On the Quidditch pitch, the incident never spread beyond those present.
Eda's unexpected punch did not escalate the conflict between the two teams, nor did it lead to an all-out brawl. After that single blow, everyone simply left the field—no one was in the mood to keep training.
Thus, the conflict sparked by boasting and insults ended rather abruptly. Aside from Draco Malfoy sporting a black eye, no one was injured.
None of the other students in the school knew it had happened, and September at Hogwarts remained peaceful and quiet.
One day in late September, Angelina stormed into the library with great urgency, followed by Lee Jordan, Alicia, and Katie Bell.
They went straight to the corner where Eda and the twins were sitting.
"Eda, we need to talk. We need you!"
Hearing her name, Eda lifted her head from the thick stack of books in front of her, only to see her roommates appear before her.
Fred and George also woke up from their nap. They had come to the library intending to read, but after a while, had naturally given in to temptation and taken a little ...rest.
Before Eda could say a word, the furious Madam Pince drove them all out of the library. When it came to students daring to make noise there, Madam Pince was merciless. Wielding her feather duster like a weapon, she was someone even Eda preferred to avoid.
Driven out in disarray, the seven of them found an empty classroom at random to continue their discussion. As soon as they stepped inside, Angelina repeated what she had said in the library:
"Eda, we need to talk. We need you!"
"What happened?" Eda asked. "Why did you all come together like this?"
"We can't stand Lockhart anymore—he's absolutely insane. I don't want to keep reading passages from the textbook with feeling during Defense Against the Dark Arts, and I definitely don't want to keep doing roleplay," Angelina said. "We need a place where we can actually practice, and we need someone who can guide us."
Ever since Lockhart stopped bringing live creatures into the classroom, Defense Against the Dark Arts had degenerated into nothing more than a fan club for his books. He would select a passage from one of his works for the class to read aloud, then ask why he had written it that way and whether anyone had gained insight from it.
A course that was supposed to balance theory and practice had been forcibly turned into English reading comprehension.
And that wasn't even the worst part—Lockhart would also have students act out roles from his books, under the lofty excuse of "reinforcing memory and enhancing understanding."
The quieter students usually got assigned roles, sometimes even multiple, since Lockhart couldn't order around the rebellious ones—people like Eda and the twins.
So students would read from his books, act out his books, while Lockhart sat back, satisfied, soothing his fragile heart that Eda had once wounded.
Lockhart's vanity was immensely satisfied, but the students were miserable. They didn't want to spend time with him, nor did they want to perform those silly lines.
Most importantly, Lockhart wasn't Shakespeare, and the students weren't drama students. They were wizards—and apart from maybe improving their acting, they weren't learning a single thing in Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"I really don't know what Dumbledore is thinking!" Alicia said, clearly dissatisfied with his decision. She went on, "Since we can't learn anything in class, then we should study on our own after class. We're already in fourth year—we can't keep wasting our study time!"
"Relax, relax, Alicia, our O.W.L.s are still a long way off," Lee Jordan soothed her first, then turned to Angelina and shifted the topic. "But I agree with Angelina—we need a study group, so we can actually learn the knowledge we're supposed to."
"So, what you want is for the three of us to join this study group, and everyone makes progress together, right?" Eda said. "But shouldn't we solve the problem at its root? If we can't solve the problem, then we solve the one causing it."
Hearing Eda's words, filled with a hint of killing intent, the others in the classroom all thought Lockhart's fate was bound to be miserable.
As both the source and cause of the problem, Lockhart had already risen to the top of the list of "Most Hated People at Hogwarts."
Previously, that honor had always belonged to Professor Snape, the Potions Master. But faced with Lockhart's sudden surge in unpopularity, Snape had no way to fight back. In just a single week, he lost the number one spot he had dominated for over a decade.
Eda's idea was an excellent one—kick Lockhart out of the school and replace him with a real professor. That was the solution most in line with the students' interests.
But bringing down a professor wasn't easy, especially one as cowardly as Lockhart. Apart from the Cornish pixie disaster, he hadn't made any major mistakes.
Without hard evidence, without uncovering a fatal flaw, it was nearly impossible to drive a professor out of the school. Besides, Dumbledore's opinion was key—he was the headmaster, the only one with the power to dismiss Lockhart.
In the days since the term had begun, the students' "anti-Lockhart" sentiment had only grown stronger. Yet in his office, Dumbledore remained silent, turning a blind eye to Lockhart's incompetence, as if there were some secret deal between the two of them.
Since there was no way to deal with Lockhart and drive him out of the school, the only option was to come up with a solution themselves. Angelina and Alicia quickly hit it off and came up with the idea of forming a study group.
As the juniors' little shadow, Katie naturally followed in her seniors' footsteps and chose to join this still-unformed study group. And as for Lee Jordan—there was no need to even ask. Wherever Angelina was, you could be sure Lee Jordan would be there too.
But with only the four of them, the study group was clearly too small. That was when they thought of Eda, Fred, and George, which led to the scene earlier of Madam Pince kicking them all out of the library.
"So, this group only has the seven of us?" Eda asked.
"For now, yes," Angelina replied. "More people would just mean more trouble."
In Angelina's plan, seven members were plenty. Too many people meant more complications, and more problems, not to mention that Eda didn't like interacting with people she wasn't familiar with.
Katie Bell raised her hand timidly and said, "Can I bring Leanne? She's my best friend, and I promise she's not someone who causes trouble."
"If she wants to join, of course she can," Angelina said. Katie had always shared a dormitory with them, which meant in her own year she really only had one close friend—Leanne.
"Then that makes eight of us. Does anyone else have a friend they want to invite?" Eda added. She didn't object—though she wasn't very close to Leanne, she still had some impression of the girl who always came looking for Katie.
"There's one problem—where are we going to hold our activities?" Fred asked. "Do we apply for an empty classroom, or use one of the secret passages?"
At Hogwarts, there were actually plenty of interest clubs—wizard chess, Gobstones, and the like all had groups. Once approved by the school, they would be assigned an empty classroom to use for their activities.
"Applying for an empty classroom should be enough, right?" Angelina said uncertainly. "There'll only be eight of us at most, so we won't need a big place."
"It's just… if we practice spells in a classroom, will the school actually approve our request?" Alicia asked worriedly. "And what if Filch comes looking for trouble?"
George jumped down from a desk and said, "It's fine. We'll practice in a classroom first, and if that doesn't work, we'll just find another place."
"This new place will be up to us," Fred said, throwing an arm around George and Lee Jordan. "We've always been interested in exploring the castle's hidden secrets."
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