Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world

Chapter 142 Gaunt's "Legacy"

Seemingly sensing Vaughn's thoughts, Dumbledore smiled.

Countless Morfin Gunter's voices were still calling his name all around, but he ignored them. Instead, he looked at the pensive Vaughn with interest and suddenly asked, "My dear, what do you think talent is?"

"Ok?"

Vaughn opened his mouth to speak, but after thinking about it carefully, he didn't know how to define it.

Talent is a very abstract thing. Literally, it can be understood as innate ability... but what exactly is talent?
No one can give a practical answer.

It is not an objective entity; from a material perspective, one could even say that it "does not exist."

Before Vaughn could get bogged down in philosophical speculation, Old Deng asked again, "So let's put it another way, where do you think talent resides? In your body, or...?"

still is……

soul?

The word suddenly popped into Vaughn's mind, his pupils dilated sharply, and the slight tremor in their light revealed the shock in his heart.

Looking at Vaughn, Dumbledore smiled and said, "It seems you've come to some understanding. That's right, the talent we're talking about isn't a particular organ in the body, nor is it bloodline, or what Muggles call genes. It can't be quantified, and it's not even in our physical bodies."

"Talent exists only in the soul: spells, shapeshifting, divination, black magic... and alchemy!"

"The sum of them is what the Golden Soul Theory calls 'imperfection'!"

"Without a talent for spellcasting, one cannot access magic; without a talent for shapeshifting, one cannot understand the relationship between magic and matter; without divination, one cannot comprehend fate and time..."

"Your materialist view of history pursues the truth and reality of the world. In other words, it is almost the same as the 'perfection' pursued by the Golden Soul. The ultimate realm we pursue is the truth of matter and the essence of the universe."

"But all these 'incomplete' aspects prevent us from getting a glimpse of what the so-called 'reality' really looks like. Do you remember the dimensional theory you mentioned before?"

Upon hearing Dumbledore's question, Vaughn nodded subconsciously.

That was a scientific hypothesis he had told Dumbledore a few months earlier: a lower-dimensional world cannot comprehend higher dimensions.

Dimension itself limits our perspective!
Like a two-dimensional creature, when you put a ball in front of it, it will never understand what a "ball" looks like, because it can only see the shadow cast by the ball - a black circle.

Therefore, in its view, a circle is a sphere, is reality, and is truth!
“The theory of dimensions is very interesting, especially the idea that a sphere projects into a circle, which vividly describes the confusion that I and many alchemists have faced… Now that the real world exists, what is the meaning of the existence of the aether?” Dumbledore winked playfully. “When I die, I can tell those alchemists who have long since died that the aether and reality are two sides of the same coin of matter, and hopefully that will put their minds at peace.”

Vaughn ignored the old man's inappropriate joke.

Inspired, his mind raced with intense thought.

Dumbledore has made it very clear that the so-called "Golden Soul" theory is not a description of psychology, but rather uses the framework of psychology to explain the meaning of magic and the alchemists' methods of observing the truth of the world.

Everyone should be able to enter the ether, but the reason why some people can never access it is simply because their souls are incomplete and they lack the necessary permissions.

Muggles without a talent for spells can never use magic.

Wizards without alchemical talent would never be able to come into contact with ether.

The perfection sought by the Golden Soul is actually an attempt to compensate for its innate abilities, gain the authority, and provide beings that can only observe projections with eyes that can "see" higher dimensions.

These "eyes" are not in the body, nor in the mind, but in the soul!

The soul contains talent, and talent determines authority and "vision".

Lost in thought, Vaughn was still calling out to Dumbledore around him. His gaze swept over them, recalling the scene from a few months ago when Dumbledore prayed for a response in the Aether.

The scene was almost identical to when he summoned Morfin Gaunt not long ago.

The difference is that in the ether, the response to him is ether.

So what is it that, at this moment, responds to Dumbledore and summons countless subconscious thoughts of Morfin Gaunt?
What can govern the subconscious? And what can serve as a bridge between reality and the ether?

Vaughn's sudden realization—

soul!

He looked at Dumbledore. "Was your magic just now a plea to Morfin Gaunt's soul, asking him to respond to you?"

Dumbledore was not surprised at all and nodded with a smile.

"So...where exactly is the soul, or rather, what is it?"

Faced with Vaughn's question, Dumbledore thought for a moment and slowly replied, "The theory of the Golden Soul divides the human spirit into three parts. The first part is the main consciousness, the mental body of alchemists that roams the ether, and our memories and thought processes. If we consider a person's spirit as an island, then the main consciousness is the part that is above the sea."

"The second part is the individual subconscious, which is buried beneath the surface of the sea and represents dreams, emotions, and fantasies. It is emotional, so it cannot be found in the real, rational mental space; it can only be seen in the ether."

Vaughn had memorized these theories thoroughly when he was studying alchemical texts, but he didn't interrupt Dumbledore. He knew that Dumbledore wasn't just stating the obvious, but laying the groundwork for what was to come—

Dumbledore looked at Vaughn, his deep blue eyes profound and wise: "The rest is hidden in the deep sea, the third part that accounts for the largest proportion of the human mind, it is called the collective unconscious!"

"The collective unconscious..."

Familiar yet unfamiliar words.

Vaughn had seen descriptions of it in some alchemical texts, but they were fragmented and inconsistent:
"It is a dark fog, an illusory sea, an endless ocean, and the Starry Islands..."

"The light of dusk, like amber, condenses on the distant horizon, where the clear blue and the halo of light together form a bright, curved arc..."

"Fragments of light float in the darkness, the waves wash over them, bringing not moisture, but a cacophony of noise, countless whispers..."

abstract!

This was Vaughn's only understanding of the collective unconscious after reading the records.

Each article that recorded it described a completely different scenario, so much so that Vaughn had to give up his search for it at the time, because there was no unified explanation, no specific definition, and not even a way to access the collective unconscious.

Abstract things can only be temporarily set aside.

Even today, he heard the word again from Dumbledore.

Vaughn found his voice a little dry: "You mean, the collective unconscious is the soul?"

"You can say that."

Dumbledore smiled and shrugged: "If we follow your understanding, the so-called triple structure of personality in the Golden Soul theory actually represents three different 'spaces' or three states of matter."

"The first layer is the space of the main consciousness, which is also the real space. It is rational, material, and objective, so the rational main consciousness exists here."

"The second layer, the ether, is where irrationality resides. According to your understanding, it can be considered as chaos or disorder. This is not a derogatory term, but rather a compliment to the countless possibilities it contains. The individual subconscious is hidden there, evolving into magnificent dreams and fantasies in the boundless gray fog."

"The final, third level..."

At this point, Dumbledore paused, seemingly considering his words: "...The third level, that's a place difficult to describe in words. Modern alchemy calls it the 'prototype.' It contains the beginning of everything, and it contains the end of everything. It's infinitely large and infinitely small. In your words, it's called..."

"Singularity!"

"Vaughn murmured."

“Yes, singularity, an interesting concept.” Dumbledore nodded. “Of course, due to differences in philosophical views, I don’t always understand your concept. Anyway, it’s something that seems to be nothingness, not in reality, not in the ether.”

Before today's events, Vaughn could never have imagined that the clues to the soul he had been searching for would appear so abruptly before him.

The person who informed him was none other than Dumbledore, who had always opposed his research into the soul.

However, he was in no mood to dwell on why Old Deng had changed his mind. His curiosity and thirst for the unknown led him to immediately ask, "Albus, how do I access the collective unconscious?"

Dumbledore shook his head: "I can't teach you this, son."

"why?"

Old Deng blinked: "The reason is very simple, because our philosophical views are different... I prayed to the spirit of Morfin Gaunt to bring me his subconscious. Can you understand the magic I used?"

"..."

Vaughn hesitated.

This was exactly what Dumbledore had expected: "Look, you can't understand, just as I can't understand your Personality Impregnation. I still don't understand how you created it. It's because we have different perspectives on the world."

"Memory magic is the most unique kind of magic. If we force you to learn it when our philosophical views differ, it will only harm you—what could be more terrifying than destroying someone's beliefs?"

……

Dumbledore was dragged into an unknown place by Morfin Gaunt's subconscious.

At least, Vaughn's ever-expanding persona couldn't detect where they had gone.

In Morfin Gaunt's dark and broken inner world, only Vaughn remained.

His mind was a little confused.

The idea that "collective unconscious = soul" left him somewhat confused, with a multitude of thoughts swirling in his head.

Many scientific theories from his past life, quantum mechanics, quantum soul, the law of conservation of matter, the law of conservation of information... all sorts of complex scientific concepts kept surging up from the depths of his memory, conflicting with his current understanding, yet also confirming and merging with each other.

"The soul is not in the human body at all..."

This seemingly unbelievable statement actually had a similar hypothesis in the Muggle scientific community in the past. As quantum mechanics continues to advance, the concept of matter = information has become deeply ingrained in people's minds. The existence and origin of consciousness and soul, which are derived from matter but seem to be independent of matter, are naturally difficult to avoid being linked to quantum mechanics.

Once quantum mechanics is involved, everything becomes unpredictable.

In a previous life, scientists proposed the quantum soul theory, believing that consciousness and soul are born from the fluctuations of quantum states. After a person dies, the "soul" will not be destroyed, just as particles and energy can only be transformed and will not disappear into thin air.

Some more radical scientists even believe that the "soul" is a higher-dimensional entity that lives in the "real universe," while our so-called physical body and the real universe are merely projections and illusions of the "real universe."

"Projection, so realistic, so perfect..."

In fact, some of the radical doctrines from my past life did share some views on the true nature of the world that resonated with the Golden Soul theory.

Vaughn suddenly remembered the question Dumbledore had asked him a few months ago after they had traveled through the Aether together:

What is real? What is unreal?

At that time, he thought Dumbledore was asking how to distinguish between reality and illusion in a state where ether and reality are superimposed.

Looking back now, it seems that Deng Xiaoping was already trying to guide him back then.

Let him think about whether the real world we see and the ether we have traveled through is the true nature of matter.
Or are they merely projections that we can currently understand?

And now he understood why Dumbledore only asked questions and didn't give him the answers, because—

“‘There is no absolute truth in the world, we can only ever see one side of things,’ I appreciate your view, Vaughn.”

"So, I'm glad to see you choose a path different from mine. At the same time, I look forward to you continuing on your magical path, whether you succeed or fail. At least it offers another possibility for the future!"

These were the words Dumbledore left behind when he departed.

He encouraged Vaughn to find his own way to access the collective unconscious!

"The White Demon King's chicken soup... Ha!"

Thinking of Vaughn's throbbing head, he chuckled and stopped thinking about it.

He raised his hand, and a silver-white thread with a few black spots in the middle was wrapped around his finger.

This is the magical knowledge of Morphin Gaunt that Dumbledore extracted from countless fragments of memory when he left, using Morphin Gaunt's subconscious and personality armor.

Although the extraction process involved filtration and purification, the tiny black spots on the silk thread indicate that the memory still carries the corrupting influence of dark magic.

After observing the black spots carefully for a while, Vaughn frowned: "The negative effects of black magic are truly stubborn..."

Such memories are definitely not suitable for direct absorption.

Of course, Vaughn had other options. He stood up, took a small step back, and in the next instant, the world spun around him.

Darkness enveloped his vision. But only for a moment, before his eyes brightened again, revealing the hazy sunset over the North Sea and the warm fire burning in the fireplace of the Azkaban rooftop lounge.

Although it's still summer according to the date, the temperature in the evening on this frigid North Sea island is already as low as late autumn in the Scottish Highlands.

The sea breeze picked up and howled through the lounge windows.

This further accentuates the warmth provided by the roaring fire in the fireplace.

Looking at Morfin Gaunt and Dumbledore, who were still in a "coma," Vaughn, unusually displaying a simple sense of morality, opened his satchel, took out the blanket his mother had prepared for him, and covered the two centenarians with it.

Then he went to the fireplace, took out a phoenix feather, and threw it into the fire.

A short while later, there were two crackling sounds in the fire, and ashes rolled around as Fox emerged from the air and fell into the fire.

"Gah!"

Amidst the harsh, unpleasant cries, Fox stared with his tiny, beady eyes, first nervously looking around to make sure there was no sudden green light before turning his gaze to Vaughn.

Vaughn chuckled: "Such a petty fellow. I only used you to block Voldemort's Killing Curse once, and you've been holding a grudge ever since?"

"Gah!"

nonsense!

Fox flapped its wings excitedly. It was the only bird that still had a chance to be cunning; any other bird would have been dead!
"Alright, don't be angry. Didn't I make it up to you with Felix Felicis last time? Do me a favor and bring me Dumbledore's Pensieve so I can use it."

"quack!"

"Where would I get so much Felix Felicis for you...? You want me to brew a whole pot? Are you kidding me? It takes at least half a year to brew one dose of that stuff."

"...However, I can help you exchange it with Professor Snape. He should have some... What can I use in exchange? Just a handful of feathers, a bowl of blood, a few drops of tears, or anything like that will do!"

Upon hearing this, Fox looked down at his gleaming body, trembling with anger, yet also somewhat hesitant.

Ultimately, it succumbed to the wonderful taste of FLORS.

From frugality to extravagance is easy, from extravagance to frugality is difficult!
Ever since it drank Felix Felicis, the potion rations Dumbledore prepared for it have become unpalatable—Merlin, that stuff that tastes worse than shit, it has been eating for years!

That stupid old geezer, at his age, still manages to brew potions into a complete mess, what a waste!

Fox was furious; he had been thinking about FLORS for the past two months almost to the point of madness.

Eager to reach an agreement with Vaughn, Fawkes immediately returned to Hogwarts and brought the old man's Pensieve to Azkaban.

It wasn't until the Pensieve was handed to Vaughn that the phoenix suddenly realized something was wrong... Wasn't it asking that wretched Weasley kid for payment?
How did it end up with the "reward" being exchanged with Snape for its own feathers, blood, and tears?
So in the end, the Weasley kids didn't spend a single Nat?
Ignoring Fox's frustration at realizing his mistake, Vaughn took the Pensieve, waved his wand, and pulled the silver thread with black spots on its surface from his head, gently shaking it into the Pensieve.

Silver light and black mist swirled and fell in the shallow basin.

Vaughn immersed his face in the basin for a while, then lifted it again with a strange expression: "Old Dumbledore actually gave me black magic?"

That memory had limited capacity, containing only a few fragments of Morfin Gaunt practicing magic during his childhood and youth.

However, although the capacity is small, the quality is unbelievably high.

There are four spells in total.

The first one is the Slytherin symbol, Parselle.

However, it is also the lowest quality of the four spells, because only descendants of Slytherin can truly "learn" Parseltongue. Without Slytherin blood, if one tries to learn it by force, one can only learn "Parseltongue".

It can only communicate simply with snakes, and cannot give commands to snakes like a snake-talking maniac!

"It's a bit of a waste of money."

Vaughn thought regretfully that what he was most looking forward to was Parseltongue. It wasn't that he was interested in Command Snake, but simply wanted to learn about this spell personally developed by Slytherin and try to get a glimpse into the thinking behind one of the four great masters of Hogwarts when developing spells.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get what I wanted.

Apart from the first parsnip, the rest were all black magic, which is why Vaughn was surprised.

The second is necromancy.

It is not a single spell, but a series of spells, starting with the most basic Resurrection Spell (Resurrection of the Dead), which can bring a corpse back to life and transform it into an undead.

The Awakening Spell (Corpse Demon Awakening) awakens a powerful Yin Corpse, transforming it into a Corpse Demon.

Then there's the terrifying "Cloud of the Dead"—summoning a vast black cloud that kills all life wherever it goes, instantly transforming everything into undead.

It's simply a powerful tool for creating undead legions!

Of course, the entire series is not just about creating undead, but also includes two curses.

One is called the "Withering Curse," which uses powerful dark magic to create a dead zone. Within the dead zone, the soil, water, and even the air will be contaminated by the curse. Anyone who comes into contact with any of these things will be cursed and their life will gradually wither away.

Another one is called "The Curse of Time," which Vaughn considers a very powerful and insidious curse.

It can "steal" the time of the cursed person!

Initially, this curse causes almost no adverse effects. Just as the human body ages over time, the negative consequences begin in the internal organs. By the time the cursed person realizes that their internal organs are malfunctioning, it is too late. The cursed person's internal organs have already rapidly failed due to aging.

The manifestation of this is that, due to the combined effects of the curse and internal organ failure, the body ages at an incredible rate and will soon die of old age!

"...A terrible curse!"

The image of Morfin Gaunt practicing curses with snakes flashed through his pupils, and Vaughn sighed as he watched the snakes age and decay at a visible rate.

Fortunately, this curse is not an unforgivable curse. It has a counter-curse and is also countered by "All Curses End". Some magical potions that can replenish life force can also delay its onset.

The battle between white magic and black magic has never ceased since magic was first created in this world.

If we measure it from the perspective of the entire history of magic, we should say that black magic is the earliest magic to be born in the world. After all, thousands or tens of thousands of years ago, the living environment of mankind was completely different from that of today.

The primitive Muggles faced severe natural disasters and had to contend with countless ferocious beasts.

Wizards aren't much better off. Fairies, elves, dragons, and other magical creatures born with magic are the true masters of nature and the magical world.

If humans want to survive and expand their living space, they must engage in armed competition with those powerful and magical creature groups.

Therefore, in the early stages of human civilization, there was no so-called conflict between black and white magic.

In that primitive era, the more ferocious the magic, the more it helped humanity gain an advantage in competition.

It wasn't until humanity established a higher social order, emerged from ignorance, and shifted from outward expansion to inward integration, that the concept of black magic first appeared, and began to be used against its own kind.

Correspondingly, the spells developed to counter and defend against black magic became a separate system called "white magic".

This systemic division is beneficial to the entire magical world. For thousands of years, it is precisely because of the conflict between black and white magic that the two have formed a relationship similar to convergent evolution, which has enabled the magical world to continue to progress and prosper.

However, judging from the overall trend, the evolution of both has always been a situation of black attacking and white defending.

Generally speaking, dark magic usually appears first, and then other white wizards develop corresponding anti-curse and prevention spells based on dark magic. This is a rule that has continued from ancient times to the present, with only a few exceptions—such as the Patronus Charm's effectiveness against Dementors!

Or perhaps, the Unforgivable Curse exists.

Some forms of black magic cannot be countered.

The most famous of them are the three spells: Slaughter, Soul Stealing, and Heart Piercing.

Because they act directly on the soul.

Therefore, other spells that directly affect the soul also do not have a counter-spell, but they are not well-known or as ferocious and ruthless as the three chariots.

For example, the third curse Vaughn obtained from Morfin Gaunt's memories—the Furantur Animarum!
As the name suggests, this is a soul-stealing magic that can "steal" the soul of the person casting the spell.

However, this spell is not from the modern spell system, but from ancient magic, so it has little practical significance in actual combat.

However, for Vaughn, this magic was actually more valuable than the previous necromancy series!
"What I've always lacked isn't simply offensive or defensive capabilities. With the magic I currently know, it's enough to handle most battles. The few I can't handle are for more complex reasons, and it's not something that can be made up for by learning a few more spells... Rather than improving my combat power, what I should be doing right now is increasing my accumulation of advanced knowledge."

"For example, I could study the souls I've been unable to find..."

The image of Morfin Gaunt learning the Soul Stealing Charm flashed through Vaughn's eyes, and he thought about it, but did not immediately learn the spell.

One reason is the cautious attitude towards black magic.

On the other hand, it's also because the fourth spell better suits his recent needs—

Slytherin bloodline transplant!

This is also a series of spells, including the Activation Charm, Bloodborne Charm, Slytherin Blood Fusion Charm, etc. As can be seen from Morfin Gaunt's practice of constantly killing snakes, this set of spells is mainly aimed at the bloodline transplantation of serpentine magical animals.

Moreover, the learning process was extremely difficult, and Morfin Gaunt never mastered it until he was framed and imprisoned by Voldemort.

"Of course, it's more likely that Morfin Gunter is less talented."

His thoughts were lost in memories, watching Morfin Gaunt's repeated failed attempts at practice, and Vaughn recalled the undulating demon's socket-like nose:

"Voldemort's grotesque appearance was undoubtedly related to the bloodline transplant. Dumbledore said that Voldemort's appearance began to change a few years after graduating, which is why Dumbledore and Headmaster Depp refused his request to join Hogwarts..."

"In just a few years, even if Voldemort is a genius, it's impossible for him to develop a mature transplantation magic that would allow him to operate on his own body. He certainly couldn't have learned it from somewhere else. He most likely obtained this bloodline transplantation technique from Morfin Gaunt's memories!"

As for where the Gaunt family obtained the bloodline transplant technique.

Vaughn suspects it may not be a family trait, because to his knowledge, no member of the Gaunt family in the past thousand years has shown any physical characteristics related to snakes.

They likely received the bloodline transplant from the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets at Hogwarts only in modern times.

Last year, Vaughn was very interested in the secrets of the four great masters and consulted a lot of information. During this time, he discovered that Hogwarts had undergone several major renovations, and each time the Gaunt family was involved.

The most recent example was in the 18th century, when the sewers of Hogwarts Castle were renovated, and the person in charge was a man named Corvinus Gaunt.

Based on the timeline, Corvinus Gaunt was roughly the grandfather of Marvolo Gaunt, meaning Voldemort's great-great-grandfather...

Of course, Vaughn had no interest in becoming Socket Man 2.

In his view, bloodline transplantation should be treated with even greater caution than learning dark magic. There are still successful examples of dealing with the contamination of dark magic (Dumbledore and others), but if the body were to mutate unintentionally, it is uncertain whether it could be reversed.

Therefore, he had little interest in the most important spell in the entire set of magic, the "Slytherin Blood Fusion Curse," but rather favored several of the more basic spells.

Those were not particularly remarkable spells, and could even be considered minor enchantments, but they were enchantments that Slytherin specifically developed for bloodline research.

The scope of magic includes observation, analysis, and maintaining vitality, among other things.

Of course, because of the long time that they were developed, these spells are very different from the modern spell system. They belong to the transitional system from ancient magic to modern spells, and are very difficult to learn.

However, something is better than nothing!
Memoirs of Morfin Gaunt flashed through his eyes, and Vaughn murmured, "System!"

A panel appeared before Vaughn's eyes. He quickly glanced at the various statistics and looked at the taskbar:
Side Quest 3: Research all the magic of the fire dragons and figure out their basic principles (in progress)

【Progress: 0/10】

[Reward: 100 Magic Scales, Spell Development Module]

Looking at the side quest ③ on the panel, Vaughn's previously gloomy mood suddenly turned cheerful.

"With these spells, side quest ③ only lacks experimental materials..."

In fact, side quest ③ has always been a major headache for Vaughn.

The difficulty in obtaining experimental materials was only one problem; another headache for him was the experimental tools. Due to the prevalence of idealism in the magical world, experimental tools born from methodology developed rather slowly in the magical world.

The experimental tools mentioned here include both instruments and spells.

As is well known, Muggle tools cannot detect magic, so don't expect to find any trace of magic by simply looking for a microscope.

Ever since the side quest to research the fire dragon appeared, Vaughn has been thinking about how to develop a small spell to assist his research.

(End of this chapter)