Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 332 Voldemort's Weakness

However, as time went by, looking at the thick darkness four feet away, which seemed to be violently churning under the spells as if it were being provoked, Kreacher became increasingly terrified. He gripped Vaughn's robe tightly with both hands, his large eyes filled with fear of the unknown.

At a certain moment, just as Kreacher was watching the darkness like boiling water, or a volcano about to explode, a certain overwhelming pressure was about to reach a critical point.

Vaughn finally stopped casting the spell.

In an instant, the darkness, which had been swirling like smoke, returned to calm, and the pressure suddenly eased. Kreacher gasped for breath, drenched in cold sweat.

He looked up and saw Mr. Weasley deep in thought again. Finally, he became frightened and couldn't help but tug at his robe: "Sir—"

Vaughn looked down and saw the little elf whose rag was soaked with cold sweat. He suddenly realized, "Ah, I'm sorry, Kreacher. I was testing the Dark Lord's weakness. I scared you."

Kreacher was immediately drawn to his words: "The Dark Lord's weakness?"

The terrifying memories from more than ten years ago resurfaced. Could such a devilish and terrifying wizard actually have a weakness?

Under his questioning gaze, Vaughn nodded slightly: "Of course, the Dark Lord is also human, and humans have weaknesses."

Kreacher could tell that Mr. Weasley's tone was lighthearted, and he cautiously asked, "So—did you find it?"

"Yes!"

As Vaughn answered, he led him toward the lake. The darkness, which had been dangerous just moments before, surrounded them, constantly parting and then closing in behind them.

Kreacher tried to stop thinking, lest he be overwhelmed by fear. He tried to distract himself by turning his long-dormant mind: "You just cast a spell to verify this?"

Vaughn nodded, but instead of answering directly, he asked, "Kreacher, what is magic to you?"

Kreacher paused, probably no elf would consider such a question. For elves, magic is something they are born with, like their hands and feet, something they are born with.

Who would question what hands and feet are?

Vaughn clearly knew the answer, so before Kreacher could reply, he said, "Unlike you, for us wizards, magic is knowledge, it's skill, it's the way to express knowledge and skill—do you know what knowledge and skill are?"

"They are human beings' correct, rational, and true summaries and refinements of things. This means that a part of them is subjective and emotional. When Muggle artists create paintings, sculptures, and other artworks, they often incorporate their own joys and sorrows. This is not a deliberate pursuit, but a subconscious choice when they pour their knowledge and skills into their works."

"The same problem exists with wizarding spells!"

As they were talking, Vaughn had already led Kreacher to the lakeside. Apart from the entrance passage, the shore of the large lake, which was full of caves, was actually very narrow, with only a rough stone path that hugged the rock wall.

The road surface was covered with puddles, cold and sticky, making a splashing sound when you walked on it.

Kreacher nervously followed for a while, when suddenly Vaughn stopped, nearly bumping into him. Before Kreacher could ask a question, Vaughn suddenly grabbed at thin air: "Heh, hiding here!"

What's hidden here?

Kreacher was puzzled, but soon he saw Vaughn, who was vaguely grasping at the air, forcefully dragging something.

Yes, in his eyes, Vaughn was just grasping at thin air.

But the next moment, he saw the calm lake water ripple, and a thick chain, glowing with a faint green light, suddenly darted out of the water like a snake.

"what!"

Kreacher screamed.

Vaughn reacted quickly—or rather, he had anticipated this situation. The moment the green chains shot up, he swung his wand at them.

With a thud.

The chain, struck by the cane, slumped down like a real snake, then clattered to its way to the two men's feet and coiled up.

At the same time, as if some mechanism had been activated, the sound of churning water came from the depths of the lake. Before long, Kreacher saw a small boat, emitting a green light like chains, rise from the lake.

Kreacher's eyes widened.

He recognized the small boat. Thirteen years ago, it was the boat that carried him and the Dark Lord across the water, triggering a series of events. In a sense, it was a witness to Regulus's demise.

Ignoring Kreacher's pale face, Vaughn watched the small boat slowly approach, patiently waiting.

The movement of light waves in his field of vision, as revealed by the Vision Spell, indicated the traces of the magical movements that the Socket Man had set up in this cavern.

So far, he has already gained quite a lot from this trip.

Unlike the previous foyer scene where he "copied" Dumbledore's method from the original story, here Vaughn truly relied on his own created spells and methods to discover Voldemort's hidden boat—a clever little trick concealed within layers of magic.

The dense, impenetrable darkness surrounding them was the first obstacle set up by Voldemort, restricting the means by which wizards could cross the lake.

Previously, Vaughn had tested the darkness with various spells and had clearly demonstrated that it did not allow levitation charms, flight magic (including broom magic), or polymorph charms.

But it's clear that Voldemort would have left himself a way to cross the lake, namely a small boat, which he hid.

From a logical reasoning perspective, this concealment is more like a provocation. The wizard who comes here can guess that Voldemort must have hidden a small boat, but how will you find it?

His purpose in concealing the small boat was like a magic test.

He was testing whether those who came here were qualified to go to the island in the middle of the lake that he had carefully prepared.

"Does this mean I've passed?"

Vaughn thought to himself speechlessly, but this time, he didn't laugh at Voldemort for "playing house." On the contrary, he saw Voldemort's strong self-confidence in this design.

He was confident that even if someone found this place, they wouldn't discover his trap, or even if they did, they would only be able to follow the steps he designed and walk step by step toward death.

In a sense, Voldemort's confidence was not wrong.

Before long, the small boat docked. Vaughn composed himself and boarded the boat with Kreacher.

The moment he stepped onto the small boat, Kreacher felt an inexplicable pressure gathering around him, a familiar feeling nonetheless.

He had experienced it thirteen years ago as well. At that time, he was terrified and curled up in a ball, while the Dark Lord laughed heartily beside him.

"Sir, the Dark Lord once said that this small boat can only carry one person. Kreacher doesn't understand, since I was there both that time and this time."

After people boarded, the small boat automatically headed towards the center of the lake. Kreacher was puzzled as he watched the dark lake water ripple and drift to both sides.

Vaughn, who was observing the lake, replied, "This is one of the Dark Lord's weaknesses. He looks down on you, Kreacher. To be precise, the small boat can only carry one person, but in the Dark Lord's mind, only wizards are human, and you are not."

To be more precise, Voldemort did not even consider weak wizards as human beings.

The small boat was indeed enchanted, allowing only one wizard to ride on it, but the so-called "wizard" was Voldemort himself.

In the original storyline, Dumbledore brought Harry onto the ship because Harry's magical abilities were weak, and the small boat assumed he was "not human."

"one?"

Kreacher noticed Vaughn's choice of words.

"Yes." Vaughn nodded, about to say something, when suddenly, a white thing floated past the side of the boat.

Kreacher cast the Glowing Charm almost instantly, and the next second, his expression froze.

It was a corpse submerged in the lake.

Bathed in light, the corpse's skin was pale and bloodless, its eyes were wide and lifeless, as if veiled by a layer of mist, and its hair swayed beneath its body like seaweed.

Vaughn glanced at the robes on the corpse, then observed the light swirling around its surface using the Vision Charm: "A wizard killed by the Dark Lord, turned into an Infernal."

Kreacher naturally knew what an Infernal was. Although the Wisp did not know necromancy (a series of spells used to create Infernal and other corpse puppets), Kreacher, who served the Black family, was "well-versed in the arts" and had seen corpse puppets before.

His expression was one of deep sorrow: "Poor young master Regulus, he's in this very lake—all these years, he—he couldn't even rest in peace!"

Seeing large tears welling up in Kreacher's eyes, Vaughn sighed inwardly, patted his head, and tried to divert his attention by returning to the previous topic: "This is also one of the Dark Lord's weaknesses. Muggles can project their emotions onto artworks, and wizards do the same with magic. These projected emotions can be positive or negative, and there are even more negative ones, especially for a master of dark magic like the Dark Lord. And the most common negative emotion is fear."

"fear?"

Kreacher stopped crying.

"Yes." Vaughn pointed to the impenetrable darkness around them and the corpse that had drifted away. "What do you think the Dark Lord created that darkness and crafted the Infernals for?"

Kreacher's lips trembled slightly, and he tentatively asked in a low voice, "To protect the island?"

"Ha, I've tried all sorts of magic on that darkness, and it's been very passive. As for the infernals—let alone a legendary wizard like the Dark Lord, they're no threat to me either. They can't protect anything."

Vaughn shook his head: "He created darkness and infernal corpses simply because they are his greatest fears!"

The Dark Lord — Fear?

Kreacher's eyes widened as if he had heard something unbelievable—that such a terrifying demon could actually be afraid?

Of course!

Vaughn's gaze was deep and unfathomable. As long as one is human and cannot shield oneself from fear, there will always be things to be afraid of. Of course, for a legendary wizard, fear and dread may be expressed differently than for others; perhaps it is just a subconscious image.

Tom's arrangement here may have been influenced by subconscious imagery.

Similarly, Tom wasn't really afraid of the dark or corpses. Vaughn guessed that what he was afraid of was losing his magic, losing his "glorious" wizarding career, having a bleak life, and the fear of death!

This place is truly a treasure trove!

Thinking about it, Vaughn raised his head, his dark eyes brightening. Here, he could not only analyze Tom's magic, but also his personality and preferences.

Tom probably never imagined he would leave such a big oversight.

The small boat glided leisurely forward, the calm lake water parting at the bow, all around was silent except for the gentle murmur of the water.

Unfortunately, this was not a particularly beautiful place, and Vaughn and Kreacher, sitting in the small boat, had no interest in appreciating the unique scenery of the underground lake.

Kreacher lay on the bow of the boat, a glowing spell floating around him. By the faint light, he strained to see the dark, reflective surface of the lake, waiting with a mixture of hope, sorrow, and fear for a corpse to float up from the bottom.

Vaughn was also observing the lake, but he was observing the magic within it.

"Among all the corpse puppets in the necromancy series, the Shadow Corpse is the lowest level. But no matter how low level it is, it is still magic, the foundation of the series of magic, and the first step in reviving and modifying a corpse. As long as it is magic, it needs magical power and emotions as its energy source."

But Vaughn looked at the large lake in front of him.

Through the vision spell, he could see the outlines of many corpses drowning at the bottom of the lake, at least several thousand.

Given the scale of the operation, it's clear that Voldemort couldn't have killed them all by his own hand, and it's unlikely that the Death Eaters would have done so. Since Voldemort chose to hide the Horcruxes, he wouldn't have allowed anyone who knew about them to leave alive.

Vaughn is inclined to believe that this underground lake has been magically transformed by Voldemort into a massive infernal factory.

Any life that dies in the lake will be automatically transformed into a ghost corpse by the lake.

"But how did he do it? Ancient magic? But I couldn't find the ritual, and ancient magic, because it requires specific celestial phenomena as part of the ritual, generally cannot last for more than ten years. If it's a modern spell system—how did he solve the problem of needing magic power and emotions as energy?"

Many questions arose in his mind, but Vaughn was not confused. He came here to learn, and the essence of learning is to pursue and explore the unknown.

Therefore, there is nothing to be afraid of when facing the unknown that you are pursuing.

"Record!"

Vaughn suddenly spoke.

The satchel opened automatically, and a quill pen and a notebook flew out. The quill pen tip was pointed at Vaughn, like a diligent servant awaiting instructions.

"High-sequence items to be entered into the memo: I need to plan a new spell to conduct magical research in conjunction with the Vision Charm. Summarize my needs — also, organize the spells and ancient magic I currently know, and list out which ones fit my needs."

The quill pen nodded repeatedly, its tail feathers swaying, and the swishing sound of the pen falling was incessant.

Automatic quills are a fairly mature alchemical product in the magical world. They usually possess simple intelligence and can assist wizards with some paperwork. Of course, due to the magical world's penchant for innovation, there are no standard models of automatic quills, and each wizard's is different.

For example, Rita Skeeter's shorthand quill pen perfectly reflects its owner's personality, who enjoys manipulating words and taking things out of context.

Vaughn's automatic quill pen was also influenced by his personality, as it excelled at organizing, summarizing, and generalizing.

However, it was also a bit rigid. When Vaughn asked it to organize the spells and ancient magic he currently knew, it copied down each one in detail, including Vaughn's in-depth research and improvement on some spells—such as magic enhancement, which is to add "Mim" to the spell suffix to make the magic have a power far beyond the ordinary.

Or it can be a variant that gives the spell different effects, such as the olem variant of the glow spell, which makes the glow spell as bright and dazzling as sunlight.

Speaking of which, since developing the Multispectral Vision Charm, the Glowing Charm is one of the spells that Vaughn has been most deeply immersed in. In order to complement the Vision Charm, he developed many variations.

As the small boat approached the island in the middle of the lake, Vaughn glanced at his notebook, where the automatic quill was still diligently recording his extensive list of glowing spell variants and their effects.

For example, infrared light, ultraviolet light, X-rays, etc.

The island in the middle of the lake also has light, a green light. In the center of the lake, surrounded by dense darkness, only this place emits a faint green glow, making this underground cavern seem almost like a ghostly realm.

Of course, it doesn't actually have any effect; rather, it's an external manifestation of a massive gathering of spiritual light, indicating the presence of one or more powerful spells here.

As for the so-called island in the middle of the lake, it is just a small stone platform protruding from the water. There is almost nothing on the platform except for a stone pillar with a stone basin placed on it.

The green light emanated from there.

Returning to the familiar spot, Kreacher mustered his courage and pointed to the stone basin, saying with fear, "Mr. Weasley, that's—that's where the Dark Lord hid the locket. He forced Kreacher to drink the potion inside, oh—"

'

He let out a painful sob, both for himself and for his beloved young master: "Kreacher felt his insides burning—and the young master must have felt the same way, crawling on the ground in agony, unable to resist the urge to drink the lake water."

"Kreacher wanted to save him, but he told Kreacher to leave immediately—Kreacher couldn't disobey his master's orders, and could only watch helplessly as he climbed to the edge of the platform and was dragged into the lake by countless pale hands, oh God,"

Vaughn walked to the stone basin and bent down to look at it.

The stone basin is somewhat like a meditation basin, with a wide rim and a thin layer of emerald green liquid inside, which emits a faint but seemingly eternal fluorescent glow.

Like a piece of jade.

He stretched out his finger to try, and unsurprisingly, his hand could not touch the potion in the stone basin. It was blocked above the emerald green liquid, as if there was a transparent and unbreakable barrier in the air between the liquid and his finger.

This is also Voldemort's magic.

He set strict conditions for the stone basin: it must not come into contact with any medium other than the container; at the same time, the potion in the stone basin must not be poured, spilled, or drained in any way. None of these actions would reduce the potion in the stone basin; magic would replenish it continuously.

Yes, the word "supplement" here should be in quotation marks.

Vaughn flicked his wand, conjuring a goblet, and gently scooped out half a cup of emerald green potion, pouring it onto the ground.

However, the poured liquid vanished instantly, and at the same time, the potion in the stone basin was replenished.