Ch 17 pt 1

While he would have preferred a much larger audience at Hogwarts, knowing that all his students were at home telling stories to their parents of his exploits made it easy to let that go. Reading about the monster while their children extolled his virtues would boost his popularity out of sight.

Actually, it being the hols, it was better than if school were in session!

The attention he attracted while escorting Hermione and Harry through Diagon Alley did a double duty of showing-the-flag and acknowledging his fans while simultaneously providing a visual of how he was mentoring The-Boy-Who-Lived. And feeding those rumours that the two children were dating. The normal five-minute walk took almost half an hour. Poor Harry looked as if he wanted to melt through the ground to escape.

The Grangers, having met them outside The Leaky Cauldron, were suitably impressed with Lockhart, and their daughter's new station in life. Her new robes were quite impressive.

They had been stunned at the financial and property statements they received by owl from Hermione on Wednesday last. It turned out that Lord Dagworth-Granger had invested in a few businesses that were still operating, or other companies had taken them over them and were obligated to continue paying dividends. There was a modest ten thousand galleons in her vault. It would be more than sufficient to renew the protective enchantments on her properties, should she desire.

Gilderoy had already noticed that while Hermione's hands retained most of their human characteristics, except the nails more nearly resembled claws and were retractable. Her feet, however, seemed more feline-patterned. That is, she walked on her toes with her heels elevated. This made her a bit taller and gave her a rather elegant slinky cat-like walk, while her hips had an exaggerated and very sexy roll as she moved. Harry had also taken note, and suggested in a whisper when they had left Hogsmeade that they should take a few pictures of her walking for her thesis.

Gilderoy snickered. Hermione was just going to have to get used to Harry staring at her bum as she walked — not to mention all the other male students. And probably invest in a few high-heeled shoes to explain her sudden height increase when the transformation finally wore off. He had already altered her current shoes to fit, to accustom her to wearing that style.

Fortunately, the crowd at Diagon Alley distracted her parents too much for them to notice the changes in their daughter. Gilderoy planned to correct that during the day by "accidentally" finiting the glamour. He was sure Sirius would wet himself laughing when he saw the pensieve memory.

Harry's first property was a modest twenty-room London townhouse. The second was a forty-room mansion and country estate in Wales. The country estate had a full potions workshop, a pool, and an extensive library that required they bodily drag Hermione out of it. The French estate was another forty-room mansion not far from the French Rivera, with several hundred acres of vineyard surrounding it. The income from the wine sales easily maintained all the properties and their needs. And kept his vaults growing. At Gilderoy's suggestion, Harry gave the Granger's several cases of the best years' wines, delivered to the Grangers' home by house-elf.

It was at their noon dinner that Gilderoy started slowly removing the glamour. They were almost to dessert when Mrs Granger said, "Hermione! What's happening to you?"

Hermione looked down at her furred hand and dropped her fork, giving her mother a wide-eyed look of astonishment. Mr. Granger was staring just as wide-eyed.

"Ah," Lockhart said nonchalantly, "Nothing to worry about Mrs Granger. That's just Lady Granger's glamour wearing off. I'll restore it later. She had a minor potion accident on Christmas that temporarily changed her into a cat." He smiled winningly at the startled parents. "Rather fortuitous, actually. No one has ever attempted a human-to-cat potion transformation, it was considered too dangerous as the potion was designed only for human-to-human." Her parents looked even unhappier at this declaration.

"It's quite an opportunity for the young Lady to establish herself in the potions community," he continued, smirking at their expressions. "First, because she is just a Second Year and has yet managed to brew a potion normally only taught to Seventh Year students — and many of them cannot succeed with it." He quirked an eyebrow at them to give them a moment to grasp her skill. "Second, because the thesis she is planning to write about her transformation and her experiences will be a true ground-breaker in an area no one has ever researched." He smiled proudly, "I expect that her success in brewing this most difficult potion will give her opportunities she had never foreseen." He leaned back in his chair with an air of satisfaction, as if he were responsible for her achievement.

"For example, her Potions Professor, Master Potioneer Severus Snape, has made her his assistant. Something he has never done before." The parents' expression were slowly changing from alarmed to confused as they tried to sort the implications of both danger and reward. And the fact that their daughter was a cat!

Hermione's expressions were difficult to read during this explanation but her emotions ranged from horror, to pride, to embarrassment. Yes, you can see a cat blush under all that hair, Gilderoy discovered.

Her mum delayed their dessert by dragging Hermione off to a bathroom to "check" things out. Her father just ate his dessert, shaking his head periodically. Whether to clear his thoughts or in shock, Gilderoy wasn't sure. Mrs. Granger returned with a shocked expression, switching to a little smile at odd moments. She even managed to look wistful one time while looking at her husband with a crooked smile. She also kept petting her daughter.

The Dagworth-Granger estate was a much more modest fifteen-room building with a potions workshop that filled the entire basement. Unfortunately, while some of the potions were under a stasis charm, the majority were age-ruined. The equipment, however, was perfect and Hermione pillaged a complete set of potion preparation tools from the stock for use at Hogwarts. If she was going to be Snape's assistant, she'd better have the best tools possible! Again, they had to drag her out of the library. She did snag a duplicate original first-edition to give to Snape.

Gilderoy was correct; the Dagworth-Granger estate protective enchantments were in dire need of upgrading.

The day passed quickly, and Hermione's parents adjusted to seeing their cat-daughter with varying degrees of astonishment gradually easing into curiosity and pride at their daughter's accomplishment. Before they returned to Gringotts Lockhart restored the glamour and they spent the rest of the afternoon examining their finances. They decided that selling selected books from the Dagworth-Granger estate, after copying them of course, would easily fund the upgrades to the protective enchantments. They left it to the Goblins to arrange both. They finished with tea at a Muggle restaurant not far from The Leaky Cauldron.

(⊙_⊙)

The Headmaster was in his office, staring at the stack of Daily Prophet's lying on his desk. That pompous popinjay fraud Lockhart had somehow turned into an accomplished hero at his, Albus's, expense! Dumbledore knew the man was a fraud; two of his acquaintances had had their memories stolen from them for his books. He had discovered this when he noticed that one of the memory-thief's books bore an uncanny resemblance to a story a friend had told him several years before. When he had owled that Wizard with questions, the man had denied any memory of the event. He remembered Lockhart visiting him, but that was all. The other friend reported a similar experience.

A bit more research had revealed the Wizard to be a complete fraud, all of his stories based on experiences of other people. He had stolen their memories for profit! Which seemed to fit in perfectly with his work in Hogwarts as a student, nearly failing in all subjects and only learning those things that would make him look good to his peers.

But this! This was beyond the belief. Almost from the first day, Lockhart had behaved differently than before. Yes, he still seemed to be a self-centred rake, turning every conversation into a platform for bragging and self-aggradation. But there were jarring instances where he was stunningly competent.

His interactions with Harry had been laughable; as he seemed to interpret everything the boy did as Harry trying to copy the grown Wizard's fame. And his detentions had been just as farcical, with long diatribes about Lockhart's books and successes, and how to curry favour with the media and public. But then there had been Neville Longbottoms' patronus. Never in all his years had the Headmaster heard of someone so young successfully casting that spell. Yet Lockhart had taught it to him, and delivered a very effective lecture on magic in the process. Totally out of character.

But then he had accused Ron of being a sadomasochist. When that was pointed out as foolish, he had suggested that Draco and Ron were somehow attracted to each other. While there was nothing wrong with such proclivities, the political damage to both families, should a rumour about the two associating with each other gain wide circulation, was incalculable. And it was patently obvious that the two were not romantically involved! But the ponce insisted on spreading that rumour.

But while he and Snape could look into their minds and know the boys hated each other, the rest of the staff and school had no such assurances. And rumours of the two having a dalliance could ruin his plans for Harry — simultaneously separating the friendship of Ron and Harry while lessening the antagonism between Harry and Draco. But it was such a typical thing for Lockhart to blurt out.

But his involvement with this Lily Foundation was another story. How he had convinced Potter to co-operate was a mystery. And having the proceeds go to students at Hogwarts brought the boy positive press and put the boy in a good light for the public. That was a problem. He had to keep the boy isolated and dependent upon him. Unfortunately, he couldn't object publically without compromising his position as magical guardian — people would question why he had allowed the Muggles to abuse the boy. Claiming he never thought to check, and being unable to explain why he hadn't taught the child about his heritage, would get his guardianship revoked for incompetence. And that would turn into a major political fight as every heavy-hitter in Wizarding England would demand and fight for custody! The only positive to that situation was that he didn't have to worry about Malfoy getting his hands on the boy. And Narcissa seemed completely uninterested in the famous boy.

Albus knew that Lockhart was somehow involved in the destruction of the Malfoys. From the third richest family in Britain to barely above commoners was a breathtaking plunge in financial fortunes in a mere few weeks. How Lockhart had done it was a mystery, but, before his death, Lucius had insisted the man had tricked him into ruin over House points — and that made no sense whatsoever.

And so his favourite foil in the Wizengamot was gone, leaving many of his plans in disarray.

And amid his buffoonish attitude, Lockhart still managed to garner headlines! Accusing Draco of murder, and then sneaking Harry out to an interview with Rita Skeeter. The bad press for Dumbledore wasn't anything he couldn't handle, but it wasted his time dealing with those piddling problems and reassuring his followers, especially those at the edges.

Then the nitwit actually found the lost Ravenclaw Diadem. That was great press for Hogwarts, but Rita had managed to turn it into asking why the great Dumbledore hadn't found the diadem first! As if he had time to waste searching for a useless artefact such as that. He had more important things to do.

The fiasco with that cursed diary had cost him the support of the Weasleys, perhaps permanently. Lockhart anticipating his actions had prevented him from hiding the facts before anyone noticed. And while Dumbledore was a master at wandless silent magic casting, staring at the tip of Lockhart's already glowing wand had denied him the time for any reaction at all except acceptance. And once given, the vow prevented him from acting immediately to retain his most devoted followers.

Their daughter hadn't been that badly damaged by the possession, but his hesitance to assist her had further alienated the Weasleys. And had them call into question his competence. It would take time and effort to recover his position with them, but he could do it. A few compulsion charms, a bit of help here and there, and sooner or later they would fall back into his control. But in the meantime, he was without their unconditional support. And every time he spoke with Arthur about things in the Ministry and the Wizengamot, the Wizard kept him at a sceptical distance, questioning his reasons for every little proposed action.

While Albus started repairing his damaged reputation, Gilderoy had once more appeared an incompetent oblivious idiot. Except — he had shown a rather remarkable duelling ability during that first Dueling Club meeting. That he had managed to secure a tea date with McGonagall had been surprising, but then Dumbledore had never understood the dynamics of how Witches and Wizards interacted. Voldemort he could easily predict, Witches? Not at all.

And now this. The Chamber of Secrets. He had thought that a secret will kept. No one else knew where the entrance was, nor the creature contained in it. Lockhart's pretensions to knowing both had been laughable, and he knew the Wizard had never been even close to Myrtle's toilets in his so-called investigations of the castle.

But now? Lockhart had found it, entered it, and apparently killed the creature! Dumbledore had already been to the entrance this morning, to find still sealed but now concealed behind a simple Notice-Me-Not spell as well. The pictures in The Daily Prophet proved he had been down there.

And the fall-out from The Daily Prophet articles continued relentlessly. Not a day went by that didn't record several howlers berating him for endangering the students so recklessly! Even his so-called allies were keeping their distance and not responding to his floo-calls or owls. In a matter of days, he had lost much of his prestige and influence.

Madam Bones had been thorough, and damn her for getting to him before he had a chance to see those bloody articles in The Daily Prophet. Only after the interview, which had taken all morning, did he see a copy of that worthless rag. And by then it was too late, people had already started talking with each other and comparing experiences. By Friday, he had managed to retain his position as Headmaster only after promising to resign his positions as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and as Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards. And the former had beaten a vote removing him from the office by only a few hours.