Chapter 267: The Pursuit of Death
As the saying goes, a nickname is never wrong. One of the most important reasons Dumbledore is called "the greatest wizard of the century" is that he, while holding a very firm stance, also possesses a great capacity for tolerance.
Of course, this greatness can sometimes be criticized. For instance, his followers don't receive special treatment just because they won a battle; they aren't promoted to better political positions. Cunning bureaucrats understand that if you don't take the opportunity to expand your advantage, you're a fool.
After the meeting of the International Confederation of Wizards concluded, a feast of dividing up the spoils began. This was the kind of petty squabble that Dumbledore disdained. Grindelwald and Lockhart, on the other hand, wouldn't, though they could pretend to. They were, however, pulled in by their own people and had no choice but to participate.
They had the right to a share not because they had followed Dumbledore to defeat Voldemort, but because they possessed both great magical power and an intimidating influence. Take Lockhart, for example.
Although he was against Voldemort, his reputation among many pure-blood wizarding families was excellent. He had a great number of fanatical followers all over the world, not to mention the more closely-aligned Ravenclaw Alumni Association and the Dueling Club. They had to fight for their people.
For instance, Rita Skeeter, who was vying with Umbridge for the title of "Lockhart's first loyal subordinate." In the past two years, Rita had been working tirelessly, turning into a "Lockhart-booster" whenever she had the chance. She was very proactive, and it could be said that she was partly responsible for establishing Lockhart's "Magic Master" reputation. The title of "Magic Master" was incredibly useful, and Lockhart had benefited greatly from it.
Now, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Prophet had been arrested on charges of being a Voldemort minion. With such an influential position vacant, how could Lockhart not help Rita fight for it? It could be said that without Lockhart, Rita's own background, magical ability, and influence built up over the years would never have been enough for her to get the editor-in-chief position. Without Lockhart, she couldn't have controlled the large amount of sponsorship money and influence coming from the pure-blood families and various factions behind the newspaper.
Besides the Daily Prophet editor-in-chief position, Lockhart also received three farms. In principle, these farms should have belonged to the Yaxley family. After Corban was definitively labeled a "hero," they shouldn't have been part of the spoils. However, these farms had been transformed by Voldemort into Basilisk breeding grounds.
Besides the farm where Voldemort was captured, the other five farms all had Basilisks in various stages of development. They were all breeding grounds that Voldemort had established by centralizing so many resources.
So, if Corban wanted to make a clean break from Voldemort, he couldn't hold on to these "evil caves of the Dark Lord." There were six in total. Lockhart took three, and Grindelwald took the remaining three. Lockhart strongly suspected that old Grindelwald was also interested in Basilisk breeding. Although he didn't have Parseltongue, it wasn't only the Slytherin-Gaunt line that had it. Or maybe he was interested in Hagrid's magical animal breeding, or his cute pet breeding. Who knows?
After getting the newspaper editor-in-chief position and the Basilisk breeding grounds, Lockhart couldn't really participate in the other divisions. In the end, when everyone was dividing up a group of Dementors who had defected to Voldemort, he simply took one for himself. He planned to use it as a teaching tool for his students.
The impact of Voldemort's capture was far from over. Too many problems had been exposed, and someone had to solve them or negotiate new solutions. For example, the presence of these Dementors, who should have been in Azkaban, made people wonder just how compromised the prison's defenses were.
The problem could be huge, since Azkaban's rules were based on the abilities of Dementors. The problem could also be small, since the most loyal of Voldemort's followers were still locked up in Azkaban and hadn't escaped due to the traitorous Dementors. But that was not Lockhart's concern.
He was carrying a suitcase with a Dementor inside, ready to head back to school. And then, Lockhart saw Voldemort! He was in a large birdcage next to the perch of Fawkes, the phoenix, in Dumbledore's office.
"!!!"
Lockhart was stunned. "Didn't you say you were going to lock him up in Nurmengard prison?"
Dumbledore was busy working on a strange-looking alchemical device. He heard Lockhart, picked up a cloth to wipe his hands, and tapped the birdcage with the Elder Wand. A thick ball of mist quickly filled the cage, isolating Voldemort's form and angry screams. Then the cage quickly shrank, becoming only the size of a hand.
Dumbledore reached out, took the small, floating birdcage, and hung it on Fawkes's perch. He smiled at Lockhart. "You and Gellert must have guessed that was just for show."
Lockhart nodded, not planning to ask any more about Voldemort. Instead, Dumbledore motioned for him to sit down, clapped his hands to summon two glasses of iced drink, and took a sip before looking seriously at Lockhart. "Now that Tom has been captured, I hope you can tell me, did you take Tom's diary?"
Lockhart nodded. Since he was asked, he didn't hide it. He reached into his pocket, patted the little golden retriever on the head, and had it take out the diary it had been hiding. He took the diary and placed it on the desk. "I've done a lot of magical experiments with it."
Dumbledore's expression became strange. He examined the diary, pushed his glasses up in confusion, and then began to study it with the Elder Wand. After a while, he was surprised. "It is indeed a Horcrux, but it's empty?"
"Yes, as I said, I did some magical experiments," Lockhart explained honestly. "A study on time, memory, and magical bloodlines. I first used the Basilisk's life force to resurrect him, then took him into the river of time, and then killed him again—"
Dumbledore's expression grew even stranger. He didn't even know if he should feel sorry for the Tom he so hated. He didn't know how to respond and just listened quietly to Lockhart's account.
"...I thought he would be completely destroyed or go into the world of the dead, but he was 'fished out' of the river of time by a Dark magical creature and is now in a very unique state."
"I can't get him out right now because I don't know much about that Dark magical creature that appeared in the river of time."
"But I can guarantee that it can no longer function as a Horcrux—"
Lockhart had thought about this problem carefully. "Theoretically, he should be a wandering soul now, just like the previous Voldemort!"
Dumbledore fell into deep thought, lightly tapping the table with his fingers. "Da, da, da." "Two of me exist in the world?"
"That's right," Lockhart replied. He continued, gesturing to the small birdcage that Fawkes was curiously prodding. "In my speculation, if you kill this resurrected version of him now, he might truly die, and the younger Tom will become the only 'me.' The resurrected one might be the younger Tom. All magic related to time becomes so convoluted."
Dumbledore sighed but also warned, "I hope you know that Tom's evil is his very nature. No matter what age he is resurrected at, he will eventually reach the same end."
"From a temporal standpoint, that's true," Lockhart agreed.
Lockhart's actions were always open and honest. He wouldn't say anything unless he was asked, but since he was asked, and given Dumbledore's deserving reputation, he was ready to tell him everything he knew.
He summoned the old ghost ship. He wanted to see if Dumbledore had a way to deal with it. The current state of Tom was a bit of a burden to him, and he wasn't necessarily keen on keeping him. But unfortunately, Dumbledore had no solution for it either.
He had a second question. "I remember you mentioned 'there are more' when you warned me about Tom's Horcrux. I want to know the answer."
"Harry, Harry Potter," Lockhart answered directly. "Voldemort knows how to create powerful magic during a murder and how to control it. This is the basis for him making Horcruxes."
"Essentially, Lily Potter's 'love' protection magic, which she cast using her own life, should have been in a field that Voldemort was good at. He might have underestimated it or thought he could handle it."
Dumbledore listened to this new angle of analysis, lost in thought. "To suffer the greatest failure in the field one is most skilled at is a common curse in Divination magic."
This was another angle entirely. Lockhart continued with his own understanding. "But Voldemort doesn't understand the power of 'love.' He obviously paid the price for it. And this method of mobilizing and controlling power during a murder was turned back on him, creating a Horcrux on himself after he failed."
"So, due to his Horcrux-making magic and method, and Lily Evans's 'love' bloodline magic, this coincidence was created—Harry was made into one of Voldemort's Horcruxes."
Dumbledore casually grabbed a Cockroach Cluster from a plate and chewed on it, mumbling, "Finding a solution based on its characteristics, right? That's the theory you teach the children."
"Yes, I have an idea to solve Harry's problem," Lockhart admitted. He chuckled. "The root of everything must be solved with the magic of 'love.'"
"If Voldemort had the concept of love and didn't plan to kill Harry Potter, then as long as Harry Potter didn't die, he would be immortal."
"If Voldemort had no love, then once he killed Harry, he would have to face death himself because all his Horcruxes would be destroyed."
Lockhart was describing the method that Dumbledore had originally planned to use to solve this problem: letting Harry be killed by Voldemort once. This method was not very clever. It was even overly reliant on Professor Trelawney's prophecy. Otherwise, under normal circumstances, if Voldemort had the chance to cast the Killing Curse on Harry and found that it didn't work the first time, he would definitely try again. And then Harry would be completely dead.
Lockhart brought this up now to use Dumbledore's reaction to confirm whether Dumbledore had truly changed.
The answer was... he had!
"Hmm..." Dumbledore chewed on the Cockroach Cluster, swallowed it, and took a sip of his drink. Only then did he say, "That's a good way of thinking, but I think I have my own way."
Lockhart was stunned and full of curiosity. "What way?" He had thought of many solutions himself, but they all ultimately came down to the step of "letting Voldemort kill Harry once."
"Tom is right here!" Dumbledore gestured with his cup to the small birdcage on the perch. He smiled. "I don't think you need to overly romanticize the magic of 'Horcruxes.'"
"There are countless magics throughout wizarding history that have explored immortality. Horcruxes are neither the only way nor the best," Dumbledore explained with a smile, seeing Lockhart looking like a curious child. "For example, there was a witch in the early Middle Ages who invented a kind of witchcraft that also gave her the ability to seem immortal."
"She could be born again from her own descendants. Of course, if she had no descendants, her enemies would give birth to her. If her enemies didn't plan to have children, then anyone who had harmed her might give birth to her."
Good heavens. Lockhart was stunned.
"Using the power of murder to leverage the continuation of one's magical bloodline? And the preservation of one's will?" he murmured.
Dumbledore smiled and shook his head. "The documents don't record the specifics, so the exact mechanism is unclear. She was eventually killed by a group of Dark magical creatures. As you know, Dark magical creatures cannot have offspring. And this attack by the Dark magical creatures was not arranged or guided by anyone, so there were no accomplices. And so, she completely disappeared from the river of history."
He crossed his hands and looked at the young Lockhart in front of him, saying sincerely, "We can learn from the experiences of history. All magic that pursues immortality will ultimately bring doom and destruction."
Dumbledore was not mentioning this on a whim. "I can feel how powerful that 'resurrection spell' you cast on Tom was. But I hope you use this magic with caution. Remember, escaping death will only bring on the pursuit of death."
This was the sincere advice of an elder, hoping that the new generation would take the right path. It was also a sign of a close relationship. Everything was understood without being spoken. It was as if he was saying, "I still see you as a young man with a lot of promise. I'm still willing to fulfill my promise from last year that 'I can teach you a few magical tricks when I have time.' I still approve of you. So, feel free to teach at Hogwarts."
Dumbledore had always been tolerant, as long as he believed that the person was not completely irredeemable.
Luckily, his kindness was met with a kind response. Lockhart gestured to the suitcase beside him. "A Dementor, not the one a Boggart would turn into. I think with this, the students will have a very wonderful experience and understanding."
He had to go teach his students. In fact, just as his students needed to learn magical knowledge, so did he. When the dust settled and the world outside became noisy again, Lockhart would not forget his original intention: the wonder of magic. The battle between Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Voldemort this time had also taught him a great deal.
Lockhart had a new idea for the direction of his magical path. He wanted to learn Transfiguration. This was a very deep and well-established subject, one of the most brilliant subjects in the modern magical system, and one that ancient witches and wizards could not even hope to achieve. The path of magic was long, and he was just getting started.