Hogwarts: From Luna's House to Godhood Through Intense Competition

Chapter 46: Did this person create a Horcrux?

"Be careful of what?" Cornelius Fudge turned around and immediately saw a shadow looming over him.

He quickly took a step to move aside, but he missed a step and tumbled down the stairs.

Even faster than him was the top hat tucked under his arm, which drew a curve in the air and flew into the middle of a group of students ahead.

He tumbled down the marble stairs onto the flat ground, the pain making him howl in agony.

Hagrid seemed to be supported by something, and he managed to stand firmly on the marble stairs.

When he saw Fudge tumbling down the stairs, he still waved his hands in terror, saying, "I didn't bump into him, he fell down on his own! I really didn't bump into him!"

“Oh… Minister Fudge, what’s wrong with you?” Lockhart asked with exaggerated concern, appearing before Cornelius Fudge without anyone noticing.

With Lockhart's help, Cornelius Fudge struggled to his feet, hurriedly straightened his robes, took the top hat Lockhart offered, and put it on his head.

He caught his breath and yelled at Hagrid, who was already walking down the stairs, "You saw it all! You attacked me in public! You'll be spending the rest of your life in Azkaban!"

Harry suddenly stiffened his neck and shouted, "Hagrid didn't touch you at all!"

His voice was like opening Pandora's box, and the students around him began to whisper among themselves, their opinions basically the same as Harry's.

Cornelius Fudge's face flushed red, but his eyes no longer wandered, as if he had made up his mind.

"This is what Hogwarts is like now..." Parkinson's face showed obvious disgust, "It has lost some basic respect..."

“They are simply stating the facts.” Dumbledore’s smile faded. “We cannot always reinforce things that should not be reinforced by framing others.”

"The former... Hogwarts headmaster's last admonition, wasn't it?" Yaxley scoffed. "Cherish your last moments at Hogwarts..."

Dumbledore's tone was slow and firm: "I will only truly leave Hogwarts when everyone else has abandoned me."

……

Watching Connery Fudge and his group walk away, Anthony said confidently, "Lockhart's appearance is definitely intentional!"

Vizette nodded in agreement; he had been observing the expressions on those people's faces.

When Lockhart came out, Parkinson and Yaxley both looked over, their expressions becoming somewhat subtle.

-------------------------------------

Anthony's guess was soon proven correct.

A few days later, the Daily Prophet published a statement from the Ministry of Magic announcing the reopening of the investigation into Hogwarts;

The investigation even explicitly identifies Rupert Hagrid, the "murderer" of the locked-room mystery fifty years ago, as well as Dumbledore, who has just left the school.

The discussion surrounding this statement was unanimous, at least within Hogwarts, with everyone believing that Dumbledore was framed and, incidentally, that Hagrid was not the real murderer.

Outside of Hogwarts, there are probably many wizards who hold similar views, at least the sales of "The Quibbler" have seen a slight increase again.

Xenophilius was even considering publishing a compilation of previous speculations and evidence regarding Cornelius Fudge into a single issue of "The Quibbler".

……

Vizette returned to the Mirror World, where Salazar Slytherin, no longer asleep, emerged from his statue-like state and stood before him.

Salazar Slytherin, seated atop the basilisk, looked Vizet up and down. "I can sense that you've changed quite a bit..."

Vizette nodded. "Through the Animagus, I have gained a deeper understanding of the soul."

As Salazar Slytherin observed him, he was also observing, "Headmaster Slytherin, your condition... doesn't seem very good?"

The simplest proof is that Salazar Slytherin was able to see what he was thinking and what he had been through when they first met.

Now, this ability to see through everything seems to have disappeared, and Salazar Slytherin can only "feel" that he has grown up again.

“I can already sense that you’ve made this progress…” Salazar Slytherin nodded. “You’ve indeed made significant progress; your growth has exceeded my expectations.”

After receiving an affirmative answer, Wizette quickly asked, "Headmaster Slytherin, is there anything I can do to help you?"

"Help me?" Salazar Slytherin blinked, a smile playing on his lips.

He looked at Vizet deeply, then shook his head. "It's good that you have the thought, but my situation is complicated and not so easy to resolve."

"Let's get back to the point! I had a vague feeling that you came here to find me... So, what's your purpose...? Are you in trouble?"

……

Upon hearing this, Vizette finally understood.

Salazar Slytherin is probably not fully recovered, and I'm afraid they won't have much time to speak.

“Headmaster Slytherin, last year I met someone like that… He could possess other people and influence them, forcing them to do things they didn’t want to do…”

"It can even extract the life force of others to gain more power and make itself more mobile... What kind of magic can achieve this effect?"

"That's right! He was defeated more than ten years ago, and many wizards thought he was dead... but judging from the current situation, he is still alive!"

"Draining life force and possessing another's body?" Salazar Slytherin raised an eyebrow. "Defeated and killed more than a decade ago... and now you're back?"

"That's quite a unique situation, to be able to possess someone..." He stroked his beard and looked at Vizette, asking, "The person you're talking about... did he create a Horcrux?"

"Created a Horcrux?" Vizet pondered the word, combining it with his knowledge of compound magic, dark magic, and other concepts and principles to speculate on the function of such a thing.

“Something beyond…something important…” He frowned. “Headmaster Slytherin, the Horcrux you’re talking about…is it a magical artifact that can leave the body and preserve the soul?”

“Yes, you can think of it that way.” Salazar Slytherin nodded. “Tearing the soul apart…and then sealing it away, isn’t that an interesting magical tool?”

"Tearing apart the soul?" Vizette couldn't help but take out her notebook, taking notes as she asked, "Won't doing this... have any negative effects?"

“It seems you understand that the soul can be altered…” Salazar Slytherin nodded in satisfaction as he watched Vizet’s actions.

"Of course, it will have negative effects... Usually, after a wizard tears a soul apart, the soul becomes unstable..."

Chapter 47 Horcruxes and Spirit Summoning Boxes

“The soul has become extremely unstable…” Vizet murmured, but unable to suppress his curiosity, he asked again, “Headmaster Slytherin, what kind of consequences will this lead to?”

Salazar Slytherin countered, "Have you ever read a story called 'The Hairy Heart'?"

“The story of ‘Hairy Heart’?” Vizette thought briefly. “If it’s ‘The Hairy Heart of the Wizard’… I’ve read it.”

Salazar Slytherin nodded. "Yes, that's the story."

Encouraging Wizette to speak and think will effectively prolong his lucid time.

Vizette understood this as well. He immediately searched his memory and read "The Hairy Heart of the Male Wizard" again, trying to understand the side effects of Horcruxes by reading and summarizing the story.

In "The Wizard's Hairy Heart," the wizard believes that emotions are extremely fragile, so he uses black magic to separate his emotions, store them in his heart, and then lock them in a crystal box.

This is very similar to Horcruxes. Voldemort probably wanted to avoid death, so he used dark magic to tear his soul apart and store it in some kind of magical artifact, thus creating a Horcrux.

In "The Wizard's Hairy Heart," the wizard loses his heart, which allows him to hold onto emotions, and thus becomes cold-blooded and ruthless, able to trample on the lives of others at will, which is why he kills his own fiancée.

Voldemort was equally ruthless and even had a crazy temperament, blaming Dumbledore for all the mistakes and believing that he became the way he was because of Dumbledore.

At the same time, he was only using Quirrell and didn't care about Quirrell's life or death at all, which is why he didn't hesitate to extract Quirrell's life force so that he could have more mobility.

……

After analyzing these two key points, Vizette began, "Headmaster Slytherin, so... after creating the Horcruxes..."

“Their humanity or emotions will be stripped away, and they will become numb, even showing a crazy side, right?”

“Yes!” Salazar Slytherin affirmed. “You’ve extracted the most important points; it seems the person you mentioned did indeed create a Horcrux. Do you have any further questions for me?”

While taking notes, Vizette asked, "Headmaster Slytherin, I don't know just how similar Horcruxes are to 'The Hairy Heart of a Wizard'..."

"But I see something in this that seems to deviate quite a bit from some of the situations I'm currently facing."

“Oh?” Salazar Slytherin raised an eyebrow. “Tell me about it!”

“Headmaster Slytherin…” Vizette drew a few lines in her notebook, “…to consider Horcruxes based on The Hairy Heart of a Wizard… Under normal circumstances, it lacks autonomous action.”

"Only when it realizes that danger is coming can it put up some resistance, just like in 'The Hairy Heart of the Male Wizard,' the hairy heart doesn't want to go back to the crystal box, right?"

Salazar Slytherin raised an eyebrow, a hint of mockery in his voice. "You mean... you encountered a Horcrux capable of acting on its own?"

“I’m afraid so.” Vizette nodded. “Compared to the person I met last year, the person I’m meeting now… seems to be much more calculating.”

He recalled his previous conversation with Dumbledore, saying, "According to Headmaster Dumbledore, there might be a second soul... a younger, more cunning soul."

"There's such a fool?" Salazar Slytherin's mockery was even more pronounced. "Looks like he didn't know his limits when making the Horcruxes."

Following Salazar Slytherin's words, Vizette tentatively asked, "So this happened because he tore apart too many souls?"

Salazar Slytherin waved his hand. "If this person just can't die, then he's probably made a Horcrux."

"If one soul is acting and there are obvious differences, then it is highly likely that too many souls have been torn apart."

"Of course, this judgment is based on your description, and I cannot guarantee that it is accurate. You need to understand that."

……

“Because there are many types of magic…and many special cases.” Vezel nodded in understanding. “Headmaster Slytherin, how should I deal with this soul?”

Now that the matter concerning Voldemort has been clarified, it's time to consider solutions.

Although he was also interested in Horcruxes, now was not the time to study them in depth, and Salazar Slytherin clearly did not have that much energy.

“Use a spell…” Salazar Slytherin murmured, “and add a vessel that’s like a soul…”