Harry, riding on the back of Firenze, emerged from a cluster of trees and saw Tom lying on the ground.
He immediately climbed down from the centaur's back, and Firenze, after looking around cautiously for a while, asked, "He's gone. How is the boy?"
Tom looked terribly injured, as if he had fallen from a great height, with his arm and leg twisted at horrific angles, appearing to be broken.
Fortunately, it seemed Tom was not killed.
Firenze approached Tom, examined his wounds, took some leaves from his bag, and handed them to Harry, "Straighten his limbs first, then chew these leaves and apply them to his wounds."
The injuries were severe, but the bleeding was not particularly heavy, and the herbs didn't seem to work very well when Harry applied them to Tom's wounds.
Tom looked at his nearly exposed bone in his arm and felt no particular pain, the sensation almost akin to observing someone else's injury.
Indeed...
"How are we going to do this, these leaves don't seem to work..." Harry panicked.
"These are Dittany leaves, they should heal the wounds..." Firenze seemed puzzled, "Maybe it's because of the enemy's powerful curse..."
No, it's not the leaves.
The problem is my body.
Dittany is used to treat the living, it can't repair my body.
Repair...
Right, the repairing charm might work.
After the attack by the troll, Professor Murphy used the repairing charm to treat him, and it seemed effective.
"Take me to Professor Murphy..." Tom said.
Harry tore a piece of cloth from his robe to temporarily bandage Tom's arm and leg, then lifted Tom onto Firenze's back, sitting behind him to support him, as Firenze led them back.
"Boy, did you see that man's face?"
Tom shook his head, "No, he was all wrapped in his cloak."
"You already guessed his name, yet you still rushed out, that's extremely reckless," the centaur said, "He could have killed you. You're lucky to be only injured like this."
"Tom, why did you go after Voldemort?" Harry asked.
Not long after Autumn Zhang sent the signal, Harry, Hagrid, Ron, Hermione, and others arrived at the scene. They saw the unicorn's corpse, and then heard Autumn Zhang anxiously tell Hagrid that Tom went after the killer of the unicorn, who might be Voldemort.
Harry didn't think much and rushed out immediately, just like when facing the troll threat. He felt he had to do something.
But unlike that time, his mind was full of doubts.
"I just thought, maybe we could capture him," Tom said.
Harry was silent, feeling that Tom was lying.
The tone of his voice was like when he told the professor he confronted the troll to test his strength.
But Harry knew Tom was not a person who acted impulsively. He was always very calm, and he wouldn't recklessly rush out knowing the opponent was much stronger.
Then, was it for the Philosopher's Stone?
To "survive"?
...
Eventually, they took Tom to the infirmary, but Tom refused to let Madame Pomfrey treat him, insisting on seeing Professor Murphy.
So Murphy met his student in a separate hospital room.
"Bone Break?" Murphy listened to Tom's description of the spell, then looked at Tom's wounds, "Yes, a very terrifying dark magic, could leave permanent disability if not treated in time."
He didn't ask Tom why he didn't let Madame Pomfrey treat him or why he asked for him instead.
He first cleaned the dirt, blood, and clothing fragments from Tom's wounds, washed them several times with a wound cleaning solution, then straightened Tom's arm and leg into the proper position, and cast the repairing charm: "Reparo!"
Indeed, the wounds healed like broken porcelain reversed by the charm, the bones returned to their places, torn muscles reconnected, and even the skin seemed stitched back together.
"Professor, isn't this charm used for repairing objects?" Tom asked, "How can you use it to treat me?"
"What's the big difference between objects and the human body?" Murphy said, "In Muggle anatomy, these external injuries can also be seen as mechanical damage."
"You can think of the human body as a precise mechanism. Imagine bones as some kind of stone, tendons, muscles, blood vessels, and nerves as ropes or tubes. Broken parts glued back, torn parts stitched together."
"That's how Muggle surgery works."
"Other spells seem to have no effect on my wounds..." Tom said, almost asking that question, but hesitated at the last moment.
He was a bit afraid of how Professor Murphy would react if he knew he was actually a living corpse.
"The repairing charm and other healing spells work differently," Murphy said, "Most healing spells work by promoting cell differentiation to repair tissue, while the repairing charm is more like restoring the damaged part to its original state as much as possible."
"Your body's regeneration seems a bit poor, so other spells are not very effective."
Murphy knew this because his body also couldn't withstand ordinary healing spells and potions. The "surgical" treatment method using the repairing charm was developed for his own injuries.
Murphy seemed unaware of the true anomaly in his body.
This made Tom feel relieved but also bittersweet.
"Okay," Murphy checked Tom's arm and leg, "Move your hand and foot."
Tom tried moving his hand and foot, and it seemed there was no difference from before.
No pain, no itch...
This reminded him of Voldemort's words; perhaps the pain and other sensations were just the result of some spells affecting the soul, and he actually didn't have these feelings.
He was like a repaired bicycle or clock, just functioning mechanically under the support of magic.
"Professor, are people and objects really no different?" he asked.
Murphy looked at Tom, understanding that the boy was once again in a crisis of self-identity.
His act of confronting Voldemort was indeed unexpected, but still within Murphy's overall plan. In fact, it might not be a bad opportunity to use, possibly to obtain the formula for the resurrection potion from Voldemort.
Now, he needed to play the role of a "mentor" according to the plan.
"Tom, what do you think is the most important trait of a person?"
Tom looked up at Murphy, lost, "I... I don't know, Professor."
"Hmm, different people have different answers to this question. But for me, the answer might be: choice," Murphy said.
"Humans are just animals, a form of life, an object... We share similarities with everything in many ways. That's why I can use a charm for repairing objects to heal the human body. Humans, like animals, need to eat, reproduce, and have instincts for seeking benefits and avoiding harm."
"But, we do have some unique qualities that make us human."
"In my view, that is the ability to actively make choices."
"Animals can seek benefits and avoid harm, can choose fruits over stones to satisfy hunger, but that's not the choice I'm talking about. When making such choices, they rely on their instincts, governed by millions of years of evolutionary forces. They neither know it's a fruit nor that the choice is made by 'themselves.'"
"That choice is unformed conceptually; they don't know they've made a choice."
"But humans can."
"H
umans can perceive their actions, can understand the consequences of these actions, and make their own choices based on this understanding."
"Throughout life, we face many choices, and to a certain extent, these choices shape every different individual. A person who cannot make their own decisions at a fork in the road is just a walking corpse, a puppet manipulated by fate."
"But even a prisoner, a blind person, someone on the brink of death who can no longer move, as long as they can still control their will, they are to some extent free. They can escape the control of fate and become themselves."
"The conviction that comes after making a choice is the foundation of being human."
"I see you're not badly hurt," Murphy patted his shoulder, "Rest for half a day, and you should recover."
Before leaving the hospital room, Murphy seemed to remember something.
"By the way, if you have any problems, feel free to seek my help."
___________________
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