After all, they had only come this time to thank Victor Wick in person.
After Dumbledore approved Sirius Black's visitation request, he had also granted the Weasleys' request, allowing them to arrive one after the other.
Victor accepted the Weasleys' thank-you gifts—some food handmade by Mrs. Weasley and a small tea set that Mr. Weasley had "legally" modified with magic. To achieve that, Arthur had even specifically revised a section of the Muggle Protection Act...
Although the gifts weren't particularly valuable, Victor didn't mind. It was the thought that counted.
After all, everyone was well aware of the Weasleys' financial situation.
However, maintaining a long-term friendly relationship with them would prove beneficial in the future.
In Victor's eyes, the Weasley family had excellent prospects!
As he had once advised Shafiq, the fundamental factor in whether a family would flourish in the future wasn't their current assets, but whether their lineage was thriving and the family members were harmonious.
The size of the Weasley family spoke for itself, not to mention the quality of the children.
Aside from Ron and Ginny, who hadn't entered school yet and had thus not yet displayed their talents, every one of the other children was exceptionally outstanding, and the family atmosphere was very harmonious.
Barring any major unforeseen disasters, such a family was destined to rise to prominence.
If the Weasley sons proved even more capable and chose wives with outstanding abilities, they would reach even greater heights.
Therefore, befriending the Weasley family carried many benefits. Victor called this a long-term investment.
In fact, after obtaining the secret of resurrection and breaking the rules once more, Victor's mindset was quietly shifting.
He had realized many things...
Since his life was essentially eternal, why not walk this nearly endless path with a bit more brilliance and clarity of mind?
Consequently, he would no longer refuse certain future investments.
He didn't want to end up like Voldemort—possessing great strength but being despised by both gods and men.
Sirius and Harry finished catching up and, in front of Dumbledore and the other professors, Sirius left Hogwarts with Lupin. He hadn't forgotten the promise he made to Victor.
Upon leaving, Sirius promised Victor that he would immediately rendezvous with Dorcas Meadowes and track down that brat Regulus!
Victor also told Sirius that if he had the chance to speak to Regulus, he should tell him that seeking revenge against those people didn't necessarily require the path of assassination.
The most brilliant revenge is never directly taking a life only to end up throwing your own away in the process...
After his trip to the Ministry, Victor, now more at peace with his thoughts, found his mind to be much more active than before.
After seeing his guests off, Victor quickly browsed through his recent research findings.
He had already more or less figured out what the Power of Faith was.
It was, as it turned out, a form of soul power...
While it was slightly different from the soul power absorbed by the Philosopher's Stone, it was fundamentally from the same source.
It was just that one was filled with the aura of vitality, while the other was filled with the emotion of hope.
It was like two different flavors of cake.
Victor had reason to suspect that the Power of Faith wasn't originally like this, but had been modified and assimilated by the rules of this world.
It had been adapted to make this power compatible with this world, much like a game being ported from a console to a PC.
But to be honest, after staying in this world for so long, Victor had gradually realized just how powerful soul power was here.
Victor felt that a wizard's source of magic likely stemmed from the soul as well.
Otherwise, certain advanced spells wouldn't require a strong emotional intent in addition to the incantation and wand movements.
For instance, the Killing Curse, or the Patronus Charm...
No matter how Victor tried to deconstruct them before, he couldn't reconstruct these spells at the code level.
Therefore, his Killing Curse was a complete mimicry of Voldemort's.
Not a single letter of the Ancient Runes was wrong, so every one of his Killing Curses had the exact same power, as if they were cast from the same mold.
When he first started mimicking it, he would usually feel exhausted after casting just one. It was only now, with his mental strength greatly increased, that he could use it freely...
As for the Patronus Charm, it was even more ridiculous. It wasn't until Victor recently upgraded his operating system and connected to the Hogwarts server that he could barely manage to reconstruct it successfully.
Ultimately, this was due to the fundamental difference between the Patronus Charm and the Killing Curse.
The Killing Curse could be imitated because the core of the spell was always its lethal effect. No matter who used it, it was more or less the same, with at most a difference in power.
But the Patronus Charm was different. The effect of this spell was completely unique to every wizard who cast it!
Every Patronus was a reflection of the wizard's soul, and everyone's soul was different.
Therefore, Victor couldn't mimic Dumbledore's Patronus Charm at all.
When he followed the rune sequence of the Patronus Charm without the injection of sufficient emotion, he could only produce clouds of white mist.
The fact that he could now successfully manifest a misshapen Patronus was because he had modified some of the rune sequences, artificially amplifying his actually insufficient happy emotions by several times. Only then did he barely manage to release a fully formed Patronus. However, this Patronus was mostly an imitation of Dumbledore's.
As a result, the Patronus he produced was also a bird. But since the imitation wasn't perfect, the phoenix became a hummingbird—and a mechanical one at that!
However, Victor felt that this mechanical hummingbird was also a reflection of a part of his soul...
Because he had always used logic and code to explain magic, his Patronus responded to him in such a mechanical form.
The underlying code of this world functioned this way, so producing such a Patronus was both very scientific and very magical.
Now that he had clarified the essence of the Power of Faith, it would be much easier for Victor to obtain this power.
Besides intercepting it at religious sites, he could also collect similar soul power in other places, such as sports stadiums or concerts...
He could then change the different "flavors" back into the "flavor" he needed!
Victor summoned a Patronus, which hovered in front of him.
"Disperse!"
In an instant, the single hummingbird split into hundreds. Then, these hummingbirds vanished from sight and flew out of the window one by one.
Victor had already instructed the young members of the Knights Templar to find a hundred suitable locations. Now was the time to sow the seeds.
Next, he just had to wait for Snape to come up with the approximate recipe...
Just as Victor was wondering whether he should go visit Snape, there was a knock on his office door.
Lucky ran over excitedly and opened the door.
Snape, with his usual gloomy face, was standing at the entrance.
He glanced at Lucky, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly. Nowadays, whenever he saw a dog, the wound on his leg that hadn't yet healed would throb with phantom pain.
Snape strode in. Thanks to a temporary pain-relief spell Victor had whipped up, he didn't have to walk with a limp.
"I've mostly finished the recipe, but there are some materials for which I simply cannot find substitutes." Snape handed over the draft of the recipe.
Victor took it and looked it over. "Alright, I'll think of something."
It seemed that to properly resurrect a person, the price to be paid was enormous. It was practically burning money!
Anyone else truly wouldn't be able to afford this.
"Dumbledore wants you to go to the Forbidden Forest tonight to patrol with that big oaf. It's likely related to the frequent attacks on unicorns lately," Snape said expressionlessly.
Victor put down the recipe and sighed deeply. "Overtime again..."
"Dumbledore said that anything you 'pick up' in the Forbidden Forest belongs to you," Snape added calmly.
Victor's expression remained unchanged.
How ridiculous. Anything picked up in the Forbidden Forest would obviously be mine! Could it possibly belong to Hogwarts?
"In this recipe, some unicorn blood happens to be required..." Snape said meaningfully.
Victor suddenly understood. "I was wondering why you were suddenly so proactive in coming to see me."
At nine o'clock that evening, all was quiet.
Victor arrived at Hagrid's hut right on time.
Hagrid was already there, fully armed and waiting. Beside him sat a black Neapolitan Mastiff, looking extremely fierce.
This was Hagrid's dog, Fang... though just like Hagrid, he only looked fierce.
"Good evening, Professor Wick. Oh... Lucky's here too!" Hagrid said in his booming voice, leaning down to give Lucky's head a friendly rub.
Victor had already given up on correcting the pronunciation of Lucky's name... these foreigners always had a hard time distinguishing between retroflex and flat sounds.
Seeing Lucky, the previously trembling Fang immediately perked up.
Lucky sat by Victor's leg, incredibly composed, his eyes radiating a sort of compassionate look unique to old yellow dogs.
The phrase 'steady as an old dog' was practically coined for him...
Victor had changed into clothes suitable for movement tonight, and like Hagrid, he held a lamp.
However, no flame could be seen inside his lamp; it simply emitted a calm, cold white light.
"Take these." Victor handed over several bottles of potions. "Drink them. They'll increase your strength, stamina, and reaction speed."
These were the same batch Victor had asked Snape to brew before. Now that Victor's strength had increased, he didn't have much use for them.
Hagrid took the potions, thanked him, and drank them down without hesitation.
Victor cast a Felix Felicis Charm on himself and another on Hagrid before saying, "Let's go, Hagrid."
"Right!"
Hagrid gave a little shiver. Under the stimulation of the spells, he immediately felt the obvious changes occurring in his body!
Tsk tsk, truly impressive. No wonder everyone says Professor Wick is one of the most powerful Defense Against the Dark Arts professors in Hogwarts' history.
The reason he was called 'one of' was still because Dumbledore had also served as a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
Muttering to himself, Hagrid slung his massive crossbow over his shoulder and led the way with his oil lamp.
With Victor beside him, Hagrid felt much more at ease.
The group set off, with Victor and Hagrid walking together.
Fang followed timidly beside Lucky.
This wasn't actually Victor's first time in the Forbidden Forest.
Back when he first arrived at Hogwarts, he had wandered inside and harvested some Acromantula venom, which he then gave to Snape to help brew into potions.
However, this was his first time following an official patrol route.
As the two walked along the path, Lucky had already taken Fang ahead to scout.
The two were chatting as they walked when suddenly, Lucky ran back, barked twice at Victor, and then ran off into the distance.
Victor and Hagrid exchanged a look and immediately followed.
Soon, they found a puddle of glowing blue liquid under a large tree.
"This is unicorn blood. We have to hurry; the little one seems to be quite badly hurt," Hagrid said solemnly, striding off into the distance.
Victor looked down at the unicorn blood. In his vision, a slight and familiar aura of magic lingered over the blood that was gradually losing its magical properties.
Following Lucky's lead, Victor and Hagrid found more and more traces of unicorn blood.
Finally, after pushing aside a cluster of bushes, they found the heavily injured unicorn collapsed under a large tree.
And with the unicorn, there was actually a dark figure!
The dark figure was currently hunched over the unicorn's neck, drinking its blood in large gulps!
"You bastard!" Hagrid roared in anger. He snatched his giant crossbow and fired a bolt straight at the dark figure!
Thwack!
Dark light flashed, and Hagrid's crossbow bolt shattered into a pile of dust in mid-air!
The dark figure rushed over in a rage, the wand in its hand flashing with green light.
But when he saw Victor, his movements suddenly froze, and he turned and fled...
Victor knew this fellow was Quirrell, so he called back Lucky, who was about to pounce.
"Hagrid, you take care of the unicorn. I'll go after him."
As Victor spoke, he chased after the direction in which Quirrell had vanished.
Zip!
Red light tore through the darkness, shooting forward.
It struck very accurately... the ancient tree right next to Quirrell.
Quirrell was startled, thinking that Victor hadn't recognized him! He had no choice but to run for his life.
But he soon noticed something was wrong, because Victor's pursuit behind him was always steady and unhurried, and the spell attacks only looked intense—in reality, very few were actually capable of hitting him.
The only one that nearly struck him was when he accidentally tripped over a tree branch and almost caught the spell himself.
Quirrell felt greatly relieved and immediately chose a new direction to escape. He knew that Victor behind him had recognized him and only needed to chase him for a while longer for show before leaving.
Sure enough, the attacks from Victor behind him soon slowed down.
Things were indeed as Quirrell expected; Victor was already prepared to give up the chase.
He could kill Quirrell at any time now, but that didn't fit Dumbledore's vision, nor did it fit his own plan.
Killing Quirrell now was simple, but Voldemort wouldn't die. Now that he had finally delivered himself to the doorstep and was behaving under his very nose, Victor couldn't let him go back into hiding so easily!
Seeing that Victor had indeed stopped the pursuit, Quirrell breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to slip back into the darkness.
Suddenly, a shout rang out from the nearby woods.
"Eat this!"
A red spell shot out from the side!
Quirrell was startled and jerked his head to dodge, but then he heard the sound of wind coming from the back of his head again.
Only this time, he couldn't dodge in time...
Smack!
Quirrell felt a sharp pain in his head, followed by an indescribable, vile stench that flooded his nasal cavity, nearly making him faint!
Vaguely, Quirrell even heard Voldemort's angry roar echoing in his mind...
It's over! The Master is awake!
Quirrell didn't dare stay any longer; he quickly ducked into the dense forest and vanished into the darkness!
In the distance, Victor, who had long since stopped, stood with his mouth wide open...
Because he had just seen the Weasley twins launch a beautiful ambush on Quirrell from the woods beside him.
Using a Disarming Charm as a lure, they then landed a Dungbomb squarely on the back of Quirrell's head.
If Victor wasn't mistaken, that was exactly where the Dark Lord's face was... right around the area of his nose and mouth...
"Professor Wick! Was that awesome?" George shouted excitedly.
"That's right! I modified this Dungbomb! I really put some nasty stuff in it! Just by following the smell, we can definitely catch that guy!" Fred also called out.
"Professor, quick, chase him! It'll be too late... Ouch! Professor, why are you grabbing us?"
"Ow! It hurts... Professor, have you turned traitor too?"
Victor stepped forward and, grabbing one twin by each ear, hauled them out.
"Fine... very good... you Weasley children really do each possess unique skills!"
Victor meant those words sincerely.
Even though he had partial control over Hogwarts, he had only intended to have Peeves throw a bucket of slops at Quirrell.
These two actually threw a Dungbomb right at the Dark Lord's face! And it wasn't anonymous; they did it right in the open!
What do you call a hero? What do you call a talent?
But...
I just invested in your Weasley family; I didn't do it so you could all become martyrs!
"You two young heroes certainly are brave. I imagine Professor McGonagall will be very pleased," Victor said meaningfully.
"No! You can't do that!"
"Professor McGonagall will kill us!"
"We'll probably be in detention until we graduate..."
The twins began to wail, deeply regretting their actions just now.
"No, no, no... don't you like wandering around the Forbidden Forest? How about I find a way to have all your detentions this semester served in the Forbidden Forest?" Victor said with a smile.
The twins froze, and the looks of despair on their faces suddenly transformed into beaming smiles.
"Wait... that's actually not bad!"
"You're our savior!"
"Quick! Take us to Professor McGonagall!"
"Breaking school rules—how can there be no punishment?"
"Exactly! I've long been unhappy with my inability to control my desire for adventure! I feel I should be under the strictest restraint!"
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