Chapter 30: I accept this challenge
During his teenage years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Voldemort created his first Horcrux – the magical diary.
This Horcrux was perhaps the most unique of all the Horcruxes he created.
Because the diary would try to resurrect itself!
The other Horcruxes did not have such autonomy.
Of course, it was also possible that Voldemort later realized the uncertainty this brought and subsequently tried to avoid similar operations.
This exceptionally talented figure clearly had an extremely deep understanding of memory, personality, and even the soul at a very young age.
Lockhart looked at the content in the book, his breathing becoming rapid.
Everyone has path dependence.
He knew all too well what a precious opportunity was laid out before him – Voldemort's Horcrux, the magical diary, was now at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!
Previously, it should have been in the Malfoy family's possession. Because Arthur Weasley planned to search Malfoy Manor thoroughly, Lucius had to get these valuable items out. Among them, Voldemort's magical diary was vengefully slipped into Ron's younger sister Ginny Weasley's pile of books.
Lockhart had many ways to easily obtain this diary from Ginny.
And then...
Whether treating the diary as a complete life or as an alternative Pensieve, a single Obliviate Charm would easily grant him the wisdom of a great wizard.
It contained all the advanced knowledge about memory and the soul that he needed!
"This is too tempting!"
Lockhart stroked the book, constantly suppressing the elation in his heart.
He needed to keep his cool!
He told himself not to rush!
The Dark Lord's Horcrux was not so easy to obtain.
He mustn't be like young Urquart, touching what he wasn't qualified to touch and ending up a laughingstock.
He was very certain that Voldemort's wraith, wherever it was hiding at this moment, would be keeping a close eye on Hogwarts. Dumbledore was there, Harry Potter who was prophesied to kill him was there, and his Horcrux was there.
The best time to strike was definitely not now.
He should hide in the shadows of Dumbledore and Harry Potter, and then suddenly and quietly make his move.
It would be best to appear as an seemingly unimportant background character when Harry Potter was in the limelight!
He would strike with the most focused purpose, the cleanest and most efficient means, and the fastest speed. Once successful, he would immediately leave Hogwarts, go into hiding in another part of the world, and only emerge after Voldemort was dead in a few years.
So, the optimal time to strike was actually the final stage of this school year!
By then, his one-year teaching term would be over, and Dumbledore would have no reason to keep him. He would have done everything he should as a professor and could leave without any burden.
His eyes flickered as he began to plot his next move.
...
The next morning, Lockhart was awakened by a series of crisp singing voices.
Groggily opening his eyes from the tree trunk, he could see a diligent figure cleaning and tidying the office.
More than a dozen fanged maws had split open on that figure, all humming a song.
One person sang with the presence of a whole choir.
"Oh, you're awake!" The Vengeful Fairy floated closer, the fanged maws on her body completely closed, making her look like an ordinary witch ghost.
Lockhart grinned, revealing a dazzling smile. "Good morning."
He stretched and rolled off the tree trunk, then stared in surprise at a cauldron boiling in the middle of the office.
"I made you breakfast. I don't know if you'll like it," the Vengeful Fairy said somewhat shyly.
Lockhart looked strangely at the cauldron. Blood was boiling and churning inside, visibly mixed with some thumb-sized snakes, crab-sized spiders, and blue-black scorpions.
Regardless of the Vengeful Fairy's image and legend, this thing was a black magical creature, and it was difficult for it to truly understand human preferences.
But it had to be said, Lockhart sniffed, vaguely smelling an enticing aroma.
"Looks good!"
He gave a thumbs-up.
"Hehe~" The Vengeful Fairy's translucent body changed from pale white to pink.
Dealing with black magical creatures was a very complex matter, and Lockhart was willing to try everything.
He looked around and broke off two slender branches from a tree to use as chopsticks. He picked up a spider leg, only to find that its shell had been cooked until crispy and cracked easily, revealing the Q-弹 flesh inside, with a fragrant smell wafting over.
In fact, lobsters from the sea and spiders and scorpions from the land were all arthropods. As long as one discarded subjective prejudice, there wasn't much difference for humans.
Well, the texture was still a bit different.
It was a very special breakfast.
Little Goldie was also invited by the Vengeful Fairy to eat some. As the saying goes, "eat someone's food, be soft on them." After the hearty meal, Little Goldie' attitude towards the Vengeful Fairy visibly improved a lot.
The early bird catches the worm, and the well-fed Lockhart habitually went to the library again.
He hoped to find a possible solution to the memories in his brain from other books.
He refused to believe that in the vast wizarding world's long history, only Voldemort could provide him with a solution.
But Hogwarts' collection of books was truly too vast.
Lockhart hesitated for a long while, finally taking out the bottle of Felix Felicis that was one-third full.
He had used it twice before, once for a magical experiment and once for the adventure at Urquhart Castle. Now there was only one dose left.
Could Felix Felicis really bring good luck?
He had actually begun to have some doubts.
But he had no other better choice. Having made the decision, he no longer hesitated, opened the lid, and poured it into his mouth.
Just after drinking it and was about to put away the bottle, he saw a pair of huge eyes staring straight at him from behind a long table by the window.
It was a witch who looked somewhat eccentric, thin as a rake, wearing a pair of bottle-bottom glasses, and a colorful array of chains and beads around her neck.
Sybill Trelawney, the Divination professor.
Seeing Lockhart look over, she grinned somewhat nervously, then buried herself in her books again, somewhat慌慌張張地 reaching for an oversized coffee cup on the table and taking a big gulp.
Perhaps choked, she coughed violently, and a strong smell of alcohol wafted over.
Clearly, the so-called coffee cup contained alcohol.
Lockhart thought for a moment and took out a tissue from his pocket to hand it over.
"Oh, thank you~" Professor Trelawney didn't wipe her mouth but quickly used the tissue to wipe the books, looking around guiltily. "Don't let Madam Pince know I brought wine in! Otherwise, she'll kill me!"
Lockhart shrugged. Before he could say anything, Professor Trelawney looked up and stared intently at him. "You shouldn't have drunk Felix Felicis!"
"!!!" Lockhart blinked, looking down at the empty potion bottle, wanting to retort, "You just watched me drink it all, and now you're telling me not to?"
"The Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching position is cursed by the Dark Lord!" Her tone was urgent and sharp. "If you are too greedy for luck, you will only lose your life!"
Lockhart was silent for a while, then sighed. "I have no choice. There are too many books here..."
Professor Trelawney's sudden large movement interrupted his words.
He saw her prop herself up with her hands like chopsticks, tilting her head and staring straight at him, her voice strangely like a sleep-talking mumble.
"You cannot escape!"
"This is the price you must pay for all your greed!"
"Do you want to break free from the fate of ultimately sinking into the mire?"
"Do you want to become an important character in Potter's 'The Birth of an Epic Hero' fairy tale chapter?"
"Do you want to continue walking the path of magic?"
"The Dark Lord's curse has already begun to take effect!"
"It's targeting you!"
"You will die! You will die!!!"
The standard smile that habitually hung on Lockhart's face disappeared. He pursed his lips and looked at her, his eyes flickering. "Then what can I do?"
Professor Trelawney's cheeks twitched, making her look even more bizarre. She just muttered, "Stay away from magic! Return to where you belong!"
Become a Muggle again?
Then I would rather choose death!
Lockhart shook his head extremely firmly, wanting to hear what else she had to say, but saw her slump back into her seat with a thud, sprawled out in the chair, and even started snoring.
No one could ignore Professor Trelawney's prophecies.
At least, a transmigrator wouldn't.
She had successfully predicted the deaths of Voldemort and Dumbledore, predicted Voldemort's resurrection, and predicted too many things.
"Thank you for your reminder."
Lockhart silently looked at her sleeping face and smiled brightly. "But everyone dies, don't they?"
"I accept this challenge!"
Cool!
He gave himself a silent thumbs-up.
Lockhart hummed a song and continued walking towards the depths of the bookshelves.
Whether this dose of Felix Felicis would bring him bad luck or not, he had already drunk it, so he couldn't waste it.
He quickly had a reward.
As he walked, Lockhart once again had a feeling of serendipity, stopped, and stared straight at a large, damp, seemingly moldy book on the shelf.
The book's title was Most Potent Potions.
He didn't reach for the book immediately, his brow slightly furrowed.
Potions direction?
After a long silence, he finally grabbed the book and pulled it out.
This book looked as if it had been fished out of water. Opening it, he saw that all the pages inside were water-stained.
Flipping through it casually, he saw it was full of illustrations that made him very uncomfortable: a person seemed to have been turned inside out, several people with extremely painful expressions were turning into other people, people melting like candles that had been burning for a long time...
All of them were potions whose use was explicitly prohibited by the Ministry of Magic, evil and terrifying.
In fact, Lockhart's memory contained a lot about this book. It was a book that circulated widely among the common people, and many dark wizards even regarded it as the "Potions Bible," although what they often obtained was incomplete.
Oh, right, in the original story, Hermione brewed Polyjuice Potion according to a recipe in this book.
Polyjuice Potion, also known as "Transformation Potion," could allow a person to disguise themselves as someone else.
In the original story, Barty Crouch Jr. used it to become Mad-Eye Moody. The powerful disguise was so effective that even powerful wizards like Dumbledore and powerful Potions Masters like Snape couldn't identify it.
Lockhart quickly found the content he needed.
It had a very interesting name—"Mischievous Brain Elixir."
The illustration showed a witch's head with many arms sprouting out.
Lockhart didn't look at it much. He went to Madam Pince to get a borrowing slip and took it back to his office.
Professor Trelawney's prophecies always gave people a bad feeling.
Choosing to embrace life's challenges didn't mean being reckless.
Being cautious was the normal choice.
On the way back, the shadows in the castle seemed to suggest danger everywhere. At this time, only being beside the two powerful dark magical creatures could give him a sense of security.
But this seemed to be scaring himself. Nothing happened until he pushed open the office door.
But at this moment, he keenly noticed a shadow outside the window rapidly enlarging.
Boom!
A huge crashing sound reverberated throughout the office.
It was a huge golden Quidditch goalpost, fully 15 meters long, that had pierced through the office window like a javelin, shattered the oak tree trunk, and embedded itself directly into the office wall with tremendous force.
Lockhart could clearly see a section of a broken pipe faintly revealed in the shattered wall.
That was...
The castle's drainage pipes where the Basilisk usually crawled. In the original story, Harry Potter first heard the Basilisk's Parseltongue in Lockhart's office.
This crack, hissing with a cold aura, looked like the devil's evil smile.
He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he seemed to see the light and shadow of some snake scales quickly flashing in the pipe.
"There's a monster!"
"There's a monster~~!"
The Boggart in the peach tree hollow by the fireplace screamed in terror, "So scary~~~"
It's here!
The curse really came!
Standing at the door, Lockhart's body trembled slightly. He didn't know why, really, he was so excited that he was shaking.
He inexplicably felt a very unique exhilaration.
A voice seemed to be shouting in his heart, louder than the dozen chaotic voices in his mind, loudly shouting—"Lockhart! Your fairy-tale magical life is here! Welcome it! Embark on the journey!"
"Oh~~~"
Lockhart groaned somewhat nervously, reaching out his hands in a welcoming gesture, his eyes dazed. "Come on, I'm looking forward to it!"
I've already experienced a boring and ordinary life.
I've already experienced death.
I only crave intensity!