great-warnovel Chapter 165 You Should Face It
Chapter 165 You Should Face It
Chapter 165 You Should Face It
The experience of using the door key is still terrible, like being hooked in the belly button and suddenly pulled.
But Hermione has gotten used to this teleportation, and she thinks she could even consider applying to learn Apparition next year.
When the two landed again, the surrounding scenery had changed drastically.
The parched earth was scorched, with towering cliffs on both sides. The black, gleaming cliffs seemed to have flames seeping from beneath them, carrying a somber, dark light. The honeycomb-like holes on them occasionally spewed out black smoke, the lingering smoke from the raging fire.
A hazy black smoke drifted through the canyon, and even at the bottom, one could smell a pungent, burnt odor.
Amicus Caro stood leisurely in front of them, idly tossing pebbles.
When he saw that there were two people, he was clearly taken aback: "Why are there two?"
He saw Hermione: "Why did Draco send you along too?"
He then grinned maliciously: "But it's nothing serious, at most it just takes away some of Alecto's fun."
Hermione ignored him and looked around: "Where's the Basilisk? You're not planning to take on me and the Professor by yourself, are you?"
'
Even though the narrow cliffs and billowing black smoke could impair the Hippogriff's mobility and vision, Amicus was no match for Lockhart. Although he had the aid of the cursed artifact, Lockhart had already been cursed once and could not be completely unprepared.
The Death Eater was taken aback; he hadn't expected the little witch to be so calm. "Lockhart guessed quite a bit, didn't he? But did he tell you all this? Does he think that if you join forces, you can defeat the Basilisk?"
He thought Lockhart was after Hermione's Brilliant Stone Greatbow and had thus recruited her to fight him.
However, this was not enough to make Amicus back down. The power of the cursed object far exceeded Lockhart's expectations. In a few moments, he would be completely unable to fight!
He snapped his fingers, and two ghostly little girls, standing hand in hand, appeared silently beside him. You could see that their fingers were missing two joints, the parts that had been separated earlier.
As they appeared, staring intently at Lockhart with dead eyes, it seemed that the potion he had just drunk was gradually losing its effect, and Lockhart began to experience dizziness and confusion again.
Amicus laughed smugly again: "Since you want to see the basilisk, then so be it."
As he spoke, he suddenly opened his mouth wide, his jaw agape in an exaggerated way, stretching his pale, pus-filled face into a terrifying shape.
A snake's head, defying the laws of physics, emerged from his mouth and, as it leaped into the air, became enormous.
Like a giant train emerging from a tunnel, Amycus tilted its head back and spewed out the enormous body of the basilisk monster. The wind it generated swept up the dust in the air. The giant serpent, coiled up in a ball, stared with dim, yellowish-green eyes, almost forming a small mountain in the air before crashing heavily to the ground, stirring up countless clouds of dust.
"No wonder," Hermione said knowingly.
"No wonder the professors couldn't find any trace of the basilisk, no wonder they could easily bring it into Malfoy Castle."
Under Voldemort's modifications, this terrifying behemoth, which was 10 meters wide, was able to hide inside the wizard's body without any hindrance. Hermione suddenly realized that the orange-yellow light that she had observed pulsating inside Amycus's body with her third eye was probably a projection of the basilisk.
"Be careful, don't look into the basilisk's eyes." Lockhart forced himself to endure the whispers and visions, constantly casting anti-curse spells on himself while reminding Hermione.
"We'll prioritize destroying my sister's remains. Without the cursed artifact, they're no match for us."
"Now that everyone's here, we don't need to wait any longer," Hermione suddenly said out of the blue.
Lockhart and the smug Amicus were both taken aback.
The next second, a ball of blazing white fire fell without warning, and Lockhart's two ghostly sisters were burned to powerless skeletons before they could even struggle and fell back to the ground.
「!?」
The two adult wizards were startled by the sight and looked up. They saw a figure, almost radiating white light, standing on the cliff shrouded in black smoke. The intense, holy light pierced through the night-like smoke, revealing the human form, which appeared exceptionally powerful. The blazing white flame was emitted by him.
"Dumbledore!"
Amicus and Lockhart both cried out in surprise, but one's cry was simply one of pure astonishment, while the other's was a terrified gasp squeezed out through clenched teeth, as if he wanted to die.
"It's a trap!" he cursed.
The next moment, before he could even take the basilisk with him, Amicus turned around and Apparated away.
Unfortunately, Dumbledore had already set this up. His authority over the anti-Apparition barrier was quietly usurped, and he reappeared right in front of Dumbledore on the cliff.
At the bottom of the valley, the basilisk warily watched the glowing old man above. Last time, outside Malfoy Castle, he was almost killed by Dumbledore with heavenly fire. In the Albanian forest, it also watched the entire battle between Voldemort and Dumbledore, and was terrified by what it saw.
With the cursed artifact completely destroyed, Lockhart's condition immediately improved, but he now wore a wry smile and said, "Dumbledore knew all along? This was all part of your plan?"
Hermione nodded: "And Professor McGonagall, only the three of us know about this plan."
"I feel like a clown." He shook his head with a laugh, then gathered up the scattered remains of his sisters and put them in his bag.
"Not entirely," Hermione said softly.
"This is a trial, and everyone has to face their own share."
Lockhart pointed thoughtfully to the basilisk ahead, which was too preoccupied to attend to them: "This is my trial? Like Harry and the others' trial against Alecto?"
Hermione nodded.
Lockhart let out a long sigh of relief: "I'm quite satisfied with this part. Eliminating this guy has always been my wish."
"No," Hermione interrupted him again.
Lockhart's face showed his confusion.
But the next moment, Hermione suddenly cast a silent binding spell that trapped him. Because it was activated so suddenly, he didn't even have time to dodge or resist. He already trusted this little girl completely.
"It's not 'you' who needs to deal with the Basilisk, it's you." Hermione said something nonsensical, but Lockhart understood it immediately.
He started to panic and said, "Feed Hermione, you're not serious, are you?"
"You should know that my true personality is that of a cowardly, escapist idiot! He can't face these things!"
Yes, Hermione had long disliked this fake, perfect personality. How could Lockhart's trial be a stage for the perfect personality to shine?
Having actually read Lockhart's notes, she knew that using magic to shape a personality was a very dangerous thing. A wizard's magic comes from the will, and changing the will of others or one's own is essentially distorting magic.
Whether out of concern for Professor Lockhart or resentment at being deceived, what she truly needed to learn was never the false part, but the real Lockhart himself, who had been asleep for so many years.
The spell of forgetting everything was aimed at Lockhart's head, and Hermione completely ignored what the professor was saying.
"I'm sorry, Professor, I'll use the magic you taught me against you," she said as she cast the spell.
"The memories of the two personalities are shared, whether it's magic or combat experience. Over the years, your adventures and your learning have all been real. I will only dismantle this false personality of yours and awaken the real part. The battles to come will be faced by the real you."
Fortunately, Animagus's success, with the Moon Form granting her greater control over magic, allowed her to more easily break the spells Lockhart had cast on her.
The false Lockhart's consciousness gradually blurred, and the expression on his face slowly changed.
Lockhart, who had been asleep for so many years, the cowardly and escapist, has finally awakened.
A dejected, defeated expression crept onto his otherwise composed face. This sudden awakening did not prevent him from seamlessly reconnecting with his previous memories.
He looked at the girl with a wry smile: "Should I say it's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Granger?"
He spoke softly, even sounding somewhat introverted and socially awkward: "You really shouldn't have done that. The real me couldn't possibly be a match for the basilisk."
Hermione retrieved her staff, released the binding spell, and looked at Lockhart with a somewhat unfamiliar gaze: "Nice to meet you, Professor, but that's a problem for you to face now. It's your turn to avenge your sister."
Thanks to Dumbledore's captivating power, the Basilisk focused all its attention on him during this time, allowing Hermione to safely dismantle Lockhart's virtual personality.
She pulled out another medicine bottle, the one she had finished before Christmas—no, it was now called Galatea's Tears. After giving one bottle to Lily, this was the final product, but it was meant to fight the basilisk with its instant-death gaze.
Even Lockhart is in danger; consider this bottle of perfume as a safety net for him.
Hermione manipulated the medicinal mist, surrounding the professor's entire body. The ivory-white color climbed onto his skin, which would greatly enhance his resistance to the death stare. Even if their eyes accidentally met, he would only be seriously injured rather than die suddenly.
"I should go now. I also need to check on Harry's situation. I'll leave the Basilisk to you. Don't let your fans down." Hermione said this, and gravity magic propelled her into the air, flying towards Dumbledore.