In one night, Dudley completed the taming of all the Cornish Pixies.
The good news: even after taming such a large group, Dudley's body showed no abnormalities—just slightly diminished spirits.
The bad news: not all Cornish Pixies could evolve to Level 2. Except for the very first one, all the others remained at Level 1 status.
Perhaps due to the lesson from the first class with the Cornish Pixies, Lockhart's subsequent courses no longer included practical content. Each class, he'd find two or three young wizards to simply act out scenes from his novels—this counted as imparting knowledge. Extremely perfunctory.
Rather than calling it Defense Against the Dark Arts, it would be more accurate to call it theatrical performance. Empty, boring, devoid of any emotion—and crucially, you couldn't learn a single thing, no matter how exciting the experiences in his books were.
But... novels were novels, not study materials. Just like you couldn't learn advanced martial arts from fantasy novels.
Hermione therefore lowered her evaluation of Lockhart to the minimum—he was worse than Professor Quirrell, who at least taught them how to deal with trolls.
The Disciplinary Squad continued their almost predatory harvesting of points from the professors. Currently, among the four Houses, except for a very few young wizards still making efforts, most had given up. Those still trying didn't know they were already on the Disciplinary Squad's assessment list.
Thus they peacefully passed the first month of second year.
Still at night, Dudley slowly pushed open his room door and stretched his slightly aching neck, immediately producing a sound like popping beans.
"Finally finished."
Looking at the completed item in his hands, he rarely showed a satisfied smile. This was a tool he'd spent a long time researching and developing.
The latest product of Alchemy plus Magical Equipment Modification.
It was a spherical object, primarily red and white, with a seam dividing it in half—the upper half red, the lower half white, with a circular pattern at the sphere's center.
If someone from Dudley's previous life saw this, they would definitely exclaim: "A Poké Ball!"
It looked incredibly similar. Except for the circular pattern in the middle—Dudley's creation wasn't white but light blue. There, he had placed a small portion of the 'Magic Crystal' obtained from refining Voldemort.
Since Pixie and Charizard are already here... might as well have this ball too.
Dudley had originally wanted to call it a Magical Creature Ball, but that sounded terrible, so he settled on Poké Ball.
"Go."
Dudley lightly tossed it upward. The knockoff Poké Ball opened, and with a flash of light, Pixie appeared before him.
"Gawu!"
Pixie very cooperatively made a fierce expression.
Feels pretty good...
Casually tossing Pixie a piece of feed, Dudley aimed the knockoff Poké Ball at Pixie's position. A red beam shone on Pixie, and with this beam, he recalled it again.
The knockoff Poké Ball quickly shrank to one-third its original size. Placing it gently at his waist, with a soft 'click,' it was firmly attached to his belt.
Don't underestimate this small sphere. This was an alchemical product with extremely high magical content.
The red beam was a specialized Summoning Charm, the internal space had an Extension Charm applied, its ability to attach to the waist used Sticking Charm principles, and size changes utilized the most important aspect of Transfiguration. The entire Poké Ball also contained a contract—no one except Dudley could use it.
Since creating the knockoff Poké Ball, Dudley had been like someone who'd found a new toy, constantly heading to the Forbidden Forest. However, this time he was no longer searching for magical plants, but magical creatures instead.
And indeed, after spending a week, Dudley actually found several excellent magical creatures. A Niffler, a Grindylow, and a Mandrake.
Well, the Mandrake was clearly a magical plant, yet Dudley had somehow tamed it—who knows why.
All of these were stored in Dudley's knockoff 'Poké Balls'.
Unfortunately, 'Charizard' and the 'Balding Pony' couldn't currently be tamed—probably because Dudley's Taming skill level was too low.
The only regret was that 'Magic Crystals' were limited, preventing mass production. Otherwise, Dudley would definitely make 180 of them to store in his waist pouch.
Just imagine—at Dudley's command, 100,000 magical creatures would instantly charge out, each giving the enemy a slap guaranteed to beat them into submission.
Dudley didn't like doing things himself. After all, people of his moral character preferred to convince others through reason.
Currently, he'd completed four ten-thousandths of his 100,000 magical creatures dream.
Dudley was already considering how to obtain more 'Magic Crystals'. Wait, it seems like I already have the raw materials...
Harry felt he'd been very unlucky lately. He'd been targeted by a first-year Gryffindor named Colin, who'd been constantly stalking him to take photos.
You have to understand—Harry didn't like being famous. What he liked most was quietly following behind Dudley.
Malfoy had made plenty of jokes about this.
Of course, this wasn't the most unlucky thing. Besides Colin, there was actually another person who'd targeted him—the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Lockhart.
Since the term started, Lockhart had been constantly looking for opportunities to approach Harry, to be alone with him, trying to teach him how to utilize his fame.
As for why he didn't approach Dudley... Dudley simply ignored him completely. Moreover, while Dudley had fame, it was limited to Hogwarts and a few people who knew his Teacher Jerry identity. Most importantly, his fame wasn't as great as Harry Potter's.
You have to know that just the name Harry Potter was a golden brand. He was the savior who had rescued the wizarding world. You could say every wizard in the wizarding world owed him ten Galleons, and it wouldn't be excessive.
This day, after another boring Defense Against the Dark Arts class ended, Harry was unsurprisingly detained by Lockhart once again.
Lockhart wanted Harry to help him reply to fan mail. Harry wasn't Dudley—he couldn't ignore Lockhart. As just a second-year, he didn't yet have the ability to refuse a professor's request.
So he stayed behind, working with Lockhart to reply to fan letters one by one.
'Maybe I can help Big D reply to fan mail in the future.'
Harry tried to comfort himself.
Both Lockhart and Big D are authors—why have I never seen Big D reply to fan mail?
Harry was lost in thought while unconsciously listening to Lockhart's 'experience sharing'.
"Who dares... disturb the slumber and awaken the great..."
"Hungry... I'm so hungry... Blood... I want fresh blood... I want living sacrifices..."
"Let me eat you... eat you..."
The hoarse, chaotic, and resentful voice startled Harry. He quickly asked Lockhart, who was sitting beside him in self-intoxication, but the other had heard nothing.
Harry was 100% certain this wasn't his imagination.
When you have difficulties, what should you do? Find Big D.
When you have doubts, what should you do? Find Big D.
When you have problems, what should you do? Find Big D.
So... why not ask the amazing Big D?
Thus, the next day after morning training ended, Harry found Dudley.