Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 242 Who Stole the Diary?

"kindness?"

Faced with Vaughn's cryptic question, Dumbledore smiled and shrugged: "At least, He didn't force anyone to win."

This is a topic we discussed last semester.

Dumbledore, who was once one of the Twins of Fate, has a lot to say about this.

Vaughn didn't say anything more, silently gazing at the two "invisible celestial bodies" getting closer and closer below, which meant that Harry had found Tom's diary.

He suddenly asked, "Is there a standard to follow for what we call backlash?"

Dumbledore paused, taken aback. "What are you going to do?"

Vaughn didn't speak, but just looked down, weighing his options in his mind.

From a personal emotional perspective, he naturally favored Harry over Tom, but from the perspective of his heart and ideals, it didn't matter to him who won or lost between the two so-called chosen ones.

Their struggles had almost no positive impact on the wizarding world. They were no different from the struggles between Dumbledore and Grindelwald decades ago, or even the more ancient struggles between the chosen ones. They were merely power struggles, continuing the unchanging political cycle that had plagued the wizarding world for hundreds or thousands of years.

That's not the magical world Vaughn wanted.

Therefore, regardless of who wins, when Vaughn ultimately decides to reform the wizarding world, the victor faces the same situation: either integrate into the order Vaughn is rebuilding, or stand on the opposite side!

Such a situation is not determined by individual will.

It's the general trend!

This time, observing the intertwined fates of Harry and Tom's diaries was one of the few times he actively intervened in the "plot" of Harry Potter.

His trip to North America made him realize that something was brewing in the world outside of England.

DeSantis, Wilkinson —

Legendary wizards, either never heard of or long since retired, are stirring on that continent; there's also the undercurrent of a vanguard movement; the 12 purebloods' increasingly out-of-control "Secrecy Act"; the alliance between wizards and Muggle regimes—and so on.

Whenever Vaughn thought about it, he had a sense of impending doom.

This caused him to change his original idea of ​​taking things slowly.

According to Vaughn's plan last semester, the priority was to promote WAC's overseas expansion, establish a branch in North America, and leverage the size of the United States and its unique geopolitical situation (the United States is surrounded by several Commonwealth members) to promote his wolfsbane medicine international trade system to the world.

In his vision, this trade system would not only solve WAC's self-circulation of funds, but also allow him to transform his reputation from a potion master to a rising political star.

After all, that trade system itself was a bundled agreement full of political ambitions.

Unfortunately, the plan was thwarted halfway through.

Our American counterparts are truly heinous!

On his way back from North America, Vaughn was contemplating the possibility of accelerating the reforms in the magical world, and then, he inevitably noticed "fate"!

The test in the world of the painting last semester made Vaughn realize that the spacetime he was in was problematic.

Time in the painting can flow forward or backward. To verify this, Vaughn raised Nobeta in the painting and successfully used the Time-Turner to restore Nobeta to his dragon form during Harry's final trial.

This suggests that if spacetime is treated as an independent element, it can be freely traveled in both forward and reverse directions, unlike in reality where returning to the past is subject to significant limitations and "historical revisions."

When Vaughn described the phenomenon of closed-loop spacetime in reality, he used a phrase called "roller coaster knot," describing the spacetime of an event as a closed-loop circular roller coaster track. No matter where the roller coaster starts from, it can only rotate around the track and can never get out.

From that moment on, Vaughn began to suspect that the phenomena of spacetime in reality might be related to fate:

It is also the only suspect, after all, it is the only documented super-being in the magical world that can affect everything, even spacetime.

Vaughn simply couldn't determine the properties of such a thing.

The only thing he was certain of was that if he wanted to reform the magical world, he had to figure out what it really was.

Is it a personified "god" with a wicked personality, as described by alchemists (including Dumbledore)?

Or is it the inherent operating principle of something that lacks intelligence and is not yet understandable to humans?

If it's the latter, then everything is fine, but if it's the former—

There's no need to continue this so-called reform!

That means there exists a super life form above humanity, and even above magic, that controls everything, and all life is merely "its" plaything.

"That kind of world is too hopeless; you can see the end from the very beginning—"

Vaughn thought to himself.

He now somewhat understood why Dumbledore, who came from the Golden Soul School, never shied away from talking about death, to the point that he seemed to have a misanthropic tendency.

Perhaps it is because, in his and his school of thought, there truly exists a super life form beyond the world, nature, and the universe that inspires despair.

The smarter and more ambitious a person is, the more they can imagine the silent, immense fear that they may never witness in their lifetime.

Beside him, during Vaughn's long silence, Dumbledore, seemingly sensing his thoughts, became more serious: "You want to interfere with fate?"

'

'

Vaughn did not speak.

He does indeed have this idea, which doesn't need to be explicitly stated.

Because both of them could see that as his thoughts arose, the vortex stirred up by the grid world below silently reached out to them.

Both of them could clearly see faint dotted lines extending from the undulating grid and connecting to Vaughn's side.

Even as time goes on, the dotted line is rapidly becoming clearer, being stirred, extended, and twisted by the vortex below.

It seemed that in the next second, Vaughn, like Ron and Snape who had already gone far away, would be dragged into that meat grinder-like vortex by the "gravity" of the twins of fate.

"From which direction do you intend to interfere?"

To Vaughn's surprise, Dumbledore, with a serious expression, did not stop him, but instead asked as if he were curious.

"Of course, it's a way that will trigger a backlash from fate!"

Vaughn replied.

He had originally thought that by observing Harry, he could glimpse the truth of "destiny," but Dumbledore's previous answer had already ruled out that possibility.

So, how do we find out if "fate" is "divine" or simply an unintelligible law of nature?

Vaughn felt that the only way to make a judgment was to provoke the other party into an attack!

Wasn't fate hoping Harry would get his diary back?

Some time ago, while he was in the Burrow, he upgraded the Persona that was lurking in Harry's mind. Now, all he has to do is use the Infrasound Charm to emit a low-frequency sound wave signal, and the Persona can immediately take control of Harry's body and take him away from the basement.

Vaughn wanted to see how fate would stop him if he did this.

How then do we resolve the issue of personality disguise?

Dumbledore listened, stroking his beard, offering no opinion, and not even asking Vaughn why he would invite the backlash of fate.

A smile returned to his face: "Then you probably won't be able to test it today."

"Um?"

"Look below, Harry has made his choice." He looked pleased.

Vaughn quickly looked down and was surprised to see that the invisible vortex that had been tightly rotating in the grid world just seconds before was gradually separating.

The immense power that accretes and spreads like the ocean is slowly dissipating as the twins of fate separate!

Harry—has he actually gotten rid of his inner obsession?

Dumbledore removed his hand from Vaughn's shoulder, the grid in his vision faded, and normal reality reappeared.

The door opened, and in the dimly lit Potions office, a hand appeared out of nowhere, slowly but firmly removing itself from a diary on Snape's desk.

It shrinks into the air.

That's Harry wearing an invisibility cloak.

Vaughn had no idea what Harry had been thinking in that brief moment that had allowed him to break free from that distorted state of mind.

He did not follow the greed and impulses that fate "imposed" on him, and chose the idea he had at the beginning.

Vaughn heard Dumbledore beside him say with satisfaction, "The push of fate is both an ordeal and a test and a trial—as I said before, it will not give a definite result; everything is the choice of the child of destiny."

"Twelve years ago, if Tom hadn't believed the prophecy and hadn't tried to kill the boy born in July, he wouldn't have created a mortal enemy for himself—but that poor boy believed it, he believed it simply because he heard it from Severus. What deceived him wasn't fate, but his own cruel nature!"

"Clearly, Harry is different from him—"

Vaughn had a vague feeling that Dumbledore seemed to have breathed a sigh of relief.

Having worked together for so long, Dumbledore was already familiar with Vaughn's way of thinking, and Vaughn also knew Dumbledore very well. With a quick thought, he realized that Dumbledore had actually been quite nervous just now.

"So you were worried that Harry would be affected by the Soul Shard?"

He glanced at Dumbledore with a mocking look. Dumbledore had had this concern last Halloween, when he first practiced Legilimency and Memory Magic under the guise of examining Harry's mind.

He thought Dumbledore had already dispelled his suspicions about Harry.

Old Deng was thick-skinned. Facing his subtle contempt, he shrugged without caring at all: "Harry lived with that fragment of soul for 11 years. Nobody knows what kind of connection they might have. This is just a reasonable question."

"I hope that when Harry finds out the truth in the future, you can be just as confident."

"Ha, no matter what I do, it's still better than you stuffing a personality suit into Harry's head."

"That was Harry's consent."

"He only agreed during the 'devil training' period. After that, you confused his memories of the Persona Incarnation, honey, don't think I'm senile."

Two foxes, one big and one small, routinely bickered and teased each other, then quietly fell silent in perfect unison.

Looking down at the seemingly empty potions office, a series of light footsteps came out. After a quick assessment, they jogged towards the direction where Ron and Snape had been chasing each other.

Once the footsteps had quickly faded away, Dumbledore smiled and said, "Come on, my dear, shall we go see the next scene?"

"The next game?"

"It's Severus, and dear Lady Rozier."

"Hmm? Isabella?"

"Well, it might not be the best way to put it, but the castle told me that after Ron escaped, he 'luckily' encountered Ms. Rosier, and then he 'very cleverly' asked her for help. As a professor who cared for her students, Ms. Rosier readily accepted Ron's plea for help, and she—"

Get to the point!

"Okay, she and Severus got into a fight, right there in the lobby on the first floor!"

"—Albus, now I understand a little why the professor always wanted to poison you."

"Don't misunderstand, darling. That's Severus's way of showing respect to me. In your words, what do you call—tsundere? I suggest you don't imitate him."

"snort!"

Vaughn snorted, sat cross-legged on the flying carpet, and left with Dumbledore.

As he flew out of the basement, he vaguely felt that he had forgotten something, but this strange feeling was quickly diverted by the fighting between Isabella and Snape that Dumbledore was "broadcasting" through the castle.

The news that the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Isabella Rozier, and Potions professor Severus Snape had a late-night brawl unsurprisingly spread throughout Hogwarts the next day.

The whistleblower was Ron, an eyewitness at the scene, and one of the parties involved.

Of course, at first people didn't really believe it, even though Ron had recently provided a lot of inside information, but—

It's absurd that two professors are fighting at Hogwarts!

Professor Rozier is a newcomer, and he and Snape have no recent feud, nor any past grudges—some upperclassmen say this is not necessarily true. Professor Rozier graduated only a few years ago and was once Snape's student. He was ridiculed by the old bat when they were in school, but now they are colleagues and equals, so he might take the opportunity to get revenge.

But at noon that day, many people saw a figure resembling Snape appear at the school hospital.

In the afternoon, Snape appeared in the second-year Potions class with a cold, poker face, his dark eyes fixed on Ron.

Suddenly, everyone realized that the rumor might actually be true.

Because the Potions Professor, who always flaunts his greasy hair, was unusually wearing a hood, hiding his proud, long, oily hair inside.

But the sharp-eyed little lions noticed that Snape's hair on the left side seemed to be shorter.

The audacious and utterly empathetic little lions secretly pointed and whispered among themselves while Snape stared at Ron and Harry as if he wanted to devour them.

Completely ignoring the increasingly oppressive atmosphere around Snape and Ron's ever-pale face.

Vaughn also looked unwell.

He finally remembered what he had overlooked yesterday—Snape had been lured away, and he and Dumbledore had also left the basement. Then, the Potions Office, with its door wide open, was robbed!

He only sensed this morning that the diary had left the basement.

Last night, someone took the opportunity to steal it!

Snape, standing behind the podium, wore an unpredictable expression—he himself had only discovered the diary was stolen this morning.

To be precise, last night he was lured away from his office by a little wizard with a spell, and rushed out of the basement like he had lost his mind. Then, very "coincidentally," he ran into Isabella Rozier, who had "spurred on" to relive the "nighttime stroll" tradition from her student days because she couldn't sleep.

Then, he mistakenly thought Rozier was the one who led him there, while Rozier mistakenly thought he was an intruding wizard, and the two inexplicably got into a fight.

Even more absurdly, after the fight, he went back to rest as if nothing had happened!

From last night until he woke up this morning, he didn't feel at all that there was anything wrong with being led away!

Perfection was completely unaware of why she had such a coincidental encounter with Rozier.

Once back in the office, he completely forgot about the diary and didn't even think about checking it!

Snape's face was so dark it was almost dripping with gloom.

His dark eyes stared blankly into the classroom, where Hermione Granger was reading aloud her summer assignment—a 20-foot-long essay on potions—among the scattered seats.

Snape, however, was not listening to what she was saying at all.

In the seemingly eternal coldness of Occlumency, his mind kept replaying the words Dumbledore had told him not to interfere with fate on the first day of school.

At that time, he was angry and dismissive.

He was furious at Dumbledore's recklessness in allowing a dangerous Dark Artifact belonging to the Dark Lord to remain near Harry without sufficient vigilance. This foolish act had already been committed once last term, and he was fed up with Dumbledore's autocratic ways.

As for those who disagree—

He couldn't quite articulate whether what he was targeting at that time was Dumbledore's escapism in the face of so-called "fate," or—

—Did he deliberately belittle fate?

A thought flashed through his mind, and memories he thought were dead surged up again, the intense regret and guilt overwhelming his consciousness once more.

Snape clenched his fists tightly inside his sleeves.

He was somewhat unsure of his current feelings. Was it more of a sense of dread at being controlled by "fate," or more of a regret for clinging to the past?

Thinking about it, he couldn't help but look at Harry.

That face, which he both hated and longed for, was now blank and dazed, lost in thought.

"Did you steal the diary?"

he thought.

Upon discovering the diary was stolen in the morning, Snape's sharp mind returned, and he immediately realized that the one who came to the basement last night and cast the Flame Spell on his office was most likely Ron Weasley.

The intention was clearly to lure him away, making it easier for Harry to steal.

"No, it wasn't him!"

Snape wasn't stupid. In the few days that the diary had been in his hands, although he hadn't done much checking it out of caution, he had actually used his potion-making skills to brew a potion with a unique scent that was hard to detect without using the Extrasensory Charm, and then applied it to the diary.

Harry doesn't smell like that!

"So, who could it be?"

His gaze swept over Ron Weasley next to Harry, then turned to deny the scent potion, leaving aside for now.

He specifically checked the office door today; Ronald Weasley's Flaming Spell was so weak that it couldn't even burn the wooden door, leaving only a burn mark on the paint.

Even though they've only entered their second year and are still barely considered freshmen, their level is just too low.

The other party did not have the ability or the courage to return to the office and steal while being chased.

So, Vaughn?

Snape turned his gaze to his most valued student.

The second year followed the same schedule as the first year, with Gryffindor and Slytherin having almost identical timetables, including Potions class.

On the left side of the classroom was a robe with red trim, and on the right side was the silver-green style of Slytherin.

In the neat and orderly queue, Vaughn, with his red hair, stood out. What drew even more attention was that Vaughn's complexion was not good.

The theft of the diary made Vaughn somewhat unhappy.

Because he deeply realized that he too had become a part of "fate," like a clown or a tool, being fooled and used by "fate"—

As a highly skilled memory mage, Vaughn believed he would never forget or overlook any detail in anything.

But yesterday, even though he vaguely felt that something had been overlooked, he left the basement with Dumbledore without the slightest suspicion.

His usual quick wit seemed to have suddenly become useless.

So this morning, when I vaguely sensed that the diary had left the basement, a chill ran down my spine.

In one morning, he thoroughly examined his inner world—memories, thoughts, and distractions—using all the memory magic and techniques he had learned and mastered over the past year.

He was completely unaware that he had fallen into a trap.

Even looking back on last night, watching Dumbledore demonstrate "destiny" with magic in the basement, apart from the moment he was tempted to interfere with Harry's decision, there was nothing unusual about him or Dumbledore.

When did "fate" blind him?

No clues whatsoever!

Does such a strange and unpredictable power truly exist in this world, leaving no trace?

Is this why, when Dumbledore embarked on the path to legend, he chose to take on magic despite his lack of divination talent?

Throughout the morning, a multitude of distracting thoughts came to mind.

What made Vaughn even more suspicious was—who stole the diary?

Last time at the Burrow, he used Scabbers to leave a clue in the diary in order to prevent the diary and Harry's relationship from getting out of control.

Upon discovering his diary was stolen this morning, his first instinct was to try and find it.

But the result of his perception surprised him greatly.

That vague sensation darted around the castle, drifting aimlessly!

The castle, including the basement, has eight floors and five towers accessible to students. Within these floors and towers live students from all seven grades, countless portraits, moving armor and statues, and a considerable number of ghosts from each house.

"So, who was destined by fate to steal it?"

Vaughn is not sure either.

As a Horcrux, the Diary was cursed by Voldemort from the moment it was created, making it immune to summoning spells such as the Summoning Charm. At the same time, the wizarding world has many ways to make an object move on its own, which a third-year wizard can do.

Vaughn glanced at the furry heads around him, his brow furrowed.

Finding the diary doesn't seem to be an easy task.

The only saving grace is that the diary shows no signs of leaving Hogwarts; it's unlikely that the house-elves in the kitchen have been bewitched.

Although we can't be absolutely certain.

After all, the diary will eventually return to Harry's hands.

This is fate's arrangement!

How ironic!

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