After his week in St. Mungo's, with his hand completely restored and stitched on, Lockhart made his way to find Mary. He couldn't keep away from her for one minute, if only he knew how much trouble the Greenhouses were about to cause him. Indeed, this was only the beginning...
Lockhart strode over to Mary with a wide grin on his face. He knew now that his hand was healed, he would be able to show proof of his bravery at saving the first year. Whatever was going through his mind at the wing was certainly not getting better. He wanted Mary and he wanted her bad.
"Out of the hospital, I see," Mary said cheerfully and smiled. "Sorry I didn't get a chance to come and visit." Whether she was serious about this or not was in Lockhart's hands.
Lockhart grinned. "That I am. It was fairly quick healing for something so serious. Was lucky I didn't lose my hand completely. The first year was pretty shaken up of course but what do you expect? Oh and a few others visited anyway."
This, for the first time was no lie. Almost the entire school came to visit him just to see if the rumours were true. Some of the older kids would pick on him and say he was a weakling, of course he showed them up by telling them the tale of what happened that day. The story was that the first year didn't want to get in trouble so kept it all hushed up. Lockhart kept his story about not knowing who the kid was, so of course. There was no one who could deny it, apart from James, Sirius and Peter who knew Lockhart all too well. Sirius was sceptical of the idea and spent his time trying to convince Mary that this was another of Lockhart's lies. However, Mary had no idea what to believe. She was confused about everything. What made matters worse was she had no idea how to tell Sirius about her recent crush on Luke, or the fact that Lockhart seemed to be coming onto her. She knew he would just blow up. Maybe things with Luke would blow over and it was just a small crush, nothing serious. She loved her Siri-bug.
"That's good," Mary said, shrugging away her thoughts. "I am still trying to process why there was a first year in the greenhouse with the shrub, though..."
I wish I had have thought of that before... Lockhart thought to himself, but he didn't dare make any sign of this. "Err... well that's beyond me as well, probably just exploring. You know what kids are like," he said and shrugged. "What happened to the shrub anyway?"
"I cleaned the blood off it. I also spoke to Professor Sprout. She said it can stay since I take care of them," she said.
"There was blood on it?! Wicked!" Lockhart beamed. "What from?" he asked, apparently dumbfounded to whether the blood was his own or the first-year, he had to keep his act up and this was the only way to do it. "So the monster is staying?"
"Uhm... let's think. You." she said pointedly. Who else, idiot? "And it's not a monster. Yes it is staying."
"Oh good," Lockhart sighed. "I thought it was to do with the first year," he said. Reputation, Lockhart... Mr. Nice guy, remember? He tried his best not to cringe at this thought, knowing how hard it would be to keep it up. "Why would they allow it to stay though? It's clearly dangerous."
Mary glared at him. "It's only dangerous if one doesn't know how to handle it and ignores instruction."
"Just a good thing I was there when the first year found it then, eh?" Lockhart said brightly.
"And good thing I have been training under Madam Pomfrey, otherwise you might have lost your hand forever." She glared at him. I don't care what happened. Nobody hurts the plant.
"And I thank you for that... by a lot," Lockhart said. "Thanks Mary," he grinned, having his own private joke. "I still don't understand why the plant can't go though... it's just a plant. There are plenty of them."
"It's not just a plant, Lockhart!" Mary snapped. "It is living and breathing just like you and me..." though I wish you weren't breathing right now! "The plant was just hungry. It would have been feeding time. It's not the plant's fault."
"It had its rats! If it was so much like us, it would have known not to eat the first year! I'm just trying to help the school," Lockhart sulked.
He reminded Mary of a four year old trying to reason with his parents.
"Have you met the marauders!? They never stop eating! The plant is a bloody self-fertilizing shrub! It eats things to grow... a lot like us."
Mary was slowly losing her patience, though she couldn't help but smile slightly at the thought of the marauders.
Lockhart sniggered at her marauder reference. It was true; he had never seen them at a time when they were not eating something.
"Well can't they train the plants? You know, like humans? Teach them not to eat people?! That first year would have been eaten if it weren't for me."
"Follow me, Lockhart," Mary said, fuming.