grabbed ink bottles and splashed ink all over the class, tore books and paper to shreds, ripped off pictures from the walls, turned the trash cans upside down, and threw backpacks and textbooks out the broken windows.

The young wizards were routed, and half of them hid under the table.

Harry and Ron glared at the approaching elf, but the spell they uttered was 'Expelliarmus'. Although their response was somewhat poor, they managed to knock the attacking elf into the wall.

"Well, I'm really disappointed with their performance. They don't have the courage and wisdom I described in my book at all. It seems like I should stop all of this."

Lockhart rolled up his sleeves, brandished his wand, and roared:

"Peschipixipestenomi!"

Nothing happened.

His spell had no effect whatsoever; a little elf grabbed Lockhart's wand and threw it out the window as well.

Because the young wizards were all too busy to notice what was going on, few of them noticed this ridiculous scene.

Damon turned to look at Lockhart, who was also looking at him. Their eyes met, and Damon tried his best to suppress his urge to burst into laughter—his face began to tremble, and his features became somewhat disproportionate. Even his exquisitely handsome face almost turned into something lewd.

"Aha~ I was just kidding you." Lockhart was still trying to stay calm. "I have a million ways to deal with these little things, even without a wand."

But then I thought about it carefully. I've had enough of being in the limelight; maybe it's time to give the students a stage sometimes—what do you think, Damon?

"I think you have a point."

Damon chuckled, unable to hold back any longer.

"Great! What are you waiting for?"

Lockhart didn't hold Damon's rudeness against him, only hoping that the student would act quickly so that he could cover up this unnecessary mistake.

Damon remained calm and made no move—his influence had already brought about a change in the three boys.

Harry and Ron, who were initially at a loss for what to do in fear of the elves, have now begun to help others drive them away.

"Except your weapons!"

"Except your weapons!"

The two were still using the same 'mismatched' spell. Hermione had just finished locking up the two little elves in front of her and reminded her, "Freeze them with the Freezing Charm, that will be more effective."

"Thanks for reminding us, we will learn it later."

Ron took a moment to reply to Hermione, and together with Harry, they continued to cast spells, either sending the elves flying to the ceiling or knocking them to the ground. The situation in the classroom visibly became more under control.

Hermione stood frozen in place, staring blankly at Ron's profile for a moment—when did he become so easy to talk to?
Just as the farce was about to end, Lockhart cleared his throat, about to say something polite, when the school bell rang. A group of young wizards crawled out from under their desks and ran frantically outside, completely disregarding everything else.

In the end, only a few people remained in the room.

"Ah, very good, you did very well. Although there were some setbacks, you still completed my test very well."

Lockhart didn't put his arm around Harry's shoulder this time.

He nodded to the group and hurried away—he needed to retrieve his own wand.

“I can’t trust him anymore.” Ron looked at the door Lockhart hadn’t even had time to close. “Damon was right, we can’t judge a person by their appearance or rumors. Professor Lockhart is simply a…”

He wanted to say "idiot," but he didn't say it because of Hermione.

"He just wanted to give us some opportunities to practice; it was those people who behaved so badly."

"Practice? Hermione, he has no idea what he's doing."

"Nonsense, you've all read his books—think about all the amazing things he's done, Damon, what do you think?"

"Me? -- He's fine with me, as long as he doesn't affect me."

Damon put his arms around Harry and Ron and praised them:
"Well done, you're much better than last semester, aren't you?"

Receiving Damon's affirmation, the two grinned and asked, "Are you going to practice your spells later? Can we come with you?"

"Yes! I can't wait! Can you teach me the Freezing Charm?"

Just as Damon was about to answer, a sudden cry rang out in the classroom.

The group turned to look—it was Neville, who seemed quite frightened and was sitting on the table crying. He had been caught by the house-elf and nearly stuck on the chandelier, but Harry and Ron helped him, though it caused him to fall hard onto the table.

The expressions on their faces became subtle.

“Neville, don’t cry, it’s over.” Hermione went over to comfort him.

"Thank you, Hermione."

Neville wiped away his tears, clumsily rolled off the table, and prepared to leave.

The others exchanged strange glances—after the blitzkrieg incident with Malfoy last semester, Neville had clearly become different, so why did he seem to have returned to where he started?

What happened during summer vacation?
Damon frowned, and seeing Neville about to reach the door, he spoke:

"Navie, do you want to come with us?"

Neville turned his head, his chubby hands still wiping his face. "But—can you, Damon? I'm so stupid, you can't teach me."

“It’s okay, teaching one person is the same as teaching three people, it’s just a side thing.”

He summoned Neville, and together they went to the House of Requirement.

Damon walked at the back, his deep blue eyes suddenly flashing with a fluorescent light.

There were traces of the Oblivion Curse on Neville's body.

Was it made by his grandmother?
(End of this chapter)