Author's Note: If you didn't start to like Lockhart after the last chapter, I don't know how you'll ever like him. I had watch Mary Shelly's Frankenstein with Helena Bonham Carter and he plays Frankenstein; and he actually does have a hot body in that movie. If you've never seen it, I'd recommend it; Robert De Niro is the Frankenstein Monster, also. Anyway, hope you enjoyed that. Onto the story.

The Minister's Wife

Chapter Ten: The Morning After

Lockhart and Celexia didn't say a word about their consumation, but after she walked Lockhart out the door with a smile on her face, after kissing him sweetly on the cheek to dismiss, and after she closed the door and locked it, she rolled her eyes and went back upstairs to pleasure herself.

Lockhart had been good at the kissing and the teasing, but when it came down to the actual sex, it was like she was in charge. Not to say that she didn't particularly love taking charge, but he never came in to take the domination away from her. If she hadn't been drunk with alcohol, she'd have been bored with nothing to do. She wasn't brought to orgasm; she faked hers, but could very much tell that Lockhart was true to his word when he told her that she was spectacular in bed. Celexia had thought he was going to sweep her off her feet, but he merely tripped her a little.

When Cornelius came home, she was in bed, half asleep. Cornelius wasn't too quiet when he entered the chamber. In fact, he made no effort to silence his steps.

"No," said Celexia sarcastically, "feel free to barge and bang." She sat up in bed, her nightie straps fallen from her shoulders.

"I ran into Professor Lockhart."

"Oh yeah?" said Celexia, unalarmed.

"Yeah." Cornelius remarked. "Said that he enjoyed his little stay-over. What exactly happened?"

"We drank. What do you think we did?" she remarked.

Cornelius glanced at her arm. She automatically gave a forced sigh of annoyance.

"Just climb into bed and go to sleep..." she muttered. "Ignore the fucking Dark Mark for once. If you did, I'd fuck your brains out too."

In the morning, Cornelius told Celexia that he forgave her filthy mistake. He believed that she hadn't done it on her free willing mind, that she was too hammered to have done any fine thinking. Not to mention, she brought up the thirty-year dry spell with vice and he understood it to been had a vindictive lash on his part. He promised to keep it silent to the public. Celexia didn't mind the promise nor did she care if he forgave her. Sex had been all that it was last night; if she had loved Lockhart, she'd have left the stubborn bastard and married the lying ass.

Lockhart's promise to her to keep his mouth shut was a lie, though Celexia could've guessed that anyway. In mid-afternoon, the Daily Prophet had snuck its tale tell story into the front page. Celexia had been brought to attention during one busy hour of the afternoon by Amos Diggory, who had caught the news from an old friend of Rita Skeeter's.

"I thought you were a Hufflepuff, loyalty is the soul that is based on the houses we were sorted into," said Amos as he closed Celexia's office door; he watched her sit on her desk, pushing back her long bangs off her face. He stared at her. Her amiable nature was to be admired, but he couldn't believe how relaxed she appeared. He held up the newspaper to her face, feverish and his glasses slipping off his nose.

The headline read "Famous Wizard Knight and Lady Minister Get Friendly".

"Huh," laughed Celexia, "you'd think they come up with a fancier title."

"Celexia." Amos remarked in disapproval.

The moving photograph was cut in the shape of a heart; it was the dancing pose a reporter had gotten when they had been out on the night in the eatery after dessert. Celexia and Lockhart both were smiling in that picture, but it was most likely that the wine had settled in. Celexia grinned at her co-worker and simply took the newspaper out of his hands and set it on her desk.

"Amos, Amos, Amos," she sighed, sliding off the desk; Amos backed up as she landed on her feet. "Look, my husband and I hadn't been intimate in several years. I was drunk and we merely...'bumped uglies'. If there was anything between that ass and me, I'd have left Cornelius in an instant."

"Is it a job issue?" asked Amos, losing his pompous attitude. He left it in the office when he and Celexia were talking without anyone there. "I can take more time here and work in your stead if there is a time problem."

"That's very kind of you, Amos," she said appreciatively, patting him on the shoulder, "but it isn't needed. That is not why he won't touch me."

"Why, then?" Amos pried, taking her arm before she could leave the office.

"You wouldn't understand, or believe me, if I told you," she answered gently, taking his fingers off her arm. "Now, we have to get back to work. Kettleburn needs vampire bats and iguanas to teach his fifth years."

"I thought we delivered those to Hogwarts last year?"

With a small smile, Celexia said,

"Last year, the professor who taught his fifth years about vampire bats and iguanas was killed."

"Ah, yes, Quirrell."

Celexia nodded. This probably was the first time she had mentioned about Quirrell's demise in the basement of Hogwarts. Severus Snape had dropped by to her fill her in with the details about Voldemort's host on the back of the mediocre teacher's head. It was one of the things that Cornelius denied, a reason why he suspected Celexia of Dark activities; she hadn't told Cornelius that it had been Snape that had passed that bit of information to her. She kept Snape's past secret too.

"Anyway," Celexia continued, "Kettleburn wanted to teach the fifth years about the Dark creatures; he suspects that Lockhart won't be as good of a professor like Quirrell was," she explained.

"Tell me one thing before we leave this in here," said Amos.

"What?"

"You'd tell me if you were hiding anything, right? You can trust me."

Celexia smiled and embraced him with a friendly hug. He patted her back.

"Of course." Celexia muttered. They stepped back. "But I have nothing to hide."

"All right..." Amos said gently. He left the office.

Celexia sighed and followed him out the door.