Harry had been in a very bad mood these past few days.
The students had laughed about Lockhart's disastrous lesson for days, and Harry had been among those laughing at him. But one day afterward, a possibility suddenly occurred to him.
Was Lockhart putting on an act?
Harry had seen his Magical Flame and soul projection. Although their colors were a little unusual, their size was still very telling. Lockhart ought to have been a highly capable wizard.
But if so, why had he performed so badly?
Harry did not think he could really be that pathetic, but if he was not, how could he have performed like that? Was he trying to hide his strength? But even if he was, surely there was no need to go that far?
Lockhart's behavior practically amounted to making a mockery of himself.
Unless... he had some secret he could not reveal, and was using these extremely foolish actions to cover it up.
Then what could his goal be? Harry thought for a moment and came up with an extremely unpleasant possibility.
Could Lockhart be one of Voldemort's followers, here for the Philosopher's Stone?
Although Dumbledore had told Harry that he had destroyed the Philosopher's Stone, Harry was not certain whether it had really been destroyed. After all, he had not seen it with his own eyes.
Besides, it seemed that this had not been made public.
That was reasonable. After all, the very fact that the Philosopher's Stone had been at Hogwarts had never been made public.
Then was it possible that Voldemort, who had escaped from that cave, had possessed Lockhart instead? Or perhaps Lockhart himself was one of Voldemort's followers, and had come to Hogwarts for the Philosopher's Stone.
In fact, even if Lockhart was not one of Voldemort's followers,