Chapter 511: An Increasingly Urgent Destiny (2 in 1)

"Children, it's getting late, so head to your beds early." Mrs. Weasley stood in the middle of the living room and commanded the kids. "Aunt Molly," Neville asked in a small voice, "when my mom and dad will return?"

"Don't worry, they're on the night shift, so they might have stayed out at the safe house near them to rest since it's getting late." Mrs. Weasley's tone immediately softened.

Neville nodded silently and followed Harry and the rest of them upstairs.

...

The bright moon cast a silvery glow over the deep, dense trees and shrubs, casting a large, eerie shadow on the ground that stretched over the tall, well-kept hedge walls. A very decent mansion loomed in the darkness, it is Malfoy Manor.

A rustling sound reverberated in the air -

"It's the peacock that Malfoys keeps."

A deep, steady voice said. He glanced around alertly from the shadows and immediately spotted the source of the sound, a white peacock walking gracefully on top of a hedge.

The male wizard stared at the peacock for a moment and lowered his guard to speak in a low voice to his wife.

"We've been watching for several days now, and my gut tells me we can gain something today."

Alice looked at a narrow passage recessed inside in the center of the hedge, at the end of which are two imposing wrought-iron gates. A wispy mist permeated from the forest and spread throughout the area pleasingly, but when it got combined with the cool night breeze, it became less pleasing.

"I wonder what our baby boy is doing now?" She asked softly.

"Should be sleeping at this time." Frank said softly while holding Alice's somewhat cold hand.

At that moment, the air twisted up and with a soft thud, two figures abruptly appeared. One of them is cloaked in a long black cloak, and wearing a hood, which covered his whole face, looking overly cautious; the other is totally opposite to him - the slender witch is also wearing a hood, but as soon as she appeared, she impatiently took it off, and casually tossed her curly hair, and surveyed the surroundings.

"Put the hood back on." The man yelled down at his companion.

Bellatrix grunted, "Since when have you gotten so timid, Lucius? This is your doorstep."

"Of course, It is okay to be seen if I am alone, and I won't be this cautious." Lucius said, suppressing his irritation within, "but if someone finds me hanging out with a fugitive who escaped from Azkaban, then I am-"

He suddenly stopped talking.

Bellatrix held her wand in her hand and pointed at him with a sneer.

" I wish I could show Narcissa how you were cowed at the meeting in front of our lord." She scoffed, "Don't worry, I'll only stay at your place for a few days, then I'll go deal and deal with those stinky giants, or - are you averse of being in our Lord's side, and planning to join a different camp?"

"You were given orders to support the Carrow siblings, while I was ordered to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic." Lucius said with impatient, "So don't tell me to do this or that, because I'm not going to go crazy like you guys--"

Bellatrix strides towards the wrought iron gate, her loose cloak trailed on the ground. A green light flashed briefly, and the white peacock that had just been strutting around the hedge had plunged down, losing its breath of life.

"Noisy thing." She said disdainfully.

"Bellatrix!" Lucius shouted shrilly.

But her figure had disappeared straight through the wrought-iron gate, as if the gate did not exist at all. Lucius stopped where he was, gasping for breath. After a long time, he strode in, and silence once again returned to the surroundings.

Frank looked worriedly at his wife, her fists clenched tightly, her teeth clenched and creaked. " That devil ... she took away twelve years of our best time...," Alice whimpered, leaning on her husband's shoulder.

"Alice, let her have her fun for a little while longer, I promise you, she and her helpers will pay for that." Frank said in an icy tone as he wrapped his arms around his wife and stared at the shaded wrought iron gate.

...

The next morning, Harry watched as Sirius hurriedly ate his breakfast and prepared to go to work with Mr. Weasley, Bill, Percy, and Penelope, so he held back what he wanted to ask.

It seemed like it made perfect sense that the scar on his head had suddenly become amiable after torturing him for several years - but even if Harry thought on his knees, he knew that Voldemort wouldn't be charitable enough to pass on knowledge to him through the scar.

A barely somewhat convincing reason is that Voldemort did not know about it, everything was done passively.

But why didn't this happen before? Or rather, when did it start to happen?

Harry recalled that sudden kiss and his face became beet red. After a few seconds, he shook his head hard to get rid of the jumbled thoughts out of his head. Going back to the topic, it was when he 'saw' the Voldemort illusion in the Ministry of Magic.

"Molly, Alastor might be coming over later, he was on the night shift last night." Mr. Weasley warned.

"Got it, I'll cook extra and save him some meal." Mrs. Weasley said.

Pretty soon, they were all left in a line, even Fred and George left.

"Uh- Professor, aren't you going to the company?" Harry looked at Felix.

" Well, I'll stay behind," Felix said, "The company's focused on Thief's Downfall right now, and I finished sorting out the principles involved in it for them just yesterday. Why, is something wrong?"

Harry nodded hesitantly.

He actually preferred to ask Sirius for advice, but now it occurred to him that the professor would be a more suitable candidate. The professor knew he had been suffering due to the scar and had taught him Occlumency for it, and now since the symptoms of the scar had changed, maybe it might be within the professor's expectations? Moreover, he could take this opportunity to ask about the Killing Curse, the professor is quite skilful when it comes to that magic ...

Felix made a simple bed in the study on the third floor, and when Harry walked in, before he could see it, Felix had reached out and shrunk the travelling bed to the size of a matchbox and stuffed it into the ring.

The Black family study serves the dual purpose - study and entertaining distinguished guests. Therefore, in addition to the long desk and three shelves filled with a collection of books, there is also a small sofa and wooden coffee table placed in the corner of the study. The solid wood coffee table had a flaxen edge that seemed to have been remodelled from a giant tree burl.

"These are magical creatures?" Harry looked with great interest at several dynamic sketches on the coffee table, with various creature shapes outlined in dark green ink, in which many of them he could name.

"Yeah." Felix didn't elaborate. The drawing papers automatically grouped together and flew into his ring.

Harry guessed, that perhaps these are the materials that the professor is prepared for a comic book about magical creatures, but it seemed unlikely because of the recent tension; though he never could have guessed that Felix is trying to structure every magical creature's magic talent to study how to combine and use them.

This is considered one of Felix's gains after reflecting on his battle with Voldemort.

In that battle, he did not personally transform into an Occamy, mainly because he felt it was too dangerous, as even the magical creatures don't have a slight edge against Voldemort's killing curse, but later he keenly realized that there are tremendous treasures hidden in them.

Because Felix suddenly found that Voldemort does not seem to understand his and Dumbledore's state of transformation, at least Voldemort described this realm using the words "transformation of the body" - which is clearly the path of Salazar Slytherin.

Felix thus judged that although Voldemort's body may have undergone multiple transformations and alterations to make him more adaptable to dark magic, and his unique killing curse likely derived from it - but Voldemort should not be able to transform into a magical creature, because his transformation is artificial.

If he planned cleverly enough, this flaw in knowledge might become Voldemort's death trigger.

...

"Professor, when did you learn the Killing Curse?" Harry decided to start with a small question, but Professor Hap was too perceptive and just glanced at him and said half-jokingly, "What, you want to learn this curse too? You certainly gained a lot of nerve."

"It's not that I want to learn it, I - uh - I suddenly know it." Harry stammered for a while, but eventually, he confessed.

Felix looked at him with an odd expression, is it because Harry has seen him use the killing curse a few times, that he's trying to learn it? He felt very bad, he is not teaching children bad things, right? But when Harry described his experience in the past two days, Felix's expression became solemn.

This is way more serious than what he had expected it might have been - that Harry is desperate for revenge and had tried to learn the Unforgivable Curse in private.

"Come with me." He said in a deep voice.

He led Harry to the mini-training room on the fifth floor.

"Use the Killing Curse for a look."

Harry did so, and a green light flew from the tip of his wand. Both men frowned at the same time.

Harry felt that the curse he had cast today was much less powerful. Felix, on the other hand, saw a hint of familiarity in the way he had casted the curse, which implied that what Harry had said before was true.

And he knew more things, such as Harry's body hiding a piece of Voldemort's soul, so where did Harry's knowledge come from, was it personally from Voldemort, or ... from that piece of soul fragment? Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ NʘvᴇlFirᴇ.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

"You heard some strange noise in your head when you got up the other night, right?" Felix asked for confirmation.

"Yes, but it was soon gone." Harry replied nervously.

Felix went silent and watched Harry intently through his magical perspective, in which he had managed to spy a hint of evil magic when Harry's mind's defences were at their weakest - and that was back in the last school year - but now he hesitated to try his hand in it.

If his suspicions are right - Harry had inadvertently stimulated the sleeping soul fragment in his mind, and his stimulation may lead to extremely serious consequences if this goes on.

"Tell you what," Felix said after a moment's consideration, " Try the other two curses - the Cruciatus Curse and the Imperius Curse - and cast them on me." Looking at Harry's stunned expression, he chuckled, "I can handle these two curses, so don't worry about hurting me."

Harry waved his wand apprehensively, with both the expectation that the curse would succeed and the hope that it would not. In his angsty mood, he justifiably failed, and Harry looked back at the professor-

"Go on." Felix said calmly.

Harry stiffly recited the curse, and even when an hour had passed, he hadn't succeeded once.

"You'll have to muster some resolve and intent to do that."

"Reciting the Unforgivable Curse against your face, Professor? I can't do that-" Harry muttered in a small voice.

He then 'saw' Voldemort standing in front of him, with his scarlet eyes fixed on him, which startled him.

"Go on." 'Voldemort' said.

This time Harry quickly found his form, despite the fact that he didn't know anything more than the incantation, despite the fact that no one had taught him, and despite the fact that ... Nevermind what matter is he was managed to cast it. Harry looked both bewildered and shocked that he seemed to have mastered all three Unforgivable Curses all at once.

How did this even happen?

On the other hand, Felix fell into deep thought.

"Professor?" Harry questioned uneasily...

"It's quite likely..." Felix mumbled something, before addressing him "You don't have to worry too much, from your description the Occlumency is still effective, so you should not stop training in this field ... I will tell Dumbledore about your situation, maybe he can discern something."

Dumbledore's response is quicker than he expected, almost as soon as he received the message, he appeared immediately.

He questioned Harry in detail about his emotions, and finally asked for Harry's two memories - the 'sighting' of Voldemort in the halls of the Ministry of Magic, and the memory of his first ever casting of the Killing Curse.

Then Harry was dismissed from there, and only two of them remained in the mini training room on the fifth floor.

"Albus, do you think it-" Felix spoke hesitantly.

"I'm not sure," Dumbledore shook his head, "maybe it's just a pure coincidence; I can come up with more than one plausible explanation, such as the Potter family heritage is ancient and Harry may have inherited the gift; or maybe Voldemort did transfer some of his knowledge and experience to Harry back then, which resulted in his change now ..."

"But," then he said with a grave face, " It could also be the influence of the Horcrux itself. We have previously overlooked the question, that is, Voldemort resurrected with the assistance of the power of which Horcruxes?"

With the assistance of which Horcruxes? Naturally ... Huh?

Felix pondered the meaning of these words.

Theoretically, the wizard would only require one Horcrux, which could serve as an anchor point to the real world after the wizard's death, allowing the wizard's soul to reside on earth. However, Voldemort's insanity made him create multiple Horcruxes, which raises a question: which Horcrux truly played its role when he died.

You know, Harry himself is also a Horcrux, so he also has the role of assisting Voldemort, to keep his soul from disappearing.

Of course, Harry is not considered as perfect Horcruxes, or rather, not intentionally made by Voldemort to be one. The possibility of using Harry to keep Voldemort's soul from disappearing is not non-existent, but it is also minuscule, compared to the other perfect Horcruxes he has out there.

But the problem is, long before Voldemort's resurrection, his Horcruxes were destroyed one by one.

The diary being the first.

The diadem was the next, followed by the locket, and the big snake that followed Voldemort around, making a total of four Horcruxes before and after. Wait a minute -

"The locket was destroyed?" Felix asked for confirmation.

When he passed the Slytherin locket to Dumbledore, the locket was perfectly intact back then.

"I have saved it for later, originally I was planning to analyse that Horcrux -" Dumbledore gently shook his head, "though I found another Horcrux, a ring passed down through the generations in Voldemort's mother's line. Voldemort enchanted it with a vicious curse, and I nearly fell victim to it, but thanks to the warning issued by your amulet ..."

"So." Felix nodded, that is still four items, only the order of destruction changed to the diary, the diadem, the big snake, and the ring. And Dumbledore is still in possession of an intact Horcrux locket in his hand.

That's five, counting Harry, that's six ...

"If Voldemort wants to retain even an ounce of sanity, the most he can do is split his soul into nine pieces -"

"Personally, I'm leaning towards the number 'seven'," Dumbledore nodded slightly, "I've got a bit of a clue, although I don't have the hard evidence yet."

"Do you need help?" Felix asked.

"Ah, I can handle it, with Harry helping me ... If the persuasive team becomes too much, it might scare my old friend away." Dumbledore said in a jovial tone.

Felix continued to contemplate.

If the first functioning Horcrux previously was the diary, then when the diary was destroyed, a new Horcrux would certainly begin to work, such as the diadem. And when the diadem was destroyed, it was that snake and the ring's turn, and now it possibly transferred to the locket or another unknown Horcrux.

But the above is the ideal situation.

What if, at some stage during the middle, Harry the 'Semi-Horcrux' got involved? There must be a connection between the split soul and the main soul, so when would this connection become strongest?

Of course, it is when the Horcrux that maintains the main soul starts to function.

This also explains the increasing frequency of scar pain before Harry learned the Occlumency. Because he, the Horcrux, began to function!

"Albus, do you think - the piece of soul fragment in Harry's body will 'recover' again?" This is Felix's biggest concern.

"Unlikely," Dumbledore shook his head, "the role of the Horcrux will always remain to revive the main soul, not to mention that a fragment can not do much ... But no one knows the consequences of turning a living person into a Horcrux, not even Voldemort himself is likely to know."

" The Horcrux has extremely strong characteristics by itself - like its indestructibility, but those characteristics are not reflected in Harry, all this indicates that the living Horcrux is unique." Dumbledore went silent for a moment, "I'm worried that Harry is 'digesting' the Horcrux, or rather - fusing with the fragment of Voldemort's soul."

Felix looked up in shock, but he had to admit this possibility exists, and he began to think of a countermeasure.

"Occlumency can provide assistance for this problem."

"That's right." Dumbledore nodded gently.

"And the other thing is," Felix's blue eyes began to twinkle, "we can't afford to wait ten years - No, Harry can't afford to wait that long, Voldemort must be solved within a year or two - For this problem. The sooner we can deal with it, the better Harry will be!"

" Which is precisely the most difficult thing to do." Dumbledore said quietly.

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