Lockhart folded the letter and gently placed it into the envelope, the rubbing and scratching of the paper as it slid inside filled the current deafening silence in the room. Most of the other patients had gone to sleep, with quietening charms muffling their snores. The celebrity wizard would glance at the clock, the second hand would turn clockwise slowly but surely. Lockhart wished he could for just a couple of moments slow down that clock hand, so that he could live this day for just a little longer before bedtime.
Watching the second hand turn around as each second passed. Lockhart would manually blink as his eyes stung from dryness. The minute hand was now slightly in a different position than before. Lockhart would focus on the hands before the wooden creak of a door was heard, snapping his focus immediately away from the clock.
"Hmm it appears that you still need to sign some autographs Mr Lockhart. Wanna stay up for another hour in order to sign them or wait for tomorrow?" Asked the nurse as she walked in with the visitor. Lockhart's face would brighten nearly instantly.
"Of course I am willing to! These are my adoring fans, it is my duty Stacy," Lockhart replied enthusiastically as he wrote his signature on a device unfamiliar to him.
"Thanks Mr Lockhart. My wife has always dreamed of meeting you but she is quite busy, so I did this for her," replied the man.
"That is absolutely fine dear sir, I hope that your wife is doing well. What might this peculiar contraption I am holding be?" Lockhart asked the man out of curiosity. Turning, twisting, all whilst pressing and pulling on it here and there Lockhart examined the seemingly alien device.
"Oh, this is a muggle instrument. They call it a smartphone; they are very useful indeed. You should get one too Mr Lockhart. But I am late for dinner sir so I would have to go home in a moment," the husband smiled. Gilderoy's arms would reach out to return the man's phone however there was some resistance and hesitation which pushed them back. The celebrity had no qualms with handing back the man's possession but feared what would come after.
"It was a pleasure to meet you Mr Lockhart. I'll let my wife know that you are doing well," he said before closing his eyes, his body abruptly disappeared, and a small pop would follow.
"Farewell young man!" Gilderoy waved as the man apparated away. However, much to the horror of Stacy a bloody patch of skin dropped to the floor.
"Ahh! The man got splinched!" Stacy yelled. It was fortunate there were charms placed to prevent the asleep from hearing this and waking.
"Don't worry! I will get rid of this," Lockhart haughtily declared as he waved his wand and vanished the grotesque object. Stacy and two people outside clapped as they saw the wizard in action, it was a shade of what the famous wizard once garnered. Lockhart would bask in the meagre applause, latching onto it as it acted as a small but existent gateway to the extravagant past that which he lost. It wasn't much, even a 1st year at Hogwarts could accomplish such a mundane feat but for one of the lined-up visitors it was phenomenal, seeing the wizarding legend in the flesh.
Lockhart's supposed exploits were known globally, he had fans from all around the world from Africa, Australia to even the United States. Every day he would have people travel to St Mungo's in order to meet him. But year after year it became more apparent that he was a has-been rather than an enduring figure. The average age of his visitors increased steadily until most became too busy with responsibilities such as children and their career, resulting in cases like before where they needed someone else to visit on behalf of them.
"And… Lucky last!" Stacy exclaimed as she pointed to a girl in the ever-so-familiar Ravenclaw robes holding her mother's hand, her smile was warm and felt genuine. It had been so long since he met a fan from a newer generation, a tear would begin forming on the corner of his eye as he greeted them both.
"And what might your name be young lady?" Lockhart smiled with his always iconic smile, one so legendary that it won Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award five times. The most amount of times any wizard or witch had ever won.
"Oh no no sir! I am just a 5th year at Hogwarts, we're just about to start school. It is my mum that wants your autograph," she scratched her head, aiming to be polite to him. Lockhart's drop like a dying plant, at first the girl seemed like a genuine plan. Part of him knew that younger people only visited him with their parents but another part of him wanted to believe in his current relevance.
"She isn't here for me? That is quite sad, this has been happening a lot lately. It has been happening more and more often. How could I be forgotten after all the great things I've done for this world?" he thought as the mother walked up to him.
"Don't worry about her Mr Lockhart, kids these days do not know much about past great wizards like you…"
"What are you saying mum? We learn about all sorts of important magical figures such as Harry Potter, his friends such as Ronald Weasley, Hermione the current Minister for Magic, Severus Snape, Jarleth Ho…" the girl was suddenly interrupted as her mother glared back at her with eyes she only pulled out when the girl was caught playing muggle games at night or her dad was caught consuming obscene materials.
"Past…" Lockhart internally reflected on the word. After his memory erasure he had lost all his magical experience, he was an empty husk only given meaning and identity by the past things he accomplished. He had read his own books and was thankful for them, not every wizard has written material on their life and accomplishments. He had throughout his years at the hospital yearned for more though, he would spend hours and entire days thinking hard in order to salvage whatever wreckage was left of his earlier life. No matter how hard he tried he never got even a snippet of his past. His past self for him was essentially an entirely different person. He couldn't help but think that the accomplishments in his books were those of not him but someone else.
"I am sorry about that sir, perhaps they only learn about you in more advanced classes. She is only starting 5th year, it has been a true honor to meet you," the woman said as she showed her phone to him.
"Of course a fifth year would not have heard about me! They are only studying the basics," Gilderoy smiled, relieved at this explanation he happily signed yet another smartphone. With that Lockhart yawned as he was now very tired from signing all those autographs. The woman would strike a conversation with her hero, restoring Lockhart's energy. They would begin conversing, about Lockhart's books, about how he inspired her. The discussion would be led to all sorts of topics including what he remembered of his past, a subject which pained Lockhart. The wizard would desperately try to prolong the discussion, finding new topics, asking more questions though whilst trying to maintain respect and not be too intrusive or forcing. Eventually they would run out of topics to discuss, it didn't help that around half of Lockhart's life and virtually all his most adventurous years were but destroyed. It was getting late and the woman needed to sleep to stay on top of her own responsibilities now. The woman frowned as she was reminded of her childhood from this interaction. She apparated away along with her daughter after saying a tearful goodbye, the meeting had ended with a small pop. The sound Lockhart had now always dreaded to hear. Looking around Lockhart would see that the hospital wing was now empty save for the staff and the other patients.
"You know what impresses me Mr Lockart? After all these years people still come to see you. Not every wizard has that," Stacy remarked.
"Every year I see less and less people, that is what I have noticed," Lockhart frowned. His sadness accentuated by his tiredness.
"Well… Not everyone can be remembered forever you know? You can't expect everyone to know you after 100 years,"
"Dumbledore is remembered, Merlin is remembered, Hobart is still remembered…"
"Well, I guess there are some wizards who get remembered for a long time. But… I think that you should be proud about how much you have achieved, how many wizards are even famous let alone still known after so many years?"
"I am not 'known'. Today was my birthday Stacy, this is an annual event where my fans meet up with me at this lousy hospital. There is supposed to be more people today than any other and I only saw about one hundred. There used to be a time when every ten minutes I would have the same amount of fan mail arrive,"
"Don't be sad it ended, be happy it happened. I sure I wish I was one tenth of what you were Mr Lockhart! Now it is time for bed," Stacy smiled. However, another woman appeared out of nowhere. Smiling, the woman greeted the two.
"Well hello there Mr Lockhart, long time no see," the mysterious woman was covered in a black robe and with a hood covering her face. Her voice was soft but cold as ice.
"Who are you?" Replied Lockhart. His face invigorated by the prospect of meeting with another visitor.
"How did you get past our security measures?" Stacy interjected. Instinctively moving backwards out of fear.
The hooded witch pointed at Stacy, a magical projectile flew out of her chest and struck the nurse, paralyzing her. She quickly ran towards Gilderoy before he could pull out his wand. She then pinned him down and then forcefully made him drink a potion as he tried to scream and squirm.
"Best of luck Lockhart. I have been preparing this potion for a month to have my revenge," the woman whispered; Lockhart noticed red hair as she leaned into him. The witch then apparated away.
Stacy now unfrozen bolted up and then called for help from other healers who rushed towards Lockhart's room in a panic, she did not know how the woman managed to sneak into the hospital when it was impossible to Apparate into the hospital (even though it was possible to Apparate from it). Lockhart, succumbing to the effects of the potion went into a coma. The healers rushed in to do all they could but nothing could wake up the blonde wizard.
-
"Where am I?" wondered Lockhart.
"Oooh, it is a child! Yummy!" an old woman with warts approached him, licking her lips.
"What? Why am I in a child's body?" Lockhart screamed as the old hag chomped on him, Lockhart felt every bit of pain from this dream as he yelled for help but it was no use. Eventually he opened his eyes and found himself inside the familiar hospital wing of St Mungo's.
"How are you today Mr Lockhart?" a handsome man with pale skin smiled at him.
"Who are you? Where is Stacy? Is it still night time?" Lockhart panted as he woke up from his nightmare. The man then grinned and showed two sharp teeth as he bit the wizard's neck and sucked him dry of blood as Gilderoy screamed yet again. After waking up Gilderoy clutched his chest as he continued panting. This time he was in a forest where a giant troll stared at him and approached him.
"Please! Please! Go away I mean no harm!" Gilderoy shouted as the Troll smashed him with his wooden mace. Gilderoy then woke up yet again in St Mungo's, this time there was a figure sitting on his bed, facing away from him.
"Is she gonna bite me?" Lockhart thought until the lady turned around and screamed at him. The noise caused immense pain in his head until he woke up in a football field. The scenery was quite ominous, with a full moon in the sky, across from him there was a little boy holding a soccer ball.
"Uh… can you help me please?" Lockhart cried out before the boy turned into a werewolf and jumped to eat him.
"He is convulsing! Can anyone save him?" Stacy pleaded as she pulled nervously on her green pigtails.
"I have never seen anything like this. All our spells and potions are having no effect, if we don't do anything he will eventually die," replied the head healer, wiping a sweat from his brow.
"There has to be a way!" the greenhead yelled.
"There is only one way unfortunately, there are some experimental cures in the United States but those cost a fortune, we don't have that here."
"Well Gilderoy does have some of his fortune stocked up."
"Most of that fortune vanished due to a failed investment in a Gilderoy theme park."
"He still has more than you and me combined."
"It would take far more than what he currently has. This is America Stacy the costs of their experimental ultra-cures are gigantic," he stated as Stacy cursed, trying to think of a solution. It was probably not going to work but it was worth a try.
"I am going to start a fundraiser. People will know and help him."
"It won't work, the cure in America involves dark magic. The ministry won't allow a fundraiser to go towards something like that. Furthermore, even if they did it is unlikely that there will be enough people willing to donate, especially when there is that rumor that Mr Lockhart faked it all."
"What do we do then?"
"I am going to make a call, I am not too good with muggle technology so I hope you can help me. But I heard that it is faster than something like an owl," he said as he pulled out a smartphone and a large book.
"The Americans have these numbers which apparently are used to contact them through this device. I still don't know how muggles communicate over long distances. Stacy, would you be able to call this person?" He asked as he pointed to a record in the book. The nurse immediately with her experience in muggle technology dialed the numbers, he could easily tell her experience with the phone by looking at her dexterous fingers typing on the electronic keypad. The call had been made and now the two hospital workers eagerly waited for the other side to pick up.
"How long does it usually take Stacy?" he nervously said. His eyes darting back and forth between the phone in Stacy's hand and the sleeping Lockhart.
"Less than a second, the reason it is taking so long is because the person you are calling hasn't accepted the call yet. Think about it as a floo network except the person who owns the other fireplace has to give you permission to seek."
"Ah, that is quite inter…" the doctor was cut off when a voice was heard from his phone.
"Hi."
"I am Gerald calling to ask for something for one of my patients," he replied.
"It has been a long time since you called me for any medical help, your problem must be quite difficult if you are asking for advice. I will do the best I can to help."
"I need 'The Cure'," Gerald answered, then a long moment of silence occurred before the wizard on the other end replied.
"This is very dark magic Gerald, this goes against the laws of nature. Something I presume you wouldn't want to do."
"Please Jane, the man I am trying to save is very important to me and this hospital. He has brought smiles upon everyone here; he made this place more of a welcoming community than a miserable place for broken people wither. He might be full of himself and very vain, but I believe that he is a good man at heart."
"Which patient is this?"
"Gilderoy Lockhart."
A long silence would occur, Jane often talked and responded very quick. She was not the type of person to need much time to think about what she was going to say.
"Interesting, the Gilderoy Lockhart huh? I guess I can make a concession this one time. But I make no promises, I am going to use this opportunity to test a new method of brewing potions," the woman smiled behind the phone.
"I will do anything at this point," replied Gerald.
"Once I remove the charms around my office I will tell you and you can apparate to it," she spoke as she pulled out her wand and started removing the various protective charms around her office.
After a couple of minutes Jane informed Gerald and he apparated along with Lockhart to Jane's hospital in the United States, Stacy was told to be left behind to take care of the other patients and spread the news. Gerald after placing Lockhart on a stretcher provided by Jane he was directed to an underground portion of the hospital to which he was greeted with a very unfamiliar setting, the room was populated by metallic behemoths to which Gerald had never encountered. The room had nothing else in it, the walls were blank white without any wallpaper, the floors were also homogenously white without any design. There was no room for any useless distractions.
"I have studied magical beasts for decades in order to know how to treat them, I have never encountered these monstrosities."
"These aren't beasts, these are machines made by muggles. They are used in order to achieve phenomenally precise measurements. According to my husband who is a professor of Muggle Studies at Hogwarts these devices could potentially make the most advanced potions as easy to make as filling a flask with water from a tap. These machines are more accurate at creating potions than anything in the magic world. According to my husband they can outclass even the best potion makers, they surpass humans by a wide margin. This machine will be tested and used to brew the potion that if successful will save mr Lockhart. Normally it would be impossible to brew a potion which requires such precision, but perhaps with this machine we can save Lockhart."
"So you are not going to charge me anything?" Gerald asked. The woman smirked and replied.
"If this machine is successful which according to my trustworthy husband it will, we will be able to achieve gargantuan profits from this potion, we could potentially mass produce potions previously thought to be difficult to brew even 1 milliliter of. If this machine works our profits would be multiplied several times, especially for potions which use cheap and common ingredients but require a huge amount of precision."
"You American healers always think about money," Gerald spoke but held back his disgust in order to not annoy the healer.
"There is a muggle saying. 'Money makes the world go round', the same is true for the magical world Gerald," Jane spoke back before she ordered her assistant to activate the machine. With a loud hum the machine began working. Mixing, grinding, liquifying and injecting the machine would eventually pour the final product into a cauldron suspended on top of a blue fire. The entire process was a spectacle to Gerald, the mechanized parts moving in harmony and the constituent processes culminating into an evil potion, but one that would save Lockhart.
"I am going to fetch the final ingredient whilst I wait for the concoction to boil," said the healer as she walked out of the room, leaving Gerald to wait. He would wait for a couple of minutes until he heard yelling in the distance, an old man was squirming before he was silenced with a paralysis charm. The security guards then carried him into the potion room. Gerald, now shivering glared at Jane.
"Are you going to do what I think your going to do?"
"Like I said, this is very dark magic. Don't worry, this wizard was going to face the death penalty anyways."
"That is one of the reasons I left this country," Gerald spat back.
"I thought you were going to do 'anything at this point'?" Jane reminded.
"I would, but this is just wrong, I can't trade someone else's life for his. That is against the oath I took."
"Then you are going to have to find some other way to save him, which is probably non-existent."
Gerald's eyes then dropped to the floor, he took a seat and with his hands he covered his face. Eventually his eyes would glare back at Jane with determination and he stood up.
"I will trade my own life," Gerald declared at the shock of everyone in the room.
"Alright then, this is a rather surprising turn of events," Jane replied as an owl flew into the room with a parchment of paper.
"Just sign this, strip yourself and then jump right into that cauldron," Jane continued heartlessly.
Gerald did as instructed, he then with perspiration and a large degree of shivering walked towards the cauldron.
"You look quite afraid, are you sure you want to die instead of using a murderer to achieve the same result?"
"There are things worse than death Jane," Gerald answered back as he steeled his resolve and then eventually after a couple of moments jumped into the cauldron, his body dissolving instantly. His death came so quick that a scream wasn't even heard before he met his doom.
"Now to see if it works," Jane whispered as she cast an advanced spell on the cauldron, condensing the liquid inside the cauldron into a more potent and concentrated product. She then picked up a flask and after moving it close to the cauldron, windlessly and non-verbally commanded the cauldron to fill the flask with its contents. The cauldron was now empty since she only brewed enough for one person, she then took it to Lockhart's unconscious body and poured the potion down his throat.
Within the realistic but endless dreams Gilderoy had experienced death multiple times. With each death chipping away at his sanity yet not inching him any closer to a true peaceful slumber to the afterlife. Lockhart was now yet again in a hospital bed at St Mungo's. He tried to squirm but his body was as stiff as a statue, across the bed was Gerald.
"Please go away, don't kill me please," he tried to scream but instead it came out as an internal thought.
"I am not here to kill you Mr Lockhart! I am going to save you," Gerald shouted as the healer's body was contorting.
"I can't… hold it any longer Gilderoy, ahhhhh!" the healer screamed as his body warped painfully into a grotesque door. Gilderoy's body suddenly was relieved of its paralysis, at the other side of the hospital room were the monsters which tortured him in his previous deaths, they all ran towards him but Lockhart through his will to live jumped through the door created by Gerald.
At the other side was yet another hospital room, except more sophisticated. The room was mostly white as snow with a couple of brown bookshelves and unfamiliar contraptions which colored the blank canvas of an area. There was nobody in the room. Lockhart confused looked around the room to see if there was an answer.
"Where am I? Why am I here? Isn't my mother supposed to be sending me off to Hogwarts? What is my name again?" Lockhart thought as he looked around. The once older wizard was now suffering from a special kind of memory loss. His entire body and mind had been reverted to when he was 11 years old, coincidentally right before his 1st year at Hogwarts.