"Innocents... shouldn't become part of the story," he murmured, so softly that only he and Fawkes the Phoenix could hear. "Especially when that story has been woven a little too... 'perfectly.'" His gaze seemed to pierce through the stone walls of the Headmaster's Office, falling upon some unknown corner deep within the castle.
Lockhart's formidable strength had resolved the immediate crisis, yet it had made the shadows beneath the surface even more elusive. Ginny was a victim, but was she truly the diary's "only" choice?
The atmosphere in the Headmaster's Office seemed even heavier than it had been before Lockhart entered.
The oak door silently closed behind Lockhart, shutting out his overly "dazzling" golden hair and the lingering radiance of his magic. The air still seemed to carry the silvery mist left behind by the fading Pensieve illusion.
Almost the instant the door closed, the shadows in the corner of the office seemed to come alive.
Severus Snape glided soundlessly out from the darkness beside the bookshelves like an enormous bat. There was no expression on his sallow face, but naked scorn and suspicion churned in those deep, cold black eyes.
"A... truly magnificent one-man performance." Snape's voice was like cold silk sliding across a blade, every word steeped in venom. "A glittering Shield Contingency Plan, a beam of light purifying evil... and that perfectly timed pose of an exhausted hero saving a 'poor child.' How moving, how... perfectly 'Lockhart-esque.'" He slowly walked to the Pensieve, his black robes billowing and stirring a chilling draft.
"Powerful?" A profoundly cutting curve tugged at Snape's lips. "The source of that power... a fool who wrote novels by plagiarizing other wizards' experiences somehow gained strength comparable to an elite Auror after one experimental accident? That is more absurd than a Troll suddenly becoming