Chapter 59 The Game Has Started
Professor Kettleburn's greatest source of joy was dragons, and his greatest fear was also dragons. That was truly an interesting thing.
The old professor opened his mouth slightly in astonishment, looking awkwardly at Professor Lockhart and the young wizards behind him, raising his left prosthetic hand to scratch his already somewhat messy hair. "A Boggart?"
Lockhart smiled and nodded, looking thoughtfully at the old professor, and suddenly had some very wonderful ideas.
Maybe he could get this old professor to come and help teach the Defence Against the Dark Arts class!
Having experienced being cursed by Voldemort, he had too many plans ready to be implemented and urgently needed someone to help him share the teaching tasks so he could free up more time.
Old buddy!
It's not time to retire yet!
Still need to shine and generate heat!
Get to work!
Anyway, the other party always seemed to be the type who couldn't stay idle.
Admittedly, Professor Kettleburn was tired of the day-to-day teaching life and yearned for thrilling adventures.
But wasn't this just perfect? Lockhart's teaching method, besides the necessary theoretical courses, included a large amount of 'fairy tale adventure' practical teaching.
And now, during his adventure with Dumbledore, he had obtained another interesting magical item—"Caro's Bedtime Story Fairy Tale Book."
Some of the scenes in it were enough for Professor Kettleburn to lead the young wizards on plenty of adventures.
Wonderful~!
The smile on Lockhart's face grew even brighter.
...
"What?"
"Let Professor Kettleburn help you teach some Defence Against the Dark Arts classes?"
Dumbledore, who had finally found some free time to return to the school for a short rest, was savoring the interesting sensation of a cockroach cluster crawling in his mouth when he heard Lockhart's suggestion, almost spitting out the cockroach cluster.
He swallowed the cockroach cluster forcefully, looking at Professor Kettleburn beside him with a strange expression. "Do you also agree with Professor Lockhart's suggestion?"
"Of course!" Professor Kettleburn looked excited, vigorously waving his only intact right hand. "I would be delighted, Professor Dumbledore!"
"However, given Tom... I mean, given the curse of the Dark Lord on this class, this half-buried-in-the-ground cripple old man dares not provoke it. It would be best to be under the title of temporary assistant teacher."
Professor Kettleburn looked like he was trying his best to persuade Dumbledore. "Anyway, my title is teacher. It's very normal for teachers to occasionally be assistant teachers for professors, isn't it?"
Outrageous!
Dumbledore exclaimed in disbelief!
My old friend, what kind of bewitching potion did this young Lockhart give you? Or did he use the Imperius Curse on you?
Haven't you been constantly clamoring to resign?
Haven't you been bothering me every other day, trying to get my agreement, deliberately playing the old man endurance game, talking until the middle of the night to see who gives in first, desperately trying to get rid of the teaching career?
What do you mean by looking so honored to become Lockhart's assistant teacher now?
What's more...
Dumbledore couldn't help but recall Professor Kettleburn's instigation some time ago for him to let Professor Lockhart take over the Defence Against the Dark Arts professorship in a few years. It had only been a few days, how could it have reversed? He himself was leaving the Care of Magical Creatures class to be Lockhart's assistant?
And he even said that if he didn't have time to teach the young wizards Care of Magical Creatures because of this, Professor Lockhart could help out?
6!
He didn't understand!
He looked at this old friend, who was as excited and impatient as a young man about to go on a date, unable to get an answer, and couldn't help but look at Lockhart.
But Lockhart just smiled slightly. "Perhaps there are more interesting things than going on adventures in wild dragon reserves?"
"No, no, no!" Professor Kettleburn denied Lockhart's statement, saying righteously, "It's a more meaningful thing! The young wizards are still very young and ignorant, and they need an experienced old wizard like me to teach them more principles!"
Ah, this...
Dumbledore almost suspected that the cockroach cluster he had eaten had gone bad, and some bad, deteriorating toxins had affected his brain, causing hallucinations.
Okay.
He finally nodded in agreement.
But looking at this young Lockhart, he suddenly felt a tiny bit of jealousy in his heart.
Yes, jealousy.
Lockhart's usual teaching load had already been reduced from its previous scale to only a quarter, and now there was an old professor eagerly hoping to come and help as an assistant teacher.
When did the Defence Against the Dark Arts professorship become so easy?
When he was a young Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts, for decades, he never dared to relax for a moment!
Lockhart had only been a professor at Hogwarts for a few months!
Dumbledore suddenly had an absurd illusion—who knew what Lockhart would come up with next, and then completely become the most relaxed professor in Hogwarts history!
Hey!
Old Albus was right!
Lockhart had indeed been constantly reducing his workload, only the Headmaster hadn't noticed.
From the very beginning of his courses, Professor Lockhart would always have young wizards come up to the stage to be his assistants. With his continuous in-depth research into this model, and the exploration of the 'older students leading the newer students' teaching model in the 'Duelling Club' where Harry and Malfoy taught their respective companions, he was now becoming increasingly proficient.
The sixth and seventh years were the easiest. Many students in the N.E.W.T. enhancement classes understood how to exert their influence, and there were simply too many volunteers.
The same was true for Harry's year.
And now, it was time to expand to other grades.
For example, the first-year young wizards!
Lockhart similarly selected two young wizards to prioritize nurturing—Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood.
Yes!
He was preparing to make a move on Ginny Weasley!
Or, to put it more bluntly, he was planning to make a move on Tom Riddle in Voldemort's Horcrux diary!
He had previously cautiously chosen not to interfere with Tom Riddle because he was afraid of provoking the dangerous Dark Lord and being forced into the quagmire of war.
But now, hey, they were already completely on opposite sides, what was there to be afraid of!
Wizarding duels were never as simple as comparing plasma waves; otherwise, Voldemort would have been torn to shreds by Dumbledore long ago.
What made wizards truly formidable was 'mystery'!
When Voldemort was at his zenith, he would never have thought that a prophecy would suddenly appear saying he would be killed by some little brat.
After the Order of the Phoenix overthrew Voldemort's forces, there were rumors everywhere that Voldemort wasn't dead and was in Albania, but Dumbledore couldn't find him for so many years.
Azkaban prison was known as the most secure place in the world, yet the Ministry of Magic never thought that someone could rely on the Animagus ability, a bug, to evade the Dementors' blockade.
Peter Pettigrew, transformed into a small rat, had been brought to school by the Weasley brothers countless times, openly appearing under the noses of Dumbledore, Order of the Phoenix members, and a group of bigwigs, yet no one thought that his name would be easily marked on a Marauder's Map.
The wizarding world had too many mysteries in different fields that even the most powerful wizards didn't know.
And Lockhart was precisely one such person.
He was best at manipulating memories, and coincidentally, Tom Riddle in the diary Horcrux was currently playing the very tricks he was familiar with.
"Specialization in a field makes one proficient!"
"Voldemort, the game has started, don't call for a stop!"
He had plenty of ways to play Voldemort to tears—let him see what the remnants of Ravenclaw were like. They were different from those Gryffindors in the Order of the Phoenix he usually dealt with!
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