Chapter 58: Where to Find Them
Old Voldy, that 66-year-old wizard, was being rather mischievous.
Old Albus, that 111-year-old venerable wizard, seemed rather helpless.
Even somewhat infuriated.
Tom had just slaughtered his own subordinate, using their blood to say hello to him. Dumbledore really couldn't bear to watch.
But it had to be said, this adventure had come to a bloody end.
Fierce flames burned Alecto Carrow's corpse. Dumbledore watched expressionlessly, clutching the Elder Wand tightly in his hand.
"He's right beside us, ready to cause trouble at any moment, Dumbledore. You need to be mentally prepared for that."
Lockhart suddenly said this.
Dumbledore turned back to look at him. "What do you know!"
Lockhart nodded, then shook his head. "I'm sorry, Dumbledore, I can't mention anything about him anymore. His curse on the professorship hasn't disappeared because of this. I just risked my life and narrowly escaped. I really don't know if I'll be so lucky next time."
He yearned to live intensely, even fearless of death, but that didn't mean he would foolishly seek his own demise.
That wasn't fairy tale adventure; that was brainlessness.
Dumbledore didn't press him, but fell into thought. "Beside us... Hogwarts?!!!"
Lockhart didn't answer, nor did he dare to.
He just looked gloomily at the burning corpse before him, sighed, and with a gentle wave of his wand,
"Vanish into thin air and ascend to the heavens!"
Flames swept through, and Alecto's corpse rapidly disintegrated, turning into wisps of ash that drifted into the sky with the fire, completely erasing all traces of her existence from this world.
Vanish into thin air...
Ascend to the heavens!
That was the melancholy of life's passing.
The purpose of this adventure with Old Albus was to kill the other party, but now, watching the other's life disappear in this way, Lockhart didn't feel any joy. Perhaps he really wasn't suited to be a dark wizard.
...
After Old Albus brought Lockhart back to the Headmaster's office, he took Amycus from Snape and went to the Ministry of Magic. He clearly had too many things to attend to.
A fugitive, veteran Death Eater lurking in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was bound to cause a great shock to the current wizarding society. He needed to oversee the Ministry of Magic and the International Confederation of Wizards to control and suppress some of the impact.
But this had little to do with Lockhart.
He had his own things to do.
Having experienced this wondrous journey of 'Lockhart's life' in the fairy tale book, he seemed to have a clearer idea of how to thoroughly digest those precious memories in his mind.
His previous thinking had always been stuck on entering the other person's fairy tale adventure life, to match the magic they cast, thereby gaining the ability to use that magic.
But now, he had a further realization.
To resonate, but not to become the other person.
To harmonize, but also to maintain one's own self, to forge one's own magical path based on the other's foundation.
This was digestion, not becoming the other person.
Thus, specifically for the character of 'Lockhart', the idea became very clear—publishing books!
Continuing the other person's path of acquiring others' wisdom, integrating it with his own to write books and gain fame, but forging his own path.
The compilation of the book Where to Find Them and What They Do to You needed to be accelerated!
The Dark Lord was watching him, and Tom Riddle in the diary was about to start causing trouble. He urgently needed a systematic wizarding power, not just one or two spells.
Harry Potter, get to work!
Yes, this work had eight co-authors, his personally taught apprentices from the 'Duelling Club': Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville, as well as Draco, Goyle, Crabbe, and Pansy.
But to ensure that this book could 100% continue the original's brilliant achievements in bestsellers, the name of the 'Boy Who Lived', Harry Potter, was definitely the most useful.
The original Lockhart understood these things too well, experienced and very clear on this point. Lockhart chose to trust his judgment.
The data collection for Where to Find Them and What They Do to You was not very smooth.
The problem was stuck on our Boy Who Lived's side.
To this end, Harry had to endure Malfoy's sarcastic remarks and his cronies' straight-ball mockery, so angry that he wished he could pull out his wand and shut them up.
But there was no way around it, who told him to have the problem?
"The countermeasures for the Basilisk..."
Lockhart flipped through the manuscript in his hand, glanced at Harry's apprehensive expression, and smiled slightly. "Are you saying that you can't find any information about Basilisk countermeasures?"
Harry nodded. He glanced at Hermione, Ron, and Neville beside him, who were trying their best to give him courage, before finally gathering his courage and saying, "The powerful mind you mentioned before—'a clear sense of right and wrong, a positive attitude towards life, and the courage to face terrible power'—is enough to be fearless of the Basilisk's threat. I don't think it should be written in the book!"
Lockhart put down the manuscript in his hand, looking at him with some surprise. "I thought I explained it very clearly. This is the correct answer. You should be able to understand the powerful effect of mental strength in dealing with dark magic..."
"But, Professor!"
Harry interrupted him forcefully, taking a deep breath. "The fact is that not all wizards possess such abilities. If we write it in the book, it might lead many people who think they have such courage to die in the Basilisk's mouth for nothing!"
Lockhart looked at him in surprise, then glanced at his companions beside him, confirming that this was Harry's own idea. He couldn't help but smile, smiling very happily.
"Hahahaha..."
He was very satisfied with Harry Potter's current state. Where was the simple-mindedness he had at the beginning, as if uncontaminated by knowledge, only knowing how to rush forward recklessly? He had actually begun to show some thinking in the direction of academics.
Congratulations.
This was the result of his teaching!
"Yes, Harry!" he agreed with the other's statement. "You've convinced me. This is a very insightful point!"
Harry breathed a sigh of relief, a look of joy at being recognized appearing on his face.
But he quickly stopped smiling.
"But you have to give an answer!" Lockhart looked at him directly. "This isn't just about helping me organize information. This is also your learning process following me to explore Defence Against the Dark Arts creatures. I hope you can find the answer."
"Imagine..."
"Harry, if one day you have to face the Basilisk, you have your wand in your hand, but your head is empty, and you don't know how to deal with it."
He clapped his hands. "Are we supposed to rely on luck always being on our side, or just charge forward with courage?"
Harry was silent, finally nodding vigorously at him. "Professor, I will find the answer!"
"Very good!"
Lockhart was very satisfied with his attitude, turned to look at Malfoy and the others who were snickering aside, then looked at Hermione and the others, patted the manuscript beside him. "And you, you think you've collected all the information you can collect. That's very good, but I haven't seen the spark of your wisdom in it. You don't have your own insights."
"I don't need servants to help me collect information. I might as well find some house-elves to help."
"What I need is for you to participate in the writing of this book. You need to think more."
"People need to see from the book what results the great wizarding master Gilderoy Lockhart has achieved in cultivating young wizards with great effort. You need to have astonishing wisdom to prove all this."
No bestseller can possibly have only one main theme. That's what academic papers need to do. The interweaving of the main and sub-plots in a bestseller is extremely important; it can have a wonderful double-layered effect.
The main theme of the book they were currently compiling was naturally Where to Find Them and What They Do to You as professional content. The sub-plot was actually My Teaching Career and the Untold Story with the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter, which was the interesting part of the book and the guarantee of its bestseller status.
Of course, of course, the other young wizards were also very important. He believed that once this book was published, the Malfoy family (Draco), Parkinson family (Pansy), Weasley family (Ron), Longbottom family (Neville) from the Sacred Twenty-Eight pure-blood families, as well as the old pure-blood families of the Goyle family (Goyle) and the Crabbe family (Crabbe), would spontaneously contribute.
Lockhart understood these things too well.
He beckoned, and a black smoke flew out of the hollow of the peach tree by the fireplace, transforming into the massive 'Hanged Corpse' standing in front of the young wizards.
"Aaaaaah..."
The young wizards were already startled. No one knew who screamed in terror first, but the others finally couldn't help but scream too.
Lockhart just looked at them with a smile, and when they finally calmed down, he beckoned them to come to a more spacious place in the office.
"Now I want you to feel these dark magic creatures properly, to feel them more closely!"
"So, where shall we start?"
Lockhart beckoned the Boggart behind him to come closer. "How about we start with a Dementor!"
There were no more wondrous magical creatures in this world than dark magic creatures.
Take the Boggart, for example. Its ability was not simply so-called 'mimicry'.
In the original story, when Harry faced the Boggart, after it turned into a Dementor, it really did exhibit the Dementor's inherent abilities to drain happiness and cause life to wither.
Although it was a weakened version.
But it also evolved the characteristic of being countered by the Patronus Charm.
The Boggart's ability was to project and evolve the greatest fear in a wizard's soul. The essence of its dark magic power was not something it cast itself, but rather it leveraged the power of the wizard's soul, causing it to spontaneously and passively form dark magic power effects within the wizard's own body.
Most fears came from some of the darkest experiences in life. Lockhart had enough material in his mind to support all this, as well as the original Lockhart's many inexplicable abilities such as imaginative evolution, scene supplementation, empathy, and eloquence, as well as the flexible use of memory.
This allowed the Boggart in his hand to exhibit its current effects.
Other dark magic creature biologists who studied Boggarts actually couldn't achieve this.
Lockhart had always been good at using his wisdom, understanding a little bit, always finding ways to make it exert more effects.
The Dementor was enormous, fully twelve feet tall (3.66 meters).
Lockhart stood in front of the Dementor, observing the young wizards before him, who were clearly pale and looking very unwell. Among them, Harry Potter was the most uncomfortable, even clutching the scar on his forehead, looking as if he was about to collapse.
Carefully confirming that the young wizards' condition hadn't completely deteriorated, Lockhart then began to talk about Dementors.
"Due to the Boggart's characteristics, it can't actually show you the Dementor's inherent abilities very well. It can only help us distinguish and learn the characteristics of Dementors."
"Try to mobilize the positive power of your minds to resist these dark magic influences."
Lockhart guided them on how to deal with the current situation before continuing his explanation.
"Superficially speaking, the Dementor's abilities are 'draining happiness' and 'devouring souls'..."
"But I hope you don't stop your understanding at this superficial level of ability. We should think more deeply about why their abilities are these, to grasp their essence, and then deal with them from the root!"
"As early as 1718, when Minister for Magic Damocles Rowle decided to establish Azkaban prison, Dementors had already existed in the ancient castle that was the predecessor of Azkaban for several centuries. At that time, the Ministry of Magic collected and summarized a large amount of information from many experts who studied Dementors and buildings with dark histories, forming the initial means of controlling Dementors."
"In the more than 270 years of Azkaban prison's operation since then, the Ministry of Magic has accumulated far too many secrets for manipulating Dementors, this kind of dark magic creature, and it's definitely not as simple as the 'Patronus Charm' that circulates in the market."
"Facts have proven that as long as we deeply grasp the essence of dark magic creatures, we can communicate with them and properly utilize their abilities."
"Remember, the essence of a Dementor is the 'withering of life's color'. Making life lose all color is its most fundamental power..."
"The content I am about to explain will not appear in the books we are writing, because this part of the information comes from some illegal channels, obtained from a certain Ministry of Magic official."
"..."
As Lockhart spoke, the young wizards were clearly very uncomfortable.
Harry even had to lean half his body weight on Ron to avoid collapsing to the ground.
In fact, he had been trying very hard to use the positive mindset that Professor Lockhart had been teaching them during this time to resist, otherwise he felt he might faint on the spot.
But it still made him feel unwell. The professor's voice seemed to come from a very far place, and the scar on his forehead sent waves of stinging pain, his head throbbing with heat.
Just then, the office door was suddenly pushed open with a very impetuous force.
The weekend sunlight streamed in through the door, finally making Harry feel a little better.
"Professor Lockhart, I heard you went on an adventure with Professor Dumbledore? Can you tell me about it..."
Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly exclaimed, "Oh!!! Children, watch out!"
The person who came in was none other than Professor Kettleburn. He was startled when he saw the oppressive Dementor.
This old wizard clearly had plenty of combat experience.
Striding forward on his two prosthetic legs, he stood in front of the children, pulled out his wand, and waved it quickly. "Expecto Patronum!"
Silvery-white, semi-transparent light figures quickly burst from the tip of his wand, rapidly transforming in mid-air into a huge, fire-dragon-like animal, pouncing towards the 'Dementor'.
His magical power was so strong that the Boggart's weakened version of the Dementor was almost effortlessly knocked into the wall, turning into a cloud of black smoke.
The Boggart was clearly enraged by this sudden attack. Sensing the old wizard's deepest fear, it instantly changed again.
"Roar~~~"
It turned into a huge fire dragon, extremely large, looking almost three tons in weight, with a pearly white color all over its body. The pearl-like scales showed a rainbow color, glittering and dazzling. Its eyes had no pupils, and it forcefully stretched its wings in the not-very-spacious office, roaring so hard that its neck was shaking rapidly.
A particularly bright red light was rapidly brewing in its mouth, as if it could breathe out terrible dragonfire at any moment.
"Oh!!!! Merlin's pink frilly knickers!"
But at this moment, a wand reached out from the side and gently waved.
The Boggart looked at Lockhart resentfully, instantly turning into a cloud of black smoke, surging and hiding in the pocket of his wizard robes.
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