great-warnovel Chapter 114 The Fake Boggart
Chapter 114 The Fake Boggart
Chapter 114 The Fake Boggart
There are 19 students in the second year. 12 of them were enrolled in the first batch, and the remaining 7 were rescued from the Green Flame Party by the professors at Christmas.
But when everyone counted the heads, there were actually twenty people!
Clearly, Lockhart started counting heads as soon as he landed, not only to confirm the number of students, but also to confirm whether Boggart had infiltrated the group.
He wasn't worried that the Boggart would harm the children. Even if it mutated, it didn't have much physical attack power; on the contrary, it would make the field trip more interesting.
In a village, a Boggart who can transform into human form would indeed be very troublesome. He would completely destroy the trust between people, destroy all positive emotions with fear, and even drive people insane.
But when a group of wizards get together, the nature of the game changes—they all play spot the difference.
And see how many tricks this Boggart can pull off.
Soon, two identical Hermiones were brought out. They looked at each other and realized they were exactly the same, even the silver-white staffs on their backs were identical.
"Aha, it seems everyone has a bit of fear of our Gryffindor lioness, which is why the fake Boggart didn't hesitate to choose her as his transformation subject!" Lockhart grinned so wide his mouth almost reached his ears.
"Yeah, beating up a defense professor every year, everyone would be in awe of that, right?" Ron's precise retort brought Lockhart's laughter to an abrupt halt.
Among the crowd, Draco's expression was somewhat unnatural. Clearly, his fear of Hermione was genuine. Others might just be amazed by her fighting prowess or think that she was not someone to be trifled with, but he was the only one who had actually been beaten up and almost bullied into becoming an Obscurial.
"Are you that afraid of me?" both Hermiones asked, tilting their heads at the same time.
"Hilarious!" Both Hermiones pointed at each other at the same time.
But as Lockhart said, this mutated Boggart cannot be banished by the Boggart Exorcism Curse.
Hermione was getting a little angry; this thing on her face made her feel like she was a joke.
Then a dangerous blue light rose from the top of the staff, and a bright blue light blade took shape. The fake Hermione on the other side also took out a staff, but obviously she did not have the power of the Radiant Stone. Some ambiguous blue light flickered a few times but still could not form a light blade and suddenly dissipated.
But this still surprised Hermione, because the Boggart opposite her had actually managed to mimic some of the power of the Brilliant Stone.
Although it wasn't much, if she had only used starlight magic, she probably wouldn't have been exposed.
"We all know that the creatures that Boggart imitates will possess a certain degree of the original owner's abilities. For example, the Dementors that Boggart imitates will also have some of the ability to absorb pleasure," Lockhart explained.
"Of course, that won't be very strong. As Miss Granger demonstrated, using more powerful magic will immediately reveal the truth."
Bogut, exposed in the arena, began to tremble like a mosaic, his instincts telling him to quickly transform into another form so he could blend back into the crowd.
However, it was not very intelligent and actually transformed into Lockhart's appearance in public.
"Everyone, don't move! Let me back off a bit so you can better understand how a Boggart hunts," Lockhart shouted as he backed away. The students immediately formed a circle around him, blocking him from the outside.
Now it thought it had successfully blended into the crowd and could look for an opportunity to scare people.
The fake Lockhart strode aggressively up to Neville and said in a cold voice, "Mr. Longbottom, you failed your defense course this year!"
In Neville's mind, being half a year late in school and always falling behind everyone else was a thorn in his side. Boggart accurately found his fear, which is why he scared him like that.
But everyone knew that the Lockhart in front of them was fake, so Neville just stood there awkwardly, wanting to say something but not knowing what to say.
After thinking for a long time, he tilted his head and managed to squeeze out, "Funny? Funny?"
The two stared at each other for a while, and Boggart wondered why he didn't feel the fear of his prey, but instead the people around him were laughing.
These laughs were harmful to Boggart; a truly joyful laugh would completely destroy them, even the mutated ones, so it had to immediately turn its attention to other targets.
Soon, it spotted Harry beside it, and in the blink of an eye, it transformed into Professor Lily, brandishing a stirring stick and barking menacingly at Harry: "You piece of trash on the potions table! When are you going to stop giving me a hard time like Hermione did?!"
"You've disappointed your mother so much! You haven't inherited even the slightest bit of my talent!"
Harry was red-faced from the insults. Lily in real life would never say such things, but Boggart always targets people's weaknesses. He would do everything he could to provoke his target and make them feel a delicious sense of fear.
Harry mimicked Hermione, his chain glowing as he snatched the magically enhanced iron ball, ready to smash it over Boggart's head.
Terrified, it fled in panic and had to find another target. This time, it chose Draco, a target that exuded a very strong fragrance, the very scent that Boggarts loved most—the fear buried deep in their hearts.
It strode toward Draco, and as it walked, the transformation continued.
It quickly transformed from Lily's image into Lucius's, but it wasn't the well-dressed Lucius everyone saw last year; instead, it was Lucius wearing tattered prison clothes, soaking wet, and covered in blood.
He crept closer and closer to Draco, and the surrounding classmates stepped back, leaving the space to Draco and Boggart.
The boy's face turned deathly pale. Even though he knew the father in front of him was fake, this was exactly the scene he had dreamed of and feared the most.
"Draco, Draco, save me! The water dungeon in Malfoy Castle is so cold here, and the Biphasic tortures me from morning till night! Draco! I'm your father! How could you leave me here?!"
The fake Lucius collapsed to his knees, his body covered in water and an unknown slime, his bloodshot eyes glaring.
The grape crawled on its stomach, questioning Draco.
"No! You're fake! Don't try to scare me!" Draco shouted at Boggart, taking a deep breath.
The latter seemed devastated, her face heartbroken. With a trembling expression, half-crying and half-laughing, she said, "Fine, you must take care of your mother, you must—revive the Malfoy family—"
As it spoke, it seemed to melt and begin to sink into the ground, just as Lucius slid into the abyss, looking at Draco with loving eyes with his last breath, disappearing little by little as he went.
Draco trembled and couldn't help but take a step forward. The Boggart finally felt the overwhelming fear and quickly transformed into Narcissa's appearance, albeit in a gruesome state of death.
"No!" Draco screamed and lunged forward, but Lockhart grabbed him from behind.
He stepped forward and stood between Draco and Boggart.
Boggart also quickly changed his appearance, becoming two eleven or twelve-year-old girls dressed in tattered clothes.
They stood side by side, staring coldly at Lockhart, but he simply burst into laughter.
Soon, the little girl in front of them turned into a wisp of smoke and disappeared into the air.