A Little Guilty

At half past ten on Saturday morning, Amosta stood outside Professor Lockhart's office.

To be honest, he did not hold much ill will toward the poorly reputed professor. From their brief previous encounter, the professor had been quite friendly when speaking with him. Of course, it had to be said that his manner of speaking was indeed a little flamboyant.

In fact, Amosta felt somewhat guilty toward Lockhart, for two reasons.

The first reason was obvious. The man had been doing perfectly well as the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, yet Amosta had taken half his job without so much as a word of warning. Put harshly, that was stealing someone's livelihood, and it was highly unethical.

The second reason was rather more complicated.

A few nights ago, Amosta had used a certain method to forcibly transfer the Dark Lord's curse on the position onto a voodoo doll. The benefit of doing so was that Amosta himself no longer had to bear the risks brought by the curse, while Lockhart, who should have borne all the consequences of the curse, also faced far less danger.

At first glance, this seemed like the best of both worlds, but that was not actually the case.

For example, the Dark Lord's curse was like a surging river. Amosta's way of resisting it was to forcibly build a dam across the riverbed, blocking the rushing current. As long as the dam remained sturdy, he would be safe behind it. But if one day the dam collapsed, or if he chose to remove it himself, then the water built up at such a height would become far more destructive than before.

Of course, if Professor Lockhart resigned and ran away before Amosta did, then he would probably have to bear all the consequences himself.

"Come in!"

The voice behind the door remained as cheerful as ever, without the slightest hint of anything unusual.

"I hope he isn't too angry..."

Before pushing open the door, Amosta muttered quietly.

Professor Lockhart's office was as flamboyantly decorated as the man himself. Several walls were covered with portraits of him. Even on a clear morning, quite a few bright candles were still lit in the room. Their light reflected off the white teeth in the photographs on the walls and shone straight into Amosta's eyes, nearly blinding him.

There was another point worth mentioning. Among Hogwarts' faculty, Professor Lockhart was probably the only one whose incoming mail could rival Headmaster Dumbledore's. The letters piled on his desk awaiting replies were probably five feet high.

"Oh, Miss Granger, I didn't expect you to be here too!"

Lockhart was not alone in his office. Across from him, a young witch hurriedly rose from her chair the moment she saw Amosta enter, her face flushing bright red as she hid a golden card in her pocket.

"G-good morning, Mr. Breen!"

Amosta remained by the door. He raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"So Madam Pomfrey has already taken care of that lovely black..."

When Amosta saw the little witch lower her head and blink furiously, her tense body nearly curling into a ball, he immediately understood.

"Oh, all right. Congratulations on recovering, Miss Granger. Then..."

Amosta looked at Lockhart questioningly. "Sorry for interrupting your conversation, Professor Lockhart. If this is not a convenient time for you..."

"Oh, there's no need to leave. I can't refuse one fan because of another fan, Amosta. Miss Granger came to thank me, and we've already finished talking!"

Seeing the curiosity glittering in Hermione's eyes as she looked at him, Amosta knew that she had surely misunderstood something. However, he could not be bothered to explain such a harmless misunderstanding, and walked in with a wry smile.

Although she was curious why Mr. Breen had come to visit Professor Lockhart, Hermione knew they would certainly not allow her to stay and openly eavesdrop. She could only leave reluctantly. Before she left, though, there was a small mishap. Distracted by her thoughts, Hermione accidentally knocked over the stack of several hundred letters awaiting replies on Professor Lockhart's desk.

"I'm sorry, Professor, I'll help you right away."

Watching Hermione fumble about in search of her wand, Amosta shook his head in amusement. Why was this clever little witch always such a flustered mess whenever he saw her?

"No need to trouble yourself, Miss Granger. Leave it to me!"

After watching the panting Hermione leave, Amosta walked forward with a smile. He glanced at the envelopes scattered across the floor and desk. Suddenly, the writing on a stack of old-looking parchment buried beneath the letters made his gaze pause. However, he quickly returned to normal and snapped his fingers crisply. Several hundred letters in all sorts of envelopes floated up automatically and returned neatly to their original places.

"In my opinion, you are probably the most popular teacher in the school at present, Professor Lockhart."

Professor Lockhart, whose expression had stiffened somewhat at Amosta's elegant wandless and silent casting, immediately broke into a brilliant smile.

"Actually, it goes beyond that. Once you fully integrate into the faculty, you'll discover that Gilderoy Lockhart is also the most eye-catching member of the teaching staff. After all..."

Lockhart gave Amosta a playful wink and took a deep breath.

"How many people can win Wizard Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award five times in a row, while also being an Order of Merlin, Third Class recipient and an honorary member of The Anti-Dark Arts League? Of course, Amosta, like Miss Granger, you must know all about my past achievements, right?"

Lockhart completely failed to notice that Amosta's expression was becoming harder and harder to maintain, utterly immersed in his own world.

"Oh, haha, Amosta, Amosta, I have to admit that you've surprised me once again. It wasn't enough that you went to such lengths to follow in my footsteps and enter Hogwarts. Now, to get closer to me, you even applied to Dumbledore to become my assistant. Oh, I must say, Amosta, even among my most fervent followers, you are quite outstanding!"

Amosta pressed his lips together, his expression tense. He now somewhat understood why this household-name celebrity author had become so universally disliked at Hogwarts.

However, it also gave Amosta an idea of how to communicate with him.

"Ahem, that is indeed the case, Professor Lockhart. I am indeed one of your admirers."

"Aha!"

Lockhart let out an exaggerated laugh, wearing an expression that said he had known it all along.

"That's right. I applied to become an assistant professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts in order to get closer to you. I hoped to improve myself alongside the young wizards in your classes.

"However, Professor McGonagall seemed to think—well, what she meant was that handling so many letters from fans every day while teaching several hundred young wizards to fight evil Dark Magic was simply too exhausting for you. She hoped I could ease some of your burden by teaching the upper-year students separately. To be honest, that goes against my original intention..."

"There's no need to say any more, Amosta. I completely understand what you mean—"

The confidence on Lockhart's face seemed almost to shine as he interrupted Amosta's explanation.

"You wish to teach alongside me, right? No problem, Amosta. Gilderoy Lockhart never refuses the request of any ardent fan!"

Er...

Achieving his goal so easily instead left Amosta at a loss!

At the end of this pleasant meeting, Amosta asked whether he needed to make any preparations so he could keep up with Professor Lockhart's pace in class. However, Lockhart told him that he did not need to prepare anything at all; he only needed to follow instructions during lessons.

"Oh, right, Professor Lockhart—"

Before leaving the office, Amosta turned back at the door, his expression extremely subtle.

"Have you studied Memory Magic?"

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