Once Lucius and his crew left the school, Lockhart followed Dumbledore to his office.
Dumbledore settled behind his desk, idly toying with a magical gadget that looked like a lighter, lost in thought.
Lockhart didn't interrupt. He just waited quietly, enjoying a scoop of ice cream waffle courtesy of the school's house-elves, paired with some mystery fruit tea.
"You mentioned something about his Horcruxes last time…" Dumbledore began.
Lockhart nearly choked on his ice cream, spraying it everywhere.
Merlin's beard, Dumbledore! Are you trying to get me killed, bringing that up?
Dumbledore gave him a sly smile. "Relax, I've cast a charm on this office. As long as you don't mention him directly, he can't sense you."
Noticing Lockhart's sigh of relief, he continued, "I've been waiting for his reaction ever since. I'm certain he's scrambling to move all his Horcrux hiding spots right now."
"Not the smartest move," Lockhart said. "Rushing to relocate them just risks exposing their existence."
"He doesn't have a choice," Dumbledore replied. "He can't afford to take the gamble."
Lockhart raised an eyebrow. "Gringotts?"
Dumbledore nodded. "He's cautious. The Death Eater he sent to move the Horcrux didn't even know what they were handling. The poor soul was under the Imperius Curse. When we caught him, he couldn't tell us anything useful."
Despite that, a smile crept onto Dumbledore's face. "But now I know for sure—one Horcrux is hidden in Gringotts!"
Narrowing the search to a single building? That made things much easier.
He'd find a way to track it down, no question.
The only hitch was that after sending two Death Eaters to Azkaban in quick succession, too many eyes were on him and the Order of the Phoenix. For now, it was best to avoid stirring the pot further.
"Over the Christmas holidays, I'll go with you to Białowieża Forest to deal with that Glumbumble breeding ground issue," Dumbledore said. "It's the perfect excuse—after all, it's for the students' safety."
Lockhart got it. "So you can slip off to Gringotts and search for it quietly?"
Dumbledore nodded. "Most wizards believe Gringotts is the safest place in the world. They store their most precious possessions there. If word got out that I could waltz in and out, it'd cause all sorts of unnecessary trouble."
A cover-up job, then. Easy enough.
Lockhart grinned. "Don't worry, I'll have a Boggart take your form. No one will suspect a thing."
"A Boggart…" Dumbledore's eyes narrowed. A Boggart couldn't shapeshift on its own, which meant someone out there feared him enough for it to take his shape? Was he really that terrifying?
Lockhart just smiled.
"A simple Confundus Charm would do the trick—no need for a Boggart," Dumbledore muttered, setting down his magical trinket. He grabbed a Cockroach Cluster from a nearby fruit bowl, popped it in his mouth, and savored it with a squint.
"But this isn't just about cover," he added, looking at Lockhart. "I want to make sure the kids at Hogwarts don't suffer like young Goyle and Crabbe did. We need those Glumbumble bone stones."
He paused. "And as it happens, I know who cursed the Crabbe family's fishpond. I'll write to her and ask her to lift it."
Lockhart let out a whistle. "You know her?"
Dumbledore nodded, rummaging through a pile of snacks. He pulled out a box of Chocolate Frogs, expertly flicked it open, and caught the frog as it leapt right into his mouth, where it tussled with the Cockroach Cluster already there.
Savoring the bizarre mix, he handed Lockhart the wizard card that came with it.
Lockhart glanced at it. The card featured an unfamiliar wizard: Andros the Invincible. The description noted he was born in ancient Greece and was the only known wizard to summon a Patronus the size of a giant.
"Added to Chocolate Frog cards just two years ago," Dumbledore said. "His descendants pulled a lot of strings to make it happen, and I helped out a bit."
Helped out a bit? That was no small favor. Getting an ancestor immortalized on a Chocolate Frog card was a big deal for old pure-blood families—a matter of family pride.
Lockhart had expected an adventure, but Dumbledore had already set everything up. All he had to do was show up.
The outcome was practically guaranteed: Goyle and Crabbe would get their cure, Hogwarts students would get protective amulets, Dumbledore would have his cover, and Lockhart would walk away with a Glumbumble breeding ground pumping out top-tier amulets.
Well… okay then. He'd been itching for some action after absorbing the "Forest Witch" adventure memories, but it seemed everything was already sorted.
He'd even set up a trial run for Lucius Malfoy's trio with the new Chamber of Secrets adventure scenario for the kids, thinking those three Death Eaters would put up a decent fight against the chamber's monster. He'd hoped to jump in with a spell or two to help the "Golden Trio" and Boggart combo.
But no—Lucius and his crew got so spooked by the Dark Lord they just ran for it, too panicked to fight. Talk about a letdown.
What could he do?
"Alright, I'm in," Lockhart said, agreeing to the plan.
But fate, as it often does, had other ideas. A few days later, Dumbledore showed up again, his expression a mix of amusement and exasperation. "Plans never quite keep up with change, do they?"
The old witch who'd cursed the Crabbe family's Glumbumble breeding ground—a descendant of Andros the Invincible—had passed away.
Her youngest son had written back to Dumbledore. The letter mentioned that he and his brothers were sorting through their mother's legendary life story. When they discussed the curse, they recalled her saying: "I threw a magical cloak into their fishpond, and they'll never find a single Glumbumble again."
A magical cloak?
Lockhart blinked. "Like an Invisibility Cloak?"
Invisibility Cloaks, woven from Demiguise hair, could hide the wearer from sight. But there was a catch—unless it was the Potter family's heirloom, one of the three Deathly Hallows, most cloaks couldn't maintain invisibility for decades.
And the bigger issue? No matter how large the Crabbe family's fishpond was, it wasn't some tiny well. What kind of cloak could cover that? You'd need to pluck every Demiguise in the wizarding world bald to make one that big.
Magic like an Engorgement Charm wouldn't work on such artifacts either.
Dumbledore frowned and shook his head. "I'm not sure. In ancient Greek, 'magical cloak' could even refer to a potion. I'll need to check with someone to confirm."
A potion?
That sparked an idea. Lockhart's eyes lit up as he sifted through his memories. "What if it's a dark magical creature? You know, cloak-like creatures aren't common, but there's a variety!"
The most infamous were Dementors, but there were others, like the Lethifold—a cloak-like dark creature that glided along the ground at night, smothering sleeping wizards and digesting them.
One consistent trait of these creatures? They could be repelled by a Patronus Charm.
Especially Lethifolds—the only known defense was a Patronus.
A Patronus Charm… now that was a challenge for Lockhart.
The "Forest Witch" adventure memories he'd absorbed didn't include that spell. Which meant one thing:
He'd have to learn it.
Or…
He could rope in his apprentices.
Harry Potter, time to get to work!
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