NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 10
Disclaimer: If you recognise it, surprise, I don't own it.
Chapter 10– Out of The Cocoon.
"Hello, Digby. D. Digworth, are you wondering why you aren't gagged, why I am actually talking to you instead of just getting straight down into business and casting spells on you?" I asked, standing in the doorway staring at Digby with him staring back, with a blank, dazed look in his eyes, broken down by so many months of being held in captivity and being my little guinea pig.
"No, not going to answer? Well, you see, my friend, we have reached the end of our long journey together. You have served your purpose, which means this will be the last time we ever see each other. It has been nice knowing you, Digworth." I speak, and as the words leave my mouth, I can see the light spark back up in his eyes, and he tilts his head up to look at me, hope shining bright in his eyes.
"Y-you... You are going to... to let me go? R-Really?" He stutters out, finding it difficult to do so, having not used his vocal cords in a very long time. He gave up screaming and pleading with me after the first couple of months. Finally, when he could no longer resist my Legilimency, he practically gave up on life, not even lifting his head to acknowledge me when I entered the room.
This was made doubly hard when he never even tried to eat the food I had out there for him, and I was not about to feed him with a spoon, so I found a clever solution to this. I trained my use of imperious on him and forced him to eat the food I gave him, except this was just too easy.
Once you know how to cast the spell, that is all there is to it, and you have complete control of them. However, I did not like how easy it was, as well as the fact that every idiot out there could quickly achieve this same result, so I decided to use Legillimency to find a creative solution to this problem.
Using the black book, I learnt a new level of Legilimency, where I went in and not only viewed or changed memories but also had the capability to alter, add and edit everything. For example, I inputted a command into his mind where if I clicked my fingers and said eat, he would start to eat, just some mental programming that actually works. I tried this on him quite a lot and put a lot of commands on him. he can now do a variety of things at the click of a finger and a catchphrase. I may have had a bit too much fun with it.
"Now, what gives you that idea, Digby? That I am just going to let you go? I am afraid not. I mean, I have kept you locked here for multiple months and not even taken very good care of you. I can't have you out there telling people and ruining my reputation. Plus, if you remember correctly. You were trying to kill me and take all of my worldly possessions. So why should I let you go now?" I say, watching as the hope that had appeared after so long and so very briefly left him ultimately, his head lolling again and flopping back down.
"Now, don't be so glum, chum. I wasn't lying. Your time really is up. No more having to suffer and no more having to sit here day after day. With your purpose done and with you no longer having a reason for your continued existence, it is time for your existence to come to an end." Really, with everything done, I see no reason to keep troubling myself with looking after this fool every day.
"F-Fine then... Go ahead and do it. Kill me. JUST FUCKING KILL ME ALREADY! GET IT OVER WITH AND KI-" I click my fingers. "Chicken," I say. "LL ME BAWK BAWK BAWK BAWK!" Digby starts to cluck like a chicken, and very loudly at that. When I did this before, he clucked at a normal level. I guess the fact that he was shouting before the command carried over his voice level.
"Silence." I click my fingers again, and Digby shuts up, staying still and not uttering a single word.
"I am not going to kill you, Digby, at least not yet. You see, I have perfected almost every Legilimency skill except for one Digby. I have mastered all the normal Legilimency skills. But there is one last thing I need to try. I have already used a light version of it on you in which I placed multiple commands into your head. The final spell, however, is complete control, a full subversion of your mind where you will become a literal puppet of mine for me to do with as I please." His head lifted up again, but this time filled with horror, which brought a smile to my face.
"Now, now, no need to worry. I won't actually be using you for anything. I abhor the thought, I just need you to perfect the technique, and after that, you can die. So don't worry your-" I am interrupted before I can finish.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
There is a knocking at the front door that both myself and Digby can hear on account of me standing in the doorway and keeping the door open. Our eyes meet, and I already know what he is going to do, so I prepare myself and draw my wand.
"HELP! HELP ME!! PLEA-" I point my wand at him and cut him off with a single word.
"Vestio." I cast, watching as a black rag is shot out of the end of my wand and flies at the tied-up man, quickly wrapping itself around his jaw and working its way into his mouth, properly gagging the man. I have been getting quite a lot of practice with this spell and have figured out all sorts of uses for it, from conjuring a line of string so thin it is nearly invisible to creating full curtains for a window.
"Now, you wait there while I go deal with whoever is at my door," I say before turning around and closing the door behind me and stalking over to the front door. I cautiously approach the door and then take a look through the little glass hole I had to transfigure into the door, so I wouldn't be caught off guard like I was last time.
Standing there and waiting patiently for me to answer is my publisher, Elric Woods, that has been producing all of my books for a number of years now, but that doesn't mean I will trust him. I trusted Digby for some inane reason, even when he was threatening me, and that was the wrong choice. Nevertheless, it is better to be cautious and paranoid than dead.
Readying myself, I level my wand at the door and prepare a powerful cutting charm that will slice right through the door and bisect my publisher in half if he makes even one wrong move, the word Deffindo right on the edge of my lips and ready to put out.
I unlock the front door, but I leave the chain on, meaning that the door will only open wide enough that I will be able to poke an eye through, and Elric won't be able to even get more than a slight glance inside. Taking a deep breath, I reach out and grasp the door's handle before twisting it and pulling the door slightly open, and then I peek my head around to get a view of the man still patiently waiting for me.
He sat there, a skinny man above average height with mousey brown hair and a thin pencil moustache, along with some thin-framed glasses that sat upon his nose. He is dressed in a business suit, but obviously, since this is the magical world, his suit pants are red, his shirt is green, and his coat is blue, along with some white leather dress shoes, but by far the strangest thing is the happiness on his face as he sees me peeking through at him.
"Gilderoy, finally. It is so good to see you. I have truly missed you this past year. Open the door and give me a hug, my good friend!" He says, reaching to pull open the door, but when he pulls, it is stopped by the chain giving a loud clang, making it a bit of an awkward moment.
"It is good to see you too, Elric. I would welcome you in and give you a hug, but I am otherwise occupied, and I am not decent enough for company. Though, I have missed you as well, dear friend." I smile at him with supposed genuine affection, all the while levelling my wand at him through the door, which is on the cusp of separating his legs from his torso.
"Haha, I understand, Gilderoy. You have had a long trip to the mysterious land of Antarctica. of course, you are busy. Not even a minute back and you are already entertaining female company, haha, never change Gilderoy." He laughs, not taking offence or anything and even fabricating a reason for me not opening the door. What a good publisher.
"Ha, you too, Elric. Your sense of fashion is still as good as ever. you will have to give me some tips sometime." I smile back and make with the small talk, plying him with some stupid compliment that I don't mean.
"Now come on, Gilderoy, you know everything I learnt about fashion and style was from you. So how could I, the student, give you, the master, tips? Haha." He laughs, to which I join, and we both laugh for a few seconds before we quiet down and look at each other with smiles on our faces. We continue for a few seconds like that in awkwardness, though it seems Elric feels none of it and is perfectly content to just stand there in silence.
"Not to be rude or anything, Elric. But I am quite busy, as you have guessed. So, what can I do for you?" I break the silence and get to the point, why is this man knocking on my door out of the blue? I had had a very long time with no contact with anyone apart from Digby, which stopped when he tried to murder me, and I counterattacked him and kept him locked up in my house.
"Ah, right. Straight to business as usual then, Gilderoy. I can see that hasn't changed in your time away. Anyway, Digworth informed us a year ago that you had gone away on a trip for a magical new adventure in an unexplored land and that you would be back and have a manuscript in a year's time. Well, it has been a year, and I have come to get that manuscript. Also, have you seen Digworth? He stopped coming into work months ago, and no one has seen him since." Oh, I actually hadn't thought about how to explain his disappearance.
"Ah, right, just a moment then, Elric. I will go and fetch the manuscript, trust me, you are going to love this one. I encounter an abominable snowman. just wait right there." I close the door and walk back inside, walking over to my study, in which I have been writing my story for quite a while. It was when I was working my way through Digby's mind and fully diving into all his memories that I saw the memory where he told Elric about my new book. Why did Digby do that?
Well, I know because I had his mind in the palm of my hand. He planned to explain my disappearance away like that and then murder me and let my corpse decompose in my home for a year before anyone came looking, so the results would be inconclusive. So anyway, this drove me to start working on the story and to do that, I referenced the other works Gilderoy had written, and I had to give it to the man. He is a talented writer.
There were no inconsistencies in any of his books, and he had written each of them perfectly, if a little vain and self-aggrandising. However, going through and reviewing my own memories, I discovered that there were a few stories that overlapped. Still, Gilderoy sorted out the chronology and timeline to sync to his own schedule before he published anything.
He really did it perfectly, except his spellwork was shoddy, and he didn't correctly obliviate the wizards and wizards whose stories he stole and left traces which Dumbledore will discover. After recovering those memories, he will link them to the exact same stories in the books. This is why I have to go deal with the wizards and witches. It is the very reason why I spent so long developing my Occlumency and Legilimency skills so that I can prevent Dumbledore from finding me out.
Having the manuscript in hand, I walk back to the front door to hand it to Elric Woods. Not only that, but I have thought up the perfect story for my involvement with the disappearance of Digby. D. Digworth. I once more ready my wand in my left hand and pointed it at the door, not letting my guard down so quickly, and when I opened the door, to see Elric still standing there patiently with a smile on his face.
"Here you are, Elric. This one is called Assault On The Abominable Snowman. I met some nice simple muggles over there called the Inuits, that were under constant attack by this creature, and I resolved myself to save them. After all, magical problems need to be solved by magical people." So I say as I hand over the manuscript. Honestly, I think I did a pretty good job on this one, and unlike the others, this is all fictional, so there is no way for anyone to disapprove of them, and, given my reputation, everyone will believe it.
"Ah, yes, thank you. I look forward to reading another masterpiece and then selling the excellent story to the entire wizarding world. But again, about Digworth, do you have any clue where he is?" Elric asks again after taking my manuscript, just assuming that it will be another masterpiece which I know it will be since I wrote it and I put a lot of care into it.
"Digby, ah well, I was gone for a year, so I don't know where he is now, obviously. But because I was going to be gone for a year, I would not need a personal assistant anymore, so I let him go and told him to come and see me when I got back if he still needed a job, but maybe he has already moved on, who knows." So I say, giving my excellent cover story, which is basically, I don't know.
"Ah, okay then. I will leave you to get back to whatever it is you are up to, Gilderoy, have fun. But, uh, remember to come to Flourish and Blotts on Friday. We will be having a signing to commence the sale of your new book, and we shall have a lot of copies made by then. So goodbye, Gilderoy, don't forget, Friday." Elric says as he turns around and walks off. I watch him go until he disappears from my sight, and then I close the door and lock it again.
I stay there for a minute, thinking about the fact that I will be out in the open on Friday, out in public, and there will be no going back. But, oh well, I had planned to come out soon as I have all but prepared. So now I just have to finish the only thing left on my checklist, Digby.
With my goal in mind, I walk back towards my guest room and swing the door open, Digby's head jolts up, and he stares at me with wide eyes as I slam the door behind me and walk over to him. I grip his head by the hair and drag his head up to look me right in the eyes, and I draw my wand out and point it at him.
"There is no point wasting any more time on you, I will test this final thing on you, and then I will get rid of you and forget about you. No one will ever think about you and your measly existence ever again. I know because I have seen every single memory of yours, every single disgusting thing you have done, and all the acts against all that is pure that you have committed, and I know for a fact no one will look for you, not even your precious dark lord Voldemort." Horror fills his eyes, and he begins to struggle like his life depends on it, which it does. He tries to close his eyes, but that doesn't matter. It will not stop me.
"Goodbye, Digby. D. Digworth, you will not be remembered. Legilimens: Consipio!"
I had woke up this morning and followed my usual schedule. I went to the bathroom and went through my typical process. I had a shower, had breakfast, did my morning exercise, and then I got changed. Except after all that, I broke out of the mould. Right now, I am standing at my front door with my hand grasping the door handle, and it is ten in the morning.
With all my training done and with Digby no longer being present, I had nothing holding me to this house anymore. Not to mention the fact that I will have to be at a book signing on Friday, so it is better that I get acclimated to the outside world now than be barraged by a whole load of fans on Friday and be overwhelmed.
Making the leap, I turn the handle and open the door before walking through it and closing it behind me. And nothing happens. I wait there for a second, in the light of day, and all is calm. Then, feeling a pep in my step, I spin around and quickly lock my door before walking off down the hallway and down the stairs. And then I walk out the front door of the building and onto the streets of Diagon Alley, or to be more specific, Horizont Alley.
It is nice to finally know where I lived, or I mean, to finally see it with my own eyes. Every time I left my home to do anything, I left through the floo. I went to The Leaky Cauldron, afraid that there would be people waiting outside for Gilderoy Lockhart. Still, it seemed my worries were unfounded as people passed by without paying me any notice, though that is probably because of the charms I have applied to myself to change my appearance and allow me to move unfettered.
While the place is called Diagon Alley as a whole, there are actually several different alleys within, with Diagon Alley actually being just a single alley.
As soon as you enter through the brick wall behind The Leaky Cauldron, you are on Diagon Alley, but just to the side, there is another alleyway which leads to Carkitt Market, which is where there are a whole host of shops that are not regularly used or very popular, coincidentally the Gringotts Money Exchange building is here which the Goblins informed me of the third time I went to exchange money at Gringotts itself.
Then going along Diagon Alley, you eventually get to another alleyway which is Horizont Alley, which is where I live. It is full of shops as well, and I live above one of them. The strange thing about this is that while it is actually an alley that goes off to the side, it seems like a fork in the road because of the weird shape of the alley with Gringotts Bank right in the middle, making the fork, while in actuality Diagon Alley continues on to the right of the bank.
And then, further down Diagon Alley is another alley to the right, which is the infamous Knockturn alley. This is very different from the other alleys as this one has a lot of nooks and crannies, with lots of narrow paths and smaller alleys within, making for a good hive of villainy.
Further on, Diagon Alley continues on before ending at a dead end. All of the alleys end at dead ends. Literally, every side of the entirety of Diagon Alley is a shop, business or building that gives a service, making for a total of one hundred and sixty-three shops, making it the most profitable and popular area in the entirety of Britain.
Even Hogsmead, an entirely magical village and area away from muggles, is not that popular, though that is primarily because of all the Hogwarts students messing about and running around. Here, things are calmer and more civilised with all the children away at Hogwarts. So people have a pleasanter time here. And businesses and districts are used to this as kids have been attending Hogwarts for hundreds of years, meaning that the summer holidays are when they usually see a rise in sales, and they account for that.
Feeling at peace and safety, there is not a hint of danger to my person. I begin to walk down the street, and no one turns to even look at me. These people are more concerned with their own lives than mine. I walk along Horizont Alley, looking out at all the shops and observing them. Most of them just look pretty rustic and antiquated but paying close attention, you can see that the shops are magical.
A sign atop a door that constantly moves, one that changes colours and one that has birds that fly out and around the street before sinking back into the sign. Of course, there are some shops that are not so subtle, such as one that has the glass windows sometimes changing into bluebell fire which then goes on to make various patterns, and one that is just so magical that I could not possibly describe it.
I continue to walk for a while, and then I finally get to the end of Horizant Alley, right next to Gringotts bank and step out onto the actual Diagon Alley. And I immediately had to take a step back to evade a gaggle of twelve-year-old lads that ran past me. Watching them go, I wonder what time of the year it is as it is either Christmas time and they have left home for the holidays, or it is the summer holidays, for that matter. Also, I wonder what year it is since I have been stuck in my apartment for months without leaving.
Looking around, I see a man leaning against a lampost and reading a Daily Prophet newspaper, so I walk towards him and, seeing that he is nearing the end of the newspaper, I take my chance.
"Excuse me, good sir, can I perhaps take a look at that newspaper you are reading? I won't be more than a second. I just need a look at one of the articles." So I ask the man who tilts his head up and regards me with a lazy attitude, smoking a cigarette that hangs from his mouth.
"Hm, well, sure. I am just about done with it anyway, so you can keep the thing, have fun." He tosses the newspaper towards me, which I hastily catch as the man walks past me and gets on with his life. Holding the newspaper, I quickly flip it around to see the front page, which is an inane article about something dumb, but looking at the date, I realise what time it is.
It is the third of August 1991, meaning it is the summer holidays, and in a few weeks, Harry Potter will be making his cousin fall into a snake enclosure at the zoo. The start of canon and the original story will begin soon, which means I only have a year to take care of all of Gilderoy's victims. Otherwise, I will be in for a hard time.
Oh well, I guess there is no time for the wicked.