chosen - harry potter

Chapter 14 - Into the Chamber

Harry, Ron, and Cassia sullenly made their way to Lockhart's office, the sun setting and filling the castle with darkness as they went. 

They could hear hurried footsteps and scraping in his office, until Harry quietly knocked, suddenly silencing it. The door opened ever so slightly and they say one of Lockhart's eyes peer through it.

"Oh - students -" he said, opening the door a bit more. "I'm rather busy at the moment - if you would be quick-"

"Professor, we've got some information for you," Harry said. "We think it'll help you."

"Er - well - it's not terribly -" Lockhart looked highly uncomfortable. "I mean - well - all right-"

He opened the door. 

His office had been almost entirely stripped, packed away tightly into a suitcase on his desk.

"Planning a trip?" Cassia said sarcastically.

"Er, well," Lockhart said. "Urgent call - unavoidable - got to go -"

"What about my sister?" Ron said angrily.

"Well, as to that - most unfortunate -" Lockhart said, avoiding their eyes. "No one regrets more than I-"

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" Cassia said incredulously. "Aren't you going to help with the Dark Arts going on?"

"Well - I must say - when I took the job -" Lockhart muttered, "nothing in the job description - didn't expect -"

"You mean you're running away?" Harry asked disbelievingly. "After all that stuff you did in your books-"

"Books can be misleading," Lockhart said quietly.

"You wrote them!" Cassia said.

"Children," Lockhart said, straightening his back and frowning at them, "do use your common sense. My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things. No one wants to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock, even if he did save a village from werewolves. He'd look dreadful on the front cover. No dress sense at all. And the witch who banished the Bandon Banshee had a harelip. I mean, come on-"

"So you've just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?" Harry asked.

"Harry, Harry," Lockhart said, shaking his head, "it's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn't remember doing it. If there's one thing I pride myself on, it's my Memory Charms. No, it's been a lot of work, Harry. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog."

"What?" said Cassia.

He slammed his trunks shut and locked them.

"Let's see," he said. "I think that's everything. Yes, only one thing left."

He turned to the children, pulling out his wand.

"Awfully sorry, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now. Can't have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I'd never sell another book-"

Harry grabbed his wand, bellowing, "Expelliarmus!"

Lockhart was blasted backward into his trunk, his wand flying high into the air. Cassia caught it, tossing it out of the open window.

Ron and Cassia each grabbed their wands at once, pointing them at the fallen Lockhart.

"What d'you want me to do?" Lockhart said weakly. "I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do."