Chapter 38: Can't Stop
Lockhart's greatest fear did not come to pass.
Ginny Weasley, or rather the soul fragment residing within her, Tom Riddle, had not targeted him.
It was all a coincidence.
When Ginny sneaked over to kill Hagrid's roosters, she discovered the suspicious and furtive Lockhart—who was actually just picking up suitable sand for making a simple Pensieve.
Most crucially, Lockhart had specifically glanced at Hagrid's chicken coop and then started looking around as if searching for something.
This had briefly made Ginny believe she had been exposed.
Wizards under the control of the Imperius Curse were very unique. They seemed capable of thought, yet they were separated from true thinking ability by a barrier.
Ginny understood fear. She knew very well what kind of trouble her actions would bring her if exposed, and she made the decision to attack in an instant.
She was only controlled by the Imperius Curse, not forcibly manipulated like a puppet by Tom Riddle. At that time, the Horcrux couldn't possibly direct her actions in any way.
Otherwise, Tom would definitely not have allowed her to attack a school professor like this, as it would only lead to unexpected events in his plan.
Such decisiveness and resoluteness...
"Heh~"
Lockhart chuckled softly. "Truly a promising dark wizard in the making."
The ability was given by Voldemort, but the judgment was her own.
Clearly...
This little witch had the potential to become a dark wizard, a lot of potential.
He hadn't paid much attention to this minor character from the original story before, and his impression of Ginny wasn't deep. This time, he was somewhat impressed.
He quickly searched through the increasingly chaotic memories in his mind for information about Ginny Weasley, but there wasn't much to be found.
After all, even after reading so many web novels in his previous life, she seemed somewhat unremarkable.
A worshipper of Harry Potter's savior title...
A popular school queen who had several boyfriends...
The magic she excelled at was inclined towards curses requiring great malice, like the Bat-Bogey Hex and the Furnunculus Curse...
Eventually married Harry Potter, who became the true savior, and had three children.
That was it.
The only somewhat detailed information was that after possessing the diary, she controlled the Basilisk to attack those who showed hostility towards Harry Potter, as well as Hermione, a girl who was close to Harry, and Penelope Clearwater, her brother Percy's girlfriend.
Among them, Penelope Clearwater was a half-blood and a prefect from Ravenclaw.
Lockhart wasn't very interested in the childish parts of this.
Nor was he interested in exploring what kind of person Ginny was.
His gaze was firmly fixed on the part of the memory where Voldemort deeply influenced Ginny.
Very interesting.
And very ingenious.
In the memory's scenes, he could clearly see that every time Ginny picked up her pen to tell the diary her little girl secrets, she opened her heart, and strands of black mist that she didn't notice quietly invaded the depths of her soul.
This was the power of dark magic.
What specific dark magic it was, Lockhart couldn't understand.
But he could roughly figure out what Tom was doing.
It was opening a life channel between itself and Ginny by imprinting itself deep within Ginny's soul, in order to take Ginny's life to complete its own resurrection.
As the saying goes, understand one thing, understand everything.
Lockhart's in-depth exploration of the Obliviate charm in relation to memory, personality, and soul allowed him to clearly see Tom's methods and marvel at some of the subtle operations involved.
"Learned something, learned something."
He clicked his tongue, full of admiration for this big shot's dark magic techniques from childhood, his gaze intently studying the details of each of his spells.
"Life replacement..."
"Opening the connection of life..."
He watched with such intense focus as the big shot performed such a bold and ingenious life surgery, his mind quickly pondering his own methods for digesting the memories in his brain.
Unfortunately.
There weren't many such fragmented memories.
The degree to which Ginny was influenced hadn't reached a qualitative change yet.
According to the diary's progress, it would probably take a whole school year to completely resolve.
Lockhart quickly browsed through these memories, and with a wave of his wand, he quietly picked out three silver threads of memory.
This was a copy, containing the three insights into magic that Tom Riddle had written into the depths of Ginny's soul.
—The Killing Curse.
—The Flying Charm.
—The Bone-Breaking Curse.
Among these, the Bone-Breaking Curse was an extremely vicious dark magic. Once released, it would relentlessly pursue the enemy until its own magic completely dissipated. Once it caught up, it would burrow into the body and frantically tear apart the enemy's bones, all the bones, big and small!
The choice of these three spells was obviously deliberate.
The Killing Curse contained Voldemort's view of life and death, influencing Ginny's personality.
The Flying Charm contained the methods and techniques for controlling magic, influencing Ginny's most fundamental behavioral driving logic.
The Bone-Breaking Curse contained the malice required for dark magic, influencing Ginny's casting attitude.
This was a very unique 'Ship of Theseus' life replacement, turning you into my image, so you become me, and your life becomes my life.
There were too many legends of similar methods. Wishing upon a demon to gain power and ultimately having one's life and soul harvested—such fairy tales were common in the wizarding world.
And now.
All the wisdom contained in these three spells would also become the basis for Lockhart to analyze the logic behind all of Tom Riddle's actions.
There was nothing that would make it easier to understand a person than to ponder them from the perspective of the soul.
Lockhart believed that the next time he encountered Tom Riddle, it would be surprised to find that he understood it even better than it understood itself.
As the saying goes, 'know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.' He understood the importance of using wisdom too well.
Since his transmigration, everything he had done had benefited from this.
"Hehe~"
"This is simply too interesting."
Lockhart waved his wand, allowing these memories to float out of the crystal bird skull Pensieve and re-enter Ginny's head on the ground.
Only the memory of her discovering him when she came to kill the roosters tonight was completely erased.
She wouldn't remember encountering him.
Therefore, she wouldn't be able to tell Tom, who was still hiding in the diary, about this.
Since now wasn't a good time to deal with Voldemort's diary Horcrux, he had to carefully control the scope of this event's influence—only removing himself from it.
There was still a long time ahead.
Let's take it slowly!
Lockhart put away the crystal Pensieve and the flying broom, whistled to call back the Winged Demon and the Boggart, waved to the Wronged Fairy who was helping to guard behind him, pushed through the bushes, and walked out.
The Forbidden Forest became quiet again.
After a long while, a few bird calls descended here again, and the insects finally made sounds again.
The distant sounds of the Quidditch pitch and Fang's barking from Hagrid's hut also drifted over.
"Ah~~~~"
A terrified scream tore through the tranquility of the forest.
Ginny Weasley woke up in disbelief from the Forbidden Forest, looking around at the unfamiliar and dark surroundings in a panic, screaming in terror.
"How did I get here?"
She began to flee haphazardly towards the outside of the Forbidden Forest.
She didn't notice that in the canopy of a large tree behind her, a pair of eyes was quietly watching her retreating figure.
"Guji?"
Little Goldie offered the two snake eyes made of black smoke to Lockhart as if presenting a treasure. Seeing that his master didn't seem to like them, he happily kept them.
The Wronged Fairy also followed Lockhart's gaze, looking at him with some doubt. "Why didn't you kill her? She almost killed you just now."
Lockhart shrugged. "This matter is complicated, and it's hard to explain in a short while."
The Wronged Fairy nodded, and strands of pink light extended from her body, like a pink jellyfish in mid-air, gradually disappearing into his body.
After Ginny had completely walked away, Lockhart, holding the Screaming Plant potted plant, flipped over and jumped down from the tree.
The movement of slowly floating to the ground faintly had some semblance of the Flying Charm.
Hmm, it could only be said that there was a tiny trace of the Flying Charm, there, but not much.
"Today has today's tasks, let's continue working!"
He stretched, telling himself not to stop.
He knew that Voldemort's curse on the professorship, what happened tonight was probably just the beginning.
Just like Professor Trelawney said, the more you crave these things, the more you don't return to where you should be, the more you don't stay away from magic, the more the curse will find you.
What could Lockhart do?
He took out the small glass bottle Snape had given him and continued towards the direction of collecting dew.
Magic...
It didn't seem to exist only as knowledge; it always accompanied actions. Perhaps welcoming and dealing with such a curse was precisely the path for him to completely enter the magical life.
Maybe...
It wasn't wizards choosing magic, but magic choosing wizards.
Magic, the ultimate romance of fairy tales.
To truly become a part of the fairy tale, perhaps this was the meaning of a romantic fairy tale life.
Walking on that romantic and dangerous path, magic would quietly bloom like a gentle rain.
The mist in the Forbidden Forest at night grew thicker and thicker. Three gray wolves quietly stepped out from it, following Lockhart's steps, sometimes crawling on the grass, sometimes leaping and moving through the treetops.
Until they completely disappeared into the mist.
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