Chapter 31: Confinement and Manuscript
Lockhart soon found out what had happened.
A large group of children was brought to his office.
Harry, Hermione, Ron, Neville.
Draco, Goyle, Crabbe, Pansy.
The offending children just so happened to be members of Lockhart's "Duelling Club."
In fact, if it hadn't been for Harry Potter's particularly outrageous "Expelliarmus," it wouldn't have been easy for an average young wizard to blast away a 15-meter-long Quidditch goalpost like that.
"They just started fighting on the Quidditch pitch, spell light flying everywhere, and many of the students who should have been cheering them on were injured because of it!"
Professor McGonagall's voice was extremely stern. "Did the school teach you more advanced abilities so you could use them for this kind of thing?"
Her gaze quickly swept across the group.
"Miss Granger, I always thought you wouldn't do something like this."
Professor McGonagall's words were a huge blow to Hermione.
She was so anxious she was almost crying, pointing urgently at Draco on the opposite side. "They started it! It was so dangerous then, and they cast a spell on Harry! If I hadn't reacted quickly, Harry would have fallen from the sky."
Draco looked at her coldly. "I didn't. We didn't do anything! Mud... You simply don't understand the pride of a pure-blood family. We wouldn't do such a thing on the pitch!"
"Lies!" Hermione shrieked. "Many people saw it! Harry was hanging in mid-air and almost fell off. I cast a spell on you then, and Harry's problem was solved immediately! Don't say it wasn't you!"
"No!" Draco's eyes turned red. "You're all like this. You think I'm a bad person, so you don't even consider whether I would do such a thing. You just blame everything bad on me."
"Professor!" He looked at Professor McGonagall. "This whole incident was caused by them targeting me. We were just retaliating!"
The two sides argued again, each sticking to their own story. Gryffindor Head Professor McGonagall and Slytherin Head Professor Snape stood aside with dark faces.
Lockhart, however, had figured it out.
Clearly, this time Draco and his friends were indeed wrongly accused.
If his judgment was correct, the one who attacked Harry was Dobby, the Malfoy family's house-elf loyal to Harry. Sensing the danger in the school, he hoped to use this method to make Harry leave this place.
The method was a bit crude.
Like black magical creatures, house-elves, as magical creatures, didn't quite understand human logic either.
But Lockhart couldn't say this.
He had no way to explain why he knew about the existence of someone like Dobby.
A house-elf had infiltrated the school and was attacking students unrestrainedly. Who knew if the school headmaster, Dumbledore, was actually aware of it?
If he knew, the old Dumbledore, who had experienced too many political battles, wouldn't simply treat this as children's games. He might even think it was some trick from Voldemort's side.
Anyway, Lockhart wasn't getting involved.
But letting these children clamorous in his office wasn't a solution either. He tapped on the desk, signaling everyone to quiet down.
His teaching over this period had indeed had some impact on these students.
At least it was much more effective than Professor Snape's cold snort. Even Harry and Hermione shut their mouths.
"According to school rules, you attacked fellow students. All of you will serve detention."
Seeing that a few of the little ones were about to speak, he just looked at them coldly. "Say one more word, and I will ban you from participating in this year's Quidditch House Cup."
Instantly, everyone became obedient.
Draco and Harry and the others had a strong sense of honor and couldn't imagine the trouble their absence from the competition would bring to their houses.
Detention was considered a slightly top-tier punishment at Hogwarts, with expulsion being the next level up.
But in fact, the so-called "detention" was subject to each professor's discretion.
In the original story, Umbridge would use a quill that drew blood to carve lines on the back of Harry's hand as a punishment, while with the original Lockhart, it was helping to reply to fan mail.
But none of that mattered now.
They were unlucky this time.
Lockhart was hardly a saint. Knowing that the curse on his position was taking effect, he was hoping for a group of strong helpers by his side, and these young wizards had conveniently delivered themselves to his door.
There was no reason not to use them!
Besides attending classes, they would all have to come to his office for detention, which meant they would be facing the crisis together with him.
Lockhart pointed to the Quidditch goalpost that stretched across the entire office. "You must pay the price for your actions and compensate the students you injured. And this goalpost, you have to find a way to put it back!"
Repairing the office wasn't actually a big problem.
Harry and Draco, rarely cooperating, rode their flying broomsticks and pulled ropes to drag the goalpost back to the pitch, while Hermione cast repair spells on the windows and walls.
It was worth mentioning that Pansy, a seemingly peripheral character among them, also knew the Repairing Charm.
As expected of someone from an old pure-blood family, she received more training than other ordinary students.
Their Repairing Charms weren't very powerful. Places like the windows were repaired completely, but an ugly crack remained on the hole in the wall.
Hermione looked very apologetic about all this, almost crying as she helplessly looked at the crack.
Lockhart looked at the crack with a deep gaze, but ultimately said nothing.
What was coming would always come. He wanted to see how the curse would manifest.
He hung the string of Cornish Pixies that had been dangling from the oak tree trunk in front of the crack and clapped his hands. "Look, this isn't bad either, is it?"
Hermione was full of apology. Looking at the bright smile on Lockhart's face, she opened her mouth but didn't know what to say.
Lockhart didn't comfort her.
This wasn't the first time Hermione had cast a spell on a classmate. Last year, she had directly attacked Neville, her methods decisive and swift, a Gryffindor who seemed intelligent but would only rush forward when faced with problems.
It would be good for her to learn a lesson.
"It seems I need to find some things for you to do."
When everyone had finished their tasks and returned to the office, Lockhart took out a large pile of books and materials borrowed from the library and distributed them to these energetic youngsters. "I'm planning to write a book called Where to Find Dark Creatures recently. Maybe you can help."
"There are eight of you. I require each of you to choose one of the most common dark creatures and then compile the most detailed information about it possible."
Lockhart had very rich experience in Defence Against the Dark Arts involving dark creatures in his memory, but more detailed and accurate academic descriptions and historical cases required a lot of research.
This was an extremely energy-consuming task.
Now that he had these people to help, it would be much easier all at once.
He only needed to continue supplementing various defensive techniques and key points on these materials, and in the future, it would probably become an indispensable textbook for Defence Against the Dark Arts classes in various magic schools.
And this, at the same time, would become a rich stroke in the "fairy-tale lives" of these little ones. From the perspective of the magical path of "fairy-tale romance," the benefits were not just this book.
When the trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked to the front line against Voldemort, when Hermione stepped into politics, when Draco and his friends began to become the pillars of pure-blood families, many wonderful reactions would occur because of this co-authored book.
Lockhart expressed his anticipation.
The choices of the few little ones were very interesting.
Draco, Pansy, and the other Slytherin students tended to choose dark creatures that had already been effectively utilized in wizarding society, such as Dementors.
And Harry and the others tended to choose what they had come into contact with themselves.
For example, Ron chose Ghouls. His attic housed one, although Lockhart didn't know why this Ghoul could stay there all the time, whether it always had corpses to eat or what the situation was.
Neville chose Grindylows, which was actually a large category. The Cornish Pixies hanging in the office as wind chimes were one example, and another more common one for young wizards was Peeves the Poltergeist in the castle. Poor Neville must often be troubled by mischievous spirits.
Hermione chose Grindylows, a type of horned and green-skinned humanoid water demon. This was obviously something she had learned about in Hogwarts: A History, because the merpeople in the school's Black Lake kept Grindylows as pets.
Harry's choice was interesting—the Basilisk.
Lockhart looked at his choice with a strange expression, not knowing whether this was the protagonist's halo or the so-called guidance of fate.
"Strictly speaking, the Basilisk is not a strictly defined dark creature."
Harry was stunned for a moment, somewhat awkwardly wanting to say he would choose another one, but heard Draco snort beside him. His expression instantly became firm. "Professor, can I choose it?"
"Of course."
Lockhart nodded, feeling this was a good opportunity to popularize knowledge for the young wizards. He simply had them all put down their books and materials, pulled a chair over to them, and began to explain.
"What I'm about to tell you, I won't admit to teaching you after you leave this office."
"Because although it follows the most rigorous academic classification, it is offensive to the existence of many intelligent beings."
"In real life, the Ministries of Magic in various countries always have too many considerations and will make many definitions that do not conform to academics but conform to the interests of various groups."
He shrugged, joking, "For example, Centaurs, they wouldn't like us calling them magical creatures."
"But as long as you clearly know the specific distinctions in your mind, we can find our respective defense methods faster." Lockhart tapped his head. "Keep this kind of wisdom in your head, take it out to use at critical times, rather than saying it out loud, understand?"
The few young wizards nodded hurriedly.
Among these people, Harry, as a sensitive child, felt this particularly keenly.
He had caused a big trouble today. Relying on the abilities Professor Lockhart had taught, he had not only almost destroyed Professor Lockhart's office but had also caused Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall to bring them to Professor Lockhart to answer for their actions.
He had once feared that he wouldn't have the opportunity to receive Professor Lockhart's guidance in the future.
He was so passionate about everything magical, but never before had a professor led him so deeply to understand and touch the wizarding world. He didn't want to lose such an opportunity at all.
He understood the meaning of not talking about what the professor had said outside, so as not to cause him more trouble.
"Very good."
Lockhart pulled a small blackboard to his side, quickly wrote a few words on it, and placed it in front of everyone so they could see clearly. "We will discuss the difference between magical creatures and fantastic beasts from three perspectives—magic power, magical characteristics, and biological nature."
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