The thought of wasting his own money on someone like Lockhart...
Basil, who had only recently escaped the poverty line by selling Unicorn tail hairs and Bubotuber pus, felt terrible.
He suddenly remembered that he had another goal for this school year: To expose the truth about Lockhart!
Ron, for similar financial reasons, was equally determined.
But his goal was slightly different from Basil's.
"I've decided! I'm going to make sure Professor Quirrell survives this school year smoothly!"
"I'm going to make him the longest-serving Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in history!"
Hermione, who still harbored some desire for Lockhart to take the position, poured cold water on this idea: "You decided? Even Dumbledore can't solve this jinx. How can you decide?"
Then, she saw Ron look at Basil with hopeful eyes.
Basil spread his hands. "I can't do anything about the curse either. How about this? I'll give you a suggestion. I heard a rumor. Although the content in Lockhart's books really happened in the real world and matches his travel itinerary... every time he leaves a place, a local wizard is left with memory loss and confusion."
"You mean, the stories in Lockhart's books were stolen from others?" Harry was shocked.
Hermione was equally shocked. She didn't react hysterically to the questioning of Lockhart like in the original books.
Perhaps because she hadn't read Lockhart's books yet, and because Basil was the one saying it.
Ron rubbed his hands excitedly. "If that's true, haha! I'm going to investigate this thoroughly!"
"How will you investigate? You're at school." Hermione asked curiously.
She noticed that neither Harry nor Basil seemed surprised by Ron's declaration.
As if Ron really could investigate these things from within the school.
Facing this, Ron just smiled mysteriously. "Lockhart has more fans than you can imagine."
At the same time, he muttered to himself: "My mom is one of them. Some of them even know what underwear Lockhart slept in last night. As long as I have a direction, the rest is just investigation."
"What exactly is going on?" Seeing Ron unwilling to say more, Hermione fixed her gaze on Basil.
"Have you ever heard of the Six Degrees of Separation theory?" Basil pretended to be profound.
Because, far away in the secret chamber under Loch Ness, Riddle was sending a message.
He was preparing a theory authoritative enough to fool Hermione.
"You've heard of Harvard University, right?"
"Mmhmm. It counts as one of the top schools." Hermione's ears perked up immediately.
"This theory was proposed by Stanley Milgram, a famous psychologist at Harvard, decades ago. simply put, you are separated from any stranger by no more than six people. Meaning, you can connect to any stranger through at most six intermediaries."
Basil stated the theory directly.
Because as long as the speaker (or source) was authoritative enough, Hermione could always convince herself to accept theories that sounded like fantasies.
And indeed, Hermione accepted it smoothly and began to think seriously.
"And the distance between Ron and Lockhart is obviously far less than six people. Lockhart is a distinguished Ravenclaw graduate. The number of British wizards is so small. Among his fan base, there might be someone Ron knows well!"
Basil nodded.
At the same time, he replied to Riddle in his mind.
"You can start on your end."
In a luxurious room where the ceiling and walls were inlaid with green gems connected by flowing mercury, featuring a huge mercury pool and a snake statue...
Riddle replied: "My Lord, please take a look. This room is the most valuable part of Safehouse No. 7."
"The flowing mercury and green gems form a magic circle, connecting the entire safehouse's magnetic field to Loch Ness. It makes this safehouse blend with the surroundings ('hiding light in dust'), making magical traces very hard to detect."
"It also serves as the power source for the magical traps in the safehouse."
"The mercury pool has extracted the essence of water. As long as a verified wizard enters it, physical injuries and mental fatigue can be healed and dispelled."
"So," Basil's face sank, "there's no cash here."
"Correct," Riddle nodded. "Does Voldemort need Galleons to buy things?"
"What about that Kelpie?"
"It hasn't appeared."
October quickly came to an end.
Which meant Halloween Eve.
Today was Thursday.
Basil woke up early to the smell of cloyingly sweet pumpkin.
Keep in mind, this was up in the tower.
Until now, he still couldn't understand why there were so many pumpkin elements in the Hogwarts menu.
Pumpkin soup, pumpkin pasties, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin juice...
Even until today, he couldn't accept it.
Risking a confrontation with Voldemort, all he got in the end was a House-elf completely loyal to him and a piece of real estate.
And this property could only be used until fourth year.
Assuming Voldemort resurrected in fourth year.
In Charms class that day, Professor Flitwick announced that today's topic was the Levitation Charm.
This excited the other students greatly.
Ever since they saw Professor Flitwick make Neville's toad, Trevor, zoom around the classroom, they had been eager to try this skill.
But not Basil.
A mere Levitation Charm? He had mastered it ages ago.
Right now, his primary goal was to conquer the Killing Curse.
He had considered using the Boggart's Monkey-Version Voldemort or sensing the Youth Version Voldemort cast the Killing Curse to get started.
But Riddle warned him that in the introductory stage, it was best to rely entirely on himself.
To ensure the framework of the spell was entirely his own.
Like laying a foundation.
A foundation laid entirely by oneself is flat and solid.
A foundation influenced by others will have imperceptible tilts.
When the spell advances to the deepest realms, this 'tilt' will become glaringly obvious.
So, until today, his Killing Curse hadn't truly reached the beginner level.
He could only release a green light that could barely kill someone.
But that was only because his Magic stat was high.
If it were an ordinary young wizard with 3-5 Magic...
That green light would at most cause a nosebleed.
Therefore, he didn't choose to make a Spell Card with this level of Killing Curse.
Riddle said it was a matter of mindset.
It wasn't that killing someone teaches you the Killing Curse.
Rather, you must harbor genuine killing intent—without hesitation, doubt, or reservation—to truly master the entry to this spell.
This is why it is classified as an Unforgivable Curse.
Those who can successfully use this spell are, without exception, truly rotten to the core.
Basil had questioned this: "What about a Killing Curse driven by hatred or a sense of justice? I remember during the First Wizarding War, Aurors were permitted to use Unforgivable Curses."
At the time, Riddle shook his head. "This spell corrupts the soul. Its terror lies not in learning or using it, but in the shift of worldview and mentality after a successful kill. And the high-quality, powerful magic that comes after that shift. A righteous soul using it will only cause mental confusion. Mad-Eye Moody is so crazy probably because of the influence of this spell."
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