The slacker professor at Hogwarts

026 Winged Demon

Harry and Draco were both very nervous at that moment.

The two had followed Professor Lockhart's instructions and mounted their flying brooms, hovering in mid-air, gripping their wands tightly, ready to fight at any moment.

They don't have many spells at their disposal, but they are most proficient in the "Disarming Charm" that the professor has been teaching them recently.

They have mastered it very well.

But this doesn't give them much of a sense of security.

The castle looked horrible; thick blood was everywhere—in the cracks between the stones, in the gaps between the picture frames on the walls, and on the stone steps.

A chilling singing voice seemed to come from somewhere, mingling with the rustling of venomous snakes and insects and the eerie calls of birds, making one feel utterly tormented.

Of course, the adults' anxiety also deeply affects them.

Even powerful figures like Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape, as well as the obviously important young Urquhart and his two henchmen, all looked as if they were facing a formidable enemy.

Only Professor Lockhart.

He was lying on the ground with his buttocks sticking out, sticking out his tongue and licking the blood on the ground.

It licked it once, seemingly still not satisfied. It smacked its lips and moved closer to the area with more blood, prying aside the scorpions and spiders on it and sucking hard.

"(⊙﹏⊙)!!!" Harry.

"w(ﾟДﾟ)w!!!" Draco.

Finally, Professor Lockhart stood up, wiped the blood from his mouth, and smiled slightly. "It seems I was right, it is the 'Wrongfully Killed Fairy'."

"The blood produced by 'cellar decay' has a putrid smell, while the 'wrongfully killed fairy' influences the earth, and the red substance produced by the earth is actually a kind of beneficial bacteria-carrying spring water."

Little Urquhart was stunned, trembling as he pointed to the red bloodstains all over the castle. "Is this spring water?"

“Yes.” Lohat nodded. “If you’re planning to let this ‘wrongfully killed fairy’ take over the castle, perhaps you could arrange for people to collect the spring water. The drink tastes good and can revitalize our skin; it should have considerable economic value.”

"Oh~"

Young Urquhart seemed somewhat resistant. "Thank you for the suggestion, but no need. The Urquhart family cares more about the castle where they have lived for generations than about some money."

Lockhart smiled, said nothing more, and gestured to the translucent gray wolf that was splashing across the blood, "Look, it has found the fairy who died unjustly."

He led his men and followed behind the gray wolf, explaining things to everyone.

"In principle, the fairy who died unjustly will not actively harm people. On the contrary, the earth itself will try to find some of the forces that protect it to cause harm."

"Sometimes they're easy to deal with, like some venomous snakes or reptiles, but other times they're very difficult, because it could be a fire dragon."

"This summoning of the guardian occurs every time the unjustly killed fairy is disturbed."

"There's a similar case in an underground cave in Northern Europe. Due to the constant disturbances by reckless so-called heroes and greedy adventurers over the years, the earth has been summoning guardians of the wronged fairy. Now, that cave has essentially become a dragon's lair, inhabited by dozens of fire dragons."

Amidst gasps of surprise, he maintained a perfect smile and reassured everyone, "Don't worry, it's easy to see from our observations that there are no fire dragons here."

"What could it be?" Harry Potter asked, mustering his courage.

To be honest, he was starting to feel less afraid.

Just as Lockhart taught them, to immerse themselves in "fairytale romance," he now felt a surge of adventurous passion, which gave him great courage.

He even started to get excited, gripping the wand in his hand with a sense of eagerness.

He hadn't performed that well in his fight against Draco, and he hoped that he would have his moment to shine later. He wanted to show Draco and Snape that he wasn't the "brainless, stupid Potter" they called him!

"What could it be?"

Lockhart stopped, chuckled, and turned to look at Mr. Urquhart, whose expression was uncertain. "That depends on whether Mr. Urquhart has been bringing any dangerous things into the house lately."

Immediately, everyone looked at Little Urquhart.

Little Urquhart pursed his lips and remained silent, clearly not wanting to talk about this.

But Professor McGonagall looked at him sternly. "Son, I wouldn't normally ask you this, but I brought two students with me, and I must ensure their safety. You must tell the truth!"

Young Urquhart sighed helplessly, "It was taken from Mr. Malfoy. He heard that Arthur Weasley was planning to use his power to search his house, so he had to urgently find a way to send all the family's dangerous collections away."

Mr. Malfoy...

Draco's father, and one of the leaders of the "Pureblood Supremacy" faction of the Holy Twenty-Eight Pureblood Families.

Arthur Weasley...

Ron's father, a low-profile bigwig who holds both independent legislative and law enforcement powers within the Ministry of Magic.

With Voldemort's reforms failing and most of his core members imprisoned in Azkaban, the influence of the "pure-blood supremacy" faction at the Ministry of Magic reached its lowest point. Conversely, the pro-Muggle factions of the Twenty-Eight Holy Pure-Blood Families—the Weasleys, Longbottoms, Prewitts, and Abbots—reached their zenith, wielding even greater power.

Arthur Weasley's almost humiliating and unbridled attempt to turn the Malfoy family upside down is the most vivid illustration of the current state of affairs in this era.

The atmosphere became somewhat awkward for a moment.

Professor Snape's lips curled into a mocking smile. "This period will definitely be a feast for all the pure-blood families. Everyone will try to get their hands on the Malfoy family's precious collections."

Little Urquhart shrugged. "Who says otherwise? These are all good things that you can't usually buy with money."

These established pure-blood families have always coveted the so-called "Twenty-Eight Holy Pure-Blood Families" and are happy to see these twenty-eight families fail or even perish. Naturally, they would not let go of this good opportunity to divide up the Malfoy family's assets.

But if you don't have that foundation, you simply don't have that foundation.

Magical items are not something anyone can collect.

You need to have that ability.

The Urquhart family clearly lacked the capability, and the acquired items spiraled out of control, forcing them to move out of the castle that had been their ancestral home and a symbol of their family's glory.

Without the magic castle, no house-elves would seek refuge with them, and they would be looked down upon by other pure-blood families.

The Weasley family, who lived in haphazardly constructed shacks, is the most obvious example.

Even though Arthur has the power to freely search other people's homes, the family's children are still looked down upon, and this is especially true for children like Ron who are not particularly outstanding.

Such things happen frequently in the Muggle world as well.

"A magic book, an old phonograph, and a winged demon."

Under everyone's gaze, young Urquhart had no choice but to reveal all the items he had acquired.

"A winged demon?!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed, her expression turning fierce as she stared intently at young Urquhart. "These dangerous magical creatures only eat human brains! Mr. Urquhart, tell me, how do you usually feed this magical creature?!"

"Oh! Merlin's braids!" Little Urquhart looked somewhat panicked, waving his hands vigorously. "No, I couldn't have done such an evil thing! That winged demon was tightly bound by some golden spider silk. I confirmed with Mr. Malfoy; it seems to have been sealed away by some powerful wizard!"

Draco and Harry exchanged a chilling glance. "Eat human brains?"

They all instinctively gravitated towards Professor Lockhart, the older brother who gave them a sense of security.

But Professor Lockhart looked deep in thought.

"An old phonograph?"

Professor Lockhart snapped out of his tangled memories and clicked his tongue. "If I'm not mistaken, it's a magical artifact invented in modern times. It uses the concept of 'the wonderful world of music' to encompass a certain phenomenon, containing dark magic creatures within magical objects for communication."

"The most famous example of this kind of achievement is the 'Aladdin's Lamp' in the fairy tale, which puts the wronged fairy into a phonograph. Tsk, what an interesting idea."

He looked up at Little Urquhart, "If this speculation is correct, the 'wrongfully killed fairy' in your castle is probably a fully mature dark magic creature, which is the most dangerous stage."

"I suspect that after you acquired this magical artifact, you didn't know how to use it; you just treated it as an interesting phonograph?"

"Don't you ever feel a chill when you listen to music?"

Little Urquhart was stunned.

He stammered, unable to speak.

What can you say? Just say that every time their family proudly displays the Malfoy family collection, the banquet always reaches its most lively and exciting moment. Everyone is so excited that no one actually feels the chill.

"A mature 'wrongfully murdered fairy,' plus a winged demon sealed away that has been starving for who knows how long..."

Lockhart's eyes narrowed. "More money!"

The matter of paying more money was actually easy to negotiate. Mr. Urquhart really dared not keep the Malfoy family's dangerous items any longer, and agreed to hand over the magic books and ancient phonographs that he had acquired from the Malfoy family at great expense.

As long as the current crisis can be completely resolved.

Clearly, this was not difficult for Lockhart.

He waved his wand and summoned a gray wolf from the mist once more, sending it to search the castle. Soon, the wolf came to him carrying a mouse.

"Professor McGonagall, your statement is not actually that accurate."

"The feeding of the Winged Demon does not necessarily require human brains. This magical creature with the power of the Oblivion Charm does not prefer to eat brains, but rather brains containing human memories."

Lockhart gracefully waved his wand against his temple, easily extracting a fragment of a temporary, chaotic thought and stuffing it into the mouse's head.

"Look~"

He gestured to the mouse squeaking in terror inside the gray wolf's mouth, "It now possesses human memories."

Implanting human memories into the minds of animals is no ordinary method.

But for Lockhart, it couldn't be easier.

So the group formed a circle, each warily facing different corners, and let the gray wolf, carrying a mouse in its mouth, lead the way, slowly walking towards the depths of the castle.

"When you use the disarming spell later..."

Lockhart walked beside Harry and Draco's flying broomsticks. "Find a way to send the winged demon flying towards the rat. It shouldn't be difficult for you. You should have encountered similar techniques in Quidditch training. You need to know how to apply what you've learned."

He did create a decoy.

But to the Winged Demon, these human brains are obviously more delicious than the rat brain with a tiny bit of human memory, so it will definitely be inclined to attack them first.

Harry and Draco nodded with serious expressions.

Finally, as everyone entered a dark corridor in the castle, a wildcat, attracted by the beneficial mycelium in the blood spring, rushed over, triggering a stress response from everyone. At that moment, a dazzling blue light descended from the sky and swooped down directly towards Lockhart.

really!

Lockhart exclaimed inwardly, "Sure enough, my human brain, filled with countless memories, is definitely the most delicious food in the eyes of the Winged Demon!"

At this point, he could only pin his hopes on the two assistants he had trained to be of some use.

As it turns out, his efforts over this period of time have not been in vain.

The savior truly lives up to his name.

No matter how fast the Winged Demon's attack speed is, it can't match the Golden Snitch's speed, and its size when its wings are outstretched is many times larger than the Golden Snitch's.

With a hysterical roar—"Expel your weapon!"—the dazzling blue light screeched and flew away into the distance.

The winged demon was clearly starving and didn't keep its eyes fixed on Lockhart; instead, it went and dealt with the prey it could catch first.

It completely enveloped the gray wolf and the mouse it was carrying in its mouth, just like an extremely beautiful and enchanting butterfly.

In an instant, the gray wolf, which already had little magical power, turned back into mist and dissipated, while the rat let out a pitiful scream as its head was being torn apart by the wolf.

The winged demon's teeth are extremely sharp, easily tearing through tough dragon hide and hard dragon scales, not to mention ordinary rats in its mouth.

Having found the right angle, a crisp cracking sound of bone breaking echoed, and the sucking sound was particularly eerie in the dark castle corridor.

Lockhart stopped the eager Harry and Draco, and once again pulled a silver thread from his head, placing it in his left palm. Holding these memories in his hand, he slowly approached the Winged Demon.

"Squeak~~"

The winged demon alertly raised its long, thin, bone-white head, its cry somewhat shrill.

Lockhart slowly curled his fingers, making them into a small cage, as if he wanted to squeeze the memory back into his fist.

Without further hesitation, the winged demon rushed toward his palm.

As it gets closer, its body is rapidly shrinking, from its original wingspan of 1.5 meters to being slightly smaller than a normal bat.

Once inside the palm, it tightly enveloped that memory.

Lockhart gently placed his finger on its little head and eye sockets.

The winged demon, with its eyes covered, struggled slightly for a while, and finally quieted down after about half a minute.

Lockhart breathed a sigh of relief, pulled a small cloth bag from his pocket, and gently placed it inside. Seeing everyone's curiosity, he explained, "A winged demon with its eyes covered will fall asleep easily. It just consumed two memory fragments, which is enough for it to enter a deep sleep state for a long time."

As he spoke, he casually stuffed the small cloth bag into the pocket of his wizard's robe.

Young Urquhart watched this scene, seemingly wanting to say something but ultimately choosing to shut his mouth under Professor Snape's slightly mocking gaze.

This came at a great cost!

But he was also very clear that even if Professor Lockhart explained it very thoroughly, he could not possibly subdue this powerful winged demon by simply following his instructions.

The brain can do it, but the hands can't.

Even if you know how to do it, you can't do it with such ease and confidence.

Without that ability, no matter how powerful the monster is, it doesn't belong to him; forcibly keeping it will only bring a new round of disaster.

What could he do? He could only continue forward with everyone else.