LII. A FAKE

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Darkness was falling as they walked down to Lockhart's office. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. They could hear scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps. Mia looked at the boys.

"Professor, we have some information for you," Mia said as she opened the door. 

His office had been almost completely stripped. Two large trunks stood open on the floor. Robes, jade green, lilac, midnight blue, had been hastily folded into one of them; books were jumbled untidily into the other. The photographs that had covered the walls were now crammed into boxes on the desk.

"Are you going somewhere?" said Harry. 

"Er, well, yes," said Lockhart, ripping a life size poster of himself from the back of the door as he spoke and starting to roll it up. "Urgent call, unavoidable, got to go. . . ."

"What about my sister?" said Ron jerkily.

"Well, as to that, most unfortunate. . . ." said Lockhart, avoiding their eyes as he wrenched open a drawer and started emptying the contents into a bag. "No one regrets more than I. . . ." Mia stared at Lockhart and her eyes went slightly wide as she raised her eyebrows.

"You're the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher!" said Mia. "You can't go now! Not with all the Dark stuff going on here!"

"Well, I must say, when I took the job. . . ." Lockhart muttered, now piling socks on top of his robes. "nothing in the job description, didn't expect. . . ."

"You mean you're running away?" said Mia disbelievingly. "After all that shit you did in your books. . . ."

"Books can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately.

"You wrote the fucking things!" Mia shouted, her eyes flickering red. 

"My dear girl, do use your common sense!" said Lockhart, straightening up and frowning at Mia. "My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things!" Mia scoffed.

"You're a fake," she said, "you've just been taking credit for what other wizards have done!"

"Is there anything you can do?" Ron asked as Lockhart looked at him.

"Yes. Now you mention it," he said rather proudly, "I'm rather gifted with memory charms. Otherwise, you see, all those wizards would've gone blabbing, and I'd never have sold another book." 

The trio looked at each other as Lockhart He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them.

"In fact, uh, I'm uh. . . ."

The trio nodded to each other and while Harry and Ron got their wands out, Mia's eyes glowed red while two energy balls appeared at her hands. 

". . . .going to have to do the same to you." 

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