The Pacifist Necromancer of Hogwarts

Chapter 362 Reunion

Quirrell did not hear Anthony's muttering. He stared for a moment at the forest opposite Anthony, then looked around suspiciously.

"I see you," Quirrell said.

Anthony was still crouching behind the tree. Quirrell waited for a while, and finally slumped his shoulders. He fell back to the unicorn as if exhausted, and began to cough violently. At this moment, anyone could walk up to him and kill him easily, crushing him like a snail shell, revealing his dull and weak soul. Anthony did not move.

When the coughing subsided a little, Quirrell fumbled and grabbed the horn on the unicorn's body and pulled it out. Sticky blood slowly seeped out from the unicorn's wound. Quirrell crawled on the body, lowered his head and sucked, occasionally making muffled coughs. After a while, he left the wound and used the sharp horn to pierce a new hole in the body. More silver-white blood came out. The unicorn opened its empty eyes and stared at the green leaves above its head, with its four legs curled stiffly.

After an unknown amount of time, Anthony suddenly heard a rustling sound behind him. This was not something to be vigilant about. This was a forest, and forests were like this. But some kind of intuition made Anthony lower his head, hold his breath, and stick close to the tree, not moving.

The thing slid past him. It was a large snake, slithering nimbly through the grass, and soon it was beside Quirrell, climbing up the unicorn's body. As soon as its cold body touched Quirrell's wrist, Quirrell shuddered and raised his head.

"Oh, Nagini..." he said to the snake, as if it understood, "I know, I know... I will return to my master in a moment..."

He sucked a few mouthfuls of blood, inserted the unicorn horn back into the body, stood up unsteadily, and staggered behind the snake. Anthony cast a disillusionment spell on himself and followed quietly.

The snake and Quirrell came to a particularly sturdy tree. Nagini hissed and climbed up the tree trunk. Several vines on the tree suddenly moved and made way for it - Anthony then realized that those vines were all snakes hanging on the tree.

"Master..." Quirrell said tremblingly, "Are you looking for me, Master?"

A cold voice answered him: "Am I looking for you, Quirinus? Of course, without you, who will feed me? Don't I need you all the time?"

Quirrell knelt on the ground and faced the tree trunk: "My pleasure, Master."

His master ignored him and made another frightening, hissing sound. Parseltongue, Anthony thought. He moved forward a little, trying to see where Voldemort was hiding. He could almost smell the rotten stench of Voldemort's soul, but he still couldn't see anyone. Perhaps Voldemort was hiding in the dense canopy, among the snakes, but considering the recent heavy rain, the trees were not a suitable place to live unless they built a happy book house.

Just as he was thinking, the cold voice said again: "Nagini told me that you went to the unicorn again, Quirinus."

"Just... just to bring some back for you, Master," Quirrell argued fearfully.

"Don't lie to Lord Voldemort." Voldemort said softly, "It's okay, Quirinus, Voldemort is merciful. You accompanied me to hide in the forest and endured my appearance. Don't you deserve a reward?"

Quirrell seemed to be even more frightened, and he buried his head deeply between his arms: "Master, you have always been powerful, and you are getting stronger day by day. It is my honor to be of use to you."

"Lies. Take me out," Voldemort commanded. "Give me some snake venom and oatmeal."

Quirrell stood up tremblingly and stretched out his arms - the giant snake fell from the tree, wrapped around his arms, and then climbed up his neck. Quirrell gasped as if he was hit by a heavy pressure, wrapped the snake, and continued to move forward, reaching his hands into the tree trunk (it turned out to be a hollow tree), and took out a package-like object from it, and wrapped it stiffly between his arms.

The snake hissed at him, so Quirrell sat down on the ground, placed the bundle carefully on his legs, and lifted a leaf. When he put it down, it had become a bowl. Nagini swam down from him, crawled to the edge of the bowl, and bit her teeth on the edge of the bowl, injecting venom into the bowl.

As Quirrell passed the bowl to the package, he whispered, "Master, would you like some milk..."

"I said oatmeal," Voldemort said coldly, his voice coming from within the package.

"We are out of oatmeal, Master," Quirrell whispered.

Voldemort said softly and diplomatically, “No oatmeal?”

"But we still have bread!" said Quirrell quickly. "If you only let me get back to my old camp, Master—"

"It would be a good idea to return to the previous camp," Voldemort said softly. "Then you can just go away and leave me here, right, Quirinus? You probably hope that when you come back in three days - if you still have the courage - you will find my body..."

"No, Master, no, I don't mean that!" Quirrell said, "It's just that the place has been occupied by the Hippogriffs, and it's too dangerous for Nagini and the other snakes... If you allow me to go there, it will only take less than an hour, and I can get everything back... bread, sausages..."

"I don't need it, Quirinus." Voldemort said coldly, "Go to the nearby Muggle village and get some back. Let Nagini follow you. If she has a good appetite, she can also eat some Muggles."

"But, but, Master——"

"Lord Voldemort's patience is not infinite, Quirinus. Or do you think you can contradict me at will just because I look so pitiful and weak?"

"No, Master—" Quirrell's words didn't finish before they turned into a suppressed scream. He was shaking all over, breathing rapidly, and the scream quickly turned into a whimper.

"We did learn something from that necromancer, didn't we?" Voldemort said slowly. "The soul - what a wonderful subject. Do you know why I don't want to possess you anymore, Quirinus?"

He seemed to have stopped torturing him. Quirrell was breathing heavily, and had no energy to answer his questions.

"Because you are too weak," Voldemort whispered. "I have come to realize that by squeezing my soul into the same body with yours, I will be infected with your weakness and hesitation. Now tell me, what are you hesitating about? You are not still pondering the morality of stealing and robbing, are you, Quirinus? Even though you know what you have done?"

"No, Master," Quirrell said weakly to the bundle on his lap. "It was that village, the nearest Muggle village - that's unicorn territory. That's where we encountered the unicorn that was enraged by the curse."

"And killed the beast and made good use of its body." Voldemort said contemptuously, "Yes, Quirinus, compared with having your stomach pierced, Lord Voldemort's orders are certainly nothing."

"I will go, master—I will go."

"Give me some milk first," said Voldemort.

Quirrell obediently bent down carefully and used a conjured spoon to feed some milk to the package on his legs. The hissing sound sounded again, and Nagini, who was lying on the side, stood up half of her body, swam to Quirrell's side, and climbed onto his shoulders.

"My Lord, my Lord," Quirrell whispered, "my wand..."

Voldemort laughed, but his laugh was cold. "You won't need it, Quirinus. Nagini will help you."

……

Voldemort, wrapped in a cloth, was placed back into the hollow tree. Quirrell, with the snake wrapped around him, slowly walked out of the forest. Anthony followed them, ignoring Voldemort in the tree.

Quirrell's steps were unsteady, but he walked very fast, as if he was very familiar with this forest. However, with the help of the Felicis, Anthony could catch up with him effortlessly. Quirrell turned a few corners in the forest, passed a path like a horse trail, and soon, several houses appeared outside the woods. Anthony recognized that this was the place where he had asked for water before.

Quirrell stopped, looking at the village in the sun, hesitating. He bent down, found a few stones nearby, weighed them one by one, tested the weight, and put them in his pocket. After doing all this, he stood up, breathing slightly. Quirrell walked forward a few more steps, suddenly turned his head and looked behind him. Nagini stood up, opened her mouth wide, and made an annoyed hiss. Quirrell looked at the open snake mouth beside his head with some disgust, and walked out of the forest.

At this moment, Anthony suddenly felt the urge to break the Disillusionment Spell, so he rushed in front of Quirrell, then turned around, broke the spell, strode towards Quirrell, and appeared directly in front of him.

Quirrell stared at Anthony who suddenly appeared, took a few steps back, and reached into his pocket, as if he wanted to take out his wand, but he couldn't take out anything except the stone. So he finally put his right hand in his pocket, half opened his mouth, and stared at Anthony with a pale face.

"Professor Quirrell." Anthony nodded to Quirrell, as if they had just met by chance in Hogwarts Castle.

Almost as soon as he showed himself, Nagini reacted. The snake sprang from Quirrell, hooked onto the branch above their heads, and then quickly landed on Anthony, biting him hard on the neck and wrapping around him tightly. If he didn't need to breathe in the first place, Anthony might have suffocated.

"Relax!" Anthony whispered, pressing his magic wand against the snake's body. The snake relaxed for a moment, then tightened even more. It seemed to be trying to squeeze Anthony's hand, trying to break the magic wand.

"Anthony!" Quirrell said. Then he took a deep breath, and as if suddenly he had regained his ability to move, he walked quickly to Anthony's side. He pulled a stone from his pocket, raised his hands high, and smashed it down - towards Anthony's head.

Anthony looked at him. Quirrell looked worse than he had a year ago. His cheeks were hollow, his hair was tangled, and his eyes were strangely large in his gaunt face. Quirrell and Anthony's eyes met, and he blinked, his arm shaking. The second blow was much lighter than the first. Perhaps Voldemort was right, Quirrell did have a soul that was good at hesitating.

Anthony pulled Nagini's soul out easily. This was probably the easiest and most sober necromancy he had ever used. The huge snake body fell to the ground limply like a piece of rope.

Theoretically, the souls of snakes and basilisks should be similar, both like toilet paper, but Anthony hesitated before stuffing it into his throat. This soul seemed a little strange, it seemed to smell like something, a very faint smell, but a little like a human soul. Maybe this just means that this is a very smart snake, even with emotions and thoughts. Maybe it just smells like Voldemort.

However, there was still something a little like a human soul. Anthony was very confused. In his short career as a necromancer, he had never seen a soul like this.

Felicity gave him a hard push, urging him to swallow the food as quickly as possible.

Anthony decided not to take any chances, so he rolled up his soul into a ball and stuffed it back into the snake (the Felicis twisted his stomach, making him feel like he was doing something wrong), and then before the snake could come to its senses, he cut it neatly in two - a very practical spell that Mrs. Weasley had taught him how to use to chop beef bones. During this time, Quirrell hit him on the head for the third time. The fourth hit stopped when he saw the severed Nagini.

Anthony pointed his wand at Quirrell. The wound on his head healed quickly as Quirrell watched in horror.

"Uh, hello..." Quirrell held up the stone, twisted his mouth, and tried to force a smile, "Professor Anthony."

"Trying to kill me, Quirrell?" Anthony whispered.

"No, I—I mean, I—" Quirrell seemed to stutter again.

"I'm all ears."

Suddenly, Quirrell threw the stone aside, sat down on the ground and leaned against the tree trunk: "Yes, of course I want to kill you. I must kill you, do you understand? Can I just say hello to you, talk about the weather, and then walk away? If the master knows, he will kill me!" He showed a strange smile, then covered his face with his hands, "Now I understand, I can't kill you. No wonder the master values ​​you - so kill me."

"I have no such hobby," said Anthony. "Tell me, that thing you call 'Master' is Voldemort, right?"

Quirrell shuddered, still covering his face, and nodded slightly.

"Now that the Serpent is dead, he won't know," said Anthony. "I know he has your wand. What other weapons does he have?"

Quirrell put down his hand and looked up: "The master is the most powerful wizard in the world, Anthony, the most powerful. He does not need any weapons, because he possesses power that you can hardly imagine. There are many dark and powerful magics that even Dumbledore does not understand, but he can use them easily. You may think that you can defeat the master by relying on undead magic - cough, cough - but the master still found a way to deal with the undead magic curse when he was the weakest, so -"

He was interrupted by a series of coughs before he could finish his words. While coughing, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a simple little bottle. With a sharp creaking sound, the bottle cap was unscrewed, and the half-condensed silver-white liquid just flowed out of the trembling bottle mouth, and was swallowed by Quirrell impatiently.

“For some people, finding a way to remove cat scratches might be something to brag about,” Anthony said thoughtfully. “But you said Voldemort is at his weakest now. Is he weaker than when he possessed you?”

Quirrell said, "The Master has never--"

"Skip all that 'most powerful wizard' stuff," said Anthony. "Yes or no, Professor Quirrell?"

Quirrell smiled sarcastically. "Yes, Professor Anthony. Go find him. Maybe he will spare your life because you are more useful than me. But you are obviously stupider than me... just like I was a long time ago, stupid... holding on to an outdated concept of good and evil, and not understanding that only power is the most worth pursuing."

"You believe that Voldemort is the most powerful wizard." Anthony walked up to him and said, "But why did you call Professor Dumbledore when you killed the unicorn?"

Quirrell tilted his head to the side and did not answer.

"You know you called out Professor Dumbledore's name?" Anthony sat down beside him. "With fear, but also with hope?"

Quirrell opened his eyes slightly and looked at Anthony beside him. Anthony did not break the silence. The elixir told him to wait a little longer.

Just when he thought he would not get a response, Quirrell closed his eyes again. Quirrell whispered, "Because I am too weak."

"You have killed the unicorn. You have apparently robbed innocent people. In my opinion, you are not weak enough." Anthony said, "But, apart from this, have you harmed any innocent people?"

"Except what is necessary, no," said Quirrell.

Anthony asked, "What do you mean by necessary?"

"Oh, those are for research." Quirrell opened his eyes, his face brightened, and he finally looked a little more energetic. "In order to give the master a barely usable body, those potions must be tested by someone. And the curse of unicorn blood, if it's just me, the sample size will be too small. Oh, and there's also the research on removing the undead magic, we also have to figure out why the damage to the body can carry the curse of the undead magic..."

"Well, last question," Anthony said, "Do you regret it?"

"what?"

"I'm not very good at this, but I guess this is what Professor Dumbledore would do," Anthony said. "Do you regret doing these things and hurting these people?"

Quirrell was silent for a while, then suddenly smiled. His smile no longer carried the bitterness and sarcasm from before, but instead was a bit like the way Anthony had looked when he first met him.

"I guess the answer you want to hear is that I regret it," Quirrell said. "If I say I regret it, will that save my life? Well, never mind. I don't regret it. I may regret a little that I didn't see what the Philosopher's Stone really looked like."

(End of this chapter)