I, Hogwarts Second Week

Riddle 5

The two spells collided violently.

Like a cannonball.

Harry saw the golden flames burst out of their spells at the joint where the spells collided.

He saw that Voldemort's green light was actually weakening, and the golden flames entered his hand, and then the Elder Wand flew into the air.

Spinning, like snowflakes, it flew into his hand in a way that had no physical logic.

Finally, the Elder Wand returned to its true owner.

Everything was so natural.

Harry held his Phoenix Wand in one hand and the Elder Wand in the other, looking calmly at Voldemort, who was staring at him in the distance.

"This - Impossible!"

Voldemort staggered back, his arms open.

The Killing Curse rebounded on him, causing severe damage to his flesh.

Like cracked bark, it fell off bit by bit.

"No - No!"

Voldemort's soul screamed.

But the sound could not be transmitted to the real world at all.

Soon, like a burnt firewood, his consciousness fell into nothingness and darkness.

Darkness.

Still darkness.

Like the eternal sigh after the universe was extinguished.

There was nothing here.

A land of nothingness.

Perhaps for a moment, perhaps for a long time.

Suddenly, a little light appeared in the endless darkness, like a star suddenly appeared in the sky covered by dark clouds.

It was very weak, as if it could be blown out with a breath, dim and unclear.

But it was a signal.

After perhaps an eternity. Such light, such stars are increasing.

Finally, the entire darkness was pierced, and more and more faint lights appeared around.

The stars were shining.

At this time, a monster materialized from the stars.

The monster had wings, twenty arms square, and was composed of six wriggling human arms.

It was huge, and a tooth shining with cold light was the size of an adult... and it was still getting bigger.

Four green eyes like the killing curse looked down at the front.

The eyes were cold. Or maybe it was a feeling of hunger. At this scale, it was really hard to tell.

Under its feet, a stream of purple liquid rolled and expanded.

Fast, slow.

Gradually filling the entire darkness. Forming a lavender ocean.

"My true self makes you feel unhappy." It spoke, with an unexpectedly calm tone.

Its voice was deafening, shaking the sea surface under its feet, and thousands of void remoras poured out of the sea water.

This sound bent everything and squeezed everything, both a whisper and a roar. The sea water continued to overlap, endless. Millions of voices synthesized into an aria.

Tom Riddle's soul lay peacefully on a lavender sea.

A shiny broken dagger tip was stuck in his chest.

A strange magic flowed out of this dagger.

"Why?" Voldemort said mechanically.

His body was stuck with this dagger.

There were also six other wounds that looked like they were cut by knives and axes.

These were the wounds left by the creation of Horcruxes.

Looking closely, there seemed to be something tiny in those wounds, like larvae, tentacles, and blood vessels. Like a Muggle surgery, the wounds were roughly sewn together.

"【Star Blade】-a flame of eternal soul fire that is invisible to mortals. Using it can allow mortals to ignite soul fire and become gods."

The monster's voice was pervasive.

"It needs souls containing the magic of stars as new firewood to burn again."

"It's the stars that are important-not the magic. You lack a carrier."

"And you are about to become my food. It can be considered as becoming a god."

The monster's magnificent body was bulging with hair and beard. The starlight cast a series of faint stripes on its ray-like body, outlining a false sun on the lavender sea, like the halo of a dying world.

The new body swayed against a tide of nothingness, blood vessels briefly lit up, then pulled away from its skin, each a living creature in its own country.

A school of thousands of void remoras swam around their goddess, like birds circling over distant peaks.

It was simply beautiful.

If there were gods in the starry sky, this would be the scene before our eyes. Distorted and horrible, hideous and weird, and beautiful beyond measure.

"No!" Tom Riddle roared unwillingly as if he had suddenly woken up.

His magic, all his efforts on the road to immortality, had all lost their effect. Under the influence of a strange force, his body was breaking apart, and he was about to become nothingness completely.

Power, immortality, immortality, all of them were a ridiculous dream, and now this dream was awakened!

But he was still struggling.

The last struggle of a dying man.

"You can't do it." The many voices of the gods answered in unison. "You are powerless to even offer the slightest resistance. When you accept my power, you are destined to become the salt of this lavender sea. The only difference this time is that if you succeed, your remaining fragments will retain their full sanity, but if you fail..."

The gods enjoy Tom Riddle's soul.

Taste this good food.

"You lied to me," Tom finally roared, "You lied to me!"

"I never lie, mortal," the deity said, "because I don't need to. My final victory is an absolute fact that cannot be shaken. There is no need for lies, pretense or doubt. Open your eyes and I will make you bear witness."

The ocean began to shrink. The deity's huge body stretched, twisted, and then folded - shrinking to a more recognizable shape.

She floated down silently and hung in front of Tom.

Tendrons and eyestalks shifted positions and reconstructed into an oval sphere made of several shapes - like a human head.

She stared at her audience with two faces, while wrapping her wings around her body, revealing the tall figure of a woman of noble status.

Hair that looked like the Milky Way. Soft and shiny, dancing without wind,

Green eyes deep and cold.

A gorgeous ancient British court dress, embroidered with gold thread, complex and exquisite, with a wide and elegant skirt, gently swinging the exposed delicate legs and feet as if they were some kind of finely crafted works of art.

The goddess, with the same face as Owen.

This was the last thing Voldemort saw - he opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

But his throat had sunk into the lavender sea.

At this moment, time seemed to have stopped.

His thoughts, his spirit, everything about him was entering eternal sleep.

In a trance, he felt a faint warm current flowing from the position of his heart.

Tom didn't know what it was.

But it was like a match on a cold night.

He instinctively felt, attached, and embraced.

"Am I going to die?"

"Is this death?"

Suddenly, Tom heard a voice.

Saw a person.

He found himself as if he had come to King's Cross Station.

Bustling and noisy, everything around him made him feel familiar.

"This is" Tom recognized it without careful identification. This was the day when he first boarded the train and went to Hogwarts for the first time.

"I"

I looked at King's Cross Station and searched frantically for something.

Soon - I found my young self.

That was the first time I left the orphanage and went to a distant place.

The endless scenery outside the train window and the infinite imagination of the future made me feel particularly comfortable.

This is something I have never experienced in the eleven years in the orphanage.

Tom seemed to be watching a movie.

Watching another part of his life.

——————

September 1, 1938.

I came to Hogwarts. Because of my orphan status, I especially wanted to find news about my parents in this castle.

I know that if they are wizards, they must have gone to school here.

Maybe -

Maybe during a night exploration, I also found the abandoned classroom.

I also found the Mirror of Erised in that dusty classroom.

I saw a warm family in the magic mirror - they were not united because of the love potion, but because of love.

They stood behind me, stroking my cheeks, and telling me about family affection.

I couldn't help but sneak in front of the mirror every night and meet them often.

When Transfiguration teacher Dumbledore found me, he would tell me: Tom, the magic mirror allows us to see the most ardent and strongest desire in our hearts.

I immediately denied it, no, I didn't want to see my parents.

But I didn't dare to look directly at the shining eyes behind Dumbledore's half-moon eyes.

There is no doubt that I still discovered my Slytherin bloodline through the ability of Parseltongue.

In the fifth grade, I found Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, opened the Chamber of Secrets, and killed Myrtle.

Seeing that someone really died, I began to panic.

I was afraid that the school would be closed, because I never wanted to go back to the orphanage full of abandonment.

Maybe - maybe I didn't hide it this time. I didn't choose to frame someone.

I found Transfiguration Professor Dumbledore. Tell him that I opened the Chamber of Secrets.

Dumbledore was silent for a long time, and finally told me: No one is perfect, the most important thing is to be a better person.

Then he gave me something.

He told me that if everything goes well tonight, I will save an innocent life.

Three turns are enough.

This is a time turner.

It is strictly protected by the Ministry of Magic, and only the best model students of Hogwarts can apply for one with the consent of the professor.

And I-just happen to be the best student in the history of Hogwarts.

I used the time turner to go back to the past and closed the secret room before Myrtle met the basilisk.

The school does not need to be closed because of this.

I do not have to go back to the orphanage.

During the summer vacation, I returned to the old Gaunt house.

I learned about my life experience and knew that I was not the fruit of love, but the product of aphrodisiac.

It was my wizard mother who used potions to seduce my Muggle father to give birth to me. This is how my noble Slytherin blood came from.

I collapsed. I came to the Riddle Mansion with resentment.

I clenched my wand and almost shouted the spell.

But - at the critical moment, perhaps it was the warm home in the Mirror of Erised that restrained my arm and prevented me from casting the spell.

But I still resented it, and in my anger, I used magic to turn my father into a balloon to punish him for abandoning my mother and me.

Because I used magic outside the school, I received a warning letter from the Ministry of Magic.

Dumbledore bailed me out at the Ministry of Magic and took me back to school.

On the way, he said: It is not our ability or our origin that determines our life, but our choice.

I was tired of his rhetoric about the ring, and even more tired of his argument that love is a magic weapon.

But two years later, in 1945, I saw Dumbledore defeat Grindelwald with my own eyes. After he was imprisoned in Nurmengard, something changed.

That night, Dumbledore seemed to be ten years older, and he was like a ghost wandering on the rooftop.

I ran into him.

I graduated that year, and I wanted to stay at Hogwarts to teach. So I didn't leave school during the summer vacation.

That night, Dumbledore and I talked all night long. He said a lot, and there were many things I didn't understand.

But Dumbledore insisted on telling me everything. He said: I hope I won't follow his wrong old path.

I don't understand, he is obviously the most powerful wizard in the world.

Why do I feel like I have nothing?

Is there anything that magic can't get?

The next day, I got a reply from the headmaster, Armando Dippet. He rejected my application to be the assistant of Defense Against the Dark Arts, but asked me to be the assistant of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

So, I stayed in Hogwarts.

Twenty-six years later, I became the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and the head of Slytherin College.

I never gave up studying the dark arts, and a thin student caught my attention. His name was Severus Snape.

He was also very interested in the dark arts, so he admired me very much.

He always had conflicts with the four-member group of Gryffindor. I often caught the four of them using the Marauder's Map to wander around in the middle of the night.

Every time I would mercilessly deduct points from Gryffindor.

I was alone and still didn't trust anyone.

I still didn't believe Dumbledore's statement that love can defeat death.

People admired me and were obsessed with me. They respected me because of my academic achievements.

But I was still lonely.

I still studied Horcruxes because of my fear of death, and even couldn't resist the temptation to create a Horcrux.

At this time, Dumbledore asked me to do a small favor.

His friend Nicolas Flamel wanted to destroy the Philosopher's Stone, hoping that I could help him with the fangs of the basilisk.

I was shocked. Would anyone in this world voluntarily give up immortality?

Dumbledore said to me: For people with a clear mind, death is just the beginning of another great adventure.

I didn't comment on this, and after helping him with this small favor.

The research on Horcruxes was put on hold.

Many years later, a group of new students entered Hogwarts.

James Potter and Lily Evans sent their son Harry Potter to school together.

They both worked in the Ministry of Magic, and James was also an Auror.

A second before Harry boarded the train, his godfather Sirius Black and Lupin arrived. Sirius gave Harry an old map and told him to open it if he encountered any trouble in Hogwarts.