When Severus brought Lockhart back to the Prewett house, Muriel was first stunned upon seeing the disheveled blond man, then quickly erupted into a shriek.
"Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! Who is this! Who am I seeing?!"
Her sudden reaction startled both Severus and Sirius, who had remained in the yard.
Even Lockhart himself trembled, then seemed to realize why Muriel had such a strong reaction. With a look of panic, he hurriedly covered his face.
"I, I'm not..."
"How could you not be! I bought every one of your books! I saved every issue of the Wizarding Weekly with you on the cover! I remember clearly every letter I wrote you!"
Muriel's initially fervent voice gradually began shifting towards resentment and anger.
"Gilderoy Lockhart! You fraud!!"
By now, Lockhart was huddled trembling in a corner, hands clutching his head, not daring to show his face.
Ever since his misdeeds were exposed, he had been terrified of facing his former fans.
The Ministry needed his help restoring the memories of the victims he had harmed, and he needed the Ministry as a place to hide, to act like an ostrich, pretending not to see the criticism from the outside world.
But to his surprise, the fame he had cultivated before was indeed successful. Just by following Severus into a random house, he could encounter a former devoted fan.
Severus quickly understood the situation. Lockhart truly was the 'women's best friend'… even a rude, ill-tempered, reclusive old woman like Muriel was his fan.
"The Ministry should put someone like you in Azkaban! How could they let you off so easily!"
"And those books! You should refund everyone! Those false, filthy stories make me sick now!"
"How dare you show your face in my house! I should expose you right now! Let everyone see!"
Amid Muriel's screaming and cursing, Severus looked at Lockhart, pale-faced and flustered, already fumbling in his sleeve for his wand, ready to flee the place immediately.
"If you want to bear such infamy for a lifetime, of course you can choose to run away now."
Lockhart raised his wand, trembling. He seemed to completely ignore what Severus was saying, but extreme nervousness and panic prevented him from waving his wand properly to Disapparate and escape.
"The people you hurt weren't just the wizards whose memories you modified and whose stories you stole, but also your countless fans."
"Confessing can reduce your legal punishment, but it can't dissolve their emotions."
"No, no... I can't face it... I, I'm going... I'm leaving now!" Lockhart just mumbled.
Severus reached out and pressed his shoulder, forcing him to meet his gaze.
"You've lost everything. Since there's nothing left to lose, why not stay and face it, try?"
Lockhart's hand, which was still trying to wave his wand, froze. His body still trembled uncontrollably, but Severus's final sentence had brought him back to his senses.
He took a deep breath.
"You... you're right... it's like this now... it's like this... I have nothing to fear... things can't get any worse..."
However, his newfound resolve couldn't stop Muriel's shouting. Her target for anger had shifted to Severus.
"Is this the 'expert' you brought? A fraud? A thief? A shameless scoundrel!"
"I can understand your feelings, but our common goal here is to help Meilia, right?" Severus showed enough patience. Seeing this, Sirius, standing nearby, seriously doubted if the current Severus could ever get angry about anything.
"Regardless of his past, if you are willing to trust me, or to trust Dumbledore, let him examine Miss Meilia. Just a simple examination, alright?"
Muriel wasn't so easily persuaded. She still glared at Lockhart with disgust, muttering unpleasant words under her breath, but in action, she didn't stop Severus from bringing Lockhart before Meilia.
Lockhart's hand holding the wand still shook a little. But when facing his area of expertise, a noticeable confidence, absent moments before, appeared in his eyes.
"What... what's her condition?"
"Her parents were killed nine years ago for wanting to leave Voldemort. Since then, her mental state has deteriorated. At first, it was just talking to herself. Now, it's as you see."
As Severus explained, Lockhart had already pointed his wand at Meilia's temple.
He whispered incantations, beginning to examine the girl whose eyes remained vacant.
This process didn't take long; after about three to five minutes, Lockhart frowned and lowered his wand.
"I'm not a healer at St. Mungo's, but I'm certain that self-inflicted mental damage couldn't possibly reach this level."
Hearing this, Severus's expression shifted slightly.
"You mean someone modified her memory?"
Lockhart hesitated.
"There are just signs. I believe you saw earlier that her mind is a mess. While any Memory Charm could cause this as a trigger, fundamentally, it's because she herself cares or is concerned about something to an extreme degree, yet can't remember what it is."
Hearing their conversation, even Sirius, standing to the side, made an inference.
"Isn't it obvious? Her parents must have sensed something before their deaths and erased part of their daughter's memory. They just didn't expect it would turn out like this later!"
This inference was indeed highly plausible. But finding the root cause was one thing, and what they mainly needed to do was figure out how to help the girl.
Regarding this, Lockhart, an expert in Memory Charms, also gave his advice.
"The Memory Charm isn't one of the Unforgivable Curses. Of course, there are counter-curses. But the longer a Memory Charm has been in effect, the harder it is to remove. Especially since she has driven herself to such an extreme, making a solution even more difficult..."
Severus simply said, "Difficult, but not impossible?"
By this point, Lockhart's hand finally stopped trembling, and his posture straightened again.
"We need to find some clues! Clues about what exactly she had her memory erased about, what she forgot!"