allendalepharm Chapter 279 Dumbledore's Deluminator
Chapter 279 Dumbledore's Deluminator
Chapter 279 Dumbledore's Deluminator
After Lockhart returned to school, he went straight to the mushroom house in the Forbidden Forest, passing by the stone houses built by the young wizards along the way.
Voldemort is imprisoned in the stone house.
But that's not the point. Lockhart wasn't interested in Voldemort. The point was that Dumbledore was standing silently in front of the stone house, lost in thought.
Lockhart could sense a kind of loneliness emanating from Old Deng.
A soaring, vibrant, and energetic loneliness.
This is a very interesting situation. Lockhart, who has been studying the "wizard fairy tale life" to the "social" realm, has begun to understand that the positive or negative emotions in the eyes of Muggles cannot be simply reduced to positive or negative in terms of magic.
Many wizards don't understand this concept.
People always say that dark wizards must have great malice to cast dark magic, but in reality, wizards need to have that kind of malice in any battle, no matter what.
Malice can be positive or negative, or rather, there is a difference between lifeless malice and vibrant malice.
This realization allowed Lockhart to see the world anew, and everything changed.
Take Dumbledore, for example, right here in front of us.
He shouldn't be lonely; he has so many people around him who understand him, whether it's his best friend Professor McGonagall at school, his admirers within the student body, or his many friends and people outside of school who trust him.
Dumbledore has always been a gentle person, willing to tolerate different opinions and give others more opportunities.
He was a warm, kind old man basking in the sun.
His students were playing and frolicking around him.
But not anymore.
Dumbledore was no longer old and began to have the energy and spirit to change the world.
As soon as a person decides to do something, some people and things will start to drift away. The greater the resistance, the fewer people will be around, until there is no one left.
Old Deng is in this state now, full of vitality, yet lonely.
This supreme state of mind made the sky above the entire Hogwarts Castle complex and the Forbidden Forest clear and bright, with everything crystal clear except for the twinkling starlight.
This is the ultimate form of metamorphosis—the manifestation of the world brought about by one's own will, real yet formless.
Lockhart watched this scene in amazement, carefully sensing the subtle nuances it contained.
Dumbledore turned to look at him, smiled kindly, and said, "So, want to learn?"
"Yes!" Lockhart replied without hesitation.
"It's actually very simple. The principles are already contained in the magic notebook I gave you, 'Manipulating Lightning.' I've also taught you the magic 'Telepathy,' which is the key to entering this field of knowledge, and I've also explained the core points of Transfiguration to you..."
Dumbledore had unknowingly instilled his own philosophy in him.
He was never a domineering person who demanded that others follow their own path. He taught them the key points, and as for how well they would ultimately learn, that was up to them to cultivate themselves.
Now, standing before the prison cell where Tom was imprisoned, he thought a lot and suddenly felt a desire to explain his own ideas clearly.
"I have a different understanding of what constitutes life than you."
Dumbledore beckoned Lockhart to sit down on a nearby rock, reached into his pocket, pulled out a plate of cockroaches, and began to recount the story as if they were casually chatting over sunflower seeds.
"I don't see it that way: the social nature of all things, nature, and the collective, and then the individual nature of the body, mind, and soul."
"In my eyes, it becomes very simple—the world, the self-will, and the fusion of the world and the self-will at the center."
"In fact, everyone sees and feels the world differently, which stems from the differences in each person's self-will."
"The movement of self-will brings about change, and thus the world begins to change."
He raised his wrinkled, aged hand and gently waved it. Flowers bloomed in the grass not far away, swaying in the night breeze.
"This is about how one's will changes the world, but it's not that I change the world, but rather that I want things to change, and the world changes accordingly."
As he spoke, he gently moved his palms, as if caressing the earth.
A vibrant energy surged forth, striking Lockhart in his eyes. He could feel the surrounding trees and flowers brimming with life, teeming with vitality.
The grass hasn't bloomed yet, but it's destined to bloom.
"This is the zone where self-will and the world intersect; the world has not changed yet, but it is destined to change."
"Having understood these two concepts, we can naturally begin to consider this question—is the world I perceive, to some extent, my own world?"
"Or rather, am I the world?"
At this point, Dumbledore smiled and looked at Lockhart. "Do you understand?"
Lohat nodded, then shook his head. "I understand the theory, but when it comes to actually casting the spell, I don't know how."
"It's okay, take your time to think about it. This is a lesson about life."
Dumbledore chuckled, picked up a cockroach, popped it into his mouth, and squinted to enjoy the rich, bursting flavor of the candy. After a while, he sighed and said, "It took Tom a long time to understand back then."
Lockhart looked at him in surprise. "You taught Tom?"
"Yes," Dumbledore said wistfully, "just like now, yearning for young people to venture into a deeper future and explore a wider world."
He smiled with regret.
"I am not a particularly noble person. In the past, in order to distance myself from him and prevent my followers from misunderstanding that I might be on the wrong track, I would always make people think that I sent Tom to school and then ignored him completely, without any further contact."
He gazed intently at the stone house ahead. "At first, everyone liked him very much, and he also acted very sunny and kind. Naturally, I also hoped to give him more guidance and hope that this boy who had an unfortunate childhood could have more possibilities in the future."
"I never liked him, but that didn't stop me from giving him a chance back then..."
He didn't want to talk too much about Tom; his greatest achievement in teaching had become his greatest failure, a regret stemming from the fact that he had devoted the most of his energy and time to teaching.
Talking about regrets too much always makes me feel suffocated.
He thought for a moment, then took a lighter out of his wizard's robe pocket and handed it to Lockhart. "Here's a little toy for you. It will help you better understand the world of transfiguration I'm telling you about."
Although described as a small toy, it is actually an alchemical creation that he frequently uses.
Lights out.
Lockhart took the Deluminator with some confusion, and at Dumbledore's prompting, lit it as if using a lighter.
A wisp of steam rose from where the lighter should have been emitting a flame.
But it only lasted for a moment, then vanished in an instant.
"!!!"
Lockhart keenly sensed the difference in the hazy white light, blinked, and looked thoughtfully at Old Deng.
"That's right," Dumbledore smiled. "Just as you guessed."
As he spoke, he raised his hand in a gesture, "You can give it a try."
Lockhart swallowed hard, focused his mind, but instead of immediately lighting the fire again, he quickly recalled the principles of Transfiguration that Dumbledore had just explained.
Changes in one's own will lead to corresponding changes in the world.
I am the world.
Pa~!
The lights are turned on.
A wisp of mist reappeared, and this time, it did not extinguish, maintaining its rich and mysterious aura.
Something amazing happened!
Lockhart suddenly heard a cacophony of sounds, layered yet clearly distinct, enough for him to clearly hear that the sounds came from different people.
He tried to hear the words clearly, without worrying about which one to listen to, he just made up his mind to hear them clearly. Then the voices disappeared one by one, until only one source remained.
A voice rang out, "We should make it clearer to Lord Lockhart that we are loyal. Only he can protect us, only he can make Dumbledore think twice. Otherwise, Dumbledore will never let us go!"
This is……
The voice of Lucius Malfoy; he seemed to be talking to someone.
Lockhart looked at Dumbledore with a slightly embarrassed expression. Dumbledore listened with great interest to Lucius's shouting and shrugged innocently at Lockhart.
Would a tiger in the mountains care whether a rabbit is friendly to it?
No, I don't care at all.
Old Deng was simply being tolerant of those nimble rabbits; it doesn't mean he wasn't a tiger.
"You can press it again," Dumbledore reminded him.
Pa~!
Lockhart activated the deluminator again. At that moment, a ball of blue light quickly jumped out of the deluminator, appeared in front of him, and then rushed towards him, instantly merging into his body.
"This is……"
He carefully sensed the changes within himself, somewhat surprised. "It seems a message is telling me where Lucius Malfoy is right now. I can feel that if I were to Apparate, I could appear right in front of him!"
Dumbledore smiled and nodded. "That's just a small part of its function." (PS: The above description of the Deluminator's function comes from the original text.)
Is it small?
That's outrageous, okay?
This feature is so exaggerated...
arrive……
Lockhart gasped, looking at Dumbledore in disbelief. "Voldemort has cast a spell on his name. Anyone who calls him by his name will be sensed by him, and then the Death Eaters will appear before them quickly and kill those who dare to call Voldemort by his name!"
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, just as you guessed, he learned it."
To present his teaching results in the way Dumbledore least wanted to see.
He imparted this knowledge in the hope of leading Tom to a greater magical world, not to create bloodshed!
Lockhart looked at him strangely, gesturing to the deluminator in his hand. "Aren't you worried I'll be the next Tom?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "I don't know, but I don't care anymore."
Yes, I don't care anymore.
He was tired. He was willing to lead the world in a better direction, and as for the rest, he would leave it to the world to handle. He couldn't be bothered with it anymore.
One Voldemort is gone, and now Lockhart is here?
If that's the case, it means the world is destined for a catastrophe; who knows?
"I hope you don't just stop at this small feature, but use it well to understand the real, vast world of Transfiguration."
Dumbledore patiently advised, "This is my end, and Tom's end, but I hope it is only your beginning."
Lohart head.
(End of this chapter)