Chapter 22: Come, be good, feel my fear
The black magical creatures 'Cellar Rot' and 'Vengeful Fairy' were not commonly seen in the present day.
In fact, by the modern era of 1992, due to the flourishing of Muggle technology and culture, the encroachment on living resources and space, and the permeation of cultural influences, many magical creatures that were common in wizarding history had become scarce.
The most obvious change was that the former Care of Magical Creatures had now become 'Magical Creature Protection Studies'. Even powerful life forms like dragons had begun to rely on breeding farms to continue their populations.
Who knew when Defence Against the Dark Arts would also become Magical Creature Protection Studies?
The black magical creature 'Cellar Rot' was still somewhat known, occasionally heard in rumors of 'cursed houses' and the like.
The 'Vengeful Fairy' had seemingly vanished without a trace in the last thirty or forty years.
"The effects caused by these two black magical creatures look similar, but their inherent characteristics are fundamentally different."
Lockhart spoke eloquently, a thought suddenly popping into his head—perhaps he could follow in the footsteps of his senior Newt Scamander and also write a book, Where to Find Black Magical Creatures.
This idea was definitely not because he wanted to earn royalties.
He was very satisfied with the wealth accumulated by his original self and didn't have the immediate urge to make a lot of money.
What he wanted was to improve his own strength.
Just as he had told Hermione, wizards should know how to make good use of their talents, step into an environment suitable for their talents to flourish, and then immerse themselves in a fairy-tale romantic atmosphere, and their strength would naturally improve rapidly.
And his talent was clearly in the direction of Defence Against the Dark Arts, specifically against black magical creatures.
Having figured this out in such a short time since transmigrating was undoubtedly a lucky thing.
At least he had lived most of his previous life and died without knowing what he was talented in.
Of course, there were priorities. The matter of writing a book could be put aside for now. The problem of the Urquart family castle mentioned by Professor McGonagall was clearly a good opportunity.
Compared to facing black magical creatures alone after leaving Hogwarts at the end of his one-year term, this time he could clearly get help from Professor McGonagall and the Urquart family.
Such a good opportunity had to be seized!
Professor McGonagall didn't know that Lockhart was dedicated to collecting black magical creatures to improve his own strength. Seeing how concerned he was about her matter, she was already somewhat moved.
"Cellar Rot, also known as 'Black Fuzz', is characterized by the presence of something resembling black hair in the large amount of corpse blood it creates."
Lockhart frowned, stimulated by the image of this black magical creature in his memory. My god, this thing was disgusting.
"It has the common characteristics of 'dark corner-breeding' black magical creatures, which is that it smells faintly of decay or fishiness, and sometimes has a unique sweet and fishy odor."
"This smell often attracts animals such as poisonous snakes, leeches, spiders, and venomous insects."
"The smell of Cellar Rot is slightly sour with a hint of sweetness. If you lick it, your tongue will feel a slight electric tingling."
Lick corpse blood with black hair?
Professor McGonagall quietly moved a little further away.
"Its magical characteristic is decay, so we can often hear a feeling of sorrow or lament for the passage of time in the sounds it creates."
"The other type, 'Vengeful Fairy' or 'Witch on the Pyre', is much easier to recognize. If we can find the source of the sound, we will find a pale, translucent figure of a witch tied to a stake."
"The legend of this black magical creature was first recorded around the time Hogwarts was founded. It originated in the era of witch hunts, when many people who were not witches were tied to stakes and burned to death. It looked like witch hunting, but it was actually persecution."
"The unjustly killed people made even the earth mourn for them, so the snakes and insects in the forest gathered, and the earth wept blood and sang."
"As a result, people increasingly felt that they had caught the right person. The one burned to death was the evil witch, hence the name 'Vengeful Fairy'."
The legend of this black magical creature roughly tells the story of a Muggle woman who was persecuted and transformed into a witch to seek revenge.
It had a somewhat cultish and satirical fairy tale flavor.
"When encountering this kind of black magical creature, listen carefully to the singing. You can distinguish a tiny bit of subtle sound, the earth's cry—'Don't burn her, bury her in the earth to rot, she will be reborn'."
"Of course, the simplest way to identify it is to hear a burst of birdsong, a 'tweet tweet' sound."
"And 'Cellar Rot' also has its own sound, like the 'plop plop plop' of blood bubbling. Most importantly, it has a very unique echo. The two sound a bit alike, but they are actually easy to distinguish."
Lockhart described this most obvious distinction, but because his ventriloquism was poor, he couldn't imitate it at all.
He thought for a moment, then found a crystal ball used as a decoration from the crooked bookshelf squeezed by the tree trunk behind him and handed it to Professor McGonagall. "I'll demonstrate, and you use magic to record it. Give it to Mr. Urquart. We must first determine what kind of magical creature it is before we can prepare a corresponding plan to deal with it."
Professor McGonagall took the crystal ball, watching him stand up and ponder intently, filled with emotion. "Professor Lockhart, I don't know how to thank you..."
Lockhart smiled and shook his head. "Since coming to teach at Hogwarts, you have been so tolerant and supportive of me. I should be the one thanking you."
There was no need for too much politeness.
Lockhart began to act.
His demonstration required a little help. He led Professor McGonagall around the large tree in front of the desk, only to find that several curious children were eavesdropping with their ears perked up.
Harry and the others weren't too afraid of the authority of the young Professor Lockhart. He was more like a knowledgeable older brother to them. But Professor McGonagall would make them fear her.
Seeing Professor McGonagall walk over, they quickly gripped their wands and struck a pose.
Professor McGonagall was clearly very dissatisfied with their attitude, her face stern as she reprimanded them, "You will never know how rare the opportunity to receive private instruction from professors is. You should know how to seize such opportunities."
Apart from professors like Horace Slughorn who were good at cultivating connections and running clubs, most professors had almost no energy to privately tutor students outside of their teaching duties. Doing so would truly mean having no life of their own.
Especially for children like Ron and Hermione, it was only after achieving excellent results in their fifth-year exams and being selected by the professors for the N.E.W.T. advancement class that they might receive training like this.
Lockhart didn't mind this.
Harry and the others were only twelve or thirteen years old now. Although they were lively, they hadn't reached the level of being unruly children. There was no need to be too harsh.
But he didn't refute Professor McGonagall's words. He went to the peach tree by the fireplace on his own.
He gently knocked on the opening of the tree hole as if knocking on a door.
The tree hole was quiet, with nothing inside.
A golden lightning bolt darted over quickly from a distance, rapidly climbed onto Lockhart's shoulder, and stood with its hands on its hips, glaring into the tree hole.
The Boggart could ignore Lockhart, but it couldn't help but fear the three hands that could control fear, so it had to come out obediently.
Black smoke billowed, and it transformed again into the form of a humanoid wearing tattered wizard robes.
The young wizards looked at this seemingly evil fellow with some fear, but Professor McGonagall came to the young wizards' side with a wary expression, tightly盯着 the furry little monkey that looked so cute on Lockhart's shoulder.
She didn't understand everything. The realm of black magical creatures was too诡谲 and profound. Compared to the seemingly evil Boggart, it was this furry, seemingly cute little thing in front of her that gave her an extremely dangerous feeling.
Everyone was nervous, but Lockhart, at this moment, was looking at the Boggart with great interest, rubbing his fly-like hands, full of eagerness.
Perhaps facing black magical creatures was his own unique talent. After all, no matter how much the Lockhart in the original story knew about how to deal with these creatures, he performed very poorly, unable to even handle Cornish pixies.
This interesting and dangerous magical experiment, the two spells he mastered were nothing much. The biggest gain was that he had some ideas about memory because of it.
This was the true ability that belonged to him!
Lockhart was looking forward to the successful implementation of his guess.
He gently placed his hands on either side of the Boggart's tattered wizard robe's large hood, turning its head to face him directly, and said with anticipation, "Come on, be a good boy, feel my fear."
The Boggart always enjoyed playing tricks on humans, how could it obey Lockhart's command!
Just kidding, this...
This was simple!
It felt the dangerous gaze of the three hands standing on this human's shoulder, looking down at it, and chose to listen to its heart.
Feel fear?
Human, you are simply asking for trouble!
Let me become the form you fear most!
With a bang, its entire body exploded into black smoke.
Before everyone could react, in an instant, blood began to seep from every corner of the large office forest.
The gurgling blood made a 'plop plop plop' bubbling sound, and dangerous-looking poisonous snakes, spiders, and venomous insects crawled out of every corner of the small forest with rustling sounds. A faint and terrifying female singing voice vaguely came from the depths of the forest.
"Ahhhhh~~~"
Harry and the other young wizards all cried out in fear, all squeezing behind Professor McGonagall in fright.
Lockhart ignored them, just blinked, letting himself detach from the fearful mental state of this scene, and looked at Professor McGonagall. "Listen carefully, the sound of the blood and the singing at this time..."
"This is the biggest characteristic of the black magical creature 'Cellar Rot'."
Professor McGonagall held her wand against the crystal ball in her other hand, casting a spell to record the scene and sound, and nodded with a stern face.
"Recorded it, right? Then let's simulate the state of the 'Vengeful Fairy', Boggart, feel it again."
The Boggart was clearly a bit overwhelmed. It couldn't figure out why the form its current human feared most would still change?
It couldn't understand even more that when this human was in such a particularly fearful state, a loophole had already appeared in his mind. At this time, the three hands could definitely take the opportunity to easily deal with this human who controlled it! But why didn't the three hands make a move?
Not only did they not make a move, they even helped this wizard control itself?
The Boggart didn't understand.
What could the Boggart do?
The Boggart could only obey obediently.
Soon, the scene in the office began to undergo subtle changes. The blood changed from a viscous blood plasma mixed with hair to a more clear appearance. The snakes and insects also became less terrifying species. Birds began to chirp in the treetops, and the earth was also calling out, accompanied by the witch's ethereal singing, it didn't look so terrifying anymore.
No!
For Harry and the others, this was still very terrifying!
They wanted to escape.
But Professor Lockhart began to call them closer to carefully feel this terrifying scene, listening to him describe the differences between 'Cellar Rot' and 'Vengeful Fairy', two black magical creatures that looked very similar but were fundamentally different.
Waiting for Professor McGonagall to finish recording, Lockhart didn't give up this opportunity and began to repeatedly change the fearful images in his mind, making the effects simulated by the Boggart switch back and forth between the two.
He believed that Harry and the others would definitely have a deep impression of this knowledge point.
It wasn't just a deep impression; Hermione felt like she was about to collapse. She could clearly feel the golden monkey on Professor Lockhart's shoulder staring intently at her eyes.
She had personally experienced it, and the feeling of having her eyeballs gouged out was not good at all!
Being in such a terrifying scene, her breathing became rapid.
If it weren't for the annoying Draco beside her, and her determination not to show any weakness to avoid being humiliated again by that disgusting guy with his stupid bloodline nonsense, she would have screamed long ago.
"Very good!"
"What a perfect lesson!"
Hermione's nerves were stretched to the limit, not knowing when Professor Lockhart had dispelled this terrifying scene. In fact, the other three were the same. Everyone looked at the small forest office that had returned to normal and collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
Professor McGonagall looked at this scene with some amusement and nodded. "Yes, very perfect."
It was just a little stimulating.
She could finally directly feel why her nephew and niece, young Urquart, had used such terrified language in their letter describing the problems occurring in the castle.
Using a Boggart to simulate scenes?
She had never heard of anyone being able to do that before.
This was a remarkable method! Clearly, Professor Lockhart's attainments in the field of black magical creatures were extremely profound!
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