Chapter 18: Dangerous Experiment
With everything prepared, Lockhart returned to his office at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, his expression becoming increasingly grave.
Magical experiments were always synonymous with danger, fraught with countless unknown risks.
Too many people had died from magical experiments. The reason Luna Lovegood in the original story could see Thestrals was because her mother blew herself up during a spell experiment when Luna was nine years old.
There were countless such cases.
Even with the simplest basic potion brewing, if Professor Snape wasn't watching closely, who knew how many accidents would occur.
Dark wizards and adult wizards who had left school didn't have the benefit of such potion masters watching over them. News of several deaths and injuries each year was so common that it was only placed in the corner of the newspaper.
Take the most commonly used potion ingredient, valerian root. Its root system was very susceptible to a disease called "Lethifold blight" during routine cultivation and planting.
One could imagine the disaster that would occur if valerian root with particularly potent mycelium inside were placed in a cauldron—such a thing would never happen at Hogwarts.
Without Snape even needing to intervene, the school governors who controlled the school's purchasing channels would have long arranged for specialized herbologists to select clean ingredients, after all, their children also attended this school.
So, one could never be too careful with magical experiments.
The bird serpent skull crystal Pensieve, Felix Felicis, and the newly acquired wand—Lockhart checked each of these items over and over again.
Especially the wand. He tried casting spells, but apart from the Memory Charm successfully working, even the simplest Levitation Charm only made the papers on the desk flutter slightly.
He wasn't discouraged. Being able to clearly feel the magic power within him now was something that would have made his previous self envious. He knew how to be content.
"What else do I need to prepare?"
He pondered seriously, then his eyes suddenly lit up. He went to his desk and began writing letters to the four children—Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Draco—asking them to come to his office after dinner for training.
If something happened to him then, these children would help him find other professors to come and assist.
He had originally intended to ask the N.E.W.T. class students to come, but thinking that these upper-year students rarely had a chance to play or date in Hogsmeade Village on weekends, he chose Harry and the others who were usually idle.
After sending out the letters with owls, he hung a "Magical Experiment in Progress, Do Not Disturb" sign on the door, closed the doors and windows, grabbed the little golden retriever, and repeatedly instructed it on the precautions.
"I've bought you toys, you have to know how to be useful at critical moments, understand?"
The little golden retriever blinked its eyes, obediently nodding, and holding its newly acquired toy, the magical eye, ran to the office door and squatted on the ground like a doorman.
"Very good."
Lockhart was very satisfied with its performance. He opened the Felix Felicis bottle, took a sip, rubbed his face, and tried to calm his nervous emotions as quickly as possible.
"Be calm~"
He took deep breaths, trying to relax himself, trying to immerse himself in the relaxed and composed state of the original Lockhart when casting spells.
That state was the key to casting spells easily and successfully. Worrying about success or failure would only confuse the magic as to what kind of command to obey.
The technique for extracting memories was actually very simple.
He held his wand to his temple, gently, slowly, and carefully drawing out a silvery, glowing thread-like substance.
He flicked it towards the Pensieve. The crystal bird serpent skull suddenly lit up, and mysterious patterns and runic spells appeared inside. Soon, the silvery substance turned into a silvery, mist-like liquid in the empty basin.
This was a trial to see if there were any problems with the Pensieve sold by Mr. Borgin.
Fortunately, although Mr. Borgin was greedy, he kept his merchant's integrity. The Pensieve was normal.
Looking down at the silvery liquid, he could vaguely see an old figure in the liquid carrying a pumpkin lantern and walking down a village street.
Lockhart watched this memory from this angle with interest.
He saw the old wizard push open his door, change into his pajamas, extinguish the oil lamp, and his thin, shriveled body curled up in the warm bed.
He let out a comfortable sigh and soon fell asleep, snoring.
Moonlight shone on the windowsill. The faint sound of clothes rubbing against each other came from the dark room. A hand slowly reached out from under the bed, holding a slender wand pointed at the old wizard in the bed.
"Obliviate!"
No one knew how powerful Lockhart's Memory Charm was.
In fact, the effects produced by many spells when they reached their extreme were far beyond ordinary people's imagination.
Take the Patronus Charm, for example. This charm could certainly be used to deal with Dementors, but no one was as outrageous as Harry Potter, who could cast a single spell and make hundreds of Dementors flee in panic.
This was definitely not an effect that a normal wizard could produce, otherwise Azkaban prison would have been conquered long ago.
Lockhart's Memory Charm was naturally the same.
As the magic took effect, the old wizard on the bed trembled, and his entire skull began to glow with a silver light. Silvery, glowing strands like spirit snakes drilled out of his head, quickly swaying in mid-air, and then, like fish entering water, they all drilled into Lockhart's head under the bed.
Memory theft was so easy!
When Lockhart quietly left, the old wizard on the bed was still snoring and having sweet dreams. When he woke up the next day, he was still as powerful as before, only he would forget the most wonderful memories of his life, nothing more.
In fact, many powerful wizards didn't even know that their memories had been stolen by Lockhart.
Human thought was a very unique thing. When the brain's memory was missing or parts were modified, for self-protection, it would self-eliminate all cracks and abruptness, and even automatically modify some memories to fit these changes, ultimately making everything look reasonable.
Aurors often did this to Muggles, and no one had ever heard of any Muggle experiencing conflicts in memory or thought because of it.
In the office.
Lockhart's movements became faster and faster. Strands of memories were drawn out—the original Lockhart's, and those of the dozen or so powerful wizards.
He stripped away all the memories to check if there were any problems with his own memories, to verify whether he had been affected by these memories.
Everything went extremely smoothly.
Even later, Lockhart could easily wave his wand, allowing the strands of silvery threads floating out of his temples to automatically fall into the Pensieve.
Such an operation even gave him more thoughts and inspiration based on the original Lockhart's thinking about the Memory Charm.
The more skilled he became, the more cautious he was.
He didn't dare to relax his grip on the wand in his hand at all.
However, the weirdness of the wizarding world was sometimes like this. When only the last small piece of memory remained in his head, it stalled.
Or rather, a great fear that surged uncontrollably from his soul frantically stimulated his brain.
Stop!
Stop now!
Lockhart's hand froze there. A clear realization suddenly emerged in his mind—this transmigrator was just a Muggle! Having completely lost the effect of these memories in his brain, he was nothing!
At that time, he would face a huge problem!
If he completely stripped away all the memories of these powerful wizards, he would completely become a Muggle. And a Muggle had no way to put these memories in the Pensieve back into his head.
In fact, in this Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, probably even Dumbledore couldn't easily do such a thing—stuffing memories that didn't belong to him in the Pensieve back into his own head!
Lockhart's reaction was extremely fast. Before even a look of horror had time to appear on his face, he had already skillfully waved his wand at the Pensieve. "Obliviate!"
In an instant, all the memories stored in the Pensieve surged out, turning into strands of silvery threads that floated into the air, swaying as they flew back towards Lockhart's head.
It was a pity that this attempt seemed to have yielded nothing.
The only thing he knew was that his previous life was just a Muggle, but that wasn't much of a gain.
Oh.
There was also a clear realization—the original Lockhart was an idiot, recklessly stuffing memories with magical power into his head relying on the powerful Memory Charm, without any means of sorting and controlling them. No wonder he ended up a brain-damaged idiot!
He squinted at the silvery threads rapidly approaching in mid-air, realizing that these were not just simple memories.
It seemed that he would have to find and study the magical knowledge in this area next.
Lockhart sighed, patiently waiting for these memories to return to his brain, when suddenly his expression changed, and he exclaimed, "Not good!"
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