Ron entered the common room from outside, he glanced in the familiar direction, where Harry, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville were all present. He walked over to Hermione, who was fiddling with her Book of Runes, a long string of ancient runes wrapped around her wrist like a bracelet cord.
The string of ancient runes has no real effect, Hermione simply pieced them together for fun.
She glanced over to the table every now and then, watching the other three play wizard cards, a little wizard figure sitting feebly in the air in front of Harry, the two wizard figures from Harry's two opponent cards watching intently as if they might pounce at any moment.
Ron stood at the side and Ginny saw him, but she ignored him and urged Harry to hurry up with his cards instead.
Harry was still reminded by Hermione, and he looked back in surprise and said, "Ron?" He sounded fake when he said, "Come on help me see how to lose this card, I mean ... how to play it."
"Don't even think about cheating." Ginny said fiercely.
Ron hesitated for a moment and pulled a note out of his pocket and placed it on the table. "Professor Hap told me to give it to you, you better look at ... it seriously, I already inquired about it for you, it shouldn't be dangerous."
"What are you talking about stupid? How could Harry be in danger?" Ginny glared at him in discontent.
Harry took the note and glanced at it, and he flinched slightly. "So for what purpose the Professor is looking for you, Harry?" Hermione asked, not feeling quite comfortable with Ron's attitude.
"Nothing, it's about the Patronus." Harry gave her a 'later' look, he didn't want Ginny to know about it. He stuffed the note into his pocket, "Well - thank you, Ron, how about -"
"Nah," Ron said vaguely, "I'm a bit tired." He trundled off towards his dormitory and for quite a few seconds the sound of Ginny's urging came from behind him once more, Harry answered and began to play his cards, followed by a grunt of defeat from the little figure that represented him, as it was slain by Ginny and Neville's combined efforts.
The next day, Felix and Dumbledore arrived early in Classroom Seven and the two joined hands to complete the preparations.
Not far below the Ouroboros, there was an area shrouded in magic that looked like a glowing cage, and this was the result of their work.
"It's about time, I'll go out and have a look." Felix said, and sure enough, he found Harry looking around outside the door, apparently expecting the Professor and Headmaster to only appear on either side of the corridor, completely oblivious to the closed door behind him, and Harry was quite surprised when Felix poked his head from inside and called out to him.
"It's for your protection." Felix said, pointing to the birdcage-like magical building in which Harry stood uncomfortably, looking up at an arc of magic hanging down from above his head and feeling like he is getting the same treatment as Hedwig.
Felix and Dumbledore exchanged a glance and began to cast spells.
The huge Ouroboros serpent moved slowly, its mouth opened wide and Voldemort floated out, his appearance hadn't changed much, he still had the same angry half-dead look.
Two bright lights shot from Felix's eyes, and Voldemort snapped open his scarlet eyes and shouted in a voice that filled with hatred, "Felix Happ-" At the same time, deep in his memory, Riddle felt the world he had lived in for thirty years starting to crumble.
"Professor Riddle!" A student shouted in alarm.
"Silence." Riddle said with feigned composure, even though he was horrified to the point of his mind slowing down by half a beat. He looked up and saw the clear blue sky from the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom on the fourth floor - Hogwarts Castle split down from the middle.
The next second, even the sky was split in two, and an oozing scarlet glow poured in through the crack, and Riddle saw an ugly, hideous snake face, from whose eyes the red light was coming. With it, he heard an unmistakable voice that seethed with wrath, "Felix Happ!"
Who is that? Riddle froze for a moment. Then a sea of information poured in, and he knew everything almost instantly.
Is he ... just a memory? Riddle thought that was ridiculous.
Harry was so nervous he almost lost his breath, his fists clenched, and he didn't know what to do. In his eyes, Professor Hap simply looked at Voldemort for a second, and then Voldemort awoke from his slumber, bursting with powerful evil magic even as he remained bound by the Ouroboros Patronus.
The surroundings became corrupted and toxic, and it felt like the dead of night where he could not even see his own fingers.
He remembered that Professor Hap had once said that Voldemort probably wouldn't be happy if he knew, and now Harry thought that was an understatement; Voldemort is simply beyond furious. Probably he had never suffered such humiliation in his life.
The cage around Harry was the first to light up, followed by the Ouroboros Patronus, and the figures of Felix and Dumbledore loomed in the darkness. Felix spread one hand out and the two Horcruxes hovered in midair, which Voldemort sensed immediately, and he jerked his head up, staring dead at the locket and the golden cup.
"Dumbledore? No, you're Felix Hap." From his mouth came a young voice, tinged with disbelief, but in a flash, it was overlaid by a gloomy, husky, frantic voice.
"Hap, Dumbledore, don't you dare! I will never do as you wish!"
While Voldemort is still restricted, he is not powerless, and for an Archmage like him, if given time, no restriction is flawless and there is always a way to break and work around the restrictions. Especially since he had also been exposed to part of Riddle's research on Patronus, which is a godsend for escape, and for that reason he had even given up on simply obliterating the memory that in his opinion seemed completely false.
"Riddle, now it is your only chance."
As he finished, Felix sent a thought out: to seize the power of the Horcrux and take over Voldemort with the help of himself and Dumbledore by fusing in the reverse order. And the Patronus knowledge that Riddle had studied 'for years' had been used as bait for Voldemort, so that he would not immediately kill him.
Felix's hand made a 'click-click-click' sound as he squeezed the golden goblet, he used a purely physical force that would not harm the soul fragment within, even if Horcrux crushed to powder, but what he did certainly awakened the dormant soul fragment inside.
Rolling black smoke emerged from the gap between his fingertips and coalesced into a young, handsome, sinister face. It hesitated, with the slightest hint of instinctive awareness, as it sensed its own body giving it instructions to return to its body.
Voldemort's throat uttered a "ho ho" howl of pain.
Because Voldemort had consciously assimilated the knowledge of the Patronus carried by his newborn personality, and because they were originally one, Voldemort's deepest secrets were revealed to Riddle, where he saw the unbridled killing, brutal and bloody experiments, and a twisted and perverted desire for torture and domination.
Riddle was appalled by the evil past of his 'other self', is this the normal development of himself under the original trajectory?
In a way, Felix's plan had worked.
Under his influence (or threat), Riddle never left the school for an extended period of time, spending most of his time teaching students and dealing with the Ministry of Magic Aurors, apart from the occasional conception of what he considered to be his 'evil plan of domination'. Whatever his innermost beliefs be, he had never put those cruel thoughts into practice, and at the moment he felt like walking through a haunted place, as an uncontrollable emotion arose from within him.
A wave of black gas gushed out of Hufflepuff's golden cup and flew towards Voldemort.
"No - I don't regret it - never -"
Dumbledore raised the Elder Wand and recited a complex incantation, and Felix helped the frail Riddle with his memory magic, and with the combined efforts of the two, Voldemort's will was briefly overpowered and Riddle gained the upper hand for the moment, but he felt no joy.
"Dumbledore, is this all a lie?" He questioned Felix harshly.
Felix didn't say a word.
"What do I mean to you, a tool to be used at your disposal?" He shouted again, his voice becoming a little clearer, apparently gaining some of his power from the soul fragment of the Horcrux, and the locket Horcrux gushed out a large amount of black gas as it was influenced by him.
Without any warning, Harry fell to the ground, spasming.
The scar on his forehead ached sharply, as if some being in his own body had sprung into life and begun to stretch, his brain churning into a tangle, the sensation was so painful that Harry pounded his skull as hard as he could, as he felt the being trying to lift his skull, and rolling black smoke poured out of his forehead through the scar, mouth, and nose.
At that moment, the birdcage-like room he is staying in sheltered him, and a black jeweled ring gleamed brightly in the middle of the magic intersection.
"Tell me, Dumbledore!" Riddle's questioning still echoed through the room.
"If you must know-" Felix's voice sounded through the black mist, "you are the most special student I have ever taught, and the warrior I have personally raised and thrust into battle. "
The black fog tumbled like an ocean wave.
Harry could no longer hear their conversation at all, and the soul in the locket made its way to Voldemort first, but at that very moment, Voldemort, who had been repressed, chose to throw his life away in the midst of desperation.
He obliterated the two pieces of his soul with his own hands.
The black mist that poured from Harry's forehead returned back to Harry's body in the blink of an eye, "Kill him if you can, kill the boy!" Voldemort's snake-like face twisted and hissed, "He's the last one, the last one! Dumbledore, Hap, you need to be ruthless, like me!"
Voldemort's counterattack came as quickly and viciously at once, and it caught them off guard.
"Albus-" Felix said, as he unfolded his thinking room, a spell that would be completely useless against Voldemort's soul, but would work on memories, while on the other side Dumbledore manipulated the Ouroboros to swallow Voldemort.
Voldemort roared madly in the Ouroboros, struggling desperately, but his voice grew lower and lower, gradually becoming inaudible.
Felix's eyes closed as a mass of trailing silver stars appeared in front of him and converged in one direction, and half a moment later he reached out to gather them up. When he opened his eyes, he saw that Dumbledore is watching Harry's condition carefully.
"Is he still alive?" Dumbledore asked softly as he examined Harry. He was referring to Riddle.
Felix shook his head.
"Sometimes, we just don't have a choice." Dumbledore said.
Felix smiled, "No need to comfort me, I know what I'm doing, and I'm prepared to accept all the consequences ... How is Harry doing?"
"It's good to be young, never have to worry about lack of courage." Dumbledore said with emotion. Then he said solemnly, "Not that fine, the soul fragment is still there, Voldemort is too decisive, even if he hesitated for a little while longer, we could have succeeded. The problem now is that the piece of soul is still active and must be dealt with as soon as possible ... We need to go to the hospital wing first."
The old man gazed deeply at Harry.
Wisps of darkness still seeped from Harry's forehead and the lightning bolt scar appeared as crimson as blood.
It was as if Dumbledore had been brought back over a decade ago, the scene before him overlapping with the memory of Hagrid handing him the swaddled baby.
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