allendalepharm Chapter 193 Bounty of 10 Galleons
Chapter 193 Bounty of 10 Galleons
Chapter 193 Bounty of 10 Galleons
Harry Potter had an absolutely terrible summer vacation.
First, Ron called home, and his Uncle Vernon was furious when he received the call. He became even more vigilant and kept a close watch on him, forcing Ron to work on his homework late into the night. The long hours of staying up late made him look increasingly exhausted.
Cousin Dudley mocked him, saying that his current thin, dark-circled appearance, messy hair, and scar on his forehead made him look more and more like a weirdo or madman like a wizard.
Later, Ron sent a letter mentioning that his family had gone on a trip to Egypt. The Daily Prophet reported the news, and everyone in the photos looked very happy. Even their sickly pet mouse looked much more energetic, which made Harry feel even more distressed about his own situation.
Everyone has moments of breakdown, let alone a child.
When Aunt Maggie came to visit, she kept making sarcastic remarks about him, saying he was ungrateful and like an ungrateful wretch. She even insulted his father, who was seen as an unemployed bum by Muggles. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore and blew up the wine bottles and vases in the house, causing Aunt Maggie to inflate into a giant balloon.
He swore he didn't mean it; he hadn't even taken out his wand. The powerful anger and resentment in his heart had brought it all to this.
—The essence of magic is chaos.
—It will follow its own will to express itself, and thus magic will bloom.
Therefore, we don't always need to stick to so-called spells or spellcasting standards, but should pay more attention to perceiving our own inner selves.
He didn't know why he would think of Professor Lockhart's teachings at this moment, even though he was absolutely furious.
He dragged his heavy suitcase, with Hedwig's cage tucked under his arm, and rushed out of the house like a madman.
The professor's past teachings kept flooding into my mind.
The professor looked at them so gently and said, "Children, there has never been a standard for judging right and wrong that can be called truth in this world, but for us as individuals, this standard has always been there. If you are willing to ask yourselves and examine your own hearts, you will find that the standard for right and wrong is right there."
"Only with the ability to distinguish right from wrong can one better construct one's inner world and truly express one's will."
Harry stood on the deserted street for a long time, panting heavily, before finally letting out a frustrated, indignant, and hysterical roar, then turned and rushed home.
"You bastard, come back here! Look what you've done! You weirdos, you turned my precious son into a pig's tail, and he had to spend a whole month in the hospital, going through terrible surgery and pain!" Uncle Vernon was still yelling from inside the house, "Harry Potter! You…"
Bang!
The door was kicked open, and Harry, gripping his wand tightly, stared at his Uncle Vernon with bloodshot eyes.
It was an anger that Uncle Vernon had never seen before, not the anger of a child, but a terrible anger that seemed to permeate the air, which frightened the three of them into silence.
"I'm not a bastard!" Harry stared at them coldly.
Uncle Vernon's fat face turned red, and he opened his mouth but couldn't say a word.
The air seemed to freeze.
Fortunately, Aunt Maggie's terrified screams finally broke the silence. She was like a giant, round balloon, bobbing against the roof and about to fly out of the open window.
"Quickly..." Uncle Vernon shouted anxiously.
Before she could finish speaking, a loud crash was heard, and the window slammed shut, trapping Aunt Maggie inside.
He quickly turned around and saw that Harry had taken control of everything by raising his hand that wasn't gripping the stick tightly.
This frightened him. He tried his best to maintain the authority of a parent, but a genuine sense of fear welled up from the bottom of his heart. Harry Potter in front of him seemed to become a stranger in an instant.
"Get this done quickly!"
Uncle Vernon began to speak, unaware that his voice had become weak and lacked any momentum.
Harry gripped his wand without speaking, panting heavily. After a long while, he finally replied, "I don't know how I did that. I was so angry. If I want to save her, I have to use my wand."
Uncle Vernon shouted immediately, "Then hurry up and use your damn stick!"
"But that would get me expelled!" Harry looked at him, his eyes red. "I don't know where I can go after I'm expelled from Hogwarts. Here? I'm not welcome here at all!"
Uncle Vernon opened his mouth, but could only manage a glare at Harry. He himself didn't really know what he was feeling at that moment; it was a mix of emotions.
Aunt Penny covered her face and started crying, though it was unclear what she was crying about.
"Why aren't you welcome!" Uncle Vernon's attitude finally softened, muttering, "You were just a baby when you were left by the door. Do you know how difficult it was for your aunt and me to raise a baby? We had absolutely no experience raising children back then, we were completely helpless. I searched everywhere for suitable baby formula and clothes..."
This was something Harry had never heard before. He stared blankly at the middle-aged man with a complicated expression, at his weeping aunt, and at his cousin who was looking at everything in a daze. His heart was filled with complex emotions.
He had never been so complicated before. He had always been very pure; love was love, hate was hate, liking was liking, and disliking was disliking.
He gripped his wand tightly, took a sudden step forward, and interrupted his Uncle Vernon. He didn't know why he did this; perhaps he was afraid to listen to these words, which made him uncomfortable.
He cast a very unorthodox restoration spell on Aunt Maggie. He didn't know if the spell would work, but a belief seemed to tell him—yes, this is how you cast a spell.
Soon, Aunt Maggie deflated like a punctured balloon and floated down, eventually returning to her original form and collapsing into a chair.
Harry pondered the complex situation before him, wondering how Professor Lockhart would handle it if he were there. Finally, he strode forward and meticulously cast the Oblivion Charm.
"What are you doing?" Uncle Vernon asked nervously. This was his own sister, his closest blood relative.
"Make her forget what happened tonight!"
Harry turned and glanced at them. "Don't talk. I'm not very good at this."
The Oblivion Charm is an extremely complex and profound spell, and it is not easy to cast it successfully. Even though Professor Lockhart allowed members of the Duel Club to sit in on several lessons when he taught the NEWT Advanced Class, explaining it in a simple and easy-to-understand way, very few people could actually cast it well.
Fortunately, Harry succeeded in casting the spell.
He then cast a spell on the tilted crystal chandelier, vases, wine bottles, overturned table, and plates and food scattered on the floor, chanting, "Restore everything to its original state!"
It was as if time had reversed. The table floated up and straightened itself, the tablecloth was neatly laid out on it again, and the plates of delicious-looking dishes, the half-empty wine bottles, the vases, and the fallen petals and broken flowers were all returned to their original state.
This was a spell that Harry himself had never imagined he could successfully cast.
But he succeeded in doing so.
Despite being in a state of extremely complex emotions, not very focused, and with too many emotions and thoughts churning in my mind, I still managed to perform successfully.
He glanced deeply at his Uncle Vernon, Aunt Penny, and his cousin Dudley, then picked up his suitcase and Hedwig's cage again and walked out.
"Where are you going?" Uncle Vernon shouted.
Harry stopped and looked back at him.
"I mean...you see..." Uncle Vernon hesitated to look him in the eye, muttering, "Everything's back to normal, isn't it? You could have stayed..."
Harry laughed, unsure of his own expression, but he laughed, looking at Uncle Vernon with a mocking glint in his eyes. "I just said I can't cast spells outside of school, but I did. Am I supposed to stay here and wait for the Aurors from the Ministry of Magic to come and arrest me?"
He didn't want to be locked up in Azkaban with a broken wand. He had his own things to do: he wanted revenge, he wanted to deal with Voldemort!
Even if it means fleeing from now on.
Yes, Professor Lockhart is right. Sometimes there really is no standard for right and wrong. He violated the rules for junior wizards to cast spells outside of school, but he didn't want to accept the punishment at all. He still insisted that what he did was right.
He walked away without looking back.
The night wind howled through the streets, carrying away the sorrows brought from my aunt's house far, far away.
Harry Potter was a child.
He was only 13 years old when he graduated from second grade.
He should have been bewildered, fearful, and at a loss, but he wasn't at all.
He remembered Professor Lockhart's teachings.
—Harry, you should be more like a wizard, break free from the habits of Muggle life, and experience life with magic.
—Only when you draw near to magic will magic draw near to you. You should have had considerable talent, but none of it has been properly utilized.
So on this night, Harry took out the Invisibility Cloak, one of the Deathly Hallows left by his father, and put it on. It was a cloak that could even evade death, let alone the threat from Voldemort or his minions.
He hung the suitcase and birdcage on his flying broom, which contained a fire crossbow bolt, a gift from Professor Lockhart during one of their adventures, which he called a reward.
This is the best-performing flying broom of its time, capable of accelerating to 150 miles per hour within ten seconds, enough to take you anywhere you want to go.
Then he released Hedwig the owl to lead him to his good friend Ron. He didn't want to cause any trouble for Ron's family, but he really needed Ron's father, a Ministry of Magic official, to help him find out what judgment the Ministry of Magic had made regarding his spellcasting in front of Muggles.
Thus began a truly insane adventure.
Starting from Privet Road in Surrey, England, the journey took us all the way to Egypt, crossing four or five countries and two oceans, a long and arduous trek.
Harry wouldn't have dared to do something like this before.
Yes, at most he would just sit on the street in front of his house, blankly waiting for the possible unexpected events to happen, and then bravely face them.
However, he has now taken an even bolder step.
In Professor Lockhart's words, he didn't need to heed the call of adventure; he could have taken the initiative to embark on it.
The journey wasn't without danger, but he possessed a powerful invisibility cloak, allowing him to conceal himself even when encountering powerful wizards. Quietly following the trail of some wizards, he purchased food in a magical goods street in a wizarding kingdom and finally arrived in Egypt unscathed.
Now, he needs to figure out where Ron and the others are.
This is the challenge on his adventure; he has to take off his invisibility cloak in order to communicate and ask for information from others.
He first set his sights on a wizard shop that sold travel goods, because he saw the Daily Prophet in the shop window.
Perhaps the newspaper will also publish news about the Weasleys' trip, so he'll know where they are.
Or perhaps...
Well, although he was somewhat reluctant to think about the question, perhaps the Daily Prophet would report on the terrible things the so-called "savior" did during his vacation, and then clearly state the Ministry of Magic's verdict, and maybe he wouldn't have to bother the Weasleys.
He hesitated for a moment by the shop entrance, making sure no one was passing by on the street, before suddenly tearing off his invisibility cloak and draping it over the flying broom beside him. He then quietly reached out and grabbed the broom, deciding to take off into the sky if anything went wrong.
"Excuse me..." He took a step toward the door and peeked out to ask the shop owner, who was sitting under the parasol, looking drowsy.
"Oh! Merlin's pink diapers!" the shopkeeper exclaimed. "Where did you come from?!"
"I..." Before Harry could speak, a loud 'bang' suddenly came from not far away.
This is Apparition!
He knows it very well!
Because Professor Lockhart required each student to carefully memorize the sounds produced by this magic.
However, before he could react, a series of loud bangs echoed around him. Turning around in alarm, he saw figures suddenly appear on the street, surrounding him completely.
"Oh!" The shop owner cried out in terror, his eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the recliner. He then cautiously opened his eyelids a tiny bit, trying to see what was going on.
Then he fell asleep, and slept peacefully.
"Harry Potter!" Snape put down his wand and looked Harry up and down. "Look at our savior, he's brought us so many surprises again."
Harry felt a sudden sense of relief upon hearing the voice. He didn't know why he relaxed, even though he had always hated Snape.
He tried his best to look at the people around him; some he didn't recognize, but others were so familiar.
Ron's parents, Professor McGonagall, Hagrid...
And the person standing beside him, looking down at him...
"Professor Dumbledore!" Harry exclaimed, shrinking back under the professor's sharp gaze.
"It seems you're making good use of the cloak your father left you." Dumbledore smiled. "How was your summer trip?"
It was like chatting with family, exceptionally friendly. Of course, Harry couldn't rule out that it might be sarcasm, he didn't know. He just forced a smile that wasn't too awkward and said, "It's...not bad."
"Yeah?"
Snape sneered, then suddenly brandished his wand at a corner nearby, shouting, "Petrify them all!"
Bang!
A figure fell to the ground, the invisibility cloak falling off, and stared wide-eyed at the crowd.
Snape slowly stepped forward, his tone becoming increasingly sarcastic, "It seems our savior is unaware of the dangers of society, always thinking that adventure is just child's play."
Ok.
Harry retracted his earlier thought.
Snape is such a despicable person; he shouldn't have felt even the slightest bit of affection for him in the first place!
But who is this person hiding in the corner wearing an invisibility cloak?
Everyone quickly came up with an answer.
Snape cast a spell on the man, enveloping his eyes in pink smoke. The man yelled, "That damned Gilderoy Lockhart! How dare he write 'Dark Lord' like that?! There's a bounty of 10 Galleons on his head! He must die!!!"
"Ha~" Snape laughed. Just as Harry had guessed, he was wicked. Professor Lockhart even considered Snape a good friend, yet he could still laugh!
A bounty of 10 Galleons has been placed on his head!
Harry couldn't even imagine how much wealth that was, but he knew many people would be tempted. At least he knew from his interactions with his classmates that many families were actually in dire straits and that many people needed that sum of Galleons.
He was so worried, and Snape could still laugh. Lockhart was obviously fooled by Snape and only considered him a friend!
"You don't look like you're here to cause trouble for Gilderoy at all, hiding in this corner," Snape said mockingly, looking at the man. "What, you've been following Lockhart all the way here?"
The man shouted, "Of course not! Nobody can find where that wretched guy went!"
"We'll keep an eye on every bookstore and see who's buying that damn Lockhart's books. Maybe this information will fetch a price! Many pure-blood families are willing to pay a fee to prove their loyalty to the Dark Lord..."
(End of this chapter)