Chapter 25: Let's go, keep up!
On Saturday morning, Harry followed the professors on their outing under Hermione's envious gaze.
During breakfast in the Great Hall that morning, Professor Lockhart had approached Harry and Draco to ask for their opinions. If either of them was unwilling, he planned to choose someone else.
Hermione wished Draco was a coward so that she could go with her idol.
Unfortunately, Draco looked very proud and didn't even consider retreating as an option.
And so it was.
Professor Lockhart, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, Harry, and Draco quickly arrived at a small cottage in the vineyard near Urquart Castle via the fireplace.
Young Urquart was a tall, thin middle-aged wizard wearing an Auror-style tactical trench coat. He had a politician's characteristic air of authority and was said to be the liaison director of the "Auror Liaison Office of Various Ministries of Magic" in the International Confederation of Wizards.
He visibly froze for a moment when he saw Professor Snape, the smile on his face slightly stiffening as he quietly glanced at his aunt, Professor McGonagall.
Lockhart didn't need to guess what had happened in the past to elicit this reaction.
The great war led by the Dark Lord Voldemort more than a decade ago was for the glory of pure-blood families. Even if old pure-blood families like the Urquarts hadn't openly taken sides, they likely provided support in secret.
This wasn't about right or wrong, only about interests.
Even the powerful Dumbledore couldn't force the upper class to willingly accept a drop in status, letting the family advantages accumulated by generations, even dozens of generations, become nothing.
As Voldemort's most promising follower, Professor Snape, the only Death Eater who received magical instruction from Voldemort, must have had contact with pure-blood families like the Urquarts in the past.
The past was like the wind. Voldemort had fallen, and the Urquart family would naturally not support a loser. Some things didn't need to be dwelled upon too much.
At least Professor McGonagall, a veteran member of the Order of the Phoenix, didn't dwell on it.
Everyone greeted each other politely. Young Urquart clearly had great respect for his "Aunt Minerva" and led everyone to the castle along with two powerful wizards from his family.
Leaving the vineyard, an ancient castle came into view not far away. Even without getting closer, a strange and terrifying sense of tension began to grow and spread in everyone's hearts.
Dark, gloomy, sorrowful.
The biggest difference between the disasters brought by black magical creatures and magical animals was this visible negativity, always evoking very negative emotions.
This made everyone involuntarily slow down their pace.
Even in the bright summer morning, it still gave people the illusion of walking into a dark, damp, cold, and evil cave.
Lockhart held a pot of lush green sapling in one hand and his wand in the other. He didn't slow down his pace and had already distanced himself from the others after a few steps.
Fear is born from the unknown.
After the black magical creature "'Vengeful Fairy" in this castle killed a house-elf, it would make people even more hesitant to approach.
But he understood.
He understood too well.
Arriving at the castle gate, he didn't rush in but squatted down in the corner, observing the cracks between the castle walls and the soil.
"Professor Lockhart, is there a problem?"
Young Urquart exchanged a confused look with Professor McGonagall. Not getting an answer, he stepped forward somewhat nervously to ask.
"Look at the flowers in this corner."
The flowers were smaller than a little fingernail and looked like very common weeds.
Young Urquart blinked, unsure what this represented.
But then he saw Professor Lockhart beckoning the two young wizards forward and instructing them, "In the ancient wizarding culture of worshipping nature, the reversal of life and death is often related to the earth. We often simultaneously feel the sorrow of decay and the joy of vitality within the earth's embrace."
"So, when we encounter black magical creatures related to the realm of life and death, the first step is often to observe the state of the earth in the environment where the black magical creature is located. It's very easy to distinguish the state of this monster."
Speaking of this, Lockhart's expression was a bit strange.
Because such a vigorous growth of weeds had quietly increased in many stone crevices and step cracks in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry castle, only to be cleaned up daily by the diligent castle house-elves.
Observing from this perspective, it was actually easy to deduce that the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets had likely already begun to move in the castle pipes.
Of course, ordinary people didn't understand this kind of knowledge.
Especially after the Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching position was cursed by Voldemort, many masters who had achieved success in this field kept their distance from here, causing Hogwarts to lack knowledge in this area.
In the original story, neither Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, nor the other professors actually had any ability to deal with the problems caused by the basilisk, so much so that Dumbledore could only watch as the Ministry of Magic arrested Hagrid as a scapegoat, and then the school governors even found an opportunity to directly dismiss Dumbledore from his position as headmaster.
So you see.
In the year when a half-baked black magical creature like the basilisk appeared, how lucky Hogwarts was to welcome an expert in black magical creatures like Lockhart.
Hmm.
Of course, not the Lockhart in the original story who, even if he understood, didn't know how to apply his knowledge and lacked any sense of responsibility.
"Look at this again."
Lockhart reached into the wall crack and fiddled for a while, pulling out a section of the roots of the weeds and handing it to Professor Snape, who had leaned over.
"Such weeds..." Snape hadn't finished speaking when his gaze suddenly sharpened. He took the root, forcefully squeezed out the juice, rubbed it, felt its texture, and then brought it to his nose to smell it. "Has it already reached the selection threshold for potion ingredients?"
Lockhart smiled and nodded. "In wizarding fairy tales, evil witches use the juice of a certain grass stem to make the queen beautiful, thereby controlling her to do bad things for them. It's actually this kind of vigorous grass stem."
"The essence of black magical creatures is a phenomenon. Phenomena change the environment, and the environment gives birth to plants. This is actually a field that academic Herbology and Potions have not yet seriously explored."
He patted the soil on his hands and stood up. "Fortunately, based on the observation of this grass stem, we can see that the 'Wailing Widow' in the castle is not in an enraged state. Perhaps we can try to communicate with it."
Picking up the pot of sapling, he waved his wand, and mist surged, a faint gray wolf phantom trotting out from the mist.
The gray wolf wagged its tail at him, then turned and ran towards the inside of the castle.
"Let's go, keep up!"
Lockhart called out to everyone, leading the way into the castle.
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