"Don't forget it's two thousand Galleons." Ivan saw Lockhart's fear-filled face and didn't bother to intimidate him. He used the Shadowless Shield to cut the lock.
"Also, I'm not interested in exposing your identity, but I don't want anything like this to happen again…"
Ivan opened the door, took one last look at Lockhart and left, leaving his words echoing in the cluttered office.
"It's okay if you can't remember. The cuts on your face will help you remember…"
After Ivan left, Lockhart sat down on the floor, unable to hold on any longer.
Lockhart touched it and found traces of blood on his hand.
Lockhart jerked his head towards the shattered mirror, where a shallow cut had appeared on his face…
…
In the corridor, Ivan reflected on his actions.
The three magical items he had created for Lockhart had nearly cost him his life.
Ivan had no choice but to use the six-hour-per-hour Strengthening Charms and the Divine Edge Shadowless Charm to suppress Lockhart so that he wouldn't keep coming after him.
"I guess I'll have to learn Memory Charms sometime," Ivan sighed.
Whether it was in Hermione's room or his conflict with Lockhart, if he knew how to cast the Memory Charm, he wouldn't have had to go through the trouble of wiping their memories.
However, he had too many things to do recently, so he did not have time to learn.
It just so happened that Lockhart was a Master of Memory Charms, and Ivan thought he might as well wait until Lockhart had two thousand Galleons ready, and then take it to him.
She wondered how Lockhart would explain the mess in his office. It was not easy to fix something that had been destroyed with the Shadowless Blade.
However, after only one day, Ivan realised that this little problem was not a problem for Lockhart, who was very good at sweet-talking.
Because suddenly there was a rumour going around Hogwarts…
Lockhart, their Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, had been in his office the day before researching an advanced destructive spell when he accidentally cut the desk in half.
Ron, who was eating breakfast in the Great Hall, nearly spat his juice in Harry's face when he heard the news.
"Lorhart's bragging again. I bet he thought we'd keep an eye on him once he got hold of the news…"
Hermione interrupted before Ron could finish his sentence.
"No, it's probably true. When Professor Lockhart asked Filch to move the table yesterday, I saw it cut in half.
The incisions were as smooth as mirrors, and the frames, wood carvings and the like were all cut open. It must have been a powerful spell…"
Hermione chattered on, causing Ron and Harry to roll their eyes.
"And you believed Lockhart? If he was as good as he claimed, he wouldn't have passed out at the Quidditch pitch," Ron retorted, shaking his head.
"I didn't say Lockhart wasn't a liar…" Hermione continued, glaring at him. "I told you what I saw. I didn't lie."
"Then Lockhart could have fooled you somehow, say by sawing these things off and pretending to be magic," Harry suggested.
"That's right! Everyone knows Lockhart is only slightly better than Squibs. If he could do magic, he would have used a Regeneration Charm to fix everything," Ron said confidently.
Ivan shook his head when the trio got into an argument on the subject, not joining in the discussion.
He couldn't possibly say that he was the one who had used the Traceless Magic to cut it, could he?
Yvonne wondered if Snape would guess something from this and go after Lockhart, asking how he had managed to steal her magic…
Her attitude towards Lockhart was not what Ivan had expected.
He recalled Hermione being a big fan of Lockhart's, and calling him a liar…
It seems Lockhart's reputation at the school was completely destroyed. No wonder he was willing to pay such a high price for his magical artefacts.
After breakfast, they went to the Charms lesson together.
…
In the afternoon, Ivan went to the library as usual to look up information on characters, along with Hermione.
"Ivan, are you looking for something?" Hermione asked curiously. She had noticed that Ivan seemed to be a little distracted lately, looking for something in the library.
"Do you know any of these characters?" Yvonne asked, deciding that Hermione might be able to help her.
Hermione looked at the paper for a moment, thinking hard…
"Well? Any ideas?" Yvonne asked.
"No, I don't know anything about it, either. Maybe it's some sort of magical rune or symbol," Hermione said sheepishly, sticking out her tongue.
Ivan was more or less disappointed, but he didn't take it to heart. He had been looking for clues for a long time, but to no avail.
During the afternoon break, Hermione took the initiative to help find clues to the runes, while Ivan went to the bookshelf and picked up a copy of Synthetic Mysteries.
He wondered if the shapes of the characters referred to something, like a location.
However, a thorough search of the entire book did not yield anything similar.
Ivan returned the book to its rightful place with a sigh, and was about to leave with the piece of paper in his hand when he bumped into a young witch.
Ivan was able to take a few steps back without incident, but the man stumbled into a shelf and dropped his book.
"I'm sorry, are you okay? … Luna?" Ivan said apologetically, then froze. The person in front of him was Luna, whom he had not seen for a long time.
The oddly-dressed witch shook her head gently and stared at Ivan for a long time with her silver-grey eyes, gesturing with her hands and then nodding to herself.
Baffled, Ivan had no idea what Luna was doing, so he leaned down and picked up the book Luna had dropped.
As he was about to return it, Ivan saw that it was actually a Transfiguration book, and the page that he opened was about an Animagus…
(PS: There's one more update today. Send it later…)