enchanted • draco malfoy

Year 2: "I blame Lockhart."

Felicity's POV

"Lockhart may be useless," Harry told me and Ron, running to Gilderoy's office, "But he's going to try and get into the Chamber! The least we can do is tell him what we know." We burst into his room, all of us breathing heavily. "Professor! We have some information for you!" Harry nearly shouted. He paused. however, when he took notice off the man's frantic packing.

"Are you... going somewhere?" I asked, disgusted. "I-I, well, yes. An urgent call, you see, unavoidable. Got to go," Lockhart stuttered out with an apologetic smile. "What about my sister?" Ron asked, jaw slightly agape. Lockhart shrugged. "Yes, well, that's most unfortunate; no one regrets more than I."

Ron looked enraged. "You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher! You can't go now!" he shouted. Gilderoy turned to Ron, looking terrified. "Well, I must say, when I took the job, there was nothing in the job description about-"

"You're running away?" Harry asked angrily, "After all that stuff you did in your books?" Lockhart sniffed, looking indifferent. "Books can be misleading," he said, avoiding eye contact with us. "Misleading? You wrote the damn things!" I shouted. "Children, do you use your common sense? My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people hadn't thought I did all those things!" Lockhart yelled in reply.

Harry looked appalled. "You're a fraud," he accused, "You've just been taking credit for what other wizards have done!" Ron shook his head scornfully. "Is there anything you can do?" he spat. "Yes," Gilderoy stated, raising his chin, "Now that you mention it. I'm rather gifted with memory charms. Otherwise, you see, all those other wizards would have gone blabbing, and I'd never have sold another book. In fact, I'm, uh..." He trailed off, his back turned to us.

My hand was already creeping towards my wand when he finished. "... going to have to do the same to you." My wand whipped out, along with Ron's and Harry's, the second Lockhart turned around and pointed his at us. "Don't even think about it," Harry growled. I motioned for Lockhart to drop his wand, and his eyes flickered from me to Ron to Harry and to our wands before he obeyed.

~*~

"Come on," I said grimly, "We have to go talk to Myrtle." Harry prodded Lockhart in the back with his wand, forcing him along with us. We arrived at the abandoned lavatory and I sighed before walking in with the others right behind me.

"Who's there?' Myrtle asked instantly, sounding like she'd been crying. "Oh," she said, her voice brightening as she looked over at my company, "Hello, Harry. What is it that you want?" Harry gulped and seemed to be thinking about his words before uttering them. "We came to ask you," he said slowly, "how you died."

"Oh," Myrtle giggled, "It was dreadful. It happened right here, in this very cubicle..." I lost focus as Myrtle continued her story, walking around the room and looking for any clues. I tuned back into Myrtle stating, "And, I died." My brow furrowed in confusion. "Bam? Poof? You just... died?" I asked, "How?"

Myrtle turned to me and sniffed in disdain. "I don't know. I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes." I exchanged a look with Harry. She'd looked into its eyes. "Over there," she continued, pointing to the row of faucets, "by that sink." Harry began walking towards the sinks to inspect them while Ron and I kept our wands aimed at Lockhart's back.

He leaned down to examine something on the side of a faucet before straightening and turning to me and Ron, looking determined. "This is it, guys!" he said, "I think this is the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!"