The only thing Ivan found strange was how Pettigrew had learned such advanced Dark Magic.
Pettigrew was born into an ordinary wizarding family, and was unaware of the secrets of Horcruxes.
It was most likely Voldemort who rewarded Peter Pettigrew for his services.
When Lord Voldemort possessed Chino at the end of his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he used similar methods to increase his combat prowess, something Ivan remembered very well.
However, Ivan was not particularly interested in such powerful dark magic. Using self-harm to gain strength was undoubtedly pushing oneself deeper into the abyss.
Therefore, after only a few glances to get a general idea of what was going on, Ivan began to look through the rest of the book.
There are many practical and useful versions of the Dark Arts in the book.
For example, some sort of contractual magic could bind two people's lives together and divide their magic equally, but the conditions were too harsh, and if one died, the other would die as well…
There are even detailed records of the legendary Three Unforgivable Curses.
Ivan was worried that learning the Dark Arts would affect his mental faculties, but he wrote them down anyway.
After all, they were all very practical spells, and most powerful wizards could…
Flipping through the pages, Ivan found the pages that contained the Horcruxes.
The author of the book described Horcruxes with great enthusiasm as the mysteries of immortality, the bridge to immortality…
Ivan scoffed at this; although there were only a few Dark Wizards who had ever created a Horcrux, there were a few well-known ones in the books, and none had survived to this day.
Of course, this did not mean that soul weapons were useless. Just look at Voldemort, who was like a cockroach after creating a soul weapon. It was not bad to use it to protect one's life, as there were very few ways to avoid death.
It's a bit like the phylactery of the legendary lich, only much weaker, as it can only roam the world like a ghost after death…
The book also detailed how to make Horcruxes, as well as their incantations.
One of the most crucial steps was the splitting of the soul, which required the murder of someone else, and was an excruciatingly painful process.
Success requires storing a portion of one's soul in an object, any object, even a rock, which, when turned into a Horcrux, becomes the world's worst Dark-magic object.
The power of a wizard's soul is limited, and one split is the limit. As for what happens to multiple split souls, there is no clear indication.
However, it made sense. Which fool would split their soul six or seven times like Voldemort? It was enough to hide a soul vessel and use it to save their life!
Even if they didn't think it was safe, they could only make two at most, as splitting a soul was described as painful…
Or was it that Lord Voldemort was a psychopath who actually enjoyed the feeling of having his soul split so much that he became addicted to it?
Ivan didn't think it was likely, so he moved on to the next page of the book.
"Fiery Curse?" Ivan was surprised. It was a dark magic spell he had always wanted to learn.
If it weren't for the fact that there weren't many books on the Dark Arts and that Alicia refused to teach him, he wouldn't have been delayed until now.
After a quick look at the introduction to the Fire-Biting Charm, Ivan saw the reason for Alicia's concern, as it was a very special and powerful Dark Magic.
It did not require an incantation to release it, but it required an all-destructive emotion to rise up and release the desire to destroy, transforming it into a substantial flame that would devour everything around it!
What alarmed Ivan the most was the fact that the fire would continue to grow, feeding on everything it could burn, expanding until there was nothing left to burn!
It could not be extinguished by ordinary means, and the consequences of losing control were unthinkable.
Seeing this, Ivan couldn't help but think of Malfoy's sidekick Crabbe in the original timeline, who had dared to cast the Fire-Wearing Charm in the Room of Requirement's storeroom.
Now that he thought about it, this was a talent. After all, there was a room full of magical items as fuel. It would be a miracle if Clabb could control the fierce fire with his strength!
While Ivan was jotting down notes on the Dark Arts, Harry, who was looking for books on the other shelf, noticed something unusual about him.
"Ivan, did you find anything? I see you've been reading this for ages…" Harry asked curiously as he approached Ivan.
Ivan snapped out of his state of deep study at the sound of Harry's voice and flipped through the pages without missing a beat.
"Yes, that's right! I've found the secret Regulus was talking about!"
The sound of Ivan and Harry's conversation echoed throughout the enclosed library, and Sirius and Lupin, who were nearby, soon joined them.
'Ivan, what do you mean by that secret?' Sirius asked quickly.
Ivan didn't try to explain further, but handed over the copy of Secrets to the Dark Arts.
Sirius reached out to take a closer look, and Harry and Lupin leaned in curiously.
The more they read, the more frightened they became. When they finished reading all the information on Horcruxes, Sirius and the others felt a chill run down their spines.
"So that locket was Voldemort's Horcrux!" Lupin said, letting out a long, slow breath. This was the first time he had heard of such an evil spell.
'No wonder Voldemort only lost his strength after that night and didn't die completely!' Sirius exclaimed, as much in shock as excitement.
For they had finally solved the mystery of Voldemort's immortality!
"Regulus must have sacrificed himself to destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes, so that he would one day be defeated and die," Harry said, thinking of Kreacher's words.
"Apparently, he realised he was with the wrong person and wanted to make up for it, so he made this choice…" Lupin sighed, then turned to Sirius and spoke with admiration.
"However, your brother is really impressive. He actually managed to fool the Dark Lord into thinking that he was very loyal and asked him for a house-elf!"