The Evil Thoughts of Hogwarts and the Genie

Chapter 187 Preparing to Court Death

That sounds pretty funny.

If Voldemort truly possessed such an ability, then without a doubt, Edmund would immediately change his strategy and no longer be in a hurry to meet him.

Although in the long run, if mortals could truly manipulate souls in this way, it would undoubtedly weaken the power of the gods;

Furthermore, if Edmund were to urge his battery to learn similar magic, he could be enhanced to an incredible degree. Choosing this path would likely mean cooperating with Voldemort rather than fighting against him.

But then again...

Is that correct?

This doesn't make sense, does it?

Edmund stared in bewilderment at the extraordinary resurrection stone ring, feeling that the soul attached to it was filled with malice, both thirsting for the life force of the living and seemingly not completely solidified, thus becoming an inanimate object.

Before Edmund could utter his sarcastic remark, the spirit within the ring was urging him to wear it—so what would happen if he did?

Edmund guessed that the Ringwraiths would probably steal his life force and magic, turning him into a human body or a puppet of the Ring.

He did indeed have extensive experience in setting and triggering traps, so he guessed about 80-90% of the time.

No matter how much the genie guessed, it would be difficult for him to guess that Voldemort had torn his own soul apart and merged it with an object through murder in order to obtain "eternal life".

Because this sounds like a situation where you would hurt the enemy a thousand times but also lose eight million of your own.

Although the genie often says, "I will take one-third of your soul as a price," it is actually very rare for him to actually keep his word immediately.

This is certainly not because Edmund is kind-hearted, but because the human soul is deeply bound to the body, and even losing just a third of one's soul is enough to kill a Muggle.

Even wizards can feel their organs failing, their memories becoming confused, and their magic going out of control. Even the dumbest person would understand that no matter what wish they make, exchanging their soul for it is a huge loss.

Edmund doesn't like to make one-off deals, so even though he has the ability to accurately sever souls, he rarely does so.

So he never expected that the soul in the ring was Voldemort himself, whom he had been searching for all along.

The other party's splitting of their soul was certainly not a self-inflicted torment. Even though they paid a price for it, compared to the actual gains, the abandoned reason and humanity were nothing.

At least, that's what Voldemort himself thought.

However, although I made the mistake of relying on empiricism and judging others by my own standards, I failed to consider this possibility;

Edmund's reckless and self-destructive nature compensated for this.

He hesitated for a moment, then decided to leave it for now.

Today is Wednesday. Once Thursday and Friday are over, the weekend will arrive—

He could simply wear the ring and experience the spirit within it to see what abilities it possessed.

If the other party still retains some rationality and can communicate, then it's killing two birds with one stone.

He could offer some benefits to find out what Voldemort had done to him, which enabled him to complete this great creation that was enough to shock the Genie.

Edmund's mood improved as a result. He hummed twice and took the opportunity to write a reply to his mother, who missed him.

About three days ago, Elena told Edmund that she had rented a cheap little detached house near Evans's house.

As for why it was so cheap, it seems that the nearby Muggle residents firmly believed that the place was haunted. Elena mustered up her courage to investigate, but found nothing.

However, she didn't let it go. Instead, she contacted the British Ministry of Magic and finally confirmed that the house had been the site of a Boggart incident.

These magical creatures, capable of transforming into the things people fear most, terrified the Muggles living here.

After they moved away, the neighborhood kids turned the place into a haunted house for them to explore.

As a result, the children were quite frightened.

But because of this, the matter eventually reached the Ministry of Magic, where an Auror easily dealt with the Boggart;

Even though the Boggarts had been expelled and the Muggles' memories had been altered by the Aurors, they still had a bad impression of this place and kept their distance from it from then on.

However, that's not the point.

"Dina told me that this sounded like a business opportunity."

Even when his mother wasn't by his side, Edmund could sense her mixed feelings of laughter and tears through the words in the letter.

"She thought that a witch like me, who had left the wizarding world, would be perfect as a medium. She thought just... well..."

Information gap? I hope I didn't misspell this word!

She thought that I could get on their TV shows and make a lot of money just by doing this, without even having to do anything supernatural.

"She also became curious about the popular mediums and magicians of today, asking me if I could identify which of them were wizards—I must admit, Ed, some of their tricks looked very suspicious."

"—I never imagined that wizards could live like this!"

To be honest, when Edmund read this part, he did develop some extra respect for Mrs. Evans.

Regardless of whether this is reliable or not, Mrs. Ephons is at least very imaginative.

From this perspective, he actually complements Elena to some extent.

Listen, it's a hope that she won't let his mother get too wild. Edmund felt that Mrs. Eifons' suggestion was almost skirting the edge of Muggle law.

After writing his reply to his mother, Edmund asked Pollyanna to complete his notes from the herbalism class.

The little witch looked much better than she had a few days ago. However, her attitude towards him was now more "respectful" than before.

That being said, it wasn't to the point of being restrictive. The two sat on either side of the round table in the lounge. Pollyanna previewed what might be covered in the evening's astronomy class, and after a while, she whispered:

"Carlo has become quite eccentric."

Edmund smiled inwardly upon hearing this.

"Don't be so dramatic." But his tone was dismissive.

"Do you prefer her the way she is now, or the way she was before?"

Pollyanna stared intently at Edmund for a while, but the young wizard showed no intention of looking up, focusing solely on copying notes.

So the little witch swallowed back her words, "I don't like any of them because they're all abnormal."

After dinner, it was time for astronomy class.

Professor Michael Sinister, who teaches astronomy, is getting old. Edmund suspects he's the only professor in the university older than Dumbledore.

Not only Slytherin, but even among Ravenclaws, there were whispers that he should retire, otherwise it might affect everyone's astronomy grades.

Edmund didn't seem to care much. This body probably didn't have much talent for stargazing, and he had no interest in rote memorization.

Professor Sinister, however, was old and had failing eyesight; he couldn't see the stars clearly, nor could he make out his students' faces. If Pollyanna would shield him, Edmund could sleep until the end of get out of class.

The next day, although Edmund was eager for the weekend to come so he could play with the ring;

Professor Hecate's Defense Against the Dark Arts class gave him another pleasant surprise.

As soon as Edmund entered, he saw a huge figure made of straw moving freely.

Only then did he fully realize that Professor Hecate was probably a master of alchemy.