Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
The Time Meddlers
Chapter Twenty-two - Lockhart's Confession
"It always amazes me how seriously everyone here takes Quidditch," commented Hermione. It was about a week after the game and Harry had just been congratulated yet again on catching the Snitch as they left the Great Hall.
"Being congratulated doesn't bother me. What I hate is how the people who don't even play are bragging to the Slytherins who don't play how we won," complained Harry.
"Honestly," agreed Hermione. "What do all but the seven Gryffindor players have to brag about? You caught the Snitch, not Cormac, yet I've seen him boasting to some Slytherins. Like he had something to do with it."
"But if we'd lost, I'll bet it wouldn't have been Cormac's fault."
"Of course not. They love to take the credit, but never the blame," said Hermione.
"Along with the House points that come with winning," added Harry. After a moment, he said, "I never thought of it before, but we get absolutely no benefit whatsoever for winning the House Cup."
"It's an honor," defended Hermione.
"That doesn't even get us a party, that's freely given to the students who didn't gain any points, that's even given to the ones who lose us the most points."
Lowering her voice a bit, Hermione added thoughtfully, "Yet in our first year, we were shunned for losing points…"
"That we'd earned - me in Quidditch and you in class."
"By people who'd never earned one House point," concluded Hermione.
"Furthermore," said Harry, "all the points you had earned in class didn't get people to be friendly to you."
"They called me an insufferable know-it-all."
"So what is the point of the House Cup system?" Harry asked. "Why does anyone care about it?"
After about thirty seconds of silence, Hermione replied, "So that the people who don't earn points can brag to the other houses."
"And to turn housemates against each other instead of uniting against the teachers. For example, when Snape was still here, he could've taken a thousand points from me for breathing…"
"…and all the Gryffindors would've shunned you - not Snape," concluded Hermione.
"In other words," said Harry, "Every aspect of the House system causes division among the students. You're automatically against three-fourths of the school once you're sorted, and then the house points put you against your own house mates."
"I never thought about it before," said Hermione pensively.
"Me, neither." He gave the Fat Lady the password and they entered the Gryffindor common room. Once they sat down, Harry pulled his newest comic out of his pocket and began to read it while Hermione studied from a large book she'd previously checked out of the library.
--TM--
Harry and Hermione continued their torments of Lockhart, but he stubbornly wouldn't admit that he was a fraud, so they decided to up the ante during the first week of December, deciding that if he didn't confess by Christmas Break, they'd kill him. Although they did desire to end his life, they wanted him publicly exposed as a fraud, even more. That was something that never happened in the previous timeline. He was still getting fan mail in St. Mungo's.
It was about two a.m., and Gilderoy Lockhart was asleep, when two visitors entered his quarters under disillusionment charms (they needed more freedom of movement than their cloaks provided). They silently made their way to his four-poster bed, where Harry pulled open one of the curtains and silently stupefied him. After all, they didn't want him to wake up until they were ready. It took them about fifteen minutes to get everything set up.
"Let the games begin," said Hermione evilly when they were ready.
"Enervate," thought Harry, grinning as he cast the spell silently at Gilderoy.
"Petrificus Totalus," thought Hermione, while pointing her wand at Lockhart's now conscious form.
With their voices modified by a spell, the two invisible time-meddlers screamed, "Gilderoy Lockhart," in unison, causing his eyes to open. They saw his look of panic when he realized he couldn't move.
Harry began in an ethereal voice, "We have warned you and warned you again, but you still haven't confessed your sins."
"The time of your judgment is at hand. Confess or face our true wrath," said Hermione in an equally eerie tone. "On your desk is a written confession," commanded Hermione. "Sign it once you are able to move again."
"If you do not confess by tomorrow, you will die!" they said together, pleased to see beads of sweat forming on Lockhart's brow. Harry flicked his wand, releasing a dozen magical creatures that immediately surrounded the fraud's bed. A shield spell kept them from actually touching him, but as they each took on the form of one of Lockhart's victims; they saw a wet spot form on his sheet.
Leaving Lockhart to deal with his predicament, the two snuck out of the room.
"I didn't know you could pee while in the body-bind," Harry commented with a laugh as they hurried back to Gryffindor Tower.
"I guess you can," Hermione replied.
"I'll say one thing. It was hard to find all those boggarts."
"And to design that cage for them," agreed Hermione. "But it'll be worth it."
"I hope so."
"We'll know in a couple hours whether he signs that form."
Harry grinned. "And we'll mail a copy to the Ministry, the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler."
--TM--
Professor Gilderoy Lockhart was not having a good night. It had been over an hour since he'd been woken up by those…invisible whatever's that warned him he'd be killed. As he was currently completely under their mercy, he had no doubt of their ability to act on their threat. However, his mind was otherwise occupied.
Every five minutes, another twelve of his victims would replace the current ones and begin threatening him with revenge for what he'd done to them. Currently, he was facing three angry wizards, five angry witches and four angry muggle women, all of them screaming at him for whatever he'd done to them. He realized that even Azkaban had to be better than this form of torture. Under threat of death or more torture, knowing that his career was over no matter what happened, he made his decision. Now, he only hoped he'd survive the night.
--TM--
"Well, it's six o'clock," announced Harry with a yawn. He and Hermione were in the Gryffindor common room, having just come down ten minutes before after getting a few hours of sleep. They'd put up appropriate wards at the table they were sitting at so they wouldn't be noticed while they waited to see if Lockhart signed his confession with their four copies that would automatically update just like the old D.A. coins. At this moment, Lockhart's body-bind would wear off and the boggarts would be re-contained in the special cage Hermione had designed that was loosely based off the Ghostbusters' ghost traps that pulled the specters inside it, but it would respond to both immediate and timed wand commands. Of course, it was disillusioned in Lockhart's quarters and they'd make sure to retrieve it later that day.
They were staring at four different parchments that each had the same thing written on it, waiting for a signature to appear.
To whom it may concern:
I, Gilderoy Lockhart, am a complete fraud. Every brave deed that I ever claimed to do in my books was done by someone else that I memory charmed. That is actually one of the only types of magic I have mastered. Removing the bones from the foot of that Hogwarts Quidditch player last month was typical of my Spellwork, so I knew in advance that I'd probably cause him harm, yet performed the spell anyway. I will submit to Veritaserum questioning by the Ministry Department of Magical Law Enforcement and will identify all of my victims using whatever means are necessary, so that the memory charms I've performed can hopefully be reversed.
Sincerely,
"Look!" proclaimed Hermione excitedly. "He's signing it!"
Harry grinned as he watched the name Gilderoy Lockhart form on all four parchments, imagining how frantically he was signing the magically binding confession after last night. "Excellent! We'll just mail these off and get to our exercise."
--TM--
Harry was very impressed to see that the aurors arrived at Hogwarts during breakfast that morning. "I would've bet that they'd have taken until tomorrow to respond to the letter," he whispered to Hermione when Head Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt arrived with a few associates. The fraud had actually shown up for breakfast, looking tired but well-groomed, and watching the doors as well. When he saw the lawmen arrive, he rose from the table with a fake grin on his face and walked over to them without comment, obviously not wanting to endure the humiliation of being arrested in front of the whole school.
"Obviously Auror response time is improving with the new administration."
--TM--
The next morning at breakfast, Dumbledore got up to make an announcement. Everyone immediately noticed and quieted down as he stepped up to the podium. "Good morning, everyone. I'm afraid I have some bad news, and thought I'd share it before the owls start arriving with multiple copies of the Daily Prophet for you. It seems that Professor Lockhart has certain legal obligations that have come up that will prevent him from continuing to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts here at Hogwarts. For the remaining two weeks of this term, your classes shall be substituted by whatever teachers are available at that time. Now, because there are several pieces of bacon calling to me, I am finished speaking. Enjoy your breakfast." With that said, the ancient wizard abruptly walked back to his place at the head table and did indeed grab some bacon.
It was only a few minutes later, while Harry was helping himself to some eggs, that the owls did start flying in, many of them carrying fresh copies of the Daily Prophet. One even came to Hermione, who was, as usual, sitting next to Harry. Neville, who was sitting across from them, also got his copy. While most students were paying the owls for their newspaper, Hedwig flew to Harry with a parcel he'd ordered a few days before.
"What's that?" asked his unofficial girlfriend as he stuffed the small package into his pocket.
Shaking his head, with a grin on his face, he replied, "Now, now, Hermione. You should know that December is not the time to ask people about mysterious packages."
While Harry gave Hedwig some bacon, Hermione's ears turned slightly pink at embarrassment of having not thought about Christmas presents yet. She'd been so used to Harry telling her everything he was up to that she didn't realize he might want temporary secrets from her. "Oh. Sorry. I didn't realize it was something for Christmas. Just remember nothing expensive for me." She figured that would be enough of a reminder of their agreement not to get `romantic' gifts for each other until they started officially dating the next year.
"Don't worry, Hermione," he replied with a straight face. "The Hope Diamond wasn't that expensive and I'm sure you'll like it."
Slightly giggling at the thought, she replied, "Good. As long as it's nothing fancy."
"What's the Hope Diamond?" asked Neville.
While Hermione answered that question, Harry borrowed her newspaper and read the front cover.
--TM--
Gilderoy Lockhart Confesses to Being a Fraud!
By Anna Jesse
Yesterday, winner of the Order of Merlin - third class (as well as many other awards) Gilderoy Lockhart signed a confession that he did not perform any of the brave deeds he is famous for. In fact, instead of heroic acts, he has done heinous acts. For the deeds he wrote about in his books, he found others who'd done them and interviewed the brave souls to get all the information he could, and then Obliviated them, taking credit for what they'd done. However, that's just the tip of the iceberg.
When questioned by aurors under Veritaserum, he confessed to raping numerous muggle women and erasing their memories of the deed as well. One can only hope that he hasn't performed similar deeds at Hogwarts…
At about the same time Harry was reading that paragraph in surprise, someone else was reading it in amusement. The formerly abandoned warehouse was mainly filled with two sounds - laughter from the Shadow of Pain and the screams of a muggle woman being used in a ritual to increase the Shadow's magical core. When the screams died down a bit, the conversation that had been taking place resumed.
"At least Lockhart knows what muggles are for," commented the cloaked figure.
"Yes, indeed," replied Severus Snape with a slight grin. "It reminds me of my former days with the old Dark Lord." It was easy to see nostalgia in his eyes. "I used to so enjoy torturing, raping and killing the filthy muggles…before he killed Potter's mudblood wife. I'd asked him to bring her to me after killing her family, but he couldn't even do that one simple favor! I need to have my entertainment just like anyone else!" At that moment, the muggle screamed again as the pentagram she was lying in glowed once more.
As though commenting on the weather, the Shadow said, "It is too bad that silencing charms will ruin the ritual. The noise is a bit distracting. The figure reached for a cup of tea and drank it while Severus replied.
"I don't know. The screams are refreshing, and I did notice the filthy muggle's long red hair. She does remind me a bit of Lily."
"She should be alive for a few minutes after the ritual is complete, Severus. You may enjoy her then."
"Thank you. Now, regarding your next ritual, are you sure you don't want to use a muggle princess?"
"Absolutely not! I won't pollute myself with muggle filth for this ritual, even if it calls for a princess' blood. It's one thing to take their lives or their energy, but quite another to actually drink their blood! The adopted daughter of the Minister of Magic will do! At least she's a pureblood." The mysterious figure took a deep breath. "I killed Cornelius for turning his back on me, and soon I'll have revenge on Amelia. Susan Bones will soon be introduced to the Shadow of Pain."
--TM--
Please review. Thank you to those who have.
P.S. In 2001 Rowling flashed a notebook during a BBC interview that showed her notes on the students in Harry Potter's year and Susan is noted as being a Half-blood in Hufflepuff House. This information cannot be considered canon, however, because the notes conflict in too many places with the stories as they were actually published (HPLEX . ORG)
For the purposes of this story, Susan is a pureblood.
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