Chapter 23: CHAPTER 23: THE SECOND OF SEPTEMBER

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DID HE CHOOSE FAMILY? OR KNOWLEDGE?

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It was the 2nd of September 1992, The sun was already at the top, and Richard was walking through the corridors of Hogwarts, he’s going to go to the Defence against the dark arts class. He was walking alone, all seven books that needed to be brought in his hands. When he was walking to the corner of the corridor, he suddenly heard the sound of falling books, he looked at the source of the sound and saw Daphne, picking her book up one by one from the floor.

“Well hello there.” Richard said deeply.

Daphne looked at Richard and scowled before continuing to pick up her books.

“I’d help you if I can, but unfortunately my hands are full too, as you can see.” Richard continued, while pointing to the books with his head.

“What is with this Lockhart anyway? This is not textbooks, this is novels! How can we study using this?!” complained Daphne while standing up.

“Well, Ed did say that be careful of this Lockhart, maybe he’s a liar, so I guess we got to study the curriculum ourselves.” Richard answered. “You’re one of the girls that don’t actually like Lockhart by the way, even Hermione is high heels for that guy.”

“Really?” Daphne questioned while walking to the class with Richard, “Didn’t Ed tell her?”

Richard shook his head, “Dunno, probably? I mean, he told us, so he probably told her too.”

They walked in silence for a couple of second before Richard spoke again,

“Have you decided?” Richard suddenly asked Daphne.

Daphne raised her eyebrow, “Decided what?”

“You know, allowing Potter and Weasley to join in our ‘sessions’.”

“Oh, Potter, sure why not, Weasley though, he’s quite annoying to be honest, his prejudice towards Slytherins is becoming unbearable.” Daphne answered.

Richard smirked, “Why only Potter? as far as I know, he has a bit of prejudice towards Slytherins as well.”

Daphne narrowed her eyes, “You know why.”

Richard sighed deeply, “Are you forced? Or is it your own choice?”

“For the family of course,” said Daphne, “But I really don’t put much hope into it, especially when I saw he’s quite close with the Weasley.”

Richard looked at Daphne strangely, “But do you actually want it though?”

“I don’t know Richard, we’re still kids, let’s just see what happens.” Answered Daphne.

Then the two arrived at the class and sat together in the back of the room. A couple of minutes later, the students arrived one by one, Richard saw Hermione take the front seat, in front of the teacher’s desk, seeing this he just shook his head amusedly. And ten minutes later, the class was full of students. Richard then saw Lockhart come into the class, he cleared his throat and started to introduce himself.

“Me.” he said while pointing at his own portrait beside him. “Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly’s Most-Charming-Smile Award, but I won't talk about that. I didn’t get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!

Richard heard a couple of boys scowled while the girls looked at Lockhart with admiration.

Then Lockhart continues, “I see you’ve bought my books, well, let’s test if you already read it shall we? We will do a little quiz first before the lesson, nothing to worry about…” he said while handing the quiz papers to everyone.

“You have thirty minutes, and… Start!” he ordered.

Richard read the questions and his face contorted.

1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart’s favourite colour?
2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart’s secret ambition?
3. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart’s greatest achievement to date?

…

…

54. When is Gilderoy Lockhart’s birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?

‘What is this?’ Richard thought. He then heard Daphne scowled, “is he serious?”Richard just shook his head and answered the quiz half-heartedly.

Half an hour later, the papers were collected by Lockhart, and he started to check it one by one, he then commented some of the wrong answers, and praised Hermione for getting it all right. He heard Ron snorted but didn’t say anything because Gryffindor got house points.

And then Lockhart walked to a covered small cage and started warning the students.

“Now, be warned, it is my job to arm you against the foulest of creatures known to wizard kind! You may face your worst nightmare in this classroom, but know that I am here, and all I ask is that you remain calm.”

“I must ask you not to scream,” he continued, “as it will provoke them.”

He then pulled the cover, and Lockhart introduced the creature to the class.

“Yes, freshly caught Cornish pixies!” said Lockhart excitedly.

The class then went silent, and a couple of seconds later, Seamus burst in laughter, earning a warning from Lockhart.

“Laugh all you want Mr. Finnigan, but Devilish tricky little blighters they can be!”

Richard and Daphne just snorted at the statement, and Lockhart continued,

“Right,” said Lockhart to the class, “Let’s see if you can deal with them.”

He then opened the cage, unleashing the ‘horde’ of Cornish pixies, the pixies shot through the class, some breaking the windows, some destroying the dragon bone on the ceiling, and some damaging the student’s books, two of them can be seen carrying Neville to the chandelier on the ceiling, making him stuck.

“Come on now, they’re just pixies!” shouted Lockhart. Then he pulled his wand and waved it while chanting, “Peskipiksi Pesternomi!”

But nothing happened, Lockhart then gulped and hid under his desk, fearing the pixies.

The bell then rang, all the students rushed outside, clothes looked haggard and hairs messy, only the trio, who was still hiding under the desk, Richard, who’s trying to help Neville come down, and Daphne, who was helping Richard, stayed in the classroom.

“Well,” said Lockhart suddenly, “I’ll ask all of you to put the pixies inside the cage.” Then he ran to his office upstairs and locked the door.

Daphne scowled at the sight of Lockhart running, she pointed her wand at her throat and whispered,” Mandatum creatura”.

She then shouted at the pixies, “All of you! Stop what you’re doing and enter the cage!”

The pixies froze, and blankly followed Daphne’s bidding, one by one it entered the cage, while Richard rushed to close it. The rest looked dumbfounded by the scene, Ron was about to question it, but Hermione stopped him. But seeing the pixies went inside the cage, all of them sighed in relief before Ron growled angrily,

“Can you believe him!” he roared. “He ran away! Some professor he is.”

“He just wants to give us some hands-on experience…” Hermione said while tidying herself up.

“Hands-on experience?” Daphne snorted, the trio instantly looked at her, “Really Granger? I thought that Ed already told you that Lockhart’s a liar, but now you’re defending him?”

Hermione frowned at the statement, “He’s not a liar, Ed just warned me about him, how could a man such as Lockhart be a liar, I mean, look at his deeds in the books.”

Daphne chuckled, “Whatever you say Granger, as far as I know, you’re the closest to him than any of us, well maybe except Richard, and you know how he is right? He rarely lies if it concerns his friends safety, and now you’re telling me you’d rather believe in Lockhart rather than him? You disappoint me.”

Hermione now had a face full of rage, but before she could jump Daphne, Richard stopped them.

“Okay, can you both stop? Can you help me put down Neville here?” said Richard while trying to reach Neville.

Neville just sighed, “Why is it always me?”

“I’ve got no idea too Neville…” said Harry while helping Richard. All of them then helped Neville to go down and walked to the next class.

On the way, Harry suddenly whispered to Richard, “Hey Richard, could you owl Ed about Lockhart please? I want to know what Lockhart really is.”

“Hm? Oh, sure thing Harry, I’ll owl him later.” Answered Richard.

Harry nodded and went closer to Hermione and Ron, he then spoke to the two,

“So, Hermione, what did Ed tell you, Greengrass said that he said Lockhart is a liar.” Asked Harry to the bushy haired girl.

Hermione snorted, “He just said that I should be careful of Lockhart, not that he’s a liar, that’s a lie by that Greengrass.”

“Well,” Interrupted Ron, “Him saying that you should be careful of Lockhart is a red flag in itself Hermione! Even if he’s not a liar, he could be a paedophile, or You-Know-Who’s follower in disguise!”

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“And besides Hermione,” continued Harry, “You said that his family is good at divination, perhaps he saw things that are dangerous enough to make him warn his friends.”

Hermione pondered for a while, tried to refute the two, but she couldn't, so she just walked in silence, with the two boys proud of themselves because they just beat Hermione in a ‘game of words’, even though it is barely a debate.

  Before all of the Lockhart’s class debacle happened, Ed was waking up in the suitcase, it is now the morning of the 2nd of September 1992, Ed walked out of the suitcase and saw the sky outside, it’s a sunny day, he got out of the room and did his routine, he ran around the garden this time, and entered the suitcase for training. When Ed was running around the garden, the other students that just woke up looked at him weirdly, probably wondering why he’s running early in the morning.

Then he took a shower, he wore his Hogwarts robe, tidied his hair, and went to the Flamels’s office. He knocked on the door, and he heard a voice shouted “Come in.”

Ed then opened the door, he saw the Flamels are having tea.

  “Tea?” Perenelle offered.

Ed shook his head, “No thanks.”, he sat with the Flamels, and said, “Right, I’ve decided what I want to make.”

The Flamels then looked at him with curiosity, and asked, “And what do you want to make, may we ask?”

“Is there some kind of enchantment that can block the trace magic?”

The Flamels instantly frowned, “There is, why do you want to know that? As far as I know, you can use the suitcase for training over the summer.”

Ed nodded, “But it’s hard to do magic outside of the suitcase and school, I have to check if there’s another Minor wizard and if there’s an adult wizard in my surroundings or not.”

“And why do you want to use magic outside of the suitcase and school?” questioned Nicolas, still frowning.

Ed smiled at the question, “Do you want to teach me or not?” he ignored the question.

Nicolas’s frowned even deeper, and pick a parchment and quill, he starts to write in the parchment. After a couple of minutes, he gave it to Ed.

Ed read the list and was shocked at the content.

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-Unicorn blood

-Demiguise blood

-Wizardkind newborn blood

-Stewed mandrake

-Featherknoll feather dust

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“W-What is this?” Ed stammered.

Nicolas sat on the chair and sat solemnly, “The ingredients for the enchantment.”

“But isn’t this a bit too much? A newborn's blood? A unicorn blood? That’s insane!”

“It’s alchemy Ed, Equivalent Exchange, it is not the alchemy of this world, but still alchemy.” Explained Nicolas, “If you want to hide yourself from the trace magic, you have to have a replacement, another minor wizard, you want that ‘replacement’ to be ‘alive’, unicorn blood, you want to hide the ‘replacement’, demiguise blood, you want everyone to forgot the ‘replacement’, the stewed mandrake and featherknoll feather dust will do the trick,”

Ed was shocked upon the mention of that this knowledge was not from this world, “Wait, this knowledge is in the library? But Gilligan said there’s no such thing in it.”

Nicolas shook his head, “There isn’t, it’s my research, combining other world alchemy with this one.”

Ed gulped, “Is there really no other way?”

Nicolas shook his head. And Ed sighed, he thought for a while before continuing asking, “Where do I get all of this?”

Nicolas frowned at Ed’s resoluteness, “The Black Market of course.”

“Knockturn alley?”

“Oh no,” Nicolas denied, “That place won’t have these sorts of ingredients, especially the wizard newborn blood.”

“Then where is it?” Ed questioned.

“Jakarta.” Nicolas said casually.

“What? Where is that?”

“Southeast Asia, in Indonesia.” Explained Nicolas, “The biggest black market in the world is there, you need to go to that city.”

Ed was shocked, “Me?”

“Yes, you. You’re the one who wants to make the enchantment right? You have to buy the ingredients yourself then.”

Ed gulped, “What about the trace magic? It’s a black market, it’s quite dangerous, what if I got attacked and used magic? I will be detected there…”

“No need to worry about that, that place has an anti-trace magic charm, like your suitcase.”

Ed sighed in relief, “Okay, do I go now? What will I use?”

“You’ll use a portkey; you can use another timed portkey to go back.” Said Nicolas while looking outside the window.

Ed nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll go change in a minute.” He rushed to his room and changed his clothes to be as low key as possible, then he went back to the Flamel’s office. He saw Nicolas with a goblet in front of him, on the floor, and saw Perenelle, there’s a flask in her hand.

“Here, take this,” she said while handing the flask, “Polyjuice potion, drink it every hour, and use a Disillusionment charm too if you can.”

Ed nodded, and went to Nicolas, “Ready?” said the old man. Ed nodded, he drank the potion, he slowly changed to a white woman in her forties, ‘the sensation feels weird’ Ed thought. Nicolas then gives Ed a necklace, presumably the timed portkey, which he wears at his neck.

“What will I expect there?” questioned Ed in his disguise.

“Just be careful of scammers and aurors.”

“They have aurors there?”

“Yes, especially if you want to buy wizard newborn blood, you will definitely be hunted.”

Ed nodded nervously, “Okay, here I go.” He whispered, he stepped on the goblet and instantly absorbed it, he vanished, leaving only the Flamels in the room. The room was quiet for a minute, before an old man’s voice sounded from the corner of the room.

“So, what do you think Nicolas? What curse does he have?” said the voice.

Nicolas shook his head, “I don’t know Albus, he looked hesitant when I gave him the ingredient list.” Nicolas then sat down again and continued his teatime with his wife, “the two seems plausible, he could want the enchantment because of his desire to protect his family, but he could also want the enchantment for the thirst of knowledge.”

The old man, or Dumbledore frowned, “So you don’t know?”

“I don't,” said Nicolas. “But there’s also a possibility…”

“What possibility?”

“That he didn’t get either of the curse.”

Dumbledore looked at Nicolas strangely, “But the heir must have the curse, it’s the price for such power.”

Nicolas sighed, “We’re an outsider Albus, we were just repaying Edwyn’s favour to keep an eye on him, we don’t actually know the family’s situation, perhaps he broke the curse, or he didn’t get it at all, we may never know unless he told us.”

“If he chose Knowledge, he’ll be a threat to the wizarding world Nicolas, I must know…” Dumbledore persisted.

Nicolas shook his head disappointedly, “You’re always like this Albus, your greater good mentality will end up hurting someone close to you again, don’t forget, in a way, you chose knowledge yourself. And to have faith with the boy, he also has to follow the rules of his family, if he did choose Knowledge, at least he won’t be like Tom Riddle or Grindelwald.”

Dumbledore sighed tiredly, and said, “We can only hope…”

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