Harry Potter: The Saviour's Awakening

The month of January passed by without any problems. Some wondered if Harry had not attacked anyone because he had been discovered. The Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors were the most vocal that the Boy-Who-Lived was indeed guilty. Harry had become colder in public, if that was even possible. He didn't show even the slightest of emotion, having taken to practising Occlumency every night to suppress his emotions better. He did not want to appear weak in front of the masses. What else frustrated him was the wall he could see in his mind palace which contained a lot of information on the other side; information he guessed belonged to Voldemort. The small cracks he saw were the memories he had accessed accidentally, but the rest of them were still there, untouched.

He actually tried accessing those memories by staring at various key places of Hogwarts, but he didn't get the information he wanted. Finally, Harry was forced to conclude that there must be a powerful trigger with an emotional component for those memories to resurface. Simply seeing or hearing something random didn't make those memories break out. He was also constantly wondering how Lucius Malfoy was involved in this; that is if the man was involved at all. For all he knew, Dobby could have heard the information from someone else and had come to warn him. If Lucius was indeed behind it, Dobby wouldn't have been able to warn Harry. Right?

Gilderoy Lockhart was another pain in the arse. The man's classes were proving to be completely useless and Harry caught more than one group of students in their fifth and seventh years sitting together in the library, trying to learn Defence themselves. Sirius had been furious about this, and to ensure that his godson would not suffer in his O.W.L.s, had taken to teaching the boy Defence Against the Dark Arts himself in the Shrieking Shack. Worse, Lockhart had also tried to celebrate Valentine's Day, something which made all the purebloods splutter in outrage. What was a silly Muggle tradition like that doing at Hogwarts?

Of course, there was still that detention Harry had gotten from Lockhart from the previous term. Harry was confused and annoyed by it. Couldn't the man have finished them all in one week? But no; he just had to drag them over the course of the year.

"This is thankfully the last of the man's stupid detentions," muttered Harry.

"You said it right, Harry. I don't think I can see another fan mail of his again," groaned Fred.

"Maybe we can write something bad and send it as a reply?" suggested George. "It would be nice for his fans to have snarky letters delivered to them."

"Won't work," sighed Fred. "He checks them before signing the letters. We need to be more creative."

"I can't believe he is actually hired to teach Defence!" said Harry in exasperation as they finally reached their destination. "The man is incapable of casting even the most basic of spells; second-year students are better qualified than him! What was Dumbledore thinking? Diggory, what are you doing here?"

Cedric Diggory was sitting on the teacher's desk, in the Defence classroom, looking bored out of his mind. He snapped out of his trance when he saw the three other boys in front of him.

"Oh, hey," he said hesitantly, looking at Harry warily. "Lockhart gave me detention."

"Humph," snorted Fred and George together.

"Figures that he would -"

"- give even 'Puffs detention."

"Come on," muttered Harry as he walked towards the professor's office. "We might as well get it over with. He will no doubt have more letters for us to write."

He opened the door to let them all inside. They entered, but there was no sign of Lockhart. Harry frowned and turned around, only to see the Defence Professor pointing his wand at them. There was a flash of red light and his vision turned black.

...

Warning: The following contains a scene on the attempted assault on minors. If easily offended, please skip the following section and read the end of the chapter or move on to Chapter 11.

Harry regained consciousness and groaned softly. The first thing he realised was that he couldn't move his hands and legs. He seemed to be restrained magically. His eyes snapped open in panic when he realised that he couldn't speak either. That's when he noticed it.

He was lying on a large bed, completely naked. Beside him, he could see three other boys who were also nude and restrained. This was bad; if not for Sirius explaining it to him, he wouldn't have even known what this meant. Where the hell were they? His eyes trailed around the room and immediately recognised some of the man's items.

Harry couldn't believe that he had been fooled by Lockhart, of all people. He had always underestimated the author-turned-professor, thinking he knew no magic at all, but apparently, he had been wrong to dismiss him completely. Harry saw the twins open their eyes as well. Cedric too had woken up and they were all panicking at their state of undress. Harry struggled, but it was no use. The magic holding him did not buckle under the pressure. He had to get out of these magical binds soon; otherwise, the consequences would be too dire to contemplate. Judging by their state of undress, Harry had a pretty good idea what Lockhart was planning.

Slowly, he started releasing magic out of his body. It was a technique he had read a few months ago while studying Arithmancy. But the problem was that he didn't know how much magic was used by Lockhart while casting the spell, so the amount of magic needed to counteract it would be guesswork. Infusing too much or too little would not work. He would damage himself if he poured too much magic at one go and he did not want that. He would have to start small and increase the power levels slowly.

Just then, the door of the room opened and Gilderoy Lockhart stepped inside, grinning widely. Harry's stomach churned when he saw that expression. He did not like it. Trying to not let his fear get to him, he began concentrating on breaking the magical binds.

"Well, well, well," said Lockhart, as he leered at the four naked boys. "What do we have here? Is this a present for me? I must say you boys sure know how to give me a present for Valentine's Day. How very nice of you!"

When Lockhart saw the twins struggling, he laughed. "There's no point trying to get out of those binds, boys," he taunted. "Fred and George Weasley; the master pranksters of Hogwarts, isn't it? I've always had a soft spot for naughty boys. Then we have Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter - you both are considered the best looking boys in the school, and I must say, I agree."

....

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