Chapter 56: Vanish into Thin Air and Ascend to the Heavens
Pack your bags, the seagulls are calling~
Embark on the journey, Mother, I am about to set sail~
I will fiercely battle monsters in the dangerous seas, I will step onto new continents full of flowers~
I will be covered in wounds but still fight bloodily, I will fear no danger and forge ahead bravely~
My dear Mother~
Please believe, I will return laden with treasures, placing the most beautiful laurel crown in the world upon your head~
Because, that is the glory that belongs solely to you~ And not... Not mine!
...
Lockhart grew up surrounded by the praise of others. His mother told him how special he was, cultivating in him from a young age a confidence and pride that ordinary people could hardly imagine.
Such pride even made him indifferent to the jewelry and money others left behind on the ground.
Not out of high morality, but out of pride.
Pride did not allow him to do such a thing.
However, he eventually became a thief, the most despicable kind of thief.
All for the sake of perpetuating his own pride.
How tragic and ridiculous this was.
Lockhart was not happy, even though he had repeatedly won the Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award.
He had once, through his cultivated connections, come into contact with someone known as 'the most vigilant witch in the American wizarding congress', a forest witch who lived a simple life in Manhattan.
The witch's hair was already white, having lived in Muggle and human society for countless years, yet her face still bore that nervous energy peculiar to pure-blooded wizards. She said to him mysteriously, "Child, if you cannot find joy in magic, you may completely lose yourself."
How ridiculous, no joy, no self?
Lockhart had sneered inwardly at the time, but for some reason, this sentence would always suddenly come to mind in the middle of the night.
People always had to keep living. He had to try to comfort himself, try to reconcile with his own pride.
He did it.
He was no longer in pain.
He began to indulge in the praise of others, began to frantically pursue every possible laurel crown, because he knew there was no turning back.
All the dark things he had done in the past seemed to transform into a terrifying beast, constantly chasing behind him, devouring everything. If he stopped even slightly, it would be eternal damnation.
Enjoy everything, so that even before the possible destruction, he would be happy.
The forest witch was right, he had to seek joy.
He really found joy in magic. When a wizard so powerful that they inspired fear had their memories taken away by him so easily, an unprecedented sense of accomplishment filled his entire soul, full of pleasure.
Then he heard another saying from an old wizard.
A master of Defence Against the Dark Arts.
That old wizard was said to know Dumbledore, having had some past friendship with him.
During the interview, the old wizard said that using dark magic didn't necessarily make one a dark wizard, and not using dark magic didn't necessarily mean one wasn't a dark wizard.
He said that when a wizard fell into becoming a dark wizard, the most obvious characteristic was that they would be able to steal the power of magic and would also be gradually devoured by magic.
Just like the oldest legends told, wizards exchanged their souls for power from demons.
Not every wizard could become a ghost or enter the world of the dead. The souls of fallen dark wizards would be devoured by magic, leaving no trace.
Lockhart couldn't hold back on the spot. In fact, he even directly kicked over the small tea table between them, frantically pulled out his wand, and under the other's astonished expression, frantically cast Memory Charms.
He thought the other person had seen through something and was subtly mocking him.
Only after probing the other's memories did he realize that the old wizard actually wanted to say—enduring such a curse would allow the power of magic to completely integrate into the soul and even the bloodline, and this might be the origin of pure-blood wizards.
What an interesting theory. Thinking about how every member of the Dumbledore family had a powerful phoenix companion, thinking about how every member of Slytherin's bloodline was a Parselmouth and could easily obtain the help of snakes.
If his Memory Charm also turned into a bloodline power, passed down through generations...
This would probably be the greatest glory his mother desired—she would be the mother of the 'first generation Lockhart pure-blood family'.
Hiss~
Just thinking about it felt great, what a wonderful future!
Lockhart, who was beginning to become greedy, no longer had any reason to stop.
He wanted to become a member of a top wizarding family!
Even if this was just a baseless conjecture of that old wizard, he chose to believe it!
He frantically stole memories, frantically wrote books to gain more glory. He began to associate with the upper class, he even joined the huge Anti-Dark Arts League and was even awarded the title of honorary member.
One step further!
He was unwilling to stop, so another laurel crown was taken by him—the Order of Merlin, Third Class!
Successfully breaking into the Order of Merlin, the oldest organization in the current wizarding world.
What else was there?
He craved more glory.
Then Dumbledore came, hoping to hire him to be the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts, to become the teacher of the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter.
Yes, no matter how vast the influence of the Anti-Dark Arts League, no matter how ancient the Order of Merlin, in this current era, magic schools were the core organizations of the wizarding world.
He agreed.
But what followed was like a nightmare. It was as if he was cursed, and all the glory he had gained in the past seemed to be teetering on the brink of collapse.
No, it wasn't just him who was cursed; the school itself seemed to be cursed.
The Chamber of Secrets was opened, students kept getting hurt, and society was full of intense discussions targeting them.
Then Rubeus Hagrid was taken away by the Ministry of Magic for investigation, Dumbledore was jointly dismissed by the Board of Governors, and the entire school faced the terrible fate of being closed.
And then...
Almost all the professors unanimously agreed, hoping that he was as powerful as he boasted and would face the Chamber of Secrets monster alone, something even Dumbledore couldn't figure out.
Just kidding, he wasn't a fool.
Run!
Run immediately!
But unfortunately, the Boy Who Lived 'caught' him, forcing him to face the monster together.
Okay, then face it. Who told Harry Potter to point his wand at him?
They found the legendary Chamber of Secrets very smoothly.
No escape, no avoidance.
There was no way back.
Then...
It was time to prove himself!
Having accumulated so much wisdom, he should be incomparably powerful!
Lockhart stood handsomely in front of the two small children, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, confidently waving his wand at the huge snake shadow winding out of the darkness.
For his glory, for everything!
"Vanish into thin air and ascend to the heavens!"
This magic was very effective!
Even the Basilisk, so powerful, was thrown into the air and crashed into the ceiling of the Chamber of Secrets, shaking the entire chamber.
However, he seemed to have completely enraged the monster.
The snake shadow opened its huge mouth and bit down at him.
He widened his eyes in horror, listening to the exclamations of the young wizards beside him, seeing the Basilisk's huge green vertical pupils.
Then...
He only felt his whole body become cold, an icy chill frantically drilling out from his bones. He felt his body stiffening.
Bang!
He heard the sound of his body hitting the ground. He looked back at his corpse in disbelief, then looked down at his pale, semi-transparent hands.
"I..."
"Am I dead?"
He only felt the whole world darken, everything around him seemed to recede, leaving only his cold, ghostly body that seemed never to warm up, and his own corpse on the ground.
He suddenly understood a principle—when your virtue doesn't match the glory you acquire, everything will only lead to disaster!
So...
Everything he possessed, everything he had stolen that originally didn't belong to him, he had never truly owned.
Everything was as illusory as a fleeting dream.
"No, you're wrong!"
The corpse suddenly opened its mouth and spoke.
'It' stood up just like that, quickly transforming into his appearance, giving him his standard brilliant smile. "I just used a bit of your memory to evolve in the fairy tale book, completely immersing myself in your life, and died once in your identity."
The corpse waved its wand at him, and strands of silver light drifted out.
Lockhart knew what was happening. He was too familiar with everything before him. This was the scene of him stealing other people's memories, and now, he was actually having his own memories stolen.
What irony.
Lockhart soon stopped thinking.
Because his memories were completely stripped away.
It was as if he had never existed, as if he had always existed in a state of 'defying common sense'. After his memories were extracted, he discovered that he had never existed, so he completely dissipated in this world.
"One step left..."
The 'corpse' put the memories back into its mind, stroking the wand in its hand somewhat struggling.
Voldemort's curse on him essentially contained a double power—his curse on the Defence Against the Dark Arts professorship, and his curse driven by the fact that he knew the other's secrets.
The confusion of the former had clearly been completed.
And the confusion of the latter also needed to complete a stripping away.
That was to strip away the part of his memory about Voldemort's Horcrux information.
—To completely accomplish this: the Lockhart who knew Voldemort's secrets was dead.
"MMP!"
"Voldemort! This feud is set! You just wait!"
Lockhart clicked his tongue unhappily, took out a crystal from his pocket, pressed his wand against his temple to extract this memory, and then stuffed it into the crystal ball.
Then he looked at this crystal ball with a gloomy gaze for a long, long time.
Tom!
Did you think this would completely shut me up?
No!
Let's wait and see!
Let me compete with you to see who is the master of memory!
Finally, he waved his wand. "Vanish into thin air and ascend to the heavens!"
Bang~
The crystal ball crashed into the ceiling of the Chamber of Secrets at an extremely fast speed, shattering into countless glittering fragments, scattering like smoke.
...
The Carrow family's ancestral home, night had fallen, and the hall was once again plunged into darkness.
Dumbledore was deeply immersed in self-blame, constantly recalling the words Lockhart had said to him.
"Professor Trelawney made a prophecy for me, saying that if I don't stay away from all this, Voldemort's curse will target me, and also said I will die!"
Many people didn't believe Trelawney's prophecies, but he had once felt the power of Trelawney's prophecy with undeniable reality.
Yes, he believed Tom must have felt it deeply as well.
He stood motionless in the darkness, looking at the fairy tale book on the ground emitting a hazy light, his eyes full of expectation.
Maybe...
There would still be hope?
Finally, not knowing how much time had passed, the fairy tale book burst into light, as if the door to the final level of a fairy tale story had been opened. A passage filled with white light extended forward from the pages.
Lockhart's figure slowly grew from the size of a small illustration in the book to the size of a normal person.
The only problem was—he floated out.
His pale, semi-transparent body was so glaring.
"!!!" Dumbledore pursed his lips, a faint tear glimmering in his aged eyes, his hands tightly gripping the Elder Wand, his heart full of anger towards Tom.
If Tom dared to appear before him now, he really wouldn't mind giving him a Killing Curse!
However, at this moment, the ghost of Lockhart floated in front of him, actually flickering rapidly. The semi-transparent paleness in his body surged quickly, becoming intense.
Yes, it was a very special kind of intensity, full of the intensity of life's existence.
So intense that it began to show the colors of life.
Right in front of him, he completely became real.
With flesh and blood, real and clearly tangible.
This was no ghost; this was clearly a human!
"Lockhart?" Dumbledore looked at him in disbelief.
"Hehe~ Sorted!" Lockhart grinned, giving him that standard perfect smile. "This is not difficult for me at all!"
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