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Over the objections of the Hogwarts faculty- including an angry rant from Professor Fisher about 'incompetent bureaucratic morons', little of which was really appropriate for the ears of his young students- Professor Reed is taken away on suspicion of theft.
Anti-American sentiment intensifies, with whispers spreading about "those Yanks spying on us" and "stealing the Silverlight spell." People start eying Professor Fisher carefully, in the halls. (He ignores it, rather pointedly.) People write in to the Headmistress complaining; why did they bring in those Americans in the first place, why does that man Fisher still work there, similar nonsense. She develops a curt form letter assuring parents that Hogwarts hiring standards are of the highest quality, with a strong undertone of none of your business. The letters continue anyway.
Students graffiti the Transfiguration classroom with insulting suggestions for places Professor Fisher can take himself. Filch catches those responsible and they clean it up as their detention. McGonagall makes a displeased speech that night at dinner about respecting faculty and innocence until proven guilty. Some students listen.
After a week's gone by- it feels longer to all involved, particularly Tamara, but only a week- there's a new article.
Gilderoy Lockhart Apprehends Silverlight Culprit
By Russell Peasegood
Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award, has done it again!
Only recently released from St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, most wizards would need rest, more time to recover from the horrors of a Memory Charm gone wrong, but not Gildery Lockhart. Known throughout the magical world for his daring feats of magic, Lockhart is back in the game with a bang.
"It never made sense to me," Lockhart told the Prophet. "Why steal a wand of someone you're chaperoning? Of course you'd be under suspicion! She couldn't have hoped to get away with it. So, of course, I had to investigate."
Lockhart used his famed powers of deduction to locate prime Ministry suspects. In the course of interviewing them, he was able to identify the janitor who had stolen the wand. "Poor man wasn't right in the head," according to Lockhart. "Thought the wand made him special, powerful- attacked me when I tried to get it away- just look what he did to my cloak! But I got it back from him, never fear."
The wand is now in the possession of Ministry Officials, and will shortly be returned to its rightful owner, Miranda "Silverlight" Swan. Tamara Reed can be expected to be released shortly.
When commended on his actions, Lockhart said, "Of course, of course. Couldn't let the poor girl go without her wand- couldn't let the Ministry officials bungle it like that- something had to be done!"
Asked about his future plans, Lockhart told us, "Why, doing whatever good I can, of course. Britain needs all the wizards it can get right now!"
If Lockhart's past adventures are any guide, that will be quite a lot of good indeed.
As promised, the next day, Hogwarts sees two arrivals: Professor Reed, released by the Ministry, and Gilderoy Lockhart, Miranda's wand in hand.
chanuphis
"Hermione didn't go into a lot of detail, she kept saying she's not sure if he's even effectively the same person after being so very obliviated and hospitalized and that it was years ago."
witch_please
"Yeah, okay," Alli concedes. "Well, as long as he behaves himself. Otherwise- grrr!" She bares her teeth in a comically ineffective snarl.
chanuphis
Miranda giggles.
She takes a couple of weeks to get through all the available reading on Occlumency, and a while after that before she's pretty sure she's not detecting any progress with the meditative exercises, and then, only a couple of weeks before exams, with Karen too busy freaking out about how she has to study to do anything, Miranda goes looking for Emma.
She takes a couple of weeks to get through all the available reading on Occlumency, and a while after that before she's pretty sure she's not detecting any progress with the meditative exercises, and then, only a couple of weeks before exams, with Karen too busy freaking out about how she has to study to do anything, Miranda goes looking for Emma.
parental_guidance
Emma is on her way back from the Owlery, having sent her parents their usual weekly update. She spots Miranda in the hall and waves. "Hey, what's up?"
chanuphis
"I'm going to ask Hermione to Confund me, but - in case it works I might want to be walked back to my dorm, and Karen's studying like she thinks the penalty for an Acceptable is being hung by her ankles for a month, so I thought I should probably ask somebody else."
parental_guidance
"Yeah, sure, I can do that," Emma says immediately. "When did you want to try...? Now? Later?"
chanuphis
"My appointment with her is in about fifteen minutes."
Miranda is a nervous little Silverlight.
Miranda is a nervous little Silverlight.
parental_guidance
Emma's not quite as hug-prone as Jenny, so she just pats Miranda comfortingly on the shoulder. "You'll do great," she says loyally. "And then you can go save the world from Dementors."
chanuphis
"Yeah, but - the reason I studied Occlumency even though it's obscure and hard is that I think it would be really bad if a mind spell worked on me, and I'm going to go ask a really good witch to cast one on me. I'm nervous."
parental_guidance
Emma blinks at her, thrown a bit off-kilter. "Uh. Really bad? I mean, it's just being a little confused. It's not- Unforgivable, or anything."
chanuphis
"Unforgivable is just a word somebody made up for exactly three spells. Lockhart spent years and years in the hospital because he got memory charmed, just the once, a little too hard. People who've been Imperiused or even Cruciated can get up and walk around after a lot of the time."
parental_guidance
"Lots of spells are terrifying if you do them wrong," Emma agrees. "It's not really any worse than Apparating, though, is it?"
chanuphis
"Apparating is bad if you mess it up by accident. Memory charms are bad when you do them exactly right. You lose your memory."
parental_guidance
Emma thinks about this. All of these spells fall under 'scaryscaryscary', she's never tried to sort them into amounts of 'scaryscaryscary'. "I think I'm still more afraid of Crucio...?" she says, more questioningly than she really intended. "If nothing's messed up, I mean. They're both really scary, though."
chanuphis
"I mean - it depends on what the person doing the memory charm wants to take. If it's only a little thing it's not as bad as if it was - a whole year, or all your memories of your friends, or something. But it's more likely that somebody will want to Obliviate me than that somebody will want to torture me, now that Voldemort is gone, I think. Obliviator is a government job that people can get."
parental_guidance
Emma considers this. She's still much more fundamentally terrified of being tortured, but it's Miranda, she's so smart. So probably she's just- thinking about it wrong. Or missing something. She's not the one who makes Silverlight spells.
"Yeah," she says slowly, trustingly. "You're probably right." She looks around. "What classroom are we going to, anyway?"
"Yeah," she says slowly, trustingly. "You're probably right." She looks around. "What classroom are we going to, anyway?"
chanuphis
"This way." Miranda leads on. They get there before Hermione does. Miranda sits and takes deep breaths.
parental_guidance
Emma sits next to her. Back to comforting shoulder pats. "It's okay. You can do Silverlight! You can do this."
parental_guidance
"You have been studying lots and lots and you're really good at magic in general. Like how you did Silverlight. You'll be good at this too, I bet."
chanuphis
"Silverlight seems like it's more of a mindset thing than a studying thing."
The door opens and in comes Hermione. "Hello, Miranda - who's your friend?"
"This is Emma. Emma, this is Hermione. I brought Emma along because - I might not be able to throw off a Confundus and I'm scared and I might need to be brought back to Ravenclaw."
"All right, she can sit in," says Hermione. "It's nice to meet you, Emma."
The door opens and in comes Hermione. "Hello, Miranda - who's your friend?"
"This is Emma. Emma, this is Hermione. I brought Emma along because - I might not be able to throw off a Confundus and I'm scared and I might need to be brought back to Ravenclaw."
"All right, she can sit in," says Hermione. "It's nice to meet you, Emma."
parental_guidance
Emma stares at her briefly- it's Hermione Granger- but remembers her manners and smiles. "Uh. Hi. Nice to meet you too."