Chapter 96
At night, on the stairs of Hogwarts
Cho Chang and Penelope were on their way to the Room of Requirement, discussing what had happened with Lockhart that afternoon.
This was the hottest topic at Hogwarts right now. Many young wizards who disliked Lockhart were arguing with his fans, and there were plenty of such cases in Ravenclaw as well.
Even if they hadn't experienced it firsthand, they had heard plenty about it from others.
During dinner, news spread that Lockhart had taken a week off due to illness.
This only made the arguments more intense, and the sound of debates could be heard everywhere.
"Senior, how did this happen to an outstanding graduate of Ravenclaw?"
Cho Chang felt a little disbelief. When she first learned that Lockhart was coming to Hogwarts to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, she had some expectations.
Lockhart had once been a member of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.
There was even a photo of him in the group picture of past players.
The comments from the Ravenclaw students back then were quite positive. He had seemed like an excellent wizard, no matter how you looked at him.
Combined with the books he had published, his achievements seemed remarkable.
But now, all of that had crumbled on the first day.
"Who knows what happened after graduation? His novels might even be plagiarized," Penelope replied.
After this incident, Penelope had gained a deeper understanding of the wizarding world.
An excellent graduate could degenerate to this state in just ten years. It was clear he had been beaten down by society and had chosen the path of fraud. Worse, he had fallen so low that he couldn't even deal with a group of Cornish pixies.
Penelope was sure that any young wizard who had passed their O.W.L.s, regardless of the results, could handle Cornish pixies. There were plenty of spells for that.
Even if someone was of mixed blood, it was hard to imagine falling to such a state.
If he had been born to Muggles, he probably wouldn't have survived in this world.
"But if Lockhart doesn't have real skills, why would he dare to come to Hogwarts to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts?"
Cho Chang was genuinely confused.
Lockhart was a Hogwarts graduate himself. He had experienced seven different Defense Against the Dark Arts professors over seven years.
If he knew the subject's curse, it would be one thing if he was confident in his abilities.
But he clearly wasn't capable, so was he rushing to his own demise?
Who gave him the confidence?
"Maybe he brought himself into the world of his books and started believing he had the power his characters do," Penelope guessed with a shrug.
It was just a guess, but it wasn't far from the truth.
Anyone who had attended Hogwarts for a few weeks, regardless of how poorly they were doing, would have learned more magic than Lockhart. He had once been an outstanding graduate, after all.
To fall this low was to lose all self-recognition—both internally and externally.
Magic is idealistic; it stems from the power of the mind.
Emotions, cognition, and thinking all affect the success or failure of a spell, as well as its power.
Lockhart had stolen too much from others. None of it was truly his. To fully express what he had stolen, he had to immerse himself in it, and in the process, he lost himself.
Without a clear sense of self, how could he properly cast magic?
Lockhart relied on the Obliviate spell to make a living, using it on others to hide the fact that he had no real talent.
"Ethan, what are you doing?"
After Penelope and Cho Chang entered the Room of Requirement, they noticed Ethan's unusual activities.
He wasn't studying alchemy, reading books, or practicing magic.
Instead, he was playing with a handful of Floo Powder, surrounded by live maps and some parchments on the ground.
Cassandra and Hermione were talking to him.
No one seemed to be studying diligently today.
"I'm preparing to make a communication tool for the wizarding world," Ethan explained, turning his head.
"A communication tool for the wizarding world?" Cho asked. "Isn't that just an owl?"
"Are you preparing for biological alchemy?" she continued, looking at Ethan in surprise.
Had he progressed this much after just one summer with Nicolas Flamel?
Biological alchemy was quite advanced knowledge.
Among magical creatures, some are naturally born, while others are hybrids created through artificial intervention—like Hagrid's work.
Others are the products of failed Animagus transformations.
Alchemy has contributed to the diversification of magical creatures as well.
The basilisk and sphinx are prime examples.
"It's not biological alchemy," Ethan corrected. "It's a communication device."
"Something like Muggle fax machines or email."
Text messaging hadn't become widespread yet, at least not on Ethan's phone.
"Can alchemy do that?" Penelope asked, confused. She had used fax machines and email before, but they were purely technological and had nothing to do with magic.
She didn't understand the principles behind them—her education level was only elementary school—but she knew they required electricity and were quite complicated.
"It depends on how you look at it," Ethan explained. "Take the Marauder's Map, for example. Before you saw it, you wouldn't have believed something like that could exist.
"It uses a combination of marking magic, dynamic development, tracking spells, true form revelation, concealment spells, and elimination spells to mark the movements of everyone within Hogwarts."
Ethan had studied the Marauder's Map since acquiring it, and he understood its principles. The four creators were indeed geniuses. Perfectly combining those spells had been no easy feat.
Ethan could now reproduce the map's effects.
"There's also the use of Floo Powder and fireplace travel. If you've experienced it, you know you just need to say the name to arrive at the exact location.
"That's because there's a magical network connecting these special fireplaces."
"If you went to a Muggle house, Floo Powder would be useless."
Thanks to this magical network, accurate travel was possible with Floo Powder. Each name acted like a code, just like a phone number. If you made a mistake, you would end up somewhere else entirely.
Of course, this network is different from the Muggle world; it is just a connection between fireplaces due to magic.
As early as the second semester of his first year, Ethan had actually thought about this idea—wanting to make a wizard version of the mobile phone, hoping to bring some Muggle innovation to the wizarding world.
But the alchemical technology wasn't up to standard, and he had no clear direction, so the idea was set aside.
The reason he wanted to try it today was because of Voldemort's notebook.
Voldemort's residual soul had its own intelligence and could communicate with the person holding the notebook through writing.
Written communication is much simpler than voice. Alchemy mobile phones are difficult to make, but two notebooks that can connect for real-time written communication should still be possible.
As for Voldemort's Horcrux notebook, Ethan had initially planned to find a way to steal it, but by the time he returned from Nico's place, it was already in Ginny's possession. If it had been with the twins, Ethan would have taken it directly.
But Ethan couldn't just go through a little girl's room, let alone directly point out that the notebook was dangerous and say, "I can help you deal with it."
"The fireplace transmission is just as Ethan said. If it works, it will be much more convenient to communicate in the future, but the owls will be out of job," Cassandra said.
Cassandra had heard Hermione and the others talk about mobile phones and telephones last time and had been interested, but they seemed too complicated, so she gave up. If Ethan actually made one, even if she didn't use Muggle devices, she wouldn't fall behind.
"That won't happen. They can still be couriers, and only a few of them will be unemployed. It's not their fault they couldn't keep up with the times!" Ethan joked.
The owls in the wizarding world are quite impressive. They can cross the sea, and their flying speed and endurance are unique, but they still can't compete with instant messaging.
However, since they don't require payment and only eat nuts, they're unbeatable when it comes to delivering express mail.
"I'll make a simple version first, and you all can try it."
Ethan started to work. First, he used mercury to solidify the parchment and engraved ancient magical symbols to improve its stability. This step was necessary; otherwise, the parchment wouldn't be able to hold so much magic.
Of course, if other magical animal materials were used, this step could be skipped, but parchment was the cheapest!
Unlike industrial parchment in the Muggle world, the wizarding version is a thin sheet made from sheepskin, goatskin, or calfskin—cut into small pieces for sale.
Once that step was done, he needed to engrave the magical circuit. The association spell was essential; without it, they couldn't connect.
The elimination spell, after use, would delete all information, just like the Marauder's Map.
Marking spell, transformation spell, revealing spell...
"Is it working?"
Hermione looked at Ethan as he finished and asked curiously.
Although she had read several books on alchemy, it was too complicated for her to understand, so she gave up.
"We'll know when we get back to the dormitory," Ethan replied.
He made four more pieces the same way and linked them through the association spell. Ethan hadn't yet figured out how to connect to other parchments by searching for names or codes, but this was a start.
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