a/n: in case no one could tell, this is my favorite story at the moment. Heh.

It was summertime

A fifteen year old boy was sitting on an overturned bucket, a large quality sketchpad in hand. The garden that surrounded him was in full bloom. He concentrated hard as he drew another curving line to connect to what would become the whole of his masterpiece.

The sound of warm, full laughter came across to him.

"You're going to have to hold still longer than that," the boy said amiably, smiling to himself as he continued to draw. The curves of a girl's face soon became apparent on his paper.

The laughter again. It sent a sort of tingle down his spine. Not an unpleasant one by far. He looked up to gain his perspective again and…

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Healer Elleyne stared back at him.

"Ungh?" Gilderoy murmured with a surprised inflection to his tone. It was then that he noticed the piercing yellow light that was searing his eyes quite unkindly.

"Well, that's a good note to wake up on," Elleyne remarked. "Come on, get up sleepyhead."

Gilderoy slid out of bed and shuffled lethargically over to where she was now bustling around near the small wooden desk. There was some toast and a couple of random fortune cookies sitting on the desk. The steam that rose from the toast looked extremely welcoming.

"I'm hungry," Gilderoy mentioned.

"And that is what the food is for," Elleyne told him, laughing a bit. "You do know you've slept up till noon. And maybe you would've gone longer, if I hadn't wakened you just then."

"mmm"

"Hmm?"

"Good food. Where have the cookies come from?" Elleyne looked up and he indicated the fortune cookies.

"Ah, Brodyn had Chinese last night. Though as you can see, he's well gone." She eyed the cookies for a while before saying, "Let's go on and help ourselves."

Gilderoy reached for a cookie, unwrapped it, and popped it in his mouth. It was a while before he noticed he was eating paper.

"BLEHK!" Gilderoy quickly (and quite literally) coughed up his fortune.

"That's your second weird sound today," Elleyne commented as she read her own fortune ('You will find true love in an unexpected place'), rolled her eyes, and stuck it in the pocket of her white robes.

"Weird noises are my profession. Would you happen to know what this says?" he asked Elleyne, giving her a charming smile as he gave her the wet piece of paper.

"Oh, UCK! Right, fine. 'The snow will bring you visitors from the past.' Good luck on that one."

"Hey! That means I'll have actual visitors!" Gilderoy's heart rate sped in anticipation.

"You do know that was only a fortune cookie, don't you Roy?"

"Roy?"

Gilderoy flinched a tiny bit and stood in what seemed to be enormous shock. A blur of color and motion seemed to flash through his brain; none of it made the least bit of sense. Amid this confusion, he could hear a voice, muted but calling him.

"Gilderoy?" Elleyne had gone back to the use of his full name, apparently fearing she had done something to him. "I didn't mean to cause you to act like this…hey, can you hear me? Gilderoy?"

Hearing the concern in her voice, Gilderoy made an attempt to turn and face her. The noise, the rushing images, the zoned out feeling ended, and he was simply standing by a wooden desk next to Elleyne in the plain white room of a hospital. Where he had always been.

Gilderoy wiggled his toes to relieve some tension, and took a glance at his reflection in the small mirror he so loved. No wonder Elleyne had been frightened; he was white as his own bed sheets.

Gilderoy forced himself to talk.

"Yes, I'm fine. Sorry. It's just…say that again."

Elleyne just stared at him, confused. "Say what?"

"What you just said."

"Roy?"

"Yes! That's it, Roy! That's my name!"

"It's not your true name, Gilderoy. It's just a nickname."

"No, I've been called it before. That nickname, I mean. Someone has called me Roy!"

"Was that in one of your dreams or…"

"No, it wasn't in a dream!" Gilderoy said, completely truthful this time. "I just…remembered it, I suppose."

Elleyne looked jubilant. "You remembered? Are you certain? Remembered?"

"That is what I said, isn't it?" Gilderoy said, more to himself than Elleyne. He had just realized the significance of this, the reason she was so excited.

For the first time since the Accident, Gilderoy had recognized something which had not happened anytime after it. Was he making progress? Elleyne seemed to think it likely, because she was all of a sudden much more cheerful than she had been before this discovery.

"Here, we're learning some more writing today," she said happily, taking out some paper and patting the seat at the desk. Gilderoy sat.

For an hour they worked and worked at massing countless letters together to make countless words, until finally something of great importance (in Elleyne's opinion) happened.

"That's your name, Gilderoy!" she said, pointing to the sixteen letters he had just written out rather laboriously. Eight letters, space, eight letters. Nice and even. Gilderoy was already developing a fondness for it, though he didn't see why on earth Elleyne had to be so excited. It was really kind of annoying.

When he asked her about this, she looked at him in mild surprise.

"Because it's your name, Gilderoy. It's YOU."

"Yes, that is very nice, isn't it?" Gilderoy said vacantly. Elleyne could tell he didn't quite understand the concept. After a period of deep thought, she appeared to have an idea.

"Hmm…I wonder…well, it's worth a try."

Gilderoy grinned at her, then inquired on what she was talking about.

"Well…Gilderoy, do you know what an…an autograph is?"

"Auto graph. No."

"Doesn't ring a bell?"

"…No. Should it?"

"It could have. You see, back…before the Accident---

She paused to see how Gilderoy was taking this. He was leaning forward in his seat with a big dazzling smile on his face and curiosity in his eyes, and why wouldn't he? No one had been permitted to say much to Gilderoy about before he was obliviated. She never had understood why, and this was why she was taking the risk now. She started her sentence over, this time talking in a stronger voice.

"Autographs are signed pictures of oneself. That is, it's a picture of you, signed by you with your name. Generally, you give them to f…to people." Elleyne paused. She had been about to say 'fans' but she didn't know if she wanted to go that far quite yet.

"The point is, you liked to sign pictures of yourself and give them to other people."

"Why?"

"Well, I imagine it makes you feel important. It makes the people you give it to happy."

There was a brief silence. Then Gilderoy spoke again, eagerly.

"Can I know more about myself?"

"Not now. I may tell you more if I have permission." And she planned to ask for it as soon as she could. It felt rather good to be telling him things that meant so much to him, to have him hanging on her every word, his bright blue eyes lit up as he leaned toward her, waiting on her next syllable.

Gilderoy did not hide his disappointment. Elleyne checked the clock.

"Hey, I've got to go tend to Broderick now. Think you can handle yourself for a while?" She smiled kindly at his disappointed expression. "Look, I promise that I'll let you know more as soon as I can. Alright, Gilderoy?"

He looked at her, and smiled a little. Then a lot.

"Call me Roy."

"Well, I'm not so sure that's…"

"No, I like it. It makes me feel sort of strange, and maybe sad…I don't know. But I like it. I know that. I like it a lot."

Elleyne grinned. "Okay, Roy. Have a good one."

Gilderoy walked over to his bed, still smiling, and began to sort through his drawers. Coming up finally with a picture clasped in his hand, and a triumphant expression on his face, Gilderoy took his quill from the bedside table.

The picture had been taken before the Accident. It was of Gilderoy on a broom, kind of lounging there, the wind blowing through his hair, smiling and winking. Gilderoy didn't really understand the picture, or how he ever could have flown like that. But the fact that it was him was good enough.

Slowly and deliberately he began to write, and when he was finished, he stared down at the picture, the autographed picture, as it was called. And stared and stared.

And suddenly, he felt a warm, euphoric feeling wash over him, like something was stroking him down the back. Because he understood now. He understood perfectly.

"I am Gilderoy Lockhart," he whispered softly. Then, a surge of blissful energy poured over him and he jumped up from his bed and stretched his arms out to either side of him, smiling madly. He felt the roiling excitement in the pit of his stomach, and he knew what happened next could not be helped for all the world.

Gilderoy stood there on the floor of the closed ward and shouted at the top of his lungs, holding the autograph up high and grinning from ear to ear.

"I AM GILDEROY LOCKHART!"

There was a silence in which great many people were awakened from their sleep at the sound of his shout. Then, from the far end of the room, came the familiar, laughing voice of Elleyne.

"Hush, you!"