Chapter 240: Time Reversion
Lockhart, who had been bustling with activity, finally found a moment of peace. One day after his lessons, he idly wandered into Snape's office.
Old Snape was really something; he had a wolf pup in a cage and was drawing its blood.
"Did you sneak it in?" Lockhart's expression was full of anticipation. "If Hagrid saw this, would he have a duel with you?"
Snape almost laughed out of sheer annoyance. "This wolf pup is ill. Hagrid entrusted it to me to cure it! You know, a major branch of Potions is the study of magical creature remedies!"
"Is that so?" Lockhart snickered. "Then why did it get sick? And your so-called treatment is drawing its blood?"
Snape fell silent, focusing on his task. He carefully drew the blood, sealed the vials of wolfsbane, then performed a healing charm on the pup's wound before putting it back in the cage.
Wolfsbane was a terrible substance, but in the field of potions, there were countless dreadful ingredients: highly poisonous ones, those that caused permanent hallucinations, those that ravaged the nervous system, and so on. All of them could cause irreparable damage. He knew all too well how to handle such ingredients and prevent disaster.
Once he was done, Snape steered the conversation away from the wolf pup's illness. He brewed a pot of tea and changed the subject. "I don't quite understand what you've been so busy with lately."
"You're funding Percy Weasley to scout out a training ground for his 'Quidditch Duelling Tournament' outside of school. You're funding George and Fred's research into prank toys, and funding Ron to breed that stupid cat. I hear you've even started giving Crabbe, Goyle, Neville, and Luna special training, and helped Draco select Alchemy books from the Restricted Section of the library. It all seems so chaotic, a hodgepodge of disparate projects. You do whatever you feel like."
Lockhart took the teacup offered to him and smiled faintly. "It's the same as always: wizarding life, fairy tale adventures. You know, as long as you're in the midst of it, Magic will naturally bloom."
Snape scoffed. He hated it when Lockhart went on about these bizarre theories.
"Simply put, a new era has quietly begun without many people even realizing it, and it needs more people to participate and fill it with color. I've found it, so I'm giving the wheels of this era a little push, to accelerate it."
"Then, we make the wizarding world more interesting, make the fairy tale adventures within it more wondrous and unprecedented, and then we can look forward to the unique Magic that will blossom in this new era."
Lockhart felt his explanation was quite clear.
Snape nodded, saying nothing more. He only looked at him with a dark gaze. "I just want him to die. It's that simple. The richness, wonder, and color of this world don't necessarily have to include him, do they?"
"Of course!" Lockhart laughed. "Grindelwald told you that, didn't he? He always thinks I want Voldemort to live, which is not my position at all."
Lockhart simply felt that he wasn't obligated to kill Voldemort, but if it was convenient, he wouldn't mind sending him on a new life journey to the spirit world.
Oh, but Voldemort had created so many Horcruxes that he probably couldn't go to the spirit world. He might be truly scattered.
Well, that was none of Lockhart's business.
This was an amusing diversion he'd encountered on his journey through life, not a handful of sand he had to cling to.
Snape visibly relaxed. He knew Lockhart's power and didn't want them to have different principles on this one issue. That would only create more obstacles to his goal of killing Voldemort.
He gazed deeply at the glass vial containing the wolf pup's blood, muttering to himself, "Did you know? Wolf pups and werewolves are completely different kinds of beings. There are unique similarities and differences between them."
Lockhart nodded. "I understand. Wolf pups are born to werewolves. One could say they have completely transformed from human beings into magical creatures, an irreversible change, a complete magical bloodline fixation."
Snape shook his head. "No, it seems you don't. In the field of Potions, the potions made for humans and the potions made for magical creatures are two completely different fields. Even the most basic principles are different."
He looked up, gazing out the office window. "You could say that human potions are about 'spiritual desire.' Even a basic potion like Skele-Gro is like that. The formulas and the mechanisms by which they work are essentially based on the mind guiding the potion to restore completeness."
"The most obvious example is that the same bottle of Skele-Gro will regrow bones in different ways for different people."
"But the potions we create for magical creatures are different. When we make them, we don't consider the mind. We only look at the physical body, so we focus more on the laws of physical operation."
"That's why wizards can never create a resurrection potion for magical creatures. Of course, most wizards don't know this, and in fact, most wizards view even a human resurrection potion as a myth."
Snape lightly caressed the vial of blood in his hand, a cold sneer on his face. "I've done some research and come to a few guesses. Some of the potions a werewolf can use in its wizard form cannot be used in its werewolf form."
Lockhart looked confused. "What do you mean?"
"It means that if I can change the wolfsbane in him into the wolfsbane of a wolf pup, he might completely disconnect from his so-called Horcruxes!" Snape's eyes were filled with malice. "He won't know it, but when he dies, he'll be dead. He'll no longer be anchored by a Horcrux, and he will truly vanish from this world!"
Hiss!
Lockhart took in a sharp breath. He realized he could not underestimate anyone or any field of Magic.
Merlin, making Voldemort disconnect from his Horcruxes?
And Voldemort wouldn't even know he had been disconnected, so he wouldn't desperately try to protect his life.
"How would you do it?" Lockhart asked, full of expectation.
Snape stared at the wolf pup's blood, silent for a long time. "Give me more time—"
He looked up at Lockhart, his expression uncharacteristically serious. "This is something that shouldn't be told to anyone. It's best if only I know."
"The reason I'm telling you is to remind you that no Magic in this world is foolproof. You need to know that as long as there is a spell, there must be a counter-spell!"
"It's not that there are no spells to counter, disarm, or reverse the three Unforgivable Curses. It's just that no one has discovered them yet, or someone discovered them and hid them away as a family secret. But no matter the possibility, they will surely be thoroughly researched and widely spread among wizards in the future."
"The same goes for the magic that breaks Horcruxes!"
"And your so-called 'Thunderstorm Mountain Fire' is no exception."
"You've already stepped into this war. You must have the understanding to believe that he is already researching a counter-spell to your 'Thunderstorm Mountain Fire,' waiting for the right moment to deliver a fatal blow!"
"What will you do then?"
"You must even have the understanding that it's not just your enemy, but many other people with ulterior motives may be researching a counter-spell to your Magic!"
"Your dazzling presence will undoubtedly obstruct the interests of some people. That's a given."
Lockhart's lips curled into a slight smile. "Hehe, it just so happens that I have some ideas for a new Magic. If that happens, it'll be a good time to test it out."
Snape froze. "New Magic?"
Lockhart spread his hands. "You have no idea how many adventures I've had with the Madagom Cats in the long river of time. Now that I've cultivated them into Hakimis, it's only natural that I would have some gains, isn't it?"
Snape was instantly intrigued. "What kind of Magic?"
"Refresh!" Lockhart's eyes lit up with excitement. "I call it Refresh! At first, I wanted to research the Madagom Cats' ability to split, or rather, replicate. But my own will is too strong, so I couldn't create a doppelgänger or anything like that."
"Then I started to research the magical journal Voldemort gave me, The Unextinguished Flame of Life. And hey, guess what? I succeeded!"
"This is an interesting spell that covers areas like bloodline Magic, the connection between humans and nature, memory and time, and magical bloodlines, among other things."
Lockhart was very pleased with himself. "I call it the 'Refresh Magic.'"
Of course, in academia, it had a very proper spell name: Time Reversion!
This spell wasn't all that rare. The wizarding world had a very similar spell called the Repair Charm. With a single incantation of "Reparo!", an entire destroyed street could be easily restored to its original state.
And the effect of "Time Reversion" was also more or less the same. The only difference was that it was targeted at living beings.
In the language of Lockhart's past life, it might be easier to understand it as 'loading a save file,' except this 'save file' didn't need to be created in advance. All traces of a life already existed in the long river of time. He simply needed to fish out a past state of a living being and "refresh" it into the present time.
The effect of this spell was absurdly powerful! It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it an immortality spell.
But it had some problems. The self that existed in the past didn't quite match the current soul, and it didn't match the current world. This could be a minor or a major problem.
A minor problem would be a certain effect on the user's casting ability. A major problem, however, could be called a time curse. When an individual becomes severely disconnected from the collective, society, nature, and everything else on various levels, the wizard must frantically try to catch up to the current time, otherwise, it will lead to great problems.
So, immortality was only a theoretical concept. The further back in the river of time one tried to refresh, the more terrifying the consequences.
On this point, Lockhart needed to observe the connection between Voldemort and Tom more closely. He suspected that Old Voldy's transformation into a snake-like and less intelligent being might not be due to the Horcruxes alone. Tom from the diary Horcrux might be the biggest problem. Especially in the original story, he suspected that after Harry killed Tom, Voldemort's changes became completely irreversible.
So, he was also considering whether to summon the Bloody Ghost Ship of Dark Magical Creatures and get the imprisoned Tom out to kill him completely, just to see what the effect would be.
But if he didn't pursue the so-called immortality, and only refreshed himself to a few hours ago, it would be a Magic that could be called a miracle.
Of course, Lockhart wouldn't think he was invincible just because of this. As Snape said, when a spell appears, a counter-spell is just waiting to be discovered.
Didn't Voldemort mess everything up because he believed too much in his so-called 'Horcruxes'?
A lesson from history.
So, he wouldn't stop. The wonderful world of Magic had only just shown a tiny glimpse of its full glory; there was so much more for him to explore and experience.
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