They squeezed in on either side of Ron and whispered, "Oh my, I should apologize to Mum."
"What's wrong?" Ron asked, puzzled, "Why do you suddenly want to be Mum's good babies?"
"You're the good baby, Little Ronnie," the twins said in unison.
Then Fred said, "You know, it wasn't until we took Professor Lockhart's class that we realized just how insightful Mum really is—"
"Oh my, Professor Lockhart is just so cool. Do you know what he brought to our class?" George asked, his eyes gleaming.
"What was it?" Ron picked up a drumstick. "It's not another Yin Corpse, is it? Like us—"
"No, it's an Eight-eyed Giant Spider," Fred said.
George quickly added, "Yes, the Level 5X creature marked by the Ministry of Magic, it was truly enormous, as big as Dad's car, or even bigger."
Hearing the twins' description, Ron bit into his drumstick, his expression turning dazed.
Ron was terrified of spiders, and given his vivid imagination, the twins' description instantly conjured up a terrifying image of the Eight-eyed Giant Spider in his mind.
"An Eight-eyed Giant Spider," Fred whispered in Ron's ear, mimicking a furry feeling: "Little Ronnie, just imagine, those eight eyes... the furry body... the clicking fangs..."
"Ugh..." Ron dropped his drumstick, letting out a frightened little squeal, and leapt backward, trying to escape his two unscrupulous brothers.
But it was of no use; his two brothers pinned him down from either side.
"Where are you going? Little Ronnie?" George chuckled, "Want us to take you to see an Eight-eyed Giant Spider? I heard there's one in the Forbidden Forest..."
Ron shook his head quickly; he never wanted to see a spider in his life.
Actually, Harry never quite understood why Ron was so afraid of spiders, since he had already seen a variety of arachnids under the cupboard at the Dursley household.
It just goes to show that different people have different fears.
"Eight-eyed Giant Spider?" Hermione suddenly asked, "Does Professor Lockhart arrange different teaching tools every school year? I thought he'd get you another Yin Corpse."
"He actually wanted to use Yin Corpses, but I heard Seamus blew it up," George shrugged and said, "I heard the eyeballs were blasted away, which was quite unsightly and might scare us, so they switched to the Eight-eyed Giant Spider."
"So that's what happened," Hermione said knowingly, "But it's not surprising, given the gruesome appearance of that Yin Corpse... it really isn't suitable for continued use as a teaching tool."
"But like I just said, I really ought to apologize to Mum and Professor Lockhart," the twins laughed, "I have to admit, Professor Lockhart fulfilled my imagination of a qualified Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts—if only he would stop boasting about his adventures, he would be the perfect professor."
"But we can't ask for more," they said again.
"He really is quite dedicated," Harry nodded, agreeing with the twins' statement.
In the afternoon Transformation Class, Professor McGonagall began teaching them the new semester's knowledge points.
She was still in her dark green robes, dressed meticulously—just like her character.
"Today we'll start with the new semester's content," Professor McGonagall stood on the high podium, "But you might be disappointed because we still won't be teaching more advanced Transformation Spell techniques this semester—what I need you to know is that transformation is a gradual spell system, and I hope you can learn step by step, rather than forcing yourselves to learn knowledge not meant for your age."
Harry understood that Professor McGonagall might have been implying dissatisfaction with Professor Lockhart's demonstrations and explanations of various dangerous Level 5X magical creatures or dark magic creations to the students.
Indeed, Professor McGonagall's concerns were valid, given that the magical creatures demonstrated by Professor Lockhart had yet to be below Level 5X.
Learning Defense Against the Dark Arts was one thing, but transformation was a rigorous subject, and most wizards couldn't skip any steps, leaping from the first to the sixth level all at once.
Unless they were naturally gifted in transformation, but such people were very rare.
Professor McGonagall had spoken to Professor Dumbledore about it, but the Headmaster's attitude was strange, neither supporting nor opposing Professor Lockhart.
"Alright, for the first class of the semester, you'll be learning how to turn a beetle into a button," Professor McGonagall's voice was steady as she took out a six-legged beetle struggling swiftly and placed it on the podium, "Watch carefully, I'll demonstrate it only once. You must picture a button in your mind and concentrate intensely on turning the beetle into a button—three, two, one, Vera Verto!"
A magical scene occurred; under Professor McGonagall's transformation spell, the beetle turned into a black button.
She picked up the button and passed it around for the students to see.
"Your task this lesson is to practice transforming a beetle into a button," Professor McGonagall waved her magic wand, and a heap of small boxes flew out from the podium, each containing beetles to be turned into buttons.