"Sorry, professor, I mean—why me?" Harry asked, puzzled.
"Because you are the Savior, the Boy Who Lived," Professor Lockhart said with a cheerful smile. "And I don't have much time lately because I have to prepare teaching materials for you all, and also prepare the teaching content—my goodness, teaching students is such an adventurous thing, isn't it?"
Harry thought he was a bit pretentious; somehow, everything could be related to an "adventure."
It seemed that without doing so, he couldn't prove he was an adventurer.
But he had to admit Lockhart was right because successfully teaching someone something truly skillful was indeed difficult.
Just then, Colin Creevey came over with a camera.
"Harry, can I take a picture of you?" he said quickly, "I really want to get an autographed photo of you to send to my dad—you know, he's a milkman..."
Afterward, Harry couldn't hear clearly, as Colin spoke as fast as an MG42 in an old movie.
"Looks like you have a fanatical fan too?" Professor Lockhart chuckled, "But it's okay, I think we should have a photo together—the great Mr. Savior and his writer professor... Come on, Mr. Creevey, take a group photo of us."
After saying that, Lockhart whispered, "I'll teach you how to deal with fanatical fans, how about it, don't you want to come and learn from me?"
Saying it like that, Harry became a bit interested.
Heavens know how annoying this Colin kid is, it's like he memorized Harry's schedule and waits along Harry's usual path every day.
For Colin, it seemed the most exciting thing in the world was to say "Hello, Harry?" six or seven times every day and hear "Hello, Colin." in response, no matter how helpless and annoyed Harry's tone was.
Harry felt he had a good enough temper, but he was the kind of person who responded better to soft approaches than hard ones—if Colin had been like Draco used to be, antagonizing him upon meeting, Harry would have already knocked him out.
But Colin just had that enthusiastic mannerism that left Harry at a loss.
He knew the power of public opinion; if he did anything wrong, he couldn't imagine what the newspapers would make of it!
Colin got Lockhart's answer and, regardless of Harry's feelings, lifted the camera and started taking pictures.
Lockhart cooperated well, striking various poses, and Harry had to admit, his celebrity status was indeed justified.
At least in terms of patience with fanatical fans, Harry admitted he couldn't compare, he was truly in awe.
Finally shaking off Colin, Harry sighed, feeling like a survivor.
My goodness, this was really a born trouble-maker.
Even as he walked to the Great Hall, Harry felt a bit out of breath, fearing Colin would jump out from somewhere to take a picture or say "Hello, Harry" again.
"What's wrong with you?" Hermione asked concernedly, "You look unhappy, did someone upset you?"
"I think it's Colin Creevey," Ron said loudly, not caring that his voice echoed through the entire Gryffindor Common Room. "My goodness, he has zero sense of boundaries and just follows Harry around all day..."
"Okay, Ron." Harry knew Ron wanted to be the one to say it, but he didn't want Ron to take the blame.
"You should think of a way," Seamus said, "how about I hit him with a Thunder Explosion, guarantee he'll be in Madam Pomfrey's hospital wing for a few days..."
"That's a bit too violent," Neville said quietly. "But I don't have a solution either... sigh, really."
Even someone as honest as Neville was having a hard time tolerating Colin's actions.
"I suggest just ignoring him," Hermione said softly. "I think if you let him bother you for a while, he should get bored."
The common room fell into a silence, as if no one believed Hermione's words.
"Think about Filch's cat," Ron muttered. "It's been Petrified since last semester, that's almost half a year now, right? Sometimes I think if this Colin kid could be Petrified, we'd solve two big problems."
"Why two?" Hermione asked, puzzled.
"One problem is how to deal with Colin Creevey." Ron shrugged. "The other problem is Colin Creevey himself."
Everyone laughed at that.
Ron was indeed quite skilled at making complaints.
At lunch, Harry saw Hedwig floating in.
He thought Hedwig was delivering something important, but it turned out to be a letter from Mr. Leme.
Following were three owls, each carrying a big bag in their claws.
Hedwig dive-bombed the letter into Harry's hands, and then plunged into his arms, cuddling up to Harry and making a cutesy cooing sound.
The other three owls placed the large bags beside Harry and then flapped away.
Looking down, Harry saw the bags were filled with stacks of British Pounds.
He opened the letter, which read:
Dear Sir:
How have you been lately? It should be back-to-school time now, and I imagine life at Hogwarts must be exciting.
Miss Swedding is currently recovering well and is expected to return to Hogwarts by the end of the month.
PS: I really liked the gift you sent me. Both Pernelle and I agreed that the game called "Sid Meier's Civilization I" is quite interesting; it has added a lot of fun to our lives without waiting idly for time to pass.