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Chapter 31– Emotionless.
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Blood coats my entire upper body. Caking my face so much that it feels like my face is covered in some type of syrup. My eyes are closed, unable to see. The blood doesn't bother me at all. Still, even with my emotions shut off, I don't particularly want another man's blood getting into my eyes or into my body. Some things just shouldn't mix. And I don't want anything that belongs to another man inside of me. Ever.
A second later, I feel a weight crash down on top of me, and the blood starts to really get everywhere. I close my lips tight, unwilling to ingest any. It was a wonder that his body had stayed propped up so long before falling down, but I guess it is like a headless chicken keeps moving after having its head chopped off. A guy can stay standing for a while after having his throat slit, even with nobody really home. Who knew? I do now.
Feeling even more blood slowly seeping out of the carcass above me, I manage to work my two hands up onto the shoulders, even with my eyes shut and push him up a little. And then I throw him to my right, his body tumbling to the ground next to me. I then go to wipe the blood off of my face, moving my hands over my face, but nothing I do seems to have any effect.
I quickly start wading my hands around in the puddle of blood I find myself lying in. I had let go of my wand when Raputin had fallen on top of me, and now I am trying to find it. Finally, my hand skims against wood and I hurriedly move my fingers back over to that area in search. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time left before someone comes to investigate. We made a lot of noise, after all, and caused quite a lot of damage.
With my bloody wand in hand, I find myself thinking a lot more focused and critically. And then I remember exactly how I had altered my mind. I had removed all emotion except for desire and want. I focused that purely on my wand and magic so that I could pull it to myself, and other than that, I focused on survival. With the wand now in hand, I am thinking critically and know I need to act quick. I can't waste any more time pondering on the quirks and oddities of this man's death.
Focusing myself, I envision all of the blood in my surroundings completely disappearing, and then I cast the spell. I have never before noticed the air on my skin, but with all the blood suddenly vanishing, I can feel it across me. I was really covered in the stuff. Opening my eyes, assured of my spell's success, I see the night sky up above me. And then I look to the right and see the pale, dried-out corpse of my former opponent beside me. Thankfully, There is no blood, including on my wand, but even odder is the lack of blood pouring out of Piotr.
I guess there is no one there controlling the meat anymore, and the life is gone, and therefore so is the magic. So with no magic, there is nothing really protecting the body from such spells. And that is why there is no blood pouring out of his body. Because my spell removed all the blood, including the blood inside his body. Which is why he looks so pale and lifeless even though he just literally died. Curious. Do wizards have some kind of low-level magical protection to protect them from such low spells? Could it be improved? Questions for later.
Getting to my feet, I realise that I have to quickly do something about the body. People will be arriving soon, whether they be the authorities or just curious onlookers. And I can't leave any evidence that will lead to me. Even if I am disguised as Dueling Champion Edward N Stick, this can still lead back to me. Flitwick knows I am wearing this disguise, and if they investigate, it will eventually lead to me. The trail is there. So I have to make sure there is no evidence to follow. Which is why I decide to burn the whole body. Quick and efficient.
"For fuck's sake! Hurry it up! This place is a damn maze, and we need to get there before whoever has caused this mess gets away!" I hear a shout in the distance and quickly surmise that I have nearly run out of time. That is either some Aurors or some other skilled people who like to involve themseleves. Either way, I want to be gone before they get here. But I can't leave the evidence. However, I don't have time to burn the body fully. They might get here in time to put it out and still be able to follow the trail.
I can quickly just vanish the body just like I did with the blood and promptly set the surroundings back to how they used to be. But the Aurors are on the way, which means they know something is going down, and if they don't find anything, then that will be suspicious. Sometimes no evidence is evidence. Also, apparently, this guy was supposed to be meeting up with some woman after this, and he did just have a meet-up with those other guys. So people will notice he is missing and figure out that he was in the area where something went down, but they don't know what.
Maybe I am overthinking this, but it would perhaps be better to leave his body here for them to find. And in doing so, I can shift all suspicion away from myself. After all, I beat him, and then I was partying. I snuck out as well, but I was memorable enough that they all remembered me, and they were all drunk enough to not recognise me leaving. So, knowing that the Aurors are getting closer, I make my decision. Perhaps an ill-informed one, but I don't have time to worry about that. It's possible that this mindstate I have forced myself into is making me make bad decisions, but I can't worry about that now.
Acting quickly, I whip my wand at the body and command it to vanish. It doesn't work. I don't understand why. The blood vanished, but the body isn't. I don't have time to ponder on it, and I quickly move on to plan B. I accio all the money off of the corpse below me, and thankfully, a pouch flies out, saving me the time of gathering up all the loose change. I loosen the bag and spill some of the contents on the ground next to the body.
Then backing up far away, I go to perform the next part of the plan before stopping myself. I looked around the area and realised the place was much too damaged and messed up to belong to the scene that I was trying to portray. So, swishing my wand, I set about neatening up the stage, getting rid of all the cuts and gouges across the area. I also returned my transfigurations back to how they originally were and got rid of my entire maze. I left a few signs of a struggle around but nothing to indicate a long, drawn-out battle.
Of course, that was just the superficial stuff. The Aurors were obviously drawn here by something, and I would be willing to bet my magic that it was the massive magic that Raputin let off. The Fiendfire that burnt bright into the night and threatened to burn me to death. I bet half of Diagon Alley somehow glimpsed some of the sentient flames shaped like animals and called the Aurors. Which is just fine, as that fits into my next action.
Making sure to keep my distance, I cast my spell and cover the entirety of the carcass as well as the surroundings in a fire that blazes and quickly begins to char the body and even the couple of galleons on the floor. With the fire blazing, I hope they will correctly assume that the idiot cast a Fiendfire spell himself and ended up killing himself in a robbery gone wrong. Of course, the flames I set off are nowhere near as fierce, but let's hope that they think the flames started to die down once the caster died.
Alright, it is time to leave and get out of here. I don't have any portkeys on me, so the most obvious thing to do would be to apparate out of here and leave this scene for them to stumble on. Hopefully, they will think the idiot just killed himself in a drunken stupor after losing the match or that he was in a robbery or something. Or even if they do believe it was murder, they won't look at me since I have never really interacted with the guy before. However, I don't apparate out of here.
Right now, I am adamant about this never getting back to me. I have everything going for me. I have a load of wealth from all the books. I have a new business I started up with a brilliant employee that does all the work. I am starting up a broom company, and I have even been doing well in the duelling circuit, advancing my craft. So I don't know why I would possibly endanger any of that, even if my victory was false.
It just isn't logical. I know my usual self was feeling like everything he had done wasn't worth anything, and he wasn't changing, which was exacerbated by the fact that it looked like he would still be going to teach at Hogwarts. But that was just him worrying for no reason. So it only made sense for him to go there and fulfil his role as close as possible to Cannon to keep things on track so that Voldemort would die in the end.
Otherwise, things might spiral out of control. Voldemort could end up ruling England with the Elder Wand before turning his gaze to the rest of Europe (England is still a part of the EU at this point in time) and then the world. What if Harry ends up getting eaten by the Basilisk, or Ron might stop being his friend if Ginny dies. I mean, I always thought Ron was particularly useless. Still, he must have had some kind of effect on how things played out, and to remove him from the equation could be disastrous. Overall, my usual self has really been making unreasonable decisions out of panic and emotion. I think I might not even alter my mental state back to how its original state when I get home.
Anyway, I decide not to apparate. Aurors are in the area now, so it would only make sense that they would have already set up an apparition ward to keep me from leaving if they are actually competent. Which, given this is wizarding England, is unlikely since most of the wizards are incompetent. However, I can't risk that as I am unsure if the ward will alert someone if someone tries to apparate. So it would be better to just leave on foot. Also, I am uncertain if there are any traces that the apparition leaves behind that they can find.
Quickly employing my set of steal spells, including disillusionments and hiding spells, I completely cover myself from all tracks. And after double-checking that they are all active, I quickly leave the empty lot through the only entrance. The thought did occur to me to make my own exit, but again, I thought maybe they would be able to track that. Better to not make any more alterations and just leave without changing anything.
Walking down the passageway, I decided to backtrack and go back the exact way I came. This way, I can look out for any possible traces I left, as I also don't give another trail to follow. Thankfully as I backtrack, I don't spot any signs of myself, and so I continue on my path. A few times, I hear the steps of Aurors, but I just hug a wall and stay painfully still until they leave, trusting in my own spellwork to hide me. They don't even so much as let their gaze travel over me as they print past. I get the feeling that these guys are just used to big and flashy spells and crimes, and nothing so subtle because they are just running around like headless chickens trying to spot a big mess.
Feeling a lot more safe and more assured of my escape, I increase my pace. And then, just when I was about to finally leave this back passage maze, I spotted a wooden peg leg up ahead that stopped me short. I am in the middle of the alley, and immediately I launch myself to the side. Miraculously there are a bunch of crates stacked up here to hide behind. I don't trust them in the slightest to keep me out of sight, however, because there is only one person I am aware of in the British Isles that has a wooden leg. And that is Mad-Eye Moody. Sure, in a crazy place like this, there is bound to be more than one guy that has a peg leg, but given that I know Aurors are in the vicinity, I am betting on it being Moody.
And the reason he is called Mad Eye is that he lost an eye and had it replaced with a magical seeing globe thingy that can see all sorts of things like magic. And I have currently covered myself in magic, so I am unsure if he can see me, but I am not willing to risk it. I am not even willing to risk staying here in case that stupid eye of his allows him to see trails of magic which would lead right to me. I don't know the limits of the thing, so I have to assume that there aren't any. Which means he could be approaching me right now.
Acting calmly, I quickly use a stiffing charm on my clothes, causing them to go rigid. I then cast the levitation charm on my clothes and started to lift myself up into the air. My clothes are stiff, so I am not going to slip out, and my magic works perfectly. I raise myself up into the air as quickly as possible but slowly enough to not make any noises or disturb the surroundings. And then, once I am high enough, I move myself to the top of a rooftop and reales my spells, letting me land on the roof and my clothes to lose their rigidity.
I don't hang around to see if it actually is Mad-Eye Moody or if he is following me because every second counts now if it actually is him. I no longer care about backtracking and make a straight beeling back towards the place where the duelling competition was held. It hasn't been that long since I left, and I am sure that they are still partying high into the night. As I get closer, I am proven right by the light blaring through the window. No noise coming through because they have soundproofing charms on. Quickly using magic to get back on the ground again, I enter through the backdoor, trusting that it is much too crowded inside and with most of them being too drunk to not notice the door open on its own.
Once inside, I head straight for the throng of people right in the centre, making sure to make wild movements and turns to thoroughly mix myself in with the crowd before once more leaving after spotting some others exiting the front door. I slip outside with them. If Moody does prove able to track magic, then he will surely lose my trail in there since it has been mixed with about three dozen other wizards. And now, it is time for me to leave and get home.
Of course, I don't head straight there. That would be foolish in case Moody did manage to track me somehow. Anything is possible with magic. So I quickly moved away to an isolated area and then apparated to muggle London. Once there, I remove my stealth spells, and I walk out and get a taxi to take me to the London Underground, the tube. Once there, I board and have the train take me to another location. Then, I move to an isolated corner, and a couple of minutes later, my Polyjuice potion wears off. Then, I am back to being Gilderoy Lockhart, just like I calculated. and then, and only then, do I head back to the office.
Many would say I am being overly cautious and on the verge of insane paranoia, and maybe I am, but wouldn't they also? I have so much on the line, and one little mistake could make it go completely down the drain. I would rather waste my time being too thorough and doing stupid things to protect myself than do too little and risk blowing everything. This is my second life. I can't afford to be so frivolous with it. Whether that means slitting throats, destroying families or doing tedious and boring things. Nobody is safe if they get in my way or threaten me.
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Finally arriving back at the office, I reach into my robes and pull out my brass key to the door. Thankfully my regular self had enough sense to realise that it would be weird to see two different people wearing the exact same set of robes or that it would be suspicious, and so he wore reversible robes. Dark blue on one side, red on the other. As I am Gilderoy now, I am wearing the red since it is the more flamboyant of the two and would suit him better.
Entering the brass key into the keyhole, I open the door. This is the only way to enter the premises without setting off an alert ward aside from the floo entrance, which is closed off after hours, and only two people have this key. Myself and Andromeda. I had left the security to Andromeda since she was more familiar with such things, and I merely oversaw the proceedings.
But, of course, with my new mindset, I now think that was too hasty. I should really know every inch of my security and how it works if I am to trust it. Also, while I do have Andromeda in an airtight contract, that doesn't mean she can't make mistakes. I am catching myself reevaluating a lot of previous decisions and finding them lacking.
Ignoring my new revelations, I enter the premises, locking the door behind me. I immediately set my sights on the stairs so that I could enter my abode properly and finally relax and adequately think things over. I am seeing things a lot differently now, and now that I am living this life, I am going to make some profound changes. First thing first, I need to map out everything and then plan my future. I know what is going to happen. I should take advantage of that and interfere where possible that will be advantageous to me.
"Hello, Gilderoy. You are back earlier than usual." I hear, halfway towards the steps, and I look in the direction of the voice to find Andromeda sitting at her desk. Looks like she is working late doing whatever it is she is doing. I really have been giving her free rein, haven't I? I really should check up more on her and what she is doing instead of trusting her implicitly. What was I even doing before?
"Yes, I am. Keep working hard. I will see you tomorrow." I say, side-skipping the conversation entirely and trying to leave and go upstairs. Seriously, what was with the weird obsession I had with this woman? Why was I devoting so much of my time trying to rile her up and get her to be with me? I suppose it was the mommy issues and lack of love since I was an orphan. Thankfully I don't have those problems anymore.
"Okay. So, where is she?" Andromeda asks then, turning back to whatever she was working on at her desk.
"Where is who?" I ask in confusion. What is she on about?
"The woman you have brought back for the night?" She says as if it is evident, which it should be. I did always bring a woman back every night because of my constant need for love and attention. Thank god I don't have that anymore.
"Oh, I didn't feel like it tonight," I say, trying to end the conversation once again. Except, that seems to be the wrong thing to say because she looks up in shock and actually spins around in her chair to face me fully.
"Are you feeling alright, Gilderoy?" She asks, which once again confuses me. Why am I constantly being befuddled by this woman? Why is she acting like this? Why does she concern herself with me? And what is with the caring look on her face?
"I am fine. Goodnight, Andromeda." I say, finishing the conversation properly, once and for all. She must have thought it was weird that I didn't bring a woman back with me when really it meant things were better for me. I don't have holes and emotions I need to find lacking substitutes for.
"Okay. Well, if you need anything, just ask. Goodnight, Gilderoy." I hear her say as I walk up the stairs towards my sanctuary, where I can be alone with my thoughts.
That woman is being way too caring for me for someone who shot me down. I need to reevaluate her position here because I feel she will be trouble.
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