From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

Lockhart was trying his short sentences again, which Harry found very awkward.

But those commands were quite effective—the serpent monster lashed out with its tail somewhere, and something was destroyed.

“Get up and see, Harry.” Lockhart lifted him up with his wand, which finally allowed Harry to see where he was.

This was a huge room, and at the far end of the room, directly in front of him, stood a statue as tall as the room itself, pressed against the dark wall behind it.

The statue depicts an old, monkey-like figure with a sparse, long beard that extends almost to the hem of a stone-carved wizard's robe, while two large, gray feet stand on the smooth floor of the room at the base of the statue.

In the far corner of the statue, a huge serpent, at least twenty feet long, is attacking a pillar with its tail.

"Close your eyes! Crawl over here!"

Lockhart exclaimed, “Look, Potter, how much power I have wielded!”

Lockhart reached out and touched the enormous snake, his eyes burning with fervor.

'Now.'

"Attack Lockhart!"

Harry shouted loudly—and the once docile snake instantly stood up and lunged at Lockhart.

"stop--!"

Lockhart's face contorted as he shouted half a sentence, but before he could finish, he collapsed to the ground—the spell that knocked Lockhart down was so powerful that even Harry, who was right next to him, felt a burning sensation on his skin through the thick bandages.

Then, another spell streaked across the sky like a shooting star, dazzlingly bright, and slammed heavily into the basilisk.

Chapter 217 The Serpent Monster Was Nothing More Than This

The incoming spell was so dazzling that Harry felt he could barely open his eyes.

But before he could be surprised by the curse, an astonishing force pulled him backward with all his might. It wasn't until he was flying in mid-air that he realized it was a flying curse.

"Professor, Professor Lockhart, him?"

Harry heard Percy's voice, but he quickly stopped paying attention to it.

He was caught steadily, but before he could ask anything, he was spun around by the wand.

Damn it!

Harry heard Professor William's low grumbling, then was struck by a spell and fell unconscious.

-

"You're still a step too late, Percy."

While complaining, William cast another spell on Harry, making him even more unconscious.

"What, a step slower, Professor..." Percy was still in a daze—he had just used the Silent Charm with Professor William to ambush Professor Lockhart, and then he saw Professor William cast a spell on the basilisk. Before he could ask anything, Harry had already been summoned back by the third Summoning Charm.

But William didn't respond to him, and with lightning speed, he blew Harry's clothes and bandages to shreds.

"It's alright, it's alright."

'What, are you alright?'

Before Percy could react, Professor William swung his wand, and a translucent blade appeared from it, cleanly severing Harry's leg from near the thigh.

Before Percy could even cry out in surprise, William had already pulled a bottle of potion from his pocket and tossed it to him.

"Open the wax seal and pour it into Harry's mouth as soon as he regains consciousness."

"Yes, Professor."

Percy responded instinctively, and then saw the professor conjure a bandage with his wand and tightly bind it to the cross-section of Harry's thigh.

"Still bleeding, Professor..."

"Bleeding is good, otherwise this leg will die." William cleanly and efficiently released his spell, waking Harry up.

"Ah—" Harry, who had just woken up and was tormented by immense pain, couldn't help but cry out, but William quickly petrified him by sticking his tongue to his lower jaw and fixing his head at an angle that made it easier to drink the medicine.

"What are you standing there for, Percy? Feed him the medicine." William urged casually, startling Percy who was standing to the side.

Instinctively, he shoved the potion into Harry's mouth. Because his tongue was held in place, Percy gulped down the entire bottle of potion.

"That's good."

William nodded in satisfaction. "I've been studying basilisks lately. Their venom is deadly, but because it's deadly, it's not like wounds caused by other creatures that can't be healed with magic."

Seeing Percy's bewildered expression, William simply started giving a lesson on the spot: "Generally speaking, natural creatures, even magical creatures, do not have conflicting characteristics; that would be too wasteful and too extravagant."

"Think about it, if it were easy to kill you, why would anyone bother to leave you with incurable wounds?"

"Although the basilisk was partially artificially bred, it still follows this characteristic—its venom and eyes can kill, so it doesn't need to evolve an attack that can't heal injuries."

"So, after cutting off the part where Harry was accidentally injured by the basilisk's fangs, he could be easily healed by returning to the school hospital."

William shrugged. "You can't expect me to be better at rehabilitating legs than a doctor, can you?"

As he spoke, he examined Harry's injured leg—it was bleeding, but it was a healthy red and not too much; the blood-regenerating potion he had just drunk would have kept the bleeding for a long time.

“He’s alright now, he’s out of danger,” he said, pushing Harry toward Percy. “Help Harry, it’s okay if he bleeds. I’ll go deal with the basilisk.”

"Yes, Professor."

Percy, supporting Harry, subconsciously responded—William's treatment methods were too brutal, and the poor prefect was terrified.

'Lockhart is really lucky...'

The treatment is over, so it's not good to use negligence as an excuse anymore.

William shook his head as he watched the basilisk attacking wildly in pain—the basilisk was so crazy and it still couldn't kill Lockhart; the guy was incredibly lucky.

'Forget it, living isn't necessarily better than dying. Besides, if he dies and becomes a ghost, that would be even more disgusting. Sending him to Azkaban wouldn't be bad.'

He shook his head and waved his wand at the basilisk again, casting another spell at the basilisk that had completely lost its mind due to pain.

Immediately.

The moment the spell struck, the enormous, over twenty-foot-long basilisk trembled like a mouse seeing a cat.

It tried to curl its entire body into a ball and bury its head in it, but even so, it continued to tremble violently. After a few minutes, the trembling stopped, and the basilisk curled up into a ball, not moving an inch.

William waved his wand, making it float up, then slammed it to the ground, then it floated up again, then fell down again.

After falling three or four times, William cast a spell that severed its entire head.

"died?"

Percy was speechless—the legendary monster from the secret chamber was dead?

“Of course, snakes that have their heads cut off usually die completely. But just to be on the safe side, we should wait a little longer, because some snakes can still move after their heads are cut off,” William added with a smile, casually casting a sleeping spell on Lockhart.

"Professor, how could it—how could it be dead?"

“Why can’t you die, Percy?” William retorted.

"It's a monster from the secret chamber!"

“Yes, it’s the monster from the Chamber of Secrets, but it’s not a secret anymore.” William said, examining the cross-section of Harry’s leg—thankfully, he had at least left Harry with the innermost part, otherwise the scene would have looked too strange.

"Fortunately, without my potion, we wouldn't have lasted long. Now we can wait a little longer, at least to avoid any potential problems."

William cleaned the blood off his hands.

"Didn't I tell you long ago that magical creatures are not as scary as wizards?"

“As I said in class, even the most dangerous magical creature isn’t much of a threat to an experienced wizard if there are records available. Let alone a basilisk like that, which has been documented for a long time. The reason the school can’t deal with it is because they lack information, not because they lack a way to deal with it.”

"Its eyes are big and its killing power is strong? Too simple, one Eye Strike Curse will suffice."

"Dragons and basilisks are both classified as Class XXXXX dangerous creatures by the Ministry of Magic. Dragons' eyes can't withstand it, so how can it? That modified spell caused it more pain than a regular eye-damage spell. As you can see, it went mad after just one spell."

'How could the spells of the Azkaban dragon hunters not work?'

"And what about the rest, Professor?"

“The rest is even simpler, just a spell that imitates the crowing of a rooster, but there are more roosters—” William shrugged. “Its weakness is so obvious, once you find it, killing it will be a piece of cake.”

"The sound of a rooster crowing? Is it that simple?"

Percy's mouth was slightly open.

“It’s that simple. I remember they often talked about a dog that bit Professor Snape. I think you know better than I do that. To be honest, without any outside help, I couldn’t beat Professor Snape.” William almost laughed as he spoke—even Harry, who was in pain, had a distorted smile on his face.

“But even such a ferocious dog was taken care of with just one song—” William manipulated his wand again to float the snake’s head up, then slammed it to the ground for one last check. “So, humans are still more terrifying…”

He wrapped the snake's head tightly with bandages, then took out some cutlery from his bag, deformed it, and used it to reinforce the package.

“Let’s go, we need to hurry back and get Harry another leg, and while we’re at it, we also need to take—” He flicked his wand, making Lockhart float up, “that guy who’s even more terrifying than the Basilisk.”

Chapter 218 A Problem Even William Couldn't Solve...

As William helped Lockhart up, he removed Lockhart's wand and secured his hands and feet with bandages. Only then did William begin to manipulate the wand to peel away the loose parts from Lockhart's body.

“You two stay away from those things,” William warned Harry and Percy—though Harry’s condition prevented him from moving around.

Although he was in a hurry, William didn't want to approach the unconscious wizard rashly. Who knew what traps might be there? As for destroying the clothes, that was a joke. He knew of at least five dangerous items that he would blow up if they dared to destroy them.

After carefully managing the jumbled pile of unidentified materials, William cautiously reached into his pocket—although he hadn't prepared any time-consuming potions since enrolling, he had taken out Veritaserum from Gringotts vault earlier.

"Professor, is that a truth serum?"

"You recognized it?" William turned back and smiled at Percy. "That's right. This stuff is as clear as water. Although schools don't teach it, students who are good at potions can recognize it."

Percy paused, speechless—although he had subconsciously thought that abusing truth serum was a serious crime, he wasn't that stupid.

“We need to confirm he’s unconscious,” William said, looking at Lockhart, and cast another sleeping spell. “A wizard with strong magic can turn this stuff into something else before he drinks it, even pumpkin juice, which is not impossible, especially for an old adventurer like Professor Lockhart.”

He used his wand to control six drops of the Veritaserum to fly out—"Remember this, only three drops are needed for general use, but for a great adventurer like Lockhart, no one knows how many backup plans he has. My personal suggestion is to double the dosage and break it..."

William paused, then gave an awkward laugh. "Don't learn that. Just be careful of truth serum."

'I'm used to explaining things, so I talk about all sorts of things randomly...' To cover up his embarrassment, William casually stuffed the six drops of potion directly into Lockhart's mouth. After making sure the potion was perfectly absorbed, he gently tapped it with his wand to lift the stun spell.

Can you hear me?

“I can hear you,” Lockhart replied weakly in a low voice.

"who are you?"