Chapter 162: Magic Enters Life
Lockhart suddenly found himself with free time.
The two books that had occupied most of his energy were now completely finalized. Snape's book was already being promoted by Rita, and given Lockhart's current popularity as a co-author, he wasn't too worried about sales.
Furthermore, Dumbledore had given it a very high evaluation, approving "Severus's Potions Classroom" for use as the third and fourth-year textbook and intending to write letters recommending it to headmasters and potioneers at other schools.
As for the other book, about Voldemort, Lockhart planned to release it after he completed all his courses and left the school. He didn't intend to pre-promote it, but rather distribute it directly to major bookstores worldwide.
After all, this was a personal biography of the Dark Lord, published while Voldemort wasn't entirely gone. Even if Voldemort himself didn't bother with Lockhart, some of his supporters, in his absence, would actively do something to show their loyalty.
So, the timing of the book's release was crucial.
When Lockhart resigned from Hogwarts, he would be free as a bird, and these people wouldn't know where to find him if they wanted trouble.
But sometimes, people are just strange.
The more he fantasized about where he'd wander after leaving his job, the more he yearned to acquire property and settle down in a small home.
Lockhart took this sudden impulse seriously, scrutinizing his inner self. It was then that he realized: the ethereal path of magic had vaguely reached the current limit of his grasp. It was time to practice magic in a grounded way, to truly live it.
So, he decided to do it.
This wasn't a forced decision. His Gringotts vault was currently overflowing with Galleons he couldn't spend, and he had the means to fulfill all his sudden whims that money could solve.
Publishing the book and leaving to avoid trouble after his tenure ended was necessary, but it didn't conflict with buying a house as a residence before leaving.
At worst, he'd just abandon it.
Even with less than three months left in his tenure.
Rich and willful.
Feeling fantastic.
As Lockhart made this decision, his mind was filled with images of the cramped and difficult life of his previous existence. This didn't make him sad; instead, he felt exhilarated by the carefree freedom that his current wealth brought.
He actually didn't like the magical mansion of his original self.
The ostentatious decor, plastered with self-portraits, didn't align with his aesthetic. Moreover, a place so filled with the traces of his original self's life wasn't suitable for him to embark on a new life of his own.
He acted on his thoughts immediately. Lockhart never procrastinated when it came to things that brought him good feelings.
He quickly set his sights on Hogsmeade Village, "next door" to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. One weekend, he visited the local authority, Aberforth Dumbledore, the owner of the Hog's Head Inn.
He always sought help from the most influential person in a given place. When he went to Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley, he sought out the owners of Borgin and Burkes and the Leaky Cauldron. When he went to the Ministry of Magic, he sought out Fudge. At Hogwarts, he sought out Dumbledore. And in Hogsmeade Village, he sought out Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth.
Despite the Hog's Head Inn being in the most inconspicuous corner of Hogsmeade Village, when Aberforth opened his pub there, none of the current shop owners in the village were even born yet.
That accumulated influence far exceeded common imagination.
Moreover, Aberforth himself was a powerful magical master, specializing in combat. Even during his childhood at school, he was already a dueling champion.
Like the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley, his pub always had people of all sorts secretly conversing. These wizards, who constantly walked the dark edges, knew best where the safest places were.
In his brother Albus's eyes, Aberforth was a reclusive, eccentric, stubborn old man. But when Lockhart visited, he found this old wizard was actually quite talkative—well, only to wizards he approved of.
"At the last Anti-Dark Magic League meeting, Madam Meliflua invited you to join the 'We're Still Not Dead' club. Albus had such a sour face then, but you completely disregarded his opinion. That's when I felt you were a young man I could get along with."
Lockhart paused. "Is there something to it?"
Aberforth laughed. "You try that with other professors?"
Oh, really...
Lockhart recalled, it seemed he truly hadn't considered Dumbledore's feelings at the time. But who cared, he smiled faintly, "Headmaster Dumbledore is a great man with a broad mind, how could he mind?"
Aberforth chuckled, saying nothing more.
The two walked along the main road of Hogsmeade Village. Aberforth casually introduced the ancient village. "This is the only all-wizard village in Britain with no Muggles, founded at the same time as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
Lockhart's expression grew strange. "Fudge told me that the biggest thing the Ministry of Magic did when it was created based on the Statute of Secrecy was to make wizards live in their own communities, strictly separated from Muggles. Yet, there's only one pure-wizard village in all of Britain, and it wasn't even created because of the Statute of Secrecy?"
He expressed his incomprehension.
Aberforth sneered. "The Statute of Secrecy is a joke. Of course, opposing the Statute of Secrecy is also a joke!"
This topic seemed to accidentally touch a sensitive nerve in him, and his speaking rate involuntarily quickened. "In Britain, apart from Hogsmeade Village and some professors living in the school, all wizards live in places with Muggles. It's impossible for them to be completely ignorant of Muggle affairs. But look at Hogwarts' Muggle Studies class, hehe, so now Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is also a joke!"
Good heavens.
This old man, a hundred and nine years old, still maintained such a strong state of cynicism.
And so, the two chatted idly. They passed a refined and ancient house, which Aberforth casually introduced. "This is Minerva's, oh, that is, Professor McGonagall's house."
Lockhart nodded, saying nothing more. Professor McGonagall had moved directly into Hogwarts after her husband's death; this wasn't a suitable topic for casual conversation.
"In the thousand years of Hogwarts' existence, countless professors have come to live in this village. To make access easier, they created secret passages one after another."
Aberforth casually pointed in a certain direction. "Over there, over there, and over there, oh, probably here too. In this tiny village, there are at least six secret passages that I know of..."
"Many people say Hogwarts is the safest place in the world, but in reality, it's comically leaky everywhere, with access points into the school all over the place."
There were six secret passages in this village that he knew of alone?
Lockhart found it hard to keep a straight face.
Simply preposterous!
Voldemort apparently didn't understand Hogwarts, the place he considered his home, well enough. Otherwise, if he were to attack Hogwarts, he should first occupy this village, and the school would be as undefended as if its gates were wide open.
Aberforth led Lockhart around, looking at some vacant houses, but to his surprise, the young man took a liking to a small building next to his pub.
The small building had two and a half stories, built of stone, with a cellar downstairs, two floors above ground, and a small pointed attic.
Its only special feature was that it backed onto the mountains. There was a small garden behind the house, and sitting on a wooden chair in the garden, enjoying the distant snow-capped mountain scenery, was quite pleasant.
Of course, it was fully furnished, meticulously maintained, and equipped with a fireplace connected to the Ministry of Magic's Floo Network, making it ready for immediate move-in. It simply couldn't have suited Lockhart's needs better.
Aberforth looked over the garden's stone and picket fence towards his pub's backyard sheep pen, chuckling. "The reason this place is abandoned is because it's haunted."
Lockhart blinked, looking back at the house, expressing his incomprehension. "Wizards are afraid of ghosts?"
Aberforth's expression was unreadable. "Of course, there's a Shrieking Shack in the corner of the village that no one dares approach because of rumors of it being haunted."
"And the ghost here is even more special; it's a terrifying demon."
Lockhart's heart stirred. He followed Aberforth's gaze to the neighboring sheep pen. "Are those your goats?"
Suddenly, Aberforth's face became sharp. "Albus told you?"
Lockhart spread his hands. "Do you think that's possible?"
Aberforth thought for a moment, then his expression returned to normal. That was true; Albus wasn't a blabbermouth. He looked at the young man before him with newfound interest. "Albus told me you know many secrets others don't."
Indeed.
He knew that Aberforth had once been accused of performing improper magic on goats. Dumbledore had told Hagrid this in some tone, but Lockhart knew that Aberforth's favorite thing to do when he was young with his sister was to feed goats together. Based on his affection for his sister, he wouldn't do anything bizarre or "goat path" related.
Interestingly, even now, Aberforth's Hog's Head Inn still carried a strong smell of goat and was filled with strange grease.
"Dark magical creature breeding," Lockhart gestured to the Little Goldie in a red cloak that had suddenly appeared on his shoulder. "That's also a field I research."
What Aberforth was doing wasn't hard to guess.
Goats, in ancient witchcraft, were always considered avatars of demons. In modern times, influenced by Muggle anatomy and biology, research into demons began to develop a clearer system: the path of "from flesh to spirit, then spirit descending back into flesh," cultivating the most bizarre type of spirits—wish-granting spirits.
The most famous examples were the Genie from bedtime stories like Aladdin's lamp, and various demons that tempted wizards to fall.
This stuff was highly effective.
Wizarding history recorded a large number of cases where people tried to resurrect loved ones and reunite with them using this, and every single one succeeded!
Because, without exception, these wizards were all killed by the so-called wish-granting spirits, and then successfully reunited with their loved ones beyond the Veil of Death.
A reverse reunion, also a kind of cultic perfect story.
Lockhart thought that the reason Dumbledore didn't stop his brother Aberforth from doing this was simply because Dumbledore didn't believe his brother could successfully cultivate and summon a so-called wish-granting spirit.
And that was the truth.
At a glance, Lockhart figured out the progress of Aberforth's Dark magical creature breeding: it was at the "create new folder" stage, meaning nothing had actually been produced.
This standard Gryffindor, reckless-style combat wizard, was truly not skilled at this.
Lockhart was thinking when he saw Aberforth suddenly look at him with anticipation.
No!
I'm not getting involved in this!
Fortunately, Aberforth knew some boundaries in dealing with people and didn't presumptuously make a direct request. He simply did his utmost to help Lockhart buy the small building.
And so, Lockhart finally had his own foothold in this magical world, and an interesting, eccentric old man as a neighbor.
His companions clearly loved this arrangement too. At Hogwarts, they had to hide in the office every day, and even had to hide in their respective small houses or tree hollows when Lockhart was teaching, with no freedom at all.
Now, with such a large place, it was enough for them to truly feel like they were living life alongside him.
"This will be our home from now on," Lockhart said with emotion to the Vengeance Fairy beside him, smiling as he watched the Little Goldie and the Boggart argue over their future living space.
"Oh, and I need to bring Mrs. Car over too."
It was quite wonderful.
He had initially planned to buy a place he might only temporarily live in for two or three months, to experience what it felt like to have his own little territory. But once he actually settled in, a deep, grounded feeling suddenly filled his heart.
It was as if his entire floating soul had instantly settled down, free and peaceful.
Home, a harbor for the soul, sometimes it's just that wonderful.
It suddenly became concrete.
Perhaps this was the secret of magic entering life, so beautiful.
.....
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