Chapter 273: The Demon Summoned by a Wish
Here's an interesting question. What is the true nature of a tree transfigured into a snake using Transfiguration?
The answer is simple: it's still a tree. Even if a wizard were to kill this snake, skin it, and make a stew or grill it, according to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, people couldn't eat it and would have problems because of the indigestible things in their stomachs.
However, Lockhart now had a new idea. This was because he might have figured out what was missing from the Dark wizard's rambling when he created the Dementor.
It was vitality.
Unlike the vibrant, expansive vitality that flowed everywhere in a natural forest, the vitality affected by Transfiguration was stagnant! To describe it using his "memory-time-magical bloodline" research, it was as if "time" had been simultaneously stretched and compressed to its extreme in the physical world. It was hard to put that stretched and compressed state into words, and Lockhart could only tentatively define it as "stagnant."
This was very interesting. Lockhart's magical philosophy had always been not to explore the true fundamental principles of magic, but to summarize the superficial laws of how magic worked, and then use those laws to analyze other areas. If it made sense, then it was usable.
And now, this idea that "the magic of Transfiguration causes time to stagnate" actually made sense.
This stagnant state prevented the magical bloodline from expressing itself, because the magical bloodline itself depended on the movement of the soul in the "river of time" and the life actions of physical beings in the physical world, and everything had stagnated. This also explained why wizards could not transfigure magical creatures through the advanced Transfiguration spell of Animagus, but only ordinary creatures. It was because the magic could not be expressed.
From another perspective, it could also explain some of the slightly conflicting definitions in Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, such as wizards not being able to create food out of thin air, but being able to cast a Doubling Charm on food to genuinely increase the yield, and the seemingly nonsensical Refilling Charm.
This meant that the magic was expressed at a certain point. Lockhart didn't know the specific principle, but he knew how to do it: let "vitality" re-emerge and expand. Vitality created the leap from 0 to 1, and then the magical bloodline had a chance to express itself. This was the key to Lupin's ability to cast spells within a specific range after turning into a giant wolf!
"Let me try!" Lockhart licked his lips, muttering excitedly. He couldn't wait to test this idea. This was definitely the key for him to forge his own magical path in the field of Transfiguration. It was very interesting; he thought he had entered a completely new field, but he had unexpectedly returned to his original research area.
He tried his best to calm down and thought through the specific plan. He quickly found a suitable spell from the past memories of the forest witch.
"Earth nurture..." He mumbled an incantation that was more like the pronunciation of an ancient wizarding tribe, and gently waved his wand. "Vitality blossom!" This was a spell that made grass bloom, trees bear fruit, and brought a large area of life and vitality to the surrounding environment. It was also the forest witch's most signature spell; it could create a forest in an unfamiliar environment.
The first time Lockhart ever performed a magical experiment, after his body was possessed by a fragment of the forest witch's memory, she cast this spell on the professor's office, turning it into a forest (Chapter 19). Now, he no longer needed to cast the spell in a rigid, step-by-step manner. He could make the magical effect only target the "tree snake" he had transfigured.
He gently tapped his wand. The half-snake on the tree trunk swayed and turned in mid-air, bringing its head to the ground and winding forward along the ground. As it moved, the lower half of the tree trunk also began to "snake-ify." A large part of the snake's body was even pulled out of the ground. Finally, it completely became a huge snake.
To the young wizards' gasps, the giant snake coiled around them, twisting its body and carrying them onto its back, starting to move toward the Forbidden Forest's edge. It went all the way to the vicinity of the Whomping Willow. Then, the giant snake put everyone down, and itself went winding to find a suitable place. It forcefully inserted its tail into the ground and continuously sank into it.
As it sank, everyone could observe that the snake's body was rapidly becoming woody. The snake's head swayed toward the sky, hissing, and finally became a very strange-looking crooked tree.
There were no branches or leaves; just a smooth main trunk stood there, but it gave off a unique sense of vibrant vitality. It felt both bizarre and inexplicably full of life. Lockhart looked at the tree with great satisfaction, turned to the young wizards, and instructed, "It's best not to get close to it. It's alive." If they got close to it, it would turn back into a "tree snake."
In fact, they didn't need him to tell them. The young wizards could already feel the terrifying nature of this bizarre tree snake. It was too big, bigger than any snake they had ever seen, and it was mysterious. Mystery had always been the essence of magic, and wizards could feel the threat directly from its body.
Everyone returned to the sealed stone house. The Dementor had been trapped there for a long time and had begun to infect the entire stone house. Even a light touch felt like a chilling cold that would seep into your bones. This time, two more people joined the adventure: Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall.
Professor McGonagall felt that the students were finding it increasingly difficult to withstand the Dementor's influence, so she pulled out her wand and cast a Warming Charm on everyone. This spell could not directly provide protection but rather activated the warmth within each young wizard's heart to resist the negative and dark forces in the surrounding environment. It was effective. Many young wizards who had been gritting their teeth in discomfort breathed a sigh of relief.
Soon, everyone entered the river of time again and reached the Dementor's magical bloodline, entering through the middle of the giant, tattered robe. No one knew how shocked Dumbledore was at this moment. He knew that Lockhart had walked a very unique magical path and had a rough guess that it was related to the magical field of time, but he never expected it to be a scene like this. Every detail in front of him filled him with astonishment. Such an ability, let alone his, had never been officially recorded in the history of wizarding magic. Perhaps only in that unprovable era when the Time-Turner was invented and widely used could such an adventure have been possible.
As Lockhart led everyone into the depths of the passage to face the monsters whose organs had split open and grown limbs, Dumbledore walked at the back and looked back at the direction they had come from. There, a tattered ghost ship vaguely appeared. On the ship, a figure wrapped in chains was looking at him deeply.
Tom...
The figure flashed and was gone. When he looked again, there was only the distorted and chaotic light in the river of time, and he could no longer tell if Tom was still there. Dumbledore looked down at the Gaunt ring in his hand. The ring was set with a Resurrection Stone, and he could feel the stone's excitement in the river of time that Lockhart had created.
Ah, Tom... His expression flickered. He clenched the ring and looked up in the direction of the professors and students. There were bursts of cheers coming from there. He walked over to see what was happening and found that Professor Lockhart was casting a spell on the self-replicating organ monsters.
Beams of vibrant magical light shot from the tip of Lockhart's wand, hitting the organ monsters. The huge force slammed them back onto the wall they had been pasted onto after they had split apart. They then exploded, turning into dark and oppressive magical auras that seeped into the wall.
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, vaguely guessing what Lockhart was doing. But this was just a guess. He watched carefully, trying to learn Lockhart's method of casting spells to speed up the attempt. Yes, he naturally didn't understand the magic the forest witch had learned from the natural forest in an intuitive way, but he knew many similar spells that could promote vitality.
With his addition, they quickly got a result. When all the organ monsters had turned into magical auras and merged into the wall, cracks began to spread across the wall, and it completely shattered. Behind the wall was a staircase that led down like a cellar. The stairs were very, very long. Everyone went down the stairs, not knowing how long they had been walking. When Lockhart began to wonder if they were in a ghost loop, a different scene finally appeared before them.
A huge altar. A Dark wizard stood on the altar.
"Destruction... devouring... slaughter... stagnation..." he mumbled, filled with distress. "What is missing?"
It was vitality. Dumbledore knew that the answer Lockhart had found was vitality. Fortunately, Lockhart wasn't being his usual boastful self and didn't go and tell the Dark wizard this, or a paradoxical force that would have brought about a terrible disaster would have appeared in this river of time. After all, this Dark wizard was undoubtedly a person from some unknown time in the past who was already dead in the real world.
Lockhart was also aware of this problem. He was now trying to restrain the students from getting agitated, especially Harry Potter. The boy was now looking at the Muggles hanging on the pillars of the altar and was ready to rush up and save them.
Everyone was looking at the Muggles on the pillars. The Dark wizard was also looking.
"Damn it, what is it!" The Dark wizard cried out in agony. "My life is coming to an end, and I still can't find the answer."
He had no choice but to take a chance. He filled the missing part with what he guessed was the most likely thing: "omission."
This seemed to be a very unique magical theory. Five terrifying Dark Arts forces coexisted and restrained each other. The Dark wizard began his attempt. He waved his wand, singing and shouting on the altar. Powerful magical energy surged. The Muggles on the pillars quickly broke apart into organs, which he then reassembled on the pillars.
"First, destroy its destruction, and step into immortality!"
The Dark wizard tapped his wand quickly as if beating a drum. A muffled and bizarre heartbeat echoed in the surroundings. No, it should be the synchronized beating of countless heartbeats.
Pop~!
Pop-pop-pop~!
The hearts on the pillars exploded one after another. Heart-stripping—a common technique in Dark creature breeding. It could strip a magical creature of its life rhythm and its subtle relationship with all things in the world. The effect was remarkable. An extremely dark aura surged.
"Everyone use the power of the Patronus Charm!" Lockhart turned and instructed the students. "Students who have the ability, find a way to protect the others!" In fact, his Hippogriff Patronus could have done this alone, but this was not just his adventure; everyone was participating. He had to give them a chance to grow.
"The destruction of destruction should bring about a more terrifying power of slaughter." The Dark wizard shouted, as if to encourage himself. After all, he could be said to be giving it his all when he was at his wit's end.
"The omission that destruction gives birth to!"
Boom! Some strange things among the randomly pasted organs on the pillars exploded one after another. There were noses and mouths, lungs and windpipes, and even some blood vessels.
"Omission gives birth to devouring!"
Some other strange organs exploded. But at this point, there was finally an effect. A terrible suction force appeared in the bloody mess of the mouths and noses that had just exploded on the pillars. It was a force that devoured souls. All the young wizards and professors felt the terrible pain of the Dementor's soul and emotion consumption. Several young wizards swayed, clearly unable to hold on. Lockhart quickly cast a spell to help them.
The vortexes on the pillars, therefore, did not affect everyone. The only one they could affect was the Dark wizard.
"No!" The Dark wizard wavered and held onto a pillar. "No, I don't have much time left. Immortality, I need the power of immortality!"
In fact, there were two steps. Devouring created stagnation, and after a period of stagnation, the power of destruction appeared again (it should have been "vitality" as Lockhart had figured out). But the power of destruction had nothing to cling to. Because the hearts and blood vessels and other organs had already exploded at the very beginning.
So, an extremely dark, ominous, mysterious, oppressive, and pale power, like a hidden spark in a pile of dry grass, suddenly burst out, instantly engulfing everything in a sea of fire. This power was so terrifying and vast that even Dumbledore's expression changed. The first reaction of several professors was to cast the Patronus Charm. Among them, Lockhart's Patronus was so unique. A Hippogriff spread its wings and appeared, carrying everyone away from this crazily raging energy.
"Hahahaha..." The Dark wizard laughed maniacally in the sea of energy. "I've succeeded! I've succeeded! With this power, no one in this world can stop me!"
"He's celebrating too early." On the Hippogriff's head, Lockhart grumbled to the others. "It's clearly 'vitality.' I'm sure it's not 'omission.' He got it wrong."
It turned out that his guess was correct. Soon, the surging magic howled and turned into hundreds, even thousands, of currents, like turbulent streams, rushing chaotically, yet seemingly with some kind of rhythm.
"No! Impossible!" The Dark wizard roared loudly, angrily pointing at the chaotic magical energy currents. "Come back! You should listen to my command!"
Was it possible? No, it was impossible. This energy came from those hundreds of Muggles, from their self-will, from their reflected magical bloodlines of the Dark wizard, and in the end, it naturally had to return to those Muggles. But it couldn't go back. Because there was no "vitality," the expression of the magical bloodline was suppressed.
They continuously rushed into their original bodies, and they couldn't do anything other than continuously detonate their own organs. In the end, these turbulent currents had no choice but to be attracted to the Dark wizard's figure, which was full of "vitality," and returned to the Dark wizard's guidance.
Everything seemed to be going in a good direction, but the Dark wizard wasn't smiling anymore. He desperately realized that he couldn't control so much magical power, and it would completely make him explode!
Puff~~~ He suddenly spewed a mouthful of blood, black blood. Before he could recover, a bloody hole suddenly exploded in his left side, and a huge blood blister swelled on the right side of his head, as if it could explode again at any time. He had to save himself. He had a way to save himself!
He quickly cast a simple healing spell on himself, struggling to flip through a cloth bag on his waist, and pulled out a very strange scroll. When unrolled, the scroll looked like it was made of some kind of animal bones and leather, and it had a tribal-style drawing that looked like a child's doodle.
He was no longer able to stand. He first stumbled to his knees, and finally, his whole body folded and lay limply on the altar. Only his hands were holding up the animal skin scroll, and he began to mumble a very strange incantation.
Lockhart was a little curious and looked at Dumbledore. Dumbledore shook his head. "I don't understand it either. I don't know everything."
Wizards had gone through the barbarism of ancient wizards, the witch hunts of the Middle Ages, and the global wars of modern times. Too many things had been buried in the river of history.
But they soon knew what the scroll was for. Because the Dark wizard began to shout in ancient runes, "I wish for some people to come here and share immortality with me, sharing an oath as a contract..."
"Wishing magic?" Professor Kettleburn listened with a strange expression. He couldn't help but complain, or rather, he didn't want the students around him to believe in this superstitious ability. "Children, wishing magic is the worst kind of magic. Sometimes we wish for a savior to come and save you, but in the end, you'll find that you can only summon a demon!"
Hmm. That was the truth. But... Hermione whispered back, "Professor Kettleburn, if he can really only summon a demon, then those demons are us!"
"Hmm?" Professor Kettleburn was stunned.
Lockhart chuckled. "Although I also oppose this superstition that has been proven with countless lives in the wizarding world, I'd like to say that he might have really succeeded in his wish because we are here."
"Now, as long as we are willing to go over and share this power with him, we might be able to gain terrifyingly powerful strength!"
Professor Kettleburn rolled his eyes. "Do you think I'm an idiot? Only a moron would accept power that doesn't come from his own will!" As he spoke, he looked back at the students with great vigilance.
Sure enough, several young wizards looked very tempted. Draco Malfoy and Ron Weasley were the most obvious. They naturally had reasons to desire powerful strength, and it was also because their hearts were not bursting with the power of the Patronus Charm to protect their minds at this moment.
Fortunately, Professor Lockhart would not allow them to fall. Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall were also there.
Professor McGonagall looked at the children vigilantly and warned them, "I must remind you that the scene in front of you looks very real, but it is actually from a certain time in ancient times. Changing the past by traveling through time will only bring you unforeseen disasters."
"And you'll also turn into a demon," Professor Kettleburn added. "When you control a power that doesn't belong to you, I don't know if you've heard of an Obscurial. It's a similar scene. All your will will be consumed by the magic. It's very terrifying."
Dumbledore didn't speak. He just looked at the terrifying turbulent magical currents in front of him with a thoughtful expression. Then he looked back at the direction they had come from in the depths of the passage. There was a boat there. On the boat was a Tom. He hesitated for a moment, then shook his head, giving up on a certain attempt.
"No, no!" In the distance, the Dark wizard's miserable screams came. More and more large holes exploded on his body. He looked like a musical fountain. He screamed crazily at Lockhart and the others. "I feel it! You've really appeared! Hurry, come over! I will share immortality with you!"
Unfortunately, no one paid attention to him. He didn't know why, but despair soon completely enveloped him. These turbulent magical currents began to drill into the parts of his body that had exploded. Attracted by the aura of his magical bloodline, they instinctively wanted to assimilate his magical bloodline. The powerful and chaotic force began to completely destroy the vitality of his body.
Finally, those turbulent magical currents became real. They began to take on a form, like the Dark wizard, wearing tattered robes and having shriveled, rotting bodies. They also had their own appearances. Their mouths and noses were just large holes, as if they could devour all souls.
They were... "Dementors!" Professor Kettleburn exclaimed, causing the young wizards to look over curiously.
Was this how Dementors came to be? Everyone felt a sense of witnessing history. A great Dark Lord who looked as evil as Voldemort, who tried to gain the power of immortality, cruelly tortured and killed thousands of Muggles, but was ultimately consumed by these very powers. He only left behind a group of such terrifying monsters in this world.
Everyone felt for him. Only Lockhart and Dumbledore had strange expressions.
"Is the Dementor one half? And Azkaban is the other half?" Lockhart pointed at the Muggles' corpses on the altar that had been spelled into pieces and then completely destroyed.
Dumbledore nodded slightly. "I'm afraid so. They are one, yet they are not one." It was a bit like an Obscurial and an Obscurus.
Dumbledore looked deeply at Lockhart and asked, "Vitality?"
Lockhart's mouth curled up slightly. "Yes, vitality. They went in the wrong direction."
He understood. Dumbledore nodded with a strange expression. Although there were others listening to them, probably only the two of them knew what they were really discussing.
That was the way to destroy the Azkaban prison and kill the Dementors. The answer was vitality!