Chapter 4: The Mandrake's Deadly Shriek
Lockhart didn't find Hagrid. He had probably already left for Hogsmeade Station, located at the border between Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Hogsmeade village, to await the arrival of the young witches and wizards.
Leaving Hagrid's gamekeeper's hut, Lockhart instead encountered the Herbology master, Professor Pomona Sprout.
Professor Sprout was in a rocky area by the Black Lake, moving some magical plants that had just finished sunbathing into the greenhouses. These plants looked like plump little babies, covered in roots that dangled into the soil pots.
Lockhart hurried forward to help.
"Oh, thank you so much," Professor Sprout had more white hair than Lockhart remembered, looking much older.
"You're welcome. As the student you gave the most house points to back in the day, I think I should do even better," Lockhart smiled brightly.
Professor Sprout paused, unsure if such a thing had actually happened.
However, Lockhart had indeed been quite flamboyant as a student. To earn House points and stand out, it was said that he had memorized all the textbooks and eagerly raised his hand in class to answer questions, receiving reward points from many professors.
Memorizing textbooks was certainly a good thing, and the professors were not stingy with awarding house points. Unfortunately, Lockhart hadn't persisted after his initial show of brilliance.
Professor Sprout looked at Lockhart with some emotion, appearing very kind, "Yes, you were a very bright child back then. But now you've grown into an adult and come to Hogwarts as a professor. I hope you can always maintain that excellence."
Oh~
Lockhart was a little touched.
Really.
Ever since he arrived at the school, even with his constant efforts to smile and be welcoming, he hadn't received a single bit of proactive kindness.
"Professor Sprout..." Lockhart's smile was no longer so dazzling as he said softly, "Thank you."
After that, Lockhart didn't mention the profit-driven professor's book publishing plan, but silently helped Professor Sprout tidy up the greenhouses and prepare teaching materials for the upcoming new semester.
The most special thing in here was the plump baby plant that had just been sunbathing.
Back in the greenhouse, these babies seemed to have lost their moisture and began to wither, looking old and monstrous.
This thing was called a Mandrake, an important component of many antidotes, and could also be used as a powerful restorative.
In the wizarding world, this plant was extremely expensive and rare.
What could be seen on the market was often wild.
Only Professor Sprout was so skilled as to cultivate this precious and dangerous plant in large quantities.
Its adult plant emitted a cry like a baby's wail, which could lead to death upon hearing it.
Even young plants were very dangerous, easily causing at least several hours of unconsciousness.
This was just for a single plant.
There were more than a hundred plants in front of him, and the overlapping sound of them all crying together would be absolutely terrifying.
"We have to quickly bury them back in the soil before they wake up. Just to be safe, we should put on earmuffs first. Hmm, where are the earmuffs?"
Professor Sprout stood up, looking at the somewhat messy greenhouse. She recalled something and patted her head in realization, "Oh dear, my memory! I need to go get them. Wait for me here."
She took a few steps and then stopped, "Or if you have other things to do, you can leave first. I can handle this myself."
Lockhart simply smiled and shook his head, "No, it's alright. I'll wait for you."
"Thank you so much, Lockhart. You're a good child," Professor Sprout said with emotion, quickly leaving.
After she left, Lockhart obediently didn't move around in the greenhouse.
In fact, he didn't dare to move around.
Professor Sprout's greenhouse was definitely not safer than the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts. It contained all sorts of plants whose live specimens or seed trade were prohibited by the Ministry of Magic, many of which were extremely dangerous.
For example, in the corner, there was a huge, sprawling vine plant called Devil's Snare. Its venomous vine tentacles would grab any passing living creature, inject lethal toxins, and then drag it to the main stem to tear apart the prey's corpse with its sharp teeth.
Lockhart had no desire to test how terrifying this thing was.
Even though his memory clearly told him that a single leaf of this plant sold for as much as 10 Galleons.
When reading web novels in his previous life, many people jokingly called Hagrid the wealthiest invisible tycoon at Hogwarts, but in reality, every professor had the ability to easily earn more money than an average wizard could accumulate in a lifetime.
He just quietly squatted in front of more than a hundred Mandrake seedlings, suddenly feeling a strange illusion that his hurried life after transmigrating had suddenly calmed down.
Gazing at the dust motes dancing in the afternoon sunlight streaming through the unrepaired gap in the greenhouse roof, his thoughts seemed to fly along with them.
He was actually quite grateful for this transmigration.
This wasn't because of how much fame and wealth the original Lockhart had accumulated, but because he was grateful to finally feel the vibrancy of life again.
He didn't want to revisit and savor the details of his previous life, but in the last five years of his life, lying motionless in a hospital bed every day, anyone who had experienced that would cherish vibrant life as much as he did.
It was just...
Too vibrant.
He frowned slightly, feeling the memories in his mind constantly churning and boiling, as if with the sorting and piecing together of these memories, the emotions and feelings contained within were also being pieced together, about to reconstruct a personality.
And there were more than a dozen of them.
How to solve this?
Lockhart thought of Dumbledore's Pensieve. It was said that this object could extract memories from one's head and store them inside. Perhaps this was a solution.
Of course, he didn't expect to borrow Dumbledore's Pensieve. He would have to ask around through the connections he had cultivated to see where he could find such a magical artifact. This thing wasn't particularly rare.
The only problem was that he was now extremely dependent on these memories, and taking them out would also increase the risk of exposing the original body's secrets.
Take it slow.
Don't rush.
He told himself this.
Those memories couldn't construct a real soul; they were just some overly vivid memories, at most affecting his ability to cast magic, and that was all.
Professor Sprout was gone for a slightly long time.
Lockhart could see the beam of light shining through the gap in the roof slowly shifting.
Then...
It shone on the roots of several Mandrake seedlings.
This light was like a switch, directly waking up the roots of these withered-looking baby plants. They flailed their root-like arms and legs, and cried out loudly.
"Aaaaaah..."
Hiss~
Lockhart only had time to gasp before his head started buzzing.
Then he saw that the cries of these few Mandrakes seemed to have awakened all the Mandrakes. More than a hundred plants simultaneously let out crying screams.
"Aaaaaah..."
Lockhart knelt on the ground, clutching his head in pain, feeling a terrible tearing sensation scratching at his mind, and it was the overlapping pain of more than a hundred tears.
He felt as if his soul was about to be torn apart.
Fortunately, he didn't faint.
Unfortunately, the chaotic memories in his head were almost stirred into a mess by these cries, and countless voices from his memories echoed and intertwined wildly in his mind.
Think of a way!
Think of a way quickly!
Lockhart quickly thought of a way.
Yes, the wisdom in his memories was so vast that even methods for dealing with Mandrakes were included.
Especially these seedlings that looked like little babies.
As everyone knew, when little babies cried non-stop, there were probably only two possibilities—they had soiled their diapers, or they were hungry.
The "little babies" in front of him had clearly not soiled themselves.
So they must be hungry.
Therefore, the wisdom brought by a powerful witch who often lived in the jungle was—feed the little Mandrake seedlings something to eat, preferably nutritious food.
The most rustic and down-to-earth method was—to sprinkle some urine into the crying mouths of the Mandrake seedlings.
The professional term for this was fertilization.
See, it was so simple, but Lockhart dared to guarantee that most wizards wouldn't know this secret.
He struggled to get up, enduring the pain in his head, and tremblingly unbuckled his belt.
...
"Merlin's beard!"
Professor Sprout, who had been pulled aside by Professor Snape to complain about how annoying Lockhart was, looked surprised and turned her head towards the greenhouse not far away. The screams of Mandrakes could be heard faintly from there.
"It's all my fault. I shouldn't have lingered to talk to you so much..."
She quickly drew her wand and ran towards the stairs, "That child Lockhart is still inside the greenhouse!"
Professor Snape frowned slightly, hesitated for a moment, and then drew his wand and followed.
His speed was much faster than the increasingly elderly Professor Sprout—he knew the Flying Charm.
The Dark Lord had taught it to him; only the two of them in the entire wizarding world knew it.
He jumped directly from the castle corridor, flew to the ground, and then rushed towards the greenhouse.
However, a magical scene unfolded.
The countless wailing screams disappeared one after another rapidly. Before they even reached the outside of the greenhouse, the sounds had completely vanished.
Had Lockhart killed all of Professor Sprout's precious Mandrakes?—Professor Snape speculated with no small amount of malice.
He stopped, waiting for Professor Sprout to catch up, and then together they walked inside with expressions of surprise and suspicion.
Professor Sprout cared about the Mandrakes, but she cared even more about Lockhart's safety, not thinking as much as Snape did.
She rushed into the greenhouse, holding her wand high, quickly observing the situation, wanting to accurately locate Lockhart so she could quickly begin treatment.
But she saw Lockhart spraying the Mandrake seedlings with the dragon dung nutrient solution she had prepared.
"You..."
"Are you alright?"
Lockhart turned his head, looked at them, grinned, and flashed his standard perfect charming smile, "Of course. This is nothing I can't handle."
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