#262 - Chapter 262: Eat, Sleep, and Fight
Sebastian did not directly answer Neville's question, but instead asked with a smile.
"Neville, although your parents' souls are fragmented, do they still do things that show their love for you?"
Acts of love?
Neville's eyes lit up, and he blurted out, "Yes, my mom always gives me Bazooka bubblegum wrappers as gifts."
"That's right," Sebastian nodded, "That's the love for you engraved in the depths of their souls."
"You need to use the Patronus Charm to transmit extremely strong emotional responses to their love, activating the instincts of all the soul fragments and allowing them to spontaneously gather together."
"Like this."
As he spoke, he waved his wand again, and the fragments of the mannequin on the ground slowly gathered together, turning into a mannequin full of cracks.
"Then, use your Patronus to nurture their souls and permanently repair them."
Under Sebastian's control, the cracks on the mannequin slowly disappeared, gradually becoming smooth and even.
Neville suddenly understood, completely grasping the process of saving his parents.
He looked at Sebastian's eyes, revealing a strong desire to learn.
"Of course, that's still a bit far off for you," Sebastian patted Neville on the shoulder.
"The first step you need to take now is to learn how to use the Patronus Charm to heal the most basic soul fissures."
"To speed up your learning progress, we'll go straight to practical exercises."
Practical exercises?!
That means finding someone with a damaged soul first.
But where can I find someone like that to practice on now?
Neville bit his lip, stood up, patted his chest, and said.
"Professor, you can tear my soul apart and then let me use my own soul to practice."
"I'm not afraid of pain!"
What a shocking thought process!
You're not afraid of pain, but I'm afraid of problems.
If others find out that I tore a student's soul apart, would I still have my professorship?
How did this young man even think of using himself for experiments?
Headache!
To prevent Neville from continuing to say things that would make people's hearts stop, Sebastian quickly said.
"Don't worry, I've already prepared a practice object."
As he spoke, he opened a special black box in the corner of the office and took out a specially made pet cage, placing it in front of Neville: "We'll use this rat for practice."
Neville looked at the rat in the cage, and the more he looked at it, the more familiar it seemed.
This seems to be...
Scabbers?
"Professor," Neville said with a puzzled face, "Isn't this Ron's Scabbers?"
"I remember you bought it for research purposes, is it appropriate for me to use it for experiments?"
"Will it affect your research?"
"Don't worry," Sebastian smiled gently, casually saying, "I'm only using its blood for research at most."
"And your experiment uses its soul, we not only don't interfere with each other, but also make the most of everything."
Before Neville could react, the rat in the cage was already jumping up and down frantically.
Scabbers was panicking.
Soul experiment?
Can this kind of experiment be done casually?!
And to let such an unreliable little wizard do it, is this going to kill me!
I clearly remember how clumsy this little guy named Neville is.
Damn it, a rat's life is still a life.
Let me go, I want to go back to Ron!
"Professor," Neville said somewhat uncomfortably, "Scabbers seems to understand what we're saying, it's scared."
Heh heh—
There's a wizard's soul inside this rat, of course it's scared.
"Simple." Sebastian opened the rat cage, and then waved his wand, shooting a curse that hit Scabbers, who was frantically trying to escape.
"Obliviate!"
In an instant, Scabbers forgot everything he had just heard.
He lay blankly on the floor, unable to figure out how he had escaped from the rat cage.
Before he could observe the surrounding environment, the light of the Stunning Spell hit him.
"You see, it's not scared now." Sebastian said to Neville with a smile.
"Of course, that's still not foolproof, the pain of having one's soul torn is extremely intense, Scabbers will definitely wake up again."
"In the spirit of humanitarianism, we can let it sleep more soundly."
Sebastian controlled the rat to fly in front of the two of them, and then took out a bottle of Draught of Living Death and poured it into the rat's mouth.
"Alright, no matter how much we toss this rat around, it won't wake up."
Looking at Sebastian's skillful technique, Neville was dumbfounded.
So that's how it can be done, I've really learned something.
He couldn't help but swallow, thinking wildly in his heart.
Professor Swann is good in every way, but sometimes he looks a bit scary.
This set of techniques, looks a bit like the dark wizards in the stories.
"Neville, next I need to use the Cruciatus Curse to tear a crack in the rat's soul, if you can't bear it, you can turn away first."
Cruciatus Curse?
The Death Eaters used this spell to torture my parents.
Neville's heart trembled, and he quickly turned his head away, covering his ears with his hands.
"Crucio!"
In an instant, the unconscious Scabbers let out a piercing squeak.
The sound was extremely penetrating, passing through Neville's hands and drilling into his ears.
His brows furrowed painfully.
Did my parents scream like this when the Death Eaters tortured them?
Just as Neville was about to lose his resolve, Sebastian patted him on the shoulder.
"The teaching tool is ready for you, let's start today's practice."
Looking at Scabbers, who was still twitching faintly in his unconsciousness, Neville felt a little unbearable.
If Ron saw this, I don't know how heartbroken he would be, I don't know if he would regret selling Scabbers to the professor.
However, thinking of his parents lying in St. Mungo's, he forced himself to harden his heart.
He gently shook his head, clearing all the distracting thoughts from his mind, and firmly raised his wand: "Expecto Patronum!"
"Very good, control your Patronus to enter the rat's body and feel the crack in its soul."
Neville quickly controlled his Patronus, carefully wrapping the rat, the light of the Patronus gradually converged, all sinking into the rat's body.
Through the aura left by the dark magic, he easily found the crack in the other's soul.
Under his control, the Patronus began to gradually clear the dark magic aura from the crack.
However, those auras were extremely stubborn, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't clear them from the soul fissure.
Looking at Neville's furrowed brows, Sebastian reminded him.
"The will to protect is not strong enough, this kind of Patronus can't heal the damage to the soul, put away this Patronus, mobilize your emotions and will, and try again."
Under Sebastian's patient guidance, Neville seemed tireless, correcting his shortcomings again and again.
All day long, he worked hard to train his Patronus, wrestling with the wound on the rat's soul, even lunch was just a hasty piece of bread.
It wasn't until dusk that he ended today's practice under Sebastian's instructions.
Neville gasped for breath, put away his wand, thanked Sebastian, and pushed the door open to leave the office.
On the way back to the Gryffindor common room, he couldn't help but think in his heart.
For the sake of his and Ron's friendship, it's better not to tell him about Scabbers.
......
...
.
