Chapter 298: One life for another?

"What are you going to do next?"

Standing on top of the Astronomy Tower at Hogwarts Castle, Dracula asked softly.

"I'm still thinking." Dumbledore played with the Resurrection Stone Ring with a deep look in his eyes. "Now it seems that compared with the power of Death, the threat of Voldemort himself is not that important anymore."

"You can't say that," Dracula said. "Without the holders of those Horcruxes, it would be difficult for the power of Death to affect the world... So this threat is still brought by Voldemort."

"But what we can't figure out now is what is the purpose of the so-called God of Death?" Dumbledore frowned and said slowly, "If we can't find his purpose, it will be difficult for us to make a decision. Targeted response measures.”

"It shouldn't take long to find them." Dracula smiled casually, "As long as he is still using those Horcrux holders to cause trouble everywhere, it proves that the God of Death is not without desires."

"But the appearance of the God of Death is beyond our previous plans after all." Dumbledore said solemnly, "The magic world is going to be in chaos. It's a pity that ordinary people are not ready to face the chaos..."

"Oh, there is no need to be so entangled." Dracula suddenly raised the corner of his mouth, with a hint of contempt in his eyes, "I have already tried it, the so-called God of Death is not invincible... I think so, if he is really invincible, why bother to borrow money? Are you using a Horcrux to secretly interfere with the magical world?"

"What's more, what does the upcoming chaos in the magical world have to do with me? The more chaotic the world is, the more fun it may be to find it?"

From beginning to end, Dracula and Dumbledore's paths were completely different.

He was not interested at all in Dumbledore's behavior of saving the magical world from fire and water and being the backbone of the magical world, and he was not interested in spending time and effort to quell the chaos in the magical world.

More than four years ago, the Mirror of Erised had already confirmed everything - Dracula has always been a character who fears chaos in the world!

He is willing to work with Dumbledore to deal with Voldemort, just because of his friendship with the principal and students in Hogwarts over the past few years, plus his previous experience with Voldemort... This does not mean that he is on the side of justice. .

Dracula, on the contrary, welcomes the chaos that is almost destined to come to the wizarding world.

He even wants to personally help accelerate the chaos, and he already has a plan, a very simple plan...

At this time, Dumbledore suddenly said: "Professor Dracula, you say...if we can enter behind that door, can we confront death head-on?"

He stared at the ring in his hand, his eyes becoming very dark.

"Then how are you going to get out of there? Unless there are special circumstances, that door can only lead to death and no life." Dracula raised his eyebrows and chuckled, "Is it possible that you are planning to sacrifice your life for justice and stay completely?" Is it there?"

"I'm just thinking... If you want to solve the Horcrux fragments in Harry's body, maybe he needs a leader."

Dumbledore's voice was very soft, but with Dracula's hearing, he heard it very clearly.

The smile on Dracula's face instantly faded.

"Are you serious?" he asked seriously, looking directly into Dumbledore's eyes.

"I was just thinking about a possibility." Dumbledore shook his head and said gently, "I couldn't think of a more suitable way before, but now, maybe there is a better way for us to choose..."

Dumbledore took out his wand again and inserted it into the ring.

"There is one more thing left. I actually know where it is." He said softly, "It is said that if you collect three of them, you can become the master of the God of Death..."

Dracula stared at the wand in Dumbledore's hand.

He never thought that the Elder Wand, one of the three legendary Deathly Hallows, would always be in Dumbledore's hands.

"Do you actually believe such rumors?" Dracula frowned and asked, "I don't see how these so-called Deathly Hallows are any better than normal alchemical products."

"I don't believe it either." Dumbledore chuckled softly, "But they may provide us with a chance to face death head-on."

"I thought we should at least give it a try."

…

Dracula had no intention of staying at Hogwarts, nor did he ask where the last Deathly Hallows was, nor did he verify with Dumbledore whether the three Deathly Hallows could be combined to become the God of Death as in the legend. Owner.

He was not interested in these, but was vaguely worried about some of Dumbledore's ideas and trends.

Although he just said that he could give it a try, Dumbledore's tone did not sound like he was joking... He seemed to really want to enter the realm of death himself, and had made plans not to come back.

Dracula knew very well that there was a fragment of Voldemort's soul in Harry Potter's body, and unlike other Horcruxes, this fragment had been completely integrated with Harry's own soul.

To completely destroy this fragment, Harry's soul must be similarly affected.

In other words... Harry Potter is almost certain to die!

After a wizard dies, he often has two choices -

One is to continue walking bravely, and there will be no trace of the wizard's real existence in the world; the other is that the obsession in the heart makes the wizard tied to the world and turns into a ghost, just like Nick who was almost headless. , just like Helena.

But Harry's situation is even more special.

Because his mother, Lily Potter, had used all her power during her lifetime to use blood magic to impose a guardian magic in Harry's blood that was powerful enough to resist the great wizard.

In order to fight against this magic, Voldemort deliberately used Harry's blood when he was resurrected, so that this protective magic also flowed through his body.

Although he could finally ignore Lily's protection and touch Harry, there was another fatal flaw -

Voldemort would not be able to kill Harry.

The protection of blood magic entered Voldemort's body, so even if Voldemort did not die, Harry would still be protected. The magic that would have dissipated when Harry reached adulthood was unexpectedly delayed.

In addition, Voldemort still has a soul fragment existing in Harry's body, so the two of them form a cycle, and neither one can kill the other...

If they want to break this cycle, they can only do it themselves.

Either Harry gave up the blood protection in his body, allowing Voldemort to lose this protection, and then died together with the soul fragments in his body; or after other Horcruxes were destroyed, Voldemort personally destroyed the soul fragments in Harry's body, allowing He lost his immortality...

Obviously, the latter method is more feasible.

Dracula guessed that Dumbledore wanted to take the first step and come to the narrow space between life and death, that is, the Lost Realm (Limbo).

Just killing Voldemort's soul fragment will not really damage Harry's soul, so in addition to continuing to walk and turning into a soul, there is a third option - to turn back and return to the human world.

But how can one easily escape from the Lost Realm?

There must be someone with a strong enough soul as the leader to reach the narrow space between life and death first and guide Harry back.

Dracula flew back to Dracula's castle, frowning tightly.

There were not many people he could count as friends, and Dumbledore was one of them now. He couldn't just treat himself as a pawn and count his own life in it.

But for a stubborn man like Dumbledore, it may be difficult to stop the decision he made.

Fortunately, Dracula knew exactly one person...if it was him, he might be able to change Dumbledore's mind.

Dracula's wings suddenly swung and he changed the direction of his flight.

…

On the other side, Harry was already waiting alone in the Hogwarts principal's office.

During the time when the Ministry of Magic drove Dumbledore away, Umbridge tried her best not to enter this office, but the gargoyle guarding the door easily let Harry in.

Outside the window, a piece of elegant gray-blue hangs on the horizon, and dawn is slowly approaching.

It was quiet in the office, and everything was motionless. Only the occasional snoring from a sleeping portrait of the principal would break the tranquility here.

Harry gently took out a transparent glass ball. There seemed to be a pearl-white picture playing inside, which was hard to distinguish.

This is what Voldemort wants to get. For this reason, he deliberately used the connection with Harry's scar to lie to him that Sirius was in the Department of Mysteries, just to let Harry personally remove the prophecy ball from the shelf. Take it up and down.

Harry felt a lot of pain in his heart.

It was all because of his mistakes that he put his friends and the members of the Order of the Phoenix in danger. If he even briefly considered what Hermione once said, Voldemort might be taking advantage of his enthusiasm for being a hero...

At this moment, Dumbledore's figure rose up from the spiral staircase.

"I guess you have a lot of questions you want to ask me now, Harry." He said to Harry in a gentle tone while walking slowly.

Harry turned around, his eyes turning red involuntarily.

"Professor, I...it's all my fault..." When he saw Dumbledore again, the emotions he had been holding back for a long time were finally released, and his tone seemed a little trembling, "It's all because of my arrogance that I hurt you. In danger..."

Dumbledore did not answer Harry's question immediately, but walked to the perch next to the door.

Then he took out a young, ugly, featherless fox from the inner pocket of his robe, and placed it gently on a plate of fine ashes under the gilded perch, in the position where the adult fox usually occupied. The place.

"Oh, Harry," Dumbledore finally walked away from the young phoenix and said to Harry, "you will be very happy to hear that none of your classmates will do anything because of what happened last night. And suffer from long-term pain.”

Harry wanted to squeeze out the word "good", but no sound came out.

In his mind, Dumbledore was reminding him of the disastrous damage he had nearly caused to the students and the Order.

Although Dumbledore was looking directly at him for the first time, and his attitude was gentle and kind, not blaming him, Harry still couldn't bear to look at him.

"Madame Pomfrey is treating them," Dumbledore continued. "Nymphadora Tonks may need to stay at St. Mungo's Hospital for a while, but it looks like she will recover soon."

Harry could only nod his head at the carpet, which grew brighter and brighter as the sky grew lighter outside.

"Please sit down." Dumbledore's tone became gentler, as if he didn't blame him at all.

Harry hesitated for a moment, then slowly walked across the carpet that was turned golden by the sun, and sat down opposite Dumbledore.

"professor……"

"Harry, I owe you an explanation," Dumbledore said suddenly before Harry could ask the question, "an explanation for the mistakes made by the elderly."

"Because I realize now that the things I did and didn't do about you all have the same shortcomings that older people have."

"Young people don't know what older people think or how they feel, but it would be a big mistake if older people forget what it was like when they were young... It seems to me I can’t remember much lately..."

The sun has risen, the mountains show a dazzling orange light edge, and the sky above is colorless and bright. The light hit Dumbledore, falling on his gray eyebrows, beard, and deep wrinkles.

"Fifteen years ago," Dumbledore said softly, "when I saw the scar on your forehead, I wondered what it meant. I thought it might be a sign of some kind of connection between you and Voldemort. .”

"You've told me this before, Professor." Harry said slowly.

"Yes," Dumbledore nodded slightly, "Yes, but it is still necessary to start with your scars. Because obviously, soon after you returned to the magical world, my guess was confirmed - —”

"Whenever Voldemort appears near you, your scars will give you some omens, or you will feel other strong emotions."

Harry nodded.

Every time Voldemort had any strong emotions, or when his powers were restored, or when he appeared next to Harry, the scar on Harry's forehead would feel intense pain.

"You can feel Voldemort's presence, even if he's disguised. When he's in high spirits, you can tell what he's feeling... Since he returned to his body and regained his full strength, you This ability is becoming more and more significant."

Sure enough, Dumbledore's statement was completely consistent with Harry's experience.

"Recently," Dumbledore continued, "I have begun to worry that Voldemort may realize that there is such a connection between you. Sure enough, he became aware of your existence when you penetrated deeply into his mind and thoughts. "

Harry raised his eyes and saw a little tiredness on Dumbledore's face.

"Yes," Harry murmured, "Yes, I didn't realize it until now."

"You see," Dumbledore continued, "Voldemort intends to enter your mind, control and mislead your thoughts. I believe he came up with this idea not long ago..."

"As Voldemort proved tonight, his purpose in controlling you is not to destroy me, but to destroy you. Just when he temporarily controlled you just now, he wanted me to sacrifice you in order to kill him."

Dumbledore sighed deeply.

What Harry didn't know was that if he wanted to completely eliminate Voldemort, he would almost certainly not survive.

And the great principal in front of him was thinking about how to use his aging life to exchange for the survival of a young man like Harry...

…

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