The knife glinted menacingly in the twilight and I couldn't move. It was like I was strapped to my bed, except without the straps. A low, menacing chuckle echoed throughout the room. I'd faced down an insane lich, a basilisk, a government agent, and the defeater of a dark lord, but I'd never been so scared as I was right now, because I knew I was facing something even scarier than all of them combined. Why had I not seen this coming? Why had I not prepared for this?
"You really think I'm going to let a pathetic boy such as you get your grubby little hands on my precious baby girl?" Emmet Granger said, his voice slipping into his native Russian accent. "It's your fault she got possessed, Harry. And now you want to date her? Hell will freeze over before I permit such a thing."
Danielle's face appeared in my line of vision, looking down at me like she was eyeing me up to see if my flesh was feast-worthy. "You are foolish indeed to think we aren't watching. Thanks to the wonderful magical medallions we were given, we can appear at Hogwarts at our leisure."
"I will not permit Hermione to go out with someone who thinks rick rolling is the height of romance," Emmet snarled, waving the knife back and forth. "It is cringe." I would have winced if I could move. The last thing I ever wanted to do was be cringe. I'm Harry Potter! I'm the epitome of cool! And I stand by my actions, all of them! All things 80s are cool. I think I must have grown up in the 80s in a past life, which is why I'm so drawn to them. But I digress.
"Just think about all the danger you have put her in," Danielle said in a mock sorrowful tone. "Why, without your influence, Hermione would have been a studious, obedient student who always follows the rules."
I scoffed at the very thought. Hermione, being a docile and humble student who never gets into trouble? Never would have happened. She probably would do things like lie to teachers, set teachers on fire, curse her classmates, attack people with birds, that sort of thing, even without my help. Even if we were in some bizarro universe where I really did grow up in the 80s and, I don't know, Snape was still the potions professor.
"There is only one way to remove the threat you pose, and that's to destroy the threat you pose," Emmet said with a cackle. He held up a dental drill. "Now OPEN WIDE!"
I screamed in horror and then I shot up straight in my bed and they were gone. My heart was pounding in my chest like it was about to explode. It had just been another nightmare. I'd been having them regularly for the last two months, starting not long after I started dating Hermione. Not all of them had featured the Granger parents. A lot of them featured Hestia, using her newfound power to hurt the people I love directly or just to flood the Slytherin common room. Some of them featured the Horcrux. A few of them featured the main Voldemort. But they were now a regular occurrence and it was making it really hard for me to get a good night's sleep.
Aside from the nightmares, it's been a rather not all that noteworthy two months. In fact, the lack of noteworthiness is, in itself, noteworthy. It's been kind of a nonstop rollercoaster of chaos since my arrival at Hogwarts (and contrary to popular belief, it's really mostly not been my fault) so calm and peaceful times are difficult for my brain to parse. At least, that's Remus's opinion, and he must have some sort of psychiatry degree or he wouldn't have been hired as the school counselor, right? Oh, what am I saying, of course he would, because no one can hire people worth a damn at Hogwarts. But I think I have good reason to be paranoid. After all, Lockhart is getting closer and closer to taking away all of the great things of Hogwarts – Binns, the house system, the ancient mystique of this castle – and Hestia is now so crazy she's having regular conversations with my mother. Which I hope is a hallucination, because if Mum found some way to come back, we're all in a lot of trouble.
Actually, when you look at it objectively, life at Hogwarts is quite good. Professor Tonks is such a stern disciplinarian that it's been months since the Gryffindors tried to sabotage our potions. I'm getting pretty good grades. Everyone is so impressed by my feat of defeating Voldemort no one's been bullying any Slytherins at all recently. The election for minister hasn't yet happened, but all the polls indicate Neville Longbottom's grandmother Augusta will win by a landslide. Longbottom is said to be a stern traditionalist, but her son was a war hero and she'd die before supporting the Death Eater ideology, so in my inexpert opinion, I think she'd make a good minister. And that was not an endorsement!
Hermione utterly crushed the Ravenclaws at the last Quidditch game. She really had her groove back. I had to get a special potion from Madam Pomfrey in order to focus my attention solely on the game, but the trouble I went to was so worth it. Hermione was like a machine, laser focused on her goal above all things, including the taunts of the Ravenclaw Seeker. It was fifteen minutes only before she caught the Snitch, which was a good thing, because even with the help of that potion, I was nearing the upper limit of my concentration. There is no feeling more joyful than watching your girlfriend (GIRLFRIEND! I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND!) utterly eradicate a bunch of prissy know-it-alls.
Now I know you probably want the deets, as the kids say (do they still say that?) about how my relationship with Hermione is going. Well, sorry to disappoint all you gossipers, but I don't have many juicy details to impart. We haven't really gone on any formal dates yet – we're saving that for when we'll be able to go to Hogsmeade next year – and, no, we haven't kissed yet. Hermione's a lot more comfortable with physical contact than she used to be – she never would have said yes otherwise – but we're still taking things slower than average because she's not fully recovered from all her trauma yet. I'm perfectly fine with that. I'm not going to pretend I'm not constantly wondering what it would be like to kiss her, but Hermione's comfort is my number one priority.
Contrary to what that nightmare might tell you, the Grangers actually reacted very well to me dating Hermione. They knew I could protect her from any dangers that would pop up, and if the dangers popped up more frequently because of my presence, well, they considered that just the cost of doing business. Besides, their little…uh, side gig, shall we say, put her in danger just as much, if not more, than I did. I spent the whole spring break with the Grangers since I didn't see them at all during winter break and it was a really fun experience. I got to catch up on all sorts of fun things in the Muggle world I'd been missing out on at Hogwarts.
I actually had dinner with Dudley over the break. (Mark was not invited.) It's surreal watching him be acting like he doesn't hate my guts. Dudley is a much calmer, rational individual than he used to be. The therapy helped a lot. Don't get me wrong, he's still Dudley. He still has a fascination with guns which strikes me as very concerning and thinks anything more intellectual than MMA matches is for dweebs. You can take the man out of the Dursleys but you can't take the Dursleys out of the man. But Dudley really made an effort to get along with me and connect with me in a way he never had. Conversation was stilted and awkward, but he tried. For the first time, I thought he was family instead of just an obstacle in my path.
It helped, of course, that he's been an avid reader of my blog and knows about all the shenanigans I've been up to, so I didn't have to bother trying to hide anything from him. As we speculated about what sinister plans Hestia has in mind, I almost felt like I had a friend in him. Actually…maybe there wasn't any almost about it. Maybe Dudley and I are friends now. Now there's an insane thought. Or maybe he was just too scared of the Grangers to act up. Yeah, I kind of prefer that last one. There's only so much craziness even I can stand.
The only really bad thing to be happening over the last few months is that Fred and George have come down with what appears to be a really bad illness. Fever, chills, tiredness, even coughing up blood once. They've been in and out of the infirmary on a depressingly regular basis. No one has been able to figure out what's wrong with them. They were sent to St. Mungo's to be examined, but they couldn't figure it out either. I haven't the slightest clue what's wrong with them. My best theory is that Hestia cursed them somehow. I don't have any proof, but it's a good theory, in my opinion. Hestia hates troublemakers and who are more troublesome than the twins?
There was a sudden sound as Ron snapped his fingers in my face. "Harry? You're zoning out more than average! Should we take you to the infirmary? I was going to visit Fred and George anyway."
I blinked as I saw Ron standing over the bed. No wonder he was concerned. I had screamed in terror, then gotten lost in thought for so long. Curse my bad timing. "No, I'm fine," I said. "But thanks."
"Granger shovel talk again?" Ron said wisely. He was a lucky guy – his girlfriend's father had been dead for a millennium.
"Actually this time they skipped straight to viciously murdering me. They got in here with…" I frowned. Something sparked in a remote corner of my brain, something phenomenally important, but I was having trouble isolating it. But I'm an expert at wrangling my brain, and with meticulous precision, I lassoed the thought and sent it forward. "Ron…did we ever find out what was in the box?"
"What box?"
I rolled my eyes. "The box we stole from the Ministry!"
"You stole a box from the Ministry?" Blaise said, sounding only mildly interested.
I looked around and groaned. All of my dormmates were also awake and listening in on the conversation. The very incriminating conversation. The conversation about the crime we could have probably gone to Azkaban for. "It's a metaphor," I tried. Everyone eyed me skeptically. "Okay, look, this wasn't my fault. I was forced to steal it at gunpoint."
"What's a gunpoint?" Blaise asked.
"Guns are projectile weapons," Draco recited. "Think a crossbow, but instead of firing an arrow, it fires a small chunk of metal at much, much faster a speed." I gave him a smile. All of those meetings of the Alliance had taught him at least something.
Ron put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Harry, if the box was important, we would have heard something by now. No point in worrying about things we can't control."
"Carl Jung said, 'your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside dreams; who looks inside, awakes.'" We all stared at the source of that comment. It was freaking Crabbe. That's right, you heard right. Crabbe, one of the two supposed morons of Slytherin house, was able to quote Carl Jung.
I blinked several times, then pinched my arm to see if I was dreaming. Much to my dismay, I was not. "Look, I'm going back to bed. Hopefully I won't dream of the Grangers parents trying to kill me again."
Nott scoffed. "How dangerous can they be? They're Muggles!"
"You don't know these people, Nott," Draco said solemnly. "They're dentists. They inflict pain on people's teeth, make them suffer in agony, and people willingly come back for more!"
I gave a fond grin as I settled back into bed. As Machiavelli said, it's better to be feared than loved.
After classes, me and my friends settled down in the Chamber of Secrets, where we were reasonably certain Hestia couldn't spy on us. At least Tiffany was certain the wards wouldn't apply there, and she knew everything there was to know about the Chamber, so that was good enough for us. The meeting of the Board of Governors where Lockhart would force a vote on the destruction of the house system was nearing. Much to my shock, Tiffany was ardently on my side about the house system being maintained. Apparently, a headmaster in the fourteenth century had tried to do the same thing and it was utter chaos.
My friends didn't agree that the house system should stand, but right now, it was more important to get Hestia the hell away from this school and as it happened, the plan I'd developed would help us accomplish both goals.
"The plan is simple," I added for the benefit of the people in the room who didn't know the plan, which was no one. Okay, sometimes, I just like recapping my plans so people can appreciate my brilliance. I have an ego occasionally. Sue me. You won't win. My solicitor is badass. "We know Lockhart's been cooking the books to make it look like no one's been breaking the rules." I still don't understand what he hopes to accomplish. Anyone with a brain in their head could see the statistics were false. "We're going to use that to blackmail him into getting rid of Hestia. Once Hestia is gone, we'll stab him in the back by revealing his treachery to the Board of Governors."
"How duplicitous," Tiffany said. "I like it! I still think we should do something about his books, though."
I sighed in irritation. Tiffany insisted that the massive inconsistencies in Lockhart's books was an indicator he'd been lying about all his exploits and acquiring his fame through fraudulent methods. I hadn't gotten the fact Lockhart was a writer of fiction through her skull. Of course he hadn't done all those things! It was, as I've explained on numerous occasions, just a literary conceit for Lockhart to pretend all those things were autobiographical. I have no problem with ruining a man's career for things he's done, but I draw the line at doing it for things he didn't.
"Let's put that as our plan B," Hermione said diplomatically. I flashed her a grateful smile.
"When should we confront him?" Ron asked.
I stood up. "No time like the present!"
"Wait, so why did we come all the way down here if –"
I ignored Ron's thoroughly unimportant question and charged forward with my goal in mind. I didn't take a very large amount of pleasure in doing what had to be done. I could reluctantly concede Lockhart was not a wicked man. Yes, he'd done some shady things like cooking the disciplinary books, but his heart was in the right place. He certainly wasn't a danger to the students like Hestia or like Dumbledore had been. Though since he was about to erase everything I had worked so hard for these last two years, I was going to take a little bit of pleasure in it.
The four of us made our way through the labyrinthine hallways of Hogwarts. Maybe it was my imagination, but they seemed even more labyrinthine than average. I was used to the architecture changing on me every so often, but this seemed more deliberate. As if Hestia was trying to block our way. But if that was so, then she couldn't have been trying that hard, because we managed to make our way to the headmaster's office anyway. Maybe I was just paranoid.
As we made our way up the staircase, I drew my wand. For some reason, it seemed like a fight was ahead. Though I couldn't imagine why. After all, as far as Lockhart knew, we were just going to have an ordinary meeting with him. Following suit, Tiffany and Ron also drew their wands, though Hermione's hands were too full of the binder containing the incriminating records for her to do the same.
"Your reign of treachery ends here, Lockhart!" I shouted melodramatically as I stormed into the office. For once, I wish Ginny was here with me. The Sword of Gryffindor would have accentuated my point quite nicely.
Lockhart said and did…absolutely nothing. I peered closely at him. He was sitting at his desk, looking calm and centered and completely absent. It was as if I was looking at a statue of him. He didn't move, he barely even breathed. It was like he wasn't there at all.
And then every mirror in the room – which was covered with them – suddenly had Hestia's face in them. I nearly jumped out of my skin. "I had a feeling you'd show up here. Tell me, Harry, have you figured it out, or are you still too stupid to see what's been in front of your face?"
Hermione waved the binder as if it was some sort of a talisman. "We know he's been manipulating the records to make himself look better. And we know you've done something to Fred and George."
"Stupid it is," Hestia said with an impressive sneer. "And I have done nothing to Fred and George. They brought their fate on themselves. Their obsession with breaking the rules has caused them to suffer the consequences of their evil."
Ron sent a spell at several of the mirrors to break them in an impressive shower of shards. But it had no effect on Hestia and there were still numerous mirrors to spare. "My brothers aren't evil! Sure, they're annoying and they do a lot of pranks, but they'd never hurt anyone! Not like you."
"I would never hurt a person," Hestia said.
I scoffed. "You hurt that first year Slytherin."
"Slytherins aren't people," Hestia said simply, and I don't think I've ever been more terrified by something someone said in my entire life.
I wondered how Hestia had become like this. Had it happened from spending too much time around my mother? Or was it the other way around? Was Mum's descent into evil caused by Hestia's corrupting influence? I suspect I'd never learn the answer. And it didn't matter. What mattered was stopping Hestia. "I don't care how powerful you've become. You can wipe our memories or kill us, but eventually, you'll get overconfident and make a mistake."
"You're a bunch of fools. Why would I ever need to hurt you? The truth has been staring you in the face for months and you're too dumb to have noticed it. I don't need to fear someone who's a hundred steps behind me." Her face twisted into a perverse mockery of a grin. "So much for the vaunted Slytherin cunning."
Hestia's face disappeared from the mirrors and Lockhart started moving again normally. "Oh, hello, young people," Lockhart said. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Hermione hesitated for a second and then slammed the binder on his desk. Lockhart skimmed through the pages, but no look of alarm formed on his page. "I'm not sure what you're here for?" he asked, sounding genuinely confused.
"We know these statistics are false," Ron said. "And the board will know too unless you fire Hestia right this minute."
Lockhart snickered. "What a very amusing joke! Ron, these statistics are all completely accurate and I certainly hope the board will find out about them, because I intend to tell them. I'm glad you're keeping up your sense of humor in the wake of your brothers' unfortunate illness."
"This is a waste of our time," I decided. Obviously, Hestia had used the wards to brainwash Lockhart into believing his false statistics were real, though I hadn't the slightest clue why. Maybe Hestia had been listening in on our conversation and she did it to thwart our plan.
Well, Hestia may have been able to have supremacy at Hogwarts, but the Board of Governors never met there. If we could get her away from Hogwarts, we'd have the upper hand. We would only get one chance to stop her. And if we didn't…I feared the consequences would be far worse than anyone could possibly suspect.
We screwed up so bad. We…I can't even fathom the amount we screwed up by. We dropped the ball harder than anyone's dropped it before. Hestia was right. The answer was staring us in the face the whole time, and we were just too distracted to see it.
About a week passed between our little confrontation in Lockhart's office and the meeting of the Board of Governors. In the intervening time, I was so desperate for a way out of this horrible situation we've found ourselves in, I told Remus everything. Remus believed me. He was aghast and horrified, but not surprised. In Remus's opinion, it was all the Slytherins turning against Voldemort which caused Hestia to snap. Hestia has been able to accept non-evil Slytherins on an individual basis, but when faced with the reality that Slytherin house, as a whole, can change, she just lost it. I don't agree with Remus. I think Hestia must have always been this way deep at the core, and whatever she did to gain control of the wards must have drawn it out of her.
Remus went to confront Hestia, to beg her to stop, to use their old connection to try to convince her to see the error of her ways. It didn't work. She denied everything, and then she had Lockhart sack him. Then for good measure, she outed him as a werewolf in the school paper. Now I'm hearing whispers people may even be trying to take away Remus's guardianship of me. Nothing's been officially filed yet, but Ms. Cheatham says it's only a matter of time.
Oh, yeah, that's right. Remus is a werewolf, by the way. He's perfectly safe except for on the full moon, when he takes potions to control his transformation. And, yes, I freely admit to lying to you all about it! Lycanthropy has a stigma like you wouldn't believe and Remus's life, livelihood, and happiness would all have been at risk if I'd mentioned it on this blog. I have no problem putting myself at risk here, but my guardian? No way. So if you're expecting an apology, it ain't gonna happen. Suck it up cause we're moving on.
Each board meeting, the responsibility for hosting it cycles through its members. The last board meeting I attended was at one of the governors' office. But this one was being hosted by Lucius Malfoy, which meant it was being held at Malfoy Manor. When Draco's true identity was revealed, Malfoy stopped the pretense and formally disowned his so-called son, so Draco couldn't help me get in. "If only there was someone who could help us get past the security," I lamented to my friends and as if on cue, there was a tinkling of glass and Dobby jumped down from on top of the chandelier.
"The great Harry Potter rang?" Dobby said cheerfully.
"Wait, are you telling me you know how to get through the Malfoy wards?" I demanded.
Dobby giggled, a truly disturbing sign. Tiffany looked at me with a dry, I-told-you-so look. Which, you know, fair. I probably should have listened to her a bit harder before involving the house elves in my plan to ask out Hermione, but in my defense…okay, I got nothing. It was a stupid move. No, wait, I've got something: it worked! Yeah, I knew there was something.
Ron narrowed his eyes. "Dobby, are you a Malfoy house elf?"
Dobby just nodded demurely. Wait a second. If Dobby worked for Malfoy…and Dobby's master was responsible for planting the diary on Hermione…then Malfoy was responsible for Hermione's possession! Not Umbridge, Malfoy! We'd had the wrong person the whole time! "Dobby can bring the great Harry Potter and his friends to the manor."
"And what's in it for you?" Hermione demanded. "We know house elves aren't really enslaved."
"Life," Dobby pontificated, "is born free and yet everywhere it is in chains. The Eagle in Snake's Clothing does not understand anything. Dobby is bound. Dobby bound himself because sometimes, games are more fun when you give yourself a handicap."
Ron opened and closed his mouth repeatedly. "But Draco says his dad – er, Mr. Malfoy likes to punish you!"
Dobby's eyes glinted with unholy fire. "And Dobby likes to be punished."
Why the hell was there never an Obliviator around when you need one? I was definitely going to have nightmares about all this tonight. "You're dodging the question, Dobby. What's the price?"
"No price," Dobby said with an insane laugh. "The look on your faces when you see what's to come will be payment enough!" He snapped his fingers and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"Told you," Tiffany reminded us.
When the day of the meeting came, I vowed to myself I'd do whatever it took to stop Hestia. The Weasleys are my family. Hestia may have thought she was part of my family, but she wasn't. Family isn't about blood or connections to blood. It's about those who are there for each other, which definitely does not include a homicidal maniac. If I had to kill her, I'd do it. I'd probably regret it, possibly for a while depending on the circumstances, but I'd do it.
"I want it stated for the record this is a terrible idea," Tiffany informed us as Dobby had us gather in a circle just a few minutes before the meeting was supposed to start.
"Noted," I said offhandedly. I didn't care. I didn't think Dobby was going to drag us to the fae realms or subject us to some horrible fate. He clearly liked me. That didn't mean I was safe around him – I'm not a moron – but it did mean I didn't have to treat him as an enemy either. Right now, Dobby is on the same side as us, if only because he thinks watching us at work would be entertaining.
We all joined hands and Dobby chanted some incantation which made my stomach twist in knots and then in a flash of light, we were suddenly standing in the drawing room of Malfoy Manor. I had expected, I don't know, flayed corpses lying around or skulls decorating the place, but of course nothing of the kind was there. It was just like you would see in any fancy nobleman's house. Even if Malfoy had Death Eater paraphernalia, he obviously would have hid it before a group of respectable individuals, some of whom were ideologically opposed to him, showed up.
The doors opened before I could formulate a plan and the Board of Governors walked in, with Hestia and Lockhart trailing behind them. They stopped in their tracks. None of them looked pleased to see me. I couldn't imagine why. I think our last meeting was very fun. No, wait, it was only fun for me. Because I blackmailed them. Several times, depending on your point of view. Well, they're all a bunch of squares, anyway.
"What are you people doing in my house?" Malfoy demanded as he drew his wand.
"Relax," Hestia said, her eyes glittering with malice. "They're with me. It's good you made it here in a timely fashion. Even early. I had worried you wouldn't be cunning enough to find your way here, to witness one of the most important moments in human history." Most of the governors looked at her askance. "But fate, as it so often does, provides. You'll get to have your say at the end of the session. I doubt there'll be much to say, though. All your questions are about to be answered – especially the ones you've been too dumb to ask."
She gestured sharply to a set of chairs in the corner. We reluctantly sat down. I didn't see how Hestia could have set a trap for us in someone else's house, especially someone who would never ally himself with her. My lip curled instinctively at the thought of having anything in common with Malfoy, even if it was just a common enemy.
Most of the meeting was standard administrative stuff, boring as heck: arguing about allocation of funds, going around in circles talking about the improvement of the Muggle Studies curriculum, and pointing fingers at just about everyone about why nothing has still been done about the SQUAMOUS VOID OF THE ABYSS in room 886. Nothing of particular importance happened, really. Also, a pro tip in case you end up in Hogwarts: do not go to room 886. If anything, I'm underselling how SQUAMOUS that VOID OF THE ABYSS really is. It was so boring I actually fell asleep briefly.
Then we got to the meat of the meeting. I finally woke up from my nap when I heard Professor Binns's name being mentioned. Unfortunately, the news wasn't good for him. While my theory that Professor Binns had been cursed by Voldemort turned out to be right, the Board still sacked him. Being the victim of one of Voldemort's curses apparently made him a danger to the students, which, damnably, seemed entirely logical. (Curse you, logic!) And knowing he'd been cursed didn't solve the overall problem, which was still that Binns…alas, no longer a professor…was still a substandard teacher. At the very least, there were hints that if he could be cured of the curse, he may be able to return. I liked his chances. You didn't have to pay a ghost salary and that was probably very appealing to the Board.
But ending the House system ended up being unanimously rejected. Thank heavens for small mercies. I don't think anything happens unanimously on the Board, because as soon as the vote was tallied, everyone looked at each other incredulously. It would seem that while some people didn't like the idea of the House system, keeping it was still more palatable than giving their enemies a chance to change things. Well, whatever works.
"And now we come to the most distressing news we've received in quite some time," one of the governors announced. Everyone had given their names at the beginning of the meeting but I promptly forgot all of them. "There have been allegations – very credible allegations – that Headmaster Lockhart has been misrepresenting the disciplinary records since the end of winter break."
Hestia leaned back in her seat, her face alight with holy passion. This was the moment she'd been waiting for. I was pretty sure I knew why. She must have fudged the records herself in order to frame Lockhart, so she could remove him and become headmaster personally instead of ruling from behind the throne.
"Well, Gilderoy?" Malfoy said impatiently. "What have you to say to these allegations?"
Lockhart stood up. "I object to the board's characterization of my actions as fraud. These figures are entirely accurate. It was not easy, but I have found a way to –"
Malfoy held up a hand. "I can't believe what I'm hearing. Any halfway decent player of the game would at least have the decency to deny it. These numbers defy belief, the logical order of things, and sanity."
Lockhart gave a dazzling, charming smile. "My dear friend, I think if you'll study the numbers carefully you'll – AVADA KEDAVRA!" I let out a shout as Malfoy dropped dead to the ground like a stone. Lockhart spun around and pointed the wand he'd been carefully hiding behind his back until he had made his sneak attack at another governor.
We all drew our own wands and charged forward, only to collide with an invisible barrier of force. Maniacal laughter echoed in our ears and I realized the truth: Dobby had tricked us. He'd known all this would happen and brought us here because he knew Lockhart was going to go on a killing spree and we couldn't stop him.
The governors ran for the doors, but they were all locked and they couldn't open them. Lockhart, without changing the jovial, genial expression on his face, fired a cutting curse at the throat of a governor and she bled out. Then he sliced off the head of another governor. He fired a lance of flame at a third. One by one, Lockhart killed the governors with methodical precision and I could do nothing but curse myself for being stupid enough to make a deal with a fae and try to fix everything myself. While all this was happening, the governors begged Hestia to help them, but she just stood back and watched, looking almost bored, as a massacre happened in front of us.
Finally, the last governor was dead and Lockhart just stood there, his wand at his side, doing and saying nothing, like he had in his office. Hestia checked her watch and gave a slight grin. "We're making good time, aren't we?"
Hestia cast a petrifying spell on Lockhart and levitated him onto the table. She tapped her wand on the table idly, lost in thought, and then she grinned. "I think you'll recognize this little trick, Harry. Consider it my tribute to your mother. Aguamenti."
Under ordinary circumstances, Lockhart, even under the mental hold Hestia had him under, would have struggled. But he'd been immobilized and thus could do nothing but watch helplessly as Hestia opened his mouth and then sprayed a torrent of water directly into Lockhart's lungs. The most brilliant writer of the modern day died a horrific, agonizing death, made ten times worse by the fact he was entirely aware and conscious the whole time, but unable to save himself in any way.
Hestia gave a bright, happy smile. "Well, that's the end of that. Good thing too. Listening to that vainglorious bastard prattle on was a torture unlike anything Azkaban can provide."
"What did you do?" I demanded.
"I've been informed – probably erroneously – that you possess some intelligence. Figure it out yourself."
And then, as if those words had unlocked something within me, I did. I finally saw what had been eluding me all year. "You didn't control him with the wards," I said slowly. "Because you've been controlling him with the Imperius Curse. All year. Ever since we met him at Diagon Alley. Ever since you found an excuse to get yourself alone with him to cast the spell."
"Oh, see, now you're finally getting somewhere. Keep going."
"Getting rid of Binns, getting rid of the houses, it wasn't about him, it was about me. You targeted things that were important to me to distract me from whatever you were planning."
"A point to Slytherin!" Hestia said, looking excited, as if we were back in her classroom and I was just a student answering a question, not a student confronting a mass murderer. "Go on, go on! I mean, monologuing is fun, but why monologue yourself when you can get other people to do it for you?"
I started pacing around and was surprised to find the barrier was gone. For a second, I was tempted to take out my wand, but I knew Hestia was a much better combatant than me. Even four on one, it would be very dicey odds I'd win. Besides, I was getting somewhere. "Fawkes wasn't dying because it was his time – he was dying because being exposed to so much dark magic was killing him!"
Hestia shrugged. "I mean, close. He was near death, but, yeah, he would have lived a bit longer if I hadn't Imperiused Lockhart."
"It was you who put all those mirrors in his office, so you could watch your thrall at any time. Every time you two interacted, you were muttering something under your breath. I thought it was because you found him annoying, but you were giving him instructions. Lockhart has all the telltale signs of a victim of the Imperius Curse: listlessness, mood swings, jerky motions. He went from zero to sixty the moment I mentioned Obliviation."
Hestia scowled. "Yes, he almost got released from my control when that happened. It was lucky for me young Miss Dumbledore showed up when she did." I couldn't help but grin, because I'd found a chink in Hestia's armor, but not the one she thinks I did: she still doesn't know Tiffany's true identity. Which means whatever her power, she is still not omniscient and thus, not invincible. "He made his fame by Obliviating actual heroes and stealing their accomplishments. He deserved to die. I feel no remorse for killing him."
I scoffed. It wasn't enough that she had murdered and enslaved the greatest literary genius of our time – now she had to slander him on top of it. "Right, sure."
"You don't believe me?"
"I wouldn't believe you if you told me the sky was blue," I said scornfully. "All of this was just so you could accomplish your mission: so you could control Hogwarts and kill everyone in Slytherin house."
Hestia banged her head against the table, avoiding Lockhart's moldering corpse by a mere centimeter. "Oh my God, you're just as thick and stupid as James. This has nothing to do with killing Slytherins. This is about making a better world. I suppose I'm going to have to spell it out for you. The purpose of acquiring control over the wards wasn't to kill all Slytherins. It was to bind all Hogwarts students to the rules."
I blinked. "I don't understand."
"The wards have unfathomable power. They can effect students mentally, force them into patterns of behavior. My plan was always to create a geas – to make Hogwarts students incapable of breaking any rules. Once that was done, the effect could be duplicated and expanded, with the goal being the only true worthy goal in existence. The end of crime. The end of all evil everywhere!"
Ron spat in her face. "You'll never get away with this. We'll find a way to stop you."
"You're all imbeciles!" Hestia screamed. "I have gotten away with it! These disciplinary records are accurate!" She looked me straight in the face. "You think I would have explained all this if I thought this was a question of you stopping me in the future? I did it five months ago."
