Harry Potter and the Way of Reason

A cluster of dim green lights lead the way, followed by a shiny silver figure, everything else is invisible.They went down five corridors, turned right five times, and went up five stairs; Bellatrix drank the second bottle of chocolate milk and ate a few more solid chocolates in her hands.

After eating the third chocolate, Bellatrix made a strange noise in her throat.

It took Harry a long time to realize what it was, a sound he had never heard before; the rhythm of the sound was broken and almost unrecognizable, and it took him a long time to realize that it was Bellatrix crying.

Bellatrix Black was weeping, the darkest weapon of the Dark Lord, and though she was invisible, her voice could be heard, and the little, pathetic little thing she had been trying to hold back The sound, even now the sound has not disappeared.

"Is it true?" Bellatrix said.Her tone has fluctuated again, it is no longer a deathly mumbling to herself.The rising intonation at the end indicates that this is a question. "is this real?"

Yes, said the part of Harry impersonating the Dark Lord, now be quiet—

He couldn't let the words slip from his lips, he couldn't.

"I knew—you'd come—someday—to find me," Bellatrix whimpered softly, his broken voice trembling, "I knew—that you were alive—that you would— Find me—my master..." She took a deep breath, "and even—you come to me—you still won't love me—never—you'll never return my love - that's why - they can't take away - my love - even if I don't remember - a lot of things I don't remember - even if I don't know what I forget - but I remember how much I love You, master—"

These words pierced Harry's heart like a knife. He had never heard of such a terrible thing. He could go after the Dark Lord just for this...

"Are you of any use to you - my master?"

"No," Harry hissed without thinking, as if on autopilot, "I fell into Azkaban on a whim. Of course you're still useful! Don't ask stupid questions."

"But—I'm weak," Bellatrix said, and then let out a full sob that sounded especially loud in the corridors of Azkaban, "I can't kill any more for you, my lord , I'm sorry, they ate them all, they ate me whole, I'm too weak to fight, what use am I to you now—"

Harry's head was racing like hell, trying to find a way to comfort her from the Dark Lord's never-to-be-concerned mouth.

"Ugly," said Bellatrix.Her voice sounded like the word was the final nail in her coffin, the final desperation. "I'm so ugly, they eat this too, I, I'm not beautiful anymore, you can't even, give me, as, to servants, rewards - even Brother Lestrange , and won’t think, again, hurt me—”

The gleaming silver figure stopped in its tracks.

Because Harry stopped in his tracks.

The Dark Lord, he... The fragile, soft part of Harry was screaming with unbelievable terror, trying to resist reality, refusing to understand, while nonetheless, the colder, stronger part of him had come to a conclusion: if Even this kind of order will be obeyed, so other orders are not a problem at all.

The green flash jumped up and down quickly, leaping forward.

The silver figure stopped in place.

Bellatrix sobbed harder.

"I, I don't, no, can't have, what, use, anymore..."

A pair of huge hands were squeezing Harry's chest, twisting him like a towel, trying to crush his heart.

"Please," Bellatrix murmured, "kill me..." Her voice seemed to calm down after saying this. "Please, master, kill me, if I am no longer useful to you, I have no reason to live... I just want to stop... Please hurt me one last time, my master, hurt me until I stop... I love you..."

It was the saddest thing Harry had ever heard.

The silver figure of Harry's Patronus began to sway——

Trembling——

Brighten--

There was a surge of rage in Harry, rage against the Dark Lord who had done it all, against the dementors, against Azkaban, against the world that allowed such tragic things to happen, and it seemed to flow straight through He broke his arm and rushed into the wand, unable to stop it. He tried to stop it with will, but it was useless.

"Master!" Professor Quirrell whispered in a disguised voice, "My spell is out of control! Help me, Master!"

The Patronus was getting brighter and brighter, filling faster than it had been the day Harry had destroyed the Dementors.

"Master!" the black silhouette whispered in horror, "Help me! Everyone will feel it, Master!"

Everyone will feel it, Harry thought.He could clearly imagine that the prisoners in the cage began to move slowly, because the darkness and cold were dispelled, replaced by healing light.

Every exposed surface now reflected the light of a white sun, and Bellatrix's bony figure and the figure of the sallow man stood out clearly in the glare.The Disillusionment Charm couldn't keep up with this supernatural light; only the Cloak of Invisibility in the Deathly Hallows wasn't affected.

"Master! You must stop!"

But Harry didn't want to stop anymore, he didn't want to stop anymore.He felt that in Azkaban, more and more light of life was covered under the protection of the patron saint, as if the patron saint had spread the wings of the sun. When he thought so, the air completely became Silver, Harry knew what he had to do.

"Please, Master!"

He ignored the begging voice.

The dementors in the pit were far away, but Harry knew he could kill them even at this distance if the light was bright enough.He knew that as long as he went all out, death itself would not be able to look directly at him, so he opened all his channels, sinking the source of the power of the spell into the deepest part of his soul, all his consciousness and all his will, and then Injecting all of this into the mantra without reservation——

And in the center of the sun, a slightly dimmer shadow took a step forward and stretched out a beseeching hand.

error

Must not

A sense of impending doom met Harry's steely will, fear and uncertainty met bright intent, and it was the only thing that could shake him.The black silhouette took another step closer, another step, and the feeling of impending doom rose to a level of horrific catastrophe; after being splashed with cold water, Harry found out, he realized the consequences of what he had done, it was A crisis, a trap.

If you look from the outside, you can see that the inside of the sun is flickering on and off...

flickering...

...Finally, it finally began to fade, faded, and faded into ordinary moonlight, which seemed to become pitch black compared to the previous light.

In the darkness, illuminated by moonlight, a man with a sallow complexion was holding out a hand in supplication, while a scrawny woman lay on the ground, confused.

Still invisible, Harry fell to his knees.A major crisis had just passed, and now Harry was just trying not to collapse, to keep the spell going at a lower level.He's consumed something, hopefully not for good—he should have known, should have remembered, the Patronus is fueled by more than magic—

"Thank you, master." The sallow-faced man whispered.

"Idiot," said the boy in a grim voice disguised as the Dark Lord's. "Didn't I warn you? If you can't control your emotions, this spell can be fatal."

Professor Quirrell certainly didn't open his eyes in surprise.

"Yes, Master, I understand," the Dark Lord's servant faltered, then turned to Bellatrix—

She had sat up from the floor, moving slowly, like an old Muggle woman. "Funny," murmured Bellatrix, "you almost got killed by the Patronus Charm..." She let out a giggle that sounded like dust from a giggle pipe, "Perhaps I can punish you, if the master freezes you where you are, and I have a knife in my hand... Maybe I'll be of some use? Oh, I feel better, it's strange..."

"Quiet, Bella dear," Harry said calmly, "speak when I tell you to."

With no answer, Bella obeyed.

The servant levitated the scrawny figure, made her invisible again, and disappeared himself with a sound like an egg breaking.

They walked through the corridors of Azkaban.

And Harry knew that as they walked through the corridors, during those precious moments when the fear faded, the prisoners in the cage came alive, and maybe even felt a little healing as his light passed by.Then cold and darkness came back, and they fell again.

Harry was trying really hard not to think about it.

Otherwise his Patronus would start to light up until he burned all the dementors in Azkaban, his Patronus would light up enough to destroy them even at this distance...

Otherwise his Patronus would start to light up until all the dementors in Azkaban were burned, and all of Harry's life would be fuel.

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At the top of Azkaban, in the Auror's room, one of the three-person Auror team was snoring in the dormitory, one was resting in the lounge, and the third was on duty in the command room.The command room was simple but very large. There were three chairs on the back wall. Three Aurors were sitting on the chairs. There was only one step between them, shielding them from the terror of the dementors.

The three of them often sat in the back playing poker and never looked out the window.You can see some sky, of course, and even the sun for an hour or two a day, but that window also overlooks the very center of Hellpool.

Just in case the dementors want to float up and talk to you.

If it weren't for the need to support a family, Li Aoluo would never agree to this job, no matter whether the salary is three times or not. (His real name was Xiaoguang, but everyone called him Mike; he named his children Su and Gao, hoping they would be easier to use.) Apart from money, his only consolation was that at least he The dragon poker [1] played very well.Although after such a long time, it is difficult to play well.

It was their 5366th game, and Lee had possibly his best hand in 5300 hands.Today is a Saturday in February, there are three players, so he can change a suit of a hole card other than 2, 3, and 7 at will, so that he can use unicorns, dragons, and sevens to make a match... …

Across the table, Gerard McCusker looked up from the poker table and stared out the window.

Li's heart sank heavily.

If his seven of hearts was affected by the dementor modifier and turned into a six, he would only have two pair, and McCusker might win—

"Mike," McCusker said, "what happened to your Patronus?"

Lee looked back.

His silver badger had left his guard and was staring down at something only he could see.

A moment later, Barry's moonlit duck and McCusker's bright anteater followed suit, staring in the same direction.

They exchanged glances, then sighed.

"I'll talk to them," Barry said.The procedure calls for sending three Aurors who are not currently on duty, but not sleeping, to investigate the anomaly. "Maybe swap with one of them for the spiral staircase in Block C, if you don't mind."

Lee and McCusker exchanged a look, and they both nodded.If you're rich enough to hire a powerful wizard and good enough to hire someone who can cast the Patronus Charm, breaking into Azkaban isn't too difficult.This is what people who have friends in Azkaban do, they break in just to give someone half a day of their precious Patronus time, a chance to replace their nightmares with sweet dreams, and sneak some chocolate in their cage , increasing their chances of surviving their sentences.And the Aurors standing guard... well, even if they were caught, it was possible to persuade the Aurors to let them go, as long as the bribe was enough.

For Lee, a sufficient bribe generally ranged from two copper knuts to one silver Sickle.He hated this place.

But one-armed Barry has a wife, and his wife pays the therapist's bills.If you can afford to hire someone capable of breaking into Azkaban, you can also afford to slip through Barry's remaining hand, if he's the one who got you.

In a silent tacit understanding, none of them took the lead in releasing the water.Lee wins because the dementors don't show up.And by then the Patronuses were no longer looking in that direction, they were back on their usual patrols, so maybe nothing happened, but the procedure still had to go through.

After Lee collected the bet, Barry nodded to them and stood up.He was very old, his long white hair streaked across the delicate red robe, which dragged on the metal floor of the command room.

Barry went out of the room and went to find the Aurors who had been off work before.

Lee, who was a Hufflepuff, sometimes found the business disgusting.But Barry showed them the pictures, and you've got to get this guy to do something for his poor bedridden wife, especially with seven months left before he retires.

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A dim green flash drifted across the metal corridor, and the silver figure - looking slightly dimmer - followed closely behind.Sometimes, especially when passing through the huge metal doors, the glowing figures suddenly brightened, but the light always dimmed again.

Others invisible to the eye: the 11-year-old Boy Who Lived, the scrawny Bellatrix Black, and the disguised Hogwarts Defense Professor walking through Azkaban.If this was the start of some joke, at least Harry couldn't guess the end.

When they finished the fourth flight of stairs, Professor Quirrell said curtly in a gruff voice, "Here comes the Aurors."

Harry froze for a moment, it took probably a full second to react, adrenaline rushed into his blood, he remembered that Professor Quirrell had discussed with him, told him what to do in this situation.So Harry turned around and backed quickly the way he had come.

Harry ran down the stairs and fell flat on the third floor from the top. Even through the robe and the invisibility cloak, he could feel the cold and hard metal beneath him.Harry tried to look up over the edge of the stairs, but he couldn't see Professor Quirrell; that meant Harry was out of range of the stray bullet.

The bright Patronus followed him, and fell down on the flight of stairs below him, for the Patronus, too, cannot be seen.

There was a faint sound, like the sound of wind, or something running fast.Then there was the sound of Bellatrix's invisible body lying one step further down, and there was nothing she could do but—

"Don't move," said the cold high-pitched whisper, "don't make a sound."

So she stopped moving and made no sound.

Harry rested his wand on the metal step above him.Anyone else would need to get a Nat out of his pocket now... or tear a piece off his robe... or bite off a bit of a nail... or find a small pebble, big enough for him to see, and Shaped so that he does not change position or direction when he casts a spell with his wand.But with the all-powerful power of Harry's partial Transfiguration, he didn't have to go through such a hassle; he could skip that step and use whatever material was closest to him.

Thirty seconds later, Harry is proudly presented with a brand new curved mirror, and...

"Wingardium, Leviosa," Harry said as quietly as possible.

... floated the curved mirror directly above the steps, and through the curved mirror saw the entire corridor where the invisible Professor Quirrell was waiting.

Then Harry heard footsteps in the distance.

He saw a figure in a red robe (not very visible in the mirror) coming down the stairs and approaching the seemingly empty corridor; he was accompanied by a small Patronus animal, which Harry could not quite see. Qing is what.

The Aurors were protected by a layer of blue light, and Harry couldn't see details, but from what he could see, the Aurors had erected and strengthened their shields.

Too bad, thought Harry.The defense professor once said that the core technique of a duel is to try to develop a defense that blocks anything that someone else might throw at you, while at the same time trying to attack in a way that is likely to penetrate their current defenses.By far, the easiest way to win in any type of combat—and Professor Quirrell emphasized it over and over again—is to hit the enemy before they unfurl their shields, either from behind or close to The point where they can't dodge or fight back.

Professor Quirrell might still be able to attack from behind, though, if—

But the Auror stopped three paces from the corridor entrance.

"The Disillusionment Charm is good," said a gruff male voice in the hallway that Harry didn't recognize. "Come out now, or you'll be in real trouble."

Then a bearded man with a sallow complexion appeared.

"The one with the Patronus," said the gruff voice. "Come out for me too. Now."

"It's not a smart choice." The man with a sallow complexion said in a solemn voice.His voice was no longer trembling, no longer belonging to the Dark Lord's servant; it suddenly sounded like the professional threat of some skilled criminal. "You don't want to know who's behind me. Believe me, you don't. Five hundred Galleons, cash, as long as you turn around and walk away. If you don't, your career will be ruined." Big trouble."

There was a long pause.

"Look, whoever you are," said the snarky voice, "you seem to have misunderstood how this thing came about. I don't care if you're behind Lucius Malfoy or God damn it Thin Dumbledore. Come out all of you, and I'll go over you one by one, and then we'll talk about how much you'll pay—"

"Two thousand gold Galleons, this is the final offer." The solemn voice said, with a hint of warning in his tone. "That's ten times the going rate, more than your annual salary. And believe me, if you see something you shouldn't, you'll regret not taking it now—"

"Shut up!" said the gruff voice. "Put down the wand in five seconds or I'll have you down. Five, four—"

What are you doing, Professor Quirrell?Harry thought frantically.Attack first!At least get a shield first!

"—three, two, one! Fainted!"

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Barry stared, a chill ran down his spine.

The man was waving his wand so fast that it seemed as if it had been Apparated in place, and Barry's Stunning Spell was shining tamely at the tip of this wand.The man didn't block, counter, or deflect. He caught the spell, like sticking a bug with honey.

"My bid has dropped back to five hundred Galleons," the man said in a more grim, formal voice.He smiled nonchalantly, looking out of place with the bearded face. "And you also need to accept memory modification."

Barry had switched the resonant mode of the shield so his own spells wouldn't penetrate back, he had put his wand into a defensive position, he had raised his harder artificial hand, ready to block anything that could stand in the way , and has already begun to use a silent spell to add a few more layers to the shield——

The man wasn't looking at Barry.He poked curiously at Barry's Stunning Charm, which still hung from the tip of his wand.With his hands he pulled a string of red flashes from the spell, then flicked them off with his fingers, slowly breaking the spell, as if he were playing a child's stick puzzle.

The man didn't put any shields on himself.

"Tell me," the man's nonchalant voice didn't quite match his raspy one—Poison Potion, Barry thought, if anyone could actually use such subtle magic in other people's bodies— "What were you doing in the last war? Joined it, or stayed out?"

"Join it," Barry said.His voice was iron-like calm. As an Auror who had served for nearly 100 years and would be forced to retire in seven months, even Mad-Eye Moody could not have spoken more firmly.

"Ever fought a Death Eater?"

Barry smiled fearlessly. "One-on-two." The combat-type killers directly under the two mysterious people were personally trained by their dark masters.Two Death Eaters against Barry alone.It was the toughest fight of Barry's life, but he survived and only lost his left hand.

"Did you kill them?" The man sounded just casually curious as he continued to draw a stream of sparks from the fading stun spell stuck to the tip of his wand, his fingers now using Barry's He made some small patterns with his magic, and then shook his fingertips to dispel the magic.

The skin beneath Barry's robes began to sweat.With a downward flick of his metal palm, he removed a mirror from his belt—

"Barry calling Mike, I need backup!"

There was a pause, then silence.

"Barry calling Mike!"

The mirror lay lifeless in Barry's hand.He slowly hung the mirror back around his waist.

"It's been a long time since I've fought a real enemy seriously," the man said, still not looking at Barry. "Try not to disappoint me too much. You are ready to attack at any time. Or you can walk away with five hundred gold Galleons."

There was a long silence.

Then Barry swung his wand downward, and the air sounded like metal on glass.

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Harry could barely see, could barely make out anything in the intertwined images of light and shadow.His mirror curves were perfect (they practiced this tactic when they were in the Legion of Chaos), but the image was too small, and Harry didn't think he'd be able to make sense of it even if he stood a meter away.Everything happened so fast, the red shock wave was redirected by the blue shield, a lot of green light collided, hazy shapes appeared and disappeared, he couldn't even tell who cast what spell .All he knew was that the Auror was roaring out one spell after another while frantically dodging; at the same time, the disguised Professor Quirrell just stood there, shaking his wand, mostly silent, only occasionally He spat out some unintelligible language, and then the entire mirror would be enveloped in a blanket of white light, and when the mirror image returned, he could see the Auror staggering back a step, half of his shield ripped off.

Harry had watched two of the strongest seventh yearers duel, and this fight was so much more high-end than that, Harry's brain was numb to thinking about how far he had to go.No seventh year student could stand under this Auror for half a minute, and three seventh year armies combined might not be able to touch the defense professor...

The Auror was on one knee, propped up on one hand, gesticulating frantically with the other, yelling in despair that the few spells Harry could recognize were all Shield Charms.A mass of shadows swirled around him like a whirlwind of razor blades.

Then Harry saw the disguised Professor Quirrell deliberately aiming his wand at the Auror who was kneeling on the ground for the last resistance.

"Surrender." Said the solemn voice.

The Auror cursed.

"In that case," said the voice, "Avada—"

Time seemed to flow very slowly, as if every syllable had its own time, ka, then da, then wa, and then saw the aurors trying to dodge sideways; yet even it all happened so slowly , somehow, there was no time for someone to do something, no time for Harry to open his mouth to say no, no time to act, maybe not even time to think.

He only had time to pray desperately, because this innocent person didn't deserve to die like this—

A gleaming silver figure stood before the Auror.

Almost at the same time, a green light hit.

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Barry twitches wildly, wondering if he can—

His eyes were focused on the enemy and his menacing death, so Barry only caught a quick glimpse of the silhouette of the silver figure; he had never seen such a bright Patronus, and in this hasty glance he realized When it comes to the patron saint, it is impossible to be in this shape.The green and silver lights collided, and then both lights disappeared, both lights disappeared, the killing spell was blocked, and then Barry's ears stung, and he saw his terrible enemy screaming, screaming. screaming, screaming, screaming with his head in his hands, and started falling, and Barry was already falling—

With such haste, Barry fell to the ground, screaming in protest from his dislocated left shoulder and broken ribs.Ignoring the pain, Barry managed to get to his knees, grab his wand, and stun his foe, he didn't understand what was happening, but he knew it was his only chance.

"Passed out!"

The red light shot at the fallen man, then separated and disappeared in mid-air—not because of the shield.Barry could see something shaking in the air around the screaming foe on the ground.

Barry could feel that the deadly pressure almost broke through his skin, and the unstable magic power was increasing, increasing, increasing, heading straight to a certain terrifying explosive point.His gut was screaming, to run before it exploded, it wasn't a spell, it wasn't a curse, it was magic out of control, but before Barry could get to his feet—

The man drops his wand (he drops his wand!), and within moments, his body melts and he's gone.

A green snake lay motionless on the floor, and even when Barry reflexively shot another stunning spell at it, it didn't move, just so defenseless it was hit.

Barry's bewildered mind noticed that the screaming was still going on as the horribly unstable magic and pressure began to fade, the runaway magic faded away.It's just that it sounded different this time, like a little boy screaming from the stairs leading downstairs.

The screaming also stopped abruptly, and then only Barry's rapid gasps remained.

His thoughts were slow, confused, and confused.His enemies were strong and crazy, and this wasn't a duel, it was like trying to fight Madam Tamar when he was still in his first year of Auror training.The strength of the Death Eaters is less than one-tenth of his, and Mad-Eyes Moody is not that strong... And for Merlin's sake, who is it, what is used, and what method is used to block the death curse?

Barry managed to pull himself together, pressed his wand to his ribs, muttered a healing spell, and pressed his wand to his shoulder.The action took more energy than usual, draining him so much energy that his magic had bottomed out; he was no longer able to heal his smaller scrapes, bruises, or even strengthen the remaining fragments of his shield .This is already the limit in the case of maintaining the Patronus.

Barry took a deep, heavy breath, held it as steady as he could, and spoke.

"You," Barry said, "whoever you are. Come out."

no answer.It occurred to Barry that whoever this person was might have lost consciousness as well.He didn't understand what was happening, but he heard screaming...

Well, there is a way to test it.

"Come out," Barry said, making his voice a little harsher, "or I'll be using a large area curse." Though he probably wouldn't be able to use it even if he tried.

"Wait," came a boy's voice, a little boy's voice, tremulously thin, as if trying desperately not to collapse or cry.The sound sounds close to being within reach. "Wait, I—come out—"

"Release invisibility," Barry roared.He was too tired to use the Anti-Disillusionment Charm.

After a while, a little boy's face appeared under the cloak, and Barry saw black hair, green eyes, glasses, and a red lightning scar.

Had his experience been 20 years less, he might have blinked in surprise.And now he's just swearing things that probably shouldn't be said in front of the Boy Who Lived.

"He, he," said the boy in a trembling voice, his immature face looked frightened and tired, with tears still streaming down his cheeks, "he kidnapped me and forced me to summon the Patronus... ...he said he would kill me if I didn't do it...but I can't just let him kill you..."

Barry's mind was still in turmoil, but the whole thing was slowly coming to the surface.

Harry Potter, the only wizard who survived the death curse.Barry might be able to dodge the green death ray, and he'd try to dodge it, but if it was up to the Wizengamot, they'd think it was a life owed to a noble family.

"I see." Barry's growl became much gentler.He walked up to the boy. "Son, I'm sorry for what you've been through, but I need you to take off the cloak and drop your wand."

The rest of Harry Potter was uninvisible, clad in his sweaty blue-trimmed Hogwarts uniform, and his right hand clutched his eleven-foot holly wand, knuckles All turned white.

"Your wand," Barry repeated.

"I'm sorry," the eleven-year-old murmured, "here." Then he held out his wand, pointing the tip at Barry.

Barry had a hard time refraining from swearing, the traumatized boy who had just saved his life.So he put the urge to curse aside, sighed, and held out his hand for his wand.

"You see, boy, you really shouldn't be pointing your wand at—"

The tip of the wand dangled in Barry's hand, and the boy whispered, "Go to sleep."

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Harry stared at the Auror's collapsed body, not feeling much complacent.All he felt was an overwhelming sense of despair.