The Evolutionary Direction of the Confusion Charm

Chapter 49 The Evolutionary Direction of the Confusion Charm

"Master, I... I did today..."

Inside the Defense Against the Dark Arts office, with the door tightly shut, Quirrell had removed his headscarf and was trembling nervously, looking as if he was about to cry at any moment.

"I've already said, this isn't your problem."

The pale face on the back of his head whispered words of comfort: "Now that you have become the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, you must do your duty to the best of your ability without leaving any room for error, so that Dumbledore can see the problem."

"Remember, the ultimate goal is to obtain the Philosopher's Stone. The process in between is completely unimportant. Whether you infiltrate Gringotts or curse the dark wizard... once you offer the Philosopher's Stone to me and allow me to regain my body, you will receive unimaginable glory and rewards..."

With his comfort and encouragement, Quirrell seemed much more relaxed: "I will definitely meet your expectations, Master!"

"This is my good follower."

Knock knock knock.

"Professor Quirrell, are you there? I have a question I'd like to ask you..."

There was an unexpected knock on the office door, followed by a muffled young voice—which almost startled Quirrell. He quickly waved his wand, causing the hood to cover Voldemort's face again: "What should I do, Master?"

"Of course, you should lecture him like a professor and then send him on his way," Voldemort said impatiently. "Do I have to teach you all this?"

"Yes...yes..."

Quirrell raised his wand and tapped it, opening the office door. After seeing the student behind the door, he forced a smile: "Ah, Mr. Ken, what can I do for you?"

"professor,"

Avada closed the door behind him and placed a parchment on his desk. "Here's what happened," he said. "While I was reviewing the second-year textbook, I discovered an interesting spell, a 'Confusing Charm,' somewhere between a curse and a regular spell. It can distort the recipient's senses, achieving some strange effects..."

"No, that's right," Kirogan said with a smile and a nod.

"Then, I studied the spell carefully and found that it seemed to have some room for improvement. After that, I went to the library to look up other spells similar to the Confusion Charm, and after referring to the Forgetfulness Charm and some simple illusion spells, I came up with this..."

He pushed the parchment on the table toward Quirrell: "Based on my deduction, if the Confusion Charm is improved to its limit in this direction, it seems to produce a very terrifying... no, I should say a very peculiar effect. But didn't you say in class that some evil spells, if improved further, will gradually become black magic? So I wanted to come and confirm this with you."

"Okay, let me see..."

Quirrell absentmindedly picked up the parchment and began to read it, while Avada Kedavra took the opportunity to activate Occlumency and frantically analyze Voldemort's mutated mental structure.

"To analyze this spiritual energy, we must begin with a four-stage approach, analyzing each stage one by one: from the normal structure of a person's spiritual energy, to the damage caused by black magic erosion, then to the mutations caused by certain magical transformations, and finally, the damage from the split soul... Only by peeling back the layers like this can we ultimately complete the analysis of the entire structure."

"The most basic structural framework remains the human spirit; that hasn't changed. The components of memory, thought, and emotion are still there, but the emotional component has been severely damaged, especially the positive emotions… Thought has also been damaged to some extent."

"I don't have many samples of black magic corruption on hand; this area will require more effort..."

"The structure here is very similar to Professor Baker's; it's definitely a mutation caused by a split soul... but it's more complex and unstable. After all, he divided his soul into seven pieces..."

'Our previous guess was wrong; his mental structure bears no resemblance to that of a ghost. Now we have even fewer samples…'

"Damn, there's just too much information. Even with the brain-enhancing serum I bought from Diagon Alley beforehand, my brain still isn't up to par; my memory and calculations are both failing. And now I probably won't have time to analyze the crown or research talent optimization..."

While he frantically analyzed the parchment, Quirrell stared at the one he'd brought, a few beads of cold sweat involuntarily forming on his face. There was no way around it; the contents were simply too astonishing…

"What's wrong, Quirrell?"

Voldemort's voice rang directly in his mind: "I sense you're quite shocked. What did that student show you?"

"Master, look..."

Quirrell, his voice trembling, shared his vision with Voldemort: "This second-year student, all by himself, has developed the prototype of the Imperius Curse!"

Indeed, what Avada used to attract Quirrell's attention was the result of his work from the diadem last year—the prototype of the Imperius Curse. He then modified it further, piecing together the prototype using the principles of Confusion Charms, Oblivion Charms, and other illusions, disguising it as a result of his research based on second-year knowledge—essentially shooting the arrow before drawing the target.

"Oh?"

Voldemort immediately became interested and began carefully reading the paper through Quirrell's vision. Meanwhile, Avada, noticing the dramatic change in his mental energy, nervously maintained his Occlumency while trying to control his facial expressions, all the while trying to memorize more dynamic samples…

"Interesting, very interesting..."

"Quirk, give me your body for now."

"Yes...yes, Master."

Quirrell suddenly looked up at Avada, his expression no longer tense, but calm and confident: "Can you tell me how you came up with this idea?"

"It's a ghost!"

The moment Quirrell looked up, Avada Kedavra stopped analyzing and immediately activated his full-power Occlumency technique!

"Voldemort himself logged in?! Is my paper really that captivating?!"

At first, he only wanted to pique Quirrell's interest so that Quirrell wouldn't reject him, allowing him more time to observe Voldemort's mental power—now it seems he didn't quite grasp the right degree of "interest."

"cough."

Avada straightened his expression and adopted the attitude of a graduation thesis defense as he faced the person in front of him: "It's like this, in my research on the Confusion Charm, I discovered..."

As Avada spoke, Quirrell—no, Voldemort—listened intently, occasionally posing questions at crucial points, which Avada would then answer. For a moment, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom truly resembled a thesis defense, almost perfect except for the fact that both the instructor and student harbored their own ulterior motives.

"Brilliant idea, brilliant thinking. Without a doubt, you are a genius, Mr. Ken."

"You have an unparalleled talent for the study of mental power. I can tell you in advance that the end result of the line of thought you've come up with is a very powerful magic. If you had been born before this magic was invented, you would have been recorded in history because of this paper... You can definitely continue your research in this direction, it will greatly benefit you... How about this?"

He opened the drawer, took out a piece of parchment, wrote something on it, and handed it to Avada: "I recommend you go to the forbidden book section and find a book. Its contents are closely related to your current field of research and may give you inspiration. This is the permit."

"Go back now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me anytime. I like talented students."

Voldemort, controlling Quirrell's body, cheerfully sent Avada Kedavra out, and the moment after locking the door, his expression changed from calm back to tense—Quirotto's consciousness had returned.

(End of this chapter)