Dark Hogwarts

  Brightly reflected in gold,

 That car flew in the sky.

 And it seemed as if behind him,

 A trail of dangerous smoke followed!

 ***

After two long horns, the train began to slow down, approaching the magical station platform. Many Hogwarts students impatiently climbed out of the compartment with their luggage, began to crowd at the closed doors of the carriage and talk loudly, being in a state of anticipation of the summer holidays.

When the train finally stopped, happy students immediately poured out of the cars to their families. They were greeted very warmly: hugs were visible everywhere and cries of joy could be heard.

But not all the students maintained the same good-natured and happy attitude. Those of the guys who were not in such a hurry to get out and therefore left the train among the last, huddled in common groups of Muggle-borns among their courses.

I organized one myself, along with Harry, when other students began to leave our company, who found their parents in the general mass of wizards.

— Come on, guys! See you in August! Ron waved at us as he and his family walked off the platform towards the fireplace with volatile gunpowder.

— Bye, Kyle, Harry, Sally-Ann! Have a nice vacation! — Lavender said goodbye to us, walking next to us with her parents.

— Don't get bored there, I'll write to you, Kyle, maybe we can meet in Diagon Alley, or even when, before school, — Seamus told me goodbye, that he also left with his mother as a result.

The Hogwarts Express arrived at the station, and the students met with their parents, looking forward with every fiber of their soul to the upcoming two-month vacation. There was activity on the platform, and the happy cheers of numerous reunions with parents and other family members could be heard everywhere.

Even Muggle-borns from older courses met their escorts and left the platform in coordinated groups: someone through one of the fireplaces located in the wall, someone through a passage in the wall leading to the Muggle world, and some students were taken away by guardians with the help of apparation.

— Em... And where should we go? Harry asked me as the platform began to empty rapidly.

As if I knew that.

"We're supposed to be picked up by a guardian, like the rest of the Muggle-born students. But where is he? — Hermione put in her word, with whom my communication never got better after those tests of the director.

— Maybe we should look for him? Jack Spinks suggested.

- no. Maybe we'll get lost, and then we'll get in trouble for it. Out, let's go and sit by the fireplaces with volatile gunpowder. Someone has to pick us up, right? — I directed the others not to stand with suitcases in the middle of an empty platform like idols.

There are eight Muggle-borns left from our course, although a year ago there were as many as twelve going to Hogwarts itself. It was suspicious enough that only those who had lived with Muggles before all this died during the year. Kevin, Riona, Oliver, Dean...

Perhaps this was a statistical accident, and the initial presence of other children in the magical world was not worth writing off. Moreover, there was no special discrimination on the purity of blood in the school, except for Quirrell.

However, sad paranoid thoughts and fears still haunted me - what if, for some unknown reason, we are in much greater danger than the others?

We formed a rather colorful company: Me, Harry, Sally-Ann, Sophie from the ravens and Jack from the badgers were together. Hermione was hanging around nearby, with whom everything was difficult, and Justin Finch-Fletchley and Lily Moon were sitting separately from us.

And if the first one, after showing his cowardice, began to be ignored by us, and Ron even managed to fight with him, keeping his promise, then the fragile, silent Lily herself did not seek to make acquaintances. It's amazing how the girl got to Hufflepuff at all, if, according to the same Jack, she practically did not communicate with her classmates, and her voice was quiet and timid, could be heard only with rare answers to teachers in the classroom.

And with this motley company, we were going to spend the holidays. Not entirely, of course, since Harry and I were supposed to go to live with the Weasleys in August, and Jack shared that she would do something similar by running away from her guardian to her newfound friend Megan at Hogwarts.

We sat on the platform for about thirty minutes. Every time one of the students had the idea to go somewhere and look for their escort there, go out into the Muggle world or even go through the fireplace into Diagon Alley. But I restrained such desires, because at the moment we were considered forced wizards, and once again there was too little information to take risks and take the initiative.

Still, finding our gang on an empty platform will give us fewer reasons to accuse us of some kind of violation of immutable rules that we don't even really know yet.

When the platform was empty enough that the driver and the barmaid left our field of vision, following us with a puzzled look, he appeared.

The wizard moved along the platform with a confident gait, and his steps echoed with the firm tread of patent leather shoes. The man had a brilliant smile on his face with even rows of snow-white teeth, and his whole appearance indicated that he was feeling just fine at the moment.

The wizard reached our group, who stood up from their suitcases and timidly looked at the stranger who appeared.

He was dressed in a suit consisting of a jacket, trousers, vest, shirt and tie, and all of this was in fairly light colors. Golden hair formed a hairstyle on the man's head that somehow looked both unkempt and cool at the same time.

And his face... It would be a lie to say that it wasn't pretty. The interested looks of some of the girls were confirmation of my thoughts, although I sincerely believed that their age was still unsuitable for romantic dreams.

— And here are my charges! — the man turned in our direction, and surveyed our gathering with the same smile that did not even think to disappear from his face.

Your mother. I expected a lot. The fact that one of the teachers will be the guardian. The fact that they will be some kind of ministerial official, or a sorceress in years. Yes, even take us as guardians some pure-blooded conditional Greengrass family - this was also included in my calculations of probabilities.

But I never imagined that Gilderoy Lockhart would become our guardian, and it was none other than him!

— Please forgive my slight delay, — he smiled again, — these birds... However, it doesn't matter. My name is Mr. Lockhart, and in the near future I will be responsible for you," the man came up to our company and began to look at the appearance of his future wards, "oh, these Muggle sweaters and jeans, they are like that... Peculiar, yes!" he found the right word, "well, let's not waste time! Stop sitting around, it's time for us to hit the road! Follow me! — with the mood of a winner, he rushed to the exit to the wall in the Muggle world, and we had to catch up with him in a hurry.

The holidays promised an unforgettable experience, since we got such a guardian.

What do I remember about Lockhart from the canon? A writer who passed off the achievements of other wizards as his own, erasing his memory first. Because of this, he became famous, and even got a job as a Defense against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, where he showed his exceptional mixture of bragging, cowardice and incompetence. For which, in fact, he paid, losing his memory as a result and settling in St. Mungo's Hospital for the rest of his life.

Here, everything can be completely different. No, it's not like that: everything is already happening differently! I didn't even think that I would meet this wizard at all! Is he still the same person? Or, like the Hogwarts professors and the headmaster, has he changed dramatically?

The main thing is not to take a turn for the worse. You might think that: "much worse," but no, there is no limit to the dark side. A person is capable of such actions that will make all his previous shortcomings and mistakes childish pranks - I had no doubt about it, and there is no need to go far for examples.

Together, we grabbed our suitcases and went to get our guardian. Having overcome an invisible passage in the wall and found himself at King's Cross Station, Lockhart continued to move inexorably towards the exit to London.

Muggle guards with guns and red armbands were once again present in their places, and the station was not working again due to the arrival of the Hogwarts Express. The guards didn't pay attention to us, but in front of Lockhart... I managed to notice that when meeting with the golden-haired wizard, Muggles respectfully bowed their heads in front of him.

I wonder if they show such reverence in front of all wizards, or does Lockhart have some kind of special status? After this incident, I did not rule out the possibility that the guardian was something more than I remembered in the canonical version of events.

— Let's go to the parking lot! My baby can't wait to take you for a ride! Lockhart exclaimed, turning in our direction for a moment, "hurry up! What a snail's pace! His words sounded more positive than threatening. At least, the guardian has not yet managed to show his evil side by his appearance.

— The baby? Did he tell the kid? Harry asked me, who was hurriedly wheeling his suitcase right behind me.

"I hope it's not some kind of animal you're going to ride," I whispered warily.

I imagined a picture where a huge golden dragon is waiting for its owner in the middle of a London parking lot, which our company will have to curb and ride. I shuddered at my own fantasy. Although, what is Dumbledore not joking about?

Thank all the magical powers of Potteriana, my surreal assumptions turned out to be wrong. Because an unusual, but still Muggle minibus was waiting for us in an empty parking lot.

What made it unusual was its golden-azure coloring, as well as the images of all sorts of things engraved on it, which moved in black contours throughout the entire outer area of the vehicle.

It immediately became clear that this unit belongs to a wizard - they did not come up with such skillful holographic images back in the nineties, which means that this is some kind of enchantment.

— Suitcases in the trunk, carcasses in the cabin! — Lockhart laughed at his own joke, — come on, I can't wait to show my home to young Hogwarts students.

"Huh, we'll just take the car," Harry breathed, "I was already afraid of the worst."

"Me too, hehe," I shoved my friend in a friendly way, and my concentration was replaced for a moment by the usual childish foolishness.

We loaded the luggage where we were told, and we ourselves moved into the interior of a bright minibus. At first I thought Lockhart had his own driver, but no: he got behind the wheel himself!

— Well, my little fellow travelers, are you ready to have fun? Lockhart laughed like a mad comic book villain, but I quickly realized that was how he turned on his acting.

And then he took out his wand and stuck it in the place where the ignition keys are usually inserted.

And after that, we rushed forward under the rolling roar of the transport, and then took off altogether!

It was. Flying. A minibus. Which one. Managed it. Gilderoy. Lockhart.

— Yoo-uh-hoo-yelled our informal driver as if he were on a roller coaster right now, — full speed ahead, my faithful Baby! — he exclaimed, and we began to fly over the British capital at great speed.

— Are we really flying? Harry stared at the window in amazement.

"Is he talking to his car?" Sally-Ann asked, twirling her finger at her temple.

I shrugged my shoulders slightly.:

— The main thing is that it should be safe. And it's pretty cozy to fly... I thought we were going to be swept away and scattered all over the cabin," with these words, I listened to my feelings. It felt like flying on an airplane. Even the pitching was almost unnoticeable.

"You are completely right, my young ward," shouted Lockhart from the driver's seat, who miraculously heard my words from his seat. He was raising his voice because for some reason his side window was completely open, which made the noise of the headwind next to him very loud, and don't worry, I only had an accident on my handsome car three times, and two of them were the fault of Muggles who were in the air I can't find it! Ha ha! — he turned the steering wheel and turned a sharp turn, — another thirty minutes of flight and we will arrive at the place! Have time to enjoy this feeling! Who knows if you will have the opportunity to fly on such a magic car again! This thing is rare and very expensive, I tell you!

We spent the whole way in the evening looking out the windows at the flashing buildings of London below and the rare snow-white clouds in the blue sky. It really turned out to be great to fly on such a transport. At least, the children from this, after reassuring themselves about their own safety, were completely ecstatic with impressions.

Apparently, someone has already implemented Mr. Weasley's idea in the canon of enchanting Muggle cars, and even managed to make their own business out of it. Anyway, Ron didn't tell us about any flying cars in his garage.

— Mr. Lockhart, can I ask you a question? I shouted to our guardian.

— Ask me!

— And for yours... Ahem, Baby, do you need regular fuel? Or does he only fly on enchantment?

— Oh, that's a good question! You can't do without fuel here, but its composition is unknown to anyone except the manufacturers! Any smart enough wizard can convert a car into a magic car, but to make it fly stably and long-lasting, and to accommodate third-party charms - this is the reason why Akimbo's magic cars are valued at exorbitant prices, as well as their secret fuel! Commendable interest - are you interested in cars, young man? The guardian asked me with his trademark smile.

— No, sir, I'm just wondering how everything in the magical world works! I replied to him.

— Oh, in that case, you will learn a lot of interesting things! Curiosity is exactly the quality that made me what I am today!

Who exactly is Lockhart, I decided not to ask. You never know, it might sound disrespectful or even insulting to him. Since we have come across a guardian who has not yet shown aggression or cruelty, then let it remain that way. From sin.

That's probably what Filch meant when he talked about our "luck." It is likely that success at Hogwarts also affects things like a guardian for the summer, so because of passing the tests, we were given an extraordinary, but quite friendly wizard.

Soon London was replaced by its agglomeration of smaller towns, and they subsequently gave way to single roads, fields and sparse patches of forest. The views from the height were truly gorgeous, and even I couldn't resist sticking out the window of the magic minibus for a while.

— We're getting close! I'm going down! E-e-e-h! — Lockhart devoted himself to piloting his transport with all his soul, and his "descent" in fact meant a sharp dive vertically down, followed by alignment a few seconds before hitting the ground.

"It was scary,— said a terrified Finch-Fletchley.

"No, my young Padawan, it was wonderful! — said our adrenaline maniac in response, stupidly called the guardian responsible for the children's lives.

— For me... We need to get some air," Sophie whispered, covering her mouth with her hands.

— Hurry up! Don't even think about ruining such a beautiful salon! I won't get rid of the smell for a week afterwards! Lockhart exclaimed, after which the door of the minibus opened, and Sophie ran out onto the green grass and emptied her stomach.

We followed her out onto the hard ground, which we had already missed, and helped Sophie come to her senses.

"It's okay," she replied in response to our concern, "I'm fine, really.

— So, let's get our suitcases, and Welcome to my humble, hehe, abode! Lockhart stood right in front of our group and pointed with his hands at a luxurious house, fenced off from the rest of the world by a high hedge and a large single gate with an exit.

— Modest? Harry asked stupidly, looking around the sparkling gold walls of the real mansion.

— Of course! If you only knew where I had to live in Germany, mmm... — our guardian indulged in blissful memories for a moment, but quickly came to his senses, — come on, I'll introduce you to the rest of the, ahem, guests, yes...

The house met us with a passage into a cozy bright living room with living pictures of nature, which gave the interior of the room a truly magical and unimaginable look and gave a feeling of comfort as much as it is possible to imagine. Even the pretentious and sometimes catchy bright colors did not interfere, but only complemented the picture of a luxurious room that opened up to us.

There we were met by a gaggle of attractive servants.

"Welcome back, Mr. Lockhart," the four girls bowed to him in unison.

— Hello, hello, my dears. So, children, meet Alexandrina, my housekeeper," he went up to his servant and put his arm around her waist, causing her to smile sheepishly, "this is Ximena's cook, you will be delighted with her dishes, I promise you," Lockhart switched to another, and gently ran his hand over her cheek, having met the same reaction to his actions as the previous one, — and the maids: Kayin and Erlia, — he looked at his remaining servants with a kind patronizing look, one of whom, Kayin, had a dark African skin tone, - the servants are children. Our guests for the near future, I ask you to love and favor them. Not like me, well, you get it," Lockhart grinned at another "adult" joke.

— We welcome the wards of our master, — the housekeeper Alexandrina bowed to us in a friendly way, — I hope that you will enjoy spending your holidays here.

—Hello," we replied, confused and out of place.

They were all very different in appearance, having similarities only in undeniable attractiveness and youth - I would not have given any of the maids more than twenty-five years old. My body may not have fully formed yet, but even my eye was pleased with such a picture of such pretty girls. I'm already silent about Lockhart, who was literally swimming in this seductive paradise of feminine beauty and submission.

Who is he, if he has his own mansion and beautiful servants? Is this how all wizards live, or is he the only one so special?

— So, now, regarding the rules, — Lockhart distracted himself from tactile flirtation with his servants, and returned his attention to us, — your rooms should already be ready upstairs - third floor, left aisle. Boys on the left, girls on the right. In order to avoid, so to speak, hehe, - among the children present, it seemed that only I understood Lockhart's slightly bawdy humor. However, nothing further followed him, so his jokes could be considered harmless enough, "you are free to move around the house, but it is forbidden to enter the basement," he waved his finger with an ostentatious frown, "you can leave the house and stay on the lawn, but I will ask you not to enter the servants' house, and don't go near the hedge - she has a very bad temper, especially when meeting new faces. So," he thought, "what else?" This... He said this... It seems to have been instructed," he clapped his hands, "go upstairs and get settled, and through... He looked questioningly at Ximena, his Spanish—born cook.

—Thirty minutes, sir," she bowed.

— Here, in thirty minutes I'm waiting for all of you for dinner, where we'll finally get to know each other. All right, go ahead, my young wards! You're all going to love it here, or I'm not Gilderoy Lockhart! — he decided to end his speech with sublime pathos, while assuming a heroic and comic pose.

That's how our holidays began - chaotically and with a breeze.

***

Living in Lockhart's house was probably the most enjoyable pastime I've experienced since entering the world of Potteriana.

If at first we were still afraid of some kind of "necrotic pig in a poke", then after a couple of days in the company of classmates, charming maids and a slightly flighty, but still friendly wizard, we managed to finally relax.

Firstly, it was influenced by the bedrooms. They were excellent! Not exactly a suite, but they felt cozy, and the soft feather bed cut down no worse than the spell "Stupefy"!

Secondly, the food. Oh, she was beyond praise. Of course, it could not boast of such a wide variety as during the same Hogwarts feast, but it was very tasty and felt homemade, cooked with the ardent love of an obedient Spaniard.

We were fed four times a day and were never denied a supplement... In a word, to the slaughter. I just hoped that such an expression would remain exclusively figurative.

Thirdly, freedom. We were free to move around the house! No curfews, no restrictions, except for the basement or the area outside the site. Play on the lawn? You are welcome! To see a collection of Lockhart's books? And it's possible!

And fourthly, it's magic. The guardian has allowed us to use chopsticks! With instructions not to destroy the house and exercise in the fresh air, but still!

It's a logical enough thought, if you think about it - after all, if there is no Statute of Secrecy, then it makes no sense to limit us on summer holidays in the use of magic!

In general, we quickly got used to Lockhart's house and found something to do. With our company of five people, we played games, studied books, had various adventures and simply fooled around. An unthinkable thing, after such and such a Hogwarts!

However, part of the canon has been preserved here. Lockhart was indeed a famous writer, releasing his own numerous books that were in great demand in the magical world. I asked him in more detail about his career, and it turned out that he is also published in Muggle publications, but only those works that are exclusively artistic in nature.

— My friends twirled their fingers at my temple when I mentioned the circulation of my books for Muggles. Haha, it would seem - what's the point? — he once replied to me, being generous with revelations, — because you can't earn galleons there, and Muggle pounds are already provided by the Ministry in considerable quantities to any wizard. But popularity... Oh, yes, when my name made headlines in Muggle newspapers, the Daily Prophet was the very first to interview me, interested in the wizard that Muggles read.

He really had a lot of books, and not all of them were about his own adventures. I don't think he would have risked his focus on erasing memory and attributing other people's merits in this reality. What for? It was much easier to rely on works of art, in which for magicians he touched upon the issues of the Muggle world, using the reformulated philosophy developed by numerous simpletons, and for Muggles he opened the veil of mysterious magic, describing in his books fabulous animals and magic itself as something incredible and unimaginable.

In fact, of course, it is, but the Muggles themselves could not find out about it in any other way - books of the magical world are not sold in ordinary bookstores, and even in the London library, as I think, copies written by wizards cannot be found.

It's amazing how Lockhart managed to negotiate with the Ministry of Magic. Even though he did not report any super-important information about the weaknesses of wizards in his books, but still - difficulties with publication in the Muggle world simply could not help but happen, however, he coped with all of them, earning a fortune both by the standards of the Muggle and magical worlds.

— Wizards are very biased about Muggle books. They don't think they're capable of writing anything worth their attention, you know. And those who would have taken up such a case themselves simply did not turn out. That's why I flew so high. Well, for the talent, of course," Lockhart opened up to me for the second time after a while.

Our guardian was able to talk for hours about himself and his achievements in the field of writing. It was a sin not to take advantage of this, having learned a few more grains about the interaction of the worlds of magicians and Muggles.

— So, please pay attention for a moment! — a week after our arrival, Lockhart said at dinner, attracting the attention of all the children, — in a couple of days we will go on a trip with you! I didn't speak before because I had to sort out all the details with the Ministry, get all the permits and negotiate with the right people, but now everything is over and we can hit the road! So tomorrow we will go to Kosoy Lane and buy the necessary supplies for the upcoming hike! Oh, how long I've wanted to go there, you should know... — said Lockhart dreamily, — that's it, I've notified you, go back to eating, kids.

— Em... Mr. Lockhart, where exactly are we going? I asked, intrigued and a little apprehensive. Who knows where this adventurous mood will take us?

— And this is a secret, — he replied with his trademark feline smile, — I will surprise you, you will never forget!

We had to rely on our guardian's idea and wonder where we would go and what we would meet there. The main thing is that we have something not to forget - to lose our heads on vacation after what we experienced at Hogwarts would be the highest evil irony that I can even imagine.

The second night after arriving at Lockhart's house..

"Harry," I whispered to the boy, "are you awake?"

"No," he replied, just as quietly.

It was the middle of the night. Lockhart's maids should have gone to their servants' quarters long ago, and the guardian himself was most likely already asleep in his own bedroom.

It's time to explore the mysterious basement.

The main thing is not to wake Finch-Fletchley, who was sleeping with us. You never know who he might tell about our idea. We didn't even warn the girls about it, so as not to put them at unnecessary risk in case of something.

Basement... I couldn't believe that Lockhart was all such a rich pinocchio, without having skeletons in the closets. For the safety of myself and others, I encouraged Harry to explore, since we have such a useful thing as an invisibility cloak.

What if all this ostentatious idyll is just a screen, and in the end we all expect some kind of shock or something worse? Dumbledore was full of ideas, and my paranoia refused to completely believe that we had received such a kind guardian for our merits, and not as another test.

It is quite possible that I have already developed some kind of analogue of PTSD, and I see a threat where it simply does not exist. But, as for me, it's better to overdo it than one day wake up chained on the butcher's table. For some reason, they feed us as if they were really going to put us on meat!

"Get up, we have to go," I whispered, and we quietly began to dress.

Having covered ourselves from all sides with a long invisibility cloak, we began our journey straight to the basement of the house.

The progress was successful - the stairs did not creak, no suspicious sounds were made in the house and outside. It was only on the ground floor that some groans could be heard from Lockhart's bedroom, which made Harry blush deeply, and I just smiled nervously.

The guardian is awake, but he is very busy at the moment and should not interfere with us.

As expected, Lockhart's servants were not only watching the house, but also their master. Whether voluntarily or not is a million-dollar question, but I have not noticed any violence or coercion towards the maids during these days.

— Come on, stop listening.

"I'm not listening to anything," Harry muttered, even more embarrassed.

We came to the door leading to the basement. I discussed our purpose and mission with Harry earlier in the day. It was just a reconnaissance, which quite possibly could not work out.

Yes, we definitely took a risk. But Lockhart in these two days seemed to me not the kind of wizard who cares so much about the safety of his secrets. His words about the basement were said without that bit of ominous warning, if his words had been present, I would not even have poked my head in here.

To a greater extent, the guardian was quite flighty and sloppy, which gave me hope of painlessly poking my curious nose into his secrets. For the sake of safety, of course. I'll definitely sleep better if the basement just holds some conditionally dangerous potion ingredients or something like that. And I definitely won't sit idly by if there turns out to be something that could harm us.

In fact, with this intelligence, I was figuring out how to behave during these summer holidays: relax and enjoy a break between courses at Hogwarts, or strain and fight for my survival in the lair of a maniac?

— Let's try to open the door with a spell, if it doesn't work, then we'll make a new attempt later, when we find the key, - I whispered in my friend's ear, after which I took out my wand, — Alakhomora! — after applying a rather inconspicuous charm, the padlock clicked, and the passage down was open for us.

Is it that simple? At Hogwarts, I remember, "Alohomora" did not work on most doors in the corridors of the school, but here the lock gave in on the first attempt. It worked!

Perhaps Lockhart didn't enchant the door so that he wouldn't bother every time he visited the basement? After all, charms that would not work for the master, but would work on everyone else are quite complicated, and here he has access, perhaps, to Muggle maids, which seems to me a much bigger task.

Anyway, since we managed to open the door, we need to take the opportunity and take a peek at the contents of the basement.

I pulled the lock shackle out of the bracket on the door, trying to make as little noise as possible when the irons came into contact with each other. On the way back, you will need to remember to return everything to its place by returning the locking mechanism to its original position.

— Be careful, if you see a threat, do not forget - as long as we are in the invisibility cloak and are quiet, then nothing should threaten us, - I instructed Harry in a whisper, to which he nodded in agreement, — do not panic and do not try to distance yourself in any case, otherwise we will reveal ourselves so.

Of course, I didn't say anything. In my assumptions, there were a dozen ways to detect us under invisibility, but all of them were dismissed by the annoying desire to check the ill-fated basement and the belief in the uniqueness of the personal Death Gift of the Potters.

What could be so terrible there? And is it true that I'm just winding myself up and this idea is nothing more than a desire to calm my paranoia?

Deep down, I hoped that there would be no catch, and Lockhart would really turn out to be an ordinary wizard without any special madness like worshipping demons for success or something like that. But it's one thing to hope for the best, and quite another to make sure of it yourself.

We began to descend cautiously, and almost immediately our ears caught some kind of clacking. It was frequent, very, very frequent, merging into a single noise - some kind of familiar, but at the same time incomprehensible and alarming.

— What's in there? Harry whispered.

"I don't know," I replied, "let's go and see." Just be quiet.

We cautiously moved on, and the source of this noise was revealed to us. Muggles were sitting in a spacious room... Five pieces. They were all handcuffed to iron tables and used typewriters, on which they typed, typed, typed non-stop...

Here it is, Lockhart's skeleton. Why take the risk and ascribe to yourself the deeds of wizards, if you can kidnap talented Muggles and force them to create, passing off the result as something of your own.

Muggles looked so-so - gray dirty robes, haggard faces, empty looks...

But, however, it is worth admitting that this has nothing to do with us. Yes, Lockhart turns out to be capable of forced exploitation of Muggles, but I've had suspicions about this since I met the maids.

So it turns out - are we really safe? And he's not making any bigoted plans for us? The probability of this in my head jumped up significantly, since the basement was not intended for us at all.

— Why?.. What are they doing here? Harry asked me, uncomprehending and a little scared by the picture he saw.

— I'll explain it to you later. That's it, let's go back to the room.

We began to climb back up. Quietly climbing the stairs, we reached the door from the basement. I had already opened it to the outside, intending to snap the lock and return as if we weren't even here.

But suddenly, the door on the other side was pushed sharply by someone, which made us stagger, and the robe revealed parts of our body.

— Well, well, well, - Lockhart appeared in the doorway and shook his head disapprovingly, - are we breaking the rules? Bad, bad boys. Well, never mind, I was curious too at your age.

I was hastily figuring out how to get out of this situation. Run down? Pounce on Lockhart? Stun him? I grabbed my wand, but he was faster.:

— Obliviate!

"Goodbye, my memory," was all I had time to think before oblivion set in.