Ch 25

Gilderoy walked up to the Dursley front door and knocked. Today was Saturday and he looked positively dashing in his khaki robe set. He usually reserved this outfit for when he had to travel in rough country; the vest had a few more pockets, as did the trousers. Today, he simply felt adventurous. He had carefully concealed his wands, of course. He ignored as trivial that he was dreadfully overdressed for the neighbourhood. He knew every eye of the snoopy neighbours was on him.

He was about to knock a second time when Harry opened the door.

"Harry, my boy! So good to see you," Gilderoy said jovially. "Your two week sentence is over. I hope things went well?"

Harry stood staring a moment, then said, "Yes, very well. Please come in while I get my things."

Petunia was standing at the kitchen doorway looking at him as he came in.

"Ah, Petunia! I hope I find you well today? I presume Dudley is off carousing with his friends and your dear husband is . . . golfing?" Which Harry/Gilderoy knew was true. It was why he had shown up when he did.

She nodded, a sour expression on her face.

"Harry?" Gilderoy said as the boy reached the top of the stairs, "Leave nothing behind, hmm?"

Harry nodded and disappeared down the hall to his room.

He smiled broadly, showing off his perfect teeth. "Rejoice, Petunia! I think that I can safely say that this is the last time you will see Mr. Potter, barring unforeseen disastrous-for-all-concerned circumstances," he said as Harry came down the stairs. Gilderoy assumed he had placed everything in his trunk, shrunk it, and put it in his pocket.

"By your leave," Gilderoy said as Harry opened the front door and stepped out. Gilderoy quickly casted a disillusionment charm on himself before he went outside. Harry smirked to himself. Petunia probably approved of his hiding himself from view. If she only knew.

They headed for the nearby park. Moments later, they were on the deck in the back yard at Grimmauld Place, the normal appartition point for those acceptable to the protective enchantments — only Gilderoy could apparate into the house itself. Harry, both of them, grinned happily, though for very different reasons. Harry Potter because he was shot of the Dursleys, and Harry/Gilderoy because those snoopy neighbours were going to have a field day about the well-dressed man who entered the Dursley house and then, as far as they knew, spent the entire day with Petunia, unchaperoned! After all, they had seen Harry leave the house unaccompanied. Hah! The gossip about her cheating on Vernon would run rampant, he knew. And she wouldn't be able to explain how he had managed to leave undetected. The gossipmongers would have a field-day! She would be known as a scarlet woman by the end of the week. And unable to ever recover.

"Good riddance to bad rubbish," said Gilderoy as he conducted the boy into the Smoking Room and then down the hall towards the front of the house. "Harry, I am happy to tell you that I don't think you need to worry about ever seeing those obscene parodies of human beings ever again. This is your new home, according to the Wizenmaggots, until you reach your majority."

"Seriously?"

"No, he's Sirius," Gilderoy said as they walked into the sitting room, pointing at the thin man pretending to read The Daily Prophet. Said man grinned, "Did someone just make a joke of my name?"

"Seriously, Sirius, can't you just be serious for once . . . wait, you're always Sirius, right? By the way, this is your godson, Harry James Potter." He pushed the boy forward. "And Harry, this unrepentant reprobate is your godfather, Sirius Orion Black. He was your father's best friend and fellow marauder in Hogwarts. You might have a memory of someone called Padfoot, that is his animagus name. He is a Grimm.

Harry stared at the man wide-eyed. "You knew my father?"

Sirius was torn between laughing at the way Gilderoy had played with his name, being shocked that he not only knew he was an animagus, but also knew what kind and what his nickname was, or drinking in the sight of his godson and answering his question.

With a wary eye towards the smirking Gilderoy, he turned his attention to the boy and started telling him about how he had met the boy's father.

Somewhere in the afternoon Remus showed up and contributed his share of stories.

At supper that evening, Harry was more than a little startled to learn that in addition to living with Sirius and Gilderoy, he shared the house with Remus Lupin, a little girl named Bell, and the Tonks family! And all, except Remus, were related to him! He had inherited, it seemed, an entire family of Wizards and Witches.

After dessert, they adjourned to the sitting room for an evening of getting to know one another, which had surprises for everyone except Gilderoy. He quite enjoyed dropping leading statements and watching the others scramble as they tried to recover and figure out how he knew about those things. Remus made an early night of it, heading to the dungeon at 9:00. Moonrise was at 7:50 P.M. but sunset was 9:15, so he would transform as soon as the sunlight stopped interfering with the Moon's influence.

That was when Harry got the tour of the house and discovered Andromeda and Ted had the Master Bedroom Suite while Sirius was in the Heir's Suite, both on the top floor. Harry had the front bedroom suite overlooking the park in front of Grimmauld Place on the second floor while Bell took the rear bedroom suite overlooking the backyard garden and Tonks was in one of the second-floor magically expanded middle-bedroom suites. All seven rooms had private full bathrooms.

As a non-family visitor, Remus had one of the seven bedrooms on the first floor for stay-over guests. Gilderoy expected the Grangers to be using those rooms the most. Gilderoy had taken over the study on the first floor. His five-room walk-in trunk bedroom suite in one corner provided his sleeping accommodations.

Andromeda and Narcissa had shot down his original plan to have Sirius as the little girl's "parent." Instead, they insisted that the girl needed an adult Witch to raise her properly. Hence their usurping of the Master Suite, at Gilderoy's insistence after they browbeat him into accepting that Sirius was an unfit parent at the present time.

While the others prepared for bed, Gilderoy headed to the dungeon with Sirius. The two of them had transformed the duelling room there into a giant werewolf-proof cage for Remus. Gilderoy's had insisted Sirius and Remus stay at Grimmauld Place instead of out in the wilds.

"What the bloody hell did you do, Gil?" yelled Remus. "Yeah, what he said," said Sirius after transforming back from his Grimm. Remus had transformed just moments before into a werewolf. He had been taking the Wolfsbane potion all week and so had expected to maintain control of his mind while having the appearance of the wolf. Instead, not more than a minute after the transformation was complete, Gilderoy, outside the cage, had hit him with an unknown spell. And now he was human, again. The fur had disappeared, the teeth and snout had retreated, and he looked normal. Upset, but normal.

Harry laughed. "That, my friends, is a little spell I discovered. I wrote it all up in my book Wanderings with Werewolves. Didn't you bother reading it?" He laughed again at their stupefied expressions. "There you go again, underestimating the great 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, Hogwarts' beloved Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, and Slayer of Basilisks," the other two finished in chorus for him, exasperated.

He continued laughing. "Gentlewizards, I present to you Gilderoy Lockhart's Homorphus Reparifarge Charm." He bowed. "Thanks to me, Gilderoy Lockhart, never again shall you have to taste that vile concoction known as Wolfsbane! My new spell can change any werewolf back to human form. It is a mite bit tricky and does require a powerful magical core, but the average wizard should be able to pull it off without completely exhausting themselves." He laughed again at their dumbfounded faces. "Here, let me teach you." They spent the rest of the evening practicing the spell. Remus decided to stay inside the cage until morning, in case the werewolf somehow managed to reassert itself. This was his first time experiencing that spell.

Just before he headed upstairs for bed, Gilderoy said, "By the way, I opened a new Vault recently, The Gilderoy Lockhart Investment Fund, here is the key," he held it up. With all those stolen galleons in that vault, he couldn't just let them sit there. Not when he could put them to good use and stimulate the Wizarding economy. It is much harder to find malcontents in an expanding economy with many available employment opportunities to keep the citizens happy. "I want you two to get the word out that the fund is in business and willing to loan money to anyone who wants to start a new business, either Muggle or Wizardly. They will have to have a firm business plan, of course." He tossed the key to a surprised Remus. "Here, you're in charge of it." He grinned at their stunned expressions. "Gringotts has the details on your salaries. Try not to lose too much money." He left Sirius sputtering that he didn't know anything about running a business. Gilderoy called down the stairs, "Then hire someone who does, that's what I just did!"

At the next full moon, August Second, Harry intended to have Rita here, and have her cast the spell herself. That would make for an interesting headline article, now wouldn't it? And yet another notch on his broomstick of accomplishments that would keep his name in front of an adoring public.

The next day Gilderoy gave Hermione a Frisbee he had made into a repeating two-way portkey — with the permission of Minister Bones, naturally. Gilderoy thought the minister had looked slightly disappointed when he left without dropping any exploding cauldrons into her lap. A mild reverse prank, but amusing — he didn't want to become too predictable, did he?

The portkey would let Hermione visit Grimmauld Place and return home anytime she wanted. It would "lock" on September Second and become unusable until the Christmas break. Then lock again until next summer.

Hermione spent most of the day grilling Sirius on how he became an animagus. Sirius spent most of the day glaring at Gilderoy for revealing his secret, again. Unbeknownst to Sirius, Lockhart had arranged with Minister Bones to keep the Wizard's second form a secret as a goodwill gesture and part of the Ministry's repayment for his illegal incarceration. Watching him struggle to keep his "secret" when he didn't have to was going to be just so amusing, especially when Gildreroy was telling everyone Sirius knew about it. And Sirius' expression when he finally discovered he didn't need to hide his animagus form would be just piceless.

The following weekend the Grangers stayed over. They were suitably impressed with the Manor. Hermione spent almost that entire weekend showing off all the spells she knew. Watching an exasperated Sirius change back and forth between his Grimm form, after Harry gleefully revealed his "expertise" to the surprised Grangers, left them speechless.

They were still unsure about moving into the Dagworth-Granger Manor, primarily because of the rest of their family. Trying to hide the magic would be extremely difficult. Not to mention the difficulty in explaining how they could afford what was clearly a very expensive estate, well beyond their incomes as Dentists. Hermione would probably use it after she graduated.

They were just as speechless when he handed over to Hermione the veritable fortune of one hundred-thousand galleons as her part of the haul from the Basilisk ingredients.

The Weasley's didn't know it, yet, but Ginny was going to get a vault with two hundred thousand galleons. Ginny was now in the top one hundred richest Witches in the country. Hermione was in the top five hundred. Gildreoy thought it hilarious that Hermione's net worth was now almost double that of her parents, as he delightedly told them. And she was only thirteen!

(◎_⊙)

The days passed quickly for Harry/Gilderoy. He split his time between the potions workshop and his books. While Harry knew he would derive the most satisfaction from what he planned to do this summer, for Gilderoy it was all a yawn as the headlines would not be anything that great. So, Gilderoy was kept busy with his writing and editing — had to make sure those stories were absolutely captivating while always showing off Gilderoy and his talents in the best possible light, not to mention his perfect fashion sense. The occasional book-signing helped control his restlessness.

Since Hogwarts' term had ended, Harry Lockhart had spent most of his time working on a Werewolf cure. The Deathly Hallows ring proved invaluable in that respect. He now had what he hoped was a workable cure. Unfortunately, the earliest opportunity to test it would be August Second. But that date was already booked with Rita for a headline featuring Gilderoy Lockhart's Homorphus Reparifarge Charm — and Harry knew he wouldn't be able to convince the Wizard to abandon the publicity. In any event, it used Phoenix tears, Basilisk venom, wolfsbane, and several other rare ingredients. That made it very expensive, much more so than the seven-days of Wolfsbane potion.

He would have to put off testing the cure until August Thirty-first. If it worked, he would set up a priority list, starting with the youngest and going to the oldest. Between the fortunes of House Potter and House Black, they should be able to put together a fund to provide the potion and eliminate lycanthropy within the next ten years. Sooner if he could get the Ministry to fund the potion supply.

(⊙_◎)

Lockhart walked past the St. Mungos' receptionist and headed straight for the elevators. He was dressed in conservative non-descript grey robes and used a subtle Notice-Me-Not spell to avoid attracting attention — people could see him, but would be inclined to ignore him. Gilderoy hated being invisible, but for Harry's research and work to be effective, he couldn't be seen where he was going to be working. He had no legitimate reason to be in the Long Term Spell Damage Ward. And while he might have been able to get permission, this was one situation where it was better to ask forgiveness than permission.

It was while he was working on Bipsy and Belladonna that he first had the idea. With Bell, he had noted that her personality changed the farther back he went in her memories. That was, of course, what he had wanted. It had struck him, though, as he worked through her teenage years and noticed how certain events had shaped her outlook on life, to wonder if he could apply what he was doing to the Longbottoms.

Neville Longbottom's parents had been tortured into insanity via the Cruciatus Curse. Actually, they weren't insane, instead they were nearly comatose. To escape the pain, their minds had shattered and now nothing was left. Or had their consciousnesses retreated so far from the body that they never realized the pain had stopped? In either case, even though the hospital healers had cured the physical damage done to their nerves and bodies long ago, the mental ability to do things was gone. If he obliviated their memories of their attack, could he restore their minds to functionality?

Well, if he was wrong then it didn't really matter. No one would ever know that these two patients had lost eleven and three-quarter years of their lives. No one would ever know he had been here. No one would ever be disappointed at his failure. No, he certainly didn't want his adoring public to discover he had failed in one of his endeavours!

Clearly, the risks were low and he had nothing to lose in trying. And the payoff if he succeeded? For Harry it was worth more than all his galleons. For Gilderoy, meh. But Harry had delivered on his promises of fame and fortune, so Gilderoy was willing to cooperate. And if this worked, maybe he could find some poor soul elsewhere in the world suffering the same ailment as the Longbottoms and cure them to world-wide headlines!

He decided to start with Neville's father first. It was past 10 P.M. and everyone was asleep in the ward, of course. A quick confundo and the nurse on duty was too preoccupied to notice anything he did that night. He followed that with a heavy Notice-Me-Not and Silencing spell. Unless there was a disaster on the ward floor, the nurse would not think to check on the Longbottoms until her shift was over at eight in the morning.

He transformed the small Spartan chair beside the bed into a very comfortable ergonomic chair that held him at the right height beside the bed to work. Then he arranged Frank into a sitting position directly before him, with their eyes on a level, and cast a petrification hex to hold the man stationary while Gilderoy was clear-cutting his memories.

A sleeping mind is difficult to navigate for most legilimens, but Gilderoy Lockhart was not like most such experts. Mind Arts were his speciality. He quickly subjugated the formless dream/nightmare in progress and started removing memories. It went fairly quickly as any associations between memories of one day and the next were almost non-existent. Much sooner than he expected he reached the time when Frank was under the Cruciatus. Even second-hand the pain was remarkable in its intensity. A few minutes later, and the last thing Frank remembered were two Wizards and a Witch bursting into their sitting room and attacking them. The fight had lasted several minutes, and then . . . there was nothing. Bella had casted the Cruciatus wordlessly, so there was no warning. Something shattered his hastily erected shield and then he knew no more. The hours of torture and questioning no longer existed in his mind.