Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 343 Soul Separation!

Harry had a dream.

In that dream, he saw a bloody thing writhing wildly—it seemed to be a limb, whether arm or leg, but it was thinner and shorter than anyone else's arm or leg, and it didn't seem to come from a fairy or elf, as if its owner was a deformed dwarf. Moreover, its surface was bloody, as if a layer of skin had been peeled off.

He saw that the limb, which had been tightly bound to him, was now trembling violently and slowly separating, as if an invisible hand was forcibly tearing him off Harry.

He could feel the slippery, fleshy texture clinging to his skin, rubbing back and forth repeatedly with the trembling of his limbs, filling him with both fear and terror. He had absolutely no idea why such an ugly and disgusting thing was hanging on his body. He tried to tear it off himself, but found that he seemed to have lost control of his body, and could only watch helplessly as the limb continued to tremble—but the only thing that gave him a sliver of comfort was that it was probably really about to leave his body.

However, he also had a vague feeling that he should have known what this limb was, even though someone had mentioned it to him, but he just couldn't remember it no matter what.

An empty silence surrounded him; the struggling limb was the only thing reminding Harry that time was still passing. He couldn't move, but the severed limb was being slowly and steadily pried off his body, torn away, and pulled further away…

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Harry saw the limb finally being torn off his body. He then felt a sudden lightness throughout his body, followed by an incredibly refreshing sensation that surged from the area where the limb had just been removed, spreading throughout his entire body. He didn't know how to describe the feeling—was it like suddenly being freed from heavy shackles? Or like suddenly being able to fly freely?

The severed limb, the instant it separated from Harry, seemed to have exhausted all its strength and stopped struggling abruptly. Then, it was pulled outward at an increasingly rapid pace, quickly shrinking into a red dot in Harry's eyes...

boom!

Suddenly, he heard a muffled thud in the distance, and at the same time felt his head being hit hard from the inside, as if something was about to burst out of his brain...

"Ouch!"

This feeling jolted Harry awake; he could once again feel control over his body. Memories of the time before he lost consciousness flooded his mind, allowing him to quickly grasp the meaning of the dream he had just experienced…

"That bloody limb...is that Voldemort's soul possessing me?"

He recalled with a nausea—he had coexisted with that thing for a full fourteen years!

"But Ken seemed to say I should have the surgery while unconscious... So why am I awake again? Did something go wrong? Or... Ah!"

He suddenly cried out in pain, then instinctively opened his eyes. The feeling of something trying to burst out of his skull returned, even stronger than before—so strong that he wanted to press his forehead against it, afraid it would actually fly out…

"Don't move!"

The moment he raised his hand, a familiar voice rang out, causing his hand to freeze in mid-air: "Now is the most crucial moment, we're almost done! Don't move! Hold on for a few more seconds!"

Harry, however, almost forgot to respond.

The instant he opened his eyes, he was greeted by a thick, gray mist, within which floated a contorted, pained face—almost identical to the gray mist he had seen before, the mist that had been torn from the crystal ball…

And this gray mist was being continuously pulled out from his forehead—or more precisely, from his lightning-shaped scar—and poured into the ornate locket embedded in the nearest ring!

He roughly understood why his forehead hurt so much—at this distance, he could almost hear the faint, yet incredibly agonizing screams emanating from the face within the gray mist. It was probably still desperately trying to struggle back into its body. But the force pulling it was simply too overwhelming, and so the gray mist was slowly and completely extracted from Harry's body…

Finally, the last wisp of gray mist before Harry's eyes was sucked into the locket, and the throbbing pain dissipated—he felt refreshed like never before, as if he had been reborn.

"Alright, you can come out now—how does it feel to have your soul cleansed of impurities?"

Avada's face had turned ashen, he tapped the device with his wand to stop it, and then gave Harry a relaxed smile.

"My God, this feeling..."

Harry stood up in surprise, stretched his arms, and looked around—how come he never knew before that controlling his own body and receiving information from the outside world was such an easy and wonderful thing?

Moreover, he could feel the holly wand in his pocket cheering and thumping, constantly emitting the same warm feeling he had when he first picked it up—it was strange, Ollivander had clearly said that he was chosen by this wand because of his connection with Voldemort, but now that the last trace of his connection with Voldemort had been removed, why was his wand becoming even closer to him?

Perhaps the one it was close to from the beginning was not the one that coexisted with Voldemort, but the real, complete self it is now?

The thought made Harry even happier, and the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up...

"Alright, stop grinning like an idiot. I think Hogwarts is a better place for you to experience a completely new version of yourself than the Room of Requirement."

Avada chuckled and urged Harry to quickly carry the chair out, glancing at Ron, who was still staring blankly at Harry, and said, "We're lucky—if Harry had moved any bigger and moved out of the center, you would have had to hold him down."

"So...you really succeeded?"

Ron stared blankly at the innermost locket in the ring, recalling the scene of the gray mist shooting out of Harry's forehead: "Was that Voldemort's soul? For the past fourteen years, that thing has been residing in him?"

"And I didn't even notice it."

Harry said with lingering fear, "It's unimaginable—if you and Dumbledore hadn't sealed Voldemort in time, he would have definitely been resurrected sooner or later, and as long as I'm still alive, he wouldn't have died..."

"Alright, if there's nothing else, you can leave now."

Avada Kedavra gulped down a vial of potion, which slightly restored his complexion. "Next, I need to deal with these Horcruxes, completely depriving Voldemort of his means of survival—or would you be interested in witnessing this again?"

(End of this chapter)