Chapter 94: We Can Walk into Darkness
As the saying goes, "Among three people, there must be one who can be my teacher."
Lockhart, observing Draco's situation, suddenly found a solution to his own perplexing problem.
Yes, he was here, on the top floor of the small town's clock tower, sipping tea and looking down at Draco and the hunters.
He had already emerged from his lycanthropic state, returning to his human form. This wasn't difficult for him. His self-existent will, far beyond the comprehension of ordinary wizards, combined with the soul-guarding power of the Patronus Charm, and the bodily intervention of the "Human-Restoring Charm"—even with a persistent urge for blood, he managed to maintain his human shape.
Of course, it was a strained maintenance.
He knew that if he relaxed his taut mind, or let his Patronus horse, which was guarding him, wander elsewhere, he would instantly feel the moon's call and transform into a werewolf. But this was precisely his dilemma.
He had inadvertently gained a mastery over this aspect, preventing the werewolf's dark magical power from truly corrupting him.
It could affect his physical form, and through physical stimulation, influence his emotions and thoughts, but it couldn't reach the deepest part of his soul.
His proposed solution for werewolf characteristics—"completely acknowledge the werewolf identity, then completely negate the werewolf identity"—was stuck at the beginning.
Whenever the unique dark power of the werewolf venom began to boil and erode his mind, the Patronus horse would automatically appear beside him, triggering his most primal self-preservation mechanism.
How to solve this? He had run out of ideas. But then, seeing Draco's performance, he suddenly had an epiphany: abandon the Patronus Charm's protection of the mind, and actively embrace the dark power.
"What an interesting idea," he mused. Perhaps this was a benefit of being a professor: when he taught his magical concepts without reservation to young wizards, he would find these ideas taking root and blossoming in every spiritual soul, bearing many unexpected fruits.
Then he could learn from them and incorporate them into his own magical path. Following Draco's lead, he suddenly had a clear idea.
The Memory Charm! His current most proficient spell, it could easily solve this problem.
"Obliviate!"
He cast the spell on himself, intending to completely forget everything about being human! This was an extremely dangerous attempt. If anything went wrong, and no one knew his problem to cast the counter-spell for the Memory Charm, he might forget everything for the rest of his life.
But here's the interesting part. He wasn't in the normal reality at this moment, but in the world created by the collision of the Dark magical creature's "Sack Creature" phenomenon and their minds.
When he left this world, regardless of how, the power within him would again become imbalanced due to the loss of the Sack Creature's influence.
This imbalance would be enough to re-trigger the Patronus Charm, fully rousing his soul to instinctively resolve any memory issues. This was the benefit of deeply exploring the essence of each spell; he could utilize these characteristics to create opportunities for himself.
The Memory Charm he was casting now was the most standard form of the spell, not copying or cutting, but true oblivion. Everything in his memory was rapidly being forgotten.
His Patronus horse, too, disintegrated into a silvery mist, then vanished, as it lost the support of its magical source.
"This will be a great adventure." He felt his memories rapidly disappearing, smiled as he finished the last sip of tea in his cup, and looked at Draco in the dark corner in the distance, giving a faint smile.
"We can walk into darkness, as long as we still retain light in our hearts. What does it matter then?" This was what he said to Draco. It was also what he said to himself.
The human part of him was rapidly dissipating, and so the part belonging to animal instinct quickly took precedence. Moonlight diffused, and mystery revived. His body rapidly changed.
His head seemed to have a small animal thrashing inside, twisting and growing, his body lengthening, dense gray wolf fur sprouting on his skin.
"Howl~!" He howled at the full moon in the sky.
"Werewolf! The werewolf has appeared!" the hunters below screamed. Instantly, someone pulled a trigger, and a thick, thumb-sized arrow, propelled by immense kinetic energy, shot upwards. It was so fast that its trajectory was almost invisible to the naked eye.
! A huge wolf claw snatched the arrow shaft.
The massive wolf head opened its fanged maw and roared at them, its voice echoing for ten miles. The werewolf tossed the arrow shaft aside, charging directly at a nearby pillar.
With immense force, it ripped the pillar free, sending it and other architectural debris crashing down onto the hunters below. Terrified, the hunters scattered and fled.
The gigantic metal clock face from the clock tower was violently torn off by the werewolf. It was hurled high into the air, aiming for the hunter who had fired the crossbow. That seemed to be an experienced old hunter.
In his panic, he quickly changed his escape direction, and instead of wasting time getting up after falling, he simply rolled rapidly on the ground. This clearly worked; he wasn't hit by the clock face.
But before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, a massive wolf foot stomped on his chest. The immense force almost shattered all his ribs. He let out a bloodcurdling scream of pain, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
"Save him quickly!" the surrounding hunters shouted, grabbing their weapons and attacking the werewolf.
This werewolf seemed stronger and more dangerous than any they had encountered before. Their attacks all failed. Arrows were swatted away, javelins dodged, and the only sharp steel knife that managed to wound the werewolf merely cut off some wolf hair and opened a small gash before the werewolf grabbed the attacker's arm, slamming him and his knife against the opposite wall.
In just a moment, all their attacks were neutralized, and they were routed.
"Run!"
Someone shouted. Everyone turned and fled. They knew that as long as they escaped the werewolf's sight and hid inside a house, or even under their blankets, the werewolf wouldn't attack them again. However, this werewolf was incredibly fast.
Before they could completely escape the clock tower square, one of the hunters was clawed in the back. Several bloody wounds exposed the broken vertebrae and internal organs within his chest. Yet, the werewolf didn't let him go, grabbing him and biting his neck.
Just then, a figure charged against the fleeing crowd, running towards the werewolf, waving a small wooden stick and shouting, "Expulso!"
Boom! The werewolf was thrown backward as if hit by a speeding vehicle, flung far away. The hunters were stunned, staring in disbelief at the small boy before them—the town's young blacksmith, the child they had believed to be an evil witch and prepared to burn to death. This young blacksmith actually saved them?
"Get out of here quickly!" Draco coldly told these foolish Muggles, tightly gripping his wand and staring intently at the werewolf that was getting back up.
He didn't know why he had saved these people. He should have sneered and watched them die. But he had saved them anyway, stepping forward without hesitation to face a werewolf he wasn't even sure he could defeat.
He didn't want to bother figuring out his own logic; since he had already stepped up, he would face it.
The werewolf was fast, roaring as it charged at him, swatting aside a hunter who tried to block it. When it reached a certain distance, it leaped forward and pounced.
Now!
Draco remembered Professor Lockhart's crucial lessons on timing in magical duels, quickly casting the spell, "Finite Incantatem!" Perfect casting, perfect response!
The timing he chose made the spell unavoidable for the werewolf. The choice of magic was also specifically aimed at the werewolf's characteristics; this spell should strip a large, physically damaging monster of its ability to harm him.
The only problem was that his magical power wasn't strong enough to break through the werewolf's formidable magical resistance, so the spell had no effect.
Boom!
The werewolf instantly landed where he had been standing.
Luckily, he had quickly performed a tactical evasive maneuver after casting, another teaching from Professor Lockhart: applying Quidditch skills to magical duels. He had no time to get up from the ground.
Seeing the werewolf instantly lock onto his position, he frantically waved his wand at the ground in front of him, "Engorgio!"
One of the stone slabs on the town square ground instantly expanded, pushing his body back and creating distance, also blocking the werewolf's attack. But this move still had no effect.
The werewolf's jumping ability was simply too powerful. It leaped to the other side of the stone, growling with bared fangs, its arms spread, claws extended, waiting for the stone to push this delicious meal toward it.
There was no time to dodge. Draco pressed his lips together, looking at the werewolf directly in front of him.
A dark flicker passed through his eyes as he quickly waved his wand. He had abandoned the Patronus Charm and chosen Dark magic. He hadn't just regained his spellcasting ability; he could feel his improvement in Dark magic.
He didn't even need to try to know it, because his current state of mind had an indelible shadow. He didn't want to try. He had originally planned to find Professor Lockhart and, after listening to his advice, decide whether to use Dark magic.
But now, it seemed he had no choice. Then...
"Voodoo Ersatz!" He quickly cast the spell at the werewolf. After finishing the incantation, he put his left pinky finger in his mouth, bit down hard on the nail, and pulled forcefully.
Hiss~!
The nail was ripped off, and the intense pain almost made him faint; he felt an agony that pierced to his core. But the effect of this Dark magic was absolutely powerful.
The werewolf lunged again, snarling, and swung its sharp claws at his shoulder. The sharp claws instantly tore through his flesh. But a strange thing happened: his shoulder was perfectly fine, yet the werewolf's shoulder suddenly erupted with a large claw mark, bleeding profusely.
"Roar~~~!" The werewolf howled in pain, kicking him away, but simultaneously falling to the ground itself.
The Voodoo Ersatz Charm, a Dark magic passed down from ancient African tribes, allowed the caster to transfer harm from themselves to the attacker. But at the same time, the caster had to endure double the pain of the inflicted harm.
This spell had two limitations. First, the fingernail in the caster's mouth could not be spat out; if it fell, the magic would instantly fail. Many could not endure the doubled pain feedback and spat out the nail.
Second, it could only withstand a maximum of seven instances of harm within a short period, because, according to tribal records, casters would inevitably faint after the seventh instance of doubled pain.
This Dark magic had since completely disappeared from African magical society. It could be said that only the Malfoy family had fully documented and preserved it.
Draco struggled to his feet, terribly pale and swaying, grimacing as he gripped his wand, pointing it at the werewolf. His guess was correct; the Dark magic he cast had unexpectedly good results.
Come on, werewolf!
He still had many extremely powerful but equally dangerous Dark spells for both enemy and self that he hadn't used yet!
But the werewolf evidently realized the problem. Its vicious wolf eyes stared intently at him for a moment, then it turned and leaped onto the roof of a nearby building, quickly disappearing into the darkness.
Draco did not relax his guard. Professor Lockhart had once taught a tactic called the "feigned retreat"—pretending to flee to make the enemy relax, then turning back to attack.
Moreover... he didn't trust any of these Muggle hunters around him!