HP: Wormwood and Lightning Wood

"What do you mean by 'seems like'?" Snape asked.

"...I remembered something. Before Voldemort was killed by the blood magic in Harry, my soul was still incomplete—I never understood why my soul could suddenly return to this body." West raised his eyebrows.

"Voldemort's Killing Curse was reflected by Harry's blood magic, causing a part of his soul to separate from his body and attach itself to Harry."

"Perhaps in this process, the Dark Curse absorbed a part of Voldemort's soul, and by extracting the soul power of the Horcrux, it gave the half of my soul that was wandering outside the body the power to return to my body."

As soon as they finished speaking, the surroundings fell silent. Their words contained a wealth of information.

Snape's vision blurred, and his ears rang. He said in a hoarse voice, "You never told me any of this—your soul was once split."

West squeezed Snape's hand tighter. "I wanted to tell you, Severus, but... I just haven't had the chance."

Snape stared at West with a grim face.

West was somewhat at a loss. How could he tell Severus? What should he say?

I have always been by your side. I watched you grow up, witnessed your talent and glory, and also glimpsed your pain and scars.

He didn't know if Severus could accept this—Severus wouldn't be happy to see him so pathetic in his youth, and then make a decision in his young adulthood that he would regret for the rest of his life.

"Severus, after everything is over, I'll tell you whatever you want to know, okay?" West gently stroked Snape's arm and whispered his promise.

Snape hesitated for a moment, then snorted and nodded: "Don't forget your promise, West."

"So, you've remembered the memories before the souls merged?" Dumbledore asked the crucial question.

"Yes, I have regained my memories from that period," West replied.

Snape suddenly remembered West's strange behavior. This student was usually gentle and obedient, but often his temperament would change drastically without warning.

Especially at certain moments, the other person would even openly probe into his inner thoughts. Looking back now, this abnormal behavior may have been caused by a split soul.

"That's right. At that time, the other half of my soul was unconscious, and the Black Curse took advantage of the situation to easily take control of my body."

"Lily and James mistakenly believed that the Potter family's magic had severed my soul, but the truth is that my soul was already split. They simply sealed away the conscious half, leaving only the unconscious fragments."

"As for the Dark Curse, it accidentally absorbed a fragment of Voldemort's Horcrux when I was severely injured. This fragment split in two, merging into my body and Harry's body respectively. It was through absorbing Voldemort's soul power that my other half of consciousness was able to return to my body."

Harry was stunned.

Dumbledore stroked his beard and nodded: "Your deduction is probably correct."

Snape, barely containing his anger, said, "I want you to tell me that there's nothing wrong with your soul right now?"

"No—there won't be any more. My soul is intact, the Dark Curse and I are completely integrated, and Voldemort's Horcruxes were killed by his own hands." West smiled reassuringly.

"It seems Lily's bloodline magic is still working on you, even after you've returned to Somerset," Dumbledore's eyes lit up. "That's a good thing, West, because it means Voldemort will have a harder time killing you and Harry."

Harry scratched his head. "The biggest problem now is, where did this Voldemort come from? We've already destroyed all his Horcruxes, and I saw his true form killed by West..."

Harry was utterly dejected. "It's all my fault! I was so careless and let him take my wand!"

He slapped his forehead and handed the wand back to West. "Here, your wand."

"This isn't your fault; none of us expected it," West said. Indeed, no one would have guessed that there would be two Voldemors here.

"As for the wand, you can keep it; it will obey you," West said gently.

"So what are you going to do?" Harry asked, putting away his wand without any politeness.

West smiled: "My old wand is at Somerset Manor."

"It now seems that Nagini may not be Voldemort's sixth Horcrux," West continued. The feeling he had when killing Nagini was different from when he destroyed other Horcruxes, which he had initially attributed to the unique nature of living Horcruxes.

Dumbledore's expression turned serious as he thought of something. "Before this, I discovered something that I initially thought had nothing to do with Voldemort, but now it seems..."

Snape frowned impatiently: "If it concerns him, stop keeping me in suspense."

Dumbledore chose his words carefully: "But it's incredible. He once took a Time-Turner from the Ministry of Magic—Cortaza told me this; she's a member of the Order of the Phoenix and works in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic."

Snape's thin lips were almost pressed into a straight line, and his jaw was taut.

He could understand why Dumbledore hadn't brought it up sooner: "If you were to say that Voldemort traveled to the future using the Time-Turner—you know, that's impossible, Dumbledore."

The Time Converter uses some kind of magical power to distort the dimension of time, creating an independent time tunnel that allows the user to return to a specific moment in the past.

Importantly, the time converter cannot travel to the future.

Snape's gaze returned to West's face, noticing that West was frowning and his fingertips were unconsciously curling up.

"...It's not impossible," West murmured.

Snape's face stiffened, and he gritted his teeth: "What have you done this time without telling me?"

West said, feeling wronged, "It's not my fault, it happened in my past life."

He forced a stiff smile. "In my past life, when I was trapped in Somerset Manor by the Dark Lord's curse, my days were incredibly boring. With no other entertainment, I started researching time-tampering devices..."

"The research topic at the time was—how to activate the forward flow of the time converter."

Harry was utterly astonished. "Speaking of which, West, you're a genius."

He had seen Hermione's Time-Turner and knew how complex it was. Hermione had also warned him many times about the dangers of the Time-Turner, saying that carelessness could lead to serious consequences.

At this age, West had already begun researching how to modify the time converter.

Dumbledore's lips twitched: "So, you succeeded?"

West, forcing himself to speak, said, "More or less."

"What do you mean by 'almost'?" Snape said menacingly. The fire in his heart flared up again.

To be honest, this research is extremely dangerous.

Snape stared at West, unable to discern whether the man harbored a pure passion for the truth or was simply seeking death—after all, if the research went awry, death would be the most logical outcome.

"What I mean is, I've almost figured it out," West said cautiously, "but I've discovered a problem during the research process."

"The time converter I created can indeed travel to the future, but the traveler can only exist as an observer, unable to touch anything, much less change the future."

West said softly, "Countless people try to reverse the course of fate, but those acts of resistance are also part of fate's script. Knowing the future not only cannot change the tragedy, but will actually accelerate everything out of control."

"You're afraid to see the future, aren't you?" Dumbledore sighed. "So you gave up this research."

West nodded silently.

Snape grasped West's clenched hands and gently patted his arm, again and again, as if smoothing the feathers of a startled bird.

"So, Voldemort likely obtained your research manuscripts, replicated the Time-Turner that could travel to the future, and sent the sixth Horcrux to the present!" Harry exclaimed. "No wonder! He was thanking you!"

Harry whispered, mimicking Voldemort's voice: "I seized the opportunity... I hate you, but I also thank you... Somerset..."

West rolled his eyes, ignoring Harry, and continued, "I have a manuscript that was accidentally tucked into the Potions Notebook and ended up in Knockturn Alley."

"I never retrieved that manuscript because I didn't believe anyone could complete my research based on a draft." West shook his head, somewhat regretfully. "I was too arrogant."

"That is, the person who gets the manuscript is not Tom Riddle," Dumbledore said.

The wizarding world only produces one exceptionally talented genius every long time, and Riddle and West are among them.

"But you said that time travelers can only exist as observers," Snape pressed. "Logically, he shouldn't harm people from the future."