The slacker professor at Hogwarts

038 We cannot stop moving forward

Lockhart's worst fears did not come true.

Ginny Weasley, or rather the soul of the Horcrux she possessed, Tom Riddle, did not have his eye on him.

It was all a coincidence.

When Ginny sneaked over to kill Hagrid's roosters, she spotted Lockhart acting suspiciously—he was actually just picking up sand from the ground to make a simple urchin.

Most importantly, Lockhart actually glanced into Hagrid's chicken coop, and then started looking around again.

This led Ginny to believe that she had been exposed.

Wizards under the influence of the Imperius Curse are quite unique; they seem to be able to think, yet there is a barrier between them and true thought processes.

Ginny knew fear. She was well aware of the trouble that would come if her actions were exposed, and she made the decision to attack in an instant.

She was only controlled by the Imperius Curse, not forcibly manipulated by Tom Riddle like a puppet. At that time, the Horcruxes could not possibly give her any command.

Otherwise, Tom would never have allowed her to attack a school professor like that; it would only lead to unexpected problems in his plans.

Such decisiveness and resolve...

"Heh~"

Lockhart chuckled. "What a promising dark wizard in the making."

The abilities were given to her by Voldemort, but the judgments were made by herself.

Obviously...

This little witch has the potential to be a dark witch, absolutely the potential.

He hadn't paid much attention to this minor character in the original work before, and didn't have a deep impression of Ginny, but this time he was quite impressed.

He quickly searched through the increasingly chaotic memories in his mind for information about Ginny Weasley, but he couldn't find much.

After all, even though I had read so many online novels in my previous life, this person still seemed rather unremarkable.

Admirers of Harry Potter's savior title...

The once-famous campus belle queen who has had several boyfriends...

The magic he excels at tends to be malevolent spells like the Bat Spirit Curse and the Shattering Curse, which require extreme malice...

She eventually married Harry Potter, who became the true savior, and had three children.

Gone.

The only relatively informative part is that after acquiring the diary, he controlled the Basilisk to attack people who showed hostility towards Harry Potter, as well as Hermione, a girl who was close to Harry, and Penelope Crivart, the girlfriend of his brother Percy.

Among them, Penelope Crivart is a mixed-race prefect of Ravenclaw.

Lockhart wasn't very interested in the part about children playing house.

I have no interest in finding out what kind of person Ginny really is.

His gaze was fixed on the part of Ginny's memory that Voldemort had so profoundly affected.

very funny.

It's also very ingenious.

In the scenes of his memory, he could clearly see that every time Ginny picked up her pen to tell her girlish thoughts in her diary, she opened her heart, while wisps of dark energy, which she did not notice, quietly invaded the depths of her soul.

This is the power of dark magic.

Lockhart couldn't understand what kind of dark magic it was.

However, they could roughly figure out what Tom was doing.

It opens a life channel between itself and Ginny by imprinting its own mark deep into Ginny's soul, so as to take Ginny's life to complete its own resurrection.

As the saying goes, if you understand one thing, you understand everything.

Lockhart's deep exploration of the Oblivion Charm's effects on memory, personality, and soul allowed him to see Tom's methods clearly and marvel at some of the subtle manipulations.

"I've learned something, I've learned something."

He clicked his tongue in amazement at the black magic techniques this master had used in his childhood, his eyes burning as he meticulously studied the details of each spell he cast.

"Life replacement..."

"Connecting lives..."

He stared intently at the big boss's bold and exquisite life-saving surgery, his mind racing as he considered how he would process the memories in his brain.

pity.

There aren't many of these fragmented memories.

The impact on Ginny has not yet reached a qualitative level.

Judging from the progress of the diary, it will probably take a whole school year to finish it completely.

Lockhart quickly browsed through these memories, then waved his wand, quietly picking out three silver threads of memory.

This is a copy containing three life lessons about magic that Tom Riddle wrote into Ginny's soul.

—The Death Curse.

—Flight Spell.

—The Bone-Attaching Incantation.

Among these, the Bone-Attaching Curse is an extremely vicious form of black magic. Once this curse is cast, it will relentlessly pursue the enemy until its own magic completely dissipates. Once it catches up, it will burrow into the body and frantically tear at the enemy's bones, large and small!

The choice of these three spells was clearly deliberate.

The Killing Curse embodies Voldemort's view of life and death, and influences Ginny's personality.

The Flight Charm encompasses methods of controlling magic, influencing Ginny's most fundamental behavioral and instinctive logic.

The Bone Curse contains the malice required for dark magic and influences Ginny's attitude towards casting spells.

This is a very unique life replacement of the "Ship of Theseus," which transforms you into my likeness, so you become me, and your life becomes my life.

There are countless legends about similar methods, where people make wishes to demons to gain power, only to have their lives and souls harvested. Such fairy tales are common in the wizarding world.

And now.

All the wisdom contained in these three spells will become the basis for Lockhart's analysis of the logic behind Tom Riddle's actions.

Nothing makes it easier to understand a person than to try to understand them from the perspective of their soul.

Lockhart believes that the next time it meets Tom Riddle, it will be surprised to find that it knows him better than Tom does.

As the saying goes, "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win every battle." He understood the importance of using wisdom.

Since his transmigration, everything he has achieved has benefited from this.

Hehe~

"This is absolutely hilarious!"

Lockhart waved his wand, causing these memories to float out of the Pensieve of the Crystal Bird-Snake Skull and sink back into Ginny's head on the ground.

Only when she came to kill those roosters tonight did she discover that this part of her memory had been completely erased.

She will not remember ever having met herself.

There was no way to tell Tom about this, who still hides in his diary.

Since now is not a good time to deal with Voldemort's diary, he needs to carefully control the scope of this matter—only by separating himself from the event.

There's still a long time ahead.

Let's take it slow!

Lockhart put away the crystal meditation basin and flying broom, whistled to summon back the winged demon and the boggart, waved to the unjustly killed fairy who was helping to guard behind him, pushed aside the bushes and walked out.

The Forbidden Forest fell silent once more.

After a long time, the calls of birds returned, and the insects finally made their voices again.

The distant barking of dogs could be heard from the Quidditch pitch and Hagrid's hut.

"Ah~~~~"

A terrified scream shattered the tranquility of the forest.

Ginny Weasley awoke in disbelief from the Forbidden Forest, staring in panic at the unfamiliar and dark surroundings, screaming in terror.

How did I get here?

She began to flee in a panic towards the edge of the forbidden forest.

Unbeknownst to her, a pair of eyes were watching her back from within the canopy of a large tree behind her.

"Gurgle?"

The little golden retriever, as if presenting a treasure, was about to hand Lockhart the snake eyes made of two black smoke plumes. Seeing that its owner didn't seem to like them, it happily put them away.

The wronged fairy also turned her gaze away from Lockhart, looking at him with some confusion. "Why didn't you kill her? She almost killed you just now."

Lockhart shrugged. "This is a complicated matter, and it can't be explained in a short time."

The wronged fairy nodded, and pink threads extended from her body, resembling a pink jellyfish in mid-air, gradually disappearing into his body.

Once Ginny was completely out of sight, Lockhart picked up the potted plant of the symphony plant and jumped down from the tree.

The slow, graceful descent to the ground already hinted at the nature of a flying spell.

Well, I can only say there's a tiny trace of the flight spell, there is, but not much.

"We have our tasks for today, let's keep working!"

He stretched and told himself he couldn't stop.

He knew that Voldemort's curse on professorships was likely only the beginning of what happened tonight.

As Professor Trelawney said, the more you crave these things, the less you return to where you belong, and the less you distance yourself from magic, the more likely the curse will find you.

What can Lockhart do?

He took out the small glass bottle Snape had given him and continued walking towards the direction where he was collecting dew.

Magic...

It doesn't seem to exist merely as knowledge; it's always accompanied by action. Perhaps facing and dealing with such a curse is precisely the path he'll take to truly embark on a magical life.

Maybe……

It is not the wizard who chooses the magic, but the magic that chooses the wizard.

Magic, the ultimate romance in fairy tales.

To truly become a part of a fairy tale—perhaps that's the meaning of a romantic, fairy-tale life.

Once you embark on that romantic yet dangerous path, magic will quietly and subtly unfold.

The fog in the Forbidden Forest grew thicker at night, and three gray wolves quietly emerged from it, following Lockhart's footsteps, sometimes crawling on the grass, sometimes leaping through the treetops.

Until they were completely engulfed in the fog.