Chapter 40: Car Lady and Acromantula
Not every pure-blood family could be called one of the 'Sacred Twenty-Eight.' The Dumbledore family wasn't, nor was the Flamel family of Nicolas Flamel, nor the Grindelwald family of Gellert Grindelwald.
The origin of the honorific 'Sacred Twenty-Eight' had been lost to time, but Lockhart could roughly guess some of it.
That was that these families controlled, or even monopolized, certain resources or technologies that deeply affected wizarding society.
For example, the Ollivander family controlled the art of wandmaking.
Or the Black family; one could always find a Black in the family trees of various top powerful families.
So, what about the Weasley family?
Lockhart guessed it was magical objects.
Although the Weasley's Burrow was somewhat simple, any magical object taken out of it was a top-tier treasure in the wizarding world.
For example, the clock with portraits of family members on each hand, which could show their real-time status.
What Lockhart found most amazing about it was that its hands only had the Weasley parents and seven children.
Meaning, it might have been made recently!
At least one thing was very clear: the clock must have existed before Ginny was born, and then after Ginny was born, Arthur added a new hand to the clock.
Because he knew too little information about other families, Lockhart couldn't get a complete answer.
He only knew—
The magical car in front of him, struggling more and more helplessly in the spider web, seemed to be unwanted by Mr. Arthur Weasley!
This was content from the original story.
Ron and Harry had rashly flown his magical car in the Muggle world, seriously violating the Statute of Secrecy.
At this time, when Arthur intended to severely humiliate Malfoy, Malfoy would definitely do everything in his power to mobilize all his connections to severely punish Arthur as a counterattack.
You're in charge of this, catching wizards who illegally cast spells on Muggle objects every day, and then you yourself secretly do this, quite the player, aren't you?
The key was that your playing around had such serious consequences—Muggle newspapers had even started reporting flying cars.
A case of the warden stealing from the prison.
Didn't I catch you red-handed!
Ron's mother even sent Ron a Howler because of this.
Thus...
Arthur's magical car in front of him, like Malfoy's family collection, had become something he was heartbroken to lose but dared not bring home and keep.
Poor Arthur, having created such a magical car, had never flown it even once due to the limitations of his job and his wife's control.
"I like this car!"
Lockhart looked up and smiled brightly.
If he intended to be a professor at Hogwarts for the rest of his life, a car seemed dispensable to him.
But if he planned to steal the Dark Lord's childhood memories and then run away, wandering the world, the arrival of this car couldn't have been more timely.
Nice~
"Mr. Car!" Lockhart called out loudly, "Can I help you?"
The car didn't speak, only struggled more and more violently.
"..."
Lockhart looked strangely at the Wornged Fairy floating beside him. "It seems a little unhappy?"
The Wornged Fairy covered her mouth and giggled. "It's a lady."
"???" Lockhart blinked, exchanging a bewildered look with the rabbits.
Good heavens, an old Ford Anglia, a lady?
He hesitated for a moment, then looked up at the car again. "Car... Madam Ford Anglia, are you willing to let me help you?"
ps: The car model is a Ford Anglia 105E.
The car finally quieted down, only turning on its headlights and honking its horn twice.
Good.
It had finally calmed down.
The rabbits all turned their heads to express their gratitude to Lockhart.
But this matter wasn't over. To be able to stick a magical car that could fly into the sky here, these spider webs were clearly not simple.
Lockhart tried to pick up a branch from the ground and poke at it, but it felt like poking at steel wire. It didn't break easily like ordinary spider webs.
Moreover, these webs were particularly sticky, and the branch couldn't be pulled out.
Just then, a dull rumble of thunder came from above, and the earthy smell of the forest rose up, as if a heavy rain was about to fall.
Madam Car began to struggle desperately again.
The roar of the engine echoed through the Forbidden Forest.
"Whoa~"
Lockhart was startled and quickly looked up to comfort it. "Relax, take it easy, Madam, this is meaningless."
The car stopped struggling, leaving only the dull roar of the engine, which felt oppressive.
"Let me think of a way."
"Oh, right."
Lockhart quickly took out the Billywig from his wizard robe pocket. "Hey, buddy, I know you're not asleep. How about you help me bite through these spider webs?"
The Billywig's teeth were sharp enough to bite through scaled dragon hide. No matter where these spider webs came from, it could definitely handle them.
Unexpectedly, the Billywig opened its eyes, looked around, and then shrank back into the palm of Lockhart's hand in fright.
Lockhart blinked, having to look at the Wornged Fairy again. "What's wrong with it?"
The Wornged Fairy frowned. "It's afraid that if it flies up, it will also get stuck. Once you're stuck in this stuff, it might be hard to break free."
This...
Lockhart couldn't force it. He knew that if he forcibly ordered it to go, it would obey, but that wouldn't help solve the problem at all.
In the end, it was the Boggart that proved effective.
It didn't have a fixed form, so the concept of being physically stuck didn't apply to it.
To make it work better, Lockhart quickly searched for a suitable plan in his mind and then began to adjust his inner fears. "Come on, Boggart, feel the fear in my heart."
The time they had spent together had finally brought about some good relationship.
At least the Boggart would cooperate with Lockhart without waiting for Little Goldie to threaten it.
It transformed into a cloud of black smoke, swirling in mid-air, then suddenly slammed down onto the ground. Smoke and dust rose, and a huge humanoid figure slowly straightened up.
It looked about the same size as Hagrid, tall and burly, its whole body wrapped in bloodstained burlap, with a bloodied sack full of messy stitches over its head, carrying a ridiculously large cross-shaped axe bigger than itself.
'The Upside-Down Corpse God,' a type of 'deformed faith' dark magical creature. Most of these were 'butcher' type forms, commonly seen in scenes of chaotic and nonsensical folk sacrifices.
This thing was a relatively easy dark magical creature to deal with because its characteristics were just that of a powerful, undead-like creature. A large enough burst of flames could solve it.
Ancient experts specializing in dark magical creatures liked to collectively call these creatures 'laborers.'
Laborer, get to work!
Lockhart waved his hand, directing the Boggart to go forward and chop at the spider webs.
The effect was good. With one swing of the large axe, several spider silk strands snapped at once.
Although the large axe would get stuck on other webs because of this, it was the Boggart, not a real Upside-Down Corpse God. It could just conjure another axe.
The progress wasn't fast, but it was steadily solving the problem bit by bit.
Rumble~~
Dull thunder rumbled in the sky, and the rabbits began to get restless.
As a bolt of lightning struck the forest, the electric light flashed in the gloom, and the rabbits began to flee towards the rabbit holes in fright.
One of the rabbits, which looked relatively sturdy, ran to Lockhart's heels, biting his trouser leg forcefully, trying to pull him towards the rabbit hole.
"I'm solving the problem here." Lockhart gave the rabbit a bright smile. "Trust me, I'll handle it. You guys go take shelter from the rain."
However, the rabbit continued to tug on his trouser leg.
But at this moment, the Wornged Fairy suddenly turned her head sharply to look at a dark corner in the Forbidden Forest. "Danger is approaching, be careful!"
Lockhart's eyes narrowed. He glanced at Little Goldie on his shoulder, pulled out his wand, and waved it in that direction.
Instantly, mist swept through the forest, and three gray wolves stepped out from it, running towards that direction.
As they ran, a shadow suddenly fell.
Thud!
A dull sound, and something covered in sharp barbs, like a giant scythe, fell from the sky, piercing through the gray wolf and stabbing deeply into the soil.
The gray wolf dissipated into mist.
Lockhart finally saw clearly what had attacked—a spider as big as the magical car!
An Acromantula!
The offspring of Hagrid's pet 'Aragog,' but Aragog was now old and increasingly unable to control these descendants.
It was said that adult Acromantulas could be as big as elephants, with a leg span of nearly five meters. Clearly, these few hadn't reached full adulthood yet.
It was truly hard to imagine how Harry and Ron had run around unharmed in the lair of such monsters in the original story.
Lockhart curiously sized them up for a while, then ignored them, turning his head to continue observing the Boggart's progress.
He hoped that after Madam Car was rescued, he could have a good talk with her.
Perhaps he could offer some routine maintenance as a reward in exchange for her services?
Or maybe magical cars also had some needs for replenishment, like food? Gasoline?
He had almost no valuable wisdom to refer to in the field of magical creations.
The Acromantulas soon all emerged from the darkness, surrounding the area in a circle.
Then...
An atmosphere of fear and despair swept through this corner of the Forbidden Forest.
All their black, shiny eyes became dull almost at the same time, all of them stiffening in place like statues.
One Acromantula that was still slowly descending from above using its silk was even hanging in mid-air, swaying, its whole body twitching and curling into a ball, until finally its silk broke and it fell to the ground, rolling a long way.
"Madam Car..."
Lockhart looked up at the car, carefully considering his words. "Can we talk? After you get down from there."
Honk honk~
Madam Car looked at the state of those monster spiders and seemed very happy, even the sound of her horn carried a note of pleasure.
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