Chapter 98: Confession and Request
Chapter 98: Confession and Request
When Felix returned to the castle, a satisfied smile hung on his face.
With multiple professors joining, his dueling class was growing stronger. Perhaps, he could invite more professors to join in the fun later?
Especially that afternoon, when he received a message from the owl 'Bai Xian'—
"Dear Felix Heap, my investiture ceremony is tentatively scheduled for February 4th at 10 AM (Saturday) in Room 3 on the second floor of the Ministry of Magic (to the left of the Wizengamot Affairs Office). I sincerely invite you to attend—Damocles Belby."
Felix wrote his reply, estimating the time. It was about half a month away.
In the evening, after tutoring Hermione Granger in Runic Script, Felix handed the young witch a cup of Pumpkin Juice.
Generally, after Runic Script lessons, his assistant would stay in the office for a while. This was partly to recover from the fatigue of the Mind Chamber, and partly to chat about interesting topics or answer any questions.
Today, they mentioned Gilderoy Lockhart.
Hermione, holding her cup, asked, "Professor, what do you think of Lockhart?"
"What do I think?"
"Your opinion of him, his teaching, his books, and so on."
Felix glanced at Hermione. His assistant had been with him for about half a year, and he was very familiar with her speaking habits. This was clearly her way of trying to extract information.
"Professor Lockhart is a very talkative person, with a strong desire to be in the spotlight. This is quite different from me, despite us both being writers."
Hermione pressed on, "What do you think of his books? You must have read them, right?"
"I have indeed", Felix said. "They aren't very useful to me, but for students, the methods he describes for dealing with and identifying dangers have some reference value."
"Actually, I appreciate his approach of weaving knowledge into stories. Maybe I'll emulate it someday." Felix looked at Hermione with interest; her eyebrows were furrowed.
"But—" she stammered, "don't you think his books and his classroom performance are completely different? There's a strong sense of dissonance."
"Perhaps", Felix said noncommittally, "it's clear that his books contain elements of fiction and ambiguity. We can criticize his personal ethics, but at least he did some research while writing them."
"But", Hermione said nervously, a fine layer of sweat appearing on her face, "what if his stories were stolen from other people's minds?"
The office was silent for a few seconds—
"That is a serious accusation, Hermione Granger. If your claim is true, such behavior would warrant a trip to Azkaban." Felix said solemnly.
"Granger, I need evidence."
Hermione trembled and pulled out a crumpled stack of parchment from her wizard robe.
"This... this is what we found in Professor Lockhart's office." She said with difficulty. Ron had done the deed, but she and Harry had agreed not to pin the responsibility solely on him.
Felix gave her a surprised look. He understood why his assistant had been sorted into Gryffindor. She was an unruly and daring witch.
The type who would break into a professor's office without a second thought.
Thinking about it, his habit of setting up binding vines at the door whenever he left the office was indeed prescient.
He flipped through the documents, and one name caught his attention, "Armenian Elder Wizard Visit Record (Note)."
"How can there be two different handwriting styles?" He first flipped through the pages, quickly noticing this issue.
There were about twenty pages of parchment, most of which were written in Hermione's neat handwriting. Only three pages were in a different script.
"We, I..." Hermione swallowed, finding it difficult to admit how she had violated the school rules.
"Take your time, I'm listening", Felix said.
"The situation is this: Ron was serving detention in Lockhart's office, copying fan letters as punishment. He discovered some hidden documents and realized something was off, so he secretly brought back three pages. From the content of these three pages, we concluded that Lockhart's books might not be based on his own experiences but rather stolen from others' stories."
"We decided to gather evidence and investigate the truth."
Felix listened calmly.
"Over the next week, Ron used his detention as an opportunity to continuously extract parts of the documents."
Felix was amazed by their boldness. "Did Lockhart never notice?" Professor Lockhart couldn't be that clueless, could he?
"Lockhart has been in poor form lately, with a bad memory and often speaking incoherently. Besides, after we got a few pages, we would quickly copy them and return the originals the next day..."
"These three pages are the most important, serving as evidence that Lockhart stole others' stories!"
Felix wasn't sure whether to applaud their meticulous planning or to criticize them. They hadn't taken his advice to focus on their studies at all.
He pulled out the three pages and immediately recognized that the writing was done by a professional quick-quotes quill.
These quick-quotes quills are very distinctive; they generally record text according to the owner's wishes, often distorting, modifying, and embellishing dialogues with expressions and actions.
Felix had seen the power of these quills at Rita Skeeter's house.
He studied the pages carefully—
Crooked-Mouth Wizard: My head is pounding, as if a spoon is constantly digging into my brain. What's wrong with me?
(The Extraordinary) Adventurer: It's quite normal. Here, have some juice; it will do you good.
Crooked-Mouth Wizard painfully drank the juice, which was laced with an unknown potion.
(The Extraordinary) Adventurer: Let's continue the story about the werewolf. You've been talking a lot in the bar lately, don't you remember? I bought you several drinks. But I want to know more details... Oh, and can I see your memories later? The readers need a vivid story.
Crooked-Mouth Wizard: I don't know, something feels wrong, there's a problem...
(The Extraordinary) Adventurer: Nonsense. Look at me; I can help you.
The adventurer raised his wand.
Felix finished reading the three pages with a serious expression. The situation was even more serious than he had imagined.
He pieced together the general logic: Lockhart had identified his target in a bar, spent a few days extracting information, or rather, befriending the unfortunate individual. Then, whether by ambush or by drugging, he successfully controlled the target.
After that, Lockhart used memory magic or something similar to Veritaserum to obtain the entire story.
"What do you want me to do?" Felix asked calmly.
"Of course, to expose his true nature", Hermione said without hesitation.
"Generally, the content from a quick-quotes quill can't be used as evidence, but", Felix said, "knowing what he did makes things easier."
"I will inform Headmaster Dumbledore. With his abilities, he will handle it appropriately. If that doesn't work, I can take some less conventional measures."
Hermione hesitated.
"Is there something else?" Felix asked.
"Professor, it's about Ron's trouble. We need your help."
(End of Chapter)
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