Ch 16 pt 2

Sunday night, well after curfew, found Gilderoy sauntering up Diagon Alley towards the offices of The Daily Prophet. Rita was surprised to see him arrive, but relaxed when he explained, "I wanted to see tomorrow's paper tonight. And make sure we both are happy with what appears." She had smirked, she knew he would heartily approve of her block-buster articles.

While waiting for the first copies to roll off the press, Harry/Gilderoy had talked an enthusiastic Rita into giving him a tour of the printing plant. It was a simple enough matter to get her to leave him to watch over the typesetter as he laid her article to bed.

With a Notice-Me-Not in place, he quickly carved a few runes into the press's ink barrel — Trust, Believe, and a set that made you want to read the entire paper. Why he had never thought to do this for his books, he couldn't understand. Sure, he would have had to research the runes, but the pay-off was well worth the effort. Harry wouldn't let him do it now, but still . . . .

The runes, powered by Gilderoy's initial charge and without a charging rune of their own, would run down in about a week. By then, everyone would be praising him and distrustful of the Great Dumbledore. He would have to make it a habit to recharge them whenever an appropriate article appeared. Eventually, he would remove them lest someone find and abuse them. And put a few self-charging runes on the presses to remove any enchantments should any others with questionable moral try to repeat his trick with the ink.

After taking a couple of copies of the freshly printed newsparchments, he returned to Hogwarts. He debated just staying awake but decided to nap the five hours before his next appointment.

At five A.M., he arrived in the Ministry's atrium and found his way to the Aurors' offices, where he accosted a tired Wizard filling out paperwork at his desk.

"Excuse me, my good Wizard," He grinned his brilliant smile. "But I, Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award, and Hogwarts' beloved Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, need to speak with Madam Bones, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

The man stared at him, shook his head, and said, "She shan't be in until eight."

"Ah, well, that just shan't do." He pulled out a copy of The Daily Prophet and showed the man the newsparchment. The man stared, astonished, at the picture and headlines dominating the front page — Lockhart Kills Deadly Monster! And below that, Mystery Monster Stalked Hogwarts' Students, One Confirmed Dead! And below that it said, Headmaster Befuddled for 50 Years, Did Nothing to Protect Students. A side article's headline asked, Is Dumbledore Senile or Incompetent? The Wizard reached to grab the paper to read it, but Harry put it back in his pocket — he was pleased to see his runes worked.

"I think," he continued, "That Madam Bones will be most upset if you tell her you could have warned her of this before the public saw it. And didn't."

Ten minutes later, he was sitting in her office, watching as she scowled while reading the newsparchment. It was loaded with articles about the Chamber, monsters that could kill or petrify with a look, the Four Founders, and an absolutely brilliant piece, in Gilderoy's opinion, about him and his accomplishments, including his tenure so far at Hogwarts. It was by far the best piece in the entire newsparchment.

Rita had done a masterful job researching the history of the Chamber. She had the entire fiasco involving Hagrid down pat, ridiculing both the Ministry and the previous Headmaster, Armando Dippet, for ignoring the facts and going for a simple scapegoat — Harry's memory of what Tom had shown him had helped considerably. She had then pointed out how Dumbledore, as Headmaster, had known, or at the very least, suspected the truth. And yet failed in every particular to correct the injustice as well protect the students in his school from being at risk from the Basilisk in the future when he became Headmaster — the least he could have done was seal up the known access point for the beast, the Witches' Toilets on the First Floor! But he had done nothing for Hagrid or the students. He had just wasted fifty years with his wand up his . . . well, Rita let the readers finish that sentence themselves.

She had then pointed out how he had done nothing this year to protect the students from what he clearly knew was a dangerous beast — not even closing the toilets that he had to know hid the entrance the beast had used. He had played fast and loose with their lives. Only by the most incredible luck was a student petrified instead of killed, unlike the previous time with Myrtle when someone had opened the Chamber.

And how he had been oh so content to wait until Spring to cure the petrified boy and find out what had happened! It had taken the intervention of the skilled and expert Professor of the school's D.A.D.A. to acquire the proper ingredients to cure the student, at the professor's own expense, no less. The famous Professor Lockhart was more concerned with the welfare of the students than the school's Headmaster! The Headmaster obviously put money ahead of worry about a student's education. Then she had gone into a rant about how little he seemed to protect the students, using last year's four attempts on Harry Potter's life as an example.

Her concluding paragraph pointed out that it took a newly-hired Gilderoy Lockhart to deduce the identity of the monster, find its lair, and deal with the threat. And Gilderoy Lockhart, brilliant world-famous celebrity though he might be, had only graduated from Hogwarts twelve years before! He was a new-hire, for Merlin's sake! What was the Great Headmaster Dumbledore, the so-called greatest Wizard of the century, doing during the last fifty years that he couldn't manage this? Was he incompetent? Was he senile? Or did he know and simply not care about the students? "It seems," Rita wrote, "that Dumbledore can't be so great if a new-hire, Gilderoy Lockhart, can do what he hadn't been able to do in fifty years! Does that mean that Gilderoy is a greater Wizard than Dumbledore?"

Finally, the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement slammed the paper down on her desk and glared at him.

He smiled wryly. "Considering that the Headmaster never told the parents that a Basilisk has been running around in Hogwarts since Halloween, I thought you might be interested.

"Bearing in mind that Dumbledore is also Grand Sorcerer; Chief Warlock of the Wizenmaggots; Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards; and Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, perhaps it's just a matter of one man being stretched too far. From my understanding, each of those jobs would take the full-time attention of one Wizard, yet he is trying to do them all himself. Perhaps he should pass up on three of those positions and devote his full attention to just one?

"In any case, while I am not one to tell someone else how to do their job, perhaps you should interview the Headmaster and the Hogwarts' staff today as to the situation there over the last few months. Find out what they knew, when they knew it, and what they did to safeguard the lives of your niece and the rest of the students."

From the sour expression on her face, he knew that the Headmaster was not going to be given easy, simple questions to answer.

"You know from the memories you took from Mr. Potter last November how dangerous the castle was last year to him. This year the danger seems to have expanded to include all the students. Can you imagine the loss to the Wizarding world if the Basilisk had happened into the Great Hall during a Feast? An entire generation wiped out in mere seconds! And Headmaster Dumbledore never seemed worried in the slightest."

He paused, as if a new thought had struck him, "Is it possible the Headmaster was in control of the beast?" He stood as if horrified at the thought. "No, that couldn't possibly be true, he is the leader of the Light, after all." He sighed. "Maybe he is a Gray Wizard and has managed to fool us all this time." He paced back and forth across her office for a minute before sitting back down.

The Head of the D.M.L.E. looked distinctly unhappy at that thought.

"Because it is the hols, you needn't worry about disrupting the school's schedule. The Headmaster always is at breakfast, and if you arrive before the owls do, at eight A.M., you can catch him before he has seen The Daily Prophet or received a warning from a friend who has seen it. Don't give him time to think up a suitable explanation and tell the rest of the staff what they should say. When he does see The Daily Prophet he will already have told you his version. If his explanations are lacking when compared with the known facts . . . well, need I say more about trusting his veracity in the future?"

"To start things off," he withdrew a small vial from his pocket and placed it on the edge of her desk, "here is what happened in The Chamber of Secrets.

"I skipped some of the more mundane aspects of my confrontation — I'm sure you'll understand — I do want to put out a book of the entire experience, you know." He knew she would have several others view the memories with her, and they would spread rumours across the country, raising anticipations at seeing the rest of the week's The Daily Prophet. And spreading his fame that much farther.

She nodded slowly while looking at the vial of memories.

He stood, "Well, now that that's all sorted, I'll get back to Hogwarts. You should have plenty of time to review that memory and prepare an investigative team for the staff. I would suggest that the Headmaster be interviewed here at the Ministry while the staff is interviewed at the school. You might want to dispatch some Aurors to interview a few of the more important Hogwarts' children at their homes, preferably before The Daily Prophet arrives to complicate things. Perhaps Mr. Longbottom, Miss Abbott, the Weasley children, Mr. Malfoy, your niece, and so forth. You needn't bother with Mr. Potter or Miss Granger, you will see them in the memories I left you. Besides, I will be conducting them to Gringotts for some unfinished business today. If you would like to speak with them, I would be happy to escort them here on Tuesday.

He started towards the door. "I expect I'll see you around seven, hmm?" He stopped at the door. "Oh, by the way, that hidden room under the drawing room in the Malfoy's Manor, was it everything you had hoped to find out about Malfoy senior? Perhaps you should set an alert and tag spell on the Floo's to the Ministry watching for the Dark Mark to see if you can detect any Death-Eaters that you might not know about. Hmm?"

(⊙_◎)

Monday morning at Hogwarts was everything Gilderoy Lockhart wanted.

The Aurors, and Madam Bones, arrived at seven just as breakfast appeared on the round table the Headmaster had prepared for the holidays — Gilderoy was sure she used a time-turner to arrange everything and still get here on time. Gilderoy was the only one in attendance and he graciously invited them to dine with him while they waited for the Headmaster. Half an hour later, Albus Dumbledore strode confidently into the Great Hall. He knew, of course, the moment the Aurors had crossed the protective enchantment lines that they were here. He was unaware of any problems in the school that might require the Aurors, so he was not in any hurry to dress and meet them in the Hall.

"Ah! Madam Bones," he said as he entered, "What brings you to my illustrious school?" He smiled at her genially, eyes twinkling.

The Head of the D.M.L.E. put down her tea and stood. "Headmaster Dumbledore. Something has come up of extreme importance regarding the safety of students at Hogwarts and I wanted to discuss the matter with you at the Ministry."

"Oh? Really?" He paused a moment, his grandfatherly aspect in full force. "I assure you, Madam Bones, that all the students are completely safe at Hogwarts. Hogwarts' protective enchantments are second to none in Europe. Hogwarts is the safest place in the world," he quietly affirmed, smiling reassuringly at her.

"Interesting," she said, "Because I have it on good authority that there has been a Basilisk wandering the halls of Hogwarts since September. That certainly doesn't sound safe to me. Especially when we know for a fact that the creature has killed a student in the past."

Dumbledore's eyes flicked to look at Gilderoy before staring at Witch. "I assure you that the students are safe, Madam Bones. There have been no student fatalities in the school in many decades, and certainly none this year."

She tilted her head slightly. "True, no student fatalities, but you have lost a distressing number of Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers over the last two decades. Not even the Ministry has had as many Wizards die in the building as has Hogwarts. Doesn't sound too safe to me. Besides, how can you call Hogwarts 'safe' after the four attempts last year and one this year to kill Mr. Potter? A safe environment does not include regular attempts to kill a student."

The Headmaster sighed in the manner one does when being put-upon by others for matters that really are trivial. "My I break my fast first?" He waved his hand at the table.

"Certainly, Headmaster. After all, we aren't here to arrest you; we'd just like you to enlighten us about certain events."

The other Professors, and several students, wandered in for breakfast over the next half hour, looking nonplussed at seeing the Aurors at the now slightly larger table.

Twenty-five minutes later, the four Wizards and one Witch headed out of the Great Hall towards the Headmaster's Office. They intended to use his floo to go to the Ministry. Dumbledore had wanted to do the interview here, at the school, but Madam Bones prevailed upon him, stating there were a number of people who would be in on the interview and it was easier to move one of him than several of them. Unstated was that there would be Unspeakables at the meeting, and they were notorious for not wanting to leave their headquarters.

Barely ten minutes later, several owls came winging into the Great Hall.

Gilderoy placed an entire platter of bangers in front of the owl delivering his copy of The Daily Prophet as he snatched the paper from owl's leg. The picture dominating the top of the page was almost perfect for Gilderoy. The three adventurers were standing in front of the serpent doors to the Chamber, with a giant question-mark floating to the side.

Proper preparation is the key to success, and he had made sure the three of them had faced away from the wall/doors back the way they had come, while he had pointed to the snakes over their heads. A perfect pose for a picture he knew the paper would use from the memories they provided. He made it look as if he were merely pointing out their progress so far.

"My word!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed while staring at her copy of the rag. Professor Sinistra was staring at him over her copy. Similar exclamations came from the rest of the staff. Harry and Hermione, after a quick look at the cover picture had both blushed bright red. The other students were soon oohing and ahing, as they shared reading the two copies they had received.

Moments later a squad of Aurors came in and confiscated the newsparchments, explaining to the protesting Professors and students, "Sorry, but these are part of an investigation into things here at Hogwarts. We need to question you all before you read The Daily Prophet to prevent it from accidentally affecting your interviews." They grumbled, but agreed to finish their breakfasts and begin the interviews. The Aurors would interview the students only in the presence of their Head of House, after they had interviewed Heads.

Gilderoy, of course, preened under the attention. He started nattering on about how dangerous it was and how he had ensured that his two students were always perfectly safe. When pressed for more details about what was in the Chamber and what had happened, he demurred and said he didn't want to taint their testimony. Instead, he told them more details would appear in tomorrow's edition. Likewise, he mentioned nothing about what had happened previously in the year; he didn't want to prejudice the statements the others would be making.

It was a bit of a tease. Tomorrow's edition was about how he had reasoned out what the creature was and how to get at it. And how the great Boy-Who-Lived had helped. Wednesday would be an in-depth story about the history of the Chamber and events this year, with a teaser showing part of the inside of the Chamber. Thursday would show-case his battle with the Basilisk in Chamber with Friday as a follow-up on the reaction of Wizarding England.