Chapter 23: Come with excitement, leave with satisfaction
A wonderful and exciting little Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson ended with each of the young wizards, Harry and his friends, receiving a chocolate as a reward.
"This is the best way to calm negative emotions. Have some chocolate, and if you need more, just ask me."
Professor Lockhart always had that charismatic air about him. "The Honeydukes Sweetshop specially makes these Lockhart signature chocolates for me. If you observe carefully, you can see my signature on the back of the chocolate."
Hermione, who was about to unwrap hers and eat it, hurriedly smoothed out the creases in the wrapper and carefully tucked it into her wizard robe pocket when no one was looking.
A signed chocolate from her idol! This was simply too wonderful.
She had directly eaten the one the professor gave her before. That was so wrong of her!
She cared about these things so much. The signed copy of Magical Me that Professor Lockhart had given her at the start-of-term feast was placed under her pillow, accompanying her to sleep every night. (Original book content)
Harry and Ron exchanged a strange look.
Signed chocolate?
If it were in the past, they might have frantically complained about such a flamboyant act, but for some reason, they now all felt that—perhaps Professor Lockhart deserved it.
In any case, the lesson finally ended.
Professor McGonagall had too many things to attend to and left first, and the young wizards also began to head out.
Lockhart specifically called Draco to stop, causing Harry and the other two to deliberately walk slowly, wanting to hear what was being said.
"For the next class, you can bring Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle along to attend."
Draco was taken aback, a somewhat disgusted expression on his face. "Crabbe and Goyle? Attend your class?"
Lockhart smiled and nodded. "Their simple minds don't mean they have no potential on the magical path. On the contrary, I think such people are more wizardly, more magical, and they have great potential."
Draco looked thoughtful, hesitated for a moment, and then asked somewhat embarrassedly, "Professor, can I bring Pansy Parkinson along too?"
Pansy was his girlfriend, a childhood sweetheart, a perfect match in terms of family background, and approved by their parents.
Lockhart laughed heartily, making the proud young Master Malfoy's face turn red with embarrassment.
"Of course."
Lockhart smiled and patted his shoulder.
Teaching without discrimination, expanding his influence, why not?
It was just that with one more person, it would be difficult to form pairs for practice. He simply called out to the three little ones who were walking slowly with their ears perked up, "Hermione, you can recommend a student to come to the next class."
Hermione had wanted to say that she didn't have anyone to recommend. Her popularity wasn't great, and her only friends were Harry and Ron.
As a result, Ron quietly pushed her from behind, and Harry whispered a call. She quickly nodded. "Okay."
Harry and Ron didn't want the number of their "own people" to be less than Draco's group!
Lockhart was very gratified.
It seemed that this "Duelling Club" was going to expand.
His original plan during his tenure at Hogwarts was to make more connections.
Valuable contacts weren't just the professors.
Of course, countless historical experiences told him that simply being a smooth talker couldn't truly build one's influence. One had to be strong oneself.
So, in the entire week that followed, Lockhart, in addition to the "daily classes," "Duelling Club," and "N.E.W.T. advancement class," was almost entirely focused on practicing the three spells he had mastered.
The Memory Charm from the original Lockhart.
And the Healing Charm and Summoning Charm from the "Forest Witch."
The results were good!
As his casting feel and mental state became more and more proficient and harmonious, he could feel a very unique and close connection forming between the wand and himself.
This represented that the characteristics of the wand were beginning to shift from the original properties constructed by the raw materials "apple wood" and "unicorn hair," gradually aligning with his own body and soul, starting to become his own.
Such improvement made the magic he cast increasingly skillful.
The Healing Charm, "Flower Healing," with his day and night practice and constantly drawing on the "Forest Witch's" experience in using this magic, could now treat larger external wounds and internal injuries that were not too severe.
The Summoning Charm, "Gray Wolves in Packs," although it could still only summon one gray wolf, no longer only lasted for less than three seconds at the beginning. It could now help by carrying trash to the corner and throwing it into the trash can.
The only problem was...
The use of these two spells had to be in a forest, or at least rely on vigorously growing trees.
This was also the reason why the Forest Witch instinctively cast spells to transform the surrounding environment when facing unfamiliar surroundings.
The power was good.
But there were limitations.
Lockhart was already very satisfied, and every time he had free time, he would happily release the magic again and again in his office.
This wasn't diligence, but an addiction, just like being addicted to a game. He couldn't help but release magic, and every time he was amazed and delighted by it.
The little golden retriever also liked the gray wolf summoned by Lockhart, always wanting to jump on its head and be carried around.
So Lockhart simply turned summoning the gray wolf and flowers into a little game for himself and his pet, and the two of them often laughed heartily while playing.
Magic could bring joy.
This was the greatest significance of magic to Lockhart.
Transmigrating to this magical world and facing the life ahead, arriving with pleasure and leaving with satisfaction was the greatest fulfillment.
In fact, it wasn't just these two spells of the Forest Witch. The original self's top-notch Memory Charm was also very fun.
Lockhart discovered something particularly interesting and magical!
That was that for the same memory, what he saw in his own mind was often the five sensory impressions of the memory's owner.
But if he put it in the Pensieve, he could actually detach from the memory owner's vision! (Original setting)
It was like the memory of the old wizard he extracted first for the experiment. At that time, the old wizard was sleeping, but the memory contained the scene of the original Lockhart stealing his memory!
The Pensieve was simply a magical creation, able to so easily enter the time period of the memory from within the memory!
Of course, it couldn't extend infinitely.
Lockhart tried wandering in the extracted memory and found that the furthest he could go was not being able to leave the current scene—for example, in the memory of the old wizard falling asleep, he could walk down the street and listen to the drunken ramblings of the people by the roadside, but he couldn't enter other people's homes, nor could he leave that remote small town in Spain.
But this was already interesting enough!
Exploring in other people's memories was undoubtedly also a very unique fairy-tale adventure.
Happy times always passed quickly.
A few days later, Professor McGonagall received another reply from her nephew and niece, young Urquart, confirming that the black magical creature in the castle was indeed a "Wailing Widow."
But knowing was one thing; finding a wizard who knew how to deal with this kind of black magical creature in this day and age was really not easy.
So Professor McGonagall approached Lockhart again, hoping to get his help.
Young Urquart was very sincere. In the letter, he earnestly stated that if Professor Lockhart could do this favor, he would gain the friendship of the Urquart family.
This would undoubtedly be of great benefit for future development.
The influence of the Urquart family spread throughout the European wizarding world, and there would always be times when it was needed.
There were also more practical promises. He promised Lockhart that he could choose any one magical artifact or valuable magical book from their family's collection as a reward.
These treasures and books were not something that could be found on the market.
This was simply too good a deal to pass up.