CHP 8
"What a tasty little morsel you are. Isn't it wonderful that you've come here all by yourself for me to eat?" Gilderoy says. Ginny blushes and alarms start to ring in my head. This isn't supposed to happen. It's easy to tell what's about to happen with the way he starts to leer at her body. He levels his wand at Ginny about to cast a spell.
"Professor, what are you doing?" she asks, the subconscious alarm at having a wand pointed at her stirring her from the spell she is likely under, unsure of what's going on.
"Oh, don't you worry dear, it's not like you'll remember any of it. This is all just a dream," he says, smiling unconcerned.
My blood alternatively rushes to my head and freezes in my veins. This is heinous. I cannot let this happen. I am not letting this happen. There is no way to misinterpret this situation, there's no doubt in my mind that he's about to assault a child, probably sexually. Lockhart is going to die.
My steps had already sped up when he started raising his wand up, I pushed Cursed Energy into my legs, my feet thundering on the stone flooring. The sound alerts Lockhart who looks around to see what it is, my speed fluttering my Cloak off me, letting a part of myself be visible. He instantly aims at me, a spell about to leave his lips, his face mirroring his feelings of fear and anger.
It doesn't matter, I don't need to stay hidden for this. My Cloak has fallen off me by now, my right hand pulls back, I push what energy I can from my legs to my hand, I am going to make this one hurt. His eyes widen as he sees my snarling face. I would have preferred hitting his face, but I lack the reach, so I aim for his torso instead and I get the cathartic feeling of feeling my fist sink into this scum's abdomen.
Lockhart gets sent flying by the punch into a wall, his midsection burst in gore, blood streaming from his exposed innards. The sudden lack of Cursed Energy reinforcement to my legs meaning I tumble after my punch connects and fall. A stray leg from me catches Ginny, who falls as well. Due to her position, she missed my punch and only sees Lockhart smashing into a wall and falling over. Regardless, the sight of his gory corpse, and the blood pooling, means she starts shrieking and scrambling to get away, kicking me a few times in her haste. She starts babbling and sobbing trying to make sense of what's going on.
I feel a bit queasy at the amount of damage I can do to a human being, the ease with which I did it. I could've definitely done it cleaner; I technically have skill in freeform martial arts and the Principle as well. Could've probably bootlegged a movement technique with those or just made his death less visually traumatic I suppose, but that's not important right now.
I move closer to Ginny and try to hug her and calm her down. I had no clue what to do now. I've killed a teacher at school (second time now, a voice in my head whispers), I've got a witness that is hysterical and probably mentally altered considering Lockhart was good at memory spells and was anticipating her here, knowing she would come. Lockhart takes that moment to groan slowly.
Guess he's not dead yet, which is surprising. Or maybe not, wizard physiology seems to be much more resilient to physical attacks and only suffered the damage and danger expected from large traumas from magical attacks. Something to keep in mind next time I smash someone's body in. This does make things easier for me though, just need to explain why I wasn't at the feast and I can play off being here as a nice coincidence.
Ginny has calmed down a bit, still sobbing but not terrified, I think. This is definitely going to be a traumatic memory for her later on in her life, once she digests what exactly happened here and what could've happened if I hadn't stopped him. Lockhart was about to assault a kid in Hogwarts. Maybe he already had, it's been a few months since the start of the year. I hope not though. Just thinking about it makes me want to obliterate him again. I turn away from him to make it easier to push down that urge. Children should be children; it is not ok to fuck that up, to ruin their innocence. Fuck paedophiles.
It seems that the teachers had arrived in the time I spent thinking. McGonagall was the first to arrive, with a gasp she looked at Lockhart, then at us, and started making panicky wand motions to message Pomfrey, the school nurse, to come over immediately. She then started off with what basic first aid she knew to stabilize the groaning Lockhart, but it wasn't very effective considering his wound looked unchanged.
Maybe my Cursed Energy works to make wounds I inflict with it cursed wounds? It definitely shredded his stomach because of the cutting attribute and probably broke his spine with the impact. I don't know how difficult those types of wounds are to fix though, maybe it's not actually cursed, only difficult heal.
Deciding her efforts had done all they could, she shifted her attention onto us. Trying to ask Ginny anything was a waste of effort, she was crying and clutching onto me like a monkey and didn't seem inclined to speak anytime soon. A calming charm from McGonagall stopped her crying but she still didn't want to speak. Seeing that she wasn't hurt physically from what she could see, she shifted her focus onto me.
"Mr. Potter, what exactly has happened here? Why is Professor Lockhart nearly dead and what are you both doing here? I pray to god you have good answers for me young man, I don't rightly know what to make of this situation we've found yourself in," she said, huffing a bit at the end.
"I was roaming around the castle, Professor, because I didn't want to be at the Feast, when I saw Ginny here. I was walking over to say hi when I saw Professor Lockhart here aiming his wand at her. Professor Lockhart was trying to assault Ginny ma'am, I saw him about to cast some spell on her and…" Fuck what do I say here, I don't know any spells that do similar damage, not to mention if it is a cursed wound, it has to be assumed I probably used some form of dark arts to injure him. I can't exactly play it off as accidental magic, or maybe I could?
"And what Mr. Potter. I need to know what happened next," she said.
"… and I ran and punched him and he flew back and fell there," I told her, pointing at Lockhart's fallen form.
McGonagall was prevented from asking me more questions by the arrival of several more teachers and the nurse, led by Dumbledore. Seeing that Lockhart was near death and Ginny was crying, he tried to get answers from me instead. I gave him the same spiel I gave McGonagall earlier and waited with bated breath to see if my lie would be caught. After hearing my story, Dumbledore quirked his eyebrow slightly, his face set in stone and turned to the wall instead. He waved his wand and dispelled some sort of muting spell.
"Mr. Tumbleweed, thank you for alerting us of what was going on here," he said to the portrait on the wall. My eyes widened, the portraits! I had forgotten about the portraits. "Please corroborate the story with what you saw here, it would be greatly appreciated and I'm sure would help shed light on the situation," he continued.
The portrait, an old man in a frilly costume and standing in a meadow, nodded his assent and gave a retelling of the happenings. That was a close call, if I had lied about casting magic on him or tried to obfuscate the events, it would have led to more questions and suspicion on me. I did not want to be known as the 'Professor Killer.' Granted, I had a valid reason both times and I doubt anyone would fault me for protecting Ginny, but suspicious activity is suspicious.
Getting a clearer idea of what exactly had occurred, Dumbledore turned to me.
"It appears you've saved Miss Ginny here from a great ordeal Harry, Professor Lockhart's involvement in this matter is still suspect, but I doubt he was here for benevolent things. Regardless, if he survives the night, I'm sure the Aurors will have a fun time getting him to," his face split into an unsettling smile, "heh, spill his guts. Pardon me. I don't want to keep you around any longer in this unpleasant place, so you are free to leave. The professors will handle the matter from here on out. Let's write off your involvement in this matter as a particularly aggressive case of accidental magic. If I have further need of you, I will call you over. Thank you for this Harry. Truly thank you," he said.
I ran as soon as possible, pocketing my Cloak on the way, not wanting to be around any longer. As I was going away, I heard Snape moaning about how I was getting off without punishment for attacking a professor once again. What a bitch.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone