Chapter 36: A Maverick Pig

Gary could hear Prefect Nance, sitting at the front of the long table, let out a '...' from afar. Scattered applause erupted from the Ravenclaw long table. Lockhart seemed oblivious, bowing to the teachers' table again after leaving his stool, before stepping down with a light gait and approaching the Ravenclaw long table.

Hunter Joseph, the Prefect responsible for welcoming new students this year, shook Lockhart's hand with a stiff face, welcoming him to Ravenclaw.

Lockhart appeared very happy, his grin widening. He shook hands with the older students one by one, a brilliant smile on his face.

Even the mature-looking Howard was mistaken for an older student, and the bewildered expression on Howard's face during the handshake could have made a meme.

The Ravenclaws didn't like Lockhart much upon their first meeting, feeling he was a bit showy and overly fond of fame and fortune.

These traits might be acceptable in other houses, but in Ravenclaw, they would definitely be seen as eccentric.

It's not that Ravenclaws are so high-minded or indifferent to fame; for example, James's father, Fleamont Potter, was also a Ravenclaw. His hair-smoothing potion sold well worldwide, and no Ravenclaw student thought Mr. Potter disgraced the house; on the contrary, they respected him greatly.

They felt Lockhart was the kind of person who tried to do something beyond his capabilities.

Of course, the British wouldn't phrase it that way, but that was the gist of it.

On the second day of school, Lockhart made a huge fool of himself in Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration class, volunteering to demonstrate how to sharpen the tip of a silver needle on stage.

After turning red-faced and holding his wand at the needle for a long time, he embarrassedly left the stage amidst roaring laughter.

Right after the start of term, Lockhart's image in Ravenclaw plummeted. Fortunately, Ravenclaw students aren't very good at ostracizing people; at most, they just don't talk to him.

Leaving Lockhart aside for now, Gary's four-person study group, after being joined by Lily and Snape, gradually attracted more people. Many students from the same year wanted to piggyback on their class notes and study experience.

Alfrina turned them down. Her reason was simple: they only wanted the most unique, those who at least had a special skill.

Being good at eating was also acceptable, like Howard.

Lupin also came, expressing his desire to join, and the six discussed it and agreed.

Lily and Snape disliked James and Sirius even more, and they were quite friendly towards Lupin, who was an excellent student in both character and academics.

Now they had seven members, gathering students from Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Gryffindor.

They decided to formally establish an organization. With the increasing number of members, their future papers would also need an organizational name.

Each person contributed two Galleons to register with the Hogwarts Student Organizations Committee. After discussion, the seven decided to name their organization "A Maverick Pig."

Most of their skills were strange and unique, and the things they intended to do were also unprecedented. The 'Pig' came from their organizational mascot, Howard.

Howard himself was very pleased with the organization's name, and his belly grew even larger as he strolled through the corridors.

This year's Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor changed from Mr. Monte to Ms. Bell. It was still rote and uninspired, even more sleep-inducing than Professor Binns's History of Magic.

The group began frequenting the Library, searching for previous Defense Against the Dark Arts lectures and textbooks. Before this teaching position was cursed, the course lectures and exam outlines were very standardized.

They supplemented and improved the current Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum based on old Defense Against the Dark Arts textbooks.

Gary wrote to his cousin Lucy in New York, requesting her Defense Against the Dark Arts class notes.

Besides that, they also needed to argue for the necessity of reforming the Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum; this task was assigned to Lily and Kona. Lupin and Howard were responsible for drafting and distributing questionnaires; both of them were very popular in school, having someone they could talk to in every house, except Slytherin.

The Slytherin work was left to Snape, while Alfrina and Gary were responsible for briefly supplementing the Defense Against the Dark Arts course lectures.

Their work kept them busy until the Christmas holiday. Fortunately, none of the seven were Quidditch players, so they had ample extracurricular time to complete their tasks.

James was selected for the Gryffindor Quidditch team starting in his second year and no longer relentlessly pursued Lily; he poured all his passion into Quidditch training.

Since Regulus's enrollment, Sirius's situation became even more difficult. Although he was the eldest son of the House of Black, it was clear to everyone that a family of generations of Slytherins could not choose a Gryffindor-born heir.

Regulus was undoubtedly an excellent candidate for heir; compared to his brother, he was humble and polite, had excellent grades, and was outstanding in appearance. Gary had met him several times in the corridor and had a good impression of him.

Now, aside from being the eldest son, Sirius had nothing left to rely on.

This made Sirius's temper very volatile lately. Of course, he didn't care about the heir status of that decaying family, but everything he had was being taken away by his younger brother, who was a year his junior.

His parents' attention, his teachers' approval, and even the admiration of girls.

The weekend before Christmas, Gary, carrying a stack of Defense Against the Dark Arts notes sent by Lucy, wanted to spend a productive evening in the Library. At the third-floor staircase, he saw Regulus confronting Sirius at the corner of the second-floor corridor.

"Are you really not coming home for Christmas? Mother misses you..." Regulus seemed less composed when dealing with his brother.

"I told you before the term started, I'm not coming home for Christmas," Sirius said lazily, "The gloomy and damp atmosphere in that house makes me sick."

"Sirius, please don't..." Regulus became a little anxious, stepping forward to try and grab Sirius's robes, but he twisted away.

"Mother's dear little Regulus..." Sirius's tone became somewhat irritating, "Why are you so concerned about your unloved brother?"

He spoke with cold sarcasm. Gary didn't want to listen to the two brothers argue anymore. He turned towards the staircase on the other side of the corridor.

The progress of supplementing the Defense Against the Dark Arts lectures was getting slower and slower. Gary and the others had some exposure to the earlier content, but as the material delved deeper into Dark Arts creatures like Inferi and Dementors, Gary had no understanding at all. Information on their habits, methods of resistance, and so on, all had to be researched from scratch.

Of course, they didn't have to complete the entire lecture notes; most of the work would be left to the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts itself.