Very short chappie. Sorry about that…

And sorry about not writing. Life is busy. Volunteering takes time. Over-the-summer work is much hated.

I hope you haven't forgotten about Jack Hardy. I'll just give you a quick overview. He's the one with the friend who got most of his face melted off by a dragon. Does that explain things?

Enjoy.

-R

"So we're trying to keep these dragons away from those who will breed them to make hybrids. This could be a disaster. A witch in Belgium combined a flamingo and a Chinese Fireball. The pink feathers crowning its head caught fire when it tried to cook the witch. The creature's eyes were all droopy and-"

Gilderoy leaned forward, closer to Emily. She was so cute when she tried to get him to listen to what she was saying. He knew he should be paying attention to this – even writing it down. It wouldn't look odd at all. She would think that he's just quoting her for his "article." He would actually create a small story where he rescues the witch and defeats the hybrid. But for now he was distracted from his goal of becoming a published fraud.

His lips hovered inches from hers and she stopped talking, almost choking on her words. Her mouth was soft and sweet, tasting almost of….

Lockhart grinned to himself. The cook would be so annoyed if he learned that she had been snacking on chocolate. He always insisted on food that was "high in protein" and tasted like a mixture of the foulest Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

xVx

He woke up. And stared around the empty ward. Where was Datura?

"Rise and shine Sleeping Beauty." Datura sighed, nudging the door open with her foot. "Here's your yogurt. Have fun."

"Don't mock the yogurt," he grumbled as he took the tray that had been shoved at him.

"I wasn't mocking it. I brought you some cranberry juice, too. Did you know that cranberries can help maintain urinary tract health?"

"No, and I really didn't need to know."

"Well now you do," Datura said simply, shrugging.

Lockhart was on the brink of covering his ear and screaming "LALALALALALA!" so he wouldn't be able to hear any more pleasant facts she would throw his way. "Leave me alone with my yogurt now, please," he said instead. He sounded very impatient, but tried to cover it up. If she knew how annoyed he was, she'd bother him just to see him squirm.

"Somebody's Grumpy."

"Ha-ha. You're funny today," he replied tonelessly.

"You know Disney?" She sounded incredulous.

"Duh. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves."

"I didn't know you'd actually get that joke." She made a weird face that he enjoyed seeing. He had surprised her!

"I didn't know you made jokes."

"Eat your yogurt," she snapped.

"I don't wanna eat my yogurt."

"Why are you so grumpy today? It isn't your time of month, is it?" she taunted.

Gilderoy chose to ignore what she had just said. "No, I just had another memory. I thought I was free of them forever."

"Maybe you did something bad and your conscience doesn't like that you forgot it." Datura shrugged again.

"I kissed the girl, why would I modify her memory?"

"You kiss girls? Cue the song 'I Kissed a Girl,'" Datura sniggered loudly, making no attempt to act at all professional.

"Just go away," he groaned.

"Fine."

"Find a bloke to date for a while. I'll give him ten galleons if he keeps you happy so you don't mock me or my yogurt."

"I'd mock you anyway. And you don't have to pay someone to go out with me."

"You have a boyfriend already?" he asked incredulously.

"Oh, sod off."

"Hey, it's okay if you're still single. There's gotta be someone somewhere who'll-"

SLAM.

"have you…" he finished weakly.

On the plus side, he was now alone with his yogurt.

xVx

"Datura!" she heard a voice call her name. "DATURA HENBANE!"

She whirled around, trying to find the source of this voice. Ah. Jack Hardy. She tried her hardest to sound cool and collected when her head was burning and she felt sort of light-headed.

"Wow, you remembered." The awestruck tone wasn't working for her.

"Yeah, I have a good memory," he said, shrugging.

Memory.

"Uh…" Datura struggled for something mildly intelligent to say. "Uh… Your friend, Richard Worthington will be fine… We reattached chunks of skin that had been burnt off. He will have scars, but he's okay with that. We were going to smooth it out, but he thought he'd look more dashing with the scars…"

Jack smiled and shook his head. "That's exactly like him."

"The sad thing is that our Trainee Healer agreed with him. She's making us look bad." Datura laughed, but the sound came out unconvincing and strangely false. Why was this happening?!

"It'll take a few days to heal up fully, but basically he's out of danger."

"Oh, that's great," he said enthusiastically. "Did you mix up that salve thing?"

"Yeah, I made it. It fixed him right up mostly." The salve that she had spent all week working on – night and day.

"That's great," he said again. "Uh, if there's anything I can do for you…"

"Thanks. I'll let you know if I need a favor."

"No, seriously," he said. "If you need something, just owl me. I'll be staying at the Leaky Cauldron until Richard gets fully better."

"Thanks," Datura said warmly, once more. "I'll let you know if there's anything you can help me with."

xVx

"Oh, Merlin!" gasped Amanda, the red-headed Trainee. "Who was that man?!" she said after Jack Hardy had left. "He has positively yummy arms!" Her green eyes were wide and shiny, sort of glazed over with evident lust. According to her, she just 'knows how to appreciate a man.' According to Datura, she's just 'weak and idolizes anyone that doesn't shave their legs.' That means muggle professional swimmers are probably out… or not.

Reviews are appreciated.