In spite of the verbal barbs - born out of a wounded pride, he was sure - Albus still found reasons to smile. A somewhat prideful and terse Minerva with hope was better than one with no hope at all. And she had spoken to him more in the last minute than she had for almost a week. Things were certainly on their way to mending themselves there. Time would see them fast friends once again.
"This came for you," she said, passing the Prophet over to him. "It seems like another of your schemes has hit a rough patch."
With that the irascible Scot took her leave, the remains of her breakfast fading from the table leaving Albus alone in the cavernous room. It wasn't precisely the kind of reception he had hoped his olive branch would get, but at least she was speaking to him.
On the Prophet's front page Albus saw the most peculiar headline: "Lockhart Gets Liched"
'Who on Earth would make a pun with a word that could be pronounced three different ways?' Albus thought curiously.
It could be 'lich' like 'lick,' though Albus had a hard time thinking of why anyone would want to lick the man. Sure, he had sparkly teeth, shimmery blond hair, and a dreamy smile but he lacked mental acuity he was looking for. If you could stick Severus's brain into Gilderoy's body and give it a new personality entirely… then you would be getting somewhere, but that's beside the point.
They could also mean 'lich' said like 'like;' and of course Gilderoy was liked. He got liked a lot. That was the entire point of him running around the world taking credit for what other wizards had done, two of whom Albus had known and had written to him of the events as they happened. He had considered going public with those letters, but couldn't discount the possibility they had sold the stories to Gilderoy and had never told him, though he doubted it.
Albus also supposed they could have also meant 'liched' like 'litched,' and he had no idea what that was supposed to mean. Did they mean lynched? Looking at the accompanying picture, it certainly looked like Gilderoy was surrounded by a rather unfriendly crowd but he certainly wouldn't compare being forced up on his tippy-toes by a man twisting his pinky to being hanged by an unruly mob.
In an odd twist of wording, the solution popped into his head. They did mean 'liched' like 'licked,' but with the connotation of him being beaten in a fight. Albus thought it was a lot to go through just to come up with a joke for a headline but supposed someone at the Prophet didn't have much to do that day. Certainly no one at the Prophet could bother with investigating anything, or they would've noticed they had gotten Harry Potter in the lower-right corner of the picture.
The article itself was rather unkind, though Gilderoy would have no one to blame but himself. Apparently the people who had shown up for his book signing didn't take too well with his poor performance in fending off some decrepit old man. They had gone from swooning sycophants to harshly questioning him about every single thing about his books; wanting him to demonstrate the spells, to know who he spoke to, how he traveled from place to place, how he gets his mail so fast and all sorts of other things.
When he couldn't respond to their bombarding questions some parents in the crowd had put back their books and had bought copies of what the shopkeeper was holding for Harry instead. Flourish and Blotts were now refusing to accept any returns and declaring all sales were final. It was unfortunate, though the article calling for an investigation into Lockhart's supposed good deeds around the world would certainly expose the truth, if anyone bothered to follow up on it.
This left Albus with a curious pickle, and it wasn't the one on his plate - though he speared that with his fork and nibbled it as he thought. With Gilderoy back in England for the release of his supposed autobiography, and otherwise unengaged aside for publicity, it had seemed a perfect time to secure his services as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor here at Hogwarts.
Naturally, teaching the eager young minds of tomorrow would give the man ample opportunity to "strut his stuff" and "puff himself up" as it were. If there was anything Albus had learned throughout his long years was that children disliked even a whiff of insincerity, and Gilderoy had the stink of it all over himself. Of course the man's lies would be exposed, and of course it'd be the children who would do it.
The appreciation on Harry's face spoke volumes as to why the curious bystander had come to his aid; who wouldn't want to be seen as taking up for Harry Potter? But with Gilderoy's phony façade falling off so dramatically, what Ultimate Purpose did him coming to Hogwarts now serve? If the Prophet continued to rip apart the myth of competence he had clothed himself in then there would be nothing for the children to expose. Indeed, there was now nothing for the children to learn from him at all.
Albus put a finger to his lips and nodded. But perhaps that was the point. Perhaps it wasn't the children who had anything to learn from Lockhart, but Lockhart who had much to learn from them. With a smile bright enough to illuminate the entire Great Hall, Albus knew precisely what was going on here. It was one of the oldest and most compelling stories of all time: Redemption.
The Greater Good had seen the coarser parts of Albus's nature, his base desire to expose a fraud and the more refined part wanting to do so with the simple power of children, and had used it to provide a place of safety and support the beleaguered Lockhart could turn to when the house of cards he'd built for himself came crashing down.
It was to Hogwarts that Lockhart - harassed by the media and exposed for his lies - would come to get away from it all and lick his wounds, and it was here he would see the bright, youthful faces of the students. Yes, it was at Hogwarts that the fraud who was Gilderoy would die and a renewed Professor Lockhart would be born, one who - through teaching and imparting skill and knowledge that were true - would find the kind of admiration he had always wanted.
It would be a rough road for him, true; the man had scorned hard work and study as a boy, but Albus could attest there was nothing like teaching others to have you realize just how little you knew of the subject yourself, and to help you fill in those gaps. If Lockhart had wasted his first trip through Hogwarts seeking after quick fame and the flattery of others, this second trip may well accomplish what the first trip failed to do - to help him grow up.
Oh yes, Albus knew great things were in store for Gilderoy Lockhart now the Greater Good was involved in his affairs. It was only a matter of time.