(Word Count: 1,556)
The next morning Harry was eating breakfast when Professor McGonagall came up to him.
"Mr. Potter, the Headmaster and I would like to talk to you. Before classes start, please come to the Headmaster's office," She said.
Harry nodded. "Yes, Professor. I'll come as soon as I finish breakfast."
"Dumbledore said that he had recently enjoyed a mille-feuille," Professor McGonagall gave a curt nod, and went to walk away, but stopped. Her strict demeanor softened into a proud gaze. "Oh, and Potter? Well done at the tournament."
"Thank you, Professor," Harry smiled.
She left and Harry left to finish his breakfast. Hermione, having gotten over her embarrassment from last night, sat next to him.
"What do you think they want to talk to you about?" Hermione asked.
"I don't know," Harry replied, "The only thing I can think of is that Professor Flitwick and I are starting a dueling club. Maybe that?"
Regardless of why they wanted to talk to him, he had wanted to talk to Dumbledore anyway, so this was good.
He finished his breakfast and made his way all the way up to the seventh floor to Dumbledore's office. He approached the gargoyle, "Mille-feuille." The spiral staircase began ascending up to the office door.
Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore were already there waiting for him.
"Ah, Harry, do come in!" Dumbledore welcomed happily. "You've had quite the productive summer. I can't remember the last time a first year had managed to win. Now that I think of it, the U-15 circuit isn't that old. You might just be the first one to do it!"
"Thank you, Professor. Professor Flitwick helped me get into shape for it," Harry said.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Yes, he was quite thrilled about it. And I hear the two of you wish to restart the dueling club?" He stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I suppose it would be a shame if Hogwarts didn't have one when the dueling champion himself is a student here. I'll have a talk with Fillius about it. Though I imagine Poppy will not be very pleased with me for it."
"She'll be furious alright," Professor McGonagall said with an amused smirk, but that smirk quickly faded into a tired sigh. "But my lions will definitely love the idea."
The two professors shared a glance and shook their heads wryly.
Dumbledore turned back to Harry. "Harry, the reason I've called you here is because there's a bit of an issue with your class schedule. I imagine you will want to continue taking the Divination together with the fourth-years, correct?"
Harry nodded. That would keep him together with Fred and George's class.
"Unfortunately, one of their Divination classes happens at the same time as your second-year potions class on Monday. Though their Thursday class overlaps with your Study Hall, so that's not an issue," Dumbledore explained.
"You have several options, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said. "One, is that you only attend the Thursday Divination class. But, of course, this isn't very ideal."
Harry's eyes widened. 'No way, is this going where I think it's going?'
"Right, that doesn't sound very good," Harry agreed. "What is the other option?"
Dumbledore continued, "I went ahead and got permission for you to use a curious device known as a time-turner." He pulled out a small box from his desk and set it in front of him. Resting inside on a small cushion was the time-turner. It was a delicate necklace with a small hourglass filled with green sand. It was set within two rings like a gyroscope.
Harry cheered in his mind, but his excitement was obvious.
"I see you're familiar with time-turners?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes, they allow you to travel back into the past," Harry said. "Just turn it one time for every hour back in time."
"That is correct. However, there are many dangers associated with traveling through time. If you are to use it, I must advise you to exercise great caution. Terrible things happen to wizards who mess with time, Harry. While in the past, you must not be seen by yourself nor by anyone who has recently seen you," Dumbledore began.
"What's more, you must never try to change anything that has already happened, because you see, whatever you had done in the past had already happened when you use the time-turner. Do you understand?" He asked.
"Yes, Dumbledore, I understand. The time-turner creates a closed loop in time," Harry said. Though he had to say, this was one of the methods of time travel that he most hated. It gave a sense of determinism. Though, he supposed, that did fit with what he knew of Fate's character.
"Quite right. Here you are, then." Dumbledore passed over the time-turner and Harry put it on. It was a bit odd to wear two necklaces, but the time-turner was so light it hardly made a difference.
"Now that this has been taken care of," McGonagall said, "You should be off. The first period will be starting soon."
"Actually, professor, there's a matter that I wanted to speak with Dumbledore on," Harry said.
She raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What's this about, then?"
Harry turned to Dumbledore. "It's about Lockhart, sir. You know I've already seen the events that happen during my seven years of Hogwarts. This coming year, Ron and I had discovered that Lockhart was a fraud, using the memory charm to steal actual stories from people and publishing them as his own."
"My word!" McGonagall gasped.
Dumbledore's cheerful face grew somber. "This is a serious accusation, Harry, but it is one that I, unfortunately, believe as well."
Professor McGonagall turned to stare at him in shock. "You knew about this?" She asked sharply.
Dumbledore gave her an apologetic smile and motioned for Harry to continue.
"Knowing he is a fraud, I looked into his so called 'stories,' and put together a list of potential victims," Harry said, pulling out a bit of parchment on which he had written all of the major names he had pulled from Lockhart's mind. "I used some divination, and I believe if you have some people look into these, you can gather some evidence on him."
Dumbledore took the list and looked through it. "Yes, this does line up with what we've found so far as well. I appreciate the initiative, Harry, but we've already looked into these people. Unfortunately, there isn't much more than circumstantial evidence to be had. The only people who could provide any sort of testimony are all without memory in various different hospitals."
Harry frowned. "You've already looked into it?" 'I guess I really underestimated Dumbledore, and law enforcement.'
"Of course," Dumbledore sighed. "I happened to know one of the victims personally. The story about the Yeti, in fact, was my friend's own story. When I recognized it, I reached out to my friend and found he had lost his memory. I knew then what Lockhart was, and had ordered some investigations into the string of obliviations that had occurred. Nothing came up though. That's why I had offered him the position as the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. I hope to use this time to expose him to everyone. And if I fail, then the curse on the position might succeed. It does have the habit of bringing terrible misfortune onto its professors."
"This is preposterous!" McGonagall sputtered in indignation. "What about the students? We can't let a man like this into the castle!"
"I assure you, Minerva, I have taken every precaution. A man such as he would not dare do anything that would ruin his image, and I'll be watching his every move," Dumbledore assured her.
Harry coughed to hide a laugh. "I may have also taken some measures to make sure he can't do anything to any of the students."
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in amusement. "It seems we think alike, Harry."
"Precautions? What are you talking about?" McGonagall looked between them.
"A few simple suggestions is all," Dumbledore said smoothly.
"And a few compulsions," Harry added.
McGonagall's eyes widened in realization then settled into a pleased smile. "Good. See to it that it remains that way."
Their business concluded, Harry left the meeting. Although he had basically told Dumbledore everything, he hadn't expected it to have not really changed anything. He had thought that it would have been easy for them to get the evidence once it had been revealed. It would have been reassuring that Dumbledore was already on it but, knowing how canon played out, it wasn't.
He would have to do something to speed up Lockhart's departure. Preferably in a way to land him in Azkaban where he belonged.
Harry sighed and checked the time. The first period would start soon. Because it was Wednesday, he had DADA for his first period, then study hall until lunch, then History at two-fifteen. His schedule was pretty sparse for the day.
However, seeing as he was already up here on the seventh floor, he might as well visit the RoR. There were two horcruxes loose within the castle. The diary was hidden at the moment, but he might as well take the diadem off the board already.
Class would start soon, but time was no longer an issue for him. He took out the time turner and gave it one spin backwards.