Lockhart Starts Acting Up Again

Besides affecting the people around him, Adam had discovered another ability of The Love that was somewhat fantastical…

How should he put it? He was not entirely sure what this ability did, but the somewhat illusory red-haired, green-eyed figure he could see beside Harry was unlikely to be the work of any other Clow Card. By process of elimination, it had to be The Love’s ability.

Since this was the only anomaly so far, Adam had no way to test what exactly had happened or what this ability was. He could only set the question aside for now.

On the way back to the dormitory, Adam was asked countless times about the Chamber of Secrets. To that, he had only one answer:

"Professor Dumbledore told me to keep it secret. Maybe you could ask Professor Dumbledore?"

There was nothing the other young wizards could do about the little badger who intended to honor his promise. But there was no doubt that the Chamber of Secrets problem had been resolved—those extra House points Hufflepuff had suddenly received could hardly have been given by Professor Dumbledore to buy candy.

Back in the dormitory, Adam finally let out a sigh of relief, only to be met by the gazes of his four roommates.

How should he describe those looks? They were rather complicated, like Lin Daiyu looking at Jia Baoyu, making Adam’s nonexistent conscience ache in phantom pangs.

"All right, all right, brothers, let me explain first…"

Under the stares of the four, Adam raised his hands in surrender.

The five of them sat down together on the little sofa, and Adam told them what had happened—although he had promised Professor Dumbledore to keep it secret, his roommates were clearly not covered by that agreement, and they were all tight-lipped people.

Unlike a certain gamekeeper who seemed to have been raised on Veritaserum…

After finishing the story, Adam emphasized again:

"It really wasn’t that I didn’t want to bring you along. There was nothing fun about this trip, and the basilisk was so dangerous."

"All right, your experience this time really was pretty dull."

Bernard sighed regretfully. The so-called Chamber of Secrets had turned out to be a sewer, with a giant snake inside that killed anyone it looked at. It was completely different from what he had imagined.

At the very least, there should have been all kinds of puzzle-solving trials, with enormous golems or magical creatures acting as guards, right?

Hearing Bernard’s remarks, Adam felt that if he had been born a hundred years earlier and happened to meet a certain fifth-year transfer student, he might have gotten to see what he wanted.

"So, where’s that basilisk? Can we take a look?"

Eugene was curious about what the legendary basilisk looked like. Adam thought for a moment.

"I’ll let you see it after I dig out its eyes."

That basilisk was going into the pot anyway, and it had to be killed regardless. He might as well let them see it.

"Uh, maybe forget it. Isn’t digging out its eyes just so we can look at it a bit…"

Klon spoke with a frown, only to hear Adam say:

"It’s fine. It’s going into the pot anyway."

"Then let’s take a look."

Klon immediately changed his tune and even swallowed.

As for the basilisk having deadly venom… no problem. He believed Adam would deal with it. And if all else failed, he still had chopsticks made from Unicorn Horn!

He knew there would come a day when he would use these things. Christmas was approaching too, so perhaps he could give everyone this kind of chopsticks as presents this year.

That instantly solved the gift problem for everyone except Adam. Yay~(＾-＾)V

Afterward, they discussed when to go to the Forbidden Forest. They had put it off for so long that if they delayed any longer, it would be next year!

"How about we go during the Christmas break?"

Uther suggested,

"We have homework to do normally, and trying to squeeze in time on the weekend feels too rushed."

Though they called it an adventure, they had no real objective. It was more like going to the Forbidden Forest for a stroll. Having to worry about hurrying back to do homework would be far too disappointing.

"But if we enter the Forbidden Forest on a snowy day, won’t it be unsafe…"

Eugene frowned.

"It’ll be snowing even if we go tomorrow, everyone. It’s nearly December already."

Bernard sighed.

Eugene and Klon, who had repeatedly delayed their Forbidden Forest appointment for personal reasons, had nothing to say. Thus, the date for entering the Forbidden Forest was officially settled.

"Don’t worry. This time, I’m confident I can keep everyone safe."

Adam, who had already practiced his protective magic to the point where he could cast shields on others, patted his chest.

The next day, the atmosphere throughout Hogwarts quietly changed. With the threat of the Chamber of Secrets lifted, the gloom that had blanketed the castle immediately dispersed, and the young wizards suddenly returned to their usual liveliness.

The only ones in poor spirits were probably the few Slytherin students who prided themselves on being pure-bloods.

Before yesterday, they had been able to hold their heads high as they watched those Mudbloods live in fear, while the half-blood young wizards all hurried about in a panic. But today, everything had changed.

They even launched a boycott of Adam’s products, hoping to make Adam, the one responsible for all this, suffer heavy losses. But not many people responded, because even Slytherin was not entirely made up of pure-bloods.

Instead, once someone spread the news, the non-pure-blood young wizards who had once been afraid immediately flocked to Adam’s little shop to buy, buy, buy. On one hand, they were venting their emotions—the fear from before truly needed the comfort of sweets—and on the other, they were showing their support for Adam.

As a result, rather than suffering heavy losses as those Slytherins had wished, Adam’s turnover soared steadily, and he was practically drowning in money.

"I think I understand why so many merchants like stirring up conflict. It really makes money! Too bad I don’t care that much about money. Making money has become a problem for me instead."

Having worked from opening until closing, Adam felt unusually tired after packing up his stall. He sighed.

"Opening this shop was the thing I regret most. I was happiest when I only sold snacks out of a shoulder bag. Too bad I can’t go back to that anymore…"

Cedric, who had bought the last serving of osmanthus sugar lotus root beside him, felt his teeth ache at those words.

Forget it. Adam’s sweets would not cause cavities. It had to be a hallucination from taking too many Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. He should quickly take a sip of honey tea to soothe his mouth…

At the strong request of the students, the honey tea had an excessive amount of sweetness. Yet even under the suppression of the osmanthus sugar lotus root, it still burst with enough sweetness between Cedric’s lips and teeth to smooth out his furrowed brow.

"Adam, have you heard?"

"Heard what?"

Adam turned after tidying up the food cart and saw Cedric lean close beside him, lowering his voice.

"Professor Lockhart said in class today that he had known where the Chamber of Secrets was and what monster was inside it all along… He also said you were able to deal with the Chamber’s monster thanks to his guidance…"

"…Looks like he’s fully recovered from his injuries."

Adam narrowed his eyes. Normally, he did not care much about gossip, but why was Lockhart so infuriating…

Just after showing his roommates The Grudge, Adam had been considering whether to get into the movie business, and if he did, how realistic he could make it without going too far.

Lockhart had come knocking at just the right time. Then Professor Lockhart could be his test subject—no, his experiencer.

Why not start with the combined 8D Conjuring series~