The Legacy of Salazar

Fraudulent Manipulation

Merlin couldn't remember having so much homework. He didn't have to make up all the work he had missed before Christmas, but his professors seemed determined to give him enough new work to offset the difference. Professor McGonagall especially took any opportunity to assign him extra work. Talking out of turn? Essay! Wrong answer? Essay! Staring off into space? Essay!

And to top it all off, Ginny Weasley kept following him. She'd hover in his peripheral vision, pale-faced and nervous. She never seemed to want to approach him while his classmates surrounded him.

"If I didn't know better," Pansy said with a sniff in her direction. "I'd say she's spying on you. Poorly."

"Probably drew the short straw, you know the lot of them are just waiting for you to incriminate yourself," Blaise said, nudging Merlin's shoulder.

"Or, she likes you," Draco said. He turned toward Ginny and called, "It's polite to talk to your crush, you know!" and laughed when she skidded out of sight.

It was so weird that Merlin ran to catch up with the Weasley twins after lunch on Thursday. When he started to tell them about Ginny following him around, George burst into laughter and Fred put his hand over his heart with a dreamy expression on his face.

"Oh, our dear sister, such a relief she has good taste in men."

"You can't be serious," Merlin said, staring at them.

"She talked about you all holiday," Fred said, wiping away a fake tear.

"Yeah, Ron nearly blew his gasket," George added, still laughing. "He didn't believe Bill at first when he told us he was treating you."

"Very stubborn, our ickle Ronnie-kins."

"But, we think we've convinced him that you're not evil incarnate."

Merlin rolled his eyes. "Yes, how splendid. Now if you could convince everyone else."

"I'm sure you'll beat us to that," Fred said with a wink. "Now, as for Ginny, just let her down easy, okay?"

"Or don't. I'm sure mom would get a kick out of being the great Merlin's mother-in-law," George said, and Fred snorted into giggles. Merlin left them like that, howling with laughter as he left, now calling, "Merlin Weasley," after him as if it were the funniest joke they'd ever heard.

Did Ginny Weasley like him? Merlin mulled the thought over as he headed for Defense Against the Dark Arts. What should he do? He might look twelve but he was, in fact, much older. It was almost too weird to contemplate. He took his seat at the back of the classroom next to Draco and Blaise, seconds before Lockhart emerged from his office in robes of resplendent green.

Lockhart was perhaps the only professor who didn't drown them in homework. Merlin almost wished he would—rather than whatever it was that he did. Their first class back he had bounded before them, all smile. "Welcome back, welcome back," he'd announced as if they hadn't seen each other in months. "I trust you all had a good holiday? Of course, we are delighted to have young Merlin back with us," he clapped his hands together, but no one joined in on the applause and he tapered off after the fourth one. "Feeling better, are we? I do wish you'd come to me, Merlin. I've broken many a curse in my day—I could've had that thing off you in a jiffy. I've done it on multiple occasions. Allow me to direct you to page 14—"

And he'd proceeded to spend the rest of class going over every instance of curse breaking in his books. By the end of class they still hadn't covered them all and today Merlin wondered if Lockhart would just pick up where he left off.

Lockhart strode over to his desk as if it were a stage, returning a cheeky wink from one of his portraits with one of his own. How could someone be that vain? Merlin wondered as Lockhart cleared his throat and instructed them to pull out Year of the Yeti and follow along as he read select passages. Merlin flipped open his book to a random page and entertained himself with a furtive game of tic-tac-toe with Blaise until the bell rang.

"One moment, Merlin," Lockhart called over the class and Merlin's heart sank. He should've known Lockhart couldn't go an entire class without talking to him.

"I've got Potions," he tried to say but Lockhart only smiled.

"I'm sure Professor Snape won't mind."

"You'd think that by now he'd know that Snape would mind," Draco muttered under his breath. "I'll let him know," he added, "Maybe he'll come to rescue you if you don't show up in five minutes."

The thought of Snape showing up to yell at Lockhart for making his students late put a smile on Merlin's face. "One can hope," he said.

He waited until everyone had left before shouldering his bag and walking up to Lockhart's desk. Lockhart had gone around it to stand in front of a life-size portrait of himself in canary yellow and only turned around when Merlin cleared his throat.

"Merlin, Merlin," he said, shaking his head and he strode forward to grip the back of his chair. "And how goes your search for the Chamber of Secrets, eh? I know, I know—" he added when Merlin opened his mouth, "—You're not doing anything of the sort." He gave a knowing wink. Then he laughed, a boisterous full sound. He wiped the corner of his left eye.

"But I don't think you need to worry," he went on, starting a slow walk around his desk. Merlin wondered if it'd be too obvious if he started doing the same if only to keep the distance between them. "It's only a matter of time before I catch the heir—in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they stopped attacking soon," he tapped his nose.

"You've lost me," Merlin said. If Lockhart caught the Heir of Slytherin he would eat Gadding with Ghouls, binding and all. Lockhart leaned on the corner of his desk and sighed, shaking his head with an almost pitying smile.

"Merlin, Merlin, Merlin," Lockhart went on, "I'm sure you understand. We're just alike you know?"

Merlin scoffed. "We definitely aren't." He had a feeling he knew where this was going, and it coiled in his gut like worms. He took a step back and folded his arms. He wasn't going to let Lockhart use him.

"I have a sense about these things, believe me," Lockhart went on, as if he hadn't heard Merlin. "I know all the details about your little incident with Quirrell. You can't stop yourself from figuring this out. But going against the Heir of Slytherin?" Lockhart shook his head, a chuckle on his breath. "You aren't ready to handle something like that."

Merlin narrowed his eyes. "And let me guess, you are?"

Lockhart missed the sarcasm. He beamed, wide and toothy, and straightened his robes. "You do understand. It's just—" he heaved a sigh, "—there's just experience I have that you don't. And we wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you, of course. You're a rising star! I'd consider it such a shame if it were to be extinguished prematurely."

"Come off it," Merlin said rolling his eyes. "You're just worried I'll steal all your fame!"

The smile went stiff. "Merlin, what a thing to say, I don't—"

"Yeah right, you've been cozying up to me all year and I'm sick of it." It felt liberating to say it out loud. He had been trying to pinpoint why his skin crawled every time he and Lockhart were in the same room, and at last, he'd figured it out. The man was a sham. A fraud. And he was desperate to leech off of someone with real power. "I doubt you could defeat the Heir of Slytherin, even if he let you have the first shot. You're all talk."

"Detention!" Lockhart snapped, the smile falling further. "Well, well, it's clear you haven't been paying attention in class! But," and he forced his smile back on his face. "I'm sure it's hardly your fault, what with the curse and all. Don't know what you're saying—bless. I'll send along the details of your detention later—I'm sure Professor Snape is anxious for you to return to class," and he shooed Merlin out of the classroom

But Merlin didn't care that he'd gotten detention. If anything, it was an opportunity to figure out how much a fraud Lockhart really was.