Days at Hogwarts

Chapter 181 The Curse of Oblivion

Loren and Hermione rambled on about things they didn't really care about, but fortunately, such muttering little wizards were not uncommon.

Hogwarts students often come to the pub on weekends for adventures, trying to drink like adults, only to fall asleep on the table before finishing their drinks. The three-broom waiter is used to it.

The various patrons in the bar dared not harbor ill intentions towards these young wizards, not only because of Dumbledore's reputation, but also because the university professors would often come to the bar for a drink to relax.

The two chatted absentmindedly about the Transfiguration Club and the Potions Club, which hadn't yet started publicly recruiting members. The young wizard was very keen to join the Potions Club because brewing potions was a highly skilled profession, and being a Potions Master was a respectable job.

Leisurely stirring the liquid in the crucible, brewing cheap raw materials into a potion, selling it for enough to cover several months' expenses. Relaxed, comfortable, and elegant.

Loren couldn't understand why the young wizards would have such unrealistic fantasies when they had potions classes every week. He could only assume that it was perhaps similar to ordinary people's yearning for doctors.

After slowly finishing their butterbeer and even dozing off for a while, the two left the three brooms feeling refreshed.

It was probably two or three in the afternoon. The sun had passed its zenith, and the soft sunlight streaming down my body gave me a comfortable warmth.

"Is there anything else we need to do?" Hermione and Loren walked out side by side.

"Is there anything else you'd like to do?"

"No more!" Hermione answered crisply.

They hadn't been to Zog's Magical Joke Shop yet, nor had they visited Elegant Wizarding Clothing Shop; there were still many places they hadn't been. Hermione actually wanted to check out the Literati Quill Shop, but she knew the importance of not eating all the good stuff at once—it would make her bloated.

What was that saying again?

There's plenty of time in the future.

"Shall we find a place to get something to eat?" Loren looked around at both sides of the street, but there didn't seem to be any restaurants or similar shops nearby.

"Hmm—" Hermione sighed, feeling her stomach was still full. They had stuffed themselves with too much food at Honeydukes Candy Store, all high-sugar foods that were very filling.

She fell into deep thought: "Let's not eat anymore. Let's buy a cake to take back to school. I'll share some with Parvati and the others, and you can also take some to Harry and the others to thank them for their birthday presents."

"Cake? What flavor would you like?"

"Avalanche Strawberry Cake! I will always love Avalanche Strawberry Cake!"

"Chocolate cake would be nice too."

"Actually, I'd like to try making a cake with dark chocolate."

The two of them walked and talked.

The streets of Hogsmeade were still bustling. In Madam Patiffe's Tea House, many young wizards were still glued together, hands taped to hands, mouths taped to mouths. Outside the Quidditch Boutique, the scraggly-bearded owner squatted, grumbling with his clerk over strangely packaged candy boxes.

"I just asked you to go next door and steal—no, bring out some sample candies—why did you bring back such a big thing?" the boss said.

The young shop assistant blushed and stammered, "The new honey candies were so tempting that I couldn't resist eating all the samples in the box. Plus, I was wearing this uniform, so I got caught."

He looked at the candy gift box in front of him: "You know the rest. Mr. Ambrose Froome asked me to bring this to you."

The shop owner looked at the gift box suspiciously: "Is there a swarm of cockroaches inside? Last time I opened a gift box he gave me at the store, cockroaches crawled all over the place!"

"Just open it up and you'll know."

"Are you an idiot?"

Loren and Hermione laughed as they walked past and into Honeydukes candy store.

Colorful bubbles floated below the ceiling, the popping sounds of candy fillings rang out from time to time, along with bursts of flame and crackling white icy mist... The shelves were still crowded with little wizards, and the counter was surrounded by them placing orders and checking out.

Although they were told it was an avalanche strawberry cake, the two couldn't resist eating a piece of each of the various cakes on display for tasting.

The mousse cake was as soft as a cloud, the cherry cream Black Forest cake had a smooth and creamy texture, and the nut brownie was sweet but not cloying. The undigested candy in their stomachs welcomed a new companion, and both felt a bit too full before regretting stopping.

Then, carrying the Avalanche Strawberry Cakes, which were divided into two boxes, they returned to the castle. Although the sun had not yet set, the lights and candles were already on.

Savoring the lingering sweetness on their lips, the two talked about the shops they wanted to visit next and planned their itinerary. They wanted to see the owls at the post office, and the Screaming Shack featured in "Famous Places in the Wizarding World." There were many more interesting places to visit, and their future seemed endless.

He stepped into the shadows, then revealed half his body to block the light, casting a flickering shadow on the ground...

They skipped and hopped until they reached the stairs to the Gryffindor common room, where they stopped and looked at each other.

Loren turned his head to the side and looked at the entrance of the girls' dormitory, saying, "I put your birthday present in the cake box. Remember to check it."

Hermione smiled broadly: "Thank you! This has been the happiest birthday I've ever had!"

"I will pass that message on to Wendell and Monica."

Hermione: ? ? ?

With mixed feelings, the two parted ways.

Hermione opened the box before even entering her dorm room. Just like the birthday present she gave Loren, it was a small pendant. The brown grapevine wood was carved into a square-headed, cartoonish little whale, waving its little tail upwards, clumsy yet endearingly cute.

The carving is exquisite, with even the smallest engravings being meticulously done, reflecting a focused and careful attention to detail.

Hermione held the little pendant, feeling a sweetness even sweeter than a cream cake.

Back in the dormitory, Loren shared the cake with Harry and the others, using the free seashell plates and small forks that looked like hedgehog spines provided by the shop.

Harry ate the cake, then brandished his wand in his signature moves, occasionally thrusting it forward and then quickly pointing it behind him. He was simulating a scene of being surrounded and outnumbered by Death Eaters, accompanied by occasional "whoosh! whoosh!" sounds.

If the atmosphere is right, Ron will join in, and in their imaginations, they'll stage a scene of a lone hero breaking through the encirclement.

But he was still eating cake, so watching Harry's behavior from a third-person perspective was... well, it's hard to describe.

"What spell can you cast instantly and defeat in one move?" Ron tried to make Harry's performance more convincing.

Harry said, "Disarming Charm? My Disarming Charm is a little different. Many upperclassmen only use it to disarm, but I can also make it knockback, defeating the enemy in one hit."

Ron fell silent. He had practiced with Harry and witnessed the disarming charm, which was not magical at all.

Seamus asked, "Loren, what spell did you choose?"

Ron walked over, placed his hands on Loren's shoulders, and said solemnly, "Think carefully before you answer. This concerns who will write our stargazing reports this semester."

"You actually bet on something like this?" Loren found it outrageous. "With so many curses, what if the ones I choose are different from the ones you bet on?"

"You didn't choose a specific spell. Seamus guessed you chose an offensive spell, but I'm guessing a non-offensive spell," Ron said.

Loren hesitated for a moment, then winked at the two of them, hinting, "Choosing a spell is a serious matter, isn't it? I think perhaps 'my' 'stargazing report' will reveal some clues; I need to see what it says before deciding."

His emphasis was wonderfully subtle.

Seamus waved his hand, dispelling his threats and fantasies: "Don't even think about it. Hermione will check your stargazing report first, and we'll be caught if we write more than three words."

"Sigh," Loren sighed, giving up the struggle, "Then you lost, Ironclad Charm, non-offensive type."

"Ha! I don't have to write a stargazing report this semester!" Ron cheered immediately.

Seamus stared at him in disbelief: "You took me to the Forbidden Forest to blow up tree branches as soon as we arrived at school, and now you're telling me you chose the Ironclad Curse?!"

Simo couldn't accept it, absolutely couldn't accept it.

Fearing that Loren might change his mind, Ron dragged Seamus away to write last week's stargazing report, which was due the day after tomorrow.

The two whispered as they reviewed the situation:

How did you guess?

"Judging from his playing style, he is balanced in offense and defense, but not overly aggressive."

"You can tell from that?"

……

night.

Saturday night wasn't going to be pleasant for Harry and Ron. Their detention, which they'd managed to avoid the previous week, was now in effect. Ron was going to the trophy room to clean hundreds of trophies without using magic. Harry was going to find Lockhart to help him reply to fan mail.

Loren is also going to find Lockhart; the lesson on the Oblivion Spell that we agreed on last week will begin tonight.

In the deserted corridor, Harry listened to Loren's footsteps and felt much more at ease. He said gratefully, "Thanks to you, Loren, otherwise I would have had to face that bestselling author alone."

"I... I should be thanking you," Loren said somewhat guiltily, changing the subject, "How's the new Quidditch tactic training going? Can we beat the Slytherin team?"

Speaking of this, Harry sighed: "We'll only know when the actual match starts. After learning that the Slytherin team had new brooms, Wood calmed down, but he became increasingly nervous, sensitive, and irritable. Everyone is under a lot of pressure, and the atmosphere in the team is like a powder keg. I really hope the match starts soon."

"Don't worry, Quidditch isn't just a sport about speed..." Loren repeated what he had heard during the day, which greatly encouraged Harry.

As they spoke, the two arrived at Lockhart's office and knocked on the door of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

It's sizzling!

The hinges made a metallic scraping sound as the office door opened inward.

Lockhart wasn't behind the door, but sitting in the middle of the office, one hand propping up his cheek, a pose that looked like he'd been in for a long time.

Loren and Harry sighed in unison. What a show-off! Opening doors with magic—something even a preschooler could do—and he made it sound like some profound spell. Even Professor Flitwick couldn't pull it off as well.

"Ah, the little devil and the future memory eraser are here! Come in, Harry, Loren, come in," Lockhart greeted, his high-pitched voice perfectly matching his posture.

The dozens of photographs and portraits of Lockhart hanging on the wall were brightly lit by candlelight.

"You help me write the envelopes. Trust me, they'll be overjoyed when they receive them!" Lockhart thought of the scene and felt as refreshed as drinking a cauldron of ice water in the scorching desert.

"Like this, the first one is for Lady Gladys Gugwin—one of my ardent admirers..." Lockhart demonstrated to Harry how to write an envelope, then placed several thick stacks of envelopes, as tall as Harry, in front of him for him to copy.

Peter Iverson, Veronica...

Harry mechanically slid the quill pen along, his eyes lifeless, like an emotionless envelope-copying machine.

Lockhart watched him copy several letters, nodded in satisfaction, looked up at Loren, and smiled, "Oh, future memory eraser, let's begin learning the forgetting spell."

The teaching process was somewhat unexpected for Loren. Lockhart had a comprehensive grasp of the Oblivion Charm, perhaps due to his own abilities, and he explained it in great detail.

In addition to the incantation's pronunciation and the casting motions, he also explained to Loren how to cast the Forgetfulness Spell in various situations.

"Memories from different times are interconnected; they have some subtle connections. When we delete or modify memories, we need to do it perfectly."

"The famous Ilfrocomb incident occurred in 1932. At that time, a mischievous ordinary Welsh green dragon attacked a group of sunbathers in Ilfrocomb, Devon, England. The Tork family, wizards who were traveling there, controlled the dragon and used the largest obliteration spell of the 20th century on the inhabitants."

"I don't mean any disrespect to the Tork family, but they simply don't understand the principles of the Oblivion Charm. Their crude, indiscriminate application of the Oblivion Charm has produced many errors. If it were me, even if a whole herd of Romanian dragons flew over London, no Muggle would remember it the next day."

With typical wizarding ideas, Lockhart probably had no idea how big London was or how many Muggles lived in the city.

Ignoring the self-aggrandizing parts in class, the most useful part is Lockhart's detailed analysis of the memory storage areas in the brain and the memory storage in the soul.

"Short-term memories that don't trigger intense emotional changes won't be etched into your soul. With a wave of a magic wand, these kinds of memories can be easily changed."

"On the other hand, there are memories that have been etched into the soul for many years, through countless recollections, and deep-seated emotions. For these kinds of memories, the forgetting spell must penetrate deep into the soul; even the slightest fluctuation of magical power can turn a person into a fool."

At this point, Lockhart smiled at Loren: "Many people simply cannot distinguish between the two types of memories, which can lead to irreversible brain damage and permanent harm to the soul's memories."

The goodwill he had built up earlier, combined with Lockhart's desire to show off, made this lesson incredibly informative. Loren learned a lot about the Oblivion Curse that was previously unknown.

"During the Quidditch World Cup each year, the Obliteration Charm needs to be used repeatedly on nearby residents. The memory erasers sent to the scene are all experienced professionals, so there are basically no problems. But other scenarios, such as interrogations, are for newcomers to practice on, often turning the interrogated criminals into idiots," Lockhart lowered his voice, "and then throw them into Azkaban, claiming it was done by Dementors."

(End of this chapter)