Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 134 Lockhart: Suddenly I don't want to go anymore.

Lockhart suddenly fell silent when confronted by Rice's questioning.

He answered vaguely, "It was probably more than ten years ago? That's when I abandoned my career in England—"

"Ten years? Are you sure?!" Rice couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

A single spell rendered a werewolf unable to transform for ten years, a feat even Ravenclaw, the inventor of the spell, admired. This made Rice strongly doubt the veracity of Lockhart's words: "No matter how strong you are, Lockhart, can you really be stronger than Ravenclaw?"

If you really have that kind of skill, what were you doing when Voldemort was rampaging? Why didn't you step in and stop him? Voldemort's era was only a little over a decade ago!

Or perhaps the Restoration Charm made tremendous progress during its thousand-year slumber?

Why does it seem like no one has ever tried to popularize this spell? If the werewolves are consistently given the Restoration Charm, wouldn't it be only a matter of time before they are collectively transformed into wizards?

Gryffindor has already proven that werewolves can't be killed off completely, but Ravenclaw's method might work.

But so far no wizard has taken any action. Is it because they don't want to?

Rice concluded that Ravenclaw's Restoration Charm was probably on the verge of being lost, and Lockhart's words were not credible—either he or the werewolf was definitely lying.

"A spell to restore a werewolf to human form, that's incredible!" Rice said deliberately. "Professor Lockhart, I happen to know a werewolf friend. Could you help her cast a restoration spell to human form? So she can escape this hopeless and miserable life?"

Lockhart's expression froze upon hearing Rice's words, but the eloquent man quickly found an excellent way to respond.

"No problem, but I need to focus my energy on teaching next, so why don't you invite her to Hogwarts for treatment? Of course, remember to schedule a time with me in advance. I really want to help her, but unfortunately I'm too busy to get away." Lockhart agreed generously, but at the same time set a bunch of conditions.

He had already planned it out. If Rice really asked his werewolf friend to seek his treatment, he would find a way to stall for time. If he couldn't stall any longer, he would verbally agree, but actually add a few lines to his letters to the fans, "accidentally" revealing that a werewolf was going to enter Hogwarts, and encouraging the fans to send letters to Dumbledore opposing the werewolf's entry. In that case, he wouldn't lose out on either side.

Rice looked up at Lockhart.

In his view, Lockhart had his scheming intentions written all over his face.

Lockhart's reaction suggests that he most likely won't regain the human form charm, and the story in his book is probably just hearsay and fabrication.

Rice's eyes were as black as ink, as deep as an abyss, making Lockhart feel uneasy. He forced a smile, then started a new conversation on his own. Fortunately, there were his loyal fans in the carriage, so it wasn't an awkward silence.

Klein wasn't about to let Lockhart off so easily, and he brought up another topic that really bothered Lockhart.

"Professor Lockhart, I admire your courage."

Lockhart raised an eyebrow, not quite understanding why he suddenly started saying this, but since it was a compliment, he accepted it without hesitation.

He flashed what he thought was a charming smile and said that courage is an essential element of adventure and the first piece of equipment an adventurer should pack in their backpack before setting off.

"Only true warriors dare to sit in the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor!" Rice's exclamation left Lockhart somewhat puzzled.

Daphne glanced at the two of them and slowly recounted to Lockhart the entanglement between the Dark Lord and the Defense Against the Dark Arts professorship. She not only told the legends but also listed the fates of the past Defense Against the Dark Arts professors that she knew of: last year's Professor Quirrell vanished into dust in the dungeon, and the professor from the year before was said to have broken his back by a wild boar in the Forbidden Forest.

As for the other professors, some resigned voluntarily for personal reasons, while a considerable proportion were forced to leave due to various unforeseen circumstances. In any case, no one ever stayed for more than a year.

Lockhart: ...

Daphne was already drenched in sweat halfway through her sentence. The smile on her face had faded, and the muscles at the corners of her mouth had tightened.

"Perhaps it's... a coincidence? I actually only planned to teach for a year, after all, my adventurous life has to continue." He tried to find an excuse, but even he couldn't convince himself of what he was saying.

"An adventurer like you wouldn't be afraid of curses, would you?" Rice put Lockhart right on the fire.

Lockhart suddenly felt a little reluctant to be a professor.

He initially accepted Dumbledore's invitation mainly because of the hype surrounding the event. A position at Hogwarts, teaching the boy who survived a great calamity—that would be headline news! For the attention-seeking Lockhart, it was something he simply couldn't refuse.

In his view, fooling the young wizards would be easy; he just needed to tell them about his heroic deeds. A year of wasted time teaching in exchange for explosive popularity—it was a very worthwhile deal.

But now the situation seems to have changed, and the professor's position has suddenly become too hot to handle, which has made Lockhart consider stepping down.

But considering he'd already made his boast and signed the contract, it seemed there was no turning back. He'd already put himself in that position, and getting off wouldn't be so easy.

Lockhart couldn't help but regret the decision he had made.

Now, he felt extremely bad.

Seeing that Rice seemed to want to say more, Lockhart felt only annoyed. He made an excuse and hurriedly left the unpleasant carriage.

Watching Lockhart's retreating figure, Rice was somewhat on the verge of losing his composure: What the hell is that?!

Based on the conversation just now, he was 90% certain that this new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was another fraud! Heaven knows how he wrote those adventure stories in his books; they were probably just hearsay!

Rice felt that the future of the Hogwarts students was bleak.

Given Quirrell and Lockhart's character, what useful self-defense magic could they possibly learn?!

This year will probably be wasted again—out of seven years, how many are enough for them to waste? What use is a wizard who graduates from Hogwarts but doesn't even know the Ironclad Charm?

Rice's emotions were extremely complex.

"He's quite the talker, isn't he?" Hermione had a good impression of Lockhart because he had written many books, and because she wasn't as knowledgeable as Rasmus, she didn't see through Lockhart's flaws.

"But a talkative person isn't necessarily a good professor. My gut feeling tells me he doesn't seem capable of teaching us anything substantial," Daphne offered a different perspective.

In her opinion, Lockhart was no match for Rice.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Update delivered, second update coming later~

(End of this chapter)