Chapter 28: Voldemort's Notes
Lockhart no longer cared whether the others outside the vault would rush in and disturb the Wronged Fairy (Vengeful fariy).
He looked at her with such deep affection, a picture of delicate fragility, and raised his hand towards the Wronged Fairy.
This move was very effective.
It was experience; powerful and fragile was the ultimate killer.
With the superimposed identities of "savior" and "waiting to be saved," the Wronged Fairy finally made the reaction he had hoped for.
He was willing to die for her!
Then, she was also willing to live for him!
How long had she been on this pyre that burned her soul at every moment?
A hundred years?
Two hundred years?
No, she couldn't remember anymore.
She only knew that she finally had the courage to face it. She began to forcefully break free from the thorny vines that bound her.
The earth also hoped for her success, endowing her with strength. Thus, the deep bloody marks left by the vines on her were rapidly healing.
She finally broke free!
Staggering, cautiously, somewhat timidly, her delicate pink feet lightly touched the ground.
The bloodstains automatically moved away from her feet, and the small pebbles that had rolled to the ground in front of her also tumbled away, not wanting to hurt her in the slightest.
Finally, she came closer and forcefully threw herself into Lockhart's arms. Her small head rested on his warm chest, and she whispered shyly in his ear, "For me, live on!"
Beauty in his arms, soft yet firm.
Referring to the maws filled with fangs.
Lockhart looked with some fear at the fangs pressing against various parts of his body, and tremblingly gently reached out to stroke her long golden hair.
Smile.
A smile full of love.
"Yes, my beautiful maiden, I am willing to live for you. Are you willing to let down all your defenses for me? To completely open your heart to me! Without you, my life will lose its color!"
The Wronged Fairy carefully supported herself on his chest and lifted her upper body. The flushed cheeks in her drooping hair seemed to be dripping water. She nodded firmly and lightly, "Mmm!"
Very good.
Lockhart's other uninjured hand had long been in his wizard robe pocket, his fingers probing into the small pouch and gripping his wand. After receiving confirmation, he decisively pulled out his wand and, holding it against her, quickly chanted the spell, "Return to the Earth!"
The Returning Charm was a branch of the Banishing Charm in the field of Defence Against the Dark Arts.
It had a wide range of applications and performed well against Wronged Fairys, Inferi, and the like.
Once specific conditions were met, it was highly targeted and extremely effective!
The only problem was...
The Wronged Fairy twisted her waist where the wand was pressing, looking at him with some confusion. "What did you say? What's pressing against me?"
"!!!"
The magic failed!
Or rather, this spell was never successfully cast.
This was very embarrassing.
His reaction was so quick, he extremely rapidly searched for a backup plan in his chaotic memories.
He had to be fast!
Otherwise, the fanged maws all over the Wronged Fairy's body would completely devour him into a pile of minced meat.
The danger of black magical creatures was no joke!
There were countless black magical creature scholars in history who had ended up miserably dead after truly treating black magical creatures as living individuals and even planning to fall in love with them.
This thing was a phenomenon!
Methods were just ways to trigger changes in the phenomenon. He couldn't over-immerse himself in the other party's reaction!
Lockhart quietly put the wand, which was even less useful than chopsticks, back into the small pouch in his pocket, just looking at her with deep affection. "Don't worry about these details, beautiful maiden. Are you willing to live in my heart? To wander this world with me from now on?"
The Wronged Fairy nodded shyly, leaning against his warm chest again, full of infatuation.
Her cheeks were so red.
She felt so hot all over, so hot she was about to melt.
Mmm.
She was indeed melting.
Professor McGonagall finally decided to try to come and help. She was really worried about Lockhart, entrusting young Urquart to keep a close eye on Harry and Draco, and quietly sneaking in with Professor Snape.
Then they saw...
Lockhart lying on the ground with a pink, translucent figure in his arms.
Such a scene didn't feel romantic at all, only indescribably eerie.
Because the translucent figure was rapidly melting, growing strange long whiskers that, like pink glowing jellyfish, arched through the air one after another and plunged into Lockhart's chest.
Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape quickly raised their wands to help, but Lockhart secretly waved his hand at them, making forceful eye gestures.
"?" Professor McGonagall hesitated for a moment, looking at Professor Snape.
Professor Snape, with a very serious expression, began to take out potions from his wizard robe pocket that might be helpful in this situation.
Such a change ended quickly.
The figure completely burrowed into Professor Lockhart's chest.
In just an instant, the bloodstains on the surrounding walls and the incessant bird calls and murmuring sounds disappeared completely.
Only the poisonous snakes and insects, as if frightened, burrowed into various dark corners.
"Done!"
Lockhart clapped his hands and stood up with a smile. "This is no problem for me!"
Professor Snape silently handed him a bottle of potion. "It can cleanse the evil power in your body. You'll need it."
Lockhart was not polite and looked at him gratefully. "Oh, my dear Senior Snape, thank you so much."
Of course, he needed this!
A Potions Master carrying top-notch potions to guard against danger was something Lockhart couldn't buy no matter how many connections he had.
Professor Snape didn't speak, just turned his head with an indifferent expression and walked straight outside.
Professor McGonagall looked at this scene with a kind smile. "He's always been bad at expressing his emotions."
Young Urquart was very grateful for the resolution of this crisis and insisted on holding a thank-you dinner in the Urquart Castle hall, even pulling back Professor McGonagall, who hoped to return to school immediately to attend to her duties.
Harry privately and bluntly pointed out that Mr. Urquart was just afraid that it hadn't been cleaned up completely and wanted everyone to stay and observe the situation.
This reasoning was understood not only by the adults but even by Draco.
Lockhart smiled and rubbed Harry's head, simply saying, "That's as it should be, isn't it? We also need to stay and confirm that we have completely resolved the problem. It's better to be safe than sorry."
For a time, hosts and guests were happy.
The promised reward was to choose a family heirloom. After thinking for a long time, Lockhart finally chose a ring with an Undetectable Extension Charm attached.
It was the work of an ancient master, and the charm attached to it had stood the test of time and still performed very stably.
As for the small pouch he had previously obtained from Mr. Borgin, although it seemed to have a much larger capacity, it was actually very unstable. If it was accidentally affected by any magical influence, whether malicious or not, it might even explode on the spot.
The other item was an old gramophone that was supposedly damaged. Even if the Wronged Fairy inside wasn't harmed, it wouldn't escape the magical artifact's constraints.
If this gramophone could be repaired, the potion Professor Snape gave him could be saved.
Finally, there was a magical book.
Mr. Urquart had originally planned to secretly replace it with other books, after all, no one knew exactly which one he had traded with the Malfoy family.
But Professor McGonagall, having already guessed this, reminded her nephew—"Are you sure you can handle it?"
Many magical books had many forbidden spells attached by their creators to protect the knowledge inside. Did young Urquart really want to experience another helpless situation?
Frightened, he hastily took out this book and gave it to Lockhart, only completely relieved after watching the latter leave his castle with it after the dinner.
...
Back at Hogwarts, Lockhart carefully placed the potion Professor Snape had given him into the ring and then took out the book and began to read it.
Professor McGonagall had helped check it, and there were no dark curses on it.
The book's name was simple—The Complete Guide to Pensieve Arts.
The compilers of the book were Septimus Malfoy and the "Egyptian Magical Arts and Literature Collation Office" of the Ministry of Magic.
Septimus Malfoy was a figure from the 18th century who served as an advisor to the Minister of Magic at the time, which meant that the ownership of this book should belong to the Ministry of Magic.
But considering that the Minister of Magic at the time, Unctuous Osbert, was nicknamed "Malfoy's Puppet," it was understandable why this book appeared in the Malfoy family's collection.
Lockhart began to read with great interest.
After flipping a few pages, an illustration of a crystal skull Pensieve came into view.
The description above it read—"...Wizards no longer confined themselves to the simplest human skull shells and the principles of their influence on the brain and memory, attempting to make more changes to the skulls..."
"...Before finally settling on the stone Pensieve crafting process using magical clay and skull powder firing, the emergence of the crystal skull process was the most crucial achievement in wizards' research process..."
Good heavens!
Lockhart had thought his crystal bird-snake skull Pensieve was something very good. It turned out that for the current Pensieve crafting technology, this thing was an outdated product that had already been iterated upon.
In the wizarding world, not everything was better the older it was. For example, modern Transfiguration, which had become a systematic discipline, would have been unimaginable to ancient wizards.
Damn Mr. Borgin, that greedy fellow had actually given him an antique!
And he had even said that he had overlooked the control password when "receiving the goods." Who knew how many people had used this thing, how many years it had gone through, or even accompanied several owners into the grave? The password had probably long since disappeared into the river of history.
Of course, ancient magical artifacts had ancient benefits.
The current stone basin and earthenware basin Pensieve techniques, like wand-making techniques, were firmly in the hands of those so-called "Sacred Twenty-Eight pure-blood families," while the detailed information on this crystal skull Pensieve was able to circulate outside.
Lockhart quickly found a potion used to awaken the memory imprint of a Pensieve made from a crystal skull, meaning he had a way to restore the crystal bird-snake skull Pensieve's ability to freely enlarge and shrink.
But he was soon drawn to some casual notes scribbled on the valuable book.
—I heard that the great Dumbledore used the ancient skull Pensieve technique to create a magical artifact for Gellert Grindelwald, who possessed the ability of prophecy, that could display memory images. So ancient techniques can still be used well, the key is who is using them.—Tom Riddle.
Tom Riddle...
Voldemort!
Lockhart suddenly sat up straight, finally understanding why Lucius Malfoy was so eager to clear this book out of the family vault.
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