Chapter 86

Chapter 86

Harry had acquired a young admirer named Colin Creevey. Whenever Hufflepuff and Gryffindor left a shared class, the click of a camera echoed through the corridor.

Colin appeared to have memorised Harry’s timetable. Suer had already encountered him outside their classrooms several times.

“He’ll be bursting into the dormitory to photograph Harry waking up next,” Ron said with malicious delight.

“Have mercy, Ron. Don’t mention him!” Harry lay limply across the table.

“Surely having one more admirer is a good thing. Who else at Hogwarts has a personal photographer?” Suer teased as he packed away his books.

“If you want the honour, you can have it, Suer,” Harry said helplessly.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted a small boy clutching a camera and searching the entrance to the Great Hall. Harry stiffened, covered his face with one hand, and fled.

“He’s back. If Colin asks where I am, tell him you haven’t seen me.”

“Has Harry been like this for days?” Suer asked Hermione as they watched him run away.

“Yes.” Hermione shook her head. “Only the dormitory and the library are safe. What have you been doing after class lately? You’re always disappearing.”

“I’ve been with Professor Lockhart.” Suer patted the books in his arms. “He’s busy answering fan mail and asked me to help mark some homework.”

“Oh?” Hermione raised an eyebrow. “Something’s wrong with you.”

Something was indeed wrong with Suer: he had an ulterior motive.

Compared with the other professors, Lockhart was laughably easy to manipulate. One only needed to follow his train of thought and offer a few compliments, and he would gladly sign a library slip.

“Professor, there is something I have always wondered.” Suer marked a tick on an essay, then looked up at Gilderoy Lockhart, who was admiring his fan mail.

“Oh?” Lockhart immediately put down the envelope and smiled at him.

He was very fond of this particular young wizard. Suer was tactful and considerate, and knew every detail of Lockhart’s celebrated adventures.

“Ask away. I am sure my extensive experience in the field will allow me to give you a suitable answer.”

“Naturally, Professor. I would never doubt that your experience could provide a definitive answer.” Suer forced out the awkward compliment. “I am merely curious.”

“Go on, Mr Bones.” Gilderoy Lockhart nodded with a smile.

“In Wanderings with Werewolves, you mentioned a form of magic that fascinated me. I should like to learn more about it.”

Lockhart’s face stiffened. His mind raced frantically as he tried to remember what he had written in that book.

“Ah… I used a great many forms of magic in that adventure. Which one did you have in mind?”

“The Transfiguration you used while personally accompanying your werewolf friend through his transformation. I looked for more information in the library, but I could not find the book that explains it properly.”

“Ah, yes. Yes, indeed. A remarkably sophisticated form of magic.” Lockhart had no idea what Suer was talking about. His face remained smug while his thoughts dissolved into porridge. “It is extremely difficult. As a second-year, you really ought not to study it so soon.”

Suer took in every flicker of his expression. He scoffed inwardly, but maintained his respectful manner.

“I only wish to understand your adventures more fully. You are my hero. In fact, I know which book contains the spell, but, as you know, young students cannot enter that section of the library without a professor’s permission.”

“Of course they cannot.” Lockhart looked delighted, and his gaze upon Suer became positively tender. Inwardly, he relaxed. He truly could not remember which spell that book was supposed to contain. “What do you need me to do?”

Suer immediately produced the slip he had prepared.

“Ah, I am sure no one could object to my giving a diligent student a little extra help.” Lockhart drew an enormous peacock-feather quill and flourished his ornate signature across the paper without reading it.

“I normally use this only to sign books. Is there anything else I can do for you?” Lockhart asked warmly.

“Well, a few autographs would be marvellous.” Playing his part, Suer produced a thick stack of blank slips.

“You know how many admirers you have in the castle. Quite a few witches in Hufflepuff are devoted to you. If I could obtain autographs for them, they would be overjoyed.”

“Of course, of course,” Lockhart said eagerly. “It would be my pleasure.”

He signed every blank slip Suer had produced, then studied them one by one as though admiring the unparalleled beauty of his handwriting. At last, he displayed his impeccably maintained, dazzling white teeth.

His aim accomplished, Suer conscientiously marked the remaining Defence Against the Dark Arts essays using Hermione’s model answers. He casually gave Ron’s work a failing mark, then took his leave of Lockhart with perfect courtesy.

Gilderoy Lockhart liked Suer so much that he personally escorted him out of the office.

“I didn’t expect it to be that easy.” Once he had rounded a corner and escaped Lockhart’s gaze, Suer shook the signed slips in his hand. “What an utter fraud.”

Wanderings with Werewolves contained no scene in which Gilderoy accompanied a werewolf friend through his transformation. Suer had invented the entire thing.

No matter. He should not need to repeat the performance. With Lockhart’s signature, Madam Pince would probably hand over any book from the Restricted Section that was not catastrophically dangerous.

The important thing now was to borrow the book he wanted before Lockhart’s permission slip lost whatever credibility it possessed.

“Human Transfiguration?” Madam Pince took the slip from Suer and examined it meticulously. Her suspicious gaze moved over the boy standing meekly before her.

She held the paper up to the light and narrowed her eyes. After checking it several times, she apparently found nothing wrong.

“Wait here,” she told him.

She swept away between the tall shelves and returned several minutes later with a thick volume in her hands.

Suer hugged the book to his chest, thanked Madam Pince, and hurried back to his dormitory.

After hiding it with great care, he began worrying about the next problem.

How could he take Ginny’s diary without attracting attention? He could hardly borrow Harry’s Invisibility Cloak and creep into the Gryffindor girls’ dormitory.

That would be criminal in every sense of the word.