I, Hogwarts Second Time Around.

Chapter 587 The Final Battle at Hogwarts (Part 5)

"What?" Harry stared wide-eyed at Hermione and Gropp in disbelief.

"Wait, Harry, don't be impulsive." Hermione immediately pulled Harry back, preventing him from doing something foolish.

"Hagrid's been captured, Hermione!" Harry roared angrily, then shoved Hermione's hand away.

"Damn it, damn it!" he was furious, but he also knew the situation.

If they are exposed, there will be no chance of being saved.

Harry walked up to a big tree.

He kicked the tree root hard.

"Okay. We need to have a plan," Hermione said.

"It's not that complicated!" Owen interrupted her, "I'll draw their fire, and you guys take the opportunity to rescue Hagrid. It's that simple."

"Don't refuse, because I'm the only one here who has the ability to escape."

Voldemort is now so powerful that he is beyond the reach of ordinary wizards; for ordinary people to try to attract his attention is tantamount to suicide.

"etc."

Suddenly, Owen raised his wand.

Everyone immediately stopped making a sound.

He pointed ahead.

The others immediately understood—there were people there.

Theseus Scamander took the lead, bending over as he swiftly moved forward.

Hermione and Harry gripped their wands tightly and followed.

Gropp was left behind by the others.

He hid in the hollow formed by the giant tree roots, hoping to see him again after the war ended.

Irving followed.

Perhaps not an enemy

An idea suddenly popped into his mind.

Perhaps those Dementors weren't meant to fight them.

They are hunting someone.

The four of them moved very quickly.

In a short while, it had run several dozen feet.

In Owen's perception, the faint traces of ancient magic ahead were getting closer and closer.

Finally, they discovered something unusual in a hollow under a huge tree.

"What's that?" Harry looked over.

Inside the small tree hollow, a person was lying.

An old man.

He was barely breathing, and he was looking at me with heterochromatic eyes.

"Mr. Grindelwald?"

Harry was taken aback and rushed forward.

The others also rushed over.

"How could this be?" Hermione was a little overwhelmed and her eyes reddened slightly.

Grindelwald was seriously injured at this time.

His exposed skin was covered in brown, scaly patches, somewhat like the marks left by a fire.

But Irving prefers to believe it's a curse.

"I can heal you." Owen immediately waved his wand.

He recognized the person before him as the real Grindelwald, not someone else's trap.

"No—" Grindelwald said weakly, lying in the tree hollow, "That's it."

"That's good."

His cheeks twitched slightly, as if he wanted to smile, but the pain prevented him from doing so.

"Take it," he said to Irving. "Take it."

"No—" Irving shook his head and said firmly.

He knew exactly what his grandfather had asked him to take away.

Ancient magic.

Just like his grandmother, who possessed ancient magic.

My grandfather also had these traits, and even more.

Perhaps it was Irving's refusal that made him suddenly agitated.

"This is what we agreed upon."

"Take it away, please."

"No, Owen, you can't do this." Hermione stood in front of Owen. She had realized what was happening; she wasn't a fool.

She knew that Ms. Wenda from the school nurse's office might have passed away.

She couldn't let Irving lose two loved ones in one day.

"Irving!" Grindelwald shouted with renewed vigor, as if he had just regained his strength.

He stretched out his hand, which was already as black as charcoal.

He stroked the cheek of Irving, who was kneeling beside him.

A touch of pity, a touch of pain, a touch of self-blame.

Complex emotions are like wine, spicy yet filled with an irresistible sweetness.

"I know what I'm doing," he said slowly. "For you, for all of us."

"Take it away. Take it away, child."

"Have you forgotten your last name?"

He suddenly laughed, but it was a very forced laugh.

"Sanchez"

"The adventure is over."

"Perhaps the next time we meet will be when you dig up my coffin again."

He seemed to have used up all his strength.

He suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.

His life force vanished instantly; in the blink of an eye, the warmth would disappear from his body.

Irving extended his hand.

She held her grandfather's hand tightly.

Suddenly, in a realm invisible to ordinary people, the light of ancient magic shone forth.

Tiny specks of light emanated from Grindelwald's body and then entered his body.

As these magical powers gradually fade away.

Grindelwald seems to have regained some vitality.

His memories began to churn.

Layer by layer, peeling back the layers, we sail towards the past.

From escaping from Nurmengard to confronting Dumbledore.

Then there's the Dark Lord who swept through Irving's ranks.

Little by little, thoughts rippled across the surface of a lake, the waves flowing backward through time and space, converging back to the initial drop of water that fell into the lake.

Everything.

The very first day.

Summer of 1899, Godric Valley.

Two young people met in the wilderness.

A strand of silver appeared in Irving's hand.

He remained silent.

He reached out and handed it to Harry.

That was a memory.

There's no Pensieve here, but Irving wouldn't mind using some rough methods.

Harry stared blankly at Owen.

A hint of doubt flashed in his green eyes.

But that didn't stop him from raising his arm and taking Irving's outstretched hand.

The next second, countless memories flooded into Harry's mind like a tidal wave.

In a daze, he felt as if he had returned to the headmaster's office at Hogwarts.

Dumbledore was standing in front of him.

The principal said a lot.

It's about him, it's about Voldemort.

Regarding the plans between him and Grindelwald.

"We must make Voldemort think he's going to win."

In my memory, Dumbledore said coldly.

"We must wait until the very end."

"Do you know what this means?" Harry felt like he was speaking, but the voice wasn't his; it was Grindelwald's.

"I know. It may contain the lives of many people, including mine."

"You're willing to give your life for that Potter kid?" Grindelwald's voice sounded somewhat annoyed.

"That's only part of it. To ensure the Elder Wand is in Voldemort's hands, and its owner must be Harry," Dumbledore said, looking intently at Grindelwald. "That means you must kill me, Gale."

"That's up to you."

"Only you can buy them time."

"So you didn't even consider whether I was willing?" Grindelwald roared angrily.

Then, silence fell over the principal's office, a long silence.

There was only a strange crackling sound in the room.

Phoenix Fox is gnawing on a small piece of cuttlefish bone.

"I knew you would," Dumbledore said calmly after a long pause.

"If I were to die at someone's hands."

"Then I hope that person will be you."

"."

Silence once again.

It's longer than last time.

"And the boy?" Grindelwald finally spoke, "Harry Potter."

"Harry—" The old headmaster's tone was somewhat sad.

"Tell him that on the night Voldemort tried to kill him, when Lily sacrificed her life to stand between them, the Killing Curse rebounded onto Voldemort, and a fragment of Voldemort's soul was blasted away and attached to the only living soul in the collapsed house."

A part of Voldemort lives inside Harry, giving Harry the ability to talk to snakes and connect with Voldemort's mind, which has always puzzled him.

As long as the fragment of Voldemort's soul that wasn't discovered remains attached to Harry and protected by him, Voldemort might not die.

Harry seemed to be watching Dumbledore and Grindelwald from the end of a long tunnel, so far away that their voices echoed strangely in his ears.

"So that boy... must die?" Grindelwald asked calmly.

"Yes, and it must be Voldemort himself who does it. That's very important."

"Hoo—" Grindelwald took a deep breath. "Are you ready? He might not be as lucky as last time against the Killing Curse. He will die. Your methods, the Elder Wand, souls—these might all fail."

"How many men and women have we witnessed die!" Dumbledore exclaimed. "How is it that that soul is still inside Harry? If Voldemort were to finally ignite the Soulfire to communicate with the Outer Gods, what do you think that child would become?"

"A monster, a monster controlled by Voldemort," Grindelwald said bluntly.

Dumbledore closed his eyes.

"This world has suffered too much trauma. She can't take any more."

"And what about Irving?" Grindelwald asked again. "What about him? Is his fate sealed too? Isn't there anything you can do about it?"

"I'm sorry," Dumbledore said, his voice filled with even more sorrow.

"His fate. I learned about his fate years ago during a conversation with Nick."

"His body is a direct descendant of his mother, Gabriel Rozier. You know, she was an artificial alchemical lifeform created by Vanda, whose bloodline is a mixture of many magical creatures."

"Such a bloodline is destined to be full of loopholes and flaws. His mother, Gabriel Rozier, went to seek the Tower of Divine Gifts precisely because she could not break through the bloodline's limitation on lifespan."

Irving, too, has this lifespan limitation in his bloodline, even more severe than his mother's.

Nick told me he wouldn't live past 19.

"19 years old—ha!" Grindelwald sneered.

"Is this Merlin? The legendary great magician! He's terrifyingly cruel!"

"So that child is just a pig Merlin is raising to be slaughtered—and if he doesn't want to be killed, then Merlin's backup plan will cause his body to break down?"

"That damned old bastard. Doesn't he have even a shred of human compassion?"

"call"

Grindelwald was panting heavily.

He was filled with boundless pain.

Harry could sense it.

He could feel the burning anger and pain of the person he was "possessed" by.

"And in the end? What was the ending?"

Dumbledore looked at him and said calmly, "I leave the choice to Miss Granger."

"She will make a decision, and I can't predict it. It might be good, it might be bad. But in any case, we—we did our best."

------

Harry's eyes cleared again.

Finally, the truth has come out.

He stumbled and walked to a tree root, then sat down.

In fact, he had already guessed it.

He had this guess after he learned what Horcruxes were.

There is a part of Voldemort's soul inside his body.

However, he thought he was ready.

But now, he finds that he still hesitates and is still afraid.

He had a million business ideas in his mind, so he ran away, ran far away, and lived with Sirius Black.

Ignore other people, ignore the world.

Voldemort could not possess the entire world; he still had a place to live.

"Huff—" Harry breathed heavily without realizing it.

He felt his heart pounding violently in his chest. How strange it was that, despite his fear of death, his heart was beating with extraordinary strength, bravely sustaining his life.

But it has to stop, and it will stop very soon. It won't be able to beat many more times.

At that moment, he thought of many things: Privet Drive, Godric's Hollow, Hogwarts.

He felt his fingers trembling slightly.

But he tried his best to control himself.

Just then—a cold voice rang in his ear.

It rang in the ears of all the rebels.

"You put up a brave resistance," said the high-pitched, cold voice. "Lord Voldemort knows how to appreciate courage."

"But you have suffered heavy losses. If you continue to resist, you will die one by one. I do not want that to happen. Every drop of a wizard's blood is a loss and a waste."

"Lord Voldemort is merciful. I order my troops to retreat, immediately. You have one hour to properly settle the dead and treat the wounded."

"Owen Rozier, Harry Potter, I'm speaking directly to you now. You let your friends die for you instead of standing up to me."

I am surrounded by many of your companions now.

I will wait in the Forbidden Forest for an hour.

If you do not come to me in an hour, and do not surrender, then the battle will continue. This time, I will send out my true army, which will overwhelm all those who attempt to rebel at Hogwarts like a vast ocean.

One hour!!!

The chilling voice faded away.

Harry stared intently at Owen.

Irving didn't seem to care and continued doing his own thing.

Wrap Grandpa in soft silk.

Then he used the surrounding tree trunks to cover his body.

He can't take them—none of them can.

Because no one can guarantee that they will never die.

Finally, Harry stood up.

He suddenly seemed to remember something.

Then he reached into the inside pocket of his shirt, rummaged around for a while, and took out a ring.

—I opened it at the end.

Harry stared down at the ring, his breathing rapid and heavy. He wished time would slow down, but it seemed to speed up. Without a second thought, it dawned on him: this was the end. It was time.

He pressed the ring to his lips and whispered, "I'm going to die."

(End of this chapter)