"That's easy." Hagrid shrugged, "I bet any third grader can do it. "

"Third grade?" Lockhart frowned, "Is it a little bad to let them touch the 3X danger level in the third grade? What are you going to teach them about the sixth and seventh graders?"

"" Of course, teaching them how to hybridize large creatures. "Hagrid said of course, "There are so many people helping, of course we have to try a few new species. For example, I have always wanted to try a cross between a fire crab and a man-headed manticore..."

Lockhart doesn't know what to say

To a person who keeps pets like the three-headed dog and the giant spider, which are considered dangerous at the 5X level, the fire crab or something may really only be a toy.

"Wait then..." he said with some headache. "Have you read the syllabus of the Ministry of Magic? The magical creatures section."

"Two glances, but I think it's too boring..." Hagrid complained, "Sniffs, sables, swallowtails, you don't have any problem with them, honestly, this kind of thing There's no need to learn, and I don't want my students to learn nothing after two classes."

"I'm afraid you are overestimating them." Lockhart hurriedly stopped, "Even in the N.E.W.Ts exam, only 4X-level creatures will be used at the highest. If you teach them to pack poisonous leopards..."

Hagrid was overjoyed: "Poisonous leopard? Good idea, but not in Scotland. I heard you're taking people to Africa? I remember there were several in East Africa..."

"Come on, Hagrid. Can't do it!" Lockhart hurriedly stopped him from this dangerous thought. "You'd better use creatures below 2X for third graders, 3X for fourth and fifth grades, and sixth and seventh grades. With 4X, you have to go step by step."

"I'll try my best," Hagrid agreed nonchalantly. "Now let's talk, what are you going to do with the final exam?"

Looking at him like this, Lockhart knew that he didn't take his words to heart at all, but after he said this, he couldn't continue to persuade him.

After all, he was just a "child" under 30 years old, and Hagrid was more than twice his age, so he really had no position to teach him a lesson.

"My words are very simple, in the first grade, I spent a year teaching them how to escape, and of course the final exam will also take this... So I hope you can catch a few tree monkeys by then and let them chase these little devils Run in the maze.

As long as they can use the repelling spell and the cloud spell, and always pay attention to the footsteps of the monkeys, plan their routes calmly, and avoid the monkeys' containment, they can safely

Reach the end...don't forget to drop a little more "treasure" in the maze for the students to search

set.

If there are monkeys caught once, let them go and let them start over. If you get caught three times, you can fail. If you don't get caught or only get caught once, you can get good. If you don't get caught and can collect all the treasures in the labyrinth, we should give him an excellent one. So simple. "

Hagrid understood: "Just to let them use all the knowledge they usually learn?"

"Yes, the so-called exam is exactly what it is."

"And what about the second year?" Hagrid asked again.

"Second year is about to increase the difficulty a little bit, they already have a little foundation; the magic power is more; so I'm going to ask a Hogwarts house elf to catch them."

"House-elves? But they all Apparate!" Hagrid was a little surprised. "Students can't escape, right?"

"You can dodge as long as you react quickly." Lockhart said without hesitation: "The house-elf's Apparition will make sparks in the air. It is very good judgment. Students only need to stop in time after seeing the sparks and use a Flying sand bounces off it, then runs desperately in the opposite direction, and can escape after avoiding its sight.

You can go to the kitchen and ask, I remember that the house-elf who promised to cooperate with me on the exam was named Agatha, and she would know what to do. "

"What about the third grade?"

"Go to the swamp by the lake and make some fake models of red hats, hink punks, and swamp diggers, mix them with real animals, and see if the students can tell the difference between the real and the fake. If you can't tell the difference, remember to promptly. get them out."

"Four…"

Lockhart simply handed him his plan: "Take it and see for yourself! The core of the fourth grade lies in the mastery of spells and the identification of black magic creatures. I am going to

The secret room is arranged as a haunted house, so that students can judge the type of the ghost according to the clues within the specified time, and then select the appropriate props and the correct spell to deal with them.

In the sixth grade exam, I will ask Professor McGonagall to borrow a few giant statue pieces, and block them from all directions at high speed. The students' magic will definitely not be able to break them, so I can only use invisibility or Apparition to escape the encirclement. "

"It turns out that this is a step-by-step process." Hagrid finally understood.

"Yeah, I can't always teach them dark magic in first grade," Lockhart said.

Chapter 138 The final confrontation

After the final exams were arranged, Lockhart's time at Hogwarts entered the final countdown.

It would be a lie for Lockhart to say that he has no affection for this place that many students see as home, not to mention that he has almost everything he wants here, except love.

But unfortunately, his stage is not here.

When everyone was a kid, they tended to like some superhero, or the kind of guy who used his billions to build himself a steel suit or a high-tech bat suit and thought it was cool.

But when they grow up, they will realize how nonsense it is.

Because if they use this million dollars to influence politics, they can build a lot of factories, hire psychiatrists, improve police treatment, or train members of parliament who obey their orders, so that they can find jobs for many people, and the crime rate will drop. The magnitude is definitely much stronger than spending millions of dollars a day in the wear and tear of tech gear to hit one or two criminals.

In the same way, it is useless to simply be a "hero" if you want to fight against black magic, make a name for yourself, or even make a name for yourself in history.

And Lockhart also firmly believes that everything that happens in this world is unreasonable and is ultimately caused by political problems. If you want to solve it, you must use political means, instead of expecting a strong man to appear.

It's like California in the United States, where tens of thousands of robberies happen every year, so that there are not enough prisons. Even if all the superheroes become real, they can't save it, and even Captain America can only sigh and sigh.

California has neither a solution to race, nor a way out of 'political justice'

Indeed, there is no way to improve the economy, so in the end, we had to hastily introduced the rule that "robbery under $950 is not considered a robbery" to save police resources.

Therefore, the magic reality of the police officers who perform official duties is sent to court for prosecution is the root cause of the fact that various interest groups have too much influence on the state legislature. It is a political + economic issue. , rather than a simple security issue.

Political issues like this should be resolved politically. It is a misallocation of social resources and very irresponsible to push the responsibility that should be shouldered by politicians to heroes.

From a certain point of view, if the world needs heroes instead of national mobilization to save it, the world should let it be destroyed.

Just when Lockhart was smugly trying to show his talents, an article in "The Quibbler" caught him off guard.

"Heroes Against Dark Magic?" Or the next Demon Lord who colluded with the Death Eaters? 》

In line with the consistent style of "The Quibbler", this news can be said to have achieved "surprise victory" and "unprovoked association" to the extreme.

This article exclusively discloses a shocking news that the famous explorer, anti-dark magician, best-selling author, and Hogwarts' Defence Against the Dark Arts professor - Gilderoy Lockhart, Visited Azkaban Prison at the end of October last year.

The object he visits in prison is not some poor man who has been wronged or imprisoned by accident or carelessness, but a notorious Death Eater.

According to a Ministry insider, Lockhart bribed Azkaban's guard, the Dementor, with "a piece of soul" to let him go to prison.

And after he entered the prison, he went straight to the place where the Death Eaters were being held, and waited for more than two hours before he came out. As for who was visiting, until today we have

are unknown.

Considering that after Lockhart came out of Azkaban, he suddenly announced in the newspaper that he had found clues to the secret room, and finally found the dark magic items left by the man and the secret room of Slytherin. Our The Quibbler editors have reason to believe that Lockhart has received some key information from the Death Eaters, and likely received more than one dark magic item from Hogwarts.

As for how the follow-up events will develop, we don't know, but if our worst fears turn out to be true, it is very likely that Lockhart, the "Three Dark Lords", will plan an escape from Azkaban in order to get the That man's men folded under his own flag...

Seeing this, Lockhart put down that weekly.

To be honest, it was a bit troublesome for him to be disclosed.

First of all, the news in this article is actually true news, whether it is Lockhart visiting the prison or discovering the secret room, it is true. Even "Bribed the Dementor with a piece of soul" and "Found more than one dark magic item from Hogwarts" is true.

As someone who knows the plot, it's impossible for Lockhart not to go to the House of Requirement.

He obtained the Ravenclaw crown from the Room of Requirement, and bribed the diadem with Voldemort's soul as "food", allowing the Dementor to open the prison doors for him. Then he deceived Bella and helped Dumbledore get Hufflepuff's Gold Cup 5.

When he did these things, he didn't even tell Dumbledore, he did it secretly, and in the spirit of pragmatism, Dumbledore didn't ask how he persuaded the Dementors.

But now, it's all coming to light, and it's likely to have a very bad impact on Lockhart.

When the news in the newspaper is true news, and the logic theory can be justified

When you say it, it will be very troublesome to get rid of this suspicion.

More importantly, as someone who has read the original, Lockhart knew that Sirius Black would soon escape from prison.

He has always wondered, even if Sirius is an Animagus and can be turned into a black dog, how did he open the prison door, how did he bypass the guards and slip out of Azkaban's gate, and then How to find the right direction and escape the prison by swimming.

Achieving this requires careful thinking and careful planning, and neither of these things can be done by Sirius the "reckless", let alone that he has been delirious by dementors.

Now it seems that he was able to escape from prison for another hidden reason.

Lockhart felt vaguely touching something, but he had no proof.

Just then, there was a sudden knock on the door of his office, and the sound was very rapid.

After opening the door, Lockhart found that it was actually Draco Malfoy.

"Lockhart...Professor." Malfoy looked breathless. "My dad's owl is here...he asked me to tell you...he didn't do it."

Of course Lockhart understood what he was talking about.

"Tell your father for me, just say I know, I don't believe he did it either.

Chapter 139 Leaving the Castle

The Malfoy family is indeed a powerful political mess. As soon as the news came out, their family realized the bad consequences that this article might bring.

And Lockhart's eloquent assurance seemed to reassure Draco Malfoy: "Thank you so much, Professor, my father said he would find out who did it."

Lockhart put on a relaxed look: "Then thank your father for me. Our big plan is just about to start. I really don't have much energy to pay attention to such small things."

The reason why Lockhart said it was a trivial matter was because this news was posted on "The Quibbler", and almost no one would take it seriously, and would take the news in this magazine seriously. People must have problems with their brains. Nor can the person in question do any substantial damage to Lockhart.

In order to show his sincerity, Lockhart conjured a pot of tiger skin chrysanthemum, which symbolized cooperation, and asked Xiaolong to take it back to his father. I believe his father would understand what Lockhart meant.

After sending Malfoy away, Lockhart deliberately thought about it carefully.

Since it wasn't Malfoy and the others, and Fudge had just made a tacit reconciliation with himself, it means that someone from the Ministry of Magic should be making his own decisions.

Strange, when did I offend anyone? He was puzzled

But it just so happens that if he resigns now, he can be regarded as a famous teacher.

So he wrote an announcement statement and published it in the Daily Prophet, stating that he could not accept the groundless speculation and accusations of some people, and decided to resign as a professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts.

Afterwards, he formally handed his resignation letter to Dumbledore, expressing his willingness to leave within half a month.

Dumbledore wasn't surprised because everyone had already discussed it, and he didn't seem to take the words on The Quibbler seriously.

This is the sadness of "The Quibbler" - in order to compete for the market, they posted so many nonsense news that when they told the truth, others took it as a joke. I am afraid that before the savior posted that news, "Singing" The Naysayer will act as a clown for a long time.

But this also shows that the person who published this news has no formal channels and can only use "The Quibbler"?

After completing the handover procedures, Lockhart, in a professional spirit, followed the outline of his class and finished the rest in a week.

Most of the classmates also learned about this from various channels. Although they were a little reluctant, because it was already confirmed news, they could only send their blessings with regret.

As for the things in his office, most Lockhart doesn't plan to take them away: - the London house has no place to put it, and the second is to leave some things for the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, which can also show that he is not. Cheapskate.

But the wine in his cellar and the smuggled flying carpet map, Lockhart should take it, because this kind of thing can't be bought with money

During the 9 months at Hogwarts, he had accomplished all the goals of the original plan: to survive, to improve his strength, and to obtain the initial political resources through Hogwarts.

Although there were some small episodes in the middle, it was still very successful overall. As long as the duelist club and the student union remain in operation, his faction will continue to grow, and one day it will be able to reap fruitful results

Reality.

As for Fudge, let him be happy for a while.

- Weeks later, the insipid response from the wizarding world also confirmed Lockhart's idea that no one in the wizarding world cares about "The Quibbler" at all, and the guy who put his own conspiracy behind it didn't succeed at all.

On the last weekend before his departure, Lockhart held his last club event, and in front of everyone, gave Percy the authority of the auditorium, which symbolized the dueling club.

"After I leave, I'll leave it to you here. After that, Mr. Diggory should also be able to take on this responsibility, and then Miss Granger..."

Although this student union should be "democratic", Lockhart, like Zhuge Liang, opened his mouth to decide on "Jiang Wan" and "Fei Yi" who would succeed him. And he's obviously not just talking about the dueling club, but the power of the student council president

Percy knew that the source of his authority was basically Lockhart, so he should not violate Lockhart's "last wish", the only thing that worried him was whether Slytherin would "make trouble after Lockhart left." ", stealing the supreme power of the student union.

In this regard, Lockhart advised him to relax.

"As long as Dumbledore is still alive, they can't be in office," he said. Percy thought that he was right, and was relieved.

"I'll go ahead and wait a year and we'll all be at the Ministry of Magic," Lockhart said, patting him on the shoulder.

Unlike others who are still worried about the operation of power in the "post-Lockhart era", among the last students in the club, only Hermione is really reluctant to leave Lockhart himself.

"Can't you just get another teaching job?" she pleaded. "Actually, we can get around that curse, can't we. Like we just need to add another one."

Self-defense" or "Dueling" course, you will be the professor, and then the original Defense Against the Dark Arts class will be replaced by a new professor every six months."

"I don't think the curse left by that person can play this kind of word game. If it is so easy to get around, Dumbledore won't be helpless about it." Lockhart shrugged: "Okay, don't. I'm crying, silly girl. It's not life and death, if there is no accident, we'll have time to see you again in the future."

Hermione was not the only one who felt sorry for Lockhart's departure. The students at Hogwarts spontaneously assembled and held a small farewell party for Lockhart. Even though the farewell party food was stolen from the kitchen by Fred and George, Lockhart enjoyed it.

Even if these students may not all stand on the same front as him in the future, the friendship between teachers and students that once coexisted is not fake. The more rational a person is, the more they know the value of this genuine feeling.

"You'll make it hard for me," he said with a half-truth smile. "Professor Kettleborn will be teaching longer, and you'll have to send at least two people to say hello."

"We will! Professor, another drink?" Fred brought a glass of pumpkin juice.

After a lively end of the farewell party, Lockhart walked out of the castle with his suitcase and said goodbye to the castle that he had "worked with" for more than nine months.

Don't tell me, this castle really feels like home after living for a long time. No wonder Harry Potter and Voldemort regard it as home.