meant to be (2)

52

It was probably the worst day of my entire life. Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Mason and I sat together in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, unable to say anything to each other. Percy wasn't there. He had gone to send an owl to Mr and Mrs Weasley, then shut himself up in his dormitory.

No afternoon ever lasted as long as that one, nor had Gryffindor Tower ever been so crowded, yet so quiet. Near sunset, Fred and George went up to bed, unable to sit there any longer. Mason also got up after a while and followed them.

"She knew something, Harry, Julie." said Ron, speaking for the first time since we had entered the wardrobe in the staff room. "That's why she was taken. It wasn't some stupid thing about Percy at all. She'd found out something about the Chamber of Secrets. That must be why she was-" Ron rubbed his eyes frantically. "I mean, she was a pure-blood. There can't be any other reason."

I could see the sun sinking, blood red, below the skyline. This was the worst I had ever felt. If only there was something we could do. Anything.

"Harry, Julie..." said Ron, shaking "d'you think there's any chance at all she's not- you know-"

I didn't know what to say. I couldn't see how Ginny could still be alive.

"Do you know what?" I said, finally speaking up for the first time "I think we should go and see Lockhart. Tell him what we know. He's going to try and get into the Chamber. We can tell him where we think it is, and tell him it's a Basilisk in there."

Because we couldn't think of anything else to do, and because we wanted to be doing something, the boys agreed. The Gryffindors around us were so miserable, and felt so sorry for the Weasleys, that nobody tried to stop us as we got up, crossed the room, and left through the portrait hole.

Darkness was falling as we walked down to Lockharts office. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. We could hear scraping, thumps and hurried footsteps.

Harry knocked and there was a sudden silence from inside. Then the door opened the tiniest crack and they saw one of Lockhart's eyes peering through it.

"Oh... Mr Potter..... Miss Clarke...... Mr Weasley....." he said, opening the door a mite wider. "I'm rather busy at the moment. If you would be quicky."

"Professor, we've got some information for you." said Harry. "We think it'll help you."

"Er - well - it's not terribly- "The side of Lockhart's face that we could see looked very uncomfortable. "I mean - well - all right."

He opened the door and we entered. 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?" I asked, trying to convince myself that he wasn't.

"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?" snapped 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-"

"You're the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher!" said Harry. "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 Harry disbelievingly. "After all that stuff you did in your books?"

"Books can be misleadingy" said Lockhart delicately.

"You wrote them!" Harry shouted. Suddenly realisation hit me.

"He didn't write them..." I whispered. "You foul, lying git didn't do a single thing you said you've done!"

''Language, Miss Clarke." said Lockhart, straightening up and frowning at me. "Do use your common sense. My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things. No one wants to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock, even if he did save a village from werewolves. He'd look dreadful on the front cover. No dress sense at all. And the witch who banished the Bandon Banshee had a hairy chin. I mean, come on..."

"So you've just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?" said Harry incredulously.

"Harry, Harry..." said Lockhart, shaking his head impatiently "it's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how the managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn't remember doing it. If ther one thing I pride myself on, it's my Memory Charms. No, it's been a lot of work, Harry. It's not all book-signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to prepared for a long hard slog."

He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them.

"Let's see." he said. "I think thats everything. Yes. Only one thing left."

He pulled out his wand and turned to us.

"Awfully sorry, guys, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now. I'd never sell another book... Can't have you blabbing... my secrets all over the place."

Harry reached his wand just in time. Lockhart had barely raised his, when Harry bellowed: ''Expelliarmus!"

Lockhart was blasted backwards, falling over his trunk. His wand flew high into the air; Ron caught it, and flung it out of the open window.

''Shouldn't have let Professor Snape teach us that one!" said Harry furiously, kicking Lockhart's trunk aside. I stared at him.

So attractive.

Lockhart was looking up at Harry, weedy once more. Harry was still pointing his wand at him.

"What d'you want me to do?" said Lockhart weakly. "I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do!"

"You're in luck." I said, forcing Lockhart to his feet at wandpoint. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go!"