Snape, the Sunshine of Hogwarts.

Chapter 188 I was born to be a celebrity!
Lockhart didn't even realize what was happening when the spell hit him.

He thought his mouth was stuck and he couldn't recite the Forgetfulness Charm. It wasn't until he was about to recite the charm again and wave his wand that he realized his body was frozen in place and he couldn't move!

This made him extremely panicked.

This time is different from the last time he was ambushed and captured by the Albanian Aurors; he is now attacking a wizard.

Whoever cast the spell on him means that he has revealed the biggest secret to his fame!
While Lockhart was extremely anxious and fearful, Andrews, lying in bed, felt relieved and no longer felt the tension and helplessness he had felt before.

Suddenly, a series of rapid footsteps sounded outside the cabin door.

It looked like several people pushed open the door and walked into the room. Lockhart strained his eyes to see who they were, but he could only vaguely make out four blurry figures: two large and two small!
At that moment, someone spoke up.

"I never imagined his reputation was built this way! It's even more despicable than theft! How could such a hypocritical fraud become the idol of so many wizards!"

It was a boy's voice, and Lockhart found it strangely familiar, as if he had heard it just recently!
Before he knew it, Lockhart's back was completely soaked with sweat.

He suddenly realized that he seemed to have fallen into someone's trap. From the moment he learned about Angelona's letter, he had been completely led by the nose.

Another boy's voice rang out.

"If his deeds were exposed in the wizarding world, everyone would despise this clown!"

As the two boys were talking, someone lit a candle in the cabin, illuminating the dark space and finally allowing Lockhart to see the person who had come!

Lockhart's heart stopped beating the moment he saw Severus's face.

The petrification spell froze his body, preventing him from speaking, but the extreme fear in his eyes could not be hidden from anyone.

To Lockhart's utter surprise, the person lying in wait for him here was none other than his senior, Snape!
Severus merely glanced at the stunned Lockhart before tapping Andrews with his wand, dispelling the petrification spell on him.

“You’ve been in the mountains for too long, Pique. Dealing with these giants every day has made you lose your most basic vigilance and wariness towards strangers.”

Over the past two days, Severus and his companions have witnessed how Andrews gradually fell into Lockhart's verbal trap.

Clearly, Andrews had initially remembered Severus's warning and remained wary of Lockhart.

But soon, he readily believed Lockhart's words and completely lost his vigilance against the story thief. If it weren't for Severus and the others acting as his backup, Lockhart would have succeeded tonight.

Severus's words made Andrews sigh. He felt neither anger nor hatred, but only disappointment as he looked at Lockhart, who was now petrified.

“I promised to tell you all these stories. Even if you write them into a book, I won’t mind at all. On the contrary, I’ll be happy that you can let more people in the magical world know about trolls.”

Why do you insist on possessing these stories?

When faced with Andrews' question, Lockhart showed no shame or anger in his eyes, but instead looked at him with pleading eyes, as if he were begging for something.

At this moment, Lupin had already taken Lockhart's wand from his hand and used a binding charm to conjure a rope, binding him tightly.

After doing all that, Severus also removed the petrification from Lockhart.

"Please!" Lockhart immediately knelt on the ground, clasped his hands together, and pleaded with Andrews in utter humility, "Please forgive me, Pike! I was just momentarily blinded by greed! I still consider you a true friend and never intended to hurt you!"

"And what's more! I've been helping you all this time! Helping you solve those troll memory problems, right! I've been helpful to you! Piqué! Please forgive me! Please! Forgive me!"

Andrews didn't say anything, just looked at him with disgust, and got up from the bed in his pajamas.

“I’m going for a walk,” Andrews said to Severus, clearly not wanting to see Lockhart looking like that again.

Severus understood how he felt. He didn't say anything, but simply patted Andrews on the shoulder and nodded.

Watching Andrews leave, Lockhart completely panicked!

He's a truly intelligent man; he knows who to turn to first. If his words just now softened Andrews' heart, there might still be a chance for things to turn around.

But now, Andrews has chosen to leave directly from here, leaving behind Severus Snape.

Staring at Severus's face, Lockhart felt only despair.

But a sliver of hope led him to shift his plea for mercy to someone else.

“Senior Snape! Senior Snape!! I’ve never offended you, have I? I’ve always admired you! I’ve always looked up to you! When I saw you being humiliated like that by Potter and his gang at Hogwarts, I really wanted to stand up for you and stand up for you! You’ll believe me, won’t you? Everything I’m saying is true! It’s all true!”

He was making a final effort.

When Harry heard the surname "Potter" from his mouth, he was the first to widen his eyes and turn to look at his teacher.

When Harry was first taken away from the Dursleys, he learned in Severus that he had a feud with his father, but he never knew what kind of feud it was.

But what I'm hearing from Lockhart now seems...
It seems that her own father is the one who is bullying and oppressing her!
Lupin's expression was also somewhat complicated, but he didn't look at Severus. He just stared at Lockhart, as if he could see through all his pretense and see directly into his hypocritical and cunning nature.

Severus simply smiled and said softly.

“So you used to pity me like that, Lockhart? I really didn’t know that.” Lockhart nodded vigorously, looking at Severus with a nervous and expectant expression.

"Yes! If I could go back to the past, back to that time, I would definitely stand up and stand by your side openly and honestly! Senior Snape! Please spare me!"

"Please! I didn't do too many wrong things, did I? I just borrowed a little bit from other people's experiences. From another perspective, I'm the one who spread their wonderful stories and let everyone know about them. That's a good thing, isn't it?"

His shameless sophistry drew disdain from Draco.

Young Master Malfoy had never seen such a shameless person before.

Severus made no comment on his words; he simply looked at the pleading Lockhart and said calmly.

"While your stories may be fabricated, stolen from others, those bestselling books in the wizarding world were indeed written by you. You certainly have talent, Lockhart, but why must you showcase it in this way?"

"You could have negotiated with them, just like you promised Pique at the beginning, helped them, made them the protagonists, and written these stories. You could have achieved something too, a real achievement that belongs to you."

Lockhart collapsed weakly to the ground.

From Severus's words, he realized that there was absolutely no turning back now that he had been caught stealing the story.

In any case, Severus could not pretend that nothing had happened and would definitely hand him over to the Aurors of England.

This reality finally made Lockhart tear off his original hypocritical mask, and he looked at Severus with hatred.

“What do you understand! You hypocritical, sanctimonious, and shameless bastard! Didn’t you also say those ‘I repent’ and ‘I will change’ things to the public in England just to become famous and to show that you are different?”

"I must be more outstanding! More special! To prove that I am Lockhart! I am a genius wizard!"

Severus paid no attention to Lockhart's distorted accusations. He simply stared at the wizard who had stopped smiling and whose face had become contorted, and was somewhat puzzled by his later words.

Why do you have to prove you're a genius?

“I’m the only child in the family who has shown magical talent!” Lockhart stared intently at Severus. “My mother firmly believed that I would become an extraordinary person! She believed it, and of course I believe it too!”

"I was born extraordinary! This is both a fact and my family's expectation of me! Do you understand!"

"Besides me, I have two older sisters, but like my father, they have absolutely no magical talent and will never have any hope of ever having any contact with the world of magic! Only I am the same kind of person as my mother! After she discovered this, she began to favor me!"

"Can you understand how fascinated I am by the envious and jealous looks my family gives me every day? I was born unique. I am smart, beautiful, and a wizard. Isn't that outstanding?"

"Then I received a letter from Hogwarts, and I began to imagine what it would be like to go to that school! I walked down the corridors, surrounded by excited whispers about my magical powers, and they all believed I was a genius and a hero!"

"But once we actually got to Hogwarts, after we arrived at Hogwarts..."

As he said this, his originally intense voice became low, and Severus continued what he hadn't said.

"Once you get to Hogwarts, you'll find that the magic you've displayed is nothing special at all, because everyone in this school is just like you; they are all wizards."

Severus's words seemed to tear open Lockhart's deepest wounds, wounds that had never truly healed. He spoke angrily.

"Yes! That's exactly right! Nobody at Hogwarts knows my name. My magical talent is commonplace, and nobody even remembers my naturally wavy blond hair!"

"That's not right at all! I'm special! I'm born to be admired by others, that's what I'm meant to experience!"

“But actually, the professors at Hogwarts all thought your intelligence and level were above average,” Lupin said calmly. “Once when I was in fifth grade, I went to Professor Flitwick to sign a borrowing slip and overheard him and Professor Slughorn talking about you. They both said that you were actually doing quite well.”

“That’s right! Listen to what they say about me!” Lockhart was furious. “Not bad! In their eyes, I’m just not bad! That’s an insult, a denial of me! That’s not what I want! I need the best, the only one! Absolute excellence! Not just not bad!”

Lupin stared blankly at Lockhart, who had poured out all his innermost thoughts. Only then did he finally understand why Lockhart had acted so eccentrically and incomprehensibly at Hogwarts.

"So, after realizing that no matter how hard you try, you can't possess that magical talent that amazes everyone, you start to choose laziness or even take shortcuts?" Severus asked.

“Otherwise?” Lockhart looked at him coldly. “I lobbied the principal to start a school newspaper because nothing makes me happier than seeing my name and photo printed out.”

"I used magic to carve my personal signature on the Quidditch pitch, each letter twenty feet long, making everyone marvel at the name Gilderoy Lockhart, even if the price was that I was kept in school for a week for it!"

"I imitated the Dark Mark and projected my enormous, glittering portrait into the sky! Every Valentine's Day I send myself eight hundred greeting cards, causing owls to fill the Great Hall of Hogwarts on that day!"

"People must remember me, know me! This is the life I'm meant to live!!"

Harry and Draco were stunned after hearing his story.

Although they were still young, they could never have imagined that there were people in this world with this kind of mentality.

Draco's expression turned somewhat strange as he looked at Lockhart. He subconsciously took a step back, as if wanting to distance himself from this notoriously obsessive and insane wizard.

Harry looked at Lockhart with pity. He felt that if Lockhart hadn't experienced those things at home when he was young, hadn't had his mother's favoritism and expectations, and hadn't had his sister's envy and jealousy, he might not have become the person he is now.

Lockhart's self-narration of his state of mind and experiences left a deep impression on Harry.

(End of this chapter)