From Hogwarts to Sturhaven

“Professor Lockhart! We…we’ve come to visit you!” Hermione said in a very cloying voice.

“I saw your greeting card, Miss Granger, what a thoughtful person you are!” Lockhart flashed his eight gleaming teeth, showing that even lying in a hospital bed, he hadn’t forgotten to take care of them. “And you, Harry!”

“You are the one who deserves praise, Professor,” Hermione said, looking at Lockhart with admiration. “You single-handedly dealt with the monster in the Chamber of Secrets and protected everyone at Hogwarts!”

Lockhart's expression told everyone he was extremely pleased, but he still declined, saying, "These are all trivial matters. I don't fight dark magic with a smile."

“You’re so modest,” Hermione complimented. “I don’t think you’re going to tell us what the monster in the Chamber of Secrets really is, are you?”

“To keep things fresh before the new book is published, of course.” Lockhart laughed again.

"And what about the successor?" Ron suddenly interjected.

“What heir?” Lockhart’s expression told him that he was hearing the term for the first time.

“Ron!” Hermione gritted her teeth and stopped Ron.

“The heir to Slytherin!” Ron was completely unmoved. “By the way, Hermione, your voice is much better now. I thought you had phlegm stuck in your throat just now.”

Hermione glared fiercely at Ron, and Harry felt like she was about to smash Ron's head in the next second.

To prevent his best friend from joining the "Headless Hunters," Harry quickly said, "People say that only the Heir can open the Chamber of Secrets. If you... you really defeated the monster in the Chamber of Secrets, then you must have met the Heir, right?"

“Oh! You mean the heir…” Lockhart’s face showed a look of sudden realization. He rolled his eyes and said, “I promised to keep it a secret because he cried in front of me and told me that he was just temporarily bewitched by dark magic.”

"You're willing to give him a chance to change his ways?" Hermione seemed to have completely forgotten about the previous unpleasantness. "How noble!"

“Yes, after all, he’s just a student, with a bright future ahead of him.” Lockhart put on a compassionate expression.

"Looks like it's not Ivy. I really don't know how Slytherin chooses its successor," Ron muttered.

“Who is Ivy?” Lockhart asked. “I don’t recall ever seeing him mentioned in Defense Against the Dark Arts?”

“Evidence Doom, a Slytherin student, is a very powerful wizard. According to him, he was a fifth-year student from Hogwarts over a hundred years ago, and he enrolled with us last year,” Ron introduced enthusiastically. “Back then, he was a head shorter than me! After just one summer, he’s almost as tall as Professor Dumbledore. This year he’s preparing for OWLs, and the headmaster has given him the privilege of studying on his own, which makes me incredibly envious.”

“That’s interesting. This is the first time I’ve heard someone talk about his story. He must be quite famous at school, right?” Lockhart said thoughtfully.

“On the contrary, people rarely talk about him. Because every Slytherin would glare at any student who talked about Ivy, over time, people stopped talking about him. Sometimes, I feel like I’ve become friends with a ghost from Hogwarts,” Harry explained. “But he’s a nice guy, and he’s also incredibly skilled in ancient magic.”

"Ancient magic?" Lockhart swore he was hearing the term for the first time.

“Yes, summoning lightning and stuff, we’ve only seen it a few times,” Harry said.

Lockhart was about to ask more questions when he heard Professor McGonagall's voice from outside the door.

"Is Professor Lockhart inside?" Professor McGonagall asked.

“Of course.” It was Mrs. Pomfrey’s voice. “There are a few students visiting him. You should really advise him to leave sooner. I organize at least four or five groups of students to visit him every day, and they are all chattering little witches. His presence here will only disturb the rest of the other patients.”

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do, Poppy.”

Then, Professor McGonagall pushed open the door and walked in.

"How is the recovery going, Professor Lockhart?" Professor McGonagall asked in a perfunctory tone.

"Thanks to you, not bad." Lockhart once again flashed his gleaming white teeth, but it seemed to have little effect.

Professor McGonagall's expression remained unchanged: "Great, so we can start class today? Although Severus would be happy to cover for us, he's already busy enough."

“What… I think…” Lockhart’s face showed a look of surprise. He had thought that Professor McGonagall would at least say a few polite words to him.

“Popito told me everything. Your wounds are all superficial, and they were almost healed by the first day you checked in.” Professor McGonagall glanced at Hermione, who was about to say something, making her swallow her words. “However, only someone as skilled in dealing with dark magic as you could have suffered only minor injuries from the Chamber of Secrets monster’s attack. The students are all eager to see the hero who conquered the Chamber of Secrets monster.”

Lockhart immediately laughed: "You're right, you're right! I can get back to the classroom right away!"

After saying that, he threw off the blanket, jumped off the hospital bed, and stretched his limbs in the process.

“Very good,” Professor McGonagall nodded with satisfaction. “Don’t forget the afternoon class, Professor Lockhart.”

Then she turned and left, leaving the four people in the ward staring at each other.

"Sigh...it seems I have to go back to work," Lockhart sighed.

Before Hermione could comfort him, Lockhart laughed again: "It's a wonderful experience for me to see so many young faces. Oh, Miss Granger, Mr. Potter, and Mr. Weasley."

“I’ve noticed you all seem very interested in escape rooms,” Lockhart said. “Would you be interested in doing an extra assignment?”

"Of course!" Hermione eagerly agreed on behalf of her two academically challenged friends. "What's the question?"

“A paper on the Chamber of Secrets, whatever it may be about—its location, the monster inside, or the Slytherin heir.” Lockhart’s smile, for the first time, no longer seemed annoying to Harry and Ron. “It’s a long-term assignment. Until this paper is due, you don’t have to do any of the other assignments I give in class, how about that?”

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance. They had never heard of such a generous request before, so they happily replied, "Of course!"

Lockhart may not be a qualified wizard, nor a qualified professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, but he is definitely a qualified bestselling author.

Therefore, he knew very well what a bestseller needed: detailed information, a dramatic plot, plus a gimmick and a perfect smile—especially the smile of Gilderoy Lockhart himself, who had won the Witcher Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award five times.

The story can be someone else's, the gimmick can be fabricated, but the smiles and fame must be Lockhart's own.

As for the materials? Lockhart didn't see any difference between handing this task over to three second-year students and handing it over to a publishing house editor.

Therefore, he returned to his office with a clear conscience and admired the portrait he had not seen for several days.

€€€€€€€€

“Magic is the power of belief, which means you must not only be confident when you chant incantations, but also believe in your own magic from the bottom of your heart. Only then will magic trust you in return.” Ivy was instructing her sorcerer.

Ever since Ivy got the spellcasting tattoo on Cassandra's body, she saw the possibility of wizards taking on other spellcasting professions in D&D, so she took a little care of her spellcasting and would occasionally come to the Slytherin common room to answer some of her questions.

What they were discussing was transfiguration.

"However, Polymorph is a very special kind of magic. It requires more precise thinking and rigorous logic. You need to fully understand the object before and after the transformation, and only by truly doing this can you ensure that the effect of the Polymorph is accurate." Before obtaining the Philosopher's Stone to enhance his Polymorph talent, Ivy's Polymorph was already quite good. He often used Polymorph to add furniture to the Room of Requirement or turn some enemies into powder kegs.

However, compared to the simple and mindless chain of eating melons, the complexity of the Transfiguration is slightly higher, so he doesn't use it very often, at least not as frequently as eating melons.

"Professor McGonagall has already arranged the second-year curriculum very well. First, it's about transforming similar objects, and then it expands to turning living things into relatively simple inanimate objects. As for the third-year curriculum, it should be about turning inanimate objects into living things." Ivy tapped the dinner glass on the table with her wand, turning it and its drink into a round penguin.

“Mastering Transfiguration is very important. I also know quite a few spells that share the same theory as Transfiguration. If you can get an O in OWLs, I'll consider teaching you something even more interesting.” There is also a Transfiguration school in the D&D spellcasting school. From the simplest object transformation to matter transformation, and from creating artificial life at the 6th level to complete Transfiguration at the 9th level, this school of spells encompasses a wide range of powerful effects.

The most cost-effective of these is undoubtedly the 4th-circle spell, "Divine Craftsmanship," because it can transform unprocessed raw materials into finished products made from the same materials.

Although it may not sound like a big deal, its effects are actually quite amazing. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it an industrialized spell.

The craftsmanship is so ingenious that it can turn cotton into cotton cloth, flax leaves into linen cloth, and even unrefined sulfur, saltpeter, and wood into gunpowder.

If Ivy owned a piece of land where raw materials could be produced, he could provide a processing method that was more efficient, energy-saving, and environmentally friendly than a modern factory.

Chapter 183 Hermione's Indecisiveness

"...The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a terrifying giant serpent capable of killing the entire school's teachers and students. It has many heads and tails, and the reason it can live for a thousand years is because it often enters a state of hibernation. Its usual food is the fish in the Black Lake, because it lives beneath the Black Lake. Only the heir of Slytherin can awaken it from its slumber..."

Ron finished the last stroke, shoved the quill into the inkwell, and let out a triumphant shout: "I've finished all my Defense Against the Dark Arts assignments for this semester!"

Ron was overjoyed at the thought of not having to do any more Defense Against the Dark Arts homework after the Christmas holidays. Perhaps for the first time, he was experiencing the joy of learning, rushing to the library as soon as get out of class ended to begin working on the extra assignments Lockhart had given them.

He wrote down everything he knew about the secret room, including many unfounded speculations.

Perhaps it can't be considered completely unfounded.

"Since the Slytherin emblem is a snake, you think the monster in the Chamber of Secrets might be a snake?" Harry asked, referring to Ron's paper. "Then why would it have so many heads and tails?"

“Because it’s going to kill everyone in the school!” Ron said matter-of-factly. “Without so many heads and tails, how could it possibly have time? There are so many people in the school, it could easily overwhelm them! Besides, monsters with many heads are usually very powerful, like Hydras or something.”

“That makes sense!” Harry nodded. “Then I’ll write, ‘A Hydra lives in the Chamber of Secrets in Slytherin, and its venom could easily kill the entire school, because it lives at the source of the water pipes…’ What do you think, Ron?”

"Cool! Dying from poisoning sounds much better than being eaten by a monstrous snake with many heads!" Ron grinned, high-fiving Harry. "If I hadn't already finished writing it, I would have polished it up a bit more!"

Hermione slammed a stack of books on the table and glared angrily at the two of them: "You two are going to submit this garbage, full of fabricated legends and fantasies, as your papers to Professor Lockhart?"

Ron's eyes widened: "This 'rubbish' is all my Defense Against the Dark Arts homework for next semester! I won't allow you to insult it! It took me so much effort!"

Ron was clearly not really angry; the fact that he didn't have to do homework would make him happy for the rest of his life!

Hermione chuckled, shook her head, and said nothing more, while examining the "garbage" they had written.

“The snake… well, it seems you did put in some effort.” Hermione was no longer so sarcastic. “I also think the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is most likely related to the snake, after all, Salazar—Slytherin—is a well-known Parseltongue.”

Harry suddenly remembered that he could also talk to snakes, and last semester he had discussed with his friends the possibility that he was a descendant of Slytherin. At first, he thought Slytherin was an old madman, and that Slytherin House was a house that produced dark wizards, but Ivy told him that there was no hierarchy among houses, and that one could not be labeled a dark wizard simply based on their origin.

He thought Ivy was right, but there was indeed a very annoying student in Slytherin, his old nemesis Malfoy. Even though Harry had saved Malfoy's life at the end of the last term, he didn't think he would like the man. The same was true for Malfoy; their antagonistic relationship remained unchanged.

“Harry’s a Parseltongue, who knows, he might be the Slytherin heir!” Ron joked.

“Parseltongue is a magical power, so it wouldn’t be surprising at all if Slytherin linked the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets to Parseltongue. If the heir opened the Chamber of Secrets using Parseltongue, then Harry could do it too.” Hermione shrugged, clearly not taking the speculation to heart. “However, Parseltongue isn’t an uncommon ability. The very famous pure-blood wizarding family, the Gaunt, are recognized throughout the wizarding world as descendants of Slytherin, and they have several Parseltongues in every generation! If Slytherin’s heirs were really chosen based on whether they knew Parseltongue, Hogwarts would probably have been closed long ago.”

“The Gaunt family? I’ve heard their story. They had a lot of mentally challenged and disabled children because of inbreeding, and they were very crazy. They disappeared from the wizarding world completely many years ago.” Ron, who lived in a wizarding family, also shared his experiences.

"A Parsleyan wizard can command many kinds of magical snakes, including three-headed runes, sea serpents that can grow to over 100 feet long, and even the most terrifying basilisks," Hermione continued, sharing her insights. "A basilisk can kill with just a glance, not to mention its incredibly venomous fangs. If the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a basilisk, it would probably indeed be able to wipe out everyone in the castle who is unworthy to learn magic."

Harry heard Ron gasp: "Just from eye contact?"

“That’s right, basilisks are the mortal enemies of spiders because spiders have eight eyes, and none of them can close.” Hermione opened a very old library book, the title on the cover worn away. “So wherever basilisks appear, spiders will quickly flee.”

“The spider’s mortal enemy…” Ron muttered, “Hmph… I’m starting to like it a little. If the basilisk’s gaze doesn’t kill wizards too, I might keep one as a pet.”

“You’re afraid of spiders? I’ve never heard of that.” Hermione laughed. “You’ve used spiders as materials so many times in Potions class…”

“I don’t care about dead spiders,” Ron said, scoffing. “I just don’t like the way they crawl—so many hairy legs…”

Hermione laughed even louder.

“That’s not funny!” Ron said angrily. “When I was three, Fred turned my teddy bear into an ugly giant spider because I broke his toy broom. If you’ve ever had that experience, you wouldn’t like them either. Imagine you’re hugging your teddy bear and suddenly it sprouts a bunch of legs, and…”

Ron shuddered and couldn't continue.

“Okay, okay,” Hermione stopped laughing. “But the monster in the Chamber of Secrets can’t be a basilisk. Because it doesn’t match up with the recent events at the castle, and we didn’t see the spider escape from the school. Either the monster in the Chamber of Secrets isn’t a basilisk, or…”