Ron's Goal

Thinking about his own money being wasted on Lockhart made Basil, who had only recently escaped poverty by selling unicorn tail hair and Gillyweed pus, feel quite distressed.

He also suddenly remembered that he had another goal for this school year: to expose Lockhart's true nature!

Ron also made up his mind because of this.

But his goal was different from Basil's.

"I've decided! I'm going to help Professor Quirrell have a smooth school year!"

"I'll make him the longest-serving Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in history!"

Hermione, who still harbored some hope for Lockhart to hold the position, poured cold water on his enthusiasm. "You've decided? Even Dumbledore can't do anything, so how can you decide?"

Then, she saw Ron looking at Basil with hopeful eyes.

Basil spread his hands. "I can't do anything about it either. How about this, I'll give you a suggestion. I heard a rumor. Although everything Lockhart writes in his books has happened in the real world, and his travel itineraries match up, every time he leaves a place, a wizard with partial memory loss and a dazed expression appears there."

"Are you saying Lockhart's stories are all from other people?" Harry was very shocked.

Hermione was too. Unlike in the original story, she didn't become hysterical upon hearing doubts about Lockhart.

Perhaps it was because she hadn't read Lockhart's books yet, and also because Basil said it.

Ron rubbed his hands excitedly. "If this is true, haha! I'll have to investigate thoroughly!"

"How will you investigate? You're stuck at school?" Hermione asked curiously.

This was because she noticed that neither Harry nor Basil seemed very surprised by Ron's words.

It was as if Ron could really gather this information while staying at school.

Facing this, Ron just smiled mysteriously. "Lockhart has more fans than you think."

At the same time, he muttered to himself, My mom is one of them. Some of them even know what underwear Lockhart slept in last night. As long as you know the direction, the rest is just investigation.

"What exactly is going on?" Seeing that Ron was unwilling to say more, Hermione turned her attention back to Basil.

"I don't know if you've heard of the Six Degrees of Separation Theory," Basil said, feigning profundity.

This was because Riddle, in his secret chamber at the bottom of Loch Ness, was sending a message.

He intended to find a theory that was authoritative enough in Hermione's eyes to fool her.

"You've heard of Harvard University, right?"

"Mhm. It's considered one of the top schools." Hermione's ears immediately perked up.

"This theory was proposed by Stanley Milgram, a famous psychologist at Harvard University, decades ago. Simply put, the number of people between you and any stranger is no more than six. In other words, you can get to know any stranger through at most six people."

Basil stated the theory directly.

As long as the speaker was authoritative enough, Hermione would always convince herself to accept seemingly fantastical theories.

And Hermione, as expected, accepted it and began to ponder seriously.

"And the distance between Ron and Lockhart is clearly not that many, six people. Lockhart is an outstanding graduate of Ravenclaw. The wizarding population in Britain is so small. Among his fans, there might be someone Ron knows!"

Basil nodded.

At the same time, he replied to Riddle in his mind.

"You can start on your end."

In a luxurious room, where the ceiling and walls were inlaid with emeralds, connected by flowing mercury between the gems, with a large mercury pool and snake statues.

Riddle replied, "My lord, please take a look. This room is the most valuable part of Safe House Number 7."

"The flowing mercury and emeralds form a magic circle, connecting the magnetic field of the entire safe house with Loch Ness, making this safe house blend seamlessly with its surroundings, making it very difficult to detect traces of magic."

"It also serves as the power source for the magical traps within the safe house."

"The mercury pool has also absorbed the essence of water. Any wizard who enters it after being verified will have their physical injuries and mental fatigue healed and dispelled."

"So," Basil's face sank, "there's no cash here."

"Correct," Riddle nodded. "Does Voldemort need Galleons to buy things?"

"What about that Hippocampus?"

"It hasn't appeared yet."

October was quickly coming to an end.

That is, the eve of Halloween.

Today was Thursday.

Basil woke up in the morning and smelled an overwhelmingly sweet pumpkin scent.

Keep in mind, this was in the tower.

Even now, he couldn't understand why there were so many pumpkin-themed items on Hogwarts' menu.

Pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin juice...

Even to this day, he still couldn't accept it.

Facing Voldemort was a 'risk' that would ultimately only yield a House-elf completely loyal to him, and a property.

Furthermore, that property could only be used until the fourth year.

That is, if Voldemort were to revive by the fourth year.

During the magic class that day, Professor Flitwick announced that the lesson would be on the Levitation Charm.

This excited the other students greatly.

Ever since they saw Professor Flitwick make Neville's toad, Trevor, fly all over the classroom, they had been eagerly hoping to try out this skill.

But Basil wasn't.

He had already mastered the mere Levitation Charm, thank you very much.

Right now, his primary target was the Killing Curse.

He had considered learning it by using the 'monkey version' of Voldemort from a Boggart, or by directly experiencing the 'youth version' of Voldemort casting the Killing Curse.

However, Riddle had advised him that during the introductory phase, it was best to rely entirely on oneself.

This way, the entire framework of the spell would be his own.

It was like laying a foundation.

A foundation laid entirely by oneself would be flat and even.

But a foundation influenced by others would have a barely perceptible tilt.

When the spell progressed to its deepest realms, this 'tilt' would become exceptionally apparent.

Therefore, to this day, he hadn't truly mastered the Killing Curse.

He could only manage to release a green light that was barely capable of killing.

But this was only due to his high Magical Power.

If it were an ordinary young wizard with Magical Power between 3 and 5, this green light would at most cause a nosebleed.

Consequently, he hadn't chosen to create a Spell Card with this level of the Killing Curse.

Riddle said this was a matter of mindset.

It wasn't that killing someone would teach you the Killing Curse.

Rather, one had to possess genuine killing intent, an intent without hesitation or doubt, a completely committed killing intent, to truly master the spell.

This was also why it was classified as an Unforgivable Curse.

Those who could successfully cast this spell were, without exception, truly wicked individuals.

Regarding this, Basil had once expressed confusion, "Doesn't the Killing Curse used with hatred or a sense of justice count? I remember that during the First Wizarding War, Aurors were permitted to use the Killing Curse."

At that time, Riddle had shaken his head. "This spell can corrupt a person's soul. Its terror isn't in learning it or using it, but in the shift in one's worldview and mind after successfully killing someone. And the high-quality, powerful Magical Power that comes with that shift. A righteous soul using it would only cause mental confusion. Mad-Eye Moody's madness was likely influenced by this spell."

Although there's no holiday, I'll release another chapter from my drafts.

Originally, I planned to use this as a backup for when the book goes on sale, to ensure consistent updates and occasional bursts of new content.

But since it's been featured on the recommendation list, and several people have voted for the monthly ticket yesterday