Armenia, deep in the forest, where werewolves live.
The undercurrents from the outside world did not affect this quiet forest glade at all.
Gilderoy Lockhart was sitting on the steps of the wooden house, with a relaxed expression, patiently cleaning the dirt on his robes.
Behind him, in the woodland on both sides, and even on the path directly in front, dozens of werewolves looked at the young wizard with different expressions.
In ten minutes at most, the full moon night is coming.
When the moon rises to its highest point, the beast hidden in their bodies will rush out, swallow up all their sanity, and temporarily turn them into a bloodthirsty, aggressive beast eager to attack humans.
"Do you really want to seek death? Get away, the werewolf is not the knife you use to kill yourself!"
Antilicia McIntosh frowned heavily and looked at the guy who was stuck on the steps like chewing gum with an unkind expression.
"Or... do you want to threaten us? Do you think we really don't dare to kill you bastard directly?!"
Before proposing the "kidnapping plan", they had imagined various emergencies, prepared a large number of manpower and equipment for this purpose, and specifically inquired about the recent predicaments of the Aurors in the surrounding Ministry of Magic, but they did not expect that it would happen.
Now this is a situation where the "hostages" are not leaving.
Aghasheyan must have memories of the "Restore Humanoid Curse" in his mind - McIntosh and others are now quite convinced of this.
Otherwise, Gilderoy Lockhart would not have openly erased the old wizard's memory in front of a bunch of werewolves in order to monopolize the market.
Maybe Romulus and others don't understand magic, but they can repeat everything they heard.
Although it sounds a bit vague when retelling "Forgotten", it is enough for McIntosh and other werewolf wizards to make a judgment:
Gilderoy Lockhart that damn bastard!
Just like a few years ago, he once again cast a forgetting spell on Aghaxiyan!
In the eyes of Antilicia McIntosh and others, Gilderoy Lockhart is obviously planning to raise the price.
This guy insisted that they would not give up hope of restoring the werewolves, so after enduring several rounds of torture, it was now his turn to start "torture" and "threaten" them in turn.
The most shocking and admirable thing is that he is now using his own life as a bargaining chip.
When the Cruciatus Curse and the threat of death failed to work, time instead became the front of fire to force the werewolves to surrender.
Regardless of whether what this guy said is true or false, if he dies here tonight, everything will be gone.
Time passed little by little, and Antilicia McIntosh and others exchanged helpless looks.
"Damn it! You win! Lockhart!"
Antilicia McIntosh took a deep breath and said in a deep voice.
"Tell me, what do you want us to do - how do you want to completely disappear from our eyes before the damn moon rises?! If you want to cast the Cruciatus Curse on me, then just come and don't delay
Time! But we really don’t have gold or anything right now!”
Maybe Gilderoy Lockhart didn't have the memory of that "magical magic" in his mind, but that didn't matter right now.
Since becoming werewolves, they have been looking for a way to transform back into humans for too long, and disappointment has become a habit.
But just because of this, no one dares to bet on that one-in-ten-thousandth "lucky" miss before hope is completely shattered.
At this critical moment, Gilderoy Lockhart stepped on their fatal weakness.
All hopes and negotiations must wait until after dawn tomorrow.
As for admitting her mistake, Antilicia McIntosh doesn't care even if she accepts revenge tenfold or a hundredfold.
Werewolves have no dignity at all, they just want to live again... as humans.
Gilderoy Lockhart stood up and looked around at the werewolves. His voice was steady and clear, without any hint of cowardice or anger.
"I know that you don't completely believe me until now. This is just an unconfirmed legend."
"To be honest, when I first discovered that there were more than twenty werewolves, I thought about defeating you. When I discovered that there were so many werewolf wizards among you, I thought about sending out a signal for help and trying to get out of here alive."
"But when I discovered that there might be nearly a hundred werewolves gathered here, I suddenly didn't plan to leave just like that -"
His words sounded a bit illogical and full of arrogant self-confidence.
However, the werewolves around him did not interrupt him, because Lockhart held the wand seriously for the first time tonight.
Antilicia McIntosh exchanged confused looks, while the werewolves around her also looked confused and looked at Lockhart quietly.
Lockhart raised his hand, fumbled around in his arms a few times, took out a shiny silver metal piece, and solemnly pinned it to his chest.
In the not-so-bright lights of the forest cabin, people could barely see what the thing looked like.
That was a particularly strange emblem.
No one present had ever seen such a weird and special pattern.
[Three arrows pointing inward through the ring, and an outer ring wrapping them. Just below the emblem, three letters are branded]
Lockhart continued: "Human beings have reproduced for more than 250,000 years, but only the last 4,000 years are meaningful. So, what have we been doing for nearly 250,000 years? We hide in caves, sit around in small
Beside the campfire, fear, worship, and hate those things we don't understand - those things about how the sun rises, those monsters with human heads and bird bodies, those living stones..."
"Later, magic appeared, and the number of things that humans did not understand was decreasing, and our number was increasing. When there were fewer and fewer things that we feared, we began to look at the world more rationally. However, unsolvable confusions did not
Disappear, for example - a werewolf."
"Human beings can never be exactly alike - no two people are exactly the same."
"Muggles, wizards, men, women, these are the more obvious categories."
"And werewolves are just a special group of patients who are sick."
"If human civilization gives up exploration and rescue and chooses to treat you as 'monsters', then the same estrangement and conflict will sooner or later occur in other classification methods of human society. Maybe Muggles and wizards first, and then men and women...
…”
"A few centuries ago, a terrible war broke out between the non-magical world and the magical world, which almost reduced the entire Europe to death."
"In order to prevent tragedies from happening again, someone must protect the most basic hope in the shadows and fight for it."
"Since you have not given up hope yet and still regard yourself as human beings, then——"
Gilderoy Lockhart raised his finger, tapped the Foundation emblem on his chest, and said softly.
"I, Gilderoy Lockhart, head of the black wizard, one of the O5 members of the Foundation. I have an obligation and responsibility to save you all. I said, I am not here to seek death. I am
Came to save you."
His words sounded inexplicably passionate, but at this moment, some voices suddenly sounded.
Someone let out a cold, mocking laugh.
"Oh, the writer's fantasy..."
Several of the werewolf wizards standing in the hut sneered disdainfully.
"What's wrong? From what you said, it seems like someone will come to save you? Where is it? Are you lost?"
Even Antilicia McIntosh felt a flash of disappointment in her heart, because she suddenly felt that the young man who wrote the book might really be out of his mind, and that he might not be a liar - he was a man who confused reality and fiction.
Just a lunatic on the edge of fantasy.
What foundation, what black wizard...
In decades, she had never heard of such an organization.
"Of course it's fantasy or something. What you said is, well, not entirely wrong -"
However, what is surprising is that Gilderoy Lockhart did not refute their ridicule, but instead laughed along with it.
Lockhart raised his hand and exploded a bouquet of pure white magic fireworks into the sky.
He suddenly remembered something, if the "rescuer" was Miss "The Fool".
Maybe, maybe I am really lost. I hope this signal is not too late...
Of course there is another possibility...
After firing the magic fireworks into the sky, Lockhart shrugged and sat down again.
"If no one comes over after tonight, then...the stories I just told may indeed be just a beautiful fantasy story - or maybe Gilderoy Lockhart shouldn't survive tonight, after all, magic
And miracles also have to be paid——"
"By the way, it's my twenty-ninth birthday in a few hours."
Lockhart turned his head, looked at the werewolf wizards behind him, and grinned.
"If you really want to make it up to me, then sing me a few happy birthday songs in advance?"