Chapter 57: Ghostly Form
Many wizards from Muggle families have a common misconception.
They believe that 'wizard' is synonymous with 'powerful'.
But that's not actually the case.
In fairy tales, powerful characters are often 'hunters'.
Wizards initially feared villagers' pitchforks, then later firearms. In the modern era, even someone as powerful as Grindelwald held the desperate and urgent belief regarding Muggle-invented atomic bombs that 'if we don't strike during their world war, wizards will have no chance left'. This is even more true with the ever-evolving technological advancements of the present day.
The role of wizards in fairy tales has only one definition—mysterious.
It's the Animagus's free transformation, the unhindered travel of Apparition, the undetectable nature of safe houses, the Memory Charm, the Horcrux, divination, blood oaths, curses...
People all say Dumbledore is 'the greatest wizard of the age', yet they also subtly mention the Dark Lord Voldemort as 'the most powerful and dangerous dark wizard in history', always intending to compare the two.
But actually, it depends on the perspective.
From the perspective of 'power', undoubtedly it is Dumbledore.
But if we talk about 'mystery', then Voldemort is actually more formidable.
Whether it was the first wizarding war, or the fact that even knowing Voldemort was hiding in the forests of Albania, they couldn't find him, and then later his return, lurking, spying, and even plotting the Triwizard Tournament for his final resurrection, Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix he led were often in a state of reactive response.
Dumbledore ultimately even had to rely on Harry Potter, who specialized in artifacts, to deal with Voldemort, rather than crushing him with his own power.
Of course, this was also related to him no longer being at his peak; he was already 111 years old.
But this didn't mean that a minor character like Alecto Carrow could escape Dumbledore's investigation.
In the original story, outside of the protagonist Harry Potter's perspective, Dumbledore had countless searches for Voldemort, one of which involved discovering the seaside cave where Voldemort hid Slytherin's locket.
No one knew how he found it.
Now, Lockhart had the good fortune to witness some of Dumbledore's methods.
Old Albus had patiently guarded the fairy tale book earlier, hoping Lockhart could save himself. Now, after repeatedly checking and confirming that he was alright, he couldn't wait to continue the investigation.
Horcruxes, such magical and bizarre magic. Voldemort couldn't be killed before the Horcruxes were destroyed, but this didn't mean Dumbledore had no way to deal with it.
If he could really capture Tom's wraith, imprison it, whether to slowly torture and interrogate it or to find other ways to search for the hidden Horcruxes himself, everything would become much easier.
The Elder Wand gently waved.
Silver light spots gathered, condensing into the image of a witch before them—Alecto Carrow.
This silver figure screamed silently in terror in the Carrow family's ancestral home, cast a spell to destroy the wall and rushed out, ran to a big tree in the outside garden, and suddenly vanished without a trace.
Dumbledore walked to the tree, gently waved his wand, grabbed Lockhart with one hand, and quickly performed Apparition.
Another bout of crazy dizziness.
When Lockhart regained his visual perception, he was already deep in a dark alley.
The Elder Wand waved again.
The human figure formed by silver light spots flickered into appearance, looking around somewhat frantically, lowering its head and walking into an old house with boarded-up windows beside them.
Dumbledore didn't rush to go in, but raised his wand, murmuring something, and strode around the house. Soon, chaotic air currents began to surge around, directly enveloping the entire place.
He turned back to look at Lockhart, a smile on his face. "We don't know what dangers might be inside. Are you still willing to go in with me?"
"Of course!"
Lockhart didn't hesitate at all, grinning. "We can only find the hope of living by bravely facing death, can't we?"
Living towards death.
The eternal theme of fairy tales.
But sometimes it also became concrete.
Dumbledore was about to say something when he suddenly became dumbfounded, staring at Lockhart with wide, incredulous eyes.
Frankly, in his more than a hundred years of life, what wondrous things hadn't he seen?
Hey, he had never actually seen this scene before.
He saw Lockhart rapidly turning pale, as if life was being erased from the world. The colors of life gradually faded, and he completely turned into a semi-transparent figure with only black and white tones.
A ghost!
A ghost formed after a wizard died, clinging to this world and unwilling to leave!
Lockhart winked playfully at Old Albus. "Interesting, isn't it?"
"Truly marvelous!" Dumbledore couldn't help but exclaim. "We will never see the boundaries of magic; it is always full of unknown realms waiting for us to explore."
Yes.
Then let's not stop.
There are always unknown and wonderful sceneries ahead waiting for us.
Lockhart volunteered to go and investigate the situation. He now miraculously possessed this wonderful 'ghost form' and really couldn't resist showing off a bit.
Of course, if his 'already dead' state was discovered by Voldemort, who was hiding somewhere, it would be interesting. It was hard to say if he could trick the other party.
But Old Albus refused him without saying anything, directly pushing open the door of the building and entering first.
He was a naturally proud and powerful individual. He didn't want to experience again the helplessness he felt when Lockhart was about to be cursed to death earlier. Naturally, he wouldn't let this young man beside him take risks for him again.
Dumbledore was clearly much more serious this time.
He cast countless spells in an instant. A large number of detection spells and trap-triggering curses poured into the small building, and rings of magic whose effects Lockhart didn't know surrounded them.
Lockhart could even see a large patch of water appearing on the ground, seemingly reflecting a world completely opposite to the real one.
War magic!
A relatively ancient branch of wizarding magic that didn't have a clear official name. Due to various reasons, most of its spells were not included in the modern magic school teaching system.
Strictly speaking, these kinds of magic should all belong to the 'dueling' branch of the three major areas of 'Defence Against the Dark Arts'. Its most significant characteristic was that it was invented for internal wizarding wars.
The most common spell was the Disarming Charm.
Lockhart knew very little about this type of magic. The dozen or so powerful wizards in his memory had hardly any access to information about it. Most of the knowledge dissemination channels were monopolized by pure-blood families and the Ministry of Magic.
Lockhart was not to be outdone, calling his little partners to action.
The Boggart transformed into the 'Hanged Corpse', wielding a giant cross-shaped great axe to guard one side. The Winged Horse and Little Golden Hair each occupied one of his shoulders. The Wrongfully Killed Fairy floated behind, catalyzing all the wooden structures inside the small building to flourish and create a small forest.
But soon.
Lockhart and Dumbledore discovered that they seemed to have used a bit too much force.
As they cautiously searched all the way to the small attic on the third floor, in a pavilion originally used to hang a bronze bell, Alecto Carrow's corpse hung there just like that.
A rope hung down, tightly constricting her neck. The end of the rope twisted like a viper, occasionally biting a piece of the witch's scalp.
Alecto's face was full of terror. No one knew what she had seen before her death. Her hands were forcefully tearing at the rope around her neck, so that even after death, she still maintained a posture of desperate struggle.
A large amount of blood stained her wizard robes, dripping down along the hem and pooling on the ground, forming a puddle of blood that stretched out in all directions, its trails converging to outline a sentence.
"Dumbledore, my sincere greetings to you—Voldemort."
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