From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 196 Lockhart vs. Bird Snake

"Bird-snake egg?" Snape recognized the egg held in Lockhart's hand at a glance.

As a magical animal classified as XXXX level by the Ministry of Magic, the danger of the bird snake is obvious to all.

Although their diet generally consists mainly of small forest creatures, including insects, mice, and birds, they sometimes capture monkeys.

The bird snake's magical ability is to change its body size according to the size of the space. It can be big enough to fill an entire room, or small enough to fit into a teapot.

The eggs of the bird snake are pure silver, very soft and of high value, and therefore very sought after on the black market in the wizarding world.

"You use bird snake egg yolks as the main ingredient for shampoo?" Snape snorted coldly, "What a waste of resources."

Because bird snake egg yolk can give hair luster, it can be used as an additive in shampoo. In addition, bird snake eggs are one of the main ingredients for making Felicis, so for Snape, the professor of potions, it is indeed a rare and precious material.

Facing Snape's venomous attack, Lockhart did not get angry. Instead, he raised a finger and shook it, grinning and saying, "Admit it, Severus, you are jealous."

"As long as you have read my series of works, you will understand my important qualifications as a well-known adventurer - keen observation and accurate and efficient intuition!" Lockhart obviously regarded the silver-shining bird-snake egg as his prize. He held the silver egg to his face and showed his big white teeth again. "If you want to become a qualified master of Defense Against the Dark Arts, carefulness and courage are absolutely indispensable. It is because of these advantages of mine that I can find it in this inconspicuous place!"

"The boathouse is not inconspicuous at all." Ron muttered outside the door. Facing the gazes of his two friends, he added, "I mean... think about it, this is Hogwarts, the best magic school in the world. Every year, the first time new students enter Hogwarts is from here."

Hermione shook her head: "Why are there bird and snake eggs in school? They are banned items!"

The sharp Hermione noticed Harry's hesitant expression, so she asked suspiciously, "Do you know something, Harry? Could it be Hagrid's doing again? Last year it was a dragon, this year it's a bird snake, so what will it be next year? A leopard or a chimera?"

"I can only say that this matter has nothing to do with Hagrid." Harry said vaguely. He noticed that the conversation between the two professors in the boathouse was still going on, or rather, Lockhart's performance was still going on. So he quickly diverted Hermione's attention: "Look at Professor Snape's expression. I think he may attack at any time."

"It's even more terrible than when Fred and George played with dung bombs in Potions class last year..." Ron commented. Although he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he could tell how angry Snape was just from the descriptions of his two brothers. As for Snape, Lockhart in front of him was probably the one who made him angrier, because they were colleagues and Snape had no suitable reason to punish Lockhart.

"This will put Professor Lockhart in danger..." Hermione said worriedly.

"He's a master of Defense Against the Dark Arts, and he subdued the monster in the Chamber of Secrets. Why should we worry about him?" Ron didn't want to let such a good show go to waste. He wanted to watch the fight between the two adult wizards after the holiday and before the dueling club actually opened.

"Oh my God..." Hermione sighed softly and looked at Ron with disappointment. "Don't you understand now? Professor Lockhart didn't subdue the monster in the Chamber of Secrets at all... His previous injuries were caused in the boathouse... Maybe it was the bird-snake that appeared here..."

"What?" Ron couldn't help but lean back. He was about to say something when he felt something was wrong. Then he found that his good buddy Harry was looking at him with the same eyes.

"Harry...is what Hermione said true?"

Harry nodded.

"No one told me?" Ron scratched his head and said, "Lockhart is going to be beaten up by Snape now."

Lockhart was indeed beaten up, but it was not Snape who did it, but a bird-snake that suddenly jumped out from under the small wooden boat.

This monster with blue-green feathers and a pair of glittering purple wings immediately enlarged its body, almost occupying the entire boathouse, and attacked Lockhart with a hissing sound.

"Great, Professor Lockhart." Snape took a half step back and said dryly, "I can see the famous Lockhart fight the bird-snake with my own eyes."

"Help! Severus!" Lockhart screamed as he tried to dodge the bird-snake's sharp beak.

"I believe the Master of Defense Against the Dark Arts has many spells to deal with the current situation," Snape stepped back a little, with no intention of taking action at all.

"It's going to kill me! It wasn't like this when I was here last time!" Lockhart rolled on the ground, and his wand fell to the side. "It's only been less than a month! How did it grow so big?"

"Don't worry, Professor Lockhart." Snape almost retreated to the corner. "If you die, I will personally tell each of your readers that their idol was killed by a bird snake that just reached the full moon, but before that, he tried to resist... at least, um... died beautifully."

"Really?" Lockhart seemed to be attracted by Snape's flat description. "The Fall of the Legendary Defense Against the Dark Arts Master? This title sounds good! Perhaps my reputation will not be damaged... Maybe my next series can use this title - Dark Forces, The Fall of Gilderoy?"

Just when Snape was shocked by Lockhart's out-of-line behavior, the bird-snake that had just come into this world gave Lockhart a profound lesson.

The knife-sharp beak pierced deeply into Lockhart's arm, leaving a bleeding hole.

"Ah——" Lockhart screamed and rolled on the ground, frantically asking his colleagues for help, "Help me, Severus! I can give you all the bird-snake eggs!"

"That's very impressive," Snape muttered in disgust, offering his only bit of help by kicking Lockhart's wand back at him. "More impressive than those 800 or so Valentine's Day cards you sent yourself when you were in school. What a shame your loyal fans can't see this."

"It's certain that a big fan saw it..." Ron whispered outside the door, while Hermione glared at him.

Harry, who witnessed everything that happened, finally connected all the events together and pieced together the full picture.

More than a hundred years ago, Ivy got a nest of bird-snake eggs from a dark wizard in the Forbidden Forest. Since he had been away from the nest for too long, he just put the eggs in the Room of Requirement. As the magical animals in the Room of Requirement a hundred years ago began to appear in Hogwarts today, the nest of bird-snake eggs also drifted to the boathouse, and one of them hatched a living bird-snake.

In early December, Lockhart returned to Hogwarts with a body full of horrible wounds. According to him, those wounds were caused by fighting the monster in the Chamber of Secrets. However, when Harry, Ron and Hermione visited Lockhart in the hospital later, they heard from Madam Pomfrey, the head nurse, that the wounds on Lockhart were just superficial wounds.

Now that he thought about it, those wounds were caused by the bird snake in the boathouse, and Lockhart himself knew that a newly hatched bird snake was not enough to be the monster in the Chamber of Secrets, so he gave the three of them extra homework. He wanted to use the students' conjectures about the Chamber of Secrets to add material to his own writing.

Later, on the day after Christmas, Harry saw Lockhart fixing his hair outside the Defense Against the Dark Arts office. The small silver bowl on his desk should be the bird-snake egg obtained from the boathouse.

Now that the holiday is over and Professor Snape has recovered his vitality, Lockhart can't wait to invite the Potions Professor to go to the boathouse to look for potion materials. Although Lockhart is a big talker, he at least knows that bird snake eggs are a very rare potion material, maybe because he learned it when he was researching shampoo.

Harry thought of the first Defense Against the Dark Arts test of the school year, the one on which Hermione was the only one to answer all the questions correctly, which mentioned Lockhart's ambitions: to rid the world of evil and to sell his own shampoo.

The shampoo he invented must have used the expensive and rare bird snake egg yolks. As for Lockhart's statement of "eliminating evil in the world", it now seems that it might just be an act of self-aggrandizement.

Harry remembered the words he had spoken as he had pulled him over to the greenhouse, the advice he had given him about reputation and the like, something Lockhart must have been keen on.

Looking at the two friends around him, Ron was shouting in excitement, because Lockhart in the boat house was in danger and had to roll back and forth on the ground to avoid the attack of birds and snakes.

As for Hermione, she stared at everything that happened in the boathouse with a worried look on her face.

Maybe she hoped that Lockhart would perform a miracle and defeat the bird-snake, just like in the novel.

Harry thought, looking again at the paper Hermione was clutching in her hands - the extra assignment Lockhart had used to collect material for the Chamber of Secrets.

A flash of inspiration came to Harry's mind.

Hermione must have guessed everything long ago, including that Lockhart was a liar, she just tried hard not to doubt Lockhart.

No wonder she seemed so struggling and frustrated before turning in the paper. Harry knew that his friend had always believed in the knowledge she learned from books, but what should he do when two books showed contradictory evidence?

On one side is Lockhart, the master of Defense Against the Dark Arts who wrote seven adventure stories, and on the other side is the tome hidden in the corner of the Hogwarts library. Who is right?

Thinking about what Hermione had said to Ron before, she must have already known the answer. The reason she was so conflicted now was obviously because she still had some fantasies about Lockhart in her heart.

Harry felt that he could not bear to see his good friend continue to be deceived by such a shameless liar, and wanted to tell the whole truth, but he immediately remembered that Dumbledore had asked him to keep it a secret in the headmaster's office.

"Can I see your paper, Hermione?" Harry asked aloud. If Hermione herself had really guessed the truth, then he would not have violated the confidentiality agreement with Dumbledore.

"What?" Hermione stared at him in confusion. "Now?"

"Yes! Just one glance..." Harry snatched the paper from Hermione's hand and scanned the word at a glance, "... Basilisk... Basilisk... Here it is!"

"Dude, the one in there - I mean, Lockhart's rolling around like a sausage on a pan, and you're thinking about reading a paper? Did a book hit your brain?" If they weren't both wizards studying at Hogwarts, Ron would have suspected that Harry was possessed.

Harry ignored Ron and said to Hermione sincerely: "Your guess is right, there is really a basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets."

"How did you know?" Hermione asked in surprise. "The Chamber of Secrets was opened? During the Christmas holidays?"

Hermione guessed the truth immediately, but Harry could only answer vaguely: "I can't say... Dumbledore already knows everything anyway..."

"Ah..." Hermione's expression relaxed, and she sighed, "I actually already knew the truth about the Chamber of Secrets. I've confirmed it from Ivy. But I just... still have a little hope for Lockhart... But I still want to say, thank you, Harry."

"Wait, wait!" Ron looked at his two friends suspiciously, "Are you hiding something from me? Why did I hear Ivy's name?"

Harry was speechless for a moment and could only look at Hermione expectantly, hoping that she could help him out.

"It's hard to explain right away," Hermione glanced into the cabin again. Lockhart's forget-me-not blue robe almost looked like a beggar's attire. "Anyway, all you have to know is that Lockhart is a guy with nothing but good looks."

"Oh... I actually saw that a long time ago." Ron muttered and stopped talking.

The bird snake's huge body crushed one small wooden boat after another, and it was still attacking Lockhart relentlessly. However, since it had just hatched less than a month ago, its attack accuracy was quite poor, and even a straw bag like Lockhart could rely on rolling on the ground to avoid its sharp beak.

However, as the bird-snake's rage grew, its body grew larger and larger, and Lockhart's rolling space became smaller and smaller. Even Snape, who had been standing in the corner, felt that he had nowhere to stand.

So he reminded him, "Recite the spell, Professor Lockhart? Could it be that the wand in your hand is just a small wooden stick with nothing in it?"

(End of this chapter)