Chapter 194: Taking the Initiative
Harry Potter had no idea what book Professor Lockhart had written, or that there was a 100,000 Galleon bounty on his head.
The bookstore was right there, but he obviously didn't have a chance to go in and buy a copy to read.
He found out soon enough.
As he boarded the Hogwarts Express again, even before he got on the train, he heard many adult wizards dropping off their children, huddled in small groups, whispering amongst themselves. Walking by casually, he would often catch Professor Lockhart's name.
Many of the adults who noticed him passing would immediately stop talking, as if they were afraid of being overheard.
This atmosphere of hushed discussion continued onto the train.
Unlike the usual noisy start of term, there was a constant rustling of whispers. Everyone's expression looked odd, and sometimes, a seemingly careless word would cause a gasp from a group.
"What on earth is going on?" he asked, full of curiosity, as soon as he finally met Hermione and Ron.
"Don't speak!" Hermione cautiously scanned the surroundings, leading them to an empty compartment. After closing the door and giving another wary look outside, she turned back to them with a solemn expression. "Professor Lockhart wrote a book!"
"I know he wrote a book, but what is it about?!!!" Harry's voice rose, causing Hermione to anxiously turn her head to peer out the compartment door again. After she gave him a glare, he quickly lowered his voice and asked again.
Hermione hurried over, pulled her jacket aside, and quietly took out a not-too-thick book, placing it in front of Harry.
She clearly treasured it, having carefully wrapped it in a book cover and even embedding copper frames on the corners to prevent any page from being bent.
Harry opened the cover and gasped sharply.
—Lord Voldemort: A Pure-Blood Supremacist with a Muggle Father?
He was naturally curious about the Dark Lord Voldemort, but at that moment, he didn't want to open it at all. Instead, he looked at Hermione with a serious face. "Is the professor alright?"
"I don't know!" Hermione frowned and shook her head. "Luna sent this to me secretly. I live in the Muggle world; I have no way of getting information from the wizarding world!"
So, Harry began to recount his adventures from the summer, describing what happened after he finally revealed himself from the Invisibility Cloak and Professor Dumbledore and the others apparated to his location.
He spoke in an astonished tone, "Professor McGonagall and the others were so surprised. They always thought all the Dark Lord's cronies were locked up in Azkaban. They had no idea there were still so many loyalists and followers outside. They all said that if it weren't for Professor Lockhart's book, they would never have realized that the Dark Lord's influence was still so terrifying."
"He's already dead—well, we know he's not, but a lot of people think he is, and the Ministry of Magic keeps insisting on it, but there are still so many loyal people."
Harry's expression was particularly angry as he talked about this.
He couldn't understand why so many people would be willing to follow a murderous Dark Lord and be a villain.
Harry's news was useful, but it didn't answer Hermione's question.
So both of them looked at Ron, who always knew a lot of news about the wizarding world.
Then they realized that Ron seemed to be distracted.
Seeing their gazes, Ron sighed and placed the newspaper he had been clutching tightly onto the table, gesturing for them to look at the picture in the middle.
The picture had a huge headline above it: Death Eater Escapes!!!
Hermione quickly snatched the newspaper and scanned it. Seeing Harry's look, Ron briefly explained, "The Aurors still haven't caught the fugitive. This guy, said to be the most dangerous Death Eater, was only spotted once, when he was buying a book (he gestured to the book Hermione had brought) ..."
"Many people believe he escaped from Azkaban because of Professor Lockhart's book and wants to get revenge on the professor for writing something that made the Dark Lord look bad."
Harry's expression grew serious. "We should find a way to help Professor Lockhart!"
"I think so too!" Ron looked down at his wand. He would never forget how Professor Lockhart had encouraged him in a gentle voice outside Ollivanders, saying that a champion shouldn't be without a proper wand. No one knew how much that sentence had affected him, no one knew how much his heart had been racing at the time.
"I…" He tried his best to keep his voice from trembling with excitement, wanting to sound like a mature person discussing with his friends how they could help the professor.
However, before he could finish, Hermione slammed the newspaper down on the table, looked at them intensely, and said with a serious expression, "I disagree!"
"Hermione!" Harry looked at her in disbelief.
"But you're his biggest fan!" Ron felt like the Hermione in front of him was a complete stranger.
Hermione rolled her eyes and pointed at the photo on the front page of the newspaper. "Didn't you notice? If this Death Eater can't find Professor Lockhart, who do you think he'll go after?"
Harry looked a little lost.
Ron, however, took a sharp intake of breath and looked at Harry. "Mate, Hermione is right. You're in danger!"
"I would even suspect he's on this train right now!" Hermione looked around vigilantly. "After the adult wizards have dropped off the students and before we arrive at Hogwarts, this is the best time to strike!"
She quickly took the book and stuffed it into her satchel, then pulled out her wand. "Although many people believe this train is safe—and it's true that no one has dared to attack it in the past hundred years—this is a war, mates!"
Ron thought Hermione was being a bit dramatic. While he agreed that the Death Eater might attack Harry, on the Hogwarts Express?
If Hermione could think of this, wouldn't the professors at school have thought of it too?
But when Hermione made up her mind, they could never argue with her.
"I'm going to gather the members of the Duelling Club, get everyone to discuss how to help Professor Lockhart, and I'm also going to find the Head Boy and have him and the other Prefects from each year check this train!"
In the year Professor Lockhart had been teaching, Harry had changed, Ron had changed, and even more so, Hermione.
Her expression was so serious. "Mates, let's get moving!"
Harry habitually pulled out his wand. His summer adventures had made him more reliant on his wand, and he knew how to use his abilities.
Ron, on the other hand, had a strange look on his face. "I agree about finding the other Duelling Club members, but forget about the Head Boy. He's useless."
Hermione was taken aback for a moment. "Who?"
Ron rolled his eyes. "Percy!"
"Your brother is the Head Boy this year?" Harry asked in amazement. Ron's brothers were all so brilliant.
"Yeah, he's been insufferably smug about it all summer, listening to everyone talk about it (though it was really the twins teasing him about it every day), but I think he…"
Before Ron could finish, Hermione had already pushed the door open, looked back at him, and said, "Then we'll go find Percy!"
She wasn't willing to wait for an attack to happen before reacting; she wanted to deal with the danger before it ever occurred.
She could never forget the death of Crabbe's parents. That was the first time she had faced the cruelty and horror of the wizarding world head-on.
Death, in the magical world with its powerful spells, was truly not a distant thing.
Sometimes when she walked down Muggle streets during the holidays, she would even feel a terrifying sense of dread that if she pulled out her wand, she could easily kill everyone on the street.
The danger of magic was not a game.
Soon, the members of the Duelling Club were gathered. Strangely, Neville seemed to be talking to Draco, Goyle, and Crabbe, with his eyes red.
But when the trio walked over, everyone fell silent, and in this critical moment, it wasn't the time to investigate.
Then they found Percy.
Contrary to Ron's guess, Percy's expression was incredibly serious. "Professor Lockhart is on the train. I just went to his compartment to visit him."
"What?" everyone gasped in unison.
"He'll be teaching Care of Magical Creatures as an elective this year." Percy began to rally everyone to check the compartments, and also went to find the Prefects and some older students. He seemed even more serious than Hermione.
Soon, they caught a short adult wizard hiding among the younger students.
While everyone was nervously discussing Professor Lockhart's book, this fellow had hidden in a corner of the crowd and hadn't been noticed at all.
The adult wizard was clearly surprised to be discovered. He drew his wand, intending to attack, but was easily taken down by a coordinated spell attack from the young wizards, who had practiced extensively through their magical adventure drills.
"I need to write to Professor McGonagall; this is clearly not a normal situation!" Percy's expression was extremely grave as he looked at the captured wizard's fierce eyes. He called to his girlfriend, Penelope Clearwater, "You go and inform Professor Lockhart about this situation."
He had clearly been visiting Professor Lockhart with his girlfriend.
However, before anyone could say anything else, a terrible silence quickly spread through the compartment.
Unlike the fear brought on by the black-magic creature with three-handed, golden-haired dog, this horrifying aura seemed to be rapidly draining all joy and vitality from everyone it touched. An older student standing near the compartment door shuddered violently and began to tremble.
Darkness swept through, pressing down heavily on everyone's hearts.
"Expecto Patronum!"
A silvery mist swirled, and a semi-transparent silver rat scampered out, circling everyone in the air of the compartment.
Magical power surged, dispelling the gloom.
Everyone immediately breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Ron, who had cast the spell.
Ron looked a little embarrassed, grinning. "Professor Lockhart said, when you run into a problem like this, no matter what's happening, you summon your Patronus first!"
Yes, he was always the first to pull out his wand and cast a spell among the group, a true champion from Gryffindor!
Percy looked at the older students around them proudly, shouting, "Look! That's my little brother, Ron! Ron Weasley!"
But his pride was short-lived.
As the terrifying dark power grew denser, the Patronus Ron had summoned seemed to dim, becoming useless in an instant.
"Expecto Patronum!"
"Expecto Patronum!" "Expecto Patronum!" "Expecto Patronum!"
Everyone quickly pulled out their wands and cast the spell together.
The other older students who had come to help looked at them in disbelief. "How can all of you cast the Patronus Charm?!!!"
This scene was clearly too unbelievable. The Patronus Charm was one of the most ancient and difficult spells, a spell that most people could never form a corporeal Patronus with. Yet, looking at the many fully-formed Patronuses in front of them, it was utterly shocking.
There were even second-year students among this group who could cast it?
Did magic have no regard for basic common sense?
Could this thing be mass-produced?
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