Chapter 245 Permanent Damage Of Spells

Under the astonished gaze of Evan and Hermione, their former Defense Against the Dark Arts professor pushed open the doors and approached them, sporting a long lilac robe that looked just as flamboyant as before.

"Well, hello!" he said. "I hope you're after my autograph, aren't you?"

Evan and Hermione shook their heads, indicating that they did not require it.

As she looked at Professor Lockhart in front of her, Hermione didn't feel much sympathy.

She simply felt particularly uneasy. She felt she used to be too naive in admiring a person like him.

Due to the books Lockhart had written, Hermione had come to think he was the greatest wizard in the world, capable even of reciting the contents of each book.

But all of that was false, and Lockhart was simply stealing the achievements of others.

A year ago in the Chamber of Secrets, he was about to erase the memories of Evan, Harry, Ron, and Hermione with the Memory Charm. Luckily, he used Ron's broken wand, and the spell backfired on him.

In short, Hermione fully recognized Lockhart's true colors as she faced him now.

In truth, Evan missed the days of Lockhart a little. He might not have been a good teacher, but his presence was really convenient.

Whether it was dealing with the difficulties of running the newspaper, gaining approval for the Restricted Section of the library, escaping Snape or Filch's punishment, or earning points for Gryffindor, in many ways, Lockhart had been very helpful to Evan.

Certainly, in his view, Evan was also his most loyal reader.

"Er... how are you, Professor?" Evan hesitated and asked softly.

"I'm very well, thank you!" Lockhart exclaimed, pulling out a quite worn peacock feather quill from his pocket. "How many autographs would you like? I can do cursive now, you know!"

"Oh, we don't want any at the moment, thank you," Hermione quickly waved her hand.

At the end of last semester, she had tossed all the Lockhart signatures she had collected into the fire and burned them, leaving none.

"Professor, should you be wandering the corridors? Shouldn't you be in a room?" Evan looked around, as Lockhart's room should be nearby.

"You call me professor; have we met before?" The smile slowly faded from Lockhart's face. For a moment, he stared at Evan and Hermione.

"Yes, we have. You used to teach us at Hogwarts, remember?"

"Teach?" Lockhart repeated, looking slightly uneasy. "Me? Did I?"

Upon getting an affirmative answer, the smile reappeared on his face so abruptly that it was quite alarming.

"So, I taught you everything you know, I suppose, right?" Lockhart said with a grin. "Well, how about those autographs then? Shall we say a nice round dozen, so you can give them to all your little friends and no one will be left out?"

Evan and Hermione exchanged glances and stepped back silently.

"We must be off, Professor," said Evan. "You see, we just stepped out to grab some drinks, and our friends are still waiting for us."

"Are they Hogwarts students too?" Lockhart cheerfully asked, "I can come along. Perhaps they might need my autograph too."

No one would ask for his autograph, and with Sirius' temper, the quirky Lockhart would definitely be expelled.

But just then, a head peeked out from a door at the end of the corridor, and a voice said, "Gilderoy, you naughty boy, where have you been?"

A matronly healer with tinsel in her hair quickly approached down the hallway, warmly smiling at Evan and Hermione.

"Oh, Gilderoy, you have visitors! How lovely, especially on Christmas Day! You know, he hardly ever receives visitors, poor lamb, and I can't understand why, he's so charming, isn't he?"

Evan and Hermione knew exactly why; they could sense that, with Lockhart's current infamy in the wizarding world, no one would come to visit him.

Currently, each time Lockhart's name was mentioned, people tended to append the word "fraudulent."

For Lockhart, living in this illusion for the rest of his life could be the most favorable outcome possible.

"Autographs!" Gilderoy exclaimed to the Healer with another radiant smile. "They are in high demand, not taking no for an answer! I just hope we have enough photographs!"

"Listen," the Healer said, taking Lockhart's arm and fondly smiling at him as if he were a prodigious two-year-old. "A few years ago, he was quite renowned; we truly hope this autograph-signing enthusiasm may be a sign that his memory could be returning a bit. Will you join me this way? He is in a locked room, you see; he must have slipped out while I was fetching Christmas gifts, the door is usually locked..."

Noticing the expressions on Evan and Hermione's faces, she lowered her voice to a whisper. "It's not that he is dangerous! But... he can be a bit endangering to himself, bless him... He doesn't know who he is, wanders aimlessly, and can't remember how to return... It's very kind of you to have come to see him!"

If it hadn't been for the wand he was using, it would have been Evan, Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the room.

They had just finished battling the Basilisk, all exhausted at the end of the fight with no strength left to spare.

In that moment, Evan and Hermione lost any hint of sympathy that had arisen in their hearts for Lockhart.

"I'm sorry to tell you, we were just passing through," Hermione said, swirling her drink. "We've come to see Ron Weasley. He is in that room."

"I know Ron, a charming redhead lad. I heard he helped the famous Sirius Black clear his name, which is truly remarkable!" The Healer smiled and said, "Although you are not specifically visiting Gilderoy, could you stop by his room for a short while before you leave? He finds you both familiar. It shouldn't take long, and this could be helpful for him."

Upon hearing what was said, both felt that rejecting would seem too unfair.

Evan and Hermione could only nod in agreement, and followed Lockhart and his Healer down the hallway in the opposite direction of Ron's room.

The Healer pointed her wand at the door to Janus Thickey's room and murmured "Alohomora!", and the door swung wide open.

She led them inside, maintaining a firm grip on Gilderoy's arm until she had him settled in a chair next to his bed.

Compared to Ron's room, it felt chilly and stark inside.

Everything was white, even the temperature was a few degrees colder than outside.

There were no recreational facilities in the room, only cold treatment equipment. Evan found it hard to imagine how terrible it would be to live there all the time.

"This is our long-term resident ward," the Healer informed Evan and Hermione in a low voice. "For permanent magical damages, you know. Of course, with intensive remedial potions and spells and a bit of luck, we can achieve some improvement... Gilderoy seems to be regaining some sense, but most others show no signs of recovery."