Chapter 37: Hit the target with one shot
With the first Killing Curse, Lockhart, with his extraordinary understanding of magic and keen judgment of the situation, anticipated the possible attack and his body dodged in advance, so it missed.
With the second Killing Curse, he summoned a forest gray wolf with silent, wandless magic. Although it was a very simple spell, it successfully avoided the crisis of death.
And now.
The third Killing Curse was released almost immediately after the second, in such a rapid manner.
Lockhart finally knew where Senior Snape had learned that kind of rapid-fire, three-spell combo. This kind of magical attack was too fierce and intense.
He was almost in despair.
But then a bat fell from a treetop, blocking the curse at just the right moment.
As the aura of extinguished life dissipated, cold sweat instantly broke out all over him.
Fortunate.
Extremely fortunate.
Of course, he wasn't just fortunate in his luck being so good, but also fortunate in his decision to bring all the dark magical creatures with him.
The frightened Wronged Fairy had floated out of him at some point. Her long rabbit ears stood up in the wind, and blood-filled mouths with fangs opened and closed all over her body.
She had summoned the bat just now.
Guardian of the earth.
Little Goldie also quickly jumped out of his pocket, climbed onto his shoulder, and bared his teeth at Ginny Weasley not far away.
"Guji?"
His little head was full of confusion. Why had his fear and despair magic environment failed again and again!
After his master and Dumbledore, this was the third one!!!
He couldn't stand it. He let out a sharp cry, urging the Boggart to quickly attack the little girl.
However, the Boggart only cried out in terror from inside his sleeve, "She has no mind! I can't feel her mind! She's just an empty shell!"
Yes, Ginny Weasley, who had been affected by the magic diary to produce an effect similar to the Imperius Curse, had a vacant look in her eyes at this moment, truly resembling an empty shell.
Lockhart ignored them. The ring on his hand flickered slightly, and a sleek white ash flying broom appeared in his hand.
Almost the moment the broom appeared, he stepped onto the footrests extending from the tree branch hoops. Just like that, with one hand gripping and one foot stepping, he instantly took off, rushing into the thick canopy of the Forbidden Forest.
He had taught Harry and his friends how to use flying brooms to improve combat mobility, naturally because he himself knew how to use them.
Not letting wisdom remain at the level of empty talk, but putting it into action—this was his greatest characteristic, far surpassing the original Lockhart.
As his body swiftly moved through the air, his arm naturally drew his wand with the momentum.
"Gray Wolf Pack!"
Mist surged in the forest, and another gray wolf was summoned, lunging to bite Ginny Weasley, who was attempting to cast another spell at him.
But this move was obviously too childish. She didn't bother to pay attention, waving her wand and flying directly up, her white, loose dress fluttering, like a forest phantom.
The key was her flying speed was extremely fast, and she quickly caught up.
The Flying Charm!
A magic invented by Voldemort himself during his student days, and now only he and Snape knew it.
She seemed to have realized that the Killing Curse wasn't very effective against Lockhart, waving her wand and releasing a cloud of black smoke, which transformed into a snake shadow that twisted and slid constantly close to the treetops like a silk ribbon.
This was clearly a dark magic.
But what specific dark magic it was, and what its effects were, Lockhart didn't know.
His memory did have the most essential adventure memories of a dozen powerful wizards, but the magic before him was clearly a very profound dark magic. Ordinary people, let alone learning it, wouldn't even know where to learn about it.
Fortunately, Little Goldie finally played a role this time.
He suddenly transformed into a golden light and pounced towards the snake shadow. The snake shadow seemed to solidify, sticking motionless to the tree trunk, waiting for him to come over and tear it apart.
'Ginny' was even faster. Seeing that Lockhart was about to rush out of the Forbidden Forest towards the Quidditch pitch, she quickly waved her wand.
All the surrounding trees began to sway their branches, like huge hands quickly closing in, transforming into a massive wall-like sky curtain.
No escape!
However, Lockhart was precisely waiting for this opportunity!
The Imperius Curse, one of the three Unforgivable Curses, was too famous. Too many dark wizards had researched it, which allowed Lockhart to clearly understand some of its limitations.
Admittedly, wizards under the Imperius Curse would involuntarily carry out some of the caster's plans, even complex long-term hidden tasks, seemingly with infinite control.
But as Snape said, 'magic is the expression of one's own will.' When a wizard under the Imperius Curse attempted to cast magic that required a great deal of mental effort, the innate will deep in their soul would clash with the controlled thinking will, and the reaction at this time would be noticeably slow.
Such slowness was extremely fatal in a magical duel.
Magical duels were not turn-based games.
They were more like Muggle gunfights, where one wrong move could lead to complete defeat.
When Lockhart realized that Ginny was under the Imperius Curse, he had already begun to plan three steps ahead, trying his best to create this opportunity.
Transfiguration?
Tom, casting this magic at this time is just too arrogant of you.
Did you think you could easily take my life?
Lockhart controlled the flying broom in a sharp spin, and the wand tightly held in his hand had already performed all the necessary movements during the high-speed motion. When it pointed at Ginny, the magic had already begun to take effect.
The timing was grasped perfectly, precisely at the moment of Ginny's subtly revealed lag.
"Obliviate!"
Well, this was all he could use.
One of only three spells he knew.
But this wasn't a big problem. He was good at thinking about how to use these spells in the right places.
The magic instantly struck Ginny.
One shot, one soul!
A large amount of silver light quickly emerged from her head, and strands of silver thread, like fish, began to break free from her head, swaying towards the mid-air.
This memory extraction seemed endless.
Yes.
Lockhart didn't have many methods he could use. Facing a life-and-death crisis at this moment, there was no way he would hold back. Once he found an opportunity, he would go all out.
Extracting all the memories from Ginny Weasley's head.
Extracting even the deepest memories of listening to prenatal music in the womb!
The effect was remarkable!
Ginny seemed to have lost all her abilities, abandoning the control of the trees and the Flying Charm, slowly falling into the forest.
She landed in the grass, her eyes open, reflecting the faint light of the forest, clean and clear without a trace of impurity.
Then she instinctively fell into a deep, infant-like sleep.
Rustle~
Rustle~
After Lockhart landed, the Boggart in his sleeve quickly flew out, lurking in a nearby bush. The Winged Demon emerged from his pocket, spreading its ghostly blue wings like lightning, snatched the wand from Ginny's hand, and flew into the canopy in another direction.
The Wronged Fairy floated behind him, and the surrounding weeds and bushes grew wildly, completely obscuring this area.
Little Goldie, playing with two black mist-shrouded snake eyes, squatted on Lockhart's shoulder, remaining vigilant at all times.
Their performance in this battle wasn't entirely satisfactory.
But it was precisely this opportunity that allowed them to begin to understand how to try and cooperate with Lockhart to deal with various unexpected situations, rather than waiting for commands.
Finally, Lockhart came to Ginny, looked down at her, and then turned his attention back to the silver threads of memory floating in mid-air.
Wand flick.
"Let me see, when did you set your sights on me?"
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