BEATER 2: The Acting Challenge - Write about suddenly taking on an unexpected role.
[dialogue] "Your tone seems very pointed right now."
[word] sickening
Team: Magpies
Word Count: 1477
Triggers: mentions of identity death
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
Gildaroy Lochart sat in the chair as the interviewer set everything up. It had only been recently that he had completely recovered from his memory charm accident. Despite nearly losing his whole memory and, frankly, his whole sense of self, he was quick to return to his ways. He was a narcissist at heart. He always had to have his face in front of a camera, and an interview was as natural to him as breathing was to others.
Lavender Brown, however, was not in the mood for any of his nonsense. Things had changed for her a great deal since the Battle of Hogwarts. While she didn't suffer from being a werewolf, she did have wolfish tendencies, and sadly, in the wizarding world, that was enough to scare people away.
"Does my hair look alright?" Lockhart asked.
"I assure you, Mr. Lockhart, this will be a written interview only; no photography."
"Oh." The former wizard celebrity looked at Lavender as if she had somehow deflated him like a balloon. Lavender, however, was not willing to entertain any sympathy for this man. Frankly, just in the short time she had gotten to know him, she was already wishing he was still memory-wiped.
"Alright, miss…" Lockhart paused; a look of uncertainty was scrawled across his face as he was desperate to spit out her name.
"Brown, Lavender Brown," Lavender said, her voice still cold and stoic.
Ah, yes, of course. We'll Miss Brown. Where would you like to begin?"
"How about we start at the beginning, Mr. Lockhart?"
"Ah, of course. Well, you see, when I was just 5 years old, I had already proven to be an exceptional wizard by turning lead into gold…"
"Just stick to the facts, Mr. Lockhart. After all, this is going into the papers."
Lockhart's face turned into a grimace. "Your tone seems very pointed right now."
Lavender gave a fake smile, followed by a chuckle. In reality, she found him sickening, but if she wanted to get through this, she was going to have to remain professional. "It's my job as a journalist for the Quibbler to report the truth. I can only do that if I'm presented with the facts. Now if you wish not to proceed with the interview…"
"No, no, no, that's quite alright." Lockhart's voice quickly fell into an almost childlike softness. As proud as the man was, he had one weakness that all but left him at the mercy of the shaggy, wolflike reporter in front of him. He was needy. He needed the attention. He was desperate to grasp whatever little fame he had left, and at this point he was willing to kowtow to anyone who was willing to give it to him.
"The facts… Well It was true that I was considered a man of great ambition. When I was a little boy, I was the only one among my siblings who had any magical ability. My two older sisters were squibs, you see. I was my mother's favorite child, and I guess you could say that she gave me the most attention.
"I see. So would it be accurate to say you are spoiled?" Lavender asked.
"I'm not sure if I would use the term spoiled." Lockhart corrected. "Let's just say that she had high hopes for me and thought highly of my abilities. God rest her soul. She'd always talk about how special I was. She'd talk about how I was always destined for greatness. So when I entered Hogwarts, I guess I assumed they'd think I was special too.
"They did not," Lavender asked, though her tone came across more as a statement than a question.
"No," Lockhart said, his ego clearly deflated by admitting that truth. "I was a decent student, but it got to the point where my skills hit a wall."
"Was there anything in particular you were good at?" Lavender asked.
Well, yes, I was exceptionally good at memory charms. I actually found this out when I accidentally broke a suit of armor on the third floor. When a Ravenclaw threatened to attack me, I panicked.
"I see," Lavender said matter-of-factly as she wrote down what Lockhart was saying. "So let's fast-forward post-graduation. Where did you get the idea to be an author?"
"I'm afraid you'd find the facts, as you'd put them, to be underwhelming, my dear."
"That's fine. The truth of the matter is what's important here."
Well, you see, Ms. Brown, after I graduated, I decided to travel the world in hopes of rediscovering myself. Who was I, and who did I want to be? It was on a trip to Africa that I ran into a witch doctor who, after a few bottles of strong spirit, started to blab about some of his inventions. Now my magical skills, for the most part, have degraded. But I was still good at memorizing details. So I had an idea. I would wipe the wizard's memory of their adventure and reinvent it as my own, selling it as an autobiography."
"It worked." Lavender mumbled. She still found the whole thing absurd. How did this man, who was so lazy and self-absorbed, manage to fill the entire world with what amounted to little more than fictionalized plagiarism? Were the powers that be that foolish?
"Do you know how you managed to get away with it for so long?" Lavender asked.
Lockhart simply grinned. "Ms. Brown, I have found that there is nothing people like more than a good story. They want to believe in a hero that is capable of doing deeds that only they themselves can fantasize about, and if they want to believe in something bad enough, they won't let things like common sense get in the way.
"You didn't remain the hero forever, however, did you?"
Lockhart couldn't help but smile. "Alas no. My final story had me take on the unexpected role of a villain."
"What exactly happened to cause the blatant roll reversal?"
Lockhart couldn't help but scoff. "Who do you think, darling?"
Lavender couldn't help but smile and nod. Ah, let me guess: Harry Potter. Yes, it always seems to come back to the boy who lived, doesn't it? You see, Ms. Brown, when the chamber of secrets was opened, I realized I had painted myself into a corner. Writing about taking on a basilisk was one thing; taking them on in person, however, was entirely different. I couldn't do it. minced meat, so I tried to subtitle leave, but then Harry and that Weasley boy caught me. I was going to wipe their memories then and there, but they had me outnumbered. So I came up with a plan. When we reached the chamber, I would pretend to faint and then snatch their wands from them and wipe their minds. I would take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that the two boys tragically lost their minds at the sight of her mangled body.
Lavender began to seethe. She still had her issues with Ron. The way he treated her while they were dating still stung, but the idea of his mind, his very sense of self, being completely destroyed by this fraud, this monster, she couldn't have imagined.
"Why?" Lavender asked. It was the only question he could muster.
"It's desperation, my dear. Desperation can turn even the greatest heroes into villains. It wasn't the role I wanted, but it was an unexpected role that was thrust onto me."
Lavender got up. "She had everything she needed, and frankly, even if she did need more, she didn't think she could bear it. "I believe I have everything I need. Thank you, Mr. Lockhart."
"Out of curiosity, Ms. Brown, what do you think of me?"
Lavender turned around with a fake smile that thinly veiled her wolf-like rage.
"What do I think, Mr. Lockhart? I'll tell you what I think. I think you are a lazy, gutless coward. I think you're a cheat and a fraud, but worse than that, you're a monster. You took credit for the things that other wizards had done, and you destroyed their memories and their experiences. In my eyes, that makes you worse than Voldemort. At least he had the decency to kill the victims outright. What you've done is worse. You destroyed their souls and left them as mad husks, and when you were finally caught, you were willing to do that to children of all people. You're a monster, Mr. Lockhart—a pathetic, sad little monster. Goodbye."
Lavender left the building and proceeded to walk back home. Next time, she would make sure to ask Luna if she could just do a story on some strange magical creature.