Michael Brown
The initial joy I felt upon confirming the identity of Tom's host quickly wore off, as I soon discovered that I wasn't entirely comfortable with the situation I found myself in. Surprisingly, hiding behind a pillar from the onslaught of spells cast by the deranged DADA professor turned out to be not as pleasant as I would have expected. It also didn't help that me, Luna and Marcus were only three first-years with no combat experience, so we couldn't possibly hope to defeat Gilderoy Lockhart, an experienced and ruthless spymaster. Especially since Lockhart had so far refused to teach us any offensive or defensive spells, more interested in stories about his... Wait, was that part of his plan? Was he...
As another spell struck the pillar with a resounding crash, sending tremors through the entire structure, I decided to stop thinking about it. I had more important things to worry about.
Like Tom's plan. It was obvious that he deliberately allowed us to see Lockhart literally red-handed. But what was the purpose of that? What was the purpose of him revealing the identity of his vessel? I could understand disclosing it to me, as I had my own suspicions anyway, but Luna and Marcus? The only possible explanation I could think of would be to use Lockhart as a scapegoat. Make Luna and Marcus tell everyone what they saw, making everyone think that Lockhart was the only culprit. Lockhart was probably in on it too, since he was Tom's partner. They both wanted us to expose Lockhart.
If that was the case, I would gladly help them.
Still hiding behind a pillar, I reached into my robe's pocket, pulling out my latest achievement, an enchanted camera. Learning from various mistakes committed during my work on the recorder, I was able to successfully enchant it. with the camera not repeating any of the recorder's previous 'gimmicks'. I initially took it with me to record protests, as a test drive of sorts, but the situation at hand turned out to be an even better field test.
After turning the camera on and placing it on the floor, silently hoping that Lockhart wouldn't accidentally smash it with one of his spells, I snuck a quick peek at the professor. Lockhart was standing some distance away from us, pointing his wand in our direction and constantly casting spells, stopping anyone in the corridor from escaping. He looked quite miserable, with a deathly pale face and blood still pouring from his arms, giving the impression of a walking corpse. He also had a demented look, glaring in our direction with a disturbing intensity. All in all, it could have been worse. Knowing my next course of action, I shouted to get his attention.
"Professor Lockhart, why are you attacking us?!" I began, trying to sound as convincing as possible. I wanted to help Tom, so everything had to look believable. "Why don't we all just forget about what we saw and leave?! We really don't have to fight!"
"Oh, you'll forget everything, believe me!" Lockhart responded with a mighty yell, as always outshining everyone in the room with his masterful acting. He didn't even have to do that, as the video was only meant to support Luna and Marcus' testimony, but Lockhart clearly didn't want to settle for mediocrity. I respected that. Another spell hit the pillar as Lockhart continued "right after I obliviate you all! Maybe I don't know much about magic, but I am a master when it comes to Obliviate!"
I could recognize a leading statement when I saw one. Thank you, Professor Lockhart!
"Obliviate master?! What do you mean?!" I exclaimed, purging my voice from the excitement I was feeling. I just knew that Lockhart's biggest performance was coming up. Most likely, he had been preparing for it all year, waiting for a suitable opportunity for the big reveal.
I glanced at Luna and Marcus to see if they were also listening. They were hiding in their spots, still a bit shaken by the situation, but they also seemed interested, if only because of how unexpected the declaration was. The barrage of spells lessened, as Lockhart started to answer my question.
"I guess there's no point in hiding it, since you'll all forget about it anyway" he mused, decreasing the intensity of his attacks. He would of course still cast a spell once in a while to keep us in our positions, but he was no longer as relentless as before. As he began to speak, his eyes grew cloudy, as he became engrossed in his own story, "I've known I was special ever since Hogwarts, you know? I always heard a little voice in my head telling me that I was destined for great things. I of course believed it, my stellar grades were proof enough, after all.
After graduating from Hogwarts I however quickly learned that the people around me were unable to see my excellence. They didn't care about me, more interested in people less important, less brilliant than me. What did they have that I lacked? Just because they wrote a few books? I tried to do it, you know? Write a book on my own, hoping that it would force people to recognize me, make them realize my worth. Unfortunately, I quickly found out that although I could create beautiful sentences, my words lacked substance. That's when I came up with the most brilliant idea.
You see, I've always had a special inclination towards Obliviate. I don't know why, but it always came easily to me. So I thought: why don't I just use it to erase other authors' memories and steal their works? They would have wasted the success they would have achieved anyway. I was actually doing them a favor, if you think about it! I found many promising authors and erased their memories, stealing their books and publishing them as mine. I did this many times, you know? That's how I finally got the recognition I deserved. People were paying just to see me, begging me to give them an autograph or take a picture with them. It was just wonderful!"
I was at a loss for words. It was simply... magnificent. This man had such range, such power in his voice. It was truly amazing to watch his magnum opus. I began to clap slowly, amazed by his performance. The sound of my clapping filled the corridor, causing everyone to look in my direction, surprised by my behavior. What, that was beautiful! He deserved a proper recognition!
A powerful spell hit the pillar, sending chunks of granite in all directions. I jumped up in fright, not expecting another attack so soon. When I peeked from behind the cover, I saw that Lockhart had a furious snarl on his face.
"Stop mocking me, Brown! It's your fault that everything fell apart! Ever since I came to this school, I've been constantly humiliated by you, you stupid, annoying brat!" shouted Lockhart. He was wobbling slightly, most likely beginning to feel the effects of blood loss. Lockhart started violently casting spells in my direction, at this point completely forgetting about Luna and Marcus, focusing solely on me "constantly mocking me, pointing out all my mistakes! Who do you think you are?! Because of you, students consider me incompetent! Because of you, I lost the respect I deserve!"
"And that's why you started petrifying the purebloods?!" I replied, knowing that it was time for us to proceed with the final act. Lockhart undoubtedly did not want more people to show up, especially teachers, so it would be best to end it all as soon as possible.
"No, it was... Yes, I petrified these children!" declared Lockhart, his voice full of emotion "People will not ignore me anymore! I am the heir of Slytherin! A descendant of Salazar Slytherin himself! Now everyone will see my brilliance! People will remember me for generations! I..."
As Lockhart started his grand speech, Marcus hesitantly turned to face me from behind his cover, fear clearly visible on his face. His face was pale, and he held his wand in a tight grip, suggesting that this was the first time he had been involved in active combat. Which... made sense. After all, he was only eleven years old.
"Brown, we have to do something!" He shouted desperately, barely audible through the cacophony of noise that was coming from both Lockhart and his spells.
"But what?! I don't know any protective spells!" I replied. It wasn't even a lie. Lockhart made sure that we wouldn't learn anything useful during his classes. I also wasn't too eager to defeat Lockhart, Tom's valuable partner, but Marcus didn't need to know that.
"Don't worry, I know one! My parents taught me protego during the Christmas holidays! I'll block his spell, and then you attack! Are you ready?!" Marcus shouted. Wait a minute, did that count as pureblood privilege? Or were his parents just trying to keep him safe? That... probably wasn't that important right now.
Not wanting to deal with this dilemma, I just nodded to him. Unaware of my thoughts, Marcus bravely came out of his cover to face Lockhart. Seeing this, our DADA teacher immediately stopped talking, turned in his direction and sent a bright beam of green light in his direction.
"Protego!" Marcus shouted, blocking the dangerous projectile at the last second, sending strands of shattered magic sideways. A surprised smile appeared on his face, as if he didn't expect to succeed himself. Not wanting to waste the opportunity provided to me, I came out of cover myself and aimed Kenny at the distracted teacher.
"Expelliarmus! Expelliarmus! Expelliarmus!" I shouted repeatedly, with my wand pointed straight at Lockhart. Or at least that's what I thought, because when my spells went flying, instead of hitting Lockhart, they hit the floor, the wall and a random painting next to Lockhart, causing the denizen of the painting to flee in terror. The corridor fell silent, as everyone else shifted their gaze to me.
"You... how? How is it possible that you missed every time?" Marcus asked bewildered. At this point he wasn't even looking at Lockhart, instead focusing solely on me, clearly unable to believe what had just happened.
"So, is it a bad time to mention that I'm very, very bad at aiming spells?" I asked, only now realizing that Marcus probably didn't know that. After all, I relied mostly on traps and AoE spells during the conflict with Ravenclaw. I... should have probably mentioned this earlier, shouldn't I?
The heavy frown on Marcus' face seemed to confirm my suspicions. He opened his mouth, no doubt intending to say something really hurtful, but at that moment Lockhart started casting spells at us again, forcing Marcus to hide again. I was already about to return to the cover myself when Lockhart's spell hit the space right in front of me, throwing me to the floor. When I looked at Lockhart, confused by this development, I noticed that he had pointed his wand straight at me, a nasty grin appearing on his face.
"It's over, Brown!" he exclaimed triumphantly, looking at me with a sadistic gleam in his eyes. Very convincing, Professor Lockhart, I approve! "I'll make sure you suffer ten times more than I do! You will...!"
"Expelliarmus! " Lockhart was blown away in the middle of his speech, flying through the air and hitting the wall on the other side of the corridor with a loud thud. Shocked, I turned my head to the side only to see Luna standing in the middle of the corridor with her wand raised, holding it with a trembling hand. She had most likely taken advantage of Lockhart's lack of concentration to come out of her cover and cast a spell. It was...unexpected.
Fortunately, it didn't look like the spell had incapacitated Lockhart, as a few seconds later he started moaning in pain, slowly getting up. I still wasn't entirely sure if Tom's plan was for us to catch Lockhart or not, so I opted for the safer option. I quickly picked up my camera, hid it in my pocket and turned toward my Ravenclaw companions with feigned fear on my face.
"Quick! Let's run before he gets up!" I shouted, hoping that Luna and Marcus would heed my advice. Fortunately, they didn't want to continue the fight, instead quickly turning around and fleeing, not needing any further encouragement. I actually started running behind them, hopefully making them think I was going to follow them, but when they turned the corner, I stopped. Turning away, I looked in Lockhart's direction.
He was already gone. Lockhart most likely took advantage of the distraction I caused to escape, leaving a small trail of blood behind him. I actually already knew where he was going, as there was only one place he could go in such a state, but it was still nice of him to leave a path for me.
I smiled and followed the trail, scourgifying it along the way.
The trail of blood unsurprisingly led me to Myrtle's bathroom, still deserted due to the ongoing riot. The bloody path ended in front of the main sink, with a small pool of blood formed at the spot where Lockhart was most likely standing while opening the chamber. The man himself was absent, which most likely meant that he had already entered the chamber to meet Tom.
A huge grin spread across my face. It was finally happening! After months of separation, I would finally meet Tom again!
As I approached the sink, ready to retrieve the recorder I had planted there, I realized that it was not necessary. The recorder was already waiting for me, silently floating in the air next to the enchanted sink. It was completely motionless, awaiting me in silence, but I could almost feel the eagerness emanating from the machine, despite the absence of any signals. Weird.
Deciding that it was just some sort of botched enchantment on my part, I eagerly grabbed the recorder and pressed the play button. It seemed to know exactly what I wanted, because soon the room was filled with hissing voices, undoubtedly coming from Lockhart. The sink seemed to accept the password, as it soon began to move, revealing the entrance hidden beneath.
In front of me was a gaping hole, leading straight into the chamber. Once I looked inside, I knew there would be no turning back. Going inside would mean finally meeting Tom again. We would no longer be two teenagers talking through a diary, but two men, finally meeting as equals, ready to decide the fate of the world. Was I ready for that?
What a stupid question, of course I was. I jumped in without any hesitation, letting the darkness consume me.