"Hogwarts?"
Both Jane Yu and Dumbledore, who had been brought into the illusion together, uttered the word in confusion.
This was her second time entering this place. Once again, she stood at the castle gates, with a bright white light shining at the entrance.
But this time, she didn't see Tom Riddle standing at the door.
The two of them began exploring Hogwarts, only to find it was an empty, desolate school with no students.
The portraits on the walls were gone, leaving behind empty frames. The ground was shrouded in a layer of mist, as if they were walking on a bed of gauze.
It seemed there was nothing here that hinted at human presence.
"This is your second time here?" Dumbledore asked, puzzled. "Both times because of the Resurrection Stone?"
Jane Yu nodded.
She suspected this might be an illusion crafted from Voldemort's soul.
She recounted the events of finding the Resurrection Stone to Dumbledore in full detail.
Dumbledore fell into thought, carefully inspecting the blank portrait frames, before heading to the Headmaster's office to try opening the door.
However, despite his authority as Headmaster, the door did not budge.
Instead, when Jane Yu uttered the password "Fizzing Whizzbee," it opened smoothly.
The decor of the Headmaster's office was entirely different. Fawkes's perch was empty, and the magical artifacts, though visible, were inert and unusable...
"Perhaps this isn't an illusion," Dumbledore said, pausing his inspection of the former Headmasters' portraits, "but rather another place... a space of the soul."
"If my guess is correct, we just need to find Tom Riddle in the place where you discovered the diadem."
They made their way to the eighth floor and entered the Room of Requirement.
But when Jane Yu opened the door, she found that Voldemort's appearance was even more grotesque than the two 16-year-old versions of Tom Riddle she had seen before.
He stood before her, his sclera blood-red as if all the capillaries had burst. His facial features were blurred, as though melted into a shapeless mess. He already bore a resemblance to his future noseless form.
"Put on the diadem..." he repeated the phrase over and over like a malfunctioning puppet, "Become the wisest..."
"It seems that's the case," Dumbledore stopped in his tracks and sighed. "Well... do you know what to do?"
"What?" Jane Yu asked, puzzled. "Do I hit him with an Avada Kedavra?"
Dumbledore's throat made a strange choking sound as he replied with a mix of amusement and exasperation:
"No, use your will to restore him to the shape a soul should have."
"Didn't you realize? By using the Resurrection Stone as a medium, you've opened a world of souls."
Hesitant, Jane Yu drew her wand and aimed it at Voldemort, casting several revealing spells.
Something strange happened. Tom Riddle screamed, his body melting with a hissing sound. His form shrank, and the cloak draped over him vanished entirely. His pale skin disappeared, exposing the flesh beneath.
Moments later, in his place was a baby-like creature. It had no skin, exposing its red muscles, trembling painfully with each scream. Its face was almost featureless, with narrow slits for eyes, a hollow for a nose, and a mere hole for a mouth.
"This is... his soul's form?" Jane Yu felt another wave of nausea.
Dumbledore nodded and corrected her:
"To be precise, it's the form of this fragment of his soul. Let's go; we need to take him with us."
Jane Yu picked up the creature and left the Room of Requirement, following Dumbledore as they headed toward the castle gates.
For some reason, she felt an uncontrollable urge to annihilate the creature in her arms.
"Because this is your soul's world," Dumbledore explained. "Hogwarts... is where your magic began."
"Voldemort's soul is fragile and filled with fear of you. By entering your world and seeking your soul's power, he must be prepared to be cast out."
Jane Yu was startled.
A domain expansion? Hogwarts: Soul Edition?
Did something from another story just bleed into this one?
She finally understood why using Avada Kedavra in the illusion felt effortless!
In a soul space she opened herself, of course, whatever she said went!
Jane Yu and Dumbledore reached the castle gates, stepping into the white light.
But what appeared before Jane Yu was a white world resembling King's Cross Station.
Everything was covered in a layer of white mist. It was vast and empty, with no one in sight.
"The boundary between life and death," Dumbledore observed their surroundings. "Leave him here. He no longer has the ability to make choices."
Jane Yu bent down and placed the baby on a chair.
It struggled, as if aware of the endless torment it was about to face. It screamed and cried, but no one could offer it any help.
"We should go back, Yu. No one can help him now," Dumbledore said, casting one last look of pity at the baby. "Otherwise, if someone sees the Headmaster of Hogwarts lying motionless on the ground, that would be quite troubling."
...
The white King's Cross Station vanished before Jane Yu's eyes. She found herself back in the Headmaster's office, still bent over.
But Dumbledore was lying on the ground, slowly getting up while clutching his back.
"For some reason, my back has taken quite a beating these past few years," he joked. "Any thoughts on that, Yu?"
Jane Yu awkwardly coughed twice, imitating his tone, then picked up the diadem.
It still had its original antique appearance, but the rust was gone, and the soul fragment within it had disappeared.
This discovery thrilled Jane Yu!
She wanted to take it to the library and use it as a scanner!
Speedrun all Hogwarts courses!
"What about the locket? Maybe if I use the Resurrection Stone on it, it'll work too?"
But this time, the Hogwarts illusion flickered like a faulty television, appearing for a few seconds before disappearing.
Jane Yu stubbornly tried to reconnect them several times, but she remained in the Headmaster's office.
It seemed this domain wasn't something she could activate at will!
Slightly disappointed, Jane Yu returned to her dormitory with the diadem and the Resurrection Stone.
But what she didn't know was that after she left—
Dumbledore stood staring at the Elder Wand in his hand, lost in thought.
"To open the boundary between life and death... Could she be... the Master of Death?"
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