#818 - There are clues.

"No problem!"

Everyone present nodded in agreement, they had long been displeased with Lockhart, and now that they knew he was a fraud, they were even more indignant.

As soon as Anduin left, Hermione grabbed Ron and Harry and sprinted out of the room.

"Hurry, we need to get a head start and survey the scene!" Hermione reminded them in a low voice as they ran, "The monster hasn't been gone for too long, if we hurry, we might be able to catch it!"

"Do we have to be in such a rush?" Ron stumbled from being dragged by Hermione, almost falling on the spot.

"It's all your fault!" Hermione glared at him, "How dare you use such a wide-range, high-risk spell during the duel? I almost got hurt."

"I just learned something new and wanted to show everyone!" Ron retorted, pouting.

"I think you were showing how to get a hundred points deducted at once!" Hermione's tone was as sharp as ever, while she kept urging, "Hurry up, don't let it get away."

"But I can feel that it's not on this floor anymore, I can't hear its voice!" Harry felt that Hermione was being too hasty and quickly tried to dissuade her.

"What?" Hermione stopped suddenly upon hearing this, "You can hear the monster's voice?"

Harry realized that he had let something slip, but he didn't want to lie to them, so he admitted in a low voice, "Yes, I could hear the monster's whispers before, but it was too far away to understand what it was saying."

"But now the sound has completely disappeared, which means it should be very far away from us."

"Ah?"

Not only Hermione, but even Ron and Neville stared at him in surprise.

"You mean, you can understand the monster's language? Are you kidding me?"

"No!" Hermione suddenly woke up, "It's possible, I knew some wizards have special talents that allow them to communicate with certain creatures, like Parseltongue!"

"You know about Parseltongue?" Harry was delighted to hear this, he didn't expect anyone other than Anduin to recognize his ability.

"You're a Parselmouth?" Ron looked at him in dismay, "That's a special ability that only dark wizards have!"

Ron obviously knew about Parseltongue, but unlike Hermione, he wasn't quick-witted, so he didn't realize it until Harry indirectly admitted it.

"That's just prejudice!" Harry quickly retorted, "Uncle Wilson said that Parseltongue is just a talent, and it can't be used to judge a wizard's character."

"You really are a Parselmouth? And Uncle Wilson knows too?" Even Neville was surprised.

These wizarding families' children had heard their parents talk about the terrifying wizards who were proficient in Parseltongue since they were young, so they had an instinctive fear of this ability.

Hermione, who came from a Muggle family, didn't feel anything about it, and just excitedly asked, "Since you can speak Parseltongue and hear the monster's voice, does that mean it's also a snake-like creature?"

Hermione's idea suddenly enlightened them, and even Harry suddenly understood, "That's right! How did I not realize that? But before, I could only hear some faint murmurs, so I can't be sure it's definitely a snake-like creature, can I?"

"No, my brother Bill mentioned before that Parseltongue can only react to the sounds of snake-like creatures." Ron, who was very knowledgeable about wizarding knowledge, stood up to explain.

"Does that mean the monster is basically a snake? If we follow this clue, will we get results soon?" Neville raised his voice excitedly.

"Shh, don't let others hear!" Hermione glanced at Neville, "But there are many magical snake creatures, we have to check the information carefully to determine its identity."

"We'll leave this professional question to you!" Ron waved his hand with a smile, "The three of us are still responsible for surveying the scene and trying to track its movements, after all, it's useless to just know its identity, we have to lock down the monster's location."

"Remember to prioritize tracking spells, and if you find any traces left by the monster at the scene, such as hair, scales, saliva, remember to collect them, this is the best medium for casting tracking magic." Hermione also suggested at this time.

"It's a pity we don't have tracking equipment, it would be great if we had the kind of [Tracer Glasses] used by Aurors!" Ron shook his head with regret.

"It's okay, we have other ways." Harry added, "We can check the school more, I'll try to see if I can hear its voice again."

"It's a pity that this is the first time I've heard its voice, otherwise I would have realized the monster's identity earlier."

"The professors didn't offer a reward before, did they?" Neville shrugged indifferently, "And earlier, we were all so scared by the rumors of the Chamber of Secrets that we didn't dare to act rashly, would you dare to look for the monster so blatantly this morning?"

"That's true." Ron also nodded in agreement, then looked at Harry as if he had thought of something, and suddenly widened his eyes and asked, "By the way, you can speak Parseltongue, so the first time we lost in the battle simulation, was it also because of this?"

The group had focused on the monster in the Chamber of Secrets before, and didn't dwell on Harry's Parseltongue for long. After a while, they gradually realized it.

"Uh, this..." Seeing that his little secret had been discovered, Harry scratched his head awkwardly and responded hesitantly, "I didn't expect those Exploding Snakes to understand Parseltongue at the time."

"Good, so we lost because of you!" Ron laughed and cursed, putting Harry in a headlock, while Hermione also gave him a disapproving look.

The quartet started their investigation while teasing each other. At the same time, Harry didn't expect that the ultimate use of his Parseltongue would be for searching.

And Anduin, at this time, was carrying Lockhart and directly broke into his Defense Against the Dark Arts office.

Before handing Lockhart over to Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic, Anduin had to interrogate him first.

In the heroic deeds that this guy heard from others, there are a lot of details about dealing with dark magical creatures during adventures. This can't be remembered by memory alone. Lockhart must have kept the research materials of those wizards.

"Get up, stop pretending to be unconscious." Anduin threw Lockhart to the ground and shouted at him coldly.

Lockhart shuddered upon hearing this. He originally wanted to pretend to be unconscious to see if he could take the opportunity to escape, but he didn't expect that Anduin had already seen through him.

He could only climb up timidly and didn't continue to pretend. Of course, it wasn't that he didn't want to, but that he really didn't dare.

"Anduin!" Lockhart begged with a bitter face, "Please let me go, as long as you don't report me to the Ministry of Magic, I'm willing to do anything, such as the shares of the Occamy Egg Yolk Shampoo, and the royalties of those books, I can give them all to you!"

Lockhart was extremely scared now. If others found out his secret, he might try to resist with his most skilled Memory Charm.

But Anduin?

Lockhart was just daring, it didn't mean he was a fool. With the identity he had fooled, he had also been in contact with some wizards of high status.

From them, Lockhart had heard a lot of rumors related to Anduin. This young wizard was not just the owner of Silver Flash Bank.

His true strength and the battles he had experienced were legendary.

Therefore, he racked his brains and found that he seemed to have no other solution than to beg for mercy.

But Anduin sneered after hearing Lockhart's plea. He had no interest in this kind of guy who had no bottom line, no talent, and only knew how to brag.

Anduin had thought about taking him under his command before, but Lockhart was just a narcissist, and his brain was full of lies. There was no guarantee of loyalty or value.

So he just glared at Lockhart coldly, "Whether I let you go or not depends on your performance. Now, honestly explain everything you've done since you graduated, otherwise don't blame me for being rude."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Facing Anduin's murderous gaze, Lockhart was so scared that he almost peed his pants. How dare he refuse.

Immediately, Lockhart recounted everything he had done and all his scamming experiences in detail, including an Armenian old wizard and a witch with a furry chin.

Originally, Lockhart was a little uneasy and apprehensive when he did this for the first time, but after gaining wealth and fame from it, he gradually became addicted to it, and eventually made his life a fantasy woven entirely of lies.

In fact, at the time of graduation, he could only be regarded as vain and narcissistic at most, and his own magical level was not bad. After all, he was also a graduate of Ravenclaw.

But after getting used to taking shortcuts, Lockhart became more and more fond of using deception to profit himself, and his own spellcasting skills plummeted. Now, except for the Memory Charm, he had forgotten all the other spells.

After hearing Lockhart's statement, Anduin knew that this guy was beyond redemption. He had changed from a narcissist to a successful and pure liar.

Then he asked him to hand over the materials he had swindled from wizards everywhere. Naturally, Lockhart dared not disobey.

When he saw the thick stack of materials, notes, and personal notes, Anduin completely understood how many people Lockhart had harmed.

The things this guy swindled from other wizards were probably more than what he published in his books, and perhaps some of them were part of the unpublished part.

After a simple review, Anduin was even more convinced of his judgment. These materials did include a part of his own manuscript.

Anduin saw a lot of hard work that wizards had researched throughout their lives. One old wizard in Armenia had actually developed a spell that could affect werewolf transformation.

It also included a special insect repellent charm that could expel pests for a long time, a protective charm that could prevent dark magical creatures from approaching, and a cold protection charm that could resist extremely cold environments, and so on.

In addition to spells, these materials also recorded a large number of wizards' lives and experiences, including the experiences they had summarized throughout their lives.

For example, how to identify time, obtain food and water without using magic in the wild, and how to determine what kind of magical creatures were wandering around the camp outdoors.

These were all very useful life and adventure experiences, and many of them were very beneficial to Anduin.

It could be said that the wizards who were plagiarized by Lockhart were all genuine high-level scholars or adventurers.

But now, the accumulation of their lives was so easily plagiarized by a liar.

Seeing this, Anduin, who was also a scholar, looked at Lockhart with increasing displeasure. He understood how precious this knowledge was to a wizard.

"When you were in contact with those wizards, did you hear them mention a place where they would feel fear if they stayed for a long time?"

Anduin had already decided to deal with Lockhart properly. Azkaban would be his final destination.

But before handing him over to the Ministry of Magic, based on the mentality of making the best use of everything, Anduin casually asked a question related to Haber.

Of course, he didn't have much hope for this. He had been looking for so long without any clues. What could a liar know?

But Lockhart's next answer surprised Anduin.

"A place that makes people feel fear? I seem to have heard a wizard adventurer mention it." Lockhart didn't know why Anduin would ask this, but he only wanted to cooperate with him so that he might let him go.

"Really?" Anduin was slightly stunned. He originally just asked casually, but he didn't expect there to be a clue.

Then Anduin's expression became serious, "Where? Which wizard mentioned it to you?"

"Um..." Lockhart's own memory wasn't that strong. After recalling for a moment, he replied uncertainly, "It was a witch with a furry chin. When I was communicating with her, she said that she had a similar feeling when she was traveling on an ice field similar to a small island in northern Russia."

"At that time, she thought she had encountered migrating Augureys or something, but later found out that it wasn't. Given her sensitivity as an adventurer, she didn't stay in that area for long and quickly returned."

"During the conversation, she told me that it might also be a hallucination, after all, in that kind of extreme environment, many perceptions are wrong."

Lockhart recalled the witch's words while carefully repeating them.

Although Lockhart's words were ambiguous, Anduin immediately became alert when he heard the location he described.

Northern Russia? An ice field similar to an island?

That seems to be the eastern part of Northern Europe, which corresponds to the information Anduin had previously investigated.

Thinking of this, Anduin's expression suddenly became strange when he looked at Lockhart.

First release latest.