Harry's fingers closed around the small crystal bottle in his robes pocket. He casually took it out and placed it on the table between them.
Hermione's eyes imdiately focused on the bottle She lifted it, her fingers tracing the smooth crystal surface as she held it up to the light.
"Hmm... that's right," she murmured after several seconds of observation, her voice carrying the satisfaction of a puzzle finally solved.
Her brown eyes sparkled with success as she leaned forward. "As far as I know, only one magical substance would present this unusual state—"
"Stop being mysterious, Hermione," Ron said impatiently, stabbing a plump sausage with his fork and waving it in the air. "What the bloody hell is it? So of us are trying to eat here."
The morning bustle of the Great Hall continued around them.
Hermione lowered her voice to a whisper and leaned close to the two of them. "This is an extracted mory,"
Harry and Ron exchanged glances across the table, their expressions shifting from curiosity to sothing approaching disappointnt. The magical discovery they'd risked detention for suddenly seed far less exciting.
"So, we went through all that trouble last night—sneaking around, nearly getting caught, giving ourselves heart attacks—just to nick one of Lockhart's mories?" Ron's lip curled in disgust as he bit into his sausage with perhaps more force than necessary. "What's he going to rember? How many tis he's looked in a mirror this week?"
"Isn't this absolutely amazing?" Hermione's eyes sparkled with enthusiasm, completely oblivious to her friends' lack of excitent. "I never knew before that mories could actually be extracted from the human brain and preserved like this—I really want to try it..."
Her excitent was infectious, but Harry found himself imdiately losing interest in the mysterious bottle in front of them. The thought of delving into Lockhart's private mories made his skin crawl,
He had absolutely no interest in whatever narcissistic recollections that fraud might have extracted, and he certainly didn't want to continue exploring the possibilities. The man's public persona was unbearable enough—what horrors might lurk in his private thoughts?
'What if there were so unspeakable things inside?' Harry thought with a shudder, imagining detailed mories of Lockhart's grooming routine or his thoughts about his own magnificence.
"So, what do we do now?" Ron asked, eyeing the bottle with wariness as if it might suddenly burst and flood them with unwanted Lockhart mories. "Should we try to return it before he notices it's missing? We could get into serious trouble if he finds out."
Harry's expression imdiately grew troubled. Taking the bottle from the hidden compartnt had been a mont of panicked impulse, but returning it would require careful planning and considerable risk.
"That's going to be much more difficult than taking it," He said grimly. "Lockhart's office is packed with those portraits of himself. We'd only be able to sneak it back when all the portraits are sleeping, and even then..."
At this mont, Hermione lifted the bottle and gave it a gentle shake, watching the silvery contents swirl in response to the motion.
"Aren't you even a little bit curious about what's inside?" she asked with genuine puzzlent.
Harry and Ron imdiately shook their heads with such vigor that their hair flew about, as if they were physically trying to shake the very thought from their minds. The idea of experiencing Lockhart's mories was more terrifying than facing the basilisk.
"Fine," Hermione sighed with disappointnt. "Let think of a safe way to put it back..."
Just then, a gentle, familiar voice spoke directly behind her shoulder, "Hermione, what is that fascinating little bottle? Could you let have a closer look at it?"
The three friends turned around so abruptly that Ron nearly choked on his pumpkin juice. Professor Westeros stood behind them with the quiet grace of soone who had approached unnoticed, his eyes were fixed with obvious interest on the crystal bottle in Hermione's hands.
"Pro... Professor," Hermione stamred, her face flushing crimson as she nearly dropped the bottle.
"Oh, don't panic, my dear," Adrian said with a warm, understanding smile that imdiately put them sowhat at ease. His tone carried no judgnt, only curiosity. "May I?"
He gently took the bottle from Hermione's fingers and held it up to eye level, rotating it slowly in the morning light.
"A mory, isn't it?" He observed while continuing to examine the bottle with interest. "I apologize for overhearing your conversation—I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but the topic was rather... intriguing. Stolen from Professor Lockhart's office, How interesting."
The three students froze as stiffly as if they'd been petrified. Although their theft had been accidental, taking personal items without permission was undeniably wrong, especially sothing as intimate and sensitive as extracted mories.
"It was just an accident, Professor," Harry hurriedly explained, his ears burning red with sha and embarrassnt. "We were investigating the basilisk sounds I heard, and we found this hidden compartnt, and I just grabbed it without thinking. We were planning to return it to Professor Lockhart—we would never keep it!"
"Oh, I'm not scolding you at all," Adrian's smile widened with what seed like amusent rather than disapproval. He slipped the bottle containing Lockhart's mory into his robes pocket. "I'll return it to Professor Lockhart for you. I'm sure he won't be angry—"
Only then did Harry breathe a sigh of relief.
Suddenly rembering the previous night's events, Harry leaned forward urgently. "By the way, Professor, about last night—did the patrol find anything?..."
"I'm already aware of your discovery," Adrian nodded approvingly, his expression growing more serious. "You did nothing wrong, Harry. In fact, your information was helpful. Professor McGonagall organized a patrol based on your report. We did find traces of the basilisk's recent activity in an abandoned classroom, though unfortunately we didn't gain much…."
"I see," Harry replied with obvious dejection, his hopes of a quick resolution crashing down around him. It seed they would all have to continue living in fear and uncertainty for the foreseeable future.
But despite his disappointnt, Harry had begun to understand sothing crucial: his Parseltongue ability was potentially the key to finding and stopping the basilisk.
At this mont, Hermione's curiosity overca her earlier embarrassnt and she spoke up. "Professor, since mories can be extracted and preserved like this... would it be possible for to extract one of my own mories to examine it? I an, for educational purposes, of course."
Adrian raised an eyebrow with obvious amusent at her enthusiasm. "Theoretically, yes, it's certainly possible," he said with a gentle smile. "But I would strongly suggest you don't attempt it, Hermione. Not for several years, at least."
He held up the mory bottle, letting the light catch the swirling contents. "Extracting mories requires extraordinarily precise magical control and years of practice. The slightest mistake—even a mont's loss of concentration—could cause permanent and irreversible brain damage. In fact, there aren't many wizards alive who can safely perform this particular branch of magic. If you're truly interested in learning it, I'd suggest waiting until at least your fifth year."
"Then who would be skilled enough to teach this magic?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Professor Dumbledore or—" Adrian said thoughtfully, then paused as if reconsidering his words. "Well, actually, just Professor Dumbledore. He's probably accomplished at everything magical—after all, he is Dumbledore."
Originally, Adrian had instinctively wanted to ntion Lockhart, but obviously couldn't do so.
"What a sha," Hermione said with regret.
Their headmaster was always incredibly busy with his responsibilities, and moreover, now that he had been temporarily suspended from his position, there's no opportunity to ask for personal instruction.
Adrian's expression grew more serious as he looked directly into Hermione's eyes. "I want to remind you one more ti, do not attempt mory extraction on your own under any circumstances unless you want to spend the rest of your life as a fool."
The seriousness in his voice was unmistakable, and Hermione nodded solemnly.
Adrian soon left the dining hall.
Harry seed to think of sothing and said to the other two, "Extracting mories seems very difficult, so how did Lockhart manage it? We all know he has no real ability."
Ron answered carelessly, "Maybe that's the price of extracting mories."
Adrian left the Great Hall with Lockhart's mory bottle in his robes pocket and made his way through the castle's corridors toward the headmaster's office. Now, he needed access to a Pensieve. He was quite curious to see what was inside.
If this had been any other professor's mory, he might have felt so moral reservations about viewing such thoughts without permission. But Lockhart? The man who had built his entire career on lies and stolen valor? Adrian felt no such things at all.
The truth was, normal people rarely extracted their own mories. The procedure was dangerous and typically unnecessary. Only soone very old, like Dumbledore, might extract mories to preserve important information. Or perhaps soone who desperately wanted to forget sothing traumatic might choose to remove certain mories completely.
From another perspective, that ant this particular mory Lockhart had chosen to extract was absolutely very important to him.
'What kind of mory would be that important to soone like Lockhart?' Adrian wondered as he climbed the moving staircases.
Adrian imdiately had so preliminary guesses.
Soon, he reached the entrance to the headmaster's office, where the familiar stone gargoyle stood.
However, a new problem imdiately presented itself.
Adrian realized he had no idea what the current password might be. Moreover, now that Dumbledore had been suspended from his position as headmaster, he wasn't even certain if the traditional password system was still in effect, or if the gargoyle would still respond to Dumbledore's sweet treat nas.
Adrian stood in front of the statue, ntally preparing to try various candy-related passwords, when sothing unexpected happened. The gargoyle suddenly shifted and moved aside with a deep, grinding sound of stone against stone, revealing the spiral staircase beyond.
"?" Adrian blinked in surprise. 'No password required today? How curious.'
With confusion but in relief, Adrian stepped onto the moving staircase that carried him to the office.
Reaching the top of the stairs, he pushed open the heavy oak door and was genuinely shocked to find a familiar figure standing by the tall windows. Dumbledore was gently stroking Fawkes' feathers.
"Ah, welco, Adrian," Dumbledore turned around with that typical twinkle in his bright eyes, his smile as warm and knowing as ever.
Adrian stood frozen for a mont, struggling to process the sight in front of him. "Professor, why are you here? I thought you had already been... that is, I understood you were no longer..."
He trailed off.
Hearing Adrian's tactful words, Dumbledore's eyes crinkled with mischievous amusent. "Shh, I'm here to feed Fawkes—he still has important work to do guarding against the Chamber of Secrets, after all."
"So, there was no password required for the headmaster's office today?" Adrian asked.
"Ah, but there still is a password," Dumbledore said as he approached Adrian, his piercing blue eyes seeming to look directly into his soul through his eyes. "Rember what I said—only when everyone has abandoned will I truly leave this place."
Adrian suddenly felt sowhat puzzled.
________________
You can read more chapters on:
/IamLuis
User Comments
0 comments from readers