Hogwarts: Don't call me Wandmaker

Chapter 108 The Shameless Lockhart

Thanks to Tom Riddle, Dumbledore added another thirty points to Gryffindor's score after taking away the dirty piece of paper.

As for Snape's threat last night to deduct 100 points and put him in solitary confinement, the headmaster unilaterally decided that it was just Snape talking in anger and didn't count—a decision that really angered Snape once again.

Siren was initially quite pleased and didn't even intend to hold a grudge against Snape for secretly taking half a bottle of mandrake juice from him.

But when the third person came to ask him what exactly happened last night, he could somewhat understand Snape's feelings.

Someone has leaked information about what happened last night, and now almost everyone knows that Xilun was attacked by a mysterious creature and almost lost his life.

The process of his petrification was described in great detail, and it was also mentioned that he sat pitifully in the corner of the corridor, with panic frozen in his eyes, as if he was expecting a powerful wizard to help him get rid of the threat of death.

Hearing these words from Harry made Siron feel a tightness all over his body, so embarrassed that his scalp tingled.

Was he like that back then?

It doesn't seem so. He felt that his reaction was quite quick. He first used the unicorn's soul to avoid the basilisk's gaze and escaped the basilisk's perception by being petrified.

In addition, deliberately leaving mandrake sap would help the school make the potion to remove petrification more quickly...

However, because of the unicorn, this step was not needed. It was also the first time that Xiren knew that the unicorn soul could be used in this way, a mobile black magic nemesis?
This was the only thing that Xilun hadn't expected. Apart from that, even now, looking back, Xilun doesn't think he made any mistakes at the time.

"I was almost killed, including being petrified, but I didn't panic." This was the umpteenth time Xiren had said this.

"Where did you hear all this from?"

“It’s all over the school,” Ron said.

“I think you should be able to guess,” Harry suddenly glanced at Hermione and lowered his voice, “that exaggerated style, like everyone’s anticipating the hero’s arrival, doesn’t it seem familiar to you?”

Ok?
Hearing Harry say that, Siron did feel that it was quite familiar; he had even seen it recently.

The villagers, suffering terribly from the werewolf attacks, longed day and night for a powerful wizard to help drive the werewolves away—isn't this just like the plot of Lockhart's "Wandering with the Werewolves"?

……

Sure enough, the rumors changed again the next day.

The first half is the same: Siron is attacked and powerless to resist, and can only watch helplessly as he turns to stone.

However, this time there was an extra part – roughly meaning that the righteous Lockhart arrived in time, the attackers were so frightened that they fled in panic, and Siron was saved.

"Was it really Lockhart who saved you?" During Herbology class, Professor Sprout was demonstrating how to keep wrinkled figs warm in winter, and Ron and Harry were staring intently at Hillon.

Hermione initially pretended not to care, but later she intentionally or unintentionally leaned her head closer.

"What do you think?" Siron trimmed the excess branches with scissors and said helplessly, "That thing dared to attack me on the eighth floor, which means it's not even afraid of Dumbledore. Do you think it will be scared away by Lockhart's name?"

“No!” Harry blurted out.

“Well, not necessarily…” Hermione argued, “Professor Lockhart, he’s more active… Yes, he’s done so many amazing things, he’s the most sought-after wizard in the wizarding world, while Headmaster Dumbledore hasn’t appeared in public for a long time.”

“Hermione, Dumbledore doesn’t need to show himself.” Ron glanced at her. “Besides, Lockhart has never used magic in front of us, not even once.”

Lockhart's little tricks could get him away with things for a while, but now that two months of school have passed, more and more people are noticing that he has never used a single Illumination Charm in class; it's all done by the students.

“But…” Hermione stammered, unable to speak, but finally glanced at Professor Sprout before suddenly realizing something.

“But the other professors didn’t say anything. Don’t forget that many professors were there, including the principal.” Hermione convinced herself first, and the more she spoke, the more confident she became.

“If Professor Lockhart really lied, at least Professor McGonagall would have exposed him.”

“That’s where his intelligence lies,” Xilun said, shrugging.

The basilisk did indeed run away before the professor arrived, regardless of the specific reason, it did.

Although Siren knew this had nothing to do with the professor, others did not.

So even though Lockhart shamelessly took the credit for himself, the other professors didn't directly refute him, because none of them knew whether the basilisk had been scared away.

The same applies to restoring Siron to his original state. None of the professors did anything; Siron inexplicably broke free from his petrified state on his own.

According to Dumbledore's later analysis, it should be related to that mysterious unicorn ghost.

However, Lockhart "inadvertently" revealed during a Defense Against the Dark Arts class: "I just secretly used a Restoration Charm, and it actually worked... I mean, even the headmaster failed before this, so I thought the Restoration Charm wouldn't work either."

At the time, Lockhart was the only one standing on the outside, and no one knew whether he had used any spells or not, so even if everyone knew that he was probably just bragging, they were too lazy to refute him.

Even Xilun didn't say anything; he would only refute it when someone asked.

The unicorn soul thing is too unbelievable; people would probably be even less likely to believe it if I told them. Also, the book "The Magical Me" found in the bathroom made Siren suspect Lockhart once again.

Was the diary really not in his possession? Then why was his autobiography found in the bathroom?

Besides Lockhart, who else would carry such a thick book around?

Although he had already told Dumbledore everything, Siren himself was also eager to find the person who had the "core" he had reserved.

It would be best to find the diary before Dumbledore, otherwise he'll have to look for other Horcruxes.

correct……

Suddenly, Xiren remembered that Hogwarts also had a Horcrux—Ravenclaw's tiara, which was in the Room of Requirement.

In his excitement, Xilun almost cut the wrinkled fig off. Although he managed to avoid it in time, the sharp scissors inevitably pierced the skin of the fruit.

This caused the originally plump fig to shrink instantly into a ball, only one-tenth of its original size.

"Pay attention, Mr. Ollivander!" Professor Sprout didn't seem very happy.

But she also knew that Xilun had almost been killed by the basilisk yesterday, and assumed that the other party had not yet recovered from the shock, so she did not say anything or deduct points, but simply gave Xilun a new wrinkled fig tree.

This time, Xilun didn't think about anything else and quickly pruned off the excess branches.

Once everyone had finished, Professor Sprout began handing out rolls of velvet to everyone, asking, "Does anyone know why we need to insulate the wrinkled figs before winter?"

Hermione instinctively raised her hand.

“Very good, Miss Granger.”

"Because cold weather causes its fruit to shrink and stop growing," Hermione said.

“Absolutely correct, five points for Gryffindor.” Professor Sprout nodded in satisfaction.

"Does anyone know why not move it to a warmer greenhouse?"

“An overly warm environment can also stop the fruit from growing,” Hermione said without even sitting down. “And the same goes for dangerous situations.”

“Very good, Gryffindor gets another five points.”

I don't know if it's because Siron just added 130 points, but Professor Sprout's bonus points have also been reduced a bit, from 10 points per question to 5 points.

"Please note that these wrinkled figs are not fully ripe yet, so please be very careful when handling them." Professor Sprout glanced at Siron again before letting everyone begin to wrap the branches with velvet.

It was a rather tedious process with little technical content, so after Professor Sprout moved to the other side, the group continued their conversation about Lockhart.

After learning the truth about last night from Siron, Harry and Ron angrily declared that they would expose Lockhart's lies.

“I suspect that what he did was fake too,” Ron said. After the werewolf act in class, his opinion of Lockhart plummeted.

It was so embarrassing that he didn't dare to talk to his classmates for two days after that.

(You've only acted once.) Harry calmly pushed up his glasses beside him.

As a monster specialist in Lockhart's classroom, Harry says he's long been used to it, and he can now let out all sorts of howls without batting an eye.

Werewolves have the longest howls, Yetis have the deepest, and female ghosts have short, sharp howls... These are all based on experience.

“You just have a problem with Professor Lockhart,” Hermione retorted. “His books are used as textbooks at the school, how could they be fake?”

"Who knows if Headmaster Dumbledore was deceived?"

"Only you would think that way."

Things seemed to have returned to the beginning of the school year, with Ron and Hermione arguing endlessly about Lockhart.

Siren continued to ask Harry some questions about Lockhart.

"Is there anything strange about Lockhart?" Harry thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I don't think so. Isn't he always like that? Always signing autographs for others at school and showing off to other professors."

"Hagrid said Lockhart wanted to teach him how to prevent water sprites from getting into the wells, but there are no water sprites at Hogwarts."

Harry seems to have endless grievances to tell about Lockhart.

Siren listened as he wrapped the last piece of velvet around the wrinkled fig branch.

From this perspective, Lockhart's daily life doesn't seem to have changed much, and he doesn't appear to have been affected by the diary.

(End of this chapter)