Chapter 179: Advanced Dark Magic: Unveiled

Chapter 179: Advanced Dark Magic: Unveiled

The next day at work, Sherlock used Apparition to bring Amy directly to the office.

Regular Ministry of Magic employees, even if they have the Apparition privilege, generally avoid using it to enter their offices. It's considered rather impolite to Apparate directly into a workspace.

However, in the Department of Mysteries, there are no such concerns. Each office is essentially a private space within the Ministry, so there's no risk of disturbing others.

Amy was fascinated by the paper airplanes used in the Ministry to send messages. These are actually made from special magical paper, and Sherlock had picked up a large stack from the supply department when he first arrived.

He rarely needed to communicate with others, so he let Amy freely play with them.

In the office, Amy chased after the paper airplanes as they flew in circles beneath the ceiling, while Sherlock reviewed another set of magical documents he had retrieved from the Hall of Prophecy.

So far, he had found nothing useful.

The items in the Hall of Prophecy were, after all, just predictions of the future, not actual journeys into it. The entire Wizarding World seemed to have never seriously studied time travel, or at least, there were no known records of it. Time that had already passed was easier to study, but the future, which no one had experienced, remained a mystery.

The more Sherlock delved into the subject, the more he realized how slim his chances were of finding a way to return to the correct time.

It seemed that no wizard, from ancient times to the present, had ever ventured into this field, and Sherlock himself had no idea where to start.

After a moment's thought, Sherlock looked at Amy, who had stopped chasing the planes and was now sitting on the carpet, throwing the planes and watching them fly back to her. He stood up from his chair and gently tidied her somewhat messy hair.

"Can you do me a favor, Amy?"

Amy blinked her bright eyes.

"What does John need Amy to do?"

Sherlock led her out of the office, then left the Hall of Time, heading to the large, dark hall.

As they emerged, the twelve black doors began to rotate along the circular wall, stopping after a few seconds.

"Which of these rooms do you think might help me?" Sherlock asked.

Amy tilted her head, looking at the black doors around her, but didn't answer immediately. She took small steps, hesitantly walking around the wall, and finally stopped in front of one of the black doors.

"Amy thinks this one might help John", she said, her delicate face showing a hint of uncertainty. "But Amy isn't sure."

Sherlock walked over and patted her head.

"I trust your instincts, Amy."

With that, he reached out and gently pushed open the black door.

This was a room Sherlock had visited before.

The room was dimly lit, square-shaped, with a large, sunken stone pit in the center, roughly the size of half a football field. In the center of the stone pit stood an ancient, dilapidated archway, with no walls supporting it. A tattered black curtain hung from the archway.

When Sophie first brought him to the Department of Mysteries, he had seen the contents of this room. Now, as a Ministry employee, he knew its name.

The Hall of Death.

A room dedicated to the study of death.

Sherlock furrowed his brow, unsure why Amy would think this room could help him, but he entered it anyway.

Despite the lack of wind, a cold draft seemed to swirl through the space. The stone steps were steep, and Sherlock had to be careful with each step down. Amy needed his help to navigate the descent.

Soon, they reached the raised stone platform in the center.

The ancient archway's tattered black curtain moved on its own, and as Sherlock approached the platform, he faintly heard voices!

The voices were chaotic yet faint, coming from behind the black curtain, as if people were talking or arguing.

Sherlock's frown deepened.

He didn't rashly step onto the platform but instead circled it, examining the curtain from all angles. He found no sign of anyone.

"Did you hear someone talking, Amy?" he asked.

Amy shook her head, looking somewhat bewildered.

"Amy didn't hear anything."

Sherlock silently stared at the gently floating curtain, noticing that no matter whether he stood in front of it or behind it, the voices seemed to be coming from behind it.

Goosebumps rose on his arms, and a chill ran down his spine.

So where were those voices coming from?

At that moment, Amy suddenly tugged at his arm.

"Here, John, there's something behind this door."

Sherlock followed the direction of her finger and saw that at the bottom of the stairs, between the stone platform and the floor, there were several black doors leading to other rooms.

He didn't dwell on the voices coming from behind the curtain anymore and followed Amy's lead to the door she had pointed out.

The doors in the Hall of Death were no different from those in the black hall outside; they had no decorations, not even a doorknob.

Sherlock placed his hand on the door and pushed it slightly, and it opened a crack. Warm, yellow light seeped through the gap. He pushed the door fully open, revealing a small study.

The atmosphere in the study was a stark contrast to the Hall of Death. The lighting was not bright but warm, and instead of the dark, cold stone, there were old, time-worn bookshelves.

The bookshelves were lined with books, not many, but there were several dozen.

Sherlock and Amy entered together. It didn't seem like anyone had visited this place frequently, but despite its age, the room was spotless, as if it were cleaned daily.

Sherlock walked to the bookshelf and picked up a book at random, reading the title on the cover.

"Investigations into the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life"

He was taken aback for a moment, then picked up another book.

"The Secrets of Immortality", "On Eternal Life", "How to Escape the Grim Reaper", "Eternal Life for the Living."

Each of the dozens of books was about methods of achieving immortality. This study was entirely devoted to the research of eternal life!

Sherlock, however, did not show any signs of elation. Instead, he felt something was amiss.

Wizards are human, and humans generally fear death. Not everyone is like Dumbledore, who saw death as the start of another journey, not even someone like Voldemort.

If these books on immortality were truly effective, they wouldn't have been left in a room in the Hall of Death without any protection.

He opened a few of the books and skimmed through them. The contents confirmed his suspicions. The titles were grand and intimidating, but none of the research on immortality had been successful.

Most of the methods only extended a wizard's lifespan, and even then, the side effects were significant.

After a brief glance at a few books, Sherlock lost interest. While he didn't have Dumbledore's equanimity, he wasn't overly obsessed with immortality. Besides, these books were mostly useless.

Just as he was wondering if Amy's intuition had been wrong and if there was nothing here to help him, he noticed a magic book half-hidden under the bookshelf, only the corner visible.

Sherlock noticed this by chance when he looked down. He picked it up and read the title.

"Advanced Dark Magic: Unveiled"

The title was vastly different from the others on the shelf, and Sherlock immediately sensed its uniqueness.

However, he didn't rashly open the book right there. The word "Dark Magic" on the cover was a clear warning. Magic books were often used by dark wizards to transmit curses, so he needed to be fully prepared before examining the contents.

He had already skimmed through the other books on the shelf. While some had interesting ideas about immortality, Sherlock had no intention of delving deeper. From any angle, these books offered no help in his current situation.

If Amy's intuition was correct, the only book that could help him was the one in his hand.

He slipped the book into his robe pocket and left the Hall of Death with Amy.

Before closing the black door, he took one last, long look at the dark curtain, as if trying to see through it, but saw nothing beyond its surface.

Back at the Hall of Time, Sherlock didn’t let Amy enter his office with him. Instead, he asked her to wait outside in the Hall of Time while he finished inspecting the Dark Magic book. Once he was done, she could come in.

Sherlock closed the door to his office, and Amy wandered around the Hall of Time.

At first, she was drawn to the prominent hummingbird hourglass, staring at the bird that continuously transformed between breaking out of its shell and returning to it.

"Like the sun and the moon."

She muttered quietly to herself, then shifted her gaze to the Time-Turners in the display cases, tilting her head slightly.

"Pretty like a lollipop, but not as useful."

Finally, her attention was captured by the wall lined with hourglasses. The large hourglass that constantly changed from silver sand to golden sand was particularly mesmerizing.

Amy was amazed by the vibrant golden particles inside the hourglass, which looked like sand but were distinctly different upon closer inspection.

"Almost as cool as the pinwheel John gave me!"

Sherlock treated the book Advanced Dark Magic: Unveiled with great seriousness.

He carefully tapped it with his wand, checking for any magical power fluctuations.

No matter what method he used, the Dark Magic book remained unresponsive, behaving like an ordinary book, completely at odds with its title.

After a while, Sherlock gave up on further inspection.

He used Control Magic to make the book float up near the ceiling, flipping through the pages repeatedly. After confirming that it emitted no magical power, he brought it back to his desk.

Laying the book open on the desk, he saw pages filled with dense, small text detailing various Dark Magic techniques.

Sherlock frowned, skimming past the unsettling casting methods and magical effects. When he came across a few words, his flipping halted.

"Method for creating a Horcrux"

His breath caught as he read this line.

He knew all about Horcruxes!

During his first semester at Hogwarts, he had tricked Neville into opening the Chamber of Secrets and releasing the Basilisk. The diary that he later consumed as a supplement was Voldemort’s Horcrux!

At the end of that semester, Dumbledore had revealed everything about Horcruxes to him.

The reason Voldemort survived the Killing Curse rebounding from Harry was because of the Horcrux.

A Wizard who creates a Horcrux can achieve immortality as long as all Horcruxes are not destroyed. Voldemort used this magic to achieve his goal of eternal life!

Sherlock’s expression grew somber.

He knew everything about Horcruxes from Dumbledore, but he never expected to find a book detailing the method of creating one in the Ministry of Magic at this time.

After a moment’s hesitation, he decided to read through the entire section on Horcruxes.

The content wasn’t lengthy, and it wouldn’t take long to read.

Sherlock finally let out a long breath.

A Horcrux truly lived up to its reputation as the most evil Dark Magic.

Splitting one’s soul to achieve immortality through an alternative means.

Emotion was the key to this magic.

To split a soul, one needed the most extreme malice to act as a blade, tearing the soul with a power that most Wizards lacked.

Additionally, to avoid adverse effects on the magical abilities of the split soul, a living being had to be sacrificed.

The soul of this being had to be extracted, serving as a special energy to protect and replenish the caster’s fragmented soul.

Splitting the soul wasn’t just about having a backup in case the main body died, allowing the Horcrux to bring about a rebirth.

The Horcrux formed by the split soul was more like a protective layer on a soul level.

As long as one Horcrux remained, the main body would never die!

Sherlock quietly gazed at the Dark Magic book spread out on his desk. His thoughts had moved beyond the evil of the Horcrux.

He was now considering what this could do for him if Amy felt it was something she needed.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end