The Collapse of the Horcrux Academy

Chapter 27 The Collapse of the Horcrux Academy

"The first thing that can be confirmed is that 'the other me' is unaware of me or the existence of this crystal ball. I deliberately shielded that fragment of consciousness during the creation of the crystal ball; it has no memory of this, which is a natural information gap."

"But apart from that, he possesses almost all of my memories and personality. However, since it is only a fragment, its mental strength is far weaker than my original self, so it is very slow when reading these memories, and it is also clumsy when controlling its body, and even more so when casting spells. Therefore, its combat power is probably not even comparable to that of a most ordinary Auror."

"What you need to do is help me set up a spell in this room to separate my consciousness, then lure the other me here, defeat him, make him lose the ability to resist, and finally use the spell I set up to bring me back into my body."

Avada was somewhat surprised: after such a severe weakening, Professor Baker's body still had the fighting power of an Auror—don't look down on Aurors just because they are a Dexter, they are the most skilled and strongest wizards selected after the most rigorous selection, and are truly the high-end fighting force in the magical world!

"You might think it's absurd for two first-year wizards to defeat one Auror, but it's not."

Professor Baker continued, "He's practically completely unaware of you, and I know all his fighting habits and weaknesses. Plus, we're caught off guard, so we can set up all sorts of traps in advance, and we have the spatial magic I control to assist us... With your level, defeating him will be absolutely no problem."

"In addition to setting up the magic, I will also personally teach you how to fight, as well as some techniques specifically designed to exploit my style and weaknesses... You must keep these techniques a secret, as they are a matter of life and death for me."

"no problem."

Avada and Baron nodded at the same time.

"Very good." Professor Baker tried to nod, but after realizing he had no body, he could only continue helplessly: "Then next, I will teach you how to set up the spell that extracts consciousness. It may be a bit difficult for you, and there are a lot of magical materials that you need to collect... Just setting up this one spell will probably take until February or March."

"But that's perfect, this ample time gives you plenty of time to train your combat skills."

"So, shall we start now... uh, did you guys bring your laptops?"

"..."

Avada and Baron exchanged a glance, then shook their heads in unison after confirming each other's understanding—they were only there to sign the contract, and never expected Professor Baker to make such a quick progress.

"...Alright, let's start tomorrow."

Professor Baker said helplessly, "You can come to receive my instruction at any time, but please be as discreet as possible and don't let others notice anything unusual. It's also best to come in pairs, otherwise it's a waste of time to repeat the same content twice."

"Alright, that's enough for today. Remember to bring your notebook and pen when you come tomorrow; what I'm going to talk about is much more complicated than first-year homework. Luckily, that homework wasn't too difficult for you..."

As the black crystal ball fell silent again, Avada and Baron left the Room of Requirement.

"When are we coming over tomorrow?"

As Avada descended the stairs, she glanced at Baron.

"Let's do it after dinner."

After thinking for a moment, Baron replied, "From now on, after meals, let's not meet up. Let's each go to the Room of Requirement separately to reduce the chances of being noticed. And if someone has an astronomy class, then someone else should go to Professor Baker and tell him that the class is canceled for that day. Anyway, there are only two astronomy classes a week, so it won't affect the progress much."

"On the weekend..."

Following Baron's train of thought, Avada said, "We can't just spend all our weekends in the Room of Requirement. We have to set aside some time to stay in the House, otherwise we'll easily be noticed for something amiss. Besides, we Hufflepuffs have our customary picnics..."

"Then let's go on Saturday night, and you can stay for half a day on Sunday—whether it's in the morning or afternoon will be decided on Saturday."

Baron clapped his hands and finalized the plan with Avada.

"Oh right, I forgot to ask before, what's the story behind your name?"

With his immediate worries resolved, Baron's mind began to wander, and for some reason, he remembered the true name of Avada that Professor Baker had uttered through his "fragment of consciousness" at Christmas.

"..."

Avada's face turned green, instinctively wanting to avoid the question, but he also knew that if someone only knew his real name but not its meaning, it could cause serious trouble in the future—for example, when someone casts a Killing Curse on him, he might die with a surprised and delighted thought, "You know Avada too?"

Besides, Baron and he were friends who had gone through thick and thin together, so there was nothing to hide about this.

"The Unforgivable Curse, ever heard of it?"

"I've heard of them, the Cruciatus Curse, the Imperius Curse, and the Killing Curse."

"My name is the incantation of the Killing Curse."

"……what?"

Avada sighed and gave Baron a rough account of the Department of Mysteries' antics. Baron's expression changed several times as he listened, and in the end, he didn't know what to say.

"……come on."

In the end, he could only silently pat Avada on the shoulder, leaving behind a word that was hard to tell whether it was encouragement or condolences, before parting ways with Avada and heading towards the Slytherin common room.

Avada watched as Baron's figure gradually disappeared from sight, paused, turned around and took a step towards the top of the stairs, then stopped again.

In the end, he shook his head to himself and silently walked toward the Hufflepuff common room.

He had considered returning to the Room of Requirement after Baron left, going directly to Professor Baker to confront him about Horcruxes and ask for the truth—after all, with the contract binding him, Professor Baker couldn't possibly do anything to him, at most he'd be shocked at how a first-year wizard knew about such a top-tier form of dark magic as Horcruxes.

After all, Professor Baker had raised too many questions for him in this regard.

In his understanding, the so-called "soul" should refer to a person's spiritual power. And in the study of spiritual power, Avada could be considered an expert—not to mention, he could earn a Merlin First Class Medal just for his talent optimization technique.

Even so, he never found any structure in his mental energy that could lead to "splitting after killing". At first, he thought that the mind might form such a structure after being corrupted by dark magic, which led to the conclusion that "only the most evil dark wizards, whose souls are completely corrupted by dark magic, are qualified to split their souls through killing".

However, Professor Baker refuted this view: while there were indeed traces of dark magic in his psychic power, it also lacked the structure envisioned by Avada.

Although Professor Baker's mental power was not severely corrupted by dark magic, far from being "completely corrupted," he had indeed completed the splitting of his soul and created Horcruxes. Moreover, since a person can create multiple Horcruxes, the "split structure" in his mental power should not have disappeared with the completion of the splitting!

All these phenomena indicate that the creation of Horcruxes—or at least the splitting of the soul—may not be as simple as Avada Kedavra imagined.

What is the relationship between "killing" and "splitting"? Under what conditions can a soul be split? What is its underlying principle?

Why is there a magical void in the center of spiritual power? And why does the splitting of spiritual power also split that magical void outwards?

If Professor Beck is truly willing to answer his questions, then Avada will not only gain a wealth of important Horcrux knowledge for free, but his understanding of psychic power and the progress of Horcrux research will also skyrocket. Furthermore, he can further confirm Professor Beck's reasons and processes for creating Horcruxes—if the only condition for splitting a soul is "killing" and there are no requirements for the soul itself, then Professor Beck's creation of Horcruxes is not a big problem at all.

He's a renowned dark wizard hunter; if he were to sacrifice a few notorious villains to create Horcruxes, he would actually be contributing to the magical world.

Even if he didn't want to answer, it wouldn't affect him much. He himself didn't want the Horcruxes to be exposed, so why would he reveal that Avada knew about the Horcruxes to others?

However, after careful consideration, he abandoned this seemingly tempting idea.

Letting others know that I'm interested in Horcruxes is ultimately too risky.

(End of this chapter)