Afternoon came, and with it the various group therapy sessions. As usual, Lucius sat in stony silence, staring at whoever was talking. It wasn't a blank stare at all, but rather a calculated one. Gilderoy found himself watching him, wondering what was going on in his –

"Lockhart," Lucius said suddenly.

"Yes?"

Lucius gestured toward Marlene, who was waiting expectantly.

"Oh…sorry," Gilderoy said. "My mind was somewhere else. Would you mind repeating the question?" He smiled at her; a rather charming smile, he thought.

Marlene sighed, as though the day had already been too long for her liking. She repeated the question and Gilderoy answered. The question didn't register, really, and he just gave a standard response.

Marlene looked surprised that Gilderoy hadn't expanded on the question as he almost always did – usually with an anecdote about himself – but Lucius didn't look at him. Gilderoy followed Lucius' gaze. He was staring at Hilda. Hilda was chewing on her wrist.

Marlene gave Gilderoy a confused look, then turned her head to see what he was looking at. "Hilda!" she cried, moving over to the small woman and pulling her hand out of her mouth.

"This place is shit!" Hilda yelled suddenly. "Don't touch me, don't touch me, don't – "

She never finished. Marlene had pulled her wand out and said something quickly, under her breath. Hilda's eyes rolled back into her head and she started to fall forward. Gilderoy jumped up and caught her before she hit the ground. She was frighteningly limp; her limbs appeared to have almost no substance at all.

The whole thing took under a minute.

Order was restored slowly. Hilda was taken out by Geoffrey, and everyone settled back down into the circle to continue talking. Lucius' eyes continued to scan the room, every now and then falling on someone and subjecting them to his scrutiny. He hadn't moved during the whole incident.

An hour later, when therapy was over and dinner had been eaten, Lucius started back to the room. He still hadn't said a word. He didn't look shaken, exactly; just more alert, more aware of what was happening than he usually was.

Gilderoy got up and followed him, as he normally did.

"Are you all right, Lucius?" he asked Lucius when they were in the sanctuary of their room.

"Why are you so concerned with how I am? As I keep telling you, I'm fine."

"Oh." There was a brief silence. "Are you looking forward to seeing your family again tomorrow?"

Lucius didn't reply right away, and for a moment Gilderoy thought he might have said something wrong. Then Lucius said, "I'm not sure." He sat on his bed and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes. "What about you?" he said. "Are you looking forward to seeing family when you leave?"

"I don't know about my family," Gilderoy said, sitting down as well. "I don't remember them."

"You don't remember them, you don't remember who you are, you don't remember anything except this hospital," Lucius said. A mocking tone had crept back into his voice. "You have my pity."

"Oh, you don't have to give me your pity, Lucius. After all – "

"Would you like me to tell you?" Lucius said.

"Tell me what?"

"Who you are. Why everyone knows you. What happened."

"Well, I don't think we should…ah, but if you want to tell me I'm certainly not going to stop you!"

Lucius smiled, a slow smile that told Gilderoy that he was getting more pleasure out of the whole deal than he should have been.

"Gilderoy Lockhart," Lucius said softly, keeping his eyes closed. "Order of Merlin, third class. Honorary member of the Dark Force Defense League. Five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile award. Author. Celebrity. And, might I add, a total pain in the – "

"Seriously?" Gilderoy said, his eyes wide. "Five times?"

"Leave it to you to latch on to that. And yes, five, as you so often reminded anyone who would listen."

"Is there more?" Gilderoy said, fascinated. Why had no one told him this before?

Lucius' eyes opened. "Well, as I said, you were a celebrity. Everyone loved you, particularly those of the female persuasion. Which lead to many rumors, as you never had any 'lady friends', so to speak…" Lucius paused, then said, "Dear lord, this is the quietest you've been all week."

"Keep going, keep going," Gilderoy prodded.

"This past year you were a teacher at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. And what do you suppose happened there?"

"I was hit by a Memory Charm. But why…?"

"You were in the Chamber of Secrets, as you may recall –"

"Chamber of what?"

Chamber of Secrets. Ask someone to look it up for you sometime. Either way, you were there. Rather fitting, as you had just had your largest secret unearthed by a couple of twelve-year-old boys."

"My largest…what?"

"Secret, Lockhart, secret. Surely you know what I – "

"I know what you mean, but not what you're talking about."

"That your celebrity image was achieved using false means, of course." Gilderoy felt his jaw drop, and he knew how stupid he must look, but he didn't care. "You took credit for others' achievements by using, poetically enough, your Memory Charms. You were quite skilled with them in school, as I recall.

"Yes, I went to school with you too," Lucius said, seeing Gilderoy's eyes widen again. "And I hated you then as much as I hate you now. But the fact remains that you're a fraud, Gilderoy. A fraud and a coward who was willing to let a young girl die in the Chamber of Secrets for the sake of saving your own pitiful reputation.

"You are nothing. And you should always remember that. If you don't…trust me, someone else will."

Lucius fell silent as Marlene opened the door. "Is everything all right in here?" she asked. Neither of the men replied, and she looked around suspiciously until Gilderoy said "I think I need to get out of here for awhile. I'm not feeling well." He stood up and walked out.

Marlene caught up to him halfway down the hall. She put her arm around his shoulders and steered him back towards the nurses' station. "Do you think you're getting sick?" she asked him.

"Yes, I think I might be. Perhaps I ought to have a separate room for the night, so Lucius doesn't come down with…whatever it is I have."

Marlene stepped behind the counter and opened the door to the cabinet behind it. "Take this," she said, reaching in and taking a bottle of some unknown potion out. Gilderoy did as she said, but she still looked at him strangely.

"Well," she said, "you look slightly better for it, but you do look extremely pale. Perhaps you had better spend the night in confinement, although not locked in. Will that work?"

"Yes, Marlene, that would be lovely," Gilderoy said, relieved that he wouldn't have to see Lucius again that night.

Marlene stomped on that last thought immediately. "Go get your things," she said.

"Oh, but – "

"Frankly, I don't have any patience for you or Lucius left. Go get your things or stay in your own damn room."

Marlene was usually rough, very rarely truly aggravated. This was one of those very rare times. She turned on her heel and stomped into the confinement room to prepare it. Gilderoy went back into his room, swearing against…whom, exactly, he wasn't sure. Marlene, Lucius…himself… Either way, he was both looking forward and dreading that night. True, he wouldn't have to deal with Lucius, but he would also have to be alone, in the dark, dealing with himself.

Gilderoy pushed the door to his room open. What he saw in there shocked him to the point of screaming.