The slacker professor at Hogwarts

022 Come on, be good, feel my fear.

The two dark magic creatures, "Cellar Rot" and "Wrongfully Killed Fairy," are not common nowadays.

In fact, by 1992, due to the rise of Muggle technology and culture, the encroachment on living resources and space, and the infiltration and changes in cultural influence, many magical creatures that were common in wizarding history had become scarce.

The most obvious change is that the former Fantastic Beast Defense has now become "Fantastic Beast Conservation," and even powerful creatures like the dragons have begun to rely on breeding farms to continue their population.

Who knows when Dark Magic Creature Defense will become Dark Magic Creature Protection?

While the "Crypt Rot" is a dark magic creature, it's not so bad; you can occasionally hear about it in rumors about "cursed houses" and the like.

The story of the "wrongfully killed fairy" seems to have disappeared in the last thirty or forty years, with no news of her since.

"The effects of these two dark magic creatures appear similar, but their inherent characteristics are fundamentally different."

Lockhart was talking eloquently when an idea suddenly popped into his head—maybe he could follow in Newt's footsteps and write a book called "Where Are the Dark Creatures?"

This idea was definitely not because of the desire to earn royalties.

He was quite satisfied with the wealth accumulated by the original owner of the body and did not have the drive to work hard to make more money for the time being.

What he wants is to improve his own strength.

Just as he told Hermione, a wizard must know how to make good use of his talents, enter an environment that suits his talents, and immerse himself in a fairytale-like romantic atmosphere, and his strength will naturally improve rapidly.

His talent clearly lies in the area of ​​dark magic creature defense.

It's quite fortunate that I figured this out in such a short time since I transmigrated.

At least in his previous life, he lived most of his life without ever knowing what area he was talented in.

Of course, things have priorities, and writing the book can be put on hold for now. The issue of the Urquhart family castle that Professor McGonagall mentioned is clearly a good opportunity.

Compared to leaving Hogwarts to face dark magical creatures alone after her one-year term, it's clear that she can now have Professor McGonagall and the Urquhart family by her side for help.

We must seize this great opportunity!

Professor McGonagall had no idea that Lockhart was dedicated to collecting dark magic creatures to enhance his own power, and seeing how concerned he was about this matter, she was already somewhat moved.

"The cellar rot is also known as 'black hair,' and its characteristic is that we can see black hair-like things in the blood of the large number of corpses it produces."

Lockhart frowned, horrified by the image of this dark magic creature from his memory. "Damn, this thing is disgusting."

"It has the common characteristics of dark magic creatures that 'breed in dark corners,' which is that it smells faintly of decay or fishiness, and sometimes it also has a unique sweet and fishy smell."

"This smell often attracts venomous snakes, leeches, spiders, poisonous insects, and other animals."

"The taste of cellar rot is slightly sour with a hint of sweetness, and if you lick it, your tongue will feel a slight tingling sensation like an electric current."

Lick a mouthful of blood from a corpse covered in black hair?

Professor McGonagall quietly distanced herself.

"Its magical property is decay, so we can often hear a sense of sorrow or lamentation about the passage of time in the sounds it produces."

"The other type of 'witch who died unjustly' or 'witch on the stake' is much easier to identify. If we can find the source of the sound, we will find a pale, semi-transparent figure of a witch tied to a rack."

"The earliest recorded legend of this dark magic creature dates back to around the same time as the founding of Hogwarts. It originated in the witch hunt era, when many people who were not witches were tied to the fire and burned to death. It looked like a witch hunt, but it was actually persecution."

"The earth mourns those who die unjustly, and the snakes and insects of the forest gather together, and the earth sings a song of blood."

"As a result, people became increasingly convinced that the right person had been arrested and that the one burned at the stake was the evil witch, hence the name 'the witch who died unjustly'."

The legend of this dark magical creature is roughly about a Muggle woman who was persecuted and turned into a witch to seek revenge.

It has a bit of a cult satirical fairy tale flavor.

"When you encounter this kind of dark magic creature, listen carefully to the song. You can make out a tiny, subtle sound, which is the earth's cry: 'Don't burn her. Bury her in the earth and let her rot. She will be reborn.'"

"Of course, the simplest way to identify it is to hear a bird singing, a chirping sound."

"And 'Cellular Rot' also has its own sound, like the 'puff puff puff' sound of blood bubbling. Most importantly, it has a very unique echo. The two are somewhat similar, but they are actually very easy to distinguish."

Lockhart explained the most obvious distinction, but because his ventriloquism skills were lacking, he couldn't imitate it at all.

He thought for a moment, then took a crystal ball from the bookshelf behind him, which was crooked and squeezed by tree trunks, and handed it to Professor McGonagall. "I'll demonstrate. You use magic to take a picture of it and give it to Mr. Urquhart. We must first determine what kind of magical creature it is before we can prepare a plan to deal with it."

Professor McGonagall took the crystal ball, watching him stand up deep in thought, and said with deep emotion, "Professor Lockhart, I don't know how to thank you..."

Lockhart smiled and shook his head. "Since I came to teach at Hogwarts, you have been so tolerant and supportive of me. I should be the one thanking you."

There's no need to say too many polite things.

Lockhart began to take action.

His presentation needed a little help, so he led Professor McGonagall around the big tree in front of his desk and found several curious kids eavesdropping.

Harry and his friends weren't actually too afraid of the young Professor Lockhart's authority; he was more like a learned older brother to them. But Professor McGonagall made them feel intimidated.

Seeing Professor McGonagall approach, they all quickly gripped their wands and assumed a fighting stance.

Professor McGonagall was clearly dissatisfied with their attitude, and she reprimanded them with a stern face, "You will never know how rare it is to have the opportunity to receive private instruction from professors. You should know how to seize the opportunity."

Apart from professors like Horace Slughorn who are good at cultivating connections and running clubs, most professors have almost no energy to privately teach students outside of their teaching duties, otherwise they would really have no life of their own.

Especially for children like Ron and Hermione, only those who excelled in their fifth-grade exams and were selected by the professors to enter the NEWT Advanced Class had the opportunity to receive training like this.

Lockhart didn't seem to mind.

Harry and his friends are only twelve or thirteen years old. Although they are active, they are not to the point of being unruly children, so there is no need to be too harsh on them.

But he did not refute Professor McGonagall's statement, and went to the peach tree by the fireplace on his own.

They gently knocked on the entrance of the tree hole, as if knocking on a door.

The tree hollow was quiet and empty.

A golden bolt of lightning streaked across the distance, quickly climbing onto Lockhart's shoulder, where he stood with his hands on his hips, glaring into the tree hollow.

Boggart could ignore Lockhart, but he couldn't help but fear the three hands that could control fear, so he had no choice but to obediently come out.

Black smoke billowed and transformed once again into a humanoid figure wearing tattered wizard robes.

The young wizards looked at the seemingly evil-looking creature with some fear, while Professor McGonagall approached them warily, staring intently at the fluffy-looking monkey perched on Lockhart's shoulder.

She didn't know everything; the realm of dark magic creatures was too bizarre and profound. Compared to the seemingly evil Boggart, this fluffy, seemingly cute little creature in front of her gave her an extremely dangerous feeling.

Everyone was nervous, but Lockhart, on the other hand, was watching Boggart with great interest, rubbing his tiny hands together, eager to try.

Perhaps his unique talent lies in dealing with dark magical creatures. After all, even though Lockhart in the original story knew how to deal with them, he performed clumsily and couldn't even handle Cornish elves.

This interesting yet dangerous magical experiment yielded two spells, but the biggest gain was the insights he gained about memory.

This is his true ability!

Lockhart was eagerly anticipating that his guess would come true.

He gently placed his hands on either side of the hood of Boggart's tattered wizard's robe, turned its head to face him, and said expectantly, "Come on, be good, feel my fear."

Boggart has always enjoyed playing pranks on humans, so how could he possibly obey Lockhart's orders!

Just kidding, this...

这很简单！

It sensed the dangerous gaze of three hands standing on this human's shoulders, looking down at it, and chose to follow its heart.

Feeling fear?

Humans, you're just asking for trouble!

Let me become the thing you fear most!

With a bang, its entire body exploded into black smoke.

Before anyone could react, blood began to seep from every corner of the large office grove.

The blood gushed and bubbled, and dangerous-looking venomous snakes, spiders, and insects slithered out from every corner of the grove. From the depths of the forest, a faint and terrifying female voice sang.

"Aaaaaahhhhhh~~~"

Harry and the other young wizards screamed in terror and scrambled behind Professor McGonagall.

Lockhart ignored them, simply blinking to pull himself out of his daze of fear of the scene, and looked at Professor McGonagall. "Listen carefully, the sound of blood and the singing..."

"This is the most distinctive feature of the dark magic creature 'Crypt Rot'."

Professor McGonagall, holding her wand against the crystal ball in her other hand, cast a spell to record images and sounds, and nodded with a stern face.

"You've recorded it, right? Now let's simulate the state of a magical creature like the 'Wrongfully Killed Fairy,' Boggart, experience it again."

Boggart was clearly a little confused; it couldn't understand why the image of the human's deepest fear was changing.

It couldn't understand why, when the human in front of it was in such a state of extreme fear, a breach had appeared in its mind. At this moment, the Three Hands could have easily taken advantage of the situation to eliminate the human controlling it! So why didn't the Three Hands make a move?

Not only did she not intervene, she even helped the male witch control himself?

Boggart didn't understand.

What can Bogut do?

Bogut had no choice but to obey.

Soon, the scene in the office began to change subtly. The blood changed from thick plasma mixed with hair to a clearer appearance, and the snakes and insects became less frightening. Birds began to sing in the treetops, and the earth seemed to be calling out. Accompanied by the witch's ethereal song, it didn't look so terrifying anymore.

Do not!

This is still terrifying for Harry and his friends!

They wanted to escape.

Professor Clohart, however, began to beckon them closer to experience the horrific scene and to explain the differences between the "Crypt Rot" and the "Wrongfully Killed Fairy," two seemingly similar but fundamentally different dark magic creatures.

While waiting for Professor McGonagall to finish recording, Lockhart did not give up the opportunity. He began to repeatedly change the images of fear in his mind, allowing the effects simulated by Boggart to switch back and forth between the two.

I'm sure Harry and his friends will remember this knowledge point very well.

It was more than just memorable; Hermione felt like she was about to collapse. She could clearly feel the golden monkey on Professor Lockhart's shoulder staring intently into her eyes.

She had experienced it firsthand, and the feeling of having her eyeballs gouged out was absolutely awful!

In such a terrifying scene, her breathing became rapid.

If it weren't for the annoying Draco standing by, and her determination not to show any weakness lest this disgusting guy humiliate her again from such a stupid angle as bloodline, she would have screamed long ago.

"very good!"

"What a perfect lesson!"

Hermione was on edge, unaware that Professor Lockhart had dispelled the terrifying scene. In fact, the other three were the same. They all breathed a sigh of relief as they looked at the grove office that had returned to normal.

Professor McGonagall watched this scene with amusement and nodded. "Yes, absolutely perfect."

It was a bit too exciting.

She could finally understand why her aunt and nephew, young Urquhart, used such a terrified tone in his letters describing the problems happening in the castle.

Using Boggarts to simulate visuals?

She had never heard of anyone being able to do that before.

That's quite an impressive feat! Professor Lockhart is clearly very skilled in the field of dark magic creatures!