Lockhart's memories surfaced in Sean's mind, playing like slides.
Sean slowly rotated his right wrist holding the wand, as if using a remote control, causing Lockhart's memories to begin fast-forwarding while Sean concentrated intently, searching for the information he needed.
Like a movie playing in reverse, Sean quickly browsed through Lockhart's memories.
All the things he had done before, his ambitions, his desires—finally, in Lockhart's post-graduation memories, Sean found something abnormal. This part of the memories seemed to have been artificially tampered with, buried in the deepest recesses of Lockhart's heart. Sean searched for a long time before finding some fragmented memories.
A small town in Scotland with beautiful rivers.
An abandoned old mansion in the town.
Mysterious magical ruins.
It was there that Lockhart had obtained the top-level Memory Charm.
At the end of these fragments, Sean saw a name.
Rowena Ravenclaw!
He withdrew from his Legilimency state.
Sean looked at the now-unconscious Lockhart, his expression somewhat complex.
Having seen Lockhart's memories, Sean knew that Lockhart had been someone who loved adventure since childhood—otherwise he wouldn't have encountered so many adventurers and stolen their stories. When Lockhart had just graduated, he was merely a graduate with unremarkable magical abilities. By chance, he had discovered some clues in his own house, and after graduation, he found Rowena Ravenclaw's birthplace, where he located what appeared to be Ravenclaw's ancestral home.
The memories after that weren't very clear, only scattered fragments. When the memories became clear again, it was when Lockhart returned to that town, having acquired an incredibly powerful Memory Charm.
After that, Lockhart began using the Memory Charm to steal other people's stories and adventure experiences. As time passed, except for the Memory Charm, all of Lockhart's other magic had gradually deteriorated. Any skill, once neglected and lacking practice, would slowly regress—magic was clearly no exception.
Lockhart himself wasn't a wizard with superior magical abilities to begin with. His ability to graduate from Hogwarts was mostly due to excellent written exam scores, and when he actually used magic, it often didn't go as planned. After becoming negligent, he couldn't even cast many spells successfully.
Magical ruins possibly left by Rowena Ravenclaw?
If his strength was sufficient in the future, he could go take a look—perhaps he could gain something from it.
Thinking of this, Sean temporarily set these thoughts aside and looked again at the unconscious Lockhart, raising his wand.
"Obliviate!"
The February temperature caused Lockhart to wake from his sleep with a start.
Yawning, Lockhart sat up and found himself sitting by a window in a corridor, having fallen asleep. Lockhart vaguely remembered that he had seen the starry sky and moonlight outside, so he had sat down to admire it and accidentally fallen asleep.
"I must have been replying to fan letters too late recently. I need to sleep earlier tonight."
Standing up, Lockhart suddenly felt his body was somewhat sore. He looked down at himself, confirmed there were no major problems with his body—even his clothes were clean—and then returned to his room with peace of mind.
Watching Lockhart leave, Sean silently turned and left, returning to the Slytherin common room. After washing up briefly, he went back to his room to prepare for sleep.
"Where did you go?"
Suddenly hearing Kulkan's words, Sean realized there was still this creature in his room. Before he couldn't speak Parseltongue, he could pretend it didn't exist, but now that he could speak Parseltongue, that was no longer possible.
"I just went out and beat up Lockhart, then learned his Memory Charm and erased his memory, so he won't know I beat him up."
Hearing Sean's words, Kulkan's snake face was full of disdain, looking at him with contempt and saying, "You just know how to lie to me all day. If you don't want to say it, then don't say it. Why lie to me? I'm not talking to you anymore, I'm going to sleep."
Looking at Kulkan coiled up sleeping, Sean shrugged helplessly.
This world was really strange—when he told the truth, no one believed him.
The next morning was calm and peaceful.
After breakfast, Sean was preparing to go to Transfiguration class with Blaise.
On the way, they encountered Harry, who was also alone on his way to class. Harry had two dark circles under his eyes and looked quite exhausted—almost comparable to Blaise's previous all-nighters.
"Harry, didn't you sleep last night?"
Hearing Sean's words, Harry shook his head and said, "I had some nightmares last night, so..."
Nodding, Sean said to Harry, "Then you need to pay more attention to your health. Don't worry too much about Hermione and Ron's situation. Professor Dumbledore said before that Professor Sprout can use Mandrake roots to make healing potions that can restore Hermione and Ron to normal, so don't be too anxious."
"Yes, I know. Thank you, Sean."
Looking at Harry's condition, Sean felt he had probably noticed something, but since Harry didn't want to talk about it, Sean wouldn't press him. The final outcome wouldn't change anyway.
That evening, sitting in the Slytherin common room, Sean watched Marcellus Bulstrode quietly slip away from the common room mixed in with the crowd, knowing this guy finally couldn't hold back anymore.
During dinner earlier, Sean had noticed that Marcellus deliberately sat close to him. Although there were two people between them, he could definitely hear the conversation between Sean, Blaise, and Andy.
So Sean had deliberately and subtly mentioned that Dumbledore and the others had already found the specific location of the Chamber and would soon be able to deal with the Basilisk inside.
Sure enough, tonight Marcellus couldn't help but take action.
He just didn't know how much of Marcellus's current actions were his own will and how much was controlled by the diary.
Silently arriving at the third-floor girls' bathroom, Marcellus walked straight in and crouched in front of a copper tap marked with a small snake, opening his mouth to make hissing sounds.
"Hiss... (Parseltongue: Open)"
With Marcellus's words, the tap emitted a white light and spun rapidly. Then the sink behind the tap also moved, transforming into a huge whirlpool. The water inside quickly disappeared, revealing a huge pipe large enough for a person to easily crawl through.
Having opened the entrance to the Chamber, Marcellus immediately jumped into the pipe opening.
Seeing this, Sean also prepared to enter.
But just then, from one of the stalls in this girls' bathroom, Harry suddenly pushed open the stall door and, following in Marcellus's footsteps, jumped into the Chamber entrance ahead of Sean!