50) Runaway Lockhart

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I sat in one of Hogwarts extra rooms, surrounded by all of my siblings. They were a little panicked and afraid.

"Haley could have been taken," Harper whispered.

"But she wasn't," I said. "She'll be back soon. She'll be okay."

"Percy, surely you can do something about Ginny," Harrison whispered, hoarse.

I frowned, looking up at the ceiling, "I'll do whatever I can when I get the signal."

Henry glared lightly at me, "No you will not."

I looked at him, "I will, actually."

"Luke said no big adventures," Hattie pointed out.

"I've already broken that rule a bunch this year."

Holden shook his head, "That doesn't mean you need to break it again."

"I've eaten at the table with Ginny. She's important to me. If I have any chance to do something for her, any chance at all, I will. Plus, I know where the Chamber is. I know what the monster is. I'm trained with a sword. I know how to avoid death and Petrification. But I am not going to let her rot down there," I said, frowning.

Holden sighed, "We know, Percy. We know. Just... just come home, okay? You're... you're our brother. And we don't want you to get hurt."

I quickly barreled into Holden, nearly knocking him over with my hug. He quickly wrapped his arms around me, and I said, "You guys are my brothers and my sister, too."

They smiled. I felt myself get wrapped up in a hug from each of them.

Suddenly, I got a signal from Hogwarts. Harry and Ron were on the move.

"I-it's time for me to go," I whispered, wiggling out of the hug.

My siblings all looked at me, and I saw tears in their eyes.

"Die bravely (From the Five Kingdoms)," Harrison whispered. You say it at camp when you're about to face something dangerously.

I smiled softly at them, and whispered, "Die bravely."

Then I climbed through a hole in the wall that Hogwarts made for me, trying to ignore the prickling in my eyes.

I met up with Harry and Ron right outside of Lockhart's office. I could hear plenty of sounds coming from inside.

Harry knocked, and the door opened. One of Lockhart's eyes peered through at us.

"Oh... boys..." he said, opening the door a bit more. "I'm rather busy at the moment. If you would be quick..."

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

"Er — well — it's not terribly," Lockhart looked very uncomfortable. "I mean — well — all right."

Lockhart opened the door and we walked inside.

Everything was stripped in his room. There were two open trunks lying on his floor: one was filled with hastily folded robes, the other with books jumbled untidily on top of each-other. The photographs that had been on the walls were now shoved into a box on his desk.

"Are you going somewhere?" Harry asked.

"Er, well, yes," Lockhart said, rolling a poster of himself into a tube. "Urgent call... unavoidable... got to go..."

"What about my sister?" Ron demanded.

"Well, as to that — most unfortunate," Lockhart avoided looking at us, emptying the contents of a drawer into a bag. "No one regrets more than I—"

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" Harry exclaimed. "You can't go now! Now with all the dark stuff going on here!"

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

"You mean you're running away?" I growled. "After all that stuff you did in your books?"

"Books can be misleading," Lockhart said.

"You wrote them!" Yelled Harry.

"My dear boy," Lockhart said, frowning at Harry. "Do use your common sense. My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people did it think I'd done all those things. No one wants to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock, even if he did save his 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?" Harry said, disbelieving.

"Harry, Harry," Lockhart shook his head, "it's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn't remember doing it. If there's 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 be prepared for a long hard slog."

He slammed his trunks shut and locked them. "Let's see. I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left."

Lockhart turned towards us, pulling out his wand.

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

Ron had his arm in front of me, looking wide-eyed. I watched Lockhart raise his wand, but then heard a shout from Harry. "Expelliarmus!"

Lockhart was knocked backwards, and he tripped over his trunk. His wand flew into the air, and Ron caught it, throwing it out the window.

"Shouldn't have let Snape teach us that one," Harry kicked the trunk aside, keeping his wand aimed at Lockhart.

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

"You're in luck," Harry said. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."

I guess I wrote this chapter not long after, or maybe even during reading the Five Kingdoms series. Now, this sentence... I'm pretty sure there's something structurally wrong with it, I'm just not sure what. Or how to fix it. Whatever. The Five Kingdoms was really good, even if the ending made me cry. Mostly because it ended, but also because of other things. So my sister was leaning against this wall, and there was one of those automatic hand sanitizer dispenser things, and it squirted on her hair. My sister and my cousin also touched a dead fly. Then we had pizza. Well, I had pizza. Emblem had nacho things and Supergirl had quesadillas. I played some Warzone with A. Uhhhh, I might get the room Kadee didn't want, because apparently the room I wouldn't gotten has deer wallpaper, which is really gross. Really gross. Ooh, today is Brianna's birthday, and he got his phone back yesterday, so he gets to talk with people. It was good timing. Also, this book is super close to being finished. Like, super close. I didn't even realize how close. But it's close.

I wish you all a good Tuesday, and I will see you on Thursday. Love you!

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