war and peace

"What did you do to him?" Harry strode over, crouching down beside Morfin Gaunt.He originally thought that he would see an opening in a certain part of the person's body, but after stretching his hand over, he realized that the person was still breathing.

Tom took a step back, as if trying to keep his distance from Harry. "Stunning Curse," he said, his tone cold, "but for a body like his, the effect is probably no different from the Killing Curse."

After making sure Morfin was still alive, Harry stood up. "So you took my wand so the Ministry wouldn't find out? What the hell are you trying to do?" he repeated, in disbelief. "Is that all you want for the Resurrection Stone ring?"

"It's time for you to go back," said Tom, taking another step back, almost wiping the dirty table. "I've been thinking about it for a long time. It's all planned. You shouldn't come."

Harry was so annoyed that he almost went mad the moment he thought Tom had killed Morfin.But now this anger has been suppressed, replaced by a kind of confusion: "Go back? Where are you going back? What are you talking about?"

"Where you used to be." Tom said calmly, but Harry noticed a vein popping out on the back of his hand holding the knife. "More than 50 years later."

Harry felt another kind of irritation rising. "Can't you speak clearly?" He himself knew that the time and space he was in was wrong, but how could Tom ask him to go back with such a weird gesture?Is it possible to succeed with the Soul Resurrection Stone Ring and Morfin's Short Knife?And if he read it right, Tom took a few steps back just now to prevent himself from snatching his wand back, right?

"It looks like you don't know yet." The candlelight made Tom's face paler, indifferent and expressionless. "I'm not real."

Harry now very much suspected that Tom had crashed his brain without him knowing. "What the hell are you talking about?" he demanded, and took a step towards Tom.

"Maybe I didn't make it clear enough," Tom said, walking around the table unnoticed, backing up toward the door. "I'm not real, neither is Morfin, nor is this world. The only exception is you, so you should go back."

"What did you say?" Harry moved himself a step towards the door, and then realized that he was instantly surprised: "This world doesn't really exist? How do you know?"

Tom seemed to take a deep breath, and after a while went on: "Slytherin says my soul is torn apart."

"What? That's impossible!" Harry retorted immediately, completely surprised.He had been by Tom's side throughout the fifth grade, if there was such a thing as a Horcrux, there was no way he would not have known about it!However, the soul is split... He subconsciously touched the scar on his forehead.So he was spotted by Slytherin too?

"It's true that I haven't done it now." Tom looked much calmer than him, "But I think that I will probably do it in the future."

Something flashed through Harry's mind. "So I keep saying, you're the same person!" Then he thought about the problem.He has never felt that he has returned to history, but everything feels very real.He also thought about how to return to the real world more than 50 years later, but he still couldn't get in.However, if Tom and Voldemort were one person, where did he end up?

Harry thought so, and asked so.

Tom was silent for a few seconds.When he finally spoke, his voice was much lower: "I guess it's a memory."

"Your memory in the future?" Harry responded immediately.Makes sense... That's why he himself has a subtle sense of violation and historical difference, and that's why Tom, who has never split his soul, has another piece of his own soul... Harry suddenly thought that before the final battle, he Dumbledore, who was supposed to die, was seen in a vast expanse of whiteness.He thought it was Station Nine and a Quarter, and it felt real too, but it wasn't a real world—how similar the two situations were!

Harry thought he knew roughly what Tom was up to, but he still didn't know how he was going to do it. "So you're saying it's time for me to go back... Do you know how to get out of your own memory? Or consciousness?"

"I don't know." Tom shook his head.He took another step in the opposite direction from Harry, and they were now circling a few steps apart.

"Just remember, but are you sure? And what do you want to do?" Harry sensed his desire to keep his distance, and his anger rose. "The way you figured it out is to play confrontation with me in this dirty room?"

Tom shook his head slightly, and for a moment Harry thought he saw reluctance in those very dark eyes.But the feeling was fleeting, because Tom said again: "My method, try it out."

"How?" Harry asked hastily.But looking at Tom's appearance, he subconsciously felt that he definitely didn't like that way.

Tom's answer really made Harry's anger rise to a new high. "Kill a person. Since it's a memory, you won't die if you kill it, right?"

"You—!" Harry almost died of anger. "Then what if you guessed wrong? Didn't that person die inexplicably?" Then he noticed that Tom just turned back to Morfin who was still unconscious. "You still want to kill Morfin!"

"No, I just want to get his soul-returning stone ring." Tom admitted his intention frankly this time, and then changed the subject again. "Since you can enter other people's memories, you should not be an entity either. There will be problems if your soul leaves your body for too long. You really should go back."

"You're going to kill someone to make me go back?" Harry almost growled. "Then I'd rather not! I don't want blood to pave my way!"

"But if you don't, you may die." Tom was indifferent to his anger, and even raised the knife in his hand a little.

He couldn't keep Harry in this world forever.If Harry doesn't go back, the soul fusion won't work - because there is no body.And if he's not wrong in his judgment, it should be a two-way process.Harry failed, and the future will not be easy for him, and the world in his memory in the future will also be very unsafe, full of unknown and unstable factors.

Harry found it unreasonable that Tom could discuss murder with him so calmly.Is he too stupid or Tom is too profound, why can't he understand what Tom is thinking when he wakes up? "You don't touch Morfin," he warned, mentally calculating the chances of a second strike. "Even if you take my wand, I won't let you succeed."

"I know," Tom almost laughed, "but what's the use of killing him? Here's my memory."

"Wait!" After Harry realized what he was saying, he was frightened for a moment, and he couldn't speak continuously at all. "What do you mean by that... the person you want to kill is... yourself?"

Tom was actually laughing now. "That's right," he said cheerfully, with a little blush on his pale face, "I've been thinking about this for a long time... You're here because of me, and if this If the contact disappears, then you can go back?" He raised his right hand holding the knife, and the tip of the knife pointed at his heart.

"Don't, don't move!" Harry's eyes widened, he was really frightened now, and his voice was very nervous. "Don't do anything stupid! And a knife can't really kill a wizard, have you forgotten?" Then he found his hands clenched into fists trembling unconsciously, something like this had never happened before— —Even when facing the maddened Voldemort before, his hands never shook.

"If and only if that wizard really doesn't want to live." Tom immediately added the adverbial for him.That's how Merope-Gunter died, didn't he?Although she died of illness, and he committed suicide. "And you see," he showed Harry the Resurrection Stone ring with his other hand, "I've prepared well, haven't I?"

Harry now finally understood what Tom's previous question meant.He asked if the soul stone ring could store memories, and the voice asked him from a distance if he would remember.Tom has made up his mind.He firmly believed that this was his own memory. In order for Harry's soul to go out of his memory, he would kill his 16-year-old self, and then seal this self in the soul-returning stone ring.

"If this is your memory, then the Resurrection Stone Ring is not real either!" Harry was already hoarse.He didn't dare to approach, because Tom was watching his movements, and he was afraid that if he moved, Tom would plunge the knife in immediately.He had to stall for time, to see if he could find an opportunity for Tom to relax.

"But now I can only choose to believe it. After all, I tried it just now, and it seems to be effective." Tom frowned, but immediately relaxed, "Although this world is not real, I still want to preserve this memory ...This is already the best choice, isn't it?"

Harry wanted to continue persuading, but something seemed to hit him hard on the head.

That swamp, that valley;

fly across the sky, across the ocean;

With a sword in one hand and an olive branch in the other;

Make the choice, it is the most important decision of your life.

The old Gaunt house began to crumble.First the roof, the wall, they twisted and disappeared into the air; then the trees outside, the path, the hillside, it seemed that an invisible hand was pulling them down until they were invisible; finally the sky, the sun and the clouds Disappeared, everything evaporated into nothingness in an instant.

Harry stood dumbfounded on the dirty stone floor, watching Tom with the knife maintain the stabbing motion and slowly become transparent, spread out and disappear like mist.He wanted to call him, wanted to rush over, but he couldn't speak or move.Then he fell, and the last image he could see was a white bridge half shrouded in mist.

When he woke up again, what Harry saw as soon as he opened his eyes was a silver-green ceiling, and a ceiling decorated with golden buttercup leaves.

This is... the secret room of the secret room!He is back?

Harry sat up as soon as he rolled over, so violently that he immediately felt top-heavy.After the dizziness passed, he realized that he was lying on the bed just now.When he and Voldemort experimented on the pair of rings that are said to be able to fuse souls, they were indeed in the Chamber of Secrets, but in the hall outside.How did he get on the bed then?

But this is not the point.He came back, which means that the previous world was indeed Voldemort's memory?Harry straightened out his thoughts, logical and organized.He remembered everything, from the tit-for-tat confrontation in the previous life to the love and killing in this life, to the youthful Voldemort when the rings worked.

That means he succeeded, right?Very good!Harry had just breathed a sigh of relief, and then remembered that real heart palpitation.He actually stabbed it down!What about Voldemort?

Turning his head, Harry saw the man lying beside him.Voldemort closed his eyes and seemed to be asleep.

"Wake up, wake up!" Harry leaned over to call him, but the latter didn't respond.This is very strange, Voldemort is always alert when he sleeps, and there is no way he can't wake up after being called out by him.Harry was in a hurry, and stretched out his hand to push it, but it turned out to be cold.

Voldemort's body was freezing cold.Not only that, his breathing was short and shallow, and his face was completely devoid of blood, which was very abnormally white.

Harry felt his heart sink.He stayed in Voldemort's memory for a year, so it can be inferred that Voldemort should also be in his memory for a certain year.But no matter what kind of moment it is, Voldemort's strength is far higher than him, so there shouldn't be any problems!Why did Voldemort look dying now that he had returned safely?

On the table not far from the bed, a ring engraved with incomprehensible ancient characters shimmered under the candlelight.