Veronica Smethley was a witch and a fan of Gilderoy Lockhart. She wrote to him at least once, in the early 1990s. During the course of a detention in the 1992-1993 school year, while Lockhart was the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter was encharged with helping him answer his fan mail. As he was writing out Veronica Smethley's address on an envelope, he heard a disembodied voice calling "Come… come to me… Let me rip you… Let me tear you… Let me kill you…". Lockhart did not hear the voice, but Harry gave a huge jump on his seat and smeared a large lilac blot accross the envelope and it covered her street name.