Hogwarts: The Exemplary Wizard I Am Chapter 978: Improving the Horcrux - Novel Cool

Chapter 978: Improving the Horcrux

Chapter 978: Improving the Horcrux

In the evening, Kyle left the Black Family Private Library, leaving behind a stunned and speechless Sirius.

For the entire afternoon, Sirius's expression had been conflicted, especially when Kyle was browsing through the Dark Magic books.

These books were the Black family's collection over the centuries, and many of them were explicitly prohibited by the Ministry of Magic.

To be honest, just glancing at the cover of these books would be enough to get someone thrown into Azkaban for two days.

Sirius had never found the time to get rid of these books, and now Kyle had taken them all away.

Before Kyle left the house, he had hesitated countless times about whether to take the books back.

Sirius didn't doubt Kyle's ability to create a Horcrux, as Kyle had mentioned it a few years ago and had taken the "Decoding Advanced Dark Magic" book from the library.

To be frank, if Kyle couldn't create a Horcrux, Sirius would be surprised, but he was also afraid that Kyle might actually succeed.

Until now, Sirius had thought Kyle was joking about creating a Horcrux, especially since Dumbledore was still alive when Kyle first came looking for the "Decoding Advanced Dark Magic" book.

But now, it seemed that it wasn't a joke.

However, for some reason, every time Sirius wanted to speak up, he couldn't bring himself to say it.

Maybe... Kyle was just joking.

He tried to comfort himself with this thought.

"Hey, Kyle," Fred said, jumping down from the stairs as Kyle passed by the hallway.

"We've been looking all over for you. Where did you and Sirius go earlier?"

"The Black Family Private Library," Kyle replied, showing off the books in his hands.

"True to form for a Hogwarts professor, still reading books even on vacation," George said with a drawl. "Are you sure you're not Percy in disguise using Polyjuice Potion?"

"I think Percy wouldn't read this kind of book," Kyle said, picking up the top book and waving it at them.

The cover had an exaggerated, cursive title: "Soul into Crucible".

The cover was old, but the dark red cursive letters hadn't faded, and there wasn't a speck of dust on it. It seemed like something was moving over each character, eerily attracting everyone's attention.

George, who was closest, felt a chill when he saw the book and involuntarily shivered.

It was summer, but he felt cold...

"What is this thing?"

"I guess it's a Forbidden Book," Harry said, looking serious.

At this point, he seemed to have put aside his concerns about Snape and walked down the stairs with the twins, albeit with a limp.

"I saw books like this in the restricted section of the school library," Harry said seriously. "Besides the covers moving, some were even bound with chains, and you could tell they were dangerous just by looking at them.

"Some books would even let out a piercing scream like a Mandrake when you opened them."

"But this isn't the library's restricted section," Fred grumbled, looking up at Kyle.

"Ah, I wanted to try making a Horcrux, so I found some reference books."

"What?"

"You want to make a Horcrux?"

The expression on everyone's face in the room was one of shock and incredulity, just like Sirius's earlier.

But unlike Sirius, after the shock wore off, Harry's face showed panic and fear, while Fred and George were excited and enthusiastic.

"We'll help you too!"

"Tell us when you start, and we'll definitely join in!"

Like two meteors, the twins quickly gathered around Kyle, even becoming more polite in their speech.

"This... let's talk about it later," Kyle said vaguely, waving his hand. "You said you were looking for me all afternoon. What's so urgent?"

"It's nothing, doesn't matter," George said, still staring at Kyle without blinking.

"It's not like it's a good thing," Kyle said, subconsciously taking a step back.

"What's wrong with that? We're not doing anything good anyway," the twins said, taking a step forward and dragging Kyle out of the house.

It wasn't until the door opened and closed that Harry snapped out of his shock and instinctively wanted to chase after them.

"Wait..." Sirius reached out to stop him.

"Horcrux... Sirius... Harry said anxiously. "Dumbledore said it's the most terrifying Dark Magic, and we can't let Kyle..."

"Don't worry, Harry... don't worry, Kyle is not like Voldemort.

Hearing Sirius's words, Harry gradually calmed down and turned to look at him.

"Do you know what?"

"Oh, I remember now. You've been together all this time."

"He never told me anything," Sirius shrugged, "In fact, ever since I took him to the basement, I've felt exactly the same as you did just now."

"Then why did you stop me just now..."

"Because of Fred and George," Sirius said softly. "If you remember what they said just now, you'll find that they never doubted Kyle from the start, and they never believed that his purpose for making Horcruxes was the same as Voldemort's."

Harry blinked and briefly recalled Fred and George's reactions from earlier.

Indeed, they didn't panic but were excited, seemingly finding the creation of Horcruxes intriguing rather than researching some terrifying Dark Magic.

"This reminds me of Lupin."

Sirius chuckled, "Everyone has an innate fear and wariness of werewolves, but when we first saw Lupin in his werewolf form, none of us backed away."

"I didn't, neither did your father, nor your mother, even after learning about this. She even started self-studying Wolfsbane Potion the next day and complained that Lupin didn't tell her sooner."

Harry nodded in partial understanding, "Do you mean we should trust Kyle like Fred and George do?"

"Something like that," Sirius waved his hand and poured himself a glass of whiskey.

"What I truly mean is that we know Lupin, and even as a werewolf, he wouldn't harm us.

"Just as the Weasley brothers know Kyle and are certain he wouldn't become another Voldemort."

"Of course, your understanding isn't wrong either," he sat in the chair, tilted his head back, and took a sip of whiskey, murmuring, "I should be ashamed of my suspicions."

Harry also felt a bit ashamed.

He couldn't help but wonder, if it were Hermione or Ron in Kyle's place, would he have been as nervous and afraid as he was just now?

Harry was surprised to discover that the answer was no.

After experiencing so much together, he almost trusted them as much as he trusted himself.

He believed Hermione wouldn't do such a thing, and he trusted that Ron couldn't possibly make Horcruxes.

After all, reading Forbidden Books required a knowledge foundation, and the requirements were even higher than for ordinary books. For instance, the book on Potent Potions that they secretly obtained from the school's Forbidden Book section was only understood by Hermione.

He and Ron couldn't even handle the materials properly when they tried to follow the instructions.

And the Forbidden Book that recorded Horcruxes must be even more profound.

Harry shook his head.

To be fair, although he understood the reasoning, he couldn't help but think of the memories Dumbledore had shown him earlier, and he still couldn't convince himself as quickly as Sirius did.

He could only try not to think about it.

Sirius also noticed his current state and spoke up, "I remember that snot-nosed Snape sent over a photo album. Have you looked at it yet?"

"Not yet," Harry came back to his senses and took out a well-preserved photo album from his pocket.

The album wasn't thick, probably just about an inch or so, and the cover was green, the color very much like his eyes.

Oh!

Harry frowned, wondering why he suddenly thought of this.

"You haven't looked at it?" Sirius was incredulous. "You should know that there might be photos of your mother inside."

"I... know," Harry said with a strange expression.

Snape sent over photos of her mother... something felt off about it.

"I'm worried he has some ulterior motive," Harry said softly. "Or maybe he added some potion to the photo album. When I was in school, Snape mentioned more than once that he wanted to pour Veritaserum into my pumpkin juice."

See the original text at Book/Bar 69@!

"Don't worry, Dumbledore wouldn't agree to it," Sirius snorted. "But I think you don't need to have such concerns anymore.

"Although I don't like that snot-nosed git, I think what he said is true, and there's no need to tamper with that photo album."

"Go ahead and open it, it's fine."

Encouraged by Sirius, Harry took a deep breath and carefully opened the photo album in his hands.

Nothing happened.

Harry saw a very young witch, probably in her first year, with red hair blowing in the wind and a pair of beautiful eyes.

"This is what your mother looked like when she was young.

"Sirius chimed in from the side, 'But back then, she seemed to dislike James quite a bit.'"

Unconsciously, Harry's lips curled into a slight smile.

Meanwhile, after being dragged out of Grimmauld Place by Fred and George, Kyle was taken back to their secret base in the attic of their house in Hogsmeade Village.

This was one of their secret hideouts... specifically for researching less conventional little gadgets.

Even when Kyle was researching Horcruxes these past few days, it was here.

"Take us with you, Kyle..."

"We promise to keep it a secret..."

The attic door opened, and Fred and George walked in simultaneously from outside. But when they turned around, they froze in their tracks.

There was another person in the attic who looked exactly like them.

This person was missing an ear, looking identical to Fred, but also possessing subtle features of George, as if they were a combination of both.

However, this person was dead, lying motionless on the ground.

"Bogeyman, I found it in the attic cabinet." Kyle entered, using his wand to capture the Bogeyman in a bottle and shaking it.

The goblin transformed into something indescribable, like a memory with an unpleasant color.

"What did we just see?"

"Of course, it's what you fear the most. You're both afraid of each other being killed." Kyle explained.

"Is that so?" George pursed his lips. "But, I didn't feel that scared just now."

"That's right." Fred nodded, "I was more surprised."

"That's because you both looked up at the same time." Kyle explained, "The Bogeyman didn't know which one to focus on, so it combined your fears into one."

"So you both saw what you feared most from it, and the original fear turned into surprise."

"Okay, you're right." George pretended to nod in agreement.

Kyle ignored him and continued to stare at the Bogeyman in the bottle.

The two approached again.

"Kyle, take us with you to make Horcruxes. We promise not to blab."

"Yes, we swear on Cedric's character."

"His character was used up long ago!" Kyle said without turning back.

Although Horcruxes were dark magic, they were also a form of alchemy... well, an unacknowledged form of alchemy.

After all, a long time ago, Nicolas Flamel had removed Horcruxes from alchemy, and no one had objected to this decision.

Even so, it didn't change the fact that Horcruxes were essentially a part of alchemy, so it wasn't surprising that Fred and George were interested.

"It's not that I don't want to take you, and I'm not afraid you'll blab." Kyle turned around, "But I've been researching Horcruxes since my second year, and although it's been on and off, I've never stopped. Are you sure you want to?"

Fred and George fell silent.

"Are Horcruxes... that complicated?" Fred muttered.

"What do you think?" Kyle said impatiently, "Do you think this is like cutting a cake and casually putting it into another plate?"

"I..." George wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words.

Because that's exactly what they were thinking, although not as simple and crude as that, they had never thought it would take that long.

"But I heard you say that Voldemort learned to make Horcruxes very quickly when he was young."

"It's different." Kyle said, "His goal was his own soul, so he just needed to follow the correct steps, naturally it was fast. But I made a small improvement to Horcruxes."

"What improvement?"

Kyle didn't explain, but directly opened the bottle in his hand.

The Bogeyman crawled out, looked at Kyle, and then naturally transformed into the appearance of a Dementor.

"Avada Kedavra!" A blue light shot out from Kyle's wand.

Fred and George rubbed their eyes at the same time, thinking they were seeing things.

Wait... the Killing Curse, blue?

But there was more to come, something even more surprising.

The 'Dementor', after being hit by the Killing Curse, strangely turned into two, not splitting from the middle, but into two smaller but identical 'Dementors'.

Kyle tried to move one of them, but as soon as he moved his wand, the Dementor exploded, both exploded, like deflated balls, turning back into the Bogeyman.

"As you saw, I'm preparing to help others make Horcruxes." Kyle said.

...

(End of Chapter)

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