Chapter 158: This Body is Not Mine!
Man dreaming of a butterfly: Is it Zhuangzi who dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming it was Man?
Suddenly waking up, with a flash of insight, one might say, "This body is not mine!"
The secret to time travel's inability to change anything lies in the fact that few people can truly discern and break free from the behavioral patterns guided by the brain, which are formed by the acquired influences of nature, environment, society, bloodline, and everything else. As a result, they remain trapped, continuing along their original paths.
Lockhart wasn't sure what Zhuangzi meant by "this body is not mine" in his past life, but in his current experience of life's journey, this was the answer he received.
He was fortunate to be a transmigrator, and even more fortunate to embark on a path of entering others' adventurous journeys in pursuit of magical blossoming, thus gaining an extremely profound understanding in this regard.
The interesting part of this understanding was that he could do the opposite.
He allowed his body to autonomously think and act, letting it continue the traces of the past in this time, doing what Voldemort was originally supposed to do.
Thus, Lockhart genuinely felt some details of Voldemort's use of the Flying Charm, similar to the subtle magical techniques Dumbledore mentioned.
He felt the intriguing power of Parseltongue, which compelled sea serpents to guide him—a completely different feeling from a "forest's darling" appealing to the forest for help.
He finally arrived at a rocky cave. Voldemort seemed to have initially intended to set it up as a secret escape route. As the saying goes, a cunning rabbit has three burrows. After confirming that he would become a powerful enemy of Dumbledore in the future, he began making preparations.
"Inferius Resurrection!"
This was an extremely eerie Dark Art. Voldemort transformed a corpse, which he had already prepared, into an Inferius.
This was not a resurrection from the dead.
In some ancient Haitian and African witchcraft, this type of sorcery, concerning the Styx crossing into reality, typically carried terrifying dark powers, with light and fire always being their bane.
It was quite miraculous to transform a corpse into a Dark magical creature with such a simple casting method.
Of course, this was related to Voldemort himself, who was walking the magical path of exploring life and death, as well as the direction of malevolent Dark Arts.
He was skilled at this.
Just then, Lockhart acutely felt a surge of his own time magic operating. He quickly took over control of the body, Apparating to a familiar place on the island, then switching to the Flying Charm to swiftly fly towards the direction from which the magic had emanated.
He soon saw Corban, and the rapidly dissipating figure of Madam Mary.
Lockhart cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself. The powerful magic was enough to prevent anyone else from detecting his presence. He floated high in the sky, observing Corban's state.
Tom had already performed some "minor surgery" on Corban, continuing the manipulative method used on Ginny, opening a backdoor within Corban's physical brain and thoughts.
This was an advanced application of the Imperius Curse, one of the three Unforgivable Curses. What made it more terrifying than the Imperius Curse was its extreme stealth. When Ginny was previously influenced, she frequently appeared under the very noses of Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, and even Professor Dumbledore, yet no problems were detected.
To describe it somewhat inaccurately, it was like installing a backdoor in Ginny's brain, then inserting an encapsulated and encrypted system and driver, waiting to activate it and replace the original system when necessary.
And now, this minor surgery on Corban was nearing completion, except that the hidden driver system had been taken over by Lockhart.
The only problem with this method was that a Corban manipulated in this way would be too conspicuous in front of Voldemort; any contact would immediately reveal the situation.
Therefore, Lockhart needed to go further, into the past, to complete the final step there, then let the power of time cover up all traces. This was the intriguing "Mist of History."
Lockhart hadn't expected that his decision to help Madam Mary retrieve some memories that wouldn't affect him, such an act of kindness, would actually bring some assistance.
Madam Mary was actually Corban Yaxley's daughter?
Ha!
This was too interesting.
"Then let this be compensation, while I currently possess Voldemort's magical power."
He smiled and gently waved his wand, pointing remotely at the soon-to-dissipate figure of Madam Mary. A strange shadow was pulled out of her body by him. This wasn't very difficult; not every bloodline curse was too powerful to remove. Madam Mary's three generations of curse continuation were actually related to her time-biased bloodline and would be temporarily lifted within time.
Voldemort had some in-depth research on bloodlines, and using his ability, it was easily done.
Soon, the curse within Madam Mary's body was removed and casually thrown onto Corban by Lockhart.
Boom! Time rapidly shattered, spinning wildly.
In the swirling time tunnel, Lockhart vaguely caught sight of some traces smoothed by time: Madam Mary's birth, Madam Mary's mother turning from love to hate, step by step becoming a banshee, and due to the additional curse on Corban, she inversely attacked Corban, completely covering up some of the traces of Lockhart and Tom's operations on Corban.
"Nice~"
Lockhart quickly woke up.
He didn't open his eyes, merely savoring this interesting experience, akin to Zhuangzi's butterfly dream, feeling the difference between the influence of his own mind, the influence of this body's bloodline, and the body of the young Voldemort (Tom).
The power brought by the Soul Bonfire helped him more clearly perceive this subtlety.
"Oh, Madam Mary, you're awake," Ron called out excitedly.
This unlucky child had once again been prematurely removed from the adventure, performing quite miserably, but he couldn't be blamed.
The more troubled a person's mind, the harder it is for them to understand themselves, let alone actively influence their body to act against the impulses of their brain.
He could only play the role of a fool on this journey, then jump into the sea and drown, gaining nothing.
Lockhart suspected that Tom would also have difficulty gaining anything. This experiment subject's performance in the previous time scenario showed almost no characteristics of "Tom"; he acted entirely according to "Lockhart's" behavioral patterns.
"Are everyone else not awake yet?" Madam Mary asked Ron.
"Nah, everyone's just been like this. Goyle and Crabbe somehow ended up in the fire, so it's just me now," Ron said honestly.
Honest kids were in for big trouble.
Madam Mary was no ordinary witch. Although she hadn't committed any major evil in her past life, according to the current classification of wizards, she was a bona fide Dark Witch.
Neither her status as a Dark Witch nor her demeanor as an ancient spiritual witch was ever conventional.
"Excellent," Madam Mary drew her wand. "Expelliarmus!"
Woosh!
Ron's wand flew out of his hand. Mary was about to continue casting when she suddenly saw the boy leap up, snatching the flying wand, and falling to the ground with a perfectly executed Quidditch tactical roll.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
The boy, who must have practiced countless times, incorporated the wand-waving gesture into his roll. Before he even stood up, he had already aimed his wand at Madam Mary and cast the Full Body-Bind Curse.
But unfortunately, it was useless.
A scattering of stony-glowing powder suddenly appeared in mid-air, quickly falling to the ground. Ron was surprised to see that the powder was actually tiny flying insects.
Damn it!
Ron cursed inwardly, then saw a tall chair toppling towards him. The moment it struck him, it quickly transformed, molding tightly around his body and binding him firmly to the ground.
"Professor Lockhart's students really are different—"
Madam Mary looked at Ron with admiration. She herself taught young wizards in the Haitian wizarding community and knew how excellent a child Ron's age, capable of such combat power and tactical skill, truly was.
"Please apologize to Professor Lockhart for me."
Her gaze was somewhat complex as she looked at Professor Lockhart, who lay among the stone-like figures on the ground. "Thank him for helping me retrieve a part of my memory, the most valuable memory. I don't need to know the rest; I'm already very satisfied."
"This is what I owe him. Tell him for me that I will find a way to compensate him in the future, to the best of my ability!"
"But, for now, I'm sorry."
She waved her wand again, and a mass of black shadow quickly emerged from behind her. It was a bright red caterpillar, two meters wide, covered in green tumors, but strangely, it looked like a kite, thin and hollow inside, swaying in mid-air.
This caterpillar-kite quickly enveloped her body, as if devouring her whole, and then flew towards Corban on the chair, leaving only an empty chair behind, and rapidly descended the stairs beneath the trapdoor.
"Damn it, you hateful wretch!" Ron cursed furiously.
However, before he could struggle to reach the wand that had fallen nearby, the huge caterpillar-kite flew back up from the trapdoor again.
Thump!
A massive, furry werewolf paw clung to the trapdoor. Malicious laughter emanated from within the trapdoor. "Why aren't you running now? I really wanted to kill you while I had the chance!"
The surrounding mist dissipated.
The Golden Boy (Harry), the Wronged Fairy (Hermione, though this is a somewhat obscure and possibly mistranslated reference to Hermione's "Fairy" like intelligence and being wronged by her past self being taken), the Boggart, the Demiguise, the Sackcloth (possibly the Imperius Curse or a general reference to being controlled), and the Patronus Silver Horse.
They had all surrounded the area at some unknown point.
Madam Mary fell out of the kite, her face pale, and looked in terror at Professor Lockhart, who had somehow opened his eyes and was curiously observing the caterpillar-kite.
"It's not time yet, Madam Mary," his voice remained gentle, with his characteristic cheerfulness and frankness. But in Madam Mary's ears, it carried an unspeakable authority.
"Rennervate!" A voice sounded nearby. Ron finally broke free from the cursed chair and flipped over to see that Draco had actually saved him.
At the same time, Harry, Hermione, and everyone else woke up, surrounding Madam Mary.
....
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