Chapter 20: You are such a responsible professor!
The wand flourished.
"Deep forest, gray wolves in packs!"
Mist billowed in the small forest, transforming into a gray, smoky figure of a wolf, semi-transparent, the size of an ordinary adult wild wolf, and not very fast.
The gray wolf trotted a few steps through the trees, then collapsed back into a cloud of smoke, dissipating into the woods.
This was one of the two spells Lockhart could barely cast after digesting that memory, and like the flower healing spell, it was somewhat useless.
But he was extremely satisfied.
Going from not being able to cast spells to being able to cast spells was a qualitative leap.
A contented person is always happy, and his face was full of smiles. Completely different from his usual deliberately maintained perfect smile, this seemed to radiate from the bottom of his heart, full of infectiousness.
...
The gentle evening breeze blew into the office, causing the gauze curtains to sway and lightly tap the vine branches that climbed along the windowsill like giant pythons.
Several birds fluttered their wings and flew in, curiously looking at this novel place, searching for a nesting spot in this unique "small forest."
Lockhart leaned against a tree trunk, turning his head to look out the window.
He saw the evening glow painting the sky red, and the faint cheers of the young wizards at the Quidditch pitch drifted from afar.
He rested his head on his hands, his whole body somewhat relaxed. The little Goldie curled up on his stomach, hugging its eyeball toy and dozing off, its furry little head bobbing up and down with the rise and fall of his belly.
Lockhart enjoyed this rare quiet time.
It felt as if everything had slowed down, and his usually noisy and chaotic brain had a rare moment of peace.
This was rare.
The memories that had been drawn out of his brain and then put back seemed to be finding their positions again, repelling and attracting each other to build a complex balance.
The original Lockhart had been too casual with the memories in his brain, like a Niffler finding good things and stuffing them into his head, without caring if he could handle them.
In the wizarding world, memory was always one of the most profound areas, involving ethereal directions such as time, soul, and destiny. Very few wizards researched this area.
The only ones who specifically explored this direction were probably the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries of the various Ministries of Magic who were in charge of the Brain Room. It was even possible that not every Ministry of Magic had an Unspeakable in this field.
Lockhart considered himself to have extensive connections, but he couldn't possibly reach these top-secret figures in the Ministry of Magic, let alone get top-secret information from them.
Oh~
If his memory served him correctly...
It seemed that Harry had once gone to the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic to cause trouble in the original story. As his professor, out of concern for this "Savior" student, if he followed him there, no one should hold him responsible, right?
This might be the only opportunity for him to reasonably enter such a heavily guarded institution!
Lockhart's eyes lit up.
Of course, this was still quite far off, waiting until Harry's fifth year. Looking at it this way, even if he finished his term at Hogwarts and left the school a year later, he shouldn't lose contact with Harry.
"Haa~~~rry~~~ Potter!"
A shout suddenly came from outside the door, followed by several other voices mixing in, breaking the silence of the office.
Lockhart looked at the door in astonishment, suddenly realizing that he had asked Draco Malfoy and the trio to come for training earlier for insurance.
These two groups together obviously couldn't have a peaceful state. Ron's father and Draco's father often had friendly brawls, let alone Harry and Hermione, who both disliked Draco so much.
Maybe...
He should also pull Draco's two little buddies, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, these pure-blood young master followers, into this "tutoring class."
Balance, Lockhart felt the conflicting yet balancing memories in his mind, he was too experienced in this.
The noise outside the door grew louder and louder.
Young Master Malfoy didn't care that the other side had three people. His extreme foul mouth brought extreme enjoyment, frantically humiliating Ron, who had spoken ill of Professor Lockhart behind his back, for starting to curry favor after being gifted a wand. His proud voice sounded full of fighting spirit.
But he quickly paid the price.
Someone else came.
As the young wizards respectfully called out "Professor McGonagall" in unison, young Master Malfoy, who had spoken too harshly, inevitably received a scolding.
Knock, knock, knock~
The door was knocked.
"Excuse me, Professor Lockhart, am I disturbing you at this time?" Professor McGonagall said politely outside the door.
"No, no, please wait a moment."
While listening to Malfoy and the others arguing, Lockhart had already gotten up and was quickly tidying up the Pensieve that had been stained with memory traces. This thing couldn't be seen by others!
Stuffing such a large magical item into a palm-sized small cloth bag really required a bit of skill. For some reason, the original self had never used such an Imperturbable Extension Charm item, so he was inexperienced and a bit flustered.
And the Felix Felicis and some other things also needed to be properly put away.
Their voices came from outside the door.
"I really hope this interruption doesn't affect Professor Lockhart's experiment..." This was Professor McGonagall's voice.
"Professor Lockhart asked us to come for a lesson at this time, it shouldn't." This was the lively discussion of several young wizards.
Lockhart finally dealt with the things he didn't want others to see and was about to open the door when he noticed that he wasn't wearing his shoes. He hurriedly grabbed his shoes, sat down on the tree trunk, and put them on.
The little Goldie sensed his emotions beside him and surprisingly began to understand and cooperate with its master's life.
Well, but not that understanding.
It skillfully restrained its own magical influence, which was good, but it didn't help open the door. Instead, it raised its little paw and pointed to the corner of the wall, where the peach tree that had grown crookedly from the fireplace was, and called out, "Goo-jee!"
The tree hole was quiet, as if nothing was inside.
"Goo-jee~~?"
Suddenly, a flurry of panicked information boiled up in the tree hole. A cloud of black smoke surged out in a "rolling and crawling" manner, quickly transforming into a human figure wearing tattered wizard robes on the ground.
This was a Boggart, and one that had experience in wizarding family homes. When it didn't sense any fear, it would instinctively take this form.
As soon as it appeared, it subconsciously fixed its eyes on the wizard in the office.
"Goo-jee!!!" The little Goldie's voice was already somewhat angry.
The Boggart trembled in fright, shrank its body, and stared blankly at the little Goldie.
The little Goldie stood on the tree trunk with its hands on its hips, its third little paw forcefully pointing at the office door.
"..."
The Boggart felt humiliated!
The Boggart was truly humiliated!
The little Goldie jumped down from the tree and scurried along the Boggart's tattered wizard robes to its head, slapping it once.
The Boggart finally obeyed.
It walked towards the door, limping with the little Goldie on its head, the walking posture it used to scare the owners of the houses it haunted. But this slow pace brought another hard slap.
So it had to move as nimbly as a lively young person, quickly reaching the door and opening it.
"Professor Lockhart, I hope we haven't disturbed your experiment... Oh! Merlin's beard!" Professor McGonagall's exclamation came.
The one who opened the door was a sinister figure resembling an evil dark wizard, with a large hood so dark that nothing could be seen inside.
Fortunately, after a moment of shock, the experienced professor immediately realized that it was a Boggart.
A Boggart was nothing, but the dark magic creature on the Boggart's head was terrifying.
She subconsciously stood in front of the young wizards, about to say something, when she saw a large hand push the Boggart aside, and Lockhart, with a brilliant smile, fully opened the door. "Sorry, please come in, please come in."
Behind him, the curious children only had time to see a puff of black smoke rush into the tree hole beside the fireplace, and a golden light disappear into the leaves along the trunk of another large tree.
Huh?
Large tree?
"Merlin's beard!" Professor McGonagall was stunned looking at the office that had turned into a small forest. "Professor Lockhart, this..."
Lockhart laughed heartily and invited them in, speaking off the cuff, "This is specially arranged for more realistic simulation of the fairy tale romantic practice we'll be doing next. You know, we professors always have to practice ourselves first to familiarize ourselves with all the steps and details to ensure that nothing unexpected happens."
"Forest adventures, the most familiar fairy tale scenes, you understand."
In fact, he simply didn't have the ability to turn this small forest created by the Forest Witch back to its original state.
"You are truly a responsible professor!" Professor McGonagall looked at the forest, imagining Professor Lockhart still diligently practicing his upcoming lessons when everyone else was resting on the weekend. She couldn't help but feel full of emotion, and her gaze towards Professor Lockhart became even more approving.
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