The slacker professor at Hogwarts

The magic wand is waved.

"Deep in the forest, wolves roam in packs!"

Mist swirled in the grove, transforming into a silvery-gray wolf silhouette formed from the smoke. It was semi-transparent, the size of an average adult wolf, and not very fast.

The gray wolf trotted a few steps through the woods before collapsing into a cloud of smoke that drifted through the forest.

This is one of the two spells Lockhart could barely cast after digesting that memory, and like the Flower Healing spell, it's somewhat useless.

But he was extremely satisfied.

The leap from being unable to cast spells to being able to cast spells is a qualitative one.

Contentment brings happiness, and his face was full of smiles. It was completely different from the perfect smile he always maintained; it seemed to emanate from the depths of his heart, and it was infectious.

……

A gentle evening breeze drifted into the office, causing the sheer curtains to flutter and the vines that climbed along the windowsill like giant pythons.

Several birds fluttered their wings and flew in, curiously looking around this novel place, searching for a suitable habitat to build their nests in this unique 'grove'.

Lockhart leaned against the tree trunk, turning his head to look out the window.

The sky was ablaze with the crimson glow of the sunset, and the distant cheers of young wizards at the Quidditch pitch could be faintly heard.

He lay with his hands behind his head, looking somewhat dazed. The little golden retriever curled up on his belly, hugging an eyeball toy, was dozing off, its fluffy little head bobbing up and down with the rise and fall of his belly.

Lockhart is enjoying this rare moment of peace and quiet.

It felt as if everything had come to a standstill, and my usually noisy and chaotic mind had a rare moment of peace.

This is very rare.

Memories, extracted from and then reinserted into the brain, seem to be searching for their place again, repelling and attracting each other to build a complex balance.

Lockhart treated the memories in his brain too casually, like a sniffer finding something good and stuffing it into his head, without caring whether he could control it.

In the magical world, memory is always one of the most profound fields, involving ethereal concepts such as time, soul, and fate. Very few wizards study this area.

The only people who specialize in exploring this area are probably the Silent Ones in the Department of Mysteries of each Ministry of Magic, who are in charge of the Brain Department, and it's even possible that not every Ministry of Magic has a Silent One in this field.

Lockhart, who considered himself to have a wide network of connections, could not possibly have access to these top-secret figures in the Ministry of Magic, let alone obtain top-secret information from them.

Oh~

If his memory serves him correctly...

It seems that in the original books, Harry once went to the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic to cause trouble. Since I, as the professor, followed him there out of concern for this "savior" student, I figured no one would hold me responsible, right?

This might be his only chance to gain legitimate entry into such a tightly controlled organization!

Lockhart's eyes lit up.

Of course, this is still a long way off, and it will have to wait until Harry is in his fifth year. So, even if I finish my term at Hogwarts and leave the school a year later, I shouldn't lose contact with Harry.

"Ha~~Rui~~~Potter!"

A shout suddenly came from outside the door, followed by several other voices, breaking the silence of the office.

Lockhart stared at the door in surprise, then suddenly realized that he had sent Draco Malfoy and Hermione here for training earlier, just to be on the safe side.

It's clear that there can't be any peace between these two groups. Ron and Draco's father often have a friendly but antagonistic relationship, not to mention that Harry and Hermione both hate Draco so much.

Maybe……

We should also bring Draco's two little friends, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, the two pure-blood sons of the family, into this "tutoring class".

Lockhart was incredibly experienced in balancing the conflicting yet mutually restraining memories in his mind.

The noise outside the door grew louder and louder.

Young Master Malfoy had no problem dealing with three opponents. His extreme sarcasm brought him the ultimate enjoyment as he relentlessly humiliated Ron, who had spoken ill of Professor Lockhart behind his back, now that he had been given a wand and was starting to fawn over him. His proud voice sounded incredibly powerful.

However, he soon paid the price.

Another person is coming.

As the young wizards respectfully addressed him as "Professor McGonagall," the overly critical Malfoy inevitably received a scolding.

dong dong dong~

There was a knock on the door.

"I'm sorry, Professor Lockhart, is it disturbing you to visit at this time?" Professor McGonagall said politely from outside the door.

"No, no, please wait a moment."

While listening to Malfoy and the others hurling insults at each other, Lockhart had already gotten up and started deftly cleaning up the Pensieve, which was now stained with traces of memories. This thing couldn't be seen by anyone else!

Stuffing such a large magical item into a small cloth bag the size of a palm requires a bit of skill. For some reason, the original owner had never used such a seamless stretching spell item before, so he was a bit flustered due to his lack of experience.

There are also things like Felix Felicis that need to be properly packed away.

The sound of their voices could be heard outside the door.

"I really hope this interruption won't affect Professor Lockhart's experiment..." That was Professor McGonagall's voice.

"Professor Lockhart asked us to come to class at this time, it shouldn't be like this." This was the topic of discussion among the young wizards.

Lockhart finally got rid of what he didn't want anyone to see and was about to open the door when he realized he wasn't wearing shoes. He quickly pulled his shoes up and sat on the tree trunk to put them on.

The little golden retriever, sensing his emotions, began to learn to cooperate with its owner's life in a sensible way.

Yeah, but not that sensible.

It skillfully concealed its magical influence, which was good, but instead of helping to open the door, it raised its little paw, pointed to the crooked peach tree hole that was pressing against the fireplace in the corner, and chirped, "Goo-gi!"

The tree hollow was very quiet, as if there was nothing inside.

"Gurgle~~?"

A flurry of panicked information erupted in the tree hollow, and a cloud of black smoke surged out in a tumbling motion, quickly transforming on the ground into a humanoid figure draped in a tattered wizard's robe.

This is a Boggart, a creature of dark magic, and a Boggart that has lived in a wizarding family home. It instinctively transforms into this form when it doesn't feel any fear.

As soon as it appeared, it instinctively set its sights on the wizard in the office.

"Gurgle!!!" The little golden retriever's voice was already somewhat angry.

Boggart trembled in fright, shrank back, and stared blankly at the little golden retriever.

The little golden retriever stood on the tree trunk with its hands on its hips, and pointed its third paw forcefully at the office door.

"..."

Bogut felt humiliated!

Bogut was truly humiliated!

The little golden retriever jumped down from the tree and scurried up Boggart's tattered wizard robe to his head, whereupon it slapped him.

Bogut finally obeyed.

With its little golden hair on its head, it limped toward the door, a walking style it used to use to scare homeowners. But this slow, unsteady gait once again attracted a big chubby dog.

So it had to be as agile as a lively young man and quickly walk to the door and open it.

"Professor Lockhart, I hope this hasn't affected your experiment... Oh! Merlin's beard!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed.

The person who opened the door was a sinister-looking man who resembled an evil dark wizard; his large hood was completely black, and nothing could be seen inside.

Fortunately, after a moment of shock, her experience allowed her to immediately realize that it was a Boggart.

Boggart himself is nothing special, but the dark magic creature on his head is terrifying.

She instinctively stepped in front of the young wizard, about to say something, when she saw a large hand shove Boggart aside. Lockhart, beaming with a bright smile, flung the door wide open. "Excuse me, please come in."

The curious children behind them only had time to see a plume of black smoke shooting into the tree hole next to the fireplace, and a golden light disappearing into the leaves along the trunk of another large tree.

Ok?

Big tree?

"Merlin's beard!" Professor McGonagall was stunned, staring at her office which had been transformed into a small grove of trees. "Professor Lockhart, this..."

Lockhart laughed heartily as he ushered them in, and immediately began, "This was specially arranged to simulate the fairytale romance rehearsals that are about to take place. You know, our professors always need to rehearse themselves first to familiarize themselves with each step and detail, to ensure that no accidents occur."

"An adventure in the forest—a fairy tale scene that everyone is familiar with, you know what I mean."

In fact, he simply didn't have the ability to turn the grove of trees created by the forest witch back to its original state.

"You are such a responsible professor!" Professor McGonagall looked at the grove of trees, imagining that while everyone else was resting on the weekend, Professor Lockhart was still diligently rehearsing the content of his upcoming lecture. She couldn't help but feel impressed, and her gaze towards Professor Lockhart became increasingly satisfied.