This farce in the Duel Club finally ended with Harry's amazing performance.
After Maka stepped down, Lockhart immediately recovered from his embarrassment and frustration. I have to say that his face is really thick-skinned.
"Okay, you see!" he said, stumbling back onto the stage. "This is a disarming charm - as you can see, I lost my wand - ah, thank you, Miss Brown."
He took the wand, then cleared his throat and continued: "Yes, Maka. It's a great idea to show everyone this move! But don't mind what I say, you were about to do something like this just now The intention is obvious. If I want to stop you, there is no need to try hard. I think that in order to increase their knowledge, I might as well let them take a look... "
Snape stared at Lockhart fiercely in the audience.
Maka didn't care, just let him do what he said. Anyway, the next thing had nothing to do with him.
Not long after that, Lockhart asked the students to start team practice.
But it didn’t take long before the situation seemed a little out of control...
"Oh my God, my God!" Lockhart said, jumping up and down in the crowd, watching the aftermath of the duel. "You stand up, Ernie... look out, Miss Fawcett... pinch hard, and the blood will come out soon." Stop it, Boot—"
In order to stop this farce, Lockhart had to terminate this failed attempt.
"I thought I'd better teach you some tips on how to stop unfriendly magic."
The scene was too chaotic.
After Lockhart's "lecture", the scene eventually turned into a one-on-one demonstration again - he and Snape were responsible for coaching from the side.
The first pair of candidates were Malfoy and Harry.
"Well, Harry," said Lockhart, "when Draco points his wand at you, you do this."
He raised his wand and waved it left and right, trying to conjure complicated tricks, but accidentally dropped it on the ground. Snape sneered at him.
Lockhart hurriedly bent down and picked up his wand.
"Ouch - my wand is a little too excited."
Snape approached Malfoy, lowered his head and whispered something to him, and then Malfoy also sneered.
"Professor, can you show me the method of stopping the spell again?" Harry looked up at Lockhart nervously and asked.
"Afraid?" Malfoy said in a low voice so that Lockhart wouldn't hear.
"Dream!" Harry said these words from the corner of his mouth.
Lockhart slapped Harry on the shoulder cheerfully and said with a smile, "Just do what I just did, Harry!"
"What are you doing, dropping your wand on the ground?" Harry couldn't help but complain, but Lockhart obviously filtered out Harry's words automatically.
As Lockhart began to count down, Harry had to raise his wand and focus as much as possible.
"… start!"
Malfoy quickly raised his wand and shouted: "Oolong!"
As the tip of the wand in his hand exploded, a long black snake suddenly jumped out and landed heavily on the floor between them.
There was a slight black air lingering between the scales of the black snake. The snake's mouth was slightly open and its fangs were sharp. It was facing Harry, its head held high, and it looked clearly ready to attack.
The crowd screamed and quickly backed away to make room.
Maka also took a few steps back, hiding among the panicked crowd and keeping silent.
"Don't move, Potter," Snape said lazily.
Apparently, he felt very happy when he saw Harry standing there motionless, staring at the angry snake.
"I'll get him away-" "Let me!"
Lockhart grabbed Snape's words, and his hands were even more agile. He raised his wand and waved it towards the black snake.
Suddenly, there was a loud bang. Not only did the snake not disappear, but it jumped up to a height of more than ten feet, and then fell heavily to the floor.
It was furious, hissing and swimming straight towards Justin Finch-Fletchley, who was closest to it. Then, it raised its head and exposed its fangs, as if it was about to launch an attack in the next second.
Harry didn't understand why he did this, he didn't even realize he decided to do this. All he knew was that his legs moved forward of their own accord, as if on casters, and then he stupidly shouted to the snake: "Get away from him!"
As soon as Harry finished speaking, the snake collapsed on the floor, as supple as a pile of thick, black plastic water pipes, and its eyes were fixed on Harry.
"Successful?" Harry looked at the black snake in surprise.
He then raised his head, looked at Justin, and smiled.
Harry had expected to see a look of relief, confusion, or gratitude on Justin's face—not the anger and horror he saw now.
"What kind of trick do you think you are playing!" Justin shouted.
Before Harry could speak, he turned and rushed out of the Great Hall.
Snape waved his wand and eliminated the black snake. He looked at Harry with a thoughtful expression. Harry was surrounded by students whispering to each other - which made him feel even worse.
"What happened?" Harry looked around in confusion.
Just then, Harry felt someone tug on his clothes.
"Let's go!" Hermione walked to Harry and whispered.
But when they turned around to call Ron, they found that he had left at some point.
When Harry and Hermione hurried back to the Gryffindor common room, it took a long time before they saw Ron walking in through the door.
"Ron, where have you been?" Hermione asked.
Harry on the other side was sitting in the armchair next to him, his head slightly lowered, as if he was thinking about something.
"I'm going to—" Ron looked at Hermione, a tangled look flashed across his face, and then he took another breath, as if he had made some decision.
"...I'm going to find Maka." He finally said the words.
"Going to find Maka again? What the hell-" Hermione was saying, but was interrupted hastily by Ron.
"Hermione, Harry...listen to me." Ron walked to them and lowered his voice, "Do you remember the day when you saw Filch's cat hanging on the wall?"
"Oh, of course...but what happened?" Hermione asked curiously.
Harry also raised his head after hearing this, waiting for Ron to continue.
"At that time, while you were just looking after the cat, I saw someone on the corner behind you!" Ron looked around to make sure no one was paying attention, and then said in a clear voice, "Although I just looked at When I saw the figure leaving, I was sure it was Maka!"
"Maka's robe is so distinctive, wide and big, I can't mistake it."
"You want to say... that it was Maka who did it?" Harry said in disbelief.
"No! This is impossible!" Hermione glared at Ron and said firmly, "He can't be the heir to the Chamber of Secrets!"
Perhaps Hermione's voice was too high-pitched, but the second half of her words attracted the attention of many people. Everyone turned and stared at Harry.
"Oh, sorry!" Hermione came to her senses and apologized to Harry.
"No, it's nothing... it's just..." Harry shook his head, but his expression looked a little gloomy - he had been paying attention to this matter since he came back from the hall.
Seeing Hermione's disbelief, Ron couldn't help but feel a tightness in his chest.
"You...why don't you believe it! Didn't you see it when Harry competed last time?" Ron yelled, "Besides, Maka has been acting weird since the beginning of this semester!"
"That doesn't prove anything!" Hermione immediately got furious and yelled back uncontrollably, "I think Maka is controlled by Voldemort—"
She immediately realized something was wrong and took the words back.
"Keep it down, Ron!" Hermione whispered, "Do you want everyone to know?"
Ron turned around and saw many classmates looking towards him with horrified expressions, obviously frightened by Hermione's word "Voldemort".
"It's not because of you..." Ron muttered softly.
"Um...Hermione, you just said...what happened to Maka because of Voldemort?" Harry asked hurriedly.
"...I'm not sure yet," she said with a complicated look, "but I think Maka has become abnormal since the end of last semester."
"You should know that when Maka came back, I was the first to see him. I have told you before that it was Voldemort who possessed Quirrell and instigated Quirrell to steal the Sorcerer's Stone."
Harry and Ron both nodded.
"What happened to Voldemort in the end, only Maka and Professor Dumbledore know, but -"
As Hermione spoke, she once again recalled Maka's expression at that time. She couldn't help but pursed her lips, with an unspeakable expression on her face.
"But when Maka came back, he looked very... strange." Hermione found it difficult to describe it in words, "I think Voldemort may have escaped after all."
"Oh—" Ron and Harry glanced at each other, with a hint of shock on their faces.
"Looking at Maka's condition this semester, I think he might have been affected by some dark magic..." The more Hermione said, the more reasonable she felt that this guess was. "This is really possible! You know, Dumbledore was There too! When he came back, he didn't bring Quirrell, let alone Voldemort... "
"If it weren't for..." She lowered her eyes and said with some frustration, "If Maka hadn't saved me—"
"That is to say, Maka took back the Sorcerer's Stone, but maybe she was also infected by Voldemort's dark magic..." Ron, who had heard enough of Voldemort's terrifying legends since he was a child, did not even dare to mention his name. .
Harry on the other side was stunned again.
His attention was not drawn to Voldemort, but to the word "dark magic" which brought back some memories.
"Ron, Hermione," Harry thought for a while, "I think maybe we can go and confirm with our own eyes."