about Gilderoy Lohart

Chapter 14 about Gilderoy Lockhart

"Perhaps as your strength grows and you begin to develop your own fighting styles, you can decide the placement of your wands, how you hold them, and your fighting stance based on the magic you are good at. But right now, you have no practical combat experience, and you've only been exposed to magic for a few days..."

"So today we're learning the most versatile, standard stance, one that even many Aurors are willing to use: the 'Sword Stance'."

"Hold your wand with your thumb, bend your index finger to support it in front, and grip the wand with the remaining three fingers. Relax your shoulders and let your wrists drop..."

"Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, shift your weight to your left leg, and relax your left palm against your waist for easy hand gestures..."

"Tuck your chin in, look straight ahead, and slightly hunch your back..."

Professor Baker moved the podium aside and demonstrated a standard stance: "This posture ensures you can move flexibly at any time and control the distance between you and the other person..."

He made a few light, quick hops like a fencer: "It also allows you to quickly unleash spells that don't require long preparation times, giving you the upper hand in battle. And once you've mastered spell deflection techniques and the Ironclad Charm, your outstretched wand will be your best shield, effectively defending even if the opponent attacks first."

"So,"

He resumed his normal standing posture, waved his wand, and instantly all the desks in the classroom disappeared: "Now, everyone, take out your wands, keep some distance from those around you, and begin practicing this pose!"

"I know this might be a bit dry compared to other courses, but it's absolutely essential to master; it's the foundation of everything... Here's what we'll do: if you all perform well in this lesson, I can consider speeding up the pace and sharing some simple but useful spells in advance..."

Professor Baker looked at the expectant young wizards and smiled enticingly, "Some of them even played a significant role in the battle we just demonstrated."

Without Professor Baker needing to say anything, the young wizards scattered immediately, staring intently at the posture diagrams he had left on the blackboard, and began practicing meticulously. Professor Baker also stepped down from the podium and began to patrol the classroom, occasionally correcting some students' movements.

"You've raised your hand too high; now your entire right side is exposed!"

"Relax your shoulders. This posture is for flexible movement, not for turning you into a stone block!"

"Don't grip your wand so tightly. Your wand is your helper, not your enemy!"

"Don't twist your waist like that, you'll easily get a stitch in your side during actual combat!"

"You need to shift your weight to the back; your current posture is like a horse stance!"

……

When it came time for practice, Professor Baker suddenly became strict, promptly noticing and correcting even the slightest deviation from the correct form. Everyone, including Avada and the athletically gifted Cho, was corrected several times.

Once everyone had gotten into the correct stance, Professor Baker began leading them in practicing combat maneuvers. Forward jumps, backward retreats, dodges, attacks, defenses… after a series of drills, even the energetic young wizards were sweating and panting.

Finally, with about ten minutes left before the end of get out of class, Professor Baker waved his wand and turned the table back to normal, signaling the end of the practice.

"Excellent! Everyone's progress has exceeded my expectations!"

After all the students were seated, Professor Baker clapped his hands in satisfaction and smiled, "I thought it would take you at least a whole class to master this posture, but I didn't expect that you would have already met the requirements with about ten minutes left in get out of class."

"There's definitely not enough time left to teach any new magic... So how about this, if anyone has any questions about Defense Against the Dark Arts, feel free to ask now, and I'll answer them all."

As soon as he finished speaking, almost everyone in the classroom raised their hands in unison, their faces filled with anticipation.

"Um……"

Professor Baker casually pointed to a Hufflepuff near the front row: "Mr. Summers, what is your question?"

"Professor, I'm curious, as an adventurer and a council member of the Defense Against the Dark Arts, you must have a regular job, so why did you come to Hogwarts to be a professor?"

He asked somewhat awkwardly, since this wasn't a question related to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Professor Baker, however, didn't blame him. He smiled and replied, "The main reason is that I feel I've hit a bottleneck in improving my skills, so I'm preparing to temporarily put aside my adventures and board duties to carefully summarize and organize my magical foundation. Teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts is undoubtedly the most suitable job for me during this period. Not only will it allow me to review my knowledge from the textbook, but I can also contribute to education... There's a saying, 'Teaching and learning go hand in hand,' and that's exactly the point."

"Even a powerful wizard like you encounters a bottleneck, Professor?" Summers asked again.

"Of course, everyone encounters plateaus, even Dumbledore was no exception." Professor Baker smiled and gestured for Summers to sit down, then called on another student: "Miss Zhang, what's your question?"

Qiu stood up, slightly blushing, and asked, "Professor, do you know Mr. Gilderoy Lockhart?"

Professor Baker paused for a moment before replying, "I've never met him, but I've long admired his name and read many of his works. I must say, they are quite brilliant, combining practicality with literary merit, and I've benefited greatly from many of the techniques he mentions."

"So, Professor, who is more capable, you or Mr. Lockhart?"

"Um……"

Professor Baker hesitated for a moment after hearing the question, then carefully chose his words and said, "He and I... each have our own strengths."

"Although I have never met him in person, I can infer from his books that Lockhart is the kind of person who is knowledgeable, quick-witted, possesses a lot of obscure but practical knowledge, and is good at using his brain to survive in various dangerous situations and wild magical creatures. He is the standard adventurer."

"I'm more like a wild Auror than an adventurer, or an ancient dark wizard hunter, specializing in venturing into dangerous areas to fight dark wizards and dark creatures. I'm better at fighting in various man-made dangers than adventuring in the wild. Of course, I also occasionally relax in some wilderness environments and enjoy the natural scenery."

"Professor, do you also have any exciting adventure experiences?" another girl asked curiously.

"I?"

Professor Baker gave a wry smile: "I can only say that if I were to write a book about my experiences, its sales would probably not even reach a tenth of Lockhart's. Because the things I deal with require extremely high levels of expertise, which laypeople simply cannot understand. And the stories wouldn't be as dramatic; they'd mostly be convoluted, or rather, bloody..."

"Let's take Lockhart's new book from last year, 'A Year with the Yeti of Tibet,' as an example."

"This book is about Lockhart's adventure on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. He accidentally falls into a crevice in a glacier and comes to a hidden world beneath the ice. His wand is broken and his supplies are about to run out. He uses his shapeshifting ability, simple potions, and extensive knowledge of magical creatures to disguise himself as a Tibetan Yeti and join the local tribe to survive and find a way to leave."

"In an accident, his identity was discovered by a Tibetan Yeti, but he used his wisdom and experience to befriend the Yeti, which helped Lockhart conceal his identity and began a wonderful process of getting along with the Yeti."

"But later, as the glacier moved, the crevasses began to close, and the Yeti's habitat was about to collapse. Lockhart and the Yeti worked together, using their knowledge and with a bit of luck, to successfully escape the subterranean world and return to the surface. Lockhart then bid farewell to the Yeti and returned to human society. Is that how it went?"

Professor Baker paused again, carefully choosing his words, hoping not to upset the girls who were idolizing him too much: "If I were in the same situation... uh..."

"I could probably climb right out of the crack on the first day; casting spells without a staff isn't difficult for me."

(End of this chapter)