Chasing Shadows || Draco Malfoy x OC

Year 5- Ch. 128

As they all stepped on the landing of the fourth floor, Céline stopped, her eyes catching at something through the window of a door, or rather someone. Her eyes come into contact with a man who was peering out at them. He had wavy blonde hairs and bright blue eyes, and a vacant wide smile, showing off a perfect set of white eyes.

Céline couldn't quite figure out why he looked familiar to her.

"Blimey!" Ron yelled in surprise.

"Oh my goodness!" Hermione gasped. Céline looked at them in confusion. "Professor Lockhart!"

That's when it comes to Céline, why he looked so familiar. He was Gilderoy Lockhart, a very celebrated author.

"You know him?" Céline asked them curiously. 

Harry nodded, glancing at Lockhart just as surprised as the others. "Yeah, he was our Defense Against the Darks Arts professor in our second year at Hogwarts."

"A complete dolt of a professor, if you ask me." Said Ron under his breath.

Lockhart pushed the door open and stepped over to them wearing a long lilac gown. 

"Well hello there!" He said, beaming his dazzling smile. "I suppose you're here for an autograph?"

"Hasn't changed much, has he?" Harry muttered under his breath, making Ginny grin.

"Er— hello, Professor. How are you?" Ron said, rather guiltily. Céline looked at them even more confused at them. She looked at Harry again and he shook his head slightly as if to say he would explain later.

"Very well indeed, thank you!" He said enthusiastically, pulling out a battered old peacock quill from his pocket. "Now how many autographs will it be?"

"We don't any at the moment, thanks." Said Ron glancing over to Harry. "Professor should you be wondering around? Shouldn't you be in a ward?"

Lockhart looked over to Harry and stopped for a moment. "Haven't we met?"

"Er.... Yeah, we have. You use to teach us at Hogwarts, remember?"

"Teach?" Lockhart looked at him slightly surprised. "Me? I did?" Then a large smile reappeared on his face, looking very satisfied, "taught you everything I know, I expect? Well, how about those autographs then? Can we say 'round a dozen, that way you can give some to your little friends so no one is left out."

But just then a head poked out of a door at the far end of the corridor and a voice said,

"Gilderoy, you naughty boy, where have you wandered off to?" A motherly looking Healer wearing a tinsel wreath in her hair came bustling up the corridor, smiling warmly at the group. "Oh Gilderoy, you've got visitors! How lovely, and on Christmas Day too! Do you know, he never gets visitors, poor lamb, and I can't think why, he's such a sweetie, aren't you?"

"We're doing autographs!" Gilderoy told the Healer with another glittering smile. "They want loads of them, won't take no for an answer! I just hope we've got enough photographs!"

"Listen to him," said the Healer, taking Lockhart's arm and beaming fondly at him as though he were a precocious two-year-old. "He was rather well known a few years ago; we very much hope that this liking for giving autographs is a sign that his memory might be coming back a little bit. Will you step this way? He's in a closed ward, you know, he must have slipped out while I was bringing in the Christmas presents, the door's usually kept locked . . . not that he's dangerous! But," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "bit of a danger to himself, bless him. . . . Doesn't know who he is, you see, wanders off and can't remember how to get back. . . . It is nice of you to have come to see him —"