The Time-Meddlers [Harmione]

23. Lockhart's Confession

"It always amazes me how seriously everyone here takes Quidditch," commented Hermione. It was about a week after the game and Harry had just been congratulated yet again on catching the Snitch as they left the Great Hall.

"Being congratulated doesn't bother me. What I hate is how the people who don't even play are bragging to the Slytherins who don't play how we won," complained Harry.

"Honestly," agreed Hermione. "What do all but the seven Gryffindor players have to brag about? You caught the Snitch, not Cormac, yet I've seen him boasting to some Slytherins. Like he had something to do with it."

"But if we'd lost, I'll bet it wouldn't have been Cormac's fault."

"Of course not. They love to take the credit, but never the blame," said Hermione.

"Along with the House points that come with winning," added Harry. After a moment, he said, "I never thought of it before, but we get absolutely no benefit whatsoever for winning the House Cup."

"It's an honor," defended Hermione.

"That doesn't even get us a party, that's freely given to the students who didn't gain any points, that's even given to the ones who lose us the most points."

Lowering her voice a bit, Hermione added thoughtfully, "Yet in our first year, we were shunned for losing points..."

"That we'd earned - me in Quidditch and you in class."

"By people who'd never earned one House point," concluded Hermione.

"Furthermore," said Harry, "all the points you had earned in class didn't get people to be friendly to you."

"They called me an insufferable know-it-all."

"So what is the point of the House Cup system?" Harry asked. "Why does anyone care about it?"

After about thirty seconds of silence, Hermione replied, "So that the people who don't earn points can brag to the other houses."

"And to turn housemates against each other instead of uniting against the teachers. For example, when Snape was still here, he could've taken a thousand points from me for breathing..."

"...and all the Gryffindors would've shunned you - not Snape," concluded Hermione.

"In other words," said Harry, "Every aspect of the House system causes division among the students. You're automatically against three-fourths of the school once you're sorted, and then the house points put you against your own house mates."

"I never thought about it before," said Hermione pensively.

"Me, neither." He gave the Fat Lady the password and they entered the Gryffindor common room. Once they sat down, Harry pulled his newest comic out of his pocket and began to read it while Hermione studied from a large book she'd previously checked out of the library.

❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾

Harry and Hermione continued their torments of Lockhart, but he stubbornly wouldn't admit that he was a fraud, so they decided to up the ante during the first week of December, deciding that if he didn't confess by Christmas Break, they'd kill him. Although they did desire to end his life, they wanted him publicly exposed as a fraud, even more. That was something that never happened in the previous timeline. He was still getting fan mail in St. Mungo's.

It was about two a.m., and Gilderoy Lockhart was asleep, when two visitors entered his quarters under disillusionment charms (they needed more freedom of movement than their cloaks provided). They silently made their way to his four-poster bed, where Harry pulled open one of the curtains and silently stupefied him. After all, they didn't want him to wake up until they were ready. It took them about fifteen minutes to get everything set up.