Chapter 224: The Awakening
"How's it looking?"
The battle between the giant serpent and the werewolf was too fast. The people watching could only see one distorted afterimage after another. It was only when the werewolf was bitten or the serpent was scratched, causing them to briefly stop in pain, that they could get a clear look. Otherwise, it was impossible to tell what was happening.
Professor Kettleburn asked the other two, hoping for an answer.
Tonks shook her head, a bit lost. She had never seen such a primal and wild battle before. Feeling the powerful magical energy surging and overflowing from the battlefield, she didn't even know if she would die without a clue if she tried to rush in.
It was at this moment that she truly understood why Scrimgeour had specifically warned her that Professor Lockhart was very dangerous, and so was Professor Lupin.
Lupin, however, was able to find his place in this terrifying battle, constantly casting spells to interfere with the werewolf's actions, little by little tilting the scales of the battle in their favor.
"Roar~~"
The werewolf howled in pain, forcefully lifting its thick, powerful hind leg to kick the giant serpent off, but not before the serpent ripped off a large chunk of flesh and fur.
The werewolf's blood, with its strange dark green color, splattered everywhere, churning with the surrounding magical power and bursting into an invisible mist of blood. It continuously eroded and affected everything around them.
Whether it was trees, rocks, insects on the ground, or squirrels in tree holes, under the influence of this power, they all rapidly became twisted and grotesque, as if they were about to be turned into 'werewolves' by the blood curse.
No wonder Grindelwald had only allowed Professor Lupin to help.
"You don't understand it?" Grindelwald asked with a light laugh.
Professor Kettleburn nodded honestly. "Magical battles are sometimes so bizarre that it's impossible to tell who's winning or losing."
Perhaps this was the true nature of a magical duel, not a simple case of you shooting a Killing Curse at me, and I dodge with a quick slide and hit you with an Expelliarmus.
"Look at the sky," Grindelwald prompted.
Professor Kettleburn and Tonks immediately looked up and saw that at some point, the moonlight Grindelwald had conjured had turned into low-hanging dark clouds. Lightning was surging, gathering, and colliding within the clouds, as if something terrible was being conceived.
"Every wizard's perception of self and the outside world is different," Grindelwald said with a sigh. "In Voldemort's eyes, the outside world is made up of individual beings separate from himself. So his werewolf curse affects all tangible individuals."
"In Lockhart's eyes, the outside world is more like the world the individual is in. So his current 'serpent' state is influencing the heavens and the earth."
Grindelwald could feel something brewing within the earth, but it was hard to explain. The lightning in the sky, however, was much simpler and more direct. He could feel that the lightning in the sky seemed fierce and vibrant, yet it lacked the aggressive nature of the 'Thunderstorm and Mountain Fire' Lockhart had cast before. In terms of its magical properties, it felt more like a 'great drum.'
A great drum?
He was truly a little confused this time.
Finally, the change he had been waiting for arrived.
As the lightning in the dark clouds reached its peak, a huge bolt of lightning thundered down. The blinding lightning seemed to rip the world apart, piercing through everything.
Boom~~~
The booming sound seemed to strike the soul of every living thing and every existence, yet it wasn't deafening. Instead, it gave off a refreshing feeling. It was as if someone had lightly patted him and said, "Hey, it's time to wake up."
And then he would kick away the dirt that covered him and crawl out of the ground, full of life.
This was... the revival and regeneration of life?
Grindelwald felt as if he saw a great serpent crawling out of its shed skin, hissing and rejoicing at the world, celebrating its new birth.
This feeling, Lockhart called it 'The Awakening!'
When the awakening arrives, snakes leave their holes, and all living things revive.
Applied to the battle in the distance, it meant that the three of them could finally see the state of the fight clearly.
The giant serpent was biting the werewolf's throat, its massive body wrapped around the werewolf's torso, twisting it like a wet towel and making a series of cracking sounds of bones and flesh tearing apart. Blood splattered, and the werewolf's eyes bulged as if they were about to pop out at any moment.
But even so, the werewolf struggled fiercely. Its massive head tried to bite open the serpent's body, and its left hand, which hadn't been coiled, continuously swung its claws, scratching at the serpent's scales.
Lupin finally found his opportunity and quickly rushed towards them, waving his wand and pointing it at the werewolf.
"Inertia Jinx!"
The powerful curse, like a plasma stream, continuously washed over the werewolf's body, eventually piercing through its magical resistance. With a terrible sound of shattering bones, the werewolf was finally crushed!
It exploded!
Blood, flesh, bones, and fur all splattered in every direction. Everything that was tainted by it was rapidly twisted and transformed by the werewolf curse.
"Gilderoy Lockhart!"
A black shadow suddenly drifted out of the werewolf's body, hovering in mid-air. A sharp voice came from within. "I will kill you! I swear! I will kill you!!!!"
The giant serpent twisted and quickly transformed back into Lockhart. He waved his wand to cast Scouring Charms on himself and Lupin. He chuckled. "Tom, is that all you can say?"
Just then, a twisted vortex suddenly formed in front of them. Everything in their vision seemed to spin, making them involuntarily want to fall into the center of the vortex.
Some of the mud on the ground was also sucked in, twisted in this force. It was squeezed along the structure of the magical power and rapidly formed a beautiful snail shell.
The group looked up and saw that Grindelwald was standing in the distance, casting a spell at them.
"Soul Anchorage!"
He gently shook his wand as if he were stirring ingredients in a cauldron, trying to extract the essence of a delicious dish to make an elixir.
As he cast the spell, even Lockhart felt as if his entire being was being extracted.
Suddenly, a blinding red light pulsed. It was the glow from the werewolf's blood that had splattered everywhere, painting the whole world red.
Finally, with a flash of the red light, the wandering soul of Voldemort in the twisted vortex instantly vanished.
The vortex disappeared.
The snail shell in the sky fell.
Lockhart quickly caught it with one hand and looked inside curiously. "Did you catch him? Did you put him in the snail shell?"
Grindelwald frowned and shook his head. "He escaped!"
He felt a pang of nostalgia for the time he held the Elder Wand, one of the Deathly Hallows. Perhaps with the Elder Wand, he truly would have been able to seal Voldemort's wandering soul. Then, no matter how many Horcruxes Voldemort had, he could be locked in a snail shell for eternity, and the Horcruxes would be useless.
"What a shame!"
Lockhart sighed, casually putting the snail shell away. This thing could hold a soul? He'd keep it. It might come in handy sometime.
Grindelwald didn't stop him from taking it. His expression was solemn. "He's more difficult than I thought!"
Lockhart didn't seem to care. "If he were so easy to kill, Professor Dumbledore would have done it long ago."
Compared to Voldemort's fate, he was more interested in his own magical research. The two states of a Mada-go cat, the state of an Animagus transforming into a normal animal, why Animagi are unaffected by Dementors, and the state of a wizard during a werewolf transformation...
Too much research that he had categorized under the same umbrella subject was now completely clear to him.
That is—the soul directly controls the body, with no participation from the mind.
This was a very interesting discovery. Magic naturally came from the soul, but the magical flourish that came from the resonance between magic and the mind's emotions was missing.
Lockhart excitedly explained his discovery to the group, but their eyes quickly glazed over. He thought for a moment and explained it in simpler terms.
"The state of a Dark Creature, or what I call the 'non-existence' state, is when the mind does not participate in life's activities!"
"According to this theory, ghosts are magical creatures, werewolves are magical creatures, and an Animagus's animal form is also a magical creature!"
"So how do magical creatures gain their animality?"
"The answer is to participate in the activities of wizards, connecting with other individuals in society, nurturing the activities of the mind. That's how they get their animality and evolve towards being a magical animal, or a wizard."
Grindelwald looked pensive.
Professor Kettleburn was still completely confused.
Tonks, however, was direct. Since she couldn't understand the strange theories, she got straight to the point. "What's the use of figuring this out?"
Lockhart rolled his eyes, a bit speechless at the lack of knowledge. He had to pull himself out of his newfound joy. He pursed his lips and casually said, "It means I've found a way to cure the werewolf curse."
"!!!" Tonks was stunned. She blinked and tried to recall what Lockhart had just said, but she realized she still couldn't understand. She just stared blankly and asked, "How?"
Lockhart chuckled and spread his hands. "Love! The power of love!"
The power of love, my foot! Tonks felt that Lockhart was just stringing her along!
Grindelwald's eyes, however, lit up. He had grasped the key. "Are you saying that during a werewolf transformation, you project a stimulus that neither the soul nor the body can handle, forcing the mind to step in? And once the mind is active, the wizard in their werewolf form can regain control?"
"Exactly!" Lockhart raised an eyebrow triumphantly. "What do you think? It makes sense, right?"
"Merlin's great nose ring! Professor Lockhart, you're absolutely brilliant!" Professor Kettleburn exclaimed excitedly. "I've heard of stories like this, fairy tales. There were some interesting fairy tales in my day that talked about this!"
"I've forgotten the specific story, but I remember a werewolf was about to attack his wife, and the wife lovingly called his name, finally succeeding in waking up her husband who had lost his mind!"
"That's right," Lockhart nodded. "Love is always the most intense stimulus in life's activities. It touches the soul, fills the mind, and penetrates every cell of the body."
The three of them were in a heated discussion.
Tonks was still a little dazed. After listening for a while, her head was full of mush. She had to turn to look at Lupin, who had not participated in the discussion.
She saw that the embarrassed man was now in tears, his face a mix of joy and sadness. His eyes were filled with a burning desire.
"Professor Lockhart!" Tonks couldn't stand to see a man cry, and her heart ached. She quickly asked, "I don't understand what you're saying. Can you tell us exactly what Lupin needs to do?"
"It's simple, he just needs a woman to wake him up with her love," Professor Kettleburn chuckled from the side.
Tonks was immediately flustered and embarrassed.
But Lockhart seemed to agree with him. "You can create a magical portrait and use the same method Voldemort used to possess a person. Put the magical portrait into Lupin's mind. When he transforms into a werewolf and loses his mind, all the people in the portrait who he cares about just have to call out to him and wake up his mind."
See?
It was so simple.
But while it sounded simple, the techniques and skills required were far beyond what a normal wizard could handle.
Tonks listened to Lockhart's outrageous explanation and felt like it was an impossible fantasy. "Put a magical portrait into his mind? Using that 'possession' method?"
Yes.
Lockhart was all too familiar with this method. After all, he had a dozen wizards in his head who were constantly yelling and screaming, making a racket. It was more than enough to pull anyone out of a lonely, lifeless atmosphere and get them to sing and dance along.
"Of course, there are many other ways," Lockhart mused, stroking his chin. When one thing clicks, everything else falls into place. The ideas were endless. "We can start with the Animagus ritual, putting the people from the magical portrait into his mind. This might lower the difficulty for other werewolves trying to do it themselves."
"You could also use blood-based magic..."
Harry's parents appearing from his mind when he dueled Voldemort was the perfect proof of this method.
Lockhart had so many ideas all at once.
The only problem was... did Lupin have someone he cared about enough to pull him out of a lonely, lifeless state and reconnect his mind to his body?
Did he... really care that much about his parents, his friends (the Marauders), or his elder (Dumbledore)?
The human heart is so complicated sometimes.
It's hard to truly know one's heart.
....................
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