Disclaimer: I don't own the character or the world he lives in. That belongs to JK Rowling. I don't own the lyrics, they belong to Lifehouse from their 'Stanely Climbfall' cd.

Notes: No offence meant to Lifehouse by using their amazing lyrics for a parody. :)

Dedicated to Twixxa and Nita, with my deepest and most sincere apologies for what they're about to read.

Just Another Name


Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, third class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League and five times winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award. He's something all right, he'll always be something. That stunning golden hair, his award winning smile and, of course, his impeccable taste in robes. He gives off an aura of perfection, everything about him is simply amazing and he has women fawning all over him day and night. He is, in short, a perfect speciman of a wizard.

But strangely, with all that he has, Gilderoy Lockhart isn't completely content. He's almost . . . lonely, one might say. It might be hard to believe that a man such as Gilderoy Lockhart would be lonely, but it was true. Easy as it is to understand how a man like Severus Snape must be lonely, you have to reach deep into your imaginations and really feel the loneliness of our hero.

Speaking of our hero, perhaps we should join him as he sits alone and weeps for his lost love and what he once had. His luxurious blonde hair is tangled across his forehead and his . . . wait, sorry, he's brushing his hair straight. Let me begin again.

Our amazingly handsome hero perches on the edge of his bed, his shining hair perfectly combed off his face to show us that tears sparkle on his soft cheeks. His life, once so easy, has become a whirlwind of book signings and appearances at Wizarding shows. Fame isn't an easy to thing to deal with boys and girls, oh no, and our lovely Gilderoy seems to be having the hardest time of all. On the outside he seems so calm and collect, but on the inside there's a constant battle with himself. To be famous and loved by all, or to be a nobody and loved by one?

Gilderoy stares at her picture by his bedside. She's a beautiful witch with long blonde hair falling in shimmering waves . . . not more shimmering than his own golden waves, of course. Her blue eyes sparkle with happiness, though they don't sparkle more than his own blue eyes. Her smile could light up a room, but it's never won a single award . . . not like our perfect Gilderoy.

She was his true love, but fame corrupted her just as it corrupted their love. In the darkening room, Gilderoy bites back a sob for the woman he once loved, then breaks into a song that even a siren would envy.

(Riiiiiight.)

"Did all these clouds around you break your fall," he sings softly, "as you came crashing to the ground? Did you learn anything at all? You climb back up just to come back down."

Fame . . . it destroyed so many lives, his included. How hard it was to be famous, how agonizingly tough to be the object of affection for so many women.

"Everybody knows my name," he sings gently, speaking the words of his tortured soul, "but they don't know who I am. To them we're all the same. Yeah, I'm just another name."

His takes a deep breath, wavering slightly in the empty room. His agony is just so deep and no one knows. His façade is one of such hope, a hope to all the children of the wizarding world who want to one day wear his shoes.

"She said fame will bring me down," Gilderoy sings, his voice full and forceful. "At least that's what she used to say. Then I handed her another crown. She said it would never be this way."

His fingers move over his expansive wardrobe, touching silky robes of forget-me-not blue and lilac. His costumes, that's all they are. Just costumes to hide the real Gilderoy behind a flurry of colour and immensely expensive clothing.

"Which mask will you wear today?" he asks himself. "How about the one with the pretty smile? To you it's just another day in a life I haven't lived for quite a while."

Gilderoy's eyes go to the picture of his love once more. She had become so in love with the fame that she had forgotten he had been the one to bring it all to her. He hadn't been a normal wizard in so very long.

(Has he ever been normal?)

"Everybody knows my name," he sings . . . or warbles, take your pick. "But they don't know who I am. But to them we're all the same. Yeah, you're just another name. To them it's just a game and I think it's gone too far. You've got the most familiar face," he sings, mimicking the thousands of fans he runs across every single day.

Oh yes, the life of Gilderoy Lockhart is hard. To be as famous and as internationally adored as he is, is something we can't completely understand. Gilderoy Lockhart is next to a God and we, mere mortals, can only stand in the shadow of his unprecedented fame. If only he wasn't so lonely.

"But I'm just another name."

End

That was disturbing to even me. I'm not sure I even like this. :P